Thank you Ireland. Today the citizens of that fair country voted against ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon. The rules were that if one country out of the entire 27-country membership of the European Union voted against this second version of the previous constitution, it would be abandoned. As there was only one country that allowed its citizens the right to vote, you can guess that in reality the EU was trying not to allow its voters any chance to be contrary. Because Ireland’s constitution doesn’t permit such alterations without a public vote there was no alternative, it was unavoidable. The Irish were allowed to vote and they rejected this treaty, again. Perfect justice has been served.
This is the same treaty that was previously voted against, as a constitution by several countries and had been supposedly abandoned as the rules had stipulated. However, like Dracula, it leapt out of its coffin, bloodied but unbowed. It then morphed from a rejected constitution into a series of parliaments rubber-stamping the new version, now called a treaty. Last time round, when it was called a constitution, we were, you will recall, also told it would be abandoned if any of the countries voted against it. The politicians in Brussels simply changed the rules when they lost. They did a bit of judicious cutting and pasting and regurgitated the same constitutional dinner, re-heated. They clearly can’t believe they are in the wrong, and frankly they don’t care what their people think.
The European President has announced that the ratification process of the now twice rejected constitution / process will proceed despite promises to the contrary. What’s a twice broken promise between old European friends? Public shame should be heaped on all such arrogant, pumped up tin-pot dictators. However, I bet you that this same set of nonentities would accept any vote in their favor.
The EU leadership is demanding further and deeper integration of the European Union but every time the electorate has been allowed to vote on this issue they have responded by rejecting the proposed changes.
The reasons for this continuing objection by the populace are obvious to anyone with a democratic bone in their body. No one wants this constitution or treaty, nor understands it, nor sees the justification for it.
Ladies and gentlemen of Brussels, take your constitution or treaty, and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine, and please, don’t forget the staples!
Friday, June 13, 2008
Feeling Lucky?
Today is Friday the 13th. Some consider this a super unlucky date. I’m not worried by this because in my Jewish religious tradition, the number 13 is thought to be lucky, and as Friday is the start of Sabbath, the most holy of days, it should be doubly lucky today!
It appears obvious to me that our moral decline is both steep and rapid, furthermore there seems to be no end in sight. I am fond of forecasting that this disintegration of our moral core will have dire consequences. I’m also aware that if I keep predicting dire consequences sooner or later I shall turn into a prophet when I eventually get something right!
There are two additional facts that should also be borne in mind; I’m not into any organized religion nor am I superstitious. My being Jewish is what I am culturally, tribally and by tradition. I do, nevertheless fervently believe that we must preserve the moral and ethical dimensions of our civilization. In other words I can sometimes do something wrong, but I do try not to. I admit to weakness, not wickedness. I try very hard to keep within the laws and general rules and conventions of our world.
This goes as far as my trying my utmost not to get a speeding or parking ticket and never to park in a disabled parking space. In fact I once made a citizen’s arrest of someone who did this despite his being a very fit and healthy young man who just didn’t want to bother with parking legally. Yes, I am a pain, but if we don’t draw a line and allow anything, we are doomed to live in a very unpleasant world.
I understand and envy faith in others, and although I’m agnostic about such things I am open to be convinced. I have to admit that when I nearly died I didn’t see any white lights, chaps with wings or hear the chorus fantastic. In fact there was nothing and I was, I admit, most disappointed. Maybe I wasn’t quite ill enough, but I would hate to test the theory just to prove a point.
Despite my lack of religious belief I am a traditionalist. During my childhood my family vigorously taught me the difference between right and wrong. I don’t know if that’s the reason I find it impossible to take a stamp from work, and always have done. I don’t see the difference, other than degree, between the one stamp and several, or some money and where do you draw the line? This has resulted in my being an absolutist in these matters. I would instantly sack anyone for stealing, and indeed I have done so.
Some, who have known me, will tell you that I can be a pain in the bum about such matters. The reason for me raising this matter now is that this week saw the climactic selection of the successful Apprentice, in the TV show of the same name. The winner was a young man called Lee McQueen. He seems a personable, rough diamond sort of fellow. Not especially brilliant, but not total losers like some of his colleagues. During the penultimate weeks show Lee’s CV was exposed. There were many spelling and grammar errors, too many to be excused by most employers I suspect. More importantly, his interviewer asked Lee, did he stand by his statement that he had attended Thames Valley University for 2 years as it stated in his CV? He repeated this claim. His interrogator then showed him a letter he had received from that university which stated that he had actually, only attended for 4 months, “how do you respond to that?”
The young applicant hardly turned a hair. His attitude was OK, I got caught, but he clearly felt no guilt. When the inquests took place this incident was mentioned, but Sir Alan Sugar, the grand inquisitor, didn’t consider the matter to be of sufficient concern to worry him. I was shocked. I have always considered Sir Alan to be a moral man, but his attitude was that he’d probably done the same kind of thing when he was a young man and, to him, it was not an end of the world situation.
It was pointed out to Sugar that the incident proved that Lee would lie when he felt it necessary, and his response was that he could deal with that. His response seemed to indicate that he felt he could still trust Lee, and this wasn’t such an important matter. As Henry Ibsen said so accurately, “Don’t use that foreign word ideals. We have that excellent word lies.”
