Still A Lefty

 It is often said that people turn more right wing as they get older but i have never found that to be true, there are younger people with awful right wing views and they never see the light and keep their selfish, egotistical viewpoint all the way through their lives and i have a theory that the younger ones
absorb the views of the parents and it is not until they leave their parents and strive out on their own that they develop their own views, if at all.
My parents were both lefties and i have kept that left wing viewpoint ever since and people say to me that i can't be all left about everything, their must be some right wing views and luckily there isn't so nope, it's lefty all the way although some things seemed to have been pushed into the left column without particularly being a lefty view.
You would assume that everyone would be interested in Environmentalism and not polluting the only planet we have to live on but nope, their are some who are quite happy for others to go on spewing out the poison into the atmosphere and clogging up the seas with plastic while the seas and oceans lap around their ankles but i see them as useful idiots of the companies and corporations who would suffer financially if they had to radically change their ways.
Equality for all, ensuring that every individual has an equal opportunity in life regardless of sex, race, religion or sexual preference should also be a given but women are still seen as inferior, blacks continue to suffer racism, wars of religion continue and anyone who isn't heterosexual are considered somehow 'wrong' and are denied the same rights as straight people.
Politically, right wing Governments are all for maintaining the status quo which sees the poorest in society continue to suffer with austerity while the money gets shoved to the top in that failed attempt at drip down economics, that half of the world's net wealth belongs to the top 1% of the population should be considered a travesty but they are there to maintain that rather than distribute the wealth evenly so everyone can benefit.  
Wars continue and we choose which side we are on so our Governments financially and militarily back hateful nations like Israel and Saudi Arabia in their murderous and immoral conflicts and try not to mention the hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians killed.
It is good to sometimes check your beliefs but i read something when i was a teenager which went something like 'It's true that life isn't fair so let's do our best to make it fairer' and that belief is as strong today as it was then so no shifting to the right here, i am happily and still thankfully firmly on the left side of the ideological fence and wonder why everybody isn't? 

Yep, I'm A Lefty

The best place to be politically is in the centre and that is where most people start and then move slightly to the left or right but over time people tend to move about but some go to the far side of their political leanings which is something i see time and time again, especially with bloggers for some reason.
I have seen many friends slide past me to the edges of the left and seem confused that i don't join them way out there and no more so than the current Texas ruling on abortion.
My opinion on abortion has always been to not have an opinion on it, that decision is far too important to have someone else opine on it so i have delibretly stayed away from it.
It isn't just a thing on the left, i have known people who have shifted so far right that they are unrecognisable and having some raging racists in positions of power recently just seemed to think it was safe for them to break cover and speak and write some utter nonsense.
Anyone who reads this blog will quickly notice that i am obviously on the political left and no doubt right wingers will read my words and consider what i put out there is utter nonsense and i am fine with that, it is a compliment that someone with a right wing view doesn't agree with me, would be worrying if they did to be honest, but i do wonder if ALL my views are lefty.
The origins of left and right go back to France where those who wanted to maintain the status quo with a monarchy sat on the right side of the political chambers while those who wanted change and a republic sat on the left and in many ways that hasn't really changed.
The right wing today seem to want to keep things as they are or to regress back to a 'better time' while the left want to change things in order to reach the 'better times'.
When i look around there is much wrong with things today, we are wrecking the environment, still have a long way to go with regards to civil rights, equality is still an important issue and Capitalism has gone way too far with the richer growing ever richer and the poorer ever poorer and Democracy needs a long overdue overhaul and don't even get me started on wars.
Going with the original meaning of the left wanting to change things in order to reach that 'better' state, i am completely on the left because if the right believe this is as good as it is going to get, then i really don't think they have been paying attention.

