Wednesday - January 18, 2012
no SOPA for you!
See peeps? This is so much better than living in a tent and pooping on police cars.
SOPA blackout leads co-sponsors to defect
An Internet blackout Wednesday by Wikipedia, Reddit, Mozilla and thousands of other sites against two anti-piracy bills in Congress has started to have its desired effect: Co-sponsors of the legislation have changed sides and other lawmakers have called for more debate before any vote.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) — who was a co-sponsor of the PROTECT IP Act — became the latest lawmaker Wednesday to pull his support. In the House, Rep. Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.), originally a co-sponsor of the Stop Online Piracy Act, pulled his name from the list of sponsors on Tuesday. A spokesman for Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.), meanwhile, told the Omaha World-Herald on Wednesday that the congressman is also unable to support SOPA as written.
SOPA is a mess. Perhaps our copyright laws need to be reworked here in the digital age. Perhaps the RIAA - the record companies who are behind this crap (as usual) - need to go take a flying ***k. I don’t know what the answer is, but keep any and all government out of, and away from, the internet seems like a good idea to me. It isn’t theirs; they don’t own it and they don’t have the right to tax it or police it.
OTOH, if we had that vaunted One World Government, this software piracy thing would be a snap to shut down, from the most real level (stolen software) right down to the stupid low level stuff (’fair use’ borrowing of pictures and content). Face it: the ‘net is pretty much an Open Source world: if you don’t want your stuff shared, don’t put it online.
For lots more info about what’s wrong with SOPA, go here, and join an email campaign or two. So far more than a million emails have come in. read more And plenty of web sites big and small have shut down or blacked out for the day. Not me. I’m not in favor of the bills, but I’m not much of a bandwagon jumper-onner. But I do think that whoever the simp was who introduced the legislation ought to be horsewhipped and forced to move to North Korea.
On Twitter, Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, confirmed that all of Wikipedia’s 3.8 million English-language articles will be unavailable from midnight Eastern time tonight until midnight Wednesday. Anyone who visits the site will be redirected to a banner that reads “The Internet must remain free.” Also joining Wikipedia in going black are Reddit, Minecraft, Craigslist, and Boing Boing, among others. Craigslist has posted a message at the top of its city homepages with a link to “help put a stop to this madness” of SOPA and PIPA.
The Obama administration, as well as Congress, seem to be listening to the critics. In a blog post, the White House said it would not support “legislation that reduces freedom of expression ... or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.” And House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said a vote would not come up for SOPA until a consensus is reached.
Please read any statements from any government extremely carefully (on this subject and all others, naturally). We are being fed a bucketful of weasel-words and double-talk. Most of government is sold out to big business money. Don’t let them talk you into accepting a spoonful of censorship “for the good of everyone” instead of what looks like a big bowlful now. That spoon will turn out to be bottomless, and their take-over will be incremental but complete. Fight the man, man. Occupy DC.
To help draw attention to the digital censorship issue, here’s a picture I hacked from some famous starlet’s cellphone. (Warning: full NSFW nudity and really dirty sexuality below the fold!)
Posted by Drew458
on 01/18/2012 at 02:37 PM
Filed Under: • Big Brother • FREEDOM •
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Permalink • a wackier nanny state then here? possibly norway. take a look.
There is always something so damn intrusive and nanny like about socialist systems.
Like this article that caught my attention.
What’s with these Norwegian social workers? Haven’t youngsters crawled into bed with mommy and daddy for eons? I mean little ones naturally.
The kids in this case. And anyway, how would those social nannys have known that. And what’s wrong with hand feeding?
Unless there’s something else going on here not reported.
Imagine an authority that can make this kind of decision on the spot. Or near it anyway.
Indian couple have children taken away by Norwegian social workers because they were feeding them by hand
Authorities also complained that the parents should not be sleeping in the same bed as their infantsBy DAVID GERGES
An Indian couple have had their children taken away by Norwegian social workers because they were feeding them with their hands and sleeping in the same bed as them.
Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya lost custody of their three-year-old son and one-year-old daughter eight months ago after authorities branded their behaviour inappropriate.
The drastic measure led to intervention from the Indian government who contacted Norwegian authorities in an a desperate attempt to return the children.
Norwegian Child Protection Services removed the youngsters from their home in May, 2011, leaving their parents horrified with the outcome of the report.
Father Anurup told Indian television channel NDTV: ‘They told me ‘why are you sleeping with the children in the same bed?’.
‘(I told them) this is also a purely cultural issue. We never leave the children in another room and say goodnight to them.’
Anurup added: ‘Feeding a child with the hand is normal in Indian tradition and when the mother is feeding with a spoon there could be phases when she was overfeeding the child.
‘They said it was force feeding. These are basically cultural differences.’
Mrs Bhattacharya said: ‘My son was sleeping with my husband. They said he should sleep separately from your son.’
The parents have been told that they can only see their children twice a year, for an hour during each visit until the kids turn 18 when they will no longer be bound by the current restrictions under current Norwegian law.
Despite the Indian government’s intervention, Norwegian officials are refusing to meet the request for any further explanation.Norway’s Child Protective Service has come under much scrutiny in the past for excessive behaviour in their handling of child cruelty.
Lawyer Svein Kjetil Lode Svendsen said: ‘There has been a report in UN in 2005 which criticized Norway for taking too many children in public care.
‘The amount was 12,500 children and Norway is a small country.’
With the Bhattacharyas’ visas set to expire in March, they have revealed that they will be forced to stay against their will until the return of their infants.
Maybe they should kidnap their own kids, somehow, and find the Indian embassy and ask to be sent home.
This is really bizarre.
Posted by peiper
on 01/18/2012 at 01:35 PM
Filed Under: • Big Brother • Nanny State •
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Permalink • Monday - November 28, 2011
eu tightens it’s grip
Have to pack it in for the night. Drew busy and I don’t envy the load he carries.
And I’m all done in after a fairly weird day which actually started at 5am. But not planned that way. Had appointment today as sawbones concerned about my low blood pressure. Jeesh. Me? Low BP? Unbelievable the way I swear and rant about things that bother me you’d think it would be high and not low. Whatever.
I got this article in my newsletter today, or maybe it was yesterday. Not keeping track.
I couldn’t help thinking, as I often do on the subject, it’s this sort of thing the American left will happily inflict on to the USA, given the opportunity. And if you don’t think they haven’t already started the process, you’re asleep at the wheel.
Also read brief TV review about a Brit in a Texas jail awaiting the death penalty.
Some Brit reporter has decided she’s innocent, had a crappy useless lawyer, and now there’s to be a TV documentary on it here in the UK. There’s the usual slam against the great state of Texas cos they have apparently executed too many ppl to make Brit reporter happy. Like it’s his business. So the reviewer goes on to state that Britain gave up the DP 40 years ago, and based on this case, America should too.
