Violent porn to be banned in the UK - it's a freedom too far!

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4195332.stm

This is a case where I truly believe that civil liberties groups such as Internet Freedom need to actually think about what they're saying.

What EVER is a good reason, EVER, for viewing images of violent rape ending in a killing? It cannot possibly be described as art; it's a terrifying thing and it is bad fruit that permeates the soul and heart of any human being, reguardless of their belief structure.

Whilst saying there is no evidence to link the watching of such images to direct crime, that is only due to the degree of proof required to consist of 'evidence'. There are cases and this article highlights just one which was, to my mind, fairly undeniable ... unless of course, you already have made up your mind and nothing would change that.

To me, it's a simple case of 'there is never a good reason to be watching violent internet porn ending in killing'. It is always against women, it is about pure lust and power over the innocent female form and frankly it has no place in society.

Freedom has a price. Sometimes it is too high and on this occasion, I say that I would freely revoke my 'freedom' to do something clearly sick, by partaking in such imagery.

Why the ACLU are not pro-progress

Few things do my head in more than religious intolerance and treating young people like mindless zombies.

Over this last week, the ACLU (a gloriously outgoing, anti religious group using 'civil rights' as a smokescreen for trying to get in the way of anything remotely religious, whilst forgetting that religion IS a civil right) attacked 'The Silver Ring Thing', an abstinence group that is aimed at secular and religious circles of young people, causing US Government funding to be dropped from the group.

Abstinence is a much needed social option, especially for young people since in the US and especially the UK, teen pregnancy rates are skyrocketing and issues surrounding younger people engaging in sex too early and too often are on the increase dispite secular efforts to encourage 'safer, fun sex'.

Sex is swiftly being viewed more and more as an adult thing to do, and a leisure activity for boyfriends and girlfriends. If you're not having sex then there's something wrong with you, since 'it's natural', we're taught.

Rather than attacking the group and others like it because they have a religious angle or a religious source, why won't the ACLU work with the group to help ensure a secular programme is included, and that there are options open to all young people, reguardless of religion or lack thereof? Surely the ACLU groups's force should centre around helping the nation, not surpressing the funding of such a fantastic effort because it happens to have a religious element to it.

It also smacks of insult to the young people who choose to use this service. Let's take stock for a moment - nobody has to sign up, and the agenda and content of the Silver Ring Thing is not at all hidden. Do the ACLU value the intelligence of the young people of America so little that they don't think they have the ability to think for themselves, discect information from a party which they volunterily joined up to, and decide for themselves what to do about God and religion?

Nanny state.

The ACLU have threatened to 'keep an eye' on this and other organisations. How nice of them, spending good money keeping an eye on those obviously 'evil and corrupting forces of Christianity', who are trying to do terrible things like helping young teens to save themselves for their spouse, avoid STDs and unwanted pregnancies.

It wouldn't be so bad if they'd just complained about the lack in their view of a full, secular programme and offered to help this group work on one. But no, they had to get their funding closed.

Well thank God, they will continue reguardless. Many teenagers will be helped, male and female. With or without you ACLU, America and the UK and the organised, western world wants what works, and if that means religion has to be mentioned because it works?

Well ... excuse us for being practical before preaching; either theistically or antheistically - something the ACLU seems to have no issue with (despite atheism being a faith position just as much as any religion).

Rant - Drinking silly amounts

I find that most people put a lot of pressure on you at work to 'get bladdered'. If you don't want to get a round or two in, don't come to the pub. If you want to be in with the group, come to the pub. How do you get out of it?

I personally like to drink, but only two or maybe three pints max. It's the 'drowning your sorrows' that has got to stop. There should be a public limit on individual's consumption, making them savour their drink longer.

It would curtail 'our right' to drink excessively in public, yes. But who really ever needs to drink more than say, 5 or 6 units of alcohol at one public sitting? And who can honestly say that they don't get effected by such an amount? Only a liar, frankly.

So, there is no excuse. It should be one drink max if you are driving (preferably none, though the blood may still carry traces of booze in it so that will be hard to enforce fairly), and a max of five units of alcohol at any public sitting. People can move on if desperate to get off their face either to their home or to a club or other pub where their limit starts again. Though I would like to see clip cards that you have to produce to even get served in public, where by every drink on a certain date gets a clip taken out of the card, like a hole punch. Obviously these would have to be tested for piracy and fraudulent attacks first ... but this would mean you could only ever publically purchase so much alcohol in a 24 hour period.

