Murdochgate: A dangerous time

Rupert Murdoch's empire seems to be crashing around his ears. The Sun is now being targeted as possibly hacking phones and the FBI are investigating allegations of phone hacking of September 11 victims. All well and good, many of us dislike Murdoch and his empire. However there is something worrying here. Parliament are howling like a pack of wolves after Murdoch and his newspapers but I heard tonight that maybe other papers may be involved. It sounds to me like the start of a witch hunt. Using the public's outrage at the press Parliament could rush through legislation curbing their power. I'm no advocate of the tabloids but the recent exposure of the excesses of MP's  expenses was I think a valid use of journalism to expose what is a blatant misuse of privilege.

 So we need to keep a weather eye open to make sure the MP's don't further erode our rights by curbing those legitimate investigations by the press that uncover the cheats and scoundrels who purport to have our best interests a t heart.

Rupert Murdoch and the deathly Hackers

So the News Of The World hacked peoples mobiles,proving once again that journalists are the lowest of bottom feeders. All of a sudden the other newspapers and news media find that they are on this moral highground. From this rarified height with there heads held high they can cheerfully piss on Murdoch's head.
 The only difference between them and Murdoch is that he's been caught. I bet the rest of them have skeletons in the closet that they hope will never come  to light.
 It's strange that all this should come to a head now just as Murdoch had been given the go ahead to buy BSKYB. If I was a conspiracy theorist I'd say someone had been sitting on this waiting for the most opportune moment but all this came to light via the police and the government. They wouldn't do that, would they?

Music

Now I'm unashamedly locked into the 70's when it comes to music,particularly 70's prog rock. Is it just me or is modern music  so alike that it can be interchangeable? I like bands such as Cold Play and Snow Patrol but they could just as easily be called Snow Play and Cold Patrol they could also be dropped into a 70's rock gig and not be out of place.
Time was when you could hear an opening riff and identify the band fairly accurately even if you didn't know the song.
As for hip hop, rap and that genre of music well I think I'll refrain from commenting except to say I agree with George Harrison's comment that there is a silent C in rap.

Old Horror Films

Caught an old film on BBC4 last night. The Witchfinder General, starring Vincent Price. Based on the true character of Matthew Hopkins, during the English civil war. These old horror films are so dated now and the overacting makes them a bit comical. I must admit though I do like Vincent Price he always managed to bring a sense of menace to his performances.
Time was when on a Friday night you could settle down and watch a good Hammer Horror film. with Vincent Price or Christopher Lee or Peter Cushing. None of the splatter fests you get nowadays in horror films and I suppose they were a bit cheesy but they were fun.

News

I really must start taking some notice of the News again. Haven't had anything to rant about for ages. The problem is TV news is as bad as some of the worst of the tabloids sensationalising everything in a desperate need for ratings. 
Take for instance this recent E coli outbreak in Germany. Now I'm not trivialising it but there was no indication that anyone had caught the bug from anyone else. The only people in the UK that had it could be directly linked with visits to Germany and there were about eleven of them. Yet on the TV news out trots the "expert" to tell everyone about how it's resistant to antibiotics and how IF it ever became transmittable how much danger we could all be in. 
So here we go, it's the end of life as we know it all over again. Time was when the TV news concentrated on the facts but now with so many channels everything becomes a ratings war. I haven't bought a news paper in years because of this sensationalism. Now I find it hard to watch TV news for the same reason. Having to filter the facts from a torrent of bullshit makes me angry and I end up ranting about the content of the report instead of listening to the news.
Still I suppose if they stuck to the facts and reported objectively I'd have nothing to put in this blog.

If they say it's too good to be true.....

Had an email saying "Build your own website for free and earn money". Go on then I thought give it a go. So I clicked the link. At first it tells me that for about $90 I can get the pro version with 10 websites that will give me more income,or (in little print) I can continue with the free version. I clicked for the free." Sure you don't want the pro version?" it asked. again click on the little print for the free version. " absolutely the last time you'll never see this again. buy pro version for $90 instead of $190. You will not get this offer again!". Again I click on the small print for the free version and hey presto I go to the set up page. Whoopee. I select products write a review and move on to the next page which is getting a domain name. Think up a domain name and click for availability. Yes it's available at a cost of $24.99. Ok run that past me again... what part of this is free? I can do exactly the same on Google and it costs nothing. If it looks too good to be true, it usually is.

Measles

http://newsthump.com/2011/05/27/why-are-all-my-children-getting-measles-ask-homeopathy-fans/

The above link from Newsthump is a satirical look at the failure of some parents to have their children vaccinated against measles.
The scare about the MMR vaccine 10 years ago meant that a lot of people didn't get their kids immunised. 
I think people forget that until the arrival of penicillin measles was often a killer disease and even now can lead to complications. 
Measles is a very serious disease which I think the labelling under "Childhood diseases" tends to trivialise.