Panic

In 1990 I remember seein a TV program in which some expert reckoned the average family had to spend £2000 a month on insurance premiums to cover them in case something went wrong. At the time my wage was about £1100 a month . I think you can spot the flaw in his argument, Basically he was trying to scare me into a situation where I'd be too frightened to do anything.

Today I saw a sign reminded us that the Digital Switchover is coming as though it wer the ent of the world . "You could lose ALL your TV channels!!" . Well no , actually , you wont , worst case is you will lose the ability to recieve the channels if you dont have a way of receiving digital channels and if you you buy a TV they have a digital receiver built in. But they're still trying to frighten people.

In Michael Moore's film "Bowling For Columbine"  he wonders why there are so many gun related deaths , compared with Switzerland who have mandatory gun ownership , and Canada where guns and ammunition are as freely available as in the USA. This is a very nice little theory cartoon from the film:


These days if you take out a new mobile phone contract you really need to insure against it been stolen of getting broken. The only insurance you really need is to back up your data and phone numbers . Insurance isn't cheap when the list price of a replacement iPhone or iPad us up to £700 !!

In Britain the Daily Mail and Express have a new crisis every week. Bird 'Flu , Pension Crash , The Economy is going to explode , Britain is going to be hit by a Tsunami , turned into a desert or flooded. The list is endless. Oh yeah and there's Al Quaeda , a convenient bogeyman . It was Iraq , now it's Iran , then it'll be China - oh sorry they have money so like the USA can do what the hell they like.

Anyway , my advice is take reasonable precaution , enjoy life . If you want to avoid pregnancy during sex , wear a condom , don't dismember  the guy or woman!!

Eastern Promise

After watching the excellent Homeland and having seen numerous films about the threat from the Middle East from Ian , Iraq , Al-Quaeda and the like , and obviously these are trying to keep us as scared as possible of the bogeyman , usually in the form of a variant of Osama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein.




Yes Team America took the proverbial very successfully , but I was wondering why Daniel Easterman (one of the pen names of Denis MacEoin) novels have never been filmed. Easterman is a superb author , and and expert in Middle East Affairs and his novels never fail to enthrall me . They have all the requisites for your average summer blockbuster , bombs , kidnaps , mysticism , conspiracies , religion , exotic settings , but I'm still waiting for the first celluloid outing.

Other than that he also writes as Jonathan Aycliffe , some excellent ghost stories such as the classic Naomi's Room , The Vanishment and The Matrix , one of the scariest books I have ever read.

If you have never read him track him down , I would have loved one of his books to appear on the World Book Night list.

This Panic Nation

Now its Swine 'flu' , and the government are going to issue leaflets about how to deal with this pandemic that's going to kill us all. Remember Bird 'flu' ? Didn't think so.

Google Streetview , well that's a burglars and paedophile's gold mine according to your Daily Mail and Talk Radio pundits.

Then there's the credit crunch and the collapse of the economy. Where's the money gone?? Well as it was credit it probably wasnt there in the first place, but most people are in a similar position to what they were in pre credit crunch.

If it's not disease or Google it's terrorists like Al Qaeda , and next week it'll be something else.

Society is a fragile thing built on trust . Usually those who abuse that trust are caught and punished in an appropriate manner.

It's all there to frighten us so the government can pass god knows what laws in "our best interest". The NHS , Police and Army do a good job of looking after us , it's what they're paid for , and despite the odd screw up it generally works.

The government seem to want us to live in a society where we're frightened of our own neighbour like great tracts of the USA. Canada and Switzerland and many other contries have a higher per capita gun ownership than the USA , but they dont hove the same carnage because people trust each other. This Michael Moore cartoon from "Bowling For Columbine" puts it in a nutshell: