ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ

McCain is not president and Palin is not vice president yet! However, we the British electorate have to sit and watch deliberations about the 'possible' winners of the AMERICAN presidential elections. Not me, I turn over from Newsnight to a 'Movie' channel ..... arrgghhh I mean 'Film' channel, and wait for some interesting Newsnight stories later using the 'zapper' ... arrgghh i mean remote control! Have the storm winds of Gustav hit Cornwall yet?

Please, can you ensure all "Newsnight" journalists refrain from using the excrutiatingly-illiterate and lazy American way of speaking when referring to any American town or city.

For example, the current U.S. Republican Party National Convention (note I don't simply write "Republican Convention", as if it's a convention being held in Britain, of which we're all supposed to be incredibly familiar) is in the U.S. city (see) of Saint Paul and not in "Saint Paul Minneapolis" - which doesn't exist. Saint Paul is IN Minneapolis but it isn't CALLED "Saint Paul Minneapolis".

EETHER EYETHER

Good to see the Society of Pedants' representative blogging. Or is that the Pedants' Society representative?

I can't see what Clarke hopes to achieve given what he represents. Its the inherited Blair Corporate Nazi policies like Toll Roads, Bin Tax and ID cards which are their major problem.

It would appear that Brown has caved in to the corporate multinational cartel energy companies, what price windfall tax now ?

Campbell should be in the Hague with Tony Blair.

Disgusting.

The speech written for Sarah Palin didn't mention her lack of experience, her initial support for the "bridge to nowhere", her abuse of power, her beliefs on creationism, abstinence sex education or her links to "pork barrel" spending or the Alaskan Independence party.

With Kissinger , is it war criminals' night tonight?

Oh dear, Emily. Watching your interview with Kissinger is excruciating. If I had five minutes with Kissinger, I would ask some interesting questions.

E.g. about how Bush has destroyed the American Constitution, Magna Carta and Posse Comitatus to give himself more executive powers than George III.

Do you not realise that it does not matter who gets elected US President? The President has their strings pulled by the Trilateral Commission, Rand Corporation, Tavistock Institute and all the other groups of the New World Order and military/industrial complex.

They could go onto the street outside the White House, drag in the first person walking past and make them President and the result would be the same.

As with the UK, the two party system gives the illusion of democracy. It is all a sham.

One small point but I suspect that it was rather unfortunate that Palin attempted to portray herself as a " Pitt Bull ". In my experience Pitt bulls are renowned for their schizophrenic tendencies, cuddly pets one minute, vicious killers the next.

Perhaps the majority of the American population are not bright enough to make this association, after all they are not voting for any candidate who could give them the equivalent of our NHS.

4 out of 5 'people' the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ reporter 'just happened' to interview said they were voting Democratic! It takes some 'skill' for the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ to find bias in a random poll when the real polls show only a 7 point difference between Dems and Republicans.

And the bias rott of the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ continued with the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ's resident Commie Blondie interview of Henry Kissinger. Her question about Palins 'lack of experience' (Major, Governor) against Obama (small time area organiser and pen pusher) left me breathless at her inability to grasp how a CV works!

Then the Commie Blonde asked the ABC guest about the liberal bias of American media which is patently obvious as like the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ they quash all contrary science on the climate fraud. That's rich from a British TV company that finds 4 out of 5 Democrats to interview!!

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ stands for British Biased Corp. The ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ needs a purge of leftie socialists and climate Commies

brossen99 (#4) Our differences may just be 'semantic' but each time you talk of 'corporate nazis' I feel impelled to point out that Hitler (and Stalin/Mao) controlled these people in the interest of the state and its people. The key control variable is DIFFERENTIAL family planning.

Hilter's party was left-wing socialist not right-wing. Nazi just means NATIONAL socialist rather than INTERNATIONAL socialist. Socialists control the means or production. The UK did that in WWII and tried to do so after 1945 too, hence the NHS etc. That we ever went to war with Germany, or Germany with the USSR amazes me. Hitler wanted an alliance against Bolshevism, even with Stalin!! The free-maket opposes socialism as the latter regulates big business and ultimately treats it as predatory criminal behaviour. It is.

