AN IDIOT'S GUIDE TO RELIGION

I see Bennett is currently tubthumping and salivating at the thought of the Rapture, lol, He's got a first class ticket to Paradise and the rest of us are gonna fry.
 

Radical Christians are no different to radical muslims, they too believe they are right, dead right.  Their motives are not philanthropic, they want their place next to God and a front row seat to watch their enemies burn. They are just as much at war as ISIS, 'onward Christian soldiers' and all that. 

Since time began, religion has been used by every society in order to control the masses.  To put it bluntly we are 'herd' animals, we flock together, we are more comfortable in a pack, we are safer and our survival depends on it. 

In order to live as a group, ancient societies had to have rules and such is human nature, deciding on what those rules should be and who should administer them began a conflict that lasted for all eternity. They quickly realised that whoever took charge and made the rules could enjoy the fruits of others' labour, without having to do any actual 'toiling' themselves. 

However, man is frail.  His time on this earth is limited and the lifespan of tyrants and despots is especially variable because once you have got all the 'spoils', others will try to take them away from you.  Ancient man needed Rules carved in stone, ones that didn't need updating every 6 months and with all that chiselling, who could blame them. 

So how did God come about?  Well, if you go back even further, somewhere between walking upright and making tools, those big old Neanderthal heads were trying to make sense of the goodies that grew on trees and how much fun it was eating rotting grapes.  They wanted, neh needed, someone to thank for their bountiful harvests, and someone to praise so the next ones would be even better.  Clearly the amazing world around them couldn't possibly be the work of man, no man had that power. They looked upon the changing seasons as being the work of a God or several Gods.  'God' became their explanation of the world around them, if they behaved as God wanted them to, they would be rewarded, if they didn't, they would be punished.   

Of course, after a few thousand years they realised that the Autumn follows Summer follows Spring etc, whatever they did, and that sacrificing 10 goats and their firstborn wouldn't ward off the volcano that was about to erupt or the hurricane that was heading their way. They didn't dare displease the Gods by blaming them for man's misfortune, they had to point the finger of blame at each other.  

Once the 'beliefs' set in, society was under control.  The fact that God has only appeared to raving lunatics and people away with the fairies has never mattered a jot to the believers.  They choose to live the life God (via man) has mapped out for them rather than freefall like the rest of us.  They prefer to plough the fields and gather whilst singing the Lord's praises and dreaming of all the goodies to come in the next life.

The religious are the team players.  They will work their knuckles to the bone for the good of others and they will do it all in God's name because they don't seek praise for themselves. Heaven forbid.  They teach humility and sacrifice, basically all the things that will ensure the populace will continue ploughing the fields and gathering without complaint. And they will teach their children to do the same too. Religion is largely responsible for the social demographic into which we are born.  We are the result of decisions and choices made by our predecessors.  Sadly, religion teaches us to know and accept our place in the world.  The rich man in his castle, the poor man in the field.  Blessed are the meek and those who bring gifts to the altar.  

Such is life, the wants and desires of the Good Lord (or God) usually coincides with the wants and the desires of the leaders and the wannabe leaders and having 'God' on your side usually swings the vote if you want to annihilate certain sections of mankind.  If you can whip up a big enough crowd up into a frenzy, you can bring down the walls of Jericho. 

Mostly, I don't have a problem with religion, if people want to pray or believe in a higher power, that's up to them, whatever gets you through the night.  Personally, I prefer to be in awe at the achievements and creativity of mankind, even those of the religious nuts.

For me, the scary thing is the fact that religion still dominates the 21st century.  And the fact that we actually take religious people seriously and allow them to dictate the way in which we live defies logic.  I am as aghast that the word of the Pope still has influence over millions worldwide in the same way that the word of ISIS now reaches out to the radical Muslims.  How many people in third world countries died of Aids because of the Pope's ruling on condoms?  

Religion is the root of all evil and sadly it is not contained within small churches or mosques where the deluded gather to worship their unseen entity of choice.  They demand that the rest of us join them or face God's wrath in the form of manmade punishments.  Their faith that God will punish us in the next life is however pretty slim, so it is their duty to ensure we suffer in this one.  All religions are about suffering, they teach obedience, sacrifice and humility, human traits that make the masses governable.  

