Balancing the crooks

Via the Britblog Roundup I found this post from Too Much To Say For Myself regarding the limitations of rape alarms:

"No, what I am suggesting is that while a rape alarm may make a woman feel safer, it won’t in fact actually make her any safer"

All too true, the normal reaction to hearing an alarm these days is "What twat set their alarm off?" and that's if anyone heard it in the first place. So what to do?

"it might be an idea to concentrate instead on trying to find ways to stop men from raping.

Because, and I realise this might sound obvious to some, if men didn’t rape then there’d be no need for rape alarms. Simple as that."

Which is perfectly true but only in the same way that if nobody committed crimes we wouldn't need prisons. However, just as there is no way to educate every pikey little toerag into not breaking windows after his quart of loopy juice there will always be some who want to commit rape. There is one possibility though. Given that rape is only possible because of the imbalance in strength between the parties, you need something to get rid of that advantage. I suggest one of these:



Here you have a tool that does redress the power imbalance and will therefore actually work but I doubt that this solution will find favour. This country is very much anti gun ownership and although I used to be as well I now cannot agree with the prohibitionist arguments. If everyone had the same ability to attack and defend then there would be no need for a leveler but they don't. Banning guns just means that instead of everyone being able to defend themselves, only those who happen to be stronger than their attacker are able to do so.

The limitations of argument

I see that Tim Worstall has been having an argie with Richard Murphy, (AKA knobhead), who I have encountered before. The problem is that you can demonstrate arguments to knobhead and even "non ideological by any measure, honestly just showing a fact here" type arguments are met with disbelief, nonsense and sticking his fingers in his ears and going la la la la.

Knobhead cannot be excused for simply being too stupid to grasp ideas, he is a qualified tax accountant and dull as that job may be, it does require a working brain to qualify. He just doesn't want to hear anything that challenges his bonkers little worldview and short ofdeath there is no way to get him out of his rut. He's far from the only person to take this route but he is a shining example of the fact that there are some people you just can't reach and it's not a failure to communicate that we're dealing with here, it's a failure of reason. If a person is incapable of responding to a reasoned argument with more than "nasty logic people go away" then there is no point in talking to them.

What is a Charity?....

....or how Labour may have shot themselves in the arse with the Charities Act 2006.

The recent wailing and gnashing of teeth from private schools do have some basic justifications.

The Public Benefit Test from the Act:

There are two key principles both of which must be met in order to show that a charity’s aims are for the public benefit.

Principle 1: There must be an identifiable benefit or benefits.

1. It must be clear what the benefits are
2. The benefits must be related to the aims
3. Benefits must be balanced against any detriment or harm
   

Principle 2: The benefit must be to the public, or a section of the public.

1. The beneficiaries must be appropriate to the aims
2. Where the benefit is to a section of the public, the opportunity to benefit must not be unreasonably restricted by geographical or other restrictions, or by ability to pay any fees charged
3. People in poverty must not be excluded from the opportunity to benefit
4. Any private benefits must be incidental

2c and the last clause of 2b are clearly aimed straight at the knackers of private schools, you can almost smell the elite of the socialist movement creaming themselves as they add both clauses for certain overkill. That the inquisitorial commission is headed by a Labour party member of dubious qualification for the role is another ground for complaint as is the fact that the decisions reached have been made on a very narrow basis and no clear guidance on what is required has been forthcoming.

However, the first objection is the biggie because most people do not hold such a narrow definition of a "public benefit" and until trying to argue this out I would have agreed with them. However, I can find no compelling reason that a school should be a charity rather than a business if it requires fees and if no fee is required then it should meet the new tests anyway*.

The problem is that people have long looked on the charitable status of Private Schools as a quid pro quo for having to pay for useless shit that they don't want and aren't going to use.** It is not unreasonable to expect something back if you are forced to pay into a pot and have not taken anything out. Charitable status was that little something, (£280 per year per child in a case looked at by Mark Wadsworth).

