Saturday Music Blogging

Lady GaGa f/Colby O'Donis - 'Just Dance'



Franz Ferdinand - 'Ulysses'

Friday Cat Blogging


George


Heidi

Saturday Musings

'The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent' John Maynard Keynes

The great illusion those that work in the stock market have is that risk can be controlled, that they will find some magic trick to keep the money flowing and each time it proves a load of nonsense and we end up where we are today.

the conclusion is that the markets are more instinctive than rational, staggering volatile and driven by herd mentality, short-terminism and greed, always have been, you only need to study the Tulip bubble in the 17th century, or the collapse of Long Term Capital Management in 1998 but most city boys are under 30 and have probably never experience a recession, and each time they promise that 'it'll be different' and this has proven yet again to be a massive delusion, they just don't learn.

You can't do much about greed, because that will always be there but it is much worse when combined with stupidity.

The last time Britain was in a recession it lasted 15 months, so it is sure to be around the same and even longer this time.

Its such a joke, when Gordon Brown was Chancellor his belief in 'light touch' (read no regulation at all) has contributed to the current mess the UK is in. It was such a stupid idea to let the banks police themseleves, you'd have to be a serious moron to believe that they would be capable of restraint. Compare this situation to Spanish banks, which had much tighter regulation and thus avoided bad loans, the Spanish economy is not a picture of health but their banks are largely still standing.

People like Nouriel Roubini, Lib Dem MP Vince Cable etc. warned about this for months but were either ostracized or laughed at. But they proved to be true, they may not of been able to predict when but they could predict that it would happen.

I have a very simple solution, tax the super rich and stop giving them a free pass. I mean surely if your filthy rich you would not really miss some of your money being taxed, it hardly makes a ripple. But I forget that's how they got filthy rich in the first place, by avoiding tax and opening up a Cayman Islands account.

Further Reading

The Crisis Reaches the Master Class

David Osler - Britain in recession: time to debate ideological basics

Thoughts on President Obama

After the dust has settled and the pageantry packed away I was delighted to read that one of Obama's first acts is to close that horrid Guantanamo Bay, a truly shameful recent chapter in the West and America's history. The disregarding of law, the degrading treatment of the poor soles locked up not knowing what they are charged with or why they were arrested and denied proper representation, whats repugnant.

The second piece of good news is his lifting of the Global Gag Rule

President Barack Obama today is to make the most contentious move of his young administration with an order overturning a ban on federal funds to foreign family planning organisations that either offer abortions or provide information or counselling about abortion.

The rule change continues the dismantling of George Bush's conservative policies. It is likely to encounter fierce criticism from the still robust anti-abortion movement.

It will allow US aid, usually through the US agency for international development, to flow to HIV/Aids clinics, birth-control providers and other organisations that advocate or provide counselling about abortion across the world. It is known as the "global gag rule" because it denies US taxpayer dollars to clinics that even mention abortion to women with unplanned pregnancies.

The rule was signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, overturned by Bill Clinton in 1993, and reinstated by Bush. Critics of the rule say it deprives the world's poor women of desperately needed medical care, while proponents say US tax dollars should not promote abortion.

Family planning groups in America and the UK cheered the rule change. Dr Gill Greer, director general of London-based International Planned Parenthood Federation, estimated the gag rule had cost the group more than $100m for family planning and sexual and reproductive health programmes during the eight years of the Bush administration, which she said amounted to 36 million unplanned pregnancies and 15 million induced abortions.

I don't kid myself that Obama will be anymore radical than his predecessors and I don't like his thoughts on escalating the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan but since the Bush Junta set the bar so low, it can't get any worse (famous last words) and I guess those who elected Obama may push him more leftwards, however minor.

If you got fed up with the pageantry and need sobering up then you can't go wrong with Arthur Silber - Of Desire Unfulfilled, and the Deadly Reality of Power or Lenin's Tomb - To earth with a crash

Palestine

UN 'shocked' by Gaza destruction

The UN's humanitarian chief has told the BBC the situation in Gaza after a three-week Israeli offensive against Hamas was worse than he anticipated.

Sir John Holmes, who visited Gaza on Thursday, said he was shocked by "the systematic nature of the destruction".

He said that the territory's economic activity had been set back by years.

UN workers have been given access to Gaza. On Friday, Israel lifted a ban on international aid agencies entering the Palestinian territory.

The ban had been in place since early November when tensions mounted between Israel and Hamas.

Staff from a number of international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were allowed to cross into Gaza on Friday morning.

Michael Bailey from Oxfam said: "We are extremely relieved to be able to join our local colleagues inside Gaza and to be able to provide them with some support and relief from the relentless work they have been doing."

What I don't get its how in trying to kill one lone Hamas guy who is hidden amongst a civilian population is working out

Because you drop a missile or white phosphorous, which not only kills the Hamas person but those around him

I mean would it not be better to be more focused, like proper searches and so on, but i guess the IDF don't want heavy causalities on their side and so are prepared to cause more deaths on the opposite side to prevent this

What did they really achieve? beside a lot of death that is

I just could not see what the IDF's invasion really wanted to achieve, perhaps it was mainly about the upcoming Israeli election.

Further links

The facts are insufficiently impartial

Thus Sprach Barack: Pouring Acid on Gaza's Wounds by Chris Floyd

Children of Gaza: stories of those who died and the trauma for those who survived

Rory McCarthy reports from Gaza City on the individual stories of some victims and the physical and psychological toll on an estimated 350,000 youngsters

Friday Cat Blogging


Heidi warming herself on the Tigger bed




George enjoying a nice sleep

Friday Cat Blogging


Heidi snuggling on clothes




George giving a mighty big yawn after a restful nap

Friday Cuteness

Jörg Kachelmann und Lupin



A real cute video, a weatherman cuddling his kitty cat while giving out the weather report.

Friday Cat Blogging


George enjoying a rare bit of winter sunshine




Heidi and George share a moment of peace

Saturday Fun

For a bit of fun I took this quiz and the results came out pretty much as I expected

1. Secular Humanism (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (91%)
3. Liberal Quakers (75%)
4. Nontheist (73%)
5. Theravada Buddhism (70%)
6. Neo-Pagan (64%)
7. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (59%)
8. New Age (49%)

First Friday Cat Blogging of 2009


George


Heidi