The price of stupidity.
I was reading another article on the 10p tax blunder at Burning our Money. Read
here.
It made me think. OK, I know I got a headache but this one was because of stress.
It calls to take the poor out of the tax brackets completely. I'm beginning to wonder if this is a good idea now. Sure it should be done for societies sake but just because it should be done has never been a criteria before. So should we do it?
I say 'No'. For one simple reason. If this hole is plugged without a corresponding cut in public spending then the money will have to come from elsewhere. That means us. So we will end up paying more and I already pay too much into this black hole. An increase in their take home pay will result in many of these revising their decisions against voting labour and, at the moment, with still no real opposition with Cameron in charge labour could reverse it's decline. Of course that is only short term as the high earners will leave and it will all fall apart but it could last long enough because despite so many having take home pay reduced by this government a significant amount still believe they are great. I find it unbelievable how many die hard labour supporters there still are out there. Their take home pay is dropping, costs are going up, services are reduced but they still believe. So I suggest we just let them get on with it as if they are not interested in change because it will make them better off then they sure as hell won't be interested in change to help others when they are all sorted out and cosy.
If they are so stupid that they still vote for screwing the well off despite it having a very negative effect on them then they deserve another two years of it. maybe then they will have a change of mind. Although, with the IQs apparently going down in the UK, based on personal observation, I doubt it will be any different.
One rule for all. Well sometimes.
Well it's clear that it is not one rule for all in the UK. it hasn't been for a long time.
Man kills a woman gets life (OK,well a jail term). Women kills man. He clearly deserved it.
Pleb commits fraud and goes to jail. Politicians simply made an error.
The list goes on.
Now it seems that being a cyclist gets you special privileges also. I like the way Edmund King, of the AA, said "We do see cyclists just not obeying the rules of the road jumping red lights, one way streets, also we get motorists doing things that they shouldn't so maybe we need to clarify the rules for all." Read
here. I don't need anything clarified you plonker.
Strange that. I see the rules being clarified for motorists every day when they break the rules by insignificant amounts. The courts are full of them. the tills chinging away like it's Christmas as the money flows to the government. Yet, cyclists break the rules big time. red lights and wrong way down a one way are not minor, and yet nothing happens to them at all.
Isn't it about time we licensed these people and got them to pass some sort of test. Where are the whingy whiney people now?
Oh No! Looks like I'm becoming one.
I love government databases.
Via the ASI I read about this new real time display of containers that arrive in the US. Read
here. Each container is listed with the contents and we must not forget it is illegal to lie to Uncle Sam. For a fee you can access this data and search it and it is apparently a boon to many people.
I'm sure it is. After all how many times have hijackers made off with a lorry load of plastic toys from China and not the super new microchips and memory they were after? Those timesare behind us now.
Isn't technology wonderful and it's compulsory too.
Mugabe wins in poll shock.
It seems Mugabe won the vote in Zimbabwe. Read
here.
Glad to see democracy is alive and well somewhere.
Kind of brings back memories of a year ago when Gordo won his parties vote.
Even better than we hoped.
It was fairly clear that Labour would be beaten by the LibDims and I was hoping for them to be beaten by the BNP as well although I thought it was a long shot. But
here we have them beaten into fifth place and overtaken by the Greens as well.
It seems that although labour were hoping to steal the green voters they, the voters, are not as green as they hoped as they ignored labour are voted directly for their own lame duck candidates.
It seems to me that maybe labour will be forced to drop the green disguise and appeal directly to their own voters. the ones that don't want to spend billions now for a unlikely potential disaster in the future and have made their voice known.
Even someone as thick as Gordo must realise now that it all ends for him at the next election at the very latest. No matter what he is told while he is plotting in his bunker, all external signals are showing bad news. The question is will he just go or will he hang on to the very last?
That seems to be the question we keep on asking after every setback. Therefore we already have our answer. He will hang on to the bitter end. So the best we can hope for is someone stabs him in the back. Personally I'm hoping this is not just figuratively.
Technological advances.
It's amazing what we can do nowadays. Read
here about a skyscraper proposed for Dubai that has each floor able to rotate so that it will have a different look every day. There are plans to build another in Moscow.
Cool or what although I wonder how people will feel in a corner office. Obviously it will make the view interesting although I wonder it will induce motion sickness even though it won't be moving very fast. Between 1 to 3 hours for a complete rotation of each floor.
