One sometimes does not know what to do or think

David Davis

As I get older and older ( I have already outlived our old chum Chris Tame by almost seven years – and I never imagined that I would be talking about being er, sort of, er, old) the world seems to lurch from one cock-up to another, or one disaster to another. Most are government-mediated. It’s difficult, sometimes, to distinguish a “natural” disaster like an earthquake from a government-mediated one such as the “banking crisis”. Both kinds usually result in lost and wasted resources: the poorer the country, the more the UN wastes in hotels, escort girls. “feasibility-studies” and jet-flights: and the bigger the bank, the more the Treasury wastes in

The New Fourth Estate: Anonymous, Wikileaks, and –archy

http://c4ss.org/content/16677
The New Fourth Estate: Anonymous, Wikileaks, and –archy

“When people talk of the freedom of writing, speaking, or thinking, I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists; but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more.”

- John Adams

SUMMARY:

As government and industry collude, the interests of the powerful trample the rights of the multitude. Technology has granted invasive new eyes and ears to government agencies, spurning the right to privacy. Felicitously, the individual has also been empowered with two new tools to check the corporate state: hacktivism and leaks. The press has been captured by a handful of news corporations that are generally uncritical of government and fail to expose corporate injustice. The techno-libertarian culture has birthed the do-it-yourself fourth estate—usurping the illegitimate media and furnishing a viable alternative to the cartelized press. Two entities, Wikileaks and Anonymous, have emerged under this banner. This inquiry seeks to understand their history, methods, and to ascertain whether use of the discrete figurehead is efficacious.

E-Cigs Continue To Embarrass And Create Ridicule

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/9kTk9ON3kxo/e-cigs-continue-to-embarrass-and-create.html

E-Cigs Continue To Embarrass And Create Ridicule There has been a lot of writing about e-cigs in The Times the past few days, this article being the best to illustrate my long-held view that they are a magnificent tool for pricking the huge bubbles of of hysteria around nicotine, so cleverly-constructed over decades by legions of anti-smoking scaremongers.

Sean Gabb on Drinking and Driving: A Police Officer Writes

Note: I have removed the officer’s name, but this e-mail is reproduced here on the LA Blog exactly as received. I think he is inaccurate in several of his factual claims, especially since I know people who have been subject to random breath testing around the Christmas period. I have also encountered any number of police officers who struck me as either mad or high on drugs. However, since he has taken the trouble to write at such length, and so politely, I do require that those who wish to respond should do so in a calm and factual manner. The officer will, I am sure, be following your comments. It would be useful if he were to go away with a better idea than he appears to have of the objections that we have to police powers and to the frequent use and misuse of these powers. SIG

Anyone able to say which London street this is?

I picked this up in a charity shop. Anyone able to tell me about the location? All help gratefully received.

 

A Message from James Lovelock

I am James Lovelock, scientist and author, known as the originator of Gaia theory, a view of the Earth that sees it as a self-regulating entity that keeps the surface environment always fit for life… I am an environmentalist and founder member of the Greens but I bow my head in shame at the thought that our original good intentions should have been so misunderstood and misapplied. We never intended a fundamentalist Green movement that rejected all energy sources other than renewable, nor did we expect the Greens to cast aside our priceless ecological heritage because of their failure to understand that the needs of the Earth are not separable from human needs. We need take care that the spinning windmills do not become like the statues on Easter Island, monuments of a failed civilisation. –James Lovelock, 12 December 2012

Article 50 And Withdrawal

Article 50 And Withdrawal
Not so long ago, it seemed unlikely that any country politically was willing to contemplate leaving the European Union. Nothing illustrates this better than the fact that all of the treaties pre-Lisbon were silent on the question of withdrawal. There were a number of theories for this; partly it would have been contrary to member states’ commitment to “ever closer union”, partly it could have encouraged members to make the outcome more likely and partly that the process of leaving is a significant legal challenge best left unspecified in a treaty – a legal challenge made more complicated the longer member states remain within an ever integrating Union.

