Last night in the US a very special episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU) was broadcast. The story centred around a young, black, female pop star who was viciously assaulted by her young, black, male popstar boyfriend. Despite this and ignoring everybody's advice the woman kept returning to the man time and time again. Although the episode along with all the others carried the disclaimer about the events being purely fictional you can't help but feel that this was somehow inspired by the Rihanna and Chris Brown story. Obviously we won't get to see this episode in the UK for another 18 months to 2 years and even then I may not watch it. After all we all know how the story ends.
While from personal experience I know that it's never a great feeling when aspects of your life form the perfect basis for stories about the most heinous crimes committed in New York City I feel I should mention this. That's because it perfectly underlines my point that for people who work around these sort of things there is nothing complicated or mysterious about Rihanna and Chris Brown's reunion. In fact you could go so far to say it's just another day at the office which itself raises serious questions about the conduct of Chris Browns probation officer.
On a completely related note France has announced that it won't even be attempting to put together a United Nations (UN) force for Mali until April 2013 at the earliest. Even with immediate adoption it will be a minimum of two further months before that force is ready for action. That date can of course slip back even further if by some miracle Chris Brown isn't indicted on multiple counts of perverting the course of justice, fraud etc come April 5th (5/4/13). That would put the Mali conflict at serious risk of the fall of colliding with the very messy fall of the Assad government in Syria.
So I think I should point out that we're not talking about fitting Brown up for some crime for the sake of international diplomacy. Instead we're talking about removing the protection that has so far prevented Brown being prosecuted for crimes he has already committed.
14:15 on 28/2/13.
Thursday 28 February 2013
Wednesday 27 February 2013
Sunday's Special Mail Delivery.
On Sunday (24/2/13) I received a very special mail delivery. The first clue that it was very special was the fact is was the day of the Oscars. The second clue that it was very special was that in the UK we don't receive mail deliveries on Sundays.
The first letter was from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) informing me that my claim for contribution based Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) expired on February 20th (20/2/13). However rather then being transfered directly over to income based ESA I will have to instead experience a period of zero income while I obtain, complete and return a 54 page form known as an ESA3. Today I telephoned the DWP and requested that form is sent to me in the post.
The second letter was from my GP informing me that they have received my ECG results. However rather then providing any further information it rather ominously requests that I contact them so they can discuss the results with me. Although this is a standard form letter if the analysis of that ECG shows anything other then me being in perfect physical health this could lead to an unfortunate dispute over my medical care at exactly the time I'm making a claim for ESA based on my medical condition. Needless to say I won't be contacting my GP until such a time that I am equipped to check the analysts interpretation of that ECG result. After all it was around the time that my paternal grandmother's rare congenital heart defect leapt the genetic barrier and started affecting my maternal cousin most people decided that Britain was really just taking the p*ss.
By an amazing coincidence just as I received the first lot of letters from the DWP last Thursday (21/2/13) my scanner/printer suddenly broke meaning that I can't share these letters with you. Nor can I print out any documents.
That last point is particularly annoying because I've decided that I will be writing to the DWP to ask them to review their decision to place me in a work related activity group. This is a precursor to launching a formal appeal through the Courts. I'm sure though that once the DWP has been made aware of what happened that last time I undertook work related activity (Enterprise House) they will realise their massive and clunking error and reverse their decision before we have to bother the Courts or Zimbabwe with their massive and clunking error. Therefore I should be straight back on contribution based ESA before the application form for income based ESA has even arrived in the mail.
20:20 on 27/2/13.
The first letter was from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) informing me that my claim for contribution based Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) expired on February 20th (20/2/13). However rather then being transfered directly over to income based ESA I will have to instead experience a period of zero income while I obtain, complete and return a 54 page form known as an ESA3. Today I telephoned the DWP and requested that form is sent to me in the post.
The second letter was from my GP informing me that they have received my ECG results. However rather then providing any further information it rather ominously requests that I contact them so they can discuss the results with me. Although this is a standard form letter if the analysis of that ECG shows anything other then me being in perfect physical health this could lead to an unfortunate dispute over my medical care at exactly the time I'm making a claim for ESA based on my medical condition. Needless to say I won't be contacting my GP until such a time that I am equipped to check the analysts interpretation of that ECG result. After all it was around the time that my paternal grandmother's rare congenital heart defect leapt the genetic barrier and started affecting my maternal cousin most people decided that Britain was really just taking the p*ss.
By an amazing coincidence just as I received the first lot of letters from the DWP last Thursday (21/2/13) my scanner/printer suddenly broke meaning that I can't share these letters with you. Nor can I print out any documents.
That last point is particularly annoying because I've decided that I will be writing to the DWP to ask them to review their decision to place me in a work related activity group. This is a precursor to launching a formal appeal through the Courts. I'm sure though that once the DWP has been made aware of what happened that last time I undertook work related activity (Enterprise House) they will realise their massive and clunking error and reverse their decision before we have to bother the Courts or Zimbabwe with their massive and clunking error. Therefore I should be straight back on contribution based ESA before the application form for income based ESA has even arrived in the mail.
20:20 on 27/2/13.
Best Copy the Victims in.
As you may know on Sunday (24/2/13) Chris Brown attended renowned British homosexual (queen) Elton John's Oscar viewing party. This of course gave Britain the opportunity to have a good look at him including a quick interview with the Daily Mirror newspaper. This coming weekend Rihanna will return to the UK for the retail launch of her River Island clothing line. In the meantime rumours have begun to circulate that Rihanna and Brown are to be married this summer - presumably at the end of her Diamonds/Misery Tour.
This is pretty obviously a US attempt to make the UK the centre of attention. The idea being that once the Rihanna visit is over people will be falling over themselves to find out what Britain has learned about the couple and whether it endorses their relationship. The problem is that nobody in the business is in any doubt about what the Rihanna/Brown relationship is. To put this in perspective even small, developing nations such as Peru and the Maldives are now openly mocking the US over the issue.
Therefore the best the US can hope for is that this becomes a moral test of the UK to see whether it still gives it's consent for the relationship despite knowing what it is. The problem is that through the arrests of both Republican and Loyalist terrorist suspects in Belfast, Northern Ireland today and last night it is clear that Britain is fully aware that it will be a moral test. Therefore the most likely outcome is that it will simply fizzle out.
Today's shooting at a factory in Switzerland is the Swiss telling the US (in terms the US will understand) to give up on the idea because in game terms Rihanna and Chris Brown are clearly both already dead.
It will be interesting to see if the US responds by moving up Chris Brown's April Court appearance. That's because the correct way of going about this would be for the Court to end the relationship by indicting Brown for perverting the course of justice along with multiple counts of fraud and the original assault charge. Rihanna would then be given time to come to terms with the fact that while her feelings are genuine they have been artificially created in order to manipulate her behaviour. Then she may have a chance of making a success of the Diamonds tour.
However I won't be holding my breath because if you've been following the efforts to break up the Navy Ship USS Guardian you would know that a continuing career for Rihanna is not the US' objective here.
13:30 on 27/2/13.
This is pretty obviously a US attempt to make the UK the centre of attention. The idea being that once the Rihanna visit is over people will be falling over themselves to find out what Britain has learned about the couple and whether it endorses their relationship. The problem is that nobody in the business is in any doubt about what the Rihanna/Brown relationship is. To put this in perspective even small, developing nations such as Peru and the Maldives are now openly mocking the US over the issue.
Therefore the best the US can hope for is that this becomes a moral test of the UK to see whether it still gives it's consent for the relationship despite knowing what it is. The problem is that through the arrests of both Republican and Loyalist terrorist suspects in Belfast, Northern Ireland today and last night it is clear that Britain is fully aware that it will be a moral test. Therefore the most likely outcome is that it will simply fizzle out.
Today's shooting at a factory in Switzerland is the Swiss telling the US (in terms the US will understand) to give up on the idea because in game terms Rihanna and Chris Brown are clearly both already dead.
It will be interesting to see if the US responds by moving up Chris Brown's April Court appearance. That's because the correct way of going about this would be for the Court to end the relationship by indicting Brown for perverting the course of justice along with multiple counts of fraud and the original assault charge. Rihanna would then be given time to come to terms with the fact that while her feelings are genuine they have been artificially created in order to manipulate her behaviour. Then she may have a chance of making a success of the Diamonds tour.
However I won't be holding my breath because if you've been following the efforts to break up the Navy Ship USS Guardian you would know that a continuing career for Rihanna is not the US' objective here.
13:30 on 27/2/13.
Tuesday 26 February 2013
I'm Back From the Pub.
And almost feeling far too mellow for a full blog post especially while there's football on.
The big news though is that I forgot to bring my other phone to the pub with me or when I went to the supermarket earlier. The reason for this is that I just plain didn't think of it. It shouldn't be a problem though because it was no longer secure anyway. Besides I think we all know it's not going to ring.
It's almost as if someone's clinging on to the belief that if we don't meet she can always convince herself that what I say must be wrong because it's not like we really know each other at all.
20:20 on 26/2/13.
The big news though is that I forgot to bring my other phone to the pub with me or when I went to the supermarket earlier. The reason for this is that I just plain didn't think of it. It shouldn't be a problem though because it was no longer secure anyway. Besides I think we all know it's not going to ring.
It's almost as if someone's clinging on to the belief that if we don't meet she can always convince herself that what I say must be wrong because it's not like we really know each other at all.
20:20 on 26/2/13.
Egypt Balloon Crash.
At dawn local time today hot air balloon carrying 20 people crashed in Luxor, Egypt. Details are still very hard to come by at the moment but what appears to have happened is that gas canisters used to heat the air in the balloon exploded at some 1000ft (300m) sending the balloon and all aboard plunging to the earth in a massive fireball.
So far it has been confirmed that two British, two French, four Japanese and nine Hong Konglese (Chinese) tourists have been killed. Others remain in hospital and sadly are not expected to survive.
It is far, far to early for me to comment with any authority on what has happened. However it is a possibility that this is the Egyptian government trying to reach out to the nations involved ahead of US Secretary of State John Kerry's big meeting on Syria in Italy and Egypt's Parliamentary elections scheduled for April 22nd (22/4/13). This would fit with Morsi's efforts to make Egypt the major power broker in the Arab world.
That said public safety in Egypt is notoriously poor and things are getting worse as the country slowly dies under Morsi. The 75% contraction in the tourism sector since the revolution is having a particularly damaging effect on the nation's economy. This will not help.
13:30 on 26/2/13.
So far it has been confirmed that two British, two French, four Japanese and nine Hong Konglese (Chinese) tourists have been killed. Others remain in hospital and sadly are not expected to survive.
It is far, far to early for me to comment with any authority on what has happened. However it is a possibility that this is the Egyptian government trying to reach out to the nations involved ahead of US Secretary of State John Kerry's big meeting on Syria in Italy and Egypt's Parliamentary elections scheduled for April 22nd (22/4/13). This would fit with Morsi's efforts to make Egypt the major power broker in the Arab world.
That said public safety in Egypt is notoriously poor and things are getting worse as the country slowly dies under Morsi. The 75% contraction in the tourism sector since the revolution is having a particularly damaging effect on the nation's economy. This will not help.
13:30 on 26/2/13.
Monday 25 February 2013
The Lord Rennard Debarcle.
Currently in the UK the entire Liberal Democrat (LibDem) Party are being tarnished by allegations that's it's former Chief Treasurer Lord Rennard behaved "sexually inappropriately" (groped) a series of LibDem party members while the entire party tried to cover it up. Assuming this would have taken a couple of weeks to come to the boil Britain was hoping this would tie in with the entirely false allegations that Roman Catholic Cardinal Keith O'Brien had sex with adult men. This of course would have created a nasty mess at the upcoming Conclave to choose a new Roman Catholic Pope. As a result there will now be no British representative at the Papal Conclave.
Basically what is going on with the Rennard thing is that Chris Huhne's (LibDem) resignation following his conviction for perverting the course of justice has led to a by-election in his Eastleigh constituency on Thursday (28/2/13). Historically a swing seat between the Conservatives and the LibDems this election will see the two halfs of Britain's ruling coalition go head to head for really the first time since 2010. However the Crown's big worry is that the Conservative vote will be embarrassingly split with the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) meaning that the LibDems retain a seat rather then the Conservatives gaining a seat.
