Good Ruler, Bad Person

Bernie Ecclestone has today been forced to apologise after his comments about Ex German Dictator Adolf Hitler, Ecclestone commented that "the leader had a great ability to get things done". He was subsequently rapped, Jewish Chronicle editor , Stephen Pollard described Ecclestone as "either an idiot or morally repulsive". The full Sky News story is available here.

I can see where Bernie Ecclestone has gone wrong here, I think its a simple misunderstanding. Hitler was a very evil person who persucuted thousands of jews for no crime, however despite this Adolf Hitler was a very charismatic and intelligent bloke. He managed to convince the majority of the German population to follow him and his destructive policies. In the 1930's Germany was in a similar state to what the world is today, it faced a deep economic crisis and it's industrys were in turmoil. Hitler came in and rebuilt the economy and did alot for Germany. But he did alot wrong. Hitler had a strong personality, a personality and the strengths that could have been put into doing so good, unfortunatly through his own doings he used it for evil, an evil which will never be forgotton.

I think Hitler was a ruler, not a leader. He ruled his people well by bringing them to power, but he did not lead them to be decent humans. Nor did he bring himself to be a decent human being. Despite what history says, you have to admit to what a great ruler he was, and the huge amount of charisma and political talent he possessed.

Politically Correct Controversy

Numerous people have commented recently on my controversial facebook, twitter and blog comments. I'm sure people by now do realise that I say what i think, and I don't hold back, and unfortunatly it's one of my strengths but also one my weaknesses. If I don't like you, then why should I spend days kissing your arse and acting like we're great mates, instead if I get it out in the open we can move on. This is not to say that I can develop working relationships with these people, sometimes it is a nessecity and it needs work from both parts, but if I think you're talking out of your arse than i'll damn right tell you. There are alot of people I don't like in this life, people who I think are complete arseholes and I have no time for, however I have a working relationship with these people and we can get along, saying that i'd never consider going out for a beer with them. This is my exact feeling on Politically Correctness, taken from urbandictionary.com:

Something that started out as a sort of moral common sense - actually not a bad idea, eg. saying 'black person' instead of 'god-damn cotton-pickin' nigger'. However, the whole thing got utterly out of hand in the early 90s to the point where a lot of people will say 'Afro-Carribean' or 'Afro-American' because they think it's racist to say 'black'! It gets even more ridiculous when you consider that in some parts people think it's offensive to 'blackboard' or 'black coffee'.

What began as a force for good (considering the number of people who really are racist, sexist and homophobic) has since become a laughing stock beacause of the ridiculous extremes to which certain neurotic ultra-liberals took it - cf. a person being 'vertically challenged' rather than short. This has actually undone a lot of progress made in changing bigoted attitudes (as bigot can claim any offence taken at their views is 'political correctness gone mad), whilst making people feel guilty for enjoying anything but the blandest, most anaemic humour for fear of being 'offensive'. I mean, seriously, what's funnier out of 'Friends' and 'South Park'? (Or 'The League of Gentlemen' for the benefit of any Brits out there?)

At the same time as straight white able-bodied men are going out of their way to talk about 'ethnic people' (who ISN'T ethnic!?) and those of 'different sexual orientation', there are blacks calling themselves niggas (which has been going on for years), gays calling themselves (and eachother!) poof, queens and queers, and so on - the real way to neutralize a term used as as an insult is for those to whom it was applied to use it themselves.

AT its worst, political correctness is nothing different form Orwell's - an attempt to change the way people think by forcibly changing the way they speak. So let's have a backlash against the nannying, interefering, cotton-wool Stalinism 'ploitical correctness' has become - not to placate bigots, but to speak the truth and enjoy outrageous humour like we're meant to. Remember, the next time someone says they don't like Harry Potter because Hermione is a stereotypically sensitive girl, the relevant word to call them is 'cunt'.

And yes, that is exactly how I feel about politically correctness. There's too much other shit happening in this world and in other peoples lives, for our government and the current nanny state to tell us what we can or can't say. If I want to say Michael Jackson is a kiddy fiddling Gary Glitter wannabe then I will (I don't agree with all this statement), if I want to call a vertically challenged person a bloody dwarf then I will. This is everything that is wrong with this world, so much of the "oh you can't say this cause you'll upset this person", or "you can't say that cause that person will get annoyed"...well fuck them.

On the Jackson topic, I know alot of people have been annoyed with some of my comments about the late great Michael Jackson. Allow me to make it clear how I feel about Michael Jackson: "I'm utterly bored of all the news being full of it now. Yes he changed the music industry, yes he was a phenomenally talented bloke who could dance and sing like noone ever known. But in my opinion he was a very ill man, who fiddled kids. And yes I have compared him to Gary Glitter because there are similaritys. His Child Abuse charges were never help up, but who pays out $22million in an out of court settlement if you're entirely innocent." That's where I will leave it, as I think its time Michael Jackson was left to Rest In Peace. Let's change the record, some new news please, how is Hazel Blears's husband's porn collection lately anyway?