Trotskyites attack command/planned economies as they think it is too 'top-down'. They want rule by the workers from the 'bottom-up'. The problem with that is that workers by themsleves lack the 'human capital' (genes) to run anything effectively, hence Stalin's (and China's today) Democratic-Centralism, which tries to look after all classes (of the Gaussian curve) accepting diversity as a given. The cynical anarcho-capitalists on the other hand preach a self-seving equalitarianism in order to subert what is truly humantarian (which clearly respects genetic diversity for what it is, i.e. Gaussian).

Ten years from now, Robert Mugabe will still be sitting there amid the chaos he has created and thinking up yet more ways to stave off the moment when he has to surrender power.

READING MY THOUGHTS (#5)

Does The Hague stock tar and feathers Irish Mark? Don't forget Hutton. As for Iain Duncan Smith, who foolishly let 'Ol' Charisma' orate him into a state of compliant ecstasy, while a million of us stood in the street unheeded, he just needs his bottom smacked, and bed with no tea. It is odd that we all know Blair deceived Parliament. Yet it is not an issue and he is unscathed. All very British. We do corruption so much better than Johnnie Foreigner.

#6

Hi

"The speech written for Sarah Palin didn't mention her lack of experience."

She has more experience of running things than Obama and she did refer to it in her speech and it belittled Obama very effectively.

"her initial support for the "bridge to nowhere""

I believe she did refer to it, stating that she refused Federal funding saying that the State would fund it instead, I gather she then dropped the whole idea.

"her abuse of power"

The way I understand it, someone made an allegation she sacked someone for personal reasons and that is being investigated to see if any charges will be brought against her.

"abstinence sex education"

No she did not, but she did refer to family life and the challenges.


"creationism or her links to "pork barrel" spending or the Alaskan Independence party"

I can not recall her mentioning them.

But she did mention Energy Security and Energy Independence and lets face it these are the real important issues of our time.

Urrgh, the Republicans clearly haven't got anything new - 'small town values' sounds like the usual Yankee right-wing rubbish designed to claw back votes from Obama's clearly successful campaign. From what I can tell, there is very little difference between Bush + McCain, at least politically. Still, the Republicans won't go down without a fight. Vladimir Putin already believes that the Georgia conflict was influenced by the US, claiming it was intended to make Russia an enemy for McCain's supporters and by extension America, to rally against. A bit like Iraq, or Afghanistan, although I think Afghanistan was a bit more valid what with the whole terrorist thing.
Okay, so Russia could have acted a little better (Medvedev could have considered extensive talks at least), but CIA 'advisors' in Gerogia sound pretty feasible to me. Plus Putin + Medvedev are infinitely more likeable than George Bush, not that that should influence opinion. But still, Putin does Judo + Medvedev likes Black Sabbath. And they stand up to the meddling Yanks...

Steve-London (#14) Did she mention these things or did her speech writer(s)? If the US electorate are going to (potentially) gve sper-executive powers to someone, would you give them to someone with a track record which can be credibly lampooned like Does this not make one wonder if something is awry the idiocracy which blights the USA?

Are these really the grandiose/narcissistic 'fruits' of the 'won' ???

#15

Do you agree McCain not only showed leadership with the US Troop Surge for Iraq but was also proved right (given the last 6 months decrease in civilian deaths) ?

Or do you think Obama and the Democrats were right in declaring the War Was Lost and trying to starve the US Troops of funds for the Surge ?

#13

"while a million of us stood in the street unheeded"

I thought most people turned out for the Ms Dynamite free concert ?

She did have the no1 album out at the time and I remember it being mentioned by the March Organizers on our London Local News.

I guess thats why so many children and mothers turned out.

Well thats my recollection of the time.

Ogden 6067,

The biggest threat to the planet is climate change. Not the climate itself which is bl**dy cold, but the frauds that push this junk science.

Obama represents the climate con. The green fraud machine, including Al Gore, are waiting quietly in the shadows ready to launch the biggest tax grab in world hsitory which will impoverish every American family, bankrupt an already indebted economy and give Socialist Europe a fellow supporter on the international stage.

