Gay Gordons?

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Now that my wife no longer works for Aberdeen City Council I'm free to blog about the useless bunch of twats that run the place.

This appeared last week in the Aberdeen Press and Journal:

Gay porn magazines seized in council HQ
HOMOSEXUAL pornographic magazines found in a private members’ lounge at Aberdeen City Council were yesterday confiscated by chief executive Sue Bruce as she reminded councillors of the need to salvage the council’s bruised reputation.

The Gay Times magazines were discovered in an off-duty relaxation area in St Nicholas House – just days after Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was forced to apologise for claiming expenses for two pornographic films watched by her husband. In a confidential e-mail sent to all elected members yesterday, Mrs Bruce said: “I have received complaints about top-shelf magazines being left on display in the members' lounge. “I have taken the liberty of removing these and they are available in my office to be collected should the owner wish to do so.
On Friday at my wife's leaving party one of her ex-colleagues told us that he was so incensed by the actions of the new CEO and the subsequent newspaper article that he had written a letter to the P and J about the matter. Yesterday he mailed us the letter, here it is:
Dear Sir

I was disappointed to read your article titled 'Gay porn magazines seized in council HQ'.

When I read - "HOMOSEXUAL pornographic magazines found in a private members’ lounge at Aberdeen City Council" (P&J 01/04), I wondered if this was a bizarre April fools joke. Gay Times is well known as an entertaining lifestyle and cultural magazine with a long track record in intelligent journalism and political campaigning against bigotry. I was depressed when it dawned on me that this was no joke and that the Press & Journal were indeed suggesting that Gay Times was not an appropriate journal to be seen on Council premises, lest unsuspecting and feint-hearted councillors should stumble across it in the Members Lounge and choke on their tea.

It begs the question, what journals are fit for Aberdeen City Council premises? All the tabloids are clearly out, as are most (if not all) women's and men's magazines. I dare say Sue Bruce (who clearly has nothing better to do than huff & puff about a couple of mags) is drawing up a list of acceptable magazines - Saga, Country Life, The Lady, you know, the sort of thing that reflects the dynamic and relevant team of public servants Aberdeen is blessed with.

On a serious note, it is sad that the 10th anniversery of the Admiral Duncan bombing, is marked in Aberdeen by Sue Bruce's Headmistressy pronouncement - “I have taken the liberty of removing these (Gay Times Mag) and they are available in my office to be collected should the owner wish to do so". Even more depressing than the P&J's hysterical headlines, are the responses from councillors sucking up to their leader like teachers pets. It's "another damaging blow to our reputation" (what one would that be?), the council “is not the place for things like that”. Poor Willie Young fears some kind of conspiracy is at work - “It's disappointing to find that whoever it is behind it has put that kind of magazine into the council offices to try to offend.”

Willie also says “I don't think people are interested in councillors' sexuality, but they are interested in their politics". He's right there. Gay-Timesgate reflects all that's rotten in Aberdeen City Council. Stupid people, making stupid decisions about all the wrong things. Beyond party-political allegiance, these are empty vessels rattling about with misplaced notions of what the public find decent in the 21st century. Confusion reigns, even an openly gay counsellor thinks the "casual observer" should be spared the knowledge that gay people have sex. I suppose if mutual respect and tolerance is out of the question at Aberdeen City Council, old-fashioned bigotry will do.

Alice Squire and Pete Richmond
Peter is a social care commissioner at Aberdeen City Council and I have a feeling his boss, won't be pleased. Sue Bruce is the new CEO who, incidentally, didn't bother to meet with or talk to my wife, a senior manager in Aberdeen, on a single occasion between the time she took over as CEO and last week, when my wife retired. I knew then that she would be a useless CEO and this latest fiasco merely confirms me in that belief. Aberdeen, it seems, once more, gets the leadership it deserves.

Perhaps they can get this shitbag to take prayers at the next council meeting.


Me, offensive?

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I'm not sure how many times this woman has emailed me but she's started to get on my tits. Here is her latest message:
Mike:
Please take this off your blog.  It is slanderous and offensive. Thank you,
Joan Petro
Friday, January 26, 2007
Professor Joan Giampa Petro runs a college course which, amongst other things, teaches web design. One student clearly isn't impressed and posts a link on Reddit to the professor's site.
It's not pretty.
Ms Joan Petro,

Firstly, for your information, and as any good student dictionary will explain, "SLANDER" involves the SPOKEN word. I thought, being a professor, you might know that.  Clearly not. 

The post you refer to is this:
http://mikepower.net/mrpower2/2007/1/26/dont-do-as-i-do.html 

which, in turn,  links to this page: 
http://mason.gmu.edu/~jpetro/index.htm 

which, in turn,  displays this message: 
"Forbidden: You don't have permission to access /~jpetro/index.htm on this server."

It seems that you have denied access to the page I have linked to, which is, of course,  your prerogative. As the entire post is about the Reddit post and links to the blocked page I cannot see how it can even be of interest to anyone as it now links to...NOWHERE!!   

I cannot even remember what was linked to but frankly, even if the link was still active and even if you found it "offensive" I wouldn't remove it because I am entitled to my opinion and to the expression of free speech a concept which again, as a professor, I must assume you are familiar with.

The fact is that the link doesn't go to anything, offensive or  otherwise. There has to BE SOMETHING offensive or slanderous (sic) for there to...erm... be something offensive or slanderous. DOH!  Do you not grasp that? Perhaps there is a professor of logic at your college you might like to consult on this matter?

Now, Ms Petro, I really must insist that you to stop contacting me and making false allegations  concerning the content of this post which, clearly, is neither 'offensive' nor 'slanderous' (sic). If you continue to do so I will have no alternative but to have a word with your superiors at Northern Virginia Community College about you conduct and your attempts to harass me.
 
In your own interests I strongly advise you to please stop pestering me with your silly, illiterate messages!  Frankly, you are beginning to get on my nerves. Never a good idea.

Yours etc.,

Mike Power

UPDATE: Unsurprisingly, this gormless, semi-literate bint sent me an insulting email in reply. I hope she isn't typical of teachers (let's do away with the spurious 'professor' title perleeese!) at Northern Virginia Community College for the sake of the poor bloody students.

Coming here soon?

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Phoenix police raid home of blogger whose writing is highly critical of them
In what should send a frightening chill down the spine of every blogger, writer, journalist and First Amendment advocate in the United States, Phoenix police raided the home of a blogger who has been highly critical of the department.

Jeff Pataky, who runs Bad Phoenix Cops, said the officers confiscated three computers, routers, modems, hard drives, memory cards and everything necessary to continue blogging.

The 41-year-old software engineer said they also confiscated numerous personal files and documents relating to a pending lawsuit he has against the department alleging harassment - which he says makes it obvious the raid was an act of retaliation.

Head examination needed

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Afghanistan will prove to be Obama’s Vietnam
The march of folly is underway. Bush and Cheney’s 'war on terror' is now married to Clintonian blueprints for nation-building and social engineering, a wedding officiated over by General Petraeus, whose mythical surge in Iraq was hailed last year by Obama as having "succeeded beyond our wildest dreams".

The fantasy of America’s healing kiss flares in Obama's heart just as it did in Kennedy's. It was General Douglas McArthur who told Kennedy in 1961: "Anyone wanting to commit American ground forces to the mainland of Asia should have his head examined." True then, true now.