Random Rant!

Rant Blog: [29/07/2010]

Random Rant:

Well just to start off by saying I changed my mind on what this week’s blog will be about simply because I am going home and only have a short time to right this week’s blog. If you do have any questions that you’d like me to answer, you know how to contact me and I’ll answer them next week. I’ll be going home until next Wednesday [4^th August] so any questions or any comments you leave me won’t be answered until then. Now that’s been explained, let’s get onto this week’s blog!

I’ll start off with the news that our dickhead Prime Minister [David Cameron to the rest of the world] has backed Turkey’s bid to join the EU after his first visit there as PM. What might happen if they join you ask? Well, other than they might do what the Polish do and take all the unwanted jobs, I don’t know. I fail to see what the advantages of them joining the EU are. Also, would this mean that Turkey will be an all European country? Or will it just be the west of Turkey is still European whilst the East is still Asia? As you know, Turkey is part European and part Asian, though they play in European qualifiers and club competitions in football. You can be as angry as you want, Cameron, about their slow negotiations for Turkey joining, but I still want to see advantages of Turkey joining the EU, perhaps cheaper flights there but that is all. Turkey’s close connections with Iran [who are continuing their “sensitive nuclear work”] have not helped them in the slightest.

Moving on from that, after watching Inception this week and thinking “oh my god what a film”, I was wondering: What is your favourite film and why? I’m not saying Inception is my favourite film, but it is easily up there. Also, what is the worst film you’ve ever saw? Sorry but I’m throwing the Dark Knight in this, simply as it has no real fight scene at the end, what you’d expect to see in a Batman film.

Moving onto football for a few minutes and to the question of “are we made of money?” I know, for one, I’m not. Not in this day and age. Football was a working mans game, until money got out of control. I, for one, don’t like this “if you don’t go to the match, you’re not a real fan”. I would go, but I don’t have £600-700 a year on me to blow on a season ticket, even then that’s just 19 home games and first choice tickets on other games, that’s not including paying £50~ for going to Old Trafford. Single tickets to matches have gone up this year too. At Anfield, it now costs £45~ for a ticket in the Kop End, and even goes up to £47.50 in other places. I can’t afford to go to games assuming I have no job, only go to College and my dad doesn’t earn enough to throw away on 90 minutes of football. I prefer to live and be able to live with the money I have, than scrap around to live whilst watching a team week in week out. Also, the waiting list, if I went on it now, I might get one by about 2018.

Finally this week, has anyone ever heard of the channel ‘Primetime’? I assume it’s only in the UK, but that is the channel that Liverpool are on tonight against Rabotnicki in their first UEFA Europa League qualifier. It’s only on Sky [channel 480] and, even after paying for the Sky package, you have to pay an extra £4.99, from what I’ve been told, to watch it on that channel [the only channel the match is on]. It’s all become a joke! Anyway, good luck to the kids that will [inevitably] be playing tonight!

That’s all this week as I’ve only had a short time to do the blog. Normal service will resume next week and don’t forget to send me your questions. I’ll be back next Wednesday 4^th August. Don’t miss me too much ^_^

Week In General!

Rant Blog: [22/07/2010]

The Week In General:

Well I’ll start with the G20 assault by the Police on Ian Tomlinson, who died a few minutes later, last year. The policeman who done this was PC Simon Harwood. I’ll post the link below but I still can’t believe the policeman has gotten away with just a suspension, but might be struck off [from his job I assume] and it was said "After a thorough and careful review of the evidence, the CPS (the Crown Prosecution Service) has decided that there is no realistic prospect of a conviction against the police officer in question for any offence arising from the matter investigated and that no charges should be brought against him.” Now then, I don’t know about you but if that was you or me, we’d have been banged up in jail for at least aggravated assault. The guy was doing no harm whatsoever and yet he was hit by a baton, pushed over and [shortly before this happened] bitten by a dog. You can make your own conclusions as the clip of the assault will be at the end of this blog.

Next on the agenda is the decision of the government to not ban the Burka, despite Syria [a Muslim country in itself] deciding to ban it themselves? Why aren’t we banning it? I won’t go on about it as I’ve had a previous blog on about this but just to think, if a Muslim country will do it, why not us? It causes trouble.

David Cameron is back in the news again and [once again] not for the right reasons. He called Great Britain the “Junior Partner” in World War II vs the Nazi’s despite America not coming into the war until 1941. The quote from him was:

"I think it's important in life to speak as it is, and the fact is that we are a very effective partner of the US, but we are the junior partner," the PM told Sky News.

"We were the junior partner in 1940 when we were fighting the Nazis."

