Tom Harris is a threat to our liberty.

Tom Harris MP can’t imagine why anyone would want to send him an anonymously gifted copy of 1984 (Orwell). What’s more, the blithering twirp best describes the book as “a rollicking good yarn, with a great plot and a very dramatic ending”.

Well, you’re just the fucking Times Literary Supplement, aren’t you Tom Harris??

http://tomcharris.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/an-orwellian-nightmare-oh-wake-up/

Well, first of all, how about the arrogance of anyone referring to anyone else as anyone’s “masters”?

Secondly, there seem to be an awful lot of people out there – perhaps dozens of them – who seem to get strangely exercised at the prospect of a “police state”. Except that what they define as a “police state” is a million light years from what Orwell himself described. CCTV cameras in the street? That’s just like Nineteen Eighty-Four, when families were monitored in their own homes, 24 hours a day! Can’t use racist terms to vilify people any more? Well, surely that’s thought crime, just like Orwell predicted!

What rubbish. As I’ve written here before, this is all paranoid fantasy, and why so many people get off on it, I’ll never know. I recently had the latest in a series of requests from constituents regarding CCTV. Requests to have the cameras removed? No, no, no… Requests for more cameras.

Tom Harris.<—-                                                                                                                              —-> The Point.

Happily, he’s being utterly massacred in the comments section, and I think that he’s going to start culling things as the whole Nov 5/1984 thing unfolds. Here’s a nice fisking:

Martin Cullip
October 30, 2008 at 10:43 pm

“Well, first of all, how about the arrogance of anyone referring to anyone else as anyone’s “masters”?”

Oh God I’m spitting here, clarification notwithstanding.

In a democracy, as you proudly boast that this country still is, who is master and who is servant? It’s a no-brainer isn’t it? Call it employer if you like but it doesn’t change anything and there is nothing arrogant about reminding the Labour party (or any of the other MPs) that this is the case. You all seem to have completely forgotten.

Your blithe dismissal of this ‘gift’ is stunning in its lack of understanding of how strongly many people feel about how the minutiae of their lives are being constantly interfered with. This isn’t Jim Baxter’s cherry-picked instances we are talking about, this is wholesale destruction of everyday life.

… and a new restriction is brought out EVERY day.

Today it was:

Prospective MPs not required to give addresses anymore (yet contrast this with Section 50 of the Police Reform Act 2002 where it is an offence for a member of the public to refuse to give their name and address to the Police when asked, whether they have committed an offence, or even been suspected of one, or not – your lot brought that one in).

I could list one of these EVERY day if you like but I have a business to run and I would expect someone whose business is Government to know these things and to recognise when civil liberties are being cut out. You don’t seem to think there is anything wrong!

It’s not all about CCTV, it’s about tiny things that add to a whole that is unacceptable and should be stopped. YOUR party have encouraged this and should be ashamed of yourselves.

OK. Here’s a list of the recent ones that have staggered me and which your party should be thoroughly ashamed.

Separate queues for buying alcohol in supermarkets so buyers “will be subjected to scrutiny of fellow shoppers”. What? Why?

Smokers being banned from fostering children when there is a shortage of 2,000 foster homes. What?? Why??

History & Geography being scrapped from schools in favour of ‘Healthy Lifestyles’ and ‘Multi-Culturalism’. What? Really?

Compulsory … note, not available for veto by parents … compulsory sex education for 5 year olds. (I haven’t mentioned the finger-printing, that’s so last month isn’t it?)

Bans on fast food outlets opening within 500 metres of schools. Funny, I don’t remember voting on that particular issue in this wonderful democracy that you seem to think exists, much as I didn’t vote on the idea of a blanket smoking ban but DID vote on a partial ban and a manifesto pledge of a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

That is just the past couple of days.

Your copy of 1984 is richly deserved after reading your blog post. Read it again and take note of how your party have passed so many laws that are so very similar to those mentioned in the book.

Here’s an example – a guy accosted in Middlesbrough for taking pictures on his mobile phone, the reason for being stopped for doing something legal? Anti-Terrorism laws. His crime? Nothing. The Police officer’s reasoning as to why he may have been committing an offence? He may have been a voyeur. Is the officer examining the man’s thoughts? Is this a ‘Thought Crime’?

http://tinyurl.com/5qmsgs

My local paper (today) has the story of a 15 year old on a Geography field trip being accosted by PCSOs and made to sign forms under the Terrorism Act. His details were to be stored on a database as a potential terrorist for 6 years. Fortunately he has a Dad who is educated and can get it erased. Your lot talk about social justice, can you imagine the son of a builder living on a council estate getting the same result? YOUR laws Tom.

http://tinyurl.com/6ogzq3

Labour is rotten. Orwellian nightmare under Labour? Absolutely.

