Thursday, December 25, 2008

the solution to the fuckyounomic crisis

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From Michael Meacher. As previously mentioned, Meacher voted for the Iraqi genocide. We can't forgive him for this but we can respect him for consistently coming up with excellent progressive policies. He should apologise for the Iraqi genocide and join the Green Party.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Jonathon Porritt: "In every respect, this represents one of the worst examples of mis-governance that I’ve seen since 2000."

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I struggled to comprehend all the acronyms in Jonathon's post. Imagine working with that facefuckfest on a daily basis!

justice may yet be served

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Good CiF article by Jonathan Freedland. Bush et al must not be left to retire comfortably but should be harrassed from every corner of the globe with the threat of prosecution for their crimes against humanity.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

I thought I liked Dennis McShane . . .

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. . . because of this. And then Decentpedia revealed his Muscular Democratic tendencies. Weak.

Monday, December 22, 2008

corporate sociopathy and its political champions

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Gary Younge is a bit if a legend for penning this. It really nails the ideology of free-market capitalism to the wall.


"As for Madoff, if the Securities and Exchange Commission, the financial services watchdog, had been doing its job, it could have prevented him from committing this crime. But if he had done it by the book, an analogous situation could have occurred that would have left his investors almost as broke. His fraud was exposed after some investors sought to withdraw more capital than he could produce. That is essentially the same as the bank runs we have seen over the last few months. But while Madoff is under house arrest, the bankers are about to reap huge bonuses."

Sunday, December 21, 2008

"One could say that the British economy is like the pregnant virgin . . .

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. . . in the very real sense that she's obviously been fucked but no-one's owning up to it."

Mash it!

Friday, December 19, 2008

US company now controls UK nuclear deterrent

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From ChickYog:

In a stealth decision the government's state-owned nuclear body, BNFL, has sold its remaining shares in the ownership of UK Atomic Weapons Establishment- the private company responsible for developing and maintaining the UK's absurdly titled "independent" nuclear deterrent.

Let's just go over that one more time, in case anyone missed the implications there: We have some of the most advanced nuclear weapons on the planet, ostensibly under the direction of the MOD, in reality in the hands of a private corporation that is itself now owned and run by two foreign, private companies and one British one.

Some of us might wish that the lessons of privatisation had been learned by successive UK governments. Apparently in vain.

money

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Well I hope you find your way
Through every heart wrenching day
With all those shitty decisions that you make
Hell I know the games, I know the games you play

So do you think you got enough time
To open all of your uranium mines
Before yes you go and you poison us all
You know your profit man it's gonna take its toll

And I don't know who you are
I don't know where you come from
I just know it is to hell you're going cos
You pollute everything with you big business
And i know it's all for your money
Hell yeah, all for your money
All for your money
Tell me man it's all for your money

So go now you go and you rape this Earth
You take her for what you think she'd worth
But you take and you take and you
take til there's nothing left
I don't call that business, I call that theft

So who do the Hell do you think you are
Why do you got to take things so far
You know you screw the Earth and then
you look towards the stars
Tell me man why do you got to take things so far

And I don't know who you are
I don't know where you come from
I just know it is to hell you're going cos
You ruin everything with you big business
And i know it's all for your money

All for your money
Sweeter than honey
All for your Money
Tell me man can you eat your money
Tell me man can you eat your money
Cos that's what's gonna be left,
that's what's gonna be left
So tell me man can you eat your money

Business man with your uranium mine,
will you gain a conscience
Politician man, there in your Government,
will you gain a conscience
Media man with all your newspapers,
Who lies must gain a conscience
Prime Minister with all our apathy,
will you GAIN A CONSCIENCE!


John Butler rules.

Campaign to Protect Rural England are an "anti-environmental organisation"

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The latest of a series featuring our boy George giving cockweasels metaphorical shoeings for their environmental hypocrisy features the head of the CPRE trying to defend his organisation for focusing upon wind turbine development instead of the apocalypse of open-cast coal mines. George rules.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Royal Mail to be part-privatised by Mandelscum

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The government made a promise in its manifesto not to. One of Mandelscum's lackeys said, two days ago, that they wouldn't. Which means that those of us with any memory of the past ten years expect the whole affair to be sold for a fraction of its real value to a firm with close whitehall connections, probably with several senior ex-civil servants on the board any time now.

"the banking system collapsed because it became indecipherable"

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The quote is from the the Tax Justice Network website. George explains.