The upshot from this is that private schools will divide between those with whacking great endowments that can satisfy the charity commission's box tickers and those that will have to become business'. This will hopefully lead to some positive changes; giving money to a charity so that little Johnny gets taught is one thing, there is a different mindset involved if you view education as just another commodity. Market entry will become easier once parents are used to the idea that there is nothing wrong with a school being a business, leading to greater competition. Parents are going to be more demanding and if they keep running up against the regulatory problems then they will pressurise politicians to change them***.

Not even the rabid rump of the left believes that public education is better than private, in fact it is this higher standard that they detest because it's unfair. With any luck, this attempt to kill off private schooling should make it better, cheaper, provide a wider range of options and help exterminate the comprehensive system with extreme prejudice****.




* Until our Lords and Masters decide that discriminating on ability is "unreasonable" at any rate.
** Or the Comprehensive System as it's otherwise known.
*** Or just fuck off, the greatest service most politicians are capable of.
**** No that doesn't mean "With a big fuck off axe" but I can see where you're coming from.

Fundamental Conflicts

Via The Englishman I have sound this recipe for the death of everything I hold dear from Obama's Science Czar, John Holdren:

"Perhaps those agencies, combined with UNEP and the United Nations population agencies, might eventually be developed into a Planetary Regime—sort of an international superagency for population, resources, and environment. Such a comprehensive Planetary Regime could control the development, administration, conservation, and distribution of all natural resources, renewable or nonrenewable, at least insofar as international implications exist. Thus the Regime could have the power to control pollution not only in the atmosphere and oceans, but also in such freshwater bodies as rivers and lakes that cross international boundaries or that discharge into the oceans. The Regime might also be a logical central agency for regulating all international trade, perhaps including assistance from DCs to LDCs, and including all food on the international market.
The Planetary Regime might be given responsibility for determining the optimum population for the world and for each region and for arbitrating various countries' shares within their regional limits. Control of population size might remain the responsibility of each government, but the Regime would have some power to enforce the agreed limits."

It is no exaggeration to say that this is the sort of twisted, evil thinking that lead to Mao's China or Stalin's USSR but this idea is even worse. Not only does this scum want to produce a totalitarian hell but he wants it to be impossible to escape. There's no point going into the detail of why Holdren's baneful plans are so appalling, they are another expression of the madness that has snuffed out the lives of so many. Nor would I, even given the very unlikely opportunity, bother trying to convince this degenerate sea louse of a man that his opinions are wrong; you cannot reason with the the utterly insane or the truly evil.

Those things that I value, the wonderful products of what can roughly be described as Liberal Humanism, are ever under attack from would be tyrants. It doesn't really matter what motivates those attackers, whether it is to bring us into the fold of their sky fairy or doing it for the planet or our supposed own good, the only difference is the colour of the shirt and hour of ritual obeisance. Those of us who treasure our civilization have a duty to resist the works of malignant cankers like Holdren and his ilk and that brings me to a practical matter that is often misunderstood by those on the well meaning left:

Libertarians and those who would tend to be classified as on the right of the political spectrum resist big government and particularly supra-national organisations, primarily for non petty reasons. Our objections arise because we know that if you give any structure too much power over people, then it will eventually try to bring about the kind of hell Holdren proposes. A big government always finds ways to fill its days and expand its duties and once all the sensible things are being done, the only place to expand into is the area that it has no business being in. We should not let these structures get too big or too powerful. Too powerful and they become oppressive, too big and there is no escape.

In defence of the Sloop John B...

...because he is entirely correct and Sunny is as wrong as a wrong-un.

Amnesty International has decided to get involved with domestic violence, its not in their remit but that wouldn't be such a problem if they weren't such split tongued, Janus faced fuckers. Below is my response to Sunny being a fucking idiot:


"I’m satisfied by that response"

and I am not.

Lying about a problem, (and lets split no hairs here, that is what they are doing), is not helpful. Domestic violence is not part of their remit and trying to get a message across is not a good reason for making stuff up.

