How to deal with yob culture?

Social misfits, like the young cretin I saw the other day, who threw away his McDonalds thickshake across the footpath on Kings Road the other day, to impress the girls he was with to some extent, are repulsive. I wish I could have dumped rubbish on his bed and made him clean up the street.

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Britain has more than its fair share of them. Essentially there is a lack of respect, of others and their property, and a lauding of a culture of looking and acting tough and threatening, and not caring how obnoxious you are. It is about attention seeking and rebellion, and its vile. It scares older people, and sometimes involves intimidating people for a laugh or vandalism. It comes from regarding all around you as demanding your attention, and you not needing to take responsibility for you or your actions.
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Tony Blair is declaring war on it. Having already introduced ASBOs (Anti Social Behaviour Orders) which can be taken out on anyone down to the age of 10 for consistent behaviour that can be considered a nuisance or comprises low level criminality such as vandalism, tagging and the sort. It is effectively a fast track prosecution, without actually being one – it prohibits people from being out at certain times or being in certain locations. Unfortunately, they are often broken.
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Blair’s concern is understandable. The Guardian reported him saying:
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"In practice, the person who spits at an old lady on her way to the shops is not prosecuted because to do so takes many police hours, much resource and if all that is overcome, the outcome is a fine. The result is the police do not think it is worth it; and so it doesn't happen."
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Unfortunately his response is a mixed bag. Some have value, such as increasing some fines, lowering the threshold for seizure of proceeds of crime, providing an option for requiring offenders to undertake unpaid work to make good damage (such as cleaning tagging off of properties), a national non-emergency police contact number and orders that be sought against parents for serious misbehaviour by children.
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Others are either silly or disturbing. Silly, like paying teenage parents to attend parenting classes – disturbing such as the suggestion that the burden of proof be reversed in some cases. That is a dangerous precedent, that could lead to false accusations by those who are the problem – what if an obnoxious 14yo told the Police you spat on her and made a lewd comment and you had to prove your innocence? Trust the Police isn’t good enough.
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So what IS the answer? Longer term, it is about cultural change, about decrying the nihilistic, do what you want, have no responsibility, blame everyone else for your problems culture that has grown in the last few decades. It is about celebrating excellence, and not snarling at it, and about genuine benevolence for those in need, not as a right, but because people care about people who genuinely show effort and desire to look after themselves. This means not glorifying the stupid, vapid, obnoxious, tough and unproductive. It means a culture where entrepreneurs, inventors, scientists, surgeons, shopkeepers and others who create are what people aspire to – rather than aspire to be rich, rude and otherwise useless, as the glorification of fame for the sake of it, rather than due to talent, continues to grow.
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Shorter term, it is about giving those who CAN deal with obnoxious people the means to act, and about not subsidising the obnoxious at all.
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This means:
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1. Abolishing victimless crimes, so the Police can concentrate on offences of the person and property. Leaving peaceful people alone so that those who are not can be targeted, and then the Police themselves may be respected more, and have a greater presence in public places as a deterrent;
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2. Asserting the right of people to defend themselves and their property. This means not banning pepper sprays, allowing peaceful people to own firearms and making it clear that you have the right to use reasonable force to respond to any attack;
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3. Defending private property rights – which means ensuring landlords can evict tenants who damage property and harass other people, and shopkeepers can ban people from their shops and impose whatever restrictions they wish upon who enters or not. Private property is not a public place – people may learn than entering malls, shops, railway stations is not a right;
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4. Stop subsidising failure. At the very least, convicted criminals (offences against the body or property) should be prohibited from receiving any state welfare or state/council housing. As long as welfare remains, parents who do not control their children’s behaviour should have their benefits cut off after a warning, and face eviction from state provided housing. The public should not be forced to subsidise the lives of those who damage the lives of others. This should be the first step towards abolishing compulsory social welfare.
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Blair has a point that many Brits will agree on, but it needs people to act and for parents to be held accountable. There are many reasons why a segment of young people spit, vandalism and disturb people – the change in families, erosion of fear of parental authority for starters, but it needs a concerted effort to turn back over time.

