Big Brother?

6 October

That’s it, the weekly Skype is done with, so now I can get on and do something useful. It’s Jan’s sister who is on the other end of it and it’s the only way they can chat so I suppose it’s not too bad.

Panorama last night went into the damage that the Snowden man has caused by giving some journalists the secrets of the NSA scope to snoop. It seems that they are working with GCHQ here in the UK. But you know what? I don’t give a monkey’s poke about what he claims they can do. Let them read this, there’s nowt threatening in it; let them trace my Google searches; let trace me to Poundland, Asda, Tesco and Whetherspoons in town. They will soon learn that they are chasing the wrong bloke.

But that’s it really isn’t it? How do they find out who they need to keep an eye on until they do look at us. Even so, I’m worried about it. I don’t go looking for kiddie porn, how to build bombs, ISIS videos and a whole long list of other things.

It’s the same with CCTV cameras in town. Dorktown has quite a few of them and I know more or less where they are, and I’m not worried by them at all. I’m not robbing folks of their smart phones, laptops or even old ladies handbags. So why should I be worried be worried? I said this once before on a different forum and then added something like this, the folk who do worry are those who are up to no good. So if you are behaving yourself you don’t mind the cameras keeping an eye on you. One guy claimed I had accused him of being a criminal and demanded I withdraw the comment. My reply was short and to the point, basically, ‘Get stuffed. I will not withdraw it and if you wish to take it further see a solicitor.’ That was the end of it too.

Something we should be worrying about, is what Putin is up to in Syria. I posted something on here some time ago about how dangerous that man is, not he is proving it, again. After all his actions in Ukraine he’s started again. The Independent has apparently claimed that Russia already has thousands of troops in Syria. Well, I don’t know about that but we all know that their air force is in action there. They are getting a lot of practice in ready for further expansion attempts. The incursion into Turkish airspace is thought to have been deliberate. As I said before, Putin is a dangerous man and needs to be closely watched.

We also watched last night’s 24 hours in A&E in which a man was admitted with a self-infected stab wound to his stomach. He was lucky, it wasn’t too deep and didn’t cause all that much damage. However, it has raised the issue of mental illness again, and just how much a stigma it is. There are probably millions of people in the UK who suffer from it, and I don’t mean an illness where the patient needs to be admitted to hospital either. No, just ordinary depression that cause so much damage to its sufferers; stress, wherever it comes from, and oh so many other things.

I applaud that programme last night that has raised the issue in the way it did. The stigma attached to is why so many people don’t say anything about it to family and friends. The sufferer is at the bottom of their pit and they fear that opening up about their illness to their friends, they will walk off and never come back. So the sufferer keeps quiet and their illness becomes even more ill. The more we can be open about it, about how it effects our day to day lives, then the quicker the stigma will be defeated. And defeating that stigma will be a major step forward in the battle against mental illness.

A tulip … 

and I love this one.

Today’s funny …

A professional juggler, driving to his next performance, is stopped by the police. "What are you doing with these matches and lighter fluid in your car?" asks the police officer.

"I'm a juggler and I juggle flaming torches in my act."

"Oh yeah? Let's see you do it," says the officer.

So the juggler gets out and starts juggling the blazing torches
masterfully.

A couple driving by slows down to watch. "Wow," says the driver to his
wife. "I'm glad I quit drinking. Look at the test they're giving now!"