What a day.
I've just traveled all over the country to speak to two different people.
One down to Paignton for a meeting first thing in the morning and now up to Leeds for another. Just got here.
Don't know what the hell is going on in the world will catch up later in the hotel. For all I know Blair, Brown, Blunkett or Straw could be dead but probably not.
I'll have to go browsing tomorrow and catch up.
Now our little town has grown up.
Well, last week we had another armed robbery in one of our local petrol stations. The one my ex and her mother works at occasionally. Although neither of them was there at the time.
Anyway, for the first time it seems that someone was actually shot during the robbery. Now we are on the map. We've had a few armed robberies over the years but you never know if they are water pistols or what as none have been fired yet.
Seems this guy decided that the small amount of his employers money he had was worth his life so he gambled that it was a water shotgun. Luckily he only sacrificed a bit of his life, bit like Harry Whittington, although he still lost the money. I wonder if it will buy any brownie points in his chosen career path as target? I bet Harry Whittington will have a better chance of getting something out of it. Our guy will probably get a £300 payment for bravery plus lose his job for putting others at risk. What a wonderful country we have. With this bunch in power he is lucky if he does not find himself in jail for upsetting the guy who shot him. After all the guy was only doing his job. And we are entitled to go about our daily job without physical or mental harm.
I feel a lot safer now that our Government has this gun thing under control like I keep on hearing. Yep, you hardly hear of any problems nowadays.
A hint of backbone.
Well what do you know. My local MP is actually standing up and being counted as concerned about the potential for abuse of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. Read more
here. Of course that does not mean he will vote against it. Just that he sees it as a tool that can be abused.
In a way I'm surprised that he has spoken out about it. This must be a hint that all is not well in the party. So far our man has only voted against the Government a handful of times over the last
ten years. And never when it is on of our Presidents key areas.
Anyway, perhaps this is a sign of the way things are going. Our man must get some feedback from his lackeys. Could this sudden concern relate to his reelection chances?
Jeez, I hope so. Too little too late I say. Fingers crossed,
Another Test. This one is how evil I am.
Ooops.
| You Are 64% Evil |
You are very evil. And you're too evil to care.
Those who love you probably also fear you. A lot. |
I just don't know what to say.
And as you know if you read my ramblings that is unusual.
Read
this about a really mixed marriage.
The Future of Crime in the UK.
Look at
this. It's about as good as it gets for the criminal. High rewards and small risk.
All premises are usually covered by cameras and security systems designed to keep out the wrong people and allow swift dispatch of the right people to stop anything suspicious. This type of crime bypasses that in general and minimises risk to the bad guys.
Our population is neutered by our self protection laws are not in a position to do anything and, in fact, have no reason to take any risks at all. So far from being dangerous the hostages, for that is what they were, are in little danger. Of course there are always some people who think that their employees money is worth their lives but in general we know it is not. I certainly would not take any risks. I would think that shooting my child is unlikely but there are nutters out there. Many, many more now than before. Take it all thanks. It's insured and can be replaced. Thanks guys, close the door on your way out.
Now this is where it goes wrong for these guys because they now have to spend the money. Surprisingly enough, the most difficult part of getting away with it. This could be what catches them. Our Police seem to be hot with solving this sort of crime. Either through stupidity, someone bragging, or just bad luck, a member gets caught for speeding, once one is caught the noose tends to tighten around them all.
In the meantime I think this type of crime will become more common as criminals want to minimise risk. Why mug someone on camera when you can invade their homes hold their families hostage. Send them out to drain their bank accounts or steal things from work and bring home.
Is abuse of call centre staff surprising?
Reading this
article on abuse rattling Indian Call centre staff.
Well, I don't know about you but I think they are implying that the abuse is racially motivated and we are all racists. I for one don't agree.
For one thing this is not new. Read
this about abuse in 2001.
What these people seem to forget is that poor saps like me don't like getting phone calls about double glazing and other such unsolicited calls. Everyone handles these in different ways including the customary 'Sod off!' In the past our guys hang up and go on to the next hapless 'customer'. That's one of the reason turnover is so high in these jobs it must be totally demoralising. These people are not racist. They are just fed up of being hassled.
Additionally a lot of people don't believe in moving jobs overseas. They vote in the only way that makes sense to the companies. Refuse to deal with these call centres and, if necessary, move their business to make a point. I know a few people that have done this. These people are also not racist.
The ones asking about electricity and carts are just ignorant. They see Indian on the TV and it's usually a small village with a few cows. They rarely get shown the cities with air conditioning, high tech equipment and well educated people. They don't equate the carts, squalor and cows with a well educated, nuclear capable society with space capability. These people are just ignorant and, I believe, not deliberately racist.
Finally, there is the support centre issues. The one I hit weekly. I for one get fed up with press 1 for this and 2 for that. Then you end up the wrong place anyway. Then 'You are 2nd in the queue you will be another two minutes' Five minutes later 'You are 2nd in the queue.... Aaargh!. Then having to spell phonetically almost everything we discuss because the operator does not understand that Manchester is not a suburb of London and that Wales is not a city in England. I get fed up repeating the phonetics because of accent difficulties and get fed up asking them to repeat themselves because I don't understand what they want me to do this end. Then when I get the call from the techies it's often been recorded wrong. It's not racist to get fed up with wasting more of your time than you need to. It takes more than twice as long to log a call now than it did when our call centre was in Luton. I don't have any choice as my firm made this decision but, just to make a point, I make all my calls on my mobile so I can point out how long it takes to record these faults. Our customers complain as well but none officially as they are scared of being classed racist. They have told me so.
