Cruel is Cool

I popped out on my lunch break today to get a few bits and pieces and found myself in a well known newsagent and stationers that you tend to see on every high street. Whilst in there I witnessed further evidence that the world is just getting crueler.

First of all I was in the book section and I saw a chap walk up to the post office section which was all closed up with a big sign saying "Closed due to local holiday". He then walked up to a member of staff and without further ado got right to the heart of the matter by asking the question that was on everyone's lips. "Is the post office closed?"

The staff member courteously explained that it was closed today as it is a Scottish holiday. The gent asking the question had a slight East Coast accent and requested further clarifcation.

"It's a Scottish bank holiday?!"

"No Sir" replied the staff member, "It's a local holiday in the West of Scotland."

"Well.." said Mr East Coast, "it's not a Scottish holiday I can assure you of that!"

At this point in proceedings I was beginning to wonder what he hoped would be the outcome of this discourse. Did he think the staff member would turn round and say "Oh really? Not a Scottish holiday you say? Well in that case I'll call the staff in and open that post office right up for you, please take a seat, they only live upstairs." No, I got the impression that the guy asked the question of the member of staff already knowing the answer with the express intention of starting an argument that neither side would win. In fact, I got the impression he was complaining for the sake of complaining in that passive aggressive "I'm only having a laugh with you buddy" way that says "I have nothing else going on in my life."

By this point I had directed my attention back to the books and whilst perusing them heard someone on the other side of the bookcase say to a member of staff (the same one as before I suspect) "I hate to tell you this but this is much more expensive than Waterstones". Really? Do you? Do you hate to tell him that? Then why tell him, what do you think he will do with that information, is he going to offer you a price match? Perhaps he'll pop out to Waterstones which is only a few doors down and buy it for you. Or maybe, just maybe, armed with this information you could take yourself off to Waterstones and buy the fricking book there and we can all get on with our lives. Personally speaking I was perfectly happy to pay what I paid for my books, I would say it was pretty good value for money. Maybe I could have got the books cheaper in Waterstones, who knows, but all in all I was happy with my purchase.

At this point in my story I am looking up and feeling that I too have been sucked into the cruelty culture. Although I tend not to indulge in the popular reality TV genre that I believe has been wholly responsible for the corruption of society, it is possible that some of it has leaked into my psyche via osmosis. I wont watch anything with Simon Cowell in it as I believe him to be one step down from Satan but his "honest criticism" and cruelty as entertainment style of TV has not escaped my attention completely. I know who he is and what he does for example, so even though I chose not to partake, I cannot escape completely. So now I think I may have been a little harsh on the poor punters in my tale. However that does not excuse the fact that they were unnecessarily mean and rude to the member of staff for doing nothing other than being in work on a day when everyone else was on holiday.

By now I am feeling a kinship with the staff, I've worked in the service industry and I, after all, am also in work when everyone else is not. So I take myself up to the till with my purchases. Now, for the second time in 2 weeks I have opted to go into a shop and purchase a DVD rather than buy online. I normally buy these things online and since places like Woolworth and HMV and all of the places you would normally go are gone or going I have had little option. But last week I was able to go into shop and find a movie that I was struggling to find elsewhere and it was a lovely old-school experience where I took my empty box up to the counter and a fellow went through the back and brought out the discs and the booklet and inserted it into the box and I completed my transaction. I felt like I was giving the high street a shot in the arm instead of the kick in the teeth I have been giving it in recent years. It will still die ultimately but I threw a few coins into the fund for it's long-term care and felt good about it.

So here we are today and I am looking forward to repeating this process as I stand in the queue with my empty DVD box. Then I am called forward by a sweet little lady who welcomes me with a smile and starts passing my chosen items through the scanner. Then she find the DVD in her hand and the whole world seemed to spin on it's axes. It was like that bit in The Hunt for Red October where the camera stops, slowly spins round and suddenly Sean Connery is speaking in English instead of Russian. This sweet lady turns to me and says "I'll need to go through the back and get your DVDs, I'll be as quick as I can but you'll need to wait there". No I realise when reading this it doesn't sound too harsh but there was a tone. A tone that said "Have you seen the length of this queue, do you realise its because of people like you that they have to wait? Are you seriously expecting me to go through the back and get this DVD for you?" I wasn't sure if she expected me to say "Don't worry about it, I'll just leave it." Perhaps if I had been one of the grumpy complainer that's exactly what I would do. "WHAT?!?! WAIT?!?! Do you realise if I was in Edinburgh I would able to buy stamps right now!! Keep your DVD, this is an outrage!!"

