Phoney excuses for a war

I was reading today about this poor bugger who's being screwed by the MoD after they'd fucked up...not only by sending him out in a vehicle which couldn't protect him against home-made Afghan land mines, but also by putting almost £50k in his bank account by mistake. Like any sensible bloke in his situation, he paid off his mortgage with it.

I don't like violence. I don't think it ever really solves anything: that being said, I have a lot of respect for decent honest soldiers. They're doing what they feel is right and I've known a fair few young tearaways who've responded positively to the kind of military discipline the armed forces provide. I've known more who've been totally fucked up by it too and come out with untreated PTSD but that's a whole 'nother story.

That's why it irks me when our sort-of elected leaders send them into unwinnable wars on phoney pretexts. The War in Afghanistan isn't really about terrorism and drugs. OK, it's logical that scumbags who want to blow up civilians in the name of a skewed interpretation of some holy book or other (and you can put Israel in that bag too) will eventually retreat to an area like the Afghan-Pakistani border if you chase them hard enough. Likewise, it's the ideal place to grow opium, which has after all been traditional in these parts since long before our civilisation was even a twinkle in Aristotle's eye. Nobody has ever been able to control that place against the will of the local people.

The real reason that this war is - peddled on a ticket of Drugs! and Terrorism! - being fought is energy. There are huge oil and gas reserves east of the Caspian and Uncle Sam needs to make sure he can get his fix without the hands of those nasty Russians or sneaky Chinese on the tap. (Of course you could always avoid that by piping it through Iran ... yeah right.)

You don't believe me? Have a read of this. And this. Hands up all of you who've seen the pipeline mentioned on the news.

And so you have some poor sod whose legs have been blown to bits getting screwed twice. Once by being sent to 'war' on a false pretext, and now by the very people who should have taken care of him afterwards.

Excuse me while I vomit.

The 6th of August should be remembered?

Do you know why? If not, click here and find out.

I remember what the 80s felt like: we were really shit scared that someone would fuck up and fumble their way to nuclear war. August the 6th always reawakes remnants of that feeling of utter dread.

Somerset man arrested...and his goods handed to private company

If you're in any doubt that we're living in a what George Monbiot calls a "Captive State", then here's your proof.

British man arrested for role in running FileSoup file sharing website

So: An association of private companies called FACT (Federation Against Copyright Theft Ltd) now sends the police to do their bidding. Copyright infringement (which is what Megacorp says filesharing is, under law) used to be a civil matter but now it appears to be in a grey area between civil and criminal law.

The guy's stuff was seized, he was released on bail (but not charged), and - get this - his stuff was handed over to FACT.

One commentator (on the Guardian article) put it well:

I don't care about the rights and wrongs of the site, I care about the rights and wrongs of letting private entities breach a persons human rights. That is something ONLY the police should have the power to do. It should not be allowed for FACT to purchase a warrant or buy a prosecution.

So what next? Extradition to the US on an allegation that you've downloaded a film? Welcome to the other side of the looking glass.

Relax, it's satire...

In The Know: Is The Government Spying On Paranoid Schizophrenics Enough?

It's satire - today.

Big Green Cockup og Big Green Conspiracy?

Here's a couple of interesting Guardian articles:

Is the Big Green Gathering another victim of the crackdown on dissent?

and

Protesters warned that measures from the criminal justice bill would be turned against the wider population. We were right

OK, The Big Green wasn't screwed closed on the background of the CJA but you can see the tendency, right?

It looks to me like any experience not mediated by some commercial exchange (preferably through some big business) is being made more and more difficult. It doesn't surprise this grumpy old cynic: after all, when big companies effectively dictate terms to the government (ever wondered why so many business regulations are "voluntary codes of conduct" these days?) then they'll use their influence in any way they can. Levels and squares, aprons and sashes...no, they don't do funny handshakes.

Still incompetent, just slightly less so...