Changing the burden of proof for any criminal offences removes a fundamental freedom, that will be exploited by a segment of the public and the police - and should be resisted.

Iran - how long is nothing done?

Iran continues to metaphorically tell the West to “get fucked” once more by ripping off seals placed on equipment at several nuclear sites by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran has been sidestepping the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty for around 18 years, but the appeasers in Europe have kept blocking the desire by the US to impose sanctions through the UN Security Council. Bush was not wrong when he included Iran in his axis of evil - the current Islamic Republic is a cancerous proponent of terrorism which has only been beaten by the Taliban for its stone age barbarity based on religion.
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Of course, many on the left will remain wilfully blind to this. Iran after all sent child soldiers in war against Iraq, has the state forcing women to dress as it says and bans any literature that it deems contrary to Islam, but that is nothing compared to the evil West. Iran wants to wipe Israel off the map, but that isn’t warmongering. Iran tortures prisoners as a matter of course, and has done so for many years (before and after the Islamic revolution), but lets ignore that. On top of that, the fact the US has been attempting to use multilateral mechanisms to deal with Iran is ignored – especially as they have failed.

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There must be one more attempt to get the UN Security Council to threaten economic sanctions against Iran, of course if it withdraws from the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (as North Korea did), then the toothlessness of international diplomacy in the face of determined evil is exposed once more.
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The Daily Telegraph reports that

“Teheran claims its nuclear programme is "peaceful", and it intends to carry out only "research and development" rather than full-scale enrichment. But it has stretched the definition so far that experts say there is no real distinction.”

Economic and diplomatic sanctions should be imposed until Iran demonstrates transparently that it is not pursuing nuclear weapons. If they do not work, either Iran withdraws from its threats of aggression against Israel and support for terrorism, or military action must be contemplated. For the leftwing advocates of peace - this is called SELF DEFENCE. It is TOO LATE to respond when Tel Aviv has been flattened by a nuclear missile - although you can be sure Israel will flatten Tehran in response, and rightfully so.

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The new Iranian President has demonstrated that he puts the mental into fundamentalism, and is an enemy of civilisation and peace. He denies the Holocaust and he is instrumental in murdering those who disagree with Islam.

So what is likely to happen?

Nothing.

The noise about Iraq will mean Bush and Blair will probably not undertake any serious action against Iran, while Iran will continue to develop a nuclear capability. Once it has done so, it will either declare it explicitly or through a test, or it will allow such a capability to be used by the terrorist groups it funds, trains and supports.

The question for Israel is this. How long do you wait, before a country that has vowed to eliminate you acquires the means to do so? Even if the US and Europe go weak kneed, Israel will not – I expect it is considering military means to put back the Iranian nuclear project by years, much as it did for Iraq.

Any Israeli government that wasn’t would not be doing its duty – I would much rather an angry Iranian government and hoards of mindless drone Muslims protesting, than a mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv.

Unfortunately, promising that any use by Iran of nuclear weapons will result in all out war against that country, is worthless to people in power who think the afterlife is more important than the here and now. However, it is all that there is. The evil thugs in Tehran must know that if they persist, they will be overthrown.

Religion - the root of all evil?

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The Marquis de Sade thought so, but then he was no paragon of virtue himself.

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That is the name of an excellent documentary that was on Channel 4 in the UK last night (which led nicely into Celebrity Big Brother afterwards).

The documentary claimed religion was the root of all evil – because it was faith over science and reason. This is a point that all objectivists would agree with, with one exception - religion isn't the only source denying reason - but it certainly is a major one.

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There is a clash of cultures between pre-modern Islam and modern Western civilisation, but also between post-modern Christianity (evangelical) and modern Western civilisation. The war on terror is just, and should be waged for the sake of secular Western modernity - but this is blurred by those claiming it is a Holy War between Christianity and Islam, which is what fundamentalist Muslims believe. ANY adherents of Islam or Christianity (or Judaism) which seek to use force to achieve their goals are evil - but unfortunately, the battlelines are messy.