And who would be the only moaners? Those who quite simply want to get drunk and can't do it at home. It's not a civil rights issue, it's a police, hospitals and national health and crime issue.

Get over it. It's not your right to get bladdered, it's mine to be safe in the city after nine and not surrounded by drunken, slurring and out of control people. Not just the young, the working age seem to be the worst.

Smashing piano keys

I pick up the pen. I want to write. I am desperate to create.

And yet all I think of is 'what should I think of?'.

I see colours and scenes, feel licks and taste the slightest variation of the air.

A dirty rain storm perhaps; something burns. Somewhere, someone is eating a kebab.

Am I surrounded by a million million, or am I utterly alone?

Who is right? What question should we ask? Should we dare to think or dare to speak? Is it better to be right than to be happy?

What should be thought? What ought to be written; sung? Screamed into the night, or danced during the day.

What melody tells the truth, but that which best fits everything you believe to be true in the exact here and now.

What story will you believe, but the one that you already do.

I'm so tired of false struggles, lies. Who is alive; the gangster bleeding in a gutter, eyes slurred with whatever substance? Or the professor striking chalk furiously against a board, unable to understand why? Perhaps the unknowing child; innocent and yet helpless and without knowledge, banging the toy on the piano keys.

Life is smashing the piano keys with your toy. For that is all it truely is, that is now. That is real. That is true.

Where did you go? Why did you leave for me?

Which one of us was better for the 'everybody else'?

Here I stand. I want to create.

The piano is still there. I could walk in with a sledge hammer and shatter it beyond recognition!

And I would die inside. Some things were meant to fail.

I seek my next real.

Being real about who you are

During a conversation just now on the internet, a few interesting points came up, which I've pasted below, edited a little. I believe they make the point on their own, without an intro. So I'll just let you read them:

Some don't do 'the past' and/or weak spots.

I am the opposite, I believe it helps others to realise that you are human, you are touchable and vulnerable, and that yes...God works with every day, sinful people.

If everyone thinks christianity is full of superstars, then what hope does that send to the kid on drugs? At the same time, I don't believe in glorifying sin, and sometimes I may go too far but that's also because I'm human. Sometimes it's good just to remind yourself that God saved you, you didn't and can't save yourself.

NB: I also don't believe in emotionally hurting yourself by trying to bury what God wants to deal with.

And old dream - revisited?

Every so often, you re dream an old dream. Sometimes there are subtle changes, but all in all, it's the same dream.

Last night, I dreamt an old dream. Reliving the stone cold, rustic, industrial feel that was like something straight out of Max Payne (and if you don't know what or who that is...you need to find out).

It was based around some sort of camp or school environment. There were giant, high roofed halls with sports halls in them, netting seperating them from classrooms and workshops, with wooden walls only two metres high and then nets raising right up to a murky, once-glass high roof, slanted with panels. There were many other sets and buildings, but I remember this one.

I can't recall what happened on the dream, only that there was tension, conflict, running, plotting, me trying to get to somewhere and being barred and having to find another way around a situation. It was like a movie or a video game.

That's all, folks.

Dream: 3 dreams in one post

Dreams rolling in together, this time. Last night I had two memorable ones and two nights ago, I had one.

The earlier one was rather confused, but again it had a real sense of time to it. A lot of it seemed to be taken from memories from Gozo, where I went on holiday not that long ago. At one stage my family and I were seeking a place to eat on this cruise ship and lo and behold - millions of tiny venders all wanting us! For some reason I can't remember, we had a vast crowd. We piled into one resturant, pretty much filing it, and then the boat began to move (after we had towait for hours).

The boat rip roared through these waters it seemed, and at one point practically charged a cliff face. I was sure we were about to die but then it used retro boosters under the sea and somehow made the ship anchor for a while. Then on we went and somehow the ship sailed up an incline in quite shallow waters!

During this stage, I ended up over hanging and able to look straight down into the waters below, due to the swivelling nature of this odd ship. I tend to have this sort of thing happen in almost every dream I ever have.

