´óÏó´«Ã½

Afghanistan

It would have been so much easier to have sent a diplomat to Afghanistan in 2001 and arrange the handover of the 9/11 suspects for trial, as the Taliban offered at the time.

Hopeless!

6 BILLION TOURISTS - AND TRAMPING

It is regularly pointed out on this forum that the world has too many people. But it seems to be a 'given' all around the world, that you can't have too much tourism. Who will ultimately be judged to have done the most damage to Afghanistan, the Taliban or the tourists?

They will need roads, hotels, Coca Cola, Big Macs - jobs galore! Hurrah!

Does the planet want fries with that?

#49
Streetphotobeing
I didn't think for a minute it was you in the photo but the flowers seem to be flowers although one never knows with all the masquerade that's going on around us.
Re: ditties

A ditty a day keeps the cowards at bay

Going to need a big cup of coffee to stay awake:-



This one is for you know who, trapped a vehical of his/her life dictating to us to prove her/him wrong :-



Guess what, we dont have to prove anything to any body about anything. Now I know that will be difficult for your ego but please do try and except it.

streetphotobeing (#4) "Guess what, we dont have to prove anything to any body about anything. Now I know that will be difficult for your ego but please do try and except it."

That's where you're so wrong. There's always been a cost to that self-centred 'freedom' you're lauding. It's also why we used to value duty, responsibility and respect. Look about you today for the cost of that having been subversively driven out of fashion.

DISINFORMATION BY DILUTION? (conspiracy theory)

Is it possible we are witnessing intentional 'static'? When two butterflies of an anomalous species turn up in ones garden - a garden lacking any species-specific food - at the same time, might they actually comprise a 'unit of interference' - an experimental, binary, device from the laboratories of some 'Guardian of the Public Good'? Has anything similar happened before? How to falsify the theory?

Of all the blogs in all the internet . . .

#3 continuation re: #49 from previous page
Streetphotobeing
First of all, re: watching Newsnight tonight -
I'm hoping to be able to do so but may have a big problem staying awake myself , specially that I'm still not feeling all that well again. I once felt a bit like that when Jeremy Paxman was presenting Newsnight Review after having done Newsnight itself but unfortunately I had to switch off because of feeling so absolutely fowl. My life has changed for the better since and I think I'm coping much better now with this kind of pressure. Anyway, ever since I've been worried that Jeremy may have felt hurt.
Re: JJ and his #35
I haven't a clue why he is insisting on me learning something under his 'leadership'. He once posted me a link re: some neural behaviourism expecting me to 'study' it. I did have a look but couldn't even finish it. Is he, by any chance, involved in some 'grand' experiment involving human robots? I've heard rumours that they 'exist', or at least one.
Personally, I find his postings extremely difficult to 'digest', what with all the craptrap he puts in them.
I'm surprised you bother with him, Streetphotobeing, after he was very nasty to you and told you to stop writing here. Who does he think he is? Knees-bees, I suppose.
He's told me off more than once not only about posting my ditties /which funnily enough, I think, are one way or another to do with Newsnight and current affairs/ but also for trying to correspond with people like MrTweedy who is obviously a highly intelligent and talented person. So, who does he think he is, disposing of orders, pointing fingers at everybody who doesn't bow to him? He'll soon start waving his finger at the President of the USA, Mr Barack Obama, and the Queen, I suppose. Or does he see himself as their defender hoping to gain favours?
* Like your new links, Streetphotobeing

An interesting selection for NN tonight. However I wish to focus on the item that most affects me: NEETS - our No Employment, Education or Training Society, and repeat my solution: bring back National Service.

Can we afford the cost of 1 million youths becoming part of a lost-to-work-ethic society? Not only in terms of income support, job-seekers, council tax rebates, and other complex allowances that have attempted to provide a viable safety net (and weakened and undermined our society) but also the future cost of a generation that will have no training or work experience.

When my son was a rebellious teenager I often chided him with "I wish you could experience a couple of years of National Service as I did". Now age 40+ he recently sent me a copy of 'The Call-Up - a history of N.S.' by Tom Hickman, which he read and told me that he felt cheated out of what must have been a life-changing experience.