I had recent experience of both good and bad examples of behavior by colleagues. A “friend” and co-worker, behaved very badly, to my detriment after ten years of our being friends and working together. He told me that the excuse or motivation for his actions was his personal financial situation. Compare that to another ex-colleague and friend in America who felt it appropriate that he gift me shares in his new enterprise, not because he had to, but because he wanted to. Which of these examples will Lee follow, the knife in the back of the former or the generosity of spirit of the latter? I believe Sir Alan should carefully watch his back.
Sir Alan comes across as a shrewd, tough businessman, self confident to the point of arrogance. If you asked Sugar how he sees the future with Lee and he would no doubt tell you that he has the money and business experience to deal with any situation. But ask him in a year’s time, I wonder if Sugar will still have all his money and whether he will rue his disregard for the discredited value of honesty? You can’t buy good character but being able to totally trust your colleagues is still a vital, but increasingly rare virtue.
It appears obvious to me that our moral decline is both steep and rapid, furthermore there seems to be no end in sight. I am fond of forecasting that this disintegration of our moral core will have dire consequences. I’m also aware that if I keep predicting dire consequences sooner or later I shall turn into a prophet when I eventually get something right!
There are two additional facts that should also be borne in mind; I’m not into any organized religion nor am I superstitious. My being Jewish is what I am culturally, tribally and by tradition. I do, nevertheless fervently believe that we must preserve the moral and ethical dimensions of our civilization. In other words I can sometimes do something wrong, but I do try not to. I admit to weakness, not wickedness. I try very hard to keep within the laws and general rules and conventions of our world.
This goes as far as my trying my utmost not to get a speeding or parking ticket and never to park in a disabled parking space. In fact I once made a citizen’s arrest of someone who did this despite his being a very fit and healthy young man who just didn’t want to bother with parking legally. Yes, I am a pain, but if we don’t draw a line and allow anything, we are doomed to live in a very unpleasant world.
I understand and envy faith in others, and although I’m agnostic about such things I am open to be convinced. I have to admit that when I nearly died I didn’t see any white lights, chaps with wings or hear the chorus fantastic. In fact there was nothing and I was, I admit, most disappointed. Maybe I wasn’t quite ill enough, but I would hate to test the theory just to prove a point.
Despite my lack of religious belief I am a traditionalist. During my childhood my family vigorously taught me the difference between right and wrong. I don’t know if that’s the reason I find it impossible to take a stamp from work, and always have done. I don’t see the difference, other than degree, between the one stamp and several, or some money and where do you draw the line? This has resulted in my being an absolutist in these matters. I would instantly sack anyone for stealing, and indeed I have done so.
Some, who have known me, will tell you that I can be a pain in the bum about such matters. The reason for me raising this matter now is that this week saw the climactic selection of the successful Apprentice, in the TV show of the same name. The winner was a young man called Lee McQueen. He seems a personable, rough diamond sort of fellow. Not especially brilliant, but not total losers like some of his colleagues. During the penultimate weeks show Lee’s CV was exposed. There were many spelling and grammar errors, too many to be excused by most employers I suspect. More importantly, his interviewer asked Lee, did he stand by his statement that he had attended Thames Valley University for 2 years as it stated in his CV? He repeated this claim. His interrogator then showed him a letter he had received from that university which stated that he had actually, only attended for 4 months, “how do you respond to that?”
The young applicant hardly turned a hair. His attitude was OK, I got caught, but he clearly felt no guilt. When the inquests took place this incident was mentioned, but Sir Alan Sugar, the grand inquisitor, didn’t consider the matter to be of sufficient concern to worry him. I was shocked. I have always considered Sir Alan to be a moral man, but his attitude was that he’d probably done the same kind of thing when he was a young man and, to him, it was not an end of the world situation.
It was pointed out to Sugar that the incident proved that Lee would lie when he felt it necessary, and his response was that he could deal with that. His response seemed to indicate that he felt he could still trust Lee, and this wasn’t such an important matter. As Henry Ibsen said so accurately, “Don’t use that foreign word ideals. We have that excellent word lies.”
I had recent experience of both good and bad examples of behavior by colleagues. A “friend” and co-worker, behaved very badly, to my detriment after ten years of our being friends and working together. He told me that the excuse or motivation for his actions was his personal financial situation. Compare that to another ex-colleague and friend in America who felt it appropriate that he gift me shares in his new enterprise, not because he had to, but because he wanted to. Which of these examples will Lee follow, the knife in the back of the former or the generosity of spirit of the latter? I believe Sir Alan should carefully watch his back.
Sir Alan comes across as a shrewd, tough businessman, self confident to the point of arrogance. If you asked Sugar how he sees the future with Lee and he would no doubt tell you that he has the money and business experience to deal with any situation. But ask him in a year’s time, I wonder if Sugar will still have all his money and whether he will rue his disregard for the discredited value of honesty? You can’t buy good character but being able to totally trust your colleagues is still a vital, but increasingly rare virtue.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Looking For A Leader
Britain has always been blessed. Whenever there is a national emergency the country has found a leader to forge a path through the crisis. What a panoply of giants has graced us with their presence over the last millennia. The names read like a roll call of great heroes, Winston Churchill, The Duke of Wellington, Nelson, Queen Elizabeth the First, Walter Raleigh, the list is laced with infinite splendor.
