Head Rambles

Grandad March 31st, 2010

One of the things that annoys me most about modern society is the way it laps up the most incredible nonsense without question.

So called ‘facts’ are laid before the people that are patently ridiculous, yet the people lap them up just because words like ‘research’ have been used.  Even the simplest logic will demonstrate that these so called ‘facts’  are so far off the wall that anyone with an IQ level above single figures should dismiss them.  Yet they don’t.

One of the greatest curses is the survey.  Surveys are fine for gathering opinion, yet they are being used to prove scientific fact.  55% of people believe the Earth is flat, so de facto, the Earth is flat.  Statistics are also the curse of intellectual thinking.  It snowed here yesterday, and statistically it didn’t snow here on March the 30th last year or the year before, ergo we are entering an ice age.

I read a survey recently.

It was a survey on opinion, therefore it was fine.  I have no problems with surveys that test opinion.

I was horrified at the apparent lack of intelligence that the survey revealed, and the depth to which people suck up junk science and believe it to be true.

The first question was “Do you believe smoking is unhealthy?”

95% of respondents said ‘yes’ which didn’t surprise me.  I will let that one pass.

The second question was “Do you believe that second hand smoke causes cancer?”

49% of people said ‘yes’ to this one.  Here we are getting into the junk science area, because as yet, no one has ever found any evidence that second hand smoke causes anything other than annoyance.  There is no evidence.  There is no proof.  Yet it is accepted as being a fact of life.

The third question was “Third-hand smoke refers to the tobacco residue left on and by smokers when they are not smoking cigarettes. Do you believe that third-hand smoke causes cancer?”

A staggering 18% said yes to this one.  I use the word ‘staggering’ because ‘third hand smoke’ is the invention of a fanatic in the States who proposed this theory without any proof whatsoever.  Scientists have tried to prove his hypothesis, and have failed abysmally.  So nearly one in five people believe in something just because some crackpot suggested it.

The next question is interesting because it is born out of pure propaganda – “Do you believe that smoking bans can lead to an instant 20-30% drop in the rate of heart attacks”?

32% of respondents said ‘yes’ to this one which really saddens me.  Many ‘studies’ have been done by crackpot organisations such as ASH to ‘prove’ this theory.  Every single ‘study’ has been shown to be completely flawed, distorted or just patently invented.  No reasonable study has ever shown any decline whatsoever.  It is junk science at its worst, yet ASH and their ilk declare it as Gospel and a third of the population believe it simply because ‘they have read it somewhere’.

I will pass on the next question as it concerned e-cigarettes, but the one after left me wondering if there was any hope for humanity at all.

Do you agree with this statement: “Smoker’s breath can be harmful to health, especially to children, the elderly and those especially sensitive to many chemicals.”?

29% said ‘yes’.  What?  What the fuck?  Where in the name of God did this come from?  I have never even heard of this theory before, let alone seen any proof of it.  I consider myself to be a reasonably logical person, and on the basis of logic alone I know this has to be patent bullshit, yet three out of every ten people believe it to be true?  Am I really a death breathing dragon where every person I meet is likely to drop dead from cancer?  For fuck’s sake!  And, incidentally, 59% of non smokers believe this utter bilge!

The final question is another for the amoebas out there.

Do you agree with this statement: “Someone else’s smoke can kill you if even if you can barely smell it, and even if you can’t smell it.”

A staggering 29% said ‘yes’ to this claptrap!

So nearly a third of the population believe that something that isn’t there can kill you?  And even if we are talking about odourless particles lingering in the air, they are supposed to be so deadly that they can kill you?  That would rank smoke as being up there with plutonium.

It is a frightening survey.  It beautifully illustrates the mindless state of the population.  It nicely demonstrates that people are nothing more than brainless sheep being merrily led along without a care in the world provided they have access to an mobile phone or a television.

I despair.

-oOo-

The survey is here

• Smoking , The Nanny State
• Comments(22)

Grandad March 30th, 2010

A few days ago, I was asked if I was interested in doing a little spot on a radio show.

I said fair enough.  It beats picking dead flies out of the custard.

Actually, I’m not that fond of interviews, because when I hear them repeated, all I can hear are the fluffs, the hesitations and the things I didn’t really mean to say.  I have done a few in the past, mainly about The Book.  Some were live by telephone, some were pre-recorded and one was live in studio.  Strangely enough, one of the better ones was the live in studio one where you would imagine that the intimidation of sitting surrounded by the usual apparatus would cause havoc, but Declan Meehan is a great interviewer and anyway I am quite used to radio studios having worked in and around them for many years.

