Octuplets onus...

At the risk of sounding callous and apart from the obvious comments of hoping the babies all survive and are healthy etc...("The babies were nine weeks premature, a factor that had medical experts warning of dangers ahead. Premature babies are more at risk from lung, stroke and intestinal problems.") is there anything 'good' about the news that the mother of recently born octuplets - for which she had fertility treatment - already has six children UNDER 8 years old (7, 6, 5, 3, and 2-year-old twins). They may all grow up to be perfect and cost the taxpayers nothing at all...but should there be limits on who can receive fertility treatments? IMHO, yes there should.

Obganiating oneirataxia

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown says there is no precedent for the "first financial crisis of the global age", reports the BBC. Speaking at the World Economic Forum Davos, Switzerland he was

"...reminded of the story of Titian, who's the great painter, who reached the age of 90, finished the last of his nearly 100 brilliant paintings, and he said at the end of it, 'I'm finally beginning to learn how to paint' and that is where we are."

(I wonder in Brown had The Rape of Europa in mind!) Anyway, God forbid that Gordy gets to the age 90 before he has learnt something about economics, the markets, banks and other assorted topics that one would have thought he had an inkling. Needless to say he appears in the Times' Money Central Top Ten of those most responsible. If you vote at the bottom you'll also see that he's (was) in the top 3 along with GWB and Alan Greenspan; needless to say there's at least one major US sub-prime lender in there but he can always use the (true) excuse that the US government 'encouraged' him to do so.

I myself have taken a long, hard look at all the stimulus packages around the globe; studied the various means and methods being used by diverse governments and come up with a diagram to show what is happening so that "the guy in the street" can follow the threads of progress: see simplified diagram HERE.

obganiate: v. to irritate with reiteration

oneirataxia: n. inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality

Occult or obvious...

Is there other life out there?...or down here already with us? David Cameron doesn't know but I think he showed what he's really like when confronted with the none-too-obvious: watch the video and read the comments...

For me two stand out: Martin Callahan (MEP) said "It is incredibly hard to just stand up in front of an audience of the general public (anyone could come, there was no attempt to fix attendance) and invite questions on any topic. Any slip-up would be immediately gleefully reported by the watching media. I don't want to appear a DC sycophant but he really did perform superbly." [my emphasis]

...followed by the comment from Rod Sellers:

"Yes - very impressed with his handling. Not least in not isolating the questioner as he so easily could have done. It is often the 'off the wall' questions that reveal the real person behind the performer."

Indeed. Also note the comment from the question-asker (and video maker) himself...and worth listening to his introduction on his own website. [RichPlanet]...perhaps worth reading more!

Original opportunities...

It seems the Spanish are showing their true colours even though they're not the colours you'd expect of the current government there - the PSOE, literally Socialist Party of Spanish Workers...oh, maybe you would expect it! In November 2008, the government launched a voluntary repatriation program for non-European Union (EU) immigrants in an effort to ease rising unemployment. Sounds sensible:

"should be viewed not so much as a solution for foreign workers to leave Spain, but also as an opportunity for them to find better opportunities in their countries of origin."

A little later in the poll in December nearly 2500 Spanish adults were asked: Could you tell me in which of these societies would you most like to live in?

• 
  A society with people from different origins and cultures: 43.0%
• 
  A society with people with the same origin and culture: 44.7%
  

In the UK I doubt they would even dare ask the question! Moving on! Anyone interested in sport, be it football, Formula 1, basketball etc would know of spanish fans racist chants but the situation is certainly nothing new [ NY Times 1987] that said the same could probably be true of most countries.

Oncoming oppression...

The news isn't good, is it. From the excellent blog Burning Our Money - (as is the image) well worth reading their whole blog-post and associated links...if you're not too depressed.
"How the eff did we get here?..."

And despite pumping limitless further billions of our friggin' money into a massive bank bail-out, it's so useless, bank shares have collapsed even more.

Meanwhile all our bankrupt "government" can say is that they're the innocent victims of American incompetence and evil bankers.

That's not all...one of the links is to the Daily Telegraph colomnist Iain Martin telling us what many of us are already thinking:

"Gordon Brown brings Britain to the edge of bankruptcy"

"They don't know what they're doing, do they? With every step taken by the Government as it tries frantically to prop up the British banking system, this central truth becomes ever more obvious."

Worth pointing out that what happens in the US does tend to happen to us sooner or later and there I think that Obama will have to do something very efective and very quickly: "Are We Going To Sit On Our Hands?" says Market Ticker.

"Any premise that the "global bank bailout" scam could possibly work was dashed to pieces this morning."

[19/01/09] Now we have proof through time that the approach taken was wrong - and I, along with the few other voices in the wilderness demanding that open, honest accounting along with bankruptcy were the only and proper course - were right...When in a hole the first rule is to STOP DIGGING."

Out of interest and if anyone has the time to sit and read/listen there is a good explanation of most of what has happened, what is going on and what will/may happen from "obsessive financial observer" Chris Martenson; chapter titles etc HERE

Ows Obamicon...

