Product placement the bane of the viewer

Product placement advertising in music videos is beyond a joke, and the bigger the star it seems the more frequent the advertising. Regardless of whether the product is any good, it just has to be seen. It's as though the advertisers think their audience is a bunch of morons. There is not a product explicitly advertised in any music video I have ever bought, and I'll tell you what I have seen thousands and thousands of them. It gets to the point where I create a music list then just play the music in the background not watching the vid. Most juke boxes don't show the vids of the music either.  I have no reason to purchase these things and I don't. Products which are functional not glamours are the things which catch my attention. Although it is possible to get some items which are  pleasing to the eye and do the job very well. Then I will purposefully search out and read hundreds of reviews.

In fact it isn't even the value of an item which is taken into account (within reason) it is whether it does it's job, whether it is easy to use, if it is made to last, do I need it and lastly perhaps can I live with what it looks like. Lets face it there are hundreds of items we use and they don't look particularly good. A knife and fork are such things, but they are functionally brilliant.

If an advertiser is pushing something in my face, if they are going all out to sell a product, you have to ask yourself how much money are they making on this and then wonder surely if something is good silent recommendation is worth more than any pound spent in advertising. It is good to see new products, but not have them rammed down your throat. Maybe they are just targeted at a certain type of person or generation of person, but even a niave idiot would soon get to realise they can't be an idiot all their life.

Give me a knife and fork any day.

Sheffield Hallam rid us of this nasty man

Next year will tell the extent Liberal Democrats are liked or disliked. The worst representative of this party is it's leader Nick Clegg and at this crucial time the people of Hallam in Sheffield hold in their hand a powerful pen, one which could be used wisely to rid the country of this man.  Yes the Liberal Democrats were not in power from their own majority, but by coalition.  Yes they had to make compromises to be in this place, but they sold their souls to the devil.  They made promises they could not keep and they are now equally responsible for every Tory policy as are the Tories.  Their strength would of been greater had they allowed a hung parliament and stood by their views, forcing the hand of the Tories on every vote.  Instead the UK is in no better a place than when the Tories came into power.  In fact it is worse.  Clegg must go, he can not be allowed back into politics again, who knows what deals he would then make with the next person in charge, the next Tory how would Nick strip this country and backtrack on more false promises. Once a promise breaker always a promise breaker.  He can not be relied on to appropriately look after this country and if he loves Europe so much why the heck doesn't he go and live in Luxembourg or France because if the voters of the country have anything to say in this matter he's not going to be welcome.  Were I in Hallam I'd be motivated to certainly get this man out, he is without honour and he has helped to create further poverty.

Who is guilty of the Slenderman horror?

It was with horror I read an article about two 12 year old girls who plotted to murder a friend for a fictional internet horror character call Slenderman.  A being somehow created through viral internet rumour who is malevolent and fictionally kills children.  It makes me wonder how on earth such a concept can be allowed to run riot in the world.  Small children are easily influenced and do not understand right from wrong or what is fictional and what is real. This character has been allowed to snowball into a scary creature, to the extent these girls thought he was real and by killing a classmate they would curry favour with him. They just didn't have a grip on reality and are going to be tried as adults. Their victim was stabbed 19 times, she did not die and it must of been with superhuman effort she crawled out of a wood to a track and was discovered by a cyclist.  She is currently in hospital and stable.  The attempted murders have been bailed for $500,000 each. This took place in a wood in Wakuesha, Wisconsin. 

However, I cannot help think the creator of this character is also part to blame.  If they had weaved a story early on how Slender man liked to stamp on snails and snatch doughnuts from children with his biggest kick coming from leaving his tag on homework books then there would be little in the way of moving deeper into his malevolence.  The creator of this character should of had some small incite into how children think.  They are in my mind equally liable and particularly so would be those who hide behind a cloak of anonymity embellishing his life history with worse deeds. The imagination of these little girls was wild on what they had read from the internet, they are not responsible for this action but at the same time they are. They will now never get the chance to lead a normal life and because of this single action in their lives be forever tainted as evil girls.