You prick, you’re meant to be a bum boy from Oxford University and you don’t even know your basic history. Besides, even though we’re much smaller than America, we’re much bigger than America in many ways!

Another story this week is that of the police targeting white British people much more than other ethnic minorities. White Christian Britons are being unfairly targeted compared with minority groups for committing hate crimes, a new report says. This shows our police are targeting us more than others, the political correctness brigade is out again, I think. One reason why they say this is happening is to “balance out the books” on who is targeted more.

A part I’d like to quote from the piece I’ve found [link below] is this:

It claims “there is evidence of biased application of the law”, citing the case of a Muslim man who sprayed the words “Islam will dominate the world – Osama is on his way” and “Kill Gordon Brown” on a war memorial in Burton-Upon-Trent. He was prosecuted for criminal damage – “that is neither a racially nor a religiously aggravated offence”.

The CPS had argued that “the defacing the memorial did not attach to any particular racial or religious group” despite the fact that the monument was “a Christian and British memorial, carrying Christian and British symbols.

"People who read the story found themselves thinking that, if a non-Muslim had defaced a Muslim building the system would have thrown the book at him".

This compared with a Christian couple in Liverpool, Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang, who were prosecuted and then cleared last December of a religiously aggravated hate crime after a strongly worded discussion with a Muslim guest at their hotel about the relative merits of their respective religions.

Nick Griffin [leader of the British National Party] has been told he can’t go to a Buckingham Palace party because “he might take advantage in a political way”. Although I don’t agree with his policies [not in any way], I agree that he should be allowed to go as he is an MEP and has a role in politics as leader of a party.

The new government are set to stop 24/7 pubs too, to try and bring down binge drinking. Forgetting there is a 24/7 ASDA so you can just go there and buy drinks instead.

Also, yet more troops have died in Afghanistan, the number of British troops that have been killed in this ridiculous, American war now stands at about 216.

Just a small point on sport, I’m made up Liverpool have managed to sign Joe Cole on a free transfer and Danny Wilson for an initial £2m fee [possibly rising to £5m depending on appearances]. Despite everyone saying Joe Cole will have the famous number 7 and will he follow in the footsteps of Kevin Keegan and co. He will wear the number 10 shirt.

The enquiry into the Hillsborough disaster will still go ahead. There were fears the new government might not go ahead with it, but they now will.

And finally! The cat seen in old Coronation Street opening titles that died 10 years ago, has had it’s ashes sold for £850 in auction.

Next week, my blog will be all about whatever people want me to answer and/or clear up my views on. Any questions, please ask them to me as soon as possible.

Links:

Police target White Christian British people more than Ethnic minorities:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/7897125/White-Christian-Britons-being-unfairly-targeted-for-hate-crimes-by-CPS-Civitas-claims.html

Police assault on Ian Tomlinson:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HECMVdl-9SQ

Health Rant

Rant Blog: [15/07/2010]

Health:

Just so everyone knows, I’m changing the day that I out my blog up weekly, from a Wednesday to a Thursday, mainly because things always seem to crop up on a Wednesday which gives me no time to do this and so it ends up being late and, as nothing ever happens on a Thursday, it’s better to do it then. I’m off to Wales on Sunday and won’t be back until Wednesday, once again my Wednesday’s being filled up. Thursday is the new blog day. Anyway, onto this week’s blog.

This week I’m on about health and why we should ignore the government and eat whatever we want and not whatever we’re told to eat.

We’ve been told that we should eat a healthy balanced meal, we should eat 5 fruit and veg a day and many more crap talk they come out with. That’s all good and well, until studies come out showing that 5 fruit and veg a day makes hardly any difference to anyone getting cancer than the next person, about 3% less chance which, for putting that much effort into having 5 a day, is a very minute difference. Link for this story below.

Why are girls so intent on being as skinny as a stick insect? A bit of wind blows and they fly over, see them in heels and it’s like a clown crossing a tight rope, rather embarrassing for them. Also, it’s rather terrible that some girls hardly eat just because they want the “perfect figure”, well let’s just say this, there is NO such thing as a perfect figure. What might look good to some might look terrible to others. I, for one, am no fan of skinny girls so I wouldn’t call it perfect. Some girls even go a day without eating so they stay skinny [yes it’s true], I can’t even go 30 minutes without eating and, no, I’m not fat, no where near it.

I think these days; people are more scared of what others think about them than what they think about themselves. Why should you worry about others if you’re happy with yourself? It’s ludicrous, anyway, moving on.

