Cut Carbon with Condoms

Genius !

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/03/carbon-offset-projects-climate-change

A tale of two provinces, Ulster & Helmand

Here’s a link to a Belfast Telegraph article, comparing 1972 N Ireland, with 2009 Helmand Provence.

In 1972 100+ soldiers were killed, and there was a vocal Troops Out campaign on the mainland. Withdrawal of troops from Ulster would probably have led to a Balkan style descent, with tens of thousands of casualties. It’s hard to look back on the Ulster Trouble as a success, but things could definitely have been an awful lot worse. The sacfirce of those soldiers that stood between sectarian death squads can’t be overlooked. If only Bosnia or Rwanda had a similar outcome, if only they only had a Bloody Sunday scale horror to look back on.   That certainly feels like a glib thing to write, but I think the point still holds.  Things can always be worse.

Helmand isn’t ulster and we can’t always be fighting the last war/insurgency/peace keeping, but the onus is on those who would call for a change of policy to own the aftermath.

Ich bin kein Berliner

I love documentaries a little too much. Either history or politics documentaries, if it’s a combination of both then I’m hooked.

Last night was the final part of Matt Frei’s three parter on the history of Berlin. It was a bit hit and miss if I’m honest, the three hours could easily have been compressed into two. It did though add to the list of obvious things that passed me by. When i think of the Berlin wall i think of a long wall between east and west Berlin, but of course the whole of Berlin was in east Germany! so the wall was actually a circle around West Berlin. Obvious, but never occurred to me.

Labels are informative, posters won’t change that

It’s not possible to have a neutral religious, ethical or political influence on our children, nor should it be. Instructing our children in the traditions, myths and values of our forefathers is a large part of what makes us human. Respect, tolerance and appreciation of other traditions is all we can realistically demand of parents if we are to thrive in a multi-cultural society. I believe that my worldview is as compact and rational and non-delusional as i can get it as of today (as does everyone), so i’ll raise my kids in that spirit. When they are older, then other traditions will have an influence on them and they may reject my world view (though that’s statistically quite unlikely). It’s not like a Muslim parent thinks ‘well i know that most of this stuff i believe is dubious, but I’ll make my child believe it too, to validate it for me’. People are generally sincere, and care about their children.

We can though be honest with ourselves and confess that a great deal of our religious, ethical and political views are in fact learned from parents and respected elders rather than exclusively objective and rationally attained. The committed Christian or Hindu needs to be take a step back and realise that those metaphysical and historical stories he holds true would seem bonkers and naive had he been raised by Mr & Mrs Khan from Number 43 and visa versa. Everyone of course thinks that their personal views on maters of life, ethics and relationships are ‘correct’ or they would change them. So why would they not instruct their loved ones likewise?

The labels are handy, they are informative.

PS: the writing of this brings one thing to the fore in my mind, not that we shouldn’t raise our children in a likeness of us, but that we should be extra concerned about who we are and what we believe, as it reverberates down though the generations. Quite a responsibility.

Brown passes the ball to Miliband, CRUNCH!

I have a bit of a recurring worry, nightmare would be too strong. I have a 7 day old baby girl so having nightmares would involve having sleep, which, i am not.

My worry is that Gordon Brown decides around January time time that he’s going to step aside as PM and Labour leader allowing someone else to fight the general election. The problem is that it’s more than likely a hospital pass, as who ever is leader the Tories are probably still going to win. David Miliband seems the most promising candidate. Smart, principled, eloquent, handsome and dashing (say’s Mrs Clinton), again i say smart, good political brain, young, being lauded by other euro ministers the list goes on. It would be a disaster for the Labour party to have him tarnished with an election defeat. Rejected by the electorate so early in his career.

Taliban: the return of the taliban

So it looks like we’ll probably not succeed in Afghanistan. Let’s be honest the Taliban are in for the long haul and we have no stomach for sacrificing our young men and our money in any other cause than self-interest (possibly quite rightly). The goals of the Afghan conflict, in as much as they are clear just don’t chime with public sentiment.

The stated goal is to make Britain safer but that’s a tough sell, the real goal seems to be to help the non-Taliban Afghans stop the Taliban retaining control of the country. Nasty as the Taliban are, is that something the British working man’s taxes should be spent on? Maybe, maybe not.

But we can’t have it both ways; we can’t pull out of Afghanistan then moan to politicians that we should be doing ‘something’ about the oppressive Taliban regime. We have to be honest about what we really want. We want to purge our consciences by moaning to leaders and media that they aren’t doing enough to help the poor people we see on TV. But we don’t want that to actually involve nasty wars, which are bad and we are against. As soon as any of these nasty people around the world take issue with our ‘helping’ thus turning into a ‘war’ which we are of course against, then its white poppy a go-go.

So its welcome back Taliban, here’s reminder of the manifesto

define me… DEFINE ME!!

Too many people will blog about this,  so i won’t

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/03/tim-nicholson-climate-change-belief

…only to say that i still don’t understand how he was discriminated against due to his alleged beliefs

The danger of a weak body of MPs

I started to get a shiver up my spine as I watched Harriet Harman, leader of the house of commons speak to Andrew Marr about the new Independent Expenses Watchdog. She kept saying that this and that would be a matter for the watchdog not the commons, that she hoped they would be fair and balanced but it was a mater for them.

I started to think -  hang on a minute -  take a step back, this is a democracy, and I vote for an MP to represent me, to make the laws of the land. Parliament is supposed to be sovereign, who the **** is this ‘independent watchdog’ accountable to if my MP isn’t even allowed a vote on its proposals? I happen to think that MPs are underpaid and that its a bad thing for our democracy, now who do i vote for to make that happen?  is the watchdog going to canvas my vote?