Labour's Anti-Semitism Problem

When it comes to Israel, the left doesn't have much love towards it due to their awful genocidal behaviour towards the Palestinians.
That any criticism of Israel is met by the howling of anti-semitism to try and shut down the argument doesn't do the Jewish community any favours and if anything it waters down their cries when real anti-semitism rears it ugly head.
Labour is currently having a harsh look at itself as it is quite rightly being lambasted for anti-semitism remarks emanating from within the Party.
I have cringed and corrected people many times when left-wingers have failed to separate Judaism and Israel when criticising the countries actions and far worse is when they physically attack Jews whose only connection with Israel is their religion.
What some Labour members fail to recognise is that being Jewish does not make you an Israeli as being Roman Catholic does not make you Italian so they fail to engage the few braincells that they possess and attack an innocent religion.
Israeli actions against Palestinians have been abhorrent so by all means criticise Israel, boycott Israeli goods or join one of the many regular demonstrations against Israel but don't take out your anger on Jews. 
I don't think the left is anti-semitic, more ignorant but while we should not be shut down by cries of anti-semitism, to criticise Israel for its actions as we criticise Russia, America or Britain if they did the same is not the same as criticising Jews who are probably as disgusted at Israel as you.

Those Trotsky Marxist Socialist Commie Types

Those not inclined towards Jeremy Corbyn have got themselves into a bit of a quandary over what to call those who support the current Labour leader, labeling them Communist, Socialist, Marxist or Trotskyists but even those on the left are unsure which box they fall into.
Many of the new recruits to the left's cause from the younger generation seem to like the term 'communist' which is shunned by anyone over 40 as it reeks of the USSR and leads to uncomfortable conversations about Stalin and Chairman Mao in the same way that being far right sets you up alongside Hitler.
Whereas Socialism and Communists have many of the same goals and sprang from the same ideal, they have very different ideas of how to get there, the Communist Correspondence Committee in 1846 sought a purge of Socialists from their party such was the differences between them.
For me the definitions from the early 20th century are now mostly redundant in the modern world, Communists, Socialists, Marxists and Trotskyists are in most cases no longer the same thing in a choice of different flavors although there are some who will argue otherwise but in general left and right will suffice.
The question should be then are you left or right and that is easy to determine with my handy guide which breaks it down as you wear a beret, you hold your fist in the air occasionally, you call everyone brother or sister, you have had at some point owned something with a picture of a guy named Che on it, you have sympathy for strikers or you drink latte.
If you have said yes to any of the above then welcome brother/sister, hang up your beret and grab your Che mug and let's share a latte and discuss the junior doctor strike.
If you said no to all the above then you are probably a selfish right wing capitalist pig dog who had pictures of Margaret Thatcher on your wall and own a book of Hitler quotes.

The Left Need To Wise Up

I don't know why the left are so bad at elections but it seems Bernie Sanders supporters in the USA have been affected by the same syndrome as Jeremy Corbyn supporters here and that involves letting into power the very people or party that you want to keep out.
Sanders supporters are booing and refusing to vote for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton which means less votes against the Republican Nominee Donald Trump and in turn could see him sneak into power.
Over here, Jeremy Corbyn cannot win the next election but the Labour Party members are refusing to overthrow him for someone who can and the anti-Corbynites are refusing to vote and so the Conservative Party slip in for another five years.   
Supporters of Sanders and Corbyn seem unwilling to face the reality that their guys cannot win power and so seem willing to let the 'enemy' win rather than contemplate voting for someone else of the same side.
Cutting off your nose to spite your face is never a good tactic, and especially not with as something as important as who runs your country, but they need to make the shift from who they want to win to making sure they stop who they don't want to win.
You may need to hold your nose as you vote for Hillary or whoever finally replaces Jeremy but it is always better to have someone from your side of the fence in power who shares some of your beliefs and values rather than someone from the other side who is your polar opposite.
Hopefully Sanders and Corbyn supporters will wise up to this fact because five years is a long time to spend moaning about the 'enemy' getting in and a long time to wait until you get the chance to kick them out again.

