Who is this Tebow fella?

Just read an interesting article on Bleacher report saying Soccer (it’s really football, but I suppose Bleacher Report is an American site, not sure why the Americans decided to call American Football as we in the rest of the world know it – football; throwball would be more accurate) needs a Tim Tebow. I’ll be honest until I saw another article saying Tebow or UFC I had never heard of the guy and wondered who he was and what he had done.

Now I have always liked NFL, it’s about the only American sport I have watched regularly in the past, though I have had phases of watching Baseball, (I watched this year’s World Series at least the highlights, but the great thing about watching American sports is there are so many ads the highlights is nearly the whole game minus the ads, well it is over here) and Basketball mainly when Michael Jordan played as he was great to watch.

Recently though I haven’t seen much NFL, I’ve been a Dallas Cowboys fan since I was a kid when I saw them on TV back in the 70’s and they stuck in my mind and I loved to watch the highlights on Channel Four in the 80’s. Anyway I haven’t seen any NFL this season, but I watched the highlights (whole game without ads) on Sky on Sunday, because the great Tom Brady was playing, (at the time I didn’t know what he was going to do and Brady and the whole Patriots team were amazing) and there was this Tebow fella, on the Denver Broncos team.

Well it surprised me all the hype over this guy especially after one of the greatest Quarterbacks ever went and destroyed Denver and Tebow was sacked countless times and they kept saying the amount of yards he was losing and on how many plays. Then I saw this article saying Soccer (football) needs a Tebow, and then I realised that he was a nice guy, confident and arrogant and always saying he loves Jesus, and saying its Jesus who he has to thank.

And this is what really frustrates me about the world; a nice guy who has a talent can thank a fictitious rebel rouser who was made into a deity by the Romans to control their empire. You might as well thank Sherlock Holmes or James Bond; at least they are based on real people. Or you could thank Alexander the Great or Isaac Newton; they were real people who did real great things.

Anyway I am digressing football does not need a Tebow, NFL may like him, or love him or even hate him, but if you want to thank anyone for your gifts, thank your ancestors, your upbringing, yourself, and your coaches, at least they did actually have a part in it.

Big Questions – is there any evidence of God?

As I have said many times I like to think outside the box which leads me to well sometimes have rather strange notions and concepts. I like this type of thinking even if it can be an awful drain and nightmare, at times.

On Sunday morning there was a program on called the Big Questions and they were talking about whether in this day and age you can find evidence of whether God exists. Now as I know I change my mind quite often, I am always willing to see other people’s points of view and try to incorporate them into my thinking. I have said before I don’t believe in God, especially the religious one, and I have also used God as a metaphor for other things. I have thought that due to my thinking, God can exist but not from our perspective of reality. And I think I have said that belief is so strong in humans that if you believe something strong enough, then from your own personal perspective God can exist since you create your own reality, and if in that reality you have a space for God then good for you.

After watching that programme which had all kinds of people on, some with rather crazy notions, others typical reglious weirdo’s, some scientists, some priests of different denominations. It then suddenly stuck me that the problem about God is the fact; it - meaning God, in itself is just a word. And has many meanings to many different people, but it has been taken over by the awful religious God and so clouds the thinking of many.

I realise, I would describe God as being an expression of human imagination, utilised, used and abused by nearly everyone, even atheists. Now the reason lots of people now don’t like the word atheist, is that it’s not really true, it’s more anti religion than anti God.

When I felt elated after the act and subsequent delusion I never felt the need to think any higher power was involved. When it ended I knew it was my mind and my subconscious thought process handling a difficult situation. I hope I learn something from it, but I know the way my mind works that it will see it as some kind of breaking down of the emotional barriers, which have risen over years and years, since I was a child. The water is still pouring out of the dam, or should I say to be more accurate, the poison is still pouring out of the dam.

How much poison is in there to get rid of I am not sure, and I am not sure why I suddenly changed to talk about it either? Another metaphor, I am good at creating metaphors and analogies, of the whys and wherefores; what can it mean who knows I certainly don’t nowadays.

So getting back to God, you will never find evidence of God, you can only imagine God as human creation to be utilised as we see fit, in good ways, bad ways, and even strange ways.

