Tag: world news

The Jimmy Savile Scandal: Paedophilia by Any Other Name

The late Jimmy Savile

If you live in America you can be forgiven if you haven’t heard about the Jimmy Savile uproar here in England. After all there is a lot of water between the two countries and I’m pretty sure most Americans have never seen “Jim’ll Fix It” or even heard of it.

*it’s interesting to note that after the resultant scandal involving Savile’s sexual escapades with underage girls that the title of his old Show, Jim’ll Fix It, now sounds like the prelude or a punch line to a dirty joke. I suppose that with new “evidence” being unearthed almost daily it has.*

Jimmy Savile had been a national institution in England for years. This eccentric DJ who raised millions for charity and was universally loved by most of the country for his seemingly never-ending generosity has turned out to be “a kiddie fiddler” in sheep’s clothing; at least according to the many people who are coming forward after his death to point an accusatory finger at him.

These posthumous accusations have resulted in the “Knight of the Realm” in being publicly vilified and his reputation is in tatters. His surviving family have been rocked by the news and the public (and the BBC) have been busily taking down plaques and signs that glorified Sir Jimmy’s works and deeds.

It is interesting to see another country besides Russia making a public person disappear. Will England go as far as “Ivan” and eradicate Savile’s physical presence from old publicity photo’s?

I wouldn’t be surprised.

Now don’t get me wrong. It makes me feel quite ill to think of anyone sexualizing young underage girls. It makes perfect sense that entertainers like Gary Glitter (real name Paul Gadd) should be sent to prison for having sex with minors. It’s called child abuse and it is illegal. Not to mention immoral. But Glitter despite his similarity to Savile is still alive. Savile is not and he cannot, therefore be tried for his alleged crimes.

Gary Glitter aka Paul Gadd under arrest earlier this year.

What is interesting about the whole thing is how former “colleagues” of Sir Jimmy are “coming forward” to tell anyone who will listen about how they knew all along that Jim was messing with young underage girls. “They wanted to say something, they really did, but Jimmy was a public institution. Who would believe them?” In an earlier day and age that would have been, sadly, true. In most cases, back in the 70’s (When Jim’ll Fix It was in its heyday and Savile was still a very public figure) people would not have believed that such a thing went on.

But that sort of naivety is astonishing. At the bottom line of all the allegations, the vast majority of which centre around his dealing with young girls on his Jim’ll Fix It show, the show itself was on television. And what is television? It is part of the entertainment industry. And what is the entertainment industry well-known for? Sexual advances to young women (and men) aka “the casting couch.”

Especially in television there have always been the tales (told out of school, of course) about sexual advances, favours, and acts being exchanged, forced, or implied as part of a contractual agreement. Okay, so I am talking about actors and actresses here, folks who know about the less savoury aspects of working on television, but really most folks like directors and producers and other assorted members of any film crew etc will know of the practises that go on.

The fact that these “knowledgeable” colleagues are only coming forward now is reprehensible and disgusting. Why? Because if they did really know what he was up to, they should have said so then; even if they had waited till Savile had retired, it would have been more admirable and given the authorities a chance to investigate. Savile could have defended himself and, more importantly, been punished or acquitted via the legal system. His alleged victims could then have the closure they so desperately need.

Now that he has passed on, the legal system and the BBC have instigated a “closing the barn door after the bull’s got out” type of witch-hunt where they are arresting and questioning a lot of celebrities who have had access to underage girls. This act of “tarring with the same brush” is not only unfair, but the publicity it is garnering is harmful to the people involved.

Fair enough if they are guilty as charged but if they are innocent? If this knee jerk reaction to the Sir Jimmy Savile debacle is anything to go by, we are heading towards dangerous ground friends and neighbours.

One of the causes of the mass child abuse hysteria. False memories.

The public are heading to that “overly sensitive” awareness of child abuse (in the sexual area) that got America in so much trouble a few years back. Have we forgotten how “well-meaning” therapists and psychiatrists misdiagnosed entire day care facilities of ritualised child abuse in the form of Satanic ceremonies and child porn? Just type in Child Care Sex Abuse Hysteria into your Google search engine and an entry to Wikipedia will list 13 day care facilities that were hit by this.

