the £45 million bonus

So, so wrong.

punkscience goes surfing !

Its forecast to be 5.5ft at Gwithian so there's a real chance that me and my softee might never make it back to the beach. Just a quick warning in case anyone wonders why I've stopped ranting over the next few days. (Gulp!)

I am invincible!!!!!!!!!!!!!

in memory of Benazir Bhutto

Benazir Bhutto has been killed, along with 20 others, in a joint shooting and suicide bombing in Pakistan. This is truly a dark day as Pakistan's only moderate voice and the only woman ever to lead a Muslim Nation is lost to us. The precariously balanced, nuclear state that she leaves behind- still run by the US puppet Musharraf (our "ally" in the war on terror)- has little hope for any progression from the sky-pixie fundamentalists that hold sway in the rural regions of the country and still less from those who pull the strings in Washington and London.

Responsibility for her murder has already been placed at the feet of the sky-pixie's acolytes and Musharraf's government. Personally, I believe it is too early to lay the blame and await more details. Sadly, the identity of the culprits are irrelevant: The damage has been done.


Addition:

Robert Fisk, whose opinions I trust implicitly, has concluded that the culprits were elements in the Pakistani intelligence service.

"sky-pixie told me to kill unveiled women"

Some whackjob in Iran came up with this shit. I know a couple of Iranian women. They think this is complete bollocks. They don't wear veils in this country. The US has a lot to answer for, having engineered the ascension of this theocracy.

Corpofascism

This sounds unpleasantly familiar. The language might be crap and it needs a thorough rewrite but the salient points are there.

Merry Christmas, monkeys!

the fight to preserve our way of life

John Pilger rules. Totally.

"we used to own our slaves, now we just rent them"

This is so appalling and shocking I can't summon the necessary vitriol to do it justice. I will have to come back to this later.

Tony Blair forced Goldsmith to abandon BAE investigation

In a turn of events that is surprising solely for the awesome success achieved by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade and Cornerhouse human rights campaign groups in forcing hugely confidential material to be made public, it was revealed in court today that Tony Blair wrote personal and highly coercive letters to The Chief Cockweasel and High Sanctioner of Genocides, Lord Goldsmith, to persuade him to drop the corruption investigation into BAE's payments to the Saudi government. In a ironic turn of phrase, Blair actually tried to convince Goldsmith that the Saudis "would cut off the flow of intelligence about al-Qaida terrorists" if a prosecution was successful.

That would be the flow of intelligence that lead to the events of 11th September 2001 and 7th July 2005, yes? Both of which were inspired by- or carried out by- Saudi money, Saudi philosophy (Wahhabism, duh!) or Saudi nationals.

I wonder if they (Blair, Goldsmith, et al) can be tried for misgovernment? Or gross incompetence? Or conspiracy to pervert the course of justice? Or fucking anything that might present the victims of the Iraqi genocide and the July 7th attrocities with something that could be considered justice. Conspiracy to cause genocide would be an ending worthy of Walt Disney. With lashings of illegal arms distribution.

Bush's imperial ambitions focus upon Cuba

A Znet article relates how the US is up to its old tricks under a Republican administration of funding "democracy efforts" (i.e. terrorism) in another state.

I recently finished reading an awesome book, called "David and Goliath: Washington's War Against Nicaragua", about the Nicaraguan revolution and counterrevolution, as funded by Reagan. This essentially involved dishing out millions upon millions of dollars in direct aid to the remnants of the ousted Somocista dictatorship as well as putting the considerable resources of the CIA at their behest. The US campaign to topple a democratically elected government (after the free and fair elections of 1984, to which the US- unlike other Western nations- sent no election monitors, but still felt informed enough to damn as grossly unfair) was characterised by appalling war crimes and tactics. Eg.

• The CIA encouraged the Contras to rape women and kill children- "a coordinated policy of the destabilisation program", according to former CIA Agent John Stockwell
• The CIA supplied the Contras with C4 explosive which was to be "packaged" in children's lunchboxes and in flashlights. The bombs were to be exploded in supermarkets, movie theatres and buses on New Year's Eve.
• The US Military conducted direct attacks on Nicaraguan territory- two US T-28 aircraft from a warship off the Nicaraguan Pacific coast attacked the town of Corinto, Nicaragua's principal commercial and petroleum port. Navy SEALS also attacked Corinto in an armoured speedboat, using rockets and machine guns they ignited a 1.6 million gallon diesel storage tank. A Contra counterrevolutionary group claimed responsibility for both attacks.
  
• When a power struggle broke out amongst their Contra vassals, the CIA hired a Libyan professional terrorist to plant a bomb at a press conference gathered at a Contra base in Northern Costa Rica which missed its target but killed eight and wounded another twenty eight.
  
• The CIA prescribed a policy of blackmail to the Contras to coerce peasants into cooperation with the counterrevolution. For example, forcing peasants to kill prisoners to seal their complicity.
• After the Nicaraguan government initiated a military draft the Contras began actively aiding draft dodgers to leave the country. They were then forced to enlist with the Contras instead. Those who refused were tortured and sometimes murdered.
  
• Women and children refugees from the conflict living in camps over the border in Honduras were frequently press-ganged into forced labour crews by the Contras. Men were forced to undergo military training by the CIA and other US agencies and were then made to fight for the Contras.
• The Contras frequently kidnapped entire Nicaraguan villages and marched them across the border to swell their human resources.
• Honduran soldiers dressed as Nicaraguans attacked Honduran border villages in a flagrant attempt to turn the Honduran population against the Sandinistas.
• The CIA frequently fabricated evidence and media stories to try and justify US intervention in the war and generate support for continued funding- so called "black propaganda".
• The US lobbied the Catholic Church to condemn the revolution and to advocate counterrevolution as a religious proscription. The Church was so intimately involved in internal resistance that one of its priests, Amado Pena, was caught on video by Nicaraguan State Security, together with a leading Contra, Pedro Ernesto Sanchez, discussing tactics to foment social disturbances resulting in civilian deaths:
  
• "Go to the market, we will be there. God wants these sons of bitches to stop messing with us. The most important thing is that there are deaths, I don't care how. We need to light the fuse here. After the first few deaths, the horror will begin."

So we see the US version of "democracy" that is being exported across the globe to this day to such places as Afghanistan, Iraq and now- it seems- Cuba.


"Low-intensity conflict is described as a strategy to counter terrorism. However, terrorism and repression are key components in its strategy of warfare against the poor. The United States terrorized civilians as part of its war effort in Vietnam. The methods of spreading terror ranged from indiscriminate bombings to targeted campaigns such as the Phoenix program through which more than 30,000 civilians thought to be sympathetic to the enemy were assassinated.

Low-intensity-conflict planners promote the use of terrorism in defense of perceived U.S. interests."

(From here; yes- I know its from a god-botherer but if you ignore the sky-pixie references the truth remains.)

Sorry, who are the terrorists again?

Bali bullshit

This Znet article details exactly how big a pile of greenwank the Bali summit turned out to be, all thanks to certain developed nations' reticence to act for the benefit of all mankind.

"As far as global climate policy is concerned, the US is clearly a rogue state. But even governments that are not subsidiaries of the oil industry tend to be staffed by people with a vested interest in the economic status quo."


