Montana

Well so far these new servers look pretty much like the old servers. I am told that there are miles and miles of unspoiled space out there just ready for the taking.

Maybe over the next few days I shall get myself a waggon train together and head west, stake a claim to some of those wild, untamed terabytes out there.



Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

Keep movin', movin', movin',
Though they're disapprovin',
Keep them doggies movin' Rawhide!
Don't try to understand 'em,
Just rope and throw and grab 'em,
Soon we'll be living high and wide.
Boy my heart's calculatin'
My true love will be waitin', be waiting at the end of my ride.

Move 'em on, head 'em up,
Head 'em up, move 'em out,
Move 'em on, head 'em out Rawhide!
Set 'em out, ride 'em in
Ride 'em in, let 'em out,
Cut 'em out, ride 'em in Rawhide.

Gets me a heap o'beans and a coffee out on the prairie. Yeehaw.

Montana

Well so far these new servers look pretty much like the old servers. I am told that there are miles and miles of unspoiled space out there just ready for the taking.

Maybe over the next few days I shall get myself a waggon train together and head west, stake a claim to some of those wild, untamed terabytes out there.



Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

Keep movin', movin', movin',
Though they're disapprovin',
Keep them doggies movin' Rawhide!
Don't try to understand 'em,
Just rope and throw and grab 'em,
Soon we'll be living high and wide.
Boy my heart's calculatin'
My true love will be waitin', be waiting at the end of my ride.

Move 'em on, head 'em up,
Head 'em up, move 'em out,
Move 'em on, head 'em out Rawhide!
Set 'em out, ride 'em in
Ride 'em in, let 'em out,
Cut 'em out, ride 'em in Rawhide.

Gets me a heap o'beans and a coffee out on the prairie. Yeehaw.

(no subject)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7736794.stm

Being vile is not a crime. If it were, the prisons would be far, far fuller than they are or the planet would be quite sparsely populated. One or the other.

This sweeping and probably facile observation is brought to you following the revelation that a list of BNP¹ members has been published online. I shall take the various news agencies’ and rumour mongers' word for it; a quick and sweeping Google search failed to turn the list up, though it did return a lot of links to outraged newspapers and bloggers. I daresay I could find it if I looked harder, but frankly I’m not sure if I want to know if my local vicar is a fascist.

Actually, I don’t want to know who my local vicar is at all.

The point of all this, is that I worry about the thought of all the self-righteous do-gooders and holier-than-thou-ers who are ready to march on, fire bomb and generally make life unpleasant for BNP members. In some ways I have a deal of sympathy for them; no-one wants to think that the copper down the road, the vicar in the church and the teachers in the infants school are all rabid neo-Nazis or similar, but frankly I’m not over enthused by would-be militant neo-communists and anarchists flapping about in vicious indignation either.

Jackboots or hobnail boots? A charming choice.

We either live in something that pretends to be a democracy or we don’t. We either have freedom of speech or we don’t. And if we do have all those things², we have to allow that the benefits of a free society apply to all and that it is no crime to be vile and unpleasant, provided that you are vile and unpleasant within the rules.

It is easy to forget that just because one thing is unpalatable, the opposite view is not necessarily any more acceptable, especially when their preferred methods are remarkably similar: infiltrate and subvert.

Extreme ideologies should be met with reasoned debate and held up to the light of reason, so that they can be seen for what they are and disposed of. Whipping up the mob into a frenzy and leading them with flaming brands just makes everything spiral, polarise and get plain nasty.

They’re as bad as each other.

¹BNP: The British National Party. An unsavoury bunch of far right agitators who may or may not be fascists depending upon semantics, but who are vile racist, homophobic and generally unpleasant scum in any case.

²Debatable in itself.

(no subject)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7736794.stm

Being vile is not a crime. If it were, the prisons would be far, far fuller than they are or the planet would be quite sparsely populated. One or the other.

This sweeping and probably facile observation is brought to you following the revelation that a list of BNP¹ members has been published online. I shall take the various news agencies’ and rumour mongers' word for it; a quick and sweeping Google search failed to turn the list up, though it did return a lot of links to outraged newspapers and bloggers. I daresay I could find it if I looked harder, but frankly I’m not sure if I want to know if my local vicar is a fascist.

Actually, I don’t want to know who my local vicar is at all.

The point of all this, is that I worry about the thought of all the self-righteous do-gooders and holier-than-thou-ers who are ready to march on, fire bomb and generally make life unpleasant for BNP members. In some ways I have a deal of sympathy for them; no-one wants to think that the copper down the road, the vicar in the church and the teachers in the infants school are all rabid neo-Nazis or similar, but frankly I’m not over enthused by would-be militant neo-communists and anarchists flapping about in vicious indignation either.

Jackboots or hobnail boots? A charming choice.

We either live in something that pretends to be a democracy or we don’t. We either have freedom of speech or we don’t. And if we do have all those things², we have to allow that the benefits of a free society apply to all and that it is no crime to be vile and unpleasant, provided that you are vile and unpleasant within the rules.

It is easy to forget that just because one thing is unpalatable, the opposite view is not necessarily any more acceptable, especially when their preferred methods are remarkably similar: infiltrate and subvert.

Extreme ideologies should be met with reasoned debate and held up to the light of reason, so that they can be seen for what they are and disposed of. Whipping up the mob into a frenzy and leading them with flaming brands just makes everything spiral, polarise and get plain nasty.

They’re as bad as each other.

¹BNP: The British National Party. An unsavoury bunch of far right agitators who may or may not be fascists depending upon semantics, but who are vile racist, homophobic and generally unpleasant scum in any case.

²Debatable in itself.