World Becoming More Left Wing

We all know where being right wing ends up, burning women for being witches, slave owners, black men hanging from trees and 6 million dead Jews are proof of that but before you despair history does seem to show that we are shifting over to left wing values of equality and fairness for all, just very slowly. 
Looking at the big picture, we have gone from monarchies and dictatorships to democracies and social equality over the past 1500 years and a lot of the social reforms we see that are regarded currently as the norm weren't in the past, such as gay rights, feminism, civil rights for minorities and abortion rights.
There have been blips and countries that are further along the curve than others, it has not been a smooth transition but we are on a trend where there is more equality, more power for people who were previously powerless and human rights have been extended to cover more of society.  
One reason to be cheerful is that the future is left wing with more social and financial equality for all while the right wing and it's selfish hatred of anyone different is a diminishing thing of the past and that is always a good thing.

Should The Left Back Trump?

The Cubs song 'New York' has a great line about how 'everything is beautiful when you're young and pretty' which is true because as you get older you turn more right wing, get pessimistic and stingy and see only the nasty side of things which begs the question, just how old is Donald Trump?   
I have been thinking of the strange haired orange one lately and the general consensus is that he would be an absolute disaster if he gets his tiny, little hands on the White House door key in November but then i realised that hang on a second, the alternative is Hillary Clinton.
Trump may be full of bluster about building walls to keep out Mexicans and be a general all round douchenugget and ugly enough to make an onion cry but apart from Islamic State, he hasn't so far threatened anybody outside of Americas borders so if he is as much a disaster he promises to be, it will largely only affect Americans.
Hillary on the other hand has a record that sees her supporting the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya while destabalising the Ukraine and Syria, supports expanding NATO and acts as an unashamed apologist for Israels aggression and has been promoting the continuation of prodding Russia and China.
If Trump messes up America then it will be a case of whatever, my largest concern will remain if Greggs still has any of my lunchtime Egg Mayo Sub's left when i get there but if it is Hillary then she could very well drag us all back into the George W Bush years and the sight of Union Flag draped coffins arriving off the back of a plane at Brize Norton and those terrible grainy pictures of missiles landing on Muslim peoples houses.
After much consideration i am going with the idea that as Clinton poses more danger to me 4,000 miles away in England than Trump who will bankrupt his own country and foul his own doorstep, the peace loving pretty left over here should be hoping that the man with a face so orange an Oompah Lumpah would laugh emerges from the skirmish victorious over there.       
Of course him winning would suck for American women, Hispanics, Muslims, blacks and war veterans who have all been insulted by him recently but if him winning means America leaves the rest of the World alone, they can consider it taking one for the team and in return we wont make fun of the way you guys say 'aluminum' or 'route' for the duration.
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Corbyn's Beliefs

Usually with politics you get to vote for the party that most resembles your beliefs but that can end up
being a choice for the least worst and they may only get your vote because although they may not be ideal, they are not as bad as the other lot.
For those of us a bit further to the Left of centre than most, Labour electing Jeremy Corben as leader has been a god-send and this is probably the first time in my life that my party of choice actually has a leader that chimes very much with my own beliefs.
Although he is undergoing a baptism of fire from the right wing press, there is much Jeremy beliefs that I can cheer for.

1. The deficit should be tackled but not through spending cuts but via higher taxes for the rich and a crackdown on tax avoidance and evasion. Agree completely, why should the poorest bear the brunt of cuts and the richest not contribute more to get us out of the mess the banks got us in?  
2. Britain's railways should be renationalised. Again, 100% behind this. Privatisation doesn't work.
3. No replacement for Trident. With him here, why spend £100 billion replacing a weapon we are never going to use, especially in times of austerity. The money would be much better spent elsewhere where it could benefit everyone.
4. Scrap university tuition fees. Why saddle students with tens of thousands pounds worth of debt at the start of their working lives.
5. No support for air strikes against Islamic State in Syria. Yes because as we have seen in every war, it is the innocent who would suffer and the Government have a nasty habit of mission creep once they gain the authority to act which is how we ended up being the air-force for Al-Queada groups in Libya.
6. More council houses should be built. A no-brainer, we have a chronic housing shortage.
7. An arms embargo should be imposed on Israel. I would go further and as well as an arms embargo i would like to see sanctions imposed also.
8. Energy companies should be under public ownership. As above, privatisation is the pup we have been continually sold.
9. A national maximum wage. If you can impose a minimum wage, why not a maximum? 
10. The arms trade should be restricted. Only a war mongering maniac would think any different.