Won't be a problem for me though. Cheapest apartment is $3.7M with the best ones going for $36M. That is a hell of a price difference.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Politics. The art of lying and smiling whilst wielding a sharp knife into position.
It seems that Billy has finally made up his mind which one of his enemies is the one he is going to hook up with. Obama or McCain. Seems like he has, finally, come down on the side of Obama. Read
here.
I suspect he had no choice being a committed Democrat but luckily for Billy he is happy to stray away from home as I suspect that 'comfort' is going to be in short supply at his home for a while.
He would of course have told Hillary it is so he can put a case for Obama and/or the Democrats to top up Hillary's campaign so she can pay her debts. Debt, for what I understand, she owes mainly to herself. Debt, which I also understand, she ran up in a last ditch desperate attempt to gain the nomination. Just why anyone else should pay for it is beyond me but I suspect there will be a deal made to ensure Billy's cooperation in the election.
Maybe that is something McCain should have thought of. Although even I doubt Hillary's spite would turn her towards the other side. She will be planning for the 2012 elections now but you never know. Obama could very well choose her for his running mate and get both the PC votes. Although if he did he would never be able to turn his back on her. She would be only one heartbeat away from the Presidency. LOL
Oh Dear. Yesterdays appeal fell on deaf ears.
Well it seems like Darling
wasted his time over the weekend. The first, of many I have no doubt, have made their views known. Read
here about council workers voting to strike over higher pay.
I guess the rest of the civil servants will be following quickly enough as well as some of the more powerful unions. It'll be up to the private sector to bite the bullet as most won't have the deep pockets of the government. Well, deep albeit empty though.
Good luck with that you bunch of hypocrites.
It seems Darling is calling for wages restraints from the public. Read
here.
This is the same public that has seen taxes (general, council and stealth), fuel costs, food costs, etc. go up by more than their salaries for the last ten years whilst the MPs themselves have seen their salaries far outstrip inflation, new troughs installed almost yearly and they set themselves up for life.
If people have the power, like the
tanker drivers, they will take it, I know I would, and the unions have it. It could bring the late 70s back with a vengeance.
Somehow I think Darlings plea will fall on deaf ears. In fact I wonder why he made it? Every time a politician tells you not to do something everyone seems to do it out of spite. And there is a lot of spite around at the moment.
US banking it's oil.
It seems that the US has much bigger oil reserves than I ever imagined. Read
here. I'm not an expert anyway so this was a bit of an eye opener.
Now I was thinking that if they have so much oil why are they so dependant on the Middle East? One thing I did think of is that that oil must be an asset that they want to realise in the future and they will put up with a bit of trouble now to ensure that it remains untouched. Sure they are looking at opening some of it now but even starting now it will be decades before the results show. So a dependency on cheap ME oil whilst there is plenty of it whilst your own oil gains value sitting in a bank, well in the oil field anyway.
Just imagine in fifty years time. The Middle East oil could well be running out, if the predictions are correct, the costs of extraction and therefore each barrel will rocket and in the meantime the US oil fields will come online. The US can ensure that regardless of the cost of oil it will be able to keep itself going and sell it's surplus onto the world market at a high rate. Much higher than the ME is selling it's resources for now. It's only resource may I add.
It's better than money in the bank. Oil is irreplaceable and no matter what technology develops over the next few decades there will always be a demand for it.
Seems to me to be a good reason for not drilling and in the land where the dollar is king I don't see the whining of a few environmentalists stopping drilling. Could the US actually be planning for the long term for a change?
WhooHoo we are all going Green.
From the sounds of this we are all going to be forced to go green at the barrel of a gun. Read
here.
It seems that some new government proposals are being revealed. These proposal 'may' include measures to force homeowners to improve the energy efficiency of their homes. Exactly why the authors of the report don't know what is in it I have no idea. It looks like it has not been fed through the PR system yet and thus they are not clear that it will if fact have no such statement but rather an obscure statement that bears no resemblance to fact but hints that only terrorists will be forced to make their homes green. So it obviously won't impact on the honest hard working plebs like you and I.
One arm of the governments propaganda machine, the Guardian, has seen a copy of these proposals. (Obviously not released outside the government yet) They said 'the proposals seek a 30-fold increase in off-shore wind power generation, new loans and grants for businesses to increase green energy supply and a compulsory measure on households to boost efficiency. The plans recognise that the new energy policy could transform large areas of Britain's landscape and have a "significant impacts on all our lives...not all of these positive" That's one reporter soon to be found under a tree in a remote forest with his wrists cut.
Now if homes are to increase efficiency does that not imply that we have to have a benchmark? I knew we would find a use for all those efficiency inspectors trained for the Home Information Packs that are now unemployed because nobody is selling their houses. Need to keep them employed and who better to do it that those rich plebs who have their own houses. They are as much of a cash cow than the motorists. And, as a bonus, most probably won't vote labour anyway.
I bet it won't be long before we are all living back in late 1940s style with rations and eating lentils for our main, and only, meal. Yummy.
What a surprise. More knee jerk legislation coming.
It seems that the decision earlier this week that anonymous witnesses do not give a fair trial is not to our governments liking. They are proposing to bring out legislation making them legal. Read
here.
Typical that they can spring into action when it suits them. It's almost as if they have nothing else to keep them busy. Wonder why they are not commissioning a report and setting up a committee to look into it? Could it be that they already know the answer and feel that this is just one area where the public will not be happy for experts to be ignored by useless politicians?
As it is whilst they are rushing through this bit of illiberal legislation there are forty people convicted by anonymous witnesses that are appealing. Makes to actually wonder how many of them are actually guilty. It does me. Forty sounds a lot. It sounds very much that with that amount there must have been a few who are victim to a few anonymous grudges and to be perfectly honest it would not surprise me in the slightest if plod had not got a few to provide testimony anonymously as they knew it would not hold up to the scrutiny of the defence. So probably a higher percentage of injustice than most then.
British justice. It's a joke. It seems to get worse as every day you here about more the farce our justice system gets up to.
When this lot get kicked out of power and the next lot get in I wonder if any thought will be given to investigating some of these cases. Of curse nothing will be done for those who have served their sentence or are on short ones but what about those on long term sentences? I don't want criminals getting away on a technicality but we can't just let the government screw people over just because they can.
It's a right mess. Makes you proud to be a free man in the world. *cough*
A very hard call to make.
Here is a father that turned his son into the police when he found some ammunition in his house. The son has now been jailed for three years. Read
here.
The father says he says he has no regrets but already in the article he is already saying he didn't know his son would get three years and that he should have accompanied him down to the station. Sounds like the start of regret to me and that is before he has to face his family over Xmas thinking about him rotting in the nick. Or if something happens to him whilst inside and even before he comes out after his immersion into the criminal subculture in prison which will make him a different person.
I don't know what I would have done but I'm sure in this day and age and in this country I would not have done it for a few bits of ammo. Maybe that makes me bad. Many people on our side of the criminal justice system think that a hard shock will be good for them. It isn't for everyone and his son doesn't look like it will be for him.
The father doesn't regret it now. I don't know if he is already changing his mind but one thing I am sure. He will regret it later on.
Jails are full of crminals.
Although it seems that it has come as a big surprise to the The Prisons and Probation services. They, after carefully investigation have come to the conclusion that 'There was a "criminal subculture" at a jail'
Shock! horror! Who would have thunk it that filling a jail with criminals would lead to a criminal subculture?
From my understanding there are probably more people in prison that are not what we would class as deserving of prison and these people, once inside, then have to learn how to live in a criminal subculture. Thus when they get out they actually have learnt more about the criminal culture and have picked up some handy contacts and tricks, handy of course if you are a criminal.
I'm sure the next expose we will be reading about is the Immigration Office explaining how all these immigrants are from a different culture from us in the UK. Catholics are religious and politicians are liars. I know. It's hard to believe isn't it.
Justice takes a backseat again.
After the court decision earlier this week, read
here, that anonymous witness do not meet the criteria for a fair trial it was obvious that others convicted using the same methods would appeal. Well the first has come forward. Read
here.
Now I can understand why we need to have anonymous witnesses. Major crime lords and syndicates can exact revenge after a conviction and due to this we have set up the witness protection programme.
Now it seems to be that in their eagerness to get convictions we are doing 'Witness Protection Lite' It's where they can remain anonymous and legislation is used to ensure that they cannot be questioned too closely. Thus we again reduce peoples right to a fair trial and the opportunities for injustice grow uncontrollably.