BTW- I'm rather proud of the term "greenwank".

a model example of Greenwash

Anyone who is at all aware of the practicalities of various "green" technologies will find this risible.

Media Lens vs George Monbiot

Although I worship George he is not without his faults, as the Media Lens posse have elucidated.

The Media Lens boys extensively detail sources who have reported that Iraqis are manufacturing their own IED devices, known as Explosively Formed Penetrators, or EFPs. The US claims that these are, in fact, being supplied by the Iranians is cast as the nonsense that it is (they, actually had substantial evidence that the technology was transferred from Hezbollah, NOT Iranian sources). The British Army knows that Shia militias are making their own and other iraqi machine shops have also been doing so for years. George didn't know this, apparently.

The closing paragraphs are particularly powerful:

"And so, while the media continue to capitalise on any excuse to promote a “clash of civilisations” between the West and “militant Islam”, it remains a remarkable fact that the ‘threats’ faced are mostly invented. Much of the actual violence against the West has been, and will continue to be, in retaliation for grave Western crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and elsewhere consuming literally millions of lives.

The simplest way for the West to bring its “war on terror” to a successful conclusion would be for it to stop waging war and to renounce terrorism."

American Exceptionalism

This was on youtube. Its not a joke, its actually part of this guy's campaign broadcast. Its fucking scary the way he claims America is the greatest nation in history over and over again.





I often wonder how these people justify their belief that they are truly better than you or I mere non-Americans. This really is the most abhorrent form of demagoguery: Appealing to the idiot conviction of a minority of yeehas in the bible belt who are convinced they have been chosen by the spirit of some bloke who died 2000 years to rule the world as they see fit. The worrying thing isn't that this minority exist, its the fact that far more cynical and manipulative characters are prepared to pay lip service to this creed for the simple benefits of the mass support it will garner them at the ballot box from those same rednecks.

tax the products and services of nations refusing to reduce climate emissions

Why should this not be done? I can't think of a reason why those countries which refuse to commit to reduce their carbon emissions shouldn't be effectively taxed on any and all products and services they trade internationally. The revenue would be used to reduce emissions unilaterally by the climate-change-preventing nations. I know there are trade barriers to such things and the WTO will have an apoplectic fit at the prospect but then fuck them.

I thought this was such a great idea that I emailed Caroline Lucas to share it with her. She rules. Literally, she does! She's an MEP!

A Tory government would be worse than hell on earth

Johann has the goods. In agreement with him I would like to observe that the current government are a bunch of mincing cockweasels but the tories, oh god! Thousands of people will die if they are voted in. That is all you have to remember.

US intelligence agencies confess: "Iran is not a nuclear threat"

Its funny, you know, because its the IAEA have been saying this for years but the US refused to acknowledge it and even concocted outright lies (surprise! surprise!) to create antipathy towards Iran. It looks like they've finally run out of ideas for scare stories.

the UK rail service sucks big, floppy donkey dicks

So, I have to catch a train every day to Exeter and back. Its an arse. I hate it. I would move to Exeter for the convenience, let alone for my eco-warrior credentials. However, I have 9 months left of my PhD, my wife and I have a house in Plymouth and there simply isn't any point when there's little or no guarantee I'll have a job there in 9 months time.

So I get the train. Every day. For an hour each way. Plus a 10 minute walk Exeter-side and a at least 15 minutes (more like 45 out of rush hour) on the bus the other- or 15 minutes if my lovely wife comes and gets me.

So, do you get the impression that I hate travelling? Well you're wrong. I fucking LOATHE IT!!!!!

Put it this way, when I was at uni (for ~ 7 years), I never lived more than 7 minutes walk from campus. Several years consecutively I lived less than 60 seconds jog from the concrete of the univeristy campus. I believe in living in the same neighbourhood as your job. I really do!

So. I hate travelling. Which is why, after I ran for the train from Exeter tonight- after checking the departure time via National Rail Enquiries as I normally do and judging that I had a ~90 second window on the 11 minute walk to Exeter St Davids, as I normally do- I was fucking irate to watch the guard blow the 2nd whistle as I tripled-stepped the stairs to the platform. The 1st whistle shuts the doors, the 2nd is the departure signal. What happened? My system has been flawless for the last 2 months, so why did it fail me this evening?

As would be expected from these pages, I was keen to register my displeasure. I ranted at the guard. I even swore in his presence. (He pointed out that he was not happy with people swearing in front of him. I pointed out that I was fine with it). I went to the station manager and asked why the train had left early ( the train departed bang on 18:45- the time that was given on the departure boards and the time that was given on the NRE real time website. He couldn't understand my frustration and tried to argue that the train had left on time so I demanded an address to write to, ignored his protestations and stormed out. I went to the pub and drank beer until the next train arrived 50 minutes later.

My wife observed when she picked a slightly drunk, tired me up from Plymouth train station some time later that the "expected" times that are given on the departure board are the "expected" departure times, just as the "expected" times on the arrivals board are the "expected" arrival times. I thought this was totally whack! Why have two different points of reference? I thought that most people would solely be interested in the arrival times of the trains. Why would you want to know the departure time of the train you're rushing to get when aiming to get there for the arrival time gives you a comfortable 2 minute window? More to the point, why confuse the shit out of poor dumbasses like me by supplying more than one point of reference?!?! AAAAAAAARARARARARARGAGAGRARAHGARHGRHGGHHGGHGHHG!!

I can't believe I have lived my life and rarely, if ever missed a train, without distinguishing between these two. I'm boring you now, I know. (In fact, if you're still reading this- fuck off and do something more productive you fuckwit mincer! There are people starving and dying out there!)

Monbiot: Combatting climate change requires completely decarbonising the economy

George rules.

US plays down Iranian nuclear threat

Could the voices of sanity have prevailed in Washington? Possibly.

I'm not gonna throw my hands in the air and pray to the twin gods of beer and masturbation just yet, though. Remember that Bush and Cheney are in the White House for a while yet.

Fuckers.

this is fucking appalling

I'm not saying that schools should go out of their way to teach about the holocaust but . . . . . . wait a minute! That's exactly what I'm saying! How the fuck can you educate children about the importance of human values without teaching them the history of classic examples of such values being cast aside? I can't believe that this multicultural cockpus is actually being considered. I would like to say that I am going to write to my MP but that never achieved shit so what can I do but state again my intention to abandon this plutocratic, fuckpit, shitstorm of a pseudo-democracy as soon as I can and take up residence in morally and culturally superior nation where my significant taxes will fund progressive and humanist policies (exactly where that is has yet to be determined, obviously). Not this postmodern phallus-palace of extremist-coddling, holocaust-denying, apostate-murdering, arranged-marriage-endorsing, capitalist fundamentalist, authoritarian bastards.

Johann Hari interviews Ayaan Hirsi Ali

This is cool and is wonderful kick to the knackers of multiculturalism and those Western liberals who gush perpetual torrents of gooey awe over "people of other faiths" and "ancient cultures". Its incredibly disconcerting that she has now been embraced by US wingnuts and is mouthing their vacuous racisms, Johann does well to separate these newly espoused beliefs from Ayaan's previousl humanist position. I recommend his links at the end to articles on the absurdity of the demographic invasion argument.

