Tuesday 9 November 2010

Break their toys.

From Junican, in the comments to the previous post:

Leg Iron, I hope you do not mind me making the following post which is a copy of one I have made on Taking Liberties - it is off topic, but interesting...

""Simon,

I hope that you do not mind me using this thread to issue a plea for help. I’ll be as quick as poss.
In these pages (I think), some 3 months ago, someone mentioned that the BMJ had started a blog asking for new words with which to attack Big Tobacco. I had a look at this blog.
I decided to have some fun, and submitted a list of really horrible words (like diarrhoea). Needless to say, my contribution was not published.
Being up for a challenge, I decided to make several comments which seemed reasonable, but were in fact rather over the top. Clearly, tongue in cheek if one read between the lines. I noticed Pat Nurse had a go there too.

Believe it or not, they have accepted one of my ideas as one of the best six!!!! They have now published it to be voted upon, and, I suppose, I might just win the prize (a subscription to the Tobacco Control journal)!

Here is the URL for the original BMJ blog:

And the new blog for voting:

DP has made a comment on that blog.

My problem now is-

What would happen if I won??? Should we try to help my comment to win so that I can disown the whole thing in due course? So far there have been 111 votes. If one votes, one is taken to a page which shows the breakdown of votes to date. Mine has 17% so far; the leader has 40%. The leader wants newspapers etc to stop using the word 'smoker' because it implies 'a right'.

Anybody got any ideas? Oh, my name is James Watson, so it is easy to work out which comments are mine. (One of my comments has the first letter of each sentence spelling out the word ‘propaganda’ – which amused me and has not been noticed).

I hope that Rollo Tommasi does not see this, but I doubt that he would be interested in Forest Eireann.

I am going to copy this post to others.......""

I've been over and voted for the option presented by 'jwatso'. They have 112 votes so far, including mine. That one vote move the jwatso option from 12% to 14%.

This blog gets 600-800 visits per day. We have the ability to ram jwatso's impossible demand (that the government stop other countries selling tobacco to us) right up their jacksis and twist it.

They will cry, they will scream, they will bleat and they will howl.

The BMJ's anti-tobacco blog has found 112 voters since the 27th October. Including me! This little backwater blog gets that many visits in two to three hours. Blogs like Old Holborn get that many in minutes.

Go on. Vote for the jwatso option and watch the idiots screech.

Break their toys. And laugh at their tears.

They like to laugh at us while we shiver outside. Have no mercy.

We have seen none.



Update: 1 hour 20 minutes after posting, the jwatso option is up to 22%. There might be an interesting turn of events by the morning.

Update 3 am: They have 134 votes now. It took them a week to get 111 and about three hours to get the last 33. Our man, jwatso, is now in second place with only 4% of this minimal vote to find.

They won't ever manage to grasp why their antismoker vote is so small compared to smoker and 'don't smoke. don't care' nonsmoker votes from a few little blogs. I won't waste time leaving a comment there. If I get the urge to headbutt bricks, I have a wall here.

It already has suitably accommodating dents.

3:25 am Our man is now five votes away from the top spot. It took the entire might of the BMJ a week to put their twisted point across. It has taken a few small smoker blogs less than four hours to mount a response. In the middle of the night. No organisation and no management. Just some people talking. That's against the admin machine of the BMJ and the smokophobe collective.

Will they see what it means? Not a chance.

3:35 am: Three votes. Break those toys!

50 comments:

banned said...

K, done my bit, 23 votes 18.85%.

this does work as those who contributed to Alcohol Concern (Scotland)s tiresome survey last year will recall.

I tried very hard to read the marxist stuff on their page but it was too difficult.

Frank Davis said...

Yay!!!

I've added a call to vote for Jwatso to my latest post.

Let's hope a few more libertarian bloggers pile in and drive totally break their toys.

Frank Davis said...

strike the word 'drive'

Leg-iron said...

banned - rapidly approaching 23%.

Not quite the 'rapid response' the antis desire, perhaps?

Frank - Considering this empty bottle of Highland Park, yes, perhaps we should forget about the 'drive' option...

sike said...

27%

subrosa said...