Either way, an awful lot of the people will soon know what and who Tom Harris is.

As one commenter put it:

Seriously mate, look around you. Look at what’s been happening. Do you really believe what you just posted? If so you’re either dangerously deranged or you are part of the problem.

So which is it, deranged or part of the problem?

Nice.

H/T http://lpuk.blogspot.com – please do click through and read this article – it’s a pretty complete catalogue of the ways the government have salami-sliced our freedom since, well, forever really. Labour or Conservative – both have their authoritarian tendencies.

AJ

It may be wrong to gloat, but would you look at the silver lining!?

This whole BBC Ross/Brand thing is one of the funniest things all week. Not so much for what it says about Ross and Brand (nothing we didn’t already know or suspect), but more about the whole BBC.

I think they scented their precious licence fee in mortal danger, because they appear to have demanded that the baby throw out the bath, and water, while still in the thing.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article5050293.ece

The lewd phone calls scandal that has engulfed the BBC tonight claimed the head of the controller of Radio 2 as the corporation announced it had suspended Jonathan Ross until next year without pay.

Lesley Douglas sent her letter of resignation to Mark Thompson, the BBC Director-General, this evening following the broadcast of prank calls recorded by Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross.

…

Brand has already resigned from his regular presenting slot on the UK’s most popular station.

Tonight, following a four hour meeting of the BBC’s governing board, Ross was suspended from all broadcasting for the BBC for 12 weeks, ending in mid-January 2009.

The most important thing about this is a glorious and wholly unexpected outcome, which is the resignation of Lesley Douglas who, as head of lesbians and thickos for BBC 6music, has been responsible for recruiting, retaining and defending the uniquely plankular George Lamb.

George likes N’Sync and Mint Sauce

There has been a protracted campaign to stop this arsehole from polluting what is supposed to be a music lovers’ station with his brainless and infantile ‘banter’, which has fallen on the deaf ears of Ms. Douglas.

Lesley Douglas, yesterday.

I hope, therefore, that there will be a new head of 6Music who will skin that turd, Lamb, and roll him in salt before sending him to Radio Sunderland on a free transfer, where he will be kicked to death every time he draws breath.

George Lamb’s career, tomorrow.

The George Lamb thread over at the 6music message boards is a thing of awe.

AJ

Global Warming, My Arse #178898

Oct 28 2008. Snow. Not a 5 minute shower that doesn’t even stick to the ground. It’s sticking. It’s snow. Radio 4 said current temperatures are those typical of late December or early January.

Maily Dail:

And in the Grauniad (smirk):

London has first October snow in over 70 years

Parts of south-east England had more than an inch of snow last night while London experienced its first October snowfall in more than 70 years as winter conditions arrived early.

Snow settled on the ground in parts of the capital last night as temperatures dipped below zero. A Met Office spokeswoman said it was London’s first October snow since 1934.

For greater south-east of England it was the first October snow since 1974. High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire had 3cm (1.2 inches). One of the coldest temperatures recorded was -4.1C in Benson, Oxfordshire.

“It is unusual to have snow this early,” the Met spokeswoman said. “In October 2003 sleet and snow was recorded in Northern Ireland, Wales, south-west, north-west and north-east England and the Midlands, but it was mainly over higher ground.”

AJ

‘Brand and Ross don’t get kicked to death’ shocker…

Two of the most egregious entities in the whole human race, let alone the BBC. Please, just stop paying the BBC for this shit.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article5031683.ece

Ofcom, the broadcasting watchdog, announced today that it was launching an investigation into a succession of lewd phone calls made by BBC presenters Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross to Andrew Sachs, the Fawlty Towers actor.

The regulator said that it would probe the calls, which were made during Brand’s Radio 2 show one week ago, in which the pair left messages for Sachs claiming that Brand had slept with his granddaughter, Georgina Baillie, 23.

…

In the offending messages, left on Sachs’ answerphone, Brand told listeners: “What Andrew doesn’t know is, I’ve slept with his granddaughter.”

Ross, 47, shouted: “He f***** your granddaughter.” Ross also speculated that Brand had “enjoyed” Georgina on a swing, and the pair also joked that Sachs, 78, could kill himself over the incident.

