In defense of Sudoku

The year of the Japanese number puzzle is with us. Up and down the country we anxiously scribble numbers into little boxes while all the time the liberal press denounce it. Odd, I thought that the Guardian would have so many articles written against this innocent puzzle.

I can imagine many a 'typical' educated, liberal minded guardian reader pondering a challenging Sudoku over a mug of steamed latté. However, the gargantuan effort on behalf of The Sun to abuse this little number game in order to sell papers places the more likely image of a balding builder scratching his paint-speckled head over a pint of Stella.

Perhaps this is the reason for the Guardian's spite; it's a puzzle for the lower classes. The simple nature of Sudoku is hardly a match for a cryptic crossword.

Despite this the Guardian has finally succumbed to the nations latest craze and, in resplendent hypocrisy, they print theirs on page 2.

Election blues...

Well, it's been a while. To anyone who actually reads this, I'm very sorry but university work reared its ugly head. Normal service will now resume.

The votes have been cast, counted and already forgotten about but the results of yesterday's election have landed us with the bloody Tories, again. Both where my vote was counted (Essex) and where I live (Surrey SW) the Tories won, great.

As a Lib-Dem supporter for the whole of the campaign it was good to see them gain more seats but alas, Farnham will remain under the oppressive yoke of a middle-England, middle-class, xenophobic party.

"It is unnatural for a majority to rule, for a majority can seldom be organized and united for specific action, and a minority can." Jean- Jacque Rousseau

Blog Wars.

I would like to draw attention to a piece published (but since removed) by the angry dome and contested by little brown baby relating to the oh so delicate subject of dyslexia. It's true that it's contested as to what dyslexia actually is, and it's rarely taken seriously.

However, the point I would like to make is that out here on this great expanse of information and porn that we like to call the internet, we can write what we damn well please. I'm not condoning this argument from either side; I'm simply condoning the right of each and every one of us to rustle each others feathers from time to time.

It would have been far better to vent the anger at the institute and its supposed bungling of the magazine production and not simply rant on about dyslexia. However, the point here is free speech.

To be fired from the job of editor of a magazine simply for writing a frustrated and misguided blog post is, of course, ridiculous – especially when it has since been removed and grovelling apologies written. However, this is what happened as a result.

I smell the sordid stench of blood flowing from a wound in the back.

It seems that someone, somewhere was out to get him and presented his post to the powers that be. Surely that's a worse crime.

Bowling for Florida.

Something I read in the Guardian yesterday proves just how backward, desperate and bloodthirsty Americans really are.

Somewhere deep within a Florida state government building Jeb Bush had a thought. It may have hurt but then it wasn't a very big one.

Perhaps he was acting on 'advice' and 'evidence' presented to him by his big bro. That or it came to him during 'story time' with his hot milk and cookies.

This thought, requiring all two of Jeb's retired brain cells was that it would be a good idea to allow people to shoot other people on the street if they felt their life was threatened. All you have to do now to get away with murder in Florida is simply say: 'I felt threatened,' and that's it.

Ok, so the law is supposed to have those in mind who may get raped or mugged. But somehow I can't see many women and old people carrying weapons on the streets. Is it really the Wild West or is Jeb just making it more like his Texan home?

Well, the six million registered gun owners in the state can sleep peacefully in the knowledge that they've been given a licence to kill. "Yee ha, I'm a gonna go shoot me a nigga."

For God's sake, wear condoms.

Why are millions of people world-wide mourning the death of the pope?

His right wing papacy can be said to have increased the spread of AIDS and brought famine, death and hardship to many poor families across the globe.

Ok, so I'm atheistic and incredibly sceptical when it comes to organised religion, but I'm allowed to rant about this. The biggest catholic population in the world is in the Latin Americas, a region of the globe that also suffers from a very high death rate relating to AIDS. So why tell them that they can't do something as simple as wearing a condom?

That cheap-to-produce latex friend of western civilisation can save lives. But don't use it - you'll go straight to hell.

Oh, and gay marriages are 'evil' too.

I think Terry Eagleton sums him up well in his Guardian article by saying that: 'He was one of the greatest disasters for the Christian Church since Charles Darwin.'

A smoke and a pancake?

I'm back and who would've thought it? Amsterdam's coffee shop scene really is dying out.

Squinting through the plumes of spliff smoke billowing forth from shop doorways it's hard to imagine the truth in what I was told by one dealer:

"My boss says that the coffee shops will all be gone in five years. If this government stays and Bush stays in the U.S. then it will all be over soon. It's crazy; this is a Dutch way of life." He shrugs and gives me a forlorn look that portrays a man sick of the bureaucracy surrounding this issue. It's also a look that says: 'Hey, have a bang on this shit....fancy a smoke and a pancake?'

You have to hand it to the Dutch really. What other nation boasts citizens who can speak four languages, legalise prostitution, reclaim miles and miles of land from the sea and smoke marijuana?

Perhaps without the 'demon weed' they'll invent a cure for cancer, end world poverty and find a way to stop microsoft taking over the world? Just a thought.

To Amsterdam and beyond...

Well, about a week has gone past since my last post. This is a mixture of technical problems (don't ever get an internet connection with Wanadoo) and depression at the loss of my car. I had a mechanic look at it for what it was worth and it turns out that those noises it made were more serious than I thought. It has spluttered its last, poor thing.

Oh well, off to Amsterdam! I fly on Sunday for a few days of clogs, Amstel lager and hookers. It turns out that the city’s biggest and bestest attraction, the ability to consume your body weight in cannabis on the pavement outside a café, is coming to an end.

The international narcotics control board have seen fit to harass the Dutch government to come into line with 'international' (read American) drug policy and so the infamous coffee shop may be about to go up in smoke.

Oh, and Michael Howard in his infinite wisdom is talking about reclassifying the drug to class B again if, God forbid, he gets into power in May. Why? The whole point was to free up police time and stop PC Plod arresting and imprisoning the spliff smoking public, of which there are many. I probably shouldn't condone drugs on here but in the words of Bill Hicks:

'let me tell you something here that you never get told. I've taken drugs before and you know what, I had a good time. Didn't rob anybody, didn't steal, didn't kill, didn't rape anyone, didn't lose.....one fucking job, I laughed my ass off.'

A leader in the Guardian summed it up well:

Mr. Howard needs to realise that doing this would be waging war on 50% of young people. He would willingly give criminal records to thousands just for doing something that 2 million do quite happily every year.