Mental graffiti of a sporadically sarcastic rat who's finally quit the UK's race and now Canadian Citizen on the wet coast of British Columbia, Canada. Resigned to a certain sense of all the posts on this blog having a particular quality of déjà vu. Again.
All written material Copyright Bill Sticker 2007-2011,
whatever.
Links are fine, but the words are mine
Item 1: Settlers effects. Apparently these are in Vancouver (But we've only the shippers word for that). We were informed that they had arrived January 2nd and that we would be told where to turn up for the customs check. Last Friday I had a conversation with an ever so slightly nervous and evasive sounding manager who assured me that they were having trouble scheduling drivers. Don't know what it was, but something in her her tone made my bullshit detector array twitch like a caffeine freak on amphetamines. We are told clearing customs may necessitate a trip to Victoria, which I really don't have time for. Then there is being at home for the delivery at 24 hours notice, which might royally screw up our schedule.
Item 2: My, ahem 'Crash course' in the ICBC motor vehicle damage claims system continues when the parts arrive for my poor wounded (And brand bloody new!) SUV rear ended last Tuesday. From my perspective it's all pretty painless, but time consuming.
Item 3: Change of employment. Now I am a permanent resident of Canada I can legally take any job that I can get hired for. An interview for a very nice job indeed is in the offing, which has to fit in with all my other work / voluntary work, chasing after Customs Officials / Shippers, getting cars fixed etcetera that this week has to throw at us.
Everything could all go pear shaped quite easily, and very probably will, knowing my luck. Damn, there's my cynicism again, knew I'd left it somewhere.
At the risk of veering into tinfoil hat 'conspiracy' territory, I'd like to explore a thought if I may. The components of the thought have been provided by coverage of recent events in both the lamestream and the more sceptical news outlets, and my recent fruitless foray in writing to politicians. Sorry to bang on about this climate thing, but this blog, as I've occasionally mentioned is my toxic thought dump. This is a toxic thought, this is where it gets dumped. Simples.
Having gone through the patronising garbage thrown back by the various UK and EU politicians I contacted, the consensus was that they knew best, and no, they were going to keep throwing taxpayer dollar into the 'You're all doomed' propaganda effort, as personified by the offensive 10:10 video. Which considering there is no empirical evidence to link man made carbon dioxide emissions with increasing temperature, is a bit strange. Surely they must have sought the opinion of experts who don't share Hadley CRU's version of events. Just to check that they were doing the right thing. Yet despite a veritable sceptical cacophony of well informed voices, UK politicians respond by carrying on with the same shit, different day.
Now, here's my thinking; could it be because they have got so used to the tax money extorted from the working public, that like some hopeless junkie they'll do and rationalise anything not to lower 'green taxes', or is there an element of something else?
Now just for the sake of argument let's make the following assumption; that people like Cameron, Clegg and Huhne are no cleverer than the average businessman. This is not an unreasonable assumption. There once was a saying that the 'fool of the family' entered the church, now the same dictum is applied to politicians. Now this is average dinner table talk when our clan get together, and sets me to thinking, why do politicians create more problems than they solve? A politician needs to have a little bit of something about them to get elected, well, apart from a well-oiled party machine in a notoriously partisan constituency. So no, you can't be totally thick. Axiom destruction test - Fail.
Right, so having established that politicians aren't that stupid, what else could account for their failure to accept what's really going on? Could it be the money? After all, there's a hell of a lot of moolah tied up in this climate / carbon trading malarkey. Although not so much since the North American Carbon trading market tanked, and the Chicago Carbon Exchange collapsed into a fiscal black hole. Yes, well I'm sure some have, and fortunes have been made by selling up ahead of the collapse, and short selling during the rapid decline, but at the moment, no. Same for the tax thing. Sure, the tax dollars prop up the UK and EU exchequers during this economic downturn, but it's not the whole story. There's something missing. If it was purely the money, then the recession would have been the big wake-up call. Ditch the green taxation because it's a massive drag on economic activity, but the reverse has been true. Instead of fading into the woodwork as you might expect, the 'It's all mankind's fault' propaganda machine has been in overdrive. On the taxpayer dollar. Greensleaze and a host of other, similar parasitic growths on the body politic are still doing nicely thank you. So why? Economic logic would dictate that they would be the first bunch of mindless jerks up against the fiscal wall when the downturn came. Yet for them it's business as usual while others freeze under stationary windmills.