Do I get a prize? 42 votes now with 29.79% against 41 votes with 29.08%.

Off back to bed.

Leg-iron said...

Five hours.

The entire BMJ. One week of votes.

A few blogs and their readers beat them in five hours. In the middle of the night.

They will not understand why,

They are far too dim.

JuliaM said...

Consider it done!

From every PC/laptop/mobile phone I have... ;)

PT Barnum said...

He's way ahead at 7.45 am (34% with the second place at 29%)- another vote added to the pot!

Junican, that was an act of pure class. Guerilla warfare, anyone?

banned said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
banned said...

^deleted for ammendment
They will back-link to your site Leggy if they have any geeks, as I am sure that you know.

At the Alcohol concern (Scotland) site they asked Vote on the statement " Cheap alcohol is damaging health and society, I support minimum pricing"

My last comment read
"Poll has been removed LOL. Last time I looked it was 9,000 votes at 94% NO".
But they made the mistake of allowing multiple voting (you can still do that with this poll if you delete all your cookies via 'tools' in your toolbar, I just voted again and our friend is in the lead.

JohnRS said...

Done my bit - 42.5% now

Snigger.

Captain Ranty said...

Done.

He is a clear winner.

CR.

banned said...

"They will not understand why"
But they might understand how as they can backlink to your site Leggy, as I am sure you know; on the other hand maybe they can't since they are not hosting the poll themselves.

When we did for Alcohol Concern (Scotland)s miserabilism we got the 'wrong' answer up to 94% before they pulled it, they made the mistake of not disabling multiple responses. You can still do that here if you delete cookies in between visits.

Put up at my place, linking through you.

View from the Solent said...

47.64%

Anonymous said...

Just voted- looks like he's the clear winner.

Keep us posted Junican - and tell us what you plan to do with your Tobacco Control Journal!

Jay

Anonymous said...

Done it, he's a winner. Hahahha

Monty Cristo said...

116 and 53.7%, next best is 42 and 19.44%. I copied the link and went in via the BBC ,just in case they checked where it came from and too many were from the same site.

PJH said...

Update 3 am: They have 134 votes now

And at 10.30am it's down to 120. Someone's having a fiddle with the poll and it's not us.

Holl said...

10:33am it's showing 124 votes and 55.36%. 2nd place is 42 votes and 18.75%

selsey.steve said...

11:40am and it reads:-
(jwatso) 145 votes 59.18%

Looking good!

Lord T said...

Now on 151 votes 60.16%.

Next is A. Portenier on 42 votes 16.73%

LOL

Glad to help.

Richard said...

Me too - 157 and 61.09%.

I'm a non-smoker, too.

BTS said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
PT Barnum said...

12.23, 260 votes, Junican on 61.54%, 2nd place on 16.15%.

Um, we seem to have affected this poll slightly, people!

vw = saltio (a new snack product on the market? 99% salt with added vitamins.)

BTS said...

My comment is already out of date and hence has duly been deleted - this ****ing laptop is slower than I am..

Can anyone spare a computer?

And some dope?

Or maybe just the dope..?

I say spare, but I have cashmoney.

Please..?

Chief_Sceptic said...

Did my bit - now he's on 63.37% ! ...

Richard said...

Weird - PTB has it at 260/62% votes at 12.23, now (14.32) it's 184/65% votes. If someone is removing votes, they are doing it to more than one option - how can the number of votes decrease while the % increases? Or did PTB mean 160?

hangemall said...

Have just voted. jwatso on 188 votes out of 289 total - 65.05%.

P.S. L-I, am halfway down my own bottle of Highland Park. The Monkey Shoulder wasn't bad. Don't know what to do with the metal bit though. It looks vaguely obscene. Perhaps I'll find an old XR3i and hang it form the mirror.

PT Barnum said...

@ Richard

No, it really was 260 when I last checked and I recorded it here because it was so wildly different from other people's figures. It doesn't make much sense, does it? Who are polldaddy?

Dr Evil said...

Went and voted tactically as suggested. Old Watso is sreaming forwards!

Dr Evil said...

That would be STEAMING FFS!!! Bloody typos

Richard said...

