I Doubt Mr Wishy-Washy-Richy-Rishy Could Find Anything!

Jesus had a Kalashnikov

Jesus had a Kalashnikov

Jesus had a Kalashnikov,

                Mary carried a sten.

The used the power of prayer

                And always said amen.

Ninety-nine trapped down a mine

                Only one came out.

Thanking god for saving him

                He was most devout.

In the Deep South

                Believe in the power of prayer.

Quoting  biblical verse,

                But that gun is everywhere.

Opher – 16.11.2023

If they really believed they’d turn the other cheek. Christians for guns is the biggest hypocrisy on the planet.

I was thinking of that Mexican mining disaster where so many died. They pulled one guy out from the rubble who promptly thanked god for saving him, not the rescuers. I wondered what all the others had done wrong. How had they offended god so that he abandoned them.

Seems that all the piety and prayer is not helping the slaughtered Jewish settlers or bombed people of Gaza. Perhaps the premature babies dying for lack of incubators didn’t know how to pray, or they’d committed a grievous sin. Shame they’re too young to wield a Kalashnikov.

Looking at the state of the planet it seems that those starving, being slaughtered or living in the worst poverty, pray the most.

I reckon god is irritated by prayer.

Response to Neil Lock’s ‘Rant To End All Rants’.

Neil is a friend who goes back a number of years. We agree on a number of things but disagree on others.

That makes for an interesting exchange of views.

Neil sees himself as a liberterian. I am all for freedom but also want a social order where the powerful are held in check.

My response to Neil’s Rant – Part 1

Bloody hell Neil!!  Fifteen thousand words is a book!

I shall do my best to respond to things as they come up.

Straight away we hit this major crisis that you brush off as a global conspiracy. Global warming. How you can think this is a conspiracy is beyond me. Why? What is the ulterior motive for all these diverse governments wanting to do this? What do they gain?

I can clearly see why the oil, gas, fracking, cement and steel industries might want to buy off bent scientists. They make big big money out of pollution. But all the governments around the world??? They hate each other. They couldn’t conspire if they wanted to.

You glibly brush over the devastating effects of global warming. That’s easy to do when living in a temperate country. We have our floods, heatwaves, droughts and, like this year, messed up weather, but we don’t get the full impact. For us it’s an inconvenience. We don’t get the massive floods like Pakistan, China and Bangladesh, the huge forest fires like Greece, Australia, California and Portugal. We don’t get terrible droughts like South Africa, Ethiopia, Texas and Spain. We haven’t had unbearable temperatures like they are getting in Africa, the Middle East and now in Europe. But that does not mean we aren’t going to be badly affected.

As more areas become uninhabitable due to arid conditions there will be mass migration. Millions, perhaps billions, will no longer be able to live in these extremes. They will either move or die. We are already suffering from an influx of immigrants. This is the thin end of the wedge. Who can blame them.

Food prices will soar. Crops will fail. We, as a planet, will not be able to feed a population of eight billion.

With the melting ice and warming seas we can expect more extreme weather, higher winds, storms and a substantial rise in sea levels. As most major cities are at sea level this will mean catastrophic flooding and billions spent on flood defences. New Orleans is testimony to what happens when that fails.

This is without consideration of the massive impact on nature and the delicate ecosystems already stretched due to the impact of human beings.

I know you always put people first Neil and take nature for granted but, as a biologist, I can tell you that it is not as simple as that. We are part of that ecosystem. Our food, oxygen and the chemistry of our own bodies depends on a delicate interaction of millions of species. Soil, on which our crops depend, is a living interaction of millions of organisms from bacteria, fungi, thrips, insects, nematodes and worms. Pollination is dependent on insects. Our health depends on the commensal and symbiotic organisms that inhabit our bodies. What we eat and how we interact with the world affects that balance. We are only beginning to understand how it works. Gut bacteria can affect your mood, your thinking and your health. They live on what we eat. We cannot live apart from nature.

And that is quite apart from the joy of interacting with wild life.

We already live in a vastly impoverished world. Our ancestors lived in a far richer world. We have the rump of nature; of what was. The teeming herds, flocks and shoals have gone. We have the vestiges.

I move on.