So in order to prevent this the Crown has dispatched Channel 4 News to mount an absolute hatchet job on the LibDems by uncovering and airing footage of women saying nasty things about the LibDems. This is a deliberate attempt to target women voters in Eastleigh because it's long been said that women voters have a problem with Conservative leader and Prime Minister David Cameron.
Under pressure the LibDems on Monday (25/2/13) responded to this firstly by trying to draw comparisons with the complaints I made against Enterprise House seemingly completely oblivious to the implications that has for Zimbabwe's upcoming referendum. Then they presented their Deputy Treasury minister Danny Alexander as their tough guy who finally stood up Lord Rennard. This is akin to admitting defeat because whether he's bravely standing up to Tory cuts at the Treasury or forcing Rennard to step down "enforcer" is never a word that has been associated with Danny Alexander or indeed any other LibDem.
Finally the LibDem's told the truth and accused Channel 4 News of purposefully trying to sabotage their chances at the Eastleigh By-election. Channel 4 News countered this by claiming that they'd gathered the interviews with Rennard's alleged victims way back in January 2013. After all it would have been completely impossible to predict that Huhne would be convicted forcing a by-election all the way back then(!)
On a totally unrelated note I've just been watching the third and final episode of Charlie Brooker's "Black Mirror" on Channel 4. This episode was about a coarse and foul mouthed purple cartoon character with a tendency to whip his cartoon cock out called "Waldo" Starting life as a contributor to a satirical news show Waldo and the actor who voiced him was convinced to stand in a local by-election. He then goes on to fall in love with a female Labour candidate leading to lots of furtive references to forbidden love in party political conference hotels.
The show obviously featured caricatures of various TV people, advertising people and political people. I believe that "Ali G" and the "11 o'clock Show" which gave Ricky Gervais his big break were specifically referenced. The purple Waldo character was very much based on the animated character that sent the River Tan character a bit ninja in the film "Serenity." I believe that the BBC's "Question Time," "Newsnight" and "The Hour" also got a bit of a kicking. Waldo's 'Purple Party' was supposed to be a general commentary on the role right-wing and fascist parties such as UKIP and the British National Party (BNP) play in northern British Towns. For the purposes of this post I am considering Stockwell to be the dividing line between Britain's north and south.
In the end the actor voicing Waldo went a bit mental after a man from a US 'agency' (the CIA) offered to turn Waldo into a weapon used to rig elections the world over. Despite the actor quitting the Waldo brand went global. During the closing credits the actor was seen, along with all the other homeless, being cleared out from beneath a bridge by the fascist riot police while neon signs proclaimed our brave new capitalist world in both English and Chinese. This was really thumping home the Firefly/Serenity reference.
Fortunately this along with the fact the actor playing the actor behind the Waldo character looked a lot like the actor in the current BT Vision advertising campaign prompts me to tell you the story of how I accidentally started a little bit of a feud with the advertising agency behind the BT Vision campaigns.
The initial BT Vision campaign featured a single mother meeting a new man and the two of them using BT products to navigate the pitfalls of starting such a relationship such as introducing the kids and meeting the ex-husband. Then in what proved to be the final advert of the campaign the woman was seen lying in bed next to her new husband slowly stroking her tummy looking apprehensive. The implication being that she was pregnant. The advert then asked viewers to decide what happens next using various social media such as Facebook and Twitter.
It was around this time that I found myself in - shall we say - an accommodating bar. I then proceeded to launch into a very long, complicated an loud explanation of why I thought the twist in the BT Vision campaign was the women discovers she's got ovarian cancer. The couple and the children could then be seen to use BT products as they come to terms with the woman's cancer treatment and eventual death. I thought this would have worked but apparently BT Vision disagreed and the campaign suddenly ended.
The new BT Vision campaign has much the same theme of recurring characters. However the main character is a mature (over 25) student called Simon (my real name). Simon uses the super-fast download speeds of BT Vision broadband to lure a young attractive female student into a house share. He then proceeds to try and fail to have sex with her through a series of 'hilarious' adverts. The female student is played by an actress who looks a lot like a fat version of Summer Glau/River Tan. I haven't mentioned this before because frankly I feel like I earned that one.
Much more importantly then that though Black Mirror featured Christina Chong. As the name suggests she has Chinese ancestry but is completely white skinned. Therefore I don't so much have a crush on her as want to map her DNA. In fact I may have to promote her to my 'Albino wife.'
01:05 on 26/2/13.
Basically what is going on with the Rennard thing is that Chris Huhne's (LibDem) resignation following his conviction for perverting the course of justice has led to a by-election in his Eastleigh constituency on Thursday (28/2/13). Historically a swing seat between the Conservatives and the LibDems this election will see the two halfs of Britain's ruling coalition go head to head for really the first time since 2010. However the Crown's big worry is that the Conservative vote will be embarrassingly split with the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) meaning that the LibDems retain a seat rather then the Conservatives gaining a seat.
So in order to prevent this the Crown has dispatched Channel 4 News to mount an absolute hatchet job on the LibDems by uncovering and airing footage of women saying nasty things about the LibDems. This is a deliberate attempt to target women voters in Eastleigh because it's long been said that women voters have a problem with Conservative leader and Prime Minister David Cameron.
Under pressure the LibDems on Monday (25/2/13) responded to this firstly by trying to draw comparisons with the complaints I made against Enterprise House seemingly completely oblivious to the implications that has for Zimbabwe's upcoming referendum. Then they presented their Deputy Treasury minister Danny Alexander as their tough guy who finally stood up Lord Rennard. This is akin to admitting defeat because whether he's bravely standing up to Tory cuts at the Treasury or forcing Rennard to step down "enforcer" is never a word that has been associated with Danny Alexander or indeed any other LibDem.
Finally the LibDem's told the truth and accused Channel 4 News of purposefully trying to sabotage their chances at the Eastleigh By-election. Channel 4 News countered this by claiming that they'd gathered the interviews with Rennard's alleged victims way back in January 2013. After all it would have been completely impossible to predict that Huhne would be convicted forcing a by-election all the way back then(!)
On a totally unrelated note I've just been watching the third and final episode of Charlie Brooker's "Black Mirror" on Channel 4. This episode was about a coarse and foul mouthed purple cartoon character with a tendency to whip his cartoon cock out called "Waldo" Starting life as a contributor to a satirical news show Waldo and the actor who voiced him was convinced to stand in a local by-election. He then goes on to fall in love with a female Labour candidate leading to lots of furtive references to forbidden love in party political conference hotels.
The show obviously featured caricatures of various TV people, advertising people and political people. I believe that "Ali G" and the "11 o'clock Show" which gave Ricky Gervais his big break were specifically referenced. The purple Waldo character was very much based on the animated character that sent the River Tan character a bit ninja in the film "Serenity." I believe that the BBC's "Question Time," "Newsnight" and "The Hour" also got a bit of a kicking. Waldo's 'Purple Party' was supposed to be a general commentary on the role right-wing and fascist parties such as UKIP and the British National Party (BNP) play in northern British Towns. For the purposes of this post I am considering Stockwell to be the dividing line between Britain's north and south.
In the end the actor voicing Waldo went a bit mental after a man from a US 'agency' (the CIA) offered to turn Waldo into a weapon used to rig elections the world over. Despite the actor quitting the Waldo brand went global. During the closing credits the actor was seen, along with all the other homeless, being cleared out from beneath a bridge by the fascist riot police while neon signs proclaimed our brave new capitalist world in both English and Chinese. This was really thumping home the Firefly/Serenity reference.
Fortunately this along with the fact the actor playing the actor behind the Waldo character looked a lot like the actor in the current BT Vision advertising campaign prompts me to tell you the story of how I accidentally started a little bit of a feud with the advertising agency behind the BT Vision campaigns.
The initial BT Vision campaign featured a single mother meeting a new man and the two of them using BT products to navigate the pitfalls of starting such a relationship such as introducing the kids and meeting the ex-husband. Then in what proved to be the final advert of the campaign the woman was seen lying in bed next to her new husband slowly stroking her tummy looking apprehensive. The implication being that she was pregnant. The advert then asked viewers to decide what happens next using various social media such as Facebook and Twitter.
It was around this time that I found myself in - shall we say - an accommodating bar. I then proceeded to launch into a very long, complicated an loud explanation of why I thought the twist in the BT Vision campaign was the women discovers she's got ovarian cancer. The couple and the children could then be seen to use BT products as they come to terms with the woman's cancer treatment and eventual death. I thought this would have worked but apparently BT Vision disagreed and the campaign suddenly ended.
The new BT Vision campaign has much the same theme of recurring characters. However the main character is a mature (over 25) student called Simon (my real name). Simon uses the super-fast download speeds of BT Vision broadband to lure a young attractive female student into a house share. He then proceeds to try and fail to have sex with her through a series of 'hilarious' adverts. The female student is played by an actress who looks a lot like a fat version of Summer Glau/River Tan. I haven't mentioned this before because frankly I feel like I earned that one.
Much more importantly then that though Black Mirror featured Christina Chong. As the name suggests she has Chinese ancestry but is completely white skinned. Therefore I don't so much have a crush on her as want to map her DNA. In fact I may have to promote her to my 'Albino wife.'
01:05 on 26/2/13.
The Oscars!
On Sunday night (24/2/13) the 85th Academy Awards or 'Oscars' were held in Los Angeles, USA.
On a very dispersed evening both "Argo" and "Life of Pi" were the top winners both receiving three Oscars each. Argo received; Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing. Life of Pi received best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Original Score. Therefore in this dead heat Life of Pi was probably the Artistic victor. However I'm declaring Argo to be the evening's true winner.
Set against the backdrop of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran Argo highlights the way that US intelligence exerts influence over the US entertainment industry to put together fake products in order for US intelligence to carry out various nefarious activities.
In this case it was simply setting up a fake film production in order to get a CIA team into Iran to successfully rescue 44 US diplomatic staff who were seeking shelter in the Canadian Embassy after the US Embassy had been over-run by protesters.
Obviously this might have an impact on how you view other US films you may have seen and most certainly has an impact on Chris Brown's recent Contra Mundum Tour and Rihanna's upcoming Diamonds Tour.
Therefore like most people I am stunned that Argo managed to do so well. Although I'm sure there as many explanations as there are members of the Academy I think the five most likely explanations are;
1. It's actually quite a good film.
2. The Academy failed to pick up on the Chris Brown reference and instead chose to focus on Argo's director Ben Affleck. Due to his appearance in the 1994 film "Chasing Amy" Ben Affleck will always be my answer to the question; "Who would play you in a movie of your life?" The least scary explanation for this is that someone in British intelligence used that film as a blueprint to plan out my life for me some 10 years before it happened. Therefore the Academy realised they'd made a massive mistake in not nominating Affleck in the Best Director category and just threw loads of other awards at the film to make up for it.
3. The Academy fully understood the link with Chris Brown so gave Argo lots of awards as a way to show it's full support for him.
4. The Academy was fully aware of the role the Chris Brown/Rihanna situation has had in putting extreme pressure on the entire US entertainment industry so gave Argo lots of awards as a way to pat the project on it's head and send it on it's way.
5. The US Federal Government used the pressure exerted by Chris Brown/Rihanna along with California's deficit busting tax hikes to completely hijack the results of the Awards in order to use them in support of new Secretary of State John Kerry's maiden ten day tour of Europe and Gulf States taking in a (now confirmed) meeting with the opposition Syrian National Council.
So apart from a Best Actor award for British actor Daniel Day-Lewis "Lincoln" was fully snubbed in order to make that US politics was not mentioned in any way.
Then before the formal ceremony had begun there was a tie in the Best Sound Editing category between "Zero Dark Thirty" and "Skyfall."
While it's far from a documentary Zero Dark Thirty of course tells the story of how the CIA tracked down and killed Osama bin Laden while Skyfall once again tells the story of Britain's MI6 super-spy James Bond.
This was supposed to highlight the unbreakable bond between the CIA and MI6 although of course for about five years MI6 did sort of forget to tell the CIA where Osama bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan. Instead they decided to mock the CIA by putting coded references to it on the news. The tie also set the tone for the evening's final result.