In my own lifetime, my family and I left for America when the country no longer seemed governable. This was in the late 70’s, and we were suffering from innumerable strikes, industrial work limited to three-day weeks because of a lack of electric power, runaway inflation, a sinking pound, enormous unemployment numbers and a gigantic balance of payment deficit.
We left but Margaret Thatcher arrived. When we returned to this country from America it was a country in the midst of a transformation, which it has benefited from ever since. I am not saying that I loved the woman, because, if I was to tell the truth, I didn’t even like her. I found her cold, aloof, patronizing and unkind, but she saved my country from itself. From her genesis the UK was re-branded and re-launched. From a no hope country slipping to ignominy the country re-discovered its balls and over the last twenty years has become one of the world’s powerhouses.
Lest we forget it was Thatcher that changed the world’s mindset about de-nationalization and how the economy could work. It was Thatcher who destroyed the unseemly agglomeration of power that the unions had accumulated which was making the country ungovernable. Without this fundamental shift back to common sense there could have been no other fundamental changes.
Last night the government forced legislation through the House of Commons the new forty-two day detention rule. This means that, should the police believe there is a reason to arrest a terrorist suspect, this person could be held by them for up to six weeks before he is even charged. This is a shameful act, and is yet another breach of habeas corpus enshrined in this country’s original guarantee of democracy, the Magna Carta, signed in 1215. It states a prisoner is entitled to be bought before a court of law so that the legality of his detention can be verified. I quote Article 39, “No freeman shall be arrested or imprisoned or outlawed or exiled or in any way harmed. Nor will we proceed against him, or send others to do so, except according to the lawful sentence of his peers and the Common Law.” This is a disgraceful act of infamy by our lawgivers. It is a victory for the expedient, short-term tacticians who run our affairs, and clearly demonstrates their total lack of respect for the rights of its citizens.
Now, once again the country is on the slide. We need another leader, and it isn’t our present Prime Minister or David Cameron, the leader of the opposition, the man most likely to succeed him when we have our next election. Cameron is simply a watered down carbon copy of Tony Blair. Britain doesn’t need re-packaging, it needs a conviction politician ready to lead from the front, and Cameron doesn’t offer this. Let us all hope that somewhere, lurking in the wings, is such a person. Our country is looking for a leader, the need is becoming urgent!
In my own lifetime, my family and I left for America when the country no longer seemed governable. This was in the late 70’s, and we were suffering from innumerable strikes, industrial work limited to three-day weeks because of a lack of electric power, runaway inflation, a sinking pound, enormous unemployment numbers and a gigantic balance of payment deficit.
We left but Margaret Thatcher arrived. When we returned to this country from America it was a country in the midst of a transformation, which it has benefited from ever since. I am not saying that I loved the woman, because, if I was to tell the truth, I didn’t even like her. I found her cold, aloof, patronizing and unkind, but she saved my country from itself. From her genesis the UK was re-branded and re-launched. From a no hope country slipping to ignominy the country re-discovered its balls and over the last twenty years has become one of the world’s powerhouses.
Lest we forget it was Thatcher that changed the world’s mindset about de-nationalization and how the economy could work. It was Thatcher who destroyed the unseemly agglomeration of power that the unions had accumulated which was making the country ungovernable. Without this fundamental shift back to common sense there could have been no other fundamental changes.
Last night the government forced legislation through the House of Commons the new forty-two day detention rule. This means that, should the police believe there is a reason to arrest a terrorist suspect, this person could be held by them for up to six weeks before he is even charged. This is a shameful act, and is yet another breach of habeas corpus enshrined in this country’s original guarantee of democracy, the Magna Carta, signed in 1215. It states a prisoner is entitled to be bought before a court of law so that the legality of his detention can be verified. I quote Article 39, “No freeman shall be arrested or imprisoned or outlawed or exiled or in any way harmed. Nor will we proceed against him, or send others to do so, except according to the lawful sentence of his peers and the Common Law.” This is a disgraceful act of infamy by our lawgivers. It is a victory for the expedient, short-term tacticians who run our affairs, and clearly demonstrates their total lack of respect for the rights of its citizens.
Now, once again the country is on the slide. We need another leader, and it isn’t our present Prime Minister or David Cameron, the leader of the opposition, the man most likely to succeed him when we have our next election. Cameron is simply a watered down carbon copy of Tony Blair. Britain doesn’t need re-packaging, it needs a conviction politician ready to lead from the front, and Cameron doesn’t offer this. Let us all hope that somewhere, lurking in the wings, is such a person. Our country is looking for a leader, the need is becoming urgent!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Oops!
I posted a blog just a few hours ago in which I reminded everyone that you can't trust the government with your confidential information on any database. I told you that you shouldn't volunteer information to these national custodians.
How quickly the chickens came home to roost!
Within the last 10 minutes BBC TV announced that secret government documents, marked top secret, about Al Qaeda, had accidentally been left on a train in London, then handed to the BBC. The BBC showed the folder on air, without revealing the contents.
If we didn't see it with our own eyes we would have to believe this was a fabrication. It proves what I've been saying, the government's own people must be properly policed as they are clearly irresponsible, and constitutionally incapable of even average care and attention.
