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Hi Big Brother May 22, 2008

Posted by Sharny in : Essay, Rants, World , add a comment

So I’ve just been reading this and it is worrying me greatly.  I’m gonna quote a bit from the article and talk about it general because the whole idea is quite simply ridiculous and I definitely need to point it out.

The proposal will raise further alarm about a “Big Brother” society, as it follows plans for vast databases for the ID cards scheme and NHS patients.

Further alarms about a Big Brother society? No, this IS a Big Brother society.  The moment that the government holds records of all digital activities a person makes is the moment that we become a Big Brother society.  It’s quite simple.

And then of course, there is the governments excellent track record when it comes to data security.  It’s actually more a case of What data security? This is the same people that lose disks filled with personal information on a regular basis and they think they can look after every detail of every communication any person makes? They must be fucking retarded.

Actually, on that note, I think they are fucking retarded.  Other ingenious ideas for stopping crime and terrorism included putting microphones in lamp posts.  I think I can sum up the problem with that in a single quote from satire quiz Mock the week (slightly paraphrased, it was a long time ago) “Lets go and discuss our evil plans in this brightly lit area”.

Exactly how stupid the government think terrorists and criminals are continues to astound me.  Do they somehow think that just because they’re on the internet that they can openly discuss their next targets? Are they silly enough to think of email as a secure way of discussing their dastardly deeds? OF COURSE THEY DON’T.  The literal bumbling idiocy of our aged and confused government officials never ceases to astound me.

I cannot see what right the government have to do this, not only would they be unlikely to keep the data secure but all it would do is breach the privacy of 60 billion people.  Along side that you might catch Johnny who has been selling a bit of weed on street corners and Rob who vandalized a signpost.  Yeah, that’s really worth the privacy of those people.

I don’t want this “safety”.  Of course I don’t think that terrorism should be overlooked, of course people’s safety is important but lets face it, we’ve had a hand full of terrorist incidents in this country with relatively low death counts.  Terrorism is only threatening if you let the fear control you.  That is what terrorism is.  Terrorists want to destroy our society and our freedoms and that is exactly what you are doing for them.  They sacrifice a few bombers, kill 50 people and suddenly its time to watch every citizen of this country so closely that you can tell everything that’s happened to them.

No.  That’s not what’s going to happen.  As a people we must be stronger than this, as easy as it is to piss away your personal freedoms and let Mr Big Government protect you with their shiny database and nifty lamp post mics we can’t let it happen.  Why would we want to live in a country where every innocent person lives in fear of being dragged away because of a joke in an email?

Again, I’m not saying we shouldn’t try and stop terrorism. I’m just saying that there is no reason for us to lose personal freedoms over it.  In fact, the best way to beat it is a united front of positivity.

Take away your fear and the terrorists lose.

To be fair… September 21, 2007

Posted by Sharny in : Life, Rants, Thoughts, World , add a comment

After seeing a little snippet of a program on TV I figured I should add a little more balance to my arguments relating to the whole Madeline issue. Really, I don’t think that the parents were directly responsible for what happened (although I still think it was irresponsible to leave her on her own even when they were close by) and most importantly the Portuguese police seem to have been pretty useless at responding to what happened.

Both the crime scene and the car that was also part of the investigation were not taken out of the influence of outside variables. In fact, without even doing a proper forensic analysis of the room she was taken from other people were staying in it. That’s pretty damn shocking really and as this TV program pointed out, making the mother a suspect takes the focus off their very shoddy policing and generally distracts people, a technique that is quite powerful and is in full flow with this “war on terror”.

As I said in my previous posts, my real objection to this situation is the injustice in the amount of attention that is paid to these people when much worse atrocities than one girl going missing happen all the time. Similarily I’m sick of seeing all these posters around the place begging people to report information or witnessing of this girl when realistically, no one is going to have any information, it didn’t even happen in this country for reason’s sake.

Unless something major happens, this will be my last post on this subject. The whole thing has just gone on too long and it’s a pretty narrow piece of subject matter.

Madeline’s mum now a suspect - ha! September 9, 2007

Posted by Sharny in : Rants, World , 1 comment so far

I was quite pleased when I heard this on the news, as I said in my previous post, I really don’t buy into all this feeling sorry for them bullshit. Those parents have been milking their daughters disappearance from day one and I’m not afraid to say that I’m sick of their crap.

