Band of Brothers

I've just come back from spending the weekend walking in the footsteps of the 'Band of Brothers'!
Well, not all of them of course but the bit where they experienced very tough times at Bastogne during the 'Battle of the Bulge' which, you will recall, took place in the Ardenne on the Belgian/German border.
Wandering around the frozen, snowy landscape really focusses ones mind on the privations and personal sacrifices these, and others, endured.
This was my second visit, the first being in 1968 when I discovered all sorts of paraphenalia left over from the battle by both the Allies and Axis forces. On this occasion, with the ground covered in 25cm of snow, no such relics were obvious.
A sad and moving experience but something i just needed to do!

The oldest living Easy Company member is Frank Perconte, aged 94, and the youngest is Don Bond aged 85. To date, and following the death of 86-year-old Hank Zimmerman, an an amazing 32 Easy Company members remain living.

Profound thoughts for today.

Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTMV-uBYkWo&feature=related.
Watch and learn...........
You have been fooled.

Jeez

I get really f...ed up with people using phrases that are just not right.............

for example

sodding news readers that say ..........'ahead of' eg., 'ahead of next weeks summit', where the fuck did that come from? whats wrong with 'before'???

Also when I hear people saying that something was decimated, like its a bad thing, if it's decimated, there is 90% left, thats good, isnt it?

I know if my wallet contents were decimated after a night on the lash I'd be pretty happy about that!

People trying to sound sophisticated by saying ...'going forward'! wtf the matter with 'in future'????

I serioulsy want to strangle any 'female pudenda' that says someone or thing is 'iconic', no they/it's not they/it's just slightly memorable.
Jeeez.........

Thoughts for my day.

Feeling Devalued

How nice for Saif al-Islam Gaddafi that, despite his murky dealings with the London School of Economics, he can still call himself “Dr Gaddafi”. Admittedly, he spent thousands of pounds on private “advice”, and there’s a strong suspicion that he employed a ghost writer. But the university, after due consideration, is letting him keep his degree. I wish I’d known the rules were so flexible when I spent years flogging my guts out to get my various and numerous qualifications. Ditto for both my children. The saddo Saif, with, allegedly, assistance from a certain former Prime Minister has effectively devalued one of the pillars of the British education system! ...kin charmin!

Speed was a Newark (anag)

2 Para Reg Support & 2 Rifles on Op Herrick 15: Gary Speed, a sports manager, takes his own life and receives a stupendous amount of respects and homage paid to him today. A soldier from 5 Rifles was also killed today, half Gary's age and died whilst serving our country, yet all he receives is a ten second mention on the radio then the world forgets him. I hate that we live in a world where the only deaths we concern ourselves with are celebrities, not heroes.

A Humanist on religion

Religion is like a penis.
It's fine to have one.
It's fine to be proud of it.
But please dont whip it out in public and start waving it around....
and PLEASE dont try and shove it down my childrens throats.

British veterans 'should not be allowed to wear medals awarded by other Commonwealth nations

It was mine and WOI Peter Padley's honour and priviledge to organise and arrange for 155 former military personell to be awarded the PJM at a ceremony in Alicante in 2007. The ceremony was presided over by The Malaysian Defence Attache, Colonel Tadjri Alwi who gave a moving and eloquent eulogy to the assembled 450 recipients and families present. The damp eyes evident amongst the veterans as they were awarded their PJM was clear to see. How dare the armchair warriors in the Commons even speak about these people who are evidently now part of yet another of Britains 'Forgotten Armies'.

It's peculiar how the Assies and the Kiwis have official permission from the Queen to wear the PJM but her own British subjects cannot! What happened to the Commonwealth????????????

In reality, there is no way of policing this foolish piece of legislation! The current survivors of the 'Confrontation' (a euphemism if ever there was one) who spent a year or more in the stinking, hot and humid jungles of Borneo, often in great danger from the enemy, have been given a legitimate gift by the Malaysian Government. No medal-less politician can even imagine the circumstances let alone judge who should display the award. Oddly, I also officially wear the Pingat Laila Tugas presented by the Sultan of Brunei and this, in their infinite wisdom, is OK to display. Double standards and duplicity from the back-benches as usual. Worse from DC who promised, in oposition, to allow us to wear the PJM.
David Mills - Captain (Retd)GSM&Bar,LSGC,PLT,PJM.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2051196/Veterans-NOT-allowed-wear-medals-awarded-Commonwealth-nations-says-Government.html#ixzz1bJikuc4K

More Dale farm

The reason that the overwhelming majority of people are pleased to see the eviction go ahead is not because they are prejudiced against travellers but because they are prejudiced against people who don't recognise the rule of law.