Then Jennifer Lawrence tripped over collecting her award for Best Actress for "Silver Linings Playbook." The big controversy about the Silver Linings Playbook is that it features music by 1970's British pop star Gary Glitter (aka Paul Gadd).
Since being revealed to be a prolific and habitual paedophile in 1997 Glitter's music and videos have been blacklisted in the UK. We even once made an hour long TV show about how much fun it would be to shoot him. However his inclusion on the sound track for Silver Linings Playbook has so far helped Glitter earn around USD500,000.
Therefore if I was being harsh I would say that Silver Linings Playbook is nothing more then a fund-raising exercise for paedophiles. However I genuinely cannot endorse anybody paying money to see that film.
This of course leads into a big discussion about Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions which is a hugely hot topic in Israeli/Palestinian life/peace negotiations. This was actually referenced heavily in the Soda Stream Superbowl advert but I fear I'm drifting away there. Neither the pro-Palestinian "5 Broken Cameras" or the pro-Israeli "The Gatekeepers" succeeded in the Best Documentary Feature category but that really does count as going off on a tangent.
Anyway the point is I don't think anybody is in any doubt about how embarrassed Jennifer Lawrence is to be associated with a film featuring Gary Glitter on the soundtrack.
Then we got into the sorry parade of awards for Life Pi. This horrific waste of time and energy tells the story of a young Indian boy who along with his family and their circus animals set out on a long voyage to the USA in search of a better life. Then the ship sinks and the boy is left trapped on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger. The book was said to be un-filmable and was most certainly unreadable. However much like Oprah it's all so beautiful I'm sure you'll find some lesson in it to help you with a problem your facing in your own life.
The important thing to remember about Life of Pi though is that it's director (the best apparently) Ang Lee is Taiwanese. Although very much part of China Taiwan is fully autonomous and considers itself much closer to the US. During the Oscars ceremony Taiwan re-appointed it's central banker in a move that will cause all sorts of ructions between China, Japan and South Korea in light of the recent G20 Finance Ministers Summit in Russia. Also during the ceremony South Korea swore in it's first female President in a move Raul Castro tried to muscle in on because well Cuba just feels left out these days.
Along with all the issues about Chris Brown, Rihanna and I the prominence given to Argo also raised the issue of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran particularly the taking of 54 US diplomatic staff hostage for 444 which contributed to Jimmy Carter's defeat to Ronald Regan in the 1980 Presidential election. Despite having taken place 34 years ago this incident still seems to be central to US policy within the middle east particularly within it's negotiations with Iran regarding it's nuclear program and it's negotiations with the Gulf nations over Syria. Some might say it is causing US policy to run contrary to US interests in the region.
Personally I thought the decision to have the Best Film award presented by the First Lady of the US, Michelle Obama via video link from the White House contrasted the predominately Jewish Film Academy and the (officially secular) but predominately Protestant US Federal Government. However I think the real reason was to put pressure on the Chinese over their censorship of foreign films in the worlds second largest market. Sadly the point I think the US was trying to make is that China should learn to be more subtle about the way it goes about it rather then do-away with state control.
The question of whether the ballots cast in any way correspond with the declared result will of course be relevant first in Kenya (4/3/13) and then in Zimbabwe (tentatively 16/3/13)
Oh and of course there were some genuine winners like Anne Hathaway (Best Supporting Actress for Les Miserables), Christoph Waltz (Best Supporting Actor for Django Unchained) and Quentin Tarantino (Best Original Screenplay for Django Unchained) but where's the fun in talking about them.
21:40 on 25/2/13.
Edited at around 22:00 on 25/2/13 because while I think my analysis of a ceremony I didn't bother watch was excellent my spelling punctuation and grammar is - as always - appalling. Hopefully it's at least vaguely readable now.
Edited again at around 22:40 on 25/2/13 to add the bit about Argo and the Iranian hostage crisis. Really I should write these things out properly rather then just trying to wing it when I'm a bit stoned.
On a very dispersed evening both "Argo" and "Life of Pi" were the top winners both receiving three Oscars each. Argo received; Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing. Life of Pi received best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Original Score. Therefore in this dead heat Life of Pi was probably the Artistic victor. However I'm declaring Argo to be the evening's true winner.
Set against the backdrop of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran Argo highlights the way that US intelligence exerts influence over the US entertainment industry to put together fake products in order for US intelligence to carry out various nefarious activities.
In this case it was simply setting up a fake film production in order to get a CIA team into Iran to successfully rescue 44 US diplomatic staff who were seeking shelter in the Canadian Embassy after the US Embassy had been over-run by protesters.
Obviously this might have an impact on how you view other US films you may have seen and most certainly has an impact on Chris Brown's recent Contra Mundum Tour and Rihanna's upcoming Diamonds Tour.
Therefore like most people I am stunned that Argo managed to do so well. Although I'm sure there as many explanations as there are members of the Academy I think the five most likely explanations are;
1. It's actually quite a good film.
2. The Academy failed to pick up on the Chris Brown reference and instead chose to focus on Argo's director Ben Affleck. Due to his appearance in the 1994 film "Chasing Amy" Ben Affleck will always be my answer to the question; "Who would play you in a movie of your life?" The least scary explanation for this is that someone in British intelligence used that film as a blueprint to plan out my life for me some 10 years before it happened. Therefore the Academy realised they'd made a massive mistake in not nominating Affleck in the Best Director category and just threw loads of other awards at the film to make up for it.
3. The Academy fully understood the link with Chris Brown so gave Argo lots of awards as a way to show it's full support for him.
4. The Academy was fully aware of the role the Chris Brown/Rihanna situation has had in putting extreme pressure on the entire US entertainment industry so gave Argo lots of awards as a way to pat the project on it's head and send it on it's way.
5. The US Federal Government used the pressure exerted by Chris Brown/Rihanna along with California's deficit busting tax hikes to completely hijack the results of the Awards in order to use them in support of new Secretary of State John Kerry's maiden ten day tour of Europe and Gulf States taking in a (now confirmed) meeting with the opposition Syrian National Council.
So apart from a Best Actor award for British actor Daniel Day-Lewis "Lincoln" was fully snubbed in order to make that US politics was not mentioned in any way.
Then before the formal ceremony had begun there was a tie in the Best Sound Editing category between "Zero Dark Thirty" and "Skyfall."
While it's far from a documentary Zero Dark Thirty of course tells the story of how the CIA tracked down and killed Osama bin Laden while Skyfall once again tells the story of Britain's MI6 super-spy James Bond.
This was supposed to highlight the unbreakable bond between the CIA and MI6 although of course for about five years MI6 did sort of forget to tell the CIA where Osama bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan. Instead they decided to mock the CIA by putting coded references to it on the news. The tie also set the tone for the evening's final result.
Then Jennifer Lawrence tripped over collecting her award for Best Actress for "Silver Linings Playbook." The big controversy about the Silver Linings Playbook is that it features music by 1970's British pop star Gary Glitter (aka Paul Gadd).
Since being revealed to be a prolific and habitual paedophile in 1997 Glitter's music and videos have been blacklisted in the UK. We even once made an hour long TV show about how much fun it would be to shoot him. However his inclusion on the sound track for Silver Linings Playbook has so far helped Glitter earn around USD500,000.
Therefore if I was being harsh I would say that Silver Linings Playbook is nothing more then a fund-raising exercise for paedophiles. However I genuinely cannot endorse anybody paying money to see that film.
This of course leads into a big discussion about Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions which is a hugely hot topic in Israeli/Palestinian life/peace negotiations. This was actually referenced heavily in the Soda Stream Superbowl advert but I fear I'm drifting away there. Neither the pro-Palestinian "5 Broken Cameras" or the pro-Israeli "The Gatekeepers" succeeded in the Best Documentary Feature category but that really does count as going off on a tangent.
Anyway the point is I don't think anybody is in any doubt about how embarrassed Jennifer Lawrence is to be associated with a film featuring Gary Glitter on the soundtrack.
Then we got into the sorry parade of awards for Life Pi. This horrific waste of time and energy tells the story of a young Indian boy who along with his family and their circus animals set out on a long voyage to the USA in search of a better life. Then the ship sinks and the boy is left trapped on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger. The book was said to be un-filmable and was most certainly unreadable. However much like Oprah it's all so beautiful I'm sure you'll find some lesson in it to help you with a problem your facing in your own life.
The important thing to remember about Life of Pi though is that it's director (the best apparently) Ang Lee is Taiwanese. Although very much part of China Taiwan is fully autonomous and considers itself much closer to the US. During the Oscars ceremony Taiwan re-appointed it's central banker in a move that will cause all sorts of ructions between China, Japan and South Korea in light of the recent G20 Finance Ministers Summit in Russia. Also during the ceremony South Korea swore in it's first female President in a move Raul Castro tried to muscle in on because well Cuba just feels left out these days.
Along with all the issues about Chris Brown, Rihanna and I the prominence given to Argo also raised the issue of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran particularly the taking of 54 US diplomatic staff hostage for 444 which contributed to Jimmy Carter's defeat to Ronald Regan in the 1980 Presidential election. Despite having taken place 34 years ago this incident still seems to be central to US policy within the middle east particularly within it's negotiations with Iran regarding it's nuclear program and it's negotiations with the Gulf nations over Syria. Some might say it is causing US policy to run contrary to US interests in the region.
Personally I thought the decision to have the Best Film award presented by the First Lady of the US, Michelle Obama via video link from the White House contrasted the predominately Jewish Film Academy and the (officially secular) but predominately Protestant US Federal Government. However I think the real reason was to put pressure on the Chinese over their censorship of foreign films in the worlds second largest market. Sadly the point I think the US was trying to make is that China should learn to be more subtle about the way it goes about it rather then do-away with state control.
The question of whether the ballots cast in any way correspond with the declared result will of course be relevant first in Kenya (4/3/13) and then in Zimbabwe (tentatively 16/3/13)
Oh and of course there were some genuine winners like Anne Hathaway (Best Supporting Actress for Les Miserables), Christoph Waltz (Best Supporting Actor for Django Unchained) and Quentin Tarantino (Best Original Screenplay for Django Unchained) but where's the fun in talking about them.
21:40 on 25/2/13.
Edited at around 22:00 on 25/2/13 because while I think my analysis of a ceremony I didn't bother watch was excellent my spelling punctuation and grammar is - as always - appalling. Hopefully it's at least vaguely readable now.
Edited again at around 22:40 on 25/2/13 to add the bit about Argo and the Iranian hostage crisis. Really I should write these things out properly rather then just trying to wing it when I'm a bit stoned.
Unstoppable.
I've been hit with a sudden urge to clarify;
If you've not seen the 2010 film "Unstoppable" it's about the efforts to stop a runaway freight train that's loaded with all sorts of toxic and explosive chemicals before it crashes into Stanton, Pennsylvania. The train is identified by the call sign 777. Therefore the entire film is pretty much people urgently saying things like;
"OMG! We've got to stop 777!"
"777 is a disaster waiting to happen."
"If we don't stop 777 hundreds of thousands of people will be killed."
Although it was released two years before Rihanna's 777 Tour it was referenced in the New Jersey train crash during the COP18/CMP8. As it was shown on Britain's Channel 4 last night it certainly gave me an entertaining evening.
In other news I feel the need to confirm that yes due to the cold my ear lobes are now bleeding. This is about as gross as it sounds.
15:35 on 25/2/13.
If you've not seen the 2010 film "Unstoppable" it's about the efforts to stop a runaway freight train that's loaded with all sorts of toxic and explosive chemicals before it crashes into Stanton, Pennsylvania. The train is identified by the call sign 777. Therefore the entire film is pretty much people urgently saying things like;
"OMG! We've got to stop 777!"
"777 is a disaster waiting to happen."
"If we don't stop 777 hundreds of thousands of people will be killed."
Although it was released two years before Rihanna's 777 Tour it was referenced in the New Jersey train crash during the COP18/CMP8. As it was shown on Britain's Channel 4 last night it certainly gave me an entertaining evening.
In other news I feel the need to confirm that yes due to the cold my ear lobes are now bleeding. This is about as gross as it sounds.
15:35 on 25/2/13.
Saturday 23 February 2013
Rihanna Update.