I suggest the author of the following quotes look for his fellows in the eighth circle:

"Our first point on statistics is that we would urge people to show support for victims of violence against women rather than get into a debate about the niceties of statistics"

So they admit that they lied.

"Interestingly though, once the men began to accept the statistics they were very horrified and had massively underestimated the scale and extent of violence against women."

Astonishing, people didn't initially believe the stats you made up.

"Do we have to dispute the niceties of the stats or can we have a more humane starting point that we reject violence against women and wish it to end."

Despite what you may believe, those arguing over the stats also think violence against women, (or indeed anybody), is a very bad thing. Those disputers believe it is important enough not to lie about it.

"of course stats should not be misused"

Then stop doing so. LIES DO NOT HELP.

A policeman's lot is now a happy one

For many years policemen have been in hiding. Terrified beyond reason that somewhere, someone is holding a camera and may take their picture which will inevitably lead to their grisly demise.

You see, before going out on the beat all prospective policemen are taken to the UberUltraSuperSecret Temple of Mild Discombobulation where their souls are removed and stored in canopic jars with a single pickle to maintain their "soul integrity". The extraordinary effect of this fantastic procedure is to leave the policeman invunerable to terrorists, (all that body armor is just to disguise their glorious power).

However, like the fleet footed man killer Achilles, the policeman's protection is not without flaw. Should some EVIL TERRORIST gain a picture of a policeman (Link is NSFW and not in a fun way either), the protective spell is broken and the poor policeman shall surely die!!!!

Now this new law preventing TEH EVIL ONESES taking pictures will mean no policeman has to fear the loss of his soul protection and will be able to win THE WAR ON TERRORISM!, THE WAR ON DRUGS!!, THE WAR ON RUGS!!! and THE WAR ON (insert abstract noun here)!!!!!!

We are now safe, thank you Gordon, thank you Labour, thank you from the deapths of the rotting pit in which you belong.

Beeb-bop

For no good reason that I can see, (other than thoroughly intentional myopia), I have from time to time been described as a deeply cynical bastard. This possible cynicism in no way informs my take on the recent Beeb / Gaza charity spat.

However, it did occur to me that if I were running an organisation accused of systematic bias in contravention of the charter under which the organisation operates, even to the extent of hiding an investigation into possible bias, I might consider a false flag operation. From now on, any time the BBC is accused of anti-Israel bias they will be able to say, "Oh come on, we didn't even show a charity appeal for Gaza civilians. How dare you accuse us of being anti-Israel."

Of course the Beeb is perfect in every way and I'm sure they would never stoop to such tactics, (I may have been accused of being sarky once or twice as well).

Kill it, cook it, eat it

It's not all that often that I champion the Beeb but I do think that this is a worthwhile program.

People have managed to disassociate meat from the animals that they get them from. While I hate to state the unbloodybelievably obvious, animals have to die for you to eat meat.

A few months ago I went rabbit hunting with an item similar to this uniquely ill suited equipment:



The result was this:


I shot it just behind the skull, killing it instantly but I wrung its neck to make sure that it was not suffering. In all honesty, shooting it was barely a conscious decision, I saw it run and before I was even aware of what was happening, I had killed it.

I was sad that I had ended it's life, however, I don't regret my actions because it became food and damn tasty it was to.


I suspect that despite the protestations of modern man, (let alone woman), we retain an instinctive ability to kill for food. Whether we like it or not, we are very successful predators and that propensity is not going to disappear overnight.

As for any deeper point; appreciate meat, it's harder than you might think to hunt the little buggers down and vegetarians are, as we always suspected, lacking in many ways.

Fish...

...in favour of water.

Falco's First Law

If you allow the state to have power over you beyond preventing obvious harm to another, then innocent or guilty, it will be used against you and yours, by this government or the next.

Not something I say every epoch

Sunny has written a fairly sensible article about the latest Israel / Palestine (I/P) massacre.