Their female spokesperson for the travellers was happy enough with the judicial process when the High Court allowed a stay of execution a few weeks back. When they exhausted their legal remedies, they showed their true colours: erecting barricades, stock-piling weapons, hurling bricks in the faces of law enforcement personnel, whingeing when those same personnel used taser to defend themselves, and encouraging anarchists to help them with their dirty work.
And as for the £18 million which the eviction might cost. This is not money which Basildon Council has squandered; it's money they would like to have spent on other much needed public services but couldn't because they had to uphold the law. The travellers themselves, by their refusal to negotiate and refusal to obey the law, have forced the Council spend this money. I have the greatest sympathy for the long suffering residents of Crays Hill, the tax payers of Basildon and any other community forced to endure the scourge of lawless anti-social travellers and the cost of their removal.
If travellers want rights, they must first recognise the existence of obligations, first and foremost the obligation to obey the law. Then maybe those who voted so overwhelmingly in the poll for their eviction to go ahead, may start to accord them the same respect given to other minority groups.

Dale Farm

As for this 'culturally appropriate' housing charade, this is the UK. Here, we have British culture, seeing as this is Britain (funny how that works, isnt it...but appears to completely mystify some characters) and if people want some other sort of culture, maybe they should avail themselves of their total freedom to bugger off and locate it, wherever it is.
We are under no obligation to offer anything special, tailor-made etc., to anyone at all.
When you have earned enough money to arrange your life as you feel you'd like it, then that's one thing. Some people thnk that it is their right to demand, free of charge, any damn thing they can dream up, at no personal cost whatsoever.
Such people are known as piss takers.
I must also ask why is it that the Police are ostracised for carrying out a very difficult task not of their making, whilst the protestors, who started the violence, are not even mildly rebuked?
These protestors and occupiers were told quite clearly by the Courts that what they were doing was against the laws of this Country. There may well be other issued regarding what the Council has, or has not, done and it's responsibilities. That is a matter of Civil Law and not within the Police remit. What happened to good old common sense and justice being exhibited by these protestors?

Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned.

Q&A

Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned.

Rufugees? Sod 'em!

Why do the supposed ‘refugees’ want to settle in the UK?
Perhaps it's because of the very generous benefit system of hand-outs, the unlikelihood of being tortured by the state and the freedom to live your life as you wish within reason (unlike that you would experience under the heavy sandal of Islam).
Or maybe it's just the absent smell of open sewers.
If you don't like it you know where you can go.
The real hypocrisy here is of those people and cultures that come to our charitable shores, try to make it as primitive and oppressive as it was in the place they came from and then complain that they don't like it.
It all makes me wonder if gratitude and altruism are uniquely western cultural norms.

Thought for the day!

So they want to stick gruesome images on cigarette packs..??
Why not pictures of starving children on McDonald's packaging..?
Why not tortured animals on cosmetics products..?
Why not put the photos of the victims of drunken drivers, on beer and wine bottles..?
Why not pictures of dishonest, thieving Politicians enjoying our money, on tax returns..?

Riots - The cause & solution.

Pat Condell highlight the causes and the solution.
I agree 100%

http://dotsub.com/view/6474921d-8943-443b-9128-de62aa3b3e54

My thoughs exactly............

"Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you’d have good people doing good things and evil people doing bad things, but for good people to do bad things, it takes religion." - Steven Weinberg

BB

Blairs Britain + Browns Britain = Broken Britain.

Democracy and Banana Republics

On the subject of democracy it is worth glancing, fleetingly, at that wealthy banana dictatorship known as “FIFA”.
It should come as no surprise at all that Mr. Sepp Blatter, the man upon whose watch the name and reputation of international football has been dragged through the gutter of corruption has been re-elected unopposed as the head of this rotten state. Why on earth any nation with any self-respect left at all continues to maintain Membership of this thoroughly discredited organisation is beyond me. And to make matters worse, while two hundred and fifty thousand British taxpayers, including the families of some competitors, cannot get tickets for the 2012 Olympic Games , because Fatty Blubber is a member of the IOC, FIFA`s freeloading dodgy junketeers are to be given prominent seats! Their governance and conduct makes even the European Union look honest.

