Abandon All Fear

It’s been hard not to notice the rise in reports of knife attacks and crime in the wonderful city of Londonland (beacon to the nations, example to every other country of how to do it right).

And with the rise in reports of knife crime follows the inevitable families of the victims appearing on GMTV calling for hangings for people caught carrying a knife.

Then we have the ultra paranoid and inept government who watch GMTV and read The Sun, introducing said hanging laws and amnesties which are shown to not be working.

And whilst many are asking why our teenagers are carrying knives, no-one seems to be hitting on the answer to this question… which is why we get pathetic campaigns like the latest one released by the Met which links to a partner site - it’s not a game.

Instead, victims, media, the Met and high Government should perhaps read some of the information from one of their own websites which offers a much more balanced and rational researched answer.

To me it’s plainly obvious, but perhaps only because I can remember being a teenager, they aren’t carrying knives to look good and they aren’t carrying knives as part of some sort of game. I know this is going to shock you but…

Most teenagers are carrying knives, along with wear hoodies up and joining gangs, because of fear.

If you’re a gang-banger, or a particularly vulnerable teen, fear of being attacked is going to be a big motivator to carrying a knife. Being armed gives you a sense of false security in that you will have a fighting chance if you are up against an attacker. Along with the faux protection offered by a gang also comes respect and acceptance.

That’s why the amnesties aren’t working. The only people who hand in weapons to amnesties are those who trust the police to protect them, or those who genuinely don’t fear the consequences of not carrying one. Tougher sentences don’t work either. Faced with 4 years or more in jail and losing your life completely (to an armed attacker) doesn’t take much math to work out which seems like a better gamble.

So, like most bloggers, I don’t have a solution but I know one thing, if the government wants to tackle knife crime and gang culture, they should focus on reducing the climate of fear and engaging young people. Not in a false way like the ridiculous “It’s not about looks” campaign, but engage them on the streets, engage them personally.

Charity organisations and the church do much better in this respect, and maybe it’s not a job for the government at all, but the least they could do is stop introducing reactionary legislation and demonising groups of people.

Looks like another fool got into a legal letter flame war with The Pirate Bay… and lost… spectacularly.

I’ve never heard of Indiana Gregg, but I sure as hell won’t be buying or downloading any music after reading her and her representatives ridiculous and embarrassing name-dropping bombing in their email.

“Having sat on cross parliamentary committees, resolved to regenerating music and culture in my country, i’m afraid you may just have picked the wrong person to cross swords with on this occasion.” Ian Morrow (courtesy of TPB)

Very stupid. Here’s the list of emails of the elites that Ian invokes to show how powerful and connected he is:

Ian Morrow <ian@gr8pop.net>
Alex.Salmond.msp@scottish.parliament.uk
Pauline McNeill <pauline.mcneill.msp@scottish.parliament.uk>
Barbara Orbison <BOrbison@orbison.com>
eugene.duffy@mirror.co.uk
Kenny.MacAskill.msp@scottish.parliament.uk
john dingwall <j.dingwall@dailyrecord.co.uk>
Jack.Mcconnell.msp@scottish.parliament.uk
Margo.MacDonald.msp@scottish.parliament.uk
Duncan McCrone <duncan.mccrone@mcps.co.uk>
Mick Blacklock <mick.blacklock@ppluk.com>
Robbie Miller <robbie.miller@jacobsonmiller.com>
alan.boyd@bbc.co.uk
phil <phil@gr8pop.net>
graham@gr8pop.net
Andy Harrower <andy.harrower@mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk>
Mark Taylor <mark.taylor@mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk>
Stanley Banks <stanley@wardlawbanks.com>
Paul Bedford <Paul.Bedford@ingeniousmedia.co.uk>
Veronica Tyrrell <Veronica.Tyrrell@scotent.co.uk>
George Falconer <george.falconer@scotent.co.uk>
Connie Howard <CHowardMus@aol.com>
thom hardwell <thomsongs1@yahoo.com>
jimdaddario@hotmail.com
Magnus Martinsson <martinsson@playgroundmusic.com>
<torgny@playgroundmusic.com>
David Philpott <davidphilpott@philpottreed.co.uk>
Christian Ulf Hansen <christian.ulf@virgin.net>
douglasmcfarlane@btinternet.com

Normally I’ll just read the legal threats, laugh and forget about it but this one is the most asinine and presumptious yet. Just for curiousity, I’ll be watching out for copywrong discussion by the Scottish Parliament and press articles from The Mirror, The Daily Record and The BBC on copywrong.

