So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.
Voltaire.
Attempting to explain to somebody why the EU constitution was rejected by the various countries led me to ponder:
Holland said ‘Nee’ because, amongst other things, they feared loss of identity and Turkey’s membership;
France said ‘non’ because they decided it was too free-market for their tastes;
Britain - given the chance - would have said ‘bugger off’ because it’s too beaurocratic and centralist and, besides, we haven’t spent the last thousand years fighting these people just to let them in via the back door.
Finally, all would like to give their elected representatives a kick in the wotsits just for the fun of it and the Constitution was a not-to-be-missed opportunity to do just that.
To be fair to the EU - and I don’t intend to make a habit of this, mind - they could reasonably conclude that referenda are a complete waste of time since people clearly aren’t voting on the issue at stake.
And, of course, it’s all very well letting the buggers - us - have the vote but if we aren’t using it in the way the MEPs intended us to then…
So this could be the last referendum in Europe. Since the cynics/realists amongst us believe most or all the Constitution will still become law in the fullness of time anyway maybe our European Imperialist Overlords will reason that it’s better to take a little longer to get what they want and avoid giving us any say in the first place. After all, the whole project to disappear our countries has been going on by stealth anyway. Why mess with a system that’s worked so well?
Get out now.
Not gravity but ‘intelligent falling’
I think they’re joking…
“Things fall not because they are acted upon by some gravitational force, but because a higher intelligence, ‘God’ if you will, is pushing them down,” said Gabriel Burdett, who holds degrees in education, applied Scripture, and physics from Oral Roberts University.
But it had me worried for a moment…
A billion quid down the back of your sofa…
Apparently Britons have nearly £1 billion lying around their houses.
About £1bn is lost or lying idle in the UK’s 24.7 million households, the study found.
An overwhelming 88% of the 1,500 people surveyed said at least £10 was lost in small change throughout their home.
A further 62% estimated they had at least £56 in jars, pots, pockets and down the back of sofas.
What’s really shocked me is that I thought, on first reading this, it was just another of those unlikely surveys which was probably just made up in somebody’s lunch hour.
But when I think of the cash in my change jar, the ‘rainy day folding stuff’ in my sock drawer and the collection of ten pound notes in an envelope (a friend is paying a debt bit by bit - I’m bad at keeping track so I’m putting it in a seperate place, if you must know) I suddenly realise I might have a couple of hundred quid just dying to be invested, spent or at least counted lying around my home.
PS So if you’re planning on robbing me you know where to look so there’s no excuse for wrecking the place, okay?
PPS Sock drawer is the third one down…
PPPS I’ve never seen that leather posing pouch before in my life.
From CNN:
A fast-moving computer worm Tuesday attacked computer systems using Microsoft operating systems, shutting down computers in the United States, Germany and Asia.
Among those hit were offices on Capitol Hill, which is in the midst of August recess, and media organizations, including CNN, ABC and The New York Times.
The worm causes the computer to repeatedly shut down and reboot.
This attack has unleashed a War on Worms. The search for Worms of Mass Destruction is on:
Microsoft has a downloadable patch on its security homepage, Microsoft.com/security.
The director of Microsoft’s security response center, Debbie Fry Wilson, said the computer giant was in an “emergency response” mode. “Right now, we’re mobilizing our two war rooms,” she told CNN.
Worm insurgents are reported to be massing. More from our imbedded reporters soon…
You can be the star of the novel
(And help a charity while you’re at it).
How much would you pay to be immortalised as a zombie in a Stephen King novel or a good guy in a John Grisham thriller?
King and Grisham are among 16 authors selling the right to have a character in a book named for the buyer to raise money for the First Amendment Project, a California-based non-profit group that promotes freedom of information and expression.
Details of the authors’ offers - and, of course, the bidding - takes place on eBay between September 1st and September 25th.
A leaked police investigation report into the killing of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes is taking curious twists and seems to be coughing up more questions than answers.
It’s already been noted that the initial witness statements suggesting Mr Menezes vaulted the ticket barrier to get into the station may have been incorrect and that the witness actually saw a pursuing police officer vaulting the barriers.
Witness statements and photographs from an independent police investigation leaked to ITV News also show that Jean Charles de Menezes did not run away from police at Stockwell Tube station in South London and was wearing only a denim jacket before he was shot dead on July 22.
Then, it seems, the officer watching Menezes’ flat was taking a leak when Menezes left and nobody checked to see whether the man they were following resembled the alleged bomber they were keeping under surveillance.
Gold Command at the Yard which was running this operation, declared a “code red” and handed responsibility to CO19 - the firearms team. The armed team had been given photographs of the alleged bombers, yet no one realised that Senhor de Menezes bore no resemblance to any of those men.
The photo (right) shows Menezes to not be wearing the thick coat that was originally claimed but, instead, a denim jacket. Further, new witness statements suggest Mr Menezes was actually sitting down by the time police reached his carriage.
…a surveillance officer guided four armed police into the same carriage in which Senhor de Menezes took his seat.
A man sitting opposite him is quoted as saying: “Within a few seconds I saw a man coming into the double doors to my left. He was pointing a small black handgun towards a person sitting opposite me.
“He pointed the gun at the right hand side of the man’s head. The gun was within 12 inches of the man’s head when the first shot was fired.”
The report also reveals for the first time that a member of the surveillance team, who sat nearby, got involved and grabbed Senhor de Menezes before he was shot: “I heard shouting which included the word ‘police’ and turned to face the male in the denim jacket.
“He immediately stood up and advanced towards me and the CO19 officers …I grabbed the male in the denim jacket by wrapping both my arms around his torso, pinning his arms to his side.
“I then pushed him back onto the seat where he had been previously sitting … I then heard a gun shot very close to my left ear and was dragged away onto the floor of the carriage.”
Somebody has to quickly round up the facts of this matter and put them into the open because it’s all smelling pretty rotten. What started off as a hideous mistake (in most people’s eyes) is now becoming something even more sinister. If the police are to maintain credibility we need to hear the truth - however bad it is - rather than leaked snippets that contradict the currently understood version of events. We need confidence in our security services and this isn’t fostering much of it.
