Last chance to see before The Mouse removes it. Via way too many places.
Commuters surprised at strike
London, England. Commuters today were surprised that a strike in the London Underground actually made their daily trip to and from work more difficult. Worried local reporters, equally puzzled, demanded to know from union bosses why their strike was making their commute more difficult. The unions were put under more pressure when a local politician accused them of having ulterior motives for this strike. He was joined by a national politician also attacking the unions. Commentators from across the political spectrum remained equally puzzled by the idea that workers would actually use the one form of pressure they can bring to bear on their employers and that such action might actually inconvenience middle class people.
Surprisingly, the idea that the Tories are ideologically opposed to unions and have political motivations for their anti-union rhetoric was not brought up.
Confirmed: Americans are still humourless gits
So the British 10:10 campaign (aiming at cutting carbon emissions ten percent in 2010) put out the satirical video above which, to be fair is a bit heavy handedly ironic and of course the usual numbnuts who still think a wet summer refutes climate change take it seriously and scream about intended genocide. They have to, it’s in their job description (I refuse to believe anybody believes this nonsense without a paycheck being involved somewhere). As everybody who does have a brain should understand by now, these people should be mocked, not argued with.
Unfortunately, climate change deniers are not the onlyones whose sense of humour has been surgically been removed; the same goes for most American environmentalists, who have had their panties in a bunch about this video as well. Case in point:
There were emails from people all saying the same thing: Have you seen this? This was a gross video making its way around Youtube, purporting to show people being blown up for not believing in climate change. It’s been “pulled†from Youtube by its creators, the British climate group 10:10, but of course nothing is ever really “pulled†from Youtube. If you want to watch it bad enough, I’m pretty sure you can find it. Or you can look at the stories by climate deniers assailing it as the latest example of eco-fascism.
The climate skeptics can crow. It’s the kind of stupidity that hurts our side, reinforcing in people’s minds a series of preconceived notions, not the least of which is that we’re out-of-control and out of touch — not to mention off the wall, and also with completely misplaced sense of humor.[…]
JR: The video is beyond tasteless and should be widely condemned. […]
Dear oh dear.
Worrying how the deniers will spin anything is useless. No matter how inoffensive a campaign they will object: that’s what they’re paid for. In fact, all this worrying about how this video sends the wrong message about how authoritarian environmentalists are (percieved to be) is actually reinforcing the deniers’ message. Anybody who thinks this video shows the reality behind the environmental movement or whatever is a loon. Anybody with a functional brain knows that. Complaining about it only validates the loons.
They’re not called special constables because they’re so great
Special constables are numpties to thick to be in the real police and desperate enough to become pretend cops for free. On the positive side they don’t get or require the same training as proper police officers get and are usually the most reactionary and racist part of the police force. So it makes perfect sense that in order to save money, several police forces now want their recruits to come from their ranks:
The Metropolitan Police Authority today debates a contentious plan to recruit most new police officers from volunteer special constables to help slash costs at a time of tight budget constraints.
The scheme would see most new applicants working for 18 months as volunteers without pay. According to a paper being considered by the MPA – which scrutinises the Metropolitan police – at a meeting today, this would save up to £20,000 per appointment thanks to lower salary costs. Currently, police recruits receive 25 weeks of training regardless of previous qualifications and on-the-job experience. They are paid a salary of about £23,000 during their first two years.
The MPA is being asked to endorse the new guidelines to help save up to £2m for every 100 appointments.
“The proposal for the new model of recruitment and training of police officers represents an innovative and significant shift in traditional recruitment, development and training,” says the paper.
Now of course in the publishing world, not to mention in politics it’s quite normal that people “pay their dues” by working for free for a couple of years, ensuring that only those whose mummy or daddy can afford to support them for that time get a job there, which explains a lot about the dire straights both find themselves in. Do we really want that to happen to the police too, which is already bad enough? Do you really want the people who get a kick out of wearing the uniform to be paid for their hobby?
The Republican Party: all dead in twenty years
The GOP: for old, white people only.