Sunday 20 January 2013

Subjective rant on benefit cuts

So, the beginning of the benefit reform is nigh. 

It is a time of much grief and lamentation and cursing against the government. 

I can't help but think that the welfare system in UK in 2013 is the most generous it has ever been in the history. In most countries around the world you can count on some food and clothes vouchers and a shelter from bad weather if you hit the hard times. In many other countries you don't even get that. In very few countries you get money, shelter, help with finding employment, reduced bills and no taxes. UK must be almost the only one that offers such benefits indefinitely. And the money going towards it has to come from somewhere so obviously when there's not enough of it around, it's time for cuts.

Grief and lamentation!

Why the hell would you expect the government to take care of your welfare anyway? What is the government? It's people lucky enough to get elected for a definite period of time, who traditionally do everything that they can to earn as much as possible during this period and not make any long term decisions. And you think these people really give a shit about long term prosperity and welfare for all?

Cursing against the government!

There's nothing your ineffective vocalisations will change - the era of rewarding people for doing nothing and breeding is coming to an end. This year the good times for average benefit scrounger will finish. Next year, who knows, maybe the unlimited time for claiming benefits will also come to an end. 

Grief and lamentation!

Oh, I feel so sorry for all you people out there who relied on benefits for the past five - ten years and done bare minimum to find a job or obtain more qualifications and now you will be forced to cancel your full Sky package and cut down your 30 pounds a month mobile contract and quit your weed habit and start living like an average employed citizen, who, after paying all the taxes, bills and obligations is left with 10 pounds of disposable income a month. Welcome to the real world.

And in this real world the beginning of the benefit reform is nigh. 

It is a time of much grief and lamentation and... oh bloody hell, shut up!

Friday 4 January 2013

Selective memory or elective dumbness?

Don't you just love these dumb people who think they are being so smart by using carefully selected facts to support their beliefs and conveniently ignoring the whole picture?

I've just seen a bit of a documentary in which a guy supports his disregard of equality between men and women because in a pride of lions it's the lioness who does all the work, hunting, feeding and raising the kids and somehow we don't shout about how chauvinistic the male lion is. And we're all basically animals. Well, ok, so I take it Mr Lion you attack and maim any other young male that comes anywhere near your territory? That you mark with your urine regularly? And you raising other man's kids is just plain wrong, you should kill them to protect your gene pool. And of course you are a happy bigamist times six. No? Then fuck off with your limping logic.

Oh and all these ads for shampoos and other so called beauty products that display a big slogan for you to see '90% of women agree that this cream will work just as well as the blood of virgins' or something along these lines. And then there's a small additional info most people will not notice because there's a flash of boob above it, which says '90% out of 36 people' (or other ridiculously small number). Now, mathematics was not my favourite subject in school, it wasn't even in my subjective top ten, but from my recollection a statistically significant sample is one of at least a thousand people? And any statistics ever that are above 90% are suspiciously similar to 'real' voter turnout in communist Poland.

My absolute favourite is that guy who got a tattoo saying 'You shall not be with a male as one does with a woman. It is an abomination.' (Leviticus 18:22). And what else does Bible has to say just a few lines below? 'You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves.' (Leviticus 19:28) Bible burn! But hey, you became a meme for the dumbest choice of a quote for a tattoo ever, congratulations. 

if you have any more examples please feel free to share peoples.

Tuesday 1 January 2013

Books of 2012

It's time for another list of my favourite books read in 2012. Some urban fantasy (Griffin), some good old style space operas (Bear), some pure blood fantasy (Pevel), some surreality (Banks), some gothic stories (Lee), some alternative history (Kay), some hard sf (Egan), some well established writers (Atwood), some intriguing newcomers (Beckett, Bell). 

Dig in and enjoy, fellow book worms.

1. Kate Griffin - Matthew Swift cycle - A Madness of Angels, The Midnight Mayor, The Neon Court, The Minority Council

2. Margaret Atwood - The Blind Assassin

3. Paolo Bacigalupi - The Wind-Up Girl

4. China Mieville - Embassytown

5. Chuck Palahniuk - Lullaby

6. Pierre Pevel - The Cardinal's Blades, The Alchemist in the Shadows, The Dragon Arcana

7. Greg Egan - Diaspora

8. Iain Banks - The Business

9. Michelle Lovric - The Book of Human Skin

10. Robin Hobb, Megan Lindholm - The Inheritance

11. Guy Gavriel Kay - A Song for Arbonne

12. Greg Bear - City at the End of Time

13. Iain Banks - The Bridge

14. Chris Beckett - Dark Eden

15. Iain Banks - Whit

16. Greg Bear - Moving Mars

17. Guy Gavriel Kay - The Lions of Al-Rassan

18. Alden Bell - Exit Kingdom

19. Tanith Lee - The Secret Books of Paradys - The Book of the Damned, The Book of the Beast, The Book of the Dead, The Book of the Mad

20. Barbara Kingsolver - Animal Dreams