Looks like Pres. Obama is really backing his election promises. Getting the fuck out of Iraq is great, hopefully it'll push Brown into getting our troops out of a country we had no business being in even sooner rather than later.
Hopefully this doesn't mean that the troops being pulled out of Iraq will just be packed off to Afghanistan with a new lunchbox and some more ammunition. America, as pretty much the basis for which most stock markets takes its cue, needs to get its economy back in the black before it even begins to think about spending any more money or any more troops lives in another war zone. The "War on Terror" has cost billions upon billions of dollars and there's no doubt in my mind that if it'd never happened in the first place then there wouldn't be this recession.
Saturday, 28 February 2009
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
On your marks, get set...BATTER!
It's nice to know that in times of economic woe, those that run the country still manage to find time to have a bit of fun. The annual pancake race, won by the Peers this year round, raises money for the charity Rehab UK, a brain injury charity.
It may seem odd for Parliament and journo's to race pancakes outside Westminster in a time where we're getting royally shafted because of a recession, but I quite like the fact it shows a human side to the people we all love to hate.
It may seem odd for Parliament and journo's to race pancakes outside Westminster in a time where we're getting royally shafted because of a recession, but I quite like the fact it shows a human side to the people we all love to hate.
Monday, 23 February 2009
I'M WOLVERIIIIIIINNNNNNE!!
Okay, so last night was the Oscars, which I stupidly started watching at 11PM GMT, a full 2 hours before the ceremony started. This meant I got a lot of incredibly effeminate men talking about dresses and tuxedo's. Delightful...
Onto the ceremony itself. If it weren't for Hugh Jackman this would've been shit. He was incredible and the opening number was some of the funniest stuff I've seen. I may have woken my housemates up with laughter, for which I apologise. I'd very much like to see Hugh hosting again, preferrably with a bit more screentime.
Another person who put in a good show was Will Smith, who presented the technical awards. He was calm, relaxed and recovered from his verbal stumble well. Definitely someone I'd like to see host it in the future. I didn't know he was an Academy member either.
As for the awards themselves, some I agreed with, some I didn't, others I didn't really care.
I'm very glad Danny Boyle got the nod for Best Director. Not only is Slumdog Millionaire very well directed, Boyle's one of, if not the, most consistent directors in cinema today.
Can't say I'm as chuffed about Slumdog winning Best Film. I enjoyed it and everything, but it's not a patch on Benjamin Button. Also, the two actor awards ticked me off majorly. I've not seen Milk, although I'd very much like to, but Sean Penn just pisses me off. He looks like such a little shit-eating wanker I very much hoped he wouldn't get anything. Furthermore, I really dislike it when people make their acceptence speech into a political debate, even if I happen to agree with it.
Heath Ledger winning Best Supporting Actor also annoyed me. I liked his performace, I kind of liked The Dark Knight, but there's no way in hell his performance deserved an Oscar when compared to other performances even in The Dark Knight it wasn't as good.
Another award that pissed me off was WALL-E winning Best Animated Film. Pixar is one of my least favourite movie studios, but I still watched WALL-E prepared to be converted. Sadly to say that wasn't the case. WALL-E is, at best, rank average.
Original Score is usually an award I care most about, but that usually pisses me off no-end. I'm still pissed off that There Will Be Blood wasn't allowed to be nominated last year for some ridiculous technicality. I sincerely hoped Benjamin Button would get the award this year, but instead it went to Slumdog. Not devastated at that, I do enjoy the Slumdog OST, but still, a disappointment. I was glad that Slumdog won Best Original Song, if nothing else other than Peter Gabriel gets on my tits for some reason.
Overall, a very predictable awards ceremony, but that doesn't bother me, so long as films that deserve the awards get them which more often than not happened. This year's looking very promising for films so hopefully next years ceremony will be even better.
Onto the ceremony itself. If it weren't for Hugh Jackman this would've been shit. He was incredible and the opening number was some of the funniest stuff I've seen. I may have woken my housemates up with laughter, for which I apologise. I'd very much like to see Hugh hosting again, preferrably with a bit more screentime.
Another person who put in a good show was Will Smith, who presented the technical awards. He was calm, relaxed and recovered from his verbal stumble well. Definitely someone I'd like to see host it in the future. I didn't know he was an Academy member either.
