I was trying to watch Manchester United in the Champions League this week. Oh wait.

Not that I can really talk with the way that Arsenal were destroyed in the league in the week.  I am of course hoping that we beat Aston Villa today.

My son last week was asked by me to practice some handwriting.  We got into an argument about what he should write, so I told him to write some lines.  He was not happy and added his own words to it.  It did make me smile.

What's the difference between terrorism and democracy? Whether the United States is attacking or being attacked

Sorry about the title, as to be fair, the evils of the world are not the fault of the USA.  And also, the way that the west says it wants democracy and does not act to support it also has not been the fault of the USA.  I am just a bit biased against the USA on the issue of terrorism due to the way the US allowed funds to be collected there when the IRA was conducting a terror campaign in the UK in the past to kill innocent people.  This post is about why some Muslims do not think that we, in the west, are really in favour of democracy.

This post is not to excuse the barbaric murder of David Haines a person who had gone to Syria to help those who were in need, by the Unislamic State, nor the other acts that extremists have engaged in, but to explain some of the reasons that such evil twisted people justify what they do.

Most of us in the west, love living in a democracy.  Despite the views of the EDL and other extremists, this love and respect for democracy includes Muslims living here as well as in other nations as well.  The problem is that many of us are not aware of how the actions of government agencies in the west have undermined democracy in the across the world.  And here are a few examples.

March 1949 Syrian coup d'état - elected Syrian President overthrown in a coup backed by the CIA
1953 Operation Ajax - overthrow of elected Iranian leader by the UK and the USA over oil to instal the Shah
1954 Guatemalan coup d'état - Operation PBSUCCESS where the CIA was involved in the overthrow of an elected government to instal a dictator
1964 Brazilian coup d'état - overthrow of a democratic system to a dictatorship which was then supported by the US
1973 Chilean coup d'état - overthrow of a democratic government, installation of a dictator who was supported by the US and the UK
1976 Argentine coup d'état - a coup that the US knew was planned before of and did nothing to stop allowing human rights abuses to take place supporting the government rather than working for democracy
1979 South Korea - continued support by the west for South Korea after a military coup overthrew a democratic government
1980 Turkish coup d'état - overthrow of a democratic government by the US backed military
1983 Supporting Saddam - the west helped Saddam despite his use of chemical weapons
1984 Rejection of elections in Nicaragua - despite internationally recognised elections, the US supported the right wing terrorists, the Contra's 
1991 Gulf war - installation of Sheikh Jaber III as unelected ruler of Kuwait after its liberation from Iraq
1999 Pakistan - support for the military dictatorship in Pakistan (though this was mainly after the attacks of 2001)
2007 Gaza - Support to overthrown a democratic government in Gaza as it is not in keeping with the ideals of the west
2009 Afghanistan - continued (though admittedly reluctant) support for Afghanistan after electoral fraud returned the president.
2009 Palestine - support for Mahmoud Abbas continues after his democratic mandate expires with no new elections
2011 Bahrain - continued support for an unelected leader despite wide spread protests being put down with violence when those protests are supported in other nations
2013 Egypt - support for the military as they overthrew a democratic government though hopefully, free and fair elections will happen this year

There have been times when the excuse for backing one regime or another was that it was, over all, the least worse option due to the fight against communism etc, the most recent example being in Egypt.  But, when you look at the examples, it does not look that we really do support democracy.  The terrorists in the Middle East are wrong to do what they do.  Terrorists who use a perverted interpretation of Islam forget that Muslims do make a difference with democracy in the west.  But we in the west need to do more to show all faiths and political views in the world that we really do respect democracy.

Apparently there are idiots against giving money to charity

As those who read this blog know, I have completed the Ice Bucket Challenge to raise money for the Motor Neurone Disease Association, or rather my kids made me.