Obamamania, Obamessiah, Obama...Well the day and the hour (and the man?) hath cometh. Sounds a bit Spanish when you say that! "Washington resident Ronald Brisbon, 55, told the BBC "Dr King said it might take 40 years. It's been 45 years, I can wait another hour." Well I and most of the rest of the world hope it's worth it! To celebrate, I post a portrait of your's truly:

At last...where's Mags? This is Ows...nicely portrayed as an Obamicon...gets yours too: HERE

Optimism onboard Obama's Ox...

"The world needs optimism and hope. With a fair wind, Mr Obama has a chance to provide it."

From today's Times. I hope so, all we've been hearing is what Barack Obama should and should not be doing and even some saying he should be doing far more...this is even before he starts! The list of what people expect of him grows longer....still, only two days to go.

Over the last year (maybe more) there has been ample comparison between Obama and Lincoln, not least because BHO in many of his speeches uses lines and ideas from the speeches of Abraham Lincoln, indeed the theme of Obama's Inauguration is taken from a line in Lincoln's Gettysburg Address: "A New Birth of Freedom." Also, when asked which book - aside from the Bible [Only in America...imagine that question in the UK?] - he would find essential in the Oval Office, Obama answered "Team of Rivals" [Newsweek] which is a book about the team Lincoln surrounded himself with: those with more and better experience than himself. Other comparisons have been the famous "House Divided" address:

A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided.

[Speech in full] This address Lincoln gave as he accepted the Republican Party's nomination (he didn't get it that time!) but the speech changed the general national view on slavery; "Sen. Barack Obama, another lanky lawyer from Illinois, planted one of those rhetorical markers in the political landscape Tuesday, when he delivered his "More Perfect Union" [Tim Rutten, LA Times]. Only yesterday, on his train journey to Washington (again emulating Lincoln) he used the phrase "better angels":

"What is required is a new declaration of independence, not just in our nation, but in our own lives — from ideology and small thinking, prejudice and bigotry — an appeal not to our easy instincts but to our better angels." [in The Times]

"His cabinet looks like one of those Benetton advertisements from the 1990s" (this from the first Times link at the top of this post).

The Ox reference in the post title is to the Chinese New Year that begins next week: Year of the Ox, for those interested it is the earth Ox; as BHO is himself born in a Year of the Ox (1961) it means he should have a good year, a good omen is him being a metal Ox and this is an earth year: those people born in a metal year will generally fare better than others of their animal sign. The combination of earth and Ox is not a negative combination although -by complete coincidence - the last time there was a combination of the two was in the year January 1949 - February 1950, was in the middle of a world recession (since late 1948) "The world economy recovered during the year of the Ox due to rational decisions and careful planning." [Chiff]...well, could that history repeat itself? Some believe it possible: Irwin Stelzer - business adviser and director of economic policy studies at the Hudson Institute - says "Obama's stimulus could turn round economy this year", meaning of course the several hundred-billion dollar stimulus package (that's ELEVEN zeros before the decimal point!) and not the Obamessiah hysteria.

Back to Lincoln connection: BHO has already said that a number of things are to be done with almost immediate effect; one of those is to close Guantanamo Bay prison (also a new ME Peace deal, troops out of Iraq etc...you know, little odds and sods), worth noting that Lincoln, during the US Civil War, "appropriated powers no previous President had wielded: he used his war powers to proclaim a blockade, suspended the writ of habeas corpus, spent money without congressional authorization, and imprisoned 18,000 suspected Confederate sympathizers without trial."...lets hope they're not too similar, eh? Indeed, let's hope that BHO doesn't take the last train back to Illinois, as Lincoln did.

Our ostensible overlords...

It seems the pigs are already on two legs...well, we knew that didn't we. From The Times Red Box blog:

A good day to announce an expenses cover-up

"Remember the clampdown on MPs expenses which was promised after it emerged Derek Conway was paying his sons to work for him? Full transparency and an end to the John Lewis list? Well a year later, and on a busy newsday, Harriet Harman has announced the watering down almost all the restrictions.

According to a document unveiled with no fanfare on the same day as the Heathrow announcement, the House is preparing to block the publication of all receipts for MPs expenses, which had been ordered by an Information Tribunal."

See the results here. [Pdf]...full story HERE

"Harriet Harman and the government are behind the move to prevent receipts being published. The move requires the Freedom of Information Act to be amended, and Jack Straw has apparently laid an Statutory Instrument which does so for the House to approve."

Well, we can't expect the laws of the land to apply to them, can we? All animals are equal...

Overtly overstaffed...

"Frankly the job could be done with half as many. It could be more productive, more efficient, it could deliver a lot more value for money for the taxpayer. And the levers of change, the ability to affect change are so rare, because of the culture. I was amazed how many people frankly deserved the sack, and yet that was the one threat that they never ever worked under because it doesn't exist as long as they're being not criminal or whatever."

He [Ex-trade minister Lord Digby Jones] had ameliorated that harsh statement by saying just beforehand that the civil service was "honest, stuffed full of decent people who work hard"...Diggers, we know...we know...and we know the rest of what you said about them is true too.

Interestingly, back in April, Digby Jones said "I am a supporter of Gordon Brown and I believe in what he is doing." I wonder if that opinion has changed recently?

Odd occurrence...

Purrfect weather; what a cool dude...for all you cat lovers...(cat) nippy out there: HERE.