If you meet a Marxist over 40..

They are in it for the money. This includes professional campaigners, left wing university lecturers and entitlement feminists. Every one of these leeches would be out of a job if they examined their beliefs.

This is why these 'inteligent' people are so stupid when you talk to them. I no longer bother.

NB: I have no idea if the lady in the picture is a Marxist. She just looks like one.

10 more ways to save money in the kitchen.

1. Stop using conditioner in your wash. The conditioner guys like to tell us that their products make clothes last longer but how many people wear their clothes until they fall apart anyway?
2. Fill your washing machine fully before using it. An empty and a full washing machine use the same amount of power so why not make it really sweat for you?
3. Use the washing machine timer to ensure that your washing machine comes on when power is cheap.
4. Washing soda is a cheap alternative to Calgon but it can bleach some fabrics if you go mad with it.
5. Grind up your old soap bars when they are too small to be of use. Use them to supplement your soap powder.
6. Use your old shirts as pipe lagging and insulation when they can no longer be worn.
7. Clear calcium deposits from your washing machine to extend its life and increase its energy efficiency.
8. Do not tumble dry shirts. You will only wet them down again with a steam iron. In fact do not tumble dry anything at all.
9. Invest in a very large tea mug. Make your tea bag do twice the work!
10. There is no need to purify water prior to making tea.

These actions will save approximately ten pounds a month which will buy you crate of good wine at Christmas. Enjoy.

Making education pay.

Let's face it. Most education does not pay. Learning new skills is useful but collecting pieces of paper rarely is. Many readers of this blog have been saddled with huge debts as a result of education- and some of us realise just how much it can narrow the mind.

If you doubt this just try to talk to an 'educated' person about real life. They believe that sitting in a classroom listening to some jaded Marxist telling them about life is better than actually living it. It is impossible to talk to such a person- they are 'educated' you see.. and have no reason to learn anything first hand.

My solution is to buy a succession of short courses that teach me to DO THINGS. I cannot allow this to become an expensive hobby.

My first priority is to secure what I have- a low paying security job that allows me to spend hours on the Internet writing blogs such as this one. I am a receptionist but this is not recognised because 'everyone knows' men cannot do reception work. The most I can achieve is re frame my present job so that I am paid the same as a woman doing the same thing.

I have purchased an online receptionist course that is frankly rather a joke. It consists of a couple of booklets that I should read before sending in my 'examination essay' to receive my certificate. The operation is a bit of a qualification mill and I cannot see this taking very long. Fortunately the qualification is accepted by the government as equivalent to a low GCSE pass. It includes an NUS extra card that should save me a few pounds as well as a CV service. The package is quite cheap (£244) and may be useful if I should change my job. If you want a piece of paper for cynical C.V building purposes this is probably the outfit for you. If you agree I would be grateful if you would contact me first so that I can recommend you. This will benefit me without costing you anything extra.

Open Study College

I will assume that each nationaly recognised qualification is worth one pound a month to me.

TIME FUND.
I have made a couple of purchases that are designed to save me time. The first is a rather neat egg timer that is shaped like an egg to be dropped into a saucepan along with the eggs. It works very well and probably saves money as well as time because I no longer overcook eggs.

The second was a very cheap Chinese iron. This will save me about an hour a month because the iron I was using was just dreadful. The combined cost of both items was £11 and this will be paid for by the following formula.

Assumed value of time saved = 60p per hour (I like to be conservative).

This means that my purchases will pay for themselves in less than two years by which time one of them will have broken.

PICCADILLY FUND.
This is my favorite. The object is to game various loyally schemes so that I obtain luxury goods at the same price as ordinary ones. I currently have 346 airmiles and want to exchange them for a crate of wine. I cannot do this without getting at least another 300 airmiles from somewhere. I call this the Piccadilly because most of my favorite luxury goods shops are in this area.

This is where it gets interesting. I have allocated £500 to this project which is simply not enough considering that the best earnings rate available is one mile for two pounds. This means that my products have to earn their keep by making money for me. I have spent £21.43 at John Lewis to buy strange magnetic and stainless steel devices that are alleged to eliminate bad smells and limescale in the toilet. If they work (we  shall see) then I expect them to save around £1 a month in chemicals and labour. I will also have earned four airmiles in the process.

The Red edition.

Most of us have our natural political home on the left. What I mean by this is that we have relatively little stake in the existing order and that our natural sympathies are with the dispossessed. We only broke with the left once it was clear that they hated us for reasons most of us have not yet understood.

Despite this there are a few fragments of the movement that are worth supporting. These grow fewer by the day- but they still exist.

