Now I’m not a very keen news follower as it usually is the same depressing stuff – the Daily Murder, the EU interfering in something or other, or the imminent demise of the world’s finances, so I’m only partially aware that there was something going on in Wall Street.

What Kirk M has found is what may loosely be termed a manifesto, though as Kirk M points out, it’s more a declaration of what pisses them off rather than a set of proposals.

What struck me on reading it is that this is pretty much a list of the gripes we have here.  Some of the gripes pertain fairly exclusively to America, but where we remove those, we can add quite a few more about loss of democracy and the devious handing over of power to the EU, not to mention the thousands of new laws and regulations being imposed on us from an unelected bunch of power crazed fuckwits in Brussels.

I wonder if there is any chance of the movement spreading this far?

National revolutions are fairly commonplace but a continental revolution would be a fine beast to behold.

How about it?

And here I reproduce [with no kind permission from Kirk M] the document.

-oOo-

Declaration of the Occupation of New York City

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.

They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.

They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.

They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.

They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.

They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.

They have sold our privacy as a commodity.

They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.

They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.

They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.

They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.

They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.

They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.

They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.

They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.

They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.

They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.

They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.

 

To the people of the world,

We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

He is writing about an impending disaster that is to strike on or around the 7th of next month.

If you watch the video, it is pretty terrifying stuff – earthquakes, nuclear power stations exploding like firecrackers and the liquification of the Midwest of America.  

I did a little research of my own and there seems to be a little confusion about the details.  For example, some say the Day of Disaster will be Thursday fortnight, where others say it will be September and yet others neatly tie it in with the Mayan predictions and place it firmly next year.  Also no one seems quite sure what this missile from space is.  Some call it a planet, others call it a comet and yet more think it’s a dead star.

Am I worried, I hear you ask…

Not in the least bit.

I’m going to sit back and enjoy the spectacle [whatever it is and whenever it is].

You see, I have seen all the films.  I have watched “Meteor”, “Earthquake”, “Volcano”, “The Day After Tomorrow” and all those other natural disaster films.  The have all taught me one thing….

When disaster strikes, it only does so in America.

Good luck, lads.

It was nice knowing you.

Or is it Obama sin Laden?

Names confuse me sometimes.  I trust it isn’t Bollock O’Bama from Moneygall anyway.

I see the celebrations have started already.

It strikes me as somewhat incongruous that a country that prides itself on its religious fervour and reliance on God should celebrate a death in such fashion, but who am I to question these things?

At least I won’t be confused with the fecker any more.

Well, when I say I watched it, I half watched as it was about American teenage boys.  It wasn’t my kind of film at all, but it had a lovely guitar soundtrack so I left it running for Herself to watch.  Films calm her down.

Half listening to the film, I firmed up on a conclusion that I had reached a long time ago…

American teenagers are fucking stupid.

They really don’t know anything.  Not a single fact rattles around their empty heads.  If you asked them the colour of milk they couldn’t tell you.  And how did I reach this conclusion?  Because every single thing they say ends in ‘I guess’. 

“Are you male or female?”  “I’m male, I guess.”

“Are you alive or dead?”  “I’m alive, I guess.”

Why do they have to guess everything?  Aren’t they sure?  Are they so lacking in knowledge of their surroundings that they have to guess every single answer?

There is an advertising company here that made an advertisement for some shit or other.  They made outrageous claims about the product and followed each claim with the word ‘fact’.

“Our product kills all germs.  Fact!”

“Our product is the best on the market.  Fact!”

Shouting ‘fact’ all the time is just as irritating as hearing the ubiquitous ‘I guess’.  Maybe we should send that advertising company to America?  Teenagers there might grow in confidence a bit when facts are shouted at them all the time, and the company mightn’t be so fucking sure of itself after hearing all those guesses.

Just a thought.

I guess.

Over to you Willie……….

-oOo-

My Irish grandmother had this belief that if household items came up missing, they had been stolen by the “Wee people -the Leprechauns”. Now, from reading the tourist books, I have learned that one way to piss off the Irish folk is to ask where are the leprechauns? But, please read on, and I will piss off more than just the Irish readers.

