Stephen Gough Won't Stop Taking His Clothes Off...

Former Royal Marine Stephen Gough is also known as The Naked Rambler and in recent times has spent eight years in prison because he refuses to wear clothes in public.
Stephen does a lot of his nude treking with Melanie Roberts and together they appeared on a BBC documentary as they walked
from Lands End to John O'Groats.
Or was it the other way round.
Our nude recidivist has been described as a endearing and harmless man but to the authorities and the upholders of what is evidently right and decent, he's a big problem.
He won't wear clothes in court, spends time,
lots of it, in prison presumably clothed, and as soon as he's freed he takes them all off again.
Then he's arrested again and so it goes.
For a seemingly intelligent man who is obviously right at home in the great outdoors, you have to wonder why he doesn't find a nice piece of land where he can indulge his philosophy of  personal freedom instead of preferring it seems inhabiting the confines of Her Majesty's Penitentiary.
As a Naturist, it would be the last place in the world I'd want to be.
An update. The European Court of Human Rights has just rejected a case brought by Stephen Gough. He took Britain to the Strasbourg-based court on the grounds that his freedom of expression and right to respect for private life had been impinged.
The Naked Rambler said he was disappointed but vowed to continue with his lifestyle,
saying he was brought up to believe he lived in a country that celebrated eccentricity
and differences.
Without the freedom to express our individuality and uniqueness in our own way he said, something inside us dies...

The Very Different Nomadic Lifestyle Of John Sears And His Three Mules...

John or Mule as he likes to be known is a man on a mission to go nowhere and to take his time getting there.
Sixty five year young Mule has been walking through the western US for the last thirty years, more recently with his three mules, Little Girl, Lady and Pepper.
He's an inspirational soul who knows it's all about the journey rather than the destination. When I come across a man like Mule
I just want to hug him.
What he's doing will be for some, right out of left field but he's offering to an insanely stupid money hungry world a bit of simple sanity and I love him for that too.
You won't find him on the Forbes list but Mule is one of the world's richest men. No not is terms of material worth or stocks and shares or monetary matters. He doesn't worship at the Temple of the God of Greed. No, Mule is fabulously wealthy because he has freedom. Personal freedom.
But says Mule, the urban sprawl is leaving little space for alternative modes of living and traveling and man is now programmed to rely on a car as their transport of choice.
While he tends to shun society's values, he does embrace technology using a mobile phone and a tablet in order to spread his message against urban sprawl. You'll find his blog here and more about John and his mules here and here. And here. Filmmaker, John McDonald regularly does an update on a facebook page here and fortunately a kindly lawyer, Sharon Sherman works pro bono to keep him safe from those who think he should be locked up. San Diego authorities have issued him with court proceedings against his freedom camping lifestyle and he'll be in court, with his mules in early 2014.
I've seen this inspiring individual before and then again on Lloyd's Blog the other day.
I wanted to know more about this marvelous man and his mules.
I thought you might like to too...

John Lennon Lives On In Prague...

The John Lennon Wall is dedicated to peace and the freedom of speech.
Situated in Mala Strana in the Czech Republic's beautiful city of Prague, this once very ordinary wall has, since the 1980's been transformed, painted over and painted again and again by many thousands of people who initially defied the authorities and risked imprisonment to voice their views in their quest for personal freedoms.
John Lennon influenced and inspired the 'Velvet Revolution' which eventually led to the fall of communism in the former Czechoslovakia in 1989.
In 2011, The Protester was Time Magazine's Person of The Year.
Perhaps The Protester will, in 2012, become even more of a figure of hope.
We might even witness less greed and our world may become less punitive, more benevolent, more giving and caring.
Maybe the campaigns against world and local governments who continue to take personal freedoms away from their citizens will be won.
Maybe governments will listen to what their people want.
Maybe I'm being silly and naive again.
Welcome to my first post of this new year.
I wish you much love, peace, happiness and good health in 2012...