Fire In The Sky

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Fire in the sky
out of the blue
and into the red depths,
Time for you and I
to try and fall asleep
in the bed they've made us,
All came crumbl'n down
tears in our eyes
as it rained confusion
the whole world has changed

I don’t understand
how one can kill a man
in the name peace,
that’s ridiculous

They say eye for an eye
so they fire from the sky
and they come out of nowhere
Time for you and I
to turn on the big screen
see what’s happnen'
And as those children die,
pawns in the game of
collateral damage,
The whole world goes mad

Standing here on quick sand,
the more we fight we sink
And vengeance gives us hope,
at least that what we think,
at least that what we think cause

As we make amends by
getting our revenge,
We sort nothing out,
just add to the doubt
and with God on both sides,
if death is justified,
whatever the name,
then we're all to blame

so as the spirits fly,
to honor those who've past,
we've got to get along,
while the time still last
Bury the hatchet deep
so we all can weep
and heal all this pain
so,so we can live again,
so,so we can live again 'cos

as we make amends by
getting our revenge,
We sort nothing out,
just add to the doubt
and God on both sides,
if death is justified,
whatever the name,
then we're all to blame
But I don’t understand
how one can kill a man
in the name peace,
that’s ridiculous
But I understand
that I will defend
my family from
both sides of misery


Frickin' WORD!

Monday, December 15, 2008

International Energy Agency revises rate of oil reserve depletion from 3.7%p.a. to 6.7%p.a.

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George does his thing. George rules. The UK government, on the other hand, have always adopted a stunningly ostrich-like policy to peak oil. In fact, their entire policy to deal with this threat was revealed by a Freedom of Information request by George.

"The government does not feel the need to hold contingency plans specifically for the eventuality of crude-oil supplies peaking between now and 2020."


They're going to have a nasty time revising all their policy plans that were based on that fantasy and that are now seen to be utterly inadequate and short sighted. So much for planning for the long term.

Lib Dem spokespserson: "The threat posed by environmental direct action is being systematically overblown by both the government and the police"

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Further to previous coverage of claims of "ecoterrorism" it has been revealed through a Freedom of Information request that, of the "70 officers injured in the course of their duties" during the policing of the Kingsnorth Climate Camp, none were injured in confrontations involving the protesters.


Addition:

Merrick gave it the goods.

Muntadar al-Zaidi is punkscience's "Hero of The Year"

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This is so awesome! Such a shame he missed both times. His words are poignant.


Addition:

Muntadr has been arrested, is being tested for drugs and alcohol and will be interrogated to determine whether someone put him up to this heinous crime against genocidaires. Fuck! Imagine if everyone went round throwing objects at people who were responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths! No really! Imagine it! (dribble)


Addition:

Muntadr's brother claims that he has sustained a broken arm and ribs in custody. If you watch the video of the attack you can't hear him screaming when he is restrained, as he would if the injuries were sustained at that point. This suggests they were sustained after his arrest. Clearly Iraqi justice is as perverse and brutal as it ever was under Hussein. Nice work, Blair et al.


Addition 16-12-08:

In light of the suffering Muntadar has been subjected to for his heroism, punkscience would like to upgrade his status from "Hero of The Day" to "Hero of The Year".


Addition 16-12-08, 12:08:

As I insinuated above, it is now clear that Muntadar has suffered brutality at the hands of the Iraqi security services.


Addition 19-12-08

A judge has confirmed that Muntadar was beaten either during his arrest or during his detention. There are no reports that Muntadar is looking to press charges- or even whether he can.

Department of Work and Pensions employee:

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‘I work in “Welfare to Work.” Work is only a way out of poverty when there’s work and it pays a living wage. The best way out of poverty in the long term is training so you can get better work. I see people day in, day out who are claiming incapacity benefit or income support. Out of the 50 odd people on my caseload 2 are “playing the system,” the rest are people who are either unquestionably far far too ill to work or people who have been disenfranchised by their illness and by the consequences of the UK’s changing labour market. And the government expects me to get 6 of those people into work each month. In a recession. It’s crazy.
We don’t need more blame for the working class. We need proper education for everyone and a society that actually values people’s work with a living wage for everyone.
From Liberal Conspiracy.

The government's welfare reforms legislate for corporate manorialism. After decades spent trying to punish people for not wanting to work in mind-numbing boredom and for poverty wages they have finally made the absurd decision to effectively criminalise pride.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Angela Merkel is a flaccid phallus

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Donald Tusk is a pig's arsehole and Silvio Berlusconi is a just a cunt.

George will explain why.

Oh- and Brown's a cockweasel.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

music, art and piracy

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Jack Ely, a famous musician himself, vilifies the music industry for its assault upon free content. Jack rules. The music industry is full of cunts.

Monday, December 08, 2008

Wikipedia blocked by UK ISPs

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According to the BBC several ISPs have partially or completely blocked access to Wikipedia. Their reasons are that the Wikimedia group are hosting an image of the cover art of the Scorpions' album Virgin Killer. The artwork shows a naked, prepubescent girl with a cracked glass effect overlaid to cover her crotch, which would otherwise be fairly prominent. The image is easy enough to find on Google. As the BBC explain, the image isn't being blocked in any other countries. In the US it clearly falls under the definition of 'art'. I can understand why some pleb would voice their concern over the issue to the relevant authorities as the image is somewhat suggestive (although compared to the rest of the torrid material easily viewable over teh interweb these days it is harmless). What I can't understand is why some ISPs are reported to have blocked Wikipedia completely. There is no justification for this. Most of them have only blocked the page containing the image itself. To block one of the most popular sites on the net is absurd. You don't even need to block the page- you can just block the image, leaving the text intact. This smacks of an outright assault upon the legitimacy and credibility of the Wikipedia project.