As i have said previously, i consider Corbyn to far left to be elected Prime Minister in five years, the press will see to that but we can dream.

Left v Right Explained

As the election gets closer we will hear more and more phrases such as 'left wing' and 'right wing' but as i seem to get asked more and more exactly what they mean, it is obvious that the terms are much bandied about but not so much understood.
The terms range back to the days of pre-revolutionary France when the Royal chamber was split into two with everyone who wanted to keep things as they were sat to the right of the King and everyone who sat to the left of him wanted to change it.
Of course some would think that if if they were within the vicinity of royalty they would choose the side which provided the best angle to throw rotten fruit at them but the Frenchies Royal Chamber is the basic premise of the 'Left' and the 'Right'.
Adapting it to today, the left basically want what is best for the whole of society while the right want what is best for the individual.
The left include environmentalists, pacifists and Guardian readers. The right have royalists, religionists and Daily Mail readers. Where the left put down the stick and wave around carrots, the right swing the stick and make juice from the carrots.
If you are still unsure about your orientation, science has tried to usher to one side or the other by profiling the typical characteristics of those on the left and right.
Psychologists at New York University conducted a review of 88 prior studies involving 22,000 participants and came up with the following traits regarding political orientation.
If your front room is messy, cluttered, colourful and contains maps or flags, then you are on the left side of the political fence.
If its neat, clean, organised, brightly lit and contains paintings or pictures of buildings you are on the opposite side.
Lefty's have more books, are impulsive, optimistic, more likely to listen to classical music or jazz, enjoy abstract art, like romantic comedies, write in a diary and play musical instruments. They are also more open, inquisitive, excitement-seeking, creative, and travel more.
The right are more likely to be religious, like country music, prefer radio chat shows, are orderly, decisive and more conscientiousness in their duty, and are strict rule followers. They consider the world to be a dangerous place and have a greater fear of death.
Researchers at the University of Nebraska have reported that right-wingers possess a strong 'negativity bias' meaning they are more defencive and reactionary than their left wing cousins.
They also discovered that right wing parents are stricter with their offspring, are more emotionally repressed and are less empathetic but on the flip side are also more polite and strangely own more cleaning supplies than the left so if you ever want a jar opened or your bathroom needs a good clean you would need to ask a right winger.
Finally, if you still unsure if you are left or right or find you have a foot in either camp, their is a quick test to work out your orientation.

Fill in the blanks of these incomplete words: coff__, sk_ll, and _oney.

If you are more likely to vote for the indecisive type with the map of the World on the wall and brightly coloured cushions, you see coffee, skill, and honey.
If you are more inclined to put your cross beside the god bothering candidate with the Dolly Parton CD and sparkling clean bathroom you see coffin, skull, and money.

