The Unreasonable Man

“Knowledge is to know that a tomato is a fruit, but wisdom is to know not to put one in a fruit salad.”

I have noticed that sometimes what I post comments on blogs, I get “[Blocked by CFC]” before my name.

This means my comment is considered spam, I think.

I also notice that this happens when I talk about being an atheist.

Of course this [CFC] nonsense is American.

..is what unelected Prince Charles, son of unelected Queen Elizabeth, and his girlfriend cost on his recent visit to this country.  Preposterous. My taxes pay for this. Meaning I pay for this. I work 100 hours a week for small pay, and Charles gets 6-star hotels and closed highways. And I pay for this.

This royal thing (I had to swear allegiance to this woman and her heirs and successors!) is a ridiculous anachronism that is as odd and out of place as religion.

I am not saying that you cannot honour and venerate this woman. You can honour whatever deity or semi deity you like. I am just saying that making others do it is ridiculous. Governor general? Lieutenant governor? All ridiculous, and just as out of place as Galileo being told what to think by the pope.

His “holiness” the pope was 100% wrong and Galileo was 100% right. Anyone here who wants to tell me that her majesty should be venerated, keep this in mind.

In a democracy, we elect the people who get special status. Mr Dalton McGuilty, detest him and his HST as I do, is entitled to special status. Royals are not. Can we have the $2.5m back please?

…the IMDB crew give “The Big Chill” a movie rating of just 7.0. For me this is a 9.9 movie, and it has been one of my favourite movies of all time since i was in my early 30s. It joins “Blade Runner”, “Midnight Express” and various others in this, of course.

What movies move you?

So now when Google searches are not to the liking of politically correct Americans, Google removes them - See this article on CNN.

This is worrisome. If google removes monkey-faced Obama cartoons, why not remove anti-Islamic sites, antisemitic sites, sexist sites, even sex altogether?

If google really removed that search result (and I checked before and after, and yes it appears that they have), they have really crossed over to being evil.

Bing goes the Internet?

…cameras in London, says CNN.

Big Brother IS watching you. Slippery slope? We’re already near the bottom.

At my recent shoot I did portraits of hundreds of people. So they had to tell me their email accounts.

Almost invariably, those over 50 all had hotmail accounts, and those under 30 all had gmail accounts.

So hotmail is for old people and the future belongs to google.

I have a gmail account, I’ll have you know!

New rules!

• When I recommend something, if you ignore that advice you cannot come back and moan. Like when I say “don’t use Outlook”, you are NOT allowed to come ask me for help with your inevitable Outlook problems later.
• When I teach, you should listen. Not “ignore and then complain that your results aren’t right”. Yes, that is because you ignored. When I say “Do A”, do not come to me saying “I did B and I had problems C and D”. Yes, that is why I said “do A”.
• Google stuff before you ask me. If you ask me “How to do this thing in that application”, I will have to Google that too. Why make me do the work? Do it yourself. Go to WWW.GOOGLE.COM, then type in your question, then work through the links until you find one that answers your questions. That is exactly what I will need to do. Yes, it takes time. Yes, I know you want instant answers in 3 seconds. No, that is not the way it works.

I spent about 30 years learning about computers and IT. Why is it that ignorant people want it, and think they can have it, all in 5 minutes?

Here’s the thing. I spent decades learning all this. There is no way to learn all that in 5 minutes. “Yes, but I want it to be simple and quick” Guess what. The universe does not care what you want.

If you want to learn to fly a Boeing 747, you WILL spend a good few years in pilot school. Whether you like it or not.

Do you have to listen to me? Of course not! But then you cannot ask me questions either.

US rhetoric appears to show that Americans still do not get it. Gitmo terrorists to be tried in the USA. So we hear “Terrorists should not be given protections of the law”.”We cannot afford to give terrorists normal legal protections”. And so on. “Gitmo detainees are special”. “They are a special danger”. “They must not be treated like ordinary criminals”.

That kind of rhetoric, which I hear on CNN all day, misses the point, as Americans so often do.

Apparently Americans do not understand that adherence to the law makes us what we are - free. And the law applies to bad people at least as much as to good people. D’oh.

If Mr Obama does not close Gitmo by December 31 he will be confirming that all politicians are slime, and American politicians possibly even more so, because the rhetoric is at such a low level of sophistication compared to that in educated countries. Let’s hope he does not disappoint us and that he closes Gitmo and puts the criminals on trial as they are.

On CNN, the other day a commentator sais that theoretically, if people were found innocent, they might be released, “but that would not be allowed to happen”. It seems a foregone conclusion that courts should be kangaroo courts and that come what may, regardless of any pesky facts or legal niceties, anyone with a beard must be convicted of whatever, and hanged, or something.

And yes, that is what civilised people are afraid of. That American justice will be shown to be no better than Taliban or Iranian justice. Come on, Mr Obama, prove us wrong.

Odd, how Christians never seem to follow their own (God’s?) Ten Commandments. It’s mainly “Christians” who like the death penalty which put to death that US sniper tonight. I mean… he’s a nasty piece of work, and prison;s where he belongs, but what is so hard to understand about “Thou Shalt Not Kill”? Again, Christians have selective morality, and selective understanding of the “God-given” rules. And again, frankly I think hippies are much nicer than Christians.