Sam Iles's Blog

If you didn’t know, Ron Paul came in third place in the Iowa vote on who the next Republican candidate should be. Note this isn’t the actual vote from the state – that happens later in the year. This is just an idea. If you didn’t know, I want Ron Paul to win the candidency. Here are a few of my observations:

1) 122,255 people voted and Romney beat Santorum by just eight votes. Eight out of 122,255. This is pretty staggering and, let’s be honest, eight out of 122,255 really could be just a counting error. A team of volunteers counting 122,255 are bound to make a few mistakes, so who came first or second really should be taken with a pinch of salt. Especially odd that this year, for the first time ever, the votes were counted in secret away from GOP HQ, under the guise of a fear of terrorism interfering with the result. But, that’s another story…

2) Ron Paul came third. But, he almost 24% of the vote. Considering the media has been trying to position him as a crazy old ‘kook’ who has no hope of anything, a quarter of votes seems pretty mainstream to me…

3) Santorum came in second and got 26% of the vote. For those he don’t know, he is a Christian who has firmly expressed his hatred of gay people, wants to nullify all gay marriages/civil partnerships/etc, who is against abortion, even after rape, and who is against birth control in all circumstances. And he got over a quater of votes. America worries me.

4) Nobody who’s won Iowa has won the final candidacy since the 1970s. Statistically speaking – and, when it’s looked like Paul would win, as the media have been so desperately pointing out – people who win Iowa rarely win the whole thing. So, with proof of being mainstream and stats on his side, I’d say that third place is a pretty good result for Dr Ron Paul.

Financial Times, on Norway:

By the 1990s, the wealth was flowing to pretty much everyone. In Norway, the oil actually belongs to the people. The state-controlled oil company – called, with magnificent simplicity, Statoil – pays a marginal tax rate of 78 per cent. Add that on to a decent pre-existing economy, and the 4.9 million Norwegians can do it all: buy third homes and subsidise punk bands and save almost everything in the sovereign oil fund. Oh, and last month they found a huge new offshore oilfield.

Interesting. They continue:

Along with oil, Norway built its economy on another natural resource: its women. About three-quarters of Norwegian women now have jobs. They seem to pass from statuesque youthful splendour through a middle age spent on corporate boards before descending into rude geriatric health. The old ladies dashing about volunteer centres looked like retired winter Olympics champions, which statistically speaking many of them must be. Norway tops the all-time medals table for the winter Olympics, just as it seems to top most global rankings, except the rankings where it’s more appropriate to be bottom.

Sounds like a great place. The article is worth a read.

And, according to my own research, it:

• is in the top few countries in the world by income equality,
• has the highest ‘human development’ rating in the world,
• has 100% literacy rate (compared to the UK’s 99%),
• has free education for all and universal healthcare,
• is extremely liberal, with few freedom ruining laws, few CCTV cameras and a very low crime rate,
• and is, as the FT article says, very very wealthy (both the people and the country).

And it does all that without being a member of the European Union. Shocking.

Well, was a wonderful protector of human rights. Before he was forced from government and killed.

It seems that in January of 2011, just a few months before NATO began their programme of “carpet bombing for peace,” as I like to call it, they released a report (which is still available on their website) praising Gaddafi and his government for their wonderful human rights record.

The UN report from which this information has appeared contains a long list of countries praising Libya for its wonderful approach to human rights, an especially pertinent fact considering many of these countries were bombing the country in just a few months time. A few points which I pulled out from the report include:

The delegation indicated that women were highly regarded in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, and their rights were guaranteed by all laws and legislation. Discriminatory laws had been revoked. Libyan women occupied prominent positions in the public sector, the judicial system, the public prosecutor’s office, the police and the military.

Woman are fine then. Wonderful.

In response to the question relating to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya noted that it had signed the Convention and was currently carrying out all procedures related to ratification.

Disabled people? Fine. Lovely.

Protection of human rights was guaranteed in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya; this included not only political rights, but also economic, social and cultural rights. The Libyan Arab Jamahiriya referred to its pioneering experience in the field of wealth distribution and labour rights

Lovely.

Freedom of religion was also guaranteed, in accordance with basic laws and the Green Document, which stipulated that religion was a private spiritual and individual value and constituted a direct relationship with the Creator (God).

Freedom of religion? They haz it!

And on and on it goes. County after country praise them for their wonderfulness and the report fails to find any major problems – and certainly none at a government level. Curiously, the only two countries which form some kind of complaint were the UK and the USA. Almost as if they knew, isn’t it…

And even where there are criticisms, they are wishy-washy things like “remove the stereotypical view of women” – certainly not “STOP KILLING EVERYONE!”.

It seems odd that just a few months after this report, he’d suddenly become a brutal dictator who had been abusing the people of his country for years. But, this report contradicts all of that. Why was this never brought up by the mainstream media? Why did no government feel the need to mention it?