Global Warming expert loses bet

I have just read that climatologist Dr James Annan, had a bet with Dr David Whitehouse a scientific adviser on whether temperatures would rise over a four year period. The bet was made on a BBC Radio 4 show, four years ago and the bet was won by Whitehouse who predicted temperatures would not rise.

Now this in itself it not newsworthy I suspect, but what is interesting is the fact that they have made another bet to see if temperatures rise in the next four years. Supposedly Annan was asked whether after this time he would change his mind about global warming due to CO2, if he lost again. He originally said yes, and then backtracked saying no it would not change his mind. So as one climate realist puts it, ‘I am wrong but I am right’ syndrome springs to mind.

That’s the problem we have with this world, a human being finds it so difficult to change a thought process he believes to be true, even after it is shown to be false. I believe it was mentioned in Dale Carnegies, ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ about a certain President that once an idea is set in stone, even after you are proved wrong, humans overall find it difficult to give in to the new theory. Hence why religion is so strong in the human psyche, I think the great scientist Carl Sagan also discussed it.

Unfortunately we all suffer from it in some shape or form even if we realise it or not, and this makes us vulnerable to ridiculous and sometimes costly errors. It is shown throughout history the effects of believing falsehoods when more obvious answers were available. And the ones that do not believe in it, well that in a way is proof of the fact that’s its true.

I suppose the human condition on how the conscious mind controls and causes major issues in the lives of many humans, must have been an evolutionary advantage at one time. Will we ever be able to overcome this, who knows but this bet is an excellent example of someone who may look a total fool in four years time, still finding it difficult to readdress his beliefs. As beliefs are so strong in humans it takes an enormous amount of will power and strength of mind and character, to admit you are wrong and to do it in public also. It’s like the end of the world doomsayers, even when they have past the date in which the end is supposed to occur, like 21st December 2012 when some people believe the world will end they will find away to explain it in their minds, and some will even try to make excuses and say it’s another date and all kinds of nonsense.

Self delusion and false beliefs are killers, as is shown throughout history. I know I suffer from it, but whether I would know which beliefs they are, the ones which are falsehoods that I am unable to admit to, would be debatable if I am honest. This last two months has shown that to me at least.

This is why I find it amazing that we have survived as long as we have, because it is like some kind of disease that has infected us for millennia.

A story about Confidence

Not sure what made me write this, not sure how accurate it is, it’s just a story using feelings as characters it means nothing and has no bearing on me or anyone else. Or it may be my creative mind using all the shit I deal with and writing it in a little story. Though I am sure if I made the story bigger it would be several pages long. But it was interesting writing about my mind from the perspective of confidence because it is one thing I lack and need desperately. I know it’s there somewhere but it doesn’t like to show its face too often, and when it does sometimes it goes over the top and get carried away. It got the idea from the old Red Dwarf episode called Confidence and Paranoia from the first series.  Its not the greatest thing I have ever written but it gets better I feel after the first part, I seem to get more creative with my feelings you could say haha.

I once knew a man called Confidence, and he lived in a house called Self. The street was called Determination and Confidence found it difficult to get out of the street in the winter, as it was a large hill and it was difficult to climb. Confidence’s house was in need of repair, it had once been new and well kept but now it had been left to go to rack and ruin. Confidence found this hard to deal with especially living on this huge hill of a street. Confidence had few friends and they didn’t help him at all, one of his friends was Consequence, and the other two Paranoia, and Doubt, and they were just not being the right sort of friends for Confidence to have around. He used to have a friend’s a long time ago when he was young called Trust, Peace and Happiness but they had moved away long ago, and now lived in another part of the city.

Consequences, Paranoia and Doubt would abuse Confidence’s house regularly, having parties, inviting all sorts of people who Confidence did not know, or like and Confidence did not know what to do about it. He had lost all the friends who were good for him, like Happiness, Control, Reason and Trust had left him for someone else, and his job was not what it used to be, he had transferred from a good company called Decent, thinking it was the right thing to do, but the new company Stress and Worry was not for him, but was stuck there and didn’t know what to do.

