Tweets for Today

Tweet, Tweet, Here's a list of all my twitter postings in the last 24 hours.

• 00:29 On the Blog : Tweets for Today tinyurl.com/44yxqm #
• 09:13 Back at my desk - ready to go. Lot's to do. Lot's of excuses not to do it. Let's procrastinate! #
• 09:54 an hour of the day down - nothing achieved. Damn e-mails! #
• 11:16 My Procrastination os going well. I've managed to find things to do other than the big task in front of me. Now for some caffine. #
• 11:34 earphones in. "Nothing compares 2 U". Great song. Great frigging song. #
• 11:47 10 mins to chow time! #
• 15:10 Been flat out since lunchtime. Need to sneak in some writing time before the end of the day as i did none last night. Little Boy unsleepy. #
• 16:07 my afternboon has turned to shit over 10 friggin pence. bugger #
• 16:22 @ladlem Isn't that what husbands are for? #
• 16:23 Half hour of the day left. God I've had a shit day. Again. Can't wait to go home. #
• 16:32 @ladlem A bit like wives really. #
• 17:02 Sometimes I think my drive home is the most relaxing part of the day. Or it is until I get into town. then it becomes a bit shit. #

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Tweets for Today

Tweet, Tweet, Here's a list of all my twitter postings in the last 24 hours.

• 00:23 On the Blog : Tweets for Today tinyurl.com/53eec9 #
• 09:22 Good morning all. Myspace seems to be working today, so maybe i can post a blog entry on there. If I can find the time. #
• 10:09 Here's hoping today will be better than yetserday. Some hope. #
• 11:35 It's nearly lunchtime. I really need it today. Better day than yesterday - but still not great #
• 11:36 On FiveLive this morning - who do you trust more to get us throught he mess? Brown or cameron. It might matter if we had an election. #
• 11:50 still having problems with Googlemail. Using OE/IMAP instead of the website right now. Recieving but not sending. I'm not being rude folks #
• 13:02 Does anyone know why MySpace thinks that TinyURL's are dirty and disgusting and choose to block them? #
• 13:03 In fact, why does MySpace choose to block anything they deem 'inappropriate'? Are they our keepers of moral fibre now? #
• 13:04 and what's with the 'no nipples' thing? Why are breasts with little star acceptable and nipples are not? MySpace is wierd. #
• 13:04 Got carried away there. Sorry. #
• 13:12 @authorjamiehill That's the reason they give - but come on... Please... it's just a damn excuse. The Sun is okay with nipples. Same company. #
• 13:15 I've just heard Sara Palin refered to as VPILF. Isn't that a bit Presumptuous? Shouldn't she be VPCILF? or PVPILF. Mind you, I would. Maybe. #
• 13:21 On the Blog : Who do we Trust? Does it even Matter? tinyurl.com/3hl88w #
• 14:12 Titles - which one? "England's Rose" or "Kissed by a Rose" ? I don't know. I kinds like the second one. #
• 14:29 @jmsnyder23 thanks - that's the one I prefer too. #
• 15:36 @jmsnyder23 And a Rose has thorn's too. Thorns hurt. This story hurts at points. #
• 15:38 Just been sent an e-mail about the Bulger killers (1993). It's an interesting rant. I may blog on it. #
• 16:55 Ahhh.... Kirea knightly........ Excuse me while I....... #
• 16:57 I've had a much better day today. Still not got everything done I wanted to, but less stressed about it. #
• 16:57 Now, it's home time. Tatty byes for now. #
• 17:35 On the Blog : Some Solem Thoughts tinyurl.com/4jgoqx #

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Some Solem Thoughts

Aplogies for the second entry today, but this really couldn't wait. This came to me be e-mail today. It was part of a petition which was 'signed' when it reached me by upwards of five hundred people from countries around the world (Australia, UK, Canada, NZ, and others).

I'll let you read it before I pass comment.

 

Do you remember February 1993 in England , when a young boy of 3 was taken from a Liverpool shopping centre by two 10-year-old boys? Jamie Bulger walked away from his mother for only a second, Jon Venables took his hand and led him out of the mall with his friend Robert Thompson. They took Jamie on a walk for over 2 and a half miles, along the way stopping every now and again to torture the poor little boy who was crying constantly for his mummy.  Finally they stopped at a railway track where they brutally kicked him, threw stones at him, rubbed paint in his eyes, pushed batteries up his anus and cut his fingers off with scissors. Other mutilations were inflicted but not reported in the press.

 

N.B. :- Remember, a 3year old cannot possibly defend themselves against a 10 year old, let alone of 2 them.

 

What these two boys did was so horrendous that Jamie's mother was forbidden to identify his body. They then left his beaten small body on railway tracks so a train could run him over to hide the mess they had created. These two boys, even being boys, understood what they did was wrong, hence trying to make it look like an accident.

