Anyone who can tell me what Mr Talibob is saying gets a signed postcard.

Just come back from some Horse show. Watching a man get raped by a horny stallion isn’t as fun as it sounds.

Trust me on this.

More later!

70 – Swearwords For Idiots is a post from: Hard Graft

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There is a rather interesting chap known as Andy Coulson who used to be the editor of British tabloid newspaper the News of the World which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News International. According to the New York Times (and explained in better detail by WiRED’s Threat Level blog) Coulson encouraged the systematic hacking of mobile phones of celebrities, politicians and even members of the Royal Family.

Only now after four or five years are the hundreds of people hacked or on lists of people who could be hacked are being notified which in theory breaches their rights.

Furthermore the Metropolitan Police is accused of deliberately limiting the scope of the investigation in order to preserve the relationship it had with the tabloid at the time.

Among the people who had been known to have been hacked were Princes William and Harry who found parts of voicemail messages appearing in the next day’s edition of the News of the World. Other targets included  George Galloway; Respect MP, Simon Hughes; senior Liberal Democrat MP, Elle MacPherson; supermodel.

Five years after Coulson resigned from his job at the News of the World he is now Media Advisor to British Prime Minister David Cameron. Now the NYT has done the right thing and published these allegations surely now the time has come for Coulson to resign?

This illustrates just how crap the UK blogosphere is. When I want to read about military or current events journalism, I don’t read any British blog short of the absolutely superb Bob Shepherd blog. In the end I actually turn to American blogs such as Michael Yon, Free Range International or War is Boring.

When I want to know about news around the world or even in my own bloody county I’m finding more and more to rely on blogs provided by established media sources such as the NYT’s Lede blog, WiRED’s Threat Level and Danger Room blogs and Foreign Policy blog.

If there is any decent blogging journalism out there in the UK I have yet to see it rear its head. The more I read Guido Fawkes the more I see him as a modern day British Matt Drudge who basically made a career out of breaking the Monica Lewinsky story in 1998 after it was more or less spoon fed too him. Fawkes broke the Parliamentary expenses scandal story and as a result was set for life.

I’m bored of reading about how awful the British media and its so called blogger upstarts are and I’m embarrased that myself and many other Brits have to go abroad for their news. I’m even more embarrased that possibly the only decent politics blog in the UK is BBC News Scotland’s Blether with Brian. Someone please make Brian Taylor king of the British media universe before we all kill ourselves.

While the blogosphere was sleeping… is a post from: Hard Graft

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The allegation specifically was a rather spurious piece by political blogger Guido Fawkes which noted that as Hague and Myers had been photographed in “casual clothing” and had even shared a hotel room together on the election trail that must mean one should question their *gasp* sexuality. It should be noted that Hague is married and happily so but the suggestions kept mounting which led to a rather shocking rebuttal by Hague coinciding with Myer’s resignation.

The statement was rather emotional and pointedly noted that the Hagues had tried and failed several times for a child with miscarriages happening each time. That Hague is hurt by these allegations is obvious but this was a mistake by Hague who could have let the whole thing die on its own.

My god though, a possible homosexual? In government?! Holding one the great offices of state no less! Whatever next? A black man becoming Prime Minister?! Heaven forbid! My god we Brits can be such a homophobic, prudish, snobbish and almighty racist bunch of bastards sometimes.

The thing is if William Hague is gay so what? What Hague does in his private life is not in the public interest. He deserves to be left alone to conduct his private affairs with dignity. The tenuous link between the manufactured drama over Hague’s sexuality and the questions over Myer’s suitability for the job as special advisor is laughable anyway

After the bomb had been dropped and with chaos reigning Guido Fawkes quite happily goes on holiday. That’s very nice, maybe I should try that sometime only instead with his family and drag his reputation through the mud and see how he likes it.

What this unsavoury episode has shown is that despite repeated attempts by the media to hook the public on this story (vital in order to build momentum to get a big outcome such as a resignation) nobody really is that bothered. This isn’t the 1990s or even the 2000s. People just don’t really care anymore about what people do their private life and rightly so.

