… perhaps.

I’ve decided to take an extended break from this blog to concentrate my efforts elsewhere in the real world.

In the meantime you can see me at http://madestuff.co.uk and on twitter at http://twitter.com/MadeStuff. 

And, of course, there’s also the shop at http://madestuffshop.etsy.com

Anyway I may return in due course should something interesting happen, certainly when the next GE comes along I expect to be back.

… this is well worth a watch if you want ot hear somebody who’s talking sense about Browns failings on the economy, better yet he’s doing it to Brown’s face and in front of the European parliament just as Brown launches another crusdae to ’save the world’!

You’ve possibly already seen this as it’s all over the web at the moment, I picked it up in the Our Scotland forum this morning.  Still, I don’t think you’ll find it in mainstream media although I notice that this vid has already had close to 80,000 views having just been posted yesterday.

If there’s one thing that’s virtually guaranteed to make wind me up it’s ignorant and small minded people who make sweeping generalisations without any real evidence or credible argument.  For the most part the groups that are targeted by these weak minded fools are ethnic or religious minorities, groups I’m generally not considered to be a part of.

 

It’s therefore unusual for me to part of the group that is having crass generalisations made about them and to date when it has happened it’s because I’m Scottish and some ill-educated English commentator attempts to talk about whinging, tight-fisted, benefits dependent, economically deficient Scots.  Arguments I’ve had a thousand times and know them for what they are … unionist lies.

 

This time though it’s not my nationality being called into question, it’s my parenting, it’s the fact that I’m a full-time parent … and worse, I’m a father who’s a stay at home dad.

 

So buckle-up, pin your ears back, and listen to what Pastor Mark Driscoll thinks about me and my colleagues:

I’m not about to take offence at the pseudo-religious window dressing in this, since I’m not religious, although it is concerning that there are people out there that would take this guy at his word.  What I do take offence at is the underlying, message that fathers who are full-time parents are less than men … or worse, less than human.  It’s a bizarre and ridiculous sentiment to be preaching.

It opens with his wife making some brief and degrading statements like:

[you're] worse than an unbeliever if you don’t provide for your family

For ‘worse than an unbeliever’ read ‘less than human’, that’s what these zealots really mean here.  ‘Provide’ is a word that they use throughout the footage and whilst it’s clear from the context that what they mean is that the man must earn the money, they don’t seem to believe that a man can provide anything more than that.

I thought it telling that his wife, again, says:

how different our kids would look if he [Pastor Mark Driscoll] was at home

What you mean the kids would be bruised and beaten?  or that they wouldn’t wear the same clothes?  either way it’s a damning indictment of her husband that she can’t even trust her husband to dress the kids or  effectively look after them.  Even if he manages the basics you have to wonder if he could manage the rest, like the provision of morale guidance, the hug to make ‘it’ better. 

It seems likely to me that this Pastors opinions and world views are more tainted by his own inadequacies than any sort of world view, great belief, and certainly not by any great love for his fellow man.

My last quote from his wife:

a mom is built to be at home with the kids

No.  Mothers are built to give birth and breast feed, beyond that mother and father have to work in partnership in the best interests of not only one and other but also, and more importantly, in the interested of the kids.  Sometimes this means mum works and dad stays at home, sometimes it means that whoever’s got a job at that moment needs to go out and work at it.

Our dear Pastor friend though has a whole lot of hell and brim fire of his own though and it’s the biggest load of tosh I’ve heard in a long time:

any man who does not provide for their family is worse than an unbeliever … you live in an absolutely perverted, corrupted, stupid culture. 

Again, I can take the unbeliever bit.  It’s the sub-human connotation that gets me, remember, these people are zealots and if you don’t believe as they do you’re little better than an animal.  The part about the culture is particularly amusing though, since what they are essentially saying in the context of the footage is that stay at home dads (SAHD’s) have been led to this position by popular culture.  It seems contradictory then, that sahd’s are regularly treated with suspicion and mistrust, even being excluded in some cases from parent and toddler groups if they are somehow followers of some pop culture … pioneers perhaps, but most I know do it out of love for their children and in the interests of what’s best for those children.  What the wider world thinks doesn’t really enter into the decision making process.

He goes on:

A culture of hook-up, shack-up, break-up.  It’s a culture where men act like peter pan and they’re boys way too long

Funny.  I think it actually shows a real strength of commitment when a man gives up what has essentially defined men for decades, the old “what do you do?” question.  Men have been defined for an age by their career path and the status that that confers, yet some give that up to commit fully and completely to the family unit.

