Back

Bloody hell, it's been 2 months since I last posted and I'm not entirely sure where the time went. In the meantime, the fantastic Orphans of Liberty site is up and running, and if you're not already following it then you should. Is a very exciting venture with the majority of my favourite bloggers contributing, so congrats to LongRider et al for putting that in motion.

Otherwise, not much to report. My wife's started a business, which is exciting but incredibly time-consuming, off to a flyer though so hoping it keeps on.

Anyway, better keep this short as it's quite warm today so not sure how the internet is going to hold up...

Kate Moss reads blogs it seems

Kate Moss apparently takes double-up Wednesday very seriously, so kudos to Dick P, Grumpy Old Twat for Old-Rightie and Leg-Iron for getting on the supermodel's reading list.

*From the Telegraph.

Where we are vs. where we should be

On the Telegraph I spotted this article, and thought to myself "Thank God for that, finally a bit of discipline"

How stupid I am. Because in fact, this is just another way to freak out young children in the name of sex education:

"Primary schoolchildren could be taught the importance of “no means no” in new sex education lessons, the Government will say today."

Wow. I can see how that is a more important lesson to teach 5-11 year-olds than how to read and write when you're dealing with kids that potentially don't even know their own names.

Then I read this appalling shit propagated by OFSTED, and I think, fuck this.

If I ever move back to the UK and can't afford to go Private, I'll become a Mormon and get my kids excluded from "personal, social, health and economic education". When I want my kids to know about "no means no" in regards to sex, as opposed to having a sweet for example, I, their father, and my wife, their mother, will tell them.

Not some sandal-wearing feminist telling my sons they are by default bastards because of their gender.

Keeping the sheep quiet, Saudi-style

I think someone's had a look at which way the wind's blowing, and decided he doesn't like it much.

So, he's keeping his people quiet and attached to the yoke of the State with "free" money. In case there is any doubt, he's buying off the people with $37bn of their own money, and it's going to work. Again.

"There will be extra funds for housing, studying abroad and social security, according to state television."

Generous. Goodness only knows where they'll find that.

Bet all the lady Saudis are delighted, as long as their male guardians allow them to have the money of course.

Coalition control freakery

I've said it before and I'll no doubt say it again:

Fuck off

So tired of the State telling everyone what to do.

Yasmin ain't got no Alibhai for this piece of nonsense

Sorry for the shit title, but I do like a good pun.

YAB's latest piece of desperate racial shit-stirring is on Beyoncé's mysterious skin-lightening. First of all, I would be very suspicious of these photos - photographers use light in cunning ways, they could be shopped, so frankly YAB may have been rather quick to rush to judgement. But, in the interests of further delving into YAB's article, let's assume Beyoncé has deliberately lightened her skin, Jacko style.

YAB's contention is the following:

"...I believe Beyonce is betraying all black and Asian women"

Always looking for an issue is YAB, she is Darcus Howe in female form. There's a lot of bollocks in this article, and to prove it, I'm going to quote YAB a few times, substituting "woman of colour" or "black" for "white woman" or "white". Let's see how it looks (bold and italic denote a change).

"...When white celebrities appear to deny their heritage by trying to make themselves look black, I despair for the youngsters who see those images. 

Funnily enough I wouldn't entirely disagree with this, a lot of white celebs do seem to do this (not via skin tone, but via clothing certainly), and a lot of kids as well. Still, pretty much irrelevant.

"White women across the world spend a lot of money, time and emotional energy on treatments to achieve an appearance which the Western world defines as perfection: usually blonde, thin, light skinned and with European features. "

Yes, yes they do. Loads of white women do that, although the light-skinned thing is shite, most go for orange nowadays. The narrow definition of perfection is BS but it's NOT a black thing.

"The answer is that every white woman has an important social and cultural history that cannot simply be bleached away or denied by the use of hair straighteners. That’s why I passionately believe that insert white female celeb here's ignorance of how this betrays her heritage is so insidiously damaging to all white people.

No-one would ever say that, would they. It would be "racist".

OK, enough substitution, it just gets too wacky now

"So why do all these women want to be whiter? The warped values they subscribe to evolved out of colonialism: white people were not only powerful but like mythical gods, physically superior and invincible."

