Saturday, April 28, 2007

[blogfocus saturday] here's to your good health

1 Tom Paine minces no words when he is annoyed about something and this is no exception:

The prigs at Alcohol Concern believe (like so many other Statist swine) that they know better than us how to bring up our children. Both my daughters were introduced gradually to alcohol from a young age in the French manner, with a view to their learning to appreciate quality wine in joyful moderation. Understandably, Alcohol Concern's demand to criminalise such an approach, has brought Devil's Kitchen into full, fine, fulminating, foul-mouthed form.

2 Spicy Cauldron also has something to say on the Alcohol Concern matter:

Introducing alcohol from an early age, educating children as to its proportionate usage and enjoyment, is a far more effective barrier to drink problems developing in later life than banning alcohol outright until a child is no longer a child at all, but an ill-informed adult with an awareness that the taboo can then be indulged in with gay abandon and little in the way of social controls, next to no risk of a prison sentence for anti-social and extremely violent behaviour.

Alcohol Concern, please take note: a call for greater education would have been warmly received as sensible and considered. Prohibition and criminalisation never work, and it is only right that you receive flak for suggesting these as appropriate courses of action for government to take.

3 Russell Roberts, at Café Hayek,gets sooty on coal:

I love it when the bootlegger and the Baptist are the same guy. The WSJ ($) reports:

The founder of a group that ran a series of newspaper ads attacking the coal industry for selling a product that they called "filthy" says the campaign is ending.

The effort, promoted as pro-environment, was sponsored by a rival energy company, a natural-gas-production company, and sparked a round of protests from members of Congress and trade associations.

4 The only problem with what is otherwise, here, an excellent blog is Tony Emmerson's refusal to take comments. Still, the post is good, for all that:

For years my dear Grandfather kept a daily record of his barometer readings. I remember as a child seeing the book in which he noted and plotted the twitch of a needle. The world was a small place then. All the boffins doing their sophisticated works at the Met Office (apart from that hot weather girl who was the sister of somebody famous) could tell me nothing more important than the contents of that slim and faded volume. There was something profound laid in those years of carefully drawn lines of different coloured inks, even if they told a story that everyone around me already knew: Buxton has crappy weather.

5 Dr Crippen cannot be accused of succinct posts. They cover every current news item, ramification and every twist of every NHS issue. You want NHS? Go to The Crip:

Bloody, whinging, whining junior doctors. It is all your fault. Add you onto the lazy GPs, the fat-cat, swan-eating, port-swilling, golf-playing consultants and those useless nurses, and you can see why the NHS has failed.

It must be true. My Lord Warner says so.

Lord Warner, has launched an extra-ordinary attack on all those who work in the NHS. He cites "productivity" issues and resistance to change within the NHS as the major causes for the failure of Labour's investment programme and programme of reform.

6 Electrolicious is an electrically delicious journo-poet and she's focussed on Gen X and Y just now, the DNA of future society as we know it:

As part of my new job, I've been reading a lot about the work-styles of Gen Y (aka the Millennials). Although my birth-year (1975) technically puts me into Gen X territory, after reading various articles discussing how Gen Y is hyper communicative and assertive but also plagued by narcissism and an obsessive need for connectivity, I would like to proclaim that I identify more with Gen Y. Then I wonder if perhaps this is because I spent so much time at raves in my early 20s — raves where most everyone was 5 years younger than me. Is Gen Y contagious?

7 On the grounds that we should reperesent all point of view in the Blogfocii, may I present the Urban Commando, Will, in all his red star glory. The Young Ones would be proud:

The majority (yes - that's right - you heard me correctly) of the left (or what passes itself off for that distinguished tradition) has thoroughly botched its job on this most crucial of matters. This manifest truth is apparent if one examines the 'anti-war movement' in this country and most others - it is the enemy of the World's working class, the enemy of the Jews, the enemy of the Afghan people, the enemy of Palestinians, the enemy of Iraqis, the enemy of the Kurdish people and the enemy of everything I've ever f---ing well fought for or cared about. Capitalism is truly puking up undigested barbarism these days (truefact).

8 Let's finish up, this evening, with one of our own - Calum Carr - and his take on the Scottish issue:

Nothing new about this. Not even newsworthy. He spoke therefore he lied: that’s the Blair we all know.

In today’s Times (26 April 2007, sorry no link) he accused Alex Salmond, leader of the SNP and likely to lead the largest party after next week’s election, as follows:

When Alex Salmond gets up in the morning what is on his mind is fighting England.”

Fighting: this from Mr Military man. “Who’s up for a fight?” “We are”, says Tony. “Well, not me, of course, but “my” troops are up for it”. He has no shame!

Fighting England”, he says. What absolute rubbish! I have seen or heard nothing to suggest there is any truth in this.

I have seen reports that the SNP will try to manufacture issues on which they can claim that the Westminster government is not acting in the interests of Scotland.

Dem's fighting words and more of these on Tuesday evening, the national day over here. So crank up those old gramophones and dust off your copy of The Internationale. Go out to the garage and find 1] a hammer and 2] a sickle.

Bye for now.

3 comments:

  1. Good focus- as ever- you are getting a much wider circle of blogs now too- its really impressive.

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  2. Completely agree with Gracchi above.

    Great stuff, I don't know how you keep it up...!

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  3. Hey, glad I'm in good company on the Alcohol Concern story! Thanks for profiling my entry on it. x

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