So the automated systems that lead you round in circles, the queues with flexible times and, now, in addition, when you speak to someone they don't understand you. No wonder people are blowing their tops.
All in all. Not really surprising to read about this. It's not even surprising to find out they are using the racist card. It's pretty standard really. Welcome to the real world guys.
All this to save a few bob. Wonder how much they save on call centres anyway? Does it make up for the increases in complaints and the loss of customers. Nat West seem to think so if their latest adverts are any indication.
Religion vs. The State. A change of Balance.
Looks like the Right to Abortion is going to be brought under the spotlight in the US. A state is going to make it illegal for anyone to perform an abortion unless the woman's life is at risk.
Seems that the Anti-Abortionists feel that the balance has tipped with Bush's new appointees to the Supreme Court and that this is an opportunity to change the law. Read more
here. Will this mean that this issue will ripple across the country?
Looks like the balance on Religion has tipped as well with the new appointees. What else will they be looking at? The Death Penalty, Guns, the Oath of Allegiance? Should be an interesting time.
Best way to handle it would be for those forced to have the babies to dump them on the State Courts steps and let the state have to live with the consequences of their decisions. Wonder how long it would take for them to reconsider?
Maybe with the falling birth rates the West might be forced to take this step as a way to ensure the Western way is not lost. Maybe the next step after that is to stop the pill and contraception or the world would be filled with '
the wrong people'.
Now stake in the ground. I don't believe in Abortion myself. But, IMO, abortion should be allowed up to 21 weeks or whatever the lowest agreed date is for sentience or pain or whatever. Anyone doing otherwise should be prosecuted. There is plenty of time before that point if you want to take that step and we should ensure that leaving it too late has it's consequences.
This could be interesting. But it won't be.
I forgot about these laws in the EU that allow people in other EU countries to be extradited to a EU country on request.
What that means in reality is that you need to follow the laws of any state in the EU or they can ask for your extradition and prosecute you for breaking their laws. Of course some countries are not so stupid as to follow these rules religiously. Not like this Mickey Mouse country.
Now, an Israeli lawyer, is calling for the Iranian President to be prosecuted by Germany under German laws against Holocaust denial. Read more
here. It would be interesting if it actually had a chance of leading to something.
Forget about the logistics of this because clearly Iran is not a part of the EU, nor is it ever likely to be, these guys will set up their Middle East equivalent of the EU and soon there will not be any individual countries but instead massive continental conglomerates. The US, EU, Africa, Far East, Middle East, Australia, South America and Russian Federation seems reasonable.
Being part of the EU means we will have to meet the lowest common denominator in laws and bureaucracy. We of course already have the most stupid pathetic bunch running us.
Imagine if Blair becomes President of the EU. God help us if that happens. It would really put the icing on the cake if we got rid of the useless git and then whoever was the next PM had to put up with him in Brussels. Think what damage he could do there. They are bad enough without him. Perhaps we could let him become President and then we can withdraw from the EU. Could we stop him coming back? They could keep him.
Although, there may be a plus side. Some other people in the EU are a bit more violent than us stiff upper lip Brits especially some on the new ex Russian mob. Maybe he will get some lead injections.
Is the UK style of Democracy working?
The more I read about things that are going on in our Country the more I am getting fed up and motivated to do something.
Our Government now intrudes on everything we can do and not with a light fingered touch but with the heavy hand of bureaucracy.
They stop us doing things that cause no harm to anyone. If it upsets feelings it is now a jailable offence but to actually break laws the punishment seems to be insignificant.
ID Cards, Torture, human rights abuses our Government is no longer what I would class as a Western style Government. Next we will have to get a camera installed in our heads. If you have nothing to hide what is the problem? (although that might be a good idea for a different reason)
And the final straw. It seems that lying about something does not even have the slightest bit of stigma for our low life politicians. Even knowing something is untrue and even common knowledge does not stop them saying it as fact. What a legacy we are leaving our children.
Plus these seems to be no moral centre anywhere. Everything we do is someone else's fault. Can't get a job. Sue for hurt feelings from those that don't interview you. Put a nail through your own hand sue the nail and hammer manufacturer. Get shot in the head by the only people that are allowed to protect you. You can't do it yourself. It's your fault for wearing the wrong clothes. Where are we going with this? Jeez it's really hard to believe how far we have fallen since our new President took power.
They also don't seem to care as there is nothing that can be done by the general public and the politicians we are able to vote for are either at the same trough or scared to speak out and lose their privileges. Even protests are out now. Or should I say peaceful protests are out. It seems that only non peaceful protests are listened to now. Or let's go the whole hog and say legally there is nothing that can be done. If you can't legally have a non violent protest so why bother having an illegal non violent protest lets just have an illegal violent protest to sort out our issues. Is that what they are trying to encourage?
I'm now convinced that in our Democracy if a tyrant can set up a situation where they can cancel elections, imprison without due process and execute people at their whims then there is something far wrong. That's what we have now. We clearly do not have sufficient checks in place to stop a tyrant taking over. How far we have fallen in ten short years. It should have been impossible but it clearly is not.
I'm waiting patiently for this revolution. Let me know if there is any help I can provide. Legally of course as I don't want to break any laws you see. The Death penalty is on the table.
When it is all over and we are arranging a new style of leadership can we not put in place something where politicians can serve for a maximum of three years, they don't get paid for it in the way they are now, their every action is made public and they can be held accountable for them.
How many of these are we going to fund?
Interesting story here about a bullied kid who now they are all grown up can get some compensation for having such a crap time at school. Talk about not getting on with your life. Why has it taken twelve years for her to make this claim? How can someone decide at this point, only being 23, that their life has been destroyed? I know she is taking Art so that must be kind of limiting anyway. Was her choice because she was bullied and now she can't see a job on the horizon?
