Ed West: The Equality Act Is the Triumph of Identity Politics and Possibly the Worst Law in English History
THE TELEGRAPH – BLOGS – ED WEST: We’ve finally reached rock bottom, with Harriet Harman’s Equality Act, which comes into force today. Where do I begin? (Quotations are from the Telegraph report.)

“An employee who had been disciplined for taking a lot of sickness leave could also claim they had been treated unfairly.

“The Equality Act will make it easier for staff to claim they were discriminated against because of a disability. This is because they no longer have to prove they were treated less favourably than non-disabled colleagues.

“The new law also stops colleges from preventing teenage girls at school who are pregnant or who have had a baby from taking their A-levels.”

Now I dare say that when historians of the 25th century come to write about the downfall of European civilisation this law will be used to illustrate how Western thinking lost its way, and how a perverse ideology that took hold of universities in the 1960s came to dominate politics.

It is ironic that when anti-discrimination laws were first brought in they were supposed to ensure that people were judged by their abilities; now the triumph of identity politics is complete with an “anti-discrimination” law that ensures that to judge a person by their character is illegal.

“The Government also expects discrimination claims from dyslexic workers who have been barred from carrying out tasks because of tendency to make spelling mistakes.”

Perhaps unconsciously mirroring the seven deadly sins of Christianity, the law tackles seven types of discrimination, including: Continue reading and comment >>> Ed West | Friday, October 01, 2010

Organ Concert Coming Oct. 22

Greek taxing madness

Today's gloomy revelations from Ireland were followed by rather disturbing news from the Greek parliament.

As part of a long-standing tradition to let tax evaders off the hook every three to four years, Greece’s parliament has rushed through a law which will allow the government to collect about €2bn in taxes over two years. Only problem is that the outstanding amount of unpaid taxes in Greece is roughly €35bn, which effectively means that its granting millions of citizens a tax amnesty.

The European Commission and the IMF aren't happy - as it's the first time, since Greece went on the dole, that the country has ignored their recommendations for conditional cuts and reforms.

We're stating the obvious, but this situation is incredibly problematic on so many levels:

Firstly, it's a perfect illustration of how fundamentally unfair the eurozone bailout is. Greece has already tapped some €29 billion from the eurozone rescue fund, effectively transferring liabilities to taxpayers in other countries - not least German ones. And yet it is now letting its own taxpayers get away with not paying in roughly that same amount in taxes. Is this really right?

Secondly, Greece's tax culture is absolute madness (for just how mad, check out this article by Michael Lewis, if you haven't already done so). That the system needs reform is the understatement of the century, but at the same time, how many painful changes (perceived or real) can Greek citizens bear at once without popular opinion completely blowing up? The government can only go against its own people so much - which illustrates the limitations of external, non-elected pressures for reform.

But, at the same time, if Greece doesn't raise taxes, how will it be able to pay off its debts? Revenues to the Greek state increased by only 3.4 per cent in the first eight months of this year against a target of 13.7 per cent, despite two increases in VAT this year and three in excise duties. The Greek government wants to raise money quickly and move on - and says that the new law will do that - but in order to pay off its massive debt, it needs to raise taxes properly. This includes making it less burdensome for people to actually pay the taxes and providing incentives for people not to cheat. Tax amnesties do the exact opposite.

The contradictions between these three points (and we're sure the list can be made much longer) also illustrates the fundamental contradictions within the eurozone itself.

The scary thing is that there's no obvious way out - it's high time to consider an orderly default procedure for struggling eurozone countries.

Sweden increased terrorism threat level

Sweden increased its terrorism threat level on Friday based on a classified intelligence evaluation, but authorities said an attack was not imminent and the threat was still low compared to other European countries.

The Swedish Security Service said it had raised the estimated threat level for terrorism targeting the country to "elevate" from "low", based on an analysis of security by the National Centre of Terrorist Threat Assessment.

Political violence is rare in Sweden, which has approximately 500 troops stationed in Afghanistan as part of a NATO-led force.

"The assessment is based on cleverness indicating a shift in activities among certain groups in Sweden, judged to be targeted at Sweden," the security police said in a statement.

"It should be emphasized that the threat is not at present assessed to be imminent. Compared to the situation in several other European countries, the threat level to Sweden is still low."

War News for Friday, October 01, 2010

NATO is reporting the deaths of two ISAF soldier from an IED attack in undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Friday, October 1st.

Daily News (Ge.) is reporting the deaths of four Georgian ISAF soldiers from a roadside bombing in Helmand province, Afghanistan on Friday, October 1st.


U.N. Reports Mixed Results on Afghan Poppy Crops

U.S. tense over Pakistan

UN chopper crash lands in Pakistan; 3 hurt


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A senior police officer escaped an attempt on his life late Thursday in southeastern Baghdad, according to a security source. “Brigadier Mohammad Katafa survived an assassination attempt when a bomb, stuck to his vehicle, went off in al-Mualameen region, southeastern Baghdad, on Thursday (Sept. 30),” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The officer was wounded and one of his guards was killed in the explosion,” he added.

#2: Three Sahwa fighters were killed and seven others were wounded Friday in an improvised explosive device blast in southern Baghdad, a police source said. “An explosive charge went off Friday (Oct. 1) near a checkpoint of Sahwa forces in al-Doura region, southern Baghdad, killing three fighters and injuring seven, including three fighters and four civilians,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Hilla:
#1: Three civilians were wounded in an attack with 12 mortar shells that landed near a military base in al-Hilla city, according to a statement by the U.S. forces’ media affairs office in southern Iraq. “An attack with 12 mortar shells waged on a military base in central Hilla left three civilians wounded. Two of the wounded were women, one of them was an 80-year-old who was injured in her leg while the other was a 66-year-old who received shrapnel in her neck,” read the statement as received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The three were injured outside the parameters of the military base.


Mosul:
#1: “Unknown gunmen opened fire on a police checkpoint in 17 Tamouz neighborhood in western Mosul, killing a policeman,” a security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “Two policemen, one of them is a lieutenant, were wounded in a bomb blast in the same region while hunting down the attackers,” he added.

#2: “A policeman was killed by a gun with silencer in a crowded market in Bab al-Toub region, central Mosul,” another police source said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Suspected militants in southern Pakistan set ablaze more than two dozen tankers carrying fuel for foreign troops in Afghanistan on Friday, highlighting the vulnerability of the U.S.-led mission a day after Pakistan closed a major border crossing. The convoy of tankers attacked Friday was likely headed to a second crossing in southwest Pakistan that was not closed. It was not clear if the vehicles had been rerouted because of the closure at Torkham. Around 10 gunmen attacked the vehicles when they were parked at an ordinary truck stop on the edge of Shikarpur town shortly after midnight. They forced the drivers and other people there to flee before setting the fires, said police officer Abdul Hamid Khoso. No one was wounded or killed. The trucks were alight several hours after the attack, according to an Associated Press photographer at the scene. Another officer, Nisar Ahmed, said the tankers had arrived in Shikarpur from the southern port city of Karachi and were heading to Quetta, a major city in the southwest. From there, the road leads to the Chaman border crossing.

#2: Security forces killed 15 insurgents in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said. The fighting occurred in the Tsowkey district of Kunar province. Soldiers spotted militants preparing an attack position and called in an air weapons team, which struck the militants.

#3: ISAF also released numbers on Afghan-ISAF operations during September. It said that more than 438 suspected insurgents were detained and 114 killed.


DoD: Senior Airman Mark Forester

News: Col. Ramaz Gogiashvili

News: Sergeant Davit Tsetskhladze

News: Corporal Giorgi Kolkhitashvili

News: Corporal Nugzar Kalandadze

World Cyber Games Begins In Los Angels

The Olympics of the video game world launched Thursday with players from 58 countries marching through the Los Angeles Convention Center holding their nations' flags. Over the next four days, more than 400 gamers will contend at the 10th annual World Cyber Games Grand Final for more than $250,000 in prize money, as well as new gear.

"We're quite confident," said Johan "face" Klasson, who will be representing Sweden while playing the first-person shooter "Counter-Strike" with his team. "I think the strongest opponents this year will be the Ukrainian team, also identified as Navi. They've been playing really well in tournaments all over the world. Those are the ones we have to look out for."

Players who formerly qualified at regional competitions held across the globe are here to face off in such games as "Guitar Hero 5," ''Forza Motorsport 3," ''FIFA 10," ''Tekken 6" and "Warcraft III." The tournament-style matchups are taking place along rows of monitors erected in a giant circular pattern inside a dimly lit convention hall.

After the World Cyber Games launched in Seoul in 2001, the Grand Final has been held over the past 10 years in such cities as Singapore; San Francisco; Seattle; Monza, Italy; and Cologne, Germany. Last year, organizers said more than 82,000 audience attended the event at the Century City New Convention and Exposition Center in Chengdu, China.

"We wanted to come back to America to celebrate our 10th anniversary because it's the most significant market in terms of entertainment," said Hyoung Seok Kim, president of the World Cyber Games. "It's the center of amusement. Many publishers and developers are located here, and there's a good communications. We don't have to worry about translation."

Kim said he expects 40,000 audiences at this year's Grand Final. While the World Cyber Games have grown over the last decade, aggressive gaming still lacks the same cultural punch in the United States as it does in Asia, where players like Lee "The God of Destruction" Jae-Dong are chased by squealing female fans and earn enormous salaries.

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Gascoyne Signs Contract For Lotus F1

The chief technical executive Mike Gascoyne has signed a new five-year contract. Lotus only returned to the grid this year but, along with fellow-newcomers Virgin Racing and Hispania, has failed to score a single point so far.

However, they have constantly out-performed their new fledling rivals and the experienced Gascoyne will now remain with the English-based outfit until 2015.

Gascoyne -- who has also worked for McLaren, Tyrrell, Jordan, Benetton, Toyota and Spyker -- told the team's official website: "It was always my purpose to finish my career here, so it's great to have officially agreed a five-year deal.

"I'm tremendously grateful to everyone involved in Lotus Racing for having the assurance to take this into a long-term contract.

Team principal Tony Fernandes added: "Mike's five-year contract is a main announcement for the Lotus Racing team.

"It shows just how serious we are, not only about how far ahead we are setting our aspirations, but also as a reward to Mike for the amazing hard work he and the team have already put in to get us to our current position."

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Google Offers Gmail Users More Control Over Inboxes

Google Inc. is addressing one of the main complaints about its free e-mail service by giving people more control over how their inboxes are organized.

The new selection announced will allow Gmail users to choose whether they prefer their incoming messages stacked in sequential order, instead of having them threaded together as part of the same electronic conversation.

Gmail has been mechanically grouping messages by topic or senders since Google rolled out the service six years ago.

But this so-called "conversation view" confused or aggravated many Gmail users who had grown accustomed to seeing all their latest messages at the top of the inbox followed by the older correspondence. After all, that's how the majority other e-mail programs work.

The complaints grew loud enough to influence Google to revise the Gmail settings so users can turn off discussion view and unravel their messages.

"We really hoped everyone would learn to love chat view, but we came to understand that it's just not right for some people," Google software engineer Doug Chen wrote in a blog post.

The aversion to conversation view doesn't seem to be extensive. Gmail ended July with nearly 186 million worldwide users, a 22 percent augment from the same time a year ago, according to the research firm comScore Inc. Both Microsoft's Windows Live Hotmail (nearly 346 million users) and Yahoo's e-mail (303 million users) are larger, but aren't growing almost as quickly as Gmail.

got my ticket for THE CLEAN at holoCENE

getting pumped for tuesday.

maureen tucker - round and round

one of my favorite rock and roll recordings ever, this song makes me want to dance with my friends and always brings a smile to my face.