Left Wing Atheists v Right Wing Religionists

Using the Google search facility, we can write in Left Wing Blogs and find approx 36 million of my like minded breatheren spreading the love but write in Right Wing Blog and there are almost double the amount with 70 million cluttering up the place. Probably foaming at the mouth as they exercise the few braincells they have by pounding the keyboard with their fists and ranting about how GWB was a misunderstood genius. 
Writing in 'Atheist Blog' we have a choice of 18 million places we can go and read about all things Darwin but write in 'Religious Blog' and the choice is an astonishing 176 million blogs.
Giving it some thought and going with Occam's Razor, it may appear that there are just more right wing religious people with blogs then left wing atheists but let's wipe the razor for Occam and go again because it may be that right wing religious types just have more to say.
Granted what they say is mostly what we can generously call twaddle but in the best tradition of Charlie Hebdo, we may not like what they say but they are well within their rights to spout as much twaddle as they like.
Thinking it through further, it could be a case that they, the religious and the right wing, are more in need of confirmation of what they believe so there are 176 million religious bloggers all saying 'Who thinks God's Great?' and feeling the love when like minded religious bloggers say they do and they all light a candle and sing Onward Christian Soldiers.
That could be the same reason there are so many right wing bloggers, all those selfish feelings and erotic thoughts about Sarah Palin making them feel strange and they need to know that they are not alone, that there are people like them somewhere out there. 176 million right wing bloggers stroking each other into a frenzy and blaming Socialism for every ill that has befallen them since they were born. 
It could also be that Atheists and Left Wingers are too busy trying to make the World a better place through drinking latte and wearing T-Shirts that say: 'No-one has been stoned to death by atheists' so just don't have the time to write a blog.
Yeah, let's go with that.

Evo Morales Again

Anyone would be overshadowed by such an immense figure as Hugo Chavez, but Evo Morales has been quietly following the same left wing trail in Chile that Chavez blazed in continental neighbour Venezuela and is today up for his third election as President.  
Opinion polls suggest that Morales remains immensely popular and with a lead of more than 40% in the latest polls, his closest rival is facing an uphill struggle to stay with the current President.
When you look at his performance in power, you can see why Morales is so successful, tripling his country's gross domestic product since he took office in 2006, according to World Bank figures.
One of his first acts was to nationalise the oil, mines, gas and communications industry and used the new found wealth to introduce social programs to reduce the 60% poverty in Chile.
The introduction of old-age pensions, controlling the price of fuel, gas and subsiding the cost of the staple foodstuffs saw poverty reduced to 45% in 2011.
Literacy programs reduced illiteracy from 16% in 2006 to UNESCO declaring Bolivia free of illiteracy.
Morales calls his Government 'Communitarian Socialism' and his country has not got the spending power that Hugo Chavez used so successfully to turn around his country after decades of neglect, but Morales has been slowly turning things around by taking the wealth that previously went to fund company directors yachts and mansions and spending it on the people that he was voted into office to represent and that is why he is a stone cold certainty to be re-elected to office today and also the reason why the defenders of the creaking Capitalism system will continue to try and discredit him and his successful version of Socialism.

Greens Going Red

Since Tony Blair, left wing supporters have been looking around for a new party to throw their support behind and there have been a few start-ups, Left Unity amongst them, but nothing of much substance so it is a pleasant surprise that the reddest party have turned out to be the greens.
The party have been gradually shifting further left and today unveiled a manifesto that includes increase taxes on the wealth of the super-rich and renationalising the railways which may not dio much for the rapidly dwindling sea ice in the arctic but hit a beautiful note with the vast pool of ex-labour voters looking for a left wing party to put their cross beside.
The party’s membership has increased by 28% this year and is only 3% behind the Liberal Democrats who are the third largest party in the country.
The Greens so far successful attempt to broaden their base is welcome especially as the two right wing parties, Conservatives and UKIP rip into each other and half each others potential votes.
After a decade of corrupt politicians at the big three, wars, austerity and rich politicians running the country for the benefit of their rich buddies, anyone promising a more socially and economically just society has to be better for us.
With a fair wind and a bit of luck, this could be the exact right time for the red greens.

A Political Party For The Left Finally?