Right. And do as they do here. Let em out in a couple yrs so they can do it all over again. Fact is, lots and lots of Brits want a return to the DP. And all you have to do is read only one months worth of their papers here to see why.
The Totalitarian EU Tightens Its Grip
British FreedomBy Paul Weston
The increasingly dictatorial behaviour of the unelected EU Commissioners rather proves the point made by Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky, who way back in 2006 stated that the political structure of the European Union was similar to that of the Supreme Soviet and the Politburo, and that the similarity was intentional.
The liberal-left are woefully ignorant of history, yet with their various humanities degrees they should know something of human nature, but even this appears to be beyond their intellectual grasp. The mental make-up of all dictators seeks one thing and one thing only – control over all others. Lenin once remarked that Communism was not actually about equality for the worker, but was rather about control. Total control.Have we not seen this in the last few weeks? Frau Merkel and Monsieur Sarkozy are both on record stating their intention to wrest further EU control from the European electorate in the wake of the Eurozone economic catastrophe (inflicted by EU economic policy) and they are now doing this in spades.
Greek ex-Prime Minister Papandreou rather foolishly suggested the Greek people might like to influence their economic future in a democratic manner, only to be immediately toppled by the EU powers and replaced by Lucas Papademos, a man of impeccable Socialist economic credentials, who went from Governor of the Bank of Greece to Vice President of the European Central Bank (ECB) to Prime Minister of Greece. In other words an EU placeman in a previously democratic country.
In Italy, Silvio Berlusconi was not brought down by his lurid sexual shenanigans or his alleged lifelong corruption, but because he dared to question the validity of the euro. Enter the incensed EU Politburo, and exit the aged yet curiously wrinkle-free lecherous Lothario, to be replaced by unelected former EU Commissioner Mario Monti and a cabinet of bankers and academics, not one of whom represents a single Italian political party.
Is this democracy in action? No, it is totalitarianism, pure and simple.This should come as no surprise to those who understand the dictatorial machinations of the EU. Countries such as Ireland and Denmark were allowed referendums, but when they refused to accept the EU’s vision of a Utopian Socialist future, they were alternately threatened and bribed until they eventually complied with the wishes of the unelected EU Commissioners.
Posted by peiper
on 11/28/2011 at 02:40 PM
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Permalink • Tuesday - August 23, 2011
BRIT MARINES DEFEATED IN BATTLE AGAINST HEALTH AND SAFETY RULES. SAY WHAT?
The weather has turned foul, again, putting a hold, again, on my work outside which is desperately needed after a year or more of neglect. So I’ve been trying to play catch up before we enter fall and winter. Even some inside work depends on better weather then we have at the moment.
Well, since I was up early anyway and craving coffee to get my circulation going, I took the papers in from the porch and turned the pages of one paper to see what headlines were screaming read me first, while the coffee water came to a boil.
And oh boy. Did I find a headline. I have not read past page nine as yet, because this bit of idiotic, loony tune , politically correct health and safety stopped me in my tracks. I could have saved time and got the water boiling if I’d held the cup and read the article at the same time.
This is a military demonstration, a re-enactment of an event. But it must pass health and safety rules for this very cocooned generational group of jobs worth pin heads.
If there is one, I think even God may have deserted them and decided that since they have free will and their will is to self destruct, well then so be it.
They’re DOOMED!
Health and safety defeats Marines who tackled Somali pirates
Marines who have defeated Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean were sent for “training” by health and safety officials before being allowed to re-enact their encounters at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.By Auslan Cramb
The TelegraphMembers of HMS Montrose’s counter-piracy team board hijacked ships using a technique called “fast roping” in which they slide down ropes without harnesses and with their hands protected by asbestos gloves. The men planned to display the technique at the event and were astonished to be told they would have to undertake training with an industrial rope-access firm.
They were also not allowed to simulate shooting pirates, who would instead have to give themselves up as part of a re-enactment of last year’s successful Ocean Shield operation. The Marines were sent to a council facility in Edinburgh before health and safety officials at the local authority and the Historic Scotland agency approved the display.
They were shown how to abseil to the standards expected in an industrial environment and have not been allowed to “fast rope” in the show, which is performed every evening in August.
A senior military source said: “Historic Scotland thought everything looked far too dangerous and the Marines were told to tone everything down. That included abseiling down the walls of the castle and the re-enactment of the fast roping on to the ‘captured’ ship.
“The Marines were also not permitted to shoot the pirates. Instead all the bad guys surrender. It is all a bit sad really.”
Donald Bisset, a rope access expert at Web Rigging in Edinburgh, added: “They are trained in fast-roping, that is how they get on to the decks of ships that have been taken over by pirates.
“I don’t think the council was very happy with that from a health and safety point of view so they were told they had to abseil. Someone at the council put them in touch with us.
“We just set up the ropes for them and were on hand to make sure they were doing it safely.”
One member of the audience was not impressed. “I thought the re-enactment of taking over the pirate ship looked like something you would expect to see in a children’s pantomime,” said Ross McNeill, from Glasgow, who took his father, Bill. “I certainly don’t think it would put off real-life pirates, it would just encourage them.“My dad felt it had all been a bit emasculated by health and safety concerns. I remember going when I was younger and there were motorbike riders on see saws and a stunt where they took a gun apart, hoisted it over a wall and then reassembled it and fired it. That is the sort of thing you remember.”
Alan Smith, a spokesman for the tattoo, denied that health and safety concerns had adversely affected the counter-piracy boarding unit’s display, adding: “It is a matter of opinion whether there is a stunt or not. There are health and safety concerns with everything we do but nothing so far that has stopped us in our tracks.”
Lesley Brown, of Historic Scotland, which is responsible for Edinburgh Castle, said all the procedures in the show had to be checked against health and safety standards and “risk assessed for impact to the castle.”
Posted by peiper
on 08/23/2011 at 02:26 AM
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Permalink • Sunday - April 03, 2011
Union vs Taxpayers moving to Congress
I’m sure we’re all aware of what the government unions have done in Madison, WI. They are currently doing the same here in Ohio. But it gets worse...it’s moving to the Federal level.
I’ll have to let you find the news articles yourself. I’ve not got time. I’ll give you the ‘Reader’s Digest’ version:
The APWU (American Postal Workers Union) recently concluded a contract. House Republicans are scrutinizing it. This is being called a ‘first’ by my union. I suppose it is a ‘first’...first time Congress has done its job in several decades.
I’m not a member of the APWU. I’m a member of the NALC. We haven’t even started contract negotiations. Yet I received the following email from the NALC:
On April 5, Rep. Darryl Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee—which has jurisdiction over the Postal Service—will hold a full committee hearing on our pay and benefits. While the hearing’s emphasis will be on the Service’s tentative agreement with the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), there is no doubt that the hearing will have repercussions on the collective-bargaining agreements of all postal employees, including letter carriers.
