Saturday 14 August 2010

The 'A' word

Austerity seems to be a current buzzword from the Con-Dem coalition, inflicting cuts to public services. I’d really like to see austerity measures applied to churches, too… Why not abolish the ‘charitable’ status for church institutions in the UK, and make them all pay taxes at premium business rates?

There’s no reason why the organised religions should remain a special case. A lot of church properties, on prime sites in town centres, could be redeveloped for proper commercial enterprises to make better use of the locations and land, which might even provide more useful services to local communities.

Monday 9 August 2010

More BS!

Black Static is three years old! Where does the time go, and all that...
Issue #18 (TTA Press) features my latest 'Blood Spectrum' column of DVD and blu-ray reviews, with coverage of 25 new releases on seven pages:

Solomon Kane (4/10)
Afterwards (4/10)
Bubba Ho-Tep (5/10)
The Storm Warriors (6/10)
Blood River (5/10)
Psychosis (3/10)
Clash Of The Titans (7/10)
Shelter (5/10)
Animals (4/10)
Manson Girl (5/10)
14 Blades (6/10)
Goemon (7/10)
The 7th Dimension (8/10)
[REC] 2 (8/10)

     + Soulless Scars: round-up...
Zombie Women Of Satan (1/10)
Bikini Girls On Ice (1/10)
Samurai Zombie (3/10)
Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler (3/10)
2001 Maniacs: Field Of Screams (1/10)
The Haunting Of Marsten Manor (1/10)
The Torment (1/10)
Meat Grinder (2/10)
The Bleeding (2/10)
The Horde (3/10)
Dead Cert (1/10)