And it was for over 2 million youths, some of who learned to read and write, and many acquired a trade. Most of the contributors agreed that it was an epiphany, providing an environment in which they learned discipline, teamwork and camaraderie.

Surely it will be a better option than attempting to set up yet more training programmes and social workers and fabricate work. For those inclined to anti-social behaviour it will be a shock to their system to have a firmer hand of discipline, and healthier in terms of diet and exercise for those now joining the rowing ranks of the obese. And it will identify those who refuse to serve their chosen country.

During my 2 years we were paid less than 20% of the then average wage, so there shuld be sound economic grounds for giving serious consideration to this option: do we have many others?

I can't help speculating that al-Megrahi is about to become the victim of a cunning Baldric style plan / trap set by the politicians to make him drop his impending appeal.

I suspect that it would have been quite interesting going over all the evidence again given that the original conviction was based on pretty shaky circumstantial evidence. Even many of the more intelligent surviving British victims don't believe he had anything to do with it, but with " terrorism " cases like for instance the Birmingham Six, its often politically expedient to fit someone up if you don't have any true leads.

mimpromptu (#7) Are you related to thegangofone or just assimilating his dispositions? You both appear to have some difficulty grasping, and accurately reporting, what you read.

Surely when one recognises that one does not understand something, one should take it as a cue that one has something to learn?

#2 Barrie, somebody recently said to me that they had read that one in ten jobs around the world were involved in tourism! Do you think that is true? And can you imagine what will happen when the whole of China suddenly wants to visit Europe?!!!!!!

FOR THE AVOIDANCE OF MAINSTREAM MEDIA (#99)

Private Eye was moved to produce a special edition on the Lockerbie Crash. I have a treasured copy.
The Eye has a good nose for smelly goings-on.
The probable trigger (American ship shot down Iranian Airliner 'by accident') had a similar feel to 9/11 in my view - 'constructive'.
I have no doubt you are right, 99. They don't want truth, just expediency.

WORLD PEACE PLAN (#12)

We now preserve everything old that we find. We get better and better at both finding and preserving. I predict that in the future, the entire world population will be employed in archeology and museums, and will spend their 6 month holidays as tourists.

KIRSTY NOTE.
In passing, I have realised that Kirsty is related to Mr Punch. Try this test. When Kirsty is interviewing, move elsewhere in your house and note that there comes a point where you can still follow what the interviewee is saying, but Kirsty just becomes confused sound. How much is she paid again?

#10
May I suggest, the 'grandiose' jj, that you leave me alone. You've got nothing to teach me that's worth learning. Go and teach your children, if you have any, or work on your wife, if you've got one, or a niece or nephew of your own stock. Why pick on me? Do I know you? Have we met? If we had, it must have been a very long time ago when one couldn't see the wood for the trees, when everything was being thrown in the bin, etc. So clear your own back yard, look after your own blood and leave mine alone. It's all falling on deaf ears. I'm only responding once again this time and for the last time because you've been poking at people I appreciate. Don't waste your time. I don't otherwise read your pretentious claptrap.

#47 & #49 addendum
from mimpromptu
Streetphotobeing
I'm sorry to read you're worried about your looks. I wonder whether the time has come to convene the bloggers' club so I could meet you face to face and judge for myself? And thank you again for your continued support with my rhythms and rhymes.

#15 addendum
to JJ
I may have it wrong, of course, but if your wife's name is Anne-Marie, your daughter's name is Charlotte and your son's name is Sebastian, then why don't you sort it out with them and leave other people's private lives alone, constantly probing, groping, finding dirt on just anybody you can think of, never mind much more grave 'undertakings' you have taken upon yourself. It's time to stop or be stopped.

Yes this is much more entertaining now. Good to see your an early bird as well Mademoiselle.

mimpromptu (#14) "May I suggest, the 'grandiose' jj, that you leave me alone. You've got nothing to teach me that's worth learning. Go and teach your children, if you have any, or work on your wife, if you've got one, or a niece or nephew of your own stock. Why pick on me?"

Is this lack of insight a 'Polish' thing or just somethiong related?

Have you looked through your posts over the past two weeks?

Look up the word 'scotoma'.

Finally, how do you know you have nothing to learn? (You'll really need to think about that ;-).

