Tuesday 31 January 2012

Welcome back...



Pausing only for a quick 'we are not worthy', the rabbit is delirious to see that total class act Beau Bo D'Or has returned! Welcome back, Sir!




Meanwhile in the land of the free all was not well for two British would be tourists named Lee Van Fryer and Emily Bunting after a twitter announcement that they were going to 'destroy America' and 'dig up Marilyn Monroe' (presumably to measure her - erm - ass for identification purposes - see below). Result: stopped by armed guards at Los Angeles International Airport, interrogated for 5 hours, handcuffed and locked up with various Mexican drug dealers etc. before being deported. Oh and their luggage was searched for spades. Dear Department of Homeland security - Now about that British sense of humour...


Admittedly the less than dynamic duo do look like a pair of dolts, but if this were grounds for banning people from international travel, then there would not be much of it about.




Meanwhile all is not well on the liberty front in the UK. The above is John Marjoram who is Mayor of Stroud, a Quaker and a pacifist. He refused to fill in his 2011 census form as a statement against the involvement of the defence contractor Lockheed Martin UK, which won the contract to run the census. At about the time of the census was the first anniversary of Lockheed Martin's military hardware being used to give Gaza the Guernica treatment. He is to be prosecuted for failing to fill in his census form.


Apparently 1.6 million census forms were not returned. are 1.6 million people to be prosecuted? Nope - apparently about 400 so far with 120 convictions. It is generally agreed in official circles that the census is an anachronistic and unproductive exercise and will not be repeated. 


On what basis has John Majoram been singled out for prosecution? Could it be that he is being prosecuted because he took a stand on principle and did what authoritarians and bossyboots everywhere hate - he showed dissent? Slightly disturbingly - and for reason so far unexplained - he is not to be prosecuted in his home town of Stroud but some distance away in Bristol. No doubt if he couldn't be bothered filling in his census form or simply 'forgot' he would be most unlikely to be prosecuted. Below - as a small sign of support - is a picture of the founder of the Quakers - George Fox - once imprisoned for 'disturbing the peace' (the authorities tend to suffer an irony deficit). It is to be hoped that his latter day follower does not suffer a similar fate.



2 comments:

sybil law said...

Wow. In trouble for not filling out a census. The horrors!
Uh, and sorry about the Homeland Security thing. Ridiculous.

tony said...

Good To See Mr Bo is back....We Really do need his sharp wit in these strange times.