[martin scriblerus] was there ever one such as this

It is perverse that the leaders of a modern nation feel they must honour the memory of the great men to whom that nation owes what it possesses in high culture and civility, and yet, were those great men alive today, they would be reviled for holding opinions that those leaders profess to find uncultured and uncivilised and unfit for the standing of a modern nation.

Amen to that, Deogolwulf.

[new hampshire] america mourns

Oh my goodness. She cried the crocodile tears, tugged at the heartstrings and got in. I join the rest of America in mourning this tragic event. May this serve as a reminder of the danger the Lizard Queen still represents. I'm no wiser than the pundits and yet I did write, after Iowa:

Before anyone writes off the Lizard Queen, it's also worth noting that a caucus is not a primary - a primary is more direct. Plus she's east coast.

G-d help America [plus a few million relatively sane voters].

[sarkozy and bruni] why not, for goodness sake?

If I were the French President and my wife refused to support her husband and then we were divorced, I'd imagine I'd be pretty down about it. It would sort of hurt deep down, even though I never showed it publicly.

Then, if a woman came into my life and she had a bit of a history people latched onto but I loved her, then that would be unfortunate but what could I do? We'd have to marry if she also loved me and who's to say she doesn't?

Now, if I were France, above all nations except maybe Italy, I'd understand implicitly that lasting relationships can't be politically packaged into time frames favoured by the press, even though I'd be well aware of the time constraints.

I'd also be well aware that if I'd just forced a political issue - in his case the strikes and in mine - well, the least said the better - then there'd be fallout, wouldn't there? It's pretty lonely doing that and if a loving woman came into my life, I'd make pretty sure to treat her right because, in the things I must do next for France, I'd need her softness like never before.

So what the hell are the press saying?

Sarkozy denied that he was using the ups and downs of his love life to draw attention from France's problems. He said he was astonished by some news reports that suggested his October divorce was timed to overshadow coverage of a nationwide strike that paralyzed the country. "I told myself that people who wrote such articles must never have been divorced," Sarkozy said, adding that he wasn't angry at them. "I was simply ashamed for them, for being so far removed from life's realities."

I'd go on to impress upon them:

«Vous l'avez compris, c'est du sérieux». Dès la deuxième question, le chef de l'Etat était interrogé sur sa relation avec l'ex-mannequin Carla Bruni, lors de sa conférence de presse de rentrée mardi. «Mais, ce n'est pas le JDD qui fixera la date», s'est empressé d'ajouter le chef de l'Etat devant un auditoire souriant.

All the same, he needs to be just a bit careful because even Le Figaro was not 100% enamoured of this stage of Sarko's presidency. Yet its photo of the happy couple seems to indicate some sort of rearguard action.

Personally, unless the leopard's changed her spots, I think he could be heading for the same problems as before. The woman is a known "easy girl" so one hopes he's not looking for marital fidelity from her but maybe he needs her perverse outlook in his position.

The French are in an interesting position themselves - the prospect of a Hungarian descendant and an Italian as 1st and 2nd persons in their republic.

[mediocrity enlarged] oh great, that's all we need

Seriously, who wants it? Who needs it?

A 150-inch high-definiton plasma TV unveiled by Panasonic is the world's largest to date, the Japanese consumer electronics company claimed Monday at the International Consumer Electronics Show.

The plasma panel features an 8.84 million pixel image resolution. Its screen is the equivalent of nine 50-inch sets, with an effective viewing area of 11 feet, the company said. It's a step up from Panasonic's 103-inch version, which cost $70,000 when it launched. The company did not say in a news release how much the 150-inch panel will cost.

When will people wake up to the mad scramble for spurious technological "advance" for what it is? It's simply symptomatic of a wider malaise you can yawn at, if you like - the inability of people to be satisfied.

And as for television itself being developed - why? The shows are dire and the noise - just pollution. Yet the MTV field raises the need for higher-fi then something else, then something else and so on.

"Progress, you stick-in-the-mud," I hear you mutter.

"Really?" I reply.

[economics 101] the looming economic reset

I like this so much by Karl Denninger. At last a fr----ng economist who doesn't try to pull rank with his jargon and who explains things to us plebs in language we can understand:

Let's say that today you wish to buy a car. You go into a bank and get them to agree to issue you a loan to buy that car. Let's say the loan is for $20,000. You sign a contract promising to pay back the $20,000 plus a rate of interest, which is charged so that the bank is covered for the risk that you won't pay them, and the value of the car at that time might not be as much as you owe. The car is the "security" for the loan - if you fail to pay, they will come and repossess it.

You now have $20,000 in your pocket, and you purchase the car. (We'll get back to how the $20,000 came to be in a minute.)

If these were the only two transactions in the world, you would soon recognize a serious problem - there is only $20,000 in money in the world, but you owe more than $20,000! The interest you must pay means that you somehow must acquire more money than exists in the world over the life of that loan in order to pay it back.

There is only one solution to this problem - the amount of money in the world must increase.

So the government will just print some more, right? After all, the can do anything they want.