It will be interesting to see how much influence the small label, bankrupt millionaire, Indiana Gregg has over these groups, if any. I’m aslo interested in seeing if the Scottish Parliament works for the people or the corporates.

HT: Torrentfreak

Oh and BTW: Ian, copyright kills culture, it kills creativity. Would we have heard of Shakespeare if media companies had existed in the 17th Century to make sure that none of his plays were reproduced?

How much exposure has Indiana Gregg actually had as a result of sharing of her music between friends? (a: probably not much TPB can do for her - click on the link for irony-goodness)

As far as anyone who has an ounce of intellect is concerned, Bittorrent is the new radio. But then is that really free?

It wasn’t video that killed the radio star, it was his own record label.

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The BBC News has a gushing article and interview with Bill Gates on their site:

When these criticisms are put to Mr Gates, he says he finds it “ironic” that he could be accused of such a thing when Microsoft had “evangelised” its software to other companies, begging them “please write software for our platform”. - The Secret of Bill Gates Success

Is that why their new Silverlight (competitor to Adobe Flash) software won’t work on Linux?

I only ask because for some reason ITV has done a deal to make their programs available via streaming off their website using Micro$ofts Silverlight platform. Which means I can’t watch the latest episodes of Headcases online.

Channel 4 also has similar restrictions, due to their 4OD service only being available for M$ Windows OS’es. This is apparently due to their program makers insistence on using DRM. But why then show 1 minute clips of TV programs interspersed with 2 minute long advertisements between each clip? What really pisses me off about Channel 4 is their lying free-beer tagline “Free Catch-Up”. It’s not free, it’s DRM’d, so why call it free? Why not simply say “M$ Users Catch-Up” or “Programs Made Available for Download with DRM”.

Oh well I guess it’s back to Bittorrent for enjoying content that is supposed to be freely available for all to watch. Well done to ITV and Channel 4 for passively promoting piracy!

Hats off to BBC at least for making their i-Player stream on Linux. Or is it just hats off to government for pwning the BBC and forcing them to make it available for taxpayers?

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I find myself lacking time to post, and even more time to keep the sidebar updated, so here goes…

If you link here, or intend to, or I comment from time to time on your blog and I haven’t included you in the blogroll then leave a comment and I’ll update it.

Promise.

I suspect that when anti-theists (particularly those who have left religion) list guilt, shame and fear as reasons not to believe in God, they are really referring to self-doubt, confusion and uncertainty that everyone experiences either during their teens, during difficult times or at other times during their lives - especially when they begin to look inside themselves and question their own set of pre-held beliefs, prejudices and bias*.

Taking an example from Steve Pavlina (see my previous post). He asks people to abandon guilt and fear and move towards an ambiguous spirituality of your own. Let’s apply this message to a pedophile Priest (also mentioned in his rant). I would imagine and hope that a pedophile Priest (or indeed anyone, believer or not) would be feeling guilt whilst appearing on the exterior to be a person of righteousness. I would hope they are feeling tremendous guilt.

Guilt is the only way that God can work, through the Holy Spirit to bring an end to the perversion. Of course God could act through others, even the authorities - but how would someone defend their vigilantism, or bring a conviction based on the evidence “God told me he was a pedophile”? What happens when the authorities are implicit in covering up the act? Then perhaps God could stop the man and those involved himself, but this is not usually how God chooses to intervene in human affairs - for many good reasons - but that is another subject that has already been addressed many times elsewhere.

What of shame? Shame is usually the result of having your dark secrets exposed to the limelight. Suppose a thief is caught after breaking into the house of an old woman, beating her and stealing her savings. Should he not feel some shame along with accepting his punishment? What about an act which is not classed as a crime? Should a married who is caught having an affair at the office not feel some shame for his disregard towards his wife and children? Shame is a part of remorse and regret. It’s necessary to make the first steps of reconciliation towards the person or persons you have hurt. How else would we have gotten the phrase “Have you no shame?!”

Fear of God is something that is widely misunderstood. Once again, it is not some sort of control mechanism that the church uses to maintain the allegiance of it’s subjects. Consider the criminal in my example above. He has been caught and sent to jail, but this does not necessarily mean he agrees with the justice system, or that he even thinks he has done anything wrong. Suppose there is a fault in the prosecutions case and he gets away scot free, or his sentence is particularly lenient and it is not felt by the public to be long enough. He walks out of the court/jail and raises his hands, smiling in celebration and defiance. The national newspapers have a field day! There would be calls for criminal reform, columnists climbing over each other to condemn the thief, the judge, the justice system and bemoan the tragedy of it all. Why?

