The Political Thread

[JOE SOAP]

I'm still not going to mass.

[TordelBack]

I'm still not going to mass more than once a day.

Slacker.

[JOE SOAP]

An altar-boy's work is never done ≈cough

[Hawkmumbler]

I'm still not going to mass.

Yeah, prity much a snap.

[TordelBack]

So aside from David Blunkett's party conference speech claiming that it was  the acceptance of homosexuality, cabarets and Jazz clubs led to the rise of Nazi Germany, and not, as you might have supposed, grinding economic hardship, I loved this snippet from Helen Goodman, shadow minister for media reform:

It would be quite wrong if we were to preserve a special place within the law, where the net could be outside the law. The net today should not be like the forest in the 13th Century.  Robin Hood and the outlaws - they were called that because they were outside the law - that was not a sustainable position in the 13th Century and it's not a sustainable position now.

Those Merry Men terrorist insurgents, what were they thinking with their unacceptable left-wing ideas about redistribution of wealth and resisting unjust tyranny...  Vote Sheriff of Nottingham for a safer sylvan environment and the perpetuation of existing systemic inequalities!

That, and not being real.

Oh Labour, whatever happened to you, man.  You used to be cool.

[Frank]

I hope someone interrupted Blunkett, announced that he'd Godwinned the conference, and told everyone to go home.

Yes, Dave, goat herders in the Tyrol acquiesced to the holocaust because bumming was going on in a few nightclubs in Berlin. Those earnest farming folk would probably be more concerned with the idea of other men fucking their wives, the prospect of being tricked into raising the bastards resulting from that adultery as their own, and the decline in standards of public life which sees corrupt government officials using their position to procure preferential treatment which allows their already rich cronies to exploit residents of the second world for their own benefit.

As a wee boy, I remember laughing at old people who traced all of the nation's ills back to the change to counting money in multiples of 10 instead of 12 - it's odd to see a similar process happening in my adult life with regard to porn and technology. Folk don't ditch democratically elected governments because they no longer have to scour hedgerows for discarded stroke books anymore. Just as in Wiemar Germany, they're more likely to overthrow the government of the day because of economic factors and out of touch politicians. You'd think New labour veterans would have learned that lesson ...

[The Legendary Shark]

Of course they've learned their lesson. The lesson being that if we're all at one another's throats over everything from Fascism to football, we won't notice who's selling us the guns and the goalposts. If we're all struggling to pay the bills, we won't have time to wonder why we're paying or what we're paying with. If all our "heroes" are celebrities and all our dreams are about brand-new possessions, we're all so much easier to bribe. Encourage the greedy and the sociopathic into positions of power whilst marginalising and ridiculing the independent thinkers, projecting the impression that all politics must be grubby and self-serving, undermining trust. International corporate and banking fraud goes largely unanswered while disabled people who can't afford the Bedroom Tax are being evicted over two hundred quid. As Johnny Cash sang, "everywhere you look, things need changing."

So yeah - lessons have been learned. The Elites have learned that things, countries and even whole worlds are a lot cheaper to buy when they're broken, polluted and/or on fire.

[Professor Bear]

It would be quite wrong if we were to preserve a special place within the law, where the net could be outside the law. The net today should not be like the forest in the 13th Century.  Robin Hood and the outlaws - they were called that because they were outside the law - that was not a sustainable position in the 13th Century and it's not a sustainable position now.

I'm sorry, I don't understand what's going on here: a rich person is defending a system of unfair taxes on the poorest members of society, tax money which goes via various means into the pockets of the rich or well-off and their cronies because there's no accountability and "democracy" is a sham as power resides in the hands of a small group of rich white people who tell poor people that they're not trying hard enough, that they are the problem that needs solving, and this person is doing so by saying Robin Hood is the baddie?  Is this some meta thing I don't understand or has human history just run out of ideas and begun recycling?

[The Legendary Shark]

Robin Hood lived outside of man's law - the artificial, paper acts, legislation and tax demands symbolised by the Sheriff's towns - preferring instead to live under the basic Common Law which was symbolised by the forest - where the only law is natural law.

