Parent's anniversary (+3) on Monday, so I have a card to find.

Also GBBF next week so I'll be going to that but not sure if it's wise yet.

keep to the Fen Causeway

UnCommon sense - Natacha Kennedy - Citizen Gove

Citizen Gove, almost certainly aided by his chums in the Daily Fail, The Torygraph, the Scum and the Daily Excess believed the propaganda they built up over years, indeed probably decades, by the right-wing media. This created an unquestioned consensus in the media that there were all these schools, teachers, heads, pupils and parents just waiting to have their local schools set free from the Kremlin-like control of the local councils which were deliberately ruining educational opportunities for children by...well...er...running the local schools...er... democratically.
[....]
With one bound Michael Gove was going to be the man to set them all free, to give them all exactly what they had wanted.

Except it turned out that, exactly what they all wanted was to have nothing to do with Citizen Gove's hair-brained ideas. Despite the fact that Gove had used emergency legislation to rush through his Bill to enable these schools to start up as soon as possible, despite the fact that even his own Tory MPs had described his actions as undemocratic, the future of the country was at stake and he needed to act fast to save the children from their own parents and their parents' locally elected representatives.

Predictably he has made a complete and utter fool of himself. Unforced error after unforced error, he could be an England goalkeeper.

In other news, due to unexpected and large dental, veterinary and mechanics bills over the last month it doesn't look as if there's any chance of us getting to the Paris meet-up this year.

For men and women alike, casual misogyny is the climate and context of all their interactions. It is unconcealed and automatic. It affects the way women are received, portrayed and considered as colleagues, friends, workers, mothers, artists, thinkers, public figures and victims of male violence and discrimination. Apart from outright slander, jibes, names and insults there is: talking down a woman's work, interrupting her, teasing her, mocking her, talking over her, patronising her, sighing or rolling one's eyes when she talks, invading her personal space. The misogynists' approach to women can be summed up thus: sneer, leer, exploit, ignore.

Never was the phrase "the plural of anecdote is not evidence" more appropriate. I read this article and was incensed, it was all too easy and I'm sure many women reading it could nod and agree they'd seen or heard about similar. But that isn't the whole story. It's like saying Sarah Palin is a typical American or typical american feminist; the loudest most obnoxious mouth is not representative.

Sure there are issues of glass ceilings and the fact that when it comes to gender violence men have the upper hand in dishing it out (although men are far more likely to be victims of male violence), but the rest of it ? That's surely the human expression of hatred/fear/contempt of the other ? The Not_Them. Has she ever listened to women discussing men in an office, or in the loo of a pub or bar ? It's just the same. Hell it's even worse cos there is absolutely no societal comeback on women trashing men as there is for men trashing women.

Sorry. That article annoyed me cos she got paid for it, it was a double page spread !!!! And it was lazy fatuous rubbish.

keep to the Fen Causeway

Rioters in the Afghan capital have set fire to two US embassy vehicles shouting "death to America" after one of the SUVs collided with a civilian car killing a number of passengers, officials and witnesses have said.

Police fired into the air to disperse the crowd of angry Afghans who threw stones and chanted "death to Karzai" in reference to Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president.

Al Jazeera's correspondent in Afghanistan James Bays said the exact details of the incident are still unclear, but security officials are concerned.

"Some in the crowds said people got out of a [passenger] vehicle and embassy guards started firing," our correspondent said on Friday.

Nato's International security assistance force (Isaf) said it had dispatched a quick reaction force to the area outside the American embassy and near Afghan and US army bases in the centre of Kabul.

The recession of 2008 has had profound economic consequences for many countries. How and when to reduce budget deficits was a major focus in the recent general election in the United Kingdom and continues to make headlines around the world. The new government has already begun to make large cuts in public expenditure,^{1 2} even though the UK's projected underlying debt, as a share of gross domestic product (GDP), is less than that of other industrialised countries, it has longer than many other countries before it is required to refinance loans (table 1), and the actual deficit in 2009-10 was considerably less than expected. Leading economists have widely divergent views about whether the cuts will aid or hinder economic recovery,^{3 4} but have paid scant attention to the potential effects of reductions in health and social expenditure on population health.⁵ We examine historical data for insights into how lower levels of public spending might affect health.

He's been to the US to tell Obama that the special relationship is over (cue WH bafflement; what special relationship ?), to Turkey to tell Israel it's being mean to Gaza (cue Turkish Delight - oh did you think I wouldn't?), to Pakistan to tell them they're all horrid for doing dirty deals behind our back (cue Indian satisfaction) and then on to India where he says "Please buy our stuff ?"

Now the Independent felt this was all good knockabout stuff to distinguish himself from NuLab (unnecessary) while the Guardian fretted that he was secretly still working for Obama (why?).