Happily most people can now see that the promise of a reward in the next life is a ploy used by unscrupulous employers to pay low wages, and by religious fanatics who use the gullible to blow up their enemies. In a logical, humanistic world, religious zealots would be in strait jackets and given psychological help for their paranoid delusions, but in this world, they become leaders.  Not just in the unstable Middle East, but also in the West - George Bush held regular prayer meetings in the White House and Tony Blair is now more Catholic than the Pope.  Understandable perhaps, when you are killing hundreds of thousands of innocents with weapons of mass destruction, you better be doing in God's name and not your own.  Bush and Blair like the ISIS terrorists have also claimed in their place in Paradise.  When you use God's name for mass murder it is not only acceptable, it is to be applauded.  

Sadly, we atheists are caught in the middle of all the crazies, not only must we tolerate them, we must respect them, obey their laws and die and when they go for the mass murder option.  An option that is becoming more frequent as these ancient scriptures are adapted for the 21st century by Islamists and Christians alike.  And therein lies the insanity.

     

VIVE LA FRANCE, YOU DID NOT DESERVE THAT

When I woke up yesterday morning, I watched Sky News in horror as the terrible events in Paris unfolded.  As a manic depressive I sometimes avoid too much reality as it can easily tip me over the edge.  Sadly, it was impossible to look away, and it was impossible to shut off the fear and terror I felt for those innocent people who's lives were being blown apart by such incomprehensible evil. 

Why, why, why?  The people ISIS targeted were mostly young, multicultural, liberal free thinkers, people who may even have been persuaded to their cause, or who would have at least listened to them.  The people killed and injured were out having fun.  Was it the 'fun' aspect that troubled them the most? 

I don't pretend to understand the troubles in the Middle East, does anyone?  But I do know that for too long the lives of those in the Middle East have mean't very little to the people of the 'West'.  Two days before Paris, a bomb went off in Beirut killing 43, almost as if it were a rehearsal for the atrocity that was to come.  The Beirut bombs didn't grab everyone's attention.  The Paris ones did.

For most of us, we don't really care what happens in a far away land, neither we, nor our ancestors divided those lands and riches up for ourselves, and besides, we've got enough troubles of our own. The attacks on Paris have brought the terrorism of the Middle East directly into our living rooms. It could have been any of us, or any of those we love. We have to take notice, ignoring it is no longer an option. 

Fortunately, most of us are not faced with the terrible decisions that the world leaders now face.  How to bring it to an end. They are dealing with psychopaths and sociopaths who are using naïve young 'westerners' (one was only 15 ffs) to blow up everything they hate.  You can bet your life that the suicide vests are not made to fit the aged evil bloated fat cats who instigate these attacks for their own grubby ends.   

For the 'rational' world leaders, how the hell do you choose one murderous fanatic over another in order to maintain world peace?  Do they even listen to the rebel factions?  Are there no peacemakers among them?  Can the West really step in without being accused of seeking the spoils of war for themselves? And why should it be the decision of the West?  Ultimately Syria must rule itself with the best interests of the majority at heart.  

I share Paris's grief, anger and need for retribution. This can never happen again, these evil people must be stopped.  However, it is heart breaking that the people who will suffer the most, will be those fleeing the terror.  Already, the media have picked up on one terrorist being a refugee who arrived in a boat. Conveniently ignoring the fact that most of these suicide bombers are nationals of the countries they are blowing up. They are disaffected youths who have been lured into war games because they need something to believe in, even if it is batshit crazy. 

Sadly, it will also too increase the simmering racism that lurks in every society and it will give fodder to the far right extremists who need little excuse to attack their neighbours. I hope people bear in mind that we are in the middle of a humanitarian crisis, one that has the potential to reach the scale of a holocaust.  We need to remember that the people arriving on our shores are people just like us.  Mums and dads who love their kids and grannies just as much as we love ours.   

The extremists who shattered the lives of the people of Paris are the same extremists these desperate people are fleeing.  They don't want the kind of 'rule' Assad or ISIS (ISIL) are offering, they want a rational world where they will be valued as human beings.  It is not the number of terrorists who are coming into the West as refugees, so much as the number of their own disaffected youth who are flying out to the Middle East to train as terrorists and suicide bombers. 