People have forgotten the power of Common Law, thinking it outmoded and irrelevant, but it is still the foundation of our legal system and everyone knows it:

Cause loss, harm or damage to no one; pay your lawful bills, honour your lawful contracts and be honest in your dealings with people. Even more succinctly; do unto others as you'd have others do unto you.

But when we allow folks like the Sheriff of Nottingham, Rabid Macaroon and Angular Merkin make the "laws" all we get is shafted and then despised for bending over to take it.

So, at least in my fevered imagining gland,  Robin Hood wasn't technically an outlaw, operating as he did more in the realms of Common or Natural Law. A more accurate but entirely less romantic description might be 'outlegislation' or even 'free human'.

[JayzusB.Christ]

So aside from David Blunkett's party conference speech claiming that it was  the acceptance of homosexuality, cabarets and Jazz clubs led to the rise of Nazi Germany, and not, as you might have supposed, grinding economic hardship, I loved this snippet from Helen Goodman, shadow minister for media reform:

It would be quite wrong if we were to preserve a special place within the law, where the net could be outside the law. The net today should not be like the forest in the 13th Century.  Robin Hood and the outlaws - they were called that because they were outside the law - that was not a sustainable position in the 13th Century and it's not a sustainable position now.

Those Merry Men terrorist insurgents, what were they thinking with their unacceptable left-wing ideas about redistribution of wealth and resisting unjust tyranny...  Vote Sheriff of Nottingham for a safer sylvan environment and the perpetuation of existing systemic inequalities!

That, and not being real.

Oh Labour, whatever happened to you, man.  You used to be cool.

To descend into very bad taste and paraphrase a letter into Viz, why doesn't everyone just tell Blunkett that they've stopped putting porn on the internet?  He won't know any better.  (Sorry)

[Frank]

As of midnight, government of the people, by the people and for the people in the USA has perished from this Earth:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPfcim_p38w

[TordelBack]

As of midnight, government of the people, by the people and for the people in the USA has perished from this Earth:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPfcim_p38w

Excellent, just think of all those army bases round the world standing empty, Guantanamo unguarded, torture chambers silent, all those drones sitting idle and nuclear subs pulling in for some desert island shore leave.  That seems a fair trade for delaying the hated roll-out of quasi-affordable healthcare. 

What's that you say, it only applies to the non-lethal arms of government?  I particularly like that veteran's benefits will be suspended, while serving military are unaffected, it sort of sums it all up. 

I'm no fan of Obama these days, but Republicans really are dicks.  How can anyone believe that the best way to serve your constituents is to grind the country to a halt. 

[The Legendary Shark]

They're not serving their constituents - they're serving the corporations. Like I said, it's cheaper to buy (or privatise) things that are, ostensibly at least, broken.

Who'd want to pay top dollar for a top quality health service, for example? Nobody because it'd be too expensive. Luckily, the top corporations also own large chunks of the media so it's easy to bring the price down by blowing small or localised problems out of all proportion.

The U.S. Government "shutdown" is nothing more than theatrics to show that banks and the phantom money and credit they create and issue are more important and more powerful than the people and their governments. It's just brainwashing and misdirection.

Similarly, Rabid Macaroon's latest wheeze to remove the U.K. from the "European Declaration of Human Rights" is designed to get people arguing about who should be allowed do decide what your rights are when we were all born with Natural Common Law Rights and Responsibilities.

It is the People who give the government its rights, not the other way around.

Somehow, the banks and corporations have convinced governments and societies around the world that their rights are paramount, with the rights of people and governments coming a poor third (after the rights of animals and plants). The U.S. "Shutdown" is simply a demonstration of power from the elites to keep us all scared.

[TordelBack]

Somehow, the banks and corporations have convinced governments and societies around the world that their rights are paramount, with the rights of people and governments coming a poor third (after the rights of animals and plants). The U.S. "Shutdown" is simply a demonstration of power from the elites to keep us all scared.

I always feel a twinge of dread when I respond to a TLS post thusly, but:

S'right.

[Modern Panther]

the Randian Utopia of a people without government has finally been achieved by the Republicans.  Lets see how that works out for them...