Long before the left took its fateful step towards state dependency there was a cooperative movement. This was not socialism as such but a form of collective capitalism. Working people clubbed together to buy their own shops. The main motivation for this was to guarantee pure food for the members yet there was also a degree of social climbing to it as well. It sprang from the same soil that created a hundred other self help associations such as the Workers Educational Association. It was an association of proud working people who did not seek charity but control over their own lives.

Over time these independent societies banded together and created the Cooperative Wholesale Society that set up farms, a bank and other businesses. This amounted almost to a Socialist state in miniature- but it was voluntary socialism that I have no problem with. My only real problem with Socialism is that it seeks to impose its will upon everyone regardless of ideology.

This movement remains affiliated to the Labour party but has found its original soul- at least to some extent. Six million people are now a member of this co op- twice the former number. Membership of the coop was once a sign that one had arrived in the world and was something most working class people aspired to. The coop is unlikely to play as an important role it once did. Nevertheless I see it as a positive force within the left. It is actually the big society in action- working people working together to improve their lives without relying upon the state to do things for them.

You may join the movement for as little as one pound- for life. There is also a Cooperative Party which works with the Labour Party in public but advocates a gentler and more participatory socialism in private. Membership of the Society does not give automatic membership of the Cooperative Party.

There is also a second form of cooperative- the Workers Cooperative. This is owned by the employees rather than the customers. There are some very well run workers cooperatives such as the excellent John Lewis Partnership.

The biggest danger to cooperatives is that they may be taken over by political movements. Once this happens the coop is no longer a true coop because it no longer represents all the workers or customers but only those with a particular point of view. A war is taking place for the soul of this movement. In one corner we have the Campaign for Cooperation which is a nominally independent group operating from co op premises and promoting their social agenda. In the other corner we have the fascinating Conservative co ops which seeks to link cooperation to the Big Society agenda. To its credit Conservative co ops does not claim to represent cooperatives the way that the Campaign for Cooperation does. The Tory blog even links to the Labour one- but not the other way around.

The day the recesion ended.

Many of us can remember the day when the credit crunch became real for us. Most of us will also remember the day that it ended. The end of my own personal recession was February 21st.

I rose at four. Life has been grim for many months now and yet it has been surprisingly rewarding. Western liberals have a great horror of poverty because they have never experienced it. Life for the poorest of the world consists of work, authentic human contact and small pleasures. This is quite bearable provided one is not told every day that one is poor. Suicide rates are lower in the third world than in many wealthy nations- possibly because they do not have their poverty rubbed in their faces every day by the advertisers. Happiness is a subjective state after all.

I arrive in London around half past five which is before dawn. Even though I have been working in London for many years London is still an event for me. I feel a quickening of the blood, a sense of possibility and adventure and believe that anything is possible. This is never more true than the hour before dawn when the city prepares for the coming day. Unlike the majority of passengers I do not take the tube train but walk to work in order to save money. It is my favorite part of the day.

There is no better way to study the economy and life in general than to travel in this way. It is possible to overhear conversations on the train about family dramas and economic insecurities. For this reason I generally know which economic sectors are sinking and which are floating long before the economic data is released and can predict consumer confidence from the feel of a train.

My job involves traveling around London and visiting many different kinds of company. I can experience different work cultures and work alongside people from all over the world. Above all- I can simply walk around and observe how much capital investment is going on. Which building projects are progressing? Which have stalled? Are the coffee shops advertising for new staff?

Each area of London has its own economic story to tell. My train arrives at Fenchurch Street in the City and so this is the area I see most often. The City is an extraordinary place. It is only one square mile in size and yet it is one of the three great money centers of the world. One way of thinking about it would be a sort of Vatican devoted to Mammon rather than God. It has its own police force and its own bizarre and theatrical form of government which combines the constitution of a medieval city state with the energy of capitalism. This makes it a good place to check the health of the financial sector which is at the heart of the current crisis.

Five years ago the City was a rather dowdy place. A huge rebuilding programme was started prior to the credit crunch and has continued at breakneck speed. There are literally hundreds of new shops and cafes as well as a brave attempt to create a Parisian street cafe feel in a cold climate. Many construction workers are hard at work by 6am and the place feels like a boom town. The most encouraging thing of all is not the number of new cafes but the fact that so many of them are from chains that did not exist before the crunch.

I walked through Bloomsbury which is the more restrained area that surrounds the British Museum. This is an area populated by obscure scientific and cultural institutes that hardly anyone knows exist. Increasingly it is the home of hotels with discrete brass nameplates. This is the market working its magic once again. Britain has become a much cheaper place to holiday and this creating a hotel boom. Finally I arrived at Regents Park which is where I was to work that day. Most of the buildings overlooking this park are listed and therefore cannot be changed easily. Despite this I was surprised to find that my destination was undergoing its own renovations- including a hotel wing. I walked into the reception with a huge grin and waving at the receptionsits like a madman. "Good Morning! Good Morning!! Good Morning!!! The recession is over!!!!"