Now I’m not saying that the parents did have anything to do with it (or that the mother accidentally killed her as they were trying to get her to admit for a reduced sentence) but if you were going to do that I think these two have gone the right way about it. What better way to drive suspicion away from yourself by making such an effort to find your daughter. Similarly, I don’t think it’s impossible that media crazed parents so desperate to find fame whatever way they can may organise the kidnapping of their own child (although I do think it’s pretty unlikely).

Either way, as I said before, I don’t think the chances of finding this girl are very high, generally people only reappear after having been gone this long when it hasn’t been publicised so much. I would imagine that she’ll turn up dead sometime and I would feel more sorry for the parents if they weren’t such media dairy farmers.

Some kind of confirmation of what I always thought August 25, 2007

Posted by Sharny in : Politics, World , add a comment

I’ve always argued that one of the best ways for a government to control their people is through fear. It seems to be a very tried and tested method for rallying the people against something, whether its Hitler’s Germany joining against those “evil” Jews or the US and the so-called “war on terror”.

A recent study may shed some light on why it works so well and particularly confirms what I always feared. The link has more detail on the study but it essentially pac-man rigged up to a shock machine and presumably they study brain waves etc. It would appear that the closer and more imminent the danger is then the less free will you have, from the article: “The closer a threat gets the more impulsive your response will be,” he said. “In effect, the less free will you will have.”

That is quite a dangerous thought really, perhaps it goes to explain why the 45 minute WMDs threat from Iraq was such an effective way of luring us into war and of course why everyone is so irrationally afraid of terrorists and all these imminent attacks. I think this has proved to be a very effective way for governments (particularly George Bush) to get support for doing small and quite useless things whilst ignoring actual big issues.

It seems that now America is catching up with their free thought, as Bush’s approval rating seems to have plummeted people are finally catching up with how useless he really is. Still, it doesn’t stop Fox from trying, I suppose if they can convince everyone to be afraid of the horrifically imminent attack from Iran’s then Bush may just be able to win back some zombies.

All this leaves me wondering, what’s to stop all the other countries of the world being afraid of imminent attack from Bush’s weapons of mass destruction?

Christian aid week - seems kinda ironic May 17, 2007

Posted by Sharny in : Rants, Religion, World , 2 comments

Before I start, yes, ok, Christian aid is a UK charity but I think what I’m about to say is about a general problem.

This week is Christian aid week. I know because I saw a sign outside one of my local churches, they tend to have varying signs telling me to read the bible or whatever and they are usually pretty cheesy. When I saw this one I couldn’t help thinking about the irony of Christian aid, surely without taking from poor people over hundreds of years these churches would never have come into being. Surely these grand buildings are no more than a tribute to hundreds of years of theft not to mention all the other crap that Christianity has been a part of.

Ok, so, maybe they have changed their ways (which I do believe is the case) and now they are trying to make up for the mistakes of the past by doing something really good, which is commendable and…well…Jesus would be proud I’m sure. But having just read this post on God is for suckers I really can’t help thinking that this is really just a really half arsed attempt.

“According to our estimates, annual giving to U.S. protestant churches is $93 billion.” (Source)

$93 billion. That is a lot of money full stop but that’s every single year. According to wikipedia “War on Want estimates that US$45.7 billion would be required for 62 countries to meet the Millennium Development Goals“. Mega church construction currently stands at $28 billion annually and that is set to rise by 2010 to $40 billion.

So if the US, instead of building mega churches for a couple of years perhaps you could spend that money on stopping poverty, making sure that everyone in the world has enough food to eat. Perhaps you could do some real good around the world, maybe you could even try and be a bit more like Jesus, instead of just slagging off gay people and picketing about abortion.

You might call me hypocritical because I’m not out there doing a load of charity work but lets face it I don’t have the means to gather $40 billion. The church does, not only does it have the means it is already in excess of that every year. Just think of the amount of good this money could do for people who really have nothing? Surely even if you don’t agree with my stand point on religion you can see that this money could do a great deal more if it was used to relieve debt and poverty.

I really doubt that anything this radical and good would ever happen but the next time someone talks about the amount of good Christianity has done I would challenge them to think of the amount of good Christianity could do but doesn’t.