More mauling here:

http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2554021/what-public-service-does-russell-brands-show-perform.thtml

AJ

The ‘fiction’ of totalitarianism

Not much to add to the below, from The Appalling Strangeness blog, other than to say it’s a very useful and thoughtful essay.

http://theappallingstrangeness.blogspot.com/2008/10/totalitarian-states-fiction-reality.html

You can see the same in reality. The roots of Stalinism can be clearly seen in much of Leninism. However, Lenin (despite his willing use of force on many occasions) did not want a totalitarian regime, and just before his death warned of the dangers of Stalinism. However, he was forced into taking draconian and illiberal action to counter what he thought were threats to his attempts to build a communist utopia. Therefore, the seeds of Stalinism – one of the most oppressive regimes that the world has ever seen – were not sewn purely out of misanthropy, but rather a misguided attempt to do the right thing for the people. Likewise, Cambodia’s journey into the very heart of darkness under Pol Pot was not solely born of a desire to suppress people and seize power – it was a reaction to centuries of history and circumstances within that state. And we can see a very similar thing happening right here, right now, as some Western governments implement draconian legislation in order to protect the people from a (hopelessly exaggerated) terrorist threat. What so many works fail to show is that freedom is lost mostly through gradual erosion, not a catastrophic meltdown.

Do pop over there for a full read….

AJ

Money where mouth is time…

Further to this post, where I pondered upon how reflective the polls and odds truly are in the McCain/Obama contest, I’ve had another look at the polling and put a bet on.

While PaddyPower are now giving 11/2 against McCain, Centrebet are giving 17/2 against, so I put £25 on McCain.

So, on 5th November, I’ll either be drinking corporation pop and eating beans-on-toast, or it’ll be a bottle of Bollinger and a caviar pizza. Which I think neatly analogises our likely futures with these potential world leaders.

5th of November will, coincidentally, be the day of Old Holborn’s little stroll around Westminster. Must tune into the webcam.

On 6th November, however, I’ll be poised with the ice bucket for the result of the Glenrothes by-election, where Labour are expected to be paggered. (SNP 2/5, LAB 7/4 but shortening).

AJ

Joined Up Government #68997

It has become apparent that publicly owned banks are amongst those using a sneaky legal way to repossess homes for non-payment of unsecured debts.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article5014781.ece

Banks and credit card companies are exploiting obscure legal powers to seize the homes of thousands of people who cannot pay their credit card bills.

In some cases, people owing as little as £1,000 have been served with charging orders – the legal instrument enabling a creditor to order the sale of a property.

The practice has emerged days after Yvette Cooper, chief secretary to the Treasury, called on banks to do more to allow people to keep their homes.

….

Northern Rock confirmed it used charging orders where customers had missed payments on unsecured loans, saying: “Any application for a charging order on an unsecured loan is in strict accordance with the Consumer Credit Act.”

Of course, having divorced my way off the property ladder and being unlikely to get back on it anytime soon, with only my upper quartile salary to my name, I’m alright Jack.

AJ

News of the World readers in common sense shocker..

I wouldn’t normally read the News of the Screws, but I was lead there by Guido’s link to the ho’ dishing the (complete lack of) dirt on George Osborne’s past.

Anyway, one click lead to another and before I knew it I was up to my knees in cerebral sputum. Then I found this:

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/showbiz/strictly_come_dancing/article53144.ece

THE BBC is embroiled in a furious race row over talented BLACK celebs being booted off Strictly Come Dancing while WHITE stars with “two left feet” stay in.

Oops.. here comes the race card..

Heather Small, who was competing again last night, declined to comment. But a close pal said: “There’s definitely something in this. There may be institutional racism at work in the public vote.”

Apparently Heather Small was one of the contestants who was discriminated against by the British public. Now look. Heather Small was the singer in M People. She is a black woman from Manchester. A gobbier combination you may never meet, But Heather Small said fuck all, and if she’d felt like saying something, I have every faith that she would have.

No, it was a nameless ‘close pal’ of Heather’s who gave the quote. Couldn’t have been a white middle-class lefty BBC production assistant type of ‘close pal’ could it?

But fear not – along comes Token to set the record straight. Token who wasn’t even on the fucking show, because he prejudged that such a situation would arise.

Black Olympic sprinting ace John Regis was also horrified, telling us: “I was shocked. I thought, ‘You must be kidding.’ It’s not like sport, when it’s down to performance—other factors come into play. Strictly is a middle-class kind of show and that possibly could be the area where racism still festers. I feel sorry for Don. I wouldn’t go on Strictly for all the tea in China.”

So I was pleasantly surprised to see the NoW readers giving this whole shebang a jolly good fisking. Because the comments often get purged, I’m going to include a bunch here – this story has provoked quite a response.

here we go again, so a black person does not get a vote and suddenly we are all racist, thank god they aren’t Muslim, then it would be plastered across all news bullitens for the next month.
Lets have a black Strictly then we wont have this problem, so John Regis is disgusted and says “You wont catch me on that show” unlike his running career, when everyone caught him

By john. Posted October 26 2008 at 1:39 PM.

all this just winds me up, i bet if the black people where still in, then all would be ok, why not just let them win! its always the same if black people dont get there own way. ohh i didnt win etc cos im black, NO MATE its beacause your crap . thats all.

By carl farrand. Posted October 26 2008 at 1:37 PM.

