The Horror!

Students are protesting against the abolition of the EMA grant:

"I would have had to get a part-time job if I hadn't had the EMA,"

Oddly enough the Guardian now seem to have removed this quote from the article.

The Less Unfunny Terry Jones Banned.

Koran burning (actually threatening to burn then wimping out) pastor Terry Jones has been banned from entering the UK.Fair enough- he is a provocatuer with few followers who wants to cause contoversy for its own sake. At least he can console himself that he is funnier than his namesake.

Plus the government wants some anti-islamic speakers to ban to say to Muslims that they aren't being singled out when Jihadis are banned. Unlike the last government's target they have actually banned someone who expressed an interest in visiting this country (although I believe Michael Savage is still banned even under this government).

Still the contrast between what gets an Islamist banned- nothing short of direct calls to murder infidels will result in a ban- with what gets an extreme "islamophobe" banned- burning paper.

Stuxnet In The Middle With You

Like Infidel I am very impressed by what the Stuxnet computer virus thingy has done to the Iranian nuclear programme. Making war by outwitting the enemy rather than killing them is an all round improvement.

Up until now cyber warfare has largely meant either Chinese epionage or Russia's petulant denial of service attacks against their enemies. This is much more sophisticated and suggests that the West is just as keen on using computers as weapons.

The only regrettable part is that it is now known about so therefore less effective.

Tone Down Your Rhetoric You Bloodthirsty Nazi!

So many other people have written about the bizarre attempts by the media to pin the blame for the Tucson shooting on crazed Tea-Partiers that I can't add much. The repudiation of these theories even by Barack Obama (who would have more reason than most to believe them) and the utter rejection by the public should send the smear merchants away in shame- if they were capable of such an emotion.

However what strikes me is that the likes of the New York Times went full steam ahead even after they've been burnt so many times in the last couple of years trying to find an act of violence to pin on the political right. After the stories about anti-government activists murdering census workers, islamophobes stabbing Muslim taxi drivers and other false stories surely a simple desire not to be humiliated would encourage them to lay off until the facts are better known.

Ironically the only extreme rhetoric on display is on the part of those denouncing their opponents as blood thirst nazi lunatics despite a complete lack of evidence.

Quote Of The Day

I don't want to be too harsh on Ed Miliband because I think we've got a lot in common- for instance I'm never going to be Prime Minister either- but he does sound a bit Stalinist doesn't he?

"Only Labour can build the good society. Society can only function if based on progressive Labour values,"

Labour Recovery?

Before the last election Lib Dem voters were split between preferring a coalition with the Tories or a coalition with Labour. Since then they have lost most of their Labour leaning supporters. This is probably why Labour now have a solid lead in the opinion polls despite the disastrous performance of the last government and the widespread lack of faith in Ed Miliband.

This isn't to say the Lib Dems made the wrong decision in May, had they gone into coalition with Labour then their more right leaning supporters would have left instead.

What this means though is that Labour will do much better in bye elections, such as the one yesterday in Oldham, between now and 2015 than had previously been anticipated and could be a much more substantial force at the election than previously believed.

Shorter Simon Jenkins:

We must destroy free speech to save it!!!

Lines On Maps

It looks as though the South of Sudan is going to vote to secede from the North- who will let it happen, which is nice for genocidal maniacs. This is a very good step in the right direction, like many countries in Africa all that links the country is a colonial history not a sense of nationhood. In fact nations in the European sense of the word that emerged in the 18th and 19th centuries don't really exist in Africa.

Instead there are a hodge podge of multi ethnic polities based on who colonised them a 150 years ago, in which the prime goal of any aspiring is to improve the standing of his people relative to the other ethnicities. This breeds corruption and racial hatred. In Sudan the racial differences are obvious because the North is Arab and the South black African but the differences between different black groups in Nigeria or Zimbabwe are just as real.

Creating function ethnic based states won't be possible everywhere but in cases where it is it should be encouraged regardless of the vested interests opposed to reform.

