Not to long ago I got chatting to a friend about the Governments latest drive to get more people off of Unemployment and Sickness Benefit. He was saying that a lot of people are unemployed simply because there is no jobs to get. He went on to say that back in the good old days there were plenty of jobs to go round. Now…I am from the back-end of those so called good old days, I’ve been in work since I left school, The only job I could find when I left school was cleaning windows for a living. Not my idea of a living, and the wage was lousy, but hey… you have to start somewhere.

I spent 2 years in that job before another job opportunity came along. What I suppose I am saying is a job is very much like getting your foot on the bottom rung of the property ladder. These days, and back in the supposed good old days, you needed to get your foot on the bottom rung of the job ladder and take it from there. So I was not surprised when I told him I was not to sure he actually knew what he was talking about.

You need to know why I told him this before you judge me. My friend, we’ll call him Dave so he becomes a person rather than a thing, has not held a job for more than 30+ years although he trained and qualified as Arc Welder, since then his main cry has been “I have been for many interviews but the job was not the right kind of work for me.” So he has spent the last 35+ years going between sickness and unemployment benefit.

When he is summoned to undergo a Government Health Medical the doctor there finds nothing wrong with him and takes him off of sickness benefit, he then waddles along to Social Security and registers as unemployed, accepting unemployment benefit for six months. When the six months run out, and before they force him into a job, he waddles back to the doctors where by clever deception he ends up back claiming sickness benefit, although after 30+ years they know him well. And so the circle starts again. So you see that last question is very relevent I know by experience that there are a lot of individuals who go out of their way to avoid working for a living. They would rather sponge off of the Taxpayer than do an honest days work and add a little respect/self-esteem to their lives. To these people I would say enjoy it while you can, your days are numbered no matter which Government is in power.

Thats my little rant out of the way lets get back to the Government and Unemployment. I do not believe there will ever be a scenario where there will be no unemployment, and thats not because of the individuals who do not want to work, and its not because of the particular party in Government at the time. If you really think about it… How many people would you say up and down the country work for The Department Of Unemployment? My guess would be more than several thousand people. Well, what would happen to these individual if all the unemployed workers on their books were found full time employment. My guess would be the Department Of Unemployment workers would then become the unemployed paying out their own unemployment benefit while they sign on as unemployed, sending themselves for training in some other form of work.

So to me it seems like it has gone full circle and is starting again with workers who probably think even today they will never be out of work. Sadly that is not true especially if you work in the forces or the public sector.

Have you noticed the recent advert looking for those individuals who would like to make a career of the T.A. (Territorial Army) Do you smell a rat? The Government is cutting the size of our Army, yet they still advertise for recruits to join the T.A. I am willing to bet that the pay in the T.A. is nowhere near that of a full time service man or woman.

Me thinks a lot more of these recruits will start to spend more and more of there time being sent abroad to troubled spots around the world to replace those that have been sacked., and at half the wage of a full-time service man or woman I bet… That’s life…

Image: Sujin Jetkasettakorn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Have you ever open your door to answer someone knocking and found it was not that long awaited parcel. Instead you find yourself face to face with two individuals preaching the bible.

Well this happened yesterday to my wife. why she let them get her into a debate on what god wants or what god doesn’t want I do not know. Normally she would tell them politely she carried her faith close to her chest, did not like talking about it to strangers, especially cold canvassing Jehovah Witnesses/Creationists, say goodbye and shut the door.

This post is about part of what was said during their conversation.

My better half touched on the subject of Adam and Eve and their two sons Kane and Able, suggesting to the canvassers something I had said to her a few weeks ago. that the story of Adam and Eve and how they got themselves kicked out of the Garden of Eden, had two sons (no daughters) and supposedly these four people populated the earth or something along them lines was just a child’s bedtime story of the times so long ago (Be a good little person or you may end up losing your most revered possession and go to Hell). or something along them lines.

Lucas Cranach the Elder-Adam and Eve 1533

Their response was that Adam and Eve did have daughters but this part of the bible had been delibretly omitted by person or persons unknown to suit there own agenda at that particular point in time.

If you hold your religious beliefs close to your chest and have a closed mind to debate I would suggest you read no further.

Well here goes… If we did evolve from Adam and Eve what would that say about the life and times of Adam and Eve. The bible states that Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden of Eden and banished to what we call Earth, after naughty Eve eat from the forbidden apple tree. They then went on to have two sons, not daughters, sons, Kane and Able, now correct me if I’m wrong, but to have a baby it takes two, normally one man and one woman (or it would have done way back then).