How quickly the chickens came home to roost!
Within the last 10 minutes BBC TV announced that secret government documents, marked top secret, about Al Qaeda, had accidentally been left on a train in London, then handed to the BBC. The BBC showed the folder on air, without revealing the contents.
If we didn't see it with our own eyes we would have to believe this was a fabrication. It proves what I've been saying, the government's own people must be properly policed as they are clearly irresponsible, and constitutionally incapable of even average care and attention.
100 On Up!
Today is special for me, as it marks the 100th blog I’ve posted. It is quite a commitment to post a blog almost every day, but like everything it’s mostly about discipline.
I decided that I was going to use this opportunity to review the world’s current situation. This is My State of the Blog, in which I will offer solutions and predictions for the balance of the year.
Clearly there is no end in sight for the major conflicts in the world. Neither Iraq nor Afghanistan is anywhere near to a conclusion. However, what’s worrying me isn’t that we might lose militarily, but that we have done nothing to root out the endemic corruption of the Iraqis or Afghanistanis we have ceded power to. While this is the case there is no moral imperative for any local inhabitants to believe in our form of democracy. The answer is for us to do one of two things. Put in more force, and aim to win the conflicts rather than to contain them. Or we could simply pull out and leave those two countries to their fate. Personally I believe we will do neither and therefore everyone will suffer.
The Israel / Palestine conflict is really about Israel and Hamas and Israel and Hezbollah. Until these two terrorist organizations are cut off from their Iranian paymasters this conflict will continue and escalate into direct conflict between Iran and Israel. This will take the form of Israel attacking Iran’s nuclear capacity and Iran seeking some form of surrogate revenge via their terrorist proxies both regionally and internationally. The solution is that the rest of the world must act now to force Iran to abandon their nuclear weapons program, and their vicious rhetoric threatening Israel’s existence. Meanwhile Osama is still hiding in a cave somewhere in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Many moderate Muslims agree that the world will be better for his death. I hope they get their wish. He is truly an evil and misguided man, and his work has caused misery for many millions of people, most of them people he would claim as his own.
The sub prime mortgage induced credit crises will rumble on and recession is the result. In fact we will be lucky if this doesn’t worsen into a full-blown depression, complete with mass bankruptcies, unemployment and shrinking business opportunities. Today, in the UK the news organizations were reporting a forecast that, if property prices continue to drop at their present rate, more than two million homeowners face negative equity. Put another way this means that these mortgages are now bigger than the value of the properties. Wake up everyone, a great many of these mortgages were 100% or more of the value of the property when they were taken out, or put another way, they were in negative equity to start with! These greedy risk takers, otherwise known as the banks, were betting that there was going to be a never ending rise in prices and therefore it didn’t matter whether or not the loan was as big or bigger than the value, because values would overtake this loan in double quick time.
I am giving this subject it’s own second paragraph. The solution is for the banks not to panic and to find ways to help their clients survive where they are. It pays everyone to keep the borrowers in the properties under almost any foreseeable circumstance. This can be achieved by government working with the banks to create a shared ownership, affordable housing scheme designed, retroactively, to take over some of the equity, which could be recovered later, if possible. This could reduce the monthly exposure and divide it into some mortgage payment plus a reduced “rental” sum.
The next generation iPhone from Apple is being released momentarily and will be an even bigger smash hit than its first draft. It is said that this model is not only faster, thinner and more user friendly, but is also going to be a lot cheaper. I love my blackberry but I can’t resist for much longer. Whilst I am on things Apple I have to admit that I’m typing this on my Mac Book Air, and its bloody fantastic. Not only does it meet my every computing need but also it’s easy to schlep through airports on the run, and it really makes a difference.
Manchester United will have another great season in English and European football whether they still have Cristiano Ronaldo in the team or not. I idolize the young man as the best footballer on the planet, but if his greed overwhelms his common sense and he seeks to be released from his contract, that he signed last year, then the club should show him the door.
China will do exceptionally well in the Beijing Olympics, but I suspect you, like me, won’t be able to look at the athletic medalists without your suspicions being elevated. What a shame, these people once epitomized for the world, the finest attributes of human endeavor.
Freedoms will continue to erode in the Western democracies as America elects Barak Obama and he turns out to be more Jimmy Carter than John Kennedy. I sincerely hope that this prediction doesn’t come true as I have very little time for the peanut farmer from Georgia.
In my home country Gordon Brown will sink to immeasurably low numbers in the opinion polls, and instead of trying to chase the lost millions he does what he should have done in the first place, which is to relax and just do the best job he can rather than to be a pale imitation of Tony Blair. Nevertheless, it’s going to be too little too late for the iron Chancellor, who turned out to be the Prime Minister made out of putty.
Like you I shall generally not get thinner or fitter, but I shall keep trying. The sun will shine too little in the UK and too much elsewhere, when it doesn’t rain for more than a week here we call it a drought, and when it does rain for more than a week, we have floods, and we will blame both on global warming. I will continue to write my blog and I hope you will still read it. 100 blogs delivered, and many more to come.
I decided that I was going to use this opportunity to review the world’s current situation. This is My State of the Blog, in which I will offer solutions and predictions for the balance of the year.