Sexuality should never be a barrier to high office and by pushing these crazy rumours the media and the blogosphere have shown that they simply don’t get the new morality in Britain today.

In any case the problem is that in all the drama about William Hague’s sexuality Fawkes’ original point (that Myers wasn’t qualified to do the job and that Hague had broken the code on hiring special advisers) is now completely lost and buried in an avalanche of petty homophobic nonsense which begs the question as to why Fawkes and co bothered to mention it at all.

Fawkes should be ashamed of himself.

Going too far is a post from: Hard Graft

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Well she’s had to slum it in the dust and mud with nothing but a jumpsuit and a bunch of guns for company, she’s battled her way through a burning building and now not only are there yet more bad guys to kill Alan is about to have his throat slit.
Brilliant. Just..brilliant. Those guys had better hope that Bernadette isn’t on her period right now!

Welcome to issue 3 and I got to say that I am so BLOODY EXCITED now that we’re back on the main storyline! Really looking forward to the next four or five pages as they are possibly some of my favourites thus far.

69 – GAAAHH!! is a post from: Hard Graft

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No matter, summer is still in full flow and as any certified Anglophile will tell you no English summer can be complete without cricket and festivals and despite both being disrupted to some degree by rain both have turned out to be absolute corkers although England’s supremacy at the Test Match against Pakistan has been overshadowed by yet more allegations of match fixing this morning by the Pakistani bowlers.

Cricket used to be (and possibly still is) one of the most bet upon sports in the world simply by coincidence that it is so insanely popular in India, Pakistan & Sri Lanka and it is such a complicated game. Like baseball I can imagine that you could bet on almost anything with cricket from number of no (i.e. foul) balls bowled (thrown) to number of boundaries (distant relative to the home run) scored. Many aspects of the game cannot be adequately controlled so there is risk but many aspects (such as the no balls) can be controlled. One can also control the number of wide balls and, most importantly, when you can get out and for how many runs scored.

So as the game professionalized over time the amount of match fixing increased exponentially resulting in the infamous match fixing fiasco involving South African Captain Hanse Conje who was banned for life from the game after admitting that he had agreed to lose entire Test Matches in return for money.

One thing that many people outside of..well..Australia, England and India tend to forget is that Cricket is huge business worth billions of dollars last year alone in advertising and merchandising revenue. Its now huge business something which will explode as cricket continues to grow in America through its Australian, Indian, Pakistani and South African communities over there.

All of this means the spectre of match fixing and corruption grow ever greater so today’s revelations are extremely worrying.

———————————–

Recently I received an e-mail from a promising artist responding to one of the ads I had placed when I was looking for an artist when I was initially developing Hard Graft. The chap was confident, polite and his art is to a very good standard but he was proposing a new project for me to write something for. Sadly because I’m pre-occupied with Hard Graft I had to decline but several other factors also helped me make up my mind which I shall now juryrig into an impromptu guide for artists/writers writing to writers/artists.

The mystery man was courteous and polite but he was very sparing on the details and did not include an elevator pitch. Here are some tips for budding artists/writers out there:

Match fixing and project invitations is a post from: Hard Graft

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And so that concludes side story three and explains where Alan got the bike and how Bernadette got to the meet up point ahead of Alan & Kathy.

This brings to an end Jule’s run for the moment and next week we resume the main storyline with some GLORIOUS German action which I’m sure you’ll all appreciate. Those who have pre-ordered the 2nd batch of books have had a sneak preview of the first page and I’m sure they’re dying to find out what happens next so lets roll on issue three!
Speaking of books, the printers have received the duff books and are now re-printing. More news on that in the next two weeks.

68 – Biker Alan From Essex is a post from: Hard Graft

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Brewing cider is very popular in the UK. Many home brew beer but if you can get the apples you can brew more cider before you start to get taxed for it. So it was with delight that my Dad decided to make some cider today.