Okay, so we've established that it's not always the money, and it's not complete stupidity; so what is the answer. Watch John Hurt in great form as a ranting demagogue and the answer unfolds.
Yes, but why do we need so many of these people? Is that part of the incessant droning propaganda behind the man made climate meme? Some form of job justification exercise for the otherwise unemployable? Having had contact with my local constituency MP, I wouldn't hire him to scrub floors, because I'd have to send another worker in to go over the bits he'd missed. Competent is an adjective he does not merit.
Let's face it, when EU legislation gets cut and pasted straight onto the UK statute books, why do we need many UK politicians? Especially those in ministerial roles. They blithely disrespect the voices of their constituents and talk about 'nudging' people in the 'right' direction. Yet these politicians are following the self same policies that took the UK, and much of the Western world nosediving into penury, as the last lot. Yet they have the temerity to tell others what to do?
Climate change as a political job creation programme? Hmm. Now I've explored the thought it makes a weird kind of sense. Why do we need them? Police don't need politicians to enforce the law. The guys who fix the roads don't need politicians to tell them where the potholes are. Doctors and Nurses don't need to be told how to treat sick people. People don't need to be verbally bludgeoned about healthy lifestyles. You don't live healthily (For you), you get sick. If the EU is in charge anyway, why does the UK need people like Cameron, Clegg, Huhne, and that buzz cut blockhead Milliband anyway? Except to fix stuff which ain't really broke.
Rather reminds me of that old Flanders and Swann comedy song; 'It all makes work for the working man to do' a.k.a. 'The Gas man cometh'. Only several orders of magnitude more expensive.
Having seen the footage of the so-called 'memorial' for the six victims of the Arizona shootings, I'll say I'm not impressed. I'd even go to say it was a massive PR FAIL for the Obama spinmeisters. Look guys, can I just highlight something pretty fundamental about memorial services? Memorials are about remembering those who died, not some stage managed ego-trip for a bloody politician, FFS!
What a disquietingly creepy spectacle. Had someone gone up and given the boy president a blow job right there at the lectern there would have been whoops and cheers. I know Blair pulled a similar trick at the Diana funeral, but at least he gave the appearance of caring while grandstanding to a gullible public.
I hold no brief for either Democrat or Republican south of the 49th parallel, but the personality cult currently in operation down there makes me cringe. The hyperbole is nauseating, oleaginous, and positively emetic. Especially with the record of the current US administration. No-one is fooled, and I'll lay odds it won't do their approval rating any good at all.
Whatever happened to the quiet dignity of other people's grief, eh?
After watching that footage I am off for a wash. I feel the need to scrub my skin clean from the inside. Want to see the vid for yourself? Look it up on Youtube, because I'm not posting it here.
I told Facebook I wanted my account deleted, but I'm still getting 'fiend' requests. Why? Who are these stupid people? On second thoughts I think I'm better off not knowing.
Everyone else seems to have posted this little video, so why should I be different?
'Green' policies are wrecking the Western economies, and if they are not reversed shortly, will consign our descendants to starvation and penury. For what? A fantasy pushed by fanatics who don't understand much outside their own tightly defined agenda. All that can be done is to challenge the shameless regurgitation of the warmist dogma and say 'prove it'. Which they can't, and won't because they can't.
I'm bored with the nonsense about man made climate change / global bollocks / carbon trading. The whole meme is so patently a lie that even the lamestream press are catching on. Volcanoes are far more fun, and have more effect on the worlds climate because while a great many may not be actually erupting, that doesn't mean their output is zero. The only thing carbon trading does is make some very rich people even richer.
Cooling to 2035 followed by a century of cooler weather globally speaking sounds realistic to me.