Every year since, well, schools began there has been some obnoxious b4$^4&d who has made someone's life a misery. I would guess that every class in every school has someone who was picked on and bullied by someone else.
It seems this modern age is where you can get some compensation for that twelve years after the event. The compensation was given, which could be a costly mistake, without accepting liability so they got away with £20K. Read more
here.
I can see lots of other coming along for their compensation. It's not even from the bullies or the people that failed to protect her but against the council. Guess who pays for that. Us yet again via increased insurance premiums all round.
Where is my space at the trough?
Why are we supplying aid to Palestine anyway?
Just reading this article on Hamas trying to legitimise itself by gaining the involvement of the other political parties. Itself quite a surprising step. Read more
here.
Then in the same article I read about Arab and Islamic states would offset a drop in Western aid.
Err. Why don't they fund the whole thing then? Let's cut our aid to zero, nada, zilch, nothing and let their buddies fund them. Why should we pay a bean?
Oh! Any other Arab or Islamic states we are funding? Surely the Religion of Peace does not want us getting involved in their Empire.
Baby was Christened today
Wow, yet another step on the road through life. The baby was christened today. As expected the service went without a hitch, there were four christening going on and the vicar managed to mix up the names on a regular basis throughout the service. Although the individual head wetting parts went without a hitch. Funny things was that although the parents and godparents didn't know each other in the other groups we knew the grandparents in two of the groups as they were old, long lost old, friends. Small world.
Anyway, the get together after didn't go so well. It seems that my daughters ex isn't getting on to well with the fact she has moved on. So much so that it was almost a our side and their side of the get together. Me, being me, happily wandered around talking to all. As usual it was only later that I got the stories of the threats by the ex and the dirty looks. Lisa was concerned it would explode.
Caitlin and myself had a great time. She got picked up and spoilt by loads of people and I got to talk to loads of people.
Finally, She has just today, for the first time, lifted herself into a standing position after crawling to the sofa. Mmmm. Now is where it gets interesting.
Put her is bed and she went out like a light. I'm thinking that will happen to me in a few hours.
Another good idea screwed up by incompetence.
Reading this article about how the Israeli's are building a tolerance museum to promote "unity and respect among Jews and between people of all faiths" in Jerusalem. It even seems to be well received from people of all walks.
But where do they want to put it. On the site of an existing graveyard of course. One where people they are trying to bring on to their side still visit on a regular basis to pay respects to their ancestors. What bright spark thought of that? Now it seems they are upsetting the Muslim community and you don't want to be doing that if you like to see your body when you look down. Read more
here.
It makes you wonder whether their hearts are in it. Surely another, less controversial, site could be found in a city like Jerusalem. Even non-Muslim get emotional about graveyards and it should have been obvious to anyone with half a brain or even an intelligent politician, if they exist.
Cash Crisis hits Patient Care.
That was the headlines from this weeks local rag. Got to read this I thought as I sat down for a quick cuppa between conference calls. It seems to be how I'm spending my life at the moment.
Anyway as I pick up the paper I see an advert on Sky One for a NHS quit smoking advice line and thought that must have cost them a pretty penny. How much is a few minutes on Sky One anyway? I think by now either people have the message that smoking is bad for you or they are able to really successfully tune it out whether they have tried to give up, are succeeding or have never smoked.
Then out from the paper comes a bunch of the usual fast food leaflets as well as one from our local NHS PCT (Primary Care Trust) telling me where the local surgeries are and the phone numbers plus what they do.
So I'm looking at a leaflet which is the NHS equivalent of the yellow pages where it tells me about places I don't want to go to because they are closed because money is being spent, not on health care, but on shiny new leaflets advertising the PCT and TV adverts for people who, if they are interested, can also get the numbers from the yellow pages.
Jeez, I think I know why they are running out of money and some of our wards are closing.
People don't need any of these things. They dial 999 or go to A&E if it is an emergency. They go to their doctors when they feel ill but don't think it is an emergency and these places then sort them out.
If you need to find out where to go for non emergency care or where to give up smoking you look in the Yellow pages or the Thomson Guide.
What you do expect though is when you are diagnosed with something that you can get it fixed and not be told they are out of money till next year in what should be their primary roll treating patients whilst at the same time watching the reason they have no money on the TV.
My Sci-Fi profile.
Another one of these tests I'm addicted to.
This time it's my Sci-Fi Profile. See
here.
I'm starting to get a bit concerned that whenever I do one I never get the same as anyone else. I would that thought that some of the other whiny obnoxious guys would get the same sometimes.
History - Written by the Victors.
Just looking at the
article on David Irvings trial for Holocaust denial again and it suddenly struck me. Why is anyone in the West up for trial for stating an opinion no matter how wild or ridiculous it is? It's a bit like the Middle Ages when the Earth was the centre of the Universe and Galileo was on trial for saying the Earth revolved around the Sun. He repented to save himself and we all look at that and laugh. David Irving looks like he will repent, again to save himself, and we don't see the irony in that. In a thousand years time will the Holocaust be known as greatly exaggerated just as today we now know the earth revolves around the Sun?
As scientists propose theories and then examine the evidence to accept or reject them our understanding grows. When certain things are not allowed to be discussed then you must wonder why? Is it really something that won't stand up to scrutiny in the cold light of day?
Now I personally believe in the Holocaust but only because I read it in a History book. Now, if Historians are not even allowed to enter into discussion on such any such areas then how is it any different from propaganda where it is treason to dissent. Why should I believe one viewpoint on a very complex point in our history? Especially while there are people around to discuss it. Life is usually not black and white. Is there any grey here?