Sunny, criticises Israel for killing one fuck of a lot of people but also provides this gem, worthy of any good swearblogger:

"As for those defending Hamas - I don’t see what else they were expecting given the recent upsurge of rocket attacks into Israeli areas. A fucking Blue Peter badge? This really is a crappy state of affairs."

Sunny is correct in saying that both are to blame but the question is how to end it. Unlike Darrell in the comments I doubt that "providing a reasonable framework for a viable state and supporting the Palestinian people" would work. There are many reasons why the I/P situation has gone on for so long, it's the longest running phony war that I'm aware of. However, this is not a Cold War to be settled by the eventual disintegration of one state and the obvious superiority of the other. The I/P is a hot war quenched by repeated international pressure and I cannot see a way out for either people without a total victory for one side or the other.

The problem with searching for a peaceful solution to this conflict is the assumption that one might exist. It is increasingly evident that there never was.

UPDATE........

We now have this from Darrell Goodliffe showing rather less sense than Sunny. I was particularly struck by this glaring example of stupidity:

"Israeli’s meanwhile would be forced to face .... that the only way to end the attacks is to make some painful but necessary concessions to win the hearts and minds of Palestinians."

Given that the only concession that would satisfy the Palestinians would be the total destruction of Israel, Darrell is rather reminiscent of an American commenter on Vietnam but gone arse about face:

"The Israelis must all die in order to win."

Made my day

I was just looking through the referrals and realised that this is the top of googling for: Neil Harding is an idiot.

Childish I know but fuck it, I've had the odd beer this evening.

Thought for the day

There is a stupid, socialist, (I repeat myself), school of thought that believes that various circumstances are the FAULT of the market.

This is similar to the way that erosion is the fault of the tides, rain is the fault of the clouds and deserts are the fault of the Sun.

The only difference between the upper example and those lower is that while tides, clouds and the Sun, (not the bloody newspaper, the large ball of fusioning Hydrogen), have both positive and negative results, you would be hard put to claim that for the upper.

In a free market you will trade because it makes you better off, if it does not do so, you have no force compelling you to make the trade, (until the socialist bastards make you of course).

Shout, shout...

A recurring theme on this blog has been the importance of freedom of speech. Regarding this story from LibCon, I do agree that it is unlikely that the proposed legislation was ever intended to attack specific bloggers, it is none the less, disagreeable and wrong.

The main problem is that it would require comment moderation for all blogs, many of which flourish on the basis of near instantaneous response. Bloggers should not be liable for comments made unless they meet the following criteria:

- The comments are slanderous.

- The blogger has been given reasonable notice to remove the comments.

-The blogger has refused to do so.

Going beyond this would be an unreasonable restriction on freedom of speech.


There have historically been few ways for people to communicate their ideas and the great advantage of blogging is that it is a universally distributable media, (whether anyone listens is another matter but down to the writer to sink or swim). Any legislation on blogging is likely to reduce free speech and there are few legitimate reasons to do this. All the proposed legislation, (that I am aware of), on this subject deserves to be fought to a bloody standstill.

Whoop, whoop...

There are times when you have to look at a person's actions and think, "What in all the name of fuckety fuck were they playing at?".

Met Assistant Commissioner Mr. Quick was unsurprisingly annoyed by a story in the Hate Mail that his wife runs a car business from their home. His next statement was both stupid and counter to his own interests:

"The Tory machinery and their press friends are mobilised against this investigation in a wholly corrupt way, and I feel very disappointed in the country I am living in."

How stupid can you be. You might think that being a policeman he would understand that it would be a good idea to have some evidence before accusing people of criminal activity.

Oh yeah, I forgot our Dear Protectors track record on that for a moment.

Oh Sir Arthur

As was widely expected following the Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty, (the link is, I assure you, entirely correct and intentional), the Irish will be voting again.

Call me a cynical bastard with a conscience but I thought no meant no, asking repeatedly with growing threats until you get the "correct" answer is just not cricket, (I now live on the Isle of Wight and I'm feeling old fashioned).