It removes the financial power of the man to walk out of a relationship at the time of his choosing and places that power firmly in the hands of his partner … it’s like saying I love you and I trust you completely and absolutely and I will do anything that needs doing, regardless of how wider society might view that.

As to the Peter-pan comment, well, who’s the one that basis their life decisions on what many consider to be little better than a fairy tale?  Some of us make decisions based on the interests of our families and not on the ancient scrawlings in an oft-transcribed and translated cult text.  No offence to believers, that’s your choice, but others choose differently.

And he goes on:

… if you’re an able bodied man your job is to provide for the needs of your family.

and yet there they are, providing for their families needs, just not in the way this individual would prescribe it.  As if the only way a man can provide for their family is through the provision of financial resources.  Such naivety and nonsense.  A man who merely provides the financial support for his family is missing out on the whole point of being in a family.

Finally, and without any statistical back-up the Pastor comes away with his finale:

statistically, if you want to have healthy kids and an enduring marriage [the wife should stay at home and look after the kids and the man should go out to work] … if they [husband and wife] want their marriage to last and do best by their kids then statistically they’ll organise themselves like that.

Ok, I had to paraphrase that last paragraph since the pastor made such a bloody meal out of it, but where are these statistics?  Whose researched it, where’s it to be found?  No, it’s a lot of tosh and nonsense of such little substance that I can’t believe that I’ve written such a long post about it …

… anyway I need to go now, my wife’s arrived home from work.

I’ve had this rattling around in my head the last couple of days, it just makes me happy … be happy too!

The whole crafting thing seems to have taken over my life at the moment and whilst I’ve had a few cracking posts half composed in me bonce for this blog they’ve never seen the light of day, either because they’ve been too miserable or because I’ve not had time.

One of them was entitled:

Jade Goody, no great loss

Which may seem a bit crass given her current state of health, or lack thereof, however if we consider that she didn’t really bring anything to party her timelife in the media spotlight was something rather anomalous, curious even, a genuine bone fide media creation with no intrinsic value … like junk food, you might like it but it’s not really any good for you.

Of course, I feel sorry for her and her kids.  It’s tragic when anyone dies, particularly somone so young, and yet it’s of so little consequence to anybody other than her nearest and dearest that in the scheme of things she’ll be missed no more than any other average bod in the street.  The fact that the papers have massive pull-outs today is by-the-by, simply Jade Goody as a marketing tool … even in death she sells papers.

Anyway, the original post was longer and more verbose … but I’m tired, so, y’know.  Yawn.

my posting has clearly become something of an irregular event on here, although I assure my semi-disinterested readership that I will be back posting with something some kind of coherency at some point in the future … maybe tomorrow, maybe not.

Any if you’re really interested in keeping up with me you can see what I’ve been up to at MadeStuff, where the mrs and I showcase our arts and crafts these days.  Off the back of that we’ve also opened an Etsy shop, where you can buy our stuff … if you want … no pressure, but.  Y’know.  Might be nice.

If that all seems like to much reading for you you can also follow our twatty Twitter thing, where we regale such exciting stories such as how we fancy a nice cuppa tea … no really, it’s all good stuff!

Oh, I’m also on FaceBook, but I’m not sure if I want to be your friend ;)

It’s been a while since I made a post, but this has just come to me attention from the Daily Record:

ALEX Salmond was last night at the centre of a letter bomb scare.

Cops swooped on a suspected tartan terrorist after devices were sent to the First Minister and five other targets.

The Daily Record helped the police after taking a call from a man claiming to represent separatist terror group the Scottish National Liberation Army.

A 33-year-old man is expected to appear at Paisley Sheriff Court on Monday in connection with the alleged bomb campaign.

A force insider said: “This was no hoax. These devices were intended to cause fear and alarm. The man has been charged with sending various devices.”

When he called the Record, the man said he had sent “letter bombs” to the First Minister at Edinburgh’s Bute House, Lib Dem MSP Mike Rumbles, Glasgow City Chambers and the SNP’s Edinburgh HQ.

He also claimed “devices” had been sent to two other unspecified targets in Scotland.

The man used a recognised code word during the call.

A source close to Salmond last night said there were no explosives in the letters but they had been designed to look like bombs.

Cops were called in and they last night raided a flat in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, where they arrested a 33-year-old man.

A police spokesman said: “Public safety was our number one priority and all individuals concerned were fully briefed.”

Senior cops last night praised the Daily Record.

One said: “Those concerned are thanked for their prompt action.”

