Banks 'to be forced' to provide accounts for all

Well - this comes as a bit late for me. I had loads of trouble opening an bank account last year. So I now have personal experience of the crass stupidity of the banking system. There I was holding a cheque from an inheritance for real proper money and I couldn't get at it simply because I couldn't get a bank to let me open an account. We now have a system where banks make most of their money from lending money out - so they want credit checks (but why? I wasn't asking to borrow any money) before they'll do anything. And this was at the height of the credit crunch - in effect they were turning down real money because they had gotten so used to interest payments on money they were hoping to lend out. Banks have completely lost the plot. But we know that already from seeing them throwing huge bonuses around for themselves despite having nearly having brought down the entire banking system.)



2010 budget: Banks 'to be forced' to provide accounts for all | Money | guardian.co.uk

are you kidding me?

It's taken UMG this long to realise that the high price of CDs might be one of the things that's putting people off buying them? And the rest of them STILL haven't twigged. Oh no - it's internet piracy that's behind all their woes.

Companies this stupid and so contemptuous of their customers deserve to die.

Updated: UMG To Launch U.S. Pricing Test

more guns in the 'items we carry' stuff:

my eyes have been rolling so much over this forum I am in danger of getting brain damage but not from what this guy might think:

For the most part, they're a bunch of idiots. Groc has brain damage. The group is at least 2 years old, and has over 2,000 submissions. So for the past 2 years and 2,000 posts, there are pages and pages of wallets, keys, and the occasional knife. Now, for the past two weeks, they're getting something outside the norm for that group. Do they relish the chance to look at something different? Nope. They cry that now "all the posts are boring because they're all guns".

So, 2000, photos of my car keys is exciting, 20 photos of my firearms are boring.

I get it. Morons.
from someone calling them-self Marlett

Oh? If the group was so desperately dull and uninteresting before - then why join? Oh wait - it's OK now because it has a few guns in it.

Do we relish the chance to look at something different? Well - no. We're not the gun club.

more guns in the 'items we carry' stuff:

my eyes have been rolling so much over this forum I am in danger of getting brain damage but not from what this guy might think:

For the most part, they're a bunch of idiots. Groc has brain damage. The group is at least 2 years old, and has over 2,000 submissions. So for the past 2 years and 2,000 posts, there are pages and pages of wallets, keys, and the occasional knife. Now, for the past two weeks, they're getting something outside the norm for that group. Do they relish the chance to look at something different? Nope. They cry that now "all the posts are boring because they're all guns".

So, 2000, photos of my car keys is exciting, 20 photos of my firearms are boring.

I get it. Morons.
from someone calling them-self Marlett

Oh? If the group was so desperately dull and uninteresting before - then why join? Oh wait - it's OK now because it has a few guns in it.

Do we relish the chance to look at something different? Well - no. We're not the gun club.

The Innocent smoothies of politics are still the party of the rich

I have to agree with this commenter - the only things the Tory party have going for them is:

1. They're not the Labour party - and so can lay a dubious claim to have not got the country into the mess it is supposedly in these days. (What would they have done so different that we could've sidestepped all this? They never say?)

2. Cameron - it took a while - but they finally found someone among their ranks who isn't downright ugly or weird looking. He is now literally a poster boy.

3. Err... Eeeer... that's about it.

Vision? Policies? Pretty short on saying anything about such things. They say they're going to cut public spending to help get the deficit down (which always begs the question - why is it the public have to bear the brunt of these cuts? It isn't our fault - make the damn bankers pay back everything they took to keep them from going under. Oh wait - they get their money from bank charges, interest rates and fees they take from their customers - Um, there's something a bit wrong there.) The Tories are making noises about re-legalising fox hunting, and they want to reduce inheritance tax. That's all I know they want to do... No doubt they have many plans in place to punish the poor for having the brazen temerity for going around being poor -damn it. Both Labour and The Tories are very much in favour of that these days.

The Innocent smoothies of politics are still the party of the rich | Jonathan Freedland | Comment is free | The Guardian

Items we carry - guns?