Your member of Congress sits on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. I need you to pick up your phone on Monday, April 4—while off the clock—and call Congressman Mike Turner at (202) 225-6465 to deliver an important message.
The script below should be used to guide you through your conversation with your member of Congress.
“Hi, my name is ______________________. I am a letter carrier from __________________ and I have worked delivering mail and packages for ______ years.
“Tomorrow (Tuesday), the Oversight and Government Reform Committee is holding a hearing on postal employee pay and benefits.
“The Postal Service provides high-quality service at the most affordable postage rates in the world without receiving a dime of taxpayer money.
“The USPS and its employees have worked together to overcome the economic crisis of the past few years, maintaining high-quality service and becoming more efficient by eliminating more than 100,000 jobs since December 2007.
“As your constituent, I hope you stand up for the middle-class pay and benefits I have earned.”
Wow! Despite April 4 being my day-off for the week, I responded with an email to Congressman Turner. It went like this:
Dear Congressman Turner,
Congressman Turner, as a 22-yr member of the USPS, and a six-year Naval veteran, I hope you stand on your oath of office, the same oath I’ve taken twice (Navy, USPS) to uphold the Constitution. A very important part of which is to oversee tax receipts and tax expenditures. CUT THE SPENDING! If I, as an employee of the USPS, take a financial hit, sobeit. Me and the wife will survive. That’s my/our problem. The country, however, will not survive. CUT THE SPENDING!
Mark Steyn read an email sent to him while guest-hosting the Rush Limbaugh Show yesterday. The emailer made the point that current government taxing and spending is the ultimate form of ‘taxation without representation.’ Generations yet unborn will be taxed for today’s spending.
I’ll close with a quote:
“The most sensible request we make of government is not ‘Do something!’ but ‘Quit it!’ “ – P. J. O’Rourke
We’ve met before, back when you ran for Mayor the first time. You and your wife visited the Upper Riverdale Neighborhood Association.
Just stand your ground. Tell the Democrats to ‘quit it’.
Christopher
Fellow BMEWS and BMEWSETTES, please email your congresscritters and tell them to STOP THE SPENDING!
Posted by Christopher
on 04/03/2011 at 03:05 AM
Filed Under: • Big Brother • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Government • Inflation and High Prices • Insanity •
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Permalink • Friday - March 18, 2011
making the world safe for democracy
If we get ourselves involved in foreign affairs then at least lets not be hypocrites.
Lets simply tell the world up front and out loud ... we’re gonna do this or that and fuck you if you don’t like it. Or, be diplomatic and state our reason(s) for sticking our nose where it isn’t wanted, and then say fuck you. BUT PLEASE! Lets stop the horseshit about democracy where the word means little or nothing except as an expression. What bothers me about this latest thing with Libya is the BS we’ve been getting about all those poor civilians who are also unarmed. Oh really? Unarmed?
Seems like all folks in turd world places only have to say the word freedom and it automatically puts em on a high moral plain. Like the word “activist” excuses everything.
Well, in the case of Libya, armed people attacked the government. The govt. did what govts do. It hit back. But in this case, we don’t happen to like the shit faced bastard who is head of that govt. and we hear the sirens call. FREEDOM! Democracy! And immediately the Prime Minister of England, whose country has been doing business there for years, gets an itch in his butt and the cure is a no fly zone to protect all those “innocent” civilians. Who would not have been attacked had they not attacked the govt. The French also are very quick off the mark, they want in on this thing too but there’s a catch. The USA was dragging it’s heels. Mr. O. was having second thoughts. Or more likely, no thoughts at all. But he finally caved in because all those innocent and “unarmed” civilians looked like they were gonna lose to Gadaffi, hereafter to be referred to as simply Daffy.
Now, in fact today, we hear from ppl called rebel commanders, that they do have “weapons capabilities that have been kept hidden.” They also claim to possess some tanks and choppers as well as artillery AND .... they claim to have a few “fighter jets” at their disposal.
Reminds me of Texas Guinan.
HELLO SUCKERS!
I think we all agree on one thing. Daffy is a miserable psychopath and nobody except his family might miss him if died today. However, it’s wrong to assume he has no supporters outside the ppl who make money off him. We should have totally done him in after PanAm.
Well we didn’t. Our govt. made him a deal he couldn’t refuse and he accepted. A few months ago he was being welcomed in European capitols with his tents and medals. The whole fuckin world knew the guy was a freak but put up with him anyway. Now ... all of a sudden he’s Hitler? Come on. He’s always been a close copy of the original.
We don’t have any moral obligation anywhere to violate another country’s sovereignty unless our own national interests are at stake. If they are, say so. But forget the moralizing and the guilt. Stop with damn speeches about all those poor and destitute folk yearning to be free. If people feel strongly about the starving in Africa for example, then throw away your money giving to their various charities or do what many have done. Go over there as a volunteer to help or do what moonbat Madonna does. Adopt black children. But don’t insist that the American taxpayer has any obligation to support anyone but ourselves. Which is not the case now. And going to the expense of sending military help to people who’ll more then likely stab Uncle Sam in the back at the first opportunity doesn’t sit well either.
OK, I’m almost done but I want to ask. For those who think we need to be everywhere … Maybe we should attack this guy too? No? Why not? He was voted out of office last year and refuses to leave.
Ivory Coast mortar attack may be crime against humanity, say UN
The UN has condemned a mortar attack on a market that killed at least 25 people and said it could be a crime against humanity.
The UN blamed forces loyal to incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo, whose refusal to cede power has sparked a growing political crisis. They said in a statement that Thursday’s attack sent at least six 81mm mortar shells into an Abidjan neighbourhood. The UN said at least 40 people were wounded.Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s biggest city, has seen daily battles for weeks that have left hundreds dead.
Yeah so? Why should I care? But go ahead. Invade the place cos you can not condemn Daffy if you don’t go after this guy too.
And lets not forget this creep. If we ever got involved in that country, it should be to help what’s left of the legitimate white farmers, who’ve been driven off their lands and been raped and killed by this thug. I don’t believe the things that happen there get as much attention in the American press as it does here. And don’t say they should all leave and go home, because that is, for very many, their home.
Below is dated and comes from 2009, at which time Mugabe ranked as the #1 worst dictator.
Robert Mugabe
ZimbabweAge: 85
In power since: 1980
Last year’s rank: 6Inflation in Zimbabwe is so bad that in January the government released a $50 billion note — enough to buy two loaves of bread. The unemployment rate has risen to more than 85%. In 2008, Mugabe agreed to hold an election, but it became clear that he would accept the result only if he won. His supporters launched attacks on the opposition, killing 163 and torturing or beating 5000. He ultimately signed a power-sharing agreement with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, but since then Mugabe has broken its terms and installed his own people at the head of every ministry. Meanwhile, health conditions have reached crisis levels. More than 3800 Zimbabweans have died from cholera since August.