Now if these four people were a start to the human race before anybody else could come along, one man and one women had to get together to make three. (I wonder if you are ahead of me) assuming Adam and Eve alone could not populate earth, then Eve’s sons must have taken over when Adam needed a rest. Inter family – breeding is also known as incest.

This was put to the Jehovah/creationist’s their response was that parts of the bible had been deliberately omitted by person or persons unknown to suit there own agenda at some particular point in time.

I was taught that both Adam and Eve were children of God so I suppose that makes then brother and sister, so that would mean their children were born of incest, and even if they had daughters it would still mean any children born would be from incest. But Eve had been created by taking a rib bone from Adam so how can she be his sister I hear you say… OK so where does that leave us. Well if you don’t dot the I’s or cross the T’s and believe that Adam and Eve did exist at the dawn of time, then you also accept that Eve was created from a rib bone of Adam. So it does not take to big a leap to wonder if good old Adam was having sex with himself and gave birth to Kane and Able… by proxy

At least it would explain why I feel from time to time that a minority of the population has gone to hell in a shopping basket.

Before you get all hot and bothered about what I have wrote remember I did say I had a weird imagination and as science will undoubtedly prove one day, if it hasn’t already, Adam and Eve never existed so what is said is said and does not matter anyway. O’ by the by I was raised as a Catholic but that does not mean I can not question my own faith when the boat appears to be full of holes.

For those of you who read my last post Train Of Thought you may remember I finished with closing the cage door. While I was writing that particular post I got to thinking If there is no God or afterlife then where do we go from here.

My thoughts go back in time to the days when cave men became a dominant feature on Mother Earth. If you watch these television documentaries we are told that cave paintings from way back in time depict images of Aliens dropping from the sky in what appears to be… dare I say it?.. flying saucers, and other such futuristic images.

If this is true, and they are there for all to see, perhaps we would be rather silly if not naive to think we are the only intelligent life forms in this vast Universe/Galaxy of ours.

Now supposing these cave painting are fact of what did happen long ago, this could then imply that we were deposited here on Mother Earth in our early stages of development by highly intelligent Alien Beings. Not because we had a part to play in this vast universe/galaxy, but purely as an experiment. Yes, an experiment to see if left alone how we would develop over the centuries while our masters looked on enjoying what they saw, very much like we do with our pets: dogs, cats, rabbits what ever your preference. Is it possible these Super Beings are our masters and we are their pets and Earth is our cage. Now centuries later we are close to visiting the stars our-selves and just maybe, unknown to us, this is where the fun begins.

Suppose we are the pet project of Super Beings, who for many centuries have watched their experiment grow. Could we now be seen as an experiment gone wrong,? has the speed of our evolutionary processes surprised our masters (caught them napping)? Have we been allowed out to play to often? Have we gone passed the expectations of our masters?, have we now become a threat to our masters?, are we now in a position to take our dog eat dog nature to the stars and beyond, so we can infect the rest of those unknown inhabitants of other worlds? are our masters now regretting their experiment of centuries ago?, are they looking on wondering how to stop us?, … So many unanswered questions… Maybe the time is fast approaching and our masters now know of away to stop us reaching the stars and beyond.

The reported sighting of flying saucer shaped craft are just the fore-runner of what is to come. Maybe the day when our masters close the cage door on their experiment permanently, is fast approaching stopping us infecting the rest of the Universe, and watch on as we destroy ourselves…

Well I do say somewhere on this website that I have a weird imagination. Good night, sleep tight watch the bugs don’t bite… Bye for now.

Pit Head

I came across the following eerie story in an old newspaper clipping (Shields Gazette 2005). The story was wrapped around Boldon Colliery Pit.

Boldon Colliery used to be a mining village in the North East of England. The village, more like a small town these days, is still there, but the mine workings were closed in the early 1980′s and has since been replaced with what I would call a beautiful forest and nature trail walk. Despite the closure this story of ghostly happenings seems to have stood the test of time.

When Boldon Colliery Pit closed in 1982 there were only two coal seams being worked. However back in the 1950′s, when this ghost story came to life, there were four seams being worked, these being (I think as paper clipping wasn’t too good) The Yard, Bensham, Five Quarter and Hutton.

There was a fifth seam called Beaumont which was no longer in use and had not been worked since 1869. It is the Beaumont seam that give rise to the story.

