Worst Person Of The Day: 22nd July 2020

It's time for the miscreants, mountebanks and maniacs, the irrepressible and the irredeemable.  It's not totally serious, it's not totally silly, but it is my nominations for the Worst Person Of The Day.

The bronze medal goes to Police in Syndey, Australia, who asked a woman to remove her tampon during a strip search.  This comes from a report from Australia's Law Enforcement Conduct Commission who were investigating 5 controversial strip searches that had taken place.  They've ordered the police to apologise to the woman.  Obviously they're not pussyfooting around...

The silver goes to Housing Minister Robert Jenrick, who is apparently unrepentant about approving a housing scheme in East London, despite it being put forward by Richard Desmond, the former owner of the Star, Express and Channel 5, and also a noted donor to the Conservative Party.  He did say that he regretted sitting next to Mr Desmond, at a Tory dinner last November where they actually swapped telephone numbers.  I guess Desmond needed to Express himself to the minister...

But our winner is Kanye West, and I need to be serious here, because what is going on with Kanye right now is not funny, and it's not clever, it's just sad.   And I'm not just talking about his supposed presidential campaign, that has actually missed a bunch of deadlines to file for candidacy in several states.  No, that's just a symptom of the real problem.  BiPolar Disorder is not fun at all, not for the people around you, not even for you, and I can say truthfully, I have been there.  I have suffered BiPolar Disorder, and you do suffer it.  You can go from being on a maniac high, all the way down to a manic depressive state, in virtually no time at all, just a couple of minutes, and you can swing back again just as quickly, and you can keep doing that, multiple times an hour, never mind a day.  Yes, he posted some tweets on Monday which indicated he was looking to divorce his wife of 6 years, Kim Kardashian, and talked about how doctors wanted to 51/50 him, which means temporary involuntary psychiatric commitment of individuals who present a danger to themselves or others due to mental illness, and those tweets were later deleted, but it just shows just how volatile somebody with BiPolar Disorder can be.  So, this award comes with a proviso.  Kanye, get some psychiatric help for yourself.  I came out the other side, you can too.  And if you do, this award will be recinded.  But for now, Kanye West is the Worst Person Of The Day.

More tone-deafness from another American police department

In the aftermath of the incidents involving black men and white police, you'd think that Police across the US would be aware not to do anything that could potentially stir up race troubles again, but you'd be wrong.

The tone deafness of the police in this story is breathtaking and shocking. 

NBC 6 in South Florida reports that police in North Miami Beach are using mugshots of black men, some of them only teenagers, from their archive, as target practice targets in their shooting range, and the Police chief ACTUALLY defended the practice.

Sad to say, it's unfortunately no different to what I expect from the Police in the US.  The police are charged with a duty to "Protect & Serve." and that means EVERYONE, not just those that happen to look like them. 

I sometimes wonder if instead of actually catching criminals in the US, the Police there hire them and give them a badge.  You do wonder at times who the criminals really are.

Let me say this, loud and clear.  It isn't just White lives that matter, Black Lives Matter too, and Hispanic lives, and Asian lives, and everybody else's lives too.

Every Life Matters.

Bullet Points: Thursday 18th September 2014

Whilst the referendum is taking place in Scotland, there are other things that are happening, so a few quick bullet points on the stories outside Scotland.

• Somerset County Council is dipping into its reserves to cover a predicted £7mlln overspend, at least that’s what BBC News is reporting.  Local councils have been forced to cut spending on local services by central governments that have been slowly eroding local government.  If local councils were allowed to raise the money they need to run the local services they need to run, we wouldn’t have these stupid stories about councils “overspending”.
• News Corp have called Google a “platform for piracy”.  I know there are differences in attitudes between different companies, but to call another corporation a platform for piracy, seems over the top, even for the old salty sea dog himself, Captain Murdoch, shiver me timbers!
• Police in Rio De Janiero have arrested 22 of their own officers, for involvement in a bribery and extortion racket.  This is shocking behaviour by a force that people are supposed to trust to enforce law and order, not partake in criminal activity.
• TD’s and Senators in Ireland have returned to face two big issues.  One is the budget that gets announced on 14th October 2014, the other is a wide ranging banking inquiry that is examining Irish banks in the run up to the bank guarantee.  The budget though is the bigger issue after a larger than expected 3% growth rate in the Irish economy.  Could we be seeing a return of the “Celtic Tiger”?  If so, the Irish government must be careful not to have that tiger run away with them, as it did before.
• Lastly, Spain’s Prime Minister has spoken to Spain’s parliament and issued a warning ahead of Catalonia’s upcoming referendum on independence on 9th November.  He said the EU was made to bring states together, not tear them apart.  That implies that a United States of Europe was the intended outcome, and I think any such thoughts about a United States of Europe are in the realms of daydreams and fantasy.

Instant Karma

This story comes from Bogota, Columbia and is just more example of why crime doesn't pay.  Fortunately, the victim got her phone back.

The would-be robber, suffered minor injuries in his run in with the bus.  He's lucky he didn't suffer much worse injuries.  His victim even helped him out from under the bus.  He was detained by police.  Something tells me he won't be committing any more crimes every again, after that incident.

Boston Marathon Bombings: Suspect in custody

Later on, I will talk more about this, but I have to say this now.  Boston Police have someone in their twitter team who is quite a poet, for in tweeting about the suspect's capture, they wrote this.

The hunt is over.
The search is done.
The terror is over.
And justice has won.

Very poetic and very appropriate.

PCC Elections: Time to make voting mandatory.

In the aftermath of the Police and Crime Commissioner Elections, we're hearing people say that they weren't interested, didn't know who to vote for, etc.

The translation of all this is quite simple. 85% of the UK electorate didn't want to bother to work something out for themselves, but rely on someone or something else to tell them what to do.

It seems that many people have forgotten what citizenship really means. It means you have both rights and responsibilities. Apparently many people just want the rights, not the responsibilities.

Crime affects everyone. Shoplifting is not a victimless crime, as it raises prices for all of us. Any of us could be victims of crime at any time.

I think it's time to consider making voting mandatory, like they do in Australia.

Time Marches On: Crashing on the wrong side.

From Current TV’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Thursday 25th August 2011.

Viewpoint: Tony Blair and the England Riots

I don't agree with Tony Blair on a lot of things, but he made some good points in a column he wrote for the Observer.



Britain is not in a “moral decline”. That phrase has been a favourite of the right wing, since the days of Mary Whitehouse back in the 60s.



The police need the backing of the public at large and politicians. They have a tough enough job to do, without well meaning people undermining them.



But Tony Blair misses one key point, by talking about a social mainstream.



There's an old joke that goes “Now repeat after me, we are all individuals.” But the truth is that we are all individuals. And societies evolve over time.



The Goon Show was revolutionary when it first aired in the 1950s, now it would be considered tame.



We must make sure that we encourage respect in others, by respecting the differences in us all.