OK So. I'm a moderator for a flickr group 'the Items we carry' - suddenly this week the group has a whole flood of gun pix. Of course I'm going 'huh? wtf.' Turns out some website in Boston is running a photography comp. this month based on the group (yeah, thanks for warning us guys. Although I'm sure it wasn't their intention to stir up the NRA supporters in such numbers) and well... Boston is looking like a pretty scary place to me now.

and I'm left wondering if the group is ever going to be the same again after this.

Bullfrog tribal droning

bullfrog tribal droning by Groc

and to think I usually vote Lib-Dem too

But Lord Clement-Jones has put me off them now.
Why is it these ancient fossils are so utterly clueless when it comes down to the internets?

Oh wait, yes - that'll be were money trumps common sense - and the fact they only listen to Lobbyists and the sound of their cheque books opening to fund various pet causes...

Lord Clement-Jones on the Digital Economy Bill: web blocking amendment


"Lib Dem sleaze? Lord Clement-Jones takes £70,000 a year from DLA Piper, a law firm specialising in copyright and patent law, who would stand to gain a great deal if this draconian bill gets passed into law."


Oh, at least 25 Lib-Dems are trying to get them to see common sense - although unfortunately I think it might be a bit late.
25 Lib Dem PPCs sign letter asking Lib Dem Parliamentarians to think again on Digital Economy Bill.

Planet Jamie's blog post: The Road From Legitimate Suspicion To Rampant Paranoia.

Gordon Brown: Video on TED.com

Gordon Brown: Wiring a web for global good | Video on TED.com

Is this really the same man who heads a Government that wants to keep a record of every single person's telephone calls, web pages visited, emails sent and received, allows the police to photograph people on peaceful lawful demonstrations and to keep DNA samples and fingerprints on record in spite of that person's complete innocence? A Government that is pushing through a Digital Economy Bill that is going to make life very difficult if not impossible for whole sections of internet users under the guise of protecting copyright holder's material (there's a current storm over the bill's attempt to out-law private 'web lockers' and a clause that taken literally could even shut down the UK's access to Youtube and similar sites. It seems a bit disingenuous to praise the internet for opening up the world and it's potential for bringing the world together for the moral good - while at home there's a bill being rushed with indecent haste through parliament which will bring in rather draconian ways of shutting down potentially huge chunks of the internet - all under the guise of copyright protection (IE big enterprise corporations out to try and protect their profiteering ways versus well, everyone else) - like that legislation won't get abused very quickly. (Like super-injunctions routinely are in libel laws.)

[Should I mention this is the same Government that has it's intelligence services being called to account for their part in torture allegations? Interestingly, even ironically, it was leaked phone cam pictures that exposed what was going on in Guantanamo bay. We didn't hear Brown getting involved calling out for human rights abuse there.)]

I'm constantly fascinated by politicians ability to say one thing stating their good intentions while actually doing things that ensure in the exact opposite thing happen.

sun rises - sun sets

The Wrong Kind of Green

Oh no. This is really depressing. The human race is doomed and we'll have the oil and coal companies and their money to thank.

The Wrong Kind of Green

Unemployment Benefits Make People Not Want To Get A Job

When I read this I could only think one thing:

'Hey Senator! Have you ever personally experienced being unemployed for any length of time? No? Then you obviously don't know what you're talking about - So... SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP!!"

Seriously - how do these drooling morons get to these positions of power - and get to say such idiotic things? Oh, could it be they have a moneyed background? Then got in with other moneyed people and having spent their entire lives wrapped in a cosy bubble of privilege - (certainly never encountered what the severely poor and disadvantaged have to on a daily basis) - and so end up with what is obviously an incredibly warped view of reality.

People with such incredibly warped views of reality certainly have no business in Government or any position of power. What they really need is help - in a nursing/psychiatric home or some such, before they become a danger to others or themselves. But then going by his own line of thought - he should be kicked out onto the street - because being cosseted by any institution would only discourage him from getting his mental health back -all on his own...

GOP Sen. Kyl: Unemployment Benefits Make People Not Want To Get A Job

Apple admits using child labour

Apple admits using child labour - Telegraph

Mmmm Globalisation. How lovely it is.