Paid Members Ronnie Posted February 8, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted February 8, 2012 A blast from the past for context's sake: Â You really don't know what to make of me do you. I'm glad I get to cost people like you your jobs. I think my other half might have met Yoghurt or one of his friends. Â She's working away from home and has had to take an Eton boy with her as her underling. She wasn't looking forward to having to socialise with him as he's something of a spoilt cock. (I've met him at their annual BBQ and she tells me I thought he was a cunt, but I thought that about most of them there so can't place which one in particular he is.) Â Well, he's been keeping up appearances. She emailed me overnight with the following lines: "My assistant is driving me mad. He spent all of dinner telling me how much he'd enjoyed his secondment to the insolvency department and how it was much more exciting than audit because he "got to make people redundant"! He couldn't grasp at all why I thought that might not be a very nice thing to do!" Â How lovely to read that firms brought in to run failing businesses are filled with overpaid sociopaths who take pleasure in making people lose their jobs. I must try to remember this when I have to socialise with him again this year. Smug fucker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The King Of Swing Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Did anyone see Newsnight last night? There was a good discussion about the whole PIP implants fiasco. Naomi Wolf totally shredded Anne Milton, the health minister, showing her up as either a liar or completely out of her depth. Actually, it's probably both. Katie Price was quite interesting on it too. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/bigscreen/tv/episode/b01by5cl/ Â Milton had that "sent to jump on the Grenade" look about her and I almost felt sorry for her. Â And Jeremy Paxman is so fucking shit I'm amazed he still gets work and on that subject here is an old video of The Pax getting ruined by some guy from Plaid Cymru. Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Balls, Paxo is great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 He was great, now he's just rude and lazy. He never bothers to listens to people's arguments, just sits there waiting to get his next zinger in as soon as he can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 He was great, now he's just rude and lazy. He never bothers to listens to people's arguments, just sits there waiting to get his next zinger in as soon as he can. Bit like you on here then, Â ZING! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbins Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Naomi Wolf really did the job there that Paxman should be doing and used to do. He's pretty weak now in terms of holding politicians to account, forcing answers out of them or questioning their competence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 Good article on the "austerity v borrowing" debate: Â http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsi...000/9694710.stm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 This is from the Daily Mail, I shit you not: Â Right-wingers tend to be less intelligent than left-wingers, and people with low childhood intelligence tend to grow up to have racist and anti-gay views, says a controversial new study. Conservative politics work almost as a 'gateway' into prejudice against others, say the Canadian academics. The paper analysed large UK studies which compared childhood intelligence with political views in adulthood across more than 15,000 people. Â The authors claim that people with low intelligence gravitate towards right-wing views because they make them feel safe. Crucially, people's educational level is not what determines whether they are racist or not - it's innate intelligence, according to the academics. Â Social status also appears to play no part. Â The study, published in Psychological Science, claims that right-wing ideology forms a 'pathway' for people with low reasoning ability to become prejudiced against groups such as other races and gay people. 'Cognitive abilities are critical in forming impressions of other people and in being open minded,' say the researchers. Â 'Individuals with lower cognitive abilities may gravitate towards more socially conservative right-wing ideologies that maintain the status quo. Â 'It provides a sense of order.' The study, by academics at Brock University in Ontario, Canada, used information from two UK studies from 1958 and 1970 , where several thousand children were assessed for intelligence at age 10 and 11, and then asked political questions aged 33. The 1958 National Child Development involved 4,267 men and 4,537 women born in 1958. The British Cohort Study involved 3,412 men and 3,658 women born in 1970. It's the first time the data from these studies has been used in this way. Â In adulthood, the children were asked whether they agreed with statements such as, 'I wouldn't mind working with people from other races,' and 'I wouldn't mind if a family of a different race moved next door.' They were also asked whether they agreed with statements about typically right-wing and socially conservative politics such as, 'Give law breakers stiffer sentences,' and 'Schools should teach children to obey authority.' The researchers also compared their results against a 1986 American study which included tests of cognitive ability and questions assessing prejudice against homosexuals. Â The authors claim that there is a strong correlation between low intelligence both as a child and an adult, and right-wing politics. Â The authors also claim that conservative politics is part of a complex relationship that leads people to become prejudices. Â 'Conservative ideology represents a critical pathway through which childhood intelligence predicts racism in adulthood,' says the paper. 'In psychological terms, the relation between intelligence and prejudice may stem from the propensity of individuals with lower cognitive ability to endorse more right wing conservative ideologies because such ideologies offer a psychological sense of stability and order.' Â 'Clearly, however, all socially conservative people are not prejudiced, and all prejudiced persons are not conservative.' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny McBride Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Well that's just a conspiracy of the liberal academic-media hegemony. They want us all to be black disabled transgendered lesbians. Â Seriously, though, without reading the actual report, there is a stack of questions emerging from that article. How is the "intelligence" measured? Talking about "innate intelligence" is dubious at the best of times, but particularly ridonkulous when it's not even measured until the kid has already completed its primary education. Where are the controls for educational status/style/opportunity, or for employment status/opportunity? What about media/cultural conditioning? After all, the Sun is one of the most rabidly right wing newspapers in this country but is written for eight year olds and is the most explicitly populist paper going too. What about parental politics? I would think many (if not most) people's politics are heavily influenced by their parents, whether it's being broadly similar (as in most cases) or through over-identification (the union leader's son who becomes an armed revolutionary to prove himself to the old man) or through deliberate rejection (the Tory minister's daughter who goes off to live on kibbutz). The article itself doesn't define "right wing" either. I imagine the report does, but even then, the automatic equation of conservative social policy and bigotry is troublesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vice Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 (edited) Did anyone see Newsnight last night? There was a good discussion about the whole PIP implants fiasco. Naomi Wolf totally shredded Anne Milton, the health minister, showing her up as either a liar or completely out of her depth. Actually, it's probably both. Katie Price was quite interesting on it too. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/bigscreen/tv/episode/b01by5cl/ Naomi Wolf is great there, as expected. Â I've mostly given up on Newsnight, though. If I have time, I'll watch maybe one segment if it's on a topic I find really interesting. For me, taking Newsnight's place is Democracy Now, which is US-based and looks at global matters too, but it's sharper, more critical and delves much deeper into issues like drugs, crime, corruption and war, offering dissenting views. Basically, they cut through the bullshit. If you're a lefty, you'll adore it. Catch it on http://www.democracynow.org/ or on Sky Channel 200 at 6pm. Â Around the world, it's been a very interesting few weeks: Â - In America, the culture war is back. Obama wanted employers to provide workers with contraceptives as part of their healthcare coverage. Rick Santorum attacked this, calling it an assault on Catholics, as Catholic-affiliated organizations obviously fell within that. This breathed new life into Santorum's campaign and he's now become the frontrunner in the race to become the Republican nominee for the Presidential election. The Obama administration have compromised on the plans. Â - The Haditha massacre trial ended in no jail time for any of the US marines charged. 24 Iraqi civilians were killed in their homes. Â - Obama defended drone attacks, saying they're precise strikes and don't result in huge civilian casualties. Â - It's come out that the NYPD aired an anti-Muslim propaganda film to over a thousand officers. They also spied on the Muslim community. They NYPD have also been accused of targeting Latinos, and there's been outrage over their fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen. Â - Apple are coming under increasing fire for their brutal labor practices in China, namely at Foxconn, where thousands of employees live in cramped apartments and work the entire day performing one tiny task over and over again. After a string of suicides, Foxconn put nets outside the building. Â - In the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, their first democratically-elected leader, was ousted at gunpoint by the remnants of the old regime. The US initially supported the 'new' regime, but now seem to more hesitant, the last I looked into it. Â - In Spain, Baltasar Garzon, the judge who ordered the arrest of General Pinochet in 1998 and opened investigations into Bush's use of torture, has been disbarred for 11 years. He was convicted for wiretapping. He also faces another charge of 'exceeding his authoirty' by wanting to investigate the deaths and disappearances of thousands under the Franco era. Â Thoughts on these? Edited February 14, 2012 by Vice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny McBride Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 On that last point, if you're going to fight corruption then it's a very good idea to not be corrupt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JNLister Posted February 13, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted February 13, 2012 - In America, the culture war is back. Obama wanted employers to provide workers with contraceptives as part of their healthcare coverage. Rick Santorum attacked this, calling it an assault on Catholics, as Catholic-affiliated organizations obviously fell within that. This breathed new life into Santorum's campaign and he's now become the frontrunner in the race to become the Republican nominee for the Presidential election. The Obama administration have compromised on the plans. Â Another example of the fucking insanity of a person's healthcare being linked to their employment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Chest Rockwell Posted February 13, 2012 Moderators Share Posted February 13, 2012 There's a bit more to it than that, Kenny. He was working with in a very corrupt system, with a lot of people with vested interests around him not so keen on the work he was doing. Â His story is a complex and interesting one from what I know of it, and I'd certainly like to read more about him and his work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The King Of Swing Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 (edited) Must say that I almost bust a gut when I read that unelected EU Puppet Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said that there is no room for violence in Democracy following yet more violence in Greece. Edited February 14, 2012 by The King Of Swing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vice Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 (edited) Anyone following the situation in the Maldives? Nasheed, the democratically elected President ousted at gunpoint by the previous dictatorship, is now holding press conferences and calling for elections to be held, despite the very real possibility of being imprisoned and tortured, as he was when the now-ruling regime were in power previously. If climate change doesn't put the Maldives under water, the sheer weight of Nasheed's balls will. Edited February 14, 2012 by Vice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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