Mad Piper wrote: Am I the only fellow that feels that we are not free men as everyone parrots? A free man wouldn’t require permission of his government to purchase a weapon, own a car, or remodel his home. I would argue we merely have the illusion of being free men.
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Filed under: History & Culture, Religion & Philosophy
Do you remember when she was 13 and fighting the courts to be allowed to sail? Now she’s at the top of Australia and needs to get a move on to still be younger than Jessica Watson when she gets back to the Netherlands. Happy birthday.
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Filed under: Leisure, travel & sport
He actually sent me these:
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Filed under: Chuckles, Society & human issues, Wildlife & nature
Jesse’s food for thought: One of the great unanswered questions is the role of the sovereign nation in this brave new world. Although they rarely mention it, economists have long known that unless it can control its own currency and trade environment, no nation can be truly sovereign in its fiscal, and thereby policy, decisions. [...]
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Filed under: Politics & economics
Only looked at this a couple of hours ago. He may have killed a police officer or not, who knows? I looked at the procedure and it’s nasty. Considering this is the 4th time, that’s a bit cruel and unusual. It’s now 23:20 and he has 40 minutes – I presume he’s being moved or [...]
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Filed under: Society & human issues
Luikkerland: You don’t have to be a political scientist (and it might even help if you are not) to work out that, as Phil Cornwall as Jack Nicholson used to say as he crouched over a pile of manure parked in a Stella Street drive, “what we got here is a whole heap of $&*‡!” [...]
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Filed under: Politics & economics
In reading about Vincent Cooke, one commenter pointed out that in states where there was gun ownership, the incidences of that sort of robbery were much fewer – the game wasn’t worth the candle so much.
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Filed under: History & Culture, Society & human issues
The death of racehorse trainer Ginger McCain yesterday reminded me that racing has always been peopled by larger than life characters like him (as well as others of a more dubious provenance). British racecourses are one of the few areas where the upper class and the working class meet on more or less equal terms. [...]
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Filed under: JD, Leisure, travel & sport, Society & human issues
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Filed under: Art, Earth and cosmos, Religion & Philosophy, Society & human issues
From the Independent [H/T Lord T]: Tens of thousands of benefits claimants will be referred to food banks by the Government, which is worried that many Britons face a stark choice: starvation or feeding themselves by begging or stealing.
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Filed under: History & Culture, Politics & economics, Society & human issues
There was a study to determine why some people are lucky and some aren’t: [Wiseman] gave both the “lucky” and the “unlucky” people a newspaper and asked them to look through it and tell him how many photographs were inside. He found that on average the unlucky people took two minutes to count all the [...]
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Filed under: Society & human issues
The Mail is the best and worst of papers. Some of their stories are first rate, many of the commenters write things I agree with and their photos are the best online. Some of their stories are designed to stir up trouble. Just such a story was the U.S. plan to wipe out Britain. It’s [...]
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Filed under: History & Culture, Politics & economics
It’s probably time for Vincent Cooke’s name to now be enshrined somehow in folklore – the start of the fightback by the ordinary citizen against the mob [including the government]. In most people’s eyes, he would be seen as some sort of hero or at the very least, would be seen to have been justified. [...]
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Filed under: History & Culture, Society & human issues
Click for panorama view:
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Filed under: Leisure, travel & sport, Technology & ideas
It was the comments section which was of interest in this one about Turkey, Israel and Iran [H/T Chuckles] This one was fine: Turkey needs to wake up and realize who is buttering their bread. Turkeys Re-emergence as regional power and its growing economy has been made possible by its good relations with the West [...]
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Filed under: Politics & economics
You’ll probably want to read the whole thing here and they’re not claiming they’ve cured the cancer but it does look promising as a last ditch method. To introduce HIV to a patient because of its invasive nature is pretty radical. Still, to die from AIDS or cancer – which is worse? In the case [...]
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Filed under: Politics & economics
RIP Meredith This Friday and Saturday, the hearings in the appeal in the trials of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito will wind up, with judges and six jurors deliberating. Whilst Sollecito is also in this, it’s obviously Knox whom the world’s eyes will be on, given the high-powered campaign by the Americans. There has been [...]
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Filed under: Society & human issues
Luikkerland, a blogger I’m quite a rap for, has this piece about an EU proposal: The story is about how the European Commission has offered £2.65million to a project to promote the eating of insects. Apparently, the UK Food Standards Agency has been ordered to investigate ways to make it popular with “le Rosbif”, a [...]
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Filed under: Politics & economics
…but this time in painting not photography. My exceedingly excellent tutor said to use a single colour only plus white to help learn about tonal values. She is a really good teacher. Herewith the results of my efforts: top one is in oils and the bottom one is acrylic both using burnt sienna plus titanium [...]
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Filed under: Art, JD
The entire global system is at a critical juncture with sovereign bonds, currencies, stock markets and the fate of politicians all in play. The hidden purpose of QE and QE2 was always to cheapen the dollar by causing inflation in China and forcing its hand. Critics have said that QE did nothing to help with [...]
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Filed under: Politics & economics
Yet another one: It’s not often that one person plays key roles in two — count ‘em, two — trillion-dollar disasters. Welcome, my friends, to the world of well-connected Democrat Jamie Gorelick. In 2004, observers were “astonished” to discover that a key member of the 9/11 Commission had a fatal conflict-of-interest. Jamie Gorelick had served [...]
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Filed under: Politics & economics
I read the headline, rubbed my eyes for a few moments, groaned, then moved on: The gender-free British passport: UK travellers may no longer have to declare their sex, to spare feelings of ‘transgender people’
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Filed under: Humour, Politics & economics
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Filed under: Art, Leisure, travel & sport, Technology & ideas
An article was sent to me by Chuckles on how humans process information and the idea was put forward that there are two types – the intuitive thinker and the slower processor of data. Each has its limitations. You’re asked one question, and instead of answering it, you ask a related question, an associatively related [...]
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Filed under: Religion & Philosophy, Society & human issues
Ah, those female trios:
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Filed under: Dearieme, Music
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Filed under: Chuckles, Humour
This blog has shown various solutions to the age-old problems of yacht design for cruising – best configurations, size, rig and so on – and in the orthodox area, the gaff-rigged ketch seems best all up, the junk sail is the best cruising sail by far all round while others which generate speed, e.g. the [...]
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Filed under: Leisure, travel & sport, Technology & ideas
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Don't forget these either:
Helpforheroes
Afghan Heroes
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