                           

This week Lady Justice Butler-Sloss has awarded the two boys (now men), anonymity for the rest of their lives when they leave custody with new identities. They will also leave custody early only serving just over half of their sentence. They are being relocated to Australia to live out the rest of their lives. They disgustingly and violently took Jamie's life away and in return they each get a new life!

 

Please.... . If you feel as strongly as we do, ( and if you haven't already signed this petition ) that this is a grave Miscarriage of justice - Hit the forward button and add your name at the end, and send it to everyone you can !

 

If you are the 700th person to sign, please forward this e-mail to: cust.ser.cs@gtnet.gov.uk and mark it for the attention to Lady Justice Butler-Sloss.
Then continue on until it hits 1400, before you email her the list again.

There is power in numbers & these petitions do help.

Maybe it'll prevent another child from a violent death & maybe it'll get greater, more appropriate convictions for these criminals. whatever their age.

 

Please take a few seconds to forward it to your mail list & don't forget to add your name to the list.

Thank you.

 

Before we go any further, let's clear up some of the inaccuracies in the report above.

 

Firstly, Thompson and Venables did not serve 'half their sentence'. Their sentence was life with a minimum tariff of eight years. Subsequently this was raised to ten and then fifteen for political reasons, but ultimately reduced back to the original eight. This is what they served. They were then released on a 'life license' in 2001 which means that the police and government authorities have to know where they are living, and should they "break the conditions of their release or be found to be a danger to the public" they can immediately be sent back to prison. Despite not being in Jail, they are not free in the sense that you and I understand the word.

 

Secondly, there is an injunction in place which prevents the reporting of the boys' whereabouts. No one knows for sure where they are – despite many rumors in the years since they left prison. Yes, they were given new identities, but that is the extent of the facts that are in the public domain.

Thirdly, batteries were inserted into Bulger's mouth, not his arse, and his fingers were not cut off. These rumors were spread by chain letter (like the one above). His death was caused by a blow to the head with an iron bar that fractured his skull. He was found two days later and had indeed been run over by a train. Also, he was not "crying for his mummy the whole time". Several people who saw him with Thompson and Venables reported him to be laughing and smiling.

 

Now to my thoughts.

 

I remember this crime. I guess every British person old enough to understand what had happened remembers it. It sickened me – literally. I actually felt as if I wanted to throw up when I heard. I was 18. I was as angry as everyone else in the country. I wanted Thompson and Venables to rot in jail for the rest of their miserable little lives, just like everyone else in the country.

 

But.

 

That was then. We are now fifteen years later. These two men spent 8 years in youth-jail with other people who knew what they had done. Their existence there could not have been very pleasant. They have spent a further 7 years living a life that is not their own, knowing they could go back inside if they do anything wrong.

 

I'm not excusing them. I'm not sticking up for them. I have not and will not talk about their backgrounds or try to explain what they did. I don't believe I'm qualified for that.

 

I believe they should have been punished, but I believe they have been. And I believe they will continue to be. By themselves apart from anything else.

 

Think about it. Put yourself in their shoes. They are grown-ups now. Can you put your hand on your heart and say you can't look back at things you did as a 10-year-old that you don't regret? No. We all regret something we have done at that age. Now imagine having to live with the sort of regret that these two are having to live with. It can't be nice. I'll bet they wake in the night, sweaty and screaming after dreaming about what they did that day. And they will go on doing so for the rest of their lives.

 

Now, ask yourself this, how would it feel to never be able to let anyone get close to you? Because these men have new identities and so any friends they make, and girls they meet will not know who they are. And these two boys must live in fear of anyone finding out. Because you can imagine what that would mean. Can you imagine the reaction of the local community when they found out that one of the 'Bulger Killers' was living next door? It would mean another new life, another new town, another new name. So you can't let anyone get close. Can you?

 

There have been reports all sorts of reports, or should I say rumors, about the boys. Thompson has fathered a child or is in a settled gay relationship – depends on the newspaper you read. Venables is living in Australia or Wigan, again, it depends on your daily read. Actually, I find it hard to believe he would have been allowed to live abroad, but that's just my thoughts.

 

Let me be clear. There can never be any punishment severe enough for the taking of a life, and certainly not for the taking of a life so young in such a cruel and heartless way. But we, the general public, have to believe that these particular two boys are not a danger anymore. Because the authorities, people who know the boys and have seen what they have been through during their incarceration and seen how they continue to punish themselves, have said that they are not a danger. And if we cannot believe the people we trust to make these judgments then we should not trust them to make the judgments.

 

I don't think these boys' punishment will ever end. I have to believe that human nature, their human nature, is such that they will go on punishing themselves forever. Otherwise they are just evil. And surely no-one is just evil. Are they?

 

Whilst it is not a complete record, you may find the wikipiedia entry on the murder of James Bulger to be interesting. I encourage you to read it. (note – It's James Bulger. Not Jamie. His family never called him Jamie. The press did. It sounded more… innocent. But can a three year old get any more innocent?)

