Monday, December 31, 2007

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, December 30, 2007

British public divided over Nu Labour's greenwank

Unsurprisingly, the Nu Labour Greenwank seems to be the root cause of public antipathy to green issues. Sending mixed messages to the public, such as "we are leading the world in reducing carbon emissions" and then declaring their intention to build a new runway at Heathrow, has been exactly as counterproductive to ongoing efforts to secure grassroots support for climate change mitigation as most intelligent analysts have always said.

Its not only Labour's environmental policy which is all fucked up: The Independent on Sunday reports that Nu-Lab's obsession with stuffing a bunch of completely unnecessary and uneconomical new nuclear builds down our throats is developing further into the ultimate political debacle. Why this should be happening is utterly beyond me. Greenpeace did a magnificent job of pulling the covers off the government's first effort to rig the consultation process and they are about to do exactly the same for this one. The government has wasted millions of pounds contriving corrupt and unscientific grounds to justify new nuclear builds and they simply don't seem to get the message that we're not going to stand for it. But that's Nu-Lab all over, isn't it? Ploughing ahead with the process of anointing a predetermined decision with the oil of pseudo-democracy.

As Australian technology professor Ian Lowe has said: "If nuclear power is the answer, it must have been a pretty stupid question".

Vote for a future: Vote Green!

Friday, December 28, 2007

Nu-Speak has taken the place of genuine debate in Westminister

I loved this dissection of Nu-Labour Nu-Speak. The closing paragraph is portentous. However, I doubt anything will come of it as the moment anyone stands up and tries to say anything in plain-speak then you get pilloried by the Murdoch press for your position and drowned beneath waves of pseudo-analysis and misinterpretation. The Spinwatch website maintains a record of such conceptual sabotage.

Welcome to the UK! We hope you enjoy your stay amidst our pseudo-democratic plutocracy.

On another Nu-Labour-bashing note we find a torrent of boiling vitriol spewed in the direction of The Chief Deputy Assistant Secretary for Cockweasels, Hazel Blears. Its most satisfying to see these words reprinted a million times over:

I have been in the House long enough to see the coming and going of many inadequate personalities. I have seen those on both sides of the House who have been promoted for various reasons. I have seen the crawlers. I have seen those who have used sex— [ Interruption. ] Oh, there are so many it would take too long to name them. I have seen those whose sexual preferences were of interest to others. I have seen those who demonstrated a great commitment to their own interests, irrespective of the political parties that they were supposed to represent.

“But I have rarely seen a decision such as this, taken with such cynicism and with so little respect for the interests of the average voter. When the Secretary of State was seeking office as the deputy leader of the Labour party, she said that people frequently become disaffected with their own Government because they 
feel that no one is listening to them. Wherever could they have got that idea from? She also made it clear - she told us constantly - that she would listen.

"Let me make it very plain: this decision will affect everything in my constituency - every practical purpose that I am pursuing at the moment. Three new health centres, a new school, which is desperately needed in one of the most deprived areas, and a new railway station: all those things will be scuppered by this decision, which will make my local government fundamentally uncertain not only in economic terms, but in its political control.



Hazel Blears sucks donkey balls.

Gwyneth Dunwoody, on the other hand, rules.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

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.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

"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.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

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!

Monday, December 24, 2007

Saturday, December 22, 2007

"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.

Gordon Brown does something right - (NOT SARCASM ! ! )

This is wonderful! As the article implies, it suggest that the new runway at Heathrow and a plethora of road building schemes- as well as the insane prospect of resurrecting coal fired power stations- might be put back into the Fucking Stupid Idea box.

What I can't understand is the continued references in the article to new nuclear build in the light of carbon emissions. A reason for this might be that the article is penned by the Guardian's political Editor- Patrick Wintour- who obviously knows fuck all about the total emissions resulting from conventional nuclear power. Greenpeace produces just one of many websites rubbishing the idea that nuclear is at all eco-friendly. Even Business Week published an article questioning nuclear's green credentials!