When you think of right wing figures such as Hitler, George W Bush, Maggie Thatcher and Nigel Farage, it does make you wonder why would anyone want to be on that side of the fence but a few fools do which is why the left has to try so hard to make sure they never get within a sniff of power.
Here in the UK we have a right wing Government full of posh boys wrecking the place although they were preceded by a Labour Party that wheeled so far away from their left wing ideals that they lost 40% of their membership during their time in power.
What we face now is the three main parties representing big business's interests and none that care about working-class people and this is where film director Ken Loach's Left Unity Party hopes to step in.
Less than a year ago Ken Loach was lamenting the lack of a proper Left Wing party campaigning against austerity, wars and fighting for a fairer society and this weekend he put his money where his mouth is and the fruit of his labours were realised with the introduction of Britain's latest left wing party.
If it gains traction, and it already has a membership of over 10,000, it could make things interesting because we do need a genuine leftist party to either give the Labour Party a bit of a scare and drag them back to left after the Blair years or to usurp Labour as the apparent party of the left.
It could always backfire and split the Labour vote and we could be heading towards another five years of Conservative nasty party politics and nobody wants that, or shouldn't want that if they have a shred of humanity about them.
The problem isn't that the left lacks supporters as it doesn't, but that it has never gathered around a single party so we end up with The Communists, Socialist Workers Party, the Green Party, Occupied, The Labour Party and a plethora of other parties tugging splintering the support.
Maybe, if Left Unity can amalgamate the supporters into a broad left wing party, it may be able to pull it off and become a force in British politics.
If it can learn to avoid the pit-falls of other left-wing parties that have unsuccessfully attempted to bring together the left and becomes the choice of Party for those who want to defend workers rights, oppose privatisation of the essentials, oppose austerity, protect the NHS and education, take on the bankers and financial institutions ruining the economy, oppose wars of aggression, reform the economy to protect the most vulnerable in society and above all make society fairer, then it is a welcome addition worth a look at.  
If it becomes a short term fad that fizzles out under the weight of a egotistical leader then us on the left will be waiting a lot longer for a real party to put our cross beside and hoping that Ed Milliband is taking notes and move the Labour Party back to its original roots of a party of the people.

The Spectre Of Lefty Students

The man at the local Socialist Workers Party had a decent introduction to his speech a few years ago, picturing the scene in Full Metal Jacket where Private Pile was caught with a jam doughnut in his foot locker and the rest of the dormitory were punished by having to do press-ups while Pile ate the doughnut. 
This would then lead him into how the bankers and financial institutions were the real life's Private Pile's stuffing their faces with jam doughnuts while the rest of us were the innocent members of the dormitory doing press-ups or struggling with debt, unemployment, house repossessions, austerity cuts and worse.
He has now dropped that particular analogy from the 1987 film mainly because a good proportion of his audience were too young or not even born when the film was made.
Since 2008 i have noticed a large increase in Marxism, Socialism and Communism interest from the younger generation, i should have asked for commission from the estate of Robert Tressell the amount of times that i have suggested The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists to students as a gentle introduction to Socialism before they hit the more heavier stuff. Now i advise them to download it for free from here
There has certainly been a revival in interest in Marx and Marxist thought, sales of Das Kapital, have soared over the last few years, as have those of The Communist Manifesto (which can be downloaded free here)
The revival of interest especially for young people, comes as the present Capitalist system is in crisis across the globe and is being kept on life support by the people who crashed it, making the little people pay for their crisis and so why on earth should they not be looking for an alternative to a system which hands out crumbs for the workers and then no crumbs at all when those on the top table mess up, and Marxism is the direction they seem to be turning.
The Socialist Worker Party speaker hit the nail on his head when he said his audience is getting younger because the younger people weren't around when Marxism was associated with Stalin and the nasty flavour of Communism in the Soviet Union or East Germany, now it is associated with men like Hugo Chavez in Venezuela whose Socialist philosophy has dragged his country out of poverty and bettered the lot of the poorest in his country. 
The younger generation look at the rich men making up the Worlds Government's, and feel alienated, rightly asking how can they possible understand their plight and not do anything about the pitiful, sinister and corrupt economic shambles going on around them. Many of the new left movements like Occupy are organised by the younger generation who saw at first hand the violent efforts the Governments will go to when the present system is threatened. 
As tempting as it may be for the establishment to ignore or just shake their heads at this new wave of interest in Marx, large swathes of the new generation coming through, the future politicians and policy makers, are questioning the present system and are not being fooled by the Capitalist mantra that what we have is all there is because they know there is an alternative where the majority also get a bite at the jam doughnut.
A spectre may well be haunting Europe and the World — the spectre of a Socialist generation.  