Because apparently this is my job now.
Following her trip to London, UK last weekend Rihanna has spent the week celebrating her birthday in Hawaii, US with Chris Brown. Although most of the heat has gone out of it the primary purpose of this trip was to get us all speculating about possible changes to the emotional state of the pair and the wider social group. To help the process along the US put on a series of stunts that they hoped would convince us were having an intense emotional impact.
The most of dramatic was these was Thursday's (21/2/13) shoot-out on the Las Vegas strip in which a Maserati was chased under fire by a black SUV before crashing into a Taxi cab killing the driver of the Maserati along with the Taxi driver and passenger. Apart from the speculation about whether I or Chris Brown was the Maserati/SUV this was primarily about the issue of Rihanna's security on tour by showing just how easy it is to kill people. When the identity of the Maserati driver was finally revealed as Kenny Cherry it emerged that he bore more then a passing resemblance to one of Chris Brown's bodyguards.
Also on Thursday a man named Carl Blue was executed in Texas for the 1994 murder of his girlfriend in a domestic violence incident. Apart from the obvious connections to the Rihanna/Chris Brown situation Beyonce and Jay-Z's daughter is named Blue Ivy.
Also on Thursday former Chicago police officer Drew Paterson was sentenced to 38 years in prison for the murder of his third wife in a domestic violence incident. Although the fact that in the past I've been likened to a police officer may have caused some confusion over who Paterson was a metaphor for this was supposed to look like a discussion about what punishment Chris Brown will have to serve. The fact that Paterson is something of a celebrity with a film having been made about his life was supposed to promote discussion about the way celebrities are treated in the eyes of the law. The sentence of 38 years is towards the high end of what Chris Brown can expect but for perverting the course of justice, fraud and all the other offences he'll be exceptionally lucky to be sentenced to less then 10 years. Although this debate was of course all a charade it does at least show a recognition on the part of the US that the debate has moved on from whether or not Chris Brown goes to prison to how long Chris Brown will go to prison for.
On the more personal level a man was apparently arrested on Thursday evening after breaking into Rihanna's LA home and rifling through her property while she was away. Apart from the fact having someone in your house without your permission is disconcerting to say the least this was primarily an attempt to re-visit the issue of the man who breached security at Rihanna's Barbados hotel over Christmas which of course could have been either me or Chris Brown. The fact that the man claims he was emailed instructions of how to break into Rihanna's home was supposed to promote discussion about my rather stalkerish knack of knowing things like what hotel she's staying in and when. It could also be an attempt to promote discussion about what Rihanna will have to do to bring me back on side. As Rihanna's next trip to London coincides with Kenya's much anticipated election she's going to have to call a few days in advance to make plans. In security terms at this point she may as well just call me on my public number as the first step in a process.
Of course the fact that the South Africans were happily piling on pressure of their own through the Oscar Pistorious case does rather underline that actually no-one's really that bothered about Rihanna's emotional state. Instead they see it as wholly the responsibility of the Judge and prosecutors in Chris Brown's case. They will either do the right thing or they won't.
18:10 on 23/2/13.
Edited at around 18:15 on 232/13 to make various changes because the hangover has only just started to settle in.
Edited again at around 23:20 on 23/2/13 to add;
Although the grounding of the F-35 fleet has implications for Syria it along with the withdrawal from sale of the Banksy piece "Slave Labour" and today's massive crash at Daytona are the US presenting their results from Rihanna's little test run to London. They're acknowledging that there are significant technical problems with their plans for the Diamonds tour and are hinting that it may be scrapped. As always we await verification.
Following her trip to London, UK last weekend Rihanna has spent the week celebrating her birthday in Hawaii, US with Chris Brown. Although most of the heat has gone out of it the primary purpose of this trip was to get us all speculating about possible changes to the emotional state of the pair and the wider social group. To help the process along the US put on a series of stunts that they hoped would convince us were having an intense emotional impact.
The most of dramatic was these was Thursday's (21/2/13) shoot-out on the Las Vegas strip in which a Maserati was chased under fire by a black SUV before crashing into a Taxi cab killing the driver of the Maserati along with the Taxi driver and passenger. Apart from the speculation about whether I or Chris Brown was the Maserati/SUV this was primarily about the issue of Rihanna's security on tour by showing just how easy it is to kill people. When the identity of the Maserati driver was finally revealed as Kenny Cherry it emerged that he bore more then a passing resemblance to one of Chris Brown's bodyguards.
Also on Thursday a man named Carl Blue was executed in Texas for the 1994 murder of his girlfriend in a domestic violence incident. Apart from the obvious connections to the Rihanna/Chris Brown situation Beyonce and Jay-Z's daughter is named Blue Ivy.
Also on Thursday former Chicago police officer Drew Paterson was sentenced to 38 years in prison for the murder of his third wife in a domestic violence incident. Although the fact that in the past I've been likened to a police officer may have caused some confusion over who Paterson was a metaphor for this was supposed to look like a discussion about what punishment Chris Brown will have to serve. The fact that Paterson is something of a celebrity with a film having been made about his life was supposed to promote discussion about the way celebrities are treated in the eyes of the law. The sentence of 38 years is towards the high end of what Chris Brown can expect but for perverting the course of justice, fraud and all the other offences he'll be exceptionally lucky to be sentenced to less then 10 years. Although this debate was of course all a charade it does at least show a recognition on the part of the US that the debate has moved on from whether or not Chris Brown goes to prison to how long Chris Brown will go to prison for.
On the more personal level a man was apparently arrested on Thursday evening after breaking into Rihanna's LA home and rifling through her property while she was away. Apart from the fact having someone in your house without your permission is disconcerting to say the least this was primarily an attempt to re-visit the issue of the man who breached security at Rihanna's Barbados hotel over Christmas which of course could have been either me or Chris Brown. The fact that the man claims he was emailed instructions of how to break into Rihanna's home was supposed to promote discussion about my rather stalkerish knack of knowing things like what hotel she's staying in and when. It could also be an attempt to promote discussion about what Rihanna will have to do to bring me back on side. As Rihanna's next trip to London coincides with Kenya's much anticipated election she's going to have to call a few days in advance to make plans. In security terms at this point she may as well just call me on my public number as the first step in a process.
Of course the fact that the South Africans were happily piling on pressure of their own through the Oscar Pistorious case does rather underline that actually no-one's really that bothered about Rihanna's emotional state. Instead they see it as wholly the responsibility of the Judge and prosecutors in Chris Brown's case. They will either do the right thing or they won't.
18:10 on 23/2/13.
Edited at around 18:15 on 232/13 to make various changes because the hangover has only just started to settle in.
Edited again at around 23:20 on 23/2/13 to add;
Although the grounding of the F-35 fleet has implications for Syria it along with the withdrawal from sale of the Banksy piece "Slave Labour" and today's massive crash at Daytona are the US presenting their results from Rihanna's little test run to London. They're acknowledging that there are significant technical problems with their plans for the Diamonds tour and are hinting that it may be scrapped. As always we await verification.
Friday 22 February 2013
Oscar Pistorius Makes Bail.
Well technically he hasn't 'made bail.' He has though been granted bail provided that he provides the Court with R1million (USD113,000 approx). However following a tedious argument about cash, bonds and tax liabilities I pretty confident that money will be delivered and Pistorious will be freed from jail later this evening.
Once that surity is provided Pistorious will be subject to some pretty standard bail conditions such as surrendering firearms and travel documents and having to report to a police station twice a week. Pistorious is also banned from consuming alcohol or drugs. I like to think this last one was aimed at me. The initial trial date has been set for June 4th 2013 (4/6/13).
I personally think this is a good thing. That's because while metaphors are all well and good it is the actual Oscar Pistorious who has been sitting in a jail cell for the last eight days. Not the actual Chris Brown.
I would like to say that I'm still wondering if the US have picked up on the South African's hint about theatrical and needless delays to judicial proceedings. However with what's been going on with my phone throughout the afternoon I'm going with the answers are; "Yes" and "Really not happy about it."
In mean it's not like pre-trial detention could ever be an issue in Libya which is still a bit fighty at the moment.
15:30 on 22/2/13.
Edited at around 16:20 on 22/2/13 to add:
I missed a bail condition. Aside from; surrendering all travel documents, surrendering all firearms, reporting to a designated police station twice a week and not consuming drugs or alcohol Oscar Pistrious is also prevented from returning to his home. Normally this would just be the pretty standard; "He must not return to the crime scene" However as in this specific case is the crime scene is also the accused's home a specific Judaical order had to be made.
Therefore "refraining from drugs or alcohol" is the only non-standard bail condition I can see. And as I'm not the actual Oscar Pistorious I'm free to ignore it.
Once that surity is provided Pistorious will be subject to some pretty standard bail conditions such as surrendering firearms and travel documents and having to report to a police station twice a week. Pistorious is also banned from consuming alcohol or drugs. I like to think this last one was aimed at me. The initial trial date has been set for June 4th 2013 (4/6/13).
I personally think this is a good thing. That's because while metaphors are all well and good it is the actual Oscar Pistorious who has been sitting in a jail cell for the last eight days. Not the actual Chris Brown.
I would like to say that I'm still wondering if the US have picked up on the South African's hint about theatrical and needless delays to judicial proceedings. However with what's been going on with my phone throughout the afternoon I'm going with the answers are; "Yes" and "Really not happy about it."
In mean it's not like pre-trial detention could ever be an issue in Libya which is still a bit fighty at the moment.
15:30 on 22/2/13.
Edited at around 16:20 on 22/2/13 to add:
I missed a bail condition. Aside from; surrendering all travel documents, surrendering all firearms, reporting to a designated police station twice a week and not consuming drugs or alcohol Oscar Pistrious is also prevented from returning to his home. Normally this would just be the pretty standard; "He must not return to the crime scene" However as in this specific case is the crime scene is also the accused's home a specific Judaical order had to be made.
Therefore "refraining from drugs or alcohol" is the only non-standard bail condition I can see. And as I'm not the actual Oscar Pistorious I'm free to ignore it.
Thursday 21 February 2013
The Vicky Pryce Case.
Yes that's right there is now officially so little on TV that I've got around to writing this up.
You may remember that back in 2011 it emerged that the UK's Senior Minister for Climate Change Chris Huhne got his then wife Vicky Pryce to take penalty points on her driving license after he had been caught on camera driving faster then the speed limit. This led to Huhne resigning his ministerial post and the pair being charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. At trial Huhne plead guilty and now awaits the custodial sentence that inevitably follows conviction for what is considered the most serious criminal offence.
Then the trial of his bitter ex-wife began. Ms Pryce is running a defence of marital coercion. That is to say she admits to committing the criminal act but is not guilty of the offence because pressure from her husband rendered her unable to refuse. In order to support this defence Pryce has tried very hard in Court to portray Huhne as an aggressive bully. This has included the playing of secretly recorded telephone conversations in which Pyrce tries to get Huhne to admit that he forced her to commit the offence, scandalous details about their divorce after Huhne left to live with his mistress and claims that Huhne forced Pyrce to have an abortion.
Aside from the issue of climate change which as I've explained is deeply unpopular within the British Establishment this case really has everything. Speeding offences are by far the most commonly committed criminal offence in the UK to the point where I can't think of a driver I know who hasn't been convicted of it at least once. The divorce and abortion elements would have struck a cord with the growing number of British people who have been through those experiences. Then there's all the salacious stuff about the pair's relationship with their children (a constant worry for us all) and the supposed bisexuality of Huhnes mistress. For good measure the secretly recorded telephone calls brought make memories of phone-hacking as the Establishment once again launches an attack on press freedoms through the defamation bill and that nonsense about the Duchess of Cambridge bikini shots. So this soap opera of trial should have captivated the nation and forced us all to examine our attitudes to the issues raised.
The problem was that no-one seemed that interested. So the Judge dismissed the Jury essentially accusing them of being too stupid to comprehend the issues involved and declared a mis-trial. Therefore we've got to go through it all again starting sometime next week.
I sincerely hope they gett the ratings they crave this time because I for one couldn't sit through the first episode never mind an third series.
23:35 on 21/2/13.