Men without skin

I am grateful that my MGTOW readers have stuck with me even though I write about so many other things these days. Furthermore many of them link to me. A couple of examples can be found here http://men-factor.blogspot.com/ and here http://forahouseboy.blogspot.com/  MGTOW blogs tend to go through a life cycle rather like the life cycle of an insect. These blogs are at their newest and angryiest. The irony is that MGTOW guys are generally good men who love women so much that they cannot set limits. It is rather like living without skin. He gives and gives and gives but receives nothing in return. In order to survive he must live alone because the alternative is too painful. Sometimes these blogs will suddenly disappear only to reappear later on in another form. This is generally caused by the man falling in and out of love. Despite all of the harshness many MGTOW types are romantics and fall in love easily. Men such as this are used to being insulted by women (and do not deserve it) and so I would like to make it clear that when I say 'without skin' I do not mean 'without balls'. I mean that MGTOW men are probably a little more genuine and a little more honest with women than is good for them. They are too decent for this world basically.

Sometimes MGTOW blogs will disappear for good. This happens when the writer has achieved a degree of emotional independence and possibly some game. He looks back on his MGTOW days and can hardly understand his own writings without experiencing pain and so he deletes the whole thing. I was tempted to do this a year or too back but overcame it. I link to these 'raw' blogs because they can say things and access emotions that I can no longer connect with. It is important to remember that the days of MGTOW anger are part of the healing process. The fact that we pass through them and find personal power the other side does not mean that this stage is invalid.

The MGTOW movement is a rejection of Niceguy status on the Alpha Scale. Generally the MGTOW graduate will move rapidly upwards and may become an Alpha in a year or two. This is not done to get laid but to live more fully.

Crazy is cool.

Political correctness rewards all bad states (poverty, anti social behaviour and so on) it also rewards craziness. Crazy people get respect. Everybody said the feminists were crazy. They sent some bombs and became the establishment.

Crazy shuts people up. Radical Islamists and Scientologists make a virtue of the 'religious' (i.e not based upon reason) nature of their ideas. In efect they are announcing their craziness ahead of themselves. Most people are silenced because they do not want to appear Islamophobic or religious bigots.

Crazy can also make one legally fireproof. David Icke (professional crazy person) has for years said that the queen is a shape shifting lizard. He has never been sued because the trial would become an international farce.

I am not recomening feminist-style bomb throwing- but we should not fear the crazy label. David Icke has it about right. He is 50% charismatic and entertaining, 45% message, 5% genuinely scary. People listen to him because they think he will be funny but his nonsense seeps into the mind in subtle ways. The important thing is to expose people to the message. David Icke is a paranoid nut and possibly mentally ill but he is sane enough to know that all he has to do is find an audience and repeat his message with utter conviction. Some people will believe him and he only needs a few.

Crazy enough for you?

You have to look the part.

The Bulgarian gardener fan-club.

I came across this blog that was by a guy who set himself an interesting challenge. He resolved to take a penny and make it into something more. His first purchase was three goldfish and now (less than three months later) he has a plot of land in Bulgaria!

http://project1p.wordpress.com/

This seems an inspiring tale. I doubt that I will make the same heady gains as this guy but I hope to make about ten percent a month. I am also willing to invest every penny of spare cash I have even though it is only a few hundred pounds. I have a notebook that I carry around with me to jot down money making ideas. Most people are far more resourceful with their employers than with their own finances. This is because people like to tell others of their achievements and this is generally not possible in ones own life. Blogging about money in this way makes me responsible for my actions and focuses the mind wonderfully. Hopefully I will have the cash to put these into action around the 25th of this month.

Why does Starbucks irritate me so?

Starbucks reminds me of a game that I used to play at birthday partys as a child. All the children sit in a circle and one of them is given a huge parcel that consists mainly of paper. He removes the first layer and passes it on. Each child may remove only one layer of packaging but only the final child gets the sweet.

