Pompous git calls for a revision to the patent laws of the UK so he and other pompous gits can cash in on the future – Is this a wind-up?

Trevor Baylis, the “inventor” of the wind-up radio is calling for tougher patenting laws. He says:

“If you steal someone’s car you will go to jail but you can steal someone’s idea with impunity.”

How hypocritical can one be?

Mr Baylis is not an inventor; an innovator maybe but he did not invent the torch, dynamo or the radio; he just mangled them all together, encased them in a nice looking plastic moulded shell and attached a handle. He has made a bundle out of doing it too. If he’d have kept his mouth shut I would have admired him for what he is. Now I’m just left with a bad taste in my own mouth and the feeling that he is just another litigious pompous old git cashing in.

This sad story seems to be a mixture of “dumbing down” (because the definition of “inventor” is clearly being misused) and an otherwise great mind having gone astray.

See:
“Inventor of wind-up radio calls for tougher patent laws” (Telegraph 02.09.09)

Filed under: News, Inventor, Trevor Baylis, Wind-up

Phillip Garrido gives rambling interview to say that “A powerful and remarkable story will be told”

Have you figured it out yet? How could Phillip Garrido have explained the conception of two children to his wife without taking any of the blame for it and how will he be explaining their births to the world? Remember, it’s likely that his wife is suffering from the same religious-mania that obviously ails him.

The media are speculating that he wanted to be caught so that he can claim a conversion from “the dark side” but even this is so, I somehow doubt he’ll ever be given his freedom again.

I think there is a small chance that he may play his cards differently. Judging by what he is saying on his blog site I think it’s possible that he suckered his wife into believing that the two births were “immaculate”. If so, might he be planning to re-use this story for judge and jury?

As I typed that last sentence a news flash came on claiming that Mr. Garrido will plead “not guilty”. I could be on completely the wrong track (I often am) but I think the chances of a “virgin birth” claim just went up.

Filed under: News, Religion, Jaycee Lee Dugard, Phillip Garrido

The Creator has given me the ability to speak in the tongue of angels in order to provide a wake-up call that will in time include the salvation of the entire world

Eighteen years after her abduction, the big news story today is the the finding of Jaycee Lee Dugard who was kidnapped in 1991 when she was 11 years old and who has been living ever since in the secluded back yard of a residential area on the outskirts of Sacramento, USA. Details of the story were just emerging as I was getting ready to retire to bed last night.

Commenting on the World Trade Centre attacks of 2001 Lorenzo Albacete said:

“From the first moment I looked into that horror on September 11th, into that fireball, into that explosion of horror, I knew it, I recognized an old companion. I recognized religion.”

As I lay down to go to sleep after watching the beginnings of the Jaycee Lee Dugard story I had a similar thought. I recognised religion.

Sure enough, this morning’s TV news reported that one of her abductors and probable father of her two children, Phillip Garrido, was questioned by police at the Berkeley University campus after having inquired about the procedure for handing out religious leaflets. The Telegraph website also reports that Mr. Garrido ran a blog called “Voices Revealed” and a quick Google search revealed the religious “method” behind his madness.

The author of the blog talks about “government mind control” and has links to another web address, godsdesire.net, which presently points to a web-host’s holding page. The blog seems to be the rantings of a madman and in the last post on the 14th of August the author writes:

“The Creator has given me the ability to speak in the tongue of angels in order to provide a wake-up call that will in time include the salvation of the entire world.”

It’s “early days” and I’m sure much more will come out.

See:
“Jaycee Lee Dugard: kidnapped woman found alive 18 years after abduction” (Telegraph 28.08.09)
“Voices Revealed Blogspot”

Filed under: News, Religion, Jaycee Lee Dugard, Phillip Garrido

Loch Ness Monster myth gets new lease of life from Google Earth

A story in the Telegraph newspaper today asks whether the folks at Google Earth have inadvertently captured a picture of the Loch Ness Monster (the coordinates given are Latitude 57°12’52.13″N, Longitude 4°34’14.16″W). Mr. Jason Cooke of Nottingham spotted “Nessie” using the mapping tool and is quoted as having said :

“I couldn’t believe it. It’s just like the descriptions of Nessie.”

Below are two blown-up pictures of what can be found at the coordinates given. The first in a normal blow-up and the second has been filtered to show up the edges.

Assuming this is in fact an object, the Google Earth ruler shows it to be about 21 meters long which does fall within the boundaries of sensible measurement for your average sea monster. If this measurement was for example a mile, then it would have to be dismissed.