I hate Bush for the same reason I hate Blair - the fraudulent Iraq/WMD war. I've also never been a Republican supporter in my life. But the climate fraud and its anti-capatalist, anti-car, anti-consumer and anti-energy socialist agenda is the most dangerous movement that threatens to impoverish our society.

Socialism failed in the 80's against Reagan and Thatcher. The socailists went underground and have resurfaced behind the green movement and the garbage data of climate science. This is deceipt.

For de-contenting Kyoto Bush deserves a medal. It has saved our society and Americas from paying Trillions into the pockets of the green socialist propoganda machine that will not alter Earths climate one iota.

Palin delivered the speech almost competently, but it never sounded like her words, and it was mostly rubbish attempts at sound bytes, many of which were downright fallacies.

Too bad, and embarrassing to those of us ex-pats who still care.

In sadness,
ed

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Ed Iglehart,

Palin delivered a fantastic speech with content. The content included her record against that of the pen pushing beauracrat Obama. A 'superstar' who hasn't even starred in a B-Movie.

Palin has achieved more in her 4 years as major and Govenor than Obama has in his 5 years of non-achievement.

She has guts, gile, wit and delivers a punch. Obama is a vacuous under achiever who's written 2 books but has never even hit the gym. A true lightweight.

There's no doubt who the superstar of American politics is. Palin, by a country mile.

#16
Hi Jean

I watched that UTube smear campaign and heres my comments to it bit by bit -

1) She was a Beauty Queen

She might have won a beauty contest (at school?), but that does not mean she is brainless (Barbie Doll).

2) Mayor

Her first office was Mayor, so she ran a town , thats more than Obama ran.

3) Governor of Alaska

Her second office was Governor, she ran a state , more than Obama ran.

4)Should she be President ?

She running for vice president not President, tho she might be needed to take over at some point,but as with all seats of power it's the advisor's that are the technical people and its the politician that sets their goals.

5) "what does a VP do everyday"

I would like to see and hear the full interview, as context is important.

6) Criminal Investigation

Yet there is no criminal investigation , there are probes into an allegation , thats all.

7) McCain will pull her strings

He would be her boss.So not surprising.

8) She shoots guns

I first shot a 3.03 rifle when I was 13 in the Cadets and it was fun.
That rifle she was pictured with is a police (swat) rifle.Probably visiting a police firing range as part of her duties as Governor.

A nice photo opportunity for a politician !

9) She hunts

Personally I have never shot anything for fun, I was taught that you only kill an animal if you intend to eat it.I hope she was taught the same thing.

10) She is Anti Abortion

And so are most Catholics, is she going to force her views on others, has she said that ?


I notice that video did not mention she had/has 80% approval rating in her state ?


It was funny to watch, but would I use it to make my mind up,NO.

jadedjean ( #11 )

It would appear that we are both coming from a similar angle, but the term Corporate Nazi ( however technically inaccurate ) is far easier for the British electorate to comprehend than Trotskyite anarcho capitalist. It is often the case that elderly people refer to some petty policies as Nazi.

The Corporate Nazi's and their corporate multinational cartel owe their allegiance to rigged " global Markets " and plan to charge everyone for every action in their lives. They see a future where the vast majority of people are virtual slaves to the banks ( how many are already ).

Its a kind of parasitic alternative Private International State with private taxes, far more potentially damaging to the rights of the individual than true communism or even that practiced by the likes of China today.

I don't read politics books, my views come from practical experience in a persecuted minority ( the road haulage industry in the 1970 /80s )

Time is running out to save our country, every subsequent generation get more gormless and likely to follow the ten bob fat cat corporate illusion. The unions offer no defence, the average shop steward is often the most gormless person on the site.

Almost everyone blames the EU but its the stock market parasites who have sold most of our sovereignty to the highest bidder.

WE HAVE A PROBLEM BUT IS ANYONE LOOKING/LISTENING?

Steve-London (#22) I did say (credibly) lampooned/smeared. She lacks the relevent experience (and yes, of course it's the power behind the Oval office that matters, but look at what , do you see Palin doing that?. I find it hard to believe that anyone can compare (say) Cheney's (who I'm no fan of when it comes to policies) with and not come away thinking that there's somehing fundamentally wrong here. No Obama comparisons (he's all rhetoric), but perhaps Hockey Mom will stand down?