His so called friends Consequences, Paranoia and Doubt weren’t helping and his house was becoming more and more derelict, to the point that others on the long, large, hill of a street called Determination were complaining. His neighbour Mr Focus had had enough and wanted Confidence to sell up and move away, he felt his house was making the rest of the street look so bad, and he wasn’t the only one. Mrs Decision across the street was sick of Confidence and so were Mr and Mrs Reality. They had all had enough of Confidence and his terrible house, plus he was going out with Delusion and her friend Crazy, who were terrible.

Confidence eventually had to sell up and lost his job, he was classed as Destitute and living off the street called Desperation. He had new friends called Sadness and Misery, as well as having to deal with not very nice people who tried to take advantage of Confidence, Anger and Hatred.

Confidence wished he had listened to his friends Trust and Happiness, as well as others like Peace and Wellbeing. They had told Confidence on many occasions he was in with the wrong crowd, but Confidence wouldn’t listen because of this bloke called Stubbornness, and so he had lost his house and everything that it was. And he didn’t know how to get it back.

Confidence found some help from Caring and Help and they tried to get Confidence back on his feet, but Confidence was still living off the street in Desperation with his new friends, Sadness and Misery, going out with Delusion and her friend Crazy, others moved there as well, Guilt, Despair, Remorse, and Punishment.

He wanted to be away from these people so he moved into a new street called Isolation and this really did not help Confidence at all, even there people wanted to be his friend who were not right for his like Seclusion and Unease. He also had this terrible fiend called Uncontrolled Emotion who followed him constantly because he owed him money. Confidence tried to hide in Isolation but he was found by Lost and Alone. They were henchmen for Uncontrolled Emotion, Confidence was trapped, in a park called Nightmare, near to Isolation, whilst being chased by Lost and Alone and Uncontrolled Emotion.

Confidence decided to fight back and find his old house called Self, but he knew it was going to be a long road and he didn’t know how he could reach it again. This is where Confidence is at present, trying to find his house and repair the damage done by all the unwanted friends who turned out to be all part of Uncontrolled Emotions gang. Confidence had been set up by Stupidity and Delusion’s friend Crazy, he was only now realising he should of kicked Foolish, Delusions younger brother out instead of Trust, Peace and Happiness.

Whether he can eventually find his house and his old true friends we will have to wait and see, but he is looking and trying to find a way back and hopefully one day soon he will be able to find Trust, Peace and Happiness and live in his house Self, and repair all the damage that was done over many, many years. Since confidence was a small child, but now he can see his old street, the massive hill called Determination and he has these new friends called Creativity and Imagination, and he is sure he will eventually find a way back.

The love hate relationship people have with film

Maybe it’s because I can go through a plethora of emotions in one hour, never mind a day that I can say I both love and hate films. I really love them but at the same time I can really hate them, depending on the mood I am in and the situation I am watching them.

What I find fascinating is how other people perceive the same films and I love reading the comments on IMDb, it is amazing how much some people can love or hate a film. Not everyone will understand this, I think you have to be a film buff so to speak or film geek to truly understand why some people get so worked up about this film, or that film.

The thing I find funniest, is idea that you have to be a certain type of person to enjoy a certain type of film, which I find strange, this comes out a lot on IMDb, maybe it’s the age of the people writing they are maybe adolescent in their attitudes, and so have this desire to be one thing or the other.

Personally I find sometimes I like crap and will freely admit to enjoying some of the worst type blockbusters that are around, in the eyes of some film critics they are total rubbish. But I like them because I love films, and I managed to see them in the best possible way to view whatever blockbuster it maybe, I loved Transformers 3 in 3D on an IMAX screen, who cared the story was rubbish that wasn’t why I liked it. I couldn’t watch it again on a small screen it would be dreadful, but on a massive screen these films are cool, and I am a crazy old guy, not some young fanboy (as they are called, not sure why they are called that).

Similarly though I can enjoy, The Tree of Life, or Melancholia, in the right setting they are amazing, but I doubt I would like them at the cinema weirdly. To me they are more personal films you need to savour; they bring out emotions I don’t want to share at the cinema. I loved Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris it was fantastic film, yet I can still enjoy an old Doug McClure film which is really second rate, though can be enjoyable if in the right mood for such a film (you really have to be in a certain mood to like a Doug McClure film believe me).

Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn are two of my favourite actors; I love everything they have done, including the less popular stuff. I even like musicals and I’m not gay, I think some of the greatest films ever made are musicals.

