ALARMIST

Bash a Burglar

This is considered a big political issue at the moment? It’s says that between 1990 & 2005, 11 people have been prosecuted for attacking intruders on private and commercial land. So does this mean around 10 people every 15 years may get more of a fair deal? Cameron said today at their party conference, “If a burglar comes into your home, people aren’t sure about what they are allowed to do”. Yeah, I’m sure that’s what they’ll be thinking at that moment.

Maybe the governments twisted logic is that this will frighten off burglars, with the thought that the occupants may hurt you and not be prosecuted (which by the way you are currently allowed to do if it’s in self defense)… but, maybe now those burglars will take a larger weapon with them, just in case.

How about instead they bring an issue to the table about investing more money in drug centers, to cut a large percentage out of the burglary numbers due to drug dependencies. Just a thought. Oh no wait, that doesn’t really stick with the ‘common voter’, because it doesn’t directly effect the masses. Until the person in need of money for heroin breaks in to your house, with not much of a care for himself let alone you.

The first instance of an occupant attacking an intruder that the press hear about from tomorrow will be big news. Let’s just hope the intruder isn’t beaten and ends up dead. That will be interesting timing for Mr Cameron.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19879314

Made in St Elsewhere

Having clothes made abroad (mainly in China) and thinking that it’s just because of ‘cheap labour’, people need to realise that it’s the actual manufacturing processes and conditions that are not monitored enough, for the harm it’s doing to the workers, and the surrounding environment, is the bigger issue. Many chemicals used are not safe to be near humans, let alone in drinking water. According to a Greenpeace report, ‘nearly half of China’s rivers are unsafe for human contact’. Note the word ‘contact’. Just having the water on your skin can be harmful.

For more on Greenpeace, and to read and download the report: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/multimedia/photos/Jeans-on-sale-in-China/

If Ever There Was A Time….. It’s Now

Wow, I haven’t been here in a while. Lots to say, and I will make more time to do so. No doubt on the usual issues of the environment, sustainability, energy generation etc etc.

Starter for 10:

Nuclear - Fine when something doesn’t go wrong. And we have to dispose of the incredibly radoiactive waste, usually by burying it in big containers far underground. How dare ‘we’ dispose of our crap in the planet somewhere though.

Oil - This is also fine, until it starts to run out, and the whole world scraps over the remaining ‘black gold’, prices thus rising even more. Plus, we get most of it from politically unstable countries, or ones we simply do dodge arms deals with, to all keep in one happy (and crude (sic.)) family.

It really is time to speed up the sustainable energy program for Europe. I’m sure between us we can all get together to meet our power needs. Actually we can, the technology is there, and the math has been done.

Get on with it then…..!

Inside Job (Movie)

“You come to us today, telling us ‘we’re sorry, we won’t do it again’. Trust us.. well, I have some people in my constituency that actually robbed some of your banks…. and they say the same thing.”

Watch the trailer for the movie Inside Job:

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/sony/insidejob/

How Green Is That Company Really?

More legislation is needed to control the information that is given by companies on how ‘green’ they truly are.

With how desperate the world seems to be over climate change, there is still a huge worry about the exploitation, of just about everyone. It is never all what it seems:

The following is taken from an Independent online article:

‘For shoppers in the USA, the Greenwashing Index publishes rankings of the integrity of US companies’ adverts online which can be viewed at http://www.greenwashingindex.com/ads.php. For customers based outside of the United States, the organization offers the following advice for rating a company’s environmental advertising claims:

1. Do you believe the words used in the advert, or does it appear that the company is trying to make you believe its green claims?

2. Do you think the images are being used in a misleading way; for example, is there a little too much focus on natural images?

3. Does the ad make a claim that seems vague or impossible to prove?

4. Do you believe it is actually possible for the company to do the things it is claiming? Is the company exaggerating its environmental credentials?

5. Does the ad leave out basic or important information? For example does the ad focus on one particular aspect of the brand’s eco-credentials while not mentioning possible environmentally damaging production methods?

Following these guidelines consumers are then advised to score the advertisement on a scale of 1-5, 1 being authentic, 5 being fraudulent.’

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/dont-believe-what-you-see-when-it-comes-to-being-green-2101438.html

Drugs…. AGAIN!!

So here we go again with more front page headlines of alcohol putting strain on the cities resources. This time it seems it’s the middle class city workers who are the bad boys & girls.

Paramedics are spending too much time basically dealing with idiot people who have overdosed to the point that they collapse in the street. I guess that’s a typical drug overdose…. you collapse, if stood up!