Although U.S. leaders have called for Mugabe’s resignation, imports from Zimbabwe (primarily nickel and ferrochromium, both used in stainless steel) rose in 2008.
So how about it folks? And there are lots of others. The world does not run out of them. Why, think of the business we could do selling arms and maybe even hiring out to fight never ending little wars everywhere. Cos as long as there’s bad people running countries all around the globe, there will be excuses to go in and clean their houses for them, even if they don’t ask. All in the name of humanity of course. And as Rich K says, America has a moral right to do anything we want anywhere we want, to subdue bad guy dictators.
Trouble is, in many parts of the world, a dictator might the only stability some folks have.
btw … I’m all for wiping out places like Somalia and Iran. Maybe it’s personal. I still haven’t forgotten Black Hawk Down or our embassy in Iran under that peanut farmer.
Posted by peiper
on 03/18/2011 at 02:51 PM
Filed Under: • Big Brother • Tyrants and Dictators • United-Nations •
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Permalink • Saturday - February 19, 2011
a rare legal victory for common sense. lets see how long it will last.
At very long and much awaited last, a shimmering glimpse of logic is sighted at the far end of the tunnel.
How long will it last and how far might it go? Who knows. But the law abiding Brit taxpayer for the moment at least, has something to cheer about.
See for yourself and as always …
Stay Tuned. Because this is not over yet. This is just phase one.
Payback time for grasping prisoners: Inmates to pay £76 costs each as judge throws out vote-ban compensation claim
By STEVE DOUGHTY
Last updated at 1:47 AM on 19th February 2011
Almost 600 criminals trying to make money out of the voting ban on prisoners were slapped down by a High Court judge yesterday.They had sought £5,000 each compensation for being unable to vote at the last election. Instead, Mr Justice Langstaff ordered them to PAY £76 each towards the costs of their action.
In a decision hailed as a rare legal victory for common sense, he ruled that European judgments should never be allowed to trump laws passed at Westminster.
It was a decisive blow for the authority of Parliament over the European Court of Human Rights – and the legal vultures demanding millions of pounds in compensation for prisoners.Tens of thousands of prisoners had been expected to try to sue the Government because it has not bowed to Strasbourg and presented them with the right to vote in elections. Government lawyers had estimated an eventual bill to the taxpayer of close to £150million.
But that threat evaporated following yesterday’s ruling.None of the 588 prisoners involved had been able to keep the services of lawyers to represent them because they were denied taxpayer-funded legal aid by the Legal Services Commission and no lawyer was willing to take on the case on a no-win no-fee basis.
Similarly, without legal aid they must pay the costs of their lost action themselves.
The risk of having to pay costs appears to have affected the willingness of prisoners to pursue their claims once they realised they would not be given legal aid.
We CAN ignore Europe over prisoner votes
By Steve DoughtyBritain could defy European human rights judges over prisoner voting with minimal risk of any penalty, ministers have been advised.
There is only an outside chance of serious punishment for any politician who decides to defy outright the judgments of Strasbourg.
Government lawyers who drew up the leaked analysis for Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said it was unlikely that Britain would be thrown out of the Council of Europe, the 47-nation European organisation that runs the European Court on Human Rights.In theory David Cameron or any other politician who refuses to obey the rulings of the court could face the seizure of his or her home and assets by a British court.
There could also be a conviction for contempt of court, a crime that can carry a jail sentence.In practice, the greatest loss would be to this country’s prestige as a leader in the human rights movement.
The Government legal advice shoots down the Liberal Democrats’ central objection to any British move to reject Strasbourg’s orders – that refusing to give the vote to prisoners would lead to Britain being thrown out of the Council of Europe, with punishing international consequences including doubts over continued membership of the EU.
Britain could follow one of two policies, the advice said.
If the Government explained to Strasbourg that it had tried to obey the Euro-judges’ instructions to give prisoners the vote but failed, then ‘it seems highly unlikely that the UK would face anything more than criticism at a political level’.Such criticism is already flying in without major effect. This week European Court president Jean-Paul Costa accused Britain of being on a par with the last country to refuse to accept its authority, Greece under the dictatorship of the colonels’ junta in the 1960s.
But if David Cameron openly refuses to accept the five-year-old Strasbourg order that prisoners should have the vote, the consequences, the document said, are a matter of speculation.
He could face personal penalties if British courts hold that he had failed to meet his obligations to uphold the Strasbourg court’s authority.
Posted by peiper
on 02/19/2011 at 05:55 AM
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Permalink • Saturday - January 22, 2011
you could not make this one up .. not since ‘who’s on first’ has anything been this funny.
Dear Readers ..
You can be forgiven if once read, you might have to go back and read again, to be certain your eyes did see what your brain read.
I really thought this was a joke first time through. I didn’t get it cos my brain couldn’t register this as truth.
And then the light went on.
As the wife continually reminds me ....
“And what country are you in? Are we in England?”
Here, let me share this with you.
The dinner party that went up in smoke
We didn’t need the emergency services – but they arrived anyway, writes Matthew Norman.
There we were, the nine of us, getting stuck into a delicious chicken pie and wittering about this and that when our hostess went to answer a knock on the door. She returned a moment later to announce, very matter of factly: “There’s a fire next door.” Blimey, someone said, do you mean in the flat next door or in the next block along? “What I mean is next door,” she said, smiling. “In the sitting room.” Well, we don’t get out much, the missus and me, and on the rare occasions we do, the evenings have a tiresome habit of drifting by without an inferno. So what with the novelty value and all, we wandered to the neighbouring room to inspect.
A candle had somehow ignited foliage wrapped around the mirror above the mantelpiece, and the resulting mini-fire was swiftly extinguished. The flat’s owners went to check on their eight-week-old son, whom they found sleeping peacefully and in ostentatiously perfect health in a bedroom protected from so much as an acrid wisp of smoke by a heavy wooden door. All being well, we returned to the chicken pie, commiserating with our hosts about the minor damage, but thanking them for going to such trouble to make the evening memorable.
Several mouthfuls later, the doorbell rang again, and the first tranche of gatecrashers arrived in the form of four firefighters, summoned unbidden by a porter. Nothing peculiar there, you will think, albeit that there was no fire to fight.
It was at this point that the leader of the quartet concluded that we had failed this incendiary version of the dinner party test. To the question, “What should you do if a small fire breaks out during supper?”, the correct answer, he clearly felt, was “Rush out into the street weeping, and scan the road for a Sky news crew to whom you can blub about your journey and the need for post-traumatic stress counselling”. That gets you an A*.
Our answer – “Put it out, make sure any children in the vicinity are unaffected, and get straight back to the food and drink” – failed to impress the board. The chief examiner, overtly irritated by the sang-froid, and possibly by our failure to greet the team as heroic saviours, sent us out into the road, where we were promptly joined by an ambulance crew of four, who seemed to agree that all of us, the baby included, were fine.