The picture does appear to show something of the same shape reported by witnesses who claim to have seen the monster. It seems to have a long neck, massive body and four limbs, two at the front and two at the back. It certainly fits with the well known “Surgeon’s Photograph” of Nessie, supposedly taken by Colonel Robert Wilson, a respectable Harley Street gynaecologist who claimed to have seen “something in the water” on April 19th 1934.

This story also appears in the Mail Online along with the “Surgeon’s Photo”, which is described as:

“‘Surgeon’s photograph’: A highly respected British surgeon, Colonel Robert Wilson, claimed he took this picture, which appeared to show a sea serpent rising out of the Loch, in 1934”

The "Surgeon's Picture" of the Loch Ness Monster taken in 1934

In a death-bed confession however it was admitted that the “Monster” in the “Surgeon’s Photograph” was a toy submarine fitted with a head and neck made from plastic wood. The Mail says nothing about the photo having been faked however thus helping to perpetuate the myth.

As for the “Google Earth Nessie”, without corroborating evidence we can not jump to any conclusions. The object could be the wake of a small craft that just happens to have created a Nessie shape as the Google Earth cameras were snapping away.

See:
“Is the Loch Ness monster on Google Earth?” (Telegraph 26.08.09)
“The Surgeon’s Hoax”
“Picked out by a Google Earth satellite, is this the Loch Ness monster… or just a boat?” (Mail Online 26.08.09)

Filed under: News, Daily Mail, Google Earth, Loch Ness Monster. Nessie, Telegraph

Imam issues predictable and inevitable warning to author Sebastian Faulkes: “Don’t criticise Islam or else…”

Sebastian Faulks: Koran has ‘no ethics’

A few posts back I commented on a report of author Sebastian Faulkes and  the “elephant in the room” that he was brave enough to point out after reading the Koran in order to research a new character for one of his books (click here to read the original post). Faulkes gave a very forthright and honest opinion saying:

“It’s a depressing book. It really is. It’s just the rantings of a schizophrenic. It’s very one-dimensional…With the Koran there are no stories. And it has no ethical dimension like the New Testament, no new plan for life. It says ‘the Jews and the Christians were along the right tracks, but actually, they were wrong and I’m right, and if you don’t believe me, tough — you’ll burn for ever’.”

Today we learn that a respected Muslim has issued what could be called a veiled warning and after all, how could anyone be surprised. Ajmal Masroor, an imam and spokesman for the Islamic Society of Britain said Faulks’ statements ran the risk of stirring religious hatred against Muslims. He said:

“Attacks on Islam are nothing new, but the danger is this will have a ‘drip, drip’ effect… People don’t seem to understand the consequences of saying things like this could be quite severe. History tells us it can encourage hatred.”

Firstly, both what Mr. Masroor says and the fact that he was asked for his opinion and quoted in the first place is pathetic. There are plenty of smarter and younger Muslims to ask who have a better understanding of what it is to live peacefully in the West. Why wasn’t Maajid Nawaz or anyone else at the Quilliam Foundation asked for their opinion? Why were none of the members of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain asked. Are cultural Muslims who happen to have left the actual faith of Islam unworthy of an opinion?

Sebastian Faulkes is an author who has the right, just like we all do, to give an honest opinion about a literary piece of work. To accuse him of “stirring religious hatred” simply because he gave his opinion is unfair.

Secondly, Ajmal Masroor is being foolish when he says that “people don’t understand the consequences” because the consequences are plainly there for all to see. We do understand is that any criticism of Islam or the Koran is liable to be met with violent thoughts, words and deeds. This is not our problem. It is an Islamic problem and therefore it is up to Islam to get its own house in order.

We have learned from history that what “encourages hatred” more than anything else is a dogmatic adherence to a hateful belief system. Islam hates freethinkers, atheists and homosexuals. It is a racist ideology that oppresses women and essentially looks down on all those who who disagree with its doctrine. Branches of it quite openly advocate killing these people who it sees as “enemies”.

We are very “respectful” of Islam already and most of the time we, who hold western values, keep our mouths shut even when criticism is warranted. Sebastian Faulkes is a mild-mannered and humble author who has had the temerity to criticise Islam. His view is based on his own values and Ajmal Masroor’s attempt to redefine his values as prejudices must not be allowed to succeed. When Mr. Masroor says that Foulkes’ words “encourage hatred” he is wrong. It is Mr. Masroor who is doing all the encouraging and the hatred is coming from within Islam rather than being directed towards it.

“Words are being used quite shamelessly to try and engineer an artificial sense of guilt in western society, to redefine our values as prejudices and to silence legitimate opinion and the free exchange of ideas that have made us what we are and that have given us our strength and that’s why this is damaging our society in a fundamental way and it has got to stop.”

