Feel amazing - buy nothing today.

You'll feel SO good!

Spam invaders

I am getting tired of these. They come in regularly always off this one post.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Oh for God's sake!":

Woah! І'm really loving the template/theme of this website. It'ѕ simple, уеt
effеctive. A lot of times it's very difficult to get that "perfect balance" between usability and visual appeal. I must say that you've done a аmazing jοb ωith this.
Αlso, the blog lοаԁs extremelу quick for me on Safaгi.
Εхceptіonal Blοg!

Tаke a loоk at mу wеblog   www.spam, loadofshit

And then today I got this -

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Oh for God's sake!":

Right now it appeaгs like Woгdpгeѕs іѕ the
best blοggіng plаtfοгm out there
rіght now. (from ωhаt I've read) Is that what you're uѕing on your blog?

My blog post  - e-cig review site

 So, being a vaper, I thought for a moment this might be a friend. But Nah - deleting them both. Friends just write to me!

Oh dearie dearie me. Oh dearie me!

Oh dearie dearie me. Oh dearie me!

The world has gone mad.

I was looking up the concept of fascism and why it is deemed so terrible. Lots of aspects of it seem to exist here in my very own country of the UK. The thing that is lacking is State encouragement of National Pride. Here, that idea seems completely missing.

So Fascism is not what is hapenning here.

Are we Totalitarian? No - I don't think so. But wait. Mmmm.

	Totalitarianism	Authoritarianism
Charisma	High	Low
Role conception	Leader as function	Leader as individual
Ends of power	Public	Private
Corruption	Low	High
Official ideology	Yes	No
Limited pluralism	No	Yes
Legitimacy	Yes	No

We live in an Authoritarian State?  Feels more like it.

I majored in History and remember one lecture where we followed how most Governments in the Western World became more Authoritarian - even Dictatorial, before the second world war. It seemed a "fashion" that swept through many Nations at that time. People felt "safe" that way.

Something is sweeping through the world now. And I don't like it. I don't feel "safe" - not at all.

Are we becoming blind to the fact that we are less and less free, imprisoned in cages made for us by legislation of control?

Today I read that New Zealand is bringing in "plain" packaging for cigarettes. Oh dearie me.

I believe that the use of nocebos and subliminals in this way is morally despicable. It does not promote health - but illness.  Smokers, already disadvantaged by the fact that they smoke are being made more ill by the constant repetition of these "mantras". They should be getting sicker quicker. Also, the messages are not true, they are only possibilities. Abusive images on "plain" packs are re-enforcing these possibilities to become true. This is NOT for anyone's good. It is a crime, and psychologically abusive to everyone  - smokers and non-smokers alike.

I believe this to be true for any kind of visual warnings on food and drink too.


If this Authoritarian "fashion" of "plain" packaging that carry deadly messages spreads from the antipodes to the Northern Hemisphere, I will feel far more unsafe than I already do.

Words and images are being used, not to uplift, strengthen or inspire, but to depress, repress and down tread us. And sicken us. And they come from those who Govern us. Is this Totalitarian, Authoritarian or Fascist? Oh dearie, dearie me!

Dammit.

Twice today, I said to my husband - "That would make a good blog".

And now, dammit,I can't remember what it was!

(Royalty free image)

What little tiddlers can hear - the sound of profit

I have heard the argument that musicians need money for their toil. And that is absolutely right. Presumably they get paid for the gig, recording and the sales of their records/downloads and other distribution outlets.

We are allowed to hear them legally if we've paid our money.

If we own a disc that we bought, we may not play it anywhere but for our own hearing. If you play the disc in your own office and someone else hears it - that's illegal. But listening to it through headphones is legal.

The same rules apply to the radio and TV. You have to buy a license to play them out loud even though the Radio and TV have already paid their own fees.

" PPL is different from PRS for Music.
In most instances of recorded music being played in public, a music licence is required from both organisations. PPL collects and distributes licence fees for the use of recorded music on behalf of record companies and performers, while PRS for Music collects and distributes for the use of musical compositions and lyrics on behalf of songwriters, composers and publishers."

"Why do I need a licence?

In order to play recorded music in public, legal permission is needed from the copyright holders. A music licence gives you this permission."