The thief, you see, is not just lacking in shame, he’s lacking in fear.

If a person truly believed in God, believed that he could be angered by injustice and believed that there was such a thing as a Lord of the Earth who will come to judge the quick and the dead. That there is such a thing as Hell (which is simply a place God is not). Would they commit crimes such as the one I speak of above? Would they celebrate being let off by human courts in the full knowledge they had gotten away with an evil act, in the knowledge that there was a heavenly court to come, with a judge who sees all and knows all?

Consider the dictators throughout history and the dictators who are alive now- the leaders of Zimbabwe, the Chinese Government, The Burmese Government and so on. It is irrelevant whether they atheists or not. These people have no fear of humans - no-one is rising up and no-one is attacking them - and obviously they have no fear of God. They are the highest authority of their country, they know this and in some cases they consider themselves to be equal to God**.

If you do not personally believe in God, then it is useless to blame God or religion for their atrocities since they are the highest authority and therefore the non-existent God is not responsible, you may as well blame a pink unicorn or teapot or something. However, if you do believe in God, then you should have a hope that one day there will be a reckoning, and that people like the Chinese troops in this video below, will, in fact, one day come face to face with the Alpha and Omega, ready to settle the score.

When I see things like this, I have to believe there is an angry God watching:

A fear of God is healthy - not for you, rather, for those around you and for those who you lead or serve. Incidentally this is also why we are told to let God have vengeance, rather than take it into our own hands (yes that means the idiots who kill abortion doctors will also face the wrath of God someday too).

We are also told that God is patiently waiting for all to repent and when they do they can put fear to rest, but this is again, a subject for another day.

*NB: I’m not referring to people have been physically or psychologically abused.
** Incidentally this ties in well with original sin and the curse of death. Natural death is a necessary tool in assuring that no human being, no matter how evil, lives forever and escapes injustice. It also benefits those ruled by evil dictators. If no-one does rise up or challenge them, at least we can take comfort in the fact they will eventually grow old and die. No-one can escape natural death (except, perhaps, the very few righteous friends of God)

Sorry for the lack of theory or substance to this post, but I’m in the middle of a huge file system recovery at the moment.

I’ve noticed a slight anti-Obama / pro-Hillary slant over the last few months on BBC coverage. I was slightly suspicious but decided it was without merit. That is until tonight, on the first evening of Barack Obama as the confirmed Democratic nominee, in the background I’m listening to a Republican analyst and BBC correspondent on BBC World News discussing Obama in quite a negative light. Even now, the BBC frame his fight for the Presidency as needing the “older white woman” (their words, not mine). From BBC Online;

“He needs her to help heal the wounds of the Democratic Party and therefore his sworn enemy to become his most ardent campaign general.”

- Obama Has A Mountain To Climb

Really? He really needs her? Campaign General? I can’t fathom why the pro-Hillary slant (and it is a very slight slant, easy to overlook). Could it be something to do with their global operations? Does someone high up at the BBC have ties to Hillary?

I don’t know but if I find enough time to look a bit further, I’ll post results.

Oh, and congratulations to Mr Obama, surely the next President of the United States! (short of a meteor strike, or crazed Hillary supporter).

If this is true, then the world is about to witness a defining moment in history, and I can’t wait!

“If elected president, Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama said one of the first things he wants to do is ensure the constitutionality of all the laws and executive orders passed while Republican President George W. Bush has been in office.” - Deborah Charles, Routers Blog

We may never see Bush in the Hague, but let’s hope that he is exposed for the propaganda, profiteering, puppetry and the general disregard for humanity that his administration represents.

We can only hope that some of this will spill over and finally stick on Tony ‘Teflon’ Blair.

“I’m now going to give you 10 reasons why getting an education is good, but going to school is one of the worst ways to go about it. Since Media Studies seems to be the most popular course for undergraduates these days, I’ll slant this article towards Media Studies and it’s ubiquitous failings. However, you’ll find that most of these points apply equally well to other educational courses (yes, even Management Science).”

This is how Steve Pavlina’s desultory article, 10 Reasons You Should Never Have Religion, would have started if he had been writing about education. It gets worse from there on. Setting up a field of straw men, Steve proceeds to hack away at his own ideological perception of Christianity whilst nebulously applying it to all religions, even Buddhism.

I’m not even going to attempt a debunk since there is no consistent rhyme or reason, just a bunch of ill-conceived arguments and logical fallacies coated with outright and simple prejudice.

Instead, I found a hilarious and unintended irony near the bottom of his piece. Under point 10, Faith is fear, he quotes and ad-libs the beatitudes:

Blessed are the poor (donate heavily).

