God's Army

If your sentiments can be hurt by something someone says, writes, or agrees with - then you are a complete wuss. A coward.

The one speaking, writing, or engaging in conflicting conversation isn't the one holding a machine gun or wielding a knife, mowing down and chopping up people. 

YOU are.

You're prepared to kill for something you can simply and easily walk away from, not listen to, not read about, and not engage with. It's called being the bigger man, something you'll never be.

A benevolent God, if there is one, couldn't possibly want YOU to kill, unless in self-defence. You don't just kill people. You're not the T-1000, whose AI algorithms had better sense than you.

Either you've understood your God wrong, or you've got the wrong God.

Think on it.

ADDENDUM

This is about Salman Rusdhie.

He has had a death-threat on his head since he wrote 'The Satanic Verses' in 1988 proclaimed by the then Ayatollah of Iran. He has been in hiding and protection ever since.

He was attacked in NYC this week, by a 24-year-old fanatic, attempting to carry out a Fatwa from 1988. I won't name him - I want no part in making him famous. The pathetic sprog wasn't even born when the book was written.

Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie CH FRSL stands to lose one eye, his arm, and his liver has been punctured several times due to multiple stab wounds. He is currently on a ventilator and there's a chance the dude won't make it.

An all-powerfull God has sanctioned this, apparently.

He is 75, and one of the world's finest and most influential British-Indian writers. His prose is so beautifully written, I envy his skills.

And I have to confess, I have only ever read Midnight's Chldren. I never dared to get hold of 'The Satanic Verses' for fear of being blocked everywhere. In India, it was banned. I saw a hard-copy in a charity shop, but I thought, "I might be ending up saying  something. Something that could end me." So I didn't. 

That was when I decided my posts will always be ambiguous. I don't have the time nor the inclination to explain.

He happens to be a Muslim. Not devout, but an obvious Muslim nonetheless . He sees the faith in a way most don't.

His seminal work, 'Midnight's Children' - a book about what happened at midnight on the 15th of August,1947, when India gained independence from Britain is his best work.

He won a Knighthood despite being hugely critical of the Empire.

So yeah, it's a thing for me.

Lynx

This is Lynx. Bengal/Tabby hybrid. My daughter got her a year ago, despite my protestations.

Things between us have always been prickly. I'm not one for pets. In the beginning she looked at me like she's plotting something, maybe gouging my eyes out in my sleep, but of late she's kind of warmed up to me, and me to her.

She just sashays up to me and offers her neck to be stroked. Slinky, sassy and so nonchalant, I have no idea what goes on in her head. I hate her, and I love her.

That said, I prefer Anne Hathaway. If you know, you know.

Charmed Life

Okay, something amazing happened to me last week.

A colleague at work asked me to give her away at her wedding.

Of all the sinners on this planet, and this utterly devout, gentle soul chose me!

I had no clue of the protocol, I had no idea of the significance, or gravity of what it all meant. Thankfully, the people at the Gurudwara guided me through it all.

She showed up late, as is her perogative, and while the groom and I waited, and caught up on each other's love stories, my thoughts were, WTF am I doing here? HTF does she deem me worthy of this?

Giving away a bride is a big, big deal in my culture. The thought of what I have been honoured with is still a surreal feeling.

Strike #365

"Commuters are set to face more transport misery in London on the 21st of June when a planned strike takes place on the Tube and the country's railways."

Has there been a single year that they have NOT had a strike? What do they want this time?

We ALL paid, and are still paying for the lockdowns, which incidently, the unions STILL want. What makes THEM special?

A lot of people depend on me to guide them through depressing periods of long unemployment. I couldn't DREAM of downing tools for any reason. Heck, I skip lunch 4 days a week. People need me. I choose to do this, and trust me, it is NOT a gravy train. Yours is. My pay and pension, if I live long enough, is a pittance compared to someone who essentially drives stick.

Don't do it. Please.

https://news.sky.com/story/transport-services-in-london-set-to-suffer-more-disruption-on-the-first-of-three-days-of-rail-and-tube-strikes-12630180

The Margaret Thatcher Statue

Turns out, Thatcher's statue was pelted with eggs within hours of being installed.

It's a chunk of bronze. It can't feel a thing, but a few grocers made a mint out of selling eggs to some infantalised morons.

I can assure you, Maggie didn't feel a thing. Even if her soul resided in that effigy.

No one did. You probably got off on it, but that's a week's breakfast you lobbed on to a statue. So much for the cost of living crisis. 

Food bank, anyone?

"Why are you hungry?"

"I just chucked 7 days' breakfast on a statue of a person who died before my kids were born. She stole their milk. Before they were born. Actually, someone who was Prime Minister even before I was born."

And I'll bet the grocers are celebrating the grocer's daughter, as am I. As I am sure Maggie is, wherever she is. A fool and his money are soon parted.

Fucking idiots.

The Comedy Just Writes Itself

Labour are turning away members from voting in the Wakefield candidate hustings due to a lack of Photo ID.

Irony just got owned.

🙄

I'm Too Good For This

You know this thing, about parents and educators telling their kids they can be anything they want to be? Well, most can't. Hell, I wanted to work in advertising. Ogilvy & Mather stuff. It didn't happen. It probably won't ever happen, despite the fact that I am supremely confident that I can come up with a killer slogan. I still can; this post, and everything else I write is proof of that.