Now my dear grandmother said that if we would, at night, put sharp knives on the floor, the Wee Ones would cut their feet and stopped stealing the items. When she drilled this notion into me, she was about my age. I know realize that the “Little People” became the scapegoats for creeping forgetfulness and simple mindedness that creeps its stealthy way into my life.

Here is a list of items that the “Little Green People” regularly steal.

1. Keys
2. Wallet
3. Glasses
4. Cell phone (thank God, I leave it on so Miss Pat can call it from her phone)
5. TV remote
6. The bottle opener (this is a real problem when I face one of those brews with no twist-off top)
7. My home (coming home from the pub)
8. Words, like Miss Pat’s name or any of above items
9. Memory, for things I should remember
10. My notebook where I have written down what I need to remember
11. My pen to write down what I should remember
12. To write down what I need to remember
13. Miss Pat’s birthday and our anniversary (I really need help with this one)
14. To take Chile Dog out when her eyes cross
15. Take a pee in time
16. Change my undies after I don’t remember above item.
17. Anything else I should remember to include in this list.

Now , here is what I want to forget- SARA PALIN!

I WANT THE LITTLE PEOPLE TO SNEAK INTO ALASKA, STEAL HER, AND HIDE HER SOME WHERE IN AN UNFOUND HIDE-AWAY IN, LET’S SAY, IRELAND.

To back up my request, what follows is a selection of quotes from Palin. Need I say more?

“As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where– where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border.” — Attempting to describe her international qualifications.

“The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.” –- In a message posted on Facebook about Obama’s health care plan, Aug. 7, 2009

“All of ‘em, any of ‘em that have been in front of me over all these years.” — Unable to name a single newspaper or magazine she reads, interview with Katie Couric, CBS News, Oct. 1, 2008

“Well, let’s see. There’s ― of course in the great history of America there have been rulings that there’s never going to be absolute consensus by every American, and there are those issues, again, like Roe v. Wade, where I believe are best held on a state level and addressed there. So, you know, going through the history of America, there would be others but ―” –Unable to name a Supreme Court decision she disagreed with other than Roe vs. Wade, interview with Katie Couric, CBS News, Oct. 1, 2008

“‘Refudiate,’ ‘misunderestimate,’ ‘wee-wee’d up.’ English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!’” –a Tweet sent in response to being ridiculed for inventing the word “refudiate,” proudly mistaking her illiteracy for literary genius, July 18, 2010

“But obviously, we’ve got to stand with our North Korean allies.” — After being asked how she would handle the current hostilities between the two Koreas, interview on Glenn Beck’s radio show, Nov. 24, 2010

“We believe that the best of America is not all in Washington, D.C. … We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation.” — Speaking at a fundraiser in Greensboro, N.C., Oct. 16, 2008

“[T]hey’re in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom.” — Getting the vice president’s constitutional role wrong after being asked by a third grader what the vice president does, interview with NBC affiliate KUSA in Colorado, Oct. 21, 2008 (Watch video clip)

“Blood libel” was the term S. Palin used to describe the media commentators who questioned her use of cross-hairs on a map of Democratic lawmakers who she wanted defeated in the last national elections. (01/12/2011)

I rest my case.

Willie

I have a question for you.

For some time now, I have been puzzled over something and maybe you can clear things up a bit for me?

What in the name of blue blind fuck to you see in Sarah Palin?   How come she is still floating around the country when she should be in a maximum security home for the bewildered?

Maybe it takes someone from beyond your shores to point this out to you, but she is weapons grade insane.  She is several sandwiches short of a picnic.  The lift very definitely does not go to the top floor.  She is loopers, barking or any other term of endearment that applies, yet people still support her.  Why?

I suppose I shouldn’t be too harsh on you, because we have our own mini-Palin here in Ireland.  She is an utter dimwit that has somehow slotted herself into the position of Second In Command.  I swear the only reason our Glorious Leader hasn’t been assassinated by now is that everyone is terrified at the prospect of Mary “Palin” Coughlan being in charge.

Your Palin really takes the biscuit though.  She starts up this Tea Party effort and people support her.  Why?  What the fuck is that all about?  She is starting a new movement on the basis that she has 2,000,000 ‘likes’ in Facebook?  Does that not say something about her?  Do you realise that if she ever got into the White House, she is likely to start a war on the basis of the number of followers she has in Twitter?