I agree with exercise, as that does help your body. I think this is the only thing I agree with if I’m honest. Government come out with these “health tips” as if they’re saying “do this or you WILL die next week”. You can tell the government is just playing silly buggers as they come out and say ‘chocolate is unhealthy for you’, then it is healthy, then it isn’t and then it is. Change your minds more; by the way, they have decided it is now good for you [as long as you don’t go overboard].

Something I found outlines the [potentially deadly] risks people take with these healthy eating, skinny making diets. It may not be true but it gave me food for thought. It was a “Top 10 Healthy Weight Loss Diet Lies from People That We Trusted”, the first point outlined that heart attacks [the second highest killer after medical mistakes] is a new problem related to healthy “weight loss” diets. The second point was fluoride is [not] good for you. The third point is about the Sun being “deadly” for you. The fourth point is whether the flu vaccine is actually good for you. The fifth point is saying “it doesn’t work” [make of it what you will, link at the bottom]. The sixth point is the “it can kill you” lie. The seventh point is the “cancer” lie. The eighth, ninth and tenth points are about the milk processing lie, sterile conditions lie and soybean lie. I do not necessarily say I agree with them or say they’re true, but it’s well worth a read and some food for thought. For stuff like this, I only had to put into Google ‘healthy eating lies’ and plenty of information relating to myths and lies all came up, may not be true but it is giving you something to think about.

All I can say now is it is your life and no one else’s, and live it like you want to live it, no one else. This is your life and you do with it what you want.

I know this weeks is quite short [some people might like that after my last two have been rather long haha] but the link I have given you [if you choose to look at it] will fill up a bit of your time too and if you Google what I mentioned above there will be a rather lot to see [potentially frightening]. I’m yet to decide what next week’s subject is so suggestions would be appreciated.

Links:

Fruit and Veg does not significantly reduce cancer: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7559168/Five-fruit-and-veg-a-day-does-not-significantly-reduce-cancer-risk-research.html

The 10 lies we’re told about healthy eating link:

http://healthforu.info/health/diethealth/

World Cup Rant

Rant Blog: [11/07/2010]

World Cup:

As the World Cup is almost over, I decided that I might as well put my thoughts across about what I thought about the tournament, especially with it being the first ever World Cup on African soil. Pele once said that by the year 2000, Africa will have had a winner in the World Cup, unfortunately, that has never happened, but now we’ve had a World Cup in Africa, things are looking up for them. The hosts, South Africa, were very impressive in the short time they played, holding their own against Mexico and France, but unfortunately being torn apart by Uruguay. The result against France will long be remembered by South African’s and they even finished above France too, just to rub salt into the wound, missing out on 2^nd place by a 3 goal deficit in the goal difference department behind Mexico.

The holders, Italy, and previous finalist, France, were both very disappointing and neither even managed to record a win in the tournament and both finishing bottom. It shows how much can change in 4 years. Both teams have since sacked their managers [Raymond Domenech, of France, was told before the tournament he was being replaced by Laurent Blanc anyway]. The French camp seemed like the new Holland, unease in the camp, bitterness, big egos clashing together. Nicolas Anelka being sent home after only his 2^nd ever appearance for France in a major tournament being the major event that pulled everything apart, the Physio gave up his job, the Director gave his up and the French players decided they weren’t going to train because of Anelka being sent home, some even said they wouldn’t play in the final game. Poor Thierry Henry got France to the final, thanks to a helping hand, but he got only a cameo appearance in the final match against South Africa.

Italy, on the other hand, were unfortunate not to get through, 1 goal would’ve made 2^nd place their own. Martin Skrtel’s block off the line being a major talking point as to whether the ball was over the line or not (in my opinion it weren’t over), not the first time this discussion would crop up, and Slovakia seeing off Italy, 3-2, in one of the best games of the World Cup was a brilliant match to watch and a shock result, I was expecting Italy to win given their experience and players they could have used, Daniele De Rossi and Alberto Aquilani not being called up for them, seeing as that De Rossi is a fantastic player, was also a major shock.

It was fun seeing Mexico’s 23 man squad, I thought it was giving away their intentions to have no midfield given that they chose to include 8 defenders in their squad, with 4 midfielders and 8 strikers, their initial squad included 11 defenders. Argentina’s decision to not include Esteban Cambiasso in their team was also weird. Brazil left out Pato, Roberto Carlos, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo [yes the real Ronaldo!] and Nilmar. England’s decision not to include Theo Walcott was seen as absurd by the media, yet they forget he was injured for about 3-4 months and he had a mediocre season.

