The Will Rhodes Portmanteau

Allege 4th of July flip-flop

I am getting to the stage where I am feeling sorry for John McCain - no, really I am. The man has surrounded himself with - well not so sharp tools.

His team comes out with a flip-flop allegation on the 4th of July - if you don’t know then this day is a day many, if not most, Americans are watching the gas and fireworks - so this allegation is going to have to be made again - when someone is watching.

What will happen is that Obama will answer the allegation, correctly that while running for presidents - he isn’t president so DOESN’T have access to all the presidential documents that Bush has - shocker? You may think that all who are in congress do - but I can assure you they don’t, that is the same with any country. The government has the full facts, not the opposition.

So what id John and his team alleging?

The say that Obama is flip-flopping about his date of withdrawal of troops from Iraq, not that he won’t withdraw, just that when he becomes president it may need to be changed - how those troops are to be withdrawn as safely as possible.

That is a good judgement call! And to be a good president you need good judgement more than you need to keep telling people you can fly a plane and get captured! DUH!

Oil prices makes one senator reminisce

With a barrel of oil sitting at the $140+ mark, and it is the US’ national day - some what to get out a bit in their cars and stuff - at least to see the fireworks. So what does one US senator say to do? Slow people down!

Quite correct - he wants a national speed limit like once in the US of 55 mph that, he says, will save hundreds of barrels of oil. cool!

But, that as a short term stopgap could be worth it, but people can do that themselves, can they not? Why legislate? You need to do that because people in the US don’t want to slow down - they want to go the full 65 mph! They want cheap fuel back - this is why the Republicans keep on with the stupid idea that drilling for oil - again that won’t come into fruition for years to come - is the be all and end all of this equation.

Yet, all it will take to save those hundreds of thousands of barrels is right across the Atlantic. It is smaller and much more efficient engined vehicles. It really isn’t rocket science!

Educate the people about efficiency - we all save then!

Google uses the word privacy

I don’t know about you but I remember a while ago when Google came under great strain to defend their privacy policies for online users. They defended that policy with a passion saying that peoples privacy was going to be upheld by Google and would not be circumvented - then you have a judge in the US who says that all information from YouTube must be made available to those suing Google for damages.

Now, will this information identify the viewers of online video - because if it does, Google will have some real PR to make up - Google says your information is safe with them, obviously it isn’t because a US judge can undermine Google policy. That judge has said that every video viewed and information to who viewed it be given up to Viacom and others.

That is one hell of a lot of data - but will this make Google rethink their privacy policy? Will it mean that people move away from Google because it now means that all information held by the big online companies can be used in a US court?

We will have to wait and see how this pans out.

Another slap in the face of the British electorate

After much wrangling - and diplomatic ineptitude British MPs are to keep their $48,000 allowance each year despite growing anger from the common voter.

The allowance is for a second home in London. Now, London is a very expensive place to live, yet - MPs get a very healthy salary each year, ministers even more. The argument goes that MPs need a second home to provide their services to the country hence they need a new kitchen each year - and TV etc.

This home is owned by the MP - so any profit that is made when that house is sold goes directly to the MP - the public, even though they have paid for the fixtures and furnishings don’t see a penny of that profit.

If you are injured in the UK and you claim a benefit from the government - like incapacity benefit, and you are awarded damages you have to pay all that money back. That may seem OK and just, but while you are working you pay National Insurance and Income tax, those deductions from your wage/salary are supposed to go for when you are sick or unable to work etc. But, the government takes back all if you win a claim - so the government wins on both occasions.

How does that tie in with the MPs? Well - if you are paid an allowance to live in London then, from any profit you make you should pay that amount back!

Simple as, really.

Please vote out this ‘New’ Labour government and lets try to get some sanity back into British politics!

Celebrities spied on

In the US you would think that passport information would be locked up tight, very tight - yet, as it seems, celebs are having their passports looked over routinely. Now why would that be?

Could it be that those whose passports were looked at could be Obama supporters? The list was made up of musicians, athletes and movie, television and media personalities. Could this be a matter that instead of an open meeting questioning the motives of these stars - someone is looking for dirt to dish out during the US election campaign.

It could be that the US State Dept’s officials are quite inept at doing their job - yet what would that say about the State Dept itself?

Something is amiss here - let’s watch the GOP campaign over the next few months.

So I can take great delight in banning this drivel!

What is the world coming to when such things are allowed in British schools? They are places of education - it is good that the leaving age is raised to 18, but this sort of triviality should be banned!

If for nothing else health & Safety! Do these children not know how much damage they are doing to the environment packing themselves into stretch limo’s?

Bring back British values in schools! Ban Prom’s!

BBC NEWS | Magazine | Over school and over here

John McCain beats terrorist single-handedly

That could have been the headlines in the newspapers and online today.

But the GOP missed that opportunity. We know that the GOP don’t out-and-out lie, but they can stretch the truth a little.

Instead of this story they could easier put out a retractable piece saying that John McCain was in charge of the rescue, or at least an advisor!

Getting out onto the internet is a good thing - isn’t it?

Seems his shake-up hasn’t been that good for him, no?