Addition:

In another remarkably uncritical article from the Guardian we have a plan supported by the government's Chief Climate Change Denier, Sir David "Trust Me- I'm a Scientist" King, to turn Britain's nuclear waste stockpile into fuel for a new generation of reactors. The plan will require two new £1 billion plants; one to recover usable plutnoium and uranium from the waste and another to turn them into fuel pellets and rods. There's also new reactors to be constructed. Unfortunately, private industry won't touch this shit with a barge pole because nuclear is such a bad financial investment. The risks are huge and the government have been forced by concerned parties to demand upfront payments to cover the enormous costs of decommissioning future obsolete plants. This is because provate industry typically run the projects into the ground, extarct all the value froma company leaving a shell and then leave it to spiral into fiscal collapse. The mess is then left to the government to clear up. BNFL is the model case for this.



Addition to the addition:

There is another version of the same story about nuclear waste on the Guardian's environmental pages. This version contains more detail and less spin. So much for editorial consistency.

Friday, December 21, 2007

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.

Ruth Kelly is a fucking idiot - the sequel

Another CiF piece today targets one of my favourite Nu-Labour whipping-boys (geddit? -plus she looks like a bloke). It gave me a chance to revisit one of the best New Statesman articles I've ever read. I linked to it in the comments.

Mexican popular resistance fears brutal repression

In a topical coincidence this just appeared on CiF. Scary, scary stuff. I commented as thesimpletruth.


Addition:

Lots more ugly tales of bloody murder from this CounterPunch article. CounterPunch rules.

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?


Thursday, December 20, 2007

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.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

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.

George Monbiot: "Al Gore's a twat"

Its a gross bit of paraphrasing, but that's essentially the gist of George's position.

So, climate change is upon us. Millions of people are going to die in my lifetime, coral reefs are going to be virtually wiped out, food prices are going to explode and the oil is going to run out without any viable alternative being available to replace it. All because politicians are greedy, self-serving little shits and the corporations which obstruct political progress to line the pockets of multi-millionaire shareholders do so with their blessing.

This isn't going to be one of my open-ended rants. I'd like to propose a course of action to remedy the situation. If you printed half a dozen powerful polemics- and we're certainly not short of those- and posted them through the letterboxes of a hundred people together with a request for the recipients to print them again and forward the same information, I wonder how far it would get.

Not bloody very is my gut feeling. Because people don't care. The morality of the Western world has been so sabotaged by mass media and political disenfranchisement that people wouldn't imagine for one second that the matters discussed here are of any importance to their lives. The winner of X-factor or the latest soap drama or whichever footballer has recently been caught raping some innocent / had an obscene pay rise / knocked someone out in a drunken brawl / been caught sniffing coke / etc.

Anyone out there still at all uncertain about why I'm so angry?

Its like murder but more drawn out and callous.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

was the world saved in Bali?

After the sensible compromise of getting the US to at least sign up to an international agreement, with or without an agreed figure for future emissions reductions, can we now sleep peacefully in our eco-warrior beds?

No. Don't be so fucking naive you twat. As George Monbiot has observed, the necessary cuts in carbon emissions are more like 100%, as opposed to 25-40%. And even those measly figures gave the Bush administration an apoplectic fit! It is time for people to realise that the political machinery of our world is incapable of achieving the global action necessary to prevent gigadeaths in the coming decades. This places culpability onto all of our heads. You can either change the politics with your vote, or be held responsible by your children and all ensuing generations for causing millions of people to starve or drown or be made into refugees or slaughtered in resource wars. The decision is yours.


Addition:

On reflection I think it would be a worthy effort to record exactly how the population of this and other countries votes so that appropriate action can be taken by future generations against those who vote for political parties who refuse to take action on the matter. That way when our children are struggling to produce enough energy to read by and breathing through respirators they have all the evidence needed to track down the people whose fault it is and exact revenge upon them. Just as everyone is quite prepared to bask in the relative luxury of our current lifestyle, so they should shoulder responsibility for denying it to future generations, besides denying a great number of future generations any chance at life in the first place by killing their parents. That's what I call accountability.