The world leaders, Francois Hollande especially have my deepest sympathy at the moment, and if I were religious, they would have my prayers too.  Heck, they have them anyway, so too the people of Paris affected by this terrible atrocity. Vive la France, and Viva the French people, they did not deserve that, no-one does. 

 

HIDING BEHIND ANONYMITY

Unfortunately, for Verdi, Aquila, Snook, Plebgate,  Bluebag, Aiyoyo, Tigger and the rest of the anonymous cesspit hardcore, they have no back stories.  Are they male/female, old, young, parents, grandparents?  Who are they? Why have they been discussing the minutiae of the Madeleine case for 8 years? 

One of the joys of the internet and chatting with strangers online is that it gives every single one of us the joy of being whoever we want to be.  We can invent alter egos from any socio economic or educational background we want, even if they are just better and more successful versions of ourselves.  We can figuratively stand on an orange box at Hyde Park Corner and tell the world where it is going wrong, without fear of anyone pointing and laughing, or worse, talking behind our backs, because in our imaginary worlds, we always win. 

I have no problem with people creating alter egos, in fact, I would encourage it.  The real world can be shit at times.  This is one of the rare occasions when depressive, struggling writers are at an advantage, we can wander off for a while with our fictional characters.  With the internet, anyone can be anyone and it would be wrong to say there is no fun side to it.  I used to belong to a forum where, on the rare occasion when hostilities ceased, we would hold a 'masked' ball and attend as any character we wanted, past or present - the results were hilarious.  The insults continued, but they were much more witty, nearer to the knuckle and absolutely hilarious.   When you are wearing a mask you can say anything you want.

Sadly, many use the mask of anonymity for anything but fun.  They use the mask to unleash their crueller, darker natures.  They believe that if they make someone else feel bad, they will somehow, magically, feel better.  They feed off the pain of others.  They cannot tell their boss she is a cunning, manipulative bitch, but they can use those words against a stranger online - and if they are part of a group of similarly minded malcontents, they will be applauded and encouraged to say it again. Birds of a feather flock together - like the vultures from Jungle Book. 

Unfortunately, among the 'antis' there are sinister characters desperate, to hide their identities, why? Are they ashamed of what they do?  Do they have ulterior motives? If they believe they are right, and they do, why not state their arguments using their real names?  They are not just writing the occasional letter to a newspaper or blog, they are part of a sustained 8 year campaign 'for justice'? If they believe that what they are doing is right, why are they ashamed of it?  I have no doubt whatsoever that the parents are involved, ergo my conscience is clear. 

During the time they have been holed up in the cesspit, dozens of facebook groups have opened with thousands of people openly criticizing the McCanns in their own names and surviving.  Fear of Team McCann is no longer a factor.  They don't want to be harassed.  That could be fair enough, if they were posting without harassing others.  But they are not.  They are selecting named targets and tearing them to shreds, all the while protecting themselves with anonymity. 

Whilst I respect that many people have genuine reasons for remaining anonymous when commenting on this case (it can seriously affect your life), I have no respect for those cowards who use anonymity to hurl abuse at others.  Does their thuggish behaviour cross over into the real world?  If it does then they are completely devoid of any social graces whatsoever - or in words they can understand: 'you couldn't take them anywhere'.  As 'bad' as my parents were (I thought they were great!),  They oozed charm and good manners, even when my mother told someone to fuck orf, she did it politely. 

I know acknowledging their weird behaviour sets my own band of stalkers off into a frenzy, but what the heck, all's quiet on the western front.  Strangely, I have seem to have gathered more obsessive anonymous stalkers than most.  I even have entire blogs devoted to me!  Scarily, I can only see what they write publicly, I shudder to think what they say in their members only bits. 

Happily, beyond thinking they are weird (and hoping SY are keeping a close eye), they bother me not.  They have actually given me another area of interest to study.  Adding to my 'expert' portfolio, lol, I now know everything there is to know about trolling and psychotic group behaviour.  I honestly don't care who these people are, other than natural curiosity. I only have control over the way in which I react to their behaviour, sometimes it bothers me, mostly it doesn't, but as far as I am concerned, the police have better things to do. 