Nigel Farrage, giving another speech to the people of the European Parliament. I do like it when this man speaks:

Well here we are, on the edge of a financial and social disaster. And in the room today we have the four men who were supposed to be responsible. And yet we’ve listened to the dullest, most technocratic speech I’ve ever heard. You are all in denial. By any objective measure, the Euro is a failure. And who is actually responsible? Who is in charge out of you lot [speaking to Rompuy and the other self declared Kings of Europe]? Well of course the answer is “none of you”. Because none of you have been elected, none of you hold any democratic legitimacy for the roles you currently hold within this crisis.

Into this vacuum, albeit reluctantly, has stepped Angela Merkel. And we are now living in a German dominated Europe – something that the European project was actually supposed to stop. Something that those that went before us actually paid a heavy price in blood to prevent. I don’t want to live in a German dominated Europe and neither do the citizens of Europe. But you guys have played a role. Because when the Greek Prime Minister got up and used the word referendum, Mr Wren, you described it as a breech of confidence and your friends here got together like a pack of hyenas around the Greek PM, removed him and replaced him with a puppet government. What an absolutely disgusting spectacle. And not satisfied with that, you decided that Berlusconi had to go. So he was removed and replaced by Mr Monte, a former European commissioner; a fellow architect of this European disaster and a man who wasn’t even a member of the parliament.

It’s getting like an Agatha Christie novel, where we’re trying to work out who’s the next person who’s going to be bumped off. The difference is, we know who the villains are.

You should all be held accountable for what you’ve done. You should all be fired. And, I have to say, Mr Van Rompuy: I was wrong about you. Eighteen months ago I called you the “quiet assassin of European democracy”. But you’re not anymore, you’re rather noisy about it. You, an unelected man, went to Italy and said “this is not the time for elections”. What in God’s name gives you the right to say that to the Italian people?

Sorry to type the whole speech out, but it really is so spot on. I couldn’t have said it better myself. The Agatha Christie line is particularly good.

Clint Eastwood, speaking to GQ magazine:

And over the years, I realized there was a Republican philosophy that I liked. And then they lost it. And libertarians had more of it. Because what I really believe is, let’s spend a little more time leaving everybody alone. These people who are making a big deal out of gay marriage? I don’t give a fuck about who wants to get married to anybody else! Why not?! We’re making a big deal out of things we shouldn’t be making a deal out of. […]

They go on and on with all this bullshit about “sanctity” — don’t give me that sanctity crap! Just give everybody the chance to have the life they want.

I love that man.

Caroline Lucas, on the proposed EU referendum:

I support EU referendum because I am pro-democracy, not because I’m anti-EU.

I happen to agree.

I also think it should be a proper, legal referendum. Not the one planned where we’ll simply get the result and David will say “that’s interesting” and move on, but a real one. Sure, the public isn’t the smartest bunch of people in the world, but it’s their country, let’s let them decide.

Which way would I vote? I do not know yet. I’ll know closer to the time, if it does happen.

America has ostensibly foiled another terrorist plot. And I say “ostensibly” with emphasis.

It seems a 26 year old chap was “plotting” to “fly explosive-packed, remote controlled planes into the Pentagon”.

The curious thing, though, is the conditions of his arrest. Because he was totally set up by FBI agents. They actually gave him the C4 explosives, the remote controlled plane and guns as some sort of undercover operation. (Seems like aiding and abetting a terrorist to me, but never mind).

Then, once he took delivery of the weapons, he was promptly arrested for “plotting” to blow up things. Of course, without the FBI’s help he wouldn’t have had any explosives or guns – or even the RC plane, which can be bought off of Amazon cheaply enough.

The morality question though seems to be whether or not he ever would have done anything illegal without the FBI’s help. I don’t deny that he may have wanted to blow something up, but he didn’t actually do anything. How can you arrest someone for plotting to do something which you plotted to do? He was probably just a slightly nutty kid, who had some occasional thoughts of committing “jihad” but would never have actually done anything had he not been set up.

In the olden days in the USA the cops would spot you doing something naughty or hear about it on the grapevine, knock on your door and say “buddy, we’re onto you – stop it” and of course the villain would promptly stop it. Perhaps that’s why crime was lower and prison populations way down. Nowadays, however, the law enforcement in America seems too focused on setting people up before they’ve even committed a crime and, more importantly, arresting as many people as is humanly possible.

Whatever happened to the good old days when people were arrested when they committed a crime? The new normal seems to be opposite, setting people up and convicting them before they do anything. Who knows what this kid would have done? Where would he have procured C4 and guns if he didn’t have the FBI to help him out? He may not be guilty of anything, apart from holding extremist Muslim views – something which I’m pretty sure there’s no law against.

Apparently, the guy could face 20 years in prison for attempting to destroy national defence premises.

Coalition proposes a policy which will increase emissions by 20%:

Ministers to look at 80mph limit

Coalition proposes a policy which will reduce recycling:

£250 million to fund weekly bin rounds

So much for the promise that this would be the ‘Greenest Government Ever’…