As this well drafted piece reveals, however, Islam is not the only of the Abrahamic religions to specifically endorse misogyny.

Order of The Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique

By the grace of all that is good about science I have achieved the following prestigious achievements in Science Scouting:

the plural of mongoose . . . . . .

is mongeese

"The mongoose emits a high pitched noise, commonly known as giggling, when it mates. The giggling is also a form of courtship when this animal is choosing a mate"

BTW- I'm posting drunk again . . . . . . . . . oh dear.

Ben Verwaayen is a corporate cockweasel

Check out the comments, particularly the first one from IShouldApologise. Verwaayen gets such a well-deserved mauling for his corporate greenwash that it warms my heart. I gave him some too.

Cockweasel!

no comment required

See what I mean?

It came from this page.

Like we didn't already know that renewable generation is completely cost effective

Some monkeys have done some sums and come up with a price to replace Europe's current electricity supply entirely with wind generation at a cost of £40 billion, plus the cost of a few thousand turbines. The plan can be made reality in 3-5 years, presenting an incredible opportunity to do something cost-effective and practical about the looming threat of climate change.

The UK government- the elite of climate change denialists- have, of course, declined to participate despite the increasingly unequivocal nature of the problem. This means that the government are actually acting against our interests, invalidating the reason for their existence. Do the public know this? Probably not. Too busy watching Ugly Betty or East Enders. Fuckers.

microwave converts plastic back into oil

This is so cool. It reminds me of a piece of background in sci-fi stories where future generations mine landfill sites for our generation's waste which is, by then, a valuable source of raw materials.

peak oil and Gordon Brown's dereliction of his duty to secure energy supplies

David Strahan has a CiF piece on the government's abject failure to plan for peak oil.

"Tony Blair wrote in last year's energy review that it was a principal duty of government to secure energy supply. He was right. Gordon Brown must now abandon the reliance on IEA forecasts, institute a truly independent assessment of global oil depletion and launch a massive programme of mitigation. Anything less would be dereliction.

But of course he won't. Even more than climate change, peak oil demands that governments confront voters with uncomfortable truths that will affect living standards. In Whitehall, legs will remain crossed and buttocks clenched as politicians and officials pray to God that it doesn't happen in their term of office, or before they draw their inflation-linked pension."

baseline data on output from renewable sources

This was distributed on the UK Green Party email list and looks to be an excellent source of information for anyone planning a renewable generation installation.

Sharia law is monstrous and the Saudis are too

This is so fucking wrong I can't even find words to describe it.

Brown builds pressure on Iran

In a clear attempt to demonstrate he is even more of a poodle than Tony Blair ever was, Brown declared his intention today to push for further unwarranted sanctions against Iran. In a move likely to generate even greater anti-Western feeling in the Middle East he completely ignored Israel's illegal nuclear arsenal, the US's breach or unilateral withdrawal from several non-proliferation treaties and the UK's own breach of the NNPT and condemned Iran's fictional weapons program.

"When we are dealing with nuclear proliferation, this needs to be taken seriously." said the Prime Minister. Whether we should take Egypt's, Pakistan's India's or, indeed, anyone else's nuclear programs seriously he didn't feel at liberty to say.

Maddox rules almost as much as me

His latest contribution to civilisation. Read it, and dream of being as awesome as us.

fractals are totally awesome

Checkit.

Green Party leadership vote

This poll makes interesting reading. Of course, the majority is voting in accoradnce with yours truly. My world dominance spreads forth!!

BUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAhaHahHAAHAHAHAhahahahahAHahHHahaahaaaa. a.a. . . . ..

nearly 900 views!

Its pathetic, I know. But I do actually pay attention to the little counter in the bottom left of the page. Not much attention- I have no illusions about my writing style being in any way "popular" or "accessible". But then these pages are far more for my benefit than any of you ugly fuckers! Consider yourselves lucky to have access to my wisdom and insight! When I rule the world I will make these pages compulsory education for all children over the age of 10.

Grateful, they should be.

When it hits 1000 I will make sure I have some powerful drugs on hand to celebrate. That's really not much out of the ordinary but hey!

:~)

US uses threats to pressure EU nations to reduce investment in Iran

In an unsurprising piece of geopolitical maneouvering the Bush administration is threatening EU-based firms with loss of US business if they continue to invest in Iran. I often wonder how these maniacs try to justify such strong-arm tactics to themselves but I've simply given up: They just don't seem to consider other nations as having any sort of rights at all. They certainly don't intend to deal with Iran's numerous humanitarian abuses themselves, they have simplied branded the entire regime and its subjects, including Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists, Sikhs and probably Moonies too "evil". Their justification for this? Well, its obvious- the Iranians want a nuclear bomb (no evidence), to use against "us". Who "us" is is not at all clear. Certainly it includes the tortuing, murdering, ethnic cleansing apartheid regime of Israel. It probably includes the tortuing, murdering, ethnic cleansing regime of good old Sunni Saudi Arabia too (viewed by the Shia government of Iran as US vassals and heretics). However, at the same time as these morons are entering apoplectic fits of rage at the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran they are doling out nuclear technology to nations such as India, which almost went to war against its similarly nuclear-armed neighbour, Pakistan a few eyars ago. Pakistan itself is a dictatorship, currently under martial law and undergoing internal strife over the prospect of democratic elections. Pakistan is also thought to be sheltering the remnants of Al Qaeda's bigwigs in its lawless and ungovernable Western provinces. The Pakistani regime is firmly propped up by US military support and aid but are they on the receiving end of international sanctions for their nuclear program? No, they are not.

TBC

the 80% challenge

This looks very, very cool.

I haven't read it yet as I am working (yeah, really hard!) but I will update when I have done so.

Word!

Additional:

I still haven't read it but the preamble refers to a sister report which looks just as cool, as does the IPPR study associated with it.

Green Party leadership debate

There's a party-wide vote currently happening in the GP about whether or not we need a single leader or whether the party should continue with its policy of having a 10 person executive and two "principle speakers"- one male and one female. Very egalitarian and PC, I here you say, but so fucking what?

Well, I'm of the opinion that this policy- unique amongst UK political parties- damages GP credibility by making us appear to be unguided and lacking leadership- whether or not this is the case (I think its probably not). To me, political pragmatism dictates that people will refuse to vote for a party that they can't connect with and the dumbing down of UK politics has reached a level where such a progressive position alienates the elctorate. And ultimately a political party can't afford to do that- least of all a party with the only manifesto that I believe can preserve our way of life in the face of the enormous threats bearing down on us as a result of our gross excesses.

A comment from some guy on the GP facebook page reads:

"I find it staggering that you find party members who will say straight out that they're not that bothered about winning elections. True - there are more important thing in life, but our raison d'etre is to be the green movement's electoral wing - not its philosophical debating society."

This is particularly well put.

I did, however, encounter a yet superior diatribe on the subject, courtesy of "spiggynodules" on a CiF article by Derek Wall, GP male Principle Speaker and advocate of the status quo. It will quickly become apparent why I favour this version ;~)

"- For God's sake, you stupid hippy!