Guest Post- George Monbiot

During a recent international conference in the Bahama to discuss how to reduce air travel I spoke to some of my fellow environmentalists and campaigners. One of the subjects which dismayed us all was how environmentalists have been successfully protrayed by the well funded corporate lobby as being Luddites.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The Green movement embraces cutting edge technology to address the looming problems we must face.

Our hospitals are filling up with infants barely able to breathe, Norwich will be drowned by 2004 and 8/10 children are so overweight that they have to be rolled to school. The three crises affecting Britain today are the toll of global warming, as shown recently by the snow storms that have beleaguered much of the North and West, inner city congestion that chokes our most vibrant communities and finally our expanding waistlines as we grow up eating too much and exercising too little.

What do they all have in common? They are all caused in total or in part by the selfish motorist. Car drivers are taking up an ever increasing proportion of the land as our insatiable need for speed in order to build motorways and car parks.

What if I said there was an alternative to cars that would reduce emissions, cut congestion and cut the deaths from road crashes in half. If I now tell you that the technology to do this has existed since the 1970s readers might start to wonder whether I've gone mad. Yet it does exist. Two words- Pogo Sticks.

.The words pogo sticks elicits a fixed reaction in almost everyone who hears them: “What about when I fell of my pogo stick and cracked my skull when I was 7”. It’s as if, every time someone proposed travelling on a cruise ship, you were to ask, “but what about the Titanic?”. Whilst pogo technology has advanced there are still problems, the pogo stick is slower than the car and cannot carry as much luggage. The bouncing can also damage the roads. In truth safety technology has advanced greatly since the 70s with helmets and elbow pads available very cheaply.

But with travel so much easier and the roads so much clearer who could complain about such trifles? The coalition makes much of it's environmental credentials yet Chris Huhne, the Climate Change Secretary has released no funds for pogo research, nor has Andrew Lansley the health secretary despite professing to be serious about tackling child obesity. If we just scrapped Trident we could ensure that everyone had their own stick. So far it is a Pogo no go.

A more serious objection to banning cars and moving to pogo sticks will benefit the rich who will buy bigger sticks which they won't share with everyone else. The answer is simple, anyone with more pogo than is strictly necessary should be forced to share with those less fortunate. A committee of ethically aware individuals could determines which pogo sticks everyone has to ensure no one has more pogo than anyone else, except members of the Pogo Committee who surely deserve special Pogo Sticks for all the hard work we, I mean they, will be doing.

It may be a distant dream but perhaps this is the only alternative to the Earth burning up in a fiery ball.

Shameless

The shooting of a US Representitive, Gabrielle Giffords, and a crowd of other people has inevitably been seized upon by various factions to advance political agendas and find a way of blaming their political opponents. This is inevitable I suppose even thought the evidence about the shooter's political leanings is highly patchy and paranoia seems like the common theme rather than a left or right ideology.

The Guardian's Alex Hannaford's effort is particularly nauseating though because after running through a litany of smears: along with a wide eyed protestation of innocence- "Of course, there's no suggestion that the suspected gunman – a college graduate from Arizona who lists reading as his favourite pastime – was particularly inspired by Sarah Palin"- he then has the chutzpah to express outrage that people are expoiting the
shooting to advance their political agendas:

Incredibly, though, what happened on Saturday is already being seized upon by the pro-gun lobby. One comment on Sarah Palin's Facebook page reads: "This will be another avenue for gun control groups to further their sick agenda."

I didn't detect one hint of irony.

Me neither Alex, me neither.

Just So You Know

When men commit crimes all men are partly responsible, however if they are MONAs then there is no reason to draw any conclusions at all.

Star Trek Has Some Interesting Storylines.

USS Enterprise captain relieved of command following lewd videos.

Go Kirk!

Quote Of The Day

Simon Jenkins on the rise in VAT:

Osborne's desire to reduce public spending to roughly what Gordon Brown thought right a decade ago is hardly draconian. He is sensible in attacking the big, demand-led programmes such as social benefits and housing, to which previous governments, including Margaret Thatcher's, turned a blind eye. He is right too in wanting fewer jobs in the public sector to be met by more in the private. In other words, he expects private demand to replace public in the cause of growth.

