Things that are currently pissing me off - 6

I'm having to type some stuff - limited aspects of a large report - in American. My bloody spell-checker keeps putting all the 'u's back in. Aaaaaaargh. When is gin o'clock, exactly?

Things that are currently pissing me off - 5

Utter ignorance is always a good one - especially if it is in a subject area that I had to work to get a proper grasp of. Like economics.

There is a whole Guardianista / CiFuckedUp rant about the Laffer curve over here. Get over it, folks. The Laffer curve exists. We don't know its shape, how many maxima there may be, how to calculate where they might be (except experimentally) and there is even a valid argument that one of the underlying assumptions (100% tax equals zero revenue in the short term) is much weaker than the other two ('0% tax = 0% revenue' and 'some tax levels give positive revenue'.) (Ed notes: so it may actually not be of that much practical use. Like much else in economics.) But the fact that people you dislike use it as an argument for proposals you oppose no more discredits the theory than the fact that Young Earth Creationists use the fact that "Evilution" is a theory* rather than a fact means that the biblical creation story is the literal truth.

Then somebody takes this to the extreme:

At a properly enforced and managed 100% tax, you have maximum revenue.

I cannot get how somebody who seems not to be an utter dribbling moron (it is properly spelled and punctuated, grammatical and follows a logical, albeit incorrect, sequence) can actually believe such utter shite. The classic thing that differentiates the 'rich' from the 'wage slave' - however well-paid the latter - is the ability to move money about - invest rather than take income and shift in time. Take a capital gain (or a dividend) rather than pay and shift tax treatment. Don't work so hard - because you probably don't actually need the 250th £1000 - and earn less. An income / leisure trade off (as would be working a bit harder and taking enough extra income to be able to afford to pay a cleaner!) At 100% tax you will have the small dribble of revenue from those who cannot escape the strait-jacket. Nobody, not even the heros of socialist fuck-wittery, are going to drag themselves away from their Islington dinner parties to slave at their desks for all of the blooody money to go to the Government.

* Not only is the "Theory of Evolution" generally so called - it is also known to be an incorrect theory. Or, at least, an incomplete one. And very different now, not just to the initial outline from Darwin and Wallace, but also to the version I was taught in the mid-1980s. So it, as our knowledge improves, will itself continue to evolve.

Attack of the Penny Dreadful

Hmm, the sacrifical bleeding heart of the privileged class appears to have got a little bit upset with David Starkey:

When I criticised Starkey for playing xenophobia for laughs, and asked why, as an advocate of Britishness, he lives for part of the year in the United States, the dinosaur showed its claws. 

Possibly, child, because it is a complete and utter irrelevance. I have to spend quite a bit of my time in London - it's not because I'm an advocate of the values either of Eastenders or of the Westminster village. Or even the "fuck them all, let's just grab the cash" attitude of much of the City. You can be an advocate of, well, in Starkey's case more Englishness than Britishness - he's not very keen on Scotland - despite having to, or even liking, working, holiday or even living elsewhere.

But anyway, what did he say to offend her this much? (Ed notes: this is as reported by one of the vermin in this particular rat-fight - don't place to much emphasis on its accuracy. This is a Laurie Penny report, remember!)

"real British values" are not, as Starkey put it, "entrenched in the foothills of the Punjab".

They may not have been entrenched there - and British values are the antithesis of some of the tribal culture of the north-western end of the sub-continent) but, to a very great degree they were created there. The Raj, and its denizens' attempts to recreate a wholly-mythical Golden Age England in their exile is responsible for a lot of of the quainter things that certainly tourist boards like to promote as "Britishness".

If we could just persuade these two to have a very public fight to the death (of their reputations), it is a no lose situation for reality. Especially if we can actually manage to have both of them so wounded that they never dare appear in public again. Unfortunately, the self-belief (idiotic in Laurie's case) seems so invincible in the pair of them that no such luck will attend us.