You may remember that back in 2011 it emerged that the UK's Senior Minister for Climate Change Chris Huhne got his then wife Vicky Pryce to take penalty points on her driving license after he had been caught on camera driving faster then the speed limit. This led to Huhne resigning his ministerial post and the pair being charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. At trial Huhne plead guilty and now awaits the custodial sentence that inevitably follows conviction for what is considered the most serious criminal offence.
Then the trial of his bitter ex-wife began. Ms Pryce is running a defence of marital coercion. That is to say she admits to committing the criminal act but is not guilty of the offence because pressure from her husband rendered her unable to refuse. In order to support this defence Pryce has tried very hard in Court to portray Huhne as an aggressive bully. This has included the playing of secretly recorded telephone conversations in which Pyrce tries to get Huhne to admit that he forced her to commit the offence, scandalous details about their divorce after Huhne left to live with his mistress and claims that Huhne forced Pyrce to have an abortion.
Aside from the issue of climate change which as I've explained is deeply unpopular within the British Establishment this case really has everything. Speeding offences are by far the most commonly committed criminal offence in the UK to the point where I can't think of a driver I know who hasn't been convicted of it at least once. The divorce and abortion elements would have struck a cord with the growing number of British people who have been through those experiences. Then there's all the salacious stuff about the pair's relationship with their children (a constant worry for us all) and the supposed bisexuality of Huhnes mistress. For good measure the secretly recorded telephone calls brought make memories of phone-hacking as the Establishment once again launches an attack on press freedoms through the defamation bill and that nonsense about the Duchess of Cambridge bikini shots. So this soap opera of trial should have captivated the nation and forced us all to examine our attitudes to the issues raised.
The problem was that no-one seemed that interested. So the Judge dismissed the Jury essentially accusing them of being too stupid to comprehend the issues involved and declared a mis-trial. Therefore we've got to go through it all again starting sometime next week.
I sincerely hope they gett the ratings they crave this time because I for one couldn't sit through the first episode never mind an third series.
23:35 on 21/2/13.
Yay Bureaucracy
Today I returned from the shops to discover that I'd received not one but three letters from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). Totalling 16 pages these all relate to that questionnaire I had to fill in towards the end of 2012.
While I'm still digesting this all the summary is that because none of my answers have changed nothing about my classification has changed. Therefore I am still on contribution based Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and am still in a work related activity group which means I still need to have periodic interviews with a specialist personal adviser. My entitlement to contribution based ESA actually yesterday (20/2/13). However while none of the letters make any reference to it I should immediately be transferred to income related ESA without me having to do anything.
Obviously Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is being phased out to be replaced by the Personal Independence Payment (PIP). However the very long list with my name on it will not begin the transfer until 2015 at the earliest and as there is a strong possibility that Britain will have a different government by then the change from DLA to PIP may not even happen at all.
I'm actually a bit disappointed by this because I was quite ready to go to war over it which is probably why the DWP decided against it. I may still challenge my being placed in a work related activity group because the last time I did voluntary work related activity (Enterprise House) it didn't end so well. However there is a strong possability that the appeal process will be more disruptive then just attending the occassional interview.
15:15 on 21/2/13
While I'm still digesting this all the summary is that because none of my answers have changed nothing about my classification has changed. Therefore I am still on contribution based Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and am still in a work related activity group which means I still need to have periodic interviews with a specialist personal adviser. My entitlement to contribution based ESA actually yesterday (20/2/13). However while none of the letters make any reference to it I should immediately be transferred to income related ESA without me having to do anything.
Obviously Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is being phased out to be replaced by the Personal Independence Payment (PIP). However the very long list with my name on it will not begin the transfer until 2015 at the earliest and as there is a strong possibility that Britain will have a different government by then the change from DLA to PIP may not even happen at all.
I'm actually a bit disappointed by this because I was quite ready to go to war over it which is probably why the DWP decided against it. I may still challenge my being placed in a work related activity group because the last time I did voluntary work related activity (Enterprise House) it didn't end so well. However there is a strong possability that the appeal process will be more disruptive then just attending the occassional interview.
15:15 on 21/2/13
Quick Point on Lance Armstrong.
Yesterday (20/2/13) it was announced that disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong wouldn't be giving evidence under oath to US anti-doping authorities. This was pretty obviously the US accepting that I won't be playing along on the Rihanna thing until there is evidence from their side that they are seeking a positive outcome.
The Lance Armstong link does though touch on something that has been pretty much lost in the sands of time. When Armstrong's interview with Oprah Winfrey was broadcast Rihanna and Chris Brown were together in a recording studio. As in the code I'm Lance Armstrong and Rihanna did a very in-depth interview with Winfrey about her relationship with Brown this was supposed to generate all sorts of speculation about Rihanna's and Brown's emotional responses to the interview. The fight with Frank Ocean was a very expensive way for Brown's handlers to discover that actually nobody gave a sh*t.
Last night Frank Ocean won the BRIT award for best international male. That seems to be Britain hinting that they too think Brown's Court date needs to be moved up.
11:45 on 21/2/13.
The Lance Armstong link does though touch on something that has been pretty much lost in the sands of time. When Armstrong's interview with Oprah Winfrey was broadcast Rihanna and Chris Brown were together in a recording studio. As in the code I'm Lance Armstrong and Rihanna did a very in-depth interview with Winfrey about her relationship with Brown this was supposed to generate all sorts of speculation about Rihanna's and Brown's emotional responses to the interview. The fight with Frank Ocean was a very expensive way for Brown's handlers to discover that actually nobody gave a sh*t.
Last night Frank Ocean won the BRIT award for best international male. That seems to be Britain hinting that they too think Brown's Court date needs to be moved up.
11:45 on 21/2/13.
Tuesday 19 February 2013
It's Rihanna's Birthday!!!
Or at least in most of the civilised world it has been for quite some time.
25!!!
I hear. I'd like to wish her a Merry One but all I hear is that; "She's just a messed up kid" defence getting harder and harder to sell by the day.
I just pray then that I'm dealing with sensible professionals who'll realise that until Chris Brown goes to jail a messed up kid is all she'll be. Then I'll hope that someone in her record company recognises the term; Entropy.
I won't hold me breath on that last one.
02:10 on 20/2/12.
25!!!
I hear. I'd like to wish her a Merry One but all I hear is that; "She's just a messed up kid" defence getting harder and harder to sell by the day.
I just pray then that I'm dealing with sensible professionals who'll realise that until Chris Brown goes to jail a messed up kid is all she'll be. Then I'll hope that someone in her record company recognises the term; Entropy.
I won't hold me breath on that last one.
02:10 on 20/2/12.
Performance Rih-View Time
It should come as no surprise to learn that Rihanna's recent (15/2/13 - 17/2/13) trip to London, UK to launch her Spring/Summer clothing line for River Island had very little to do with the Autumn/Winter (2013) shows at London Fashion Week (LFW). Instead it was supposed to serve as a test run for Rihanna's forthcoming "Diamonds" music tour. That is to say it provided an opportunity for any problems to be unidentified and possible solutions discussed.
The main issue
for the tour is going to be Rihanna's travel plans and transfer between
different nation states. This is important because it allows us to know under
exactly whose jurisdiction Rihanna is operating at any given point. It will
also impact on the spread of rumours such as Rihanna having to cancel her say
Belgium concert because she's been locked up in say a Cambodian psychiatric
facility. The official announcement from the US (asteroid 2012 DA14) of
Rihanna's departure from the US was out by a margin of around five hours. There
was no official announcement on Rihanna's arrival in the UK. The official US
announcement of Rihanna's departure from the UK (Danica Patrick's Daytona 500
pole position) was out by a margin of some two hours. There was no official
announcement of her return to the US.
For her part -
under some pressure - Rihanna did eventually take to Twitter to announce her
departure from the US. However there was no announcement of her arrival in the
UK or her departure from the UK. She did though make a confirmation of her
arrival back in the US. However this was done in such a heavily coded manner
unless you were really paying attention this would have caused more problems
then it solved. The normal method of reporting Rihanna transferring between
nation states (airport paparazzi pictures) took place as she left the US but
stopped immediately after. This seemed fair because that reporting method is
always delayed by several hours, requires people to expose intelligence
networks and can disappear entirely when private jets are being used at small
airports.
A simpler
solution would be to post photographs of airport signs after take off or
arrival at the hotel.
The other major
issue for the Diamonds tour will be whether Chris Brown intends to join
Rihanna. This is important because there are many people on this earth who will
quite happily kill Chris Brown. Up until now the US have been intending to have
fun with this by using Chris Brown's security as an issue to put pressure on
nations hosting the Diamonds tour. However in some of the rougher nations such
as Turkey, Morocco and to some extent Poland it genuinely may not be up to the
state security services to decide if Brown lives or dies. Not least of the
reasons for this is that if I was currently working in US intelligence I'd be very seriously
considering putting together a kill team to solve the problem while
embarrassing the nation that hosted the actual killing.
For the London
trip Chris Brown's Twitter account was used to announce that he wouldn't be
joining Rihanna by confirming that he'd be appearing at a concert within the US
on the Friday (15/2/13) night. The main problem with this was that no mention
was made of Brown's plans for the Saturday and Sunday leaving open the
possibility that he could be then flying on to meet Rihanna in London. However if you'd stared closely enough at Jay-Z's face during the NBA Allstars weekender I'm sure you could have picked up clues.
The other major problem was that this method of announcing Brown's intentions also raised the big issue that Brown (or more accurately the Judge) will face at his next court appearance. Namely why he isn't being indicted on multiple counts of fraud and attempting to pervert the course of justice when on multiple occasions paper work has been filed claiming he was performing community service in west Virginia when he was actually being photographed and filmed appearing at industry events in front of thousands of witnesses hundreds of miles away (although I haven't seen the case papers). Rihanna's decision to bring Brown's 'spirit' to London by wearing his jacket on arrival was simply childish.
The other major problem was that this method of announcing Brown's intentions also raised the big issue that Brown (or more accurately the Judge) will face at his next court appearance. Namely why he isn't being indicted on multiple counts of fraud and attempting to pervert the course of justice when on multiple occasions paper work has been filed claiming he was performing community service in west Virginia when he was actually being photographed and filmed appearing at industry events in front of thousands of witnesses hundreds of miles away (although I haven't seen the case papers). Rihanna's decision to bring Brown's 'spirit' to London by wearing his jacket on arrival was simply childish.
A simpler
solution would be for Chris Brown to be put in prison or at least placed on
bail conditions that prevent him contacting Rihanna or leaving the US.
A very London
specific issue for the Diamonds tour is Rihanna's apparent friendship with the
British model Cara Delevinge. Despite only having been on the scene for less the
two years Ms Delevinge has already cemented a reputation for herself as a
British informant. That is to say co-operative organisations (in this case the
actual Royal Family through Prince Harry) have conspired to create a 'buzz'
around Ms Delevinge. This buzz means that she get invited to all the key industry
events and gets to meet all the key industry players. She then reports all the
gossip back to her handlers because there's nothing like a bit of blackmail to
make people co-operative. Hence the term "Rever/Reeva" (see
"Firefly" for details). Given Britain's very hostile attitude towards
Rihanna I would say this make Ms Delevinge a prime example of a phone number
Rihanna could afford to lose.
Also as Ms
Delevinge claims to be bisexual photographs of her cavorting with Rihanna and
more importantly her friend Melissa Forde only add to the questions about Ms
Forde's sexuality. I honestly don't care what the truth about those rumours are
but I know that the mere presence of these rumours will cause a lot of problems
for nations and people who do not share my liberal attitude towards homosexuality. It
will especially cause problems for people who are unable to tell if these
rumours are in-fact code for something else.
Therefore
serious questions have to be asked about Rihanna's decision to miss the
official launch party for her clothing line that was attended by people who
could support the product in favour of going on a tour of Soho sex shops and
nightclubs with Ms Delevinge. I appreciate through the heat generated by
the Oscar Pistorius story would have made it very difficult for Rihanna to
politely give Ms Delevinge the slip. However in her drunken state I think that
at one point Rihanna honestly thought she was getting the gossip on all the LFW
shows that Ms Delevinge was modelling at. At another point Rihanna thought she
was getting all the latest gossip on music industry rival Rita Ora who refers
to Ms Delevinge as "wifey." At another I think Rihanna genuinely
thought she was testing out if Ms Delevinge could give as good account of my
life as I could. I also think that at one point Rihanna was genuinely looking for tips to help her in her new career.