The Green Party scored like 8%, 12%, 16% of the vote in one Euro Election, a million years ago.
- And ever since then, you're like dead, dude!

How can "green issues" be getting bigger and nastier every single year, and you suckers have more or less completely disappeared?

"You" don't need a leader?

The planet needs you to have a bloody leader, and a great one! You need a Churchill... and the planet needs you to have a Churchill.

But you're still antsy-farty about one "ego" (maaaan) spoiling the overall veggie-pacifist, laid back, non-male, impeccably girly, superbly "surrendered" image of the party.

"It's not like there's any sense of urgency here, is it?"
- Chucking Smell!
It's the biggest issue, on the planet, now or ever. And you dweebs don't want to be "too assertive".

Look, chummy, if being useless is all you wanna do, then do us all a favour and get out of politics; stop splitting the anti-Tory vote while being nothing!"

books I want - "Capitalism as if the World Matters"

By Jonathan Porritt- one of the architects of the Green Party (back then it was called the Ecology Party).

This is an updated edition with more material in it. I like the premise- capitalism is a suitable system but its abuse is threatening our environment's integrity and our health and wellbeing.

Rudy Giuliani is a cock-weasel

The latest character I have chosen to brand in this way is good 'ole lock-'em-up-and-throw-away-the-key Rudy. He's a dirty little cristo-fascist toerag straight out of the Bush mold. An example, if you will:

"The man lies with staggering impunity. But here's the thing: he does it with such conviction and such seeming authority that people who are not inclined to study the matter will believe him - will in fact be utterly convinced that Giuliani is speaking the gospel truth, and they will prove almost impossible to shake from this conviction."

many UK MPs are essentially highly paid lobbyists

From George's archives.

Power Trip - a film by Paul Devlin

This was just on BBC4 and it was fucking awesome! A factual background to the story is available here as a PDF.

Patrick Cockburn on Basra

He relates how the British armed forces have abjectly failed in their attempts to wrest control of Basra from the militias after the invasion. Its a pretty pathetic tale, the text of which should be tattooed onto Tony Blair's eyeballs so that he can't avoid its grim reality as long as his eyes are open. A luminescent ink would eliminate even that respite . . . . .

how to write a powerful polemic, with Robert Fisk and George Monbiot

Two further articles of note today. Firstly Robert Fisk's review of the film "Rendition" together with assorted background details of the true story the plot was derived from. Secondly, we have George's nice little roasting of Western government's embrace of the biofuel greenwash.

Tax Justice Network

I heard about these guys from a Guardian article. I like the cut of their jib.

faith schools pushing up stealth selection practices

The government seem to think that the reason faith schools get better results is because of their religious ethos. Actually its just because the selection criteria on the basis of religion gives them ample reason to reject less able pupils just as grammar schools used to do.

Addition:

Polly Toynbee also thinks faith schools suck ass.

The Misanthropic Principles: Principle Number 4

Everyone has a price. Even scientists.


Addition:

In fact, especially scientists. Because we get paid fuck all.

environmentalism is synonymous with a strong economy

This was referenced indirectly in Sharon Beder's book Global Spin that I'm reading at the moment. Corporate cock-weasels take note! Your arguments that environmentalist policies are bad for the economy are flawed and not supported by evidence!

Mirador del Rio

Punkscience was here this weekend. He thought it was one of the most amazing places he's ever seen!

UK government accountability, and lack thereof

Tom Bower has written an excellent little polemic.

The question is: How do you hold MPs to account for their actions?

Supposedly their peers (i.e. other MPs, not Peers) are meant to do so but in the obvious absence of justice from this party the only real solution is some sort of independent body, preferably of Judges, with powers to strip MPs of their titles in the face of their regular misconduct.

George Monbiot, poker of sleeping dragons

On a topical theme George has slagged laissez-faireism in the UK economy and has shat all over some moron called Matt Ridley. As usual, the businesses and vested interests are all on one side going "free us from the tyranny of regulation and we will create utopia!" whilst all informed, rational, sane people are on the other side going "well, no. Actually, you won't. What you'll do is create an opaque system of an epically corrupt nature where money is diverted away from societally rewarding endpoints and into the pockets of the already mega-rich".

You see kids, that's the point of legislation. You can't trust vested interests to govern themselves. Its like giving children the keys to the sweet shop and telling each of them to make sure that the others don't steal any sweets. Sooner or later their immature minds achieve the transcendant state of cooperating for their net good whilst presenting a united front of innocence whenever the shopkeeper returns to find half his stock missing.

As George alludes to, even where you have legislation vested interests work to subvert attempts to enforce its reasonable rules and limits by creating truly opaque accounting systems that are so complex they are effectively inscrutable to legislators. Behind this screen all sorts of dodgy business can be carried out at a subtle level- but that subtle level is surely better than the outrageous self-interest that would predominate in the absence of any legislation whatsoever!

I am a Social Justice Crusader . . . .

Find out what type of liberal you are with this handy online quiz.

I'm really more of a Direct Social Democrat but the book's American and they're a bit backward about their politics compared to us Europeans.

I overheard the owner of a stall in the continental market that was in Plymouth the other day protesting that some woman had objected to the suggestion that the UK was part of a continent. The stallholder was saying, in a disbelieving tone, "I did say to her that we're part of Europe whether she likes it or not but she kept saying that she didn't think we had anything in common with them lot".

Sigh!

Some people are so fucking pig-ignorant that I just want to beat them around the head with a stick.

we are all fucked . . . .

. . . . and its all fault of Blair, Bush, Clinton, Major and all the other politicans who have ignored the twin threats of climate change and peak oil for the last 20 years.

Bastards.

freedom of information - just as long as you don't want it any time soon

The delaying tactics of Whitehall threaten to return us to the days of Lack of Freedom of Information.

the inhumanity of economics

This is new to me and I find it simply appalling.

I am reminded of the closing comments in Adam Curtis's documenatry series, The Trap. At the end of the second program Curtis's narration concludes with the observation that the game theory/free market model is now undergoing interrogation by economists who suspect a more irrational model of behaviour is appropriate and useful. In fact, in formal experiments the only people who behaved exactly according to the mathematical models created by game theory are economists themselves, and psychopaths.

The document I first linked to suggests that these two groups of people might actually be one.

US fantasies

A passage from this article:

". . . the Americans maintained that withdrawing the [British] coalition presence from Basra, Iraq's second city, would pave the way for Iranian agents to move in. They claimed to have definite intelligence that elements of the al-Quds force were poised to infiltrate across the border from Iran when the British left. The British assessment did not support this scenario, holding that nationalism among the Shia population would supersede any affinity they felt with Shia Iran and that withdrawing from the palace would lessen violence."

Clearly the US weren't sharing their intelligence with the British forces. I think this is because their intelligence was bullshit and the British would have realised this and blown the whistle on their propaganda war against Iran.

beautiful music

I'd just like to say that Hybrid's track "just for today" is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard.

It is very complementary to their earlier appearance on the classic Beatman mix "nowsound exposure", which everyone should get drunk and listen to.

Blair's ignorance

"He asked very smart questions, though I did think that someone who was prime minister for so long should already have known these facts."