I will grant you that she is easy on the eye, and if push came to shove then yes, I probably would, but I would hate myself afterwards.  But is that reason enough to keep voting her in?  I suppose some of you will claim that she is the lesser of two evils, but is she?  You may not agree with Obama, but at least he sounds like he knows what he is talking about. At least he doesn’t go around painting cross-hairs on maps.  At least he isn’t encouraging everyone to take up arms.

I will say one thing.

If she ever does get elected to the White House, I’ll be damned glad of the Atlantic.

I just hope it’s wide enough.

-oOo-

Time has come to celebrate the annual Boston Tea Party!  It has been going on since 1777 when the upstanding citizens of Boston decided to fling perfectly good tea in the Boston Harbor.  This mild reaction to the Tea Tax seemed to piss off the Good King George and his buddies at the East India Tea Company.  Afterward all, who were these piss ants, anyway?  Can’t an honest, humble monopoly make a few hard earned bucks on on a bunch of nincompoops?  After all, taxes to help the rich out with their lifestyles doesn’t seem to be too asking much?  Those lowly colonial types just had no sense of humor.

In the short years since the First Birthday Party, there seems to be a fairly rocky relationship between the various Kings and Queens of England and the trappers, hunters, merchants, and farmers of the Colonies.  To call it a love/hate relationship would be mild indeed. The two sides have both fought wars against each other and fought wars on the same side.  Currently, there seems to be a Mexican stand-off, so to speak.

Taking a quantum leap to 2009, the New Tea Party was born in reaction to being TAXED ENOUGH ALREADY!  It seems that these good citizens also have a gripe with the way they were being taxed, or so they claimed.  Their hard-earned tax dollars were going to bail out banks, car companies, insurance giants, and whoever else could whine enough.  They have a decent point except they failed to see that the mess which caused the hemorrhaging of bucks faster than one could say “BAILOUT” was caused and created by the reckless and unchecked spending of the 8 year reign of King George W. Bush and his War of Terror.  The more recent Tea Party found a real voting crowd and manage to throw a flock of folks into the water.  History does repeat itself, sometimes.

Here is the biggest news yet.  Just three days ago, a new political party was hatched.  It’s the “NoLables” Party.  This group lays claim to the middle ground and wants no designation that it is Republican, Democrat, Independent, or Whatever.  It says it is sick and tired of the extreme political stances, claims, counterclaims, charges and bull shit that is flying back and forth.  It even launched a website which is very much needed in today’s rough and tumble world of 21st Century politics.

They do make some decent points.  But how can I call myself a “NoLabel’ when a chap asks me what am I politically?  What the hell does it mean, “NoLabel”?  It is somewhat like asking, “You know the sound of two hands clapping.  What is the sound of one hand clapping?”   I was going to the County Clerk’s office today to register as a “NoLabels” type, but I have a better idea.

I am, here and now, announcing my own political party.  (drum roll)   It is  SEA-Screwed Enough Already!  I expect millions to join me right after GD approves and publishes this announcement in his blog.  Feel free to ask about my platform via comments.    Some will whisper the dreaded word, “anarchy”.

Willie

BAIL’EM OUT!!! ???? Hell, back in 1990, the Government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada  for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it.. They failed and it closed.. Now, we are trusting the economy of our country, our banking system, our auto industry and possibly our health plans to the same nit-wits who couldn’t make money running a whore house and selling whiskey?!”

“What the Hell are we thinking?”

It was a simple pub survival guide, and it became the most popular thing I ever wrote. To date, it has been read by over 75,000 people. I thought it was time to revisit the subject with a drop of illustration.

For some strange reason, people [mostly Americans] haven’t a fucking clue how to order a simple pint of Guinness. You would think it would be a straightforward process, but no.. they still fuck it up which not only means they get a shit pint, but they really piss off the barman in the process.

OK. This is the moment you have been waiting for. After waiting for fifteen minutes in the otherwise empty pub, you have finally managed to catch the barman’s eye. You are obviously a tourist, so it is tradition that you be kept waiting. However you have now ordered your first pint, and the barman starts to pour.

