Spelling, how do you do motherfucker.

A friend of mine, Age (CrazyAge on the side bar) effectively linked me to this: Text through Slashdot.

I read the Slashdot piece, it was five lines long, outlining the article. I was horrified at the mere outline. Then I read the article. I think, at this very moment, I am ready to go out into the world and kill some people with my bare hands, I would rather see prison than English being slaughtered because people are so fabulously fucking stupid that they can't even spell a few words. It's a simple solution. Read a few adult orientated books, you learn pretty fast. It doesn't take long to work out that you saw a word spelt in a book, or piece of literature, a certain way. You read it often enough, you learn the spelling.

This caught my attention, specifically: ""It's a very difficult thing to get something accepted like this," acknowledges Alan Mole, president of the American Literacy Council, which favors an end to "illogical spelling." The group says English has 42 sounds spelled in a bewildering 400 ways."

Yes. Forty-two sounds spelled in 400 ways. I can't imagine why that is.

Oh, possibly, because it's a huge collection fo different fucking words?

No, that can't be it, that'd make too much damned sense wouldn't it.

This caught my eye, too: "Lurning English reqierz roet memory rather than lojic, he sed."

I don't know what in the hell they're trying to say here. Learning, English0, than, rather, and said are all that I got. The rest are so bloody idiotic that I can't decipher their meaning.

This Alan Mole character claims that children learning English do not learn as fast as German children or Spanish children. I think he is missing some key facts. The Germans, let's take them first. They are efficiency machines. They probably take predetermined bathroom breaks so as not to screw with their schedule. Thus, it would make sense that their children are drilled to this schedule and acomplish their targets day in, day out. Next up, the Spanish. Obviously he's not worked out what the Spanish day consists of, has he. Let's take a sterotypical look shall we.

Wake up. Spit. Shower, dress. Breakfast. Work. Lunch.

Lunch is more complex than the rest, so let's break it down.

At work, lunch is likely to be the same as hours, one or two hours off to eat and relax a little. Outside of work all that seems to happen is they sleep and generally avoid doing anything that involves a lot of movement, because it's too damned hot.

This means that, assuming the child has other things to do during the cooler parts of the day, he/she has two hours EVERY DAY to learn. I was in Arizona for two or three weeks, I am not in the slightest academic, and in those three weeks I nailed my times tables out. Bang on, second or two answering. If I can do that, some kids can learn to spell, no?

The rest of the article is just so stupid, I can't bring myself to do anything but cry at it. It's reletively self-explanitory, too.

This is being pushed by Americans.

Not to say all Americans are stupid, nothing of the sort, all the Americans I know have at the very least half a brain, and are competant with the language they speak. There is, however, a minority that went unchecked when America gained independance. They hacked letters out to make it 'simpler to use'. It just made more language barriers, because now people argue nearly constantly on forums as to the proper spelling of the words. I side with the English argument. We gave you the language, use it as it was intended you oafish bastards.

I hate your beliefs if you support this bullshit. I don't care who you are, if you try and tell me to spell like a lobotomised bratpack reject, I will skullfuck you until you need to be ID'd via DNA testing. If any one comes to me supporting this argument, I will violate you. That is not a threat. That is a promise. Without GOOD SOLID REASON for the support of this garbage, if you say it's good, I will desecrate everything you stand for, and your body in a blind fit of rage.

However! This said, do not ignore commenting (HAHAHAH) just because I promise to kill you and violate you in new and wonderful ways. Bring it on, I enjoy reading your comments nearly as much as you enjoy writing them.

And we're back, with real news.

Been a while since something about real world news has been posted. I was taking a walk through a few news sites today, as you do.

A few things struck me. Struck me speechless.