In a world where the media sexualises children to a huge extent, we need to be careful to look at the source and not chase non-existent “boogey-men” or create an “over awareness” of the problem. We need to be dealing with the media that consistently sexualises children.

As sad and horrible as the accusations against the late Jimmy Savile are, we need to keep everything in perspective here. These accusations and allegations are not proven, nor are they likely to be. The witch-hunting by the press, police and the BBC are still ongoing. Everyone needs to take a breath and step back from the whole sordid mess.

A newspaper blogger has opined that if you were abused by Savile, the best course of action might be to be quiet about it. The issue was that you would never get closure and would be tagged as a victim, a wounded soul who deserved sympathy rather than the person that you are. A valid point in this case.

It is my honest opinion that the folks in the business who are now coming forward to state that they knew this was going on should be vilified. If they couldn’t be brave or upstanding enough to say something when it would have accomplished something apart from publicity, they should pay a price. It makes common sense.

No one has ever been rewarded for yelling fire after the house has burned down. And neither should they benefit from shouting abuse after the individual named can no longer be punished by the law.

Rest In Peace?
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Do Not Adjust Your Set, We Have Control

English: Official logo for the ATF
English: Official logo for the ATF (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Okay call me cynical, but as I wrote my last blog-post about the ‘Midnight Shooter‘ something kept nibbling away at the back of my brain. I went to sleep on it with the hopes that this brain-eating problem would make itself known when I woke up in the morning.

It did.

The thing that kept ‘pinging’ my brain was the phrase “Fast and Furious.” Now unless you’ve been under a rock for the past year or on another planet, you’re going to be aware of the ‘scandal’ associated with that phrase. But just in case you missed it, here it is.

In 2011 it was discovered that the ATF  (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) had been operating a ‘sting’ operation which sold guns to Mexican drug cartels. For years. The ATF’s version of events was that this was done to aid in the identification of said cartel’s and ease the shut-down of the identified drug running organizations.

I cannot begin to imagine who in the world thought this was a good idea.  What kind of sting operation arms criminals?

It now appears that the whole Fast and Furious plan was about helping instigate new and stricter gun control laws. I can get behind the idea of stricter sales procedures for weapons as long as they don’t become too constrictive. The government have to make sure that they don’t go the way of England and make it practically impossible for an honest law-abiding citizen to own a gun.

If you ‘google’ the question how many mass shootings occurred in the last year you will get an array of answers. The highest amount quoted is 20 per year. Now as that source relied on information gleaned from a Russian website, I feel that the numbers might be a little exaggerated. Despite Russia’s new political “freedom” they still are not card carrying members of the “I heart USA” club.

What I am wondering about, is how this latest in the headline grabbing world of mass murder will help support the gun control advocates cause? I will freely admit that the conspiracy nut part of my brain embraces the idea that the ‘news‘ of the Midnight Shooters arsenal  collection via the internet combined with the ‘fact’ that he bought his weapons at four different gun outlets plays very nicely into the hands of the gun control advocates.

In a time period where the United States Government is hell-bent on controlling the world’s internet and the same government’s agencies provide weapons to Mexican drug cartels  in order to force gun law changes and now have unmanned drones that can take a picture of the average American’s navel fluff, is it that huge of a leap to think that this whole ‘midnight massacre’ plays very conveniently for the “Say no to guns brigade?”

We need to be paying very close attention to what is going on here. This whole ‘control’ thing is getting out of hand. Our government is there to protect and by extension act for us, not against us. This “scaremongering” needs to stop. If we keep focussing on stricter gun controls and ignore the constitutional right to bear arms, we could wind up like the UK . A place where juvenile gangs and other criminals have ready access to guns and the average citizen has to practically sell their soul to own a shotgun.

The same citizen who, if he defends his home and family a bit too vigorously will be penalized and imprisoned. That’s what losing the right to bear arms means. It means that you can no longer protect your home or loved ones from the evil that walks the streets.

Yes, what happened in a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado was vile, horrible and terrifying. So is losing the right to defend yourself.  

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Midnight Shooter the Jokes on Him

*Note: I will not put any images of James Holmes up in this post as I refuse to aid his obvious wish for fame.*

As if we really needed another reason to not interact with our fellow inhabitants on this planet we call home we now have the aptly named Midnight Shooter.