“All over the western world we’ve become so intimidated into watching every word and thought in case it might offend somebody’s precious faith. It’s as if the free world has forgotten to inhale. What happened to our birthright? We need to take a deep breath. We need to get the oxygen of freedom flowing through our veins again and through our brains again and get things back in perspective.” (Pat Condell)

Nice try Ajmal, and who could blame you for trying? You are simply using the same tactics that most of Islam has used against its perceived “enemies” for countless generations; fear and intimidation. It just won’t wash. Even the apologist “new liberal left” is starting to realise the folly of giving in to people like you for the sake of appeasement. Our culture is founded upon freedom rather than submission and we will stand up to any twisted values that are based on blind faith alone. We will attempt to do this with the pen rather than the sword because reason is the most powerful weapon of all and however many senseless killings there are we have empirical evidence that the path of violence and fanaticism ultimately leads to failure.

Issuing warnings, threats and fatwas against authors for airing their opinions, amongst a majority who expect that of them, is a misguided way to deal with what is essentially in internal Islamic problem. The West has come a long way towards attempting to accommodate Islam. We are inclusive by nature. We are ready to accept people for what they are but we are not ready to compromise our hard-won freedom to do that.

See:
“Is it really “courting controversy” to say that there is an elephant in the room?” (TEWNC 24.08.09)
“Sebastian Faulks: Koran has ‘no ethics’” (The Times 23.08.09)
“Author Sebastian Faulks risks Muslim fury by describing the Koran as the ‘depressing rantings of a schizophrenic’” (Mail Online 24.08.09)
The Quilliam Foundation
“Apologists for Evil” (by Pat Condell – Video & Transcript)
Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain

Filed under: Appeasement for Islam, books, Homosexuality, Islam, News, Religion, The Koran, Ajmal Masroor, Maajid Nawaz, Quilliam Foundation, Sebastian, Sebastian Faulks

It’s not up to anyone else to make the BNP look stupid; they can do that perfectly well for themselves

I’m no fan of the BNP and my feelings about them parallel those of internet YouTuber Pat Condell:

“I believe the BNP has a racial agenda and is therefore a racist party so I would rather vote for nobody at all in fact I’d rather drive a garden fork through my own foot than vote for the BNP.”

Having grown up in Britain watching the National Front marching around and after seeing pretty much the same type of people morph into the more respectable-sounding British National Party, I don’t need to be constantly reminded that there are a few fascists in the woodwork. Nazis are Nazis and no matter what clothes or insignia they wear they are always easy to identify from their one-track agenda the general stink that surrounds them.

The BNP are bigoted people out there in the open for all to see, despise and ridicule and as long as they are permitted to remain in plain view then everyone can see them for what they really are. People are not stupid and don’t need to be continually reminded about the dangers. They don’t need government departments, quangos and self-righteous autonomous groups to be constantly keeping the BNP at bay in misguided attempts to provide  a “public service”.

I never thought I’d ever be writing an article or post defending the BNP but here it is. Let’s get it over with so that I can wash my hands of this keyboard all the sooner and rinse the sour taste out of my mouth.

I’m a libertarian and believe in the importance and power of free speech in any truly free society. My view echoes that well known saying:

“I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it?” (Attributed to Voltaire)

As I understand it, the BNP are a legal and legitimate political party. The British New Labour government (which happens to be in direct competition with the BNP) has already imposed what I consider to be unfair restrictions on its membership by forbidding police and members of the armed forces from joining. Members of these organisations and many others must at least declare openly their BNP interests.

Today we saw the Equality and Human Rights Commission commence a legal action against the BNP over “concerns about ethnic restrictions on its membership”. (The BNP restricts membership to those to whom it refers as “Indigenous Caucasians” and this, of course, is a crude euphemism for white people.)

Surely the Equality and Human Rights Commission exists to open doors for those people who find themselves discriminated against on the grounds of race. In this particular case however, it is not so much fighting for the rights of non-whites to join an elitist organisation; I mean really! How many non-white people or even white people actually want to join the BNP anyway? Are there hoards (if you’ll excuse the word) of non-whites queuing up to join the BNP. I don’t see the protest. It would be the equivalent of black African Americans having waited in line to join the Ku Klux Klan in the 1950s. It didn’t happen then and it is not happening now.

What is happening is that the Equality and Human Rights Commission is using tax-payers money, as so many various different quangos and government departments have done in the past, firstly to try and make an example of the BNP and secondly to give itself a few “brownie points” and a big pat on the back.

There are many organisations that restrict membership. I’d be laughed at if I sent in an application to join the Women’s Institute and any serving white police officer would be refused membership of the Black Police Officer’s Association. Both women’s and men’s golf clubs litter the rural greens of England. Using the argument against the BNP is just an excuse.

