Getting rid of CFC's has reversed much of the damage, afaik

So the White House will not release the photos from the NYC flyover

this story is loltastic

probably aren't any photos at all

i just started this book by jim marrs called rule by secrecy and so far it is a blast, like every historical conspiracy within 400 pages. my reading lately has been kind of weird, i read 2012 by Daniel Pinchbeck and enjoyed that a lot, he takes a bunch of hallucinogens and talks about crop circles and mayan cosmology. i just finished cosmic trigger 1, Robert Anton Wilson's fascinating investigation and subsequent contact with alien intellegence from Sirius. Yeah and a biography of aleister crowley, so i'll probably be sacrificing goats in the streets pretty soon.

Let me know what you think about that book Amp. I've wanted to read some Jim Marrs but haven't-- I have listened to some talks he's given that can be found on google video and I like him. He goes pretty out there though...

Michael Savange banned from entering the UK
" Conservative radio host Michael Savage's name has been placed on a list banning his entrance into the U.K."

This is a result of his anti-immigration stance apparently. His name was released along with 15 other names so to the public so others could better understand what sort of behaviour Britain was not prepared to tolerate, according to home secretary Jacqui Smith.

Town Halls Hire Citizen Snoopers as Young as Seven to Spy on Neighbors

another one for the at-least-we-don't-live-in-Britain file

can anyone confirm/deny the rumor i heard that in GB they can take a DNA sampling of your blood for something as minor as a traffic violation if they so choose?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...ts-422434.html

somewhat contradictory paragraphs here so I'll keep looking for stories

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/ju...igrationpolicy

There was a ruling by the European courts which looked likely to force the police to remove everyone not convicted. Of course Jacqui Smith is above the law so this isn't going to stop her. A couple of weeks ago she anounced plans to keep DNA records of all arrested people for at least six years, with the severity of the offence that you weren't convicted of determining exactly how long.

Linky

I never thought I would say this but I honestly think I would prefer it if they brought back David Blunkett or Charles Clarke as Home Secretary. Each Labour Home Secretary gets worse than the last one which is a real achievement.

The UK government managed to switch my identity 18 months ago or so for that of a petty criminal with the same name, so that i was getting chased by baliffs, had an arrest warrant out against me (well it wasn't me, but it was someone with my address with my name...), and so on. So if they get my DNA, i have zero confidence that they won't accidentally switch it with the dna of a rapist or something.

and the whole dna-database idea is based essentially around a 'no smoke without fire' thought process whereby if you're taken in by the police, even if you're not charged, then you're clearly a dodgy customer, so probably are a criminal. In the wrong hands, the powers that the government is trying to get its hands on would be terrifying.,

sigh

le sigh be cause the government is already the 'wrong hands'?

in the wrong hands, yes

there are no hands in which power accrues harmlessly imo

I have zero confidence in this government being able to handle any data. Your story is hardly an isolated case and they have proved time and time again that they are incapable of keeping sensitive data from the public domain. Cases like yours are another reason that I am against Jacqui Smith's plans to expand the recent trials in to 'Sarah's Law'.

The government's data handling rules are ******ed and any intelligent person can see that they are always going to lead to many cases like the ones that have happened where data gets left on trains etc. Workers are not allowed to send any remotely sensitive data electronically and encryption services are all blocked from computers with any sensitive data. The only way workers can move the data around is to physically carry it around on unprotected disks.

I would still be against the storage of DNA records of innocent people without the court ruling and if our government / police force was remotely competent at handling such evidence. Under the current circumstances, I think we are headed for some catastrophic headlines where numerous people will end up dead or in jail based on evidence that should never have been used in the first place.

Going off on a little tangent about bailiffs, we receive regular letters from debt collection agencies that are aimed at someone who lived in our house before the current landlord owned the place (He bought it 5 years ago). We have no forwarding address so each time a new agency sends a threatening letter, we inform them that he no longer lives here. That rarely stops the letters and they all use premium rate phone lines (wtf? Who OK'd that idea?) so we don't follow it up any further. We have all of our remotely valueable property catalogued and are prepared for a legal field day just in case any bailiffs manage to get in.

Wow. That's just.... bizarre

Finally, something good comes out of the UK MP's expenses mess.

Hopefully she will be replaced by someone who at least believes in human rights. I am not confident.

until they drag that evil ginger woman out of the house of commons i'll not be happy. Jacqui is just crap, Blears is evil

I would have put it the other way round. Blears is incompetent. Smith shows a constant disregard for human rights, data protection and any other law that inconveniences her plans. She is just the latest in a long line of them at home secretary so her successor will probably be more of the same.

Blears is also tucked away in a job with no real power so her scope for damage is much lower. Watching her on Question time every time she goes on is always fun. She gets torn to shreds and ends up arguing confused points or arguing a point totally irrelevant to the debate. It is a bit worrying that someone so inept can get anywhere near government.

i personally doubt smith has really been anything other than a sock puppet for other peoples' ideas. but maybe that's inherent sexism on my part.

your last point is germaine, but has been the case for a long time - when mandleson gets dragged back into the cabinet, you have to ask whether they can't find someone better than a politician who has repeatedly proven to be useless and a media liability. Hoon, ffs. can they really not do any better than him. etc etc.

OTOH, i have a bit of a man crush on david milliband

But he looks just like Tim Henman. Don't you just look at him and think "choker"?

Socialized healthcare at work:

Ontario provides sex change operations, and fat reduction surgeries (ie, stomach stapling) for free. Not covered: fertility treatments, eye exams, insulin for diabetics.

This is so ****ed up. Ignoring whether or not the Government should be paying for healthcare at all, how in hell do they decide to cover those things, but not the others?

If I was the government I'd snapcover sex change operations over fertility treatments, eye exams, insulin for diabetics (because it would cost me less)

that didn't take long.

if clowntable was the government i think i'd snap emigrate.

Good luck trying to outrun the death squads.