The only problem here is that Piers' appearance and manner militates against him in the churches of spin and obfuscation surrounding the politics of climate. I think if he got some presentation classes and became better groomed and dressed, the warmist cause would be dead and buried within a week. On the other hand, maybe what Piers needs is a front man with those attributes. Said front man doesn't need to be a hot shot scientist, just know enough about the weather not to get flustered under pressure, and have wits sharp enough to fight the verbal battles, and reflexes fast enough to dodge the inevitable punches from outraged loser warmists. Oh, and a little personal charm.
Was chatting to a work buddy today about this and that. I mentioned about recently finishing my perusal of the novel 'Madame Zee' by Pearl Luke. Now the main character of the account was a real live person involved in a local scandal during the late 1920's and early 30's. For anyone who's interested I'm linking to the tale of the notorious 'Brother XII' and his founding of the Aquarian Foundation. Quite the local legend.
The conversation drifted as conversations do, and we light heartedly discussed various associated items like Aleister Crowley. As well as the profanity associated with much UK television comedy.
It was then that a number of my thoughts collided with a big chilly iceberg of a notion. What if the UK is possessed, as in demoniacally? It would explain quite a lot of my experiences there. Why people there seem so quick to turn into yapping, snarling junkyard dogs at the least provocation. Neighbours who take revenge for imagined slights. Screaming children everywhere you turn, the 'rights' culture which brings people out in rash incontinent abuse if you have the temerity to even politely aver to their loutish or unreasonable behaviour. My goodness! So that's what it is! You poor buggers in the the UK are under Demonic possession!
No wonder everything there seems to have gone down the toilet.
Wonder how that happened? Did Tony Blair sell the nations souls to Satan to win three elections on the trot? Does Gordon Browns head revolve and exude green slime in unguarded moments? Has David Cameron inherited this curse? By the look of some of the people I ran into whilst there this year, could Satan have rejected them because they would have lowered the tone of Hades?
All things are possible. Now I'm off to bed and I'm leaving the light on, thank you.
A number of relatively shallow tremors have occurred under Torfajokull, which last erupted in 1477. There is some ongoing shallow activity under Katla, but nothing apparently significant at this time. Unless there's some news about ground movement or other volcanic indicators, you can't make any guesses one way or another. Apparently it differs from others because it undergoes Silicic eruptions, which I'm told creates 'stickier' magma.
Other things today; oh yes Mummylonglegs has pulled her blog "And there was me thinking". Maybe she'll resurface under a wordpress or other ID. Her voice will be missed.
On a personal note MML, drop me a line if you start blogging again. You and your Squids were always part of my mornings entertainment.
What else? Oh yes, a dozy item in a Ford F150 rear ended my car, my brand new bloody car! My stationary brand new bloody car. Grrr, snarl, growl.. However, the collision seemed to do more damage to his pickup, and only superficial damage to our small SUV. Said gentleman claimed he couldn't stop in time, although I hadn't felt any ice as we crossed the self same stretch of road less than half a minute earlier. He was all apologies, and said his brakes hadn't worked. I saw no point at getting mad at him. Okay, fine, maybe, but to teach him to stay a little more alert at the wheel in future, there's a bill for a couple of thousand dollars winging it's way via ICBC. I am rather upset by the whole business, but Mrs S and I have already sorted the estimate and the claim through the very efficient claims system here (Even if there are tales of people having their hand in the ICBC's cookie jar). We took it to a recommended body shop and the parts have been ordered. We've no excess to pay, and by late next week Thumper should be good as new.
The snow promised began falling just before dusk, and we're waiting to see what kind of coverage results. The city is already making provision for a heavy fall, road sanders have been out, and free parking provision has been made in case some places are made inaccessible. What a refreshing change from the mindset of UK local authorities.
Oh what an interesting day it's been. I'll be glad when it's all over.
“It does not take a majority to prevail ... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.”
Samuel Adams
“If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
Oh what fun. I pay a couple of daily visits to the UK Daily Telegraph comment threads between tasks for a little light entertainment. The most entertaining are James Delingpole and Christopher Booker, not so much for the articles, but for the silliness of a small number of trolls, including I think a couple of Turing 'bots.
Just for fun, I like to do a little hit and run posting, but I just don't have the stamina for the stuff like Richard North's heavy duty anti-troll sniping, or the near continual presence of contributors like Reality Returns or the ubiquitous Horace. One can only admire their persistence against a horde of hostile commenters.
