Thirty years ago, I became fascinated with Paraguay, for some reason. I discovered back then their claim that it was the only country in the world without any restrictions to settling in it. I wondered if this was still the case and what the country was like now. (I have always been mad on geography.)
Turns [...]

My computer was recently reset to its factory settings and my decent graphics software has disappeared, so I had to use the free Microsoft ‘Paint’ programme, but I’m sure I have made my point!
This picture isn’t about the pros and cons of Scottish independence, but the cons of Alex Salmond as the politically correct, EU-loving [...]

Blogging has been non-existent again this week. My retail flag website was hacked into and used to send thousands of spam emails, and the hosting company more-or-less removed the site, so we have had to build a brand new one from scratch. Two or three years ago, I made a big mistake when messing around [...]

A belated Happy No Smoking Day to you all. This is how Leg-iron planned on marking the occasion,
I have rolling tobacco, pipe tobacco and a pack of Henri Winterman’s Half Coronas. That should allow almost continuous smoke production throughout the day. If it’s fine I’ll fire up the chimenea too.
Our local weekly paper came out [...]

I have 37 tabs and windows open on Firefox, mainly of stories I was intending to write about, so I will start with the smoking ones…
This item is simply incredible: Police roadblocks are being set up to catch drivers who are breaking the law – by smoking at the wheel of their company vehicle.
Council wardens [...]

Ever wondered why the world’s governments hate their people smoking so much? It is one of those questions which has bugged me for a few years now. They expect us to believe that it’s all because they care so much about our health – more than most of us care about it ourselves, but consider [...]

I don’t know what to write about. It’s all too depressing. Or bizarre. Or silly.
Autonomous Mind has identified our major problem: those who represent us (rule over us) are not afraid of us. He quotes from Richard North’s article in the Mail on Sunday,
The political classes are now a gated community. They feel safe. They [...]

A professor who has a way with words has said,
Parents who smoke in cars in front of small children are “committing a form of child abuse”.
My parents smoked in the car. I wouldn’t say that it thrilled me, but abuse? I think not. With the windows open, most of the smoke was expelled, otherwise my [...]

The UK’s first landlord to be jailed for allowing smoking in his pub (and due to being unable to afford the fine), has been released after a few days.
Anna Racoon’s campaign via Old Holborn’s PayPal account raised more than enough needed to pay the remainder of Mr Hogan’s fine. £8,664.50 in cash was handed in [...]

Leg-iron reports on the first publican to be jailed for allowing his customers to light up.
Nick Hogan, 43, from Lancashire, was sentenced to six months in prison for repeatedly refusing to pay a fine imposed for flouting the legislation.
As Leg-iron says,
In this wonderful free country where everyone has the choice to do as they are [...]