Thursday 20 December 2012

Afghanistan typical

They have started shooting volunteers that are giving children a polio vaccination, they being 'The Taliban'. They are shooting one a day, in the head execution style while the vaccinations are taking place. The message they are giving out locally is that the west is trying to sterilise their children.

It seems odd to me that the only people shot so far are women! Men who are giving children polio vaccinations seem to be immune to the current cull.

Of course, women & work = freedom, something that does not figure in the male dominated Taliban world...

Wednesday 19 December 2012

Plebgate

This is amazing!

Andrew Mitchell lost his job as Chief Whip in September because of an incident between him and the police on the gate in downing street as to where he can ride his bike, through the main gate or through the side gate.

It was established that he swore at the police and made disparaging remarks like:-

"You don't run the country"
"Don't get above your station"
"You are just f'ing plebs"

At the time there was considerable confusion to what had actually occurred, however, Andrew Mitchell always stuck to his story that a) he did swear at the police [which he apologised for very quickly] but b)  he did not use disparaging terms like 'pleb'.

The story is back on the front pages again!!!

It now appears that Andrew Mitchell's side of the incident is more accurate that anyone else’s.

That of course now highlights the question, was he stitched up? and why?

Monday 17 December 2012

Gun control

After the awful situation in Connecticut last Friday, the media is mentioning that the call for gun control in America will happen. They must be joking...

The gun lobby is soooo powerful in the USA, there will never be changes. If all the rumours are true, then half of Americans already posses guns and tins of baked beans as they wait for the final judgement. With that sort of attitude in the country, what chance does a gun control debate have?

Friday 14 December 2012

Margret Moran wins...

The MP who claimed more than £50,000 in expenses she was not entitled too has walked out of court because her solicitor says she is mentally unstable and cannot answer the charge.

Well we knew that, she is an MP...

Thursday 13 December 2012

Leveson continued...

I am just about finished with the 2000 pages of Leveson and just in time for the announcement that the Prime Minister is going to get the Queen to put her stamp of approval on the new independent body that will control the press in future, as a royal charter cannot be manipulated without government approval.

Downing street has said that they think this is a good half-way solution as the Prime Minister has absolutely no intention of allowing the Leveson report be implemented in full. That statement smacks of  arrogance at the highest level, as though they cannot be bothered to adhere to the recommendations that they have asked for.

I am surprised that the PM is getting away with this.

Tuesday 11 December 2012

Balance Liberty & Security

A new bill being proposed by the Home Office is being blocked by the Liberals, who is right?

The Government wants the communications that we make to be recorded, this is not the content of what we say, just who we say it to. It appears to me to be a bit of nit picking which politicians are very good at when trying to preserve their jobs.

Therefore I say publish, because nowadays our security services need all the help they can get...

Monday 10 December 2012

Future

I, like you cannot predict the future, however, we can speculate.

At the next election in 2015, the public will have two choices, continue with the coalition and see borrowing increase, growth stagnate and we return to recession, or the opposition and we become something similar to Spain or Greece?

It doesn't look good, does it?

Friday 7 December 2012

Does fiscal stimulus make sense?

That is not quite the same as claiming fiscal stimulus has no effect.

There does not seem to be any awareness in the ‘blogosphere’ about the grotesque absurdity of statements like Angela Merkel’s recent claim that Germany needs fiscal stimulus. You would expect the usual suspects to be all over poor Merkel, mercilessly ridiculing the insanity of arguing for fiscal stimulus at the same time Germany is pressuring the ECB [European Central Bank] to squeeze Eurozone NGDP [nominal gross domestic product] ever more ruthlessly.

If Germany needs more AD [aggregate demand], how can Greece and Spain and Italy and Portugal and Ireland and Cyprus and Slovenia not need more AD!

Could it be that ridicule would lead people to ask some obvious questions about the point of fiscal stimulus, when monetary policy can do the same job without ballooning government deficits? It is obvious than most people still do not see the absurdity of fiscal stimulus.

Another example would be those who call for David Cameron to do fiscal stimulus, when he can simply instruct the Bank of England [BoE] to aim for a higher NGDP target. And if the Prime Minister instructs the BoE to keeping aiming for 2% inflation, he is essentially asking them to sabotage fiscal stimulus. Better monetary policy is a necessary and sufficient condition for more AD.

Thursday 6 December 2012

Autumn statement

I'm not sure how anyone can say this is an autumn statement when I am watching snow fall outside my window.

The Chancellor has announced "we are all in it together" is going to last a little longer, because the deficit has not been cut as it should have and we are [as a country] borrowing more than expected. This is mostly because energy prices, food prices and transport prices have all rocketed up much more than expected, and could not have been forecast in 2010. Growth was to be on the upward spiral but has been reforecast at -1%!

The oppositions view is the usual, we should be spending more, spend, spend, spend! It beggars belief that after all the trouble 13 years of Labour has caused us, the only rhetoric they come out with is 'spend more'!

p.s. Picking on Ed Balls stammer is not called for and underminds the rational argument...

Wednesday 5 December 2012

A real Warp Drive!

The biggest stopping point of building a working warp drive has been the vast amount of negative energy it would require, roughly equal to the mass-energy of the planet Jupiter.

However, a NASA scientist has discovered a method that may reduce that energy requirement to a mere 1600 pounds of mass. It's still a ways off, as only miniscule amounts of negative energy have been harnessed in the laboratory, but experiments are underway to investigate this further.

Check out the article here.


http://io9.com/5963263/how-nasa-will-build-its-very-first-warp-drive

Monday 3 December 2012

Incentive

With Michael Gove's leadership in education we have seen competition return to schools thankfully, the namby pamby liberal way is being crushed. However, what about incentive which I feel is also lacking in school today?

Explaining to your son he is not special to others because it is something that has to be earned through a positive contribution to society, becomes tricky to explain.

How can you do that if you are never told you are not good at something?

This is the problem with today's younger generation, they think they are entitled to something just because they have taken part, not necessarily succeeded, because they have been taught that way. They are not encouraged to put effort into anything, because they are still going to be told they did well no matter what the outcome.

Just because they participated does not mean they deserve recognition, a prize, treat or other reward. How does that promote the desire to develop a skill set for the future?