Is this story a joke?. I’m black and this kind of story does not good at all to the black communitiy. It’s PC nonesense gone mental.
I hadn’t heard of Don Warrington before so why would I vote for a guy I’ve never heard off?. I presume some black people in Britain must have voted for the “white” guys to win………is that racist?.

By Ryan O. Posted October 26 2008 at 1:23 PM.

People tend to go on who they like , then how they dance etc, it has nothing to do with racism at all .
Just people having there freedom of speech .
If thats not allowed then we no longer live in a free country , but more of a dictator state .
1 last thing as someone else pointed out the MOBS’S are racist how would they like the MOWO’S every year .
Grow up please and stop using the race card .

By tony. Posted October 26 2008 at 1:18 PM.

John Regis and others like them need to get a life, what a load of rubbish that man spouts, yes it was unfortunate that two black dancers were in the dance off last week but that has nothing to do with RACISM!!! get that through your head Regis!
People vote for whom they like wether that is because he or she is attractive, funny, a past hero of theirs or whatever, they do not vote for a person because of their colour OR do we now have to do what the PC brigade would have us do and pay money to vote for a black person just in case it might be seen as racism!
You make me sick with this race card rubbish all the time
OH! last year I voted for Alesha and This year I did vote the 2nd week for Don Warrington

By Terry Atkinson. Posted October 26 2008 at 1:09 PM.

Has everyone forgotten who won the show last year? Alesha Dixon won because she was a tremendous dancer and very likeable! You are in the dance off for a few reasons one being you cant dance and have failed to wow the public, another is you are a celebrity who has not been around for a while therefore people vote for the more popular soapstars,presenters,sports people etc. People should stop turning everything into a race war us Strictly viewers enjoy the show and vote for all the right reasons, dont turn a great show into a scandal!!

By l small. Posted October 26 2008 at 1:09 PM.

Would the two people voted off want to be kept in soley for being black and pitied?
1) If the two people scored highly from the judges, perhaps most people assumed they would be safe and wanted to waste their phone call on saving a celeb they liked – that is the way voting for who you like works rather than voting for who you dont.
2) People vote for the celeb they like – its an entertainment show not a dance show, so people are not voting for the best dancers. Viewers no doubt enjo watching John Seargent struggle to dance as it is more entertaining than a flawless dancer.
3) Heather Small is a great singer, but as I recall had success in the mid to late 90’s. Has she done anything since so that the gerneral public would know her? She is a bit bland anyway so is it because she is black or just boring. I dont know the other guy either sorry to say. It might be that viewers do not have a raport with these two people which may or may not be down to colour.
4) People do vote/like people they can relate to. If the show’s main viewers are white middleclasses then perhaps it is not intentional racisim but a somewhat natural leaning to ones own identity. I am fortunate to be from a younger generation and went to a school with a number of races and religions, but out parents did not an there is a divide which I don’t think is intentionally racist.

By Adam. Posted October 26 2008 at 12:49 PM.

This is crazy…the race card is always played and I dont think that has anything to do with things its a convenient way of causing even more trouble in this very troubled world we live in….and for the BBC to say it looked bad for them, because they were not voted for is twaddle to put it mildly…others have been in the dance off that didnt deserve to be there either so what would the BBC call that???????

By delta. Posted October 26 2008 at 12:57 PM.

The racist card is getting very boring now………..

By Misty. Posted October 26 2008 at 12:56 PM.

you cant make people like each other by law, anyway don’t watch rubbish and you will be fine

By Peter Woods. Posted October 26 2008 at 12:53 PM.

Have that, PC BBC nobjockeys.

AJ

Joined Up Government #65574

Over at EUReferendum, there has been extensive coverage of the inevitable power shortages that the UK is going to start experiencing in the next 5 years. Not hysteria about one-off shortages of power, such as happened in May 2008 (see also here and here), but full-on ‘half our generating capacity is going offline before 2015′.

So it should come as little, or indeed no, shock to read that the government is feverishly hatching a plot to get us into electric cars.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5010490.ece

Charging points for electric cars are to be installed in thousands of car parks and on streets as part of a government plan to convert drivers from petrol and diesel to electricity.

Under the scheme, motorists will be able to plug in and recharge their batteries while shopping or at work. In the longer term, those who are unable to wait will be able to exchange their empty battery and drive on with minimal delay.

Ministers plan to kick-start mass production of electric cars with a £100 million package that will include incentives for manufacturers and tax breaks for drivers.

They intend to borrow ideas pioneered in Israel, where half a million recharging points are being installed in a scheme known as Project Better Place.

An aside, but, if it’s true that there is something in Israel called Project Better Place, I can think of better things the project might consider to make it a ‘Better Place’. Probably the same sort of enviro-pillocks who liken every dying polar bear to a holocaust.

But anyway, there’s good news!