Don't Go Hugo

Some would describe him as a man of destiny and hero of the poor who swept away decades of corruption that brought the world's third largest oil-producing country to its knees while others just call him the fat dictator in a stupid beret but any man who is loved by the poor and hated by the rich must be doing something right.
For 14 years Hugo Chavez has ruled over Venezuela and dragged his country up by it's heels but the talk is that this election campaign may be his last, either through ill health or being replaced by Presidential hopeful Henrique Capriles this weekend.
While Chavez's campaign promises more of the same that has done so much to improve the lot of the poorest Venezuelans, Capriles is promising a review of oil deals that has bankrolled Chavez's social programmes.
The smart money is on Chavez being the one celebrating Sunday evening, there are many more poor who will vote for the beret wearer than rich who would vote for Capriles and a return to the pre-Chavez days. 
Besides being a brilliant leader, Chavez is loved by the left not just because of his socialist policies but because he takes pot shots at the same targets we do.
At the UN in 2006, after following George W Bush onto the rostrum, he described George W Bush as the Devil and and donkey said that the he could still smell the sulphur. After Condoleeza Rice described Venezuela as a menace to democracy he went on TV to blow her a kiss and called her Condolence.
Tony Blair also came in for verbal abuse when he berated the British Prime Minister for invading Iraq, calling him 'shameless, immoral and an imperialist pawn who attempts to curry favour with Danger Bush-Hitler, the number one mass murderer and assassin there is on the planet.Go straight to hell, Mr Blair'.
I will be shocked if us Chavistas who will be sobbing into our lattes come Sunday evening.

I think i probably am a lefty

It has been mentioned on quite a few occasions whilst blogging and littering other sites with comments that i am one of those lefty types.
This may be true, i don't really know, because i'm not completely sure what a lefty or righty type is.
I ask my wife who is much more up on these things but after the fifth time of me asking to dumb it down a tad she is called away by an urgent call on her mobile. Strange how i never actually heard it ring.
As usual, i resort to the internet for answers and what i discover is that the left and right date from the days of the French pre-revolution days where everyone sat to the right of the King wanted to keep things as they were and everyone who sat to the left wanted to change it.
Not sure where i would sit if i was within the vicinity of royalty, probably whichever side gave me the best angle to throw rotten fruit at them.
After much reading my mind finally got to grips with this left and right thing, i think.
Basically, the left want what is best for the whole while the right want what is best for the individual.
The left include environmentalists, pacifists and Guardian readers. The right have royalists, religionists and Daily Mail readers.
The main difference seems to be that the left put down the stick and wave around carrots while the right swing the stick and make juice from the carrots.
The right had Hitler and the left Stalin as the leaders both try and brush under the carpet which makes a mockery of the rights religious credentials and the lefts wanting to do what is best for the majority.
Looking at the evidence i agree that i am easily one of those lefty types. I want to see things change towards a more fairer society and less of this divisive greedy attitude where the individual self gratification comes before everything else.
I am left wondering why would anyone want to be on the right? I am sure there are some well hidden good traits but you right wing guys do seem to come off sounding horribly selfish.