Anyway, that's about all for that old dream. There was other stuff but it wasn't all that important. The only other thing I will say is Jazz was horrible to me in this dream, and I started on him and tore into him for being 'The King & Queen of gittyness'!

----

Last night's two dreams, now. Again; I won't try to recall and enter everything, just the main points.

Firstly, I got into serious trouble with the law. We are talking entering derelict structures, trying to rob homes, and then finally robbing an ATM machine with a small gang of lads (don't know who they were, I can't remember if they were real life folk or made up), stuffing about a million quid's worth of hard cash into a sling sack and then making off through Keynsham with it. Immediately the Police were out in force and so were half the town's people. I told the guys 'we need to get down to the park and then walk up from there towards the Brass Mill'. Trouble is, once we'd done that, I realised I'd forgotten why this was such a good idea!

Now, we either all got caught by the Police shortly after this, or only I did, or I imagined in the dream getting caught.

Whichever is true, the dream changed to me being all seemingly innocent as I was picked up, not even trying and in fact exposing myself deliberately as though nothing were wrong.

My family were absolutely mortified and I remember thinking 'what will everyone at church say? What will Paul say?'

Anyway, I had to go through the whole 'sit down and be talked to' thing. I acted innocent and all I remember about this really was; being scared, hiding the money, pretending to be innocent and just 'in the area' or something, and sitting frightened in lame interviews where my family were just mortified about what I'd either done or was being accused of. I was extremily docile. I remember fear most of all.

-----

The next dream kicked in and again; I won't go into too many details. We ended up, the family and others, in some sort of freaky water park! Only it started as a Police thing from the other dream, I think.

We had to dodge all these things and kept running down sections of tunnel, all dark. On one bit, I kept sliding into demons and having to start again which really annoyed me. I told the bloke at the top, 'why can't I take them out?' He said 'You've got to witness to them and give them tracts like this'. He handed me a tract and I blinked at him. "This is stupid", I said. he told me to aim for the old people.

So I did.

That one was a dry sliding thing. Some were, but water featured more and more later. At that stage my parents appeared to go up to the rest cafe for tea and wait for 'us kids'.

We were riding on car things, jets, mats, choosing different pipes, etc. Some of the ride sections were strange because you had to lay on your side to fit down the tubes, they were so narrow!

Often you had to go back somehow and charge up to do the thing right. It had a Quasar element to it where it seemed to be a game or some achievement thing.

In the end, I was in the pool and Dad passed down to me this double air matress, telling me this was mine from Faith Camp. Only it wasn't, it was a totally punctured old thing and I almost got wound up in it going down in the water; very dangerous. It had slits in it, many slits and also windows built into the nose-out sections at the front. Lame!

That's about it. Afterwards we had to get out up one of these dry tubes again. When we did this, Dad was waiting with Mum. Simon demanded that we have fast food ... and then the dream ended.

Probably because Dad said no :)

Dream: Dark water, Will & forgetting my papers

I had another memorable dream last night.

This time it seemed to be based around the old Oasis building in Keynsham town centre, which our church used to own. Only...there was:

a) a shore line just there as well as a taller brick building and
b) a kind of bus-pulling-up-to-pick-up area where the co op is.

I remember Ben and Will being in this dream, as well as a local, retired-now Policeman who was the Father of a guy in my class in junior school. IRL I saw him recently washing his car.

Basically, the brick building was some sort of club point, I think. A lot seemed to revolve around waiting for these number 8 to the city centre buses to show up for us to get on to. Matt Kelly was also there and seemed to know about all these mysterious buses that I never knew existed!

I was freaking out about getting into town for some interview or whatever (which funnily enough, is exactly what I am doing today). In the end, I forgot all my important papers and had to go back. I don't remember actually going back, and in fact I did travel this mysterious bus route in the dream at least once, because it wasn't just over one day. But time wasn't so pure in this dream; it seemed to skip and confuse days and the passage of time itself was unclear.

We all seemed to like being around this brick structure, though. I don't remember Ben or Matt doing anything significant other than being present and what I've already mentioned. On the other hand, I seemed to go and climb up onto the brick roof and lounge, looking out across a dark sea and a short, wooden, dark pier (without attractions, just storehouses and nothing of any interest).