He performed the process a few years ago which resulted in gallons of cider which matured and grew stronger with age! In the end we were making mulled cider during winter and christmas to use it all.

So again we decided to do it all over again. Same amount of booze for a similar level of fun. For this we called for:

• 1 large plastic barrel (similar to the blue floating barrels in Half Life 2)
• 1 power drill.
• 1 smaller barrel with wooden top.
• 1 custom made blending attachment.
• 1 top loading spin dryer.
• Pillow cases.

Power drill

We call for the power drill because we were unable to use the black & decker leaf blower owing to Dad burning it down. But as one avenue cloese another to inspiration opens and we decided to make a blending attachment and drill a hole in the wooden top.

Spin drier

The next step was procuring a way of extracting the juice from the pulp so initially we thought about using the side loading washing machine in the house but was quickly warned off the idea by Mum.

Another idea was proposed where we would get a cheap 2nd hand top loading spin drier and after that it went like clockwork.

The trick is to pour the pulp into pillow cases and place them in the spin drier. Try and use some kind of plastic lid or plate to stop pulp from spinning out of the cycle. This is what should happen:

More to come over the next six months!

Making cider part 1 is a post from: Hard Graft

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But amongst the wreakage we can find signs of life for the cause of common sense and hope for a future of a more balanced debate on other issues.

The center will include an already operational mosque but will also build an arts center and place for reasoned debate and dialogue between religions. Its common sense and what better tribute to the lives lost on the 11^th of September 2001 than a place where people can come together and work out their differences peacefully?

This isn’t insensitive it is inspired yet what is even more inspiring is the reaction of moderates irrespective of religion to the hysterical opposition against this building.

New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg deserves a medal for not only upholding the American dream of religious freedom but for doing the right thing in insisting that this center be built. He will inspire a new generation of New Yorkers and show them that there is an alternative to the usual grind of hysterical shouting matches.

Credit also should go to the new Jewish pressure group J Street founded by moderate Jewish Americans. Its message is sensible, for example : of course Israel should be able to defend itself but it must never resort to violent and unilateral military force.

So it has been at the forefront of campaigning for the Cordoba House project, has collected 10,000 signatures in a petition in favour of the project. It cites one simple reason for this campaign: that the freedom of  religious expression is enshrined in the Bill of Rights and as such applies to all recognised and legal religions.

The same people who condemn the Cordoba House project and its backers forget the harsh lessons of their forefathers who had fled from Europe under a rain of repression and harrassment. It was that very repression which curtailed the freedom of those people and led to the establishment of religious tolerance in the new world. The opponents of the Cordoba House project should heed those lessons lest they be doomed to repeat them.

On mosques and Jewish streets. is a post from: Hard Graft

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Very quick post as I’m late for work but here is the latest comic!

Jules is currently fighting a battle against fitness so further updates in the future may be slow. We’re probably going to take a step back and see how we can get around this. More later this week.

Further thoughts:

Yes here is more Alan improvised CQB fun. Nail them with a flashbang and then nail them harder with some lead piping. Vintage stuff it really is.

I’m absolutely rushed off of my feet these past few weeks I’ve had to attend huge birthday bashes, Big Chill music festivals (Massive Attack was INCREDIBLE.. M.I.A was crap) go to lots of extra shifts at work and help out with Alex down at the stables, re-master all the TIFFs for the printers, do some script writing, review books and lots of other stuff all while nursing a twisted ankle!

Meanwhile Side Story 3 is drawing to a close. We’re also very close to kicking off Issue 3 where more glorious German action will be hitting your screens! After Issue 3 we’ll be doing some more side story action to get the rest of the story up to date!

Expect violence and some fresh faces to come to the fore! Really looking forward to it, are you???

67 – Pipe In The Works is a post from: Hard Graft

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I’m starting at a much more humble level as a reviewer of books. I have already reviewed two with a third well on the way and so far it has been a very rewarding experience!

So check out the blog and add it to your list of RSS feeds to read!

While we’re here… is a post from: Hard Graft

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