Your Information in the Govt's Hands

[Chris Newman]

The major factor, Steve, is the growth of internet usage. In the Middle East and Asia, intenet access has doubled in the past three years. People of evil intent form groups and transmit intelligence via forums, blogs and comments, often coded. Mobile phones are useful to them, but it's common knowledge that calls are relatively easily traceable, so they've found other ways. That's why a knowledge of where people visit would be so useful. Patterns would become evident.

How many of these quotations fit Simon's view of the world? I see that a pattern is becoming evident?

Being closer to the genesis of this whole period, it captured the importance of the concept of making contact and accurately depicted the paranoia of the time. It's an excellent film.
Dwight Schultz

But when I first got cancer, after the initial shock and the fear and paranoia and crying and all that goes with cancer - that word means to most people ultimate death - I decided to see what I could do to take that negative and use it in a positive way.
Herbie Mann

Coming from Canada, being a writer and Jewish as well, I have impeccable paranoia credentials.
Mordecai Richler

I always feel like an interloper when I do serious drama. It's my own paranoia.
Johnny Vegas

I don't believe in fate or destiny. I believe in various degrees of hatred, paranoia, and abandonment. However much of that gets heaped upon you doesn't matter - it's only a matter of how much you can take and what it does to you.
Henry Rollins

I got this idea about being afraid to let go of something and being afraid of sinking into a state of almost anesthesia, where you have to trust other people. Just the paranoia of it all. And it seemed to suit the frenetic track. So I just wrote it out and, you know, said it.
Nick Rhodes

I think paranoia can be instructive in the right doses. Paranoia is a skill.
John Shirley

I'm scared to death of being poor. It's like a fat girl who loses 500 pounds but is always fat inside. I grew up poor and will always feel poor inside. It's my pet paranoia.
Cher

Imagine a thousand more such daily intrusions in your life, every hour and minute of every day, and you can grasp the source of this paranoia, this anger that could consume me at any moment if I lost control.
Jack Henry Abbott


Paranoia is an illness I contracted in institutions. It is not the reason for my sentences to reform school and prison. It is the effect, not the cause.
Jack Henry Abbott

People can get obsessed with romance, they can get obsessed with political paranoia, they can get obsessed with horror. It's isn't the fault of the subject matter that creates the obsession, I don't think.
Adam Arkin

Pol Pot carried out through the years enormous purges against his own followers because of his paranoia.
Sydney Schanberg

Princess Rose should indeed be a TV movie, assuming something doesn't go wrong. I don't know how good a movie it will be, because the way movie folk think is different from the way writers think, and I distrust what isn't done my way. This is what I call a healthy paranoia.
Piers Anthony

Sometimes paranoia's just having all the facts.
William S. Burroughs

[Vile Consort]

Not at all - if you or anyone else can come up with a rational or logical argument, based on need and facts, as opposed to a knee-jerk emotional response based on anti-authority liberalism, I'd be happy to read it and evaluate it. If it were convincing, I'd have to accept it.

You contradict yourself, sir. You told us not many hours ago there could not possibly be a logical argument. Which is it to be?

[Vile Consort]

To answer a silly questrion with a gravity it doesn't deserve, because that would be too great an infringement of liberty in a democratic and generally free society and because nobody from the security services would wish to get involved in it.

And anyway, what gives you the right to decide what is and is not too great an infringement of liberty? Don't the rest of us get a say?

[Simon]

How many of these quotations fit Simon's view of the world?

Not sure that's helpful, Mr Newman. I don't think that the liberal left is being paranoid about it, though it's true that some of their wilder conspiracy theories are wide of the mark. I think it's just that they are naive, because, in general, they are good and decent people who wish well to the world. Sadly, to defeat bad people one sometimes has to use means that one would prefer not to adopt. Such is life.

[scottycelt]

As to perverts etc, why waste money on scruting everyone's phone messages, e-mails etc., when we all know that most of them are family members or priests or vicars (ok scotty?)

Not 'ok' at all, Amsey ... if, as I confidently predict, your rather narrow definition of 'perversion' means the single, dreadful crime of child abuse.

If official statistics are correct it is certainly true that the vast majority of child abuse is committed in the home. Outside of that there is no evidence that priests or vicars of any denomination have a higher proportion of offenders than any other section of society, though offences of such a heinous nature are particularly appalling when committed by men of the cloth, and therefore understandably gain more publicity.

