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Lemmy died on 28th December at the age of 70. The Guardian has some of his best quotes (with swears etc.)

In your twenties, you think you are immortal. In your thirties, you hope you are immortal. In your forties, you just pray it doesn’t hurt too much, and by the time you reach my age, you become convinced that, well, it could be just around the corner. Do I think about death a lot? It’s difficult not to when you’re 65, son.

The BBC and the Guardian both recently reported that Pope Francis has officially recognised Mother Theresa' second miracle, and that her canonisation is expected to take place in Rome in September.

The BBC article states , "The miracle involved the healing of a Brazilian man with several brain tumours in 2008, the Vatican said."

The Guardian article, however, goes into more detail about the controversial nun and discussed the incident of another alleged miracle, as documented by Christopher Hitchens. "A Bengali woman named Monica Besra claims that a beam of light emerged from a picture of Mother Teresa, which she happened to have in her home, and relieved her of a cancerous tumour. Her physician, Dr Ranjan Mustafi, says that she didn't have a cancerous tumour in the first place and that the tubercular cyst she did have was cured by a course of prescription medicine."

Mother Theresa, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is said to have amassed vast wealth and enjoyed the best private health care money could buy, while the poor and sick in her missions in India endured illness without proper medication, pain relief and even had to use second-hand hypodermics, despite the huge sums of money donated to the "good cause."

All miracles are open to public scrutiny, so there should be no doubt!

Let us examine the evidence. Or not.

I have a big family. I'm the oldest of 5 kids. I have something like 16 first cousins, maybe more. I have a mom, dad, and 'step-mom'. When we get together, it's a big crowd. Everyone smiles and pretends they are good friends, but in reality, no one really knows each other. We have this illusion of closeness, but it's just that - an illusion.

Everyone always presents their ideal self. For me, that means presenting my non-pot-smoking, non-vaping, non-poly version of my self. I can only assume that everyone (or at least a portion of them) are also hiding parts of themselves that they want to keep hidden, like I do.

As a result, we have a 'perfect' family. Everyone is happy, prosperous, and perfect, but it's all a facade. What appears to be a close family is actually a group of acquaintances that are all kept at arm's length.

This is true for both the extended family as well as the immediate family. My dad is a judge -- a high ranking judge that spends a lot of time working with drug offenders, and good man. I have a lot of respect for him. I smoke also lot of pot, so, naturally, I keep that on the down-low. He's conservative, so I'm not sure how he would react to my poly experimenting, so I hide that too. He wouldn't approve of my vaping, so I hide it. All this to keep up that perfect image that our family has.

I also still feel like a child to my dad. I place too much value on his acceptance of me, and that causes me to hide some of the less perfect truths, and as a result, we aren't all that close. I'm 32, make a good living, own my house and am married. I haven't borrowed money from him since I moved out almost 12 years ago. I am an adult who is fully independent, but for some reason still need that acceptance from my dad.

I'm sick of it. I'm tired of hiding my true self. I'm tired of my judgey family and the distance that it creates. I'm tired of walking on glass trying to meet their expectations.

Most recently my dad wants to schedule a ski trip for later in the winter. 3 nights, 2 days. I didn't really want to go for that long (because I feel uncomfortable being around him for so long holing up this fake image, and also I'm usually tired after one day of snowboarding, and the second day feels like a slog and is not as fun). I suggested that I go out with him, snowboard the first day, book a massage for the second day, and then leave after the massage (leaving a day earlier than originally planned). I think that dad wanted to do a boys weekend and because I want to cut it short, that hurt his feelings (I haven't heard from him since I suggested I leave early that weekend...).

So, yea. I feel bad and guilty if my dad feels bad about me trying to cut the weekend short, but I really don't think I can handle that much time being the 'perfect kid'. Maybe I'm just selfish. I want to smoke while snowboarding (because it's fun) and vape while drinking (because it's so satisfying) and not feel guilty. I'm tired of pretending to be something else.

I just want to spill the beans on everything and get it all out there. "No, this family isn't perfect! I smoke more pot than I care to admit, I love to vape because it feeds my nicotine addiction, and we are experimenting in poly. I don't care if you approve or not, this is how I choose to live my life."

Doing that is one of those things you can't undo though... My family is gossipy, and the poly news would spread like wildfire and would definitely result in some (a lot of) judginess. Plus, I don't know if I am far enough down that road to share it with the family... I don't know what to do. I'm tired of hiding. I hate constantly feeling guilty because I might/do disappoint my dad.

EDIT: So after writing this, I decided to call my dad. I better explained that I really didn't want to do a second day of skiing, and suggested we all do something else together on the second day. We'll be meeting this weekend and should be able to figure things out. I think everything will be okay.

I didn't mention the pot or vaping, but that will be something that I want to bring up either before the trip, or on the car ride out there. I'm pretty sure that I won't be sharing the poly thing for quite some time yet...

Anyways, the purpose of this journal was to help me organize my thoughts, and it worked. I also wanted to share a little about my family dynamic. I think it's weird that we are so concerned about appearances that we sacrifice the closeness that you get from showing vulnerability and trust. It bothers me. I think its because everyone in the family is relatively successful, everyone feels the need to present this image to 'keep up with the Joneses'.

Well, it finally happened. Last night, I had sex with someone new for the first time in 13 years.

I've been seeing this girl for about a month now, and it's been going surprisingly well. I've been seeing her once a week and she has been coming over to my place and I make her dinner and then we cuddle on the couch and talk. Last night we moved things to the bedroom.