Many managers have either left their job or been sacked even before the 3^rd/4^th place playoff and the final have been played. Mexico’s manager, Javier Aguirre, has left for a new job, France and Italy’s managers [as mentioned before] have been sacked. Australia’s manager has been sacked along with Japan’s, South Korea’s, Nigeria’s and Greece’s. All in all, 11 managers [as of 6^th July 2010] have lost their jobs, or stepped down, due to poor World Cup performances. They are:

Dunga [Brazil]

Raymond Domenech [France] (Wasn’t quite because of the WC, he was told before the tournament he was gone)

Marcello Lippi [Italy]

Sven Goran Eriksson [Ivory Coast]

Paul Le Guen [Cameroon]

Gerardo Martini [Paraguay]

Javier Aguirre [Mexico]

Otto Rehhagel [Greece]

Carlos Alberto Parreira [South Africa]

Takeshi Okada [Japan]

Huh Jung Moo [South Korea]

I’m surprised the Paraguay & Japan managers stepping down as them 2 teams were quite impressive. I would say the same for the Mexico manager but I think he has a job lined up anyway and was due to quit regardless of how Mexico got on in the tournament.

A special mention to New Zealand, too, as they were very impressive in their first ever World Cup, despite not losing once, they went out 3^rd in their group, finishing above Italy, and drawing all 3 games.

Sad times at South Africa for being the first ever host nation to go out at the group stage. They enjoyed a great start against Mexico, drawing 1-1, and hitting the post at the very end. The were torn apart by Uruguay though, 3-0, but finished off convincingly, against France, winning 2-1, missing out on 2^nd place by 3 goals and showing how crap France are in this modern day and age.

I was disappointed with the first round of games because I think most of the games were only including 2 goals a game and for a World Cup, that is piss poor. It did pick up, though, and after that the goals were flying in, 7-0 win for Portugal against North Korea, Germany did win 4-0 in the first round of games although Australia did roll over terribly [Cahill’s red card was never a red card either].

Moving into the knockouts, this is where the controversy of referee’s was kicking in, and on the Sunday games of the 2^nd Round [Germany vs England & Argentina vs Mexico], 2 huge decisions went unnoticed [1 in each game] which either could’ve changed the game or did change the game. I won’t go on about Lampard’s “goal” because I did last week, but Carlos Tevez, for Argentina’s goal, was clearly offside to put Argentina 1-0 up and the Argies rallied on from there. If referees and/or linesmen aren’t seeing these incidents then they shouldn’t be at the World Cup. FIFA, though, have changed their stance towards goal line technology and have said that refereeing will have changed by the time the World Cup in Brazil in 2014 starts. This is really good news for football and goal line technology has been screamed about, for years.

Spain have been incredibly lucky to reach the final, given that Paraguay should have, and deserved to, win that game, they even had a penalty to put them ahead, they missed it, Spain belted down the other end and won themselves a penalty, which they initially scored but had to retake and they missed it. If Spain had to retake theirs due to players running in the box, then Paraguay should’ve been able to retake theirs too.

I’m made up Holland are in the final as it’s good to see an underdog get far and exceed expectations. Holland deserve to win it more than Spain simply because they’ve played better football, they’ve been overlooked by everyone and been ignored and because everyone just expected Spain to turn up and they’d win the tournament. Holland are my tip to win tonight because Spain are too big for their shoes and I’m not gonna listen to that Paul the Octopus and I’ve never tasted Octopus before so he might be on the menu in the next few days.

Sorry I took ages getting this done and I’m sure you were all scratching at the walls for me to put it up lmao. Everything will be back to normal this week. Next weeks agenda: Health [and a bit about the Leisure Lakes which I was asked to do today but this blog is long enough as it is and it’s taken ages to put up and would take longer to put up because I’d have to do a bit of looking up to do the Leisure Lake piece haha].

Weekly Rant

Rant Blog: [02/07/2010]

The Week In General:

Well I might as well start with the obvious subject, Germany vs England. Everyone is saying “oh we were poor” or “oh Germany deserved it” but think of it this way, if that goal was allowed [which it should have been, we all know that] then the game would have been much different. Obviously, with it being 2-2, we’d have gone on for the winner and for the half an hour after our allowed goal, we were all over the Germans, until they scored their 3^rd. Look at their 3^rd goal, we left 2 people back [Glen Johnson and, obviously, David James] and once Lampard hit the wall [as per usual!], Germany broke 3 on 2... If we’d have been a 2-2, I very much doubt we would have conceded that goal [or the 4^th goal, which was also a counter attack like the 3^rd] as we would have left more people back as we wouldn’t have been as desperate to score as we was at 2-1.