Fuckwittage on CiF

And it's not about Assange ... (for once, although I may get back to that prat and his deluded fan-boys later):

In doing this, the White House has made a mistake, says experts. "The United States has the most to lose from attacks like these. No other country has so much of its economy linked to the online world," writes Mikko Hypponen, a Finnish cybercrime expert. "By launching Stuxnet, American officials opened Pandora's box. They will most likely end up regretting this decision." Terms like a "digital Pearl Harbor" and "Cybergeddon" are now being tossed around.

Oh. Dear. God. The early part of the previous decade would like its news reports back please.Richard Clarke was sacked for, among other things, grevious invention of the phrase "electronic Pearl Harbor" in about 2003. The Chinese have been planting malware on their opponents (particularly the Tibetans and Taiwanese, but everybody else too) for at least 10 years. Just because the Americans are now admitting that they do it too - apparently there is some sort of election due over their shortly and the incumbent in the village mayoral office wants to brag about how many sleeping tramps he's kicked (Ed notes: or something probably not very similar at all!) - doesn't mean it is suddenly "new."

Just a note: Mikko Hypponen (such an excellent name for an infosec sales-weasel) might, just 'might', not be promoting the products of the F-Secure company he works for. History would suggest otherwise.

What can drive people to such idiocy?

or are you referring to the right of centre corporate Guardian and Independent that are linked to our security services

It can only be St Julian.


// facepalm

If I didn't know better ...

And I think that I do, I'd suggest that Breanna Manning was some sort of crazy strawman (strawwoman, strawperson, strawdangerouslyconfusednutjob?) dreamt up by USian religio-conservatives to demonstrate just how quickly the (US) Army would go to hell in a handcart if they dared to let fags in.

Occassionally you wonder why ...

There is so much support for independence amongst otherwise sensible Jocks. Then you see shit like this from the supposed "national broadcaster":

Flooding hits northern England after torrential rain

What? You don't think there is anything wrong with that? Ah, yes. That's the tidied up 07:37 version. I woke up with the 06:13 version:

Flood warnings across northern UK after torrential rain

Same shit beneath it - and I am sorry for the people affected - but apart from one warning for a village in Aberdeenshire, there is nothing north of the Borders.

Now I appreciate that when metrosexual nancy journowankers dare to skirt the very edges of howling barbarism by taking a trip round the M25, they will see a sign that quite famously says

Watford Gap
The North

But it doesn't mean you are there yet. Darwen - the northern UK as far as that prat is concerned - is a bit south of Preston. I've got customers there and it's nearly a 200 mile drive, mostly south. And I don't live in the north. I live in the Central Belt. It's another 150 miles from me to Inverness and a further hundred or so to Thurso. Then you've still got the rump Vikings in the northern Isles.

Whinging Aussie Gits

I mean, come on?

his native Australia had made an "effective declaration of abandonment" by refusing to intervene in his planned extradition.

 My government is not my government any more. It's just a subsidiary of the United States. They got together to send him back to the US.

Oh, for fuck's sake. They should rip up his passport for being a professional whiner. He expects a democracy to intervene in one of its citizens being extradited from another democracy to yet another democracy to face questioning for something that is a crime in all three? It's bloody unbelievable. 

If he was being extradited to the US on political or espionage charges (espionage against the US not, to the best of my knowledge, being a crime in the UK, Australia or Sweden) then, well, it might a bit more reasonable. But he's not. "Rape and sexual assault".

I wonder how many of the various leftist running dogs would be supporting a Swede, living in the US, against allegations that he raped two women in London?

Notes for people who insist it wouldn't be a crime in the UK (Ed notes: references are to E&W law, the Act does not apply in Scotland, although there are similar provisions in Part 2 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009):

1. s75(2)(d) Sexual Offences Act 2003 covers " asleep or otherwise unconscious at the time of the relevant act" - reversing the burden of proof for consent. And as the woman has said she didn't consent ...

