“This is something you won’t want to read, but please read it anyway; it’s worth remembering next time you vote here in the UK.”

https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2020/03/24/former-tory-adviser-uses-130000-austerity-deaths-to-argue-against-coronavirus-shutdown/amp/ (Link opens in new window.)

I said this on Twitter and Facebook yesterday, but it’s a bit insular isn’t it. Expand it to the right wing of politics everywhere and I’m still unable to grasp how anyone can think this way; the depth of their conviction – and their ignorance of facts staggers me.

Right now as society shifts as the covid-19 coronavirus spreads and our liberties are necessarily restricted, I can’t process a lot of things, and haven’t really felt able to use the word ‘evil’ without at least attempting to understand the rationale behind past decisions made. But, restricting my thoughts to the UK, the lack of humanity in Conservative party official policy through my entire adult life is telling.‬

From Thatcher onwards, the ability of Conservative politicians to ignore their own people – constituents who put them in power trusting in the state’s nominal duty to protect – really does baffle me. The obvious absence of that humanity leads me to an inescapable personal conclusion.

If you even once attempt to justify a past vote for the UK Conservative party by picking a single current example of ‘a good thing they’re doing right now” or one at any point since Thatcher, rather than shun I’ll make it my business to educate you. The complete lack of actual knowledge I’ve observed since ‘Brexit’ became a thing and since voters here decided to jump to the political and social right, it burns. Voting for a manufactured personality, in blissful ignorance of all the evidence of detached privilege, incompetence and a singular selfish purpose, it burns.

This is not fine. (Think of precedent.)

So what if I’m crap at this ‘politics’ thing, at least my conscience will be clear for having tried.

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I’m publishing the post now (3am!) but might come back to flesh it out another time, when I can process what the fuck is happening.

January:

It was a bright cold day in April January, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him.

February:

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the dark.

March:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

April:

Jack Torrance thought: Officious little prick.

An article in defence of the effects of the evolution of the English Conservative Party’s core principles in the decade after forming the 2010 coalition government.

I hope you found something useful in it.

Imagine Fantasy Island without Ricardo Montalbán and Hervé Villechaize. And the directors, writers, cast, crew…

No more:

“Our guests are arriving on time, to the second.”

Or:

“Smiles everyone!”

But more of:

“I think this is someone else’s fantasy.”

And:

“The island ain’t what you think it is.”

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Some quotes from here: https://www.moviequotesandmore.com/fantasy-island-new-quotes/

My NFL bets failed.  No shame in that.  Given the abilities of the teams surrounding the 3 QBs I’d have expected 10TDs for the weekend, but no, it simply wasn’t to be.  The summary: Garoppolo (1 passing TD on Saturday), Jackson (1 passing TD on Saturday) and Mahomes, well…

Patrick Mahomes had a frankly magnificent 5 touchdown passes yesterday.  Behind 24-0 to the Texans at the start of the 2nd quarter, and with r/Browns quite rightly having written them off, the Chiefs scored 41 unanswered points, 28 in that 2nd quarter alone, winning with a triumphal final score of 51-31!  Given such entertainment value I cannot complain about losing my stake.

It gives me no pleasure as a Cleveland Browns fan to break the news that the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens were eliminated from the playoffs in the early hours of this morning (UK time.)

/s = a tag used to indicate sarcasm

Disappointed about the bet I made for the new car fund on Thursday but hey, having a guilt-free reason to root for pretty-much any other next week will almost easily make up for it!

Trying to automatically post from this blog’s RSS feed to Reddit using the IFTTT service.

It’s not going well.

I’ve been reading ‘A Christmas Carol’, a few pages at a time not because it’s difficult (it’s not) and not because I don’t have the time (I do.) It’s because on an entirely trivial level I’m comparing it with each of the films I’ve watched over the years (and the 2019 BBC 3-parter.)

These in particular stand out:

• Scrooge (1951)
• Scrooge (1970)
• Scrooged (1988)
• The Muppets Christmas Carol (1992)

There are a lot of film adaptations here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptations_of_A_Christmas_Carol

The book I decided to buy, the Penguin ‘A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings’ occupies only a quarter of the page total; I’m really looking forward to exploring the rest.

The list of annotations provides historical context, changes in language, etc., and has been efficacious a couple of times already. (Yeah, I know.)

It’s Twelfth Night – time those Christmas decorations were put away until next time. If you don’t it’s considered unlucky, but to ward it off they’ve got to stay up until Candlemas Day February 2nd. Or Easter. Or until next Christmas.

Um…

Before thinking ‘what’s a seemly time to put them up again?’ it’d probably be better to just take them down now eh?

I’m not making resolutions.

Recycling 2017’s: