Orwell v. Huxley

Just when I doubt the level of absurdity involved with what passes for law and justice in Britain, something fresh from the bowels of Dystopia is presented for our entertainment:

Police in the UK are planning to use unmanned spy drones, controversially deployed in Afghanistan, for the ­"routine" monitoring of antisocial motorists, ­protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers, in a significant expansion of covert state surveillance.

The arms manufacturer BAE Systems, which produces a range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for war zones, is adapting the military-style planes for a consortium of government agencies led by Kent police.

Funded by the taxpayers, for the taxpayers, as a necessary step in the War Against Whatever, for their own safety. It's not as bad as the obedience collars suggested by our very own DHS, but I'm sure they're getting to that. Presumably, it will activate when the serf subject runs with scissors, or is eating paste during publicly-televised lectures.

Initially, the picture above was meant to be funny, but then I found this, and the humor dried up.

Caturday Night Special, Episode 0x4D

I hate flying coach. Not that I think anyone likes flying coach, but being shoe-horned in like sardines with screaming children on either side is the surest way to dissolve any remaining entertainment of the idea that there is romance in travel.

Having traveled by train, I like the idea of doing so, but Amtrak has buried any hope of maintaining a schedule to its victims, and does so at a king's ransom.

Dagny, where are you?

UPDATE: Well, as predictable as it might be, at least it's not British Airways.

RTFM

Just which book is he reading from, exactly?

Poor people who are desperate for cash have been advised to go forth and shoplift from major stores - by an Anglican priest.

The Rev Tim Jones said in his Sunday sermon that stealing from successful shops was preferable to burglary, robbery or prostitution.

He told parishioners it would not break the eighth commandment 'thou shalt not steal' because it 'is permissible for those who are in desperate situations to take food that they might not starve'.

Rev Jones later added that the worship of Baal, Baphomet and Mammon would be acceptable in the interest of diversity in faith, and that murder would be condoned in cases of "necessary social justice".

Perhaps the Anglican Church should start encouraging its congregation to provide for those in their community in some sort of charitable capacity, on an anonymous donor level to be managed and distributed by the clergy, if necessary, rather than encouraging them to sin.

Nice suit there, Rev. How many bushels of wheat did it run?

Perhaps we should send unicorns and rainbows

As the saying goes, the truth will out:

Britain's violent crime record is worse than any other country in the European union, it has been revealed.

Official crime figures show the UK also has a worse rate for all types of violence than the U.S. and even South Africa - widely considered one of the world's most dangerous countries.

What a devastatingly obvious result: disarming an entire nation, flooding it with third-world immigrants that have zero desire to assimilate into the native culture, and cracking down on the native citizenry in ways that would make the old Soviet Politburo green with envy creates a perfect environment for criminal activity.

Don't think it won't happen here.

Peeking into the mind of British bureaucracy

It all begins to make sense...

Edgy, but largely without a point

It's an excellent scam, but the situation defies belief:

The first “anti-stab” knife is to go on sale in Britain, designed to work as normal in the kitchen but to be ineffective as a weapon.

The knife has a rounded edge instead of a point and will snag on clothing and skin to make it more difficult to stab someone.

Getting one's self killed with one of these "safe knives" won't make one any less dead for the effort. In fact, there is danger in the idea that there is any such thing as a "safe knife" to begin with; as even the most wet-behind-the-ears Scout knows, a dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp one due to forcing the blade during use, and failure to treat any tool with respect will inevitably lead to injury.

One hardly knows what to expect next; a universal ban on grinding wheels? Perhaps cleavers? Rocks? Whiffle bats?

Pathetic.

When a problem comes along, you must empty the clip

Hindsight is twenty-twenty, and all it took was a couple of comments for me to realize that something without comment-space would be unwieldy. So, we're back to "round-up" posts until I get this figured out. Here are the links, preserved for posterity:

- US Customs poised to ban one-handed assisted-open knives.

- "Isn't it time we started rounding up promoters of hate before they kill?"

- Use a camera, go to jail. (Via Lew Rockwell Blog)

A distinct dearth of frog-marching and irons

I lament that the United Kingdom is so Milquetoast, so anemic in its desire for liberty that the trash must take itself out:

LONDON -- U.K. Home Office Minister Jacqui Smith will resign her post, a person familiar with the matter said, becoming the most senior member of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's team to leave amid a scandal over politicians' reimbursement claims.

Ms. Smith, who oversees counterterrorism, immigration, law enforcement and other areas, will depart when Mr. Brown unveils a cabinet reorganization, this person said, but she plans to run for re-election to Parliament.

Ms. Smith informed Mr. Brown of her decision two months ago, the person said. Ms. Smith didn't return calls seeking comment.

Surely the United Kingdom still has trees with sufficient strength of limb from which to hoist this homely harridan?

While I am pleased that Smith is leaving (the faster the better), it is the right thing done for the wrong reason:

Ms. Smith was one of the first caught up in the scandal. Earlier this year, when newspapers reported that she had charged taxpayers for two pay-per-view pornographic movies ordered by her husband -- a paid member of her staff -- Ms. Smith said claiming the expense was a mistake and reimbursed the cost.

Ms. Smith became the first woman to serve as Home Office minister when Mr. Brown appointed her to the position in October. A person familiar with the matter said Ms. Smith wants to spend more time with her family and plans to concentrate on retaining her seat in the next election, which must be called within a year.

The only real scandal here is the trite nature of the charge to which the press attributes Smith's resignation and the absence of outrage over the Home Office's policies under her control; if anything, Smith's record as Secretary of the Home Office is another railroad-spike in the coffin of the notion that increased representation of women in government positions would yield a kinder, gentler government. And yet, undeterred by shame or scruples, she plans to run for public office again as an MP; unfortunately for the Brits, I am convinced that she has a rather accurate appraisal of the average voter's ability to think critically while at the ballot-box.

(A more complete list of offenses: the "might as well be chipped" card, the "persona non grata" list, the "Big Brother" database, time-dilation of habeas corpus, and crusading for surveillance/loud-speaker implementation.)

Putting the child back in "Schild und Schwert"

Little Brother and Little Sister are watching you:

Luton Borough Council's Street Seen scheme encourages its 650 volunteers to report 'environmental concerns'. It is also recruiting 'Junior Street Champions', aged between seven and 11.

Primary schools could also be involved within two years.

Similarly, Islington Council in north London has recruited 1,200 'Islington Eyes' to report crime hotspots, fly-tipping and excess noise from DIY.

Volunteers are given a list of things to do when confronted with fly-tippers, including taking photos 'without being seen'.

Considering that even a modest council-budget could outfit a legion of these snot-nosed lice with equipment that would have made the actual STASI wet their pants in excitement, this should prove to be a profitable venture for the micro-tyrants of the United Kingdom's various townships.

A spokesman for the Local Government Association said: 'Environment volunteers are people who care passionately about their local area and want to protect it from vandals, graffitists and fly-tippers.

'These community-spirited residents are not snoopers.

'They help councils cut crime and make places cleaner, greener and safer.'

Wasn't this the plot-line for Hot Fuzz?

What a sad spectacle this nation has become.

Better ladder than never

Honestly, I can't make this stuff up:

ACADEMICS at Oxford University have banned step-ladders from its world famous Bodleian library – because of health and safety fears.

The ban means students are unable to reach books on the top shelves but dons refuse to bring them lower because it would remove them from their “original historic location”.

"Besides," the health and safety officer said, "it's common knowledge that those books contain ideas not listed in the Party-approved literature lists, and we certainly wouldn't want that sort of rubbish floating about within easy reach... It causes sluggishly-progressing schizophrenia, and if that's not a health and safety issue, then I'm the Queen-Mum."

England Prevails

It's true, from the Magna Carta to the Home Office, from John of Salisbury to Jacqui Smith, and despite numerous warnings to the contrary, you've come a long way, baby:

Nikolai Bukharin claimed one of the Bolshevik Revolution's principal tasks was "to alter people's actual psychology". Britain is not Bolshevik, but a campaign to alter people's psychology and create a new Homo britannicus is under way without even a fig leaf of disguise.

The Government is pushing ahead with legislation that will criminalise politically incorrect jokes, with a maximum punishment of up to seven years' prison. The House of Lords tried to insert a free-speech amendment, but Justice Secretary Jack Straw knocked it out. It was Straw who previously called for a redefinition of Englishness and suggested the "global baggage of empire" was linked to soccer violence by "racist and xenophobic white males". He claimed the English "propensity for violence" was used to subjugate Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and that the English as a race were "potentially very aggressive".

Only aggressively stupid, Frau Straw, as they have allowed the totalitarian state to advance this far into their lives. Short of total collapse, it's here to stay, unless (however unlikely) the natives undergo a cultural revival laced with some of that dreaded latent "aggressiveness".

Perhaps, as is the case with many sub-sentient animals, if England threatens the young:

In September 2006, a 14-year-old schoolgirl, Codie Stott, asked a teacher if she could sit with another group to do a science project as all the girls with her spoke only Urdu. The teacher's first response, according to Stott, was to scream at her: "It's racist, you're going to get done by the police!" Upset and terrified, the schoolgirl went outside to calm down. The teacher called the police and a few days later, presumably after officialdom had thought the matter over, she was arrested and taken to a police station, where she was fingerprinted and photographed.

Hmm. I suppose this was not a sufficient affront to one's sanity to garner such a response. Never fear, England will do better next time, so long as the people willingly and knowingly entrust their children to its indoctrination-camps.

What if the people, particularly those clinging to the mysticism of the Days of Ignorance, are made to bow to the idol and kiss the ring of the State?

A bishop was warned by the police for not having done enough to "celebrate diversity", the enforcing of which is now apparently a police function. A Christian home for retired clergy and religious workers lost a grant because it would not reveal to official snoopers how many of the residents were homosexual. That they had never been asked was taken as evidence of homophobia.

Unless rolling over and urinating on oneself is a mysterious new strategy in combating the rampant and arbitrary abuse of power, this lands soundly in the camp of "failure". Of course, to have accepted the shekels of the State to begin with was to doom themselves from the start.

I am not yet so callous that I did not feel a small pang of pity for England-That-Was, or the erstwhile-unwilling Scotland and ever-rebellious Ireland, but there is no one to blame for this except themselves, and they deserve everything that is coming to them as a result of their folly, however horrific it may be. What they say is true: none of us is as stupid as all of us.

Perhaps, if the fires burn brightly enough at night from across the Atlantic, some will remember the last days of the United Kingdom and guard against those same mistakes, if just for a little while.

When in doubt, empty the clip

- Bee warned: there is a fungus among us.

- The logical and inevitable consequences of nationalized health-care.

- Speaking of logical and inevitable consequences: it seems that doing anything except bleating for help to the State (which may or may not respond within three hours) will not only get one murdered on one's doorstep, but will cause the State to deny your family compensation due to its negligence while simultaneously awarding those with sports injuries and "human rights" (read: taxpayer-funded narcotics).

- I have reason to suspect that Zimbabwe has finally exhausted its ink and paper reserves.

- In other news, water declared "wet", and human vision is mysteriously impaired at night; IMF is indicates that it will continue to forecast improvement in order to boot-strap the manufacture of confidence-based goods.

Imperial Privilege

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

The relationship between photographers and police could worsen next month when new laws are introduced that allow for the arrest and imprisonment of anyone who takes pictures of officers 'likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism'.

The very discussion of such a law being enacted should be a subject of international embarrassment for the country that birthed the Magna Carta.

You've come a long way, baby.

Reverberating disquietude

Keynesian economic theory failure gave the thread of monetary policy a good jerk (insert Bernanke joke here), and now the whole sweater is starting to unravel:

While Barack Obama was being sworn in to office on Capitol Hill yesterday, the people of Iceland were starting the first revolution in the history of the republic. The word "revolution" might sound a bit of an overstatement, but given the calm temperament that usually prevails in Icelandic politics, the unfolding events represent, at the very least, a revolution in political activism.

Four months after the collapse of Iceland's entire financial system, no one has accepted any responsibility. Our currency has lost more than half its value, rampant inflation has already eaten up most people's savings, property values have dropped by more than a third and unemployment is reaching levels never seen before in the life of our young republic. The fault is clearly shared between the business elite and the government, which failed to regulate the newly privatised financial sector, allowing a few incompetent and egotistical business tycoons to gamble with the nation's fortune. And yet neither the government nor the bankers – who, by the way, seem to have disappeared into the cold thin air – see anything wrong with their own behaviour.

And while Iceland is an excellent microcosmic example of what can be expected as the correction takes its course, it is not alone:

The financial meltdown has become part of the real economy and is now beginning to shape real politics. More and more citizens on the edge of the global crisis are taking to the streets. Bulgaria has been gripped this month by its worst riots since 1997 when street power helped to topple a Socialist government. Now Socialists are at the helm again and are having to fend off popular protests about government incompetence and corruption.

In Latvia – where growth has been in double-digit figures for years – anger is bubbling over at official mismanagement. GDP is expected to contract by 5 per cent this year; salaries will be cut; unemployment will rise. Last week, in a country where demonstrators usually just sing and then go home, 10,000 people besieged parliament.

The United States has avoided the worst of it so far, but that in itself is a small comfort: the damping effect of the Federal government's interventionist policy prevents a swift correction of accumulated mismanaged assets, just as that same interference amplifies existing and/or expanding "bubbles" in the economy. When the good times were good, we enjoyed a level of opulence unseen since the halcyon days of Palatine Hill.

However, to draw on thermodynamic law and popular wisdom, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Predictably, unfortunately, and inevitably, the crash will mirror and match the meteoric rise of the economy pound-for-pound, inch-for-inch, and the very same Statist high-priests that kept the economy from correcting itself will keep the correction from clearing the detritus of failed institutions to make way for new growth.

Strangely enough, it is not all that different from the Federal government's forest-management policy in the western United States: unmitigated growth and fire-suppression until a "critical mass" stage, wherein a devastating, yea, holocaustic inferno consumes the entirety of the diseased and dying forest, causing otherwise healthy trees to explode from the heat and sterilizing entire swathes of wilderness.

I am willing to bet that the recovery will take a similar course: decades.

Wherein "plausible deniability" is stretched to its limit

How does one tell when a politician is lying? The answer, of course, is that its lips are moving:

Gordon Brown has insisted ministers were not aware of the arrest of Tory immigration spokesman Damian Green.

The MP was arrested, held for nine hours, and his homes and House of Commons office searched by police probing alleged Home Office leaks.

Opposition MPs have described the move as a "Mayday warning for democracy", while questioning the government's role in the matter.

I think this is exactly what it looks like, over protests to the contrary: brute intimidation. Like the increasingly frequent military-style raids for serving warrants here in the USSA, when Der Staat is given a shiny hammer to play with, sure enough, it's going to find some nails. Any nail will do; Der Staat only requires grist for the mill, not justice.

Police say Mr Green was held on suspicion of "conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office" and "aiding and abetting, counselling or procuring misconduct in a public office" - an obscure and little-used offence under common law.

One legal expert said it was doubtful whether any case would be brought against Mr Green.

The primary reason I watch the UK like I do: the UK is our canary in the coal-mine, a reliable indicator of the future in the USSA. As Cardinal Richelieu said: "If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him."

Friends, if we are to be sinners in the eyes of the State, let us sin boldly for that most treasonous cause: liberty.

The Nature of the Beast

Evidently, BBC is an acronym for Big Brother Communications:

"Using a television without an appropriate licence is a criminal offence. Every day we catch an average of 1,200 people using a TV without a licence. There is no valid excuse for using a television and not having a TV Licence, but some people still try - sometimes with the most ridiculous stories ever heard. Our detection equipment will track down your TV. The fact that our enquiry officers are now so well equipped with the latest technology means that there is virtually no way to avoid detection."

-- from the official website of the British Television Licensing Authority, May 2003

...

In an email, Bennett wrote that "living without a television in the UK is not as simple as getting rid of the TV set. In the UK the licensing authority operates under legal statute giving them wide powers. The licensing authority have no real concept of the non-viewer and class them as suspect licence-dodgers. Thus, we are subject threats and other manner of persecution. Considering we are only refusing an entertainment service it is a ridiculous situation."

I suspect in the not-too-distant future that the wards of the United Faildom can expect to have daily dosings of antidepressants with mandatory viewings of State programming for several hours a day. "You're watching BBC... watching you."

If nothing else, the situation highlights the danger that stems from government involvement in the marketplace. Protectionism creates a symbiotic relationship between the protected and the government, and like any bureaucratic entity will seek to perpetuate itself by any means necessary and at the expense of the governed. Britain-That-Was carries a long history of mercantilist behavior; in this case, the entity has been subsumed into the government, empowering said entity by means of regulatory powers with little oversight or self-discipline.

And if you think this is outrageous, realize that this is precisely the relationship that exists between the government and the banks in any nation that utilizes a central-banking philosophy.

I'm not going to quibble about the minutiae regarding the nature of the philosophy that would best establish a governing entity (or lack thereof), but attempts at interventionism in recent history by governments to guide the economic activity of the people in the long-term have been ineffective at best, monstrously destructive at worst. Indeed, the only proven correlation has been that involvement acts as a damper for market change, often to the detriment of those being governed.

Tragically, this country has forgotten that government is a primitive, impulsive, ravenous beast. It has no morals, no remorse, no sympathy. It does not sleep, it does not rest, it does not relent. Only through constant vigilance can it be chained and its will subdued, and we have let the chains rust from neglect. Now, with the election around the corner, rhetoric hangs thick in the air over the choice of deaths we are offered: the beast is unchained, and we presume to choose someone that will use the reigns to lead it to captivity rather than to gorge itself on the unwary. Both of them have sworn in front of millions, live, that they will feed it and in so doing bind it to their will.

The majority are fools, the minority helpless, and all of us doomed if we cannot put away childish things and speak with one voice, a voice of reason. We are a nation of laws, a people with inviolate rights and an extremely-limited government, or we are no better than that which we struggle against... Beasts.

When in doubt, empty the clip: United Faildom Edition

- Yet another reason a nationalized health-care system would be disastrous: "Stand aside, plebeians, we are on Imperial business!"

- It's for your own protection, and for the sake of the children:

"Ministers claim the database will only be used in terrorist cases, but there is now a long list of cases, from the arrest of Walter Wolfgang for heckling at a Labour conference to the freezing of Icelandic assets, where anti-terrorism law has been used for purposes for which it was not intended."

- Oops! We almost forgot about your encrypted data. We'll be needing that too.

- Yet another example that the behavior exhibited is symptomatic of a larger problem, not the problem itself. Proposed solutions include throwing more money at the problem, mandatory limbing of trees within 15' of ground-level, and a background check with a 30-day waiting-period on gravel and landscaping boulders.

Idle academics are the Devil's workshop

One of the many, perhaps one of the foremost reasons that I refuse to regard the hive-minded socialists across the Pond with anything but contempt:

Banned phrases on the list, which was originally drawn up by sociologists, include Old Masters, which has been used for centuries to refer to great painters - almost all of whom were in fact male.

It is claimed that the term discriminates against women and should be replaced by "classic artists".

The list of banned words was written by the British Sociological Association, whose members include dozens of professors, lecturers and researchers.

Making the term "Old Masters" more vague won't change anything about the quality of their works or the nature of the bits betwixt their legs, but I believe these charlatans hope they can muddle the issue enough so that there might be a possibility that maybe, perhaps, the term could encompass the undiscovered parity of "Old Mistresses" and their apocryphal masterpieces mistresspieces (probably hidden in the vaults under the Vatican with all the matriarchal-society artifacts).

Of course, like any group of publishing academics, they have issued an edict that the older editions are to be revised for reprint:

Among the "sexist" terms to be avoided are "seminal" and "disseminate" because they are derived from the word semen and supposedly imply a male-dominated view of the world.

Authors are also told to "avoid using medical labels" when writing about disabled people as this "may promote a view of them as patients".

In addition, the list says "special needs" should be changed to "additional needs", "patient" to "person" and "the elderly" to "older people".

"Able-bodied person" should be replaced with "non-disabled person", it is claimed.

"We also require Sunday-editions of the New York Times, fair-trade half-soy caffè lattes and grant money in a cloth shopping-bag deposited on the number-8 Downtown transit at 11AM sharp. No funny-business!"

A pack of twits of this caliber should not be allowed to have the run of the island unsupervised... Hypothetically, if a terrorist group were to detonate a device with an aerosolized neurological agent, could it be classified as fumigation?

When in doubt, empty the clip

- A simple yet effective RFID hack.

- Delicious, delicious irony, brought to you by the United Faildom.

- Yet another argument against the supposed need for regulation and licensing of fundamental rights.

- The conceptual realization is there, as is the sense of justice. Now, if only the two together in a single philosophy, perhaps where the jury could have some sort of "veto power"...

Utterly incompatible mindsets

Another mile-post on the long march to Hell:

Councils are recruiting 'citizen snoopers' to report litter louts, dog foulers and even people who fail to sort out their rubbish properly.

The 'environment volunteers' will also be responsible for encouraging neighbours to cut down on waste.

The Eco-Stasi is already making inroads with this despicable tactic in California; San Francisco Sodom of the West is already enacting a policy that can fine the plebians up to $1000 for not sorting their trash. While the cry of j'accuse! is not subsidized (yet), it's almost worse that one's neighbors, in the mindset that we must all be Good Germans, are doing this without bribe.

Expect to see similar policies enacted across Amerika; while I maintain the position that I am for having clean air and clean water, it can be done in such a way that is market-driven, not state-mandated. We owe it to ourselves to be good stewards of this planet, but not in such a way that cripples our personal liberties or destroys our ability to generate wealth.

Furthermore, in a consumption-based society, these competing ideologies are going to clash in such a way that the average suburban slob, mindlessly chanting a mantra laced with "freedom", "hope", "change" and "duty", is going to suffer greatly for. I can think of no more greatly injurious act to freedom than making the slave pay for his own chains, and leading him to believe that he is happier and healthier for the privilege.

Lastly, a thought from one of my favorite authors regarding the subject material:

"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies, The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

- C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man