As for the awards themselves, some I agreed with, some I didn't, others I didn't really care.
I'm very glad Danny Boyle got the nod for Best Director. Not only is Slumdog Millionaire very well directed, Boyle's one of, if not the, most consistent directors in cinema today.
Can't say I'm as chuffed about Slumdog winning Best Film. I enjoyed it and everything, but it's not a patch on Benjamin Button. Also, the two actor awards ticked me off majorly. I've not seen Milk, although I'd very much like to, but Sean Penn just pisses me off. He looks like such a little shit-eating wanker I very much hoped he wouldn't get anything. Furthermore, I really dislike it when people make their acceptence speech into a political debate, even if I happen to agree with it.
Heath Ledger winning Best Supporting Actor also annoyed me. I liked his performace, I kind of liked The Dark Knight, but there's no way in hell his performance deserved an Oscar when compared to other performances even in The Dark Knight it wasn't as good.
Another award that pissed me off was WALL-E winning Best Animated Film. Pixar is one of my least favourite movie studios, but I still watched WALL-E prepared to be converted. Sadly to say that wasn't the case. WALL-E is, at best, rank average.
Original Score is usually an award I care most about, but that usually pisses me off no-end. I'm still pissed off that There Will Be Blood wasn't allowed to be nominated last year for some ridiculous technicality. I sincerely hoped Benjamin Button would get the award this year, but instead it went to Slumdog. Not devastated at that, I do enjoy the Slumdog OST, but still, a disappointment. I was glad that Slumdog won Best Original Song, if nothing else other than Peter Gabriel gets on my tits for some reason.
Overall, a very predictable awards ceremony, but that doesn't bother me, so long as films that deserve the awards get them which more often than not happened. This year's looking very promising for films so hopefully next years ceremony will be even better.
Saturday, 21 February 2009
Tax Cuts! Coming to an economy near you!
So President Jesus H. Obama has been hailing the fall in the US tax bill that'll be happening some time later this year, hoping beyond hope that it'll give the kiss of life to the dying US economy. Now, I make no claims to be an economic expert, but aren't taxes needed in order to provide more money for the government? Yes there's the likeliehood that with a tax cut the public will go out and spend that excess money, but I don't see that being likely. People have been scared shitless by the talks in the media about this recession. If they see that they're saving money on their taxes, surely they'd put it into savings, not buy that 50" HDTV they saw at Wal-Mart?
Added to that is the $800 billion stimulus package that's been magicked into existence. Isn't this just the same problems sort of thing that got America into this financial mire (along with the two wars it's fighting)? Money being borrowed that just adds more and more debt? Wouldn't it be wise to follow President Clinton's economic programme that turned the American economy from a deficit into a surplus?
Economics isn't my strong suit, so I may be completely off base with this...
Added to that is the $800 billion stimulus package that's been magicked into existence. Isn't this just the same problems sort of thing that got America into this financial mire (along with the two wars it's fighting)? Money being borrowed that just adds more and more debt? Wouldn't it be wise to follow President Clinton's economic programme that turned the American economy from a deficit into a surplus?
Economics isn't my strong suit, so I may be completely off base with this...
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
Empirical vs. A Priori
Okay, I'll be honest, I have absolutely no idea how this blogging stuff works, especially when it comes to something like politics. Personal stuff? No problem. Reviews? Piss easy. Politics? QUE?! Anyways, in true enterprising fashion I'll try my damndest to think of something to talk about and homework is as good a place as any to start.
So, from what I gathered from the lecture, Empirical...stuff, is things that can be proven through direct observation, gathering of evidence, basically stuff you can see with your eyes that you can't argue with. I guess one current event that's economically empirical is the current recession. The GDP of the country shrank for two successive quarters in Britain, fulfilling the definition of an actual recession (the good news is that the God-awful term "credit crunch" can play hide-and-go-fuck-yourself).
Mervyn King, who our whole lecture group now knows is the Governor of the Bank of England after being shouted at for not knowing it one lecture, has helped ease the collective brown trouser time in the country by saying...we're financially buggered. Oh. On top of this we've got some experts saying it'll be worse than 1929 and we'll all be carrying our wages home in the 4x4's that we can no longer afford to run and we'll resort to eating the leather of our designer label shoes and handbags which seemed such a good idea at the time.
