..isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Ooh err, evidence of aliens in our own backyard...

Currently the bid is £5. If you happen to want a 160 gigabyte netbook, click the picture to get to the eBay item.

I am selling it. Want it? Currently at £101, having bravely started at 99p.

The Scientologists are being prosecuted for fraud.

Scientology is a scam.

I watch what my MP is up to in the House of Commons using They Work for You, although it gives no details of what expenses he may be claiming.

He recently asked quite a good written question...

Michael Ancram (Devizes, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence which potential aggressors he expects to be deterred by the Trident nuclear deterrent programme in 2024.

Or, in English, "Who exactly are we going to threaten with these bombs when we get them?" With the further implied question, "How are you seeing so far into the future? Crystal balls?"

The anodyne reply he got was...

Bob Ainsworth (Minister of State (Armed Forces), Ministry of Defence; Coventry North East, Labour)

The 2006 White Paper : The Future of the United Kingdom's Nuclear Deterrent (Cmd 6994), section three, paragraphs 3-8 to 3-13, states that over the next 20 to 50 years we can foresee nuclear risks in three areas: Re-emergence of a major nuclear threat; emerging nuclear states and state-sponsored terrorism.

Basically, he refers the enquirer to a document that is so vague about who we might obliterate with these weapons that it could mean anyone. Perhaps it does. Anyway, I don't think he answers the question of who will be deterred. Terrorists in particular don't care if they get vapourised, as long as they kill lots of other people first.

I notice I am not the only person who has clicked on NO for "Does this answer the question?" on the They Work for You website.

I have also, for your interest, copied the links that appeared in the answer. White Paper as you might expect, takes you to the Wikipedia page about White Papers. The other link, The Future somehow does not lead to the White Paper in question, (you can find it here if you like reading bombastic idiocy), but instead, to the Wikipedia page about Leonard Cohen's excellent album with that title. Much better...

Now I have to think of a name for the thing! Pleasant suggestions accepted...

Update: The tribe has chosen to name the boat after its totem bird, the Puffin. So thanks for all your suggestions, and sorry, nobody wins the empty wine bottle. (Comments are closed on this one now.)

Driving my son to school this week, I have noticed that many of the local Wiltshire farmers are displaying signs in their fields that say "Vote for change. Vote Conservative."

Obviously, they are upset that Labour politicians have been claiming expenses that are hard to justify, like this...

Downing Street says there was "nothing wrong" with Gordon Brown's £6,500 claim to pay his brother for a cleaner.

But do we want to change to another lot that does the same thing, only more so? Like this...

Deputy Commons Speaker Alan Haslehurst, Tory MP for Saffron Walden, is reported to have claimed £142,000 on his country house, and £12,000 for gardening bills over five years.

I would like to see the sort of CHANGE that makes things better, not worse. I hope Nick Clegg's team have not been ramming their snouts into the trough as feverishly as discredited Labour and the vile Tories. They are currently getting quite close to pushing Labour into third place in polls, which is good progress.

A statue in Nafplion, photographed by Mrs Walrus, vandalised in a nice way by a generous smoker...

May the Fourth be with you!

It was thirty years ago today...

A woman was elected, who had lied, lied, and lied again, in order to trick her way into power. There is a lot of reverent guff in all the papers today, about this foul hag, and I will read none of it. Comments praising the woman will be summarily deleted. It's my blog and I won't host pornography.

She was an idiot.

Sure, a degree in chemistry, and some sort of invention that improved the quality of plastic macs slightly. But she was so stupid that when she was presented with the Treasury model of the economy, Sir Keith Joseph managed to convince her you could change the initial conditions of an equation by manipulating the result. Monetary policy, he called it.

And she hated the idea that people might get together in unions, and negotiate with their lords and masters. She was filled with so much hate that she deliberately destroyed industry after industry just to hurt unions. She never understood she was part of a power group that set out to enrich itself at the expense of the general population. Her stupid husband financed it all, with his inherited wealth, whilst conveniently drinking himself into a stupor every night.

She yakked "There is no such thing as society", and hastily attempted to cover the damage by mumbling something about families.

I am keeping myself as fit as I can, because I will dance on her grave.