Pope calls for dogma to be eclipsed by evidence-based decision making ! ! !

This doesn't really warrant the three exclamation marks above as its based upon a Daily Heil article of obligatory dubiousness (won't do them the honour of linking to it- its easy enough to google).

However inaccurate the Heil's interpretation of the pontiff's words, The Pope- the head of the catholic church, that is- has called for policies in response to climate change to be devised with "prudence". This from the man who insists he drinks the blood of some dead bloke on a daily basis, insists he is in regular contact with one sky pixie and believes contraception to be the work of another sky pixie. Forgive me if I fail to take his opinions seriously.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

EU negotiators grow a pair of balls in Bali

Stavors Dimas, the EU Commissioner for the Environment actually called for other countries to "wake up" and respond to the threat of climate change. The obvious target of this comment, the US, hasn't replied but it is assumed that any subsequent response will contain outrage at EU "hostility", threats that the US will not be "held to ransom by eco-cultists" and that carbon dioxide is actually food for plants and therefore we should be paying them for all the valuable plant food they're producing.

How to save the world without recycling

This has got to be brief because I've only just started writing the presentation I've to give on Monday (DOH!).

Anyhow, recycling contributes relatively little to reducing your carbon footprint, as detailed by Chris Goodall.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

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!

Monday, December 10, 2007

government scientist's: We can't do anything about climate change

This from Professors David King and John Schellnhuber who both sadly passed away shortly after the report was published after announcing also that "life was just too challenging" and they "couldn't be bothered with the effort of breathing any more". They will be missed.

Yeah. Right.

This is such weak, politically motivated arse wank. I can't believe that, after years of research into the impacts of climate change and technology that can reduce emissions, these morons turn around and say "Erm, actually, none of that will work".

Why the fuck not?

Where's your evidence?

How did you reach that conclusion?

Is this not such an enormous subject that such pronouncements should come with a little more substance to their apocalyptic claims than the thin words of politically appointed cockweasels? Apparently not. This surreptitious hinting at an unpleasant future smacks of the political and psychological warfare campaigns of the US prior to the invasion of Iraq and, recently, the attempts to build public antipathy towards an attack on Iran. Simply, the prospect unsavoury action being taken is raised by the mass media so often that the public becomes immune to the prospect of it so that, when it actually occurs, public outrage is greatly diminished.

What is slightly damning is that the US's Senior Climate Change Denialist in Bali announced at the same time that the US would not approve a draft agreement on binding carbon emission reductions (surprise! surprise!). So a two-pronged assault upon climate change prevention emerges from the equally corrupt and corporate-dominated governments of the US and the UK. On one tine we have the denial that climate change can be resisted; on the other the outright refusal to even try to do anything substantial to prevent. This is despite the eminent credibility of proposals a la Monbiot et al to convert the global economy to zero carbon by 2050.

On a different, but related topic, the UK government have been caught red-handed cooking the carbon books. What a surprise! The Nu Labour project has been caught knocking out shoddy figures so often that the credibility of any Downing Street PR release is now actually less than that of the Monster Raving Loony Party's annual "what the aliens are up to" bulletin (I made that up, BTW- couldn't think of any other suitably outrageous simile).

Sunday, December 09, 2007

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.

Saturday, December 08, 2007

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.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Israeli torturer and murderer calls off UK visit after he is refused immunity from prosecution for war crimes

I mentioned this earlier. Apparently the torturer can't come to the UK for fear of being prosecuted as a war criminal. Its nice to actually praise the UK system for once. I suppose even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

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!)

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

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.

Monday, December 03, 2007

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy - The Brown Years

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

Sooooooooo, we see yet more evidence of the plutocratic nature of our little pseudo-democracy hitting the headlines today with news that senior labour figures, including arch-cockweasel Hazel Blears, new all about the £650,000 of "anonymous" donations.