Personally, it all looked pretty desperate. If you want to let the US know that you're their bitch, you scuttle over there at the first opportunity so's they can tickle your tummy. Funnily enough that's exactly what he did. But if you want a different message to get out, then just don't go.

I like the visit to Turkey and the (slight) de-coupling of our policy from that of Likud. But I can't help feeling that boosting Turkey is a way of annoying the EU. Is subtle, but I think Hague realises that going to Brussels and banging his shoe on the table isn't  useful tactic anymore. This is the next best thing. I worry he might visit the Ukraine soon.

But crawling so much to India is just p a t h e t i c. Big trading partner sure, but the speech to Pakistan was, in context, a huge mistake because of how the Indians will interpret it.

and just to sell Hawk "trainers", which even conservative Indians know will only be used against domestic targets. And they don't like it. shameful.

keep to the Fen Causeway

Please don't write any more interesting stuff that will distract me.

Keep playing this over and over...that'll stop ya.

Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.

Frank Delaney ~ Ireland

Hundreds of British soldiers have launched an operation against Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.

Operation Tor Shezada began early on Friday morning in Helmand province in the south of the country.

Soldiers from the 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment are trying to clear the Taliban from an important stronghold in the Nad Ali district.

The Brigade Reconnaissance Force (BRF) was among the first wave of troops.

A Channel 4 Journalist comments

alex thomson (alextomo) on Twitter

1. BBC6pm news talking about "audacious" and "high-risk" army operation in Helmand. This is utter garbage. Barely a shot was fired. less than a minute ago via TweetDeck
2. As any human intel would have told the army beforehand. Still talking about preparing for a battle. There was no battle. 1 minute ago via TweetDeck
3. They knew in advance there would be no battle. Insurgents haven't gone frontal in years. Dear oh dear oh dear.

Pfizer plans to sell a children's form of Viagra to treat a rare lung disorder as a humanitarian gesture -- in exchange for getting a six-month extension of its patent on the adult version.

The Food and Drug Administration approached Pfizer about using its drug to treat a lung ailment that affects about 600 kids a year.

Viagra, which modifies blood flows, could reduce unusually high blood pressure in a child's lungs, or pulmonary arterial hypertension. Symptoms include dizziness, chest pain and fatigue.

A panel of FDA advisers will determine on Thursday whether to green light the kid's version.

Investors at the CIA and Google are backing a company called "Recorded Future" that monitors tens of thousands of websites, blogs and Twitter accounts in real time in order to find patterns, events and relationships that may predict the future. The news comes amidst Google's so-called "Wi-Spy" scandal, that refers to revelations that Google's Street View cars operating in some thirty countries snooped on private WiFi networks over the last three years.

Audio | trannie TK...

HMMMM

The administration wants to add just four words -- "electronic communication transactional records" -- to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge's approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user's browser history. It does not include, the lawyers hasten to point out, the "content" of e-mail or other Internet communication.

Read more...

How might implementation of such capabilities affect "free" press communications and formulation of EU data privacy --storage (ISP custody) and transmission ("cloud computing")-- criteria?

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

First of all, both Coleman-Adebayo and Sherrod sued federal agencies over charges of employment discrimination and won...Sherrod as part of a class-action lawsuit by black employees against the USDA, and Coleman-Adebayo as an individual against the EPA.

I had been wondering, idly, about Sherrod's reported legal strategy: I expected parallel suits, one v. USDA, one v. Breitbart. Well, then, wonder no more.

An action by President Obama compounded the insulting injury endured by Coleman-Adebayo. The president appointed former EPA head Carol Browner - the same Browner who had sanctioned the Clinton-era beat-down of Coleman-Adebayo - to be his Energy Czar. Browner had figured prominently as a defendant in Coleman-Adebayo's successful lawsuit.

"The person found to be liable for racism, sexism and for sustaining a hostile work environment in here agency in my case now sits at the table with President Obama," Coleman-Adebayo said angrily. Browner was also part of Obama's transition team....

According to federal EEOC data, 81 percent of the EPA's "Senior-Level Officials/Managers" are white as are 78.4 percent of the "Mid-Level Officials/Managers."

In 2009, EPA employees filed 12 race discrimination, 16 sex discrimination, 13 age discrimination and 21 reprisal complaints with the EEOC.

Read more...

Possibly related USC case law:
defamation

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

In Switzerland tomorrow is the national holiday, though most people are celebrating tonight. Some of the kids seem also to fire them below the bridges nearby, which makes them even louder.

Otherwise I am waiting to watch the big firework.

Nice end for a busy week. It is summeryoga time again, meaning the same group of people come to a class five days in a row. Next week will be another group.