The Political Thread

[The Legendary Shark]

Some private corporation wrote to me today on behalf of the council informing me that my housing benefit may be cut due to the government's unnecessary 'austerity measures'.
Now, legally speaking, I think that this letter is technically an offer of a contract - they're offering me the opportunity to claim less in benefits. If I don't write back to them, I will be deemed to have accepted their authority to alter and amend my 'claim' as they see fit. So I simply wrote 'I do not consent to this' on their letter and sent it back to them.
Will it work? Well, it worked with the TV License and seems to be working with the water company, too. It's time to fight back, people. Democracy is rule by consent, so any legislation passed by a democratic government is also consentual, therefore we do not have to consent to any of it. (And before anybody goes off on one, things like murder, GBH and theft come under common law, not statute law.)

[Professor Bear]

If anyone can explain to me the difference between the activities of successive UK governments between 1985 and 2006, exchanging Saudi blood money for clean UK tax payer's cash via the exchange of oil - or how that gives the highest offices of state any more dignity or integrity than the porn shops organised criminals use to launder the proceeds of violence and vice - wins a special prize.

The army and police force are the means through which the state's monopoly on the use of violence to enforce its will is how we maintain a healthy democracy, and if you take that to its logical end, the state must be allowed the use of other acts - lies, murder, torture, theft - that would unconscionable if perpetrated by one citizen upon another.  The government is allowed to beat the shit out of you and bang you up for years if you don't cough up your taxes - a tithe they have not in any way earned which is taken from the poor and given to the rich - yet the small businessmen of the local mafia try this same tactic on a smaller scale and they're branded criminals - "one law for some" is hardly a new situation.

Now I feel bad I didn't organise an actual prize.

You know who else lies, Sauchie?  Governments.

[The Legendary Shark]

Governments don't lie.

People lie.

[Frank]

Don't fuck with the IDF. There were four folk in that car, including the target's son; it's difficult to believe they all posed a direct threat to Israeli security.

[Professor Bear]

Governments don't lie.

People lie.

Giving you the facts as best they understand them at the time to be accurate isn't lying, it's their job.

[Frank]

Don't fuck with the IDF. There were four folk in that car, including the target's son; it's difficult to believe they all posed a direct threat to Israeli security.

Ignore my previous post; Hamas have killed three Israeli civilians with rocket attacks. That makes everything equal, and I'm sure this is the last we'll be hearing of this matter.

[TordelBack]

Don't fuck with the IDF. There were four folk in that car, including the target's son; it's difficult to believe they all posed a direct threat to Israeli security.

Ignore my previous post; Hamas have killed three Israeli civilians with rocket attacks. That makes everything equal, and I'm sure this is the last we'll be hearing of this matter.

I'd say everyone presently in positions of power are genuinely delighted with that neat little exchange.  Israel provokes Hamas, Hamas provokes Israel, a few rockets here and there and hopefully a revitalised cycle of escalation and retaliation, and everyone's political relevance is demonstrably assured into the elections.   When you think of the multi-billions wasted on swaying voters in the US elections, some well-placed ordnance is a much more efficient way of maintaining the status quo for both sides.

[The Legendary Shark]

....some well-placed ordnance is a much more efficient way of maintaining the status quo for both sides.

As JFK discovered.

[Frank]

....some well-placed ordnance is a much more efficient way of maintaining the status quo for both sides.

As JFK discovered.

To be fair, that required a magic bullet.

[Frank]

I'd say everyone presently in positions of power are genuinely delighted with that neat little exchange.  Israel provokes Hamas, Hamas provokes Israel, a few rockets here and there and hopefully a revitalised cycle of escalation and retaliation, and everyone's political relevance is demonstrably assured into the elections.   When you think of the multi-billions wasted on swaying voters in the US elections, some well-placed ordnance is a much more efficient way of maintaining the status quo for both sides.

Channel Four News have representatives of Israel and The Palestinian Authority on just now, both stating that they're only responding to the other party's aggression. Andrew Marr had an Israeli author on STW this Monday, who made the point that the West (the liberal West, anyway) tends to think of hostilities between Israel and Paletine as being the result of some catastrophic misunderstanding, whereas both sides actually understand each other perfectly and they're both right.

There are only a small number of dicks sustaining the cycle of violence, but it would be foolish for either party to unilaterally renounce violence when the relatively few hot heads and angry voices on each side enjoy such political influence, and would use that moment of vulnerability to inflict a devastating coup de grâce. It's difficult to see any way out of that impasse without the geopolitics of the region changing more significantly than the Arab Spring has managed to achieve so far.

[COMMANDO FORCES]

I hope you all made the effort to vote today, I drokkin' did

[Frank]

Disappointing, CF; Tharg's soft on sentencing.

[Spikes]

I could have voted for John Prescott. But i didnt.

[vzzbux]

Is this political? It is now.
Dated 2010. We are now nearing the end. Apparently 3 billion will die, thats only half Dredds total.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU537f4bnFM&feature=related



V

[I, Cosh]

For a second there, I thought Paulo Wanchope was the UKIP candidate on your ballot.