Gordon Brown must be crying into his pillow tonight because, after that little shit Blair got caught with his pants down over cash for access, he still managed to secure another two elections as Prime Minister. This episode, in contrast, looks sure to put the nail in Gordon's political coffin and allow the dirty Tories into power for the first time in 12 years. I might have to go and be physically sick after thinking about that . . . . .


Additional:

I have been reading up on Greg Palast's sordid experiences with the big UK lobbying organisations. I have decided that Greg totally rules. His stories of the astonishing chutzpah of Brown and Blair- of their manipulation of industry sources to generate popular press reviews for the policies they were literally bribed to put in place by industry figures via the lobbyists- is simply breathtaking. It is the ultimate fly-on-the-wall view into how big business operates in Whitehall. Palast relates how one lobbyist, when challenged to prove his claims to the ears of people in power, stood up and read off a list of messages from his pager from various cabinet figures pleading for a moment of his time. Then came this little section:

"The lobbyist was in a cheery mood. His walking the CEO of the Builders’ Federation into Downing Street the week before was already paying dividends.

Blair’s adviser Geoff Norris agreed to resurrect the Builders’ plans to dig up several greenbelt areas for houses. “Just a bloody bunch of mud tracts at the edge of town,” as [LabourList's Derek] Draper described the lands at issue, despite the claims of local councils.

Such favors must be returned. “Tony needed ten environmental gimmicks” for a news release to support the government’s green image. Draper rapidly provided a list, “electric cars, silly things like that”. Draper rolled his eyes. “They loved it.”"


Reading it is actually making me feel sick again . . . . . . . and again- and every time i revisit this page.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

George Monbiot on 3 million homes

I was so moved by this article that I was driven to email George with my thoughts on the subject.

. . . . . . . . . . . . Shit. I was going to post what I wrote but I've lost it.

Arse.

Basically I gave him the misanthropic treatment with lashings of "if people haven't got room to house children then they shouldn't have them, if they do its child abuse". I really can't see that 3 million new homes will be used to house all the people of the country currently living in substandard accomodation. More like they will be used to house a token thousand families on social support and the rest sold at enormous profit to single, young professionals. Don't even get me started about the inevitability of the gross profiteering that will ensue as soon as this is put out to tender, like some bloated PFI cash cow dripping city bonuses from its udders . . . . . oh hang on- I said "like some bloated cash cow. . ." What I meant was "like the bloated, PFI cash cow that it is".

Yeah, that's right.

Fuck knows what the tories are going to do when they get in at the next election. Propose building on Hampstead Heath and Victoria Park because that's where the commoners hang out and they don't matter in politics?

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.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

UK nuclear consultancy

The Lazy Environmentalist blogged about this and has several excellent points to make. I also tried to take part in the consultancy, being similarly concerned that this bullshit technology was being pushed on us without reason (surprise, surprise!). The consultancy was an opportunity to make a serious contribution to government policy. However, I started filling in boxes on the website with well-crafted and researched arguments and got as far as the 3rd page before I ran out of time to research and write my response. My point is that it shouldn't be up tot he public to do the research on these matters. If the government's research can't be trusted (which it can't because they're cockweasel's; Q.E.D.) then an independent reviewer should have been assigned to the task, as Sir Nicholas Stern was for the economic impact of climate change.

This is all superfluous to the fact that renewable generation programs, both wind and solar, have been demonstrated to be vastly cheaper alternatives.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

This is even more awesome!

On a more serious but equally entertaining note (and also via the rossinisbird blog, which I am currently enjoying), comes this little gem. Its a science teacher giving his spin on the climate change debate.

When I rule the world (sooon, very sooooooon) I will have this translated into every language on the planet and make everyone watch this at least five times a day.

This is awesome!

Check this out. Make sure the volume is up. And your mother/boss isn't in the room.

Monday, November 26, 2007

from New Humanist


HAHAAHAHAHahahahaaaaa . . . .

