Phligm Phlagm

[philmophlegm]

"NHS 111 to blame for rise in A&E attendances is a really dreadful explanation for something that did, in fact, not happen". (Thankyou Steer for a good piece of analysis.)

Ed Miliband thinks that an Italian who runs an American company and lives in Monaco should pay "his (British) taxes". This is a Labour policy I can get behind – get foreigners with no connection to the UK to pay all our taxes. Brilliant. I would totally vote for this policy. (When you think about it, it’s pretty much the policy that successive Greek governments have adopted for years…)

The German government uses Battlestar Galactica LARP (on an actual warship) to train diplomats.

Apparently women aren't rational. (This is the latest in a long line of what I like to call ‘pseudo-economics’ books that litter the shelves of high street bookshops. Just as you find history shelves full of books about secret societies and how the freemasons are looking after the Holy Grail until the aliens land, you will find books in the ‘Economics’ section written by the sort of people who think Adam Smith is a member of One Direction. Pfft.)

Hmm. We've been thinking we could do with a projector for the business...

Schoolboy suspended for saying he could make classmate 'disappear' with the One Ring. Actually, the funniest thing about this story is that there is a town in Texas called ‘Kermit’. *

The To Kill a Mockingbird sort-of-sequel. Should we be suspicious? Yes. No. Yes.

Rotherham Council, the council that allowed 1,400 children to be gang-raped and sexually abused by muslims, is to be taken over by central government until elections can be held.

Is Rotherham the tip of the iceberg? "How much does the Labour Party know about the stench of corruption, sexual malfeasance, public maladministration and greed, incompetence and pro-Asian bigotry emanating from Labour's heartlands?"

Or is the whole Rotherham problem simply a case of a "rotten borough"?

Top 10 'Things that Ed Balls Has Forgotten'.

"How Sci-Fi's Most Prestigious Awards Became A Political Battleground"

Bryan Henderson doesn't like the phrase "comprised of".

"Big accountancy firm accused of saving people money" I particularly love the phrase “in blatant accordance with the law”.

Adding up the wealth of the poor - the meme that refuses to die.

The World's Poorest Man.

The Information Commissioner's Office is the public body that enforces privacy and electronic communication regulations. Guess what they forgot to renew.

Random Guardian comment generator.

Today is the 40th Anniversary of Margaret Thatcher becoming leader of the Conservative Party. The Labour Party has never had a female leader, but it clearly knows how to attract female voters.

* Has anyone else read ‘A World of Ice and Fire’? Lovecraft references I can take, but Sesame Street…?

Comments

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

Ed Miliband thinks that an Italian who runs an American company and lives in Monaco should pay "his (British) taxes". This is a Labour policy I can get behind – get foreigners with no connection to the UK to pay all our taxes. Brilliant. I would totally vote for this policy. (When you think about it, it’s pretty much the policy that successive Greek governments have adopted for years…)

The funny (or sad) thing about this that Ed Miliband either does not realize that the man probably owes no British taxes, is so stupid that he assumes everyone owes Britain taxes, or simply assumes that his supporters are so stupid that they imagine that everyone owes Britain taxes. Also, the reporter either failed to grasp or intentionally did not mention the point that the man probably owes no British taxes.

Really, this is flat-out argument ad hominem, and with a nationalistic flavor to it "He's a foreigner! What does he know?"

[steer.livejournal.com]

Pleased to have been of service.

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

Has anyone else read ‘A World of Ice and Fire’? Lovecraft references I can take, but Sesame Street…?

I haven't so I don't know that reference, but honestly, as much as I admire the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, I still haven't recovered from High Lord Kevin. I assume it is a transatlantic thing, that the name doesn't have quite the same resonances over there...

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

It's brilliant that the sequence of Old High Lords goes:
Berek Halfhand
Damelon Giantfriend
Loric Vilesilencer
Kevin.

I haven't got the final book yet and have decided to listen to the entire series on audiobook before I read it. Currently about halfway through The Illearth War, so a while to go yet.

In the World of Ice and Fire book, there are plenty of Cthulhu Mythos references, but also at the stuff about House Tully, you'll see Ser Kermit Tully, who was the son of Elmo Tully!

[meistergedanken.livejournal.com]

Always a big fan of Donaldson. Ironically, he used to live not far from where I do now (central Ohio), and he lives currently in New Mexico, very close to an old friend of mine who is also a "Covenant" fan, so for Christmas last year he got me an autographed copy of the last book, that he picked up at a local bookstore where Donaldson was having a Q & A. And G.R.R. Martin also lives in New Mexico, so I have an autographed copy of "Game of Thrones". (Sadly, only in paperback). They show up on my "shelfie" photos that I recently put up.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Jealous on both counts...