Clearly there is no end in sight for the major conflicts in the world. Neither Iraq nor Afghanistan is anywhere near to a conclusion. However, what’s worrying me isn’t that we might lose militarily, but that we have done nothing to root out the endemic corruption of the Iraqis or Afghanistanis we have ceded power to. While this is the case there is no moral imperative for any local inhabitants to believe in our form of democracy. The answer is for us to do one of two things. Put in more force, and aim to win the conflicts rather than to contain them. Or we could simply pull out and leave those two countries to their fate. Personally I believe we will do neither and therefore everyone will suffer.
The Israel / Palestine conflict is really about Israel and Hamas and Israel and Hezbollah. Until these two terrorist organizations are cut off from their Iranian paymasters this conflict will continue and escalate into direct conflict between Iran and Israel. This will take the form of Israel attacking Iran’s nuclear capacity and Iran seeking some form of surrogate revenge via their terrorist proxies both regionally and internationally. The solution is that the rest of the world must act now to force Iran to abandon their nuclear weapons program, and their vicious rhetoric threatening Israel’s existence. Meanwhile Osama is still hiding in a cave somewhere in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Many moderate Muslims agree that the world will be better for his death. I hope they get their wish. He is truly an evil and misguided man, and his work has caused misery for many millions of people, most of them people he would claim as his own.
The sub prime mortgage induced credit crises will rumble on and recession is the result. In fact we will be lucky if this doesn’t worsen into a full-blown depression, complete with mass bankruptcies, unemployment and shrinking business opportunities. Today, in the UK the news organizations were reporting a forecast that, if property prices continue to drop at their present rate, more than two million homeowners face negative equity. Put another way this means that these mortgages are now bigger than the value of the properties. Wake up everyone, a great many of these mortgages were 100% or more of the value of the property when they were taken out, or put another way, they were in negative equity to start with! These greedy risk takers, otherwise known as the banks, were betting that there was going to be a never ending rise in prices and therefore it didn’t matter whether or not the loan was as big or bigger than the value, because values would overtake this loan in double quick time.
I am giving this subject it’s own second paragraph. The solution is for the banks not to panic and to find ways to help their clients survive where they are. It pays everyone to keep the borrowers in the properties under almost any foreseeable circumstance. This can be achieved by government working with the banks to create a shared ownership, affordable housing scheme designed, retroactively, to take over some of the equity, which could be recovered later, if possible. This could reduce the monthly exposure and divide it into some mortgage payment plus a reduced “rental” sum.
The next generation iPhone from Apple is being released momentarily and will be an even bigger smash hit than its first draft. It is said that this model is not only faster, thinner and more user friendly, but is also going to be a lot cheaper. I love my blackberry but I can’t resist for much longer. Whilst I am on things Apple I have to admit that I’m typing this on my Mac Book Air, and its bloody fantastic. Not only does it meet my every computing need but also it’s easy to schlep through airports on the run, and it really makes a difference.
Manchester United will have another great season in English and European football whether they still have Cristiano Ronaldo in the team or not. I idolize the young man as the best footballer on the planet, but if his greed overwhelms his common sense and he seeks to be released from his contract, that he signed last year, then the club should show him the door.
China will do exceptionally well in the Beijing Olympics, but I suspect you, like me, won’t be able to look at the athletic medalists without your suspicions being elevated. What a shame, these people once epitomized for the world, the finest attributes of human endeavor.
Freedoms will continue to erode in the Western democracies as America elects Barak Obama and he turns out to be more Jimmy Carter than John Kennedy. I sincerely hope that this prediction doesn’t come true as I have very little time for the peanut farmer from Georgia.
In my home country Gordon Brown will sink to immeasurably low numbers in the opinion polls, and instead of trying to chase the lost millions he does what he should have done in the first place, which is to relax and just do the best job he can rather than to be a pale imitation of Tony Blair. Nevertheless, it’s going to be too little too late for the iron Chancellor, who turned out to be the Prime Minister made out of putty.
Like you I shall generally not get thinner or fitter, but I shall keep trying. The sun will shine too little in the UK and too much elsewhere, when it doesn’t rain for more than a week here we call it a drought, and when it does rain for more than a week, we have floods, and we will blame both on global warming. I will continue to write my blog and I hope you will still read it. 100 blogs delivered, and many more to come.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Fight For Freedom
Britain, my Great Britain, wake up, you the father of modern democracy, are sleepwalking to a totalitarian state. Inch by stinking inch we are allowing our freedoms to be eroded, all, of course, in the name of freedom. We seem unaware of what the result will be of reducing our freedom by the millions of cameras watching our every move. Now they link these systems. They are putting microphones and speakers in combination with many of these cameras.
Our leaders are allowing, or sanctioning or ordering that our tax and other, related financial information, be combined. What’s the reason behind this? When you undertake almost every meaningful financial transaction in the UK today you now have to show either a passport, or your driving license. Why should this be necessary? Ask yourself how many terrorists have been caught in the security net because there are these compliance measures? The official answer is, none!
Add to this the new, combined government information database in which our health information is to be held. We can all understand the theoretical and practical reasons that this might benefit us, but the truth is that this is another system that is completely open to abuse. Imagine if your prospective employer knew you had a medical problem that you wanted to keep private. Does this mean you don’t get the job, but will never learn why you were turned down?