However, such is the cyclical nature of these things that a boom will follow the bust at some stage. Also, Our Lord And Savior President Obama is in office now, so we no longer have the most powerful country in the world run by a government with the effectiveness of Team Rocket and the eloquence of the mountain men from Deliverance.
A priori I understand as being something that can't be explicitly proven until it actually happens. So for example, Westboro Baptist Church from the States were banned from entering Britain to protest at a play in Basingstoke called 'The Laramie Project', about a man called Matthew Sheppard who was murdered for being gay.
The reasons for their hate-holiday being cancelled was, the Home Office argued, to prevent them from potentially inciting hatred. In response to not being allowed in the UK they added a page to their website, charmingly titled God Hates The United Kingdom.
Now, while there's no guarantee that their protest would've been nothing but peaceful, it's highly likely that the claims of inticing hatred would've been accurate. The Westboro Baptist Church has been dogged with controversy in the USA due to its picketing of soliders funerals, as well as the funerals of homosexuals and AIDS victims. They claim that these acts are the acts of God, who's punishing humanity for its tolerance towards homosexuality and other things they view as sinful. This is also the same Church that was followed around by Louis Theroux in his BBC2 documentary: 'The Most Hated Family In Britain' and Keith Allen in his Channel 4 documentary 'Keith Allen Will Burn In Hell'. They also provided the only situation where I've actually liked Michael Moore in this clip from YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra_fAYl4Th4
Personally, I'm not sure I think they should've been prevented from entering the country. I don't agree with a single one of their opinions, but I also don't think they should be blocked from being able to air those views, even if they are forceful. Moreover, it would've made a great piece for our course.
So, from what I gathered from the lecture, Empirical...stuff, is things that can be proven through direct observation, gathering of evidence, basically stuff you can see with your eyes that you can't argue with. I guess one current event that's economically empirical is the current recession. The GDP of the country shrank for two successive quarters in Britain, fulfilling the definition of an actual recession (the good news is that the God-awful term "credit crunch" can play hide-and-go-fuck-yourself).
Mervyn King, who our whole lecture group now knows is the Governor of the Bank of England after being shouted at for not knowing it one lecture, has helped ease the collective brown trouser time in the country by saying...we're financially buggered. Oh. On top of this we've got some experts saying it'll be worse than 1929 and we'll all be carrying our wages home in the 4x4's that we can no longer afford to run and we'll resort to eating the leather of our designer label shoes and handbags which seemed such a good idea at the time.
However, such is the cyclical nature of these things that a boom will follow the bust at some stage. Also, Our Lord And Savior President Obama is in office now, so we no longer have the most powerful country in the world run by a government with the effectiveness of Team Rocket and the eloquence of the mountain men from Deliverance.
A priori I understand as being something that can't be explicitly proven until it actually happens. So for example, Westboro Baptist Church from the States were banned from entering Britain to protest at a play in Basingstoke called 'The Laramie Project', about a man called Matthew Sheppard who was murdered for being gay.
The reasons for their hate-holiday being cancelled was, the Home Office argued, to prevent them from potentially inciting hatred. In response to not being allowed in the UK they added a page to their website, charmingly titled God Hates The United Kingdom.
Now, while there's no guarantee that their protest would've been nothing but peaceful, it's highly likely that the claims of inticing hatred would've been accurate. The Westboro Baptist Church has been dogged with controversy in the USA due to its picketing of soliders funerals, as well as the funerals of homosexuals and AIDS victims. They claim that these acts are the acts of God, who's punishing humanity for its tolerance towards homosexuality and other things they view as sinful. This is also the same Church that was followed around by Louis Theroux in his BBC2 documentary: 'The Most Hated Family In Britain' and Keith Allen in his Channel 4 documentary 'Keith Allen Will Burn In Hell'. They also provided the only situation where I've actually liked Michael Moore in this clip from YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra_fAYl4Th4
Personally, I'm not sure I think they should've been prevented from entering the country. I don't agree with a single one of their opinions, but I also don't think they should be blocked from being able to air those views, even if they are forceful. Moreover, it would've made a great piece for our course.
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