One step back, three steps forward

Oh dear. Heinz have pulled an advert for their Deli Mayo. Approximately 200 people complained it was inappropriate and made them feel uncomfortable. But the backlash at Heinz's craven stance was so great it crashed their comments page.

The advert did not even depict a homosexual relationship. It depicted a mum who'd been transformed into a "Noo Yoyk" style chef. All very cheap and 70s and not a suggestion of an actual gay relationship. Not that there would be anything wrong if it did, but it does show the average IQ of the complainers.

Personally I think it inappropriate that in this day and age people with hang-ups like that aren't made to feel uncomfortable more often.

Oh and laugh if you will, but I saw it on special offer at Asda last night. I decided to leave it on the shelf because there was no indication as to where the eggs in it came from...

It's like political correctness gone fictional

One thing that annoys me more than someone moaning about "Political Correctness", is someone moaning about an aspect of political correctness that doesn't exist, or is passed on by whispers and rumour.

At this time of year, the more extreme end of the Press try and rile their readership with half stories of how Christmas and our Christian culture is under threat.

Much as I think this country has gained from Christianity, with only 2% of the population attending church I think it is a bit rich that people who only go to Church for "christenings" and weddings shriek "But this is a Christian Country" when they hear distorted stories of isolated well meaning but wrong-headed people doing something to avoid offending minority religions. Fact is that the people who get most offended by overt Christianity are militant atheists, who are by and large not "immigrants" but very much part of the "indigenous population".

If Christmas is in anyway under threat, it is from those who celebrate it, or actually fail to celebrate it. Those that moan about the PC brigade threatening their traditions probably ought to be looking at how little.

But I digress. The fact is there is not a wide spread war against Christmas. Sure in a country of 60 million people, if you dig hard enough you will find a story that if you report some of the key details will annoy a significant number of people. But these stories are isolated, and few and far between.

Another urban myth is the offensiveness of the term "Brainstorming". Epileptics do not find the term offensive, unless it is used to describe a seizure. Not sure where this myth came from but I'll bet some belligerent "it's PC gone mad" type sarcastically said once "I bet you can't even say brainstorming any more because it's offensive to epileptics", and caused a self fulfilling prophesy.

The myth was disproved back in 2005, a study was carried out and the term was found to be non-offensive. Yet even still people will trot out "Oh you can't say brainstorming, it's got to be thought shower." In fact I have been more upset by someone not trusting me as a knowledgable person on this and continuing with the thoughtshower line, than anyone was ever upset by the term brainstorming.

So today's message: Christmas is not being banned and you can have a brainstorming session. Unless you're having a fit, then it's called a seizure.

Northern Rock

I am really quite annoyed by the whole fiasco, not least the lack of approbation the media has towards the crowds queuing up outside Northern Rock branches.

None of them seem to be working on anything other than "We've had all these reassurances from the lying toads so therefore I'm doing the opposite". Is no-one capable of checking out the facts any more? Does no-one believe the lack of ability to research the facts behind the headlines is something to be ashamed of?

Obviously not. There is after all no shame in ignorance. There used to be, however, some small amount of shame in wilful ignorance.

More on this:

Harsh, but insightful and fair
Another good insight

Big Brother and the sadness of our culture

I'm at SAGGA camp which means daily newspapers! Last year having been in Sweden I'd nearly forgotten this phenomenon.

I was drawn to the Johann Hari column in todays independent. It made for really gut wrenching reading.

It is irritating enough that there is no shame in ignorance these days, without aspects of our culture having people aspire to it.

Perhaps it is Rocket Science...

Perhaps I was bullied too many times at School, and was but I tend to think intelligent people are intrinsically better than people who aren't. That people who are good at Maths English and Science are better than those who are simply confident and popular, and presentation is simply a non-skill.

I have a confession- I have a guilty pleasure. I frequent the eBay postage and packaging forum. Many people come in with sensible questions, and get sensible answers. Yet there are people who make silly errors, and come in ranting and raving about how bad it is that the system doesn't protect them from themselves. More often that not they are told what they need to know, however people don't like being told that their own misfortunes are their own silly fault, and they shoot the messenger. This is a bad move. There's a knowledgeable crowd there who don't suffer fools, as well they shouldn't. Once a person starts having a go at someone simply for explaining basic information about how the world works, the safety catches comes off on the sarcasm is turned on full blast.

I believe people should take responsibility for their actions, and carelessness is an action. People who don't, for example, read the postage rate before buying should accept the consequences as their due comeuppance.

However programmes like watchdog feature people who've been caught out by being incapable of understanding the very large print, so do I over estimate average human intelligence?