What happens to the licence fee? 

Understanding my royalties.

You need two licences. Even the smallest business, a garage playing a radio in the workshop, a tiny office of two workers, a small co-operative craft shop, a charity shop, a one-man rural dentist, a home hairdresser - all the little tiddlers in the net - need these. It could cost you £400. This is a heavy cost to a small business.

Now the point of these licenses - i.e. playing the radio/CD in your tiny shop/home hairdressing/workshop is that collecting fees from you, when the artist is already being paid for a public broadcast/the disc, seems like concentrated greed. Do I believe that the artists that you heard get paid much of the little tiddler fees you paid with great difficulty, even if little tiddler fees add up? Nah!

I think a great deal of YOUR money is going to the business of the licencers, their police and staff and to pay for keeping their jobs and the whole profitable operation afloat! But that's only my opinion of course.

Brainwashing

I was watching Question time on BBC Two. The question was "Are the British public becoming disallusioned with politics and politicians?" (or something similar).

So - to me - a short answer is "yes".

But, one politician, and to my shame (or hers) I have no idea who she was or even which party she represented (they are all the same anyway) brightly disagreed. "Oh no" she exclaimed. "Definitely not! When I go into schools the pupils are very interested and ask about Green Issues, Climate Change and (cant remember the last issue). At which point, I LOLLED!

Yup - I was a teacher too.

Silly woman.

Letter to my MP

Thank you so much for your reply to my letter about "plain" packs. I am sorry you feel such visual abuse - medical "violenceporn" - fear inducing subliminals on packets of cigarettes is moral. Cigarettes are already invisible in shops, and will be in all shops very soon. They already contain abusive pictures. "Plain" packs are, to my mind, an attack by the State on a quarter of its citizens. The messages they carry are nocebos and adverse to the health of smokers. Following what we know about nocebos, smokers should become sicker quicker. It's a crime. It should not be supported.

The EU are debating the WHO directives on the 25th of this month (February). They suggest that "plain" packaging be left up to Countries to decide - in the UK there were over 250 000 signatures against during our consultation - a greater number than the pro group. But I should think we'll end up doing what the Government wants. I suspect the consultation was simply to placate us.

I say all that - but I don't smoke. So I come to another situation that fills me with a similar desperation. It is about the use of electronic cigarettes.

The WHO directive, though, is also about electronic cigarettes, not banning electronic cigarettes outright, but wants the nicotine content of electronic cigarette e liquid to be set at 4mg of nicotine and become medical devices, which in effect bans them as they are used now. This will seriously affect the electronic cigarette community who are now almost a million in the UK of which I am one.

I am asking you to become knowledgeable about electronic cigarettes. They are the most extraordinary things. I smoked for 50 years and the more we became marginalised by legislation and public opinion was turned against smokers, the more determined I became never to give up smoking. In 2011 I started "vaping" ie. using an electronic device, and the habit of smoking simply fell away from me - a miracle! Since then, I have promoted vaping as a solution for devoted smokers like me to change to a less harmful habit. My life has changed. I am physically better. The dentist is impressed. The doctor is impressed. My family is impressed. I am impressed.

As I get older, I become more horrified by the burden of legislation that is piled on citizens in a country, by regulators intent on making changes for "our" betterment. These things should arrive in our consciousnesses with education and not force. I think many people feel completely disempowered by the kind of non-democracy they see in the world and the amount of untruth and spin that is disseminated by various lobby groups, in promoting their causes (and their jobs!). We have become suspicious and cynical.

I have written this with great thought. I see one of the problems with our non-democracy as being that our Members of Parliament get caught up in the flavour of the current spin - whatever that might be - and it would be a better country if our politicians were suspicious and cynical too!

The recommendations from the EU will be taken on by our Parliament (because they have to). WHO is working to the beat of Tobacco Control's drum and the huge investment that Drug Companies have made to profit from Patches, Gums, Sprays to stop people smoking. The fact is that electronic cigarettes are far more successful in getting people to quit entirely or - like me - to continue with nicotine usage in a less harmful manner. I have also written to all my MEP's to try and stop foolish legislation at source..

