Personal Musings from Simon Jones

Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said it would be a “huge mistake” for President Barack Obama to reject the 1,700-mile, Canada-to-Texas pipeline. Obama faces a Feb. 21 deadline to decide whether the $7 billion pipeline is in the national interest.

“Clearly, the Keystone XL pipeline is in the national interest,” Gerard said at the trade association’s annual “State of American Energy” event. “A determination to decide anything less than that I believe will have huge political consequences.”

If that’s not a threat from a group of rich corporations to the ‘leader’ of the US, I don’t know what is.

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People post, share, reshare, and repost things without researching! Through their own ignorance they just believe something someone else reposted online and repeat it as fact often spreading untrue horror stories about flashing lights or stating that guts and bones are processed into nuggets! Urban myths, 99% are just urban myths!

Reported by Yahoo! today; They seem to find it odd that a baby was named after a plant… because Holly, Rose, Hyacinth, Daisy aren’t also plants. Who the hell does their reporting?

What I’m more concerned about and which they don’t seem to have picked up on is that the baby’s full name is Ivy Blue Carter; which sounds less like a plant and more like an embarrassing rumour worthy of Vicky Pollard…

I love big brother, I love to see forming and changing relationships in that isolated house. I love Charlie Brooker’s spin off film Dead Set. I cannot bring myself, nor even force myself to watch this latest Celebrity BB at ALL!

In previous years, Big Brother have sunk lower and lower, each year really scraping the barrel for so called celebrities. Usual entries are the TV equivalent of Mechanically recovered meat; Hardly the choicest cuts but still edible enough to be classed as ‘for human consumption’. What’s left of skin, bones etc becomes dog food; unfit for human consumption, then once all the meat is sold, and the staff have gone home and the lights are off, the little bit of meaty scum clinging to the drain, this is where they got this year’s celebs.

That’s not to say they’re scum of course, most seem like genuine people, but there’s so little actual celebrity no wonder Cassidy is already tipped to win. Nathalie Cassidy is an actress in one of the most popular UK soaps, she’s a popular girl, and probably the most famous in there. On the flip side we have Frankie Cocozza; a boy we met on reality TV barely 6 months ago who was famous for getting drunk, allegedly taking drugs and then being kicked off the show… and that’s it, he’s now a celebrity. Thousands have been kicked off the X-Factor, why choose this one? American Playboy twins while VERY nice to look at… I’ve never heard of them before.

Then Natasha Giggs; she is a celebrity because she slept with her sister’s husband, her sister’s husband happens to be a famous footballer. I accidentally sneezed Simon Pegg once, where’s my VIP invite?

The only thing interesting I’ve learned this week is that there is one gay man in the house (that I know of), and it’s wasn’t Andrew Stone. Thankfully he apparently gets this all the time so this shouldn’t be too sensitive a subject. I won’t out the real man, for that you’ll have to watch, investigate, or move on and forget.

Oh Channel Five, you’ve never been the bringer of the best entertainment, but you’ve worked hard to gain notoriety. Surely even now you must know the definition of a celebrity! You did well last year! Perhaps Channel 4 made the right decision to put it to bed after all.

After being given illegal advice from an energy company about not being able to change suppliers and a phone company who can’t give me my PAC code until I pay the whole year’s contract up front (both untrue) I’ve realised why big businesses and big companies can get away with such rubbish!

1&1 actually stole money from me illegally! Over a month later after I proved they were never entitled to it, they (without apology or admittance) gave it back!

While on the big business ripping people off, UK and US banks were bailed out while giving their ‘top’ staff huge bonuses. The bailouts were more to protect their customers than them, but surely bonuses should be awarded on good performance, which these banks were lacking.

None of this is fair, but they get away with it! Why?

Tonight I realised why!

When I spoke to T-mobile UK earlier today, I was told I couldn’t get my PAC code (needed to port my number) until I paid mega bucks to pay off my contract. This is illegal! Ofcom say I should get my PAC code within 2 hours regardless of contractual obligations, late payments, etc. But the person I spoke to was just front line support, he’s not going to be held accountable, nor is his manager. Who’s fault is it? Some member of staff or T-Mobile UK? Well the latter obviously! T-Mobile UK is at fault, but T-Mobile UK can’t go to prison, nor can RBS for losing money, nor 1&1 for stealing mine (and others it seems once I publicised my complaint)!

This is how big companies get away with dodgy dealings, the “Limited Liability” aspect of their status, and the size of their board of directors means that nobody is accountable when things go wrong, nobody can be arrested, nobody can be blamed and the company as its own entity certainly can’t.

But you try committing a simple crime like downloading a film in Germany for your own viewing and you could end up in prison for 2 years! Drive at 35mph past a school and you could lose your driving license… because people, individuals CAN go to prison!

Banks and big businesses are allowed to fleece us, why? because nobody can stop them! Nobody can be held accountable and the Leveson Inquiry helps to demonstrate how complicated it is. Leveson is trying to find some accountability but is going round in circles. Individuals may be caught out but the problem won’t have been made to go away. News of the World is a scapegoat while newspaper shredders go into overdrive!

As long as big business is allowed to rule, individuals will be made to suffer.

I love capitalism, my business thrives because of capitalism, but capitalism is flawed and something, somewhere needs to change!