We just don’t know whether the people being entrusted with the confidential information about us are well intended, but we do know they are hopelessly inefficient. This country’s government has, as I have written before, admitted that it is early stage development of a system that enables it to listen to and record every phone call, every visit to every website and study every text message at its leisure. This is a gross breach of our human rights and should be fought by every person who values their future freedom.
Various council authorities in this country are, apparently, sending out information forms for every household in their area to complete. This is compulsory and there are severe penalties for value to complete the forms. The kinds of questions being asked are an attempt by the authorities to spy on every aspect of that household’s lifestyle, expenditure and income levels.
These council authorities are using the anti terrorism legislation, never intended for this purpose, to spy on the householders in their districts. Under law they are doing so quite legitimately but clearly for illegitimate reasons.
Let’s examine another frightening outcome that will surely follow the misuse of medical knowledge in this country, and probably elsewhere. If all the data-bases become linked, and DNA sampling is progressively standardized we will have a situation in which we will be able to forecast which children are going to be born with or will develop various degenerative diseases in later life. Will society allow such children to be born into the poorer world that decreasing resources is likely to engender? If insurance companies are warned in advance that someone is going to develop a long-term illness, or one that might lead to premature death, how likely is it that they will provide any form of insurance cover?
What is the moral and ethical position of our society in dealing with these issues? We must have this debate and arrive at our conclusions BEFORE we enable this truly frightening technology not AFTER.
Remember that our governmental sanctioned data-bases failure rate is 70%. Remember the bigger the data collection the more likely we are to suffer what the American military used to call a SNAFU, Situation Normal All F…d Up!
We also have our government demanding new legislation in which terrorist suspects can be arrested and held without trial, for 42 days. I am, as those of you who have previously read my articles know, extremely hard line with terrorists. Note the difference, I am tough on terrorists, not suspected terrorists. Unless you’ve forgotten, like our government apparently has, you are innocent until you’re proven guilty in this country. There must be a presumption of innocence or we have truly become a totalitarian regime. It was bad enough that our legislators meekly allowed the previously demanded 28 days of arrest without charge, why do we need 42 days? What does 42 days precisely give us, that 28 days did not, or is this simply a number without any meaning?
The real terrorist organizations want our society to over react and turn on itself. Our government is falling into this trap. Obviously this is a difficult balance to achieve, and whatever route our leaders take will be open to error, but there are fundamental truths at stake. These must include the presumption of innocence and that includes the right to trial by a jury of your peers. Our governments must not behave beyond the law to protect us from illegal actions. There is one exception to this, and that's the extraordinary powers a democracy allows its government at time of war.
The question is, are we at war? If we are at war with a global terrorist threat, then you have to make that clear and then these, extraordinary powers could be allowed, but only for the duration of the conflict. When we are already asking questions as to whether it is allowable for the authorities to torture a terrorist suspect for the greater good we are clearly entering a new type of war situation. I find the idea of torture repugnant until this scenario is put into context. For example the terrorist knows where in London or New York, that his friends have planted a dirty nuclear device, ready to explode in one hour. Do you ask him politely to let you know where the bomb, that might kill 500,000 people is, or do you do whatever is necessary to find out where it is, immediately?
For me the answer is obvious, you do whatever you can, and you don't wait one second. The counter argument relates to the size of the threat, and the possibility that you might have the wrong suspect under arrest. I respond that if one person is under threat of being murdered it is worth the risk, and yes, there would be mistakes, and that's too terrible to contemplate, but is a legitimate price in times of war.
Back to the UK, pure and simple; here I have already written to my medical center telling them I want to opt out of the National Health database currently being collected.
I have also checked to see whether my council is one of those placing concealed mini cameras in our wheelie bins to check for “proper” segmentation of paper, glass and other rubbish. Would you believe they are now confirming whether the weight of the bin is too much for our over protected refuse collectors. They’re calling this the “two finger rule”. If it takes more than two of the bin collectors fingers to roll the wheeled bin to his truck they will not remove it. This is, of course, political correctness gone mad, but it is real nevertheless. In England we have a two fingered salute, which means the same as the single finger salute in the States. I want to share this salute with the town hall little Hitlers who are coming up with these ridiculous rules.
Watch out America, because for your Barak Obama read our Tony Blair a decade ago. What we’re experiencing now you can anticipate for your future. Like Blair there is something of the nanny state provider about Obama. All the things we now have in the UK that I‘m outlining were well intentioned laws, regulations and ideas that were founded in the absolute certain belief that these were all being done for our own good. Every day our lives are peppered with news of a never-ending barrage of such ideas. All conceived by our leaders to tell us how to live. This week there were announcements about our health, the packaging and pricing of alcohol, advertising on TV, further congestion charging in another of our major cities, Manchester, and I could go on without end.
My advice to the reader is to fight this type of legislation wherever you find it, and never give in. If there’s an alternative take it. If you’re compelled, try to resist. Tell them no, don’t fill in their forms, don’t volunteer any information, and if you get an opportunity to be in contact with your elected representative tell them, loud and clear what you think about this continual erosion of your freedom. Then, when there are elections, vote the idiots out, or it might be too late.
