Spinneyhead

In the USA Homeland Security recently released two reports. One assessed terror threats from left wing groups- environmentalists burning cars, anti-vivisectionists targetting scientists etc.- one from right wing groups. The report on the lefties didn't cause any fuss- the dangers are recognised and the only people defending such extreme actions are the ones carrying them out. But the right wing report caused all sort of controversy as self important pundits and Republican senators competed to shout loudest about how conservatives were being maligned by the mere suggestion that white people might participate in terrorism.

Then an abortion doctor was shot in his church, the guard at a Holocaust museum was killed by a white supremacist and a gun nut killed three police officers. The poor victimised conservatives are a bit quieter now, apart from the ones trying to argue that Hitler was a Socialist and therefore the anti-semitic killer was a liberal.

We don't have quite such a collection of idiots over here, though Richard Littlejohn and Melanie Phillips are trying to make up for that. But we do have a bias of reporting and opinion that the ones we should be scared of are all muslims. What we don't get is anything more than a passing reference to the other people who'd like to kill those they don't agree with. The biggest haul of weaponry recovered by the Police belonged to a bunch of white racists and another, arrested for something else entirely, was planning a bombing campaign against the "non-British".

"First we get the military, then we get the nation"

2009-06-30T12:13:00.002+01:00

This is the sort of thing I've based the lunatic holy warriors of the US military in Sounds of Soldiers on- the chaplain at Camp David, the presidential retreat, is a member of a group that wants to turn the US military into a Christian military and use them to install a theocracy in the States and then the rest of the world.

Let's make Chebureki, and to hell with our arteries!

2009-06-30T09:24:00.003+01:00

Chebureki could be described as Russian (or Georgian, depending upon the recipe) fried pasties.

More Russian recipes at Ruscuisine.com

A "modern famous Russian cook" makes Chebureki.

Tweets today

2009-06-29T23:05:00.001+01:00

23:40 Blog: Tweets today tinyurl.com/kv24l8 #

03:46 Blog: Sounds of Soldiers - Passing Judgement tinyurl.com/krqcs5 #

11:52 Banquo's Ghosts sounds like the exact opposite of Sounds of Soldiers is.gd/1hVED #

12:47 This week's Orange Wednesday film is Blood: The Last Vampire @ 7.20 @ amc #

15:30 Blog: How to take street portraits tinyurl.com/p4zrnl #

17:11 TwittGeek - Automatically follow geeks like you on Twitter twittgeek.com #

19:41 Blog: The cherry stout experiment begins tinyurl.com/l8yhbs #

20:28 You write one mini chapter about shooting a man and suddenly all the ads on your blog are for bulletproof vests. What's the world coming to? #

22:32 Fudoh - The New Generation was bizarre, bloody and very Japanese- death by quim propelled dart anyone? is.gd/1ipCr #

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The cherry stout experiment begins

2009-06-29T17:12:00.001+01:00

The cherry stout experiment begins, originally uploaded by spinneyhead.

It would have been cherry beer, but the cherries were beginning to rot and there was some Mackeson's left from an earlier experiment. The volume of liquid will increase when I work out what I can add to the mix.

How to take street portraits

2009-06-29T12:40:00.000+01:00

Sounds of Soldiers - Passing Judgement

2009-06-28T23:39:00.004+01:00

Notes Quite rough, and straight off the keyboard. The soldier is named for Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly, two of the highest profile idiot right wing commentators in the USA.

I heard the crunch of running feet on the gravel fire track early enough that I could lay the long gun aside and raise the sub machine gun. I stepped back so I was partially shielded by a tree and waited.

Seconds later he rounded the corner a hundred or so metres away at a full run. He had the look of someone who had been surviving in a forest for weeks and he didn't have the orange armband that was the daily colour for friendly forces. "Halt!" I shouted as loud as my suddenly very dry throat would allow.

He hardly faltered as he raised his gun- a submachine almost identical to the one I'd snatched from an air drop the day before. I got off a three round burst, but judged it badly. All three kicked up dirt in front of him. But one kicked up and caught him in the right shin. He fell and tumbled, ending up sprawled on his back far from his weapon.

"Don't! Fucking! Move!"

He was still dazed. The pain from his shattered shin hadn't started to register. "Fuck you! Show yourself, coward!"

"Hands where I can see them!"

"You're English? Ain't you? You fags are next when we've finished with the French. We're going to wipe all you islamofascist lovers out!"

"Haven't you heard? Your country doesn't exist any more. You won't be doing anything more than dying."

"I'm not afraid of dying. The Lord my God will judge me."

"Will he? What will he think of raping a ten year old after making her watch her family being killed. What will your Lord God think of that?"

For a moment there was fear and doubt on his face. "That wasn't me."

His right hand had been moving around all the time. No doubt he was going for his back up weapon. I'd steadied my aim after the first burst and was now confident I had the middle of his chest perfectly targeted. "Tell that to the folks coming to meet me. Some of them are related to that girl. All of them have lost someone to you cunts."

He stopped on the way to his weapon. This time I fired a three shot burst into his chest. And then another to be certain.

When the squad found me again I'd laid him out for burial and taken his name for the records.

I killed Corporal Glenn O'Reilly in a forest in the South of France five days after his countrymen detonated nuclear weapons within their own borders. The country he had been fighting for had ceased to exist in a dozen mushroom clouds.