It seems to me that its sole purpose nowadays is to put the Jews in a position that if anything is said against them it is anti-Semitic. They can do what they want but to raise a voice or hand and you are seen as anti-Semitic and the justification is always the Holocaust. In the meantime anything associated with the Germans has to be seen to flog itself and give in rather than even discuss the past.
Now the atrocities done in WWII were things that we do not want to repeat but I don't hear daily about the Chinese who had similar atrocities done to them by the Japanese nor the Gypsies who were treated as vermin by the Germans. Why the Jews? It is a losing battle now 60 years after the events when the only people who were there are reducing fast due to the onset of time. Is it not time to put these issues down as history although one we should always remember and not repeat. After all, 'Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.' - George Santayana
Which makes it all the more puzzling when we see what is happening with our freedoms and how it parallels what happened at the beginning of WW2. But that is a different story.
Now it looks like the Muslims are using this technique against the West as well now. They all cry out about being victims and picked upon and we in the West can't seem to get around any cry about being a victim without putting our hands up and ensuring that no argument is put forward. They are learning from the best.
'History is not a recipe book; past events are never replicated in the present in quite the same way. Historical events are infinitely variable and their interpretations are a constantly shifting process. There are no certainties to be found in the past' - Gerda Lerner
Jeremy Clarkson.
Just been watching yet another excellent episode of
Top Gear. I don't know but I've always found Jeremy Clarkson going on about car things tickles me. His pot shots at things ranging from Politicians and Fox Hunting as well as his view on Caravans and the best MPG figures have always found a welcome reception at my house. Even when he was slagging off my dream car I still found the humour in it.
This week is the Winter Olympic episode and it has Clarkson doing the biathlon using cars and an H&K MP5. It has all the usual unPC components. Clarkson eats some yellow snow. You can still get it
here until the end of the week. Watch it to see the biathlon and ski jumping with a jet powered mini. It's still one of the best shows on TV although I don't watch it every week due to timing issues.
As one of the most unPC celebrities out there I thought Clarksons time would be short but it's good to see that he is still going strong the big lump that he is.
Keep it up Clarkson and have you considered running from
President Parliament?
Cartoon Wars. Now well into the real world.
It's unbelievable. The number of
deaths and the amount of violence now associated with these ridiculous cartoons from the Religion of Peace. It's like 'Who framed Roger Rabbit' except without a decent storyline.
It's now verging on a real clash of civilisations and it must be apparent to even our dim witted politicians that the cartoons are just an excuse for violence against the infidels. Plus, an added bonus, we are bent over holding our ankles and while the pain is going on we are apologising for causing it. What a bunch we have in power in the West. As expected we are the worst of the bunch not even having the balls to do anything at all except wring our hands and say 'We shouldn't upset anyone..... We shouldn't upset anyone.... We won't publish these.' Chances are we would jail anyone who did so. Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press my bum part.
Won't be long before we seem Westerners being killed because of this. If it happens in the UK I for one will be looking very closely at all the Muslim people I've been working alongside quite happily for many years and thinking if they are the ones who want to kill me. Maybe I should get tooled up. Something legal of course. Like some sharp pencils. At least until a law comes out saying you can only carry two pencils max at once and they can't have real points on both of them because someone might get hurt.
Surely this is more of a danger to us in the West than a bunch of made up WMDs that were never intended to be deployed here, couldn't anyway and only existed in the minds of people trying to justify some plain old revenge. Let's start the preparations for the Crusades 2006. A war coming to your home town soon. Buy your crosses and bibles here folks and don't forget, you can kill them
1 but don't insult them.
1) Assuming that the relevant laws are passed by the Government of the day before we are all dead whilst we wait for help from our local police who will be really busy checking statements from Muslims who will say 'As his head was being sawn off he called us Muslim b4$^4&ds. I want his estate sued for as much as I can get.'Now all I need is my local gang master who is able to sell me these easy to get guns plus about 2M rounds of ammo.
They work for you. Yeah! Right.
Just been looking through the local rag. Don't do it all the time because it's so predictable. Tends to be good news mainly about the scouts, football teams, bowls league etc.
I come across an article in the paper where it referred to an application by Morrison’s to open a new Superstore on what was an old school ground sold off by the council to Morrison’s a few years ago. The Council has, controversially, refused Morrison’s permission to build a new store on the land.
For a bit of history of my local area. We have had a Safeway store for quite a few years. On Cheshire Oaks we have a Sainsbury’s and in the town centre we have an ASDA store. Morrison’s bought the plot of land with the intention of moving into the area. Planning was refused. Then Morrison’s assimilated Safeway and the plans were shelved whilst the area was evaluated.
In the meantime our council, trying to make a deficit in the cream buns funds imposed parking charges on all its public car parks. Excluding council workers of course. In one fell swoop attendance was down dramatically. Where a year ago there were no 'For Let' signs I spotted about a dozen driving through today. Storeowners say that sales have been down ever since parking was introduced and more stores are appearing in the outlying areas where there is no parking charges.
Back to present day. The old Safeway store is quite small and so Morrison’s put in another application and again it was turned down despite a significant number of supporters at the planning meeting and a petition signed by a large number of locals. The council is pushing for Morrison’s to build in the town centre and is refusing anywhere else. Realistically it is because they know if Morrison’s build on the land they will get lots of people going there for free parking and the town centre will become a ghost town.
Now the part that caught my eye and really wound me up was that a council finance representative has said that £65K of our money has been put aside by the council for consultants to fight Morrison’s application. The plan being to get consultants to pick holes in all Morrison’s applications until they give up or decide to build in the town centre. Now how about that for an abuse of power. Spending my money on fighting something that will benefit me.
