One Thousand Shades of Grey

I find myself wondering what is the point to make new year resolutions, after all they only ever last until the second of January then you find yourself stuffing yourself full of McDonalds,’ getting shitfaced and chain smoking in one all out binge! But that I realise is the problem, the onset of age has slowly ground all the idealism I suffered from in my twenties into so much emotional dust and been replace with a form of cynicism so aggressive that it borders on out and out nihilism. Therein lies the problem with cynicism it actually has me at a point where I just can’t be bothered. I used to like the George Bernard Shaw quote “The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.” But now I think I prefer Peggy Noonans’ “Cynicism is not realistic and tough. It's unrealistic and kind of cowardly because it means you don't have to try.” That’s my new year’s resolution to resurrect that little bit of my youth known as idealism, if there ha...

Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi throws his shoes at bush whilst shouting “this is a farewell kiss, you dog!” with the first shoe and “this is from the widows, the orphans and all who died in Iraq!” with the second shoe. Sadly the hero shoe thrower is allegedly so badly beaten by security that he has been unable to appear before court, but once recovered may face a possible two years in prison for the crime of "insulting a foreign head of state".

Picture this: It’s a normal day about half past nine you leave your flat to make your way to work, you get the bus to the tube station at Brixton. Upon arrival you find the tube station is closed because of an attempted bombing the day before. You call a work colleague to warn them you will be late for work and then re-board the bus to get to the next closest tube station. You get off at Stockwell and make your way down to the platform, the tube pulls up, and you get on the train. As you sit down you hear a commotion from the door looking up you see some men armed with guns rushing onto the train, scared you stand up, at this point one of the men forces you to the chair whilst two others shoot you seven times point blank in the head! It should be unlikely that this would happen in the UK one of the bastions of the free west, but this is what happened to Jean Charles de Menezes on the 22nd of July 2005 at Stockwell tube station. So what was the result of this event, who has been held a...

Did you ever wonder why the barman appears to hate you? I mean what have you ever done to him? Is it really necessary for the bar staff to continually treat you with such disdain? Time to wake up bozo! This is why, this is what you did when you came to the bar..... Firstly (and really the very first thing you did irritated us) you walk in the bar, with its traditional roaring fire, with your generic office clone friends and left the door open! Because that’s the reason we light the fire so you can leave the door open, I know its Christmas but you aren’t Jesus and this isn’t a barn You then continue to barge to the bar and start shoving notes in the face of the bar staff who obviously have to serve you because the forty people in front of you aren’t really all that thirsty after all, you bitch and moan for the entire two and a half minutes that you have to wait for me to come and serve you and then have the audacity to ask me what lagers we sell! HELLO! You’ve been standing in front of ...