h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

you know something else that really pisses me off? All the people who claim that A-Levels are "too easy". Arte they b*****y. I was one of the top students up until A-Level, woundd up with B, C and 2 Ds. I would challenge the morons who write columns in the DAily MAil to sit the exams I sat, then tell me it was easy.

And I think that what the imbeciles who run the country don't understand is that the changes they make to things like education aren't theory, they are f***ing with people's lives.

I have 12 GCSE's. Only one of them is a D-grade...all the others are C grade and above. I took an extra subject on the side.

When they decided to f**k with the system and therefore f**k with my life, I started off well, but the pressure bore down on me. I got a B and two C's (fair enough, I missed an exam in one where I would have got an A, and so ended up with a C, but you get my point)...



So. Any solutions for my life? Maybe I should go off and be a politician like everyone thinks I should be.

No wait. The Satanism, heavy metal and the tattoo has already stopped me. Not to mention being white trash, poor as dirt, and not completely mentally deficient...

Makes it a bit difficult. Unfortunately the majority of the electorate in this country believe unfulfilable (that's not really a word, is it) promises from a combination of sleazy crooks and characterless poodles. They here the spout of b*llocks the likes of Labour produce every election and thinK "I want that!". If they hear "we'll raise taxes for better services". the reaction is "Boo hiss, don't want it."

You know, this country really is starting to get me down.

Been getting me down for ages. In fact about 9 years, which is how long I have been watching the news/reading the papers...

*WHY* is it that people can't get it through their heads that more taxes = more money into hospitals, police and fire services?

Oh I know why. Because politicians give themselves 40% pay rises and then claim to not be able to afford to give the same to firefighters. What s**t. I've always said that they first thing I would do is cut the pay cheques of politicians. They don't deserve more than a nurse gets paid. It's an important job, but only if they do it properly. Half of them don't even bother to turn up!!!

I actually have an ambition of sorts) to be elected an MP,and just do things with my conscience, act in the national interest, that kind of thing. Oh, and give myself a paycut of course. When you look at the wages firemen, nurses, teachers etc are on- people who save lives and educate our youth- and then look at the wages of the MPS. And then John "couldn't string a coherent sentence together if it was scripted for him" Prescott criticises the firemen for wanting a decent wage.

There was actually a very good chapter in Michael Moore's book "Stupid White Men" where he writes of a senator who said that "teachers are destroying our nation". Moore points out that the average teacher, for trying to educate the people of America, or on an average wage of $30,000 or so, while the average senator, for having meals with oil lobbyists, is getting paid in excess of $200,000.

A similar line can be drawn with the firefighters here- $30k a year for risking your own life to save other peoples seems fair to me, and I just found something on a website (Independent letters page), which points out that "If the firefighters pay formula had been linked to MPs' pay for the last 25 years, they would currently be earning £34,500 per annum."

So, if the firefighters were allowed the same percentage raise as the MPS over that time, their wages would be in excess of Gilchrist's demands.

I would rather my money went to the Fire Service than bombing Iraq.

I was aiming a at a point, but it all ended up a bit random, sorry bout that.

Rant away. S'not like we're gonna come to some conclusion about my life.

Still waiting for my library (my current source of all and every piece of literature that I am reading - I'm hoarding Kurt Vonnegut right now) to aquire "Stupid White Men"...

The whole country is in s**t. Far worse than America - who have better immigration policy and police force to start off with. In fact, this country is full of s**t. If a serious war kicks off, we are f**ked. We have no decent internal system to keep us afloat. Blair knows this. THAT is why he is kissing up to Bush. Because that would be our only means of survivial.

Rant rant rant. Hah. And it's our generation that matters.

I'm not so convinced about the US police force, but we'll let that go.

If you get a chance, watch Michael Moore's film "Bowling For Columbine"

And right with you about it being our generation which matters- we, and those younger than us, will have to put up with the aftermath of this government for years.

Thatcher bought this country to it's knees. Blair then hit it over the head with a frying pan.

I have no knowledge whatsoever about the whole Thatcher thing. Couldn't care less really. Can't change the past!

MUST watch "Bowling for Columbine" being that Marilyn Manson is in it. And he demonstrates why exactly he is one of main influences. Hah. He kicks ass. I saw the film festival clips when they came out and decided to watch it then...

RE : Police force/judicial system. At least they are putting people away. Right now, I would rather everyone was in jail regardless of whether they deserve it, instead of how it is right now. Needs a huge f**king rehaul.

In Bowling For Columbine MArilyn Mannson, in about a minute or two on screen, makes more sense than most of the people who tried to blame him for the shootings.

He said that he thinks children are more likely to be influenced by America's aggressive foreign policy- at one point he says "who has more influence, me or the president?"

Also, the high point of his interview is this:

Michael Moore: if you were in a room with the survivors of Columbine and the parents of those who died, what would you say to them.

MArilyn Manson: I would listen to what they have to say. No-one else has."

MAnson demonstrates more feeling, empathy and intelligence than any of the people claiming his music is responsible for the shooting.

I am not a big fan of Manson's music (exept "The Dope Show" and "Tainted Love", but I really feel great respect for him as a person based on the calm, understated, sensible approach he took to an issue that normally inflames outrage without understanding.

In his brief cameo in a documentary film I watched in a virtually empty movie theater in massachussets, I realised that Marilyn Manson would make a better politician than most politicians do.

A lot of people tried to blame violent imagery in Manson's songs for the columbine massacre, and despite the lack of grounding for such opinions, he cancelled concerts in the area.

A lot of people blamed it on guns and yet Charlton heston appeared at an NRA rall;y in the area, holding a rifle in his hand and screaming "pry it from my cold dead hands".

Bowling For Columbine shows many things, two of which are that MArilyn Manson has a lot more empathy for the columbine victims than the so called "moral majority" and that Charlton Heston is scum.

Anyway, getting sidetracked- back to English politics. Did you watch MArk Thomas-Weapons Inspector on C4 last week?

No I didn't. I think I looked at it, and thought it looked a little too Channel Four dull for me. Should I have?

Just backtracking a bit : *that* side of Marilyn Manson, is precisely the side I like and respect, and look up to...so to speak. I've got an article waiting for the Front Page on his *Antichrist Superstar* album...and I'm sure it's not what people want to hear about him : that he is intelligent, far more so than most people, and is much more than just a freak in make up. He has *always* conducted interviews like that. Which is why I'll usually defend him to the teeth in threads, regardless of whether it is or not. I hope that I achieve the same level of personal-whatever as he has done.