The talks of whether Fabio Capello should stay or go, I say keep him. The reason being, remember when Steve McClaren failed to get us to EURO 2008 and then got sacked [as he was shit] and the team was at rock bottom, who was it who wasn’t scared of the job, came in, and turned us around into one of the best international teams in the qualifiers? Fabio Capello. He came in and took no nonsense, as far as to ban the players from phoning home to anyone, ban them from mobile phones whilst on international duty, ban girlfriends/wives from being near them when with the squad and even go as far as to tell them what not to eat. Sex was also banned [ironically enough as whom would they have sex with... Each other?].

If we are to blame anyone for our failure in the World Cup, we should be blaming John Terry. Firstly losing the captain’s armband because he slept with Wayne Bridge’s ex girlfriend which meant Bridge retired, temporarily, from international football for as long as Terry was in the team. That probably never helped team confidence. Then, before the Slovenia game [a game we needed to win and eventually did, thankfully], he comes out and reveals that the team had meetings with Fabio Capello and revealed that 9 players had their own personal meeting [although it was later revealed they were just talking about what went wrong in the last match, John Terry stirring up shit again]. Then, if reports are to be believed, there was a split in the camp between the Chelsea players [Lampard and, of course, Terry] and the Liverpool players [Gerrard and Carragher] about who should be captain, again proving John Terry was jealous and was stirring shit up. It’s not down to the players who is captain, it is Fabio’s decision, so why Terry moaned at Gerrard and Carragher, I’ll never know. Unprofessional, very childish and pathetic.

If I were the England manager [or, more to the point, Fabio Capello] I’d be telling John Terry that, for as long as I’m in charge, you’re never playing for England again. I know people would moan about whom would we have at centre back [although we have many candidates, Ferdinand, Carragher, Dawson, Richards, Upson and [dare I say] King] but someone who acts this way does not deserve to play for England, no matter how good or bad they are. If they’re unprofessional or childish then they shouldn’t play! Ever!

Keeping on to football [for a moment at least], it’s finally good news that FIFA will look into goal line technology, although don’t hold your breath about them implementing it into the game, this is FIFA [& Sepp Blatter] after all! When we all said this needed to come in, FIFA were adamant it was a one off and wasn’t likely to happen again, although we’ve seen incidents like Mendes at Old Trafford a few years back, Luis Garcia vs Chelsea, the other week Italy had a shot blocked off the line by Martin Skrtel [although I doubt it was in, but there were no other camera angles that could definitely say it was in or not] and Lampard vs Germany [of course]. Tennis have this technology in their game, Rugby have it, Cricket use it, Snooker even uses it in some circumstances, why not football? FIFA say they don’t want this because it will disrupt the flow of the games and the fans won’t appreciate the break in play, I don’t know about you, but when you see in Rugby if the ball was put down behind the line or for who puts it down [be it defender or attacker], they have video replays and the suspense waiting for the decision is good and when the decision is finally announced, it’s either big cheers for a try or big cheers for it being a 22m scrum [if it weren’t a try].

Also, after a disappointing World Cup, and finishing bottom of their group [not by the want of trying, their keeper, Vincent Enyeama, was outstanding], the Nigerian government have banned their team from playing in internationals for 2 years. FIFA will expel them from international football unless the government overrule themselves in their decision by Monday at 6pm.

If you’ve been living in a hole this last day or so, Liverpool have finally named a new manager, Roy Hodgson. From what I’ve saw, he wants to bring Gilberto Silva, Rafael van der Vaart, Brede Hangeland and [former Liverpool player] Danny Murphy to Anfield with him with his gigantic transfer budget of £15m [please note sarcasm!].

That’s enough about football for this week, whilst in Afghanistan, more troops are dying and giving us yet more reasons to call our troops back, our meaning Britain’s troops, leave America there, this is their war, not ours!

Fun story about the new Apple iPhone where, if you hold the iPhone in a certain way, it eventually loses all signal, and a person sent an email to Apple explaining about this [when it first come out] and I assume he was expecting a proper answer about how to sort it but, instead, he got a reply basically saying “well don’t hold it that way then”. It just goes to show that you can have the best phone in the world but have a shit help service, a bit like Virgin with their internet.

Just a quick laugh at the idea of Ryanair’s plans for standing seats. Let’s just hope no one chooses them seats for long haul flights, they might be a bit tired afterwards. I don’t know about you but I’d go to a fun fair if I wanted something like that.

That’s all I can be arsed saying this week as I had other things to say but they seem to have fucked off out of my head. I don’t know what the topic will be next week so suggestions would be nice. =]