It’s A Funeral

This morning on the news they showed people in America  picking up their tickets for the Michael Jackson Memorial. They were screaming with joy as if they had won the lottery. It certainly did not sound like they were going to a funeral. This is one of those “events” people have to be at so that they could say that they were there – regardless of whether they like Jackson or not. I thought is was disturbing that they were so overjoyed to get a ticket to a big open air funeral. It says a lot about our society and the effects of idols.

I have seen journalists say that Michael Jackson was a genius and he was the top and other musicians were level 2 and below. The interview asked about the Beatles which flummoxed the sycophant. They use the argument on the number of records sold. Well he may have been popular and sold lots of music but he was not a genius. I think he is more like Sinatra who who also be described as very popular but he would not be classified as a genius. The Beatles on the other did change musica nd their effects are still being felt today – just listen to Oasis!

Tax the Rich – Again

The Chancellor, Alistair Darling, did his mini budget. No doubt with a lot of “help” behind the scenes from Gordon Brown.

VAT (Sales Tax if you are from the US) is down from 17.5% to 15% for 13 months. Hardly going to inspire people to shop, shop, shop given that some high street stores were having 25% and 50% sales this weekend. But there are plenty of other measures to make sure the government don’t lose too much such as putting up tax on alcohol and tobacco. Also there is no VAT on food and only 5% on fuel. SO the two mainstays of any household (eat and keep warm) will not be affected.

The sad thing is that it is back to taxing the rich but only if they win the next election as the previous election promise was not to put up those taxes. It is the old Robin Hood ploy again. Take from the rich to give to the poor. As there are more voters in the poor side it appeals to them but as many countries have found increasing taxes on the rich doesn’t bring in extra money as it makes it more worthwhile to find tax loopholes. Countries were they have low single rate tax found that their tax income went up. When will these politicians ever learn?

I watched a documentary about the US debt and they were making a big point about how US has the biggest trade deficit in the world but what was shocking was that the UK were 2nd last. And we are only a fraction of the US.

Importing more is great as long as you can afford it. But we are funding it through credit and not real money. The bubble just had to burst.

Another Great Advert Wasted

This is another ad I think that is brilliant. Brains from Thunderbirds dancing to “Rhythm is a Dancer”.

I know it is about water but I can never remember the name of the company until it shows it at the end of the ad. Not good for that company but the advertising team probably got an award.

Good Gordon!

I not a big fan of our ex chancellor and now Prime Minister Gordon Brown or “Grabber” Brown as I call him as that is what he has seemed to do for the last 10 years. Grab as much money from people in taxes as possible. Still I have to admire him for standing up to his party and the trade unions when they were saying that he should do a windfall tax on the energy companies. Now it is one thing if they were colluding to fix prices and make profits but ordinary profits should not be grabbed just because the trade unions have a bias against them. That signals to all commercial companies that there is no point in trying to make a profit as the government will just take it on a whim. It is one thing having taxes in place that tax profits. That is reasonable and the companies can plan for that. They can not plan on the whims of a government to remove their profits which may have been planned to use to invest in building up the company (and generate more employment trade union leaders take note) over the next few years.

So good for you Gordon. And shame on all the politicians and trade union leaders who clamoured for this.

Waste of an Advert

I was intrigued when I initially saw the advert from Ford for the Kuga using the theme of blank canvas. The town is covered in white and people are amazed as if it happened overnight. The ad talks about starting afresh but when you see the car it looks boring. Pity they could not have found a better product for such a brilliant concept.

Justice

The people accused of planning to blow up planes (that created the stupid ban on liquids and the extra security on planes that has brought misery to millions of travellers every day so in one respect the terrorists have won) did not get the sentences that the prosecutors were hoping for.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7605583.stm

So much so that they are thinking about asking for a retrial. What are these people playing at? They put these people on trial and the jury came up with the verdict. As they don’t like the verdict they want to do it again. That is not British justice regardless how bad the crime is. They had their shot. If they can show the jury was biased or swayed unduelly then that is one thing but to go for a retrail because they did not get the right result is a monstrous assualt on our civil liberities. If they get a second trial and it does not go their way again how many more trials will they be allowed to have ?

And then the stupid politicians have to chime in as well.

“Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the police and security services had saved “countless” lives by disrupting the group. “

No they potentially saved some lives and even that is moot as the jury did not find them guilty of some of the charges.

Terrorism is serious. We don’t need the police, justice service and politicians removing our liberties and changing the rules in order to “save us”. If I need saving I will ask. You can not protect Freedom by removing freedoms.

End of the World?

At first it was midly amusing that people would think that switching on a machine (the particle accelerator at Geneva – albeit a very large machine) would bring the end of the world. But after a while it just got annoying that this story would be picked up by the news comapnies and broadcast as if it was a real possibility. It was obviously a slow news day.

According the bit at the end of this article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider there has been a suicide caused by the reporting of doom and gloom. Sad. It may have happened anyway but shows the power of media to sway people.

A nice post by Eileen about it comments on experiments like this hopefully inspiring kids to become scientists.

http://blogs.technet.com/eileen_brown/archive/2008/09/10/recreating-the-big-bang-with-the-large-hadron-collider.aspx

We could certainly do with more scientists rather than politicians and lawyers!

Interesting Date and Time

This morning there was a minute when it was 08:08 08/08/08.

What a great time and date. If you missed it then in 1 year, 1 month, 1 day, 1 hour and 1 minute after that date and time it will be 09:09 09/09/09. Can’t wait!

War Criminals

It seems that former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic will be sent to the Hague to be tried as a war criminal. But when you look at the news coverage it seems that everyone has made up their mind that he is guilty so that would mean the trial would be a farce. On one hand from what I have seen it looks like pretty damning evidence. But on the other hand even thinking that offends my morals as I am now saying he is guilty. Yet our society is suppose to treat people as innocent until proven guilty. Hard to do with all the media coverage.

As for war criminals I am still amazed that no-one has demanded that Tony Blair and George Bush be tried as war criminals. After all when the weapons inspectors were in Iraq all the other countries said to give them more time and those countries plus the UN did not sanction an attack of a sovereign nation. But on the flimsiest of evidence and using the “strike first to defend ourselves” argument which has since proven to be groundless Bush and Blair ordered their armies into Iraq with the subsequent loss of live of Iraqis, Americans and British citizens.

Attacking a sovereign nation with no just cause and in so doing creating a large loss of life – what better describes the action of a war criminal. It is about time that the other nations and the UN took a stand and demand that Blair and Bush be tried as war criminals. If fact UK and US citizens should demand it as well. Our troops have been killed for no good reason.

What Sports Car Are You?

I took this little test. Great because I have always liked the 911. I am sure most of the other comments for different cars are equally vague but positive. A bit like horoscopes.

 

I’m a Porsche 911!

You have a classic style, but you’re up-to-date with the latest technology. You’re ambitious, competitive, and you love to win. Performance, precision, and prestige – you’re one of the elite,and you know it.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.