The sad thing is, this is a story to learn from and to act by changing the laws and protect children. I wonder if this will happen?

Marine assaulted by 3 bullies

Bullying and gang bullying is the epitomy of cowardice.  In a shocking video on Youtube an ex marine by the name of Wen Jones went to the rescue of a 14 year old boy Zion Write was being bullied by three much older (20 year olds) lads.  He could not walk by and intervened, at this point the bullies turned around and attacked him.  Tyler Dylan Carswell, Eric Michael Deiter and Cody Moore Roon viciously assaulted Jones.  Three young athletic men took on 43 year old Wen.  They kicked and punched him unconscious but fortunately were arrested.  Wen went to hospital as his eye socket had been fractured.  At some point these three morons are going to find being taken up on charge of a felony is only part of the punishment.  In prison the rule of fists is a common thing, perhaps they will even look back and repent on this behaviour, but of course if they do it will only be because they have understood the consequences of being a moron. 

Keep looking over your shoulders lads, soon you'll get a nasty surprise.

Get Clegg and Price OUT!

After watching a recent episode of Question Time I noted how a member of the audience said he was voting in Twickenham and he would vote strategically to remove Price.  I believe in the next year we'll see the Liberal Democrats getting the bloodiest nose ever.  There is talk in the media Clegg is going to have a tough time in his constituency of Sheffield Hallam.  Personally it will be not be too soon to see either of these politicians removed from politics permanently.  I'd also like to add Danny Alexander into the fray.  The common denominator is they are all Liberals. However, they are Liberals who have been openly vocal about the government and have shown how they have progressed. Yet they have not progressed with their own policies, they have acted like sycophantic lakeys to the Tory party.  Doing the dirty work and in doing this they have gone against the very principles of their own party. They have stamped on their own doctrines and in doing so they have screwed their own supporters. So it is of no surprise when watching QT someone else has a similar opinion.

Clegg, Price you will not be here for long, mark my words.

India, Pakistan, Sudan, Nigeria, backwards societies in a modern world

Being a westerner it's taken for granted there are certain rights a person has, to an oppinion, to freedom of expression, to not suffer from torture, rape, murder without there being a consequence. For a civil society and laws which the masses abide by and respect. If they don't respect then they are made to account for their actions.  Yet these rights do not exist in the entire world, it is different in some places and the most recent countries in the news are India, Pakistan, Sudan and Nigeria. 

India in Uttar Pradesh state has been the recent report of 2 young girls who were gang raped and murdered.  Their bodies were then hanged in a tree.  These girls were part of the low caste called dalit. Some Indian news reports use the term "alleged" however there is video on the internet of these young girls hanging from a mango tree and crowds of hundreds of people, mostly men I should add.  In this caste system, murder, rape, thuggery is used to keep lower caste people in their place. The girls were only 14 and 16 years old, they were cousins and had to go out to the fields to toilet.When one of the fathers of these girls went to the police he was first asked what caste he belonged to and when they found out it was the lower "other backwards classes" they just made fun of him. One of the abusers was also with the police. 

In Pakistan this week a woman was stoned by her own relatives after she left a Lahore court building. She was 30-year-old Farzana Bibi, and had attended court to confirm she got married to the man she loved rather than to a man her family wanted her to marry.  She went against the societal norms.  This type of killing is called a honour killing, but there is certainly nothing honourable about it. About 20 relatives crowded around her, they pulled her to the ground and then bashed her with rocks in their hands.  In this case, there were Police in the vicinity and the husband went to them begging for help and they did nothing.

In Sudan a woman has been sentenced to be hung until she is dead, because she was in their eyes a Muslim woman who committed apostasy by saying she was Christian.  Even though she argued she had been Christian all her life.  She was pregnant at the time of the sentence so was allowed to have her baby and will be allowed two more years of life before the sentence is carried out. What I don't particularly understand here is why she and her husband didn't leave the country and seek asylum before this happened.  Meriam Ibrahim has also been sentenced to receive 100 lashes because she committed adultery.  Another trumped up charge because she'd married a Christian in a Christian ceremony.  