There have been a few comments going around about they must be taking backhanders and the like but I've thought about it a bit and can only come to the conclusion that they know that they have screwed this up royally. Forcing the population to come into their slot machine parking and high business rate area can only be done if there is no choice for your weekly shop. A choice within a few hundred yards screws it up for them. They control planning permission so they are using that.
Now if I was Morrison’s rather than going into to fight with a public funded behemoth I would wonder that with this disclosure is it not possible for them to take this further. Perhaps legally since it is plain there is no real reason to refuse permission they are just looking for one.
Oh! I think our local MP supports this. That is bad news for them as so far everything local he has supported has been put down. Local post office, another blow to the town centre, has closed. Local primary school. Funny how the other stuff seems to go so well. He supported Iraq, ID cards, Fox Hunting Ban, etc. He may be useless but he has an eye for a good photo op.
Manipulating facts for the writers bias.
I was reading this article on renewable energy in Oz. I find this stuff fascinating as, like the wild west, they are cut off from all the niceties like power, running water and even having medical treatment on call. I've been reading up on how some of these people have hundred thousand gallons of water in storage as well as fuel for the generators and, more recently, solar panels and turbines to augment power. Sounds good. Read more
here about renewable energy in Oz.
Then I come across a bit in the article which gives out some facts but in reality says nothing but the authors bias.
It said '..if you take large-scale hydro projects out of the equation, only about 2% of the world's electricity is generated through solar, wind and other renewable technologies.'
Mmmm. If you take out the biggest contributor of renewable technologies out of the equation only 2%. Clearly large scale hydro projects are a big contributor to power generation. China is building a massive one now. There are several across the world. So what percentage of power is really supplied by total renewable resources now? We don't know because the article clearly is minimising the scale to encourage us to move to renewable technologies.
It's a bit like saying '..if you take criminals out of the equation, only about 2% of the world's shootings are by non government bodies' or '..if you take cars out of the equation, only about 2% of the world's greenhouse gases are created by transport'. Two totally meaningless statements.
Lies, damn lies, and statistics. I'm beginning to wonder if any of our media is unbiased?
Bit of a lazy day today.
Got my bit of a cold back. It seems it went round in a big circle until it arrived here yesterday again. The baby has it and I caught it from her. Don't know why she did that as I have just bought her an new car seat. Front facing. Racing lines. Five point harness. Five way adjustable. Better than what I sit in. She can now see forward as well and she seems a lot happier for it.
I spent some time looking around some sites I have not looked at for a while and I don't know about you but when I come across one of these tests I just have to have a go.
Politics Test. Click
here.
What Superhero am I? Click
here.
Which Star Trek character am I? Click
here.
And in case you are daft enough to look at the others then click
here and
here.
I'd say I'm not going to do any more but when I see them I think. Mmm. Yes, What cheesecake am I?
Rewarding stupidity.
Just come across this site that I have not been to for a very long time.
It's called
The Stella Awards. Named after Stella Liebeck who spilled a cup of McDonald's coffee onto her lap, burning herself. A New Mexico jury awarded her $2.9 million in damages.
It's basically about people that either, through their own fault or even nobody's fault, sue someone with lots of money. And in some cases actually get away with it. The cases are mainly from the US. Although we will start getting some entries soon.
There is a newsletter there so you can subscribe if you want.
Oh Dear. Another bunch of facts not lining up with policy.
Yet again we appear to have a difference between what is being said by our illustrious leader, the right honourable, yeah right, PM Tony Blair and what the facts are. Terribly off that they don't seem to line up old chap.
It's all to do with what we eat. The spin is it seems that we are all eating the wrong things and we are all doomed.
The facts appear to be that we are living longer than most of our EU partners. Read more
here.
Don't expect a change in policy though. They don't let the facts get in the way of a policy.
Although, hold a minute, maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way. We are living too long. We are looking at drawing a pension for too long. They want to bump us all off and they way to do it is to change our lifestyle so we are all eating the wrong things, getting blown away by terrorists or our friendly neighborhood police force, end up topping ourselves out of boredom or heart attacks from stress due to their stupid bureaucratic mindset.
But that must mean they planned this out. Get our deep fried mars bars banned before a report comes out and change our lifestyles.
It just shows what I feel about our useless Government when I can look at this and a part of me believes it.
A nice simple puzzle.
Have a look at this for a question I found at
Tempus Fugit.
If an airplane is on a large conveyor belt and is trying to take off by exerting the thrust needed to move it forward at 100 knots, and the conveyor belt starts moving backwards at 100 knots, will the plane be able to take off, or will it just sit stationary relative to the ground, with the backwards speed of the conveyor belt counteracting the forward thrust of the plane?It looks and sounds simple but there are some major discussions going on about it. Read the full story and some of the comments. Don't subscribe because I got 30+ EMails from it in a couple of days all arguing the same thing from one or the other viewpoint. It will fly or it won't fly.
Crime and Punishment, err, without the punishment bit.
As well as not giving first time burglars and real punishment, except of course the removal of the goods if they still have them, it appears that shoplifters are not going to be punished either. Read more
here.
It seems that there is not enough money to do everything and of course we need all our officers to walk and help Muslims making death threats, persecute people for giving the finger to a speed camera, those poor speed cameras don't deserve that, wearing T Shirts with , God forbid, words on and persecuting people for calling a horse gay. The horse wasn't bothered but the guy on top, lovely phrase, was. Clearly he is concerned about being the butt of jokes. Enough!