Our leaders are allowing, or sanctioning or ordering that our tax and other, related financial information, be combined. What’s the reason behind this? When you undertake almost every meaningful financial transaction in the UK today you now have to show either a passport, or your driving license. Why should this be necessary? Ask yourself how many terrorists have been caught in the security net because there are these compliance measures? The official answer is, none!
Add to this the new, combined government information database in which our health information is to be held. We can all understand the theoretical and practical reasons that this might benefit us, but the truth is that this is another system that is completely open to abuse. Imagine if your prospective employer knew you had a medical problem that you wanted to keep private. Does this mean you don’t get the job, but will never learn why you were turned down?
We just don’t know whether the people being entrusted with the confidential information about us are well intended, but we do know they are hopelessly inefficient. This country’s government has, as I have written before, admitted that it is early stage development of a system that enables it to listen to and record every phone call, every visit to every website and study every text message at its leisure. This is a gross breach of our human rights and should be fought by every person who values their future freedom.
Various council authorities in this country are, apparently, sending out information forms for every household in their area to complete. This is compulsory and there are severe penalties for value to complete the forms. The kinds of questions being asked are an attempt by the authorities to spy on every aspect of that household’s lifestyle, expenditure and income levels.
These council authorities are using the anti terrorism legislation, never intended for this purpose, to spy on the householders in their districts. Under law they are doing so quite legitimately but clearly for illegitimate reasons.
Let’s examine another frightening outcome that will surely follow the misuse of medical knowledge in this country, and probably elsewhere. If all the data-bases become linked, and DNA sampling is progressively standardized we will have a situation in which we will be able to forecast which children are going to be born with or will develop various degenerative diseases in later life. Will society allow such children to be born into the poorer world that decreasing resources is likely to engender? If insurance companies are warned in advance that someone is going to develop a long-term illness, or one that might lead to premature death, how likely is it that they will provide any form of insurance cover?
What is the moral and ethical position of our society in dealing with these issues? We must have this debate and arrive at our conclusions BEFORE we enable this truly frightening technology not AFTER.
Remember that our governmental sanctioned data-bases failure rate is 70%. Remember the bigger the data collection the more likely we are to suffer what the American military used to call a SNAFU, Situation Normal All F…d Up!
We also have our government demanding new legislation in which terrorist suspects can be arrested and held without trial, for 42 days. I am, as those of you who have previously read my articles know, extremely hard line with terrorists. Note the difference, I am tough on terrorists, not suspected terrorists. Unless you’ve forgotten, like our government apparently has, you are innocent until you’re proven guilty in this country. There must be a presumption of innocence or we have truly become a totalitarian regime. It was bad enough that our legislators meekly allowed the previously demanded 28 days of arrest without charge, why do we need 42 days? What does 42 days precisely give us, that 28 days did not, or is this simply a number without any meaning?
The real terrorist organizations want our society to over react and turn on itself. Our government is falling into this trap. Obviously this is a difficult balance to achieve, and whatever route our leaders take will be open to error, but there are fundamental truths at stake. These must include the presumption of innocence and that includes the right to trial by a jury of your peers. Our governments must not behave beyond the law to protect us from illegal actions. There is one exception to this, and that's the extraordinary powers a democracy allows its government at time of war.
The question is, are we at war? If we are at war with a global terrorist threat, then you have to make that clear and then these, extraordinary powers could be allowed, but only for the duration of the conflict. When we are already asking questions as to whether it is allowable for the authorities to torture a terrorist suspect for the greater good we are clearly entering a new type of war situation. I find the idea of torture repugnant until this scenario is put into context. For example the terrorist knows where in London or New York, that his friends have planted a dirty nuclear device, ready to explode in one hour. Do you ask him politely to let you know where the bomb, that might kill 500,000 people is, or do you do whatever is necessary to find out where it is, immediately?
For me the answer is obvious, you do whatever you can, and you don't wait one second. The counter argument relates to the size of the threat, and the possibility that you might have the wrong suspect under arrest. I respond that if one person is under threat of being murdered it is worth the risk, and yes, there would be mistakes, and that's too terrible to contemplate, but is a legitimate price in times of war.
Back to the UK, pure and simple; here I have already written to my medical center telling them I want to opt out of the National Health database currently being collected.
I have also checked to see whether my council is one of those placing concealed mini cameras in our wheelie bins to check for “proper” segmentation of paper, glass and other rubbish. Would you believe they are now confirming whether the weight of the bin is too much for our over protected refuse collectors. They’re calling this the “two finger rule”. If it takes more than two of the bin collectors fingers to roll the wheeled bin to his truck they will not remove it. This is, of course, political correctness gone mad, but it is real nevertheless. In England we have a two fingered salute, which means the same as the single finger salute in the States. I want to share this salute with the town hall little Hitlers who are coming up with these ridiculous rules.
Watch out America, because for your Barak Obama read our Tony Blair a decade ago. What we’re experiencing now you can anticipate for your future. Like Blair there is something of the nanny state provider about Obama. All the things we now have in the UK that I‘m outlining were well intentioned laws, regulations and ideas that were founded in the absolute certain belief that these were all being done for our own good. Every day our lives are peppered with news of a never-ending barrage of such ideas. All conceived by our leaders to tell us how to live. This week there were announcements about our health, the packaging and pricing of alcohol, advertising on TV, further congestion charging in another of our major cities, Manchester, and I could go on without end.