The ‘Midnight Shooter’ aka James Holmes, who was in the process of ‘dropping out’ of his neuroscience course at the University of Colorado, is a 24 year old man who amassed over 6,000 rounds of ammunition, four different guns, incendiary devices, tear gas cannisters and materials to make grenades and napalm. All this on top of his body armour kit which included crotch and neck protection and a gas mask. Most of this, police say, was purchased over the internet and delivered to Holmes’ residence.

Holmes spent two months planning his midnight slaughter at the premier of the eagerly awaited Christopher Nolan film Batman: The Dark Knight Rises. It appears that Holmes bought a ticket to the midnight viewing and after going in, wedged open an exit door and went to his car to arm himself and armour up. He then re-entered the theatre and tossing two tear gas cannisters on the floor, opened fire with a semi-automatic assault rifle.

The body count was amazingly and thankfully low. Fourteen unfortunate film fans died in the onslaught and estimates of the injured has been rumoured to be as high as fifty. Details of the arrest of Holmes is vague, but it appears that his rifle jammed and he used his pistol until he ran out of ammunition. Presumably he surrendered when he ran out of ammo.

Obviously that was his intent all along. Why kit yourself up with state-of-the-art body armour if you intend to go out in a blazing gun battle with the police. If you’ve gone to all that trouble, you don’t want the police to kill you before you have your fifteen minutes of fame.

What’s disgusting is that this animal is now telling all and sundry that he’s in a movie. Incredibly every bugger he’s told this to is now repeating it as gospel.

It’s almost like the punch line to a bad joke, you know the one I’m sure. “I might be crazy but I’m not stupid!” So we are meant to believe that this murderous, fame seeking beast really believes that he’s in a film and that none of this is real? Yeah all right mate, pull the other one it’s got bells on.

I suppose we could give him a little credit. At least he didn’t claim it was because he’d played Grand Theft Auto for 48 hours straight. Or that God had told him to do it.

No, he’s claiming to be ‘The Joker‘ from the Batman verse. Sorry, but I’m not buying it. James Holmes is another of these ‘special’ kids who had to grow up only to realize that he’s not special at all.

If you want to look for blame or for a reason, look at our society today. Our ‘child worship’ as George Carlin put it, is causing our youth to grow up into ever more disenchanted adults. I did a article about the fact that a load of school kids said they wanted fame as a job when they grew up. Our culture has allowed this to happen. The only thing people seem to be teaching their children is the attitude of being owed something.

I’m sure that if Holmes’ past is looked into, we’ll find he was a spoiled, unrealistic child who believed he was so special that he didn’t need to exert himself to succeed in anything. Just like his neuroscience class that was ‘too hard’ he found that life was too hard to face normally. So this cretin purchases huge amounts of killing materials and makes his plans.

Unfortunately for Holmes when it is proved that he meticulously planned his slaughter, he’ll be done for murder one. And America has the death penalty sunshine, I hope you continue to feel special right up to your last breath.

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Marijuana and Bathsalts, Oh Really?

Miami-Dade Police Department
Miami-Dade Police Department (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The world was shocked to its very civilised core when the story broke about a face eating incident in Miami, Florida. For the uninitiated or those of you who were on the moon when this story broke, here are the basics of the story.

Rudi Eugene was shot to death by Miami Dade police while he was in the process of eating a homeless man’s face. When Rudi was approached by the police and told to stop he growled and continued eating. Rudi was naked at the time of this incident. My first thoughts were that he was overdosing on cocaine or PCP or some type of meth’s.

Amazingly I’ve not read anything about Rudi’s corpse being tested for anything other than marijuana and bathsalts. Does anyone else have that, huh, feeling? Now I am not a drugs expert by any means. I was too young for the Swinging Sixties and too timid to indulge in the marijuana movement of the Seventies. *Perhaps not much of a “movement” anywhere else but where I was growing up.*

I will admit that I was very puzzled over the testing for bathsalts. I didn’t realize until later that this was a term for a new “designer drug” that has similar effects to amphetamine and cocaine. So it came as no surprise that Eugene was tested for this. I was a bit taken aback when I read that police were still considering the marijuana issue.

As far as I know, Pot gives you the munchies all right, but not for someone else’s face. Doritos, pizza, anything in the fridge, yes. Faces no.

