Closed. The boat sank, the sharks won.

Most popular incoming link: Witchy Woo.

Most popular outgoing link: Witchy Woo.

Search phrase(s) of the week:  No Porne on my TV (shame about the spelling) and How big is an Ark?

Reckon someone thinks Witchy and I might be linked somehow? Answers in the usual place please….

Man charged with murder.

A 40-year-old man has been charged with murdering his partner, whose body was found following a fire at their home.

I’d be interested to see the post mortem report, I wonder if she died in the fire or whether she was dead before the fire started. 

Calais rapist may be Trafficker.

The man who raped a British-based Canadian student at an illegal migrants’ camp near Calais could be a "people trafficker", investigators say.

Interestingly they’ve released a photo-fit image but it’s not been published in that article, so who should we watch out for then? 

Grandfather claims he killed four year old Rosie by accident.

Police have been searching for two weeks for the body of Rose, the blue-eyed child who was last seen three months ago in the town.

Her name has become common currency on Israeli lips since Tuesday, when police revealed that Rose’s grandfather was suspected of her murder after he told them he killed the little girl accidentally and dumped her body in a suitcase in a river.

By Accident? And then dumped the body? Why?

Some of the sharks out there are bigger though; Karadzic is in the dock. 

The judge asked him to stand to hear the eleven charges against him. After a few seconds hesitation he did. But the judge didn’t get very far. He read out the charge of genocide. Mr Karadzic told him he would not enter a plea because of his attitude towards the court. The judge said that, in accordance with the rules, he would enter a plea of not guilty on his behalf.. So he never read the full charges, of indictment to murder, torture, rape and inhumane treatment.

Be careful where you swim today.

Man Jailed for Broccoli Killing.

A south London man has been jailed for five years for killing his partner after she threw broccoli at him.

Right. So that makes it ok to stab her then? And Five Years??? A woman’s life is worth Five Years??? 

You’re wandering along through life and you see a mark on the ground, and you stop to look at it. Maybe someone pointed it out to you but you stop to look. You hear a noise and peer into the dark, knowing something is there but you’re not sure what it is, what it could be. You start to see.

Then you’re hit with a sinking feeling. There is more, so much more. You’re alone and isolated and that small mark, that subtle thing you saw isn’t the whole thing, it’s just the tip of the claw. It’s the claw mark and you look round to see you’re standing in the footprint of the most enormous thing you can’t even imagine.

At that point the dark is suddenly terrifying and every movement and noise is that huge predator approaching and you may as well lay down and die because you have no chance of survival, let alone doing anything about the predator. You can’t even scream, because no-one will hear and no-one will come, and IT may hear you instead. Then it’ll come and it’ll get you.

It’s not just anything, it’s everything and everywhere - and I don’t want to see it any more. It’s called Patriarchy and it’s terrifyingly real.

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It’s all about power and control isn’t it? It’s all about towing the line and fitting in the box, conforming and being part of the gang, following the rules. It’s screaming into the wind and being ignored as the wind snatches your scream from you and denies you even that release. It’s doing what you can but it’s never enough. It’s being scared and confused, it’s staring into the vast ocean and knowing damned well the sharks are out there waiting. It’s being told "You can’t swim here."

It’s being told over and over again that the water is safe really, the patriarchal shark doesn’t bite, they don’t consume you, but only if you follow the rules, only if you play on this part of the beach..Know your place.

Then someone comes and reassures you that your fears are real, the sharks are the biting sort and the water isn’t safe after all, but they whisper, we can teach you to see them but only if you follow these rules, fit into a different box. Come onto the grass instead, come away from the ocean….. 

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Know what pisses me off? Being told what to think, how to live, who I can or can’t talk to, what I can or can’t listen to. All that rules and control stuff.

I know I write from a position of western white priviledge. I know I can’t fully understand the issues facing some groups of women. I acknowledge and accept that, unlike some. Doesn’t stop me getting angry about stuff though.

So, off you go, walk a mile in my shoes - no, take the good ones, it’s fine, go ahead I prefer my scruffy gardening trainers anyway, honest. Then you’ll be a mile away, out of my hair and I can go get some new shoes….  Go further if you like, keep the shoes. 

You want to know what’s really getting at me today?

We try, don’t we? We scream into the wind and it snatches our words away. We put up bigger and bigger No Swimming signs and we are ignored.  We watch our children grow and learn the attitudes and opinions thrust at them through the world around them, through the TV, magazines, friends and relatives and we scream silently inside as insidious programming takes place and it’s out of our control. We question and we wonder if we’re actually going crazy because this thing that controls us is just so huge it can’t possibly be real.

Can it? 

In the UK, we live in a world where our homes are fed the fuel needed to keep us warm, power our internet, lights and appliances, at an ever increasing cost. We are supplied with food, at a cost and we are told what is good to eat, what is bad. We are told how to live, where to live and who it is acceptable to live with. We are instructed, from the moment of birth or before, that we are weaker, less and in need of protection. The advice on any aspect of life is out there to find, and it’s all about control and power over the individual.

And if we defy it?

We are ridiculed, ostracised and ignored. But by who? Oh that’d be everyone. People you thought were friends, people you share DNA with, people you thought were like you, and The Authorities. By the language we use, by the job titles we are forced into, by those who teach our children for us, by those who care for us when we are sick. By those we hope will keep us safe.

Look around you, who do you see? They are the sharks. They circle and they wait and if you put a foot in the water, if you dare to think then they will strike. It’ll be subtle at first, insinuating into your life and thoughts and most will comply, become part of the sharks. But some will continue to scream into the wind, some will build the boats and those are labelled as crazy, because there are no sharks in the water right? We who continue are isolated and driven apart when we should be drawing closer and sharing the knowledge we have gained, sharing the task of building our A.R.K.

What did you do today? Did you scream into the wind? Did you nod and comply? Did you become a shark?

Thanks Witchy, I hadn’t spotted this, as I really don’t watch that much TV after the kids go to bed - well, Heroes, CSI, Bonekickers, the odd film, but not much.

Lads Mag, Nuts, has it’s very own TV channel and it’s FREE! It’s beamed directly into MY home and yours, free of charge. How about that?  

Nuts TV has all the character of it’s lads magazine and much more.

Uh huh. Like I really want a channel that promotes "Sexy photos and even sexier videos with our Nuts TV fitness foxes!" Bleurgh.

If you want to complain - about Nuts or any other channel, then email, phone or write to:

Email:               info@freeview.co.uk
Telephone:      08701 111 270
Write to:          Freeview, DTV Services Ltd, Broadcast Centre, (BC3 B6),
201 Wood Lane, London, W12 7TP

I dunno how many communications they’d need to encrypt it or charge for it - make it part of top up TV? Just don’t have that thinly veiled porn accessible for anyone to watch. I don’t care if it’s only on late at night, I don;t care if it’s mostly (male) sport such as Cage fighting, football etc. I really don’t, I just don’t want it unless I ask for it.

It’s insidious isn’t it? They pipe this stuff into our homes and for almost a year we don’t even notice it’s there. Late at night when watching CSI reruns I’ve noticed an increase in ads for text sex and various other unpleasantness. I can’t filter the ads like I can on here, although I do have a mute button or an off button. So this stuff seeps in unwelcome, unannounced and it’s just there, we barely notice it so it lulls us into accepting it as normal for it to be there on our tv screen in our home. It’s invaded and we didn’t see it.

We didn’t read the No Swimming signs did we?

But why is this crap free when the History Channel isn’t? Why can I get free porn on my TV but no decent film channel? Just, why?  

No really, it’s Here. Or is it Here? Or maybe even Here?