Taleb was on before with Emily waving his hands around and ranting like some on here. Take note *Dave* Dr Swans Black or otherwise can get a bit vicious, however switched on they maybe.

#20
Streetphotobeing
Have you noted JJ not denying the family and blood connections?
Plus, it looks like he's switching off from the National Socialism to the Conservatives again?

"Our Economics Editor Paul Mason looks at what can be done to avoid creating a "lost generation" as figures show record numbers in England not in work or training."

It's bit too late for that. The British economy has been allowed to accumulate too much debt, which means we have already spent tomorrow's earnings. Having spent a significant proportion of our future earnings, we now face the risk of high levels of unemployment for some years to come, as we will not have sufficient disposable income to support the required level of economic activity.

The world is a competitive place, with each country working to improve its own standard of living. If the BRICs gain more wealth, the West must give up some wealth to accomodate. Technology allows the world's resources to go further, but we still don't have enough resources to guarantee a western standard of living for the whole of the world's population.

A country's population must study, train and work to gain competitive advantage in order to find work which will pay enough to fund a reasonable lifestyle.

The problem for Britain is that during the years of high tax receipts, competitive advantage was seen as something bad, and branded as nasty elitism. Huge numbers of students were pushed through higher education, and instead of placing pressure on the students, pressure was put on their teachers to ensure the students "passed" the exams. This tended to place blame on the teachers if students failed to make the grade. Universities and colleges were run like businesses, with the aim of maximising revenue by passing as many students as possible. Therefore, the quality of our education and graduates has diminished. On top of this, our graduates are saddled with debt from student loans.

In a competitive world, setting up your economy along the lines of everyone has the right to a degree and the right to a job, tends to blunt a country's competitive edge. The attempted eradication of risk in all walks of British life has encouraged reckless and feckless behaviour.

Large amounts of debt have been accumulated in Britain because of false expectations, as people took it for granted that they'll always have a minimum level of future earnings, and that Britain will always be a wealthy nation. Debt is risky, because you are spending future earnings when there is no guarantee as to the size of those future earnings.

The British economy is too reliant on imports, consumer spending, debt, and anti-elitism. This means it lacks a truly competitive edge in the world, and will struggle to earn a living in the future.

In future, we must try to identify the most able students from all backgrounds, and then provide them with state grants to ensure they get the best education. That way we will improve social mobility and promote healthy elitism.

Nos21

Hi mim, I go so far and then switch off, like most others who come and go on here. Its not in the least bit important just a way to distract myself from processing, editing and walking up and down streets with a visual time recorder.

You talk of a blog club - do you have a link, is it in London ? Next time I can be motivated to travel may take a look.

Dear Mim

Please keep producing the rhymes and rhythms.

They are a healthy distraction from the everyday scenes of economic woe, international tension, and political dandruff.

#23
Streetphotobeing
Yeah, it's in London and more precisely at Queensway but you would have to guess who I am and find me yourself.
Looking forward to meeting you soon
mimpromptu

#26
Oh, Mr Tweedy, so kind of you to be so encouraging in my burgeoning rhymes and rhythms. /Hope you don't think there is in any way a verbal reference here to the traitor Burgess./
Well, this morning I came up with something on a rose, partly in connection with a link sent a couple of days ago by Streetphotobeing. The rose could be interpreted in many different ways. It could be the English rose or it could stand for love, etc. It's also something about freedom and in some way predetermination of what nature has endowed each individual with. I can twirl, for example, twirl on ice and, to my great surprise, twirl spontaneously with words to the beats of my mind and soul. But I can't sculpt, I can't just sit down at the piano and reproduce Mozart, for ex., etc. And there is as well predetermination of how one writes, in what style, and so on and so forth.
Bulat Okudzhava's proud rose
While lying in bed unable to sleep
This morning, after a pee,
I thought a ditty I might compose
About a lovely beautiful rose

Similar to the one Bulat used to sing
About, striking his favourite musical strings.
That rose was red and proud in a bottle
After a beer drunk past some glottal

Cords which must have by then
Been nicely enjoyed by somebody's den
Of a stomach and in the bowels
And now inspiring the singer's vowels

And consonants into a poem deep
About each artist's unique kind of sleep
Making him write just as he feels
Making him write just as he breathes

This song one day I'd like to translate
But for that the reader will yet have to wait
As other plans for now I need to fulfil
While joining this city's usual mill.