So much for Blair's alleged impressive degree of insight into the Palestinian apartheid.

we are all fucked

Honestly, does anyone really think our government has the spuds to generate a global accord to achieve this.

We really are fucked.

saving the marine environment

‘...the great and long iron of the wondrychoun [trawl] runs so heavily over the ground when fishing that it destroys the flowers of the land below the water there...’

-Commons petition to the King of England, 1376
cited in Auster et al, 1996

I don't think I've linked to this before so I'll whack it up here now (its 8mb so beware dial-up losers). Its the RCEP's report on the sustainability of our marine fisheries and the impact on overfishing on the rest of the ecosystem. Its a subject close to my heart and one I profess to understand with a degree of insight, being a marine biologist after all.

Another good source of information is The End of The Line, a book written by Charles Clover, which I'm sure I've mentioned before but I can't seem to find.

Johann on Inheritance Tax

He's one of my favourite polemicists:

"Strangely, the right-wingers who complain that the benefits system creates a “moral hazard” by giving people “money for nothing” see no moral hazard in doing exactly the same thing with the rich, with far larger sums."

I'm disappointed that he didn't assault the methodology of taxation. I'm an advocate of progressive taxation and I think any arbitrary figure over which you start paying a fixed percentage is stupid. I believe there should be a threshold but I think that it should start around £100,000 at a paltry level (say, 0.1%) and increase thereafter to 25% at £1,000,000 and 49% for anything over £10,000,000. I will tell him so.

Global Spin: The Corporate Assault on Environmentalism

I just finished George Monbiot's Captive State and bought this book to move on to. I reckon its gonna rock.

What you tink, blood?

Sharon Beder seems like a bit of a champion eco-warrior. There was another book of hers that I was really drawn to as well but, hey! I'm trying to get a frickin' PhD here! I can't afford every work of literary genius out there!

welcome to PRICKWASH ! !

First there was whitewash, then greenwash and now I wish to coin a new term: prickwash.

The New Party

I just encountered this bunch through a reference in this article. Judging by the actions of their party member I instantly assumed they would be a shower of capitalist fundamentalist fuckwits. I was right.

Any party which explicitly advocates a minimum of taxes, global free trade, integrity and moral purpose, personal responsibility and economic prosperity is out to advance the corporate line at every turn at the expense of the less well off.

Wankers.

The moron at the centre of the article was campaigning to have An inconvenient Truth banned from being shown in schools by "Arguing that the film's promotion of partisan political views was "irremediable" and that it contained scientific inaccuracies and "sentimental mush"". Well, I agree that the film contains sentimental mush, but scientific inaccuracies? I don't think so. And what does the moron in question know about it? Well, he's a lorry driver so all those scientists out there working for the IPCC better sit up and take notice because there's a new authority in town!!!


Anyway, the point I want to raise is that the judge in the case ruled that the moron had substantially won his case as distribution of the film breached sections 406 and 407 of the 1996 Education Act. These sections ban the political indoctrination of schoolchildren and require political views to be presented in a balanced way.

Does anyone see the flaw in this???

A high court judge has branded climate change as a political view.

ships more polluting than aeroplanes??

Apparently.

US hypocrisy

"In most of the world, few can fail to see the cynicism. Washington rewards allies and clients that ignore the NPT rules entirely, while threatening war against Iran, which is not known to have violated the NPT, despite extreme provocation: The United States has occupied two of Iran’s neighbours and openly sought to overthrow the Iranian regime since it broke free of US control in 1979."

Nice one Noam.

how to buy a UK general election- by Michael Ashcroft

Johann Hari informs us about this interesting little development on the UK plutocratic scene. If anyone was ever in any doubt that capitalist fundamentalists are in charge of running this country, just read how this guy-who is obviously finding even Nu Labour's incredibly corporate-friendly government inadequate when it comes to feathering his tax exempt nest- goes about buying votes.

Johann slates geo-engineering

And doesn't he do it well.

more choice excerpts from Captive State by George Monbiot

here we go:

Our own department of trade and industry had the following to say:

"Environmental regulations can cause an excessive increase in the cost [of supplying services] and become in themselves barriers to trade'.

-DTI, 1999 - Liberalising trade in Services: A consultative document on the 'GATS 2000' negotiations in the world trade organisation and forthcoming bilateral negotiations

Another DTI paper suggested that companies should face only voluntary codes for protecting the environment, and then only when it suits 'their own business reasons'.
DTI, 1999 - International investment: The next steps



Yes, that's our government actually advocating the elimination of legislation protecting the public from corporate attempts to avoid the costs of pollution. Well done Tony & Gordon ! ! !

You fuckers!

Britons' disposable income plummets

"We are working harder, but we are not getting any wealthier. We are just running to stand still." is how one commentator put it. That analogy of the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland has been used for so many different things that I relish each and every new application of it. So apt, the image of running at full pelt on a treadmill carrying you backwards just to remain stationary upon a spot on the ground.

Anyway, enough of my pretentious twoddle. The point is that, although economics remains a well-researched field with ample past records to guide those in charge of our current economy, they still can't get it right.

All Blacks forced out of World Cup after ref misses forward pass

Yes, the Blacks were the better team and should have won the day but that pass was clearly forward and yet 3 pairs of eyes missed it. The French commentator was grossly offensive by denying the obvious during the post-match analysis. Video replays and a even a computer model clearly showed the ball went forwards out of Michalak's hands by 2 yards to Jauzion, allowing him to power over. Wiff was distraught and sulked all evening. Still, a French-English semi in Paris is going to be fucking awesome!

domination of government advisory panels by industry representatives and other vested parties

I'm reading George Monbiot's Captive State. Its excellently researched and its message is clear and well presented. Here's a piece from his chapter on the subject heading:

"Until the day before he became Minister for Science and Technology, another sub-committee, called the Food Chain Group, was, as I mentioned in Chapter 8, chaired by Lord Sainsbury. His report, published like all the others by the government's Department of Trade and Industry, expressed the hope that in the future 'the precautionary principle is abandoned'".

Nice. The chapter is full of examples of supposed bastions of public interest either voicing the corporate line or actually advocating the reduction, removal or reversal of legislation protecting the public in order to ease the burden of responsibility on the corporation or corporations in question. Call me idealistic but I was under the impression that government was there to protect the public against exploitation; not to fund, facilitate and defend such exploitation in the name of some overarching capitalist principle which generates wealth for a minority at the expense of the majority. Corporations already have ample scope to turn empty, sociopathic gestures into good publicity and increased revenue. Some might consider a little too much, even.

Another example:

"The Retail and Consumer Services Foresight Panel, chaired by Sir John Banham, the head of Tarmac, warns of the 'potentially dire' impact of growing concerns about the environment. The consequences of these concerns, such as 'increasing difficulty in carrying out green field developments coupled with attempts to restrict traffic and reduce congestion', would result, inexplicably, in 'fewer women . . . working', 'cuts in state pensions' and a collapse in living standards."

Hmmmmmmmmm, and why is this disaster capitalism model being financed and promoted with our taxes again??

There's so much more in the book- you have to read it!