How long before our coppers won't be making an attempt to do anything that doesn't involve violence against a person. Except of course anything that can be done administratively like licenses for walking sticks, pool cues. If pool cues are outlawed only outlaw pool players will have them. That must be easier to police. Find Pool table. Stake it out with a pint. Wait and spring on the users and check their licenses. I'm sure I'll be a lot safer.
Another nail in the coffin for justice in the UK and still we are not allowed to do anything to help ourselves. We can't have vigilante justice. What they mean is 'We can't have any Justice'. What a useless lot we have in power here. Where is this revolution I've been hearing so much about. Fingers crossed the Cartoon Wars are the thin part of the wedge.
Next salvo in the Cartoon Wars.
It looks like we are winning this War so far. There have been several deaths of Muslims but so far we are OK. I was considering declaring a victory but thought it was a bit premature when I read
this.
Now we could be in trouble. For starters we might start off on riots where we get some deaths although that is unlikely. What is more likely is that some of these guys will start killing us. They will likely do their usual 5th grade crayon caricatures of Nazi Jews or Bush and Blair redrawn by newpaper artists for publication.
The one thing I am hoping from this is that at least one of them will be funny. It's not much to ask.
Violence and Democracy do not mix. Well, sometimes.
Jack Straw said that 'violence and democracy do not mix'. He was of course talking about Hamas who was voted into power by the Palestinian people and who are happy for violence against a third party, particularly Israel but the US and UK are OK as well. Read more
here.
He was not, of course, talking about violence, as in an illegal invasion, and democracy, as in putting a puppet government in Iraq. That violence and democracy mix fine. Not like the bad stuff the middle east guys do. Bad middle east elected Government.
No hypocrisy here at all. Business as usual.
This guy deserves the full weight of our law. What a farce.
This scourge on society has been sent to Crown Court for sentencing because three months may not be enough punishment.
The 73 year old guy was growing cannabis plants for his own use to alleviate the pain he is suffering with arthritis. His solicitor says "What we need to do is consider a way to stop him from doing this in the future, some other way of addressing his arthritis." What a shocker. It is likely he doesn't get effective pain relief from the NHS due to cost reasons or even that the drugs can be used by addicts so he has to treat himself. We then persecute the poor b4$^4%d. Read more
here.
A victim of the War on Drugs and we call it justice. British Justice. What a farce.
Oh dear. That would upset the voting.
Blair doesn't want to stop the devolved MPs voting on England only issues. Read more
here. What a surprise. He would fail more if that was allowed.
Personally, I think it is morally wrong for these guys to vote. If it has no impact on them or their constituents then they should be automatically excluded as English MPs are from their areas.
How to self harm yourself with minimum risk.
If you want to harm yourself in a cry out for help do you;
a) Phone up somewhere like the Samaritans or a NHS helper.
b) Follow the NHS handy guide to Self Harming. Read more
here.
We seem to be spending lots of money on things like helping people take illegal drugs and now harm themselves safely.
Well at least now I can find out how to harm other people and not kill them. And if I don't intend any serious harm it's OK.
Can't wait to see the manual on the self asphyxiation fetish. We don't want any more MPs, or anyone, being hurt by that.
Child Porn. Is this the new middle class hobby?
Reading this
article about BT stopping access to Child porn web sites and making a warning on the issue. I read two items on there worthy of comment.
When China blocks access to web sites, with or without Googles help, we are told that the beauty of the internet is such that they cannot stop this information and there are ways to get this information into the hands of ordinary, non technical, web users in China. On the other hand the BT blocking technology is, according to John Carr, an internet adviser to the children's charity NCH, "BT has proven that the technology works so there really isn't any excuse for any internet service provider not doing it" and "unless the industry can show pretty quickly that they're at or close to 100% coverage in Britain, I'm afraid we will be going to talk to our MPs... demanding legislation". Now let me see. Bog standard web users in China can bypass their blocking technology but sophisticated perverts where the number of ISPs is larger and the software for hiding yourself from oppressive Government intrusion is more easily accessible can't. Mmmm. I see another big spend on technology that will only stop the simple guys but leave the real dangerous predators alone. All costs of course added to our bills with no real benefit but another feel good factor for these guys. This guy will go far in central Government.
I also thought about this a lot since this Operation Ore. Where lots of people were getting nicked for being stupid enough to put their credit cards into a child porn web site. When you looked at the type of people we were seeing. It was teachers, police officers, doctors, managers, *cough*
musicians doing research. People that we would call middle to upper class and technical astute people. Although clearly misunderstanding that no matter what the technology it's the customer interface, the handover of good or payment, that does them in most times.
Now, if you look at the number BT are stopping and consider that a lot of pervy technical people don't go via BT because the blocking software is well advertised then theoretically the number of accesses must be higher. People that are less technically astute tend to go with brand names such as BT and AOL as their ISPs. Consider that some people caught by BTs software are clicking on links or being directed from 'normal' porn sites by a misleading link. Others are accessing it unaware that their every move is being watched. That is probably not the case for astute users.
So, it looks to me like the child porn market is still up and flourishing well. Well educated and well paid perverts seem to be getting their jollies on this stuff. Personally I don't really feel a need for this sort of stuff but now I'm beginning to wonder if I'm missing out on something. What can be so special that people will risk jail and a life sentence on the sex register for it? Is this the drug for the 2000's?
Now, just to draw the line so you know where I stand. I don't agree with it. The reason is that if these pictures were made acceptable then more would be made and that can only be at the expense of children.
