Sandy Hook

My heart goes out to those families who's lives have been devastated by the Sandy Hook shootings.

Those children and their teachers who were gunned down in this sickening atrocity should never be forgotten!

May they rest in peace!

Sadly politicians will once again hide behind old arguments and the American Constitution to ensure that their  political funding continues to flow from all those that profit from the manufacture and sale of guns.

They will hide behind the argument that Americas should be doing more to help the mentally impaired rather than take a pen and 'amend' the Second Amendment or restrict the sale of automatic assault weapons.

It would be a tragedy indeed if politicians ... family men and women, one and all ... were not to take meaningful action to prevent another mass loss of life by drastically changing America's gun laws. 

Traditional Political Comedy

So it's  all over and the Americans have re-elected Barack Obama as president.

I told you so, didn't I?

But, since then, I've done a spot or research...

Did you know that Presidents elected to a second term in office have far less effect and are less successful than they were in the first?

Traditionally  ...and it doesn't matter which party's candidate is in office ...  a President in a second term will suffer greater resistance to his policies from the opposition than he did in the first.

Sour grapes perhaps?

It is also traditional (in British politics too) that those people in office will try and push though a  very unpopular policy at the end of their term, sometimes very quietly so as not to be noticed.

The British Labour Party were very good at that, or so I've been informed. I did try to find an example of this but I failed to find any evidence but Conservatives are sure they did it.

Politics seems to be a 'point scoring' game.

I'm sure that if politicians put aside their differences for just a few years they would be able to nail down some strategically plausible policies that would lay good foundations for a stable and viable economy .... but nooooooooo!

They follow their own agenda (and I'm not just talking about the Americans!) which see's them sniping at each other across the political trenches; picking one another off in ambush after ambush.

Their constant tit-for-tat bickering is reminiscent of the school playground.

At times you just want to put them across you knees and give them a good smack!

And the sad thing is that politicians at some time in their careers will all say the same thing ... but only about the opposition ... never about themselves or their party colleagues!

Let's face it.

Politics is the 'Ultimate Sitcom'

Big Rocks and Obama's Romney Challenge

... and the other nun said "It does, doesn't it?"

Hahahahahaha! How I laughed at that one!

Oh, hello! I didn't see you there.

Well ... I'm back!

I've been think about the universe; on it's creation, it's contents and, of course, it's size.

Now, I'm not a scientist or anything of that ilk (whatever an 'ilk' is) so my conclusions are presented to you here in a non-scientific way, without any big, hard to spell words.

Ok ... there was big bang - TA-DAH! - universe!

There were lots of rock in it, which begs the question "How do you make a rock from nothing?"

My theory is simple ... there must have been an 'old' universe ... which was already full of rocks ... and it went BANG!!!

And it's bloody big!

And it's probably all existing in the mould on some supreme being's forgotten sandwich!

There!  Told you it wasn't very scientific, didn't I?

Oo! Oo! Oo!

I also took an interest in the election going on in the States!

Some of you may have heard about it.

Apparently Mitt (silly name) Romney is going head-to-head with Barack Obama for the presidency.

I don't want to try and influence anyone (as if I could), but do you really trust that man Romney?

I have to admit that I don't know much about him but, after listening to him speak and watching the face-to-face debates, I have some serious doubts as to whether or not he is capable of doing the job.
Reading between the lines, it would seem that he is intent on undoing the majority of the things that Obama has set in motion. Now that smacks to me of rich money protecting rich money by spending an awful lot of poor-people money!

But the thing that really get's up my nose about both candidates is that they are both trying to sell their campaign with the "Our Great Nation" slogan.

Sadly, the days of American 'greatness' are long gone!

They (possibly you) are now in the same economic mess that the rest of us are suffering.

But, at a time when there are more people living below the bread line than ever before, to still claim that America is 'great' is an insult to all those that are suffering.

You see, if America was still great, those people suffering at the bottom of the food chain would never have been forgotten in the first place.

Yeah, ok! It's a very simplistic view... but, hey! I'm a simple guy!

And I don't mean 'stupid' simple.

Anyway, whoever wins, there may be no noticeable change for the man on the street.

Whoever you have thrown your hat into the ring with, I wish you luck ... and a change of fortune for the better.

Mr. Romney Woo's Hillary Clinton!

Noise!

The neighbours are really loud and obnoxious tonight!

Now I know what it's like to be Canadian!

Poopless In The Good Old U.S. Of A.

This post (the van potty x2)  by SherilinR reminded of something I started to write ages ago but never never got around to posting.

Here it is.

As a child I thought I was different ... that the British in general were different.

My early childhood was spent watching two TV channels - BBC and ITV - and my experiences of the world beyond my home town was limited and everything outside of Newbiggin-by-the-Sea was alien to me.

My perception of everything and everyone else on God's earth was based mainly on those shows that appeared on our screens.

I recall episodes of Rawhide and watching Rowdy and Gil save many a woman in distress or avoiding certain death by heading off stupid stampeding cattle at the last moment.

I remember Stu Bailey, Jeff Spencer and 'Kookie' keeping the streets of L.A. safe in 77 Sunset Strip.

Ben, Adam, Hoss and Little Joe would  ride out each week, save everybody (including their land) from bad guys whilst spouting moral after moral.

But never ... not once ... did any of those hero's ever hesitate before chasing villains or saving the obligatory damsel in distress and say "Hang a minute.  I think I gotta poop first"!

They never did, did they?

Not until Jane Fonda dropped her knickers to have a pee in the 1977 film ´Fun With Dick´ And Jane did I realise that Americans need to perform bodily functions in the same way as we British do.

Call me naive if you will (pauses for a chorus of jeers) but Hollywood and the TV networks of my childhood seemed determined to let us believe that toilets, and the use thereof, were not something that American hero's ever needed or wanted.

Nowadays, however, it's a different story.

Hollywood seems to think that realism now only comes from actors sometimes delivering their lines whilst taking a leek or farting "Hail To The Chief".

Bodily functions are readily discussed or carried out on our screens (in an 'acting' sense, of course) in an effort to deliver something that people will accept, if not as real, at least as plausible.

Anyway ...

... that is why I thought I (we) was (were) different!

Back then, I thought that Americans didn't do 'doodoo' or 'peepee' (try saying that several times very fast)!

So I wanted to be American, because doing 'doodoo' and 'peepee', in my opinion was, and is, a pretty disgusting way of disposing of waste.

God? If you're reading this ... the waste disposal system you designed ... well, it stinks! ... Literally!