To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.

Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet)1694 – 1778

...in alphabetical order

1. Bleeding heck
2. Chrissakes
3. Cor blimey
4. Crikey
5. Darn
6. Flipping heck
7. For crying out loud
8. For Pete's sake
9. Goodness gracious
10. Strewth

I'm gettin' more ass than a toilet seat.
John Cazale – The Deer Hunter

There's a rope around my neck right now and they only hang ya once.
Edward G. Robinson – Little Cesar

Listen, when women go wrong, men go right after them.
Mae West – She Done Him Wrong

If you don't pull me out of this swamp of boredom, I'm gonna do something drastic... I'm gonna get married and then I'll never be able to go anywhere.
James Stewart – Rear Window

I collect blondes and bottles too.
Humphrey Bogart – The Big Sleep

As It Was Written

Earth, earth,
riding your merry-go-round
toward extinction,
right to the roots,
thickening the oceans like gravy,
festering in your caves,
you are becoming a latrine.
Your trees are twisted chairs.
Your flowers moan at their mirrors,
and cry for a sun that doesn't wear a mask.

Your clouds wear white,
trying to become nuns
and say novenas to the sky.
The sky is yellow with its jaundice,
and its veins spill into the rivers
where the fish kneel down
to swallow hair and goat's eyes.

All in all, I'd say,
the world is strangling.
And I, in my bed each night,
listen to my twenty shoes
converse about it.
And the moon,
under its dark hood,
falls out of the sky each night,
with its hungry red mouth
to suck at my scars.

Anne Sexton (1928-1974)

By definition, a government has no conscience, sometimes it has policy, but nothing more.

Albert Camus (1913 - 1960)

…in alphabetical order

1.Alex Higgins
2.Jimmy White
3.John Higgins
4.John Pulman
5.Ken Doherty
6.Peter Ebdon
7.Ray Reardon
8.Ronnie O’Sullivan
9.Stephen Henry
10.Steve Davis

Someone, very poignantly, pointed out that a society devoid of religion is one with a spiritual void. I agree we are living through a spiritual crisis. This crisis, however, is by no means a result of our apathetic views on religion but a testament to the improvident excesses of Western culture. Capitalism, consumerism, mass production; the machine is cranked up and churning. And all of us, whether we like it or not, are active participants in this destructive process. The West has been duping humanity into believing in its self-serving, egotistical, capital-driven philosophy for years hence our world is a materialist one and has little place for spiritual life or it’s development.

It is increasingly apparent that we are sinking further and further into the quicksand of self-destruction. We have long lost our way and sometime in the near future, one doesn't need to be a prophet to know it, our modern industrialized world will descend in to total chaos. I’m afraid believing in God won’t eradicate the damage our planet’s sustained or alleviate the disasters that are yet to befall us. I have to agree with someone else who said: 'Only conscious action and human awareness can bring about change.' Unfortunately, religion doesn’t encourage either for it is an illusion, a myth, that lulls it’s disciples in to hypnotic sleep and propagates a false hope of a happy ever after.

Get out of my way son, you're usin' my oxygen.
Jack Nicholson – One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest

I'm an advertising man, not a red herring; I've got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders dependent upon me.
Cary Grant – North by Northwest

I can't go on, Joe, I'm weak from hunger, I'm running a fever.; I've got a hole in my shoe.
Jack Lemmon – Some Like It Hot

I sometimes get the impression you think you live in Star-Bright Park; this is life, get used to it.
Toni Curtis – Sweet Smell of Success

There are too many of them; can't kill the world.
Robert Mitchum – The Night of the Hunter

To be honest until now I never really to grips with the wider ideological framework of religion and its contra-counterpart. But there's hope for me yet. Last night the BBC aired a programme entitled Atheism - The Culture of Disbelief which has restored my faith in British Programming, among other things. The programme was a refreshing change from the usual drool that saturates Monday nights.

The documentary, inflected with philosophical and scientific interpretative modes and close inspection of canonical texts, was highly educational. Religious progression from ancient times to present day is fascinating. But it got me thinking; whether there is a place for religion, with its self-righteous principals, jangling ambiguity and logic-defying rituals, in post modern society?

And personally, I'd have to say no. The diversions provided by other pursuits have been sufficient enough to offset the challenges of life. As a result I've never had an affiliation with faith or its adjuncts. And yet I'd be very hesitant to call myself an Atheist. As the documentary pointed out; Atheism has acquired a cult-like-status, a following of mass proportions, and as a result has developed in to a doctrine that adheres to a particular set of values, much like Christianity, Buddhism etc. In other words it has evolved in to a belief system for non-believers. In my opinion this is far too complex and muddled when it need and be. True genuine non-belief is just the reverse of true, genuine belief; it is silent and gives sign of its existence only when challenged.