Twisted Spinster

He has some good news (see the Wednesday update).

England continues to sink:

A revamp of the scout movement will allow boys and girls to earn badges for skills such as skateboarding, making a fruit salad and racing quad bikes.

(This is the Boy Scout association in Great Britain — I don’t see this practice being adopted on these shores for at least another six months, or after Hillary! is elected president and everything becomes Kinder & Gentler, etc.)

I can’t wait for the new merit badges in Crying, Hugging, and Nose Blowing. Seriously, British society gets more schizoid by the day. On the one hand, the entire country becomes a vomitorium every holiday. On the other hand, their much-beloved welfare state has gone beyond mere provision of jobs, council homes, and health care right into regulating increasingly petty aspects of all life, while in the meantime selling out more and more of the native population’s culture in order to placate that of what is basically Britain’s (and the rest of the West’s) avowed enemy. Then there are the much-hated CCTV cameras, which it must be admitted are a convenient plot device for many of the new shows coming out of the UK these days. On shows like Torchwood and the new Doctor Who both the good and bad guys use these things with aplomb, with no mention of their ambiguous status among non-fictional Britons… though perhaps Big Brother’s spy eyes have finally been accepted by the citizenry as being an inevitable part of modern life, the way security cameras installed by private companies are over here. And last but not least, as more and more Dangerous Sharp Things are removed by official fiat from the fingers of British citizens lest someone cut himself (leading, I am sure, to the days when all food will be provided pre-mushed so there will be no need for anything but spoons — or in other words, British food will be back to its old format), the above-mentioned tv shows as well as some others that have been allowed to filter over into PBS channels and BBCAmerica feature plenty of good old-fashioned violence; the lead female character in Torchwood is even allowed in the first episode to have a fun time learning to shoot a gun. Even the new Doctor turns out to have blown up his own home planet in a war, though it must be said he is supposed to feel real bad for doing so. Popular TV shows are as good a way of judging a society’s state of mind as any; the evidence here states that the British people are not yet ready to go quietly into that good sheep paddock — on the other hand, they’d rather all the dirty work be done, or at least be able to be blamed, on “outsiders,” whether foreign (as in, from a galaxy far, far away), or members of a Mission Impossible-style “beyond the law” group of pals. They won’t even clean their own homes without Kim and Aggie badgering them.

Anyway, this worries me on two fronts: one is the fact that I’d like to go back to England before its transformation into the Islamic Socialist Republic of Great Britain; two is the fact that whatever happens over there inevitably wends its way across the ocean to these parts — and we’re really not so far behind as all that. (Though I can’t imagine Americans putting up with this sort of thing at all. On the other hand, if the cameras were equipped with laser beams that would cause the offender to disintegrate in a puff of smoke, there might be a debate, split between the “this is cruel and unusual punishment!” and “wow that’s really cool I’ve always wanted to do that to people who spit on the sidewalk” contingents.)

(Via.)

Update: a-aand right on cue, here we go: a Muslim cashier at a Marks & Spencer store refuses to do her job — that is, she refuses to let her pristine, holy fingers touch an “unclean”Christian book in order to key in the price. At least the customer complained. I am sure that the next step will be to charge the offender — that is, the woman who tried to buy the “unclean” book — with a “hate crime” for forcing the Muslim woman to have to see a product which she must have seen every damn day in the store she works for. By the way, the nasty, dirty book was a collection of children’s Bible stories titled First Bible Stories. Ewww! Haram! (Via.)

Tim’s having a minor health setback. Foolish, foolish cancer cells — don’t they know what copious applications of vegemite and whatever other scary food Australians eat (kangaroo patties, I think) will do to them? One almost — almost — feels a dram of pity for the misguided beasties… Drop offers of support, beer, dancing nurses in short skirts, etc., in the comments.

Sorry folks. I just am so bored with everything. Apparently there is some sort of election coming up, and people are either obsessed with it or… actually, I can’t find much mention of anything else on the internet but stuff about the election. I can’t even get away from it by watching foreign tv — BBCAmerica’s version of the BBC News demonstrates the sad fact that election obsession has infected those across the pond. Hey guys? I get enough garbage about Huckleberry and Fred Flintstone and She-Wolf of Washington and RuPaul (whatever) from my own folk. By the way, did you dump Tony Blair for some Scottish dude? I don’t follow these things.

One more thing: am I the only person who hates that stupid Dunkin’ Donuts commercial and wants to find whoever came up with that “doin’ things is what we like to do!” song and duct tape them to a termite mound and smear them with honey? Please say I’m not the only one. Keep my faith in humanity burning.

Don’t forget the fundraiser. If my readers all chipped in, I don’t know, a dollar, I’d have… a few dollars?

It’s a lovely night, which means people are hanging around outdoors in the courtyard/playground outside my apartment, which means their children are with them, which means I get to listen to the neighbor infant that has a sustained screech that sounds like a mountain lion with it’s paw caught in a bear trap, only less musical.

(PS: don’t forget the fundraiser. I may add earplugs to the budget. Thanks to all who have contributed so far!)

…to the people who donated $$$ to my little Fundraiser. It’s still going on, as is the job search. Today in desperation I applied for a temporary county job via a staffing agency. Everything is staffing agencies here. Of course, this being Orange County, Florida, this particular staffing agency was located in a strip shopping mall in lovely “South Orlando,” which could use a makeover to get rid of that Ye Olde Faded Crack Towne look it has now. But the office people seemed nice enough.

I am beginning to wonder if I should rewrite my resume. The job search game here is ridiculous. I hope it’s just the Holiday Hangover, not a permanent state of affairs. I think I only have a couple more unemployment checks left, then I am SOL. If the situation doesn’t improve, I have the feeling I am going to have to look in another city or state. As long as I don’t have to move back to Miami…

Okay, kids, I’ve picked this red and black theme for now. But more important than that, I’m having my first fundraiser of the new year. I can’t say that I am broke because of the holidays, because I was broke then, but I still haven’t found a job. Rent is due, bills are coming up, etc. Also my cats are mad at me because I ran out of their canned food and only have dry. They are starting to eye me hungrily — as in, “You know, we are meat-eaters, and the two-legged thing does seem to be made out of meat.”

I’m running through a bunch of themes for this site. Looks are important, don’t you know?

Real content coming soon. Yes I know I’ve said this about a zillion times.

I used to have Andrew Olmsted on my old blogroll. I think I still do. We may have actually communicated, via comments or such, several computers and blogs ago. Well, he apparently had a post ready to be uploaded in case he was killed in the war. Here it is. I hope he took some of the enemy with him. Everyone needs someone to shine his boots and bring him his mead in the afterlife.

Via Ace of Spades.

Update: here is more information, on his site on the Rocky Mountain News.

Next Day Update: more at Tim Blair’s site.

Actually, I’ve only been so drunk as to have to lay down on the sidewalk once in my life. (And no, that wasn’t last night.) Really, it’s embarrassing to see that the British can no longer hold their liquor. Once that happens then the downward slide is inevitable. Then again, the only way to put up with scores of drunken people is to get smashed yourself. It’s a vicious circle. That’s why I stay indoors.

(Via Kathy Shaidle.)