The political situation in Iceland, now that autumn will soon be upon us, can best be described