Truth be told, no one can be what they want to be. They've gotta put something on the table. Stuff someone wants to pay for. That said, what they CAN be is themselves, or maybe an extension of themselves. Another topic, another time.

Teach them to be who and what they are. Most successful people focus on what they can do, as opposed to striving for something they can't. Not yet anyway. There's a skills-set they yet have to acquire and hone, skills they will find in the unlikeliest of places.

A lot of the time, flipping burgers at McDonald's or slicing braised and minced meat off at a doner kebab thingamagig/thingamabob or slogging away in an Amazon workhouse, could get them somewhere.

Face customers, face the abuse you sometimes get; get used to crazy hours, being on your feet all day, working to deadlines and targets, and you know what? Master that, and THEN, you can be what you want to be. If you can't hold a job that entails "Just the burger, or would you like a meal deal? I can throw in a drink and chips for an additional £1.50", or some easy sell like that, you're not ready for anything. For employment, for dating, for real life, or a cushy job where your biggest challenge is facing the 'no jeans or trainers policy' of the blue chips you want to be working for.

You are more attractive to any would-be employer if you're gainfully employed and holding down a job that pushes you mentally and physically than if you are biding time until the 'right opportunity' comes along. Tell me, please pray tell me if you think a job is beneath you, and I will tell you that you are beneath ANY job under the sun.

Biding time won't help. It just won't. You'll end up having nothing to show for yourself if and when it does. Biding time is NOT the grifter any employer is looking for. That ethic died a long time ago.Your snobbery killed it.

It needs to come back to life.

Read this again, and then read it some more.

Loooong Covid

I'm an employment adviser.

Someone I have been working with for some time has just been fired from a job she started a mere week ago - for refusing to take the 2nd & 3rd jab.

This was her first job since March 2020. Suffering from the trauma of long term unemployment and severe low esteem, she'd come a long way since I started to help her.

She phoned me with squeals of utter joy when she was offered the job. She is only 22, with no qualifications, and an intelligence quotient at 22 that I would be envious of when I was 40.

Her confidence right now is at rock bottom. Far worse than it was when I first met her.

We're both gutted. The virus didn't break us. Our response to it did. And it continues to do so.

This sucks.

😪😡

😪😡

Elon Musk

My current favourite thing these days is that the richest man in the world is an African-American immigrant.

And the best thing about that is that the soya-lattè set is now rooting FOR Saudi Arabia, Wall Street, Vanguard / Blackrock and AGAINST free speech, liberty and the dude who makes electric cars and is going to Mars.

Go on, Elon, give 'em hell.

Emma

It totally gladdens my heart every time I see a post about Emma Raducanu and a picture of her beaming with sheer joy.

She'll go places, this little girl. Hell, she already is going places.

Seven blessings and all, Emma. You have an entire nation behind you.

🖖🥰

The Valueable Time of Maturity

I counted my years and realized that I have less time to live by, than I have lived so far.

I have more past than future.

I feel like that boy who got a bowl of cherries:

At first, he gobbled them, but when he realized there were only few left, he began to taste them intensely.

I no longer have time to deal with mediocrity.

I do not want to be in meetings where flamed egos parade.

I am bothered by the envious, who seek to discredit the most able, to usurp their places, coveting their seats, talent, achievements and luck.

I do not have time for endless conversations, useless to discuss about the lives of others who are not part of mine.

I no longer have the time to manage sensitivities of people who despite their chronological age, are immature.

I hate to confront those that struggle for power, those that do not debate content, just the labels; my time has become scarce to debate labels, I want the essence.

My soul is in a hurry... not many cherries in my bowl;

I want to live close to human people, very human, who laugh off their own stumbles, and away from those turned smug and overconfident with their triumphs, away from those filled with self-importance.

The essential is what makes life worthwhile and for me, the essentials are enough!

Yes, I’m in a hurry; I’m in a hurry to live with the intensity that only maturity can give.

I do not intend to waste any of the remaining cherries.

I am sure they will be exquisite, much more than those eaten so far.

My goal is to reach the end satisfied and at peace with my loved ones and my conscience.

And as Confucius said, as he always rightly did, “We have two lives and the second begins when you realize you only have one.”

~ Mário de Andrade | The Valuable Time of Maturity.

I am Djokovic

Novak Djokovic does not have Covid. This could be and should have been tested and proved in the space of a few hours.

Novak Djokovic is not some shady terrorist or a danger to Australian society. He isn't planning on claiming asylum or be a drain on public resources. He's there to play a bit of tennis and then he'll go back home. The Australian Open will be all the richer for it. Australia would be all the richer for it. The world of tennis would be richer for it.

Novak Djokovic (or the people who manage his admin) got the visa application wrong. They forgot to cross a "T" or dot an "i" somewhere, but hey, some bureaucrat on a power trip is getting off on this. Nothing new here.

Everyone knows why Novak Djokovic is in Australia. He's not there to snog the locals. He's there to hit a ball with a racquet.

Australia's lost the plot.

#IAmDjokovic.