You have now reached your first hurdle. This is NOT a pint of Guinness. It is a partially pulled pint of Guinness. Any fuckwit who grabs it at this stage will be really lucky if they live, as barmen DO NOT like the glass to be touched. A lot of barmen keep their weapons of choice for this moment. Make a wrong move and you could be at the receiving end of a baseball bat.

Just be fucking patient and wait. If the barman wanders off, he hasn’t forgotten you – he is just waiting for the next phase.

Eventually the barman will return. Make any sort of comment about being kept waiting and the chances are you will get shot. You have waited a lifetime for this pint, and another few minutes aren’t going to make any difference. The barman now tops off the pint and will place it back on the counter. This is usually the time you offer to pay.

Right. You have paid for your pint and there it is. A full pint glass of frothing liquid. What do you do next?

No. You don’t fucking drink it. You can now remove it to wherever you want to drink it, be it at the bar or at a table, but YOU DO NOT DRINK IT. This is the moment to savour the anticipation. You may carry on a conversation, have a cigarette or just sit and watch, but it does not go near your mouth. Yet.

Right. This is the moment you have been waiting for. Note the crisp black and white? That means the pint has settled. You can now drink and enjoy.

It’s all quite simple really. Even an American should be able to understand that? I doubt it though.

-oOo-

I would like to say at tis point that no animals were harmed during the filming. I would like to thank Mash [so called because he distills the best Poiteen in the village] for his patience.

In order to bring you the best photographs, we had to do about eight takes.

Then of course I had to drink the props.

It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.

What is the difference between these two pictures?

The difference is six months!

That is a burger and chips that has been left on a shelf for 171 days.

Is there not something strange about that? Where is the mould? If I leave a loaf of bread lying around for a couple of days, it soon grows a grand crop of penicillin. After a couple of weeks, I would imagine the loaf would rival the Botanic Gardens.

I came across this at some stage in my Interweb meanderings. Apparently an artist decided to do a stop action series of photographs to show a meal decaying. The only problem was that the fucking thing didn’t!

I have never liked McDonalds. They are noisy uncomfortable places and their "food" is crap. How anyone can consider a trip to McDonalds as a "treat" beats me. It’s my idea of hell. Their blatantly artificial cheery happy atmosphere makes me want to puke. Their produce doesn’t do much for my stomach either.

They advertise their shit as being "healthy".

Those photographs would tend to argue otherwise?

I couldn’t give a shite whether Armstrong walked on the moon or on a stage set.

I couldn’t give a fuck if Elvis is living in a tent in the Gobi Desert, just so long as he isn’t singing any more. I fucking hate Elvis.

I must confess though that I have always had a few questions about the World Trade Centre business.

There are niggling little things that just won’t go away.

How come, when Bush was told that an aircraft had flown into the WTC, he just shrugged and carried on listening to a children’s story? Any halfwit would know there was something serious going on and would have excused himself from the proceedings, but not our George. He just carried onj as if nothing had happened.

OK, so Bush was a idiot so maybe that was just another of his incredibly bad judgment calls? But there is one aspect of the whole affair to which I have never found a satisfactory answer – how come all the buildings fell so neatly? I know a bit about civil engineering, as it is in the family blood, so to speak. For example, I know that one of the greatest problems any demolition expert has is to get a building to collapse in on itself. It takes precision placement of explosives and the timing has to be just right. If there is any error at all, the chances are that the building will fall sideways instead of vertically. Yet in New York several buildings fell, all very nicely in a heap without very much damage to adjoining buildings. Also I find it strange that both towers collapsed. The chances of both planes hitting their respective buildings in precisely the same circumstances are a statistical impossibility [almost] yet both towers collapsed in precisely the same fashion. If one tower had survived or if they had collapsed in different ways, maybe I wouldn’t be so unsure, but for both collapses to be virtually identical is hard to swallow.

There are many other questions I have about the whole business, but I just put it down to maybe not knowing the full facts, or something.

I dismissed the whole conspiracy theory and filed it away next to the John F Kennedy file.

Yesterday I came across a video on Captain Ranty’s site. I dismissed it as yet another crackpot theory, but then I watched it.

More fucking unanswered questions to add to the stockpile.

There are times when it is very hard not to believe in conspiracies.

Damn!