Flee England?

Lots of "Doom and Gloom" and "Decline and Fall" before we get to good things today..

A 64- year- old grandmother was arrested for standing up to two thugs that were tormenting her.

"After months of being taunted by a gang of yobs, grandmother Diane Bond finally stood up to them when she was abused while walking her pet dog. During a torrent of foul-mouthed abuse, the frail 64-year-old prodded the teenager ringleader gently in the stomach when he urged her to "Hit me, if you dare".

"Moments later, the 5 ft 1 inch pensioner found herself flat on her back and nursing a broken arm after the 15-year-old boy, who was 7 inches taller, pushed her to the ground. But to add insult to injury, police officers arrested her for assaulting a child after his mother moaned he had been attacked."

I won't even say "read the whole thing"-- it is all more of the same.


Gun curmudgeon Kim details the attempts of the British nanny state to evict a man who only wanted to live a life that would have suited Thoreau:

"The urge to live a life of greater simplicity is not a new one. It has become more popular as the world has become more technologically complex, and I for one don’t have a problem with it—it should be a basic societal principle that one can live one’s life at the level of simplicity of one’s own choice (with the usual caveat that no one else’s life is adversely affected by such a decision, which is clearly not an issue in this particular case).

"But no: Nanny Government has decreed that no one be allowed to live without running water, electricity, a sauna, a hot tub, and underfloor heating. After all, if there’s no electricity, how will Big Brother be able to install the telescreen?"

(Of course, we are not immune to this here. From NPR:

"Two-and-a-half years from now, in early 2009, the Census Bureau plans to send an army of 100,000 temporary workers down every street and dusty, dirt road in America. They will be armed with handheld GPS devices.

"Robert LaMacchia, head of the Census Bureau's geography division, says they'll capture the latitude and longitude of the front door of every house, apartment and improvised shelter they find.

"We will actually knock on doors and look for hidden housing units," he says. "We will find converted garages; from the outside, it may not look like anybody lives there."

"But census workers will add each dwelling, legal or not, to the Census Bureau's Master Address File.")

I'll add some more dour thoughts on life in Britain in the next post. But of course, if you don't mind being convicted for defending yourself or hunting, you can now attend a masturbation marathon in London.

As the character in Peter Matthiessen's Far Tortugas said, "modern times, mon".