You make the point that mankind seeks to ‘make its mark’. That is certainly not the case. We are hunter/gatherers. All humans were hunter/gatherers. There is hardly any evidence of the hunter/gatherer societies that filled the planet. That is because they did not seek to leave any mark. They lived in some kind of harmony with nature (even though they wantonly and stupidly hunted all the mega fauna to extinction). Black Elk talked of walking through the landscape without leaving so much as a footprint and castigated the whiteman for wanting to make everything that lives crawl.

It was with the advent of farming, ‘civilisation’, huge populations, cities and nations, that we started having powerful leaders, politics and religions, and narcissistic power which made individuals want to ’leave their mark’.

That’s an aberration.

As for politics; we might be on a slightly similar wavelength, but with vastly different reasoning.

I agree, the world is run for a powerful elite for their own benefit. We are given the least they can get away with without provoking a revolt. The system was set up by the rich for the rich. Politicians are bought and sold. Profit for the wealthy is all that matters. They deal with megabucks; we get the crumbs. They do not care about the impact of what they do on people, nations, or the planet; as long as it makes them very rich.

That means most (not all) politicians are crooks, in it for themselves. They seek power and wealth. They are bought off and controlled by the wealthy.

However, this is where I think we digress.

Forgive me if I’m wrong, but your solution is to devolve into small autonomous communities, each controlling itself.

My solution is much more global. I want complete scrutiny and accountability. I want the bank accounts and all communications open to scrutiny. I want the elite and politicians held accountable.

You always claim not to have exterminated any species and that you are innocent. That is not true. We are all guilty. What we have with species destruction and global warming is an incremental damage. Your defence does not hold.

If a fatal dose of a poison is a million moles and one million people all deliver 1 mole so that the person dies, it is no good all those million people all claiming innocence.

By living we impact on the environment. By using power, eating and moving about we add to the destruction around us. Of course, some individuals have far greater impact than others.

Under your system there would be no accountability for the international organisations, nations and individuals who are presently plundering, exploiting and killing with impunity. We’re beset by wars, tyrannies, massive pollution and environmental degradation. These greedy, power-mad nutcases require controlling and being brought to justice.

War, exploitation, tyranny, pollution, crime and poverty have no national boundaries. If we retreat into our own communities we leave them to do what they like. They are bad enough now; with no controls they would be beyond all levels of bad.

The only way of dealing with this is a fully accountable, fully scrutinised global government.

And yes, I can see all the dangers involved with that, but……

Fake Memories

Fake Memories

Fake memories

Fake fears

Fake News

Fake tears

Rousing the faithful

Feeding the lies

Inflaming the emotions

Deaf to the cries

False truth

False fed

False economy

Falsely led

Deliberately stoked

For selfish gain

Cynically oblivious

To the generated pain

Fake news feeding real crimes

Fake smiles for our times

Fake sincerity for personal gain

Fake compassion masking real pain

Real people hypnotised

Following blindly

The veiled disguise.

Ignoring all the shouts

Of the truly wise.

Led up the garden path

That’s built of where’s and why’s.

Opher 23.6.2018

Fake Memories

How to pick your way through the exaggerations and lies that are trotted out to frighten us?

I think we are being manipulated for political reasons! Even our memories are fake!

We no longer believe experts and are instructed to ignore them. Now we believe the headlines of the tabloid press.

The British Political Parties – Labour Party – What they stand for and where they came from.

The British Political Parties – Labour Party – What they stand for and where they came from.

The British Political Parties – Labour Party – What they stand for and where they came from.

Posted on July 18, 2015 by Opher

Labour

Disclaimer – I would consider myself a left-wing moderate and pragmatist. While I will try to be objective and impartial one must always bear that in mind when reading further. My bias may subconsciously select words for me.

It is quite apparent to me, from my years in education, that the majority of people do not have a clue as to what the political parties stand for. Their philosophy has become shrouded in obfuscation. All the politicians are interested in is power and that means votes. In order to get elected they have to compromise and disguise their intent. That is politics.

I am attempting to state clearly, simply and objectively what the main parties stand for and where they came from.

The Labour Party.

The Labour Party are a centre/left party.

They came out of an amalgamation of the Socialist Party and the Trade Union movement of the late 19th Century. They were founded in 1900.

