Pressed Rat & Warthog

Some observations...

"Mmmmm.............Niiiiice"

A bit of a departure for Jay, methinks...

...but not tonight, for we won again!

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There is a story up on the BBC website about some noob in the the Navy medical corps who refused rifle training on moral grounds, this being his defence at court martial. Huh? He's joined the Royal Navy, which, although they seem to have a dwindling number of ships and other hardware, is, as far as I can ascertain, part of the Armed Services, and as such has a tendency to get involved in the numerous expensive and pointless conflicts our glorious leaders seem obsessed with, and so comes under fire and subsequently shoots things back at sundry inhabitants of anywhere hot and dusty from time to time. Did this guy not realise this when he joined? What next, firemen with arsonphobia, accountants with numerophobia etc etc, all claiming constructive dismissal?

Another example of a world gone a bit daft is the completely over the top reaction of a school involved in the production of an opera "oop North" that has the temerity to include the word "queer" (in the sexual orientation sense) just the once, and only once in the lyrics, throwing the school head into fits of apoplexy, withdrawing the schools involvement causing Opera North to cancel the production. Jeez, so what? Someone should tell the head that it is 2011 not 1951...and what if one of the pupils is being brought up by a gay couple? How would this decision make both the child and the parents feel?
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Those phobias mentioned above come from The Phobia List...you would have thought arsonphobia was fear of starting fires, not fire itself...anyway, here are a few of the more barmy:

Acerophobia- Fear of sourness..."fear" of sourness? How does that work?
Agateophobia- Fear of insanity...driven mad by fear of mad!
Ambulophobia- Fear of walking...excuse for lardy
Ballistophobia- Fear of missiles or bullets...See Navy bloke above. Mind you, you'd have to be bonkers not to be afraid of bullets, would you not?
Blennophobia- Fear of slime...that one made me laugh
Chionophobia- Fear of snow...not good if you're an Eskimo
Dutchphobia- Fear of the Dutch...it's all that orange you know
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia- Fear of the number 666...hope that's never a pub quiz question
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia- Fear of long words..see what they did there? Let's not have a pub quiz question on that either!
Levophobia- Fear of things to the left side of the body...huh?
Linonophobia- Fear of string...perfectly reasonable!?
Papaphobia- Fear of the Pope...again, perfectly reasonable
Paisleyphobia- Fear of Ian Paisley...and again
Polyphobia- Fear of many things...or, you're completely mad
Pteridophobia- Fear of ferns...oh dear
Rhabdophobia- Fear of being severely punished or beaten by a rod, or of being severely criticized. Also fear of magic.(wand)...strange connection, that
Scriptophobia- Fear of writing in public...the Meter Maid's curse
Vestiphobia- Fear of clothing...Tamsin Egerton anyone? Oh hang on that would be fear of acting
Walloonphobia- Fear of the Walloons...no, really!
Zemmiphobia- Fear of the great mole rat...who isn't?

...that's enough phobias...goodnight!
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