I see this all as theatrics, the demographic pitches illustrating something rather worrying about the USA electorate today. See the and what I've said before about what's driving this dysgenesis (one sees this behaviour in other countries with low levels of cognitive ability wrought by too much education driving differential fertility plus high levels of immigration). Here, the same concerns are aired in the . For skills, read genes and IQ.

I thought the quote β€œSarah Palin makes Barack Obama sound like Henry Kissinger” was very unfair. What experience does Obama have in foreign policy? Is it not a fact that he mainly worked with the local communities in Chicago instigating policy changes from ground up? During the primaries, when Obama said he would renegotiate the US trade agreement with NAFTA members if elected president, he referred to the prime minister of Canada as president of Canada, unaware of the fact that Canada follows the British political system. Given that he is a senator and has practiced law for a living, I find his lack of knowledge in this area very unsettling. Whatsmore, did he really examine America’s trade position within NAFTA in details before he made these pledges? I doubt it.

Sarah Palin has an amazing track record of achievements while serving as the governor of the state of Alaska. She is very popular amongst her electorate and is also a mother of five in a loving family. A woman that excels on both domestic and work front earns my highest admiration and respect. I find the allegations about her being inexperienced and a mere soccer mum running PTA meetings ungrounded and sexism.

brossen99 (#23) "every subsequent generation get more gormless and likely to follow the ten bob fat cat corporate illusion."

That certainly appears to be true, and it distresses me to say that it's more often women who aggressively encourage this self-centred, narcissistic, and therefore ultimately self-destructive, 'philosophy' - but that's anarchism for you, and to the best of my knowledge, there is no longer a major party which is truly socialist (i.e which would nationalise the means of production). They are all taking that infrastructure apart, they are all trusting de-regulation, i.e. anarcho-capitalism in one form or another. Health-care, transport, energy, education, communications, you name it, it's all been or is in the process of being privatised (see schools and BSF). If all that is not nationalised, what, in fact, CAN comprise a nation state? It's all been de-nationalisation since 1979.

Alastair Campbell was right to criticize the bias in media reporting – I’m sick of watching gossips about infighting in the Labour government. Instead, I would really like to hear about Tories’ policies. What solutions are they proposing to revamp the British economy? There’s been so little coverage of them lately that nobody knows what the alternatives are. The last time I heard major news in the opposition parties is when Liberal Democrats announced they would cut taxes, and that’s before the summer break!

REALITY CHECK

mademoiselle_h (#25) "She is very popular amongst her electorate and is also a mother of five in a loving family. A woman that excels on both domestic and work front earns my highest admiration and respect. I find the allegations about her being inexperienced and a mere soccer mum running PTA meetings ungrounded and sexism."

If she was competing in a pageant, no problem, but this isn't.

Effective democracy isn't populism. Look at her qualifications and skills. Are they up to the job? It's not 'sexist' to point out the realities and personal responsibilities/commitments here. It's how SHE (allegedly) describes/pitches herself, of 5 (2 under 10, one with Down's).

Be realistic Her as VP makes no sense.

WHO GOES THERE?

Bless Obama - he is transparently hollow; rhetoric-with-a-boom (not to mention 'consensus brown').
Palin is different: my intuition-alarm keeps going off, just like when Cliff is about. I stare hard at her and see a Stepford Wife - watch out for repeated phrases and jerky movements.
In all this 'Ol' Charisma' Blair is the key. He rose all the way from troubled schoolboy and wannabe-Jagger to Warmonger: Second Class.
I strongly suspect the problem lies in over-expansion of the 'social unit' to multiple millions, and the political structures that have emerged therein, coupled with failure to understand the animal forces at work in us.
No one expects the anonymous rosette they vote for to, one day, become a wild eyed mass killer with a hotline to God (any more than they expect the Spanish Inquisition).
We vote for charisma or a rosette or out of narrow self interest, in a community of 6 billion, ending up with some of the least capable individuals fighting for the steering wheel.
Think Blair. Inspect carefully.

jadesJean,
I love reading your blogs as they remind me (especially 11) of my student /university days on the discussions of political systems. I get worried when I start to understand and agree to what you are driving at as some are bordering on the cerebral where a "tutorial" discussion would be interesting, and I do enjoy those who respond to you.

