Saturday Open Thread

by afew Sat Dec 11th, 2010 at 10:53:28 AM EST

Saturday afternoon is Saturday afternoon. Discuss.

Photoblog No. 166

by In Wales Sat Dec 11th, 2010 at 03:43:26 AM EST

European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 11 December

by Nomad Fri Dec 10th, 2010 at 04:33:18 PM EST

Europeans on this date in history:

1803 - birth of Hector Berlioz, a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts (Requiem) (d.1869)

More here and here

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Friday Open Thread - Snow Edition

by Nomad Fri Dec 10th, 2010 at 10:33:30 AM EST

Your thread for winter fun...

Markets don't like tax cuts

by Jerome a Paris Fri Dec 10th, 2010 at 03:46:17 AM EST

Global bond rout deepens on US fiscal worries

The yield on 10-year Treasuries – the benchmark price of money worldwide and the key driver of US mortgages rates – has rocketed to 3.3pc, up 35 basis points since President Barack Obama agreed on Monday to compromise with Senate Republicans on tax cuts. (...)

The White House deal with Congress will renew the Bush tax cuts for rich and poor alike for two years, as well as adding a further a 2pc cut in payroll taxes and an extension of unemployment aid.

For the past several months, we've been told by various Serious People that European governments were being punished by markets for being too lavish on social spending, despite bond rates being at record lows (other than in peripheral countries subject to more specific attacks) - or would be punished if they didn't "reform" and lower taxes. Well, the US government did just what the Serious People wanted, with a nice fat tax cut for the rich, and bond rates jumped - ie markets actually literally hated the measures, selling off US bonds violently.

In other words, bond vigilantes are telling us that they don't want tax cuts for the rich. Just sayin.

European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 10 December

by In Wales Thu Dec 9th, 2010 at 05:21:21 PM EST

Europeans on this date in history:

1928 - death of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, a Scottish architect, designer, watercolourist and sculptor.

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Thursday Open Thread

by ceebs Thu Dec 9th, 2010 at 11:20:55 AM EST

An Evening with... (not Wednesday)

Turkish and Israeli Talks - Recent Developments

by InAntalya Thu Dec 9th, 2010 at 05:31:17 AM EST

Turkish and Israeli representatives held two days of talks - on Sunday and Monday - in Geneva to discuss a resolution to the Turkish-Israeli diplomatic crisis. There has been a lot of coverage and speculation about this in Turkish and world media this week.

One of the most interesting things I have noticed is that there has been a complete lack of any mention that the IDF commandos were `just defending themselves' when they shot and killed nine people and wounded dozens more on the Mavi Marmara during the IDF's attack and seizure of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.

The reports I have read and heard state that the talks are not about whether Israel would apologize and pay compensation but about how it would.

This is a summary of what I have read and heard in the past two days.

frontpaged with minor edit - Nomad

European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 9 December

by afew Wed Dec 8th, 2010 at 04:11:57 PM EST

Europeans on this date in history:

1842 - birth of Pyotr (Peter) Kropotkin, zoologist, evolutionary theorist, geographer, and anarcho-communist (d. 1921)

More here and here

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Wednesday Open Thread

by afew Wed Dec 8th, 2010 at 10:57:54 AM EST

Out with it!

Ruling Party Melt-down and the End of the EU project in Ireland

by Frank Schnittger Wed Dec 8th, 2010 at 05:20:31 AM EST

[Last week]'s Irish Sun Red C opinion poll estimates party support levels as follows (2007 General Election results in brackets):

Fianna Fail 13% (42%) -29%
Fine Gael 32% (27%) +5%
Labour 24% (10%) +14%
Green Party 3% (5%) -2%
Sinn Fein 16% (7%) +9%
Independents/Others 11% (9%) +2%

In other words, Fianna Fail, which has led Irish Governments for a total of 60 years since 1932 (and Fine Gael for the other 19) faces the prospect of becoming the fourth largest party in the state with Labour and Sinn Fein picking up most of their 29% loss of support.