And that, you might imagine, would have been the end of it. Perhaps it might have been had the fireman not then made a series of sarcastic remarks to our hostess, hinting broadly that, because that she preferred to let the baby sleep in a warm and smokeless room rather than rush him out into the cold night air, that she, like Sue Ellen in Dallas, was a drunk, a slut and an unfit mother. Eventually, with amazing forebearance, she restricted herself to a mild: “I think you’ve made your point.”
To this, Red Adair’s tough, no-nonsense counterstrike was to summon police back-up. It reminded us of stories about queeny cabin crew demanding an emergency landing to punish a passenger for perceived impertinence in requesting an extra bag of salted peanuts.
Four coppers pitched up, raising the total of public servants in the hallway to a round dozen. “It’s still early,” someone muttered, “maybe there’s time for the coastguard to make a show. I’d hate the last of the emergency services to feel out of the loop on this one.”
It’s always lovely to see the police, especially when they’re so busy servicing shadow cabinet spouses. Even so, it’s hard to understand their presence, in the absence of any suspected crime, let alone why two of them followed mother and baby to a hospital (where the little fellow was monitored through the night and found, inevitably, to be absolutely fine).
Harder to penetrate still is why one officer accompanied my friend when she took her son off to change his nappy, placing himself on guard outside the door. “I’m just doing what I’m told, madam,” was his explanation, but however much one relishes the old Nuremberg defence, it doesn’t quite explain why he was given any orders to obey.
As a unforgettable dinner party, this was as good as it gets, while the deployment of three vehicles and 12 people to deal with a tiny ex-fire, at a cost of God knows how many thousands of pounds, will assuage concern about the ravages of coming public service cutbacks. There may be a little more slack in the system than the Police Federation would have us believe.
As a vignette of an insanely risk-averse culture, however, in which alleged public servants take magisterial umbrage at people’s refusal to over-react with the lachrymose hysteria of an X Factor reject, and even attempt to criminalise them for their calm unconcern, it leaves a slightly more toxic taste in the mouth than any fumes from that melted mirror.
Posted by peiper
on 01/22/2011 at 12:35 PM
Filed Under: • Big Brother • Daily Life • UK •
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Permalink • Monday - December 20, 2010
It ain’t broke!
Egads. The Government is going to fix what ain’t broken.
Net ‘neutrality’ rules set to pass.
Hey Congress. Hey FCC. It ain’t broke! Don’t try to ‘fix’ it!
Posted by Christopher
on 12/20/2010 at 10:34 PM
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Permalink • Monday - November 15, 2010
A Line In The Sand
When government literally has you by the balls, things have gone way too far.
The next rebellion is going to be over 4th Amendment rights. Airport “security” has gone too far, and it’s a useless jobsworth program for losers anyway. Cut the crap, get the government out of it, and find a sensible solution: profile the towelheads, leave granny alone. Catch someone with a bomb? Take them outside and shoot them. Right on the spot. And then leave the rest of us the hell alone.
The middle-aged man in the blue shirt spoke gently, but directly, to Tabitha, as if he had done this a thousand times before with 12-year-old girls like her. In words tailored to her understanding, and designed to make what he was about to do seem normal, not creepy, the man in the blue shirt made it clear that if she didn’t do as he instructed she would not get to go to Disneyland. He merely wanted to show another man what was under Tabitha’s blouse and panties. Her refusal was so firm, and her face so alarmed, that he backed off and tried another tactic. If Tabitha would merely stand still while one of the man’s friends touched her body all over (caressing her in ways that no one ever had) then that would be the end of it, and she could go to Disneyland.
If you’re one of those who has basically decided that any indignity is merely the price of safety, consider that so far, it has been airline passengers and on board crews who have prevented tragedy … not the federal government.
It’s time to return the responsibility for flight safety to the airlines and the passengers — who have thus far deployed the only effective countermeasures anyway. It’s time to end the TSA’s strip-and-grope protocol before it becomes so commonplace and accepted that we forget it was ever objectionable. In the memorable words of President Obama (on another topic), it will become “the new normal.”
Having thus submitted to such unconscionable invasion of our bodies and souls, how could we ever rationally draw the line to prevent any sort of federal government encroachment?
A growing pilot and passenger revolt over full-body scans and what many consider intrusive pat-downs couldn’t have come at a worse time for the nation’s air travel system. Thanksgiving, the busiest travel time of the year, is less than two weeks away. Grassroots groups are urging travelers to either not fly or to protest by opting out of the full-body scanners and undergo time-consuming pat-downs instead. Such concerns prompted a meeting Friday of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano with leaders of travel industry groups.
Napolitano met with the U.S.Travel Association and 20 travel companies “to underscore the Department’s continued commitment to partnering with the nation’s travel and tourism industry to facilitate the flow of trade and travel while maintaining high security standards to protect the American people,” the department said in a statement. Federal officials have increased security in the wake of plots attributed to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Industry leaders are worried about the grassroots backlash to Transportation Security Administration security procedures. Some pilots, passengers and flight attendants have chosen to opt out of the revealing scans.
More of the units are arriving at airports, with 1,000 expected to be in place by the end of 2011.
Right, so now you have a choice: either submit to a full body X-ray where some high school dropout gets to gawk at your naked body, or submit to a serious fondling by a total stranger in front of a crowd.
Proper response: Eff off, we’re not flying. Not here, not there, not anywhere. TSA is crap. After spending billions you haven’t caught one terrorist, yet you’ve made tens of millions of innocents suffer and feel degraded. Screw you.
John Tyner won’t be pheasant hunting in South Dakota with his father-in-law any time soon. Tyner was simultaneously thrown out of San Diego International Airport on Saturday morning for refusing to submit to a security check and threatened with a lawsuit and a $10,000 fine if he left. And he got the whole thing on his cell phone. Well, the audio at least.
...
He’d been reading about the scanners and didn’t like them for a number of reasons, ranging from health concerns to “a huge invasion of privacy.”
...
During the next half-hour, his cell phone recorded Tyner refusing to submit to a full body scan, opting for the traditional metal scanner and a basic “pat down”—and then refusing to submit to a “groin check” by a TSA security guard.He even told the guard, “You touch my junk and I’m going to have you arrested.”
That threat triggered a code red of sorts as TSA agents, supervisors and eventually the local police gravitated to the spot where the reluctant traveler stood in his stocking feet, his cell phone sitting in the nearby bin (which he wasn’t allowed to touch) picking up the audio.
According to TSA at the time the controversial body scanners were installed, travelers would have the option to request walking through the traditional metal detector but that option would be accompanied by a “pat down.”
Why Tyner was targeted for a secondary pat down is unknown.
It’s “unknown” only if you are willfully stupid. Everyone else can see the obvious truth: he balked at the intrusive behavior and so was singled out for punishment. How dare this little sheep resist the shearing?