Another great piece from a contributor to the magazine examines the upcoming visit to London of Hebrew University's VP of external relations, and former head of Israel's torture service, Shin Bet.

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.

the . . . . . . .

truth is apparently a flexible concept. I mentioned it before and was captivated by its genius. I returned to it today, however, to be met with a change of list. I stated that I was previously excluded from membership of those who can be considered one with the truth due to the 7th item on the list that prohibited quests for world domination. I have emailed the feckers to demand an apology.

Michael Meacher rocks again

I pointed this out fairly recently but I'm going to draw attention to it again as he has excelled himself.

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!

US anti ballistic missile system

As it is not only completely useless but also political anathema there is little surprise that the government took the decision to allow the US to use the RAF base at Menwith Hill as a monitoring station for its Ground Based Midcourse Defence System almost completely outside of any public forum.

no comment required



See what I mean?

It came from this page.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

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.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

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."


Thursday, November 22, 2007

Polly Toynbee is somewhat naive if she thinks Brown is going to pull this one off

She really ought to wake up and smell the coal-fired power stations. I suggest she reads another article in the same newspaper that reveals the fallacy of relying on this government to make things better when all the evidence points to us moving in quite the opposite direction.

academics and muslims denied US visas without explanation

Not that I give a fuck about superstitious ignorants but academics- that's a very different matter! A wonderful example of how exceptionalist the US can be, in contradiction of its own Congress. McCarthyism is alive and well in 2007, it seems.


listen to Uncle George, everyone

Why isn't George Monbiot Prime Minister, that's what I want to know? His even hand is a model that Gordon Brown and his entire cabinet should be locked in a room without food and water and made to study; they should only be released when they can each provide written rationales of at least 10,000 words for at least four of the following topics:

  • NOT using military force against Iran
  • withdrawal of our military from Iraq and introduction of the McGovern program
  • dropping all support for ID cards
  • prohibiting faith schools
  • taxing aviation fuel
  • unreservedly endorsing the EU Bill of Rights
  • prohibiting road construction or expansion
  • renationalising the railways
  • enforcing the ban on exporting military material and torture equipment
  • implementing subsidies for renewable generation and investing heavily in its research and development
  • scrapping Trident and its planned replacement
  • implementing the single transferable vote
  • criminalising corporate sociopathy
  • nationalising all PFI deals and prohibiting their further implementation
Again, I could add more but you get the picture.

Ruth Kelly is a fucking idiot and should be sectioned

Her argument for a 3rd runway at Heathrow?

"If we don't build it then someone on the continent will and so air traffic will continue to increase."

Right. OK. So if I go out in the street and break into a car and crash it into a crowd of school children, killing and maiming them, I can stand up in court and say "If I hadn't done it, some other idiot would have." And I will get let off, will I?

This is such an obviously flawed argument that I am consumed by an overwhelming desire to beat my head against a brick wall until I lose consciousness. It is so desperately depressing to see an elected representative mouthing such gross fallacies in the national press. The Guardian didn't even mention the obvious flaw in this argument, revealing that institution to be as gutless and pathetic at confronting threats to public wellbeing as any other corporate media entity.

I really, really fucking hate Ruth Kelly.

"The British Government - the environmental equivalent of crack dealers."


Additional:

A CiF piece a few days later had more on the 3rd runway issue.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

a slacker's manifesto

Molly Scott Cato is part of the team writing a green economics blog call Gaian Economics. She's an anti-capitalist who thinks the modern concept of "work", i.e gainful employment, is a con and unnecessary. I agree with her in principle but I get a nasty tingle in my nose and my eyes get all red and puffy from my hippy-allergy whenever I'm reading her work. Eg:

"It is an affront that our ability to raise happy children and to guarantee them the basic necessities of clean air to breathe and water to drink is being undermined by an economic system that is dominated by organisations and structures who pay little attention to the human consequences of their actions. The fact that many of these organisations are dominated by men explains the attempt in gaian economics, in contrast to environmental economics, to balance up the gender scales. This not only means encouraging contributions from women, but also allowing the style to move away from the hard-edged, objective and scientific discourse that men, and especially male academics, tend to favour. Emotion, subjectivity and intuition are valued within green economics."