Richard Corbett MEP, (Labour), is a particular case of scum in point however:

"I'm not sure if people in Ireland were aware what 'no' means - 27 minus Ireland"

Might it by any chance mean NO, you useless bag of scrofula scrapings? Also, given that the Irish have been the only population offered a CHOICE on whether or not to sign the Constitution Mark 2, could it be that you just don't agree with what people want?

I will be fisking this little list later.

Renegade Master

After a considerable break, I have returned, (bloody life interfering, how dare it).

I've not had the best of times but I will once again be providing my unique line of blather about the events of the day.

Hurrah!...etc

An overdue idea

There are as any fule no a number of problems with the UN. As an international talking shop the UN has few peers, sadly when it comes to doing anything more than talking you run into problems. This can hardly be surprising, if you set up a system where vastly disparate values are represented then you are unlikely to get a coherent voice.

If the charter of the UN was confined to the preamble it would be an admirably brief document but even in this section we run into difficulties:

to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and

to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and

to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and

to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

The first clause is sadly unobtainable at the moment and the last can mean whatever you wish it to. The second and third clauses are possible but only in a specific model of government, Democracy (I am aware that there may be some hypothetical mode of governance where they are achievable without democracy but I have yet to see it).

So it is interesting that McCain (and others) have postulated the idea of a "League of Democracies". I think it would be a worthwhile project, simply to help coordinate the response of democracies to regimes less favourable to the human condition. The UN could remain but be acknowledged as what it is, a convenient place for negotiators to meet rather than an international force.

The League would not always agree and nor should it be binding in matters such as war or sanction (though it should require those who disagree to state their reasons publicly).

Those governments that fail to meet the criteria of democracy have no interest in obtaining the second and third clauses for their or anyone else's countries. It's time we stopped pretending that they did and freely condemn them.

Striking Policeman

Police in England and Wales have voted for the right to strike in the absence of binding arbitration. The whole thing is a typical Browny pigs ear because the phasing in of the recommended pay rise effectively reduced it from 2.5% to 1.9% and it is entirely understandable that the police are somewhat narked by this. The police are in a severely disadvantaged position at the moment, they are bound by arbitration, the government are not and with no right to strike they have no effective means of fighting for their position.

The above said, it would be disastrous if the police were given the right to strike. This right would shift the power too far the other way, allowing the police to hold the country to ransom over pay, conditions and even legal powers. The government must agree to be bound by arbitration as this provides the best balance of power.

Elephant spotted at the BBC

Our sub-"lords and masters" have come up with another stupid idea. They're trying to give agency workers the same rights as permanent staff after twelve weeks. So, if you're an agency worker on a rolling contract look forward to a compulsory unpaid holiday every 12 weeks. Bravo you bloody idiots.

However, as the BBC has noted (and very unusual for them do so) this cannot happen until the EU passes a directive that the UK government can then implement. Of course we don't know whether the EU will give us what the government wants, (stupid idea as it is), something better, (long live the ice cream in the blast furnace), or something even worse, (guess where my money is on this one). Nevertheless, it is pleasing to see the EUs role being noticed for once.

It is frustrating for those honestly arguing both sides of the debate when little about how the EU affects our daily lives is mentioned. It is possible, if you hack through the scare nonsense, to find reasonable anti-EU arguments, (though very seldom in the MSM), pro-EU arguments are somewhat more difficult to get hold of.

Were I uncharitable I might be drawn to the conclusion that the reason that the pro side does not wish to put their case forward is because they know they don't have a very good one. This would explain why the obvious goal of a European superstate is obfuscated when there can be no other intention from "ever closer union". However I will suspend judgement, (rather sceptically), if someone can point me in the direction of some decent pro-EU arguments, ("it prevents war in Europe", "we need the EU to trade", etc will not do unless you can show that such arguments are not the total bollocks that they very much seem to be).