How about a body search for a 3 year old? Sure, this cartoon was ironic dark humor when it came out, but now it’s becoming standard practice. This is the real world result of Death By Political Correctness. Or as Drudge puts it, The Terrorists Have Won. So submit to major indignity one or the other, or go directly to jail. You, the sheeple, have no choice.
“Advanced imaging technology screening is optional for all passengers,” TSA said in a statement released Monday. “Passengers who opt out of [advanced imaging] screening will receive alternative screening, including a physical pat-down.”
But anyone who refuses to complete the screening process will be denied access to airport secure areas and could be subject to civil penalties, the administration said, citing a federal appeals court ruling in support of the rule.
Well, no. We do have a choice. And the choice is that we boycott flying. Take the train, take the boat, drive yourself or don’t go. Let the airlines rot. Let them go out of business yet again. (hell, it seems they all file for Chapter 11 every year anyway)
Want to hear stupid? The pilot of that 300 passenger missile has to go through the X-ray screening too. Just in case the guy flying the airplane is trying to sneak in a bomb. Idiots. Didn’t anyone figure out on 9/11 that a jetliner IS a bomb, fare more effective than any pair of underpants filled with PETN?
So let the protests begin. Let the boycotts commence. And let the airlines go to hell. And tell that worthless moonbat witch Napolitano to step the hell off. She’s using the “it’s for your own good” bullshit line, which is even worse than “it’s for the chiiiiildren” crap. Protecting us from an unseen, unnamed enemy, saving us from “man caused disasters”. And yet catching no one, EVER.
As part of our layered approach, we have expedited the deployment of new Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) units to help detect concealed metallic and non-metallic threats on passengers. These machines are now in use at airports nationwide, and the vast majority of travelers say they prefer this technology to alternative screening measures.
...
All images generated by imaging technology are viewed in a walled-off location not visible to the public. The officer assisting the passenger never sees the image, and the officer viewing the image never interacts with the passenger. The imaging technology that we use cannot store, export, print or transmit images. [do you actually believe that? Hell no!]
I think you could count the time in minutes between some hot famous actress getting a screening and her recognizable image being sold to TMZ or the gossip blogs. Minutes. Maybe only seconds.
Hey government: you can’t take our guns, you can’t take our land (Kelo v. New London be damned), and you can’t take pictures of us undressed. That’s our right, and that’s what digital cameras and Facebook are for. Sod off.
Full Frontal Nudity Doesn’t Make Us Safer: Abolish the TSA
The Republicans control the House of Representatives and are bracing for a long battle over the President’s health care proposal. In the spirit of bipartisanship and sanity, I propose that the first thing on the chopping block should be an ineffective organization that wastes money, violates our rights, and encourages us to make decisions that imperil our safety. I’m talking about the Transportation Security Administration.Bipartisan support should be immediate. For fiscal conservatives, it’s hard to come up with a more wasteful agency than the TSA. For privacy advocates, eliminating an organization that requires you to choose between a nude body scan or genital groping in order to board a plane should be a no-brainer.
When it comes to protecting against terrorism, this is how things usually go: A danger presents itself; the federal government responds with new rules that erode privacy, treat innocent people as suspicious and blur the distinction between life in a free society and life in a correctional facility; and we all tamely accept the new intrusions, like sheep being shorn.
Maybe not this time.
A lot of people, of course, couldn’t care less if a stranger wants to gaze upon everything God gave them. But some retain a modesty that makes them reluctant to parade naked in front of people they don’t know, even virtually. Henceforth, Jennifer Aniston is going to think twice before flying commercial.
Besides the indignity of having one’s body exposed to an airport screener, there is a danger the images will find a wider audience. The U.S. Marshals Service recently admitted saving some 35,000 images from a machine at a federal courthouse in Florida. TSA says that will never happen. Human experience says, oh, yes, it will.
For the camera-shy, TSA will offer an alternative: “enhanced” pat-downs. This is not the gentle frisking you may have experienced at the airport in the past. It requires agents to probe aggressively in intimate zones — breasts, buttocks, crotches.
If you enjoyed your last mammography or prostate exam, you’ll love the enhanced pat-down. And you’ll get a chance to have an interesting conversation with your children about being touched by strangers.
Reviews of the procedure are coming in, and they are not raves. The Allied Pilots Association calls it a “demeaning experience,” and one pilot complained it amounted to “sexual molestation.” The head of a flight attendants’ union local said that for anyone who has been sexually assaulted, it will “drudge [sic] up some bad memories.”
Join the movement. Take back your right to privacy, take back your dignity, take back your country. Dump TSA and give the airlines back the responsibility for passenger safety. Competition will find an effective, dignified, low-cost solution in a matter of months. And if Red Eye Air’s safety policy is lax and their planes get blown up, they’ll be out of business the very next day.
She described to me that because I had opted out of the backscatter screening, I would now be patted down, and that involved running hands up the inside of my legs until they felt my groin. I stated that I would not allow myself to be subject to a molestation as a condition of getting on my flight. The supervisor informed me that it was a standard administrative security check and that they were authorized to do it. I repeated that I felt what they were doing was a sexual assault, and that if they were anyone but the government, the act would be illegal. I believe that I was then informed that if I did not submit to the inspection, I would not be getting on my flight. I again stated that I thought the search was illegal. I told her that I would be willing to submit to a walk through the metal detector as over 80% of the rest of the people were doing, but I would not be groped. The supervisor, then offered to go get her supervisor.
I took a seat in a tiny metal chair next to the table with my belongings and waited. While waiting, I asked the original agent (who was supposed to do the pat down) if he had many people opt out to which he replied, none (or almost none, I don’t remember exactly). He said that I gave up a lot of rights when I bought my ticket. I replied that the government took them away after September 11th.
No. This has gone too far. Dump this, dump the TSA, dump the Patriot Act, and probably dump Homeland Security. It is time to rise up.
Posted by Drew458
on 11/15/2010 at 01:37 PM
Filed Under: • Big Brother • FREEDOM •
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Permalink • Saturday - November 13, 2010
offend muslim skank and get arrested do not pass go. jokes not allowed re. any raghead muzzy.
How’s this for stupidity? People have cars damaged and homes taken over by strangers ... but it’s civil rather then criminal liability. Never mind that. I’m just sayin cos this is weird.
Apparently, free speech does not include making tasteless or ill advised jokes on Twitter. Not only can you be arrested, you can be charged with—gasp --
the big ‘R’ even if that subject never came up. It’s all in the eye of the beholder I guess.
Here’s what happened. Oh, I should mention it happened as will be explained below, due to the slag’s (slag, Britspeak for skank,) appearance on a radio program.
A conservative British politician has been arrested after jokingly asking on Twitter for someone to “stone” a pesky Muslim reporter. Can “someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death?” asked Birmingham Councillor Gareth Compton. “ I shan’t tell Amnesty if you won’t. It would be a blessing, really.”