I remember looking to pull out a smart, ladylike top and pulling out a red one which didn't really fit (this is a REAL top I actually own). I ranted at Will or whoever was there, possibly Matt actually, that I really wanted the purple one! In the end, I think I found the purple one, though I am not sure.

I was then looking out in to the night upon this lovely, deep and dark sea scene. There was a stoney, pebbled beach area just below and stretching off from this brick place, which seemed to attract adults (this is why I thought it was a club or something) but was only a few metres deep before the still sea began.

Anyway, there were a lot of adults chilling and meeting down there. Me; I was watching a wooden ladder we use sometimes for EPW wrestling IRL floating in the water and just amazed at how incredibly beautiful this water in the dark was.

I think I threw the ladder in at this stage ...

Will showed up with some of his mates who I didn't know, who then left him. He was clearly drunk and merry as a bell, laughing and climbed on the brick structure. I warned him, but he just laughed and then dived into the dark water.

I then threw in this ladder (which is when I remember seeing it in the water, I think) because it is wooden and therefore floats (though I don't think IRL it would, but that was the 'dream science bit') and dived in after him, soaking myself. The funny thing? I got scared as I entered the dark water and then realised I didn't feel wet yet! So I collected Will somehow from the water and dragged him to shore, which wasn't very far. He seemed still happy and totally unaware that he was in any sort of actual danger.

I then realised my trousers and top were soaking wet, but still felt only wet, not heavy and sodden.

The local Policeman (who seemed a lot younger in this dream, and his face resembled thw WWE Wrestler Dave Batista's face) came over to check on what was going on and Will apologised drunkenly to him and tried to be civil and greet, say he meant nothing by it, etc. The cop then looked at me and smiled a bit and shook his head and asked me, "Why are you hanging around with someone like this, hmm? You know you can do better than this, George. Seriously. Be careful who you hang around with, this type will land you in a lot of trouble, you know." That's a paraphrase from memory, but it's the general gist and the way he also said it. I was co operative and nodded and accepted his advice, but I didn't disown Will and commited to sticking with him, though I think what Mr Jones said stuck in my head and I understood from his outsider PoV, I was perhaps making a dumb choice.

Will seemed to then hang out with me and I told him about the roof. I don't rememeber if we went up there, but I think I then spent time with him up there and I ended up telling him about how peaceful this dark water was to look out over and how it would be peaceful for him to do so. I believe he ended up trying it and was impressed.

I don't know anything else,really. It was a complete dream experience, but the reality was skewed and time didn't flow naturally, nor did the people's locations or the real life locations. However, it wasn't trippy or completely whacked out either.

Dream: Holy Moley?!

It's another wierd dream. Only the level of detail and the feeling of time really passing by in this one was really freaky.

As a quick aside, I had a massive argument with Matt Kelly (my friend) in a recent dream. I felt he was being a 'holy joe' and he was saying something really 'assuming' over my life. I got absolutely furious and woke up scowling and telling him to stop praying such an ungodly, patronising prayer over my life and was rather rude :) I then recall that I felt inside that I looked like a cornered rat.
Ho hum :)

Anyway, last night I had one of those freaky dreams where you really feel time passing in a natural sense; so it doesn't seem to skip or go too fast/slow. You really believe the dream is happening. Me and my Dad and others (not sure who the others were) were in some town area where there were shops and stores, along with all the usual suspects.

My Dad was trying to force me to wear and buy a Wellsway school coat that I hated. I literally ended up fighting wth him; he put his hands on me and I shouted at him that it was now officially on and boy would I love to just send him down right now. Yes - this was viscious and I have no idea why! Perhaps it was a control issue, who knows.

Anyway, moving on. We ended up in what I thought was a small church. I remember details but can't go into them all here, they aren't really important anyhow. Dad was still there as were others. The service went on, in fact now I recall we had to cross Clapham Common to get to it.

I was able to actually 'play' this entire sermon through that was new and I'd never heard it before in my life, in this dream. Impressive, huh? Especially considering this next part.

After the service, my Dad and I were in the back and some guy told us 'so, are you sick of your lame old, dead church by now and thinking about joining us?' Now, during the service, they'd started going on about the gnostic gospel of st thomas and other false gospels and stuff that obviously wasn't Christian.