 

On a separate note. Thompson and Venables walked for 2 and a half miles with Bulger and were seen by (a reported) 38 people. Some reported seeing bruises on his face. Others said he was happy and smiling. What, I ask, does this say about our society? And would it still happen? Ask yourself, if you saw two young boys leading a third by the hand – would you stop and question them? Go on, be honest with yourself. Would you?

 

 

Who do we Trust? Does it even Matter?

Yesterday was not a good day for me. I had a very busy day at work, which actually I quite enjoyed, but i didn't get done everything I wanted. Then there was all the crap with MySpace not keeping me logged in, consequently meaning I couldn't read or post blogs, or do anything really other than fire messages off to MySpace UK. And I know I wasn't the only one. A quick look on the MSUK page shows loads and loads of comments yesterday saying the same thing. I sent them three messages yesterday. One at lunchtime, one at the end of the working day and one before bed. And do you know what? MySpace tells you when the messages have been read, and as of now (lunchtime the next day) none of those three messages have even been read. MySpace seems to be working now, but I still feel like I don't matter to these people.

But what can you expect from the same company that owns Sky and The Sun?

Anyway. The Tory's are having their conference this week. Not good for them given all the shit going on over the water. I did find the 'blame game' in the US congress quite amusing.

It was her fault for saying we didn't want to. That's why we didn't. If she hadn't of said that, we would have.

Please. They may as well stand across the playground from each other going "my dad's better than your dad. Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah"

What actually happened of course is that all those up for re-election voted against to make them seem tough and 'on-their-side' to the voters, but didn't expect the deal to fail. So when it did, they had to look around for someone else to blame.

It's the fundamental problem with democracy - the decision makers have to get re-elected and to get re-elected they have to be popular. so they won't make unpopular decisions even if they are the right decisions. Now, before anyone jumps down my throat, i don't know if the Bush plan is the best plan. I don't know enough about macro-economics to even guess if it is or not, and I'm not saying democracy is a bad thing. Sure, it's not perfect, but it's the best we've managed to come with in two thousand years. I'm just commenting on what's gone on. That's all.

And so, to the title of the blog. Who do we Trust? On Radio Five Live this morning there was a phone-in asking just that. Who do you trust to get us through this financial crisis, Brown or Cameron. My immediate reaction was, does it matter? If we were in the midst of an election campaign, it might. But we're not. So even if we did trust Cameron more, there's nothing we can do a bout it. We're stuck with Brown until he decides to call an election, which at the moment looks like 2010 - by which time (hopefully) we'll have put all this behind us and be on the way to recovery.

That said, I have been very impressed with Cameron this week. He's making his big conference speech today, so we'll see how that goes, but in the interviews he's already given, he's come across very well. Last week, when the lovely Sian Williams interviewed Gordon Brown on BBC Breakfast, she tore him to shreds. Whereas David Cameron didn't let her. He pushed back. He gave as good as he got. He was very impressive.

But, the election is two years away. That's two years too long in my opinion, but it's two years for a Brown fightback. We'll just have to wait and see.

Tweets for Today

Tweet, Tweet, Here's a list of all my twitter postings in the last 24 hours.

• 09:35 @PortiaDaCosta That would feel like a fantasy all aright after what happened yesterday. We're all doomed! Doomed I tell ye. Doomed. #
• 09:36 Well, it looks like the western world will end this week and we'll all go back to livng off the land. Glad i've already got an allotment. #
• 10:21 I've been interviewed - man, I almost feel famous. rurl.org/11f7 #
• 11:03 Grrrr! There's something up with our work network - even Niether MySpace nor Googlemail are working. Grrr! #
• 11:24 I'd just like to thank the Us congress for lowering the value of my pension funds. I know i've got 30 years left, but that's not the point #
• 11:32 I've just authorised payments of over £4million from our account. All Other People's Money. Wish it was going to my account. Bugger. #
• 11:42 Myspace won't let me get at my blog. Blogger won't let me do anything either. I've got work stuff coming out of my ears. Not happy today. #
• 12:52 @Alessia_Brio Me Too. And at the mo I also hate Myspace and Blogger. And the US congress. And Sprouts. but I've always hated Sprouts. #
• 14:58 earphone in, head down, work to do. #
• 16:55 what a day! I'm glad it's nearly over. Off home to my little boy soon. Hopefully, he'll make me smile. #
• 21:57 MySpace has been unusable all bloody day. It won't keep me logged in so i can't do anything. And I'm not the only one! Anyone else? #
• 22:53 Seems I'm not the only one having MySpace problems. It looks like its the whole of the UK. But we're only Brits. We're not important. #
• 23:34 @SuperWendy I have one of those every day. #
• 23:43 TIme for bed for me. Night night all. #

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