Bad taste? Well, yeah to some. Just how did racism get into the mix? Well, the scummy muzzie broad whose name is, as you already saw above, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. The skank is a very, very, far, far left journalist. She was upset by his Twitter post and furthermore, she said that as he suggested she be stoned, that remark tied her to islam which in turn meant he was being racist, cos of course she is muslim.
How’s the logic so far BMEWS?
So, he was duly arrested with the big ‘R’ being one of the serious charges. He has been suspended from the conservative party btw. Hey, that’s understandable isn’t it? Come on before you gripe ask ... what’s important? Votes or honor? See how that works? So here’s all of it and the more I think about it the more pissed I get. There were muzzy scum on the streets this week, not a lot mind you, but the fact that there were some with signs during a memorial day week on Nov. 11, which commemorates those fallen in Brit wars, there they were with their usual signs calling for the death of Brit soldiers. While Brits are fighting a war in some god forsaken even less then turd world place.
I shouldn’t rant so much. Can’t help it tho.
Tedious: Yasmin Alibhai-BrownSimon Heffer,
Sat. TelegraphWhy on earth did the police arrest a silly man who joked that Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, a rather tedious newspaper columnist, should be stoned to death? I don’t dispute that the joke was in poor taste – most of us would settle for having her locked in a cupboard and not let out until she promised to stop being boring – but the idea that anyone is actually going to be prompted to stone her to death as a result of this oaf’s remark is insane. Those of us who write newspaper columns must get used to abuse and, if we can’t, should do something else. And why, I wonder, are the police so slow by comparison to arrest genuinely murderous nutters who abuse our freedom of speech and call sincerely for jihad?
The stupidity of Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
Rod Liddle
Saturday, 13th November 2010The Yasmin Alibhai-Brown business is quite remarkable, isn’t it? She takes herself on to Radio Five Live to make her usual sententious and ill-thought out views on the stoning of Muslim women. Western politicians are not morally qualified to condemn such stonings, she said, because they’ve killed lots of Muslim women with bombs etc. Now, this is a typically stupid assessment, for all the obvious reasons. It implies that the allies were not morally qualified to condemn Nazi atrocities because they killed some of the very same people, largely inadvertently, with bombs and so on. It is, like the rest of YA-B’s journalism, an Aunt Sally argument scarcely worth the effort of rebutting.
A Tory councillor called Gareth Compton, from Birmingham, heard her talking this usual drivel and posted a message on Twitter to the effect that maybe YA-B should be stoned to death. Nobody could possibly consider this an incitement to violence; it was, poor taste or otherwise, a joke. But the old bill were dispatched to arrest Mr Compton (he’s been bailed) and YA-B, puffed up with her matchless self-regard and self-importance, has said that she wishes to press charges on the grounds that it is a racially motivated incitement to murder. Well it’s neither racially motivated – it was motivated by your own stupidity, love – not an incitement to murder. Incredible.
Posted by peiper
on 11/13/2010 at 02:51 PM
Filed Under: • Big Brother • CULTURE IN DECLINE • FREEDOM • Jack Booted Thugs • UK •
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Permalink • Monday - October 11, 2010
comrade mayor of NY knows what’s best … just do as told for ur own good.
It’s only taken me four days to get this posted. Jeesh. Talk about timely.
New York’s comrade mayor wants to ban low income people from using food stamps to buy sugary drinks. He says the drinks lead to obesity. Fine. Lets attack that problem by attacking low income and welfare recipients. Oh sure. That’ll work.
Don’t know what your take on this will be. Here’s mine.
It’s a dumb idea. I am not for welfare cheats any more then many here. But this is truly ludicrous. If being fat is a danger, is the state now going to restrict everyone else from buying bacon and sugared drinks? If not, why not? If it’s bad for one group it has to be equally bad for all. AND ... if someone is using food stamps to buy a six pack of coke because they like coke with a meal, that doesn’t mean they are living on coke and getting fat on coke. Or any other drink.
The aim here as stated is to fight obesity. If they mean that, then it has to be across the board.
I can see it now. Prohibition returns. Oh happy day. Speakeasys with secret passwords where they only serve regular Coca-Cola (NOT Diet Coke). Gangsters hijacking supermarket deliveries of Coke. Just like the olde days. Maybe we can even go back to having REAL JAZZ again. Oh boy. Can’t wait.
New York to ban low-income families from using food stamps to buy sugary drinks
By Daily Mail Reporter
New York has announced plans to ban the use of food stamps to buy sugary drinks as it steps up its anti-obesity campaign.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York Governor David Paterson have asked the U.S. government to ban the purchase of fizzy drinks and sweetened fruit drinks with the federal vouchers used by 42million low-income families.
They called sugar-sweetened beverages the largest single contributor to the obesity epidemic.
Mr Bloomberg said: ‘This is so simple. It’s not like a disease like cancer we don’t know how to cure. This we know how to cure. Stop eating extra calories.
‘There’s nothing wrong with an occasional one. But the kids are drinking an enormous amount of full-sugar beverages and they would switch to diet beverages.
‘So next time one of the companies calls, I’m sorry. Our children’s lives are more important than anything else.’The New York mayor has used the power of the city government to promote a range of health measures, including cuts on the amount of salt, a ban on trans fats in restaurant food and a requirement for chain restaurants to display calorie counts.
In 2003, the city banned smoking in bars and restaurants which sparked furious protest at the time but has since become widely accepted.Campaign: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York Governor David Paterson have put forward the plan and said sugary drinks the largest contributor to obesity
Mr Paterson has also sought to combat obesity and raise money with a proposed tax on sugary drinks, but it was blocked by pressure from the beverage industry.
The American Beverage Association criticised the proposal as ‘just another attempt by government to tell New Yorkers what they should eat and drink, and will only have an unfair impact on those who can least afford it’.
getinna car. take a ride to the rest of the article.
Posted by peiper
on 10/11/2010 at 11:04 AM
Filed Under: • Big Brother • USA •
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Permalink • Wednesday - October 06, 2010
tree hugging, planet saving, carbon watching politically correct dictionary and thesaurus.
I haven’t a clue how they would know how many flights a year you take. How about this for some PC bullying. Of course, like a tv show you don’t like, there’s a choice. In this case, download or do not download. I haven’t made up my mind and in any event, we really don’t fly much these days anyway.
This is a highly recommended online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Word Finder. This is the free version. http://wordweb.info/free/licence5.html
Now then, what the hell does this have to do with flying? You couldn’t make it up but these jerks did.
You may NOT have the free version if you fly too often, more then 2wice a year I think. These guys really take planet saving and carbon footprints to a new extreme.