They were formed in order to give working men a voice in parliament and fight for reforms that would improve the conditions and pay of working people.

The Labour Party is a broad church ranging from extreme socialists to moderate social democrats.

They believe in social ownership of the means of production – ie. State ownership.

They believe in the principle of – ‘To each according to his contribution’ and/or ‘From each according to ability; to each according to need’. That is basically a fairer distribution of the wealth of the nation.

They embraced social concerns to improve the lot of ordinary people – environmentalism, feminism, and liberalism.

They oppose the premise of capitalism.

They believe in government intervention in business, taxation to provide services, redistribution of wealth, rights for working people and a welfare state.

Nb. No doubt my political friends of a left-wing bias will put me right on a few of my assertions!

The Disaster of Brexit portrayed as a Triumph

The Disaster of Brexit portrayed as a Triumph

The true costs are staggering!! Johnson negotiated an appalling deal!!

Posted in UncategorizedTagged BREXITPoliticssatireThe Disaster of Brexit portrayed as a TriumphTory liesLeave a commentEdit

Captain Beefheart On Track: Every Album, Every Song

5* Review

5

Superb Companion Guide For Every Beefheart Nerd

Submitted 4 months ago

By The Inconsistent Jukebox

From UK

Firstly, reader, I’ll tell you what this book is like: You know when you go into an art gallery or museum and have an accompanying guide book explaining a little about the art or artefacts? Well, this is very much like that. A companion piece for every track. The author has lovingly reviewed and described every song and it is also full of little facts and interesting information. If, like me, you are a Beefheart and The Magic Band aficionado (and I’m guessing that you are) then you’ll appreciate this book. We’ve all read John French’s definitive horse’s-mouth and meticulous account, Bill Harkleroad’s equally valid (but not so obsessively detailed) story and we’ve also read Mike Barnes’s fantastic and accurate outsider view. There are a couple of other tomes too but those three are the glorious triumvirate of Beefheartian history. This book isn’t trying to be that. What it does is makes you revisit the albums. Not with a different perspective – we all have our own, as does this, but with another incentive; to listen to the most original, influential, unique music in rock history. It’s a book for Beefheart lovers, nerds and obsessives. If you don’t agree with some of the author’s viewpoints on the music it really doesn’t matter. The purpose of the book is as a companion to this vast and broad decade of sheer creativity, originality and music-as-art from a genius/tyrant/eccentric and the supremely dedicated and unique musicians who helped to realise the vision, even taking a backseat to his ego for the sake of the art. I love it and so will you.

In the UK

In the USA

Anthropocene Apocalypse – Scenario 2 – The Population explosion and the future!

Anthropocene Apocalypse

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In Scenario 1 the population continued to grow eating up space, wilderness and destroying all naturally living creatures. Technology dealt with the problems of food, water, energy, weather and even oxygen in the atmosphere. We lived in huge urban developments and the world is devoid of wild-life and natural areas.

Scenario 2.

The premise:

a. We realise the impact of our actions on the environment and limit our numbers, conserve the wilderness and wild-life, stop our habitat destruction and pollution.

b. We lay aside 50% of the planet for wilderness and wild-life. We do not allow roads, hunters or development in these areas.

We are extremely good at solving problems. We can easily create a sustainable future where wilderness and wild-life has a place.

The result:

a. We introduce contraception, education and family planning on a global scale and successfully reduce our population.

b. We use technology to produce better transport, housing, energy production, and food.

c. We do not have urban sprawl, deforestation, overfishing, or other unsustainable exploitation of the environment.

d. We raise the standards of life for all people globally so that there is no longer war, conflict or poverty. There are social services, pensions and sick pay enabling people to live without requiring large numbers of children to support them through hard times.

e. We produce technology that is not polluting and is sustainable. We have ample energy (probably through nuclear fusion and solar) and our farming methods are not cruel or ineffective. We can produce ample good food to support the population without encroaching on the wilderness areas.

f. The forests are conserved. Fishing is sustainable. The weather and global warming is controlled.

g. 50% of the world is teeming with wild-life that we can marvel at. The air, water and soil are not contaminated with carcinogens. We globally control the weather and global warming. Everything regarding conservation and pollution is controlled and enforced globally.