Renault and Nissan are developing an electric car with a range of more than 100 miles and plan to mass-produce them from 2011.

Really???? We’ll be able to go more than 100 miles from 2011?? Thank you ever so much. I don’t use my car every day, but on the days that I do, 90% of my travel involves round trips of 150 miles or more.

And if the car takes as long to charge as my mobile phone does, I’ll be having a wee snooze between getting home from work and going to the bloody supermarket.

But all of this is beside the central point. Which is this:

WHERE’S THE ELECTRICITY GOING TO COME FROM YOU COMPLETE AND UTTER FUCK-KNUCKLES??

In the meantime, it should come as even less surprise that there’s a plan afoot to put electric hackney cabs in London.

Some lentil crunchers have been doing the maths over in America, and the news is good there too.

The researchers looked at what would happen if all these vehicles were plugged in at 5 P.M. (at 6 kW of power on average, with a 25 percent market penetration by 2020) and found that up to 160 new power plants would have to be built.

So, 25% market penetration in a 300m population (USA) vs 25% market penetration in a 60m population (UK). That would mean we’d need 32 new power stations in the UK. And that’s before we take account of rising consumption in households and the above mentioned impending electricity crisis.

Another aside, but if the car is drawing 6kW to charge, that means you’ll have to have a whole new 30amp feed installed in your domestic electricity system. Possibly a whole new consumer unit, and a whole bunch of H&S wank because you’ll be trailing a cable – delivering 30amps of current at 220v AC – outside and plugging it into a wet car. You’ll probably be required to have all your shoes converted to rubber soles or suchlike – and don’t think that’ll be the last step on the road to abolition of leather footwear!

Anyway, there’s even better news, when it comes to using coal-fired power stations to charge electric cars.

Oh dear. More petrol, Vicar?

AJ

Jesus. Fucking. Wept.

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?Police_called_in_over_cuddly_toy_tiger&in_article_id=360127&in_page_id=2&in_a_source=

Police called in over cuddly toy tiger

by SOPHIE FREEMAN – Friday, October 17, 2008

Making waves: Farmer Terry Western with Tigger, who caused a commotion on the A39

OK, bar the plastic nose, glassy eyes and distinctly synthetic sheen, perhaps it does look like the real thing.

At least, that’s what members of the public thought when they spotted a ‘big cat’ being driven in the back of a Volvo and rang police.

Teaching assistant Adam Dobby, 45, was cycling on the A39 near Bude in Devon when the Volvo passed him.

‘I noticed a big cat. It was lying in the back and I thought it looked like a tiger,’ said the father of four. ‘I did a double-take. Its head was moving and was pretty big. It was definitely a tiger.’

…

A police spokesman said: ‘No action was taken. We encourage people not to carry things that disturb other drivers.’**

Adam Dobby. You are a comic genius, sir.

AJ

Brought to us by Ambush Predator.

** note to plod – you mean like a cigarette, you fascist bootboy shitheads.

Stickin’ it to da man!

Thanks to Ambush Predator for pointing this out.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3202767/3000-graffiti-wall-vandalised-by-disgruntled-taxpayer.html

A £3,000 blank wall built for teenage graffiti artists by a council was painted by a disgruntled taxpayer with the slogan: “I paid my tax and all I got was this lousy wall”.

Priceless. At least his council tax isn’t being wasted on thick, wet coppers. Oh… wait.

It was built in the town’s Jubilee Park and was the brainchild of Sergeant Robin Moorcroft who has vowed to investigate the graffiti.

He said it is “ironic” because most of the cost was subsidised by local businesses who supplied free materials and labour.

“The ironic thing is that the wall has been built thanks to the generosity of local people giving time and resources for free,” he said.

“But it is now going to cost the taxpayer, as we will have to crime it, investigate it and paint over it.

“We have been working hard to try to provide something positive for the community and this coward and their juvenile delinquent act has set a terrible example to the youth of the town.

“All residents were given the opportunity to raise objections during the planning process. This person could have come and spoken to us instead of committing this petty act.

“To paint graffiti on the wall and remain anonymous shows this person has no courage, I would have more respect if he or she came forward and admitted responsibility.”

Now look, plod man: I know you’ve no appetite for actual police work and mostly that doesn’t bother me, since actual police work seems for the most part to consist of harassing motorists, filling in forms and attending diversity seminars (unless you’re effnik, in which case you’re probably too busy with internal disruption). But I do think it would be best if you didn’t pop up in the media making the ENTIRE UK POLICE FORCE look like a bunch of hand-wringing mummies’ boys.

Not that it isn’t funny, of course. You dick.

AJ

An historical Whitehall clanger

I was reminded of this, by news that the Audit Commission has £10m funds caught up in Icelandic banks.