What the fuck? Mythical gods? Chris must we apologise for colonialism AGAIN?

And finally, this.

"Beyonce’s unique, sensual beauty owed much to her racial and ethnic background."

Like every single woman in the world really. But obviously this is more important because she's black.

A tiresome, tedious article from a tiresome, tedious, tub-thumping racist who I can only assume the DM employ to balance out some of their other ravings. Just because she's black doesn't make it any better though.

Aid to India...

...why indeed?

Hamsters

A great wheeze from East Carolina University, supported by what looks like a fake charity (could be out of date, but if it isn't now it certainly used to be).

Portable pedal machines could be used in every office to improve the health of workers, according to scientists in the US.

Now I can immediately think of a number of problems with this.

1. I'm not the fittest, but I play football and walk to work so not too bad. But I sweat when I exercise, and judging by my football companions I'm not the only one. So this isn't hugely compatible with wearing a suit. And I've worked in an American office, ten years ago, and there were some BIG units there. The idea of that office also being a gym makes me shudder to my core.

2. This will generate a lot of excess heat. Not just from raising people's body temperatures, but the bikes themselves. Where does this heat go? Are firms expected to pump up the air con to the max every day? Not great for the famous carbon footprint really, or indeed the bottom line that will apparently be improved by this activity.

3. People won't use it.

"In a questionnaire, the workers said they would use the machine regularly at work if they were offered one by their employer."

Of course they said this, it doesn't mean they will. Even the charidee man realised this.

"However, it's not for everyone and I was concerned that, not surprisingly, use of the pedal machine decreased gradually over the one month trial period as enthusiasm waned."

Duh.

On a less flippant note, and maybe I'm being dramatic, I can see where these sorts of ideas end up. If this were to be adopted, some bright spark would realise he could power his office using these hamster workers. Good for the AGW scammers, and a nice opportunity for Government to push a whole bunch of agenda in one go.

Ashton takes a pasting

Some happy news at last, although it will of course come to nothing for obvious reasons. Baroness "Capability" Ashton has come bottom of a rating of all the European Commissioners, to which I say firstly bwahahahahahahaha.

 "Sixty nine per cent of 324 Brussels "policy-makers", with EU and national officials constituting the largest group, ranked Europe's first foreign minister as "disappointing" or "below average"

Now, two caveats to the hilarity here. The first is, as a Brit she was always going to do badly. However, in this case I suspect it's on merit rather than nationality (or indeed looks), The second, sadder caveat is of course that, as she has never been elected to anything in her life, not a single fuck will be given by her this day. I found this quote amusing:

The Daily Telegraph understands that one senior EU official has given the Labour peer until the summer to improve her performance or face an ultimatum for her to resign.

I'm sure she will be very keen to impose a deadline on herself, be less embarrassing than waiting for re-election, oh hang on, I forgot, no elections, silly of me.

Meanwhile, Hannan has stuck the boot in over at his blog. Ridiculously (in my view anyway), he claims that Egypt's attempts to prevent her from visiting mean that:

The days of the autocrats are numbered.

To which I said in his comments section:

Balls. Once the new leaders get stuck in they'll hook up with whoever can funnel them the most money, and that'll be the EU. Meet the new boss.

Once again, not a single fuck shall ever be given by Ashton, Von Pumpoy or their ilk, they are untouchable and the farcical attempts by Parliament to deny UK prisoners the vote will prove this definitively. The EU will win and show beyond all doubt that sovereignty is dead.

The only good way this ends is Captain Ranty's golden scenario of the EU kicking the UK out for non-compliance. It won't happen though. Everyone likes the money too much.

Sally "Shrinking Violet" Bercow

Hahahahahahahahahaha.

That is all.

Behind every dictator lies a strong woman apparently

Some wonderfully panicked twisting and turning in this BBC article, as a Ghanaian journalist flies in the face of the facts of her own article, it's really rather funny...

The first few paragraphs summarise a list of horrific "first ladies" of dictatorships, and the accompanying suggestion that they are often as responsible as their dictator husbands for the suffering inflicted.

