A secular world is a sane world

How bad can the property slump go?

David McWilliams thinks bad...

When I read the silly valuations in the 'Irish Times' property section, particularly the "Take 5 at €400,000" section, I am reminded of the Japanese Imperial Palace delusion. Clearly a two up, two down in Rialto is not worth the same as a seven-bedroomed house in the Dordogne. Now that prices are falling rapidly, the idea that pokey Irish houses are worth more than French chateaux will look increasingly daft.

[snip]

Ireland is the most indebted nation in Europe. Outstanding residential mortgage debt now amounts to 192pc of our total GNP! This is truly shocking and depressing when you consider that in Germany, outstanding mortgage debt only amounts to 3pc of GNP.

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The Elitist Menace

link from onegoodmove

Books I've read recently, and what wot I thought

Originally I set out to try and write a short entry about any book I had just read but lately I just haven't had the time, so in an attempt to catch up here's a one line review of the most recent ones;

Why Europe and Asia raced ahead of everywhere else. Required reading for everyone.

Fantastic history of the Indian Mutiny and the battle of Delhi, full of first hand accounts of a savage conflict.











I learnt a few things about myself reading this Greta Christina's review tells you all you need to know









A very fine historical novel, compeletly hooked on the series right now, see also - Catalina's Riddle and Murder on the Appian Way










More Romans, this time the invasion of Britian, very enjoyable.

The E.U. Gravy Train

It's laughable that we should be asked to "trust" these fuckers! Transparency? Freedom of the Press? Democracy? Only words to sooth the gullible masses.



And please, no comments on how Lisbon would "fix" this kind of abuse. Lisbon is not required to stop blatant greed, and besides, if they don't fix them now they are not going to do it when they have more power.

tip to JohnnyK and ocaoimh for the link

Hurray For The Presenant of Poland

there are still a few democrats left, even more stinging as this guy supported the treaty;

Polish president Lech Kaczynski has said he will not sign the EU's Lisbon Treaty, saying it was pointless after Irish voters rejected it in a referendum last month.

"For the moment, the question of the treaty is pointless," Mr Kaczynski was quoted as saying in the online version of the daily Dziennik.

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People Don't Know Whats Good For 'Em

here's something that I thought was a real eye popper but which only received a small column in Saturdays Irish times;

AUSTRIA: AUSTRIA'S SOCIAL Democratic chancellor, Alfred Gusenbauer, has sparked a government crisis by promising a Lisbon Treaty referendum if changes are made to the document ahead of a second Irish vote.

Foreign minister Ursula Plassnik, from the conservative People's Party (ÖVP), denounced the move as "crazy" and did not rule out bringing down the coalition with the "erratic" Social Democrats (SPÖ). (my bold)

A minister in a western democracy can call the notion of a referendum "Crazy" and no one minds??? Clearly even the politicians know, but choose to ignore, the fact that most people do not want more and more power devolved from their own governments to Brussels.

Movie Blog Wall-E review

the Movie blog have posted their video review of the new Pixar film Wall-E, it's looking good ..

http://www.themovieblog.com/2008/06/wall-e-review

The Rocket Stove

very simple, very efficient, easily manufactured stove

http://www.aprovecho.org/web-content/media/rocket/rocket.htm

Friends don't let friends steer their lives by religion.

Daniel Dennett

It used to be the case that we tended to excuse drunk drivers when they crashed because they weren't entirely in control of their faculties at the time, but now we have wisely inverted that judgment, holding drunk drivers doubly culpable for putting themselves in that irresponsible position in the first place. It is high time we inverted the public attitude about religion as well, finding all socially destructive acts of religious passion shameful, not honourable, and holding those who abet them - the preachers and other apologists for religious zeal - as culpable as the bartenders and negligent hosts who usher dangerous drivers on to the highways. Our motto should be: Friends don't let friends steer their lives by religion.

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Where does oil come from?

A couple of years ago I discovered that where exactly oil comes from is a bit of a mystery. This was news to me, after all, it is commonly called "Fossil Fuel", anyway here are the top 3 theories;

1. Oil comes from algae
"The conventional wisdom is that oil descends from algae from eons ago. Lots and lots of algae. Unimaginable mounds of dead algae in quantities no longer found on this planet, pressed, and cooked into hydrocarbon liquids."

2. Oil is abiogenic (non-organic)
"Others, notably the Russians, have an alternative theory that oil comes from non-biological carbon compounds deep in this planet, like the methane oceans we find on other planets."

3. Oil is produced by bacteria
"An emerging third theory is that bacteria living within rocks produce oil. In this theory there is a biological component (the bacteria) which constitute the oil-generating process, but the originating material in not degraded organic material, but rather geological carbon gases."

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When NO means Maybe

In the almost two weeks since the Lisbon No vote I've been meaning to write about my own reaction to the result as well as the (almost universal) hysterical response from 'Official Ireland' but I just never got around to it. There seems to be no end of things I could say about it as every time its mentioned on radio or TV I think "I must post about that" and so, two weeks later, here goes.

The first thing I'd like to say is that most of my peers voted YES and where appalled by my NO vote. As a matter of fact I went to the pub after work on the day off the result (Friday 13th) and ended up in a wide ranging and lengthy discussion on the treaty. "Europe has been good for us so far, so why not trust them again? (or indeed, why mistrust them now?)" was the main argument and I have to say, it's a pretty good one. I didn't and don't think it is, in itself, a good reason for voting YES but I can appreciate how it might be seen as one.

The reason I voted NO was the lack of democracy in the E.U. (as I posted earlier) but this was mainly met with curious stares and shoulder shrugs. The fact that we where voting for something twice rejected just wasn't important. I suggested that we will be made to vote again but this time the threats will be more overt and the treaty will be passed - everyone agreed. Not democratic, I'd say. More shrugs and stares.

Since that night politician's and pundits have been qualifying the NO. "It wasn't really a NO", "The people didn't understand", "It wasn't a large NO", "It was an unfair NO", "we can't decide for all Europe", "The NO wasn't democratic, we are less that 1% of the population of Europe, it's wrong to hold them back", "The NO side are right-wingers and liars", "we shouldn't let the people decide important issues like this" ... I could go on.

Our NO vote has not been respected and hardly anyone cares.
I'm glad I voted NO, it actually meant something this time but its looking likely that it was last meaning vote any European citizen will get.