Random Thoughts #1

I’ve been thinking……and it’s probably not a good idea.

– I have never watched Britain’s Got Talent yet I feel I’m being forced to take in Susan Boyle as a member of my family or something. I’ve not even heard her talk, let alone sing, and yet I’m sick to the back teeth of her. That can’t be healthy surely? She’s in the big papers, she’s on the talk shows, and she’s mentioned in The Simpsons. And why? Because of a crafty set-up for her performance and because she looks a bit, well, normal. I don’t mind regular people getting their 15 minutes of fame and others being inspired; however this isn’t a news story and so I feel it is getting more attention than it deserves.

– The BNP is getting a lot of press recently in the wake of the MP’s expenses scandal, though thankfully most of it is bad press. I do sometimes feel that all political parties should be given the right to express what they stand for, but in this case, when their hypocritical lies are so easily exposed at every turn, I don’t think they will be as big a menace as some are making out. Unfortunately due to the actions of the main parties at the moment, the BNP name will be raised very often when the regular Tomasz, Davros and Ahmed on the street are asked about minority parties.

– Although a distressing and upsetting story, the reports yesterday involving the sentences given to a mother and her boyfriend over their part in the death of Baby P were dragged out for far too long over Friday. The topic is one worth highlighting but in places it felt as though no other news was good enough for the mainstream. This issue doesn’t affect as many people as the troubles in Parliament and so in ways it felt almost like a step-down and as though news was putting its feet up for the day, relaxing from the politician-hounding of the last few weeks.

– The departing Archbishop of Westminster this week had a few choice words regarding atheism. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor described a lack of faith as “the greatest of evils” and blamed atheism for war and destruction. He also implied that athiesm was a greater evil even than sin itself. Now without getting too much into the religious thing in this short snippet, is it really rational or sensible to say that lack of faith is evil? I’m not too concerned with the atheism comments – the Cardinal is hardly likely to give it the thumbs-up – but I’m sure many people have little or no faith and yet couldn’t harm a fly.

I don’t even know if I have faith, mainly because I don’t what the hell it is. And if I don’t know what something is, I look it up on Wikipedia. Let’s see…. “Faith is the belief in the truth of a person, idea, or thing. It involves a concept of future events not resting on logical proof or material evidence.” I’m even more confused now. The only thing I can expertly say is that I think it means I can’t have faith in the glass of orange juice sitting next to me because it’s here now in the present, and it exists. But if I blindly believe in the glass anyway, shouldn’t that mean I have faith in it? Gah, I should learn to stay away from Wikipedia.

– Why do people keep signing up Amy Winehouse for gigs? Surely they can spot the outcome a mile off now. I think she pulled out of around 73 concerts this week alone. I’d be surprised if she had any fans left at this rate.

– David Cameron seems to get the better of Gordon Brown at PMQ’s each and every time, but it is starting to occur to me that I have no idea what Big Dave would do in Government. He’s really competent at bullying Brown and highlighting Labour weaknesses, but would it really be any different if it was the other way around? If the Tories were already in then they’d be having to deal with the recession and I’m not quite sure what they’d actually be doing about it. It’s easier being the Opposition because humans naturally like to moan about whoever’s in charge, at any level.

– Sir Ranulph Fiennes has finally reached the top of Mount Everest after two previous failures, one of them due to a heart attack. He’s mad, he is. What’s the obsession with climbing mountains? There’s nothing at the top! Climbing things we shouldn’t is meant to leave your system when you reach about 9 years old, once you’ve successfully tackled all the trees, garages and primary schools in your neighbourhood. Although, I just remembered exactly how I effectively broke both of my ankles at the age of 22, so maybe we should leave it there…