"Every revolution, every hated dictator, indeed, it seems every leader must have its femme fatale, the Lady Macbeth figure who is held responsible for the problems of the regime. "

However, Ghanaian writer and politician Elizabeth Ohene evidently realises she's forgotten to blame society and men for all this, so panics and slips in a major non-sequitur:

"I wonder why we always seem to need to find a powerful woman behind every strongman."

Ah, so it's in fact the finding of the woman that is the issue. And by the way, "powerful"? Really? Is that a good word to describe Leila Trabelsi, who stole 1.5 tonnes of gold from the Tunisian central bank, leaving her beloved country even more fucked, as if Tunisia needed the help after her husband's efforts.

But I digress. Back to the BBC, where we learn some interesting facts about the Mugabes.

Apparently, Robert Mugabe has an "intimidating intellect", and "has been known to reduce his opponents to silence in arguments".

I'm pretty sure that his arguing style is much on a par with Kim Jong-Il's! I don't think opponents are stunned into silence by Mugabe's verbosity and vast knowledge of political history. No, I'm pretty sure his army of thugs have a similar effect.

Not only that, but he is apparently "under his wife's spell to such an extent that he would do anything she asks him to do".

Fascinating. What is the conclusion to all this?

I wonder if it is possible for a man to become autocratic without a strong woman by his side?

A strong woman? This isn't a Destiny's Child song FFS, we're not talking Oprah here, these are the wives of Dictators, men who have thought nothing of starving and murdering their people in order to line their own pockets. The women that Ms. Ohene mentions are at best complicit and at worst encouraging of this behaviour.

And all she can think of is to wonder if an autocrat needs a "strong woman".

Ten ideas for a crapper Britain

Komment Macht Frei carries a 10-point plan to make the UK even worse than it already is, from the notorious Will Hutton. They are in fairness not all totally wrong, but some of them are truly idiotic.

1. Break up the banks
I can live with this actually, in principle, but it would help if there was an acknowledgement that the ridiculously complicated regulatory environment has forced banks to become larger and larger in order to cover these costs and keep up with it all. Reduce the regulatory bureaucracy and barriers to entry and you would indeed improve the banking sector. Not convinced these are his motives.

2. Build Great Companies.
This is a stinker, and worth quoting in full:

Too few British firms have good owners. Two more important companies – Smith and Nephew, and De La Rue – are fighting to retain their independence from foreign takeovers. Their shareholders do not care about innovation, their staff or customers; their priority, and thus that of the directors, is only next month's share price. Increasingly Britain is a hollowed out economy for hire rather than a centre of business decision-making and wealth generation in its own right. There has to be root-and-branch overhaul of the framework for owning, directing and launching takeovers of Britain's companies.

So basically foreign ownership is bad, Will has no solutions, so we should start with roots and branches. Really, this is 6th-form stuff, blindly blaming shareholders. Shareholders do care about "innovation, their staff or customers" because that is what drives the share price. Shareholders tend to want their companies to be successful and well-run. That is why you invest in a company.

3. Bust the Monopolies
Meh.

4 Abolish Redundancy Payments
Why do I sense in this some sort of increased state intervention coming up?

5 Livelihood Insurance
Whoooomph there it is! Surely this is a bit like National Insurance, except I guess everyone will still pay National Insurance, right?

6 A Citizen Grant of £50'000 for every 21-year-old
Oh no, sorry, whoooooooooooomph THERE it is. Now that is special. And where pray tell might this money come from? Oh, you planted some beans? Should be fine then.

7 Payback time for babyboomers
Some interesting thoughts here actually. Probably the least bad of his ideas.

8 An end to parents-pay education

Private schools should ... be compelled to admit, through competitive examination, children from households with less than £40,000 a year. Their fees would be paid by the government.

Ah yes, the problem is private schools, not the parlous state of the state school system. Why not just bring back grammar schools, if you want competitive examinations?

9 An Honest Media
I agree, but bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha good luck with that.

10 A written constitution along with proportional voting
I don't think this would make a blind bit of difference but there you are. This is instructive however:

In particular, there should be an entrenching of local government's power: it should have the constitutional right to raise up to half its revenue from local taxation.

That is the extent of Will's ability to imagine what local government power should look like - how much tax they can raise. Sad.

And to avoid accusations of being negative for the sake of it, here is my 3-point plan for a better Britain.