Tweets today

2009-06-28T23:05:00.001+01:00

23:53 Blog: The guns of Piccadilly tinyurl.com/mppjgb #

23:53 Blog: Just can't be chained to a life where nothing's gained tinyurl.com/m8w6pp #

23:53 Blog: Tweets today tinyurl.com/kuanbo #

11:38 Watching Damian test assemble my tent. Surprisingly little farce so far. #

11:43 Farce attained. But he'll have my eye out if he's not careful. #

11:43 Blog: Imagine how much faster you could plant potatoes with a potato gatling gun tinyurl.com/m8pz2b #

11:47 Luckily he'll be sharing the tent with a civil engineer who'll be able to sort everything out. #

21:41 The highway's filled with heroes on a last chance power drive. #

21:47 Boken heroes #

21:48 Broken! Bloody TwitterFox! #

21:50 Bokken are wooden practice swords. Bokken Heroes could potentially be an awesome martial arts film. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokken #

22:04 Why does Ebay get so offended when you try to leave Neutral feedback? I could understand it for negative, but not neutral. #

22:32 Ooohhh Nunchaku www.bokkenshop.co.uk/Nunchaku.htm #

22:36 Or perhaps Jo www.bokkenshop.co.uk/jo.htm I always thought it was spelt Djo. A certain ex girlfriend had one. Miss it more than her. #

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Imagine how much faster you could plant potatoes with a potato gatling gun

2009-06-28T11:14:00.002+01:00

Via Living the Scientific Life

Tweets today

2009-06-27T23:05:00.001+01:00

23:29 Blog: Tweets today tinyurl.com/pbc6lb #

12:50 Just managed to destroy the valve on my bike's front tyre whilst fixing a puncture. It's going to be that kind of day. #

13:24 New innertube fitted. Let's try again. #

13:55 Buses backed up from Piccadilly to Kro 2. Glad I fixed the puncture. #

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Just can't be chained to a life where nothing's gained

2009-06-27T21:05:00.003+01:00

She would never say where she came from
Yesterday don't matter if it's gone
While the sun is bright
Or in the darkest night
No one knows
She comes and goes

Goodbye, ruby tuesday
Who could hang a name on you?
When you change with every new day
Still I'm gonna miss you...

Don't question why she needs to be so free
She'll tell you it's the only way to be
She just can't be chained
To a life where nothing's gained
And nothing's lost
At such a cost

There's no time to lose, I heard her say
Catch your dreams before they slip away
Dying all the time
Lose your dreams
And you will lose your mind.
Ain't life unkind?

Goodbye, ruby tuesday
Who could hang a name on you?
When you change with every new day
Still I'm gonna miss you...

Ruby Tuesday - Rolling Stones

The guns of Piccadilly

2009-06-27T19:29:00.001+01:00

The guns of Piccadilly, originally uploaded by spinneyhead.

Armed Forces day in Manchester.

Tweets today

2009-06-26T23:06:00.001+01:00

23:45 Blog: Tweets today tinyurl.com/mg2zqz #

00:42 Blog: RIP Michael Jackson tinyurl.com/kqq72l #

11:49 I've been trapped inside video editing for 3 of the best days this year. I need to ride somewhere. #

12:20 Spotted bike bits in the Mersey- probably unrecoverable. Found crappy frame in scrap merchants who had no use for it. #

16:27 Lots of Police outside the Arndale car park. Someone said it could be about a car jacking. #

17:28 Weirdest cover of Sweet Child of Mine playing in Nero. I'd hate to look into those eyes and see an ounce of pain. #

19:11 Where's our food??!! #

19:32 Blog: I don't think we're equipped to go motorbike fishing tinyurl.com/ns2zfg #

19:50 There's a Wurzels tribute band?! #

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I don't think we're equipped to go motorbike fishing

2009-06-26T15:47:00.001+01:00

I don't think we're equipped to go motorbike fishing, originally uploaded by spinneyhead.

RIP Michael Jackson

2009-06-25T23:55:00.001+01:00

The plastic king of pop has died of a heart attack in a hospital in Los Angeles.

Let the rumours that he's hiding out in the woods with Elvis begin.

Tweets today

2009-06-25T23:13:00.001+01:00

23:39 Blog: Transformers 2 is the ultimate arthouse film tinyurl.com/l635gj #

23:39 Blog: Tweets today tinyurl.com/maxbo3 #

11:43 Blog: How to build a high pressure steam boiler from scratch tinyurl.com/lmas7e #

11:43 Thunderbird is being super slow today. I think the Inbox folder has sailed past a useable size. #

12:27 @manchesterisace Oklahoma might. I'd start any search in the Northern Quarter. #

15:48 MAcs may be lovely, wonderful machines but could they please make it easier for me to choose where I want to save things to! #

16:10 @SkippyUK Not in Compressor. It offers no obvious way of changing where it saves files to. Really bloody annoying. #

18:46 Blog: The baloney detection kit tinyurl.com/mzeupp #

19:44 Blog: RIP Farrah Fawcett tinyurl.com/mcuopl #

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RIP Farrah Fawcett

2009-06-25T18:34:00.000+01:00

The Charlie's Angels actress has died aged 62.

The baloney detection kit

2009-06-25T17:32:00.001+01:00

via BoingBoing

How to build a high pressure steam boiler from scratch

2009-06-25T10:56:00.002+01:00

Modern Alchemy from Patrick Johnson on Vimeo.

The whole thing is lovely, but I looked at the wheels and went "I want some of those for a bike!"

via BoingBoing