Well, I was shown a link today, which is trying to get people not to donate to it.  It states that a lot of the money that ALSA (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association) get goes to other things instead of research.  Of course, this is not the only thing that is stated in the argument.  It states that money goes into stem cell research and that those who are pro-life should therefore not support this, as well as the importance of diet in preventing this condition.  My view on the article, which does not give any other alternative towards working to cure this terrible condition is that it is a load of balls.

The problem is that people love to spread half truths about charitable organisations. This has been an issue with Help for Heroes, a charity that helps loads.

People love to spread lies about how charities help people, many are open with how they money they get is spent.  Money is spent on administration, and yes, money is spent on ways to increase further donations as well.

So, if you do not want to give money to charity, then do not.  But if you want the world to be a better place, there is a lot than can be done and donating money to charity is one of the many things that we can and, in my view, we should do.

My wife has just nominated me to do the ice bucket challenge. I'm a little confused. Has anyone else been asked to hold a toaster at the same time?

Actually, it was not my wife, it was my best man who nominated me for this on Wednesday.

We had been out for a meal that day, thanks to the SmarterCard, we got a cheaper meal at the Lion in Leavenheath.  When there, the kids were taking about the Ice Bucket Challenge.  They asked me who I would nominate, but I said that I doubted that I would be nominated for this.  We got home, and after an interesting journey back and forth as my wife had left our keys at the restaurant and putting the kids to bed, FaceBook alerted me that I had been nominated.  I have to say, seeing my friend get drenched by his kids was very amusing, but I thought that I might be able to hide this from my kids and get away with making a donation.  But my wife, who did not tell them about my nomination, showed them the video of the nomination.  Which meant that they then were very excited about the idea of soaking me.  Well, today it was done.  The money as you can see from the video goes to the Motor Neurone Disease Association.  Macmillan have also used this to raise money, and lets face it, they are both great causes.  I might get in trouble from those whom I have nominated myself, but lets see what happens.  Anyway, the kids loved every moment of having an excuse to soak me.  I suspect that they will be annoyed that this can only happen once.  But they have this memory recorded now and my son has already watched it several times today!

I've been married for 10 years, I haven't made a decision for seven

Well, actually, I have been married for a bit longer and I have to say I love being married.  Well, the summer holidays have been great so far.  We have been to France and had a great time.  The kids did not know that they were going to spend time at Disney and it took some effort to keep them distracted on the drive to Paris.  But they did love spending time there.  My daughter though swore never to go on Space Mountain!  She was brave enough to go on it, but had not been on a roller coaster for a while, the shock left her traumatised till her next ride!  I did not think that I was going to like it there, but the magic got to me and both my wife and I loved it as much as they did (though she did not go on any of the roller coasters).  A trip to Normandy was an experience for all of us, my wife and I learning a lot about the Second World War, some of which the kids learned as well.  While it was not as warm as previous holidays, it was one which was memorableand hopefully, the kids will remember some of the French that they had to take on board.

Anyway, while I would love to type more, and there is always more to write about the kids, it is getting late.

Flight MH17 and who may have shot it down

My thoughts and prayers go out to those who died on MH17.  As can be expected, no one wants to get the blame for this.

What is interesting though is that ITAR-TASS has reported that Ukrainian rebels took credit for shooting down an An-26 transport plane near Torez earlier today.  ITAR-TASS is a Russian news site, unlike another site that has posted a similar story.

It looks from this that the destruction of MH17 appears to have been a case of mistaken identity and that the rebels in Ukraine took credit when they thought that this was a military plane.

Here is hoping that despite this, peace comes to the region as a result.  That and the hope that no one hacks my blog!

50% voting thresholds

So, David Cameron was considering that strikers should get 50% of the vote of those who are able to vote before a strike is legal.  This from the man who worked against the reforms to have voters to be elected by 50% of those who turned up to vote.

Does not make sense to me.  Unless he thinks that democracy is selective.  Well, let us face it, based on his views, MP's are less important than strikes.