I just feel you can have more than one type of taste in film, you can like Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and Barry Lyndon, two of my favourite films. As well as liking Steven Spielberg’s Jaws and Indiana Jones trilogy or should I say quadrilogy, are also some of my favourite films. You can enjoy miserable boring films as much as exciting thrillers, comedies, horror, sex and violence, even kids films.

I suppose the best example of difference is Alien and Aliens, you can like both even though they are totally different, I even love the third one, David Fincher’s first film I think, and the fourth. I can’t wait to see Prometheus, as Ridley Scott is one of my favourite directors, Blade Runner is a classic, but I can still like all James Bond films, and Harry Potter.

At least I can because I just love films, and hate them of course, especially certain ones. I have the certain films like everyone does I suspect, that I just will never like and don’t understand how they are popular, but they vary. I hate Apocalypse Now and Seven Samurai, I don’t see why people like ET, or Braveheart, and I’m not too keen on Close Encounters of the Third Kind, or A Clockwork Orange for that matter.

Films give me an emotional buzz at times when I am really enjoying one, yet they can also make me feel bored to death, if not in the right frame of mind. Anyway I just thought I would write about films instead of the other stuff I’ve been writing about recently.

A Portrait of Adolf Hitler in colour how dreadful

I am as I have said many times fascinated by the Second World War, it does beggar belief how stupid we humans can be and the lengths some people will go to get power and control. Now is there any need to see the most hated man of the last century in colour, come on.

I can understand making the whole war into colour it adds to the realisation of the horror being created, but the smelly psycho who hoodwinked a nation, do we really need to see him in colour? I watched the Third Reich in colour and that was fascinating, but next we will see him in 3D and then we will have him as nearly being whole again, and that cannot happen.

It is a wonder how such a little thug could end up at the top of the pile of most infamous evil bastards of the last century. He had a lot of competition, nearest rival being good old Stalin, but Stalin put the fear of god into everyone who knew him, whereas Hitler was for a time a short time loved and admired by millions of delusionists in his country and many others. They say Henry Ford was the first foreign dignitary to receive some kind of Nazi award, and Hugo Boss designed the uniforms for the SS, just think of that whilst you’re driving home tonight, in your Ford whatever and your designer suit.

What the hell did he have, it really makes me wonder, because if you ever see the excellent docudrama starring Robert Carlyle you see he was a Nazi sorry nasty bastard for quite a while. And he use and abused many to get where he was the most powerful man in Europe. Women would wet their knickers over the guy; it just shows you does it not. He was an ugly little waster, who was not even intelligent, he ran his party like a school ground bully would run a playground, and somehow he was allowed to be master of nearly all of Europe, and be responsible for the deaths of millions of people, many in horrific, torturous and barbaric ways.

Why was he allowed, he was allowed because the world was in deep crisis, because of the bloody banks, and the crash of 1929, Germany had nothing, it was penniless and in debt up to their eyeballs and had a great many disgruntled ex soldiers, who were slightly pissed off that they had lost the last war; the supposed Great War, the war to end all wars, the war that never really ended.

There was in-house fighting between the right and the left, and one balled one won. According to the documentary, Hitler was even accused of having his own cousin or some relation he was having a sordid affair with, murdered though it was said she committed suicide, she claimed he made her perform sick sex acts and she wanted to leave him. Yet he still rose to power and was loved by his people, some of them were deluded right up to the end, even after seeing the death camps, he had brain washed them so totally they believed anything and everything they were told.

Makes you wonder doesn’t it.

How to start a peaceful revolution

There is a fascinating documentary on right now on Current TV, never normally watch Current TV, because they have never had anything worth watching. Occasionally they have shown good documentaries and this seems to be one of them.

But...

The documentary is called, “How to start a peaceful revolution”, it revolves around a book called ‘From Dictatorship to Democracy’. It goes into great detail about how to down a dictatorship, using peaceful means which is excellent.

The problem now is we need a book that tells us how to go from corrupt centralised, government based democracy, to safe, peaceful, equality based democracy.

They are just as bad, just as corrupt and dangerous, this is the next step, once the dictators and despots are beaten then how do we get rid of the hidden dictators and despots.

You know the ones I mean, they are just as bad, just as likely to cause a war.