Here are links to information about electronic cigarettes which, despite the spin to the contrary HAVE been studied. In the UK they are already regulated by our own trading bodies. We know a lot about them.

Gerry Stimpson Video Nicotine Harm Reduction - an end to smoking?

Clive Bates (former director of ASH) Medicines regulation for e-cigarettes – when caution can kill
There are many other thinking, intelligent scientists and non scientists who have material out there on the Internet on Tobacco Harm Reduction.

I hope you find time to investigate the phenomenon of elecronic "vaping" that is leading to smoking reduction in millions of people worldwide. They have done this, and are doing it, all by themselves without force, without any lobby group pushing them or manilpulation from the State.

If you know about vaping - properly know - you will become an empowered spokesperson in Parliament for me when the time comes, as it will. I will need to rely on you. You are my voice.

Thank you,
Yours Sincerely,

"Plain" Packaging (again) and Vaping

I wrote to my MP about my objection to the so called "plain" packaging of cigarettes. I got a really nice reply, written personally and not one of the standard replies that people have been getting from their MP's.

I was very impressed - but then I like our MP. He's a hard worker, committed to our area and a truly nice man. Pity he belongs to the party that he does. I refuse to vote for it.

So I got this letter
 

Partial Quote:-

I find this to be a difficult subject because of my sympathy with conflicting interests. As an ex-smoker and a parent, I feel duty bound to support all measures to minimise the access to tobacco for children and I have heard numerous statements that this regulation could help to reduce teenage smoking.

However, I think that your letter does raise issues regarding the practicalities of the proposed regulation and I am pleased to confirm that I have written to the Secretary of State for Health in order to represent your concerns and to ask him to give full consideration to them before finalising legislative proposals.

With best wishes 
  
You will see that the "cheeldren" are a problem. And he has heard numerous statements that "plain" packs, covered with grotesque medical porn, could help reduce teenage smoking. I am more willing to think the images will become collectors items for kids. Most kids get fags from their mates, who get them from their mates, who get them...... not from shops. And cigarettes are already removed from display in shops (or will be soon). So I can see in this letter my MP has already been tainted by Tobacco Control.

You will see my MP wrote to the SofSforHealth. But I know he's been got at by TC already - so not much hope there.

My man in parliament is unaware that my reply to thank him for his letter, will be all about vaping being equally under threat from the EU directives being discussed next week. I will tell him how wonderful vaping is to experienced smokers like me, and ask that he protect our country from the disaster like that which is brewing in Russia.

Taxes

Today I gave my dog a bone. A generous bone. He has been in a state of stress ever since. I feel sorry for him. He has spent the day running around trying to hide his bone. He is not eating it - he just wants it - wants to keep it safe. I envisioned a day of pleasure with gnawing, crunching and a contentedly happy dog engaging in dog-bliss.

But no - it's been horrid for him.

Funny, we are all running around trying to hide our bones - to keep them from being removed from us. We work for them, we save them, we put them away for later when we can enjoy them in retirement. or we protect them so we can simply just live. I found a solution to the dog's angst. I put him on the lead. I tell him to go to his bed. I pop the bone under the blanket where he can't see it. And he calms down enough to have a little doggie-kip, knowing his bone is safe. Being on the lead, he also thinks he's tied up.

Funny, we all think we're tied up when we are ordered to to stay in our civil beds by the State. We think our bones are safe.

But I could solve the whole problem of the bone, if I simply took it away. He'd still think it was under his blanket He'd be none the wiser would he? I could take it away in small chunks until there was little left. I could leave him a very tiny bone. But I just can't be dishonest with my dog - he trusts me.

Pity about the State.

What the hell is wrong with the NHS blankets in the UK?

Two years ago my husband went into hospital in the middle of January in the most foul weather. I was deeply affected to see him trying to get comfort in his distress from a miserable, thin bit of cloth that the nursing staff called "a blanket". It looked like a shabby throw one might use for the dog in summer. I asked for a proper blanket. That medieval scrap that hardly reached his chin and kept no cold out, WAS a proper blanket I was told. When I complained it was explained to me that "he mustn't overheat"! For goodness sake! What about hypothermia? When you are in shock, you need all kinds of comfort, and a decent blanket is one of them.

