The interview
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Filed under: Humour, Politics & economics
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Filed under: Humour, Politics & economics
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
# JD’s gone very quiet on the Scottish independence thing. # Check this out, courtesy Chuckles, about golden handshakes: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/11/new-study-shows-how-golden-parachutes-are-getting-bigger.html # Check this out, courtesy Rossa, about pensions: http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/eu-crisis-scandal-pension-liabilities-of-france-germany-are-half-of-eu-total/ # Unisex toilets thing at that school – PC out of control. Only trouble brewing there. I think they want there to be, that that’s the [...]
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Filed under: Politics & economics
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
Tracey Emin herself is of no interest to me and clearly I’m late to the party in shaking my head at what this person has been honoured for. Sure, in the context of the Olympics she was in a post here some time back and that was the last I saw of her. While trying [...]
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Filed under: Art, 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
My petition to the government asking that the Barnett formula be used to work out each country’s share of the national debt if they leave the so called United Kingdom. – Kevin Wells
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Filed under: Politics & economics
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
Nice piece, via Chuckles, about a company wanting to build its product in Britain and the issues it faced. Here are two excerpts: We investigated a number of possible UK manufacturers, but encountered a few problems, some of which made matters impossible. And: I’d like to draw attention to one cost in particular that really [...]
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Filed under: Politics & economics
That’s fairly clear, is it not?
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Filed under: Politics & economics
The bits about employment, benefits and debt were interesting, if only to see how the government’s “mind” works. It’s a perfect example of govt trying to correct something or push an ideological line, then adjustments must be made, then someone points out it doesn’t work [as many of you have also pointed out], corrections and [...]
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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
JD sends an article previewing The Science Delusion and there are some chuckle-inducing parts to it: We’re used to scientists telling us that the universe is inert matter, that we lack free will, and that our ideas, beliefs and goals are just ‘folk psychology’. To voice dissent is to invite sharp correction or be denounced [...]
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Filed under: History & Culture, Politics & economics, Religion & Philosophy, Society & human issues
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
A battle royal at the Telegraph had someone saying that 50% makes business leave the country, someone else says no, they say they’ll leave but don’t and quotes some figures, someone else says the reaction of business is to go offshore and a person would be an idiot to actually pay the 50%, another says: [...]
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Filed under: Politics & economics
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
Chuckles brings our attention to: For years, checking your bank account balance regularly online has been a pretty good way to guard against fraud—until now. An Israeli security firm has identified a new virus that not only steals the info fraudsters need to drain your bank account, it ensures you don’t see those transactions when [...]
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Filed under: Politics & economics
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
I didn’t make it up, I didn’t go looking for it: Aircraft engineers have called for Airbus and airlines including Qantas to inspect their fleets of A380s as a matter of priority after tiny cracks were discovered in the wings of five superjumbos worldwide. Airbus has given assurances that its flagship A380 aircraft – the [...]
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Filed under: Politics & economics, Technology & ideas
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
There’s a post at OoL which touches on Communitarianism. It’s long been a theme in drama: The cult television series ‘The Prisoner’ tells the story of a man who, after losing and then regaining consciousness, opens the blinds of his London flat to find that the world outside has undergone a Kafkaesque transformation: the skyscrapers [...]
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Filed under: Politics & economics, Society & human issues
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
Interesting at Zero Hedge: In other words, from a rotation of 7 and 3, the Fed is now uber-dovish by a 9 to 1 majority. So does this mean that printing is imminent? Stay tuned and find out in 3 short weeks: the January FOMC statement comes out on January 25. Perhaps this news is [...]
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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
Time and time again, you can see pundits falling into the same traps when they don’t see the 3rd force in politics. Take Ironies Too’s Sherman Act post, wanting to extend the anti-trust legislation to the G20 and the EU. It would be a neat solution but it ain’t gonna happen, to employ the vernacular, [...]
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Filed under: 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
We have one hell of a dilemma. On Delingpole, a left-liberal, Samantha, wrote: His comments do not reflect current Social Science/Psychological studies on the #OWS movement, therefore his leanings must be a result of his own cognitive bias or he’s merely refracting back — at least to his growing audience — popular sentiment. There’s much [...]
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Filed under: Politics & economics
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
[H/T Chuckles]
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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