2. s76(2)(a) SOA03 covers the broken (or absent) condom: "the defendant intentionally deceived the complainant as to the nature or purpose of the relevant act;". This doesn't just reverse the burden of proof, it is "it is to be conclusively presumed":

(a)that the complainant did not consent to the relevant act, and

(b)that the defendant did not believe that the complainant consented to the relevant act.

Things that are currently pissing me off - 4

Assangeophiles.

Look, folks, the man is a complete dickhead. It's not hard - he's an alpha-nerd who's jumped the minnow.  Now ...

This doesn't mean that Wikileaks has done no good. Nor even that it isn't a force for good.

Nor does it mean that the bastard isn't filthy rapist scum who should be lowered slowly into the nearest Sarlacc pit.

Just that St Julian of Wikileaks really, really doesn't exist. Proportion, please.

Utter effing stupidity

Complete utter fucking ignorance. I can't call it anything else.

As everybody knows, the SNP are a bunch of CND-infiltrated pacifists and, if we're unlucky enough that they win the referendum, Faslane will be shut-er than Harris on a Sunday.

So, spotting the main chance, the Welsh First Minister has offered Milford Haven - so far, so sensible. Then their lesser-spotted bigots piped up:

Writing on Twitter, Plaid AM Jonathan Edwards said: "This is a hugely significant development.  Milford is a huge energy portal. LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) and nukes don't go together."

An Open Letter

Dear Jonathan,

If one of the reactors goes tits, any nearby LPG isn't going to go up in a sympathetic detonation. In the extremely unlikely event (it is pretty much physically impossible) that one of the bombs goes off, then any contribution from LPG conflagration is going to be irrelevant.

There are potential risks - mostly from contamination. These are considerably less than the risks of contamination from the existing LPG and other chemical traffic. Anyway - if you are going to get something contaminated, what would you prefer? An already pretty horrid petro-chemical plant or some nice pristine cove a bit further around the coast.

Yours,

S-E

Search questions I just need to answer ...

From yesterday:

is the diamond jubilee medal real silver (?)

Err, no, don't be daft. Not in the slightest. It is made of "nickel silver" which contains absolutely no silver at all, being an alloy of copper, nickel and, usually, zinc (somewhere on the order of 3 to 1 to 1).

The Silver Jubilee medal was, indeed, silver, as was the Coronation medal. There has always been a  strong suspicion that the Golden Jubilee medal is made of compo chocolate with a gilt wrapper.

To strike is a right

As you would expect to hear from the TUC Deputy General Secretary. And I don't disagree with her. Except in very limited circumstances, the labour is the labourers', not the employer's (Ed notes: 'very limited' is essential public services - police, army, some {even most?} bits but possibly not all of hospitals*. I'd alo include firefighters, who are currently allowed to strike, and exclude GCHQ, who might or might not be, TPTB keep changing the rules.)

Except the rest is the usual CiBollocks.

Voting to go on strike is not a decision working people take lightly and is always accompanied by a strong sense of injustice at work. The impact of losing a day's pay is significant, not least for those in the lowest paid jobs who are already on the tightest budgets.

To suggest that benefits encourage people to go on strike is ridiculous.

Err, anybody remember the 70s? One out, all out? For any reason and none? She should - she's in her fifties. But probably remembers it from the privileged position of union power not from the point of view of the poor bloody citizens (Ed notes: Although, of course, this was prior to the British Nationality Act, 1981, so we were "subjects") who just had to put up with the quarrels of their 'betters'.

People who don't work can't go on strike. Some people who do work go on strike not because they feel 'a strong sense of injustice at work' but because some machinating trot has appealled to some false sense of 'worker's solidarity'.

Right, so if it is ridiculous to suggest that people are encouraged to exercise their right to strike by the fact that the rest of us are there to provide a safety net, surely it isn't ridiculous to suggest that removing that safety net won't discourage them from exercising that right? Or am I not allowed to apply logic to lefty nonsense?