I hope Rihanna
got all the clues she was looking for. That's because you heard Monday's
(18/2/13) wonderful story about the Burberry show which featured items containing RFID tags which when
activated by a smart-phone tell the story of the object you would know the price
Rihanna has paid for that information is having a big target painted on her
back.
For their part
Rihanna's handlers in US intelligence were very keen to use the trip to raise
possible retaliations people could use in response to Rihanna's aggressive
behaviour.
So on the
Thursday (14/2/13) prior to the trip Rihanna used her Twitter/Instagram account
to treat us to a series of pictures clearly documenting her marijuana use. Funnily
enough it turns out that international border posts such airports are
specifically designed to catch people who are carrying illegal drugs such as
marijuana. Therefore arresting members of the Diamonds tour entourage or simply
subjecting them to enhanced searches could be one possible retaliation. The
photographs led to a conversation between River Island and Rihanna's
management. I believe that the gist of this was rather then worrying and
relying on the "Navy" Rihanna should source her drugs through the
local tour promoter. Or "Standard Practice" as it's known in the
entertainment industry.
On the Saturday
(16/2/13) Google (who have been under a lot of US pressure since Egypt) placed
age restrictions on Rihanna's "Diamonds" video on YouTube. This led
to her fans (The Navy) to mount a Twitter campaign to have the age restrictions
removed. This was designed to promote discussion about a possible media
blackout. That's because it's not hard for me to imagine a future where the BBC
or their equivalents simply do not play Rihanna songs or videos. The live
stream of the River Island catwalk show also kept kept cutting out with the
sound going on and off. This was supposed to raise speculation that the feed
was being hacked because it is possible to enforce a blackout on a media outlet
that does not comply willingly.
For their part
British intelligence made sure that Rihanna was accosted by a drunk fan on her
night out in Soho. While Rihanna herself has not commented on the incident I
believe the man threw a plastic bottle at her while shouting abuse about her
reunion with Chris Brown. This caused a drunk Rihanna to fall against a metal
shop shutter slightly cutting her right knee. Her body guard attempted to catch
the man but failed, falling and injuring himself in the process. The Brits were
hoping that this would be seen as them issuing a friendly warning to their US
counterparts that possible retaliations can quite easily go as far as physical
violence or worse and Rihanna's current security detail is clearly not up to
the job. However along with the Sunday Times article comparing Rihanna's
relationship with Chris Brown to Princess Diana's relationship with Prince
Charles this was really intended to make Rihanna's head spin. After all violent
confrontations always get the adrenaline pumping and this particular one touched
on whether Rihanna actually enjoys getting beaten up and the incident in
Barbados over Christmas with the interloper. However I don't think the point
the Brits were trying to make is that when incidents like that happen I'm
exactly the person you want at the other end of a phone.
So having
considered all these factors I would have to class Rihanna's trip to London as
a massive failure. It was of course a marked and great improvement on the 777
Tour but it was a massive failure none the less.
Also, obviously
Rihanna decided that she didn't want to meet up with me while she was in my
home town. This is a problem because if she continues to refuse to co-operate
with me my job will become so difficult that it may become impossible.
Fortunately - and perhaps fearful for their brand - River Island have once again attempted to move the heaven and earth required to bring Rihanna back to London to meet me at the retail launch of her collection. It was this that got the age restriction on the "Stay" video lifted although the US tried to cover it with the current LA shooting, However if she wants to enter that particular competition I'm sure she knows the US number she's got to ring.
21:50 on 19/2/13.
Edited at 22:25 on 19/2/13.
Edited at 22:25 on 19/2/13.
Norbury Wetherspoons
So classy I even ordered I glass of wine with my dinner. I'm now considering that a mistake.
Or to put it another way; It's Tuesday night and I'm back from the pub!!! I don't know why I bother mention it though because it's not like leaving early has returned me home before kick-off. Although the fact we have arrived before the start of Holby City means that I at least stand a chance of seeing some of the Arsenal V Bayern game.
19:50 on 19/2/13.
Or to put it another way; It's Tuesday night and I'm back from the pub!!! I don't know why I bother mention it though because it's not like leaving early has returned me home before kick-off. Although the fact we have arrived before the start of Holby City means that I at least stand a chance of seeing some of the Arsenal V Bayern game.
19:50 on 19/2/13.
Monday 18 February 2013
Complicit.
Last night (17/2/13) Britain's Channel 4 showed a genuinely incredibly acted feature length drama entitled "Complicit." Essentially a two hander it was carried by David Oyelowo and Arshar Ali. It centred around Olyelowo's MI5 officer "Edward Ekubo" being sent to Egypt to interview Ali's British Muslim terrorism suspect "Waleed Ahmed." On arrival Ekubo learns that Ahmed is being tortured by Egypt's State Security Service. Ekubo then examines his own attitudes towards to torture while the viewer is left to question whether his judgement is being clouded by some problems he's been having at work such as being overlooked for promotion.
The story was a none too subtle and none too accurate re-telling of the Abdel Hakim Belhadj story. For those of you who don't know Belhadj was an Jihadist who was detained by the CIA in Thailand before being handed over to Britain's MI6 who gave him to Mummar Qaddafi to 'play with' as part of UKPM's Tony Blair's infamous "deal in the desert." Since Qaddafi's fall Belhadj has gone on to be the head of the Tripoli Fighting Group (essentially the Libyan Army) and leader of the Homeland Party whilst being heavily linked to both MI6 and factions within Libya's ever changing range of militias. His 'kidnapping' by the Zintan Brigades was of course a British ruse to clean his reputation. He is currently suing the British Government over claims that the MI6 officers who transferred him from the CIA to Qaddafi were complicit in his torture by both. The British public will be expected to pick a side in this soap-opera. The references to Egypt and Mubarak's Central Security Force were pretty obvious while the torture scenes were reminiscent of the portrayal of the Saudi military in the film "The Kingdom."
Apart from making everyone in Britain talk about their attitudes towards torture while I was talking about Rihanna's appearance at London Fashion Week this was essentially a propaganda piece for Britain's MI5. The main message was that it is really difficult to uncover terrorist plots so we should cut them some slack. This was mainly illustrated by things such as sound being re-edited so you could never be quite sure what the people under surveillance were saying and it never being explained if the term 'Bed Linen' was actually code for 'Ricin.' This need for such a high level of attention to detail meant that the drama wasn't really aimed at stoners.
As a result I can only actually remember one scene which saw Ekubo questioning Ali to find out if he'd received the 'Bed Linen' from Yemen and whether that 'Bed Linen' was actually 'Ricin.' At one point Ali asked if "It was a crime to shop with people you want to have your money rather then shopping on the British High Street?" This was of course an attempt to promote discussion about companies such as Amazon who take business away from the British High Street but are based outside of Britain meaning they don't pay UK taxes.
Shortly afterwards Ekubo went into an almost word for word recantation of a speech given by Peter Firth's "Harry Pearce" to Martine McCutcheon's "Tash" in Series 3 episode 2 of "Spooks" which starred David Oyelowo. In the past week Martine McCutcheon has filed for bankruptcy. While I'm not familiar with the case details an unexpectedly large tax bill is often the reason for this sort of bankruptcy. Apart from raising the point that celebrities who think they're rich can suddenly discover they're not this was an attempt to raise the point that Her Majesties Revenue and Customs (HMRC/tax offices) does sometimes think it can act as a law unto itself.
Apart from that the portrayal of MI5's offices as similar to any other police/NHS/low level Civil Service offices promoted discussion about all the dodgy conspiracies they've been involved in over the years. The references to office politics, disciplinary panels and grievance procedures were designed to make the viewer think about any office based disputes they may have had in their careers.
Tonight Channel 4 will be treating us to episode 2 of season 2 of "Black Mirror." I've not seen it yet but sci-fi inspired apparently it's about a young black woman who is going through some terrible personal trauma but nobody will help her because they've all been turned into mysterious 'onlookers.'
Somehow I doubt the Queen with an Real Navy will be watching. But if you can't shake that one off you probably don't deserve to be there.
21:50 on 18/2/13.
The story was a none too subtle and none too accurate re-telling of the Abdel Hakim Belhadj story. For those of you who don't know Belhadj was an Jihadist who was detained by the CIA in Thailand before being handed over to Britain's MI6 who gave him to Mummar Qaddafi to 'play with' as part of UKPM's Tony Blair's infamous "deal in the desert." Since Qaddafi's fall Belhadj has gone on to be the head of the Tripoli Fighting Group (essentially the Libyan Army) and leader of the Homeland Party whilst being heavily linked to both MI6 and factions within Libya's ever changing range of militias. His 'kidnapping' by the Zintan Brigades was of course a British ruse to clean his reputation. He is currently suing the British Government over claims that the MI6 officers who transferred him from the CIA to Qaddafi were complicit in his torture by both. The British public will be expected to pick a side in this soap-opera. The references to Egypt and Mubarak's Central Security Force were pretty obvious while the torture scenes were reminiscent of the portrayal of the Saudi military in the film "The Kingdom."
Apart from making everyone in Britain talk about their attitudes towards torture while I was talking about Rihanna's appearance at London Fashion Week this was essentially a propaganda piece for Britain's MI5. The main message was that it is really difficult to uncover terrorist plots so we should cut them some slack. This was mainly illustrated by things such as sound being re-edited so you could never be quite sure what the people under surveillance were saying and it never being explained if the term 'Bed Linen' was actually code for 'Ricin.' This need for such a high level of attention to detail meant that the drama wasn't really aimed at stoners.
As a result I can only actually remember one scene which saw Ekubo questioning Ali to find out if he'd received the 'Bed Linen' from Yemen and whether that 'Bed Linen' was actually 'Ricin.' At one point Ali asked if "It was a crime to shop with people you want to have your money rather then shopping on the British High Street?" This was of course an attempt to promote discussion about companies such as Amazon who take business away from the British High Street but are based outside of Britain meaning they don't pay UK taxes.
Shortly afterwards Ekubo went into an almost word for word recantation of a speech given by Peter Firth's "Harry Pearce" to Martine McCutcheon's "Tash" in Series 3 episode 2 of "Spooks" which starred David Oyelowo. In the past week Martine McCutcheon has filed for bankruptcy. While I'm not familiar with the case details an unexpectedly large tax bill is often the reason for this sort of bankruptcy. Apart from raising the point that celebrities who think they're rich can suddenly discover they're not this was an attempt to raise the point that Her Majesties Revenue and Customs (HMRC/tax offices) does sometimes think it can act as a law unto itself.
Apart from that the portrayal of MI5's offices as similar to any other police/NHS/low level Civil Service offices promoted discussion about all the dodgy conspiracies they've been involved in over the years. The references to office politics, disciplinary panels and grievance procedures were designed to make the viewer think about any office based disputes they may have had in their careers.
Tonight Channel 4 will be treating us to episode 2 of season 2 of "Black Mirror." I've not seen it yet but sci-fi inspired apparently it's about a young black woman who is going through some terrible personal trauma but nobody will help her because they've all been turned into mysterious 'onlookers.'
Somehow I doubt the Queen with an Real Navy will be watching. But if you can't shake that one off you probably don't deserve to be there.
21:50 on 18/2/13.
Foreign Hostages Taken in Nigeria.
On Saturday (16/2/13) 7 foreign construction workers were taken hostage in Bauchi province norther Nigeria. The group is said to include 4 Lebanese, 1 British, 1 Greek and 1 Italian citizen. The kidnapping has since been claimed by Ansaru an Islamist group who are linked to Al Qeada and the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJWA) through Boko Haram.
As MUJWA is Britain and Qatar's command and control structure for Islamists across west Africa - particularly in Mali - this is pretty obviously an attempt to force Nigeria to commit more troops to the conflict in Mali. The idea being that the governments of Lebanon, Greece and Italy will now put great pressure on the government of Nigeria to get the hostages out safely. This will expose some of the short comings of the Nigerian army and Britain will be on hand to suggest that it could help train the Nigerian army if they commit more troops to Mali.