My Dad seriously sat there and then calmly but stiffly said to this other man, 'No...your church is already dead...and it is false' or something very much like this. We then upped and left.

We had to climb over these boxes to get outside again. the whole place was low roofed, filled with fake gold and looks like a funeral place, with lots of bland, cheap wood effect stuff and alters.

Going to bed now. I wonder what I'll dream ...

The wider impact of controvertial video games (a rant)

I have decided to say fully what I think about this, now. A few paragraphs long, anyway.

>The difference is nowadays kids are being given the opportunity to do
>things virtually that we don't want them to do in real life, and I don't
>mean snowboarding or fighting demons in hell or playing galitorial games
>like UT, I mean where we've got to the state where school drivebys,
>prostitutes, mass vehicular manslaughter, and even freaky sick stuff like
>you'd get in a freaky sick film.

That is an oft missed difference. Fighting demons in hell might get some church groups het up, and fair enough. But personally there's little actual risk of demon fighting in hell spilling out onto the streets in the same sense that a drive by or violent crime could. One is easily accessible to anybody with arms, legs and a less than perfect moral sense.

Also, think about it. The people who commit most crimes are NOT hardened criminal psychopaths, they're ordinary folk pushed to the edge usually by a combination of factors. Why add more factors? Why send these MIXED messages to kids? Grow up, have kids, don't do drugs, don't kill people .... but yes you can get drunk, yes you can have sex with whoever you want so long as you 'are safe', yes you have more rights than adults [A Policeman in uniform, on duty recently confirmed this at a town meeting in Keynsham] and yes, you can play a game where you get to rape, steal, kill and destroy.

I don't blame the kids for getting mixed messages in their minds when they are having those angry moments in life. Has anyone reading this ever seen someone getting beaten up, or a family member mugged? Have you ever experienced that temporary burst of adrenalin, that burst of righteous indignation, pure fury - where really anything COULD happen?

It is at points like those during which whatever IS on the inside WILL come out, because you lose control in the normal every day sense. There are many crimes of passion, in fact that is why 'crime of passion' is a legal term - it's is regularly used.

>As far as I'm aware most people would be just as happy playing
>non civ slaying children butchering girl raping games as they would the
>controvercial ones.

In 'Hooligans - Storm over Europe', you get to consensually 'use a whore' to up your strength.

That was bad enough, and it is portrayed as the sort of behaviour the 'game hero/good guys' are doing. Then again, you got a major character shooting someone for no reason at all in cold blood, in Crime Life: Gang Wars [a game which I did QA on], after the guy gave him information that was crucial to him and his homies. Nice one, 'leading hero'. Real wholesome message, there.

Seriously - it all goes in. How the hell else do you think we learn? Observation. It is not an excuse, but it's all part of the reason. All of it.

Games are NOT exempt, and all the bleeding-hearted liberals in the world together in one place crying out for their colourful GTAs won't convince me, because I've lived a real life and struggled with the sort of rages and seen the sort of incidents that simply don't help. I talk to kids every week who these mixed messages are messing up. It just re-colours their culture in for them; we got guys refusing to wear rubbers and girls letting it happen; it's messed up. We got kids as young as ten going into dens to have sex, and fighting breaking out in the streets. We got old people crying behind their bedrooms doors at night, and young mothers afraid to open their daughter's bedroom windows in sweltering heatwaves because of what they will hear in language coming off the streets outside. We got husbands and men pushed to their limits and some plotting potential vigilante action, while angry wives applaud it, at the end of their emotional cord and ability to cope.

This is Keynsham - not Bristol. This is where I live, Park Road and the Three Castles. It's not even the High Street.

We want to help these kids, but I tell you. Their entire culture is sending them messages that we then turn around and contradict with 'Oh; actually don't do that'. Games are just another part of that puzzle, and saying otherwise is nieve at best and at worst, dangerously and deliberately ignoring the problem with the future fathers and mothers, leaders and workforce of tomorrow.

Is it censorship? Yes.
Is it better than the alternative? Oh, I think so. I really do.

Would you REALLY want to live in a world where everything was permissable so that everyone's 'rights' were respected?

No.

-=Kim Kaze=-
Street Pastor

A game of cat and rouse

Never play any board game with a feline in the room. Reason? I think you know, but incase you're giving said beast the benefit of the doubt, don't.