I am intrigued as to what their goals are?  I try not to discourage unrealistic goals, but if they hope to have me 'removed from the net', they are going to have as much luck as Sisyphus.  I am not abusive.  I don't write anything libellous - I'm a wordsmith and a former legal secretary who spent over a year working in the pedantic, semantic 'kill me now' Reinsurance  Division.  It's the reason I am still here and others are not.  No letters from Carter Ruck.

Anonymity can be used for good or for bad.  Fortunately, most people use it for good.  And in this crazed brave, capitalist new world, simply commenting on, or liking a Facebook page can see your inbox and social network sites flooded with adverts designed specifically to your own individual lifestyle.  In my case, Fat, Fifty and funeral plans.  We, as much as the vast network we log into are commodities, our names being traded for undisclosed sums.  Life is now a numbers game. 

Rather than wear a tin foil hat forever more, I personally have decided to live with it because I refuse to live in fear.  And realistically, fear is the only other option.  I'm not going to type with sun glasses and gloves on or dress like Secret Squirrel to avoid the CCTV cameras when I go out to buy a loaf of bread - freedom for me means living as I choose, not the way someone else chooses for me.  I can think of nothing worse than living in fear of what other people think.  It is a tragedy that so many people allow that fear to crush their dreams. They give up, even though they don't have to.  I once attended a student awards ceremony, where one of the recipients was a 90 year old lady who received her BA(Hons) Degree - her's was the longest standing ovation of the evening! 

Many people reach the level that they have set for themselves and stay there.  Especially if it gives them the comfortable and contented lifestyle they want.  Sadly for them, to achieve one goal, they have had to abandon others.  For example, the wife and kids wouldn't be too impressed if hubby  wanted to wear a Princess ballgown and a tiara to the kids' school parents evening or mum wanted to go find herself in a Buddhist monastery in the Himalayas for 6 months.

For most of us, our lives and dreams are restricted by our responsibility to others.  And that is as it should be.  It makes us human and we wouldn't have it any other way.  We should care for each other.  But equally, we shouldn't supress our own dreams and desires.  I think the idea that once you have kids, you should shelve all your own hopes and ambitions is absurd.  Some unenlightened folk, usually young working class parents, believe their lives are over, everything must now be sacrificed for the kids.  Some are still in their teens and twenties! 

Whilst some might see sacrifice as noble, it actually builds up years and years of resentment, as in 'do you know how much I sacrificed for you'.  It is the constant chant of the needy middle aged who wonder why the kids never visit.  Being a mum is fun, being a single mum, though challenging, is also fun, I'm going to do a blog or book about it sometime.  Kids are adaptable little souls, up to the age of 14, they will happily go along with anything, they just love being with you.  Let's go see the new exhibit at the Tate is usually met with an okey dokey and a beaming smile especially if accompanied by bribery and corruption.  When they get better at the B&C than you, then its terrifying funfair rides forever more. They can always think of brilliant reasons for why it is a good idea to be propelled upside down through the air at a hundred miles an hour.  Kids will accept you have dreams, especially if you encourage them to have dreams too.

People who gave up on their dreams get an air of negativity about them, that makes them unpleasant company, laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone, or if you are lucky you can find a forum of like minded folk where they are similarly weeping buckets, and stay there for the next decade.      

But I digress, the tone of forums such as CMoMM, Stop the Myths and JATKY2 is bitter and resentful.  Angry, that people like me with such appalling writing skills and such a degenerate, libertarian attitude to life, should get the audience that they crave.  They want recognition for all their painstaking hard work and strong (anonymous) moral fibre.  They want the on stage applause but they are scared to step out from behind the curtains.  This  anonymity somehow makes their commentary more credible and mine more likely to be shit because they don't seek fame for themselves.  How noble. Lol.  

People shouldn't listen to a drug addled wino like me, lol, they should listen to fine upstanding sober citizens (subjects) like them.  Why don't they? jeez, that is a mystery!  They fail to understand why not many MS journalists are cuing (sic) up to be locked in the town square stocks for the village eejits to throw rotten veg.  The inhabitants of the cesspit are in fact giving the McCanns far more protection than the police or even special forces could, they have driven all the sane people away. Most of the evidence for any potential defence will probably come from them. 

