So much that's so grim in the news at the moment , especially re.  parts of Burma and China .
In yesterday's 'Mail a dispatch from Peter Oborne in Zimbabwe , reminding us of the increasingly alarming  campaign of murder and torture of anyone associated with , or suspected of supporting the opposition MDC party , perpetrated by Mugabe's Zanu-PF thugs .
Mugabe is determined to remain President at any cost , which it seems likely that  he will .
He knows that despite  the corrupt ballot-rigging he's so hated that he still lost the election .
For some reason he's supported by South African President Thabo Mbeki . And , I suspect , more passively ,  by Archbishop Tutu  .
And there's no oil , or strategic advantage there , so what does the U.S government care  ?
A 22 year old mother of two , seized  and viciously beaten across her buttocks with wooden poles for half an hour , then ordered to sit for two hours  on her terrible wounds , five of her close friends kicked to death , others unaccounted for : All because they were known to favour the MDC party .
Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans being beaten , tortured , murdered , deliberately  starved .
Anglican churches and their parishioners being targeted because they are presumed to be in league with the MDC .
Inflation running at 1000% at least .
Why the f--- will not other countries governments , including Zimbabwe's neighbours ,  make a concerted effort to get rid of  Mugabe  ? 

To quote the late Mike Dickin , " Not all football fans are morons , but most morons are football fans " .
Manchester City Council not only welcomed ticketless Rangers fans , but also set up beer tents for them !
What could anyone expect !
I know that only a fairly small minority of them 'went mad' , but what a frighteningly disgusting minority they were . I pity the Police and Ambulance crews  who had to deal with them , and any non-involved people who got caught up in it .
So why did'nt the council see that coming , and plan against it ?
Money of course : The huge influx of , mostly Scottish , also Russian supporters poured millions into the local economy .
Allowing for the costs of dealing with and clearing up after the events , Manchester still made a substantive profit from the occasion .
What's the point of anyone drinking non-stop from breakfast time ?
What idiocy , but then , that's what we've come  to expect from many football nuts .
Perhaps Scottish fans had a slightly better reputation than English ones .
Not now . And if that had been English fans on the rampage in Manchester  there'd be calls for the English team and their supporters  to be banned  from european championships .
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There's speculation surrounding why Hillary Clinton is still fighting on given the apparent mathematical almost certainty of Barack Obama winning the Democratic nomination .
Is she being deludedly stubborn , or might she just possibly know something that we do'nt ?
I heard of a rumour that there's " a lot of dirt " re. Obama that's yet to be revealed , though of course that could be a malicious lie .

: Terrorism , or violent , non-terrorist related crime ?
It's certainly frightening that , indisputably there are a few amongst us who want to commit mass-murder supposedly in the name of religion , however all the plots seem to be being intercepted before they have the chance to happen at the moment , and something like 7/7 or worse inevitably will happen here again , which I do'nt worry about  as regards  me personally living here , and  I'm aware of the slight possibility when occasionally in London , but it does'nt stop me going there .
I'm more alarmed by the vicious , usually unprovoked , sometimes entirely random stabbings and/or beatings , in England in particular though also elsewhere in the UK , which we keep hearing of week after week .
Again I do'nt think it would happen in my home town , though at least some of the likely causal factors , i.e sickeningly violent video games , extreme binge-drinking and addiction to 'super-strength' 'skunk' cannabis may be present  here .
And the possibility of being attacked by strangers does'nt stop me going elsewhere , though I always aim to be sensible , and drunkenly swaying along city streets , alone , in the early hours is never a good idea .
As is'nt allowing oneself to be drawn into any unnecessary confrontations with strangers .
And who now will dare take the risk of , however politely , asking an intimidating looking young man , or a gang of them , to stop being a nuisance ?
So , what issue does bother you most , one of the afore mentioned , or . . . The longer term consequences of ongoing mass immigration into the UK  ?
On the radio this morning I heard a customs officer who's been assigned to the new 'border control' team at one of London's airports saying that he and his colleagues are just there as 'window dressing' ; All they are told to do is to be a visible prescence , not to question or search anyone entering Britain .
Or . . . The possibly looming 'credit crunch'/recession , or , bird-'flu , global-warming , alien-abduction , or  something else ?

Thanks to my two commentors of last night who agreed with me that Prince Philip seems so likeably different from his generally perceived persona : Such a humourous sense of mischief which I'm sure helps to keep him so much fitter and alert than are many of his contemporaries , not to mention also many younger people !
My Father loved to hate the Royals , and yet , curiously , I can see glimpses of him in the Grand Old Duke of Edinburgh !
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I had a ghastly grotty night last night , very bad stomach pain + an anxiety dream that seemed to go on for ages about my having impulsively acquired a beautiful , huge bengal tiger , then realising my mistake and feeling very afraid for my Mum , my cat and myself . .  