I think that instead of blocking sites we should trace them and seize their equipment and put the owners behind bars. If we can't find the owners then the ISP who connected them needs to be put out of business. Sack all the directors, close the company, sell it off and replace them with some new investors. That would cause a rapid policy change with ISPs and at no real cost. Validate who you allow on line so they can be traced or pay the penalty. Now that won't stop the hard core who hide files on general servers and share their stuff via P2P but it'll stop it becoming more mainsteam than it is now. We could even stop some P2P traffic and by making it difficult for all but the most savvy it will drive it underground. The market reduces so the incentive to abuse kids goes down. Then continue with what goes on now to chase and persecute these people without making everybody else suffer when I can't get my bog standard pervy porn.
This can't be legal. Oops. Forgot I was in the UK.
Reading this
article about the
KGB police bugging a confidential solicitors meeting with his client.
I wonder how many of these sessions were bugged so they could get the one where they can say 'See, we caught this guy so we need to do this to stop the terrorists.'. I love it when a copper is killed then anything that is done is 'due to the seriousness of the offence'. What a crock.
I've no doubt that solicitors get involved in their clients mucky dealings but the sensible ones will talk in code. I bet they got a lot of information about some of the other poor saps in there. Wonder how long it will be before we discover this has been going on for a while now. OKed by someone in Whitehall. It is for Terrorism you know. You can't argue with that.
No longer can you expect anything you say to be confidential. It's even a legal requirement that the solicitor passes information on to the Police now.
What do sanctions do in reality?
I've just been reading this article about Zambia. It appears that here is an African country which is fertile and, should be, able to look after itself a little like Zimbabwe. Clearly in a much better situation than some of the others.
Reading this
article it appears that the West is making a bad situation much worse. We have put sanctions on the country in the form of World Bank and International Monetary Fund conditions which are impacting food production. Pretty much a punishment on the citizens but has little impact on the Government. It happens all the
time.
It seems that we like to encourage starvation on a countries citizens and then come along at a later date and have a concert to save them. Does that make sense? Is our reason then just to have the concert. If so could we just have the concert and show some pictures from the 1980s and 1990s. That way we could save thousands of lives.
Surely, giving a smaller amount of aid at this point will save many lives and the requirement for a large amount later on. I know I'm not a Politician and don't understand the modern world but I just don't see any logic behind this. Or is being logical my problem?
Does this make sense or am I just being naive?
Who would have thought it would end up like this?
I'm talking about the 'Cartoon Wars'. A very aptly named crusade.
I find it unbelievable that this has escalated so much. To be honest this whole affair is changing my views on how much we should put up from the Muslims. OK they are not all radicals but not all gun owners are killer in waiting and something was done about that. What is the difference?
Although it does seem that reading out the names of the dead is such a serious crime that a prison sentence awaits but if you are muslim you can get away with incitement to violence. Oh, how far we have fallen. Although, pressure has been brought to bear so there may be some changes. Read more
here. That is if they can recognise them. In some cases having pictures is not enough to identify criminals as we recently found out.
In addition to being totally intolerant is seems, and this should be no surprise, that this lot are also hypocrites. It's OK for them to parody Jews and compare them with Nazi's. Read more
here.
I found this on
The Religion of Peace. Unfortunately it has no permanent link on that site. But it really says it all. I've copied it
here for future reference.
[6-Feb-2006 : Updated to provide permanent link to article]
Pushing your views on others.
Looks like our balless leaders, except for Blunkett anyway, are again pushing our PC views on to the foreigners over the channel. Read more
here. Plus we must push for some punishment for those BNP guys. Can't let them away with anti PC stuff especially talking. Read more
here. The EU MPs will be torn between what they want, to agree with Straw, and what their members want, to have free speech.
It seems it is OK for us to blow the hell out of them using modern weapons but we can't put cartoons out or call them names. They obviously agree with that philosophy because they seem bent on blowing us up but, good news all round, they have not sent out any cartoons lampooning our beloved leaders. Assuming of course they are allowed to draw, or are even capable of it. I seem to remember them building sand dunes in 2001 with the WTC on. Was that not offensive to us? Clearly not. We were not advised to boycott their goods. Thinking about it, what do they make anyway? Sand sculptures. I'm not buying any of them, and, err, well there is...... err, and ...... Nope I'm stuck.
Our retaliation is going to have to be with weapons. Is it not time we started using some of our battlefield nukes? We have thousands and have not been able to test them. Maybe the 'use by' dates have gone. Let's test some.
I'm starting to get really miffed about these guys forcing their will on us. They don't do anything we want but expect us to bend to them. And our useless leaders do. The more I hear about this 'Religion of Peace' the more I feel threatened and support some military action.
The ideal solution would be for them to kill all our leaders in one go. Our military can then annihilate there homelands and everything would be OK for a few decades. We would rebuild our political parties to something decent and, well, as long as the oil is flowing we wouldn't notice a problem.
Oh my God. I'm starting to lean towards Bush's thinking. Someone help me.
Crap service seems to be the norm for NTL.
It's now 15:00 and I need to go out. I've been waiting since 08:00 for an NTL engineer to come and fix my desktop box without success.
When the traffic across the broadband hits some limit it drops the link on the box for the NTL service, broadband and TV services. The box needs to be unplugged and reset to re-enable the services. I've put up with it for a few weeks before I logged the call. They couldn't do anything on Tuesday, when I called, but we arranged for today AM. Which actually means 08:00 to 13:00. Can't narrow it down any more. Clearly the poor engineers are run off their feet. The must have about half the engineers they really need.
I've phoned up and the poor sap who answers the phone can do nothing but arrange another visit for tomorrow, and surprise it's again AM. The 08:00 to 13:00 slot. Oh, and record my complaint. I feel a lot better now.
To be honest I wanted to go ADSL but it wasn't available when the NTL service was. Now we have ADSL in our area though I'm thinking of dropping NTL broadband and jumping ship. That way I get a fixed IP for my home server which NTL won't even discuss and I'm told the service is better. How can it be worse? Plus I know a BT guy who works on ADSL which must be a plus.