Earlier in 2008, the Office of Government Commerce splashed a whole bunch of our money and launched its new logo:

or, as it became better known:

The Telegraph reports that:

The logo, for the Office of Government Commerce, was intended to signify a bold commitment to the body’s aim of “improving value for money by driving up standards and capability in procurement”.

Instead, it has generated howls of mirth and what is likely to be a barrage of teasing emails from mandarins in other departments.

According to insiders, the graphic was already proudly etched on mousemats and pens before it was unveiled for employees, who spotted the clanger within seconds.

Staff have apparently now stripped their office of souvenirs bearing the logo, which could appear on eBay within days.

A spokesman for OGC said: “It is true that it caused a few titters among some staff when viewed on its side, but on consideration we concluded that the effect was generic to the particular combination of the letters OGC – and it is not inappropriate to an organisation that’s looking to have a firm grip on Government spend.”

So they seemed to be sticking to their (porridge) guns.

But today, the logo looks like this:

Change of heart or loss of bottle? Hmmm…. for what it’s worth, I think this is the original logo, rather than them having recommissioned the whole damned piece of work.

And if you think that they didn’t spend a bunch of (OUR) cash on crap like mouse mats emblazoned with the logo, think again.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/02/ogc_mousemat/

AJ

McCain’s mental fitness to lead

Fred Reed propounds an interesting and insightful venture into John McCain’s mental capacity to lead the US.

http://www.fredoneverything.net/McCain.shtml

I frankly don’t believe John McCain’s medical records, or at any rate the portions released to the New York Times. The man was held in solitary for years, tortured until bones fractured, until he confessed to war crimes, until he tried to hang himself.

That he broke can’t be held against him: Almost anyone would have. (In my view GIs should be told to confess to anything whatever right from the start.) But the assertion that he came through unscathed, warm and humorous and psychically sound, just isn’t plausible. It doesn’t happen that way.

…

With PTSD, or whatever you want to call it, the anger is the giveaway. These vets carry a load of subterranean fury that you don’t want to look at. As they would say, I shit you not one pound. I know a lot of these guys. A buddy of mine—two tours in bad places, killed a whole lot of people up close– now has no tolerance for frustration,. He’s ready to spread your teeth over a wide radius if you even seem to think about getting in his face. Admirable? No. But don’t make the experiment.

Sounds like McCain. His explosiveness is notorious.

…

For what he went through in Vietnamese jails he deserves sympathy and admiration. It isn’t qualification for the presidency.

Yessss. Ve’y Interesssting, Mr Bont.

But, I suppose it wouldn’t be the first time a mentler held the office.

About a year ago (Jan 2006) an excellent article which studied biographical source material in 37 presidents from 1776 to 1974 was published in The Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases on the topic of Mental Illness in U.S. Presidents… and concluded that 18 presidents (49%) met criteria suggesting psychiatric diagnoses and in 10 instances (27%)”a disorder was evident during presidential office, which in most cases probably impaired job performance”. Thankfully the authors concluded that no national calamities appeared to have occurred due to presidential mental illness. Here is the abstract for the article. (Sorry folks you must cough up some bucks for a full reprint)

AJ

Swimming against the tide

You may have seen from some of my previous posts that I do not subscribe to the idea that government can solve, rather than cause, problems. So now is not a good time for me and my kind.

Simon Clark over at http://takingliberties.squarespace.com outlines some thoughts on the creeping paternalistic state (as he calls it, but I detect an unmistakably female touch).

http://takingliberties.squarespace.com/taking-liberties/2008/10/16/new-era-of-big-government.html

These are worrying times for anyone who wants less government interference in our lives. The Freedom Zone, our two-day conference in Birmingham, was devoted to “Putting individual freedom at the top of the political agenda”. Although the event was considered a success, I was in no doubt – having attended all three main party conferences – that interest in individual freedom among senior politicians and influential opinion formers is the lowest it has been for 30 years.

In essence, it’s easy to see how the current government could be tempted to use the whole banking and credit crisis as a launchpad for taking much firmer control of our lives.

Well bollocks to them. If entering the blogging world has shown me anything, it’s that there are plenty of people who are actively rejecting the government’s interference in our lives. Anecdotal evidence suggests that people who rejected the ‘thin end of the wedge’ arguments put forward repeatedly over the last ten years are beginning to wake up and smell the coffee. But only, you’ll note, when their interests are being impinged upon.

AJ

The polls and the odds call it for Obama. I’m not sure…

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this written about, but with McCain seemingly losing his grip, I wonder what the truth will turn out to be on November 4th. Personally, I think McCain is worth a punt at 5/1 (he was 2/1 not so many weeks ago).

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/ben_macintyre/article4950484.ece

There is probably only one person now standing between Barack Obama and the presidency. His name is Tom Bradley; he is the black, Democratic former Mayor of Los Angeles, and he has been dead for ten years.