What is also undeniably true is that many child abuse cases involve acts committed by men (both religious and secular) against young boys rather than girls.

I'm sure you will agree, Amsey, that all the unpalatable facts in these distressing cases should be freely aired at the appropriate time, however inconvenient and uncomfortable those might be to anyone here ...

Now can we please get back on-topic, so other members can concentrate on the particular subject in hand ... ?

[Simon]

You contradict yourself, sir. You told us not many hours ago there could not possibly be a logical argument. Which is it to be?

No contradiction. I don't believe there is. But if there were, and somebody came up with it, I'd accept it.

Meanwhile, I suppose people like you will be posting irrelevancies such as the above that don't further the discussion.

[Vile Consort]

Collapse of stout party.

[Simon]

And anyway, what gives you the right to decide what is and is not too great an infringement of liberty? Don't the rest of us get a say?

Of course you do. I'd be delighted to read cogent arguments instead of one-liners that don't achieve anything and that distract from the main point.

As to the comment above, I thought that most would agree that implanting GPS chips at birth to track people in the future was a fairly big step to take as regards curtailing liberty, but if you feel differently, please let us know. I for one would be fascinated.

[amateur51]

Not 'ok' at all, Amsey ... if, as I confidently predict, your rather narrow definition of 'perversion' means the single, dreadful crime of child abuse.

If official statistics are correct it is certainly true that the vast majority of child abuse is committed in the home. Outside of that there is no evidence that priests or vicars of any denomination have a higher proportion of offenders than any other section of society, though offences of such a heinous nature are particularly appalling when committed by men of the cloth, and child abuse against young boystherefore understandably gain more publicity.

What is also undeniably true is that many child abuse cases involve acts committed by men (both religious and secular) against young boys rather than girls.

I'm sure you will agree, Amsey, that all the unpalatable facts in these distressing cases should be freely aired at the appropriate time, however inconvenient and uncomfortable those might be to anyone here ...

Now can we please get back on-topic, so other members can concentrate on the particular subject in hand ... ?

Twas Simon who raised the topics of perversion & child abuse, scotty, so there's no point having a go at me for answering him.

You tell us that the data shows (you apparently have access to it) that the gentlemen of the cloth do not offend more than your average Jack or Jill Citizen do against children. That's a bit of a facer, because we know that particularly amongst Catholic priests their offences are very often not recorded until many years later because their superiors cover up for them and do not report them to the secular police.So at any moment the recorded data will be 'out' by a considerable factor because of the deliberately hidden assaults.

You appear to be suggesting that adult male sexual crimes against children are more towards male children than towards female children. But the incidence of female child abuse is something like 1:4 - are you suggesting that the incidence of male child abuse is higher? Or are you saying that more women are implicated in the abuse of female children?

[Simon]

Now can we please get back on-topic, so other members can concentrate on the particular subject in hand ... ?

Oh dear. We've had a contribution from Amateur 51, have we?

In fact, the sort of perverts that would be caught in the net were the proposed changes to be agreed would be the bigger fish - the child pornography rings that cross many frontiers and the slavery rings that operate largely from eastern Europe and north Africa. Whilst it is true that an individual child in the UK is more at risk from someone known to him/her than a stranger in terms of abuse, that abuse, though terrible, is on a small scale compared to those who disappear into an underworld of vice each year across Europe. In other words, they are abused to death and their bodies disposed of.

Allowing people to record the internet sites I visit would, for me, be a small price to pay to stop even one instance of this. But I don't expect everyone to agree, of course.

[MrGongGong]

No contradiction. I don't believe there is. But if there were, and somebody came up with it, I'd accept it.

NO you bloody wouldn't because your bigoted arrogance means that your "logic" dictates that no-one except your paranoid self could ever be right. Now I think you have broken the terms of your parole by referring to someone you are "ignoring" ........

[teamsaint]

Reducing pension rights - had to be done, or the money would have run out. That's reality, as opposed to the last lot's "spend what we don't have and rack up the credit" policy which has caused all the mess we're now in. (And which similar policy, incidentally, caused the problems in Greece when their own brand of socialist spendthrifts did it - but unfortunately the Greeks didn't have the chance to vote in a government with the guts to stop it in the nick of time).

Privatising the NHS - isn't happening, despite what you read in the Daily Mirror!