Sisters Merciless.

by Anna Raccoon
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AnnaRaccoon/~3/VLwl9l9Cie0/

Note: I am among the many who rejoiced when Bobby Sands starved himself to death in 1981. SIG

Abusive Bailiffs: Old but Possibly Relevant Thoughts

That Sheep May Safely Graze
by Sean Gabb

This evening, the 26th September 2006, the BBC will broadcast its latest Whistleblower programme. This investigates the sharp and often illegal practices of court bailiffs. They are accused of tricking debtors—and frequently third parties —out of thousands of pounds that are not owed.

According to a report in The Daily Mail, the bailiffs in one firm are accused of:

• Doubling or tripling a judgment debt, and then appearing generous by deducting £100—and keeping the whole excess for themselves;
• Telling the relatives of debtors that they would have their own possessions seized;
• Threatening debtors with violence;
• Breaking and entering the premises of debtors and of third parties.

So far as they are true—and I have not seen the programme in question—these accusations show patterns of behaviour of which I was not previously aware.

First Law of Democratic Politics

A Lefty Writes Complete Sense

by Richard Girard
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Three-G-s-and-an-E-flat-o-by-Richard-Girard-121210-420.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Karl_Stieler (1781-1858)

Beethoven Haus Bonn Public Domain

Three G’s and an E-flat, or Why Beethoven Rules!

By Richard Girard

Three G’s and an E-flat. Bom-bom-bom-Bomb! The Morse Code three dots and a dash for “V,” and “V” is for victory. Fate knocking on the door.

All of these descriptions have been used to describe the first four notes of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. And all of them are completely inadequate to describe the power and majesty of this orchestral masterpiece; or any of Beethoven’s other voluminous folio of work.

Akhnaten

I was lucky enough to attend one of the first London performances of this in 1985. I didn’t understand it, but was very impressed.

Cameron, yawn!

by Anna Raccoon
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AnnaRaccoon/~3/oCcZjgWJdzw/

Note: Of course it’s a fraud. We’ll be softened up by years of advance propaganda. The referendum will be delivered or delayed according to the opinion poll findings. The question will be slanted. Unless out masters decide for their own reasons to leave, we’re staying in. However, I repeat my belief that the Conservatives will win a good overall majority the year after next. SIG

A Mote in Brussels’ Eye

JUST PUBLISHED

A Mote in Brussels’ Eye
By Ashley Mote

The diary of a Member of the European Parliament

A full, frank and controversial account of five years fighting the EU from within the castle walls.

What has happened to Emma West?

http://englandcalling.wordpress.com/2013/01/08/what-has-happened-to-emma-west/

What has happened to Emma West?

Posted on January 8, 2013by Robert Henderson
Robert Henderson
It is now 14 months since Emma West was charged with racially aggravated public order offences after she got into an argument on a tram which led her to make loud complaint about the effects of mass immigration. This was captured by a passenger on a mobile phone and uploaded to YouTube. The details of her arrest and treatment plus a link to the incident on YouTube can be found at http://englandcalling.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/emma-west-immigration-and-the-liberal-totalitarian-state/.
Three times her trial has been delayed, on the third occasion in early September last year (http://englandcalling.wordpress.com/2012/09/08/emma-west-trial-delayed-for-the-third-time/).

