The binary version of 101 Dalmatians isn't nearly as impressive as the original...

Well, the score today was brilliant, 4-1!

Welbeck was amazing, (as was all the team) and to think that he was bought for a bargain considering the prices of footballers now.  I know that some fans did not realise how good he is.  Considering that he has scored a hat trick in European competition I hope that they now keep the faith.

In A&E and a doctor has just taken my pulse. To be fair, I shouldn't have brought a bag of lentils to hospital in the first place.

The NHS is in the news again. 

Labour have promised to increase the numbers of GP’s working in the NHS, but they have also stated that the way GP’s are to work is to change.  The Conservatives have promised that they will also increase the numbers of GP’s available and that they will allow patients to see their own GP if elected in 2015 seven days a week, the GP being available from eight in the morning till eight at night.  And Labour have promised to bring back the ability to see a GP within 48 hours. 

But they seem for forget that the NHS is failing.  Doctors who work in Accident and Emergency departments are leaving, hospitals are having to pay money for locum cover, more money than would be spent on regular staff, and the same is the case in general practice.  Some in the land of the RCGP argue that GP’s should have a bigger slice of the NHS pie when it comes to the money that is available.  My argument is that the pie should be bigger.  While everyone is aware that the deficit is something that has to be tackled, people forget that the doctors who work in the NHS can leave, and do.

For those who think that GP’s are paid too much and under worked, the simple counter argument is that there are not enough General Practitioners to work in the system as it is.  There have been loads of surgeries that have closed, and some of these have been in the private sector.  This is nothing to do with the way that the CQC will be acting to close down failing surgeries, but is quite simply because there are too few doctors who want to work as General Practitioners and this is shown by the number of training places that are unfilled.  People say that GP’s do not work after surgeries close, but the out of hours doctors services are staffed by GP’s who are working in most cases for private companies (something brought in under the Labour government for those who associate the increased role of the private sector in the NHS with the Conservatives).

So, remember this, there are not enough doctors working in A&E or General Practice as it is.  If someone says that they want to make the NHS work better, they need to tackle this without decreasing funding to the rest of the NHS.

Some religious people believe that serious illnesses such as cancer do not require medical treatment, and can be cured by the power of prayer alone. Sceptics may chuckle, but there is a scientific basis for this kind of thinking. It's called natural selection.

Well, the kids are making me sigh again.  I know that I am grateful that I have them and I know that I am glad that they are so well behaved, most of the time that is.  Most of the time, they get on so well, but recently, they have just been causing each other friction more often than normal.

I know that this is normal but there are times that it drives me mad.  Let alone my poor wife who has to put up with this more than I do.  I also have a lot of sympathy for my mother as I was far worse to my brothers than they are to each other.  Though I know it is wrong, I still smile every time I think of the time I got the cat to run up my brothers leg.  Okay, it was a kitten when I was playing with a bit of string, my brother came into the room wearing jeans and I ran the string up his leg.  The kitten got the string and my brother did not speak to me for two days.  So really, my two are angels compared to what I got up to.

The highlights recently though have included the time my daughter was in a bad mood and shouted down the stairs and my son called her Mrs Wolowitz.  Though to be fair, she did sound like her when she screamed down the stairs.  The kids do love watching The Big Bang Theory and my wife got us a box set of them (missing series seven for the readers) though some of the episodes are certainly not child friendly!  They are making progress with swimming, my son has joined the Beavers, by daughter is loving being a Brownie and she has just started to play hockey.  Anyway, we are now going to watch television as we have to catch up on the X-Factor but more importantly Strictly Come Dancing!

Man Utd...LOL

It has been a good weekend for football from my perspective.  We won, ManUre lost, Chelski and 5hitty drew and of course, the Scum lost again.  What has been more interesting is the way people seem to think that racism on the internet is acceptable.  Balotelli made a tweet, one which many across the nation will agree with, and some idiots think that it is acceptable to post racist abuse about him.  And let us face it, for those who do not like ManUre, for them to throw away a two goal lead and despite leading by three goals to one, to lose 5-3 is funny, very funny.

So, Welbeck scored, as did Ozil.  Both great players and hopefully, our fans will continue to trust in Arsène. Of course, I also hope we win the league, the league cup, the FA cup and the European cup, but I can dream.  Just as I will dream that we live in a world where racism is less prevalent.

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.