I know which of the two possible future scenarios I would prefer to live in.

The future is for our grandchildren’s grandchildren. In my own life-time we have destroyed over half of the world. I feel we are at the precipice. Will we jump?Posted in EcologyenvironmentExtinctionTagged conservationEcologyeducationExtinctionidealismjournalismLiteratureNatureOptimismPoliticsPopulationSciencethe futureWritingZeitgeist4 CommentsEdit

Anthropocene Apocalypse – Scenario 1 – The natural conclusion to our population explosion.

Anthropocene Apocalypse

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Let us look into the future and extrapolate from where we are to where we are heading.

Scenario 1

The premise:

a. The population continues to grow

b. There are no catastrophes that wipe us out

Man is extremely good at solving problems. So let us assume that we negotiate our way through problem after problem. We do not annihilate ourselves through nuclear war or manufactured biological warfare. We do not succumb to a virus. We merely continue to grow in numbers.

These are the consequences:

a. Space and shelter. We need land and housing and our cities, towns and villages grow. The countryside becomes consumed in plastic and concrete. Roads connect and transport systems enable easy access.

b. The Wilderness. The wilderness and natural world become open to us and exploited for farming, mining, logging and habitation until there is no more inaccessible wilderness areas. Roads run through every place.

c. The Wild-life. The wild-life now has no habitat left, no food, shelter or way of living. It is butchered for meat, hunted for ivory or medicine (The rarer it gets, the more it is worth, the higher the price, the more worth the risk). The remnants of the wild things are corralled into parks or zoos and confined, protected and used as objects of tourism. Those considered pests, unpleasant or dangerous are eradicated.

d. Food. Even with all the wilderness opened up for farming, the seas fully harvested and hydroponics, genetic modifications and intensive farming methods there is not sufficient food for the burgeoning population. Food is produced from bacteria and fungus in vast industrial vats (Pruteen, mycoprotein etc. – already produced in large quantities – in our pies, sausages etc.), textured, flavoured and used as a meat substitute. Proper meat is a luxury food item.

e. Water. Water is a dwindling resource and desalination plants provide supplies.

f. Energy. Fossil fuels are replaced by large-scale sustainable technology – probably nuclear fusion supplemented with solar.

g. Weather. The effects of global warming are alleviated. The hurricanes and extreme weather conditions are now able to be controlled.

h. Oxygen. Oxygen is a natural product of photosynthesis. With the destruction of the forests and pollution of the oceans it is no longer being produced in sufficient quantities. Oceans are seeded to produce algal blooms and hydrolysis plants produce oxygen from water.

Our lives in these huge metropolises are highly controlled. Our environment is plastic. Our food, water and even the air we breathe is manufactured. We take our children to see the last remaining trees in the tree museum. We then go to the zoo to get a glimpse of and wonder at the little animals that used to run free in the wild.

It’s a vision of the future. It is quite possible. But is that the way we really want to live? Is that the world we want to pass on to our children?Posted in EcologyenvironmentTagged AlternativeconservationEcologyeducationExtinctionidealismNatureOptimismPoliticsPopulationWritingZeitgeist

Poetry – The Death of Democracy

The Death of Democracy

It whimpered.

                It’s tiny cry

                                A beacon of hope.

Strangled at birth

                By greed,

                                Power,

Arrogance,

                And disdain.

Buried

                Under a mound

                                Of lies.

Its ashes

                Spin

                                Spin

                                                Spin

In the machine

                Of power

                                Where the big dogs play.

All that’s left

                Is a game,

                                A hollow farce.

Spin,

                Lie,

                                Spin.

Play up! Play up!

                As the red meat

                                Of unlucky scapegoats

Is fed to the timid runts.

                Only the powerful

                                Count.

We are controlled

                Like mindless

                                Counters

                                                In a game

Of tiddly-winks.

Opher 18.1.2022

They play us for fools.

They think we will believe anything.

Our short attention spans are so limited.

Our forgetfulness makes us easy to manipulate.

We are being played.

They are good at it.

Only occasionally does their arrogance create a misstep.

The trouble is that they are right.

Too many of us are taken in by these smarmy conmen.

The game of power was never going to allow democracy to live.

Power lies in the hands of consummate liars.