|
There are a lot of Grumpy
Old Sods out there. It seems to me that we the afflicted ought to stick
together so do, please, follow these links - you'll find plenty to get
hot under the collar about! If you've got any suggestions for more
links, we'd love to hear from you - use the "contact" button
on the left. Incidentally, we have decided for no particular reason to include only public access websites,
so if you run one of those blogs where you have to join before you can read it, we're not interested. If what you have to say is something that needs saying, why hide?
PICK OF THE GRUMPY CROP
Nick Colbert was elected as a District Councillor in Somerset, and started this excellent blog
to tell us his first impressions of democracy at work (or not, as the case may be). Very worthwhile reading, as he not only expresses himself clearly but has a common-sense and independent turn of mind. What really makes him special is that he has already
attracted the attention of the deeply unpleasant David Onamade, who we awarded the title "Wanker of the Week" some time ago for making an irrational and self-publicising attack on a harmless vicar.
Probably the best of all the many websites that expose the nonsense that is (the alleged) Man-made (alleged) Global (alleged) Warming, Watts Up With That? has masses of interesting links, well worth exploring while your head's above water and the computer still works.
Of all the grumpy bloggers currently inhabiting the internet, Pat Condell has to be the Daddy. Eloquent, reasonable, persuasive, irreverent and always downright angry, this is a level of Grumpiness we should all aspire to. Nice t-shirts, too ...
Climate Depot is Marc Morano's new website with dozens of excellent and thought-provoking links ...
The excellent Number Watch
charts the use of spurious statistics to mislead us about many issues, particularly the environment, but covers many other things as well. You should read this site regularly, especially if you
pride yourself on being enquiring and impartial. Click on the "index" link to get in. A fascinating read.
You know those spam emails you get from people in Nigeria who say they've got several million dollars and can you help them get it out of the country? The Adventures of Wendy Willcox and her dog Willis chronicles one person's dealings with these crooks. Highly entertaining.
GRUMPY PLACES
Hell's Geriatrics is an entertaining and thoughtful website, well worth an hour's browsing.
Angry Harry is a rather disreputable website with some very strongly expressed views - but it's a bloody good read. Big, too. Make sure you go all the way down to the bottom of the front page - there are dozens and dozens of worthwhile rants.  
The Law West of Ealing Broadway is a blog by a serving magistrate. The GOS doesn't agree with everything he says (let's face it, blog or no blog, a magistrate is still a paid-up member of the Establishment) but it's interesting to see life from the other side of the ... er ... bench.
The Grumpy
Old Coot has a multitude of moans particularly pertinent to Australia where he ekes out his miserable existence. I hope you've got
two or three weeks to spare.
Grumpy
Old Git is a web forum with a colossal number of posts.
Andrew Westcott says he was only born in 1962, so I'm not sure he qualifies as an Old Man though he's certainly Grumpy enough. A very satisfying web site, somehow, with all sorts of goodies like Manganese Mining in Doddiscombsleigh and a fascinating article on Gin Traps.
DRIVING
There are just so many websites about driving and about speed issues in particular - we couldn't possibly list them all. Must be a message in that, if only the authorities would listen! These are some of the best.
The Association
of British Drivers offers one of the few sensible voices in the
often insane debate about road safety, speed limits and so-called "safety
cameras" (which are, judging from the statistics they quote,
anything BUT!). We love this beautifully-written and highly
informative site - do visit it, but allow plenty of time - it's big!
Got a parking ticket? Appeal
Now can help you fight it!
Pepipoo - helping the motorist to get justice. This site concentrates on the law - what it says, how it's supposed to work, how it actually does work, and what you should do if you fall foul of it.
UK Speed Traps is mostly about the equipment used to catch you and the equipment you can use to counter it. Explains clearly the different types of speed camera.
Speed Cameras. A quote from their front page says it all, really: "More people die unnecessarily in hospitals from poor hygiene than in road traffic accidents. Yet the government's response to prevent 5000 unnecessary deaths a year in hospitals is to tell staff how to wash their hands. Meanwhile, poorly located speed cameras fail to prevent accidents (deaths were up 2% in 2003) and according to police data exceeding the speed limit is the cause of only 4% of accidents."
Not only is SpeedLIMIT
an excellent source of information and comment about British road
safety, it's a well-designed, neat-looking site too.
Safe
Speed is probably the most authoritative website about road
safety - genuine road safety, that is, not the
politically-correct Trendy Green Save-the-Foxy Fascist kind. Three
hundred pages, would you believe?
And a road safety site from Canada,
SENSE with a fascinating graph on
the "Is speed killing us?" page which shows that, in British
Columbia at least, people have more accidents the slower they
drive!
SOCIAL & POLITICAL STUFF
Big Brother Watch is an excellent blog highlighting the abuse of power by the current government and local authorities. Essential reading, we think.
Check out the voting record of your MP - is he or she doing the job properly?