Uh, no. If the government were to do that then the value of all the money currently in existence would go down by the exact amount that they printed. You could pay your debt but the bank would be in serious trouble because the money they got paid back with would not be worth as much as the money they gave you!

Further down:

WE ARE NOW FACING A "RESET" IN THE SYSTEM!

What happens in a "reset"?

1. The rate of credit creation slows precipitously as the list of assets that can be pledged dwindles down.

2. The interest and principal payments due on existing debt get close to and ultimately exceed the amount of money in the system, as the rate of credit (money) creation slows.

3. Those who detect this while they still have money pay off their debts, (correctly) deducing that a "reset" is about to take place - and that cash (assets) will have value, while debt will be a millstone that will drag you underwater.

4. Those who are unable to pay off their debts will find that a contracting credit (money) supply leaves them with insufficient funds to pay their debts. Debt defaults at a rapidly increasing rate.

5. The creditors (who granted the credit) will repossess the assets pledged for the debt in lieu of payment, while the debtors are financially destroyed.

6. The destruction of outstanding credit via default shrinks the money supply further, and we go back to #1.

This continues until equilibrium is reestablished, and the cycle begins anew.

Do read the whole thing at Market Ticker: The Money/Credit Cycle..... You might disagree but at least you can understand it.

[australia arrogant] the aussies say so

Note the empty seats behind

Now you don't see this sort of thing often from the Australian press:

If Cricket Australia cares a fig for the tattered reputation of our national team in our national sport, it will not for a moment longer tolerate the sort of arrogant and abrasive conduct seen from the captain and his senior players over the past few days.

Beyond comparison it was the ugliest performance put up by an Australian side for 20 years. The only surprising part of it is that the Indians have not packed their bags and gone home. There is no justice for them in this country, nor any manners.

An Age poll on the matter of whether Ponting should be sacked:

Yes - 58% No - 28% Let's all cool down! It's only a game - 14%

What's going on downunder? Neosportsmanship?

[tory plan] the need to think it through

Hain, predictably, is against the Tory plan which is basically:

People who claim Jobseekers' Allowance for more than two years would have to take part in a 12-month community work scheme, under Tory plans.

The party says those who refused to participate in their "welfare to work" programme would lose their benefits.

The 2006 stats were:

North East - 7.6% (worst in Middlesbrough - 12.4% - 8,000)

London - 6.8% (Hackney - 16.4% - 14,000)

West Midlands - 5.6% (worst in Birmingham - 10.5% - 46,000)

North West - 5.1% (Liverpool - 11.1% - 21,000)

Yorkshire & Humberside - 5% (worst in Bradford - 8.2% - 19,000)

East Midlands - 4.7% (worst in Leicester - 8.5% - 11,000)

Eastern England - 3.8% (worst in Norwich - 9.1% - 6,000)

South West - 3.5% (worst in Torbay - 5.6% - 3,000)

South East - 3.3% (worst in Thanet - 9.8% - 6,000)

If one excludes disability allowances and other payments for the genuinely incapable and if it were possible to isolate the malingerers as a group, what can one say about them? I mean, they're never going to hold any job for long, even if they could get it.

I sometimes wonder what would happen to them if NO money was coming in. Would they cease to exist or would the result be an added cycle of crime?

Incidentally, interesting regionalization in those stats above. Fait accompli, yes?

[sex predator] another female at it

I'm really getting sick to death of this sort of thing:

A high school gym teacher was charged with sending nude pictures of herself and sexually suggestive cell phone text messages to a 14-year-old freshman at the school.

Beth Ann Chester, a 26-year-old health and physical education teacher at Moon Area High School in suburban Pittsburgh, was arrested Friday and charged with child sexual abuse, statutory sexual assault and related counts, authorities said.

Police said Chester, who is married, had sent a boy three pictures of herself, two of them naked, by cell phone on Dec. 22, and the boy replied with a naked picture of himself.

Why on earth couldn't we have had some of these teachers when we were 14? I'm insanely jealous. By the way, would a photo of a 14 year old boy be exciting to anyone? Can't recall I was any great catch at that age for a 26 year old although I did sleep on the back seat of a long distance bus with two 19 year olds when I was 14. Couldn't hear anything but their thighs were warm.

And anyway, what with Debra et al, there must be something in it for the young woman of today.

[martin scriblerus] first trickles become a babbling brook

The second logo is up and many thanks to Richard Madeley. Keep those logos coming in, people.

jameshigham@mail.com

This one [left] has much to commend it in the light of the comments section here. So the 'kick ass' notion has some merit after all. And as for the donkey motif, what a wonderful historicity - we could look at "lions led by donkeys" from WW1 or the self-deprecating [no, it's not a typo - there's no F in there] Rats of Tobruk.

Mind boggles.

By the way, Sackerson had a suggestion too. Might have known it would be on a gold site. Sackers is a bit obsessed by gold, methinks. :)

[martin scriblerus] here's an example for you

The joke is on Madeley because that is precisely the type we're looking for - the unclubbable free spirit. That's why it's not a club, Richard. You're entangled now, my boy. :)

By the way, do you like the right aligned text? No?