I was sort of sleepy yesterday morning when Shane phoned.

“Right,” says he, “are you ready to roll?” or words to that effect.

“No” I thought.  “Yes” I said.

Shane is a damned good interviewer, because he doesn’t interview – he chats.  Also the fact that it was being pre-recorded meant that I could say what I liked, and could hesitate, or pepper the conversation with ‘ems’ and ‘ahs’.

It’s only a short piece, but even I learned something from it.

Did you know that it is illegal in this Godforsaken country not to be able to break the law?

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• Podcasting
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Grandad March 29th, 2010

Opinions are funny things.

When I started this site, oh so long ago, I thought it would be a nice place to put down my thoughts and musings.  That’s why I eventually called it Head Rambles  – because it contains the thoughts that ramble into my head.  Logical?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Who gives a shit.

I love doing it, because I can give vent to my various opinions on such vital matters in life such as why someone keeps dumping a shit outside my gate every day, or why we have such insane laws.  Opinions are great things, because without them, we would become an amorphous mass with no individual thought, which seems to be the way the world wants us to go.

I am a bit of a rebel.  I don’t like being told what to do or what to think.  I rebel against a society that orders me not to drink on Good Friday because it offends someone else’s opinions, or not to smoke because people don’t like the smell of it, or a society that tells me that I am incomplete because I don’t have an iPad or a mobile phone that tells the world where I am at every God given second.

Some people may say I am opinionated, and I take that as a compliment.  I know my own mind which is something that seems to be severely lacking in modern society.  I don’t believe all I hear or read.  I steadfastly refuse to feel inadequate because of an advertisement.

The funny thing though, is that when I have an opinion, I can get severely criticised for it.  I like that for two reasons.  The first is that maybe I have woken people up to have an opinion of their own, and the second is that it amuses me.

Why should I be amused at someone disagreeing with me?  Because I am not God [yet].  What I say is my opinion.  It is a thought – a head ramble.  It is not law, nor is it a moral dictat.  If I say something is shite, it doesn’t mean it is shite; it means I think it’s shite, so why would anyone get upset at the thoughts in my head? 

Of course there are those who are upset by my opinions, but frankly that is their problem.  After all, there are many out there who are of the opinion that I am a shit writer, humourless, begrudging and a carbuncle on the arse of society.  Fair enough.  That’s their opinion and they are more than entitled to it.  I will even agree with some of it.

As I said, I love writing.  I love using words, though at my age, I’m beginning to remember fewer of them.  Writing keeps my brain active and is a lot more productive than solving Sudoku puzzles.  I have made many friends through my writings and I value those friendships. 

It is also a lot fucking cheaper than therapy.

• Blogging
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Grandad March 28th, 2010

Last night I was not in the best of form.

It may have been a bad pint, or I may just have picked up a bug somewhere but I was a bit achy, with a sore throat and generally felt a bit washed out.  It was not a night for going out, that was for sure.

As usual there was fuck all on television, so in honour of Earth Hour, I left it switched on, but tuned to a blank channel.  I didn’t feel like reading or talking.  Herself had come out in sympathy with me and was complaining of a sore throat too [but of course her throat had to be worse than mine], so the silence was mutual, and punctuated with the occasional moan from Herself.

I switched the laptop on, and put it on the table beside me.  I had the Twitter thingy running so I could see what was going on.

For the laugh, I first tuned into Earth Hour to see if anyone was saying anything about it.

There were quite a few people prattling on about it, and the level of intelligence displayed was about on par with a cabinet meeting of our government.  There were actually fuckwits out there saying how amazingly romantic Earth Hour was.  Do these gobshites not realise that it is possible to switch off a light anytime they like?  Do they have to be led like fucking sheep all the time?  I despair of the human race sometimes.

I got bored with that and switched over to the Blog Awards.

I reasoned that with the Blog Awards, I would at least find a modicum of intelligence, and at first I was not disappointed.

Eventually, the awards got underway.  There were a lot of categories, so progress was slow.  I played a wee game with myself, placing bets on the winners.  I really did very well.  I now owe myself over €400, which will come in handy for the holidays.

There were a few winners that truly delighted me.  I gave a wee whoop when Eolai picked up an award for Bicyclistic and gave a loud yell when Xbox4NappyRash also won his category.  There were quite a few other winners that cheered me immensely too, I might add.

The night was ruined for me though.