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To have such a controversial topic on prime time television is a testament to the courage the commercial privately owned Channel 4 has in confronting Christians, Muslims, Jews and others over what they believe. The presenter, Professor Richard Dawkins no doubt is hated by fundamentalist Muslims, Christians and Jews alike. He went to Jerusalem and the United States to talk to people who propagate their irrational hatred of reason, to see if he could understand or get them to understand why people might think differently – he got barely disguised hatred. One man who was raised Jewish in the US, moved to Gaza as a settler and converted to Islam blamed him for allowing women to dress like whores in the streets – when he responded “they dress themselves, I don’t dress them”, the response was “but you let them do it, you let your society allow this”. Islam thinks men should be controlling women, regulating them - hmmm.
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Religion is a denial of reason, science doesn’t pretend to have all the answers, whereas religion does – God did it! Not only did God do it, but some book, written by men centuries ago, contains all the guidance you need to live your life and run the lives of others.
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My beef with religion is twofold:
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1. It is about denying reality. It is about asserting a being exists without there being evidence for its existence – indeed faith is just that, an acceptance that something is real without any other grounding for that belief. Denying reality is fatal, it reduces what your life can bring you and what your life can bring others, it is a form of insanity. Nothing more and nothing less, belief in religion is a form of madness.
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2. Many of the rules propagated by the major religions are irrational, illogical and immoral. Take how Islam treats women, like second class citizens that need cared for. Take how Christianity treats sex, filthy and vile – necessary to have children, but otherwise filthy and vile. They do not believe human beings own their bodies or their property and should be able to do with them as they please, as long as they do not interfere with the rights of others to do the same.
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Go to the website here and check it out, next week is part two of the series which argues that religion is a virus when taught to the very young, it infects their minds and warps their thinking. After all, why do some countries produce generation after generation of Muslims or Christians, because children are raised and never doubt it?
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Ask TVNZ, TV3 or Prime to buy the programme and show it in New Zealand.

"You can lead a whore to culture but you can't make her think"

Celebrity Big Brother UK! no not the latest surveillance system devised by bureaurats in London to watch you online or on the road - but the popular reality TV show on Channel 4.

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After my little spiel on French culture I will digress with some mass culture - the voyeuristic pleasure gained in watching celebrities be watched and stuck in a house for days on end.