1. Get the fuck out of our lives, just stop bloody interfering and remember that you work for us.
2. Stop fighting pointless, never-ending wars to distract from what is going on at home.

Actually, that'll do for starters, there you go, a 2-point plan!

Michelle Obama Killing Pedestrians

I'm not the biggest fan of the Obama administration, and I do think that spouses of leaders should mainly STFU and stop interfering, but this is just ludicrous:

"Governors Highway Safety Association Director Barbara Harsha blamed Mrs Obama and was quoted as saying in the Washington Examiner: 'There's an emphasis these days to getting fit, and I think people doing that are more exposed to risk [of getting hit by a vehicle].'"

Apparently, the First Lady's "Let's Move" campaign is responsible this increase. I wonder how many thousands of pedestrians have been mowed down by this cruel campaign?

In the period between January and June last year there were 1,891 road related deaths, which - while being only seven more than during the same period the previous year - bucked a trend that had been going down for four years.

Seven? Seven? WTF?

Still, it is clearly this campaign as there are no other factors, right?

Alcohol is also factor in increased pedestrian deaths.
'We've done a good job of getting people, after a night out of partying, to leave their keys behind,' continued Mr Adkins, 'but just because you are walking does not mean you are not at risk.'

Ah. People getting smashed and driving is a very bad idea, but unintended consequences are a bitch right?

Pedestrians are also increasingly distracted by iPods and smart phones. 

So, these extra 7 deaths are in fact attributable to alcohol, technology AND the First Lady's campaign. Wow. I wonder what the split is, because I think policies should be formulated and utter dickheads like Barbra Harsha employed for a kind of crisis like this.

And I know this is the Fail, but even so, is a journalist really incapable of thinking about this? I suppose at least the "Daily Mail Reporter" had the sense not to put his or her name to this piece of trash.

BBC's AGW Reporting Bias

Spotted at Delingpole's blog here, tells you all you need to know.

Booker's Lonely Furrow

Christopher Booker has been writing about the appalling family courts and its accompanying social workers for some time now.

His latest article is another extraordinary and heartbreaking tale of a child being taken away from her parent or parents for no good reason, by an entity (the family court) that is answerable to no-one. Subrosa has an eloquent post, under which there is an interesting debate about the idea of "the risk being too great" for social workers not to act, and for social workers to be damned if they do and damned if they don't.

There is some small merit to this attitude, although it grates heavily with me, in the sense that when they don't act and are wrong, they get slammed, and when they do act and are wrong, they get slammed.

However...

All this falls over for two reasons. The first is, if when they were wrong they reacted swiftly to rectify the situation, then their errors would perhaps be understood if not forgiven. However, this is not the case, see the despicable piece of victimhood pulled by that utter bitch Shoesmith following the Baby P fiasco for more details.

Secondly (and related to the first point), the family courts are shrouded in absolute secrecy. Booker's latest article is as always short on details, as he says:

"As usual, I am legally barred from identifying the mother at the centre of this case or giving many other details..."

As such, clearly this is a system with zero accountability, and as such inevitably overrun with cruel, illogical decisions that are virtually immutable without very deep pockets and boundless patience. For a really good illustration of the system, I am forced once again to link to Booker, as virtually no-one else writes about it. The idea of council "adoption targets" are hair-raising.

Read this.

If it bothers you, write about it. Maybe we can drive this issue screaming out of the shadows. Because the way the family court works now helps no-one except those in its pay, not those that it should protect and support.

Union Hypocrisy

It's nice to see that rabble-rouser Len McCluskey's New Year's resolution was to hit new heights of hypocritical arseholery, criticising George Osborne for taking his family to Klosters for Christmas.

Frankly, Osborne can do what he wants with his money, although if he had watched the Thick of It he might have known how this holiday would go down. I'll judge a politician on what he does, not how he spends his money, and for me his cuts are inadequate, but I couldn't give a shit about his holiday choices.

But Len McCluskey? Len McCluskey, head of the Unite trade union, a man who earns over 130k per year, plus no doubt all manner of wonderful perks not available to the common man, is going to tell someone else how to spend their money? This utter hypocrite is going to accuse others of not feeling the pain? What a prick.

I am glad that 2011 is going to be exactly the same as 2010, what a surprise.