Let’s ignore the fact that he didn’t even bother to reference where this quote is from (does he even know?), and also the implicit alternative to this statement, Blessed are the rich.

What caught my attention was the appended line at the bottom of the article in bold, which appears to be appended in some form to all of his articles:

If you find this site helpful, please leave a donation for Steve so you can enjoy the spirit of giving too.

Awesome! So where did Steve inherit this “spirit of giving” anyhow? Seriously, was this an article on religion or was it simply a pitch for people who are religiously minded, or considering religion, to join the religion of Steve Pavlova?

If religion, and specifically Christianity, asks people to donate and join in the spirit of giving then it’s fake and greedy, if Steve Pavlova asks you to donate, then it’s simply because he’s spiritual and truly believes in the spirit of giving!

So blessed are the rich, blessed is Steve Pavlova.

Here’s a current list of TV shows (videos) I’m watching. Just some blatant fanboyism. Are you watching these? Discuss…

Lost

Heroes

Prison Break

Smallville

Dexter

Supernatural

The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Pushing Daisies

I’ve made my views on abortion clear on this blog before. I suppose I’m pro-life leaning but not solidly. One thing I have always advocated is the concept of full-term abortion. You may as well wait until the thing is born, then decide if you want to go ahead with termination. What is 12 weeks after all?

What I’d like to know is, how many of those celebrating the decision to stay at 24 weeks and the womans right to choose, bemoan the decline of intellectualism or the rise of immigration? Intellectualism and Immigration are two separate issues and I’m not trying to draw any association, but I do see two effects on the future of the UK as a result of this decision:

• Immigration will rise, and with it particularly children of Asian and Eastern European origins. the White and Black British people will become the minority. The reason for this is the first and second generation of these people groups generally have large families and strong community ties. Whether or not this is down to religious belief, they generally don’t do abortions.
  Furthermore, we will need these immigrants to replace the aging British population which is not replenishing. If an anti-immigration government takes hold, then forget the current “credit crunch”, Britain will be destined for a permanent economic collapse.
• Intellectualism will also be in decline (unless it can be bolstered by intelligent immigrants). It tends to be the upper-middle classes who use abortion as a contraception. The working class, however show no signs of curtailing their breeding patterns. In fact many girls look forward to the day they get to leave school and have a baby. Whether they want a baby or not, many aren’t even using condoms. I don’t hear of many teenage boys turning away the chance of a quick shag because they don’t have a rubber or consider the consequences of their actions.

Now, just as I’ve outlined my views on abortion, if you read back through my blog you will see I’m strongly pro-immigration. I’m actually pro-emigration too, I can’t wait to leave this damned country, but these are the facts of the matter. Of course, I have nothing of substance to back this up, however all anyone can do is look at history and look at trends.

For what it’s worth I really think what the should do is replace with or append to the abortion procedure sterilisation. If we are going to treat people like animals (ie. that sex is an impulse that is natural and shouldn’t be denied) then we should really look at offering the option of sterilisation and castration.

That’s right, visit secondary schools and interview 13 year olds and offer them a choice. Do you want to have unprotected sex anytime you want, or are you considering keeping yourself and raising a family. Since we’ve already successfully taught sex education by this stage, I see no reason why they would not be able to make a competent and informed decision.

Disclosure 1: I am a Christian, however I was at one stage, as a Christian, pro-abortion. What changed my mind was the testimonies, images and videos I have seen of babies surviving before 24 weeks, as well as babies embryos the same age being chopped up and pulled out of the womb in pieces. I’m in favour of women having the right to abortion, but severely curtailed to ~6 weeks, maybe less.

Disclosure 2: With regards to the health of the mother, or in cases of rape, I don’t really have an opinion. Suffice to say I think a woman choosing to go through with pregnancy in these cases is brave and sacrificial, worthy of honour.

I suggest anyone really wanting to get a view from the side of the fetus visit Abort73.com. Whilst it’s owned by a Christian ministry, the site itself is professional and does not contain any overt religious references. In fact much of the information presented can be easily presented from a secular viewpoint. From their ‘about’ page:

Loxafamosity Ministries, Inc. (LMI), the organization behind Abort73.com, believes that “secular” arguments are invaluable and even sufficient to demonstrate that abortion is an injustice of historic proportions, one which systematically destroys the most innocent and helpless members of the human race. You needn’t believe in God to oppose abortion. Anyone who cares about human rights, and understands that the right not to be killed outweighs the right not to be pregnant, cannot support abortion.