Friend or foe?

So here it is, the Christmas anti-climax.

Christmas is over for another year, time to start saving for the next.

In the true Christmas fashion, we had an estranged family member and arguments. But of course Christmas wouldn't be complete without them.

I was at my mothers on Boxing Day evening and one of her friends said something that made me think. He said that he liked being around other peoples houses at Christmas because he liked to listen to other peoples families arguing. It made him feel at home and it amused him that every household was the same.

I want to know when Christmas turned from being a classical tradition to a commercial maze of potholes whereby the whole point seems to be to spend every last penny on food that will go bad before it is eaten, toys that are out of date before the queen's speech and quantities of alcohol that would have even alcoholics stumped for a week.

To be fair, Christmas is still a tradition - of sorts. A tradition which states that we must cram as many people as possible under one roof, but under the condition that they must all detest each other entirely. The tradition then ensues that we all eat until we are sick, drink until we hurt someone and exchange pointless gifts whose cost would be better spent on countless other things.

It does however make a nice change that families get together on a 'happy' occasion, how often at funerals have you heard the words "we should all get together more often" uttered. In past times, families have been a support network to people, people upon whom one depended and vice versa. People now, are all too often estranged from their families and out in the world alone but for their friends.

But in the words of Edna Buchanan - "Friends are the family we choose for ourselves".

Surely this can't be an entirely bad thing?

Free religion?

I am appalled by the actions of the Free Presbyterian Church in Belfast.

What right do they think they have to ruin someone's special day by preaching outside of their ceremony. To me this seems pathetic and itself a sin. After all, should you not do unto to others what you would have them do to you? The church is trying to keep its control over a society that it has no right to control.

According to the Presbyterian Church - and I quote "Homosexuality is a sin", no it's not, and the sooner you realise that the times are changing the better.

The church and religion in general has damaged society, over the years the church has stunted the development of society due to these sins. Medical advancements in Britain were dramatically behind that of ancient societies such as the Egyptians for decades due to the fact that now common place exercises such as an autopsy were heinous sins. Were it not for those people who dared to disobey the state we would still be using trephining to ease headaches (drilling hole in head with rock to release the evil spirit within). Just the thought is atrocious.

In many cases religion is wrong and twisted and is merely the left over oppressive control of the lower classes from the last centuries. Religion was a way to keep people quiet, so they would put up with the suffering inflicted upon them by the greedy people of the state. I understand that to some people their religion is what keeps them going through difficult times, they draw comfort from the idea that they are not along. But sadly religion is not always comforting.

Different religions have different views of God(s). The two most common views of God are that of a vengeful God and that of a caring forgiving God. If you believe in the former, why? Does it make sense to spend your life bowing and scraping to someone that will probably be harsh enough to pick you up on the smallest little thing that you did wrong and send you to hell for eternity. Does it not make more sense to enjoy your life and pay for it later, Satan loves an autonomous being - they make perfect minions. If you believe in the latter God then it should not matter how you or anyone else live their lives as long as you don't take your freedom to the extreme that you kill anyone.

Under the rules of religion, wives should do as their husbands tell them and divorce is illegal. So why should God want women to be trapped in an abusive relationship where in many cases they are beaten near to death, but have to suffer in silence due to the power above. Is that moral, I think not. Under some religions, men have total control over women, does that make rape right?

God works in mysterious ways, yes? And God is the all powerful creator who controls everything, yes? And God made everything for a reason from the whale to the wasp, yes? Then he made people as they are for a reason. How can homosexuality be a sin when God himself created it?

Those who sin are seen as having sold their souls to Satan himself but it appears to be the other way around. FREE religion, nothing is for free, you pay with your lack of soul and apparently personality.

Apologies to anyone I have offended, whilst my latest post makes me appear as narrow-minded and bigot-like as the head of the Belfast Free Presbyterian Church I am open minded and realise that in many cases religion does not dictate the person.

Why?

Don't get me wrong, I too am a big fan of 'Little Britain' and 'Trigger Happy TV'.
But I am intrigued...
Is there anyone out there who can explain why it is funny? Actually take a scene and dissect it and explain it?

Just thought you'd be a bit peeved at my long raving rants and so thought I would throw some quick trivia into the blog.

Desensitised, how about emotionally dead.

I shocked myself this evening, I was watching the program on BBC1 about the tsunami, and looking at the aftermath and destruction, all I could think of was "That would make a nice level on 'Call of Duty'". I feel sorry for those who lost and died of course but still, there it was niggling in the back of my mind, why?

I had to ask, am I the only person who fails to be shocked at anything the world throws at us?

The terrible truth is no.

It's horrendous, and also quite scary to realise that the teenage generation has been so desensitised to world events that it fails to take notice of what is happening unless it is right on their doorstep.

Could it be that this desensitisation has occurred partly due to the loss of childhood and partly due to the latest special effects, or does it merely show the way in which we are all a part of a meaningless life driven by consumerism?

Childhoods are becoming shorter, which means that innocence is being destroyed - I mean for Pete's sake why are they selling thongs for young children? Especially when they are motifed with "Little Miss Naughty" or even "SEX KITTEN"!!! - and children are learning about things at too young an age. I remember the good old days when at the grand old age of six years, parents did not allow their children to roam the streets and actually made sure they were in bed and in theory away from the nasty filthy programs that were shown after the watershed. Children had manners and respect for people which today is almost non-existent.In todays society it is not unusual to see that children in pushchairs are swearing, being racist and a lttle older than that smoking.

Modern day film and television use the latest in special effects to go one step further than any other film or television program before. Don't get me wrong, I love a nice gory horror movie as much as the next person, but people have become so used to seeing blood, violence and the inside of people that they have trouble distinguishing the films from real life.

Surely this is not the way in which we want our future teachers, doctors, politicians and even religious figures to behave.

I understand that teenagers need to be given the space to grow and develop, but are we not providing them with too much space. The majority of teenagers in todays society have no respect for anyone and laugh at even the police, what way is that for a society to behave?

If you loved me....

... you'd do what jump off a cliff?

Don't worry guys, you're not alone. I don't understand women either.

I don't undertsand how the 'fairer' sex can exploit men and not feel guilty about it. I feel guilty as hell if I say something which could even be interpreted as exploiting, which then leaves me apologising for the next few hours - but hey that's probably just me.

It does have to be said however that it's not just women who use things such as their relationships to exploit people. Both men and women should be implanted with some sort of electronic chip that sends out a 240 volt shock whenever the words "if you loved me" were uttered - or even "don't you love me?" for that matter.

Yes I realise that there are some perfectly innocent sentences of comparison that require the uttering of those four words, however if there were an electric shock, we would soon learn to cope without.

You may be wondering what has spurned this sudden outburst, well, it is a compilation of the news, something I heard in the high street and the general life experiences of both me and my friends.

Oh and for those of you who don't agree with me, to my knowledge the words "if you loved me" and "don't you love me?" are the most commonly used guilt trips by the sexual abusers of children... think about it.

The Day the School Fell Down

Ok, a slight exaggeration on my part.

Yesterday was the day that I was left alone to fend off the bad people where I work. By bad people, I mean those who cannot find the reset button on a computer. Anyone who is familiar with working with people over the age of forty will probably understand what I mean (no offense to those who are, you are mostly lovely people).

On the Tuesday night, a network program called SIMS (need to wash mouth out for saying such bad words) had an upgrade. Here we are letting 'IT' have a nice new update which should in theory make it work better, and how does it repay us? Yes, you guessed it, it breaks!! And yes I know, I shouldn't expect otherwise.

Ok, I will be quiet now and get back to the tedium of my personal statement.