Lastly the news continues with headlines of the 230 school girls who were kidnapped by a Nigerian fundamentalist group called Boko Haram.  It would be misleading to think Nigeria known to be the wealthiest and most prosperous developing African nation has civility.  As we see yet another instance of religious right wing and power crazy enthusiasts flexing their muscles.  The Nigerian army we are told are barely paid a living wage and have very little in the way of weapons, they are effectively demoralised. In radio broadcasts by Nigerian officials we hear blatant lies told, you can tell because they had not been rehearsed and don't hold up to questioning or any kind of logic.  It is the result of institutionalised corruption which I have been told runs through the veins of Nigeria.

Just when you think the world is coming to some kind of intelligent state you realise it never will. Lack of education, poverty and social systems seem to all get together to keep subgroups of people in their place. If it's not these factors then it is religion and religious leaders using biblical texts to their own needs.  A shepherd can only be followed if there are sheep.

Panorama - Don't Cap my Benefits, questions not asked

On BBC1 there has just been a program by Panorama it was called "Don't Cap My Benefits." It was about benefits claimants who were receiving so much money in benefits they now fell under the new regulations which meant those benefits would be capped. If in a family they only get £500 and if single parents it is limited to £350 per week. In this program claimants from Brent were followed to show the human face of how benefits cuts had effected them. In all cases it meant their rent would not be fulfilled by Housing Benefits, the shortfall would result in being evicted.  They in turn had no choice but to move home. In many instances they were offered alternative accommodation but it was out of London. Away from family, friends, the schools their children had been attending. Of the people followed on camera, there were a number of single parents.  Their plight really was painful to watch, especially seeing the upheaval from their homes in London to places like Birmingham. If not they were put through a psychological torture which pulled them apart in having to try and make a decision to move or not to move. However, in the instances of the number of single parents which were being capped their benefits, there was one question which kept coming to mind the program had omitted to enquire or even answer in any way.  It is a simple question. Where were the fathers?

It takes two to tango. Yet there were single women with children, either two or three children and the youngest appeared to be under the age of one.  These women had made choices, not just once but multiple times which had resulted in another child. There were no questions about this aspect of the program. Where was the fathers?  They could of been in the background and undeclared, for a single parent on her own with children from multiple fathers would be a pretty unfortunate situation to be in. Of course it happens, yet at the same time these women were claiming large amounts of money from the state. Especially if the sums involved are multiplied over months and years, they then become phenomenal.  Amounts which are eye watering. Another question failed to be asked by this program was what about the responsibilities to all the other tax payers in the UK who support those who claim benefits. There is a onus for them all to try to work, to try to make their situation better.  However, it was as though they had become settled into being single mothers, into accepting the handouts of the state and they'd rather not work or make their lives better. I couldn't help notice in two cases the single mothers involved either got a job working with children or in another did voluntary work with children.  The thought came to mind was they just wanted to be baby machines, and not contribute to the social contract or social expectations of paying your own way.  To which I can only return to the original question, where were the fathers and why were they not supporting the mother of their children?  Personally I would find it incomprehensible not to support the mother of my children. There is no doubt a question of suspicion raises its head.  Were the fathers on the scene but out of view? Again this is something Panorama did not go into investigating, when it really is part of the story as well.

The benefits cap is not just about reducing the national deficit and the benefits bill.  It is also about people taking responsibility for their own life.  About working, about contributing to society and paying their own way. The cultural norm of some parts of society to be unemployable or subsisting on state benefits for years on end has to come to an end game at some time.  Unfortunately for a lot of these claimants, the pressures of this end game are starting to bite.  Fortunately for the rest of society, the more people off benefits the greater the reduction in the deficit and the better prospects for the country.  Without this reality the future is bleak.