There is a certain blog that has irritated me for a very long time.  I avoid it like the plague, as I find it insufferably shallow, pink, fluffy, and quite frankly, insulting to women.  If I didn’t know better, I would say it was written by a twelve year old, during detention.  What is worse, it has an enormous following, and the following seems to be as shallow as the site itself, judging by the comments [the last time I looked – I daren’t go in more than once a year for the sake of my sanity].  Are we really breeding a generation of girls whose primary objective in life is to find the right hair conditioner, and who have nightmares about their skin cream?

This site consistently picks up awards.  My argument [with some justification] is that they always win in the one category, which is a corner of the market they just about hold for themselves.  If there were a category for cranky old pensioners, doubtless I would win fairly consistently too?

There is no love lost between us, particularly since the time I beat them to the Best Blog Golden Spider Award back in 2007, which they bitched about for quite some time after.  Heh!

Up until now, I have been quite happy to leave them in their little corner of the Interweb, while I stalk mine.  Fair’s fair.  If they have a readership then someone must like them.

Last night all that changed.

They won Best Blog of 2010!

Best    fucking    BLOG?

BEST?

What in the name of sweet suffering polecats were the judges thinking?  Were they on crack cocaine?  Were the judges all pre-pubescent airhead girls?  What the fuck is going on?

Without thinking too hard [in fact, without thinking at all] I could pick thirty better sites from the finalists.  Actually, I could pick 110 better contenders from the list of finalists [I am not counting my own entry in the interest of fairness].

I am baffled.  There are sites out there that are innovative.  There are sites that are insightful.  There are sites that show intelligence.  There are sites that give hope in a dreary world.  There are sites that are extremely well written.

Yet that wins Best Blog.

Fuck!

Irish Blogging may not be dead, but it needs one hell of a blood transfusion.

-oOo-

The award winners.

and

Bock the Robber

• Awards , Blogging
• Comments(85)

Grandad March 27th, 2010

So tonight is another of those namby pamby tree-hugging feel good events?

We are all supposed to sit around in the darkness for an hour during Earth Hour.

Why?

All my life, I have been a lover of nature.  A few millennia ago I would probably have been a Druid.  My concept of prayer is to ramble through a woodland or tramp the tops of the hills, marvelling at nature in all its glory.  I love the mountains, the trees, the sea and everything in between.

In my time I have been a member of, or a supporter of many societies promoting bird protection, wildlife protection and the like.  I even damned near joined the Green Party.

Over the years, these groups and societies gave become more vociferous and it has become ‘politically correct’ to hang onto their every word.

I have now reached the stage where I am sick to the fucking teeth hearing such words as ‘sustainable’, ‘eco-friendly’ and ‘green’.  So much so, that I will denounce all their touchy feely efforts to ‘save the environment’.

Yesterday there was an item on the news.  They are installing power points around Dublin for electric cars.  We had nauseating film of that wanker Eamonn Ryan grinning into the camera as he spouted his bullshit about ‘clean and sustainable energy’.  I felt sick.

Electric cars make a lot of sense.  They are cheap to run, and the fuel will never run out.  It even occurred to me that it would make sense for me to buy one.  But I can’t.  Buying one would make Ryan’s smirk even bigger and I would feel as though I was joining the ranks of the Eco-Nazis.  They have degraded the whole business to an extent that I want to have nothing to do with them.  I know this is illogical, but that’s the way it is.

I use those power saving bulbs around the house in strategic places.  It has nothing to do with that cunt Gormless and his desire to save the world.  I do it because they are cheaper to run and last longer.  I try not to cut down trees on my land, not because I am worried about their CO2 absorption, but because I love trees.  I turn off lights when they are not in use, not because I give a shit about my ‘carbon footprint’ but simply because it is illogical to pay for electricity when I don’t need to.

Tonight, as I said, we are supposed to switch off our lights for an hour to ‘increase awareness’ of Global fucking Warming or some such bilge.  For fuck’s sake, it is rammed down our throats at every move so how is tripping over the dog in the darkness going to solve anything?  It’s just another pathetic attempt to make us feel like we are doing something good, when all we are doing is inconveniencing ourselves.

If the government is so fucking concerned about the environment, why is Dublin [and all the other cities] lit up like a fucking football stadium every night?  Why are buildings and bridges floodlit?  When I was in France last year, I noticed that they switched off the street lights just after midnight.  That struck me as not only saving a lot of energy but saving a shed load of money too.  Who the fuck needs great swathes of motorway floodlit, when there is little or no traffic on them?

At eight tonight, I will give Earth Hour a thought; a simple thought -

Fuck off.

• Around the house , Global Warming
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