It wasn't as awkward as I though it was going to be. After having sex with the same person for 13 years, I was really nervous to experience someone new. Anyways, I guess sex is sex. It all felt familiar, so it didn't feel as weird as I thought.

I haven't used a condom in a LONG time, and I remember how much condoms suck. I needed to pick up some non-latex ones, so that might be a factor. I also think that the condom was maybe too small, and also I think that it might be better if I add some lube to the inside. If anyone has a suggestion of a good non-latex condom, please recommend below.

We cuddled in bed after and talked, which was really nice.

After she left, I changed she sheets on the bed, and waited for my wife to come home. When she did some home, it wasn't really a big deal at all. I told her how things went (basically what I said above) and that I had already changed the sheets. We hugged, and then it was back to the routine. It really was like nothing had changed. (Thank god!)

We have been talking about this for so long, that it was nice to actually have something happen and see that everything is still okay. I showered before bed, and then cuddled with my wife as we fell asleep -- just like normal.

So far, so good.

There is an article in the Guardian called Britain is heading for another 2008 crash: here's why.

The premise seems to be that government running a budget surplus leads to contraction in the private sector i.e. recession. Therefore, austerity will continue to make things worse for us.

The reasoning is very simple, perhaps simplistic.

You may be objecting at this point: but why does anybody have to be in debt? Why can’t everybody just balance their budgets? Governments, households, corporations … Everyone lives within their means and nobody ends up owing anything. Why can’t we just do that? Well there’s an answer to that too: then there wouldn’t be any money. This is another thing everybody knows but no one really wants to talk about. Money is debt.

I understand that people may borrow money to invest in e.g. a business where they might need to buy machinery and to pay staff before the profits start to roll in, and that hopefully the profits will be large enough to pay back the load and to make a living, but that's where my small brain gives up.

What is the rest of the story?

Also, note the graph of house prices.

Update: here come the sub-prime mortgages again. Only this time we, the public, have to bail out the banks when it all goes horribly wrong. Remember how they changed the law after the last crisis, so that the same terrible fate would not befall the banks again.

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The UK's descent into fascism accelerated today when Home Secretary Theresa May introduced a McCarthyist witch-hunt against "extremists" of all kinds in the public sector.

In other news, David Cameron has positioned the UK as China's best friend in the West ahead of all other countries. He had to promise never to speak to the Dalai Lama ever again though, to be best friends with China

Amnesty International and other groups concerned with human rights issues in China are expected to protest in St James' Park on Tuesday and it is expected that there will also be a pro-China protest.

The Guardian and Channel 4 News each report about a young British mother who went to the "Islamic State" to join her jihadi husband (a former Guantánamo Bay detainee) but changed her mind, describing life there as, "not my cup of tea."

The gangster mentality that she encountered amongst other women and the squalid living conditions that the jihadi wives and children had to endure were not to her liking, so she and the children fled where they were held in Syria near the Turkish border by a gang of smugglers who needed strong convincing that she wasn't an ISIS supporter.

She claims she went there to try to talk some sense into her husband, to plead with him to come home. She wants to come back to the UK, but what fate awaits her?

Last year Sir Peter Fahy, Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police and policing lead for the government's Prevent counter-terrorism strategy, warned that Britons returning from Syria would be stopped at the border and face arrest.

How could anyone be so naive, at the age of 33 and having had five children? And living in the UK where we still just about have free speech and the freedom of the press? How could you possibly not know what it would be really like? How could you voluntarily take five innocent, defenceless children willingly and knowingly into a war zone?

Female ex-Muslim anti-Islamist campaigner Maryam Namazie writes in the Guardian "Why I speak out against Islamism."

The article is superbly written and makes very clear points regarding the importance of the ability to criticise religion (of any kind) to facilitate social progress.

The complex situation regarding Islamism, Islam, Muslims, Muslim culture and "the Muslim Community" is outlined making clear distinctions between each, and in particular the range of opinions (and beliefs) within them. This contrasts with the (bigoted) simplistic views (pro- and anti-) presented in the Western media and which frequently leads to Islamophobic attacks against peaceful and innocent people.

What is particularly refreshing to see written in main-stream Western media is the following:

The labelling of much-needed criticism of Islamism as antisocial, even dangerous by left apologists sees dissent through the eyes of Islamists and not the many who refuse and resist. How else are we to show real solidarity with those who struggle against the theocracies we have fled from – if not through criticism? The fight against Islamism and the need for international solidarity apparently does not enter into their calculation.

In short: things will not improve unless we are free to talk.

The BBC has a story about children being abused, having been accused of witchcraft, in the UK in 2015.

It would appear that there are significant numbers of people who really believe in witches, witchcraft, black magic and evil spirits here in 2015.

An NSPCC spokesman said: "While the number of child abuse cases involving witchcraft is relatively small, they often include horrifying levels of cruelty.

Small children have been thrown out of their homes by ignorant, hysterical parents, and in some cases murdered.

Of course, money is involved.

...within churches there was often a financial motivation behind accusations.

"The pastor says there's a witch in this church today; looks around and points to a child.

"That means public humiliation for the family. The next step is exorcism which is not done for free. It's a money-making scam."

The Witchcraft Act 1735 appears to have been written by learned people who took the opinion that Witchcraft was an impossible crime and so it outlawed the pretence of witchcraft. The law was replaced by the Fraudulent Mediums Act of 1951. Finally, this was replaced in 2008 by Consumer Protection Regulations.

So there you have it.