And then it gets worse:

The government's intention to limit benefits for strikers, however, is more about rhetoric than real impact.

So it won't even change much. Great - so we've got a politician promising a sop to their electorate and it won't even affect yours. Except, possibly, to encourage them to think about it a bit more. So you have to whine about it anyway. It's brilliant minds the downtrodden have claiming to be on their side - makes you wonder what she's running for.

* I'm not too bothered, for example, about a plastic surgery clinic being shut. A&E, obviously, maternity, long-stay are different matters. I don't really know enough about it to make the critical judgements.

Polly says

To end this impasse, let us tap Europe's vast wealth 

She means

To end this impasse, let us tax Europe's vast wealth 

And what she is failing to understand is the difference between stocks and flows and the important things about "Europe's vast wealth" are that:

• It's illiquid. Make people sell any significant portion of it and you'll find out exactly what a "falling market*" feels like.
• It's largely isn't "Europe's". It merely belongs to people who have chosen to live here. And can, largely, choose otherwise.

But, fine. We'll start with a certain villa in Tuscany, shall we? 

* This may, of course, not be the worst thing in the world when it comes to housing prices. But, frankly, I couldn't give a flying shit what mansions are worth - two bed flats and three bed semis are the housing types I actually care about the value of.

What the hell is this made out of?

• Weight: 92.5 kg
• Height: 7.5 cm
• Width: 6.5 cm
• Depth: 6.5 cm

That's nearly thirteen times the density of pure Osmium! In a kiddies' toy! Or, looking at it another way, about the same as a real female of the species.

Queen's Birthday Honours

Goodness, aren't the petulant out in force? Dame Mary, Lady Archer, the CVO for the Duke of Westminster - all the "bin the honours system, relic of a discredited Empire" fools are out.

Nearly every country has some form of honours system - the ceremonnial core of the recent Presidential investiture in Paris wasn't handing over the nuclear launch codes, that happened later, it was the presentation of the collar of the Grand Master of the Légion d'Honneur.

The Yanks have their own, hideously complex system.

Anyway, congratulations to Stu Hobson, MBE.

Things that are currently pissing me off - 3

ISPs whose trouble-shooting guide requires you to be connected to the internet on the affected machine(s).

Fuckwits.

If you must know: Virgin Media - with us having a whole 93kb/s before it failed completely.

Update: Well, that's us back up to roughly the claimed bandwidth - a bit over 3 MB/s. Sighs. There's making it difficult for customers and then there are ISPs ...

Update 2: Surprisingly, just under 6 MB/s this morning. Possibly a lack of contention at 09:30 on a Sunday.

I'm not sure what to make of this

Here:

In general, 67 percent of people prefer PCs over Macs. But among those who have acted dumber than they actually are to improve their social standing, 79 percent prefer PCs.

• Mac users have an exaggerated view of their social standing?
• Mac users are more arrogant than PC users?
• Mac users' social circles are less obsequious to idiots?
• Some sort of Dunning-Kruger thing I'm not quite grasping?
• Liars feel empathy for Redmond?

Common sense from the Child Protection mafia?

Wonders will never cease:

Ceop called for police forces to prioritise investigating suspects who had easy access to children.

78 arrests, 80 kids "safeguarded" (whatever that means - if they've been put in to council care, they're hardly 'safe') - big operation. 

I feel, well, "soiled", really ...

Nothing exciting, unfortunately. But I've just agreed with one article on Comment Is Free and have only minor quibbles about another. It's, well, just a bit ... filthy, no?

Even Simon Jenkins is saying vaguely sensible things, even if the conclusion he is trying to force you to draw is as nuts as ever. (Ed notes: And he needs to learn the difference between the "Church of England" and the "Anglican church".)

Minor clearing up

Just in case you noticed the couple of widgets disappearing from the side-bar. I haven't started supporting the BNP, nor do I now think that compulsory schooling until 18 is a good idea. But both campaigns are over so into the dustbin of history they go.