How about we start calling it overdosing, when you have consumed so much of the drug (legal, taxable, loved by most) alcohol, that you black out, collapse, and vomit down yourself.

‘Overdose - To take an excessive, a too great amount, of a drug’.

At the same time we can bring the illegal drugs conversation back to the table. That war isn’t working FACT!! It’s a myth, a farce, and most people need help, not prison. All classes take drugs, it’s just the ones without plenty of money that suffer most.

Send a kind letter to your local MP, asking what he/she is doing about the legal/illegal drug situation in this country. Let’s look at it now, and very soon we’ll find ourselves saving money.

The War on Drugs pt. 2

It’s worth watching the documentary series on Channel 4 (UK) called ‘Our Drugs War’.

It is highlighting once again what an utter sham the whole thing is. We spend millions each year on this ‘war’, yet hardly a dent is made on the trafficking of illegal drugs around the world.

We are fighting a ‘war’ in Afghanistan against the Taliban, supporting the government in the process. Yet this same government is totally corrupt, with the drug growing, manufacturing and trafficking happening around them, which they are pretty much powerless to stop.

90% of the Taliban funding comes from the drug trade, so if this is not stopped, surely it’s impossible to win the so-called ‘war on terror’.

Oil Spill - Media Style.

As the Guardian Online pointed out in an article this morning, BP are buying up Google search engine space. If you type ‘oil spill disaster’ into Google, at the top you will see a sponsored link to their ‘Oil Leak Response’ page, and where you can ‘Learn about how BP is helping’.

They really are doing everything they can to play down this absolute mother of a cock-up. It also seems that many people have forgotten the 11 workers who lost their lives, when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in April. One of those who seems to have forgotten is BP boss Tony Hayward, who commented “I want my life back…” in response to the work BP are having to do to clear THEIR mess up. Says it all really!

What I also found when I typed ‘oil spill’ into Google, was a lovely little news report by Michael Hanlon of our friends [sic] at Daily Mail Online. I shall quote the headline to this piece of genius in full: ‘Yes, oil spills are terrible. But the truth is they’re not the calamity doom-mongers say they are’. And yes that was the grammar. 

He lists a few of the previous oil spills before this recent one, and then states that ‘Despairing environmentalists’, politicians etc, have said this is the greatest ecological disaster in U.S. history. After giving us details on past attempts to clean up oil spills from a tanker, he then states, ‘But experts are now convinced that the best solution, short of pumping the oil off the tanker before it could escape or otherwise trying to contain it, would have simply been to do nothing’. 

 What Hanlon is basically saying, is that nature and the surrounding environment cope with massive oil spills in their own way, and just go back to normal after a few years. He does then state that ecosystems would be threatened, and fragile ecologies which people depend on for their livelihoods. It is an awful piece of journalism, which can be expected from an awful ‘news’ outlet. 

But the problem is, too many people will read this, and think ‘ooh, actually it’s not all bad, it’s just a hic-up and oil is fine really’. 

Oh, and because of our dependency for oil, “…in this sense we are all to blame for the Louisiana Spill”.

Yet in an article in New Scientist today, research scientists have found the plume of oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico to be 24 kilometers long, 8 kilometers wide and 90 meters thick, and stretches from 700 to 1300 meters below the surface. Now tell me THAT has not had a possible long lasting effect on the ecosystem. Any intelligent person knows that the ecosystem of this planet works like a chain, knock a link out and the chain doesn’t work all too well. Its the hard to see smallest of microbes that  are the lifeblood of the ocean, which are being affected the most. They are working overtime, and thus having a knock-on further up the chain.

Michael Hanlon also has a  Science blog called ‘From the cutting edge’. This is also a piece of crap.

Read the full (terrible) article here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1279847/MICHAEL-HANLON-Yes-oil-spills-terrible-But-truth-theyre-calamity-doom-mongers-say-are.html#ixzz0qIEjuViM

Banks - Here & There

In the UK we had a big get-together in the streets of old London town, were people shouted about how annoyed they were at the Government for not doing enough for it’s people, and others around the world.

Some folk were that annoyed, that they broke a couple of windows of bank head offices.

And there’s my point. Thousands of people, unhappy at the government, broke a few windows.

We now hear that rioting in Greece, because of their governments handling of the banks, has caused the death of three people within a branch of a public bank.

Why can’t the UK press and government see how damn sensible we are, when in large ‘annoyed’ groups?

Why shouldn’t the people of the UK make sure, the government are aware of what they can do, when they are quite frankly pissed off with how they are running OUR country?

6th May - New government take note. Things might not always be so pretty.