 

A member of the SNLA (Scottish National Liberation Army) decided to target Alex Salmond, the leader of the SNP, the only political party in Scotland who’s primary objective is to achieve Scottish Independence.  Why would a group purporting to supporting the independence movement target the man who is largely responsible for bringing the independence movement as far as it has?  Why would they target the man who’s probably been best placed to deliver an independent Scotland arguably since the Act of Union came into force in 1707? Why?

Something seems amiss here.

There have been two items of news that have stuck out for me this past week.  The first of these was the death of the Cameron’s wee boy which was one of those human stories that casts a light on a side of our politicians we don’t often see … it reminds us that they are human and are susceptible to the same horrid life events as many peple are.  A tragic loss though and they have my sympathies.

The second item of news that has come out in the last few days has been the story about Fred Goodwin’s pension.  £650,000 a year, for life, and he’s only 50.  Of course the press in general have been having a hay-day demonising the former head of the Royal Bank of Scotland saying that he should hand it back … what tosh!

As far as I’m concerned Fred Goodwin can keep his pension, the real demons here are Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling, and the rest of the incompetent eejits who were the architects of the banking de-regulation that led to our current crisis.  That they think they can hold up one person who was merely working within the boundaries set by government is a disgrace and goes to show their duplicity in yet another area given that it was the self-same-people who would now strip Goodwin of his pension who approved thing in the first place.

We should also bare-in-mind that Goodwin wrote off his contractual notice period of 12 months and so it’s not like he’s walked away from this with everything he might have had he got out sooner and of his own accord.

Of course, Gordon Brown is well used to robbing pensioners and has made this a mainstay of his economic management style … he’s the real crook here.

Goodwin’s pension may be obscene to many, indeed many people will simply be jealous of the sum involved and wonder why it is that there are some who have so much when the rest of us seem to have so little, I certainly don’t have an answer to that, but I’m certainly not going to allow myself to get upset about it or let it divert me from where my anger ought to be pointed.

New Labour.  You have a lot to answer for.

Clearly the headline above is in reference to Jeremy Clarkson’s attack on Gordon Brown, which whilst accurate in the literal sense - Brown, is Scottish, he has an issue with his eyesight, and he is an idiot – it has also understandably attracted a lot of criticism and the media is full of ‘outraged Scots’ type headlines.

Thus far neither the BBC or Clarkson himself have made any type of statement in relation to this ‘outrage’.  I can’t say I’m particularly outraged, Clarkson thinks that it’s OK to slate people who are disabled and on the grounds of their nationality … of course there are those who will scream RACIST! and they will be wrong, it’s prejudiced yes, rascist no … maybe racism with a small ‘r’ at a push.

I’m more outraged with Iain Gray, leader of the Labour group of MSP’s at Holyrood, who seems to believe:

Most people here are proud that the prime minister is a Scot and believe him to be the right person to get the UK through this global economic crisis.

I’m not, and I suspect there are huge number of people who think he’s an embarrassment just as I do.  I imagine Brown will be rightly cheesed off with his junior at Holyrood too, after all, we should all know by now that Brown is British above all else and at all costs.

Back to Clarkson though, I can’t help feeling though that if an equivalent ‘anti-english’ remark had been made by a Scottish journalist at the BBC they’d be sacked … that certainly seems to have been the insinuation listening to the news reports on Radio Scotland this morning.

I personally don’t care one way or another, I enjoy (or did enjoy, back in the days of having a tele) Top Gear, I find Clarkson’s irreverent manner and deprecating humour highly amusing, I don’t think he’s over-stepped the mark here, although it is a bit distasteful to attack somebody on the basis of their sight impediment … that’s just wrong.

Whilst I’m talking about the BBC, when will the London-centric news reporting of snow stop.  Honestly, it’s only snow … get a shovel!

The news that the marked electoral register for the Glenrothes by-election is now a couple of days old, although it seems to have been covered in wall to wall news of snow and the Scottish budget.

I’m not sure that anybody is claiming foul play at the minute, and certainly the SNP are calling it a blunder rather than a fraud.  It is however curious that in a result that was expected to go the way of SNP and where turnout was much higher than expected that the marked register should be ‘lost’.

This has been posted on the Our Scotland forum and is an account of polling stations in the 1970’s, how accurate or otherwise it is is beyond my ken but it provides an insight into what might happen:

by Donald Anderson

formerly senior SSP member

Electoral Fraud in the 1970s

In the mid 70’s I acted as a polling clerk in two municipal elections, two years running, in Glasgow.  I was a mature student at Strathclyde, and a mature student friend of the same political persuasion was also a clerk at the next polling Station. I was at the Round Toll and he was further down Cowcaddens. The old tenements were still there and this was in the height of the Glasgow Clearances.