Yesterday, I went to see my daughter in hospital. There was a shit load of snow dumping outside. She had the same kind of "blanket" and that was what she had slept with the night before. She hardly slept because she was cold and frightened. Her room was no warmer than my bedroom is right now. I'm a healthy person and I sleep with proper coverings.

A blanket is, in my mind, an important piece of healing equipment and one that should be warm, substantial and comforting. Thinking pieces of rag is proper nursing is not good enough.

What the hell is wrong with the NHS that they can't provide my family with decent blankets when they are sick?

Aliens Beware

 Aliens Beware

What do you think aliens might think of this strange planet?
I guess they'd be really disappointed and think it quite manic.

They might mistake humans as the least evolved
For the problems they make that remain always unsolved.

Aliens might say "F*** this, who wants dealings with such nitwits?"
And blast off to somewhere where they'd be less misfits. 

The smell of burning - and it's not electronic cigarettes

I have not smoked a cigarette since November 2011. This is quite miraculous as I have smoked for 50 years. Near the end of my smoking, I found myself becoming more grimly intent on never to stop. This decision became more entrenched, the more I was told it was bad for me and it was legislated against me that I could only smoke in less and less designated places. I remember arriving back from Paris (where I could smoke) to land at Manchester Airport. On the station at the airport, where every smoker was lighting up, gagging for a smoke, we found "smoking police" armed with spray bottles of water - yes spray bottles of water - to douse our cigarettes if we dared to light them. Manchester airport station was not an enclosed space, but we could not smoke. I realised it was not about my health but about my persecution. I reeled at the thought such a thing could happen in England, which at that time, I thought of as a civilised country! Squirting a smoker to extinguish their cigarettes could be called an assault. That must have been in about 2008. I don't know if it still happens. It should not. It is disgusting!

In September 2011, I was going away on holiday, going somewhere I knew I could not comfortably smoke if I wanted to, so I bought an electronic cigarette. I had no intention to stop smoking. Accidentally, miraculously, unbelievably, I discovered I preferred vaping (using an e cig) to smoking. At first, I smoked and vaped. I craved a real cigarette for quite a time as this flowering new behaviour blossomed in my life.

I think I have told this story before, but the day after I got back from London in 2011, where grime, pollution and chemicals blacken every standing thing, and the traffic belches suffocating fumes, the mayor of London announced they were thinking of banning smoking in the City. This confirmed to me the insanity of the anti smoking persecutors. They are not sane but have been consumed with the dangerous psychotic fire.

I am very pro smokers - almost a quarter of our population. They get no consideration - there is nothing they can do to redeem themselves in the persecution fire. There is no co-operation sought with them, no place to go, no place to comfortably socialise. They battle to survive against the insane constrictions they endure, sanctioned by a society, sculpted to consider everyone's lifestyles, religions, eating habits, drinking habits,  sexual orientation, desires and wishes - EXCEPT those of smokers.

I find it strange that it is my generation who are living the longest, most rebelliously refusing to get old. We are the sex, drugs and rock and roll generation. and we smoked. We are now a financial burden. What the hell is society going to do with all of us? We survived.

I am a smoker who vapes - and I love it - just like I loved smoking. I am so enthusiastic about vaping I have a blog and you tube channel to promote it. I think it might become the new smoking. But I have no gripe against smokers who choose to smoke. I just want them to know that there IS life after smoking if you can switch your brand to vaping.

If you are a regular reader of this blog - you will expect me to complain about something and - yes - I now will. Recently there was a shocking article in the Mail which has now been removed from the Internet because of complaints against it, saying, in essence, that vaping could be more harmful than smoking. Guess what? The original article, now unobtainable, has morphed by syndication (probably) and has appeared again here and it will continue to do so, spreading this lie all over the world.

This is journalism at it's worst. This is evil. Vaping is not more harmful than smoking.  This confirms to me once again the insanity of the anti smoking persecutors. They are not sane but have been consumed with a new dangerous anti vaping fire. I smell burning - but it won't be us - we don't inhale burning anything - not even the smoldering bullshit you find in newspapers that throw out dangerous one-sided embers of ill written psychoses .

If you ever consider vaping - do - it is much less harmful than smoking. And it's just as enjoyable.