Strangely Perfect

How Bad was Thatcher’s Recession compared to the Current Economic Slump? Q. Well, how would you find out, exactly? A. Surprisingly easily.  This graph here compares historical economic slumps with the current one, on a month by month basis.  It’s taken from the “National Institute of Economic and Social Research” (NIESR) website here.  Notionally, it’s [...]

Comparing The West and The East There is currently a world-wide flu epidemic and it’s interesting to compare the responses of various countries to it, with the historical pandemic of The Plague, i.e. the Black Death. Flu In the USA, it’s been called “Mexican Flu” sometimes quite pejoratively, especially at it’s outset and especially by [...]

Too Little, Too Late, Gordon Brown This morning, PM Gordon Brown told Andrew Marr that he wants to ‘clean up’ parliament. He wants a ‘code of conduct’ for MPs to follow. The thing is, there’s already a code of conduct – it’s called the law! All we,  ‘the people’ want, is to have reasonable laws [...]

News Items The only news item missing is that from a premiership football club at the wrong end of the league regarding the future employment status of it’s manager… There have been two news items in the UK today that must surely have everyone either rolling their eyes in the air, or laughing down their [...]

Question. When Is Database not a Database? Answer.  When it’s a Government Lie And now, here is the news… Plan to monitor all internet use The home secretary, Wacky Backy Jacqui, has decided to scrap her naff plans for a (big) database but wants details of ALL internet activity to be held and organised for [...]

Public Trained in Anti-terrorism Not content with charging us for our ‘freedom’ to have ID Cards and CCTV on every corner, not content from stopping us take photographs in public, our UK Government in the shape of Home Secretary wacky baccy Jacqui Smith now wants everyone to spy on everyone else ‘in case they’re a [...]

The appalling erosions of our freedoms instigated by our government under the discredited George Bush’s ‘war on terror’ banner are under attack from another robust source. – Stella Rimington, former boss of the UK’s MI5 intelligence department. Far from condoning the actions like the US Patriot Act, the UK’s attempts to lock people up without [...]

I’ve just been reading this fascinating book, Encountering the Dharma: Daisaku Ikeda, Soka Gakkai, and the Globalization of Buddhist Humanism by a non-Buddhist, Richard Seager, who gives a really good, well-balanced investigation into Buddhism, the Soka Gakkai (SGI) and it’s meteoric rise in popularity under the inspirational personas of Makiguchi, Toda and Ikeda. Well you’d [...]

Home Secretary wacky baccy Smith is deemed to be so by no other than the former Director of  Public Prosecutions (DPP), Sir Ken Macdonald. He continues today in the same vein as his earlier attack when he was still DPP with a paragraph that is memorable and I suspect, may ring down through the ages.  [...]

Hospitals ‘infested with vermin’ In the latest bout of the fear and gloom sweeping the country, (BBC link above), this time it’s the tories mixing facts and data up with proper information – and typically, the media are going along with it because it makes good copy. Read the article, illustrated with a picture of [...]

Nothing really! Bush Nazi Grendel Also we have the latest news of the monstrous Bush administration here. He wants to take away all limits to surveillance (not that they were adhered to much!). He claims a dangerous intelligence gap is opening up…. …er no. What is actually happening is that he’s finally realised that he’s [...]