See what I mean? Anyone who says that emotion, subjectivity and intuition are valued when it comes to fundamental discourses concerning the human condition is way out there with the postmodernist fuckwits rubbing arrowroot extract on their arses and practising feng-shui. Detached objectivity allows concepts to be clearly and concisely defined and conveyed between parties whether you are having a conversation in the pub or composing the text of a policy document which may be studied for its meaning for centuries to come. Abandon that clarity and precision and you end up with woolly, semi-mystical bullshit open to interpretation by whatever fanatic is currently convinced that they alone hold the insight necessary to perceive the True Meaning of the holy text. Emotion didn't get us Linux or concentrating solar power. No. Fucking hard-headed intelligent, rational, scientific motherfuckers did that- NOT chakras or meditation, homeopathy or veganism or any of your other spiritual cockpus.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

fuck off fatties

A CiF post caught my eye and then made me laugh my arse off.

"Fat person cries because people think she's ugly".

I wonder if they expected some sort of outwelling of understanding and sympathy . . . . HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAhHahaHAhahahHAHAhAHaaaaaaaaa . . . . . . fuck off to krispy kreme and drown your wobbly sorrows in another gallon of chocolate sauce you offence to the eyes!


The funniest thing I thought was that the author hadn't submitted a photo of herself to be published alongside her article. It is also significant that the author seems to specifically feel that "not all overweight people want to conform to the notion that thin is beautiful". Well, not all normal people feel that way either, you fat fuck! I don't think thin is beautiful. I hate stick insects who hobble around in clippy-cloppy shoes with designer handbags, lunching on a leaf of lettuce and swigging their bastard-fuckwit-arseblind-twatmonger skinny-lattes. My feeling is that, like the wobblers, such people have excluded themselves from a vast array of life-affirming experiences for no other reason than their bastardised aesthetics. They do not find the toned, healthy human form acceptable- for whatever reason. I consider this to be an inverse prejudice: Being normal is not acceptable for stick insects and wobblers- they are better than normal. They have some insight into life which us normally framed persons do not which allows them to perceive the evil nature of the standard human outline.

I could go on, but I think you get the message.

Brown's climate rhetoric sounds good but his governments other policies lay his lies bare

His words ring true, he calls for the UK to embrace climate change remediating technology. However his government also states- and supports the fact- that there are “£20 billion of new coal-fired power stations planned to be built in the UK before 2020″, advocates a 3rd runway at heathrow, refuses to develop any sort of modern public transport system and is planning the most costly road-building program this country has seen for several decades. It also refuses to acknowledge the fact that the fuel for our nation's transport system is already increasing in price dramatically, will soon be prohibitively expensive, supplies may even dwindle and starve our network and they have no plans in place to change to another energy source.

Face it, Brown is full of shit.

Monday, November 19, 2007

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.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Gordon says non-UK domiciles shouldn't sit in the Lords

This is actually quite cool. I wrote about the cockweasel, Ashcroft, previously. I bet Brown chickens out because he too is a dirty, plutocratic cockweasel.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

UK pulls funding for 2nd degree courses

Before this happened, 2nd degree courses were funded in the same way as your 1st, making retraining and career direction changes straightforward. Now its going to be virtually impossible. A sweet little sociopathic own-goal from Brown. Nice one, Gordo! What's he going to do next? Cut disability benefits for anyone with a 2nd disability?

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

nasty numbers

Coming to a pseduo-democracy near you!

Be afraid! Be very, very fucking afraid!

Michael Meacher rocks!

His CiF article is spot on. Just what you'd expect from someone who was sacked from Tony Blair's government for refusing to suck corporate cock.

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.