On the subject of democracy it is worth glancing, fleetingly, at that wealthy banana dictatorship known as “FIFA”.
It should come as no surprise at all that Mr. Sepp Blatter, the man upon whose watch the name and reputation of international football has been dragged through the gutter of corruption has been re-elected unopposed as the head of this rotten state. Why on earth any nation with any self-respect left at all continues to maintain Membership of this thoroughly discredited organisation is beyond me. And to make matters worse, while two hundred and fifty thousand British taxpayers, including the families of some competitors, cannot get tickets for the 2012 Olympic Games , because Fatty Blubber is a member of the IOC, FIFA`s freeloading dodgy junketeers are to be given prominent seats! Their governance and conduct makes even the European Union look honest.

Democracy and Banana Republics

On the subject of democracy it is worth glancing, fleetingly, at that wealthy banana dictatorship known as “FIFA”.
It should come as no surprise at all that Mr. Sepp Blatter, the man upon whose watch the name and reputation of international football has been dragged through the gutter of corruption has been re-elected unopposed as the head of this rotten state. Why on earth any nation with any self-respect left at all continues to maintain Membership of this thoroughly discredited organisation is beyond me. And to make matters worse, while two hundred and fifty thousand British taxpayers, including the families of some competitors, cannot get tickets for the 2012 Olympic Games , because Fatty Blubber is a member of the IOC, FIFA`s freeloading dodgy junketeers are to be given prominent seats! Their governance and conduct makes even the European Union look honest.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line: The Arabs aren't happy!


They're not happy in Gaza..
They're not happy in Egypt.
They're not happy in Libya.
They're not happy in Morocco.
They're not happy in Iran..
They're not happy in Iraq..
They're not happy in Yemen.
They're not happy in Afghanistan.
They're not happy in Pakistan.
They're not happy in Syria.
They're not happy in Lebanon.

And where are they happy?
They're happy in England.
They're happy in France.
They're happy in Italy.
They're happy in Germany.
They're happy in Sweden.
They're happy in the USA.
They're happy in Norway.
They're happy in every country that is not Muslim.

And who do they blame?
Not Islam.
Not their leadership.
Not themselves.


THEY BLAME THE COUNTRIES IN WHICH THEY ARE HAPPY.





...Now, why is that?

Saying it straight...........

If you haven't seen this guy before, you've missed an extraordinarily erudite speaker who was a comedian before he found his niche. He is serious when he is funny, and he is funny when he is serious. And, boy, does he make sense. This is his latest, and I think the first of 2011.

http://dotsub.com/media/b5ee5ada-5b37-4b0b-9916-e0896337ec4b/e/m

Soon to be OAP

Overheard in the Local Cafe

At the weekend I was sitting in a local supermarket café for the obligatory cuppa whilst out doing my weekly shop.
A family were sitting behind me, mother in her 40’s and daughter who looked around 17/18.
A statement that the daughter made (rather loudly – my hearing is not what it used to be) made me wonder what the hell is happening.
The statement was about her getting a flat with her mate and “ as she only got £600 per month on the social” she could not afford a flat on her own, but with both of them getting that amount they could afford it between them.
Now to me £600 per month equates to £150 per week tax free for a single woman of say 18 yrs of age. That is the benefits she is entitled to – and from what she was saying she knew exactly what she could and should claim for.
What astounds me is that it has obviously been decided by the great and the good, that a single young person needs £150 per week to live on. If this is the case why is it that a pensioner only requires £96 to live on (£150 for a couple) – that’s the basic pension for a single person in receipt of the “old age pension”.
To me it beggars belief that the young require more than the older, who need to find the additional cost of heating etc, just to stay alive.
I am not yet in receipt of OAP - but will be in six mnonths, luckily I have the military pension also so I won’t need to live on that sum.
Is it only me that thinks that benefits for all people should be based on the amount that the government believe is the correct sum for someone in receipt of OAP?

Churchill saw it coming.

Unbelievable, but the speech below was written in 1899, delivered by Winston Churchill in 1899 when he was a young soldier and journalist. It probably sets out the current views of many but expressed in the wonderful Churchillian turn of phrase and use of the English language, of which he was a past master. Sir Winston Churchill was a brave young soldier, a brilliant journalist, an extraordinary politician and statesman, a great war leader and Prime Minister, to whom the Western world is in his debt. He was a prophet in his own time.

HERE IS THE SPEECH:

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries, improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement, the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome."

Sir Winston Churchill; (The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50 London )

Churchill saw it coming.