In 1982 Bradley ran for the governorship of California, and was expected to win by a wide margin. In the run-up to the election, polls gave the African-American candidate a lead of between 9 and 22 percentage points over his white opponent. On election day the first exit polls also predicted that he would win, and one newspaper even declared him the victor on its front page.

Bradley lost by more than 100,000 votes.

The conventional wisdom is that he was the victim of a hidden racial reaction. Many white voters told pollsters that they would vote for the black candidate but, in the anonymity of the voting booth, they did not. The impetus for the deception was not simple racism, but social pressure – white voters, it seems, did not want to appear racist by admitting that they would be voting for the white candidate rather than the black one.

At its simplest, the so-called “Bradley Effect” (which some dispute) holds that polls overestimate support for an African-American candidate because, when race is involved, voters misrepresent their intentions.

My suspicion is that America isn’t ready for a black president. Let alone a commie windbag called Hussein. Perhaps the Bradley Effect is about to be supplanted by the Obama effect.

I honestly couldn’t tell you which one of these planks will be the least worst option for America and the world. So I’ll settle for deciding on the basis of who I’d most like to see defeated and that’s the righteous and sanctimonious, big-government left.

While I relish musing upon the outrage that a McCain win would bring from the European and American left, the recriminations could make the fallout from the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry and the Rodney King beatings seem utterly trivial. Anyone for an affirmative action recruitment to the Oval Office?

Let’s see what happens in a couple of weeks time. Either way, the world will look very different on Nov 5th.

AJ

Wimmins Weekly

At the risk of turning into Cosmo or some shite, a few of the bloggers I read regularly are participating in this Myers-Briggs Personality Type quiz thing. (more info on Wikipiddlier).

So, since I’m loafing about today, I thought I’d have a go at it while my toenails dry.

Apparently, I am type INTP:

• Introverted – 33%
• Intuitive – 6%
• Thinking – 62%
• Perceiving – 44%

This makes me an ‘architect’ apparently. Same as The Devil.

Architects need not be thought of as only interested in drawing blueprints for buildings or roads or bridges. They are the master designers of all kinds of theoretical systems, including school curricula, corporate strategies, and new technologies. For Architects, the world exists primarily to be analyzed, understood, explained – and re-designed. External reality in itself is unimportant, little more than raw material to be organized into structural models. What is important for Architects is that they grasp fundamental principles and natural laws, and that their designs are elegant, that is, efficient and coherent.

Architects are rare – maybe one percent of the population – and show the greatest precision in thought and speech of all the types. They tend to see distinctions and inconsistencies instantaneously, and can detect contradictions no matter when or where they were made. It is difficult for an Architect to listen to nonsense, even in a casual conversation, without pointing out the speaker’s error. And in any serious discussion or debate Architects are devastating, their skill in framing arguments giving them an enormous advantage. Architects regard all discussions as a search for understanding, and believe their function is to eliminate inconsistencies, which can make communication with them an uncomfortable experience for many.

Ruthless pragmatists about ideas, and insatiably curious, Architects are driven to find the most efficient means to their ends, and they will learn in any manner and degree they can. They will listen to amateurs if their ideas are useful, and will ignore the experts if theirs are not. Authority derived from office, credential, or celebrity does not impress them. Architects are interested only in what make sense, and thus only statements that are consistent and coherent carry any weight with them.

Architects often seem difficult to know. They are inclined to be shy except with close friends, and their reserve is difficult to penetrate. Able to concentrate better than any other type, they prefer to work quietly at their computers or drafting tables, and often alone. Architects also become obsessed with analysis, and this can seem to shut others out. Once caught up in a thought process, Architects close off and persevere until they comprehend the issue in all its complexity. Architects prize intelligence, and with their grand desire to grasp the structure of the universe, they can seem arrogant and may show impatience with others who have less ability, or who are less driven.

Albert Einstein as the iconic Rational is an Architect.

Maybe it’s just me, but how come these tests never say:

You are a Window Cleaner. You are fascinated with windows and the amazing things that happen when you’re cleaning them. Try not to lick the windows while you’re working.

Archetypal Window Cleaners include: George Formby and Robin Askwith

Hmmm….

AJ

All my fail…

Practically from the word go, I have managed to imbue my blog with slant and misinformation, which I must thank Patrick Vessey at UK Libertarian Party blog for putting me straight on, vis. the Community Reinvestment Act, charged in the US with ensuring people who can’t pay mortgages back can still get mortgages.

Here’s Patrick putting the likes of me firmly in place:

http://lpuk.blogspot.com/2008/10/crap.html

I’m getting increasingly sick of seeing people blame the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) for the subprime mortgage crisis, and current market meltdown.

Yes, any governmental attempts at social engineering should be condemned out of hand by all libertarians and free market advocates. But that’s hardly the point — the CRA is serving as the whipping boy for our current mess. Is this a valid position to put forward?