I’m quite aware that MPs have lost all credibility due to the expenses scandal but that’s no excuse for giving in to every whim and abuse from the public/media. Democracy is too important for that (sidebar: the only way to have purged the problem would have been for The Queen to have immediately dissolved parliament when it became obvious that trust had been lost. But that too would have been undemocratic, because who elected her!).

Politicians are in a difficult position of needing to represent as well as to lead, but I’m starting to see how dangerous it is to have a morally discredited parliament because it means it’s hesitant to tell us what we don’t want to hear, its constantly apologizing and grovelling to us, as opposed to leading us. Which is something along the lines of … if we don’t want it to just be a job for rich people, and we want to encourage more woman and family providers then its perfectly reasonable for them to have a Westminster home paid for by the taxpayer, and to have a salary in line with their responsibilities – perhaps equivalent to senior lawyer or doctor.  Above all, they most decide these things for themselves, not outsource decision making to an unelected body because they think a pay rise will lose them votes!

Gore Vidal – what the f**k!?

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200910u/gore-vidal

I can’t decide if this interview is a send up or not.  Maybe he’s going senile.

a taster…

 

on Polanski…

I really don’t give a fuck. Look, am I going to sit and weep every time a young hooker feels as though she’s been taken advantage of?

 

Proof if proof were needed

Quranic Verses ‘Appear’ on Baby’s Body – Russians flock to see ‘miracle’ baby

Listen or don’t listen to the BNP?

Maybe victory over the BNP doesn’t come by harassing and silencing them, it comes from answering their questions and assertions in the public arena. This week they are appearing on Question Time, rightly in my view. It’s not for the BBC to get into deciding which legally elected political party they allow on their show, it’s all very well when they ban a party we don’t like, but when happens when they ban a party we do like? If the BBC is to avoid becoming Fox News it must hold its nose and remain neutral and independent.

In the 1980s the government decided to ban the leaders of Sein Fein from being heard on British media. This became immediately ridiculous when actor’s voices where allowed to overdub the words! I propose that the reason why we banned Adams from the airwaves was because in a lot of what he said, frankly he had a point, and that made us uncomfortable. Uncomfortable because a lot of what he said was also abhorrent, as were the actions of the IRA thugs. It’s difficult to listen to someone who spouts 90% deranged anti social diatribe, but 10% reasonable truth that maybe we need to address. The adage” I’ve met with the enemy, and he’s partly right” is maybe a starting point to dealing with the BNP. Maybe it would disarm and eventually defeat them. Or maybe I’m an appeaser.

Historal Homicde Statistics

I’m a data freak.  So i love the Guardian Data Blog

Here’s some random stats.  Add your own analysis!

.	Homicide Rates per 100,000 people
.		England	Netherlands	Italy
.	13th c	23	47	56
.	16th c	7	25	47
.	19th c	1.7	1.6	13
.	1900-49	0.8	1.5	3.2
.	1950-94	0.9	0.9	1.5

Campaign to end the use of hedgehogs in the beauty industry

It came to light recently that a horrifying number of hedgehogs die every year from being overly used as hair brushes for the rich and famous. Fashion’s dirty little secret has been highlighted by the admission that at least four hedgehogs were used to brush hair during Saturday’s live X-Factor broadcast.

Long known to be an excellent hair brush, especially under studio lights their use is banned in a majority of EU countries but still completely legal in the UK & Ireland.

EDL, what’s the deal?

What’s the deal with The English Defence league? Last night’s Newsnight ‘expose’ left me none the wiser. They seem to have one issue, opposition to Violent Islamic Extremism. They are a multi ethnic group, seemingly have no problem with immigration or race politics, nothing else to say apart from Islamic Extremism is bad. They make a big play of burning nazi flags and strenuously denying any fascism. So apart from ‘looking’ like BNP thugs, I’m not sure why anti-nazi league bother with counter protests. If the protest marches are really single issue demonstrations, then are the anti-nazi league pro Islamic violence? English people protesting against violence,  it’s hardly a man bites dog story.

So what’s the deal? Shouldn’t we all be out on the streets protesting Violent Islamic Extremism, isn’t that a reasonable gripe and cause? Or is the reality that EDL is just a slightly less offence cover for the BNP? The EDL as a ‘gateway’ political drug to far-right extremism.

Rowan Williams, really?

The Archbishop of Canterbury has called for “unsustainable” air-freighted food to be replaced gradually by homegrown produce from thousands of new allotments.

He said that the carbon footprint of peas from Kenya and other airfreighted food was too high and families should not assume that all types of food would be available through the year.

The Archbish seems like a nice guy, very thoughtful and likeable in fact. I’d have him round for a BBQ, if he brought a nice bar of Haloumi. I’m not convinced though that he’s qualified to make public comment on all and sundry. Him and Prince Charlie, peas in a pod!

The ‘lets grow our on food’ angle is one of those things that seems like an obvious environmental good, but the facts just don’t stack up regards carbon emissions. Allotments are fun, tasty and nice but they aren’t efficient, a recent BBC panorama programme clearly set out the statistics regards importing meat and veg from New Zealand vs growing/rearing our own, it’s  a no contest! Mega farms use less packaging, have a higher yield, less labour intensive (labour = need for food = carbon).   The point is that Dr Willaims sounds like a man who has read a few books and watched a few programmes on the mater (probably more than me!) but he’s not a qualified expert and shouldn’t get on newspaper front pages .

Of course ‘watching Panorama’ doesn’t qualify me either, but I’m not on the front page of The Times.

Update:  i do note that The Times did at least run a counter-piece putting the other side of the argument