Jimmy Carter, The Left's Top Dingbat

The left and right in America has always been a bit more pronounced than here in the UK. A right leaning American would probably follow the same track as a right winger here but there they have guns and God thrown into the mix, two things that are of no consequence here but seem to spark off all the biggest bun fights there.
The two ideological opposites do seem to go at it with an amazing, and sometimes frightening, amount of gusto as we have seen with the reactions to George W Bush and now Obama. The added ingredient now though is that Obama happens to be black so race is also thrown into the bubbling cauldron.
Maybe i missed something but when Republican Joe Wilson shouted out that Obama was a liar, it was because he strongly disagreed with what Obama was saying about Health Care. Unprofessional and rude certainly, but racist?
It seems that this is the way the left are going to play this game, a game that involves branding as a racist anyone who criticizes Obama in much the same way the pro-Israel brigade throw out the anti-Semite barb at anyone who doesn't toe their line.
Now ex-President Jimmy Carter has stepped into the fray and kicked the whole thing up a notch, saying that the outburst by Wilson was an act 'based on racism' and rooted in fears of a black president.
I can only watch on in disbelief that a subject such as Health care can stir the emotions so much that the right turn out with posters depicting Obama as Hitler and a Communist while the left turn the whole thing into a race row.
Debate is good and its okay to disagree but this doesn't bode well for the rest of Obama's administration which will get bogged down in this nonsense with every decision it tries to make, to the detriment of America.
It was the American right that was widely thought to be full of dingbats but it seems that the left also have more than their fair share as well with Mr Carter, who really should know better, the top dingbat.

The Lefty The Right Revere

I'm not sure why but it seems that most religious folk, especially the Evangelists, are right leaning.
A Reverend was on TV this morning urging his followers to vote Republican in the upcoming US election and the general consensus seems to be that they will. As America has a very high proportion of those that believe in a creator, the church seems to speak to a large base but why has the Church grabbed Jesus as one of their own when the writings of the Bible seem to point that he represented the polar opposite of what the right believe?
With the help of a good friend with a wide knowledge of all things biblical, we have come to the conclusion that actually, if the son of God was knocking about today, he would be be on the left side of politics.
The most obvious example in the bible is the line: 'It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God' which clearly states the financial views of the creator.
His Leftist position is further enhanced by tales of Jesus running a Commune where 'There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale, and put them at the feet of the apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need'. He even told his followers: "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor".
Seems obvious enough to me, God doesn't much care for home ownership, what stocks and shares you possess or how big your pension is.
Without doubt Jesus was a hippy, the long hair, the beard and the sandals give that away and his anti-war slogan 'Do not murder, anyone who murders will be subject to judgement.' and his catchy 'Blessed are the peacemakers' show his unerring slant towards pacifism.
So we have the evidence that God is anti-war, anti-capitalist and strongly believes in the equal distribution of wealth.
Of course the left widely poo-poo the idea of God so we wouldn't want him anyway but just nice to know that the man the right revere with such passion was probably the Worlds first Socialist.
Amen Comrade.

Left Or Right?

I have always managed to sort the left leaning males from the right leaning males by hairstyles. In my mind right wing men have short, gelled and smart hairstyles while lefty men usually have long or hair that goes in whatever direction the wind is blowing.
Of course this is just my own rule of thumb but in 2003 Psychologists at New York University conducted a review of 88 prior studies involving 22,000 participants and came up with traits that reveal our personality and political orientation.
If your front room is messy, cluttered, colourful and contains maps or flags, then you are on the left side of the political fence.
If its neat, clean, organized, brightly lit and contains paintings or pictures of buildings you are on the opposite side.
Lefts have more books, are impulsive, optimistic, more likely to listen to classical music or jazz, enjoy abstract art, like romantic comedies, write in a diary and play musical instruments. They are also more open, inquisitive, excitement-seeking, creative, and travel more.
The right are more likely to be religious, like country music, prefer radio chat shows, are orderly, decisive and more conscientiousness in their duty, and rule-following. The most common derogatory term used to describe them is stubborn or jobs-worth. They think the world is a dangerous place and have a greater fear of death.
The left are more likely to see grey areas and are able to see both sides of an argument which often see's them branded as indecisive.
If you are still unsure about your orientation and find you have a foot in either camp, the reports authors have devised a quick test to work out your orientation.

Fill in the blanks of these incomplete words: coff__, sk_ll, and _oney.

If you are more likely to vote for the long haired indecisive type with a messy living room, you see coffee, skill, and honey.
If you are more inclined to put your cross beside the short haired candidate with the Dolly Parton CD, you see coffin, skull, and money.