Glenn, in his infinite wisdom is one who advocates drilling off-shore, then comes around to blame Bill Clinton for not have foresight to get that oil ready for the market today.

This is, of course, the same argument heard around President Clinton’s veto of ANWR drilling in 1995. Among other things, if we had started drilling ANWR then, oil would be already flowing.

I scratched my head, too.

I read the story and looked on as I thought, ‘Well who do you blame for the oil crisis in the US now, Glenn?’ He didn’t say - or if he did then can someone tell me where?

But, a real question. Who is the oil factor effecting? The ordinary US citizen, of course - and I take his point about if you pay for fuel you can’t have that plasma screen TV - now, is that the real way to show the economic result of oil being so high? That Americans want both cheap oil to power their 6 litre car as well as the plasma TV? Seems so.

What about the poorer people in society that can afford neither the 6 litre car and the plasma TV? Don’t they count because they don’t have a certain amount of disposable income?

Glenn goes on to further dupe the US reader, listener with his view that drilling would be the godsend that America needs, I like that he uses North America, that the continant not the USA. Why? Well look at how Canada supplies the US - Mexico, too. The US has had these oil reserves he speaks of for as long as there has been an oil industry - why was it Bill Clinton back in the 90s who should be to blame? What about Reagan? Or other Republicans who have been in office far more times than any Democrat. The reason is cost - the oil companies were not prepared to add to the cost of cheap oil by going out and drilling it way back when - now that they are making a killing in the speculaors market - and making profit - they can see a reason for doing so. If the average Joe thinks it all about terrorism and some other fear factor the GOP can come up with is bland to the facts.

It’s good that Glenn comes out to blame nature herself - yes, that wench Mother Nature, he says. I did laugh but then mother nature giving free oil by seepage is an interesting thought - go collect that oil then? Well no - the cost would be way too high and non-profit.

What is causing the crisis is that China and India are wanting more oil to power their surge to wealth - the US, one of the most technologically advanced nations ever seen - dropped the ball, oil could have been a thing of the past if the US had been as innovating as she was years ago - but she had access to very cheap oil so it wasn’t a priotiy, simple as. Now that is different.

And, as a passing point - if you think that US, Dutch, British oil companies are suffering like you - look at the profits they are making - who do you think sells to the Chinese and Indians?

Just imagine, then, if those Americans (because this post is mainly toward Americans) if you got rid of all those 6 litre gas guzzlers and drove 1.6, 1.8 or even 2.0 litre efficient cars, how much do you think you could save on fuel - it would be enough to buy your plasma TV - and the benefit to that would be the poorer in society would have access to them in the coming years.

Just a thought, though.

Commentary: Your gas money for a flat screen? - CNN.com

I had meant to get around

A few blog friend mentioned an idea - but me being me and preoccupied with all things political - I forgot, so now I haven’t forgot - I will write a little here.

I, of sound mind and somewhat sound body, decided to tell you a little about me - not just the normal about me page, you can see that up at the top “An Englishman in Canada” bit.

More so I wanted to say what made me start writing.

I have worked most of my adult life in the good old Yorkshire mills - of wool and derivatives, the jobs were a-plenty in the days before Thatcher - Yorkshire was, and still is, sat atop millions of tons of coal but due to her short-sightedness, she wanted to destroy the British Trade Unions, she put an end to coal mining in Yorkshire, this had, obviously, a trade on effect and the County suffered due to her.

But say you, ‘What made you write?’

Boredom!

This is one of the problems you have working in t’mill - it is the same day in, day out for little pay. But that leads you to being able to think - and with thinking you get ideas - and with ideas some stick in your mind. When that happens you want to write things down - and that is what I did.

I wrote by hand - and in pencil at that, much easier to erase a mistake. I wrote in fifteen minutes batches, this was between changing stillages - cut, tie, switch machine back on - write. That for 8, 10 or 12 hours a day. I never looked at that first book I wrote until about 5 years ago - I knew before I looked it was terrible, I was correct!

I grew to re-love writing - I hated it since the day my English teacher had me read a poem I wrote on the schools stage, that was a good poem by the way. But the experience put me off for years to come.

The novels I have waiting to be published are:

Of Angels and Demons (Draft title).

The rising of Zillion (Draft title)

In Charge of a Stairway, in final draft pre proof-reading.

So there you go - the first blog on Idiosyncratica - enjoy!

Please check out:

Gary

Mike

Lottie

Absolute zero cool!

You have to admit that this story is really cool! I was a kid when the Voyager craft were launched - and as far as I can remember they weren’t supposed to last that long. But to say that we are still getting data from them is a triumph of engineering.

What other cosmological oddities are we going to find out about over the coming decades? I really wouldn’t like to speculate but they are going to be awesome!

That push is from the magnetic field that lies between star systems in the Milky Way. The magnetic field hits the solar system at a different angle on the south than on the north, probably because of interstellar turbulence from star explosions, said Voyager project scientist Ed Stone.

Both spacecraft still have several more years before they completely exit the solar system and continue deeper into the space between stars, said Stone, former director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab.

Who knew? Solar system is ‘dented,’ not round - CNN.com