What's in the news?

Hello, good to be back and all that. Haven't got a lot to blog on a personal level so I thought I'd round up a few news stories that caught the eye.

ISP Police?

Firstly the Evil Lord Voldermort (or Peter Mandleson as he's know to some) is launching his 'three-strikes and you're out' policy on internet filesharing.

Btw. What is it with the Labour Government and their three-strikes? Possession of cannabis, asbos and now this? The postal workers should worry, (more on that later) it's their third strike today. Mandy will have them out!

Anyway back to the point, the Government's policy on internet filesharing, no hang on, let me correct that. ILLEGAL internet filesharing. Now this will be unpopular I'm sure, however we know it's illegal to do and just because now we face a chance of being punished for it should we moan, nope.

No, the thing we should moan about is how this is going to be policed. It isn't being controlled by the Government, or the police or even an independent company capable of looking into the claims and sorting the wheat (sites and servers that hold thousands of illegal downloads) and the chaff (normal people who've downloaded Alesha's (mmmmmm Alesha) new track from Pirate Bay)

You see the Government is broke and can't run another department so instead it's going to be up to 'Content Owners'. So that's the film, music and television companies to monitor and identify illegal sharers and bring it to the sharers ISP.

Some ISPs have already kicked off about it and Talk Talk have raised the important point that the proposal is putting forward the idea 'guilty before proven innocent', read more here

Not that bad for you?

My new favourite Professor has published another statement about cannabis use. The amusingly named Professor David Nutt, (not his real photo) has said that the Government and Jacqui Smith (surprisingly) fudged some of the data when the decided to re-classify Cannabis upwards last year, he claims that cannabis is less harmful than alcohol and that the mental health issues that everyone was screaming about last year where grossly over-exaggerated. He was quoted as saying that in order to prevent one episode of cannabis related schizophrenia it would be necessary to prevent 5,000 men aged 20-25 from smoking it.

Wow! The government is lying to us, oh hang on, I knew that already. Oh and here.

Oh and just in case you think I'm using some whack-job of a Prof to justify cannabis use, David Nutt is the Chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, the very council that helped the government formulate it's plans to begin with and works at the centre for crime and justice studies at King's College.

A Faliure to Deliver.

Oh those Postpeople, greedy aren't they, hmmm? Striking? Well that's just wrong, let's hate them.

Here's why you should support them.

They aren't striking over pay (well not entirely). Back in 2007 when the last strike was on, the CWU negotiated the agreement and everyone went back to work.

However due to 'economic pressure' The Child Catcher and the Royal Mail have decided to ignore that agreement and go ahead with 'rationalisation' in order to 'streamline' the company.

What does the above sentence mean to you? If your bosses said this to you what would you think?

Redundancy? Sacking? Pay cuts? Me too.

So the CWU said, look you agreed the terms under the last strike that if you were going to change the rules you would consult with us so we could lessen the impact on our members.

The Royal Mail and Darth Vader said 'Bollocks to that. You'll take what we give you.' so the the CWU calls a strike!

OK that's a simplistic argument, but probably a version you've not heard becuase most media is reporting this as 'arsey-posties'.

Sometimes the Unions can get it right, sometimes they are a force for good and protect their members, they provide support against huge companies. I'm with the posties on this one.

A Fat Twat

Some say we shouldn't really give them the oxygen of publicity, the sadly departed Linda Smith said we shouldn't give them the oxygen of oxygen.

Regardless of you views on immigration or the EU, Nick Griffin and his tin-pot army are fascists, racists and homophobes. Listening to much radio recently I was surprised by how many people said 'I'm not racist but I'll vote BNP.'

Sorry but if you do vote for them you are racist, and if you really, REALLY don't believe you are racist and still vote for them then you're stupid.

Did they have a right to be on Question Time, yes. They are (sadly) a political group that has been voted into the European Parliament, the Greens get on to QT so the BNP should too.

The BBC (despite the fact it was done over ratings) were right to go ahead, as the people who protested outside were right to protest. How can they both be right? Democracy baby, the right to shout what you believe at the top of your lungs while a person is sat beside you shouting the exact opposite.

However, democracy can only be applied to those who do not cause harm. The BNP do and will if they achieve any power. Don't let the veneer fool you, they are against homosexuals, Griffin gets 'creeped out' by two guys kissing, but doesn't mind if they do it behind closed doors which does seem like a classic case of denying his own man-on-man feelings, (don't believe me check out the second paragraph in 'early life and education' here) he is against mixed race marriages and believes that anyone who isn't white, despite being born in the country, is of a second class to anyone who is.

Really didn't mean to give so much space to this, but ignoring this problem won't make it go away, destroying this vile, fat reptile through debate and exposure will.

And finally here's a cat stuck up a tree.

Ahhhhhh.

Ol' Skool

Mmm... burgers....

I love to cook... I really LOVE to cook nice food. If I had the money, the time and all the tools I would do it far more than I do now. I love it when you've gone out with an idea of what you want to make and you buy loads of lovely fresh ingredients.



A couple of weeks ago I realised that the market near where I live, in Watford, is one of the best places to buy my food and intend to buy food there more often rather than the Supermarkets.



So when I bought my food at the market it was to cook a birthday three course meal for my girlfriend. I got to the market at 7am on the Saturday morning, (That's almost 2 hours before I get up for work!!!), I went to the fish monger and bought some lovely Wild Sea Bass and all the other ingredients and headed home.

I think my biggest weakness is forgetting to take photos of the food I make cos this all turned out great! For a starter I made, Wild mushroom soup using two types of mushroom and served in a bowl with one giant mushroom at the centre. Main was Pan fried Wild Sea Bass served on a bed of fresh spinach which was cooked in butter, with a poached egg on top and pesto on the side. Then for dessert I had taught myself to make ice cream, (BY HAND!!!), this was very rich and creamy but oh so good... even if I do say so myself. I made a clotted cream flavour with crushed up Cadbury flake in it ... MMmmmm :o) served on chocolate drizzle with waffer straws and fans.

On saturday night I made pork burgers that consisted of minced pork with bramley apples and onion in them, pork stock cube and Wenslydale cheese with cranberries melted on top, shredded lettuce and mayo. The biggest problem was that I blended the onion and apple together then had to contend with de-juicing them.. I also had to use TWO eggs to bind this. Tasted good but again... I forgot to take photo's. I will try harder in future. My Italian burger is going to be my next burger concoction (sp?). I REALLY wanna get some of those DAMN expensive Global knives so that I finally have a blade that cuts without having to hack away at everything, (our sharpest knife struggled to get through a mushroom the other day!) and now I'm also interested in a meat mincing machine.. I have some ideas for some truly unique and awesome tasting burgers coming soon!!!

Well there you have it, a pointless blog but a blog none the less... now stop reading and get cooking!