Just watched a programme about 'Yorkshire Ripper' Sutcliffe : Is he mad or bad : Clearly he's not  severely delusionally psychotic  , but if he's always been completely sane , and cunningly brutally killed 13 women that we know of , and attacked somewhere between two and 47 others , simply because he enjoyed it  then that makes him 100% pure evil , a disturbing thought , and raises questions about what made him like that , which seem likely to remain unanswered .
The diagnosis of severe mental illness remains a not entirely exact or unsubjective science , but as a number of psychiatrists have concluded that Sutcliffe is a paranoid schizophrenic I think we should probably respect the likelihood of that being correct , whilst not forgetting that he also enjoyed , and almost certainly derived sexual pleasure from his hideous crimes , which makes it near-impossible to feel any sympathy for him on the basis of his being a 'victim' of schizophrenically induced voices telling him to kill prostitutes , which about a quarter of his victims were not .
If it brings any comfort to anyone , Sutcliffe is reported to be physically and  mentally unwell , and partially blind following two separate attacks on him .
Though still exchanging letters with female admirers .
Yes , a number of women , who thankfully for them never knew him personally , have over the years sent 'fan-mail' to him , which some still do .
A Sandra Lester , who was interviewed on the programme used to enjoy a passionate , intimate , daily exchange of letters with her hero ,  'yorkshire ripper' Sutcliffe , until she was told that he was also corresponding with other women - Since then she's been campaigning , due to her extreme jealousy and sense of betrayal , to try to stop his being allowed to receive and send letters . At one point she was seriously considering marrying him .
That just goes to show , in an  extreme way the innate , apparently limitless capacity of some women to be fascinated by  repugnant men , at the expense of  boring old  'nice guys ' .

So did you see part 1 of Sir Trevor MacDonald's HRH Prince Philip experience ?
His calling the Duke 'Sir' in virtually sentence made me laugh , but , at 82 , 84 , 86 or whatever he is is'nt Prince Philip marvellous ?
- And so much more thinkingly , intelligently 'with it' than it's easy to imagine him to be .
And as someone who  strongly suspects  ' foul play ' re. the deaths of Dodi and Diana I think that Mr. Fayed is delusionally deluded in fixating the blame onto the Queen's consort .
I certainly would'nt go out of my way to remember to call Prince Charles 'Sir' , but The Queen and Prince Philip , unlike Paul Gascoigne , Jimmy Saville and others  Are 'national treasures' .
Long may they reign O'er us .
Hallelujah !

Jefferson Airplane : Grace Slick : The White Rabbit : ( c ) BMG , and , whether it's glamourising , or warning against hallucinogenic drugs , or neither , it'll always be a classic track . .

- No idea what it was all about , but that was the scene just over the road from this house at around 6.30 this evening .

From the 'post punk' early eighties : Toyah , from a 'live' album I used to have : Danced ( c ) Safari Records .
I never saw her live , though did see her in a pantomime about 9 years ago , during which she performed ' It's a Mystery ' .
The 80's was quite possibly my most miserable decade , though some music from it still sounds good .

Now it seems that the mandela gig on 27/6 will start in the evening , and is planned to last around three hours , which with the number of artists set to perform there seems seems unlikely , though at least if it's in the evening I need'nt miss any of it .
And that it's three weeks before his birthday .
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My cat is now out most of the time , and eating much less than usual , at least here , though whether he's eating caught mice or whatever outside.. ,
He seems fit and healthy , and left another dead pigeon in the hall early this morning .
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Regarding Amanda Platell's comments in today's 'Mail : ' Did police really need to shoot this broken man ? ' ,  about the successful lawyer Mark Saunders who was shooting through the windows of his chelsea home  the other day , exchanging gunfire with police , turning down repeated pleas  to give himself up , who after several hours was 'executed' by police marksmen who broke into his flat , it's tragic especially for his poor wife , but he was armed , irrational , drunk  and unpredictably  dangerous : 
Ms Platell only wrote that because he was professional , educated middle-class : She would have  much less sympathy  if that had been  another man in identical circumstances except being 'working class' and in a council flat . 

From their superb 2008 album ' Traffic ' , (c) Borough Music , by the 80's band ABC this is 'The Very First Time ' , which I do'nt think I can be transgressing any copyright laws by posting here , as it's available to listen to for free on their myspace page . So addictively catchy . .