#13Barrie

I've modified your prediction to fit mine.

"We get better and better at preventing diseases and propagating. I predict that in future, the entire world population will be packed shoulder to shoulder standing knee-deep in sewage. Those on high ground may disport themselves in art and music and will spend the rest of their lives wishing they had been less tolerant- and spoilt major party games."

I'm OK Jack, I'm Hillsideboy, living way above sea level. Pull up the ladder.

COGNITIVE/LOGICAL EXERCISES

mimpromptu (#21) Have you noticed how you've never denied that you have a series of criminal convictions for fraud, or that you earn your living as a 'sex-worker' and trade in human body parts? Does anyone wonder why that might be?

Have you ever wondered why people don't constantly remark that you have three heads and a tail?

Here's something else to get those logical cogs turning.

;-).

Three heads and guess whos in the middle - everybody

[Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]

No.26. mimpromptu

Thanks for the artist's unique kind of sleep, writing like he's breathing.

It's also reminded me of the role of the glottal stop in British culture.

FAREWELL TO ALL THAT.

This forum used to lend support to writings of each journo
But seems to have become the thinking man's Dante's Inferno
Where thought is buried upside-down in vats of boiling syntax
And words flow out of cyberspace, borne high on virtual ExLax.

Where the hell is Cerberus aka Blogdog?

MrTweedy (#22) "In future, we must try to identify the most able students from all backgrounds, and then provide them with state grants to ensure they get the best education. That way we will improve social mobility and promote healthy elitism."

We did that before Thatcher's friends (and Blair's) took power. Grants supported the able from all walks of life. Natural sorting has now done its business it would seem.

Yet, as pointed out many times now, both (who drafted the 1945 'Nazi' Labour Manifesto which all but created the welfare state) and Richard Herrnstein (who along with Charles Murray is as good an entry point to the position that I've been expounding here and elsewhere for some years now), pointed out the social dangers of naively or egregiously promoting meritocracy, as ironically/paradoxically, it leads to 'class conflict' through denuding communities of the diversity which is required to sustain stability.

Streetphotobeing and MrTweedy
Are you aware of the fact of me having criminal convictions and trading in sex? Well, if I'm earning my money as a 'sex worker', I haven't seen it yet. And where is my working place? My own bed? Have I invited even one person to it yet? Have I made any propositions to anybody? The only places I mainly revolve around are my attic, the ice rink and riding my bike through the streets of London, while until the end of January this year I used to spend most of my time at St George's Hospital in Tooting working for brain surgeons. Can't remember making any sexual propositions to any of them, neither. I am currently claiming benefits but you can well see why. Somebody is claiming to be my pimp, methinks. Is it JJ?

No.31 barriesingleton

I blame it all on the White Guelphs.
Everything was fine until they came along.


No.32 JadedJean

How do you manage to get moderated so quickly? You are like a runner on the inside track.
Interesting point about meritocracy denuding communities of the diversity required to sustain stability. It could lead to a two speed Britain - the risk being "reward the best and forget the rest".

Nos 26 - bagged a good one there.

Nos 29 - The removed link is to an image by Mike Peters taken on Coney Island around 2007 from an excellent body of photographic work from Mr Peter's to be found on flickr.

...as they appear to be incapable of questioning their basic assumptions/prejudices.

Q. Have we not sorted the gene pool?

MrTweedy (#34) "Interesting point about meritocracy denuding communities of the diversity required to sustain stability. It could lead to a two speed Britain - the risk being "reward the best and forget the rest".

Anarchists such as Thatcher/Joseph and Blair/Levy don't do national socialism, they worship 'market-forces' and consumerism/predation.

No.32. JadedJean

We have a somewhat rootless nation of individuals, perfectly suited to meritocracy, as a result of (i) the decline of old-style communities, heavy industry, the safe job for life and personal ties to geographical areas; coupled with (ii) the continued rise of the commuter due to improved transport, and the rise of the service based economy.

Is it not the increase in foreign competition that has made the British workforce so "flexible"?