I read about the knife amnesty, and the desires of a police chief. Carrying a knife should mean prison. Hm. He mentioned that 17000+ knives have been handed in during the knife amnesty. Okay. Let's look at this, shall we. A lot of, if not all, of the people that handed knives in are going to be law abiding citizens, no? They heard about the amnesty and thought they best follow the rules. Makes sense, doesn't it. Now, let's think about a law breaker, a criminal. Let's say they're sat there watching the TV, and they hear about the amnesty. What, exactly, would posses them to get up and hand their knife(knives) in? They've already broken laws, let's not forget. The government seem to have forgotten than criminals will, as always, get weapons be they bladed or guns. Why the hell would making it illegal to carry knives stop a criminal? Oh, that's right, it wouldn't. Sorry, for a minute there, I was thinking like a retarded law enforcer. Breaking the law is illegal. They already partake in illegal activities. Why, oh why, would they hand their weapons in? That's right. They wouldn't. If they got confiscated, they'd just go buy another one. Because, funnily, that's what criminals do. They smuggle weapons. That's why there are pistols in the UK still, even though they were banned.

I continued to browse, and came across a nuclear power article. A Mr. Hain was claiming that to avoid needing nuclear power 'green' enthusiasts would have to display much more support for wind farms and tidal developments. There isn't enough space in the world to have windfarms that can equal the power of a few dozen nuclear power plants. It doesn't help that wind isn't exactly reliable. Tidal movement is, you might be thinking. There are only so many places to can have tidal installations, and apparently a lot of people like the beach, so you can't have them on every inch of coast line. There's hydro electric, too. But what would be the point? The best places to put them are dammed rivers, or naturally formed water falls. Most people like looking at those, too. Artificially damming a river would piss the green protesters off more, because it'd fill the flood plains and probably a bit more, killing animals, people and demolishing building space. Killing the point, really. Like the one in Brazil. Did you ever read about that? Yeah, they were pissed about that one. What're the solutions, you say? Build some bastard nuclear power plants and be done with it. If any one of you ever says they could be used as weapons, I will kill you. The biggest disaster involving a nuclear power plant was Chernobyl. That was more than likely because they tried to test something and fucked it up. It doesn't help that they were using out dated equipment. So bugger off with that idea. If you even begin to think that because it's nuclear it'll explode like Hiroshima, you're sadly mistaken, and very very stupid. Weapons grade plutonium/uranium and created with completely different manufacturing processes to what's used in nuclear power plants. Why do you think it has the pre-fix 'WEAPONS GRADE'? Because it is, in essence, something else. It is designed, and manufactured, for weaponry. So shut the fuck up and let people get you cheap reliable power.

Another nuclear related article I read was about nuclear ICBM's in a post 9/11 world. It makes sense that you can't nuke a plane out of the sky. It makes sense that you can't nuke a truck full of terrorists (Or freedom fighters, however you look at it). The article asks why we should need to keep our nuclear deterant with the Soviet collapse long gone. A fair question. I assume, as it's not long after the Somme rememberance day, you know what a world war is. I also shall assume that you know what happened to Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the second one. Now. It's as good as inevitable that there will be another world war. If we, the British, get rid of our nuclear deterant we will be sitting ducks. I can guarentee that no one else will follow suit, least of all our enemies. Yes, we still have enemies. For the love of whichever god you choose, or the country if you so desire, keep the nuclear deterent, for when we will need it in the future. Terrorism does not replace war, it goes hand in hadn with it. Removing a weapon because it doesn't suit one fight means there will, inevitably, be an occasion where it is needed, but not there, because some moron fuck was allowed to save budget by getting rid of it, and we'll all be royally fucked. If you want to die via nuking, be my guest, but I swear, if we ever get nuked and we have nothing to retaliate with, I am going to laugh until the next one lands on Birmingham and I die of radiation posioning. If that ever happens, I hope whoever said we don't need nuclear deterents dies of shame and violent reprocussions, I really do.

A lighter note! Yes, there really is a lighter note to end it all with. Exams. A-Levels, specifically. Some people think you should get marks for failing, if you have good exam results prior to them. Okay. Just stop right there. Make the exams harder, do away with A*, and get some better methods of getting the kids in the goddamn class and learning. Some better teachers, some better anti-truancy devices (I suggest chipping the motherfuckers with something that determines if they're off school with a legit reason, and if not, alerts truancy officers.), bring back the cane and beat the bastards that disrupt the class. I guarantee a can across the ass would shut them up real damn fast. Then, maybe, we'll see some better bloody graduates, and some educated people.

Points to fail? That's as retarded as anything, and if it goes through, I will be doubly glad I'm leaving.