Part of the McCanns media strategy has been to keep the 'Hate' going.  Their trolls (anonymous supporters) have been goading the 'antis' for 8+ years.  Occasionally, they have got the much desired sensational pitchfork front pages they desired.  Who remembers the Facebook 'bang bang' incident? Who remembers the unattractive pictures of the leading members of the Madeleine Foundation?  In order for the McCanns to be victims, they have to have enemies.  They cannot justify their protection if they cannot prove they have been threatened, and as we saw in latest round of the libel action, they had no actual threats against themselves or their children to back up their damages claim.

I think one of the reasons, many choose to remain anonymous when commenting on this case, is because, and there is no getting away from it, it is a peculiar hobby.  We struggle to explain what it is about it that keeps us gripped.  For myself, I haven't watched Coronation Street or Eastenders for 8 years!  That is a lie, I have never been able to watch CS or E.  As I have said many times, I think it is because this case has all the main ingredients of a live, supercharged, soap opera, it is an escape from our own miserable lives.  While our minds are trying to figure out the pieces of the puzzle, we can switch off reality for a while. 

And there is nothing wrong with what we are doing.  Man (and woman) was made to think!  And we need to exercise our brains as much as we need to exercise our bodies.  Our survival depends on being able to distinguish between right and wrong.  If wrong gets the lead we go headlong into an apocalypse.  Most of know this instinctively, an injustice to one person is an injustice to everyone.

Most who criticise the injustice done to Madeleine are decent, regular people. The kind of people who would normally nod and say 'Oh well', but there is something about this case that sticks in their craw.  It could be the obvious class differences, the way in which Kate and Gerry have been treated in comparison to Karen Matthews for example  It could be the horror that a small vulnerable child could be made to disappear, no questions asked.  It could also be the realisation that our politicians and newspapers have actually been lying to us for years.  Who knows, it is probably all of these reasons and more, for most I suspect it is an objection to the appalling abuse of power that we have seen in this case. It is an affront to our sense of decency and fair play.

The British have a well deserved reputation for being one of the least barbaric countries in the world. They set the benchmark for democracy and justice. It is the reason so many refugees want to come here.  The British Bulldog will not tolerate racism or dictatorship or fascism.  It will fight them on the beaches and it will never surrender.  I once saw a documentary about horrifically injured pilots from WWII, despite their injuries, their amazing characters shone through.  One old boy, the treasurer because he had no legs, recalled his flights in a Spitfire defending the British coastline.  In a loud plummy voice, he repeated 'the cheek  of it, the dashed cheek of it'.  Most who are drawn to this case are just normal, decent people who, like Edmund Burke, are not willing to stand by and do nothing while evil succeeds. 

Sadly, some are here because they have a guttural desire to see the parents punished.  They are the ones with the obligatory missing teeth and knitting at the ready for their front row seats.  They get their jollies watching people suffer and they have existed since time began.  As much fun as it might be to lop off all their heads, it won't really solve the problem because the next generation of malcontents will be waiting in the wings to take over. 

Anonymous internet trolls are unpleasant, but they are the proverbial sticks and stones and they are a small price to pay for access to the wonders of the world wide web. Sadly, vile people are all part and parcel of life.  We encounter them everywhere.  But just as you can't 'ban' the bitch you share an office with, you can't 'ban' people from the internet. 

For me the priority is Freedom of Speech.  I am no friend of Bennett and his cronies, or Tigerloaf and his but I have no desire to silence them or what they say.  He is as entitled to his opinion as I am.  If I am offended I will challenge it, but most of the time I can't arsed. As far as I am concerned, karma can deal with the lot of them, they have to live with themselves.  Trolling is just one aspect of this case, but as time goes by sadly, it will become more important.  Not just to this case but to those who want the power to arrest perceived dissidents and seize their computers.  If the Brenda Leyland 'troll stunt' had succeeded, it would have severely restricted discussion of the McCann case online and it would have paved the way for new 'trolling' laws to police the lawless internet. Brenda knowingly, or unknowingly, completely scuppered their plans. 