It seems to me that our courts and the House of Lords seem to be the only things that are protecting us from our government. When this is all over and Gordo and his minions are rotting on the end of a piece of piano wire then I think we should have a serious think about giving the Lords more power.
Not long ago I didn't see the need for the Lords and I thought that all these high court judges were pretty useless but lately they have been the only thing protecting us. We should really look at restoring the powers that both these groups have to what they had ten years ago.
GPS jamming.
Well, well, I knew that you could jam GPS easily because of the way it works and the strength of the signals but what I did not know is that 'a pen-sized device could "stop ships in a port being able to receive GPS". Read
here about the suggestion that we go back to WW2 technology for military backup.
Well it may make sense for them to do so for mission critical tasks. However, I doubt it would be of use for the common man but that is another story.
Now, that was not my initial thoughts. My first is 'Where do I get one?' My second was roll on road charging using GPS. LOL My third was Galileo is also subject to this issue. Probably more so because at least GPS is run by the US military. Our system probably won't even have the resilience of the US one before it even starts.
What technology giveth it also taketh away and it isn't all going the way the government wants. That cheers me immensely.
When prejudice is involved we actually enable more death and despair.
I was reading this
article via Tim Worstall on AIDS and the fact that we do not recognise certain truths pertaining to the spread of the disease.
It made me think that we seem to have the same type of problem with many similar things such as Black gun crime, African atrocities, the Muslim issue as well as many many others. We know certain facts about all these issues that because of PC attitudes we are not able to identify, the current popular phrase, the elephant in the room. Thus we do not educate the public and target the issue correctly as to give a solution that will lead to a cure or control. We don't need a medical analogy as this article gives us a clear one.
By not identifying the main sources of the virus, 'junkies, sex workers and gay men' we do not target these for education and prevention. They are seen as low life by the public and not worth spending money on directly. Thus we allow the virus to propagate but as a sting in the tail we make matters even worse by treating the sufferers for the disease we didn't try and stop. This is targeted to a sufferer of a disease and is thus acceptable to the public. The reason it is worse is that this treatment extends the life of the sufferer and thus allows them to propagate the disease more. But who cares, it's only low life is it not?
Therefore our policies, imo, are actually directly responsible for the propagation of this terrible disease. Was this really the intention?
I have no doubt that there is a significant number of other 'unsolvable' issues that are treated the same way and if we dealt with them in a logical and scientific matter we could improve every ones lot in life. So how could we do this best? Open and free discussion of facts in public and using logic instead of emotion for many issues.
Of course that actually boils down to taking the politicians out of the decision making loop. Why am I not surprised by that conclusion?
If only this was so.
If only this was so. I suspect that the EU will just turn it into a submarine. They will not just give up because 100% of the public votes so far have gone against them. From where they are 100% of the discussions they have are in agreement.
*Picture found on Theo Spark's site. I liked it.
Happy Fathers Day to everyone.
Happy Fathers Day to all. Well mainly to all Fathers.
Been busy today getting spoilt by the kids and lazing around.
David Davis.
I've been trawling the web this afternoon catching up on the news and reading pages after pages of David Davis and why it's a fools errand he is running etc.
Personally I think he has done the right thing for himself.
1) Labour won't put up a candidate. They can't afford it and it will give the plebs another chance to smack them in the face. I'll miss that.
2) Davis won't turn to the Libertarian Party either. Jeez, it's taken him this long to realise he is a liberal. No such luck. He may have hit his personal limit but it's not because he is a converted libertarian. If Davis was to be a Libertarian candidate he would be a big fish in a very much smaller pool and pretty powerless. In the Tories he will still wield a lot of power even before the next election. Never mind the Libertarian Parties stance on salary and expenses.
3) The Tories will let him stand as their man. They won't contest him themselves.
4) Other parties have already said they will not stand.
He is likely to just walk in without any battle at all.
I think this will give him the standing to take on Cameron who we already know is just as useless as the current bunch in power. His stand must have Cameron panicking again and when, Sorry if, he is reelected Cameron won't have the balls to leave him out of the shadow cabinet as he will campaign actively against him from the back benches. Hell, even while he is in the shadow cabinet he will make statements that will change Tory policy and have the whole of the UK cheering.
Imo. Davis has made the best move for himself for a long time and I think he will be the leader of the Tories when they go into the next election. Watch the poll ratings when Cameron is removed.