It turns out that the previous post was about a silly mistake: the council employee screwed up and sent the letter out in oh-such-a-terrible hurry that she forgot to put the right dates on. Oh dear.

The meeting is on the 12th of August, not the 29th of July.

I'm not sure which I prefer: incompetence of that nature or sneaky conspiracies to disenfranchise people. Hanlon's Razor again..."Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity". Ho hum.

It's bloody raining again.

A conspiracy of incompetence?

I've had a nice snooze (for about 7 months) and it's about time I posted something. Here's a fictional story . It's fictional, remember? Really, truly it is. Nothing like this could happen in reality - whatever that is.



There once was a nice supermarket company called Tesco. In its drive for total domination of all levels of the food supply in this country, it decided to set up shop in the small town of Avalon, and submitted a planning application. It chose a plot at the other end of the Morlands site. The plot belongs to Avalon Plastics. The good bit about this (depending on your point of view) is that Avalon Plastics had already received planning permission (with conditions) for something like a supermarket on that very site. I suppose that was a major contributor to the economics of their planned move onto the Morlands site.

Anyway, word got out and people - including myself - started writing letters to the local rag, mostly against the proposed development. If you want to know why I'm against supermarkets, read Shopped by Joanna Blythman. The few 'pro' people kept going on about jobs: but Martin Caraher held a lecture recently in which he pointed out that for every 20 jobs Tesco 'creates', 30 disappear in the local area. So much for creating jobs.




Anyway, if you check out the Mendip planning website above, you can submit your comments to a planning application there...in theory. For some strange reason, it didn't work. Maybe they've fixed it now, but it didn't work then. It's also very hard to find the application itself unless you know exactly what you're looking for.

(Here's a link that will show you what the store might look like: http://tinyurl.com/l3y2m4. Be patient, it takes a while.)

Mendip District Council were shamed in the Central Somerset Gazette into admitting their incompetence and allowed people to submit comments via email - and extended the timeframe by a week or so.

My friend Jane submitted a comment or two and asked to be kept up to date with any public meetings etc and received a letter on 31st July. It invited her to a meeting which took place on the 29th of July.

OK, so maybe they're incompetent and 'forgot' to send it in time? Maybe so: but the funny thing is that they actually dated the letter 31st July. To add insult to injury, the letter states that you have to submit your comment the day before the meeting. Here it is:



So there we have it. Mendip Council could be accused of using incompetence as a tool for getting around difficult issues. You couldn't submit comments. You get invited to a meeting two days too late - and you haven't even taken the trouble to backdate the letter so it looks like it's been lost in the post. I'm not accusing them of overt dodgy dealing but it does seem rather convenient. Hanlon's Razor applies.

Charlie Brooker does it again

Some people might dismiss Charlie Brooker as a lightweight cynic but he's actually a very serious bloke with a savage sense of humour.

His latest rant in the Guardian is a peach. I wish I could rant like that.

If he was ever foolish enough to run for parliament, he'd get my vote.

Have a read:

They do what they want, these people, and you and I are cut out of the conversation. I'm sure they're dimly aware we still exist. They must spot us occasionally, through the window, jumping up and down in the cold with our funny placards . . . although come to think of it, they can't even see us through the window, since they banned peaceful protest within a mile of Parliament.

...

It's all over. The politicians have finally shut us out of their game for good and we have nowhere left to turn. We're not part of their world any more. We don't even speak the same language. We're the ants in their garden. The bacteria in their stools. They have nothing but contempt for us. They snivel and lie and duck questions on torture - on torture, for Christ's sake - while demanding we respect their authority. They monitor our every belch and fart, and insist it's all for our own good.

A Farm for the Future - BBC Programme

This is great. Watch it. Do it now!
A Farm for the Future

...and then get planting. I know, you're doing that already...

Google spreadsheet art

A bit of geeky fun. I'm a fan of Google Docs: they may well have found the Killer App for our times.