More:

"While openness has long informed the ethics of science, corporations demand confidentiality. Information that the companies find uncomfortable can be withheld, even when it arises from projects half-funded by the government: The LINK programme, for example, grants discretion over whether or not to publish results to the corporate partners. The free flow of ideas is further impeded by the need to secure corporate intellectual property."

WTF??

No, really! What the fuck?

more jesus-freaks with direct access to the White House

No wonder the US is in such a state. Half the population are insane (they voted for Bush, 'nuff said). Anyhow this is good for a few, dark laughs.

"Two of the three nights in my apartment I have been attacked by a hair raising spirit of fear," she writes, noting the sublet contained a Harry Potter book; "at this time I am associating it with witchcraft"

Beirut's tragic politics

Robert Fisk has written a poignant piece on the deadly political game Beirut is sinking into, without any concern from the Western world who continue to manipulate the country's factions for there own geopolitical ends.

This is awesome ! !

Another way to harness intermittent renewable resources such as wind power and store it efficiently and vconveniently to cope with base load.

Bolivian President calls on the West to respect Pachamama

That statistic! I don't know who those three families are (but I bet Bush is one of them) but having a shared income greater than the 48 poorest countries! That is a statistic to quote in any discussion of global justice!

this site is awesome!

Oh and it contains the "truth".

Anyway, enjoy!

P.S.
Sadly I am excluded from membership of this exalted organisation due to my inability to comply with the list of members' attributes (specifically #7).

BUWAHAHAHAHAHAHahHAAHhaahaHAHAHAAAAAaaaaaaaa . . . . .cough . . cough . . . .splutter . . . .erk!

head of Catholic Church in Mozambique publically states that condoms come preinfected with HIV

Archbishop Francisco Chimoio is a perfect example of the idiocy of religion. Darwin award for that man!

electoral dysfunction

Johann brought out this old article he wrote during the last general election. Its pretty damning of the pseudo-democratic state of UK politics.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a twat

Let's see how the cristo-fascists of the US will respond to the content of his speech today. He denied that homosexuals exist in Iran and he denied that Iran had any intention of developing nuclear warheads. At least one of those two statements is blatantly false, so why not the other?

Nice one, you savage, mysogynistic fuckwit!

Nick Cohen is a right twat but I agree with his position on Wahhabism

An interesting point to note about Nick's argument is that although he compares massive Saudi cash inputs to a hypothetical European Protestant evangelism in Saudi, this isn't a very good example. Much of Europe is now avowedly secular and so a better example, and one that is very much a reality in Saudi Arabia at the moment- unlike the banned evangelism of other religions- would have been the promotion of secular democracy. The Saudis are just as resistant to that particular piece of philosophy and it reveals a lot more of the insanity of their extremist position than any example of bible-bashing Jesus freak religion does (just as bad in my eyes).

Iraq

Interesting background to the insurgency and how small a part in it Al Qaeda play.

A fascinating book review from Znet. Anthony Arnove has written a text that lays out comprehensive arguments for a withdrawal from Iraq.

"The reality of the current and perhaps subsequent administrations is that any conjecture that relies “on the intelligence, rationality, or humanity of U.S. policymakers would be an unwise one.”"

Johann Hari also suggested a strategy for withdrawal which oozes common sense. It is the product of a US Senator called Geroge McGovern, a Vietnam Vet to boot.

"it begins with a simple apology from the US, Britain and other invaders for the catastrophe we have wrought – the opposite of Bush’s deranged demands for thanks. There must then be a commitment to dismantle all permanent US bases on Iraqi soil, and to allow the ownership of Iraqi oil by all Iraqi citizens – with the royalties divided equally between every Iraqi and paid out as a regular cheque, like they do in Alaska.

The US then needs to convene a regional conference, at which they pledge to pay full-whack for an international stabilization force to police Iraq, manned exclusively by Muslim countries like Morrocco, Tuinisia, Egypt, and Jordan. These countries will need all sorts of financial inducements to send troops. Tough. Pay them. McGovern calculates that even at top-rate, this would cost $5.5bn – just 3 percent of keeping the US forces there for the next two years. Once the police are fellow-Muslims, the often-murderous insurgents will be much more isolated. Al Qaeda’s tiny presence (estimated by US generals to be fewer than 500 fighters) will be even more despised. Only troops like this could have the legitimacy needed to stop a genocide."

this is really fucking scary

The Guardian's article declaring that open warfare could erupt imminently is an appalling piece of journalism. Firstly it does not condemn the open aggression on the part of the US. It does not question any of the US's groundless excuses for their aggression and it simply comments that Gordon Brown will be faced with some sort of dilemma as to with whom to side in any ensuing confrontation- the answer to which should be obvious to anyone with the slightest trace of humanity. But the most alarming piece is the open statement by some ex-CIA source that the decision to go to war has already been taken without any evidence being presented to support such a threat to the already badly destabilised global security situation.

Basically, this is an open declaration of the of editorial team's indifference to another war of aggression by the US.

More on the US escalation.
More.
More.
Possible consequences.

the broken down recovery vehicle, the private equity firm and £300 million tax-free profit

Rant . . . .rave . . . . inequality . . . .blah blah blah . . . . plutocracy . . . . waffle waffle . . . . rich getting richer . . . . . etc etc

peace activist has leg broken queuing to enter Petraeus hearing

Checkit.

this blogger predicts the collapse of the iraqi state within a year

Johann Hari says this:

"Almost every institution of the Iraqi state – the police, army, even the hospitals – are now bisected into Shia and Sunni wings who detest each other. What we are seeing in Iraq today is, in slower motion, what happened in India and Pakistan sixty years ago: the hellish ethnic cleansing of mixed areas, until everyone is trapped in homogenous blocks. There is a real and hefty risk that this will metastasize into an attempt to physically eliminate one of the groups. There is also a risk of the neighbouring countries invading, turning it into a Congo-on-the-Tigris, with the Saudis marching into defend the Sunnis, the Iranians invading to protect the Shia, and the Turks invading to prevent the creation of a mini-Kurdistan in the North.

But is this a case for keeping the US forces there? A recent, much-discussed-in-DC article in the New York Times by Brookings Institute scholars Michael O’Hanlan and Kenneth Pollack said so. They argued that ‘the surge’ of 21,000 troops into Iraq is finally working, and creating momentum away from sectarian violence.

If this was true, it would be important - but their own Institute’s figures show it is the opposite of the truth. It makes no sense to compare statistics on violence in Iraq month-to-month, because the violence fluctuates seasonally (as it does in most cities in the world). For reliable figures, you have to compare this July to last July. And what do you find in Brookings’ statistics? Iraqi military and police killed are up 23 percent. The number of people killed in multiple fatality bombings is up 19 percent. US troop fatalities are up 80 percent. The size of the insurgency is up 250 percent. Attacks on oil and gas pipelines are up 75 percent. The refugee outflow has doubled. Hours of electricity available per day are down 14 percent. Far from creating the space for political compromise among Iraqis, the Sunnis and secularists have marched angrily out of the Maliki government."

I reckon there's not long to go now. The US won't pull troops out whilst Bush is in power. For any reason, no matter how perversely motivated by their domestic political agenda and sheer selfishness. So the state will wobble on and on until some massive suicide bomb makes into the parliament and kills half the MPs and the state simply collapses. Then we have genocide whilst US soldiers stand by, not caring because fewer people are shooting at them now.

