Re: The Bigger, Badder, Even More Serious Thread [4]

[Pettytyrant101]

Another piece of brilliant journalism from Fox News as an alleged expert on terrorism Steven Emerson claims Birmingham (the original UK one that is) is a muslim state and no go zone for white people whilst London is full of roaming bands of Muslims beating people up for not wearing muslim attire.
This came as a bit of a shock to the good people of Birmingham who have taken to social media to lampoon the comments-  "Birmingham's refuse collectors are all Bin Laden."  "As someone born and raised in Birmingham, I must admit there was a pressure to read the Kerrang." "I was supposed to go to Birmingham last week but I forgot my passport," others were more to th epoint calling it 'utter rubbish' and rightly accused him of 'speaking nonsense.' But my personal favourite response is - 'In Britain the weather switches between Sunni and Shi'ite'
Apparently this clown has even been before Congressional committees to give evidence on terrorism- how he knows nothing!



He has now issued an apology-

"I have clearly made a terrible error for which I am deeply sorry. My comments about Birmingham were totally in error.
I do not intend to justify or mitigate my mistake by stating that I had relied on other sources because I should have been much more careful.
There was no excuse for making this mistake and I owe an apology to every resident of Birmingham."

Is that the sound of his credibility as an 'expert' collapsing?
It amazes me what gets by in America as supposed news on tv. Checking your facts and your sources is the very first basic tenant of journalism.

[David H]

The FOX business model is based on crossing these journalistic lines regularly, because they know it gets people angry, and angry people can be counted on to post links to them, which translates into better ratings and higher profits. Murdock!

[halfwise]

I like the expression on her face. Hard to tell if she's shocked because she believes him or shocked that he would actually say such a thing.

[Pettytyrant101]

She shocks me- if thats a real US judge Eru help you people- a shrill, shrieking, warmongering harpy who basis her opinions on a complete absence of evidence or facts. She terrifies and annoys me in equal measure.
She seems to epitomize the stereotypical overly loud ill-informed ignorant American. In fact its because of people like her that stereotype exists in the first place.

[Pettytyrant101]

Very depressing whilst watching Question Time to see the English audience still under the delusion Scotland has free education and prescription charges because of English subsidy whilst the English go without.
After the referendum campaign and this myth being completely put to rest on all sides up to and including the PM it was shocking on the BBC flagship political debate program to not only see this myth alive and kicking but go completely without refute by anyone involved.

[Pettytyrant101]

Hats off to Scottish Tory Leader Ruth Davidson.
Whilst Cameron ordered all official building put flags to half mast to mark the death of the Saudi King, and fawning remarks about a country who routinely torture, murder, rape, flog, stone women to death and break all basic human rights laws on a daily bias, Ruth Davidson tweeted about the decision calling it a 'steaming pile of nonsense' and a "stupid act on its own and a stupid precedent to set".

[Pettytyrant101]

Al Murray, in his guise as the Pub Landlord, is standing against UKIP at the General election- heres the campaign pitch-

[Eldorion]

That was good.

[halfwise]

"We all know unemployment causes crime; I propose to lock up the unemployed."

[Pettytyrant101]

Obama proposed tax on overseas profits of US companies seem a smart move.
Fiscally it pays a huge chunk of his proposed road works scheme and politically its very hard to defend against.
If the republicans block it they look like they are siding with their business chums over the people and helping them hide tax revenue, and if they pass it their own base goes nuts as its classic top down redistribution of wealth.
Smart bit of politics.

[halfwise]

But the Republicans will always side with business versus the number of small fry in their constituency. You just watch: they'll follow the money every time.

[Pettytyrant101]

No doubt, but going into an election period I think it will cost them politically, and its an easy point to score for Democrats throughout by bringing it up that the Republicans blocked billions in revenue from legitimate taxes whilst middle America is being squeezed.

[halfwise]

Their more likely approach is to say we should be lowering taxes on business to bring them back to America rather than loading extra taxes on the sainted businessmen.

[Pettytyrant101]

Yeah but thats a hard sell when multinationals and blatantly keeping money in offshore tax havens to avoid paying- and especially as they are only being asked to pay less than half what they should be paying.
It would also mean that there would be less incentive to keep all their money in such places and in theory some more of it should make its way back stateside.

I would think in the current world economic climate trying to persuade the people that rather than big business paying their dues and investing the money in public works, big business should just get to keep all the money and the public get nothing is a hard sell.

[halfwise]

Oh Petty, Petty...you'll never understand conservatives and business.  We should pity the poor businessman who is so weighted down by local taxes that he's compelled to flee.  It hurts his patriotic heart (for all businessmen of course are deep patriots), but what else can he do?  

Well, for one thing he can fund the campaigns of those who are trying to bring him back to home soil by lowering taxes....

[Bluebottle]

You just watch: they'll follow the money every time.

Well, if they follow the money maybe they can find some and tax it.

Like that is going to happen..

[chris63]

Global warming and "climate change" can both refer to the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth's climate system and its related effects, although climate change can also refer to any historic change in climate. Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming. This visualization shows how global temperatures have risen from 1950 through the end of 2013 (NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming

[halfwise]

Good visualization.

[Mrs Figg]

its not all bad news the 70s were flipping freezing. not that I remember the 70s or anything.

[David H]

Related to Chris's model of global warming, I thought this was an interesting article:
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/best-technology-fighting-climate-change-trees-173037490.html

But in a new report, Oxford University researchers say that our best hopes might not be so complex.

In fact, they are two things we already know how to do: plant trees and improve the soil.

Both techniques, said the report, are “no regrets.” They’ll help the atmosphere no matter what, they’re comparatively low-cost, and they carry little additional risk. Specifically, the two techniques it recommends are afforestation—planting trees where there were none before—and biochar—improving the soil by burying a layer of dense charcoal.

Between now and 2050, trees and charcoal are the “most promising” technologies out there, it said.

It also cautioned, however, that these so-called “Negative Emissions Technologies” or NETs should only be seen as a way to stave off the worst of climate change.

At least those are things I know how to do!

[halfwise]

The last comment about "stave off the worst of climate change" is just referring to what happens if we stop new emissions: the damage is done, we'll keep warming up, we just don't want to pile more on top of that.

But I shouldn't be talking in intrinsically negative terms. As Figgs rightly points out, a changing climate isn't necessarily bad. It's only bad if it happens faster than our economic system (and some of our more beloved biomes) can adapt to it. Other than the speed at which it happens, there's not a tear to be shed for an earth that's a few degrees warmer.

[David H]

What's appealing about the approach is that it's something that is easily comprehensible that we can actually do. What scares me the most it the attitude of people who actually accept that the planet is warming but shrug and say, "There's nothing we can do about it, so what the f***, let's go out with a bang!"

[azriel]

I agree, Its easy to say when your in a store shopping, in the safety of your front room, walking down the high street. Wait till the sea has risen up, fierce storms & a blackened sky.

[Mrs Figg]

not too long ago the Earth went through a Little Ice Age 1350-1850 so its always had quite dramatic plunges into extreme temps. People just adapt. That said, we have damaged ourselves this time.

[Mrs Figg]

so getting rid of Ghadafi was a reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeely bad idea. its a funny old world when Sadam and Ghadafi start to look like reasonable chaps. I miss them and their nice uniforms. LOL.