I saw it at a cinema , and bought it for just £2.99 in play.com's mayday weekend sale .
All the film critics hated it ,  maybe , to start with , because of the title : I mean , what next , teradactyls  on a train , or fleas on ski's ?
It has no intellectual pretensions , but neither have other films which have been much more favourably critically received .
It's just a brilliantly choreographed juxtaposition of action/horror and comedy , at the expense of neither .
And  has its touchingly emotional moments too .
Samuel Jackson plays an impressively convincing hero , and , no it's not Shakespeare , but I found all the other actors in it to be very competent too .
The snakes , who are particularly into biting people's genitals , bottoms and breasts are convincing enough to be very scary , though not quite realistic enough to be too nightmare-inducively terrifying .
I like 'flying' and I like well-made flight-movies .
The passengers and crew in it have to cope not only with  snakes , also with severe turbulence and other imperilments .
And such a situation in reality , stuck on a plane with hundreds of pheromone-crazed deadly snakes on the rampage is just to awful to bear thinking about !
If you know you would'nt like it then you know you would'nt like it , but if not I'd recommend snapping up the dvd at a bargain price if the opportunity arises  .

I decided to 'go for it' and get  a ticket for Nelson Mandela's Birthday Concert at Hyde Park , London , on June 27th ;
Because of peculiarities of AOL the link to the page to print my ticket from did'nt work , until I eventually had the idea of signing into aol.co.uk on internet explorer , which worked fine , except I then could'nt get off of that site : This poor  ageing computer 'freezes up' on the internet at least every other day .
Anyway I think that U2 will play  though that's uncomfirmed , as is Paul McCartney , and much of the already announced musical line up is impressive enough , not to mention Will Smith , Bill Clinton , Robert de Niro , Gordon Brown and Mandela himself likely to be there for some of the long duration  ;  It'll start at 2pm but I plan to be there from around six-ish .
It's entirely not imposssible that there could be other audience members there who I know .
I would'nt be surprised to see Tony and Cherie  luxuriating in the Ultra-VIP section .
You may have seen a tv documentary a couple of years ago about a lady called Chris who has early-onset Alzheimers disease .
In it she was in a painting class with a group of fellow Alzheimers victims , painting , I think it was , Cambridge Cathedral .
On her painting she added the words 'I hate Tony ' and 'I hate Cherie'.
Which seems a very good indicator  of mental well-being to me !
Co-incidentally the programme also featured her having a holiday in Southwold with her daughter , and , having packed everything I was bringing here , on a little black and white tv I watched a repeat of that programme , in bed the night before I moved here , in December '06 .

Upon first hearing of the 'Nelson Mandela 90th Birthday' gig' , to be held in Hyde Park on June 27th I thought : What's the point ? - What's he done for Britain , and , more importantly , was'nt he shockingly complacent about the dreadful Aids/HIV problem in his own country , and elsewhere in Africa ?
But when I heard that it's to raise funds for African Hiv/Aids sufferers , and that U2 may even play there , I registered early for , hopefully , the chance to get a ticket before they go on sale on friday morning .
So I'm waiting for an email with a special code in it to give me priority access to buy up to 4 tickets before then .
I know someone who I'm sure would love to go  , but probably not with me , so I'd have to go alone , but , who knows , I might even not be the only one of the 46,664 people there who'd be alone and  not knowing  anyone there .
U2 or not there'll be Queen with Paul Rodgers , Simple Minds , Leona Lewis , Razorlight , Shirley Bassey and and many more .
Maybe it'd be far less tiring , and more satisfying to stay at home and watch it on tv .
Anyway I expect  at least to be in London in early June , for my Uncle's memorial service , and to be able to use my oyster card  before it expires .

That's me , in the foreground , seated with girls , at Kings Langley Infants School in 1970 , to be precise .
A not unhappy time in my life , which I was reminded of by discovering that photo' .
(Click on twice if you want to see it slightly larger) .

I went to the local library's monthly booksale , fill a bag for £1.50 , or is it £2 now , in any case it's well worth it , I came back with some good reference books , including about DIY and gardening , and the 2003 'rough guide's' to New Zealand and Switzerland , and the 2006 DK guide to New York , which I'd still love to visit though I  may not , some novels that my Mum might like to read , and  'The Mars Mysteries' by Graham Hancock , Robert Bauval and John Grigsby which is probably a good read however implausible , and a book about how to find and form relationships with compatable women , written by a man , who states that male fear and low self esteem are 'qualities' which women find " grossly unattractive " .
A bit of a rash generalisation though something in that I suspect .
My self esteem is'nt too bad but I tend to initially lack social confidence with people I do'nt know , and , yes I would much prefer to be with a lovely woman partner than home alone , especially in the evenings and through the night , but changing my life in that way  seems challengingly  risky though I know I should at least make more of an effort to chat with people who I meet ,  to smile and establish eye contact , and not to maintain some stupidly defeatist approach to life , for the sake of the present and future  of my ageing self , and because I have so much that's positive to give .
I'd  no doubt have dozens of girlfriends if I were a loud , brash , 'hard bastard' , but I have no wish whatever to be or  pretend to be that  .