The way in which people at the top of our society have used this case to bring in press restrictions that will hide crime under privacy laws drives many of us on.  They do not want to protect the innocent, they want to protect the guilty and they want to do this by silencing the opposition.  Sadly for them, if they try to silence me (or anyone) legally they will stir up the sleeping tiger that is the Freedom of Speech lobby.  As bad as the tories are, they have little appetite for the type of censorship the pros and some of the antis demand because they have nothing to gain from it and a barrel load of unnecessary problems.  It was ministers from the Brown labour government who supported Hacked Off's demands to curtail the freedom of the press.  The McCann case and rooting out and imprisoning renegade news hounds has gone hand in hand with demands for new privacy laws.  They are insulting our intelligence if they think we didn't notice. 
  

 

ASK THE DOGS

 

The case of missing Madeleine changed irreversibly in July 2007 when specialist dogs were brought over from the UK on the advice of Mark Harrison MBE, a highly qualified search specialist on behalf of the British NPIA, who advised the Portuguese police to investigate the parents. 

As we know from the infamous Sun video, these highly trained EVRD dogs alerted to the scent of blood and cadaver in the McCann's apartment, to their belongings and to car they hired 3 weeks after Madeleine disappeared.  No-where else.  The boot of the hire car was seen left open overnight and the foul smell explained away with stories of rotting meat, babies nappies and trips to the local dump. 

The McCanns did not react to the video of the dogs alerting in the way we would expect parents of a missing child to react.  For most of us, our first thoughts would be terror that our child may have come to harm.  Both Kate and Gerry immediately went on to the defence, in a 'you can't prove nuffink' stance that seemed to bring an end to communications between the PJ and themselves.

Since then, they have been searching for ways and means in which to discredit the dogs and vicariously, their handler.  Had it not been for the fact that Martin Grime is far too highly respected among experts worldwide, I am sure they would have gone all out to destroy his career too. 

It seems even with a publicity campaign as well funded and resourced as the search for Madeleine, they have not yet been able to come up with a credible reason as to why those specialist dogs only alerted to the parents' possessions? 

I have attempted to read and understand some of the longwinded, anonymous diatribes explaining how these highly trained, in demand, £90k per job, dogs can't tell the difference between a crime scene and a café serving pork chops, but they haven't impressed me much. 

And in response to a post this morning, I have no problem with contributors putting forward arguments and explanations as to why we should discard the alerts of the dogs.  They were enough to 'end' the search for Madeleine and to make the parents arguidos.  They were a turning point in the investigation of this case, and might well be a turning point in any future trial. 

I am not interested in reams of rubbish about the tragic Jersey case and coconuts, nor playground insults, but I like to keep an open mind, if there is a credible reason for the dogs alerting, I'd love to hear it! 

I know the alerts of the dogs are a sensitive subject for the McCanns, and believe me I take no pleasure in highlighting it, but once again, in order to save their own skins, they are out to hurt and destroy the reputations of others.  That is just not cricket, but it is all part of the blame everyone else mentality that kicked in on 3rd May 2007. The McCanns have no credible reason as to why the dogs alerted to the smells of blood and cadaver, ergo they have to discredit the dogs and those who trained them. 

The only other option would be that the Portuguese police were trying to frame the parents.  'I was set up m'lud'.  This however would involve a plan more elaborate than that drawn up for the allied invasion of the Normandy beaches. It would involve the distinct smells being obtained (from where?) and strategically planted Mission Impossible style in numerous places and on numerous objects associated with the McCanns without their knowledge. 

And for what reason?  Why would the Portuguese police want to blame the parents and leave a dangerous child predator on the loose in the Algarve?  What of their own children's safety?  Those police were looking for a small, vulnerable child, I simply do not believe that any one of them would have abandoned their duty or responsibility towards her for a long lunch or an afternoon off.  Who could even think that way?  

The McCanns do actually believe the whole world is out to get them.  And worryingly, they were able to draw the entire British establishment into their strange paranoid delusion.  The UK's dim witted sofa queens and racist journalists gleefully supported the two arguidos against the entire Portuguese Judiciary. They chose to believe the word of two parents who left their very young children alone for the evening to go out to dinner with their friends, over the word of a foreign police force! 