Naomi Klein on fundamental capitalism

She's pretty cool. I'd let her run my country.

Julian Glover makes the point that the government is incompetent

Fuckers.

The Great Middle East Peace Process Scam

By Henry Siegman. Read it.

punkscience goes on holiday . . . .

Yes, I know you're going to have to find something else to do when you're bored of wanking over porn but I need a holiday. Back in 10 days. With a tan. Yeah.

DEFRA: UK has a "good record" on tackling climate change

Yes, it sounds like a bad joke, I know.

Fuckers.

tidal power takes off

Tidal stream turbines- with a far smaller ecological impact than the vast tidal lagoon projects- are being installed in the irish sea.

Nuclear generation is dumb

More evidence, to add to the exisiting mountain, that nuclear generation is a stoopid idea that will not help with sustainable development.

population or overpopulation??

One of the founders of Z magazine has penned this monologue. I am confused, impressed, sceptical and enthused at one and the same time. What a bizarre experience.

I'm gonna have to think about this one.


Thoughts:

If education, development and equality always accompany a falling birth rate, what about patriarchal societies such as Muslim fundamentalist ones or Chinese ones? Where are the falling birth rates there?

Indepedence and hypocrisy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I never encountered this gods-awful piece of shite -and I'm glad, because I nearly had a fucking aneurysm reading the Media Lens media alert over it. I really can't bring myself to read the actual piece- the title is more than enough!

The critique of mass media production by the Media Lens boys is their usual cutting stuff and should be a compulsory part of children's education so that they are aware of just how these corporate mouthpieces manipulate public perception and can go forth into the world equipped to deal with the corporations's propaganda trap (Jesus! Can you imagine the furore if the government tried to introduce that into the national curriculum! Its like a wet dream!).

I know I regularly link to articles from the Independent but I take everything I read at face value and there's a lot of crap in there that I ignore or don't bother to read because its irrelevant to modern society's problems as I see them.

Word.

social therapy

Johann was writing about Diana- about whom I couldn't give less of a shit, but this passage caught my attention.

"In her brilliant book, Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy, the American journalist Barbara Ehrenreich shows that human beings have evolved a deep atavistic need for moments when we all come together and engage in shared rituals. She writes: "Rock art from around the world depicts stick figures dancing in lines and circles at least as far back as 10,000 years ago. According to some anthropologists, dance and ritual helped bond prehistoric people together in the large groups that were necessary for collective defense against marauding predators." This instinct never went away. Our culture is very good at some things: generating wealth, say, or providing sexual freedom. But we are very bad at meeting this need for what the great sociologist Emile Durkheim called "collective effervescence" - "the ritually induced passion or ecstasy that cements social bonds". Instead we lived in sealed-off concrete boxes, and when we stand together, we look down and shuffle through our i-Pod playlists."

This is a clear advocation of dance music as a social therapy: The chance to meet and interact with strangers on neutral territory; the ability to bond with them on the dancefloor without having to give your name, where you livem what you do or a dozen other icebreakers to conversation; moreover, a place to feel part of the group and to express this through mutual appreciation of the spiritual experience of really, really filthy beats. Wicked!

Naomi Klein is a Goddess!

The text of her talk at Democracy Now! is available here. Its pretty profund shizz.

Peak Oil will bring economic turmoil to a neighbourhood near you by 2012

Climate change is, of course, not the only major challenge facing our civilisation these days. This one is likely to be felt a lot sooner, however. The imminence of the economic and social turmoil that will inevitably accompany this phenomenon is one of the reasons why I believe our government has already missed the boat when it comes to renewable generation. If a concerted development and investment program had been put into effect before the turn of the century we would already be seeing technological progress and a healthy export industry. As oil prices start to spike we would be in a comfortable position to initiate a smooth transfer to sustainable generation. This hasn't happened. Tony decided to invade Iraq instead. (I have a mad vision of him sitting at a table in No. 10 with the two options scribbled on bits of paper and pinned to a dartboard whilst he closes his eyes and prepares to throw a dart.)

Wow! Anthony DiMaggio kicks arse!

This dude has done an awesome job on unbalanced media coverage of various topics in the States from Hugo Chavez to Iraq.

I think Nick Cohen's a right twat but . . . .

. . . . this piece on CiF is really good. Nick is pro-war and, therefore, a moron. However you can't deny that his article is well-written and his point well argued without (wisely) any attempt to resort to his usual position of neocon cristo-fascist-cuddling, endarkenment-embracing Islamophobia.

He's still a fucking deluded moron though.

KILL ALL HIPPIES, or at least ban them from the climate camp at Heathrow

From this cover story in the Independent:

"At one end, Mayer Hillman, the 76-year-old climate-change campaigner, is saying to a crowd: "We are on a trajectory towards the extinction of life on earth. In the main, people have done this unwittingly, so it can be excused. But now we know what we are doing, and it cannot be excused.""

The "extinction of life on earth"- what utter, utter bollocks! If you really want to fuck a legitimate cause like the climate camp then all you have to do is let in a bunch of sandal-sporting, tree-hugging fuckwits like this and let their absurd polemic destroy any scientific credibility you might have. The fucking retards! This is the epitomy of counter-productive inclusivity. Handing the podium to unqualified, uninformed retards who simply want their chance in the spotlight to shout abusrd claims of apocalypse and judgement. Who the fuck are they going to have up their next? -Reg Vardy? -Ted Hagger? -A spokesperson from the insititute of "sacred ecology"?

Fucking, unscientific, woolly bastards!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGHRGHGHGHGRHGRHGRHGRHGHHH!!!!!


Additional:

Another example of anti-science here. Apparently the construction of offshore wind farms will create a potentially devastating threat to whales and dolphins due to the noise of construction.

So, I agree that the construction phase might cause some disturbance to cetaceans but as for "the laying of cables and disturbances caused by service boats" creating a perpetual impact- what the fuck do you think is happening out in the Channel, and North and Irish seas at the moment? These are the busiest shipping waters in the world- whales are frequently hit by surface vessels and dolphins massacred in their thousands by fishing nets. How can you distinguish any extra effect from a very worthy construction project?

Wankers!


The complete detachment from reality of this article is revealed by the closing sentence:


"By 2020, offshore wind power is expected to account for 20 per cent of the UK's energy needs."


Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmmmmmm . . . . NO!


Actually, by 2020, the government has committed to generating 20% of its electricity (very, very different from energy) from renewable sources including offshore wind generation. I am going to give the editor shit.




Additional additional:
-To clarify my fury inthe opening section of this post I am actually ranting about this dirty hippy's gross overstatement of the threat posed by unsustainable development to life on this planet- we will never exterminate all life on this planet and once we have done our worst civilisation will undoubtedly, in the millenia to follow, surely rise again. The threat of human idiocy is specific to our current civilisation and nothing close to "the extinction of all life on earth".

sociopathy grows from a sick society

Decca Aitkinhead (cool name!) has a profound point to make on CiF about the proliferation of violent assaults by youths.


"The proper question to ask isn't how to stop children getting their hands on booze, but why so many feel the need to self-medicate themselves into states of violent psychosis."