Or to put it another way; the no prison for Chris Brown equals no African force for Mali rule still seems to be in effect. With the first French troops leaving Mali yesterday (17/2/13) the US might want to seriously consider bringing that April Court date forward.
Elsewhere on the continent 12 people have been injured at the Anglo-American Platinum mine in Rustenburg, South Africa. The injuries occurred in clashes between mine workers affiliated with the Jacob Zuma and Julius Malema factions. Therefore I think it's time for the Judge in tomorrow's hearing to accept that there is no case for Oscar Pistorious to answer before the blow back gets too bad.
16:30 on 18/2/13.
As MUJWA is Britain and Qatar's command and control structure for Islamists across west Africa - particularly in Mali - this is pretty obviously an attempt to force Nigeria to commit more troops to the conflict in Mali. The idea being that the governments of Lebanon, Greece and Italy will now put great pressure on the government of Nigeria to get the hostages out safely. This will expose some of the short comings of the Nigerian army and Britain will be on hand to suggest that it could help train the Nigerian army if they commit more troops to Mali.
Or to put it another way; the no prison for Chris Brown equals no African force for Mali rule still seems to be in effect. With the first French troops leaving Mali yesterday (17/2/13) the US might want to seriously consider bringing that April Court date forward.
Elsewhere on the continent 12 people have been injured at the Anglo-American Platinum mine in Rustenburg, South Africa. The injuries occurred in clashes between mine workers affiliated with the Jacob Zuma and Julius Malema factions. Therefore I think it's time for the Judge in tomorrow's hearing to accept that there is no case for Oscar Pistorious to answer before the blow back gets too bad.
16:30 on 18/2/13.
Friday 15 February 2013
Rihanna's Airborne.
Well if she wants to be in London by 20:30 tomorrow with her game face on she's got to be at least thinking about it.
Unfortunately due to my misbehaviour during the Dreamliner test the flight number will not be made publicly available so we won't be able to track it on FlightAware. Instead NASA would prefer it if we all whipped out our telescopes and concentrated really hard on 2012 DA14 for clues. Although the Russians seem to have stolen a march on that I for one will be interested to see by what margin NASA's estimate will be out. The last I heard was 1700 Kilo/Miles so if they get it on the nose I'm either going with "Magic" or "Light moves really quickly through the cold vacuum of space."
Anyway while we ponder great and wondrous things you may remember that on Tuesday (12/2/13) I mentioned that Rihanna suffers from some fundamental misconceptions. An example of this would be her thinking she can come to my hometown and pretend that I don't exist. I don't mean that in a bitchy or arrogant way, it's just seriously does anyone think I'm not at least going to be alluded to?
So to clarify Rihanna now has my phone number and I won't be making any attempt to meet up with her unless she calls first to make to appointment. If she doesn't intend on doing that I can only strongly recommend that she doesn't drag her feet.
15:00 on 15/2/13.
Unfortunately due to my misbehaviour during the Dreamliner test the flight number will not be made publicly available so we won't be able to track it on FlightAware. Instead NASA would prefer it if we all whipped out our telescopes and concentrated really hard on 2012 DA14 for clues. Although the Russians seem to have stolen a march on that I for one will be interested to see by what margin NASA's estimate will be out. The last I heard was 1700 Kilo/Miles so if they get it on the nose I'm either going with "Magic" or "Light moves really quickly through the cold vacuum of space."
Anyway while we ponder great and wondrous things you may remember that on Tuesday (12/2/13) I mentioned that Rihanna suffers from some fundamental misconceptions. An example of this would be her thinking she can come to my hometown and pretend that I don't exist. I don't mean that in a bitchy or arrogant way, it's just seriously does anyone think I'm not at least going to be alluded to?
So to clarify Rihanna now has my phone number and I won't be making any attempt to meet up with her unless she calls first to make to appointment. If she doesn't intend on doing that I can only strongly recommend that she doesn't drag her feet.
15:00 on 15/2/13.
Sarai Sierra: The Really Short Version
Sarai Sierra was US spy who they sent to Turkey. While Sierra was in Turkey the US killed their own agent in order to open a communication channel with the Turkish security services in order to gain influence in the Syria situation. The Turks worked this out on their own and are not best pleased. In fact they're so annoyed they are now telling everyone they're looking a for a mysterious homeless man known only as "Mr Z."
It is in this climate that Rihanna will play a Diamonds tour concert in Istanbul on May 30th (30/5/13). So maybe the Navy shouldn't be too surprised if that doesn't actually happen.
08:45 on 15/2/13.
It is in this climate that Rihanna will play a Diamonds tour concert in Istanbul on May 30th (30/5/13). So maybe the Navy shouldn't be too surprised if that doesn't actually happen.
08:45 on 15/2/13.
Wednesday 13 February 2013
The UNSC, Rwanda, the EU and Meat Fraud.
Apart from the China link discussed yesterday the purpose my ECG, the North Korean nuclear test, Rihanna's "Stay" video, Dorner and the State of the Union was to US trying to shake down Rwanda during a scheduled United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting in which Navi Pillay briefed on the situation in Syria.
Effectively a UK client state Rwanda plays a central role in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and their term on the UNSC is going to be problematic. Therefore the US is very keen to get a sense of what their intentions are and how they operate. Knowing all this the UK intended to watch the US shake down Rwanda so they could identify what the strengths and weaknesses are and adjust their approach accordingly.
Have been driven almost entirely by the UK and their close ally the Netherlands European Union (EU) ministers today held an emergency meeting on meat fraud which is the more correct, technical term for the current horse meat scandal. Apart from raising the issues of pan-EU trade and law enforcement that are implicit within the EU Budget discussions the UK was trying to gauge reaction to the UNSC thing with the first question being who knew about it?
Just before this EU meeting began Chris Brown tweeted something about his charitable foundation increasing the number of college scholarships it awards. Coming on the day that victims of abuse by Jimmy Savile began compensation claims against his charitable foundation this seemed a lot like Chris Brown challenging me to a duel.
This of course would have added to the complexity of the EU meeting by including the issues surrounding Rihanna's "Diamonds" video. Also it's long been a position of the UK and the US that I need to go to college in order to get a degree to qualify for a job doing perfectly fine as it is. Further more one of the issues with the horse meat is that it may contain traces of a drug known as Bute. Before they discovered it was dangerous Bute was used in humans to treat a form of arthritis known as Gout. You may remember that last year I smashed up my toe in the gym. Britain then went on a desperate campaign to convince everyone I was suffering from gout in much the same way the tried to convince everyone that my grandmother was suffering from dementia.
So while I appreciate that the UK and the US are allies Team Breezy seems more dedicated to the UK side of the relationship.
23:00 on 13/2/13.
Effectively a UK client state Rwanda plays a central role in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and their term on the UNSC is going to be problematic. Therefore the US is very keen to get a sense of what their intentions are and how they operate. Knowing all this the UK intended to watch the US shake down Rwanda so they could identify what the strengths and weaknesses are and adjust their approach accordingly.
Have been driven almost entirely by the UK and their close ally the Netherlands European Union (EU) ministers today held an emergency meeting on meat fraud which is the more correct, technical term for the current horse meat scandal. Apart from raising the issues of pan-EU trade and law enforcement that are implicit within the EU Budget discussions the UK was trying to gauge reaction to the UNSC thing with the first question being who knew about it?
Just before this EU meeting began Chris Brown tweeted something about his charitable foundation increasing the number of college scholarships it awards. Coming on the day that victims of abuse by Jimmy Savile began compensation claims against his charitable foundation this seemed a lot like Chris Brown challenging me to a duel.
This of course would have added to the complexity of the EU meeting by including the issues surrounding Rihanna's "Diamonds" video. Also it's long been a position of the UK and the US that I need to go to college in order to get a degree to qualify for a job doing perfectly fine as it is. Further more one of the issues with the horse meat is that it may contain traces of a drug known as Bute. Before they discovered it was dangerous Bute was used in humans to treat a form of arthritis known as Gout. You may remember that last year I smashed up my toe in the gym. Britain then went on a desperate campaign to convince everyone I was suffering from gout in much the same way the tried to convince everyone that my grandmother was suffering from dementia.
So while I appreciate that the UK and the US are allies Team Breezy seems more dedicated to the UK side of the relationship.
23:00 on 13/2/13.
No Tears in the Coffee Aisle
Or indeed at the check out.
That's right I'm back from the supermarket and I cannot overstate how much I wish I was joking when I say this switch from Tuesday to Wednesday has pretty much ruined my entire week. In other news I'm Blackberry-less and in no rush to rectify that situation because I think we can safely say that the herculean effort of shopping is going to be the sum total of my achievement today.
15:55 on 13/2/13.
That's right I'm back from the supermarket and I cannot overstate how much I wish I was joking when I say this switch from Tuesday to Wednesday has pretty much ruined my entire week. In other news I'm Blackberry-less and in no rush to rectify that situation because I think we can safely say that the herculean effort of shopping is going to be the sum total of my achievement today.
15:55 on 13/2/13.
Tuesday 12 February 2013
It's Tuesday Night, Cold as Hell.
And I'm back from the pub drunk off my ar*e.
In the meantime though I should point out that I don't think Rihanna has any diagnostically relevent mental health problem. She does that have a significant drug habit and some fundamental misconceptions which at some point in the future may combine to become a mental health issue. As always these remain issues for Chris Brown's probation officer. After all the US seem to be dropping more then Iwo Jima to hoist that; "We destroyed Rihanna" flag.
20:20 on 12/2/13.
In the meantime though I should point out that I don't think Rihanna has any diagnostically relevent mental health problem. She does that have a significant drug habit and some fundamental misconceptions which at some point in the future may combine to become a mental health issue. As always these remain issues for Chris Brown's probation officer. After all the US seem to be dropping more then Iwo Jima to hoist that; "We destroyed Rihanna" flag.
20:20 on 12/2/13.
I'm Officially Not Dead.
And I'd like to say I have a bit of paper to prove it but that would spoil the game.
As I mentioned yesterday I've just been to the hospital for an ECG test. If you're unfamiliar with this it's a test to measure the electrical activity of the heart. It produces a long strip of paper showing a graph made up of peaks and troughs rather like Richard III's DNA test results. It is also similar to the graph you get following a seismic event like an earthquake or an underground nuclear test.
When the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meets later to discuss the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK/North Korea) nuclear test the seismic report from the US Geological Survey (UGSC) will play a key role in their efforts to determine exactly what the DPRK has done and is trying to say. So the US ordered the DPRK to carry out the test on the same day as my ECG in order to put pressure on China and Russia to expose themselves by trying to gain access to my test results to make sure the USGC report isn't being used as a metaphor for my results and vice versa.
As for my test results not only wasn't I allowed to take them home I wasn't officially allowed to look at them. However from the quick glance I stole they show a consistent rhythm will no indication a long QT syndrome. That's hardly a surprise because the risk of drug induced long QT syndrome is in the margin of 1 in several million and is normally dependent on a genetic pre-disposition.
Also it will be interesting to see if this UNSC meeting takes place before tonight's US State of the Union (SOTU) speech. That's because the speech and the hall if will be delivered in is going to be packed with the issue of gun control in a deliberate provocation to China.
So I have to say it would be nice if the US could manage this "Pivot towards the Pacific" without p*ssing off all their existing allies in the region.
14:50 on 12/2/13.
As I mentioned yesterday I've just been to the hospital for an ECG test. If you're unfamiliar with this it's a test to measure the electrical activity of the heart. It produces a long strip of paper showing a graph made up of peaks and troughs rather like Richard III's DNA test results. It is also similar to the graph you get following a seismic event like an earthquake or an underground nuclear test.
When the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meets later to discuss the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK/North Korea) nuclear test the seismic report from the US Geological Survey (UGSC) will play a key role in their efforts to determine exactly what the DPRK has done and is trying to say. So the US ordered the DPRK to carry out the test on the same day as my ECG in order to put pressure on China and Russia to expose themselves by trying to gain access to my test results to make sure the USGC report isn't being used as a metaphor for my results and vice versa.
As for my test results not only wasn't I allowed to take them home I wasn't officially allowed to look at them. However from the quick glance I stole they show a consistent rhythm will no indication a long QT syndrome. That's hardly a surprise because the risk of drug induced long QT syndrome is in the margin of 1 in several million and is normally dependent on a genetic pre-disposition.