Starbucks is rather like this. It calls itself a coffee shop but it is really just a brand. The first layer of marketing is Hollywood. Have you noticed how many scenes take place in Starbucks? The company hopes that we will think that Starbucks is glamorous as a result. The irony is that those stick thin actresses probably have mineral water in their paper cups and not coffee. Then comes the press and billboard advertisements that seek to convince us that Starbucks is our home from home. Then come the vouchers they send in the post. Then comes the illusion of something for nothing via the loyalty scheme and false notion that going to Starbucks is a charitable act. Coffee farmers work hard for their money and it is quite wrong to reduce them to a charity case simply because they are poor. Even the slightly hippy decor is a branding message. It seeks to add authenticity by leaving coffee bean sacks around as if they had been delivered that morning directly from the farm. Finally the company seeks to convince the customer that he is sophisticated simply for being there. This is done by means of leaflets describing coffee beans in the language of wine 'notes of blackberry, earth and elderberrys' and so on. One interesting aspect of this sort of language is that it is based more upon colour than taste. White wine is more often described as tasting of straw or honey and red wine is likly to be described as tasting of plums. It is much the same with the beans at Starbucks. The darker beans are said to resemble things that are black while the paler varieties are described as 'citrus'. To further ram home the message that Starbucks is for sophisticates various leaflets and booklets that tell the coffee drinker how to order a coffee in Italian. What cheek! Even the Italian in Starbucks is fake because Italians do not drink their coffee from five gallon horse buckets. The customer finally gets a bucket of warm sweet nothingness that has nothing to do with coffee. They cannot even serve their fake coffee hot because they want their customers to drink it quickly and leave- and because they are afraid of being sued if it burns someone. Starbucks is not a coffee shop after all. It simply sells itself.

I visited Starbucks today for my 'free' coffee that is not really free (because I have to buy a bag of beans to get it). I was surprised to be offered some 'free' charity in the form of a 'product red' version of their coffee card. Starbucks will give 5p for AIDS victims when I use it. Why does this irritate me so? Maybe it is the fact that the card costs more to produce than is given in charity. Maybe it is the slickness of it all.

African poverty has become big business. Prior to fairtade a coffee shop had to add something of value to their product in order to brand it. Outfits such as Starbucks have discovered that it is cheaper to buy in a brand from a registered charity. Simply pay a charity for the use of a logo and the work is done. The premium paid to the farmers through the fairtrade scheme is actually quite small compared to the cost of telling us about it.

I feel that all of these initiatives are trading on a false premise. Fairtrade talks about going direct to the coffee growers but this is not the case. In fact fairtrade actually involves another set of middlemen in the form of the foundation itself who jet around the world from their New York base- spending more in a day than the growers receive in a month.

RED (always in capital letters) is yet another of these initiatives. It was set up partly by Bono of U2 fame who is one of the few charity celebrities that know what they are talking about. They sell this sparkle to a variety of companies in return for donations to a charitable fund. What is there to dislike about this? Absolutely nothing really- which makes it all the more irritating. I think it is the self congratulatory tone that gets me. Millionaire rock stars, greedy corporations and urban trendies have all convinced themselves that they are great guys on the basis of... nothing really. The RED logo is sold as a fashion accessory that says 'I care' without requiring that anyone really do anything.

I took a card, and bought my fairtrade, conservation international, shared planet beans with it. Maybe this will put a penny or two in the pocket of a farmer. I guess the 160 million dollars that RED have raised proves that a whole lot of nothing can add up to something after all.

Declaration of independence.

Governments tend to move to the left under stress. There is a natural tendency among leaders to regulate half the world and and tax the other. Unfortunately the electorate will follow any leader who appears resolute in a crisis and this paves the road to tyranny. The current US president plays this role to perfection. He radiates charisma but says nothing which alows each voter to project their saviour fantasies on to him. Even his campaign slogans are completely meaningless. The term 'Change we can believe in' is circular as well as being an NLP trance inducer. The only really consistent policy he has seems to have is the relentless march of regulation. He does not speak to the mind but to the emotions. By obeying and believing in him the public can find purpose and hope. This is not a democratic instinct.

It follows from this that democracy is more fragile than we think. The president is no Hitler or Mussolini but the people have demonstrated their willingness to follow a messiah. The answer is more independent thinkers. Unfortunately it is almost impossible to work for a government project and not be sucked into a stateist mentality. People like to believe they are doing something useful and so they will come to believe that their project is vital. Economic independence must precede independent thought. Alpha Strategists become economically independent by default. On one hand we are unlikely to require welfare but on the other hand we invest in gold which is hard to trace and easy to hide. This means that we become champions of liberty without even intending it.

How to reduce your boiler settings.

Most electric boilers are set at about 90 degrees. This is far too hot for most purposes- particularly if you live alone.

I have changed my own settings to forty for the main heater and just thirty for the booster that is used in peak hours. This suits me because I wash laundry at thirty these days. It is a false economy to set the boiler lower than the washing machine.

All you need to do is turn off the mains, remove the covers of the heater units that protrude into the tank, and then change the setting. Remember to turn off the power!

I am also insulating all of my intermal pipes and have tried to buy a jacket for my boiler. Unfortunately it is nessasary to find a jacket of the right size or there is little benefit gained. For this reason I have decided to create my own solution with unwanted clothing. This should take half a day but will probably be better than a paid for insulation jacket once I have finished.

This should save around five pounds a month.