After yesterdays farce of democracy in action there are two things today that have made it up.
The tide is changing Ladies and Gentlemen. About time too.
And they say Friday the thirteenth is unlucky.
Well maybe it is for the useless politicians. Read
here about Ireland rejecting the EU
constitution treaty.
Time for a party methinks.
Move over Cameron. Someone with principles coming through.
Finally someone with principles in the Tory camp. Read
here about Davis resigning over the 42 day detention farce.
At last a mainstream politician is standing up to be counted. Personally I think that the Tories are just as bad but this must be a start. Let's see if it makes Cameron make a stand on something. Or maybe it's time for a change in the Tory ranks as well.
A politician with principles. Who would have thunk it.
New evidence in the Dando case proves his guilt.
The b45^4rd. He liked Bond girls. Read
here. Clearly a nutter and guilty on any unsolvable high profile crimes in the Met area.
Is there any real justice in the UK? If this is actually classed as evidence no wonder we have full prisons nowadays.
UK Justice. What a farce.
ISPs pushed onto a slippery slope in the US.
It seems like a group of ISPs in the US have given into pressure from the US government and will now start censoring content. Read
here. Not only that they have squeezed some cash out of them because, well it's just because they have it. So a tax in a way on internet use.
Of course they have started with child porn as only a paedophile would object wouldn't they. Any objectors and they will be kicked off those providers, some of the biggest in the world, and more than likely added to a government list.
Will not be long before it is BDSM and fetish. After all only perverts are up to that and we travel further down the slippery slope until everything on the web is government approved.
Of course the child porn community of course will move onto other providers and hide their stuff and yet again the average consumer gets hit with the bill. You see this time the ISPs have agreed to fund it. Not being government roles it will be paid for by their subscribers. But it's for the kids so it's OK.
The best bit for the government is they didn't have to make legislation. It's all voluntary. What a nice group these ISPs are. Nothing at all to do with the expensive investigations they were put under nor the threats of prosecutions and the pretending to be subscribers complaining about child porn. Nothing underhand there in the land of the free.
Of course they won't try that here. No sirree. Our government will just legislate and take the money.
All hail the state and the puritans that run it. Public servants, one and all.
Maybe I should read the whole story.
A little while ago I remember reading about a International Cluster Mine ban we had signed up to with great fanfare. Well it seems that instead of skimming I should have read it fully. It seems that out of the 109 countries that signed up the UK was the only one, from what I understand, that actually makes them. The manufacturing nations US, Russia, China, Israel, India and Pakistan have not signed the treaty. Read
here.
Now it does not surprise me that the UK has signed up. It would not be long before guns were banned in the MoD if our government had their way but an International treaty with the main players not being part is a bit of a waste of time. It must be some EU thing. The only countries it seems to impact are the UK and France. Now, to be honest, I'm all for the ban. These weapons last so long on the battlefield that long after the war is over they are still killing civilians. So something needed to be done. But another paper tiger. That is politics in a nutshell.
At least it solved one puzzle I had over the Dublin talks. It finished early which I thought was surprising. Now I don't understand how it took so long. 'OK. It's 1130 let's get started. Not long till lunch. We are here to have a ban on cluster mines. Let's start by taking a vote to see where we stand.' 'Hands up for those for the ban.' '..... 107, 108, 109.... That is it, 109.' 'OK, Hands up those against the ban.' 'None. Cool. Let's get those taxpayer funded drinks out the way and head for our taxpayer funded meals and get off to our taxpayer funded homes.' 'Another good job for democracy.'
Guns are certainly dangerous.
In times long gone many people in the UK had guns and there were significantly less people bumped off than there are now. So after a nasty episode our nanny state banned guns just to get good PR from a bunch of whingey whiney liberals.
Now the only ones legally with them are coppers and yet the gun stats are going up.
But as the public has less access to guns I am interested in how many people are actually bumped off by plod. Hell they can't even look after themselves as it looks like there will be another HSE case soon. Read
here about the role playing game than went wrong when a plod said 'Aww, Come on it's my turn to be a terrorist"
Guns are dangerous. In the wrong hands.
It's not all bad news though. It seems that for the first time in, well forever, the UK has a chance to win the shooting part of the Olympics. That is if they are out in time.
Making a point.
