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Wanted, dead or alive!

We had massive delays in Calais yesterday as some barmpot tried to enter England illegally by walking through the Channel Tunnel. Funny as we were sat there wishing we didn't have to come back. But we eventually did.

We got to Folkestone and made our first mistake, we put the BBC radio on. I really thought we had gone through the Channel Tunnel into some weird kind of parallel universe. The main news item was how a nine year old girl had been banned from photographing her school meals and putting them on her blog, Never Seconds. I immediately stopped for breakfast, convinced that my craving a full monty belly buster brekkie, after two weeks of weedy croissants and baguettes, had created some kind of hallucinogenic effect. But no, it was true.

After brekkie we heard somebody I can only describe as a patronising, moronic twat (aka Executive Director of Community Services) justifying this act of pure Stalinism on behalf of the politburo of Argyll and Bute. Yes, it just had to be in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Scotland didn't it?

To cut a long story short the patronising, moronic twat was whining on about how coverage of Martha's blog in a Scottish newspaper, Pravda I think, had led to dinner ladies in Argyll and Bute threatening mass suicide they were so distraught. If that is true I would sack the lot, bunch of mardy arsed bastards should be in padded cells allowed nothing sharp. Well done Martha I say.

But the most annoying thing was the patronising, moronic twat repeatedly claiming that this was not an attack on free speech because free speech, apparently, does not include the right to upset people, those people being the mard arsed dinner ladies of Argyll and Bute. Bollocks, that's exactly what free speech does allow. Tell you what pal your patronising bullshit really got me angry yesterday, so should you be banned from practising free speech because your inane bullshit angers people?

One other really annoying thing was the twat's accent. I do find patronising bastards with Scottish accents really, really annoyingly patronising. Their speech is so clipped and precise every sentence seems to say 'just listen little person, unlike you I know what is right and correct'. If you don't believe me just listen, if you can bare it, to George Galloway, he's the prime exponent.

Anyway, by the time we got to Milton Keynes, the Supreme Leader of the Argyll and Bute politburo had overturned the ban, realising what a load of bollocks it was. I only hope he sent the patronising, moronic twat to Siberia. Well, maybe the Shetland Isles.

Blog Plug-eChurch Blog

This week is the third anniversary of the launch of Stuart's eChurch Blog. That's why I've decided to make Stuart's blog the first of what will be a regular feature, my very own Blog Plug featuring other blogs that I read and enjoy.

Stuart's blog description carries the following quote from Acts: "I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I utter words of sober truth". He proudly blogs as " a Christian with a penchant for blogging current events through the prism of faith". Stuart is on the journey to join the rest of us in the Roman Catholic Church and his blog often challenges in a refreshing, lively but authoritative way.

I first met Stuart in Wetminster Cathedral last year before the first ever gathering of the Guild of Catholic Bloggers (Guild of Blessed Titus Brandsma). Below is Stuart's post from yesterday about his three years blogging:

eChurch Blog Third Blogiversary


It’s hard to believe that I started this blog three years ago on 4th April 2009.

This blog has changed dramatically since its inception, due to the fact that I’ve changed.

From hard-core Evangelical beginnings, I now find myself on the road to Rome, which along with Dale Aquist, I view as a glorious defeat.

As an Evangelical Protestant I used to hold to a Catholic conspiracy theory; now I realise that many Catholics on the Internet hold to a Catholic conspiracy theory, but that’s a story, for another time.

Some time ago I stopped classifying myself as a ‘Christian Blogger’ and changed to a ‘blogger who happens to be Christian’. I feel far more comfortable with this definition for obvious reasons.

Traffic remains steady and very healthy for a niche blog such as this one; although, conversation has been fairly quiet in recent months. Like everything this tends to boom and slump.

The fact that traffic has remained steady has pleased me, as I post far less nowadays, but do try to infuse more thought and opinion and what have you.

I’d like at this point to particularly thank Goy and Tim for always making such valued contributions and sending me links. And special thanks go to Simian, who has been commenting since the very beginning, when this blog was black in colour and in mood.

And of course thanks to everybody else that’s contributed.

In terms of thanking other bloggers, I wouldn’t even know where to begin. I currently have 567 blogs in my feeds. But you know who you are and the part you’ve played in the changes I’ve undergone due to your posts.

I will admit that over the last few weeks I’ve been again going through one of those phases in which it’s rather hard to blog, as everything appears a little dull and repetitive. Same old arguments and battles; different day.

I’m never quite sure if everything is objectively boring, or if it’s more reflective of my state of mind. I suspect the latter, and we’ve been here before, when I wrote a boring blog post about being bored.

But I’m sure this will pass, as it has done so in days gone by.

Thank you so much for reading this blog.

Anonymous Bloggers

I know many people who blog but prefer not to use their own names. Or perhaps that should be I know the identity of some bloggers who prefer to remain anonymous? Regardless there is a high proportion who prefer not to let the world know their identity when blogging.

Those who choose to hide their real identity do so for many reasons. They may face problems at work if they blog using their own identity, regardless of whether or not they blog about their work. They may be blogging about confidential matters that they have highly valuable but sensitive things to talk about, and prefer not to be identified. The reasons are many and varied and I, and I hope most reasonable people, respect their wishes. I certainly would never knowingly give away the identity of an anonymous blogger whose identity I knew.

What I do find difficult to accept are anonymous bloggers who are vile towards other individuals, who use their blogs to lie and smear other people then hide behind anonymity. This has recently happened to an acquaintance of mine, who happens to be a thoroughly decent human being, but he has been subjected to comments on his blog that are pretty nasty and posts on an anonymous blog about him that are pretty unpleasant. Indeed they have been of such an unpleasant nature that he has been unable to sleep in recent weeks. I do not intend to name either blog.

Using anonymity in that way is the sign of a coward and a bully. Being critical and having a general roustabout is one thing, but if people want to be nasty, threatening and abusive at least have the guts to come out in the open. But people like that are usually too cowardly to be open.

I've told the victim to just ignore the anonymous loony, but that is easier said than done. The other thing is to take some pride that to provoke anonymous venom maybe means you have hit a nerve with the coward, in which case job well done. Of course those who throw muck around, or make anonymous threats, are usually lying anyway. If they were open and stopped hiding behind anonymity they would probably behave in a much more reasonable manner. They'd be terrified of the possible consequences because remember, they're cowards.

Maybe we should all stand back now and then and look at what we write, be that on blogs, websites or traditional media, and think how we would feel if what we had just said about somebody was said about ourselves. Perhaps we should all consider whether we would prepared to say to somebody's face what we write about them. Maybe that would contribute to making the world, in a very small way, a slightly better place to be.

Iranian Blogs

No idea what the content is like but I've come across a directory of Iranian blogs. It lists those written in Iran and those written by Iranians abroad.

Directory of Iranian Blogs.

T'Internet

I've had two strange experiences this week. One was when a woman serving me in a shop said how much she enjoyed my letters in the local press, the second just now when I bumped into a neighbour out shopping. The neighbour said how much she had enjoyed my blog this week. It feels strange somehow, even though you obviously want your stuff to be read. Being famous must be very bizarre, I don't think it would suit me.

So t'internet works, to a degree. It took me years to blog, as it did to get into computers to any degree. But my neighbour works in a field that really interests me at the moment and she suggested I join a particular internet forum specialising in that area. Now I have to admit to being a Luddite, still, when it comes to internet fora. I have only ever registered on two, one a football forum for Manchester United fans the other one for Ice Hockey fans, Manchester Phoenix specifically. To be honest they weren't really my cup of tea.

But I might give her suggestion a try, it might be third time lucky and could open up a whole new career. Who knows?