Anyway, the  bitch took a bloody age to get it and I only get half an hour for my lunch. I won't be back and this time next year she'll be unemployed. Good riddance!

September 11th : The Day the World Got Scarier

12 years ago today I was on days off from work and was at home alone. I slept late, walked down to the shop and bought some stuff for brunch, came back to my skanky flat, cooked up a full Scottish breakfast, turned on News24 and watched in confusion as the whole world changed right in front of me. I spent the rest of my week off watching the Twin Towers collapse over and over again in slow motion from various angles, saw the planes hit again and again and again and listened to confused commentators and witnesses speculate and try and make sense of it all. When it was time for me to return for my first shift back in the high glass tower I called work, I walked towards it afraid to look at the sky in case a plane flew into it too as this was the only image I had seen for the last few days. No-one expected the Towers to fall down so who knew what might be next. Probably not a hotel in Glasgow and I knew that but I couldn't get the image out of my head. Still can't 12 years later.

Now I work for a company who have been involved in rebuilding the World Trade Center site and my part in it is miniscule but at least it's something and I can take a small amount of pride in that. So for today I shall be thinking about the 3,000 people who died that day and the many heroes who defied logic and ran towards the buildings when everyone else was running away.

If it interests you at all to see what work has been done on the site since then there is a link below with some interesting documentary stuff at the bottom.

One World Trade Center

Bad Muslims, Nasty Muslims.

I haven't written much recently and it's not because I haven't had anything to complain about. I just haven't felt compelled to sit down and share my infinite wisdom with the world (wide web).

But as Peter Parker's Uncle Ben once said (not to be confused with the rice guy) "With great power comes great responsibility". So if one is blessed with a mind like mine one feels a responsibility to use it to solve all of the world's great problems. You're welcome.

And so to the point. There has been a great deal of talk of late, in the UK in particular, about Islam. It has come on the back of the horrific killing of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich on May 22 and while healthy discussion and debate is a good thing, the rhetoric that has been banded about has been far from good. If you are a reader of the Daily Mail you will know what I mean but unfortunately if you are a reader of the Daily Mail it may already be too late for you!

I haven't been completely silent however, I posted the following on my Facebook at the time:

"It never ceases to amaze me how hatred and violence just leads to further hatred and violence. The race that has been responsible for the most terrorism, aggression and evil on this planet is mankind and if you're looking for someone to blame, blame them.

Religion is a convenient mask that is used to somehow justify some of the terrible, horrible acts that mankind is guilty of but it's not the only one. In the last few days I've seen the events in Woolwich used to justify some pretty dark and hateful views by otherwise sane and rational friends. I've seen "send them home", "bring back the death penalty" "ban Islam and convert them to Christianity" and various other extremist views disguised as patriotism and debate.

The EDL, whos slogan is "an inclusive movement dedicated to peacefully protesting against Islamic extremism" used Woolwich as an excuse to throw rocks at Mosques and policemen, the KKK use Jesus as an excuse to tie black people to the back of trucks and who the hell knows why a white man stabbed a 75 year old Muslim in the back 2 weeks ago in Birmingham!?

It's OK to be scared and its OK to be angry but if we give up our morality and our values in the face of terrorism then we've already lost.

One of the men who claimed to have murdered Lee Rigby in the name of Islam quoted the bible as he did so, this was not the actions of a Muslim, it was the actions of a mad man. Don't let his madness spread to the rest of us.

We are better than them because we accept more than one idea, more than one way of life, more than one point of view. We respect other cultures even if we don't understand them and we welcome them to join ours and as long as we keep doing that the terrorists will NEVER win."

 Of course the advantage of posting this on Facebook is that I know that people will see it and indeed there were many comments, likes and a few shares at the time. Some of the comments were supportive and helpful, others were not. The problem though is that I have absolutely no idea who, if anyone, ever reads this blog. It doesn't really matter as it's just a place for me to get things off my chest but in the case of the above I wanted to say something and wanted it to be heard.

Since writing this things haven't really moved on. We are still seeing mosques and innocent Muslims being attacked and although the family of Drummer Lee Rigby have publicly called for calmer heads to prevail and asked that no retaliatory attacks are carried out in his name, they continue nonetheless. To be honest the point I made above is that the people carrying out the retaliatory attacks in his name are really only using it as an excuse for starting a fight. If it wasn't religion it would be football. If it wasn't football it would be whether you shop in Homebase or B&Q. The neanderthals with big foreheads and half a brain cell each will always find something to fight about.