Monday, November 12, 2007

the red queen of corporate tax avoidance

The New Statesman seems confused as to the cause of falling corporate tax revenues. I think I know the answer. Corporation's taxes depend on how much they can squeeze past the inland revenue. Doing this takes either political clout- "if you tax me I will take my business elsewhere"- or a deep knowledge of the loopholes. Both of these are heavily dependent upon money in the first place- if you can't afford top notch accountants you don't get access to the loopholes, if you don't have the fiscal mass to become a moral blackhole, perventing any measly little government from extracting money from the dpeths of your bank accounts' gravity well, then you are similarly vulnerable to legitimate taxation. Governments tie up loopholes periodically in response to voter pressure or financial squeezes themselves. However, as with PR, the big businesses have all the resources on their side whereas the government is working on a budget. We can illustrate this with the metaphor of the Red Queen, running constantly to stay in the same place. The ground rushing beneath her feet is the progress being made by the corporation's mega-dollars on opening loopholes, increasing fiscal mass and generally dodging the government's bullets.

There's another good piece of economic analysis there too.

talking about overpopulation misses the point

Juliette Jowitt seems to, although she does make allusions toward the real problem. I should clarify that there are two distinct focuses for this argument with two distinct outcomes. Firstly, there is the UK: Over-motherfucking-populated! Then there is the rest of the world in general which isn't really that overpopulated. We're probably above the long-term carrying capacity of the planet or close to it but its a temporary peak that I hope won't last more than a century.

The real problem are all those fat fucks in the US and Australia with carbon footprints that are twice ours. Them and all the multi-squillionaires jetting all over the world to their "weekenders" in their private cunt-jets. And, of course, the exploding industrialisation of China and India with dirty, coal-fuelled power stations. I've linked to an article on overpopulation by one of the founders of ZNet before but I'm obviously going to have to again because Juliette isn't getting the message.

squeal, bitches! yeah!

Oil pigs are squealing in pain.

Their cries are music to my ears.

Friday, November 09, 2007

the house of wool and straw

. . . well, the frame was made of Douglas Fir too but the walls are of the above materials. I thought this was an awesome piece of work. Would you rather live in a Wimpey home, or something like this? They cost the same but the Wimpey home kills your children's future.

The choice is yours.

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

Thursday, November 08, 2007

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!"

a clash of cultures

Alan Dershowitz is whinging like the little bitch that he is after he got the CiF treatment in response to his outright threats against the Oxford Union. The comments are a tirade of informed rebuttals of his absurd position.

I love it.

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

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.

aspartame gives you cancer

I was in the supermarket with a friend (Tesco- work of raw evil, Grrrrrrrrr) when she tried to put a bottle of "diet" ginger beer in the trolly. This prompted a rant from me about aspartame and how it causes cancer and we then put it back and got a non-"diet" bottle. Which also had aspartame in it!


I was flummoxed and bamboozled! Why put aspartame in such a product? Is it to keep the calorie count down? Is aspartame actually cheaper than corn syrup now due to the growing demand for biofuels?

As a matter of intrigue I chased down a few papers on the subject and was appalled to discover this. If you skip to the conclusion you find this passage:

"Our study shows that APM is a multi-potential carcinogenic compound whose carcinogenic effects are evident even at a daily dose of 20 mg/kg bw, much less than the current ADI for humans in Europe (40 mg/kg bw) and in the United States (50 mg/kg bw)."

APM = aspartame
ADI = Average Daily Intake

Be afraid, motherfuckers!

warmly depressing

This story warms the heart and simultaneously fills it with regret at the system that will surely move to crush such a bastion of resistance. My comments hurt me to write but the truth of the matter flowed out of me without any prompting.

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."


this is so wrong and yet not the least unexpected

DEFRA is proposing slashing Natural England's conservation budget by at least 15%. Proposed cuts include (typically) £700,000 of scientific research. That's 7 research assistants, two postdocs or 3 PhDs.

