Yeah, well I'm trying to send a comment to a friend's blog on Blogger and for some reason the 2-step verification process didn't work - it didn't send a text to either of my mobile devices (which are already signed in to Google BTW. Now Blogger keeps saying 'something went wrong' when I try to look at my profile.

Sort it out Blogger. 

Russian officials raid Amnesty's Moscow headquarters | World news | guardian.co.uk

Russian officials raid Amnesty's Moscow headquarters | World news | guardian.co.uk

Only bad people are afraid of human rights organisations. Only bad people want to prevent the truth being circulated.

Are lies the only thing holding Russia together? Why hasn't Russia shaken off totalitarianism with the end of Communism?

Well, I think we know the answer to these questions.

Arms Trade Treaty blocked - this isn't failure, this is 'success deferred'. | Blogs | Amnesty International UK

Arms Trade Treaty blocked - this isn't failure, this is 'success deferred'. | Blogs | Amnesty International UK

So, if the treaty is passed and arms do get through to terrorist organisations and corrupt governments, does this mean it will be easier for us to tell where the arms are coming from; i.e. Syria, Iran and North Korea?

Secret courts: un-British, second-class justice | Blogs | Amnesty International UK

Secret courts: un-British, second-class justice | Blogs | Amnesty International UK   

Do you trust this man?

Who governs the government? I can see the point in not wanting to put officers of MI5 or MI6 at risk, or compromise delicate operations, but I do not trust the government or judges to decide what should be secret and what should not. If we could be sure that judges and the governments were always acting in the public interest and for national security, then there would be no problem.

It is clearly a dilemma: and can we trust our security services to judge whether what they are doing is in the national interest any more than we can trust the government and judges?

Bags of Charity

The NSPCC has just ignored a note I blu-tacked to our front door saying 'No charity bags please'. The delivery of these bags seems to be a big thing in our area. We seem to be a prime target. In the note I also explained that the bags were not collected when I put them out and that there are plenty of charity shops in our village. We give hundreds of pounds to charity including taking loads of stuff to the charity shops. We also give stuff away on Freecycle (including a shed!) 

Some of these charities, including the NSPCC, even want us to store the bags so we can use it when our clothes become old enough to chuck out! 

Anyway, grumble over

Cookies

I really only started this blog again because I was wondering why, even though my previous blog had been closed down, I was regularly removing cookies referring to .clichoid.blogspot.com, and then next time I did some housekeeping there they were again! I use the moniker 'clichoid' quite a lot (it means something to me if nobody else, and it's easy just to keep repeating it.) So maybe with the way the Internet is: there are little remnants of your past indiscretions buried on servers all over cyberspace.