I agree that those at the top of the meritocracy will tend to protect their position and try to pass it on to their children. Hence, a class division will arise. However, can class divisions ever be eradicated as long as self interest exists? Each nation trying to protect its own standard of living in a world of finite resources will automatically give rise to self interest and meritocracy.

Talking of things being ignored, why is the media being so silent on ?

Something appears very wrong regarding the costs paid for helicopters in Afghanistan but not a peep from the media.

#35 from mimpromptu
Streetphotobeing
You must have a magic touch - you've brightened up my afternoon this time. Delighted not to be treated like a whore.
See you in one of the clubs one of these days, one of them being the Poetic R/Evolution that we yet need to give some solid shapes to.

The ban against Micheal Savage entering the UK - the talk radio Jock. Why did Jackie Smith ban this fella? I never heard of him until he was put on the ban list...now his profile has risen in the UK and he's about to publish a book 'banned in the UK'...he's taking our Govt to the courts:o)

MrTweedy (#38) "..can class divisions ever be eradicated as long as self interest exists?"

Class division, just reflects genetic division. Genetic abilities appear to largely determine Socio-Economic Status.

As I understand it (although I'm a short on details, so perhaps someone else could fill in on this?) in the National Socialist People's Republic of China, internal migration from rural to urban areas is controlled by the people's representatives, i.e. the party, i.e the state.

The ´óÏó´«Ã½/NN might consider covering the practical differences between how Democratic-Centralist countries like China, N Korea (and other evil-dooers like Burma etc) manage their populations in the interests of all concerned, vs the merits/demerits of freedom 'enjoyed' by those in the Liberal-Democracies (which TFR figures appear to show to be on the road to biological extinction, and in some cases, economic self-destuction).

#37 Jaded_Jean

"Anarchists such as Thatcher/Joseph and Blair/Levy don't do national socialism"

Neither does most of the world! Neither does the BNP - who are "not a Nazi Party" they are a "modern and progressive party".

Gosh Joseph and Levy were Jews! You have previously declared views that are very similar to Von Bruun the American Friend of the BNP awaiting trial for murder of a security guard at a US Holocaust memorial. Do you still adhere to the view that Stalin ejecting "anarchists and Trotskyites" in the thirties means that there is a Jewish Communist International? Did you decide only to take account of race as opposed to gender, height, hair colour, eye colour and so on?

Do you know that your views are utterly irrational as is your race "realism" that does not account for the science that shows that genetic variation is greater within a race than it is between races. We are all very closely related?

Without Rhyme, or Reason?

The case for and against the alleged dumbing down of our blog continues, indeed with some getting hot under the collar. I shall refrain from giving my opinion, except to add that perhaps there is a need for the occasional shaft of humour to leaven our weighty task of putting the world to right (or left, in some cases).

I've just fallen about laughing at such an item on CNN. It reports that the squirrel (or tree-rat) that popped up into a photo being taken by a couple, is now appearing all over the globe, and beyond. Apparently, it took the first small step on the moon, joined Putin in the Kremlin, and is in some of Jacko's video dance routines.

With my teenager overseas, I am unable to find the appropriate social networking link. Could somebody more 'cool' (hope I'm up-to-date with the street talk) post the link please. I wouild rather watch that than wade through some of the 'blank verse' which is an apt description.

Newsnight it would be very interesting to know more about the background of the Baby P batterer and his ex-National Front brother. I had read that they had been in care but then these far right heroes were torturing their grandmother to get her to change her will.

So were they created monsters by a short sighted care system and/or were they born bad and/or did some mentor come along who also "explicated" the far right values and Hitler reverence - as well as paedophilia perhaps.

I can't help but wonder whether that far right would be nail-bomber whose bombs were found as they searched for paedophile material (or vice a versa) is the tip of an iceberg. Could their be far right paedophile rings, "redeemed" by their National Socialist ideals, who are slipping through the net.

The Twickenham Green murderer revered Hitler and is also a suspect over Millie Dowler.

Did Lewington, the far right would-be bomber, have inclinations towards children? He was also associated with the National Front.

Could some be indoctrinated into one arena via the other ensuring that there is mutual interest in security? Perhaps even they themselves were of the abuse cycle.