Hell, no.

The original CRA was brought into being in 1977 by Jimmy Carter. It was thereafter tweaked by Clinton and both father and son Bush. Its intent was to allow greater access to funds for the less well off in US society.

So, how much mortgage lending to those most liable to default did it actually result in?
Back in 1999, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas published a look at the effectiveness of the CRA, and concluded that it was having a minimal impact on lender behaviour, and could happily be scrapped.

In my defence, I’d never heard of the CRA before and frankly it was a red-rag to a bull – affirmative action being one of my (okay there are many) pet hates. As the inimitable Fred Reed says on A.A:

It does nothing but inspire division and resentment. Well, it also prevents its beneficiaries from doing anything to better themselves, since they don’t have to. Like all federal do-goodery, it is a magnet for grifters, crooked lobbies, charlatans, shysters, and bus-station rabble. If you need affirmative action, you aren’t good enough; if you if you are good enough, you don’t need it; and if you take it anyway, you are a freeloader.

But I digress – this post is about admitting I jumped the gun with that thar bandwagon.

AJ

Massive, humongous balls on a man.

See previous posts for my general thoughts on the BBC.

Today in the Times, Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust, writes. He begins, I think, poorly, with a false premise.

Don’t make the BBC share its licence fee

Okay – well my starting point would be abolishing the license fee and stringing up the whole BBC trust.

He continues….

At the BBC Trust – the body responsible for representing the public interest in the BBC and safeguarding the corporation’s independence – we accept that there are real financial pressures for the commercial channels. But we don’t believe that the answer lies in undermining BBC independence or its contribution to the economic and cultural life of this country.

Taking some of the licence fee to prop up others sounds a simple solution – but it would have serious consequences. Chief among them would be a threat to the independence of all broadcasters and a dilution of public accountability.

For the BBC, the licence fee provides funding unfettered by government and a clear line of accountability back to those who pay

DON’T MAKE ME LAUGH YOU PRESUMPTUOUS GIT

- and research shows that they understand where their money goes. Sharing it with Channel 4 and others would inevitably require a new public body to distribute the money: a single institution that broadcasters would seek to please – rather than their audiences – in return for funding. And even if the BBC was excluded from this new quango, what would happen if the demands of its customers outstripped its supply of ring-fenced licence fee? Could it, would it, resist knocking on the BBC’s door for a greater slice?

I mean, this is just amazing. The unquestioning sense not only of entitlement, but the assumption that there is remaining public support for the communist BBC.

I’d really like to see this man queuing at a soup kitchen in nought but a TKMaxx carrier bag.

In other news, the Beeb will be cutting back on Champagne. Which is nice of them.

Your money: How the BBC spends it

* Champagne: £57,000 a year

* Bottled water: £360,000 a year

* Taxis: £13.8m a year

* Christmas party: £250,000 a year

* Telephone bills: £21m a year

* Private school fees: £300,000 a year

* Air travel: £16m a year

* Hotels: £4m a year

All figures are from the most recent Freedom of Information requests on the BBC website

Twats to a man.

AJ

Update: Since The Times have a habit of pulling the comments section of stories when they don’t like the direction of the comments, I’m posting a snap of them here:

Even when they do the right thing, it’s at the wrong time…

Under normal circumstances, I’d most certainly welcome the headline in the Times that says:

10,000 jobs go as crunch hits the public sector

Nearly 10,000 jobs are to be lost and up to 100 courts could close as budget cuts hit the public sector.
The Times has learnt that more than £900 million must be saved at the Ministry of Justice in the next two years, threatening initiatives that include Gordon Brown’s programme to tackle knife crime. The news comes as figures revealed that inflation hit a 16-year high of 5.2 per cent last month, driven by soaring gas and electricity bills.

That there most certainly should never have been so many public sector employees is something for another day.

Surely, and this is my point, this is precisely the wrong part of the economic cycle to be cutting public sector jobs. Unemployment is rising, the economy is under 9 kinds of pressure – do we really need an extra 10,000 people out of work – especially people who may find it difficult to slip straight back into the private sector?

Yes – these 10,000 people should be gotten rid of – along with probably about 490,000 across the public sector. However, it doesn’t take Milton Friedman to realise that a lot of the boom of the last 10 years has been down to public sector spending and employment and to attempt to unwind that now is a ludicrous and economically dangerous thing to do.

Oh well – now they’re stabbing their own in the back (public sector employment explosion having been a New Labour Gerrymandering plot by any other name) it’s most certainly the last nail in the Gordon Brown coffin come the next election.

AJ

Going to the dogs…. ur doing it okay ackshually.

One of those serendipitous noticings that somehow lightens the mood…

Thanks to Counting Cats in Zanzibar.

AJ