It seems that the unions may be putting the pressure on the government by removing funding for MPs not voting in line with their policies. Read
here. It seems that now labour is in deep financial trouble the unions are taking advantage to make their point.
Although I was surprised to find that they were funded by the unions at all. In my naivety I thought we were paying, and paying, for their useless hides at the rate of £60K pa, plus expenses. And boy what expenses, expenses that HMRC would not let you or I claim at all.
It seems that we are not their masters after all. How silly of me.
Finally a plan to control gun crime.
Read
here about the latest plan to control gun crime by restricting air guns.
Oh wait! I think I see a couple of minor flaws.
I know people say it is merely incompetence but... read the execution of Britain.
Read this
article on Britain being held down and it's head pumped full of bullets.
Getting your priorities right.
Well it seems that we are in a bit of a pickle over the price of oil. So much so we are holding crisis talks. Read
here.
Now correct me if I am wrong but is the price of oil not driven by market factors. Supply and demand the basics of economics. In fact it's it current high demand that is causing prices to surge. So fuel is up all around. It seems to me that it goes up but 0.5p per day as every two days another penny is added on. Ignoring the obvious which is the biggest winner out of the whole thing in the UK is actually Gordo and his taxes the price is now the price and is likely to be here to stay. Why is it that when there is a problem our government has it's fingers grasping the pie?
In the meantime however we have diverted foodstuffs to be used as fuel. This diversion is leading to a surge in food prices, riots and starvation. People are dying. Yet by the law of economics this new source of fuel should increase the supply and thus lower the cost. I wonder why that is not happening? Maybe my grasp of economics is too simple. I must nearly be qualified to be a labour politician. Just need to practise the lying with a straight face. Just can't get it right.
In the meantime the concern is the cost of fuel whilst people die. Talk about priorities.
Osama (wheelie) bin Laden must be a winner.
I was reading this
article about this guy, Maurizio Montalbini, who has the world record because he spend three years in a cave.
Come on.... only three years most of al Qaeda have done better than that. It's a western plot to keep minorities from their rightful place at the top.
The trouble with the West.
Reading one of the many articles about Hillary Clinton conceding defeat to Obama where it was talking about the glass ceiling. You know that artificial ceiling that is used as an excuse every time a women fails to get to a certain point. This article is actually talking about Clintons failure as if it is a win for womankind. Read
here.
I'm sure to be accused of being sexist but such is life. You see I don't see Clinton's failure, as it was a failure, to get the nomination as a reflection on her being a woman. The Democrats love that sort of thing and her main problem was she was up against another minority and she came across to the public the way she is and Obama compared very favourably with that. Simple. So I'm sure that a few wouldn't vote for her because she was a woman, but some wouldn't vote for Obama because he is black and some won't vote for McCain because he is too old. Shock, horror we all have prejudices and legislation will never get rid of it. It just allows people to be pushed into corners and informed that 'If you don't vote for Clinton you are sexist'. Boy, I wonder how many suicides occurred when these whingy whiney do gooders discovered that they were going to be sexist or racist with no way out.
The fact is Clinton has not done anything for women at all. In fact she may have put their chances back. I don't remember Thatcher crying when things didn't go her way and despite Clintons recollections Bhutto was actually in the line of fire whilst she went about her business to her cost. Many other women have been in top positions and in societies where women do have a lower standing and face death threats by people that really mean it. Clinton's main risk to life and limb was choking on her fund raising dinners and catching something from Billy boy. So other women have done much more than Clinton has. OK there has not been a woman president yet but neither has there been a black president, hispanic president or many other minorities. Perhaps if a good women candidate was put forward then she would have beaten Obama and perhaps even have got the top spot. So it's less of a sexist agenda and more of a I hate Clinton agenda.
It seems that here in the west that without some sort of guilt trip women can't compete favourably. That isn't true but while it is seen as a requirement then women will never compete as equals. The Clinton supporters who claim otherwise are doing women no favours at all.
btw : I'm glad to see that in America their choices are just as bad as ours. No real differences between any of them. It's not just us that are screwing our society.
Always on the lookout for new ideas.
Not really been keeping up to date with the goings on in Turkey but read today that the prosecutors in the courts are suggesting that the ruling AKP party is anti-secular and should be disbanded. This means that the party that was elected by the country could be made illegal. Read
here.