As it goes three young miners were busy doing what miners did on a coal seam, when one of them decided it was time to take his bait (lunch break). He headed off to find a nice quiet place to have his bait when he became aware of footsteps behind him. He turned, and seeing no-one there he continued on his way only to hear the footsteps behind him once again. Quickly turning again he still found no-one there.

A little later he mentioned his odd experience to his two mates and was surprised to find that they themselves had experienced the ghostly footsteps. Laughing the experience off, it would appear, was the wrong thing to do. Just a few days later while working the three young men heard cries coming from a distance. Thinking someone had been injured the men went to the rescue. Following the cries they arrived at the old Beaumont coal face. Here the cries for help stopped. feeling a little unnerved the men walked away only to hear the cries start up again louder than ever.

The newspaper cutting went on to say that the story was soon the talk of the village and the three young miners were adamant that they hadn’t been the victims of a practical joke.

The reporter himself thinks the young miners could have heard a replay of a tragic accident. Back in 1873 John Wardle was employed at Boldon as a driver guiding horses on the main road underground. Mr Wardle, only 12 years of age at the time, was working near the Beaumont seam when unwisely he attempted to alight from the truck while it was still being drawn by the horses.

Sadly young Mr Wadle was crushed between the truck and the coal face, his cries for help as he lay dying, could be heard throughout the rest of the pit. The reporter himself feels that this is what the three young miners had heard, or maybe the eerie cries of other miners who had died at the Beaumont seam before it closed.

One of the young miners involved was a Mr Chris Lawler who according to the news clipping has since long ago moved to the Midlands. As for his two friends, the reporter is unaware of their location.

Since this report was made in 2005 the reporter may have gotten his wish for the men involved to get in touch with him… I don’t know.

Although the mine shaft at Boldon Colliery has been filled in I am left wondering if the cries can still be heard and how lonely, sad and terrifying it must be to be buried underground with no-one ever to answer your cry for help… Ghost, or no ghost.

The pic. above is taken from that particular news clipping. Although the clipping has seen better days I managed to get some of it scanned the rest I have added to, it adds a little atmosphere… me thinks!

It goes like this. Tory policies have in the past, and it will never change, been good for the working individual that is unless you sit on the board of directors, own your own or some piece of another’s company or looking to reinstate Fox Hunting. As far as Joe Soap is concerned, no matter how much The Tory leader Mr David Cameron tries to be seen walking to the shops for a bottle of milk and his daily paper, or embracing a Hoody or Chav, remember it looks good for business, but when his guard is down, his concerns for poor Joe Soap fly out the window.

If you put the Tory leader or any other party leader (if it comes to push or shove) in to office this time around believing he/they will do a better job for this country, then you are still getting your Christmas presents from Santa Clause.

I ask you. One idea put forward by Mr Kit Malthouse of the opposition party is to scrap all tax completely with the exception of VAT. and move taxes over to being on VAT. One report I read estimated it would raise Value Added Tax to around 120% percent as opposed to the 17.5% percent at the moment. Stop and think about it for a second 120%, an Item costing £1.00 which could buy you maybe two loafs of bread would cost you £2.25p at the low end, and here is something for you gamers out there, if you take an average price for the Play Station games machine around say £300.00 and add your VAT. to that price, allowing for the 17.5 that is already on the games machine, that would add another 105.5% percent to that particular product doubling its price.

You can’t eat drink and survive on the Play Station so lets go back to that loaf of bread, if it will more than double the price of bread what is it going to do to other life essentials. This is just one of the pre-election ideas from the Tory Party and you still want vote for a party that has no idea on how to get our country back on its feet.

So you see I have a bit of a dilemma. While I am unhappy with the labour party at this moment in time, do I still vote Labour? when the time comes, if not, then who do I give my vote too. I need to vote for someone. (don’t I?)

I believe a vote for the other parties will not work either, because in truth it would appear that they’re as bad as each other. You just need to look at the expenses row across all parties. Labour may have a few right wing policies and have been seen as naughty boys (they’re all guilty), but at the end of the day they have done more for the pensioner, the working man/woman and yes even the business man has little to moan about over their time in office than any other party ever has.

If you put one of the other parties in to office pensioners and working individuals will suffer as they take back if they can, that which Labour has given to workers and pensioners. Is that not also known as bully boy tactics stealing from the most vulnerable in society, which in truth have no teeth to bite back, broadening the gap between the rich and the poor even further.

