Alice in Sunderland.

I have had a few days observing and participating in the perpetual - playground bun-fight - that is the CharnalWorld Forum. A macabre twilight world, populated by peculiar and anthropomorphic water creatures. An English country village of floating voters, just downwind from reality. A place of potatoes and turnips and garnished with a chamber pot of evil sprouts. Unfortunately through a series of unsavoury and unhygienic encounters with one or two of the vegetables denizens. I have been tempted once more Jonathan Aitken like, to wield the sword of truth and honesty. Once more exposing the ways of the proletariat rule bending few. It's been the predictable experience, I expected it to be and it was, just so.

So what heated up the conversation to defcon 5. What dire deed did your scribe do that riled and rattled the bars of the the soiled sprouts cage. What was it that the sprouts found to be so evil and fiendish?

(Start Quote)

I posted this:-

I just came across this link...
http://www.canalrivertrust.org.uk/
But it only goes to waterscape so far....
And this on facebook
http://www.facebook....canalrivertrust
Change from BW to CaRT is going on a pace.

It started ignominiously with the predictable hostile outpouring of sprout flatulence:-

So where exactly do you expect it to go, other than Waterscape? Isn't this just like your thread criticising them for not making themselves known to the Charities Commission, even though they did not exist and, as the CC pointed out to you, they didn't need to know about them until they are ready to become a charity? Perhaps you should keep your powder dry until the launch, next April, rather than jump the gun, 4 months before the organisation is even created.

I replied with this:-

Predictable.

The sprout replied:-

Oh stop it. It was a valid point and a genuine attempt at discussion. If you can't have an adult discussion, without your repetitive childishness, why bother trying to start one?

I replied:-

Predictable.

http://www.theadminz...ad.php?p=550712
The OP reminds me of someone...

The sprout replied:-

So now you are hijacking your own thread for the sole purpose of attacking me. Pathetic! You are the person you seem to despise so much...I pity you.

I replied :-

Another predictable outcome but then the truth always hurts.

The sprout replied :-

What truth? You are the one attempting to stalk me with your incessant "predictables". You are just being pathetic and I shall no longer respond to your ridiculous sniping. I have reported your incessant attempts to bait me into an argument, then tell everyone what a troll or bully I am. If you don't like me then put me on your ignore list. You are deliberately trying to disrupt the forum then lay the blame at me.That fits your definition of internet bullying quite nicely.

I replied :-

I started the thread and you joined me - and in your mind I'm the stalker? Saying that things are predictable when I have already predicted the outcome is sniping?

A sweet potato replied:-

Frankly I am gob-smacked at some of the replies to this post. It contains a few lines of information stating that a website and a FB site has been set up in the name of CaRT. As might be expected, the website still links to Waterscape. I am quite interested in this info., and am grateful to the OP. Why are numerous members getting their knickers in a knot?

End Quote

I also posted exactly the same comment on several other forums, including Narrowboat World. I did this so that I could get a measure of balance and to replicate the reactions of the users on a different forums. In the same time period there was just a single reply:-

Narrowboat World user:-

I expect most people already know this, but the Canal and River Trust have also registered at Companies House - Company Number 07807276. They registered on 12/10/11.

It does not get any better on CharnalWorld Forum. In fact it goes down hill fast. There was a great deal more, but I will spare you the full tiresome diatribe.  The sprout who said I had hi-jacked my own thread. Then engaged in a conversation about teapots. 

I did a snapshot of the whole debacle before the thread was removed. It seems to me that the sprout inmate might have been drinking a little to much of the brew in the teapot. The sprout has taken charge of CharnalWorld Forum and with some of the other veggies has created their own madhouse.

The people who should be enforcing decorum and acceptable behaviour on CharnalWorld Forum have obviously abrogated their responsibilities. Rather than lance the carbuncle for once and for all. The forum bully's are now encouraged to run riot and to escalate their actions to ever higher levels. Apparently with total impunity or are they being egged on and encouraged from above?

Is it because the team of moderators are out of their depth or running scared of the bullies. I do hope its not through the friendship of the perpetrators or through fear of reprisals. Courage in life is after all, a gift granted to few.

But I digress.

It's grim up't norf, so before we move on.

Theatre staff were left red faced after the letter T was missed out from Widow Twankey's name in their Christmas pantomime programme. The mistake at the Whitley Bay Playhouse in North Tyneside was blamed on human error and has now been corrected. The misprinted programme was withdrawn and an apology made to theatre goers. I somehow think the Widdow Wankey name is a bit more catchy then the original. Now who would not want to watch - Cat Wittington and his Dick!

A date for your calendar.

An extra UK Bank Holiday date in 2012 means smart people are already marking their calendars and booking the time off with their employers. Following the success of 2011's extra bank holiday for the Royal Wedding, 2012 sees an extra day added for the country to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee on Tuesday 5 June. It follows immediately after the Spring Bank Holiday on Monday 4 June - which means for many a week-long boating break will only involve taking three days off work.

With a nod to boating.

A judge has ordered an urgent hearing of a High Court challenge over Government plans to cut financial incentives for solar electricity. Environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth and two solar companies Solarcentury and HomeSun won the go-ahead to seek a ruling that the proposals are unlawful. The case centres on Government plans to cut feed-in tariff subsidies - payments made to households and communities that generate green electricity through solar panels - on any installations completed after Monday this week. Mr Justice Mitting, sitting in London, said the proposals had given rise to "economic risk" for those engaged in the solar industry. I'm trying to figure a way to get some feed-in tariff for the panels on the boat. Suggestions on a £10 note to the usual address.

In memorium.

This time last year our friend and neighbour Ken passed away. Somehow Christmas this year seems quite hollow. We are still missing his cheery smile and dry wit. The Christmas period can never be the same for Ken's family. Through the actions of fate, Christmas has been stolen from his family for ever

I wrote about Dennis Richie who recently passed away in my blog a few days ago. Maybe its as we get older that our mortality comes to the fore. That we are surprised and saddened when frends and notables who have a place in our life, pass away.

For many years I thought of Christopher Hitchens as a man of weired ideas and attention grabbing, self publicising attitude. I had read what others had written about "and what I thought at the time"  his outlandish statements on all sorts of things. Because I did not tend to read the publications that he wrote for. Then I started to read the man directly rather than the pastiches written about him by others. In a very strange way for a devout dyed-in-the-wool cynic, I actually grew to like and even admire the man.

I read his book "God Is Not Great" subtitled "The case against religion." Hitchens wrote that organised religion is "violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children." Furthermore it was "sectarian, and that accordingly, it ought to have a great deal on its conscience." Not a man to mince his thoughts and words.

Hitchens was known (even notorious) for his condemnation of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. His outspoken style of talking about any subject made him a controversial figure. He was also a fierce critic of the Bible, the Tora and in particular the Koran. Which he likened as being "fascism with an Islamic face".

Being an atheist myself, you might have thought there was some common ground between us. After reading the book, I realised that my atheism was based on a poor understanding of the whole gamut of problems brought about by religious beliefs. I was converted to the Hitchens view. Christopher has just died and I feel the world has lost a good advocate for calling into question religion and the intolerance between different beliefs.

Later....