Other areas to be trimmed include money for improving SSSIs- already in a shit state (eg. Plymouth Sound- one of the most toxic pieces of coastline in the Westcountry), national nature reserves and areas of outstanding natural beauty. One of the budget aspects I haven't got a problem with being trimmed at all is a hefty £2 million on improving access to the countryside for ethnic minorities!

I beg your fuckwit pardon? Do minorities currently face significant obstructions in their attempts to get to the Cotswolds? Is the Lake District patrolled by neo-nazi thugs on the look-out for Bangladeshis desperately seeking to hike up Catbells?? What is this fucking arse-biscuit, politically-correct, wankstain of a policy?

One other area of their budget that needs money spent on it is their website- the Pink Palace of Poop.

many UK MPs are essentially highly paid lobbyists

From George's archives.

waterboarding is very definitely torture

Majikthise linked to a report by a bunch of US combat veterans and general trained killers discussing- and profoundly rejecting- the Bush administration's assertion that waterboarding is not torture. It is an exemplary piece of moral philosophising and not a little heart warming to hear such eminent voices advocating such human principles.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

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 . . . . .

General J C Christian: "Sure the Church's hierarchy may be a bunch of self-hating hypocrites, but at least we've stopped doing altar boys."

Dude, this guy just kills me.

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.

Monday, November 05, 2007

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.

Thursday, November 01, 2007

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!

Timothy Garton-Ash is a cock-weasel

His piece on CiF is complete bullshit. I gave him a verbal kicking, along with about three hundred other CiF users. BUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAHHAHhahaHAHAHahahhahaaaaa . . . . . . .


Addition:

AC Grayling's CiF piece, on the other hand, totally rocks!!

Brendan O'Neill, however, is as much of a twat as ever. Honestly! This guy is one of the most backward fuckwits of a commentator I've ever had the displeasure of reading.

Cockweasel!

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

some Americans are so stupid . . . .

. . . . that they think that their mincing version of rugby football might actually appeal to the British.

I can't even summon the vitriol to swear at them. What's the point? They already know that they're a bunch of body-armour-wearing, time-out-calling, forward-passing mincers.

punkscience loves The Spectator

Such a quality publication! And such a diverse range of stories covered from a humanitarian perspective. Clive Stafford-Smith's is the best but there are several competitors for the title.

This is interesting though. I'm not very happy with Sean Carey's position.

King Abdullah is a cunt

Robert Fisk is appropriately outraged.

Yes, British ignorants- you're monarch is welcoming a theocratic dictator who regularly has people publically beheaded. Several British nationals have been summarily arrested and tortured by his country whilst Blair's government turned a blind eye. They weren't even prepared to condemn the sentence of two of these poor innocents to death by crucifixion.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/saudi/story/0,11599,642109,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/saudi/story/0,,1797330,00.html
http://www.newstatesman.com/200701150015
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/feb2002/saud-f18.shtml

Sorry- what century are we living in, again?

Addition:

Johann agrees.

Mirador del Rio

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

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

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.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

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!

Monday, October 22, 2007

The Misanthropic Principles - Number 3 - "Terrorists Are Bad"

Teaching children that the society in which they live is a glorious utopia and that they should be grateful for the opportunities they have only serves to ingrain a sense of distrust and disillusionment when they realise all too soon that modern life is grossly corrupt and unfair. This perpetuates the vicious circle of disenfranchisement and disengagement with society which then prevents any meaningful change at the ballot box. The result is the incumbence of a bunch of centre-right nepotists who slowly fritter our nations services and infrastructure away whilst quashing our freedoms and rights.

Essentially, this is an argument based upon the stunning hypocrisy and moral vacuity of many public figures and policy makers- as well as the corporate and philanthropic figures who finance them- who all somehow claim to be acting in the public interest. The most prominent example can be found in the postulation that "Terrorists Are Bad". Alternatively, reference to Universal Principles serves well to illuminate the issue.


Supplementary evidence to this Misanthropic Principle has been provided by The General.