Statewatch and Magna Carta Plus are two busy websites that chronicle the assault on civil liberty in the UK.
Not easy to navigate and written in rather eccentric English, Winds of Jihad nevertheless has some provoking things to say about Islam, anti-Semitism and what it calls "Kuffurisation".
Ben Goldacre's Bad Science website exposes the frauds and charlatans of the scientific world - fascinating stuff, and plenty of it. Highly recommended.
Thinking is Dangerous, like BadScience and Sense About Science, exposes the absurd and untruthful assumptions society, business and the media make about science. Particularly hot on homeopathy.
Frank Furedi is that almost unique phenomenon, a sociologist who actually talks sense and addresses real issues in education, politics and society. Highly recommended.
Strange Justice is an excellent website that exposes the odd, the unfair and the totally outrageous things that happen in courts here and abroad. Highly recommended.
Migration Watch is a serious, authoritative website about immigration into the UK and the problems it is causing our society. A "must-read", in our view. Especially look at the page "What you can do".
Write to Them is a useful website which will tell you, based on your post code, exactly who your local councillors, county councillors, MP and MEPs are and lets you send any of them a message free of charge.
The GOS never thought he'd find himself recommending a political party's website, but Conservative Home is actually rather good. It's also quite subversive: Inigo Wilson was suspended from his job at Orange for contributing to it. Good for him.
All too often the people who complain about "political correctness" issues don't really understand what the hell it is they're complaining about. Here's an example from Tongue Tied 3: Australian leftist comedian Steve Hughes made the following joke at an arts festival; "I grew up playing Cowboys and Indians, which as an adult I can see is very strange - that you market the genocide of an indigenous people as a game for kids. Australians are far from perfect - I've never played Cops and Aboriginals, and you wouldn't play Nazis and Jews!" It's not a great joke and equating the settlement of America with the holocaust is obnoxious but the comedian was attacked on the grounds that the joke was antisemitic! Er .... what? Great site.
Is It Fair? Did you know that while avarage earnings have increased by 50% since 1995 and the state pension has increased by 38%, Council Tax has risen by over 100%? An excellent site of protest against this iniquitous system, with some practical ideas for action we can all take. Useful Links page, too.
This man was arrested for wearing the wrong sort of jacket in the London Underground. He was locked in a cell, his flat was searched and many belongings taken, he now has a permanent record despite being released without charge, he can't get his belongings back and can't even get hold of most of the documents about his case. All for having ... er ... unfortunate dress-sense. I suppose he was lucky - he is French. If he'd been Brazilian, he'd be dead. Do you remember the TV comedy sketch where Rowan Atkinson played a policeman, and one of his constables arrested a man for "looking at me in a funny way ...."?
Nanny Knows Best - all the ridiculous lunacy of the modern Nanny State. Entertaining but ... well, depressing, really ...
Privacy International is a human rights group formed in 1990 as a watchdog on surveillance and privacy invasions by governments and corporations. PI is based in London, England, and has an office in Washington, D.C. PI has conducted campaigns and research throughout the world on issues ranging from wiretapping and national security, to ID cards, video surveillance, data matching, medical privacy, and freedom of information and expression. Pretty heavy stuff.
They
work for you - find out how your MP votes, how many times he's
been in parliament, whether he replies to messages from constituents,
what his financial interests and expenses are, and even send him a
fax.
THE ENVIRONMENT
Climate Depot is Marc Morano's new website with dozens of excellent and thought-provoking links ...
Country Guardian, the campaign to stop our countryside being vandalised with windfarms on every hilltop.
Icecap is a similar site to New Zealand Climate Science - the facts, not the envirospin beloved of politicians and campaigners with an axe to grind.
EnviroSpin
Watch. Common sense about environmental issues? Now there's a
first.
A heavyweight article on the phenomenon of
environmentalism.
OTHER IMPORTANT STUFF
Fed up with paying through to nose to use all those 0870 telephone numbers? There is a way to get round it - say "No" to 0870 …
Number Watch
charts the use of spurious statistics to mislead us about many issues, particularly the environment. You should read this site regularly, especially if you
pride yourself on being enquiring and impartial. Click on the "index" link to get in. Junk Science does the same thing from a transatlantic perspective.
... AND FINALLY ...
This website isn't grumpy at all, but we're listing it here just because we think it's so brilliant. Whether you're a sailor, a climber, a fisherman, a boy scout or just a handyman around the house, everyone needs to tie a knot at some time or other, and Animated Knots shows you how each one is made in the clearest way we've ever seen. Fantastic. When The GOS finally decides to top himself, he'll know just where to go to find the perfect noose …
Grumpy Old Sod.com - homepage
Use this Yahoo Search box to find more grumpy places,
either on this site or on the World Wide Web.
Copyright © 2009 The GOS
This site created and maintained by PlainSite
|
Grumpy Old Sod.com - homepage
|