Yes; it did. It leapt very late in the day, onto the middle of the Risk board, scattering small men, horses, cannons and die everywhere. We were left shouting and dismayed as our tense and enthralling games evening crashed to a standstill, thanks to the wiles of one attention seeking, selfish, fat cat.

Will, Dave, Jazz and Simon were all there. Unfortunately, so were the Golf family's two large cats, Pudgey and Stripey.

Oh dear. Never again. A lesson truely learnt the hard way.

It's gonna' get to your heart!

God is on your case. That's what I believe.

This last week was spent for me in Peterborough, UK. Highly spiritual place? I think not. Classy? Hardly. But right there, deep amongst the 'Ortons', lies the East of England Showground and therein, for one week of every year, the annual 'Kingdom Faith Camp'.

Get Ned Flanders straight out of your head. All green jumpers aside - this was a dynamic week of prayer, praise & worship (of the loud and quiet sorts...), healing, ministry, prophetic (and by everyone, not just those on the stages), teaching and deliverance. All age groups are catered for, and there are seminars covering almost everything; from child bearing to prayer schools.

Everything that goes on is entirely optional - you can camp on site or come in from offsite as a day visitor (either mornings only, evenings only or both). You can choose what you want to do. You can leave meetings and return to them at your whim. You can stay in tents, caravans or anything else, really. You can rent stuff to stay in and get it set up and taken down for you. It's very open-ended in that way.

In meetings, participation is also optional. You can sit and watch, sit and take in, stand, kneel, lie down - all as and when YOU feel moved to do so. It's totally inter denominational and respects the Word of God (The Holy Bible) above all else. No groups are bashed or intentionally made less a part of what is going on.

The music is professional and very well done. The youth bands are very slick and with it; whether it's rap or rock.

But what happened to me this week? Well, in truth, I went along expecting God to move and to 'do some stuff'. I had no specific or urgent needs really, at least in my own eyes. I had faith, but I knew there was more to be done. So I went along.

God AMAZED me. I cannot think of a better word to explain what took place. He took me from where ever I was at with whatever issue was to hand at that moment, and pushed me forward at a pace I could handle, but also challenged me at the same time. It was truely awesome! I was able to use the gift of prophecy directly, pray for healing in others, got to war with the enemy (the forces of darkness, demons, whatever you want to call them - they're out there and they need rebuking!), get into the word more, get into prayer more, learn more deep stuff about the power of praise ...

I was also released into my calling, which I believe God has spoken firmly over my life these last six or so years. I have known for a while that God wanted to use me as a Street/Youth Pastor, but this year I really heard off God and His heart for this. I was also by the grace of God, in the EXACT right meetings to get prayed for by men of God. The funniest instance was that I thought I'd pop along to The Move (teenaged group) one night for no deep, spiritual reason whatsoever. It turned out that the preacher that night, Eric Casto (a man that I trust to lay hands on me) called for Youth Leaders who are already operating and are serious about youth, to come forward. I did and I was one of four in that place that night (I always seem to be part of small alter calls). God whacked me off my feet and though I didn't have a deep, spiritual experience (I was fully aware all throughout), I was aware that boldness was set into my spirit. No longer will I doubt the work God has for my life.

More later ;)

The taste of 'game'

I commented on someone else's Blog today, and this is what was scribbled. If you don't already know it's about the next gen consoles, you should check your mind-reading tank *smirk* ...

'Interesting thoughts and quotes. It seems everyone has something to share on this hot topic and like the last generation, ultimately yes there are trends, yes there are markets but for each ONE OF US as INDIVIDUALS, we are going to (or at least we should) be buying whatever best suits us - our wallet, our homelife and social circles. NOT someone else's techy talk or someone else's social statements.

For me, despite the fact we don't yet know a lot about it, I am gonna wait to see more on the Revolution and then compare them all. Not on guess work. For me, I have a game-ready PC and consoles already, plus a FT job so really there's no rush to fill my very first possible evening with Xbox360 or PS3 goodness.

I am gonna' wait. I am gonna choose based on the games that *I* like and the future articles written by non biased sources (as best one can get) nearer the time when hardware and actual games have been tested.

The early bird catches the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Think about it :) '