Now, I can understand the ruling party in a country making other parties illegal to keep their power base but you could only expect that in mickey mouse countries such as African states or the UK but the ruling party presiding over making itself illegal. How exactly did that come about?
More importantly could we do something like that here in the UK? What! Just thinking out loud.
Pension planning
Have been sorting a few things out here and one of those was looking at my pension. Since Gordo did his raid on my, and your, pension scheme I have been wondering how it was working out.
The results so far are that no one has been questioned never mind arrested for this blatant theft. Nor do plod seem that interested. I suspect they have microchipped all the apples in the country just waiting for one to be found in the street so they can build a case or looking for another bank to raid and go through all the inappropriately named safety deposit boxes. I've closed mine already and moved my stash of drugs, guns, slaves and home porn vids to the shed outside where they will be safer.
Anyway, so I thought it was about time that I worked out where my retirement fund will be going and came across this
handy little calculator at the
Motley Fool, I've mentioned them before, a nice informative and educational site for all financial issues and it's free to sign up.
The calculator works by taking what you have estimated you need to live on, factoring in inflation and giving you a fund target to aim for then how much you need to put aside from now on to meet that. Nice and simple. Of course you can't factor in everything. So just fill in your details and off you go. There is an associated article which explains it all which is worth a read if you are interested.
Well, my results are in. I'm in a better position than I thought but no thanks to Gordo. I need to pay a little more to ensure that I'm OK in the future although I'd have been in a much better situation if he had keep his grubby socialist hands off but life is a balance. On one side is Good and the other Gordo and his ilk. I don't see that useless Cameron fixing it either.
To be honest I'm a bit relieved. I could see myself in a few years time lighting up a cigarette in the street so I was put in jail for life to ensure I had a roof over my head and something to eat.
There is hope for me yet.
In this BBC
article on the round up of newspapers. The Daily Mirror claims Josef Fritzl, the Austrian who kept his daughter in a cellar, has had international fan mail. Prison authorities have apparently said that along with 5,000 items of hate mail, there have been letters from 200 women offering love and support.
What is it with people? How many nice kind geeks go unloved because they are a bit shy and not forward with women and yet an ugly insane dirty old man gets letters with love and support. Yet, we wonder why we as a society screw everything up.
Common sense is not that common.
and they say we are not a Police state.
This must surely put paid to that. Read
here about plod raising 7000 safety deposit boxes just on suspicion that some are used to hold laundered money, drugs and guns.
Of course if you have 10,000 stored away from a legitimate reason it will be interesting seeing how well you fair under the bright lights explaining it.
Oh, the KGB would be proud. Long live the State.
BBC waste.
The BBC is under fire for how much they pay some stars. Read
here. What a surprise. A tax funded operation wasting it's money.
They claim that that is what they pay them to stop them going elsewhere but a) Who cares? b) Who else would have most of them?
From what I understand they also will not divulge how much they pay their 'top stars' because it will cause others to ask for more. Makes sense. That is why many people in real jobs don't talk about their salary to avoid friction.
What I don't understand is why either of these arguments covers Terry Wogan, Jonathan Ross, Graham Norton and Chris Moyles. All those mentioned in fact. There are 50 of these 'top names' 50 salaries for *cough* top talent and I bet most people couldn't name 50 BBC employees at all never mind any worth a fraction as much at the ones we know get paid.
Please God don't let any of these mind numbing reality show presenters like Jeremy Kyle be on that list. That would be too much.
Is this a win or not?
Just as a pointer to the futility of banning an item and expecting an increased level of safety we have this
article on an anti-gun campaigner who has spoken to the government no less. Strangely, her anti gun stance came after the gun ban but banning something twice is bound to be better isn't it.
Nevertheless she has been stabbed. Perhaps her campaign needs a new direction. Although with her not being shot you could claim a success for the campaign.
It's a bit of a puzzler if it's a win or lose here from a PR point of view although it's clearly a lose for society in general because whilst we waste our time on taking the weapons from law abiding
citizens plebs we fail to deal with the real cause. The murderers in our midst.
Racism is worse than Sexism. It's official.
It seems that the only reason Hillary lost was that the Democrats were sexist. Read
here.
As I said before it was two minorities head to head. Sadly for them, and the Democrats, it was both at the same time. Sexism against racism. Looks like racism is the winner but only just it came right down to the wire.
Sad for Hilary. Couldn't have happened to a better person.