It soon became evident that all the staff were Labourites. One was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. The words “communist” and “Great” Britain obviously presented no problem to him. I immediately concentrated on him, talking to him about John MacLean and his international Socialism, being careful not to mention his stand on a Scottish Workers Republic and his persecution from the Great British State, the Labour Party and the CP of GB. I had to stifle myself when the Labourites joined in, even more ignorant of socialism, then the GB member.

I was one of them, a British Nationalist Labourite, they thought. So they laid into the SNP and I managed to bite my tongue. They showed me how to stuff the ballot boxes during the quiet spells, of which there were many. They stamped ballot papers and put their crosses next to the Labour candidate and shoved them into the box. If someone came in and their vote was already used, they just scored the next one off the electors roll with a ruler. The voter could hardly notice this, as the Roll would be upside down to them and they were usually confused as to procedure.

Towards closing time a (now deceased) cousin of mine, Sammy Halliday, came to vote, rather the worse for wear after his shift as foreman  on the ashfelt and his shift in the pub afterwards. His dunkey jaikit, working claes and boots were covered in ashfelt. He immediately recognised me and dumped a broon paper parcel of ham ribs on my Elector’s roll, proclaiming to all and sundry. “Haw. That’s mah wee cousin. I’m votin’ for him. He’s SNP. Up the Scottish Socialist Republic.” Was I mortified? I can still picture the Pom Frits’ furious and helpless faces. There was nothing they could do about me. Usually, they are always running to the polis station with the pettiest of complaints about the SNP. When my cousin finally realised something was up, the clerks, rather unsportingly for Old Firm fans, refused his generous offer of a Skwerr Go Ootside. My own disappointment at their refusal to fight was soon dispelled when he offered me the ham ribs and telt me no’ to gie thae basturts ony. I took them hame tae the wife. I’m too good tae her.

My chum, at the next polling station, loudly declared his allegiance to an Independent Scotland at the end of the evening, and gave them some anatomical advice on stuffing their papers. Between the pair of us I reckon we outvoted the Labour Fiddlers Rally and the winner was the late Angus MacIntosh, SNP Cooncillor for Coocaddens.  I tried to advise the SNP to get everyone to act as Polling Clerks each election and outvote the paid Labour Clerks. But, did they listen?

I’m 71 noo and they can go tae the polis if they like. Or better still, try and take it oot the nose. I’m still up for it.

I posted comment on the Glenrothes pollat the time, making comment on the fact that the SNP increased their share of the vote by some 13% and yet that just wasn’t enough.

The BBC’s reporting of this storyis brief and notes that an external investigation has to be organised, yet the main thrust of the story seems to be given over to giving Labour politicians a soap box from which to attack the SNP even though it was nationalist MSP Tricia Marwick who brought this incident to light.

Scottish Labour has said:

… an SNP government department lost confidential personal data again.

which is a bit rich from the party that has brought us persistent and consistent losses of data from Tax benefits register, to the DVLA database, to sensitive ’secret’ documents, to all manner of losses.  They went on to say:

Lindsay Roy won the by-election because of the incompetence of the SNP locally and nationally.

The ballot papers were counted fair and square in front of the eyes of the world.

If the first part were tru it’s doubtful that the SNP would have increased their share of the vote by 13%, meanwhile as the example above has shown, it doesn’t matter how correct the count is if the actual ballots themselves are fraudulent.

According to Fife council it has a receipt that proves that the register was handed over to the Sheriff Clerk, although, were people to be pedantic a receipt proves nothing.

It’s beenA a sore point for some time with the SSPCA that the RSPCA, who don’t operate in Scotland, continue to raise funds from Scotland either through direct advertising or as a result of legacy funds.

In response the RSPCA has said that they don’t intentionally advertise in Scotland despite running adverts on Radio Clyde, Radio Forth and in The Scotsman newspaper.  They have also stated that their adverts clearly say that:

Every piece of printed literature, television advertising and Internet banner advertising always features the wording ‘The RSPCA is a charity registered in England and Wales’.

Although, anybody who has ever looked at anything run by an organisation based in England (or presumably Wales) features these words.  It doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t operate here in Scotland.

So, if you are in Scotland and you do want to help animals in Scotland then visit the ScottishSPC.org, on the other hand if you want to donate to an animal charity in England or Wales, then choose a charity down there.