I'll never change, i'll always be the person I am, and I quite like me, I have a sick sense of humour, but its time this world lightened up and I know that people smile when they see my facebook and twitter updates. In this current climate, making one person smile a day can't harm. Let's all lighten up and tell the nanny state exactly where they can shove their politically correctness.

Midge Ure playing "Vienna" Live at HBMF 2009

Check out this great video of Ultravox Bassist and Live Aid co-producer Midge Ure at this years Hastings Beer and Music Festival. The crowd just loved it when he kicked off with this song. A true legend.

If you get the chance, check out some of the other videos that the creator of this has done. Andy has some great vlogs on his page, some very interesting topics. So check that out while you're on there.

How much for a pair of sunglasses???

You know how festivals are, you're always going to lose something, this year I lost my sunglasses. I don't even remember them falling off my head, which is quite surprising cause they were quite well fitted and i don't have much hair to hide the feeling.

So anyway I decided to go into town to get a new pair. Walked into Boots, how much???? £25 were the cheapest pair...for a pair of sunglasses?! Went to a few other shops and found them no cheaper. I couldn't believe how expensive sunglasses were. I remember a colleague of mine buying a pair when we were in Scotland, these were a designer pair and cost him about £160, and I was actually shocked. I don't think I could ever bring myself to buying a pair of sunglasses for that price. I just want a cheap £10 which will do the job and look reasonably good. As always Ebay saved the day and I got a nice reflective pair for £7.99 which will be arriving in the next few days. I mean, why spend stupid amounts when you can get a fairly decent pair cheaply. I did notice that there were numerous ones on ebay going for about over a grand....seriously, who buys these?

On another note, finished another Hastings Beer and Music Festival, this year was my 4th year mainly because of my love of the event. I think its a great festival and an event that Hastings would miss if it weren't there. As always some great acts, and we got some hilarious texts on the big screen on Saturday Night, some of which I may post here in a later blog for pure amusement purposes. We also had Ultravox Bassist and Live Aid producer Midge Ure there on the Friday Night, this was a cracking night and i'll post the video in a second. If you couldn't be there then you missed an amazing event, make sure you come to the 2010 event...which I'm already looking forward to.

Alcoholic Monkeys

If you, like me, are bored of everyone talking about Michael Jackson, and bored of Heart playing Michael Jackson songs every 15 minutes then here's a video to lighten the mood. Remember seeing this on TV, hilarious stuff.

National Fall Awareness Day

This is not another one of those "we have too many days" blogs, even though we do have a day for every stupid little thing. This is a blog once again to raise the awareness of politically correctness gone a bit wrong and continuing to spend public money on common sense issues.

The following story appeared on the Hastings Observer website today:

Pensioners to get advice to prevent bus falls

Pensioners in Hastings are to be given expert advice this week to cut the number of falls on buses.

As part of National Falls Awareness Day (Tuesday June 23) local people are being invited to head down to either outside Debenhams in the town centre or Sainsbury's supermarket in St Leonards.

Now correct me if i'm wrong, yes there is an issue of elderly and frail people falling over on buses and seriously injure themselves, and i'm not saying lets play down the issue and not support these people. But is it really nessacary to hold such an event, payed for out of the NHS budget which is public money for something which you could basically put an advertisement on the bus saying "Press the bell but Don't stand up until the bus stops"...simple as that job done. What need is there for there to be a special day for it, and then spend what is probably hundreds pounds on getting experts down, paying these experts to tell everyone something that should be common sense and could be done with cheaper and easier ways.

Especially when today it was revealed that after the success of the Hands of the Conquest Maternity campaign, we now risk losing our A&E Department. How about putting the money into that. This government and country have gone politically correctness mad, and they're spending money on the little issues rather than trying to sort out the bigger picture.

Last Teenage Years

Thanks to all for their birthday wishes today, where did the last year go? Yes at 11:59am 19 years ago today, the world changed...things were never the same again. So much has happened, and now i'm into the last year of my teenage life, the future is ahead of me, and i'm gonna live it to the full!

I have to say I am highly amused at the amount of people who have falled for the whole "Michael Schumacher is the stig" stunt by the BBC's Top Gear. He isn't, it's just the beeb trying to put an end to the speculation, in fact I think the stig should always be a secret. It's one of those great things in life.

Anyway, a longer update is due soon, in the meantime i'm off to enjoy the rest of my birthday with a curry.