2010 — 11 February: Thursday
Good grief; suddenly it's after midnight. Better get some sleep ahead of a walk later.
Thanks, Len, for this link to a not-very-PC item. It made me chortle just as much as yesterday's engineering rap from Ian, and it would also have tickled Christa more than somewhat, too, had she not gone and died on us 27 months ago... Ho hum.
G'night, at 00:51 or so. (I've been having a bit of a tidy-up but the dinky Dyson now needs recharging.)
Frosty start
But nothing a nice, hot cuppa can't deal with. I note that Charlie Wilson has died. And that it is 20 years since the release of Nelson Mandela. How Time continues to fly. It's 08:05 and time to rejoin the world. How, by the way, does British Telecom manage to develop a £9,000,000,000 "hole" (as they are invariably described) in its pension fund?
Either someone locally has been burning newspapers or it's snowing! But the sun is shining, too. And the witless wonders of BBC Radio 4 are trying to make us feel superior to Greece in what seems to me an attempt to deflect attention from the surely parlous state of the UK economy. Pah! Do I really want to hear from "Lord" (?!) Norman Lamont?1 I don't think so!
Aah, riches
A favourite gadfly of mine is at it again. Source and snippet:
For Galbraith, a dollar spent on, say, public education results in a dollar's worth of educated person, virtually without deduction. Troubling evidence to the contrary — for example, the fact that Britain spends nearly $100,000 per child on public education, and yet a fifth of the population is unable to read with facility or do simple arithmetic — does not figure in his work; he always writes as if all would be well if only $200,000 were spent.
He accepts that enrichment can be licit, no doubt thinking primarily of his own; but his enrichment came about by advocating in best-selling books the governmental expropriation of the riches of others. This enabled him to maintain his image of himself as one of the moral elect...
And still the gentle flakes are falling while the sun shines on. Better get dressed I suppose. It's 09:17 already.
Big Bro has sent me a nice snippet but it will have to keep. I have some miles in the fresh air to clock up first. It's 10:00 and time I wasn't here, since I need to be there.
Six-plus hours and six-plus miles later
I've almost warmed up again. The next cuppa should do the trick.
Meanwhile, on gently researching Big Bro's snippet, it turns out to come (not wholly accurately in Bro's version) from a chap I'd never heard of who died five years ago. Given that he disapproved of abortion, reckoned capital punishment is spiritually ordained, maintained the bible to be accurate and totally free of error, adhered to dispensationalism (look it up — I certainly had to, being less than enthusiastic about biblical hermeneutics), criticised (male) parents for not teaching the ten commandments, thought slavery was a much maligned institution, was against alcohol and tobacco, and organised a boycott of Disney (not because of their ability to churn out rubbishy films but because of their alleged promotion of homosexuality!) I was mildly surprised to find myself basically in agreement with the snippet's sentiment. See if you are.
The quote is as received from Big Bro, though with my emphasis. The Wikipedia link purports to offer the original variant:
You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.
It reminds me of something Bertrand Russell said.
Call me hopelessly naive... dept.
Nearly 20 years ago, the BBC "Week ending" radio programme (for completeists, try this book) featured what they described as a Party Political broadcast, on behalf of the human race. It ended: What we need is a radical solution. A global tax of 0.1% on the rich countries, which could raise £20,000,000,000 per year as a safety net for the poor. In our party, we believe in helping those who weren't invited to the party, before the party's over — for all of us.
Sounds remarkably similar to the idea described in this short piece. Richard Curtis and Bill Nighy — what's not to like?
Nor is there much to dislike in the latest update to Open Office. (Though it's odd to see "Java is a trademark of Oracle" after seeing it associated with Sun for so many years.) Progress, I suppose.