#36 Jaded_Jean

"as they appear to be incapable of questioning their basic assumptions/prejudices."

This from the people who believe there is a Jewish Communist International, Hitler was a peace lover and who are "agnostic" on the Holocaust.

#44 Do you mean this one indignantindegene

But no I can't find the networking site link!

Just thought I'd add some more rubbish to the blog! ; )

thegangofone (#43) I suggest you look into the background of 'Ted Grant' and 'Tony Cliff', and the International Socialists in general.

(amongst other things). Have a look at what the Anti-Comintern Pact was all about, and why it led to WWII.

Instead of finding what you don't know 'unbelievable', perhaps you'd be better off just giving some thought to the possibility that there's much which you do not know.

Learning is always a surprise, but you seem not to have grasped the implications of this. Instead, you appear to dismiss what you find surprising!

Heads-up:- That's not a good strategy for learning. Quite the contrary in fact. It's the way ignorant bigots behave.

#10 Jaded_JEan

"Are you related to thegangofone or just assimilating his dispositions? You both appear to have some difficulty grasping, and accurately reporting, what you read."

The laugh is that you often say that when I have quoted you directly. You probably do try that path with the moderator.

Can you grasp that if somebody is "agnostic" but then cites "evidence" that there was no Holocaust then they themselves cannot be agnostic - or they don't believe their own "evidence". Evidence that they will not transmit even anonymously to the Djemjanjuk trial - the alleged Nazi death camp guard. Much too busy for that.

You often say the Holocaust was created to "put people off statism". The Russians were "statists" in your view. You claim that if there was any killing it was the Russians - who were "statists". You back this up with no evidence and imply the millions with intimate knowledge of the events conspired together. That would be a first wouldn't it!


Can somebody fail to grasp that science shows conclusively that genetic variation is greater with a race than between races and then try to cite science as the basis of their race "realism" - when it in fact refutes it.

#48 JJ Hee,hee, written at 2.11pm and posted at 2.11pm. Three unmoded posts in front of this one. JJ has got to be a mod who stirs up the board! ; )

#14 mimpromptu

The strategy of the far right head cases is to put off any normal legitimate posters so they can try and pass themselves off as the majority ("the BNP web site has more hits than all of the other political parties combined" etc).

Post away and if you aren't in the mood just don't read them.

Given their rabid views I think they probably foam at the mouth anyway so I only communicate to make sure others are aware of their true nature and farcical ideological views.

Newsnight what is the story in Mexico? Is the prognosis still as grim as before in the war against drug lords that seemed to be being lost or is there genuine improvement?

Could Newsnight not do a piece on that BNP London Assembly Member who had to (maybe has) explain three local murders that never happened? Could they not reflect on the BNP tactics that this act reflects? They will tell any lie or distort any fact no matter how adolescent and no matter how obvious it is that they are lying.

Also is there more on the links of Von Bruun (American Friend of the BNP) who is awaiting trial for the murder of a US security guard at a Holocaust Memorial?

ecolizzy (#50) Be wary of inductive logic.

Missing News:
There is a story that is going round the foreign press and the internet that we were nearly all wiped out recently : Toronto Sun Feb 27, 2009: "Baxter International supplied a mix of H3N2 seasonal flu viruses and unlabelled Avian Flu H5N1 viruses, to an Austrian research company which then sent some to it's sub-contractors in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Germany, the subcontractor in the Czech Republic - inoculated ferrets with the product and they died. If someone had been simultaneously infected with both strains, he or she could have served as an incubator for a hybrid virus - called reassortment - able to transmit easily to and among people. Did I miss this in the UK press ?
If it was deliberate – who did it ? , If it was a mistake, why has Baxter not been closed down and all it's products banned from being used in the UK and around the World and it’s name now synonymous with the likes of Union Carbide ?

very funny gag but I think the husband got off light...the account in todays Private Eye on Lockerbie is a must read especially the bit about the two baggage handlers's account that there were two surplus bags on 103, also the security gate break in...? What do the US and UK governments think we are? After all these years they are still peddling the same old crap and expecting us to swallow it. The fact that the most richest country on earth can get away with denying fifty million of it's citizens healthcare they must think they can get away with anything.....and have. Watergate has obviously had no effect.

here's one...the boys are trooping into the dining room in the Catholic convent and as they approach the food table a sign next to the barrel of apples says 'remember boys only one each and God is watching you' so they take one each and as they make their way down the line they arrive at the last plate which contains chocolate...one boy says to his mate, 'Go on fill yer boots...he's watchin' the apples'

#32: to JadedJean

I was trying to understand your last paragraph.
Could you give examples where promoting meritocracy is a bad thing?

THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED EYE OF MEDIA

There is good reason to doubt the Lockerbie outcome. While the law allows selection of evidence, the desired result will always be 'safe'.

There is far greater reason to reject the NIST 'findings' regarding the collapse of the THREE towers, 9/11. The pressure for a proper investigation is growing daily. The most telling call comes from architects and structural engineers. NONE of this is aired by our media. How could they when the Elizabeth Cross is still warm from its casting?
Blair, aided by IDS, bound us into much more than a reckless war; we are culturally stitched up until the Emperor is declared naked.

Nos 58

Hate to say it but jj makes a good point there.

how do you define merit?

what is success ?

Nos 58

Also you may or may not wish to read this:-

[Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]

Not sure if that link will work.

This link should work:-



And there are links to a translation at the bottom.

#17
Mademoiselle
brilliant!

51
gangofone
thank you
jj is clearly insane and I think he'd rather sell his family than lose

#60
streetphotobeing
I know what success is.
It's when you make a positive and welcome impact on another human being, for example and I'm happy to confirm that you've been very succesful as far as I am concerned but I'm also quite sure that quite a few people feel the same

To #62: streetphotobeing

Thanks for the information.

When people ask for definitions to save time it's good just to refer them to Wikipedia, with generally agreed definitions:






To make philosophy more useful, I would say how does your philosophical knowledge actually change the way you justify or make a decision? I wanted to get away from generalisations towards real examples in #58. Maybe "The Republic" by Socrates should be updated to a new edition, to take account of the more electronically connected, transparent and open world! :)

So returning to an educational theme (vaguely related to the last paragraph of the blog post) and looking for specific examples: Is removing the financial barrier to University (no tuition fees, full grant, entry according to grades) more meritocratic or less?

Any modern day examples where promoting meritocracy is a bad thing?

_marko (#58) "Could you give examples where promoting meritocracy is a bad thing?"

Michael Young wrote a satirical book in 1958 entitled 'The Rise of The Meritocracy' which warned of the social divisiveness which selection on the basis of cognitive merit would lead to through a sorting of society into an elite and the rest. In 1973, Herrnstein, then professor of psychology at Harvard wrote a book entitled 'IQ in The Meritocracy'. It is worth reading, as is 'The Bell Curve' published in 1994. .

There are people reading (and sometimes posting to) this blog who simply don't understand any of this either because they can't or won't look at the big picture or becaus ethey don't want others to do so. To them, this is all insane or worse, threatening to their interests. In fact, many of them simply don't understand any of it. This does not of course mean that it's not happening :-(

. Watch the video after you have read the above review, and try and dig out reviews of the earlier two books. This all goes back to the early 1930s at least.

Addendum (#67) is a good cae study of a meritocractic liberal-democracy which is suffering from a low TFR and, very probably, dysgenic fertility. This, I have suggested, is the fatal flaw of liberal-democracy.

This requires some careful thought, so I'll leave you with an exercise:

The thing to focus upon is that there is, in fact, a small negative correlation between intelligence and birth rate. Given that, what do you see hapening in the long run if a society educates the brighter half of the female population and intelligence is largely genetic?

Len:

What will the legacy of this long protracted case be?

Regarding the Lockerbie Case...The case will be settled quickly, but, the problems with international relationships between the United Kingdom and United States could be in the protracted stage for a while...

=Dennis Junior=

Len:

'Not in Employment, Education or Training'.

The numbers of NEETS is going to increased due, to the fact
the government and its agents are not doing enough to assist these citizens in getting services that they need...

=Dennis Junior=

Len:

But with the world's attention on the conflict zones are other parts of the country being ignored?


Yes, but, the world's attention is often limited and not having enough resources to covered every single conflict to the best of one ability...

=Dennis Junior=