The thing that nudges my curiosity button is why do those espousing leftist views spend so much time there? They only end up getting roundly ridiculed for their half assed attacks on the articles and their general poor understanding of the world. They convert no one and convince even fewer. If the left of centre philosophy were so superior it would be self evident. It would have produced the perfect society by now; but it hasn't and it won't. There are mass graves as memorials to such hubris.
At present the Libertarian movement is being equated with being 'right wing' and bad. As one whose sympathies lie with greater individual freedom, I find a lot of the trollish assertions baffling. Their pervading view appears to be 'Individual choice = bad and state intervention = good'. My reasoning is as follows; given that the 'State' is remote from an individuals day to day life, isn't the expectation of cradle to grave intervention a bit well, over optimistic? To me the greater state is very much a blunt instrument which is unable to react in a timely and relevant matter to specific circumstance.
Dealing with such an entity always reminds me of the old analogy of kicking the tail of an Apatosaurus to stop it eating all your trees. It takes a metaphorical week for the message to arrive at said slow Saurians brain, which then only has a limited number of options available to it. Then it takes another week for the message to travel back before you get slapped sideways by a flick of said tail. Which is the only way it has of responding. Spend any time trying to talk to UK local Government, or any large bureaucracy for that matter, and you'll understand what I mean.
Based on the above, does it make sense to put your trust in a large, amorphous organisation which only deals in a limited number of one size fits all solutions? Or to leave the problem solving to smaller, more autonomous units closer to the issue in question? The Leftist trolls don't understand that small can not only be more beautiful, but far more reactive and efficient. However, that won't keep them in non-jobs or cosy little sinecures, which is what they really desire. Those kind of jobs are predominantly the purview of an enlarged, bureaucratic state or large corporate entity which can afford such luxuries.
However, the days of these jobs are rapidly coming to an end unless some bright spark can come up with a new way of generating money, apart from trying to tax the very air we breathe or water we drink, or the cost of travelling. There are too many people in the Western world who think the world owes them a living. Too many who do not produce something tangible but deign to tell others who can, what to do. This is the lesson waiting to be learned. In the valleys of the trolls.
Awoken around ten to five this morning by a selection of thumps and bumps outside the window. Thinking that we had some form of wildlife problem, Mrs S got out of bed to peer through a gap in the curtains. "Bill?" "What?" "It's been snowing." "Oh." "It's falling off the roof." "Can't be that cold then." I rolled over and went back to sleep, to be confronted by the images below at eight in the morning. A modest sprinkling of three to four inches coats everything, but I'm not concerned despite all the nonsense being shunted about cold weather being (Yet another) symptom of the farcical 'global warming'. It's a busted flush, a nonsense to scare the gullible and small children who don't have a grounding in Physics.
We have winter tyres and a brand new 4x4, the log store is well stocked. Warming? what warming? Winter still has three more months to run.
A lot of crass speculation flying around the leftish side of the blogosphere about who incited the assassin of six people whose number included a Judge and a 9 year old girl, also the attempted murder of a US Democratic congresswoman. A lot of it ill informed wishful idiocy.
A quick statement of position here; I hold no brief for Ex Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin or the US protest group the 'Tea Party'. Apart from me being a fan of small government and verifiable truths, but that's as far as my interest goes. As an aside, I can never understand the sheer volume of vitriol poured against Palin. She's no more gaffe prone than the current incumbent of the White House, although she does have nicer legs (Gosh, me sexist? Erm, possibly?).
Back to Seriousville; From all accounts the (Alleged - let's not forget due process) would be murderer of congresswoman Giffords, is in the mould of Leftist assassins. His high school colleagues knew him as one whose views veered far left of centre. His Facebook and Youtube postings paint a picture of someone as far opposed to the ideals of small government and personal liberty as espoused by the Tea Party as it is possible to be. So how can he be allied or inspired by groupings that are opposed to his own publicly well-documented political leanings?
You don't have to be a genius to make such an observation, and simply resorting to knee-jerk partisan playground accusations like some spoiled seven year old won't make it otherwise. Congresswoman Giffords has survived, but her attempted murder was nothing to do with her political opponents.
