Saturday 7 October 2006

Us oldies

The bit below comes from a site to which I will not link. I am conscious that some people who come here might well have an attack of the vapours.

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Following the introduction of the UK’s new anti-ageism laws, a recruitment agency has sent me an unusually sanctimonious and annoying brochure. “Remember, spotty little scrotes and doddering codgers have a valuable contribution to make at the workplace, so following the new law will actually help your business,” it more or less says.

It drives this do-gooding “you’re too dim to understand, so the government had better do it for you” message home with an extraordinarily stupid quote from American writer Norman Vincent Peale:

Ageism is as odious as racism and sexism.

No, it isn’t. Racism and sexism are considered particularly odious in society because they’re not fair. A white racist will never find himself denied a job because of the colour of his skin (while white racists tend to decry half-hearted attempts to redress their massive advantage in life as anti-white discrimination, this doesn’t make it so). A sexist man will never find himself denied a job because of his unwise choice of chromosones.

In short, some people are privileged and remain so forever; some people are disadvantaged and remain so forever. Even though individual white men might fuck up and ruin their lives, and even though individual black women might succeed admirably, the former will always have done so while facing fewer race- and gender-derived obstacles than the latter (obviously, a black female born into a loving family with enough money to get by will face fewer non-race and non-gender-derived obstacles than a white male born to a homeless alcoholic, but this isn’t relevant here).

Ageism doesn’t have the same effect: we are all every age at some point (except for people who die young, which is worse than being the victim of ageism anyway). If everyone who is 30 treats everyone who is 70 like shit, then this isn’t unfair at all: everyone in the first group will either be dead or be treated like shit in 40 years’ time, and net discrimination against individuals will be zero.

So ageism isn’t a fairness problem, and Mr Peale was an idiot. But worse than that, the introduction of anti-ageism laws will actually make things less fair.

The current crop of near-retirees looking for protection from this law are the baby-boom generation, who avoided WWII, profited massively from asset price rises throughout their adult lives, and left their descendants enormous financial and environmental liabilities to clear up. They also treated their parents’ generation like crap: abusive, horrible retirement homes flourished under the boomers’ rule, since they couldn’t be bothered to look after their parents themselves, and they also severed the state pension / earnings link because they didn’t want to pay taxes to support anyone else’s either.

Suddenly, now they’re approaching the receiving end of this treatment, the fear is kicking in – so now, as a final act before retirement, the spoilt bastards have successfully lobbied for a law prohibiting their children from treating them the same way (as well as making their children pay through the nose to bail out their bankrupt pension schemes).

If that’s fairness, then I’m the Pope dressed in a Mohammed costume and clutching a novelty fake bomb vest at the annual Vatican fancy dress party.

Friday 6 October 2006

French letter

We may wonder what our cosy little world is coming to with all this Islamic content. One of the TV news programmes yesterday carried nothing but matters involving Muslims - things done to them, things done by them, arguments involving them.

So, it may be some consolation to see just what is happening in France. Let us hope that, just like rabies, we can keep this sort of thing out of Britain.

Thursday 5 October 2006

Whither goest thou?

Consider

"Sadly enough, instead of Muslims marching out of the suffocating swamps of submission to the meadow of liberty, Allah’s faithful aim to drag the rest of humanity into the deadly Islamic quagmire. Islam may have been an improvement to
the life of the nomads that roamed the Arabian deserts some 1400 years ago. The 21st century world, in spite of all its problems and challenges, is not willing to surrender to the clearly failed and failing Islamic experiment."

Write on one side of the paper only.

Attack on Virgin Rail train

I was rather taken with the Virgin Rail TV advert where the train comes under attack. It has been running for about a week and I was wondering when the 'stereotype' backlash would come from Guardian readers.

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Is this allowed under our Brave New World Order?

Wednesday 4 October 2006

Amish

The TV coverage of the shooting at the Amish school led me off through Google.

Seems strange that a community could live so apart from main stream America but then, there seems to be something similiar with the American Indians/native Americans or however we refer to them today. Never had contact other than visual with Amish. Saw the film Witness but this short article seems to get the bullet points across.

My experience with the native Americans did not impress me. The elders may well have chosen to run things their way but I saw no evidence that this was any improvement. Certainly a lot well down on their luck and victims of booze or drugs.

Higher Education

Maybe because it reflects my own experience in a number of Arab countries, I found this interesting.

Never mind Know Thyself - know thine Enemy

I have alwasy had a lot of time for the admonition "Know thine Enemy". Not just a deadlu enemy but anyone whose intentions run counter to one's own plans. Events in Iraq have proved that we either did not know or did not take notice. Hence the lack of rose petals showered upon us by grateful Iraqi.

My guest blog today is long and requires serious reading. Provided it is not some CIA- inspired plant, it does give real insight into how the brain of an AQ leader ticks over. The readiness to invest time and patience in the long game is somewhat scary. Sure as hell confirms to me that it will not all be sealed and signed in a short time and that this fundamentalism is set for the long haul

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Long but worth it

Tuesday 3 October 2006

Teach me to shoot

I think I understand the American attachment to the idea that possession of guns is a right. I comprehend that whatever is the opinion of the mass does not get represented by politicians every time. What I cannot understand is why nothing seems to be done to deal with children in school being executed like rabbits by what are so obviously mentally challenged individuals. One would think that having Presidents assassinated by gunshot would have caused people to reconsider what they considerd to be their God-given right to bear arms.

Just what will it take to cause even a small and insignificant examination of status quo? How many have to die? For a nation where political correctness reigns and freedom is prized - who will speak up for these kids killed before they have even a chance to experience just how great life could be?

I spent a large part of my life permanently carrying a weapon. I know that it is the person who kills and not the firearm. That is a coward's explanation and reasoning. If the gun is not there it cannot be used regardless of the mental capacity of the one who would resort to that sort of violence.

Back to normal

Well, almost normal.
How can one be normal in the midst of all this stuff from the party political conferences? Spin upon spin, downright lie upon stretching of the truth, damnation, condemnation. What was that saying "all human life is there"?
The pills seem to have done their job - again - and I can at least garner enough interest to get out of bed.
So; back to the fray. I'll need to read up quite a bit to be able to generate enough bile to function. There are a coiuple of trigger words that set me off and running - Afghanistan, Iraq, B Liar.
There - almost totally cured.