Addition:

The Guardian now has an article up on this and adds to the story by stating that the Internet Watch Foundation- the bunch of twats who initiated this debacle by declaring the album cover to be "child pornography"- are now considering blacklisting Amazon US as well as Wikipedia for hosting an image of the album art! Its all just so pathetically reactionary and desperately overprotective that I can't help but hope they do. Amazon will undoubtedly sue their nuts off for such an extreme overreaction to a piece of art that has been in the public domain for decades. Amazon stand to lose a heap of business from lost access to their site and when the case makes it to court the actions of the IWF and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection agency that advise them will be microscopically scrutinised and heavily criticised.


Additional addition:

The insanity of this move has been acknowledged. The IWF has realised that its move brought the image in question to a far wider audience than if it had just ignored it and it has consequently reversed the ban and liberated Wikipedia and Amazon. Furthermore, the IWF has opened up its previous rulings to reinterpretation in light of their "context". Something that should obviously be taken into account in light of the propensity of art to focus upon the female form, whatever its age.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

what the fuck . . . ?

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OK, read this (don't look at the comments).

Now read the post before.

See?

You can read the comments on the first one now.

Seriously, what the fuck was he thinking?


Addition:

To anyone wishing to comment here on the fallacy of modern science, and the potential of chakras, homeopathy, feng-shui and earth-motherhood to return our society to "balance", please consider my opinion of postmodernism before doing so as a many people find being called an ignorant cunt offensive.

what George says . . . .

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Freakin' WORD!

the absence of schadenfreude

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Bankers. Its all their fault. But I can't revel in the latest news of massive redundancies across the sector because the people who are losing their jobs will absolutely not be the ones who are responsible for the economic crisis. They will be the lowest ranks and junior managers. The disposable elements, if you like. Yes, maybe they are still cunts who wanted to profit from other people's industry but that doesn't make them any more responsible than an Inland Revenue employee or a Parking Warden. Its the scum at the top that need to have their bonuses rescinded, be removed from their positions and banned from holding directorships or senior positions in business ever again. Failure should not be ignored and it certainly shouldn't be rewarded.

"Meanwhile, Tom Logan, an overdraft holder from Peterborough, said: "By all means please do stop me if I'm being a total and utter fuckwit, but if we control the banks and we know what the banks are supposed to do, why can't we just tell them to do it?""

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

snigger

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"Wiring up the microphones in the Houses of Parliament and of the various television news channels to such lie detectors could probably save the country billions. Asking Tony Blair a few simple questions about Iraq’s weapons programmes after reminding him that he was being subjected to ‘voice risk analysis technology’ would have saved the nation a pretty penny."

Justin's funny.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

too fucking right

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"A Ministry of Defence think tank has made a remarkable forecast about political militancy. The Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre published a report in April 2007 in which it speculated that in coming years “the world’s middle classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest”. “The middle classes could become a revolutionary class taking the role envisaged for the proletariat by Marx . . . the growing gap between themselves and a small number of highly visible super-rich might fuel disillusion,” the report said." (p81 of the pdf)
Face it. The generation this article is talking about (my own) have been robbed blind.

Rajendra Pachauri is a dude

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From Google News.
"(Yet) here, you've got agencies, you've got organisations that are not only responsible for their own failure but the failure of the entire economic system, and they get cheques worth 2.7 trillion dollars. I find this amazing... What can you say, what can you do?"

Rajendra Pachauri shared the Nobel Peace Prize along with the rest of the IPCC.

the government are failing us

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A new link has been added to my little list on the left. The factoid was from this Guardian article. Its particularly damning of the government's pathetic approach, not only to combating climate change, but to the energy security and sustainability of our way of life.

"The London opera houses have had more taxpayer money than the British marine power industry over the past few years."

There's also a new offering from George to peruse, in which our golden boy slates the government's latest climate change report in his usual well-evidenced fashion.

"[Lord] Turner’s suggested cuts are more likely to produce four degrees of warming than two degrees."

Plus there's a great piece from Majikthise on Obama's choice for National Security Advisor: A retired Marine General who actively fought the US's own climate change bill. Nice.

Denis Healey is awesome

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I just listened to Denis being interviewed on the Today program saying that, when he was Secretary of State for Defence, even if the UK was being attacked with nuclear weapons he would never have "pushed the button" to launch a nuclear response as "most of the people who died would have been innocent".

A wonderful piece of candour.


Addition:

The Guardian editorialised on this.