"Happy people do not, as a rule, self-medicate with alcohol, or want to hurt innocent strangers when they have. They just don't - whatever the licensing laws may or may not allow. If your head is an essentially OK place to be, you won't suffer from a constant, ravening desire to get out of it."

"This kind of drinking shouldn't be mistaken for hedonism, but nihilism."

I can profoundly empathise with this position as I was in a similar state as a child. I wasn't violent- quite the opposite- I was often the target of violence but I was a deeply unhappy child and I used to self-medicate with alcohol at first and then stronger substances as I grew older. To an extent, I still do. But my anger arose from a very clearly perceived injustice: As a grammar school student I was continually forced to conform to victorian standards of discipline and ethics which rang false with my intuited humanist values of equality, secularism and freedom. My peers in my home town were rarely from the same shool, who's catchment area was far wider than local comprehensives and consequently I was outnumbered by "townies" as they were known at my establishment. The townies- understandably- treated me as a "toff", despite the fact that I was at the school on a scholarship, and I was a pariah to them. So, rejected by my school fellows for being a troublemaker and challenging authoritarianism and my local peers for being part of a perceived elite I had few friends and was even actively persecuted by some of the townies, leading to a sense of rejection and despair and a vicious circle of self-obsession and recrimination that was relieved through intoxication

This situation is far from that of the "youths" described in Decca's article but the underlying unhappiness is the link. The children of today cannot see the values that schools attempt to impose upon them anywhere else in society. Obedience to the law and the rejection of violence as a means to an end: Hmmmmmm, lets try and think of a recent example of government action which might reveal the hypocrisy of demanding that our children adhere to such principles. Moderation and responsibility: Media frenzies over celebrities engaging in affairs, public brawls, coke binges and pointless excess would instantly invalidate that one. Engaging with "the community" and a sense of civil duty: Reports of rampant capitalism, fat cats, city bonuses, corruption, and profiteering abound in every newspaper. Without any evidence that the values we attempt to impose upon them matter to much of the rest fo society it is little wonder that teenagers- who are quite smart enough to see the hypocrisy of this- resort to surly nihilism and sociopathy. And who can blame them? It is not as if there are only a few people like me out there with strong feelings on the injustice and stupidity of our current society but the same government gets voted back in every time and the opposition are even worse! Well done the youths, I say- drink and be merry and if anyone gets in your way fucking stab the cunt- life's not going to get any better so why worry about the future?

on progressive taxation

"The increasing concentration of income and wealth in the hands of a tiny elite isn't only a gross affront to social justice and any sense of equal worth in a single community. The evidence is clear that greater inequality fuels crime, corrodes democracy, divides our cities, prices people out of housing, skews the economy, is an engine of social apartheid, heightens ethnic tensions, is a barrier to opportunity and stifles social mobility"

Seumas Milne kicks arse!


So, there's a moral argument for this that is hard to argue against. Put simply, everyone is equal and we all deserve an equal return on our investments- in terms of the effort put in. This is the essence of the free market- you earn what you work for. However, "money breeds more money", as the old axiom goes: If you have money already it requires less effort to acquire more than if you had to earn the same amount without any wealth to start with. Therefore, if you possess a large amount of money, you should be taxed more on any income because your earning potential is greater due to your initial wealth.

I think that's how it goes.

This article, which I found whilst randomly looking for an appropriate quote to support the axiom mentioned above, is edifying.

In the Green Party's Manifesto for a Sustainable Society I found this. I like.

"Direct Taxation - Income Tax

EC710 Income Tax is the instrument by which all citizens who are able to are required to contribute a proportion of their labours to the running of public services. It is also, when combined with benefits payments, the primary way in which wealth can be redistributed in order to create a fairer society.

EC711 Personal tax-free allowances will be abolished, having effectively been replaced by the Citizen's Income (see EC730). Income Tax will be levied on all income above the Citizen's Income. Tax rates will be banded and will increase progressively so that those on higher incomes are paying higher marginal rates of tax. In particular, rates higher than 40% will be introduced for those on the highest incomes.

EC712 In order that people are not penalised by paying high rates of tax in one year, whilst their income dramatically drops in the next (either through personal choice or for reasons beyond their control) income will be averaged over five years and the tax calculated on the rolling average figure.)"

Labour's approach to the subject is, predictably, somewhat less ambitious:

"Brown recently refused to rule out raising the top rate of tax. "We're still a very long way from that politically," one cabinet minister said yesterday. "There are powerful forces against us." For which read the bulk of the media and the most influential people in the country, who would all have to pay more tax."

UK rail regulator damns government's blessing of fare increases

Newsflash! - The government wants to reduce its investment in our rail network and passengers to foot more of the bill!

Excessive pricing is what we have already- fuck knows what I'd call the new pricing policy . . . . . . . grossly excessive? Morbidly excessive? "It-would-be-funny-if-it-wasn't-for-the-fact-that-I-now-have-to-pay-twice-as-much-as-a-French-person-would excessive" ???

Eg:
Prices for midday, midweek tickets 2 1/2 months ahead:

Paris-Bordeaux (~400km): £16.93 (25 euros)
Bristol - Newcastle (~400km): £15

Prices for next day tickets:

Paris-Bordeaux (~400km): £51.94 (73e70)
Bristol - Newcastle (~400km): £89

Yes, that's nearly twice as much as the French for a next-day ticket. Time to start eating garlic and growing onions methinks!

Kyoto actually promotes deforestation

An FT article supports my position that failure to credit developing countries for not cutting down their existing forests makes them attractive targets. There are some details there but, essentially, its a matter of carbon credits for reforestation and the chance to bung some cash crops down on clear-cut land against no carbon credits for leaving your forests intact and missing out on any cash crops you could plant in their place.

Duh?

On Liberty

When I get round to it ( I am up to my neck in worm poo at the moment!) I am going to sit down and read this.

Johann tells us why we should support the Heathrow Protest

And doesn't he do a good job.

why America is wrong

Gabriel Kolko tell it like it is.

"In part, expensive equipment and incredibly inflated military budget is premised on the traditional assumption that owning complex weapons gives America power, which is determined by arms in hand rather than what happens in a nation's politics and society. In fact, the reverse is often the case, especially when enemies find the weaknesses in this sort of technology and exploit it – as they increasingly have done over the past decades. Then the cost of fighting wars becomes a liability – and America's technological military an immense weakness when the government has huge deficits or lacks funds to repair its aging public infrastructure – a fact that was highlighted when the collapse of a bridge in Minneapolis earlier this month led to the striking revelation that 70,000 bridges in the U.S. are rated deficient. The Vietnam War should have resolved the issue of the relevance of technology to the America's military ambitions, but it did not. The real question is: why?"

Its nice when someone sums up your own feelings on a subject as concisely and eloquently as this. You see, I'm not anti-American, I'm actually concerned for the fate of America. The people of that country should not have to tolerate the situation they are currently in and there are individuals in the current administration who are criminally insane and need to be stopped for the good of America and the rest of the world.

"We are at point zero in the application of American power in the world: the U.S. cannot win its extremely expensive adventures nor will it abstain from policies which increasingly lead to disasters for the nations in which it intervenes and for itself as well."

(my bold)