Without picking up on every point and those made by others, or I would be typing all day, irrespective of what political system you adopt, those who say that they will alter things in Washington are due for a big surprise, or not. They will come up against all the vested interests and lobbies and the "dirt dishing" machines and if they ever do start to make inroads into their "comfort zone" then be ready for the assasin's bullet which I believe was behind the demise of the two Kennedy's. (no I don't wish to start that hare running!)

I do believe that the traditional "democratic" systems are breaking down and we are entering into benevolent Autocracies, Russia and China being the two main exponents. Give the masses what they want and they will allow us to rule. In fact if we were to stand back and look at what our parties are offering there is some similarity. i.e. pay our bills and give us the money to buy homes and give us cheap everything and we may vote for you.
The difficuly the Electorate have, apart from the die-hards of every party, is they can see that whatever Party gets power, they will see little difference, referred to in a book called "Thatcher and Friends" written in 1984.
The question which we should be addressing is whether the present political structure is fit for purpose for this Century. I don't think it is.

When Labour, of which I am a party member, get anilihilated at the next election, just wait for the fight for to decide in which direction does it move. If you like blood sports, this will be the one to watch.

JadeJean some of your observations in 11 will make Trotsky et al's political systems appear as benign as a Sunday School party outing. "Power to the People" as the TV series of the 70's? Citizen Smith-Woolfie I think.

UNREPRESENTATIVE IMAGES VS HARSH REALITY (EVIDENCE)

mademoiselle_h (#25) "She is very popular amongst her electorate and is also a mother of five in a loving family. A woman that excels on both domestic and work front earns my highest admiration and respect."

This is image-management. Look at the USA birth stats for indigenous whites, especially educated ones. It's the same story throughout Europe where in Eastern Europe the situation is dire with Russia losing up to 800,000 in population a year. There is a birth death, and making out that a white professional mom of 5 is representative is completely at odd with the figures. Educated, working women have small families and struggle to cope with even that. What you find admirable is a fantasy but it's one that is cultivated by these image-makers. Trust the data, not the PR. Watch the ETS video and look at Leitch. What's known is that people , even though logic screams at them that the objective statistical evidence says it generally can't be so.

BEHAVIOURAL EVERYTHING

Excellent link JJ. But surely everything we do is behaviourally modified, so the prefix (as in behavioural economics) is redundant?
However, in our daily behaving, it is vital to be aware if we are animal or 'cerebral' or, as is common, an annexation of one by the other for its own ends. Awareness, itself, of course, is another matter. . .



END GAME

There once was a land full of two-ended folk
their construction both basic and charming;
the artist, philosopher, poet and don,
juxtaposed lusty apes, good at farming.

Now you might think that this crazy scheme could not work
but if you haven't tried it don't knock it
for half way along, evolution had placed
a wonderfully formed plug and socket.

Each end had such organs and limbs as required
to attend to the stuff they would do;
at night they enjoyed a Platonic embrace
but when morning arrived - came in two.

I know not how long that their bliss was complete
but at last they ran clean out of luck
God's will or black magic or just heavy dew
all the plugs and the sockets got stuck.

The high-minded end, thus far free from all taint
found out about sex and soil tilth;
before very long it was down in the dirt
quite diverted by cerebral filth.

The two ends conspired to invent GM crops
pornography, gambling and debt.
The join healed up, extra limbs disappeared
but I'm told they are holding on yet.

With narcotics and genocide, WMD
underhand psychological vending
gender roles all confused, procreation awry
hell-bent on inglorious ending.

Twice recently you have run features on "alternative" energy projects: digging for carbon-heavy oil in Sussex, and last night's piece on the German experimental coal-burning power plant that's going, expensively, to separate and bury the carbon emissions.