WordWeb free version licensing
WordWeb free version may be used indefinitely only by people who take at most two commercial flights (not more than one return flight) in any 12 month period. People who fly more than this need to purchase the Pro version if they wish to continue to use it after a 30-day trial period.Global greenhouse gas emissions are currently around 5 tonnes of carbon dioxide per person per year, and probably need to be reduced by at least 80% have a good chance of avoiding dangerous warming. Most computer users are responsible for far more emissions than is sustainable. For example two short-medium distance return flights can be equivalent to over 1 tonne of emissions1: more than an average person can safely emit over an entire year.
If you do not qualify you must uninstall the program after the 30-day trial period or purchase WordWeb Pro. The licensing model is designed to allow relatively non-wealthy people to use the program free of charge, and to provide a small incentive for other people who fly a lot to cut down.
Whenever a user no longer meets the above requirements, and they have installed the product for more than 30 days, they must uninstall the product or purchase WordWeb Pro.
There is one exception to the above: not-for-profit educational establishments may make a network installation of WordWeb for the use of their students (regardless of whether their students individually meet the licensing requirement).
Flights are particularly bad because of additional non-carbon emissions and cloud formation at high altitude: the short-term warming effect is estimated to be many times worse than the same CO2 emission at ground level, perhaps a factor of two worse on a twenty-year timescale, but it could be worse than this - the science is not well understood.
Think that’s all? Here’s more and another link to their dumb assed reasoning. This is very much edited so I recommend you visit the link to read more of the nonsense.
Licence discussion and references
Various people have questioned the WordWeb 5 licensing terms. It is true that targetting flights is a very crude measure; many people’s CO2 emissions come mostly from their home due to inefficient heating, insulation or air conditioning. However the licence is designed to be easy to understand, and sufficiently simple that people will know immediately whether or not they satisfy it. If you break the licence you are certainly responsible for more emissions per person than are sustainable, and you can certainly afford to buy the Pro version. The licence is not telling you what to do: that is up to you, but if you don’t satisfy the licence you need to pay to use the program.
FlightsCurrently no CO2 emission reduction schemes include international flights. This is a very serious problem; for example, the UK has a climate change bill aiming at 80% reductions in net emissions by 2050. If you take into account projections for unrestricted growth in aviation, at 60% cut in all other emissions will result in a total cut of about only about 30-50% [Ref]: aviation growth will prevent the target being reached unless seriously restricted.
What has this to do with WordWeb?Some people feel that this has nothing to do with WordWeb, and the licensing terms are ridiculous. We agree the situation is ridiculous; the WordWeb licensing is just reflecting the current huge under-pricing of air travel. Every time you fly you are not paying the cost to the environment (and hence other people); in economics terms climate-changing emissions are an important externality leading to a market failure. WordWeb is trying to slightly increase the cost of flying via its licence to correct for this anomaly. If and when air travel is charged correctly to reflect the total cost, which is much the most efficient solution, the WordWeb licence will be changed to a more sensible economic model.
The licence also has the advantage that people who cannot easily afford to pay can use the program for free. If you can afford to fly, so that you do not satisfy the licence, you can afford to buy the program.
Posted by peiper
on 10/06/2010 at 08:37 AM
Filed Under: • Big Brother • Climate-Weather • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Stoopid-People • UK •
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Permalink • Monday - August 30, 2010
Shoppers ‘panic buying’ old 75W bulbs as stupid EU ban comes into force
The claim made by the masters in Brussels is that 30 tons of pollution will be avoided over the years. Yeah, right. Like I care anyway. In fact, I go outta my way to leave a large carbon footprint. What a joke. Ppl all over Europe are stockpiling as I did last year on 100watt bulbs. This time it’s 75 watt that will very soon be phased out by big brother across the channel. Just shows ya. Folks don’t want the new energy savers and don’t want to be forced to buy them. But that doesn’t matter.
Oh well ... time to see if I can still get the 75s. Might get a case or two of 60s while I’m at it. Can never tell if those will come in handy altho I hardly ever had use for them. EU jerks say use of energy saver bulb will also save money over time in spite of the cost. Yeah well, the paltry sum they claim I’ll save is not worth the effort. £37 a year. Oh woo-freekin-hoo. I’m not impressed. Or swayed.
Shoppers across Europe are panic buying the last remaining stocks of old fashioned 75W light bulbs before the traditional household items are banned in the EU next week.
By Leigh Philips, Louise Gray and Andrew Hough
Last year 100W incandescent light bulbs were outlawed, triggering the first wave of stockpiling by worried consumers who do not like the more expensive energy saving alternatives.
Now it will be an offence to import or manufacture 75W bulbs, although shops can continue to sell the model until stocks run out.
The European Lamp Companies Federation said shoppers around Europe are already snapping up the last remaining stocks, with a 35 per cent increase in sales across the EU.
Demand is highest in Germany, Austria, Poland and central Europe.
Although the powerful light is also popular in Britain as a reading lamp or for lighting portraits or chandeliers in historic homes.
Airum, a Finnish producer of bulbs, has reported a doubling of demand for 75W bulbs in the country compared to what is normal for August.
Veronique Skrotsky, a spokeswoman for General Electric Lighting’s French operations, said people do not like the energy saving alternatives.She said compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), which use a fifth of the energy needed for a conventional bulb, give off a sickly light.
“It’s clear that customers find the light they give off ugly, it’s really terrible,” she said.
CFLs have even been blamed for giving people headaches and skin rashes.
Bobby Damney, a spokesman for the Light Bulb Company, a major British wholesaler and retailer, said the company has seen a 10 per cent rise since June.
He said consumers do not like the “horribly shaped” CFLs, which also take longer to turn on and can flicker.
“It has been a chore for some customers trying to replace the bulbs,” he added.
Supermarkets in the UK have already phased out 75W bulbs but independent retailers and wholesalers reported an increase in demand.
Robert Parker, technical adviser to the Historic Houses Association, said people who live in older homes are stock piling old fashioned lamps.
Even halogen lamps, which give off a warmer glow and come in traditional shapes, will not fit into all old fashioned fittings.
“It has been a concern of ours for quite some time particularly in small bayonet candle bulbs that fit into many chandeliers and ancient fittings,” he said. “The energy efficient bulbs that fit into small bayonets are deeply unattractive.”
The panic buying of light bulbs is expected to get worse when 60W bulbs are banned next year and all incandescent bulbs are phased out by 2012.
Incandescent light bulbs are being phased out in order to meet the EU’s ambitious climate change targets to cut greenhouse gases by 20 per cent by 2020.
Posted by peiper
on 08/30/2010 at 01:01 PM
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On: 03/20/21 07:00
meaningless marching orders for a thousand travellers ... strife ahead ..
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Tracked at Casual Blog
[...] RTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPL [...]
On: 07/17/17 04:28
a small explanation
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Tracked at yerba mate gourd
Find here top quality how to prepare yerba mate without a gourd that's available in addition at the best price. Get it now!
On: 07/09/17 03:07
DISCLAIMER
THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.
Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
- Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
- Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
- Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
- Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere
THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.
Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner
Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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