But as the trial of the 2 accused loonies continues it is increasingly apparent from their erratic behavior in court that they are indeed insane and did not carry out this horrible murder in the name of Islam but simply because they are mad.

So if calmer heads are available please let them prevail and let us try and put the horror behind us and work towards a peaceful future. I don't believe in God but I have no quarrel with those who do, be it Jehovah, Allah, Lakshmi or Zeus. If religion is used as a set of values that help you to lead a moral life them by all means fill your boots. It should not be used to excuse violence or intolerance ever and to use it in this way is to completely misinterpret it.

But there is hope. Just take a look at this amazing story.

I'm sure the debate will rage on and hopefully in time the current bout of Islamaphobia will die down (for those of us who do not take our moral guidance from the Daily Mail) but in the meantime let's all agree on one thing. B&Q is better than Homebase (in my humble opinion).

So hungry I could eat a horse

"We don't eat horses in this country."




This is the argument I heard recently in a post online, expressing outrage at the recent revelations. It's a very common response from animal lovers and in particular horsey people (pictured above).
It's true though, I can't fault the argument, in this country we do not eat horses. Knowingly.
Unless you have been roving on Mars, locked in the big brother house or in a coma you can't have failed to see on the news that horse has made it's way into our food chain by somewhat nefarious means. At the time of writing it is not clear whether it has been by illegal activity or human error but in all honesty the scale of the problem suggests that it's been something dishonest and it looks to be widespread. I'm sure more meaty details will be splashed across the news in due course.




In the interest of full disclosure I should point out that I have, in the past, knowingly chosen horse off the menu and eaten and enjoyed it. I'm not a horse lover, although I don't dislike horses, I have no particular attachment to them. I love animals and find any kind of animal cruelty abhorrent but I don't have any issue with eating them. In fact the notion that its fine to eat sheep, cows, pigs and chickens but not horse leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I just don't understand the criteria that makes some animals ok to eat and not others. While discussing this point recently on a social networking site with a stranger I was met with the response that nothing so majestic should end up on the dinner plate. So it's majesty that's the ingredient so many find hard to swallow? Well to my mind deer is a pretty majestic creature but it seems to be fayre game!




I guess I'm not going to understand this point as I don't own a horse, nor have I ever ridden one or experienced their majesty first hand. I do understand the depth of feeling that people have and I understand why some people don't want to eat them. I am fine with that. I don't like artichokes either and would balk at being forced to eat them. I certainly have a problem with meat products being mislabeled and that is the real issue here. As the products are labeled as beef but are not in fact beef, this is a very serious problem and this must be dealt with. This is where the focus of outrage should be directed. For starters as the horse meat is coming from unknown sources and is not going through the proper checks it could be from anywhere. It might be a pet that was put down by a vet and could have chemicals in it which are unfit for human consumption. Equally it could contain bute, a painkiller used in horses that can cause serious blood disease in humans. These are issues that should not be ignored and it is for this reason that I find the whole situation to be of concern. If I was feeding these ready meals to my kids and thought for a second that they were in danger I would be in uproar. But this doesn't seem to be what the majority of people are getting angry about.




I will leave you with this food for thought. The primary concern amongst animal lovers would appear to be that horses are pets and beloved animals and should not be eaten. I would agree. If it is your pet you probably shouldn't eat it. But it's not my pet so why should that concern me?
The thing that crossed my mind is this: there is no money in breeding horses for food. They just are not efficient in terms of fattening them up with grain in the same way that other livestock is. So the horse that ends up on people's plate was not bred specifically for eating. Cows, sheep, chicken, pigs, all of these animals were bred for food. They probably didn't have the best life as they had one purpose and one purpose only, to be sold for meat. Horses on the other hand are beloved pets, or work animals, they might run around in fields being ridden or perhaps they are thoroughbred race horses or police horses. Whatever life they were going to have they had it. Then at the end of their life when it is their time to go they are then used as food. Who would you say had the better life? The cow or the horse? Just saying.
Anyway, I'll trot along now and leave you to chew that over.
-- Post From My iPhone

Cyclic Salutations

Person 1: Hi there, how are you?
Person 2: I'm good thanks, how are you?
Person 1: Yeah, I'm good, how are you?
Does this annoy anyone else as much as it annoys me?