PTB - fair enough. I saw the vote numbers before and after, and they seemed to make a believable sequence if yours was 160: 145, 151, 157, *260*, 188 ... See what I mean?

Oh well, I certainly wouldn't put vote-rigging beyond them. It wouldn't be the worst thing they have planned, all things considered. After all, votes are only of any use if they support what you say - if they go the wrong way, then they can be ignored. The Iraq War and Hunting demonstrations illustrate this quite well.

PT Barnum said...

@ Richard

Doh! As you were. I was giving the total votes, not the votes for 'our' proposal. Apologies for the confusion, borne of mention above about how few votes had been cast at all before all these 'new' people happened across the poll.

Memo to self: do not try to do numbers while on medication.

Richard said...

Perhaps they are honest after all :) Thanks for clearing it up. I'll be starting my own medication after dinner.

manwiddicombe said...

It would have been rude of me to not vote, so I did. After my contribution the jwatso suggestion has 68.88% of the votes (228/331).

:D

Anonymous said...

I've upped it again

banned said...

When do you suppose that the BMJ folks might begin to smell a rat (given that the proposal seems so reasonable)? Or are they so smugly self-satisfied that they really don't care which of the proposed propaganda efforts wins?

It took them, as Junican pointed out, a whole week for a mere 111 members of the entire British Ãœntermarxist Medical Establishment to register the slightest interest in this poll, the only purpose of which is to issue a press release upon which they can pontificate in idle liesure funded by we mere taxpaying smokers.

Billy The Fish said...

Rockin' out at 70.66% now!

It's in the bag, kiddies!

PS - Ace bit of 'Dilbertspeak' BTW jwatso!

Dangermouse said...

Done my bit...

253 votes/70.87%

@BTS...

Have a spare PC if you want it. Reasonable spec, wiped, Ubuntu installed - no cost, just shipping. Let me know through here if you want it and we can sort something...

Loki said...

Done my bit. Bring it on.

Paul said...

Yes I'm there too. Good work.

"Tobacco control" Arrogant sods.

Styx

Leg-iron said...

Thanks to everyone who voted. I wonder if there's any chance they'll get the idea that perhaps not everyone wants to be controlled?

Nah. Their minds don't have room for new thoughts.

Anonymous said...

I'm sort of quietly contemplating events at the moment. Sort of keeping my head down!

It might be a good idea for someone to ask the BMJ what the closing date for votes is. I suppose that I could do that, but I do not want to draw attention.

Something like:

"Regarding the Tobacco Control blog, I have voted for the suggestion about the 'international repercussions' (the others seem to be asking too much - I mean, how can we stop newspapers using the word 'smoker' or get tobacco companies to rename their accounts?

I am interested in seeing what the outcome is, but there is no 'closing date' for votes stated on the blog. I don't think that I have ever seen that before, ever. Can you please tell me what the closing date is?"

Might put the cat among the pigeons.

banned said...

@Junican; you keep yer 'ead down mate, you've done enough already.

Stewart Cowan said...

I have absolutely no idea what jwatso's suggestion means, but it sounds good and got my vote.

Now 295 votes 73.75%

What fun!

The Filthy Engineer said...

Nothing like shafting the Righteous.

Morningstar said...

Read all of the options and decided that Jwatso was wearing the nicest coloured tie so voted for him :)

78+% - he must have a pretty face too !

Swiss Tony said...

I didn't understand what he was talking about, but he he sounds nice, he got my vote too.

What a laugh

Swiss

BTS said...

@Dangermouse..

That is a most generous offer and very much appreciated. I have no idea about how to work out shipping costs, but if you have a clue (or not) then please email me at goshgnasher@yahoo.com (a spare and ditchable account, hence not worried about posting it publicly) and if I can stand it then I would be most grateful.

Apologies for the delay in replying - current computer issues as I guess you've gathered..

One thing though; in the interim my brother has said that he can offer me a spare laptop at Christmas when he visits and I wouldn't like to see someone else miss out on a kind offer in the meantime as I'm not that selfish.

Please email me either way though as that's the kindest offer I've had since Wednesday night when that chick offered to..

Regards.

PS - Good luck with Baron Greenback - stirling work..

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