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The quote in the title of the post is the BEST quote so far from this programme, it was Dead or Alive singer Pete Burns talking about slapper Jodie Marsh. Now if you haven't seen Pete Burns since "You Spin me Round like a Record" you'll be shocked, as his cosmetic surgery has been drastic, and not necessarily how he expected (the lip surgery cost him a fortune to fix after it went wrong).
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I never watched any other "Big Brothers" but I ashamedly have been seduced by the sheer entertainment value of the people in it:
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Starting with Chantelle, a dizzy blonde Essex girl (which, despite reputation, can be good), unfortunately not that bright, though rather sweet really – she didn’t know what a gynaecologist was when it was being discussed, and didn’t even know that she should have known. She’s said many naïve things, you’d think she was around half her age, she’s only endearing because she is kind – but now she is an instant nonlebrity – famous for doing nothing other than appear on this programme. She convinced the others for the first 3 days that she was a celebrity leading a non-existent band called Kandyfloss with a "hit" called "I want it right now" - by convincing them of this, she got to stay. However, I think this is largely because two of the other musicians (Maggot and Preston) don't rate themselves too highly anyway.
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David Farrar has blogged about the extreme leftwing Saddamite George Galloway appearing on Celebrity Big Brother a man who said in an interview with the Guardian that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a tragedy. That tragedy that cost 30 million lives, that invaded Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, ran a totalitarian state of brutality and lethargy. Great one George.
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However, he isn’t half as interesting as the rest. NBA basketball star and notorious womaniser (and occasional cross dresser) Dennis Rodman, is by far the most famous person there (internationally) and looks distinctly uncomfortable, probably because this is the longest time he has spent without having sex for a while – and he has tried to get into the knickers of the three sexiest women, Traci (ex. Baywatch), Jodie (Essex porn channel host, nosejob victim and slapper who complains endlessly about how she is misunderstood and quite intellectual) and Chantelle.
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Jodie Marsh is a bitchy model, who got her nose done when she was 15 (big mistake it looks far from good) with big self esteem issues that she handles by being loose about sex, talks about it all the time, and by crying about how hard it is to be famous, to be called a slapper, to have her boobs criticised, then she criticises others. She has been in an orgy, wants to have sex with Pamela Anderson and likes girls as much as boys (and I mean boys, she likes them younger).
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Then there is Pete Burns, the diva from band Dead or Alive (You Spin Me Round like a Record) who looks rather scary but is bitchy and incredibly funny. He disclaims that he is gay or a transvestite, but appears to be comfortable simply saying he wants to look the way he does and wear what he wants, but he is a man and is not interested in changing his sex. He’s my pick if only because he is comfortable about who he is, and has upset some of the others by claiming his fur coat is gorilla (which is almost certainly is not).
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Michael Barrymore is the last interesting one, although he is a shadow of his former self, looking worn and tired and sad. I don't need say much more about him, except that he clearly looks like the UK tabloid media have chewed him up and spat him out and it has hurt.
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So there you have it, while Brits will remain addicted to this, so will I – watching a range of semi famous people interact like goldfish in a bowl, being bitchy, being bored and half of them waiting for something to happen.
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I’m hoping that Galloway is booted out this time – because he has been boring, and the prick deserves to lose this publicity vehicle (which has backfired both against his traditional supporters and the youth he was trying to target). He is evil.

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If you want to keep up to date, go to the website here. If you are really addicted pay around £8 for continuous broadband video coverage access - I wont be, it helps to have digital TV!

Bonne Annee - Vive La France - Happy New Year

May this be your year of Joie De Vivre.

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Well I’m back, I hope you all had a good end of year/new year vacation – with lots of good food, drink, sex and relaxation whether you were in summer or winter.
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I learnt one thing over my break, and that is that the French have gone some things very right.

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Food, drink and attitude to life is wonderful – there is little doubt that their passionate, romantic and sensual belief in living from day to day is light years ahead of the protestant masochism of so many in the English speaking world. The contrast in food between Britain and France is dramatic, even though the French love McDonalds - it is the most successful country for McDonalds in continental Europe and fastest growing.

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Yes French public services are rather disastrous, with the exception of the Paris Metro and the TGV, most French railways are far from alluring. Charles de Gaulle Airport (the terminal for non French airlines) is the worst in western Europe.

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Yes French politics are about left or lefter – and I have written before about the abominable agricultural policy that continues to be propagated by French governments.

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Yes, outside central Paris, much of the city is dire, there is tagging everywhere, a loose attitude to respect for property. Indeed, the poor state of the French economy is very apparent, with closed department stores and shops in Paris - and Paris has its share of homeless people, despite the generous welfare state.

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However, in France joie de vivre means something – life is to be savoured, food is to be enjoyed passionately. I have never been in a city with so many chocolatiers. I need say nothing about wine or art. The French language is more beautiful than English, so it is little surprising that they look down about it – and the arrogance? I saw little of this, and certainly no more than in the UK. France may be strangled by bureaucracy, the legacy of philosophers that were wrong (like Foucault, Rousseau and Sartre) and a suspicion of laissez faire “Anglo Saxon” economics and politics – but the French love life and beautiful things. They are also, usually, polite - if you are polite, you will get courtesy in return.

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If New Zealand and the UK learnt to enjoy life, to enjoy good food, wine and beautiful art and music - and to love romance, passion and creativity, over banal mediocrity and vacuousness, they would be much better off. If the UK could round up its yobs and transport them to an island where nobody could find them and where they couldn't leave - it would be better to, but more on that another day!