No one has proved their worth more than Gordon Brown. If anybody can pull us out of a recession it is him. Do not vote in someone who has no track record, is unable to stop jumping on band wagons, does not know is own way home and thinks VAT is away to put this country back on her feet. Don’t vote a none starter in or I feel that the hole we are now crawling out of, thanks to a man who knows money problems backward and a proven track record to back it up, will suddenly collapse and we start again. That is those of us not at the top of the Tory money tree.

Some Labour party members are saying Mr. Brown does not communicate to well… It would not bother me if he only spoke gibberish… he is the right money man for the job to take our country out of this mess and put us back at the top of the tree again. If I remember rightly our and other countries problems started in the good old U.S of A so do not use it as an excuse to put an unsuitable party with no experience into office… Well, I guess I do know who to vote for after all (when the time comes)… Don’t leave it to others… Don’t moan and groan if the Tory party do get in and you don’t like their policies… If you do not vote you have no right to moan about party policies…

Remember! whether you are a Labour party supporter, a Tory party supporter, a Liberal supporter or an Independent supporter, which ever party you vote for this is not about who’s wife looks best in what dress or who loves a Hoody. It’s about getting this country back on its feet… O’ and by the way don’t blame the recent Greece and Spain money problems on Gordon Brown either… When the time comes use your vote. If you are enjoying the extra bonuses the Labour party have put your way then vote to keep them. As sure as apples grow on trees, if an other party gets into power at this particular time one, our country goes back down the drain. Two, you will loose those extra bonuses or they will have a good try to take them back and three, better the devil you know and not a pretender.

From what I understand the Economy Bill they are trying to get through goes against the Digital Act (breaks the law ), was rushed through parliament, and passed its third run by the Tory party when few MP’s were present, certainly if not all the members that voted have no idea how internet policy operates.

What they suggest is foolish and is just not workable. Apart from being full of holes and unlawful it is spearheaded by uneducated web fools.

If the piece of information I read about is true it would appear the Government can be dismissed by the people they serve, on the grounds that they are going against the people who hired them with an unworkable Bill put together by uneducated web fools, all it takes is enough people and a spokesman to go before the Queen. Her Government was hired to serve and protect the people this Digital Bill does neither. Having said that there is no Government at the moment… is there…

We can not make up rules to suit our selves so why should the Government be allowed to make themselves exempt when they break the law to get the information they require to prove people have uploaded.

Researchers from across the pond (United States Of America) studied the lifestyles and diets of 142,605 men and 335,873 women between the dates of 1992 and the year 2000. The outcome was a weak association between a high fruit and vegetable intake and reduced cancer risk.

If you are a heavy drinker then a high fruit and veg. diet could stand you in good stead when it comes to related alcohol and smoking cancers, however, do not stop your five-a-day of fruit and veg. just yet it may not offer much help in the fight against cancers but as far as your heart goes it is still a high deterrent against heart disease and stroke.Other research into the five a day and cancer risks.

Public Domain Image

Well I reckon that header opens the door for many topics.

Could your partner, the love of your life, your one and only, be unknown to you of course, your long lost half-brother, half-sister, aunt, uncle, nephew etc.

I do not know how marriage pans out in other countries, but here in England it seems as if it is going out of fashion. However, the divorce rate is not what this post is about.

I got to thinking, after watching a television program that tries to sort out various couples love life, that sometimes it works out OK, but more often than not the couple end up going their own way. The program also offers lie detector tests, or a DNA test to
prove who the father of the woman’s baby is.

The DNA test proves eight times out of ten the father turns out to be another man, or the girl/women has no idea who it could be or it has been proven not to be the guy she thought it was. (If that makes any sense to you).

I have noticed there seem to be a lot of couples, one night stands, or one brother going to bed with another brothers partner, or women who have had children to multiple partners, appear on this program on a regular basis.

The one I was watching was about the man of a partnership that had gone out with another woman, so to get back at him his partner had gone out with his best-mate, yes your ahead of me, she ends up pregnant. The program attempts to resolve the problem/problems. “The baby turned out not to be his best-mates either.” (just in case you were wondering).

I reckon in years to come there’s a possibility when children of these unknown fathers/mothers go out into this big bad world of ours where she/he has a very good chance of one day meeting the love of their life, have children and wonder why the big man upstairs has visited on them a child, or children that have that many medical problems sadly dies.