Also it will be interesting to see if this UNSC meeting takes place before tonight's US State of the Union (SOTU) speech. That's because the speech and the hall if will be delivered in is going to be packed with the issue of gun control in a deliberate provocation to China.
So I have to say it would be nice if the US could manage this "Pivot towards the Pacific" without p*ssing off all their existing allies in the region.
14:50 on 12/2/13.
Rihanna's "Stay" Video
The official version of the video for Rihanna's single "Stay" is still embargoed here in the UK. As a result I've only seen the rough version. So here's the rough review;
It's just Rihanna lying nude in a bath for four minutes. The nakedness of her body is a metaphor for the nakedness of her soul. That's because as I'm sure you've already noticed from the "Unapologetic" album artwork at the time of the recording Rihanna was going through a sort of minor mental breakdown. She thought by exposing herself through lots of stripped back ballads showcasing her vocal talents she would be able to challenge her critics head on and through doing so defeat them. This attitude will of course be the death of her.
The imagery of her sitting all depressed in the bath is supposed to sell the issue of Rihanna's fragile mental state ahead of London Fashion Week and the Diamonds tour. However I'm not sure why that's an issue for anyone other then Chris Brown's probation officer.
10:35 on 12/2/13.
It's just Rihanna lying nude in a bath for four minutes. The nakedness of her body is a metaphor for the nakedness of her soul. That's because as I'm sure you've already noticed from the "Unapologetic" album artwork at the time of the recording Rihanna was going through a sort of minor mental breakdown. She thought by exposing herself through lots of stripped back ballads showcasing her vocal talents she would be able to challenge her critics head on and through doing so defeat them. This attitude will of course be the death of her.
The imagery of her sitting all depressed in the bath is supposed to sell the issue of Rihanna's fragile mental state ahead of London Fashion Week and the Diamonds tour. However I'm not sure why that's an issue for anyone other then Chris Brown's probation officer.
10:35 on 12/2/13.
Monday 11 February 2013
Rihanna's Grammys Performances.
As there's nothing on TV I've just finished watching Rihanna's performances at Sunday's (10/2/13) Grammy Awards. The Bob Marley tribute/love letter to Africa was pretty pedestrian and predictable.
It started with Bruno Mars performing his hit "Locked Out of Heaven." Apart from the comparison with the Rihanna song "Pour it Up" Mars is a man who's had few problems with the US authorities over his cocaine use. This obviously raises the issue of cocaine and Chris Brown's oft repeated claims that he's one of the most oppressed men in the world. Mars was of course sentenced to 1 year probation, a $2000 fine and 200 hours community service for possession of a very small about of cocaine. Having committed two assaults, perverted the course of justice, fraud and bribed public officials Chris Brown remains free.
Bruno Mars was then joined on stage by Sting from the band The Police. Apart from the fact that "Locked Out of Heaven" samples a Police song Sting's appearance was due to the fact that his band actually provided the soundtrack to one of my legendary tussles with the CIA that inspired the video to Rihanna's "Rude Boy" amongst many other things.
Sting and Mars went on to perform "Walking on the Moon" which was a reference to the fall of Tripoli and Qaddafi's flight to Sirte during the Libya war. Britain, France and Qatar were certain that Qaddafi was in Tripoli so when the city fell the war would be over. The US, me and most other people already knew that Qaddafi had fled to Sirte. "As obvious as footprints on the Moon" was the phrase used to describe Qaddafi's flight to Sirte. Therefore the performance was an attempt to get Africa to trust the US rather then Britain or France over the Mali conflict.
Rihanna came on last with Damien and Ziggy Marley for a toe curling rendition of the Bob Marley hit "You Could be Loved" when "Buffalo Soldier" would have been far more appropriate.
Rihanna's earlier performance of her song "Stay" was slightly more interesting. In a clear act of collusion between performer, show organisers and the broadcaster very early on there was a prominent shot of Rihanna's left hand clutching the microphone. This revealed that on her wedding finger she was wearing the engagement ring Chris Brown gave to her. She's actually been wearing that ring for certainly as long as I've been looking. However it's prominence at the Grammys was to get fans to speculate that "Stay" is actually about Chris Brown.
Those people were made to look pretty foolish when Rihanna was joined on stage by Mickey Ekko who wrote the song and as far as we know is not in love with Chris Brown. However along with the "Pour it Up/Locked out of Heaven" comparison this does feed into the theme of Rihanna's process and whether she agreed to record and release "Stay" thinking it reflected her feelings for Brown.
Debuted at the final of the UK X-Factor "Stay" is actually the US saying that despite me it wants to stay allies with the UK provided the UK remains part of the European Union (EU). Having been delayed by Rihanna's 777 tour EU leaders have now agreed a budget for the European Council (EC) and there are some impenetrable discussions about horse meat going on as we wait to see if that European Parliament will adopt or reject that budget.
So tonight's release of the video for "Stay" some three months after the singles release is a US attempt to get a sense of what is going on in the EU discussions while at the same time providing an opportunity for a sort of progress report before Rihanna's deployment to London Fashion Week on Saturday (16/2/13).
The other thing I noticed was that despite all the nominations and performing Rihanna only won one Grammy. That was for best video for "We Found Love" and was awarded before the show began. This was the Grammy organisers trying to downplay their role in Rihanna and Chris Brown's reunion by sort of striking her from the official record. I hope she takes note of how easily people can be disappeared once they become an embarrassment.
21:25 on 11/2/13.
It started with Bruno Mars performing his hit "Locked Out of Heaven." Apart from the comparison with the Rihanna song "Pour it Up" Mars is a man who's had few problems with the US authorities over his cocaine use. This obviously raises the issue of cocaine and Chris Brown's oft repeated claims that he's one of the most oppressed men in the world. Mars was of course sentenced to 1 year probation, a $2000 fine and 200 hours community service for possession of a very small about of cocaine. Having committed two assaults, perverted the course of justice, fraud and bribed public officials Chris Brown remains free.
Bruno Mars was then joined on stage by Sting from the band The Police. Apart from the fact that "Locked Out of Heaven" samples a Police song Sting's appearance was due to the fact that his band actually provided the soundtrack to one of my legendary tussles with the CIA that inspired the video to Rihanna's "Rude Boy" amongst many other things.
Sting and Mars went on to perform "Walking on the Moon" which was a reference to the fall of Tripoli and Qaddafi's flight to Sirte during the Libya war. Britain, France and Qatar were certain that Qaddafi was in Tripoli so when the city fell the war would be over. The US, me and most other people already knew that Qaddafi had fled to Sirte. "As obvious as footprints on the Moon" was the phrase used to describe Qaddafi's flight to Sirte. Therefore the performance was an attempt to get Africa to trust the US rather then Britain or France over the Mali conflict.
Rihanna came on last with Damien and Ziggy Marley for a toe curling rendition of the Bob Marley hit "You Could be Loved" when "Buffalo Soldier" would have been far more appropriate.
Rihanna's earlier performance of her song "Stay" was slightly more interesting. In a clear act of collusion between performer, show organisers and the broadcaster very early on there was a prominent shot of Rihanna's left hand clutching the microphone. This revealed that on her wedding finger she was wearing the engagement ring Chris Brown gave to her. She's actually been wearing that ring for certainly as long as I've been looking. However it's prominence at the Grammys was to get fans to speculate that "Stay" is actually about Chris Brown.
Those people were made to look pretty foolish when Rihanna was joined on stage by Mickey Ekko who wrote the song and as far as we know is not in love with Chris Brown. However along with the "Pour it Up/Locked out of Heaven" comparison this does feed into the theme of Rihanna's process and whether she agreed to record and release "Stay" thinking it reflected her feelings for Brown.
Debuted at the final of the UK X-Factor "Stay" is actually the US saying that despite me it wants to stay allies with the UK provided the UK remains part of the European Union (EU). Having been delayed by Rihanna's 777 tour EU leaders have now agreed a budget for the European Council (EC) and there are some impenetrable discussions about horse meat going on as we wait to see if that European Parliament will adopt or reject that budget.
So tonight's release of the video for "Stay" some three months after the singles release is a US attempt to get a sense of what is going on in the EU discussions while at the same time providing an opportunity for a sort of progress report before Rihanna's deployment to London Fashion Week on Saturday (16/2/13).
The other thing I noticed was that despite all the nominations and performing Rihanna only won one Grammy. That was for best video for "We Found Love" and was awarded before the show began. This was the Grammy organisers trying to downplay their role in Rihanna and Chris Brown's reunion by sort of striking her from the official record. I hope she takes note of how easily people can be disappeared once they become an embarrassment.
21:25 on 11/2/13.
Iran and Yemen's MANPAD Carnival
As is I think common knowledge Iran supplies Hamas in Gaza with weapons amongst other things. The most commonly used supply route is through Somalia, the Sudans and the Egypt. However recently Iran has started very obviously routing some of these shipments through Yemen.
This is being done specifically to raise the issue of US drone strikes and other military support in Yemen. That is all being done at the behest of the Saudi's in order to stop Yemen's popular uprising spreading to Saudi Arabia.
Last month Iran sent a shipment of Man Portable Air Defence Systems (MANPADS) via the Yemen route. These Stinger type weapons are incredibly nasty in the hands of a terrorist with a commercial jumbo jet being brought down over a crowded city being one of the worst case scenarios. Therefore the US Navy very quickly moved to intercept the shipment. They have since gone public with this information in order to put pressure on Saudi Arabia to repay the US support it's receiving in Yemen by stopping the flow of weapons (including MANPADS) into Syria. However in order to disguise it the US made up some nonsense about the weapons being intended for Islamists in Somalia and the Sudans. The almost constant state of crisis between Sudan and South Sudan is of course being manipulated in order for the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to use it as a metaphor for a range of other issues chiefly the Israel/Palestine situation.
This Sunday's (10/2/13) death of five crewmen during a training drill aboard the UK's Thomson cruise ship "Majesty" in Santa Cruz port on the Canary Islands was someone just laughing in the US' face. The fire aboard the US' Carnival cruise ship "Triumph" that occurred later in the Gulf of Mexico was to enquire if anybody else knew about or shared that view.
So once again I can only strongly recommend that the US stops putting on nonsense like the Delaware Court House shooting to make it look like the Chris Brown issue is being polled internally. That's because if you're still trying to piece together Assad's latest plea from Turkish border (they're really not happy about the Sarai Sierra stunt btw) the world wasn't listening during the Grammys. It was shifting.
20:00 on 11/2/13.
This is being done specifically to raise the issue of US drone strikes and other military support in Yemen. That is all being done at the behest of the Saudi's in order to stop Yemen's popular uprising spreading to Saudi Arabia.
Last month Iran sent a shipment of Man Portable Air Defence Systems (MANPADS) via the Yemen route. These Stinger type weapons are incredibly nasty in the hands of a terrorist with a commercial jumbo jet being brought down over a crowded city being one of the worst case scenarios. Therefore the US Navy very quickly moved to intercept the shipment. They have since gone public with this information in order to put pressure on Saudi Arabia to repay the US support it's receiving in Yemen by stopping the flow of weapons (including MANPADS) into Syria. However in order to disguise it the US made up some nonsense about the weapons being intended for Islamists in Somalia and the Sudans. The almost constant state of crisis between Sudan and South Sudan is of course being manipulated in order for the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to use it as a metaphor for a range of other issues chiefly the Israel/Palestine situation.
This Sunday's (10/2/13) death of five crewmen during a training drill aboard the UK's Thomson cruise ship "Majesty" in Santa Cruz port on the Canary Islands was someone just laughing in the US' face. The fire aboard the US' Carnival cruise ship "Triumph" that occurred later in the Gulf of Mexico was to enquire if anybody else knew about or shared that view.
So once again I can only strongly recommend that the US stops putting on nonsense like the Delaware Court House shooting to make it look like the Chris Brown issue is being polled internally. That's because if you're still trying to piece together Assad's latest plea from Turkish border (they're really not happy about the Sarai Sierra stunt btw) the world wasn't listening during the Grammys. It was shifting.
20:00 on 11/2/13.
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