Of course what is also shocking, repulsive and weird is that Rudi was not alone in his ‘craving’ for human flesh. No less than ten other cases of cannibalism have been reported (or perhaps unearthed is a better term) since Rudi was gunned down in his birthday suit chomping another man’s face.

One or two of these ‘stories’ can be dismissed as the working of a sick and deranged mind. The others don’t really seem to have a lot in common with Rudi’s snack preferences. But, if you look at studies that scientists made on rats and their behaviour when their numbers got too big, it won’t come as too much of a surprise.

When a rat population or colony becomes overcrowded, scientists discovered the rats began fighting each other and resorting to cannibalism. In essence attacking each other and eating the loser. Since sociologically rats are our first cousin, so to speak, it begs the question, are we becoming overcrowded?

The obvious answer is yes. With advancements in modern medicine, better diet and less strenuous life styles, people are living longer. A longer life cycle equates to having more and more people. Ergo, we are all starting to act like the rats. Don’t believe me? Check out your fellow drivers and passengers the next time you get caught in a traffic jam. I know I’ve been angry and frustrated enough to go out and start biting someone after waiting for an hours long bottleneck to clear up.

But as disturbing as this thought is, and believe me folks are disturbed, or as fanciful (there are lots of zombie apocalypse theories out there at the moment) it might be, I think the media is giving us a clue where this will head.

Every article I’ve read repeatedly brings up the marijuana and bathsalts angle. Either through test results or the speculation of symptoms of either drug. I think that I will not be too surprised to see a governmental crack down of both drugs. Either that or the media is participating in a misdirection exercise and there really is a zombie apocalypse looming in our immediate future.

If that is the case? I’m going to start getting ready.  I’ll start watching George A. Romero‘s films and definitely watch Shaun of the Dead (we do live in England) and train. Can anyone tell me the quickest way to The Winchester?

Cover of "Shaun of the Dead"
Cover of Shaun of the Dead
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2012 Olympics: G4S Lets the Side Down on Security

So G4S, the company that helps the prisons in England to move their prisoners, who were contracted to provide the security for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, have seriously fallen short in the area of numbers.

To be fair the target numbers for ‘policing’ the games has gone up repeatedly since the initial estimate from officials of 2000 people. Due to repeated ‘re-estimates’, the number required is now 10,000. G4S has agreed each time to the increases and now at the eleventh hour have fallen very short.

With the Olympics due to start on the 27th of this month, organizers are starting to panic. The army, who are already pretty much over tasked, have been further tasked to provide around 4000 troops  to bolster security. Leaves are being cancelled as they attempt to fill G4S’s shortfall.

But how did we get into this mess? Were the organizers and the government too busy rubbing their hands together in anticipation of the money that the games will undoubtedly bring pouring in? Why were their estimates at the beginning of negotiations with G4S so low compared to what they now want?

Surely somebody in the government or the games organizers would have had a better idea of what was required in the way of security. The news stations are focusing on G4S and implying it is their fault. I think that the fault lies with all three of the players.

The government for not taking the security seriously from the out set. I think that they obviously left the decision up to the organizers.

The organizers for believing it was acceptable to keep changing the goal posts that they originally agreed upon and expecting G4S to “step up smartly” each time they changed the numbers.

G4S for failing to tell the number changers that it was not able to meet the higher requirements, instead of pointing out what they had originally agreed on.

I believe that G4s is just as guilty as the government and the organizers of rubbing their hands together in anticipation of a ‘great little earner.’ In a similar fashion of “not seeing the forest for the trees” I think all the main players in this little fiasco couldn’t see the logistics for the money.

Why couldn’t they have contacted out to more companies to provide security when the initial numbers turned out to be too low. That way they could have shared the wealth and met their ever increasing requirements.

Nobody really believes that the pressure to hold the Olympics was down to “national pride” or any such sentimentality. It has always been about the money and the revenue that will be generated by visiting athletes and their supporters from other countries.

I’m sure that everyone connected with this security gaffe knew all along that G4S could not provide the numbers that finally were decided on. I think they always intended to seconder the military to help out.

Since it is all about the money, why cut your possible net profit down by having to pay for more security when you can get the military to do it for no extra cost.

I won’t used the clichéd phrase of  “something being rotten” but I will say the whole debacle stinks to high heaven.

London 2012 banner at The Monument.
London 2012 banner at The Monument. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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