nourishing obscurity

Doom and gloom scenarios are useful in pointing to certain measures which might be wise but which scenario do you prepare for? Here are two: N1: As the US [read all of us] falls more deeply into entitlement debt, makes itself more vulnerable to uneducable and unassimilable illegal immigrants, makes war on its own private [...]

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Filed under: History & Culture, Politics & economics, Religion & Philosophy, Society & human issues

Trying to make a list of the most corrupt politicians is like trying to make a list of the most air-breathing humans or the most food-eating humans.  It just goes with the territory. And what’s the definition of corrupt?  Is it sleaziness?  While Harman is a vile woman, Jacqui Smith is far sleazier.  While Gordo [...]

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Filed under: Politics & economics

True Justice puts it nicely: Knox There have always been several huge problems in the promotion of Amanda Knox. One problem is that Knox is not the real victim in the case and a great deal of compassion still resides for Meredith. Earning windfall blood money from the cruel death of a claimed close friend [...]

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Filed under: Politics & economics, Society & human issues

Macheath on the money again re spurious calls for help: It’s an unfortunate combination, and one we’ve seen at work with the RNLI; an emergency response organisation with no alternative but to take each call seriously is forever at the beck and call of the thoughtless (not to mention intoxicated), who can summon assistance at [...]

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Filed under: Blogging, Politics & economics

That’s fairly clear, is it not?

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Filed under: Politics & economics

I’m currently tied up in a series of one-day courses and while they need to be studied for, they’re also very interesting indeed and give a good overview of what’s in the pipeline re debt, employment and benefits [the latter two the area I've been working in]. While all of us sign a confidentiality clause, [...]

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Filed under: Politics & economics

This is why blogging is so hard to get away from. In the post on Cu**s, I left a link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2083507/Boy-10-arrested-attack-female-teachers-leaves-broken-leg-dislocated-kneecap.html#ixzz1ir1nl2Rp … and then went to the link. Under that was a comment: This is what happens when you pay the thick feral breeder, I want it now, underclass to breed like rats for decades [...]

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Filed under: Politics & economics, Society & human issues

Not all of you read El Reg.  This is for you: The website of global intelligence-analysing firm Stratfor remains offline – a week after hacktivists broke into its poorly secured systems and extracted passwords and credit card details. Members of Anonymous claimed to have broken into the website and slurped 200GB of sensitive information on [...]

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Filed under: Humour, Politics & economics, Technology & ideas

I don’t understand money. Who invented it and why? Trying to find the answer to that question is a lot more difficult than you might think.

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Filed under: JD, Politics & economics, Religion & Philosophy

You have your economic pundits, I have mine. Jesse [probably yesterday]: QE to infinity as required. That will be the solution the Fed will accept when the Treasury prints bonds that have no buyers except for the Fed and its cartel of banks. Of course they will stop before infinity is reached. The only question [...]

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Filed under: Politics & economics

Allow us just a little muckraking: Suskind describes how, from the outset, top aides were constantly bickering and engaging in turf wars. He listens to women complain about a frat-boy atmosphere that excluded them. Christina Romer, the former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, said she ‘felt like a piece of meat’; communications director [...]

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Filed under: Politics & economics

Salma Hayek is made a Knight in France: France’s honours system was branded a laughing stock on Tuesday after Mexican-born sex symbol Salma Hayek was made a Knight. Though France can be proud of its native daughter, it really is likely to cause a storm because some stick-in-the-muds such as returned servicemen, in honour of [...]

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Filed under: History & Culture, Humour, Politics & economics

NYT, via Watts Up: Fisker Automotive is recalling all 239 of its 2012 Karma luxury plug-in hybrid cars because of a fire hazard, according to a report filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Prices on the 2012 model start at $103,000, including the destination charge. Sigh. They sure can pick winners can’t they?

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Filed under: Chuckles, Politics & economics, Technology & ideas

From This is True: The Michigan Homeland Security Program provided several grants to the West Michigan Shoreline Regional Development Commission for 13 Michigan counties. Included was one snow cone machine for each county, at a total cost of $11,700. Even though only one county requested a machine, all counties received them. Why? “It is used [...]

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Filed under: Politics & economics

[Courtesy of TJMK] Translation: The reasons set forth by the Assize Court of Appeal in Perugia for the killing of Meredith read oddly. According to the criminal court Rudy Guede alone did it. This is ridiculous. Prosecutor Manuela Comodi spoke in court of the ‘embarrassing performance of’ experts’ on the testing of the murder weapon [...]

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Filed under: Politics & economics