Well I would say the big man upstairs may not be to blame a simple blood check could reveal that the love of their life was their half-brother/sister and the death of their child was due to interbreeding. After all they’re very good medical reasons, apart from it being illegal in this country, or any other I would suppose, for closely related individuals to marry and have children. The emphasis is on having children here.

I have created a scenario that I hope will never happen, but sadly there are children out there who do not know who their mother was, let alone their fathers. So maybe it may become a future legacy.

I guess this post would come under the “what If doom and gloom category”.

Since that discussion I have had more time to pounder the question posed. Using myself as the guinea pig I progressed along a tricky path and this rightly or wrongly is what I came up with.

My first thought was do I have any psychic abilities the short answer is maybe, I do have a knack for being able to identify the good and bad, the nice and not so nice in a person from our first meeting with an average of 65%. Now, I am not naive, I am aware that a lot of individuals out there can do the same thing, so there is nothing spooky about that (or is there?). With my past history they may well be.

My next thought dirties the waters a little so I stress the next bit is for entertainment purposes only (My entertainment), so read on with an open mind.

Still using myself as the guinea pig. Let’s now suppose apart from being a more than reasonable judge of character I was also known to have had a bit of a mental health history in my past, nothing major, but never the less a mental health problem, or that’s what they put the problem I was having at the time down to.

Now, supposing many years later I was to confide in family and friends that my mental health problem, all them years ago, was about me feeling I could hear the voices of people I felt were dead relatives who had, to use a term you should be familiar with, passed over.

I admit to my family I never did stop having those unusual feelings and hearing voices, I just stopped saying I did and after a few years the psychiatrist told me I was cured, it had been nothing more than a psychotic incident very much like schizophrenia, it can happen to some of us as a one off, it had cleared and it would probably never happen again.

Now, this is my issue supposing I go back to the psychiatrist and tell him I never did get rid of those unusual feelings and hearing voices of dead relatives. I have come to see him now, years later, because I now feel the voices want me to pass on messages to loved ones. I think I would not be far wrong in my assumption that my doctor would assume my mental health problem had re-surfaced with a vengeance and I was undergoing another psychotic incident bordering on schizophrenia.

Don’t forget people, this is all hypothetical. I hope I do not have to spell out for you the reader where I am going with this. I have read we all, to some extent, have latent psychic powers. What I will say is why am I considered bordering on schizophrenia rather than having a special gift.

Having wrote the above read and re-read it, I now think I have gone a little like my mate Dave and I am talking out of my -rse (backside), but what the hell it’s just me and my weird imagination on the loose again… By for now…

Well, I finally managed to find some time to watch the Tony Robinson (Channel 4 T.V) report I recorded some weeks ago, only to hear him pull Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol apart. He sounded, Tony Robinson that is, very much like he was out of his depth.

I hope, I am nobody’s fool, but honestly, is Tony Robinson that naive? Did he expect the Free Mason’s both here and in the USA to broadcast to millions of viewers that Dan Brown got most of it right. He may have just as well asked the Military if they are making direct energy weapons. I’m sure he would have received a similar reply to that the Free Mason’s gave him. I can just see the headlines now! Free Mason’s Hold The Key To Man’s Destiny! … Free Mason’s public image a front! … Inner circle hide from public scrutiny!

Even if the truth has been embroidered a little (OK maybe a lot) isn’t that what most writers do. When all is said and done he writes a hell of a good thriller. If you are a book lover, as I am, or you are a Dan Brown Fan (which I am not), you do not buy a book wrote by him to read about The Life and Time of Leonardo Davinci. Historians can do that. I admit I do own his special illustrated edition of The Davinci Code. My daughter bought it for me one Christmas and it makes for very interesting reading.

For those of you who own a copy of the original last supper, that’s the one given to you when you made your first holy communion and not the one that the church has since revised, take a good look at the supposed man sitting to the left of Jesus. Even as a teenager I thought that if it wasn’t a woman, it had to be the best looking man from those times I had ever seen.

No, I am not a Bible basher or a Tony Robinson basher, I hold my faith close to my chest. Tony Robinson manages fair, being lead by the Time Team digging up old relics. Dan Brown is not an old relic. Don’t try to analysis the ins and out of a writers mind. You do not come across as having the right qualifications.

As for Dan Browns next thriller, so what if he does end up writing about the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS). He’s got the skills to turn it into one hell of a thriller. Just read The Lost Symbol to see what I mean.