As for the accused murderer and would be assassin; if he is found guilty and the Board of Corrections run out of drugs to perform an execution by Lethal Injection, perhaps they'll wheel the Gas Chamber or Gallows out to edit this particular monster from humanity.
Am greatly entertained by tales from across the water of the various attempts at persuasion or coercion by Government related agencies. Am further amused at the attempts to legislate morality in the UK's new 'Bribery act' due to come into force this April.
Apparently it will soon be unlawful for a company's agents to offer any form of inducement to win business. The laws of unforseen consequences loom large in the UK's future. In some ways good, in others bad. This is one of the parting gifts of the outgoing Labour Government, part of Brown's political 'scorched earth' policy.
Good: No more lobbyist bribes to UK politicians by promising to employ a no-hope relative in a non-job or writing a large cheque to a vote grabbing cause. No golfing or shooting weekends with 'friends'. Nothing that could be construed as an 'advantage' like book advances or anything outside of their immediate salary and expenses. Like Caesars wife, the politicians will have to sit aloof and alone, isolated by their own legislation, faced only with their constituents. Lobbying companies will have to tread a very fine line indeed.
Bad: Any form of 'Ex gratia' payment to any 'official' to elicit or give thanks for performance above and beyond 'normal'. A severely restricted ability to trade with certain cultures where bribery, or ex gratia gift giving is the norm (Just about the entire trading world). Manufacturing, imports, and exports will all suffer.
What the high minded moralists forget is that gift giving (Bribery) is endemic throughout the Animal Kingdom. Every warm blooded species with a half developed tribal structure does it. In human societies, ex gratia gifts to dates, spouses, or superiors to win favour are part of our everyday stock in trade. Is there anyone so mean spirited out there who has never given a gift to another person in return for a favour? Who has never given thanks with a pint at the bar or a small cash gift to 'go get yourself something'? What actually constitutes a 'bribe'? A welcome cup of tea to a thirsty Police Officer keeping your street safe? All right, you don't see them very often on foot patrol in the UK, but this is a hypothetical question. A bottle of wine to your MP or local councillor for helping you out in a difficult case?
All will be effectively outlawed. The fallout will be extremely damaging.
Now children; what is the lesson we have learned here? You. Cannot. Legislate. Morality.
Now I have to go and 'bribe' a fish onto a hook. TTFN.
First visit to the Icelandic Met offices Earthquake data site this morning evinced a 'Wow!' from my lips for the Mýrdalsjökull glacial area around Katla. However, the depths indicate that the rather diffuse swarm like activity is, with the few red underlined exceptions, mostly quite deep, and therefore not indicative of any possible eruption. Carry on and stay calm. Nothing to see here. Move along. I think.
The New year at the moment of writing feels rather anticlimactic after all the excitement and nail biting suspense over flights on the run up to Christmas.
Now all I can be bothered to say about the light sentencing of a bunch of sorry losers who thought closing a power station would be fun, is 'off with their electricity'. A far more apt punishment than the community orders and suspended sentences handed down. As for the Judge, well, I can't say I'm overly surprised given the eco-idiots currently posing as the UK Government. He would have had his 'guidance' from on high, and that would have been it. As regards said current comedy turns performance, they'll be out on their ears when their lords and masters give the nod.
Can't even get annoyed over the VAT rise to 20%. Even if that was one of the Gorgons final japes on the UK electorate. Or the head of a Quango who wanted to flush a million taxpayer pounds down the fiscal toilet to spite the coalition. There's no fire, no verve, no anger any more. I'm almost overwhelmed by my own complete indifference. If I could be bothered. I'd even go so far as to say I'm completely consumed by my own apathy.
Glad I'm out of it, and our kids can bow out any time they like. Good.
Usual visit to the Icelandic Met Office Website turned up these New Year tremblings. Katla has the odd small tremor back at the 1km depth range, whilst Bárdarbunga had a brief, deep swarm (See screengrabbed tables). Perhaps it was simply some of the locals participating in their favourite sport of driving a truck into a crater very fast, to try and slingshot over the opposite lip of the caldera. Although what they were doing several kilometres down is nobody's business but theirs. Usual caveats apply about one tremor swarm doth not an eruption make.
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