Category: Politics

CCTV cameras in Britain!

Britain’s excessive use of CCTV cameras and the shocking waste of money.

Even before leaving England a year ago, this was a subject that made me feel uneasy, to say the least.

Anyway, a recent article in The Daily Telegraph pointed out just what a complete cock-up this ‘investment’ in cameras CCTV camerahas been.

Britain has 1 per cent of the world’s population but around 20 per cent of its CCTV cameras!  Scary.

And don’t even think about the implications of RFID – Radio Frequency Identification.

G’rrrr.

By Paul Handover

Patrice Ayme and truth

Intelligence at the core of humanism

A while ago a comment on Baseline Scenario jumped off the screen at me.  I was intrigued because the author of this comment used words with power and insightfulness.  That author was Patrice Ayme.  It’s a nom de plume. [NB. Not it isn’t, see comments below] The sub-heading at the top of this Post is from his Blog.  Here’s an extract from the About section of that Blog.

This is a site that tries to find out what is really happening, and what is not, what is right and what is wrong, on many important questions, and in all sorts of ways. In other words thinking is applied relentlessly, the way evolution made it, as the ultimate instrument of domination of anything in sight (be it domination of oneself, of one’s own ideas and emotions, or domination of the universe). Thinking evolved to predict effectively and ambitiously, not to cower in a corner, modest and dazed. Prometheus’ punishment was a regrettable misunderstanding: we did not steal fire from someone, we created our mastery of fire, and fire made us what we are, as we wished. Mastering fire was not a sin, the Greco-Romans were wrong on that one. Fire was part of what we have evolved to be; masters of the universe, for better or worse.

Read more about Patrice

The Fed’s Bond Purchases and Inflation

Fed’s Kohn on Lessons from Buying Government Bonds….in Britain

Preface:

Recently Dr Jarrell, now a fellow author of this Blog as well as her own, debated the meaning of inflation.  That essay, in three parts, may be found in the list of Essays on the right hand side of this Blog.  This Post is an extract from a recent Post that Dr Jarrell presented on her own site and is presented here with the hope that, following the essay on inflation, this Post is more widely accessible to you, the reader.  Paul Handover.

Do read on

Muslim demographics – an update.

A calm and rational destruction of the Dangerous Demographics YouTube video

On the 20th August, a Post was published on Learning from Dogs called Doing nothing!  It was largely an emotional response to the video on YouTube that has been watched by over ten millions and claims that Europe and North America are close to becoming dominated by Muslims.  The unspoken implication being that this would be ‘dangerous’ for those present societies.  The YouTube film was clearly made with a racist agenda in mind.

The vision of this Blog is to support the notion that integrity is not only a noble inspiration but on a day-to-day basis truthdelivers better outcomes for you and me. Integrity is being true to one’s beliefs, or as defined in the free dictionary, “Steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code“.  Morals and ethics rely on understanding the truth, as best we can, of the world around us.  Thus it is enormous pleasure to find the BBC presenting a statistical rebuttal to the YouTube video.

Please watch it.

The web address is ….. see below

UPDATE NOTE: For some reason the BBC have removed that video.  However, the material that debunks the YouTube video may be seen here, and here.

And when you have seen it, if you know of anyone who has emailed you the link to the YouTube video, please email them the link to the truth spoken by the BBC.

As the English philosopher Edmund Burke said,

‘The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing.’

By Paul Handover

Senator Edward Kennedy, a big loss for all of us.

Veteran US Senator, Edward Kennedy, dies at the age of 77.

Senator Kennedy had been battling a brain tumour for a long time; his death makes this a very sad day.

The BBC has a good tribute to him.

James Kwak of Baseline Scenario makes his tribute personal, and all the better for it.

I have nothing new or insightful to add, but it feels wrong to go back to blogging without paying respects to Ted Kennedy. When I was younger and perhaps more idealistic, I used to carry around a copy of his speech at the 1980 Democratic National Convention. He was a man who cared about the poor, the unemployed, and the sick, even as their cause became less and less fashionable over the past four decades. He believed that justice went beyond formalistic legal rights and extended to economic and social conditions as well. The Senate needs another person like him, but sadly will not find one.

Senator Edward Kennedy.
Senator Edward Kennedy.

By Paul Handover

“You campaign in poetry but govern in prose.”

Edward Luce in the Financial Times reflects on Obama’s miserable August

Obama healthcareWho would ever be a leading politician?  It must be a hell of a job.

Edward Luce has a fascinating and, well, touching, commentary in yesterday’s (21st) Financial Times.

Whatever one’s political leanings it’s difficult not to get a feeling for the toughness of the job of leading the Nation.

The quote?  Attributed to Mario Cuomo, the former Governor of New York.  And Edward Luce is the Washington Bureau chief of the Financial Times.  A graduate of Oxford University (politics, philosophy and economics) he is no stranger to the world of politics as his father was the British conservative politician Richard Luce, a noble Lord no less.

By Paul Handover

Share

Health care.

Being healthier seems too obvious!

Not being either a US Citizen or even a resident takes away my right to contribute an opinion.  The matter is entirely a domestic one for those living in the USA.

But my life-long Californian buddy, Dan, recently sent me an article published in the Wall Street Journal on the 12th August.  The article was written by John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods Market Inc. so this isn’t an impartial perspective.  (And see an important foot-note at the end of this Post)

But the last part of the article is good common sense, as you can read:

Read more of this Post

Doing nothing!

Freedom and justice needs active participation.

Let me start with an extract from the Henrik Hudson School District Library Media Centre:

Perpetrators, collaborators, bystanders, victims: we can be clear about three of these categories. The bystander, however, is the fulcrum. If there are enough notable exceptions, then protest reaches a critical mass. We don’t usually think of history as being shaped by silence, but, as English philosopher Edmund Burke said, ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing.’ (My source for this is here.)

So what has prompted this Post?

Continue reading “Doing nothing!” →

UK employment figures.

No sign of green shoots here.

While these figures were published by the UK Office for National Statistics last Wednesday, first opportunity to comment on this Blog was today.  It’s not a pretty sight!

Employment figures, as reported Aug 2009
Employment figures, as reported Aug 2009

These trends look really nasty and not a hint of an upturn in employment or a lessening of the rate of increase in unemployment.

Read more of this Post

This is a spoof, isn’t it?

Big brother may be watching

But in this case it is a mythical pizza house.  (Includes sound as well)

Anyway, watch this futuristic scene courtesy of the American Civil Liberties Union.

By Paul Handover