GymKingSpeaks

Bash the Brown Pinata From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (12 hours old)

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/campaigns/our_boys/2720283/Prime-Minister-Gordon-Brown-couldnt-even-get-our-name-right.html “Brown accused of disrespecting our dead,” proclaimed The Sun … more

Take Your Free Medicine From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (86 days old)

(Extract from debate on 'socialised' healthcare on US website) This debate has become shrill enough to be heard across the Atlantic. It seems that many Americans fear that Mr Obama’s healthcare re… more

I Pay My Taxes From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (116 days old)

I'm drawn to air shows. This is partly because I've retained a socially backward child's preoccupation with makes, models and distinctive dorsal fin modifications. It's also because the spectacle of p… more

Doubleplusbad From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (126 days old)

Why do so many supposedly bright and well educated people despise the English language so passionately? It seems the passing of formal education in our own language has produced something far worse th… more

England Expects.... From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (133 days old)

A woman sits behind a podium, sweat glistening on her upper lip, shoulders braced against an onslaught. She blinks as camera flashes pop and reporters hurl their jingoistic vitriol at her in beautiful… more

Midget Gem From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (162 days old)

I found this nugget in the gossip column of 'Entertainment Now - The Insider's Guide To Variety, Cabaret and Misplaced Ambition'. 'Quit your hissing and booing because it's official - Cowell is a … more

A Nugget of Zeitgeist From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (205 days old)

Between bouts of despair brought on in no particular order by morphine patches, chronic pain, the ultimate futility of existence, the false promise of a glistening spring day and the fact that Sony Me… more

Compulsory DNA Testing Now! From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (227 days old)

While enduring an inexplicably popular film, mainly because my butt was welded to the sofa by drugs, booze and craven etiquette, I had a revelation. This epiphany could unite both hard-bitten cops … more

Can Anyone Explain This? From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (231 days old)

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/03/11/brazil.rape.abortion/ Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, Archbishop of the Brazilian city of Recife, has almost inspired me to cast my cherished atheism aside and … more

Apparently, It's Snowing From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (278 days old)

Am I the only one to have noticed the weather? I've been shivering and slithering around all week and marvelling at this fluffy white stuff falling from the sky. Despite this, people are dragging the… more

Dance Little Man From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (297 days old)

When it comes to judging how far we've come down the road from the class-bound, hierarchical Britain of yore to the golden New Labour meritocracy we've been promised, forget think-tanks and colum-inch… more

Children Of The Revolution From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (299 days old)

I recently had cause to visit the Home Office. I did so for reasons I'm not at liberty to discuss, my questionable understanding of some complex issues usefully masked by several layers of secrecy whi… more

Movie Review - Shoot 'Em Up From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (304 days old)

This is without a doubt the worst trigger-happy action film that I've ever seen. That isn't to say it doesn't have moments of purely technical inventiveness and spectacle. It's just that the whole sor… more

Movie Review - 'Jumper' From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (304 days old)

The basic premise is interesting and the director's track record promising, which together led me to ignore the negative criticism and waste a rental credit on this fat, diseased turkey. I may not be … more

Movie Review - 'Wanted' From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (304 days old)

The makers of this tosh seriously overrated themselves. They must have thought their lazy and ludicrous plot made their movie as visonary and leftfield as The Matrix, despite lacking any zeitgeist or… more

A Christmas Message From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (321 days old)

Welcome to the First Secular Church of Our Lady of Anomie. Let us meditate on the un-sacred mystery of Christmas. Remember, there's no need to be afraid as we let in light and we banish shade. Spr… more

No Pain, No Gain From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (352 days old)

Chronic pain is turning my head into a pressure cooker, the gristly contents stewing away while the odd jet of steam escapes in a random splutter. The nerve endings at the site of my spinal surgery ha… more

Inaction Man From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (391 days old)

Yesterday, I experienced paraspinal lumbar injections with the benefit of full consciousness and a fair view of the near-live xrays guiding the surgeon's enormous needles. I realised, again, that the … more

That's Entertainment From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (415 days old)

The Jeremy Kyle show has taken some flak and for good reason. It may have a gloss of morality about it, but Kyle's manner wouldn't have been out of place at a medieval assizes, where the wretched rece… more

Aimless Rant About Soccerball and George Lucas From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (429 days old)

(Excessive reply to a polite, friendly email about football and Star Wars) I'm afraid I'm no more football-literate now than I was back in the day. In fact, what was latent hostility to the so-call… more

The Unrest Cure From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (483 days old)

Thin as my recent output has been, it has all but come to a grinding halt. This is because I'm currently enjoying the unrest cure at Harrogate. Within a wide-angle spit of the gorgeous Harlow Hill … more

Can Suicide Ever Be Justified? (extract from Helium debate) From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (500 days old)

Those who arrived at a compelling and uncluttered view on this issue aren’t around to record their views. For most of us, arriving at such a view would oblige us to jump some hurdles before we vaulted… more

Cheap Day Return (ersatz sci-fi, part 8) From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (515 days old)

There I slept through my own thin night. Some operatives could surrender themselves happily to oblivion, trusting their hard-wiring to banish the shadows when the crisis had passed, then returning exh… more

Fear & Limp Disdain in Las Vegas, part 3 From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (527 days old)

Monday 24th March We flew BA from LHR to SFO. My extreme height and my cantankerous spine obliged me to shell out for a premium economy seat, or whatever the BA corporate euphemism is for seats all… more

Fear & Limp Disdain in Las Vegas, part 2 From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (547 days old)

Greater London is home to about seven million people, a fair proportion of whom must actually want to live there. Arriving at Kings Cross from the sticks is always a culture shock. It's not that Linco… more

Fear and Limp Disdain in Las Vegas, part 1 From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (552 days old)

This travelogue isn't going to take me to the heights of the Hindu Kush, nor to the depths of the Marianas Trench. I won't be sharing the sputum of wild boars with cannibalistic pygmies from the Ribbl… more

Keep Watching This Space From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (601 days old)

I'd like to offer my appreciation to the surprising number of people who tune in to this blog on a daily basis, particularly those who join in now and again. I should add that dissent, feedback and s… more

Bright Spark (Possible Prologue (sorry it's in the wrong order)) From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (601 days old)

The sky was yellow and grainy like old newsprint. Every few minutes, an airliner would traverse it, drawing an arc of noise and grime all the way from Torremolinos to Ringway. The whining would swell … more

I Don't Want To Believe (from another Helium debate) From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (606 days old)

This conspiracy goes deeper than you thought. Fox Mulder, high priest of UFO conspiracy theory, was a triple agent all along. The faded poster always in shot during heated debates in Mulder’s basement… more

Cheap Day Return (Part 7) From GSmudger in Rampant Anomie (607 days old)

On the lip of the depression, a hand was splayed on rough stone, lopped off and cauterised in a precise cross-section at the wrist joint. I knew I hadn’t lost that much of myself, nor do I wear violet… more