Rick's b.log - entry 2025/07/09

Palestine Action

Yes, Palestine Action are now terrorists. They stand shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Al Qaida and...

Wait, what?

One bunch of medieval terror bastards hijacked airplanes, brought down two skyscrapers, and murdered at least three thousand people in one day, and seriously shook America's self-confidence by bringing the fight not only onto their own soil but hitting the heart of the country's financial district...not to mention everything else they got up to that tended to end up with people dying in horrible ways.
The closest the other dumbarses got to a plane was chucking paint on it, and I'm not aware that they have either killed or attempted to kill anybody particularly given their whole thing was stop the killing.

This is like putting a jet fighter next to a child's paper airplane and saying "they're the same".

What the fuck is wrong with my country? Are they so scared of offending Israel (like most of the rest of the first world countries) that they will try to draw a direct equivalence between actual psycho because-religion-murderers and a bunch of people failing at protesting to stop a grave injustice?

Clearly I do not support Palestine Action. I support the message that they were doing so miserably at communicating - namely that what is happening in Palestine (both sides of it now that some brutal thugs cutely called "Settlers" are stealing more and more land on the West Bank while the world looks away) is abominable.
But I do not support Palestine Action themselves. Not because it is now illegal to do so, but because, like those Just Stop Oil twats, public acts of vandalism doesn't spread a message, it just makes a person and the cause they support look like a right bunch of dickheads.
Well, I guess that's a message. Just not the one they were aiming for.

But to call them terrorists to silence opposition to Israel - you Temu Tories are complete arseholes, you should all be ashamed of yourselves.

There's little that I can do, other than rant on a blog post that few people ever read (and I'm sure my pet troll will be along soon to tell me how purile and hateful I am being because I actually give a crap about the deaths of innocent civilians, but whatever)...all I can hope is that, some time in the future when we're all long dead and this is written about for kids to learn at school along with Romans and King Henry VIII and the three world wars, they will all look back at what was going on and judge this with appropriate harshness.

And for those who think I'm overeacting - ask yourself this: How is classing this group as "terrorism" justified? Proscribing this group not only blurs the definition of what "terrorism" means, it also sets a rather awful precedent for what to do with groups that are inconvenient. Today it is some people waving placards and throwing paint in support of Palestinians. Tomorrow? Maybe it'll be The Guardian because it's too lefty? Maybe the tofu-eating wokerati that read that newspaper should be considered harmful? Or maybe it'll be whatever it is that you believe in.

Palestine Action are idiots and vandals, and by all means lock up the paint throwers, but calling them terrorists is a total fiction invented by people who are happy to look at hundreds upon hundreds of dead and wounded children and say "yeah, I'm okay with that".

Throwing shade

A big tree.

There were actually two out front, but one was brought down in a storm in December 2011, and the other tree was about the same size.

Fast forward thirteen and a bit years, it's now quite a bit larger. It's been on my hit list for a while as it is now large enough that if a strong southern wind blew, it would damage the house. If a strong southwest wind blew (the usual direction) it would be in danger of damaging the house.

And since it's a pine, one can't just cut it back and have it grow as a bushy thing from the crown. Pines don't work like that.

Some friends from up in the village were around a while back when I was saying that I'd have to get the tree guy back to do something with it, when they were like "oh, we can do that".

Well, all things going to plan, tomorrow is the day some of it (the parts most likely to fall on the house) will be lopped. I'll be at work...

I'll miss the shade the tree gives, it's quite welcome in the summer, but averting potential structural damage is just a tad more important.

Your comments:

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John, 9th July 2025, 22:18

It's "puerile" from Latin "puer" - "boy".    OK, it may have been a typo, and correcting other's "grammar" may be old-fashioned (as am I), but mistakes are "creeping-in", and need a firm hand!

C Ferris, 9th July 2025, 22:31

Bits from our Bible - Let my people go - it was there choice to do what the did in Israel - it's sad - but what did they expect would happen - very sad all around :-((  We've been occupied for hundreds of years and governed by the English and have to put up with it!

C Ferris, 9th July 2025, 22:34

Are the pines lower branches ok - if so just chop the top bit off  Look a bit naff - but it should live.

C Ferris, 9th July 2025, 22:57

Perhaps these bods that damaged some airplane engines - should be given a job testing the fences of various aerodromes:-/

Rick, 9th July 2025, 23:23

Colin: It was a small group of hotheads that decided to attack Israel, not the entire populace. Anybody with half a brain could see that doing such a foolish thing would end badly. I think I wrote back at the time that there was going to be a biblical level of retribution. Poking Israel is like poking a bear - you just don't.    John: Thanks. It was late and I was tired and still had a bunch of other things to do so...at least, look at it this way, the odd typo slipping through means it's written by a real person and not a bot. That's getting increasingly hard to find online these days. 😐

Rick, 9th July 2025, 23:25

Colin: occupied for hundreds of years and governed by the English - given that we Brits are usually The Bad Guys in history, that doesn't narrow it down a lot, does it? 🥺  I'm going to guess - Emerald Isle? ☘️

C Ferris, 10th July 2025, 00:43

I find it interesting when the BBC say "Occupied West Bank" but don't say "Occupied Tibet" or "Occupied Wales" etc French people conquered England and very brutality sugected the English.

jgh, 10th July 2025, 02:02

Starmer has stated we are on a war footing against Russia, so anybody sabotaging military facilities is damn lucky they weren't shot on sight.

Jake, 10th July 2025, 20:48

"like those Just Stop Oil twats, public acts of vandalism doesn't spread a message"  People like you would have condemned the suffragettes.

Rick, 10th July 2025, 21:20

Historically speaking, acts of vandalism didn't help the suffragettes either.    https://historyreclaimed.co.uk/smashing-paintings-did-not -work-for-the-suffragettes-it-will-not-work-for-just-stop-oil/

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