As the dogs Sandra

STOP THE LUNACY

In response to a post on previous blog:

I am afraid you are deluding yourself if you think the McCanns haven't harmed their remaining children 10:54.  With all the lying that goes on, can you imagine how dysfunctional their home must be?  Apart from terrifying the poor little mites with a story about a monster stealing Madeleine from her bed, the parents have dedicated the last 8+ years to 'getting her back'.  They are growing up in the shadow of their 'lost' big sister.  From their perspective, it may be that they see their parents and family as caring more about Madeleine than them.  When they are adults looking back, that is undoubtedly what they will see. 

The parents proudly boast that Madeleine is 'everywhere' within their home, her bedroom has become a shrine filled with a growing stack of presents that can never be opened, they talk about Madeleine every day, they celebrate her birthday with cake.  Whilst our jaws drop at the macabre and tragic 'time stood still world' of Charles Dickens' Miss Haversham, in the twilight world of McCann, it is to be applauded.

I feel desperately sorry for those kids. Their names have been used shamelessly by their parents to tug on the heart (and purse) strings of their gullible donors.  They always mention them by name in their TV interviews.  Offered the chance of having their civil proceedings in Lisbon held in camera, the McCanns chose maximum publicity. The kids were then subjected to lurid UK tabloid headlines shrieking that crazy 'hater' people were trying to kidnap them and that their parents were in constant danger of being attacked.  Things no 9 year old should have to read on newspaper billboards on their way to school.  That the parents themselves are the authors of these headlines is just plain wicked.

Whilst megalomaniac Gerry might believe he can have every negative comment about himself and his wife erased from the internet to protect his kids, the reality is quite different.  He is not special (well he is, but not in the way he thinks), we all want to protect our children, and what a great world this would be if we could all do exactly what we liked without anyone saying anything horrid about us.  However, even Henry VIII with a chopping block and a team of executioners couldn't force people to say nice things about him.  And, speaking for myself, even if you put me on rack and make me 2ft taller, I will still not believe Gerry and Kate are telling the truth. 

I'm afraid I cannot imagine a more dysfunctional environment for kids to grow up in than that Rothley household.  It actually makes me feel sick to the stomach, and I am someone who spent 5 years of my childhood being emotionally and physically abused in a convent - I have a good idea what it feels like to live in constant fear as a child.  When you are sent to your room, and you don't know what is going on, you fear the worst. 

What astounds me and chips away at my faith in human nature still further, is the abandonment of those kids by all the other adults around them, the grandparents, aunts and uncles especially.  Not one of them has the guts or decency, to tell Gerry and Kate to 'stop the lunacy'.   And what of the professionals?  no decent psychiatrist or professional with morals and common sense would tell the parents of a missing child to create a shrine and spend the rest of their lives looking for her.  As for raising their surviving kids to take over from them, when they are gone, WTF?  How about asking the kids what they want to be? what they want to do? 

When someone suffers a bereavement at some point, someone, usually a close family member or friend, will have that 'time to move on' talk with them.  Most of us are lucky enough to have that 'someone', or we ourselves reach that stage in our time and in our ways.  In the old days, we also had Marjory Proops.  We have to move on, or we would be incapacitated forever more. 

The parents of Madeleine emphasise that she was special.  Unfortunately, she has become 'special' forever more.  Every parent knows (or should know) that you must treat all of your children equally, they are all special.  For the McCann kids, Madeleine is special in a way they can never compete with. She is the driving force of her parents' lives.  Nothing they ever do will top Madeleine's iconic status.  They can't even sort things out the way other small siblings do, with the odd sly pinch or full scale punch up.

'We are never giving up' should send a chill down the spines of everyone who has responsibility towards those children.  Someone needs to tell Gerry and Kate that what they are doing is very wrong.  It is not healthy for themselves and it is off the scale freaky for their kids. 

All those supporting Gerry and Kate to carry on with this misguided quest should hang their heads in shame.  People are being hurt.  What they have done and what they are doing is evil, and because it is based on evil, it is harmful to everyone and everything it touches.  How can it not be?