Trebling tuition fees - had to happen, and FE is still free via the loan scheme until people can really afford to pay it back. Again, there was no money to keep going as we were: as the outgoing Treasury team said, "there's no money left". They'd hocked us up to our necks.

Instigating fuel crises - ignoring thr plural, this episode of silliness has come about due to hysteria in the media and the stupidity of a lot of people, based on a throwaway remark by one politician. Hardly a major piece of evil intent!

Fighhting wars on spurious grounds - not sure which one you mean, but the only one that the present Government has started was to topple an evil dictator who was killing his own people in Libya. Allowing for the expected settling down period, currently ongoing, it worked very well, cost no British lives from direct action and saved thousands of Libyan innocents from a grisly fate. So if you think that's bad, I wonder what planet you're on.

Next...

since I have a day off tomorrow I shall take the time to reply, though it's not going to help my enjoyment of the smetana piano Trio,but hey ho, all in a good cause !!
Pensions being cut. This doesn't have to be done. Teachers, for instance, had already agreed substantial reductions in benefits. And it is the government that won't publish audited accounts, doubtless because they show more going into the pot than coming out.

The huge increase in government borrowing is actually almost exclusively down to the cash poured into the banks. Fact.

The NHS IS being privatised, or at least very substantially handed over to private interests. Nobody voted for this. And its not just the mirror that says it.Even the doctors do.

Trebling tuition fees. So the millionaires in the cabinet tell us AGAIN that it HAS to happen.(handy for them that it won't really affect their kids.) But it doesn't have to happen. It is going to cost money, not save it, as even the simplest economic mind can tell.

Fuel crises....plural because it may well happen again, or be superceded by the hyping up of some other non existent threat.

The question of wars fought on spurious grounds.........your question "which one" tells us all we need to know. Labour are as guilty as the village idiots in charge now.
Anything else I can help with ?

[Simon]

since I have a day off tomorrow I shall take the time to reply, though it's not going to help my enjoyment of the smetana piano Trio,but hey ho, all in a good cause !!
Pensions being cut. This doesn't have to be done. Teachers, for instance, had already agreed substantial reductions in benefits. And it is the government that won't publish audited accounts, doubtless because they show more going into the pot than coming out.

The huge increase in government borrowing is actually almost exclusively down to the cash poured into the banks. Fact.

The NHS IS being privatised, or at least very substantially handed over to private interests. Nobody voted for this. And its not just the mirror that says it.Even the doctors do.

Trebling tuition fees. So the millionaires in the cabinet tell us AGAIN that it HAS to happen.(handy for them that it won't really affect their kids.) But it doesn't have to happen. It is going to cost money, not save it, as even the simplest economic mind can tell.

Fuel crises....plural because it may well happen again, or be superceded by the hyping up of some other non existent threat.

The question of wars fought on spurious grounds.........your question "which one" tells us all we need to know. Labour are as guilty as the village idiots in charge now.
Anything else I can help with ?

If you're going to "help" me, teamsaint, you'll have to do a lot better than that. I don't really believe that you are serious.

Do you really believe that we don't have a massive defecit? Do you really believe that we can go on paying out high pensions to a massive state sector?

Your "fact" about the banks is sheer fiction. You've been believing the propaganda again! Look at what Labour spent - including our gold reserves - when in office. The bailout to the banks was a fraction of the total and according to reliable figures accounts for less than 25% of the problem.

I can't argue with your NHS point, because you provide no evidence. That doctors are against change doesn't surprise me. It's a shame that they weren't against the change that Labour made a few years ago which wrecked patient access and care and paid them thousands more!

I agree that there might be better ways to have handled the costs of education, but I'm afraid it did have to happen. FE as it was was unaffordable, primarily because of the last lot's insistence that 50% of kids should go to university, whether they were suited to it or not. (Another predicted result of this misguide policy of "equality" has been, of course, the dumbing down of A levels so that more of them could get under the bar).

As to the future fuel crises - I apologise. You must be right. I didn't know that you were precognitive. Oh dear!

[MrGongGong]

OH look he's come out from under the Rickety Rackety bridge again
maybe it's a good idea not to offer him a foie gras sandwich ?

[amateur51]

Your "fact" about the banks is sheer fiction. You've been believing the propaganda again! Look at what Labour spent - including our gold reserves - when in office. The bailout to the banks was a fraction of the total and according to reliable figures accounts for less than 25% of the problem.

I'd appreciate the data from which you draw this conclusion, please.