General Election 2010 Part One

So it's time to pick a new section of the ruling elite in General Election 2010, which sounds like a EA Sports game: "React to tweets and blogs in this years fun political simulation, with ground breaking online features!" This time around the Liberal Democrats are being included in the party through the TV debates, which are really a political 'Westminster's got Talent'. This is ironic as the only government to ever show any sort of talent was in 1945, and most certainly not since 1979, the fateful year when Satan himself had a sex change, got a handbag and elected as Prime Minister.

So as the Liberals are back on the scene after nearly 100 hundred years seemingly shagging rent boys. There return is kind of inevitable, given the choice on offer by the Labservatives. On one side of the double ended dildo that is "first past the post" we have "The Third Duke of Cuntshire" Lord Smithjizz Twatface and the other Tony Blair's wanking hand. Anyone who isn't Adolf Hitler or Nick Griffin would look good compared to those two, even uncle Joe Stalin - who would at least sort out the manufacturing sector.

The TV debate did just that, with Clegg the LibDem leader coming out on top, while Brown and Cameron were busy seeing who could ejaculate the most over each other's response to the financial crisis, too busy to notice Clegg coming up behind them. There are two more debates to come and much could change in their wake.

Dave Cameron could be seen the same room as Tony Blair finally allowing us to see failures of the cloning process first hand; Dolly the Sheep has a lot to answer for.

















Gordon Brown may be pushed over the edge and go mental after being forced into another pointless PR exercise, garrotting a Sun journalist with his tie, then shoving a microphone down Nick Robinson's throat shouting "Soundbite this you smug four eyed fucker" over and over like a mantra of an insane Buddhistt Monk on a quest for vengeance..

Nick Clegg will turn up at the second debate dressed like a forty year old female English teacher, smoking a crack pipe whilst throwing packets of miaow-miaow at the TV audience singing songs from West Side Story.

What is far more likely is Labservative turning on the new boys and either destroying Clegg in a blaze of well argued strongly reasoned political critique which coming from these two vacuous colostomy bags of the political establishment. The other option is that they come off looking worse for picking on plucky Clegg, struggling against the despoilers of our nation. Tune in next week to find out.
Or don't give them the oxygen of legitimacy. Don't watch it. Vote Green!

Liberalism and Green Politics

In the individualism of Liberalism there is not a natural affinity to absorb green ideas, as there is in Socialism(Socialism rejects Capitalism just as the 'Green Orthodoxy' does) or Conservatism(though both Liberalism and Conservatism both favour capitalism, Liberalism does so as a philosophical belief rather than the pragmatism of Conservatism. Conservatism also traditionally has an affinity to the rural and conservation issues, even if they are counter-intuitive to the 'Green Orthodoxy' such as support for Hunting). The economic aspects of Neo-Liberalism is blamed by many Greens for the present ecological crisis and Liberal economic ideas are at the core of this ideology. The ideas at the root of liberalism: the Social Contract and Utilitarianism are anthropocentric to the core, and as such create an ideological gap with Green Politics. Liberalism is a product of the enlightenment, and as such it inherits a intellectual legacy, one of Cartesian dichotomies, of man and nature as separate entities(Marcel Wissenburg, Liberalism from “Poltical Theory and the Ecological Challenge, edited by Andrew Dobson and Robyn Eckersley” page 20). This creates an ‘otherness’ to nature which predisposes man to it’s exploitation. Yet despite these ideological distances from Green Politics, Liberalism has plurality and mass participation at its core; these are values that are key to Green Politics and often part of it. Plurality both creates a space for Green Politics and facilitates its ongoing legitimacy while mass participation validates Green Politics through the widespread civil organisations, such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. The openness of Liberal politics is a key facilitator of Green politics, and given the widespread penetration of Liberal values in the Western and developing world is important in its ongoing spread.

Michael Foot R.I.P.

Michael Foot, former Labour Leader, has died. This is a sad day.

Star Trek 2009

The 2009 film was spectacular in every way. The Blu-Ray I have of it is one of my treasured possesions. The action, the story, the coincidences were all amazing. But what's not amazing are Trekkie internet naysayers.
The original Star Trek series was a SciFi that was serious in nature, but that was also pure entertainment. This is a factor that serious Trekkies seem to forget when slating the reboot film. The original Kirk galavanted around the Galaxy, shagging Aliens, disregarding rules, getting into fist fights with #Klingons, firing Phasers and generally being the"Coolest White Man to Ever Live". The Reboot Kirk is exaclty the same in my opinion, almost a facsimilie. He sleeps with Green Aliens, takes on 5 goons in a bar brawl, commits near-mutiny, fires phasers and has a fist fight or few with some Romulans. As for the Timeline shennanigans it seems to me that this root of criticism is childish and petty. Time travel was a key feature in many episodes/films of the #StarTrek, so why can't it be part of the Kirk/Spock origin story?

Mind Melt

Why is it that when I have loads of University work my brain decides to go on holiday? When there's nothing to be done it overflows with ideas. Now it's crunch time and I'm interlectually blank. Fail.

Atheists

It is often said the idea of original sin, of christian morality, of religious morality, was and is a straight jacket of domination of man by man. This hierachy, this control, is not that of faith, but of structures imposed by elites to control the masses. In this way the religious creeds of man are no different to consumerism or Marxism-Leninism. The origins of Christianity are obscured in the vast slave owning imperium of the Roman Empire. The rise of Islam was subsumed in the Caliphate.

The outright denunciation and rejection of religion (here is wikipedia's list of atheist philosophers, http://tinyurl.com/yko85ke) has a broad base which ranges from scientists like Richard Dawkins to anarchists like Murray Bookchin. All united in their opposition to the validity of religion, opposition based on the false and corrupted versions of religion, dominated by states and elite control. Richard Dawkins for example sees religion as "both a source of conflict and a justification for belief without evidence." The possibility of extremism is a feature of secular societies, and the largest mass murderers in history, Stalin and Mao were committed atheists.
That Christians should never commit acts of vengeance or violence, that they should forgive. Quakers have non-hierachial structures, and worship in self-reflexive silence but religion is wrong. That Hari-Krishna's give food to the hungry, that nuns nurse the sick seems to be irrelevant to the atheists.

The intolerance required to take so narrow minded a view is a reflection of the view of religion these atheists have, and in doing so they undermine the validity of there opinions. For there is validity. Religious Fundamentalism is surely a cause of human misery and suffering. Given the humanitarian message of most religion, to plant suicide bombs, or hang homosexuals corruption of the principles the fundamentalists claim to maintain. In many cases religious fundamentalism is a cover for social conservatism and patriachy.

Upcoming Demo!

There is going to be a joint-demonstration of students and staff at MMU, which will involve the Unions and the group "Manchester for Jobs and Education". It will start at 12.30 at the Ormond Building on All Saints Campus. It is in response to the 127 support staff cuts announced on the 16th of November, which will not only gut the MMU support staff, but also make 127 people's and their families have a wretched Christmas/Holiday period. In the light of the £1.3 million budget surplus for this year (2009-2010), and the Vice Chancellor's stupendous wage of £250,000, it is both reckless and inexcusable to go forward with these redundancies.