No further trial date was set then and to the best of my knowledge none has been set since her last appearance in court. (If anyone has more up to date information please let me know). On each occasion the delay was ascribed to the need to complete psychiatric reports on Miss West. It stretches credulity way beyond breaking to believe such reports could not have been completed long ago.
Why has there been this inexcusable and increasingly absurd delay? Despite being put into a high security prison for more than a month (http://englandcalling.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/emma-west-immigration-and-the-liberal-totalitarian-state-part-2/) and having the risk that her son be taken into care, Miss West has made it clear throughout that she wishes to plead Not Guilty. The reason for the delay probably lies in that plea. The liberal elite rely on people charged with such offences being intimidated into pleading Guilty. A full blown trial would mean public discussion of the consequences of mass immigration and the ruthless measures which the liberal elite use to suppress such debate. They greatly fear that because it would risk the politically correct emperor being shown to have no clothes. .
The facts of the case speak for themselves: the behaviour of the authorities is not compatible with a free society.
—————————————————————————————————
UPDATE 9/1/2013
Miss West was scheduled to come to trial on 2 January, but the case was adjourned for the fourth time because an unspecified expert was not available. A new trial date has not been set ( http://www.thisiscroydontoday.co.uk/Trial-alleged-tram-racist-Emma-West-adjourned/story-17782550-detail/story.html).
The continuing and ever more absurd delay suggests that the powers-that-be are in a quandary about what to do. It is unlikely Miss West will change her plea to Guilty after this length of time and the awful prospect for the authorities of a trial in which the official omerta against speaking honestly about race and immigration will be broken looms ever larger. On the other hand, if the case is dropped it will be a signal to the public that the liberal elite are afraid of any public challenge to their creed.
Miss West has also been charged with assaults against the police:
“West was also due to appear at Croydon Magistrates’ Court on Monday charged with assaulting two police officers at her home on March 3, 2012.
She denies both charges and the trial has been rescheduled to occur on March 4.” (Ibid)
To the best of my knowledge this is the first time these charges have appeared in the media. If the assaults took place ten months ago it is a little difficult to understand why the case has not already been tried as it is magistrate court case or why the case did not proceed on its original January date , which I take to have been 7 January. It will be interesting to see if it does take place on 4 March. If it does not, and the Crown Court case on the race-related charges has not been heard by then, it will be a strong indication that the CPS want the racial abuse case out of the way before she is tried for the alleged assault. It could be that it has been kicked down the road simply to give the authorities two months to think about whether the Crown Court case should proceed.

Sad Anniversary

Victoria, Regina et Imperatrix: 24th May 1819 – 22nd January 1901

Should There be Laws Against Drinking and Driving?

http://www.libertarian.co.uk/multimedia/2013-01-22-sig-drink.mp3

Sean Gabb, Director of the Libertarian Alliance, speaking on BBC Radio 4 on the 22nd January 2013.

The excuse for this discussion was a story about an Irish local authority that wishes to relax the drinking and driving laws.

Sean argues these points:

When Is A Straight Line Not A Straight Line?

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/xKxZMgeEsbk/when-is-straight-line-not-straight-line.html

Note: I heard this story on the Today programme and thought it was a lie. My thanks to Dick for nailing it. SIG

When Is A Straight Line Not A Straight Line? I don’t know where the usual half-wits who put their name to BBC website smoking articles have disappeared to, they seem to have been rather quiet of late. As such, today’s breathless paraphrasing of a classic case of tobacco control industry ‘science by press release’ was left to Adam Brimelow to present.

There was a sharp fall in the number of children admitted to hospital with severe asthma after smoke-free legislation was introduced in England, say researchers.

A study showed a 12% drop in the first year after the law to stop smoking in enclosed public places came into force.

Well, actually, it didn’t but I’ll come to that later.

Agorism and Nazism: A Study in Polar Opposites

http://c4ss.org/content/16490
Agorism and Nazism: A Study in Polar Opposites

The following article was written by Neil M. Tokar.

In the Gorilla Experiment episode of the Big Bang Theory, Dr. Sheldon Cooper attempts to teach Penny some rudimentary physics. True to his pedantic nature, Sheldon begins his sketch of the history of physics by mentioning the agora, from which we get the modern term agorism. Following Samuel Edward Konkin III’s (SEK III’s) An Agorist Primer, the word “agora” is still used to this day to mean simply the “open marketplace.”

This Might Help, So Let’s Block It

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/sPCpoRa0QII/this-might-help-so-lets-block-it.html

This Might Help, So Let’s Block ItSnowdon reported on Wednesday that e-cig retailer Nicolites have had their TV ad pulled for naïvely claiming them to be 100% safe. It will no doubt be temporary, and they’ll be on your screens once the offending copy is amended.

They’d best get a wiggle on, though, because The Times yesterday revealed that one of their competitors has been given the green light.