Weirdo Albino Needs Booting Out

Anything with Benedict Cumberbatch in it usually flies. This time though it's bashed right into the windscreen. That's The Fifth Estate for you, a gigantic turkey making only $6m at the box office.

Not that Ben's bothered - he'll be off doing other things. Not so Julian Assange, the weirdo albino boxed up at the Ecuadorian Embassy. He's like the uncle who came for Christmas who's still there at Easter, eating everything and offering nothing but his tedious maunderings.

The US has taken pity on the Embassy and put the word out they're not that interested any more. Let the Swedish courts try the  time-waster, after all, their charges of sex crimes makes a few bits banged on the web look like small potatoes. To the rest of us, that is.

Julian could grow old and grey in his diplomatic prison. He can't even go out and buy his own socks. Unless he's already dyed his hair, put on a big scarf and slipped out the back without anybody noticing. Or caring, that much, really.

Myth Of A Caring Cosmos

Do you believe in an active universe? Not that the stars are exploding all over the place as they are, but in the sense that a negativity comes back to haunt you?

Someone I know smiles relentlessly. Even if her dog dies. She thinks that good thoughts will feed the cosmos and bring more good stuff her way. Likewise bad thoughts. 

I'm an optimist. I reckon things usually turn out for the best even if they don't seem so brilliant right now. I look on the bright side. Equally though I reserve the right to cry. People who are cheerful through thick and thin are exhausting and dare I say it, tedious. They are also afraid of life.

However amazing our universe, and the fact that it is so mind-blowing never fails to cheer me up, still it goes it's own way, with or without us. Our emotions have no impact and to believe otherwise is to deny us all our basic human right to be sad.

US Friends - Keep Death From Our Deer

All nature is beautiful but is there anything more perfect than a deer? Now it seems they are all under threat from a deadly disease that is always fatal and has no cure.

Could there be anything more heartbreaking than the wilful slaughter of so many animals, with their delicate limbs, graceful necks and large limpid eyes framed by luxurious lashes? The sight of a herd of deer in a frosty field is instant joy to the heart.

Dirty boots coming in from the US could wipe them all out in a rampage of infection that would leave none standing. The disease can live for ten years in infected plants and is rampant in North America. Tourists walking our woods and meadows and delighting in our scenery bring death in their wake.

So I appeal our American friends - you are welcome, but please wash your boots before you come or better yet, buy new ones. Not too much to ask is it? After all, what price the loss of these lovely creatures? 

Hocus Pocus Remedies or Proven Science?

Science or Kansas hocus pocus - to quote the cartoon Futurama. Which works best? Is it obvious? We have Prince Charles himself championing the cause of homeopathy, where the active ingredient is too miniscule to be measured yet is stil seen as an alternative "medicine."

Makes me want to weep for the long hours spent in labs all over the world seeking cures for our ills, only to have us say, "Thanks, but I wouldn't touch that with a bargepole, I'm going for natural remedies."

Such is the view of Christine, whose unlicensed practitioner told her she has arthritis in her knee. Christine is importing tablets from Ireland via a relative who works in a wholefood shop. That's where she places her trust. Not her doctor - she doesn't know who he is.

She says steroids are a no-no, despite  the fact  that they have saved countless lives, millions of premature babies among them. Let's hope the diagnosisis correct  and that this isn't early bone cancer. Will she turn to the tried and tested treatments then? What do you think?

Kids Sitting Ducks On The Internet

I would have loved chatrooms as a kid. Stuck in a damp council house, with family and money problems, they would have seemed like an exciting window on a better world. 

My teenagers know different. At school my daughter was lectured about online abusers who groom lonely girls and boys into performing sex acts and then threaten to reveal all on the www. Kids have killed themselves out of shame.

My girl was told the truth - putting this stuff up only leads to the abuser being caught, they cannot hide behind the internet because everybody leaves a footprint that can be followed by the police. And the law is getting better at it.

Our lives were so much simpler. Those sh**bags had to get through the door to reach you at home. Now they are everywhere. Let's hope this is one lesson the kids are listening to, because it's the most important of them all.

Dogs Are Dangerous - Fact

I love dogs - but who's to blame when one attacks a little girl? No one wants to judge in a tragedy. There is too much pain for a family mourning a child today. No one wants to point the finger. But questions do need to be answered, otherwise this will happen again. So, I ask them: who decided a Bull Mastiff was a suitable pet for a family with young children? Who decided the dog was safe despite the abuse it had suffered elsewhere? Who thought a flat was a good place to keep such a large animal?

This dog was much bigger than the child playing with it. Even a gentle dog can do damage without meaning to and this one was the size of an ox. Little kids irritate dogs - fact. Keep them apart, or watch them at all times. Easy to say, harder to do and  this dog was considered safe. I love dogs, but  they are never entirely safe. My heart goes out to this family today and the mother who stabbed the family pet to try to save her daughter. Her suffering is unimaginable. Someone needs to answer those questions and the lessons must be learned if such a tragedy is not to be repeated.

Annie's Song - So Not John Denver

Poor old Anne Boleyn - she wasn't lucky, was she? Caught bad boy Henry V111, lost her heart and her head. They wrote a  song about her and now it's down to some London schoolkids to make it sound good at the Lord Mayor's parade on Saturday.

Good luck to them too. A more tedious piece of Tudor tripe has yet to be written. The first six lines keep repeating themselves and it goes downhill from there. The tune may save it - but probably not, if it's typical of the time.

Went to a Tudor concert once and let's just say it lacked oomph and verve. Not much of the Beyonce about it. Didn't set the place alight.They've edited the original version by one Nick Udall, 1533, because it went on a bit. That was probably a good idea. 

If any of those kids think this is their entry to the X Factor it may be best for them to think again. Simon's not rushing to record this one.

Like my style? If you do you will enjoy my book, Devil Deal by Liz Freeman, Amazon - http://goo.gl/84Zq1 - on Kindle and the free Kindle app. Reviews great so far and more appreciated, thanks.

Deadly Justice For the Rhino Robbers

Boy are those horny Chinese in for a shock! For centuries they have looked at rhinos and thought; "Bruiser of a beast, big balls, I'm having a bit of that," and promptly nicked their horns.

They happily convinced themselves that a rhino horn was just the job for their flagging sex lives. Never mind that it couldn't possibly work, or that the animals suffered and died and now risk extinction. It was all worth it for a far-eastern stiffie.

Now though the risk has swung the other way. Anyone touching or taking rhino horn is likely to end up a stiff themselves, dead as the dumb creatures they exploited. The horns have been injected with deadly poison, harmless to the rhino, but a horrible, painful end to the poachers and partakers.

So that should be rhino horn off the menu for good. The ignorant will have to find something else. They could chew their own fingernails -  made of exactly the same stuff as horn. Well done the game reserve managers who took this step as a last resort. It is, for the rhino.