Pact between Blair and Bush made Case for War. Why is this news?
I was reading this
article and thinking 'Why is this news?' It was obvious to anyone with half a brain that that was the case. Why then is it on the front page of the News?
Then it hit me. There can only be two reasons why it is there.
1) Some people didn't actually work out that Blair and Bush arranged all the 'facts' around the requirement to invade Iraq out from all the previous discussions on the issue.
2) The time is right for some Anti-Blair comments. One with facts is always a good way to start.
Now, maybe I'm too kind but I think that there are a few people who could fall into option 1 but in general we all know it was the case and accept it was for one of the many, every changing, reasons put forward. I think it must be 2. That means there could be a plot going on to oust him.
Finally, the Night of the Long Knives. Fingers crossed.
Chip and PIN. Its time is near. Are you ready?
Booking out of the Novotel today and the receptionist pointed to a sign about Chip and PIN which is being made compulsory on Feb 14th. I, of course, have forgotten mine. This
article I found talks about the difficulty some people will have with the new system. They won't be the only ones.
Chip and PIN is where people enter a PIN instead of signing for something. Signing is not allowed. It's been on the continent for years but for some reason we have not put it in. It has several advantages all for the credit card companies. Signatures can be forged. The PIN allows two factor authentication of the transaction and is a confirmation of your identity as the PIN is only supposed to be known to you. This will result in less losses to the card issuer and more profit. It's already cut down fraud in it's initial, non compulsory, rollout.
Of course if your card is used fraudulently you will have less chance of being believed.
All in all I think it is a good idea but as in all things the crooks will adapt and move on to card skimmers and maybe coercing people to give up the PIN.
For me it means I will have to move on to two credit cards so I can remember the PINs. Not for me is one PIN for all and I have half a dozen cards to remember plus everything else. I'm not ready but I'm as ready as I'm going to be.
It will also be interesting at the checkouts on the 15th. I'll do all my shopping a couple of days before. How many people will actually be standing behind £200 of shopping with a bewildered look on their face and a credit card in their hand?
Councils don't seem to be able to work out the simplest things.
Years and years ago our local authority looked at the reservoirs and decided they had too many. They then went and sold them off. This was in the day when your rates included water rates. That was OK as they had performed some calculations that said each household was using X gallons and each business Y gallons. We have so many households, call it H, and businesses, call them B, and that comes to a grand total of err, X*H + Y*B = Z gallons. So there was spare capacity and some money could be made.
Now it appears we are facing water shortages. Read more
here. For some reason we have been building more and more houses and more and more business premises and yet, shock and horror, they are not reducing the amount of water they use. Thus the water requirement has gone up. Now call me stupid and I know some do but when the council was approving this building work could they not have worked out that the requirement for water was going up and checked to see if the load could be handled. Clearly it is way out of the control of the builders. The water boards know the capacity in that area. I don't know but even our schoolkids know, well some anyway, that increasing a variable such as H and B gives an corresponding increase in Z.
Now we have to spend more on our houses to make them water efficient, how long before we have to retrofit our houses, and only using a Dolphin, or whatever, registered plumber. The price of water will go up. You know, to discourage it's use, and we all have to live like a third world country when they seem to be more awake and building irrigation and reservoirs.
And they call it planning. You know the statement regarding piss up and breweries. They are only interested in if the size of the toilet fits in with regulations not something where they have to work out X*H + Y*B. Is is between 11 and 15 cm? If 'Yes' then build house if 'No' then reject on form WHR12763 in triplicate.
Another defeat for Blair. The slope steepens.
Blairs second major policy defeat took place over his religious Hatred Bill. Read more
here.
Good. It was another bit of ill thought out legislation that even our useless MPs could see through. Now finally they see a weakened Blair and like the rats they are they are getting up the courage to attack at him.
I note however that my local MP is still voting with the Government. Out of his last set of figures he has not voted against the Government once. Read his dismal record
here. Over his entire voting history, in 2225 votes he has voted against the whip a total of 25 times since 1997. That includes Fox Hunting, ID cards and all our Anti Terrorism Bills. What a kiss arse.
Hopefully defeats will come fast and furious now. It looks like he is starting to compromise a bit to stave off defeat but that will not save him now. The end is near and I think 2006 is looking like a good year. Hope the same can be said for our local MP.
I don't think these foreign countries understand how it works.
Reading this
article on Hamas rejecting the 'unfair demands' associated with aid for the Palestinians plus the Kenyan Government rejecting food which I
commented on yesterday.
When are these people going to get it into their heads that we can put whatever conditions we want on any aid we send. If we don't want funds to got on weapons sales or to fund terrorism, or resistance fighters, or whatever then we can say so and stop aid it we are unhappy with what happens.
Jeez, we could even stop sending aid if we don't like the way they treat their camels. It is not up to them what is acceptable. They are not in a position to dictate any conditions.
To be perfectly honest I don't even think our Government should be sending aid at all to any place. They should not be taxing me and sending it where they think it should go. The UK population is generous enough to send aid to where they want it to go depending on their views.
As that is unlikely to happen with the feel good Governments in the West then perhaps we should start making the conditions a bit more stringent. How about we don't give aid to people who torture or execute their prisoners, research WMD or who provide any aid to Iran or North Korea.
Let's start getting something back for our money and those that complain about unfair demands can whistle for funding. Let them see there is no longer a free ride.
These guys think the world owes them a living. Our Governments wishy washy attitude gives them that feeling and it's about time they did something about it. Poor Hamas are the ones they don't like but at least it's a start.