My advice to the reader is to fight this type of legislation wherever you find it, and never give in. If there’s an alternative take it. If you’re compelled, try to resist. Tell them no, don’t fill in their forms, don’t volunteer any information, and if you get an opportunity to be in contact with your elected representative tell them, loud and clear what you think about this continual erosion of your freedom. Then, when there are elections, vote the idiots out, or it might be too late.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Some Animals Are More Equal...
Yesterday was a perfect English Summer's day; I watched some people walking their dogs through the countryside. Let’s be honest, I am not nature boy, and the reason for my being in the green area, grass I think is the name, is because they were selling me an ice cream cone with a Cadbury’s Flake in it. In England we call this concoction a 99, and it was what God invented for sunny days. Forgive the interruption. I looked at these people with their dogs and I compared them to other families with their children. No question, the people with the animals were treating the beasts better than the other families were treating their kids.
What sets us apart from the animals, our ability to laugh, to see the funny side of things? Animal lovers will always insist that their pet dog, cat, mongoose, fish or lizard is laughing, smiling or expressing angst. But, and I am sorry to have to insist, this is not true.
Leibniz, the early 18th. Century German philosopher said, “It is the knowledge of necessary and eternal truths which distinguishes us from mere animals, and gives us reason and the sciences, raising us to knowledge of ourselves.”
Animals are lovely, if you like that kind of thing, but they don’t have any sense of humour. They are, in fact, very limited intellectually. You could say the same about many of their owners, or if I am to be politically correct, keepers. Please be aware any animal nuts, that I do like animals myself, and that I have had many pet dogs, fish and even a tortoise or two when I was an ankle biter. I just don’t ascribe human abilities to the little beasts. I also don’t, and you should whisper this, hug any trees. They’re really nice to look at, but they don’t look cuddly to me.
Humans don’t learn to have a sense of fun and the ridiculous; we are born with this ability. There is something attractive about us when we smile, and that’s why almost every photograph you see has a smiling face in it. We look at our best when we’re happy. Animals can be happy or sad, but that is based purely on their basis needs being met or otherwise. They can’t express emotion facially or verbally; they don’t have the mental agility. Their brains simply don’t have the capacity or the synapses.
You could think differently had you watched the recent episodes of Britain’s Got Talent, or America’s Got Talent. Both these television shows featured dogs with immense ability. Dogs that could dance backwards, and in one case stand on a rope and seemingly, take a bow (wow)! Of course one does have a slight suspicion that these might be very small people in a dog suit, but that aside. These were very talented dogs. The one in England was probably able to quote Shakespeare. It was a great dog. But it isn’t a person. Please stop going berserk whenever you see a cute animal, you’ll only encourage the balls of fur.
Happily the animals did not win the contests and although they might consider litigation I for one was gratified that they were left to bark in the dark.
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others, as George Orwell stated in his book, Animal Farm. We should all look after fellow humans first and animals come somewhere down the list. Please remember, humans are the animals that are more equal.
What sets us apart from the animals, our ability to laugh, to see the funny side of things? Animal lovers will always insist that their pet dog, cat, mongoose, fish or lizard is laughing, smiling or expressing angst. But, and I am sorry to have to insist, this is not true.
Leibniz, the early 18th. Century German philosopher said, “It is the knowledge of necessary and eternal truths which distinguishes us from mere animals, and gives us reason and the sciences, raising us to knowledge of ourselves.”
Animals are lovely, if you like that kind of thing, but they don’t have any sense of humour. They are, in fact, very limited intellectually. You could say the same about many of their owners, or if I am to be politically correct, keepers. Please be aware any animal nuts, that I do like animals myself, and that I have had many pet dogs, fish and even a tortoise or two when I was an ankle biter. I just don’t ascribe human abilities to the little beasts. I also don’t, and you should whisper this, hug any trees. They’re really nice to look at, but they don’t look cuddly to me.
Humans don’t learn to have a sense of fun and the ridiculous; we are born with this ability. There is something attractive about us when we smile, and that’s why almost every photograph you see has a smiling face in it. We look at our best when we’re happy. Animals can be happy or sad, but that is based purely on their basis needs being met or otherwise. They can’t express emotion facially or verbally; they don’t have the mental agility. Their brains simply don’t have the capacity or the synapses.
You could think differently had you watched the recent episodes of Britain’s Got Talent, or America’s Got Talent. Both these television shows featured dogs with immense ability. Dogs that could dance backwards, and in one case stand on a rope and seemingly, take a bow (wow)! Of course one does have a slight suspicion that these might be very small people in a dog suit, but that aside. These were very talented dogs. The one in England was probably able to quote Shakespeare. It was a great dog. But it isn’t a person. Please stop going berserk whenever you see a cute animal, you’ll only encourage the balls of fur.
Happily the animals did not win the contests and although they might consider litigation I for one was gratified that they were left to bark in the dark.
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others, as George Orwell stated in his book, Animal Farm. We should all look after fellow humans first and animals come somewhere down the list. Please remember, humans are the animals that are more equal.
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