So I say leave the BNP alone. Leave them to practice their own partitive brand of foolishness so that all may see how stupid they are. In a free society having obnoxious groups such as the BNP is the price we must all pay for freedom. There is no other way save authoritarianism.

See:
“Legal action over BNP membership” (BBC News 24.08.09)

Filed under: News, Stupidity, Black Police Officers Association, BNP, British National Party, EHRC, Equality and Human Rights Commission, Women's Institute

And God said “Let there be light (but only if you’re using energy-saving bulbs)”

Last one to leave the country please remember to turn off the light

As a libertarian I find it mind-bogglingly astounding that we should have reached a point in “democratic” history when we are so conditioned that we think nothing of letting our own government poke its nose into those places where it so obviously doesn’t belong.

From September 1st 2009 it will be illegal for British retailers to sell conventional light bulbs.

If that isn’t hard enough to believe then how about this…

“The public have been asked to ‘snoop’ on shopkeepers who continue to sell traditional light bulbs banned by Europe.” (Telegraph newspaper)

Nigel Farrage, the leader of UKIP, said the public should not be encouraged to snoop. He said:

“Under this Government we begin to resemble East Germany in the 1980s where we snoop and report on local businesses,” he said. “No doubt the next move will be to snoop on your parents if they continue to use old fashioned light bulbs.”

As an atheist I can say “there is no god” but as a British Subject I have to admit that I’m wrong. To all intents and purposes the European Parliament is God.

See:
“Public told to snoop on lightbulb law breakers” (Telegraph 24.08.09)
“Lock up your lightbulbs” (Telegraph 24.09.09 – Comment by Janet Daley)

Filed under: News, Stupidity, European Law, Lightbulbs, Nigel Farrage

“Surprise” hero’s welcome – My arse!

So much for the Scottish government’s first real attempt at foreign policy. Did anyone really believe that he wasn’t going to get a hero’s welcome? What more is there to be said. “Sorry” perhaps.

Filed under: Libya, News, Terrorism, Al Megrahi, Barak Obama, Kenny MacAskill, Libya, Lockerbie, Prostate Cancer, Tripoli

Self-censorship – Does Yale University need to take a leaf out of Pat Condell’s book

No Cartoons Here

Yale University Press have just published a book about the Danish cartoons that caused such a fracas among Muslims several years ago – without showing the cartoons.

“The Cartoons That Shook The World” by Danish-born professor Jytte Klausen, is a serious book examining the protest campaign against the caricatures first published in the Danish newspaper “Jyllands-Posten” in 2005. Its publishers, Yale University Press, have said  that having consulted a panel of (anonymous) “experts” it has decided not to include the actual cartoons in the book.

This shameful capitulation, to a threat that has not even been made yet, is a fine example of a disastrous decision having been made by people who Pat Condell would no doubt refer to as “multicultural appeasement monkeys”. Or, to use more of his words, “the kind of people who’d put their own mothers and daughters in birkas to avoid being called intolerant and who occupy such high moral ground that you can hardly see them up there through the clouds of self-righteousness.”

All of these so-called “experts” need to watch his latest video entitled “Apologists for Evil” which was posted on his YouTube channel three weeks ago. I was unable to find a transcript of this video on-line but felt that what he said was so prosaic that one deserved to be made for the benefit of the internet community. So here it is. Are you pathetic pseudo-intellectual idiots at Yale sitting comfortably? Then hit the link below and we’ll begin.

Video and Full Transcript

See also:
“Yale Press Bans Images of Muhammad in New Book” (New York Times)
“Yale Surrenders” by Christopher Hitchens

Filed under: Appeasement for Islam, Islam, News, Special Religious Dispensation, Stupidity, Jyllands-Posten, Jytte Klausen, Pat Condell, The Cartoons That Shook The World, Yale University Press

Act of God – Domestic fridge explodes for no apparent reason. What has the Almighty got against fresh food?

The Mail Online is reporting about a domestic fridge that blew up for no apparent reason. According to the West Yorkshire owner, the doors just blew off and ripping a radiator off the wall, blowing out the windows and breaking objects in the kitchen.

Mrs. Cullingworth, the home owner, called the fire brigade but they couldn’t explain why the fridge had blown up. Experts were also at a loss. There was no alcohol or fizzy pop in the fridge and it seems that it just contained ordinary foodstuffs.

The story is given a humorous slant in The Mail but I wonder if it might have been approached from a the same angle had the house occupants been Muslim students with goatee beards rather than an ordinary white middle class family.

See the whole story and photos of the devastation at The Mail Online website.
“Something’s gone off in the fridge! Mother’s terror after mysterious kitchen explosion turns house into ‘bomb site‘”

Filed under: News, Exploding Fridge, Kathy Cullingworth