So why, given all this, does he tax private demand? And why tax it at precisely the point where it must cost jobs in the high street and among its suppliers?

It's a good question. As others have pointed out there are alternatives to VAT such as a Land Value Tax.

The three main things to consider about different types of taxations are:

1. Is it efficient to collect.
2. What incentives and disincentives does it create.
3. Who will it effect

VAT is efficient to collect but it does create disincentives to spend and the less well off end up paying proportionately more.

Bad Job Interview Techniques

A woman is released from jail after police officer is found to have planted evidence. So how did this fabrication come to light?

The fabrication emerged after Harding, seeking a job with the CIA, bragged that he had fabricated evidence, apparently to impress the interviewer. The CIA notified New York authorities, and the investigation began, eventually leading to several other investigators to plead guilty to evidence tampering or fabrication, and the re-opening of several criminal cases.

It does suggest that this sort of corruption wasn't seen as outlandish in his own police force, if he thought it was something that would impress other law enforcement agencies, which is slightly disturbing.

Via

How Government Works

To mark the passing of actor Pete Postlethwaite, John Prescott pens a moving tribute to the courage, decency and effectiveness of..... John Prescott. He writes how Postlethwaite influenced him:

His character, band leader Danny, after spending his life wanting to win the national brass band trophy, symbolically turns it down because he knows it's the only way he can get publicity for the 1,000 miners who were sacked from his pit.

The line that got me was: "This government has systematically destroyed an entire industry – our industry. And not just our industry – our communities, our homes, our lives. All in the name of 'progress'. And for a few lousy bob."

You can watch it here. I defy you not to cry.

These communities had their heart ripped out by successive Tory governments. 200,000 were thrown on to the dole and were just left to rot. That led to increasing rates of worklessness and despair.

It made me so angry and I thought we must do something. I then realised I was the minister in charge!

So presumably if  Prezza had watched Toy Story he would have directed his ministry to create a programme to tackle the problem of old toys being discarded when children get newer, shinier ones.

Last Year's Moderates Are This Years Extremists

Nick Cohen writes of the rather worrying developments in Hungary where the ruling Fidezs party appears to be authoritarian and extreme:

You can catch a smell of it in Fidesz's propaganda. Its first act was to order public buildings to display a passage from its manifesto. "In spring 2010, the Hungarian nation gathered its strength once again and brought about a successful revolution in the polling booth," the citizenry was informed. They should rejoice because Fidesz will lead Hungary to a bright new tomorrow based on "work, home, family, health and order".

Fidesz then seized control of private pensions, hacked back the powers of a supreme court that might have checked its supremacy and established a media council, which can impose large fines on broadcasters and print and online publishers for such fuzzily worded crimes as "offending human dignity". It has packed the council with party loyalists, naturally, and already Hungarian newspapers and magazines are publishing blank pages in protest against official censorship.

The case against them looks very strong and their behaviour does not seem in keeping with the behaviour of a democratic party.

However last year Cohen was attacking the Conservative party for leaving the European grouping to which Fidesz belongs on the grounds that it was rejecting "moderation" and embracing extremist parties from Eastern Europe. Wonder what's changed since then?

Punchlines

Ten punchlines to jokes I heard in 2010:

1. Yeah, but I can't knit sleeves.
2. The lead goes limp.
3. "Shut up Refrigerator"
4. I can't tell you because you're not a monk.
5. "No Father, we're just taking a shortcut through the Children's Ward"
6. Having two legs.
7. "You are Nissan Main Dealer?"
8. Because she's red hot and he's well hung.
9. Gang Rape.
10. Because she didn't wear a seatbelt

An Apology

In previous posts I may have given the impression that anti drink campaigns are driven by hysterical nitwits who just want to boss people around and that furthermore alcohol really isn't that bad. Overnight I have reconsidered my opinion and now accept that alcohol is and evil vomit provoking and headache inducing poison that should be banned immediately.