What is also clear from these opinion poll results  is that the National political dispensation, which arose out of Independence from Britain and a civil war (over the non-inclusion of Northern Ireland in the independence Treaty) in 1922 is unravelling, and Sinn Fein is recapturing some of the revolutionary credentials which led to it being the dominant political force in the last years of British rule.  Angela Merkel had better not come looking for the Irish to pass any Referendum on a new EU Treaty any time soon.  The next time the Irish will likely reject EU overtures to facilitate another EU Treaty as firmly as the Brits were rebuffed and ejected in 1922.  That is the damage that the ECB is doing to the European project in Ireland.

from the diaries - Nomad

European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - December 8

by ceebs Tue Dec 7th, 2010 at 04:54:21 PM EST

Europeans on this date in history:

1660 Margaret Hughes, Becomes first Female to appear on the English public stage

More here

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Tuesday Open Thread

by Nomad Tue Dec 7th, 2010 at 10:30:33 AM EST

For your guilty pleasures

Assange Arrested

by Nomad Tue Dec 7th, 2010 at 06:52:23 AM EST

Par the BBC:

The founder of the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, Julian Assange, has been arrested by the Metropolitan Police.

The 39-year-old Australian denies allegations he sexually assaulted two women in Sweden.

Mr Assange is due to appear at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court later.

A Wikileaks spokesman said Mr Assange's arrest was an attack on media freedom but it would not stop the release of more secret files.

Good timeline by the Guardian here. This also includes the news that the notorious mass-dump of information which would occur were Assange to be arrested is not in the cards, but that the drip-feed of released cables will continue as usual.

More updates can be posted in the comments as things develop.

European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 7 December

by Nomad Mon Dec 6th, 2010 at 04:02:34 PM EST

Europeans on this date in history:

43 BC - death of Marcus Tullius Cicero , one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists, is assassinated by Herennius and Popilius.

More here and here.

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Monday Open Thread

by In Wales Mon Dec 6th, 2010 at 10:14:17 AM EST

Frost, snow, fog.

Any alternatives?

Tuition fees

by In Wales Mon Dec 6th, 2010 at 07:04:32 AM EST

It's been a busy week but still it is remiss of me to have not commented on the protests against Government proposals to increase the cap on University tuition fees.

Back in the day(!) when I was studying for my undergraduate degree at Cardiff, I was lucky enough to start in 1997, the last year where grants were still available (albeit minimal) and no tuition fees were charged.  Student loans saw me through on my living expenses and I worked each summer to make up the rest of the money I needed. Doing a chemistry degree involved most days being full of lectures and lab sessions, and being deaf meant that I had to use all of my time outside lectures to catch up on what I missed from not hearing the lectures.  The additional reading involved for me was huge. I just didn't have time to work whilst studying.

frontpaged - Nomad

Losing touch with reality.

by Colman Fri May 2nd, 2008 at 07:43:28 AM EST

Reading Helen's comment about the disaster for UK Labour in the local elections there put me in mind of a a comment Sven made some while ago about how people can stay in touch with reality for about five to seven years once their circumstances change from the relatively ordinary to the extraordinary. He was talking about people in the music/tv business, but I think it's a general flaw.

Gordon Brown's response, wittering about "lessons to learn" and blaming economic circumstances that are suddenly beyond his control, betrays a man who has no connection to reality on the ground in the UK any more. Labour in the UK has abused the citizenry on multiple levels, from the war in Iraq, to the war on photographers to the war on the health service to the war on low income families. I don't think that Brown understands this at all, and I think it's a general cognitive failure among people whose lives are other than what is considered ordinary.

Twenty Theses About Money

by Cassiodorus Fri May 2nd, 2008 at 06:33:20 AM EST

Since almost all of you forgot to read my diary of last February about Hutchinson, Mellor, and Olsen's The Politics of Money, I'm going to try to encapsulate the wisdom contained therein in a series of bullet points, with links added.  Maybe I was too long-winded back then.

Preface:

Yeah, there are other things to be concerned about.  Peak oil; abrupt climate change; overfishing; authoritarianism in government; and so on.

One thing we will have to focus upon as we head into the 21st century is the role of the money system in creating the mess we're in.  As Hutchinson, Mellor, and Olsen point out in The Politics of Money, money is not politically neutral.

Promoted by Migeru

European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 2. May

by Fran Fri May 2nd, 2008 at 12:21:08 AM EST

On this date in history:

1873 - Jurgis Baltrušaitis,was a Lithuanian Symbolist poet and translator, who wrote his works in Lithuanian and Russian.(d. 1944)

More here and here

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