Meanwhile this week's Economist reports on dangerous and costly plans to "tinker" with our oceans, clouds and atmosphere to try to delay global warming until a viable clean energy is found.

But the big UNANSWERED QUESTION is, why is everyone ignoring the one main viable clean energy that is already up and running, is endlessly renewable (unlike the so-called renewable nuclear which depends on a dwindling uranium supply), cheap and safe to run, and able to power unlimited development and prosperity worldwide?

That energy is variously known as CONCENTRATING SOLAR POWER or BASELINE SOLAR, in which glass mirrors or plastic Fresnel panels concentrate the sun's heat to boil water whose steam powers and electricity-producing turbine.

It's childishly simple. it's even quite beautiful, and it's already happening in Utah and Nevada, in Australia and Spain. Big US utilility companies have some 50 applications pending to use Federal lands for new plants.

Without the costs of exploration, mining, drilling, refineries, heavy transport on land and sea, dirty or dangerous waste, oil spills to clean up, decomissioning, maintenance involving close-down, hi-tech and danger-money wages and massive insurance to pay for, it's got to be cheap: cheap enough to price petrol-driven cars off the road. And Putin can keep his gas and oil.

It doesn't take decades to build, either: a 50MW plant already only takes 26 months to erect, for half the cost of an equivalent capacity coal-fired (and that's without the scrubber).

Yes, we'll need some changes to cabling and grids, but this has been agreed already (even by George Brown) at a political level, and these infrastructure costs if borne by governments are nothing special.

But for some reason this Holy Grail of energy is still below everyone's radar.

I guess if Newsnight plans to work through every technique and plan in the world, you will eventually happen on the right one. But why not go there first?

The Government's consultation on Renewable Energy closes in 3 weeks. Why not do something in time for that? I'd love to see Paxman ask the question WHY NOT, and go on asking it until he gets an answer.

WOLFIE MILIBAND?

Billbradbury (#30) "JadeJean some of your observations in 11 will make Trotsky et al's political systems appear as benign as a Sunday School party outing. "Power to the People" as the TV series of the 70's? Citizen Smith-Woolfie I think."

Cerebral? Think David Miliband and 'his' .

Not benign, and not Labour at all methinks. They already think they have democracies, just as we once did in Old Labour days.

Barrie (#32) "But surely everything we do is behaviourally modified, so the prefix (as in behavioural economics) is redundant?"

This is subtle/difficult one. Did you ask NewFazer for 'On Having A Poem'? If not, I suggest you do. The core of (Herrnstein's and Rachlin's) Behavioural Economics is the Matching Law, and derivative hyperbolic discounting (impulsivity/self-control). It is 'mindless'.

Twice recently you have run features on "alternative" energy projects: digging for carbon-heavy oil in Sussex, and last night's piece on the German experimental coal-burning power plant that's going, expensively, to separate and bury the carbon emissions.

Meanwhile this week's Economist reports on dangerous and costly plans to "tinker" with our oceans, clouds and atmosphere to try to delay global warming until a viable clean energy is found.

But the big UNANSWERED QUESTION is, why is everyone ignoring the one main viable clean energy that is already up and running, is endlessly renewable (unlike the so-called renewable nuclear which depends on a dwindling uranium supply), cheap and safe to run, and able to power unlimited development and prosperity worldwide?

That energy is variously known as CONCENTRATING SOLAR POWER or BASELINE SOLAR, in which glass mirrors or plastic Fresnel panels concentrate the sun's heat to boil water whose steam powers an electricity-producing turbine.

It's childishly simple. it's even quite beautiful, and it's already happening in Utah and Nevada, in Australia and Spain. Big US utilility companies have some 50 applications pending to use Federal lands for new plants.

Without the costs of exploration, mining, drilling, refineries, heavy transport on land and sea, dirty or dangerous waste, oil spills to clean up, decomissioning, maintenance involving close-down, hi-tech and danger-money wages and massive insurance to pay for, it's got to be cheap: cheap enough to price petrol-driven cars off the road. And Putin can keep his gas and oil.

It doesn't take decades to build, either: a 50MW plant already only takes 26 months to erect, for half the cost of an equivalent capacity coal-fired (and that's without the scrubber).

Yes, we'll need some changes to cabling and grids, but this has been agreed already (even by George Brown) at a political level, and these infrastructure costs if borne by governments are nothing special.

But for some reason this Holy Grail of energy is still below everyone's radar.

I guess if Newsnight plans to work through every technique and plan in the world, you will eventually happen on the right one. But why not go there first?

The Government's consultation on Renewable Energy closes in 3 weeks. Why not do something in time for that? I'd love to see Paxman ask the question WHY NOT, and go on asking it until he gets an answer.

Jade, Thanks for the Milliband prompt, which I read. Don't agree with him at all.

Another example of your "Image v's Harsh reality"blog. China, Arab states, Russia etc. adopting a democracy? Over their dead bodies or will that be over the dead bodies of their citizens.

I always recall a cartoon in the Express (in the 50's I think) by Giles where two pinstriped politicians commenting on the Russian Election saying "I see the Conservative lost his deposit".

3Bosnorth (#33) Not enough sun here.

DOIN' MY 'ED IN

Oh JJ! I am 'Smartart' half artisan and half aspiring intellectual. I just can't cope with intense scholarship and concise allusion.

Ref #35: NewFazer? Wasn't he regenerated from 'A' and now rarely seen?
How do you suggest I ask? (NewFazer if reading this: I'm asking - I'm asking.)

I now declare myself hyperbolically discounted to mindlessness (sound of rocking and thumb sucking).

Note to Newsnight: I suggest anyone with an excessive IQ should be banned from this blog. (:o)

I HAVE PATENTED THE MOON (didn't mean to get into this)

For an island nation to leave tidal power till last, is barmy. Tides are guaranteed. I doubt even Geothermal is as reliable over millennia. (Correcting me won't alter the point.) While the moon endures - we have tides; day, night, cloudy, windless.
In truth, I guess it is all down to JJ's behavioural-(b-word) impinging on everything. If only that ice would fall off the Arctic and frighten the bejabers out of us, as the equivalent of 9/11 (that permitted Bush to start the War on Terror) we could start the Rape of the Tides (or whatever the SPT* might call it) and draw all the power we need.
*Society for Protection of Tides.
Where is the Β£1M prize for the 'JCB' or the 'Land Rover' of Tidergy? After forgers, Britain is most noted for some of the most pragmatic engineers of all time. in USA a prize provokes a viable space plane. If i were into cliches, I might say: "it is not rocket science". Doh!

CONCENTRATING SOLAR ENERGY

Sorry, I'm new to this, posted the same thing twice. And omitted some salient points about where it can be done, hence No.38's response "not enough sun here".

Of course there isn't. But cabling it from Spain or North Africa, even at the most inefficient spec, only loses at most 8% en route. From Spain or Western Sahara, cables can come under the sea direct to our south coast and into the grid.

There are agreements, still at an early stage, for a Europe-wide super-grid which we could also feed into from wind-power etc.

But it's not just about us. The whole of Europe could be powered (I'm told) 48 times over from solar plants in Algeria alone. Not to mention powering desalination, irrigation, agriculture and development in nothern Africa, creating jobs and welfare, and reducing the flight to Europe of desperate populations there.

This isn't just a dream. It's happening. Only vested interests and inertia are keeping it out of sight.

Barrie #39

I am no regeneration of A, we are just good friends. And you'll not get away with pretending to be a mere artisan (like me) or that you are less than a scholar for I know what your really are!

You have my email (we corresponded briefly last Eastra) although, unfortunately, I no longer have the audio file JJ is referring to. I do, however have a transcript of the lecture as photocopies which I would gladly mail to you instead. (I couldn't bear the man's voice so demanded fibre media.)

Ironically 'On Having A Poem' begins with an account of how Chomsky never understood 'Verbal Behavior'. Of course, he then REALLY set a cat amongst the pigeons with his later book: 'Beyond Freedom and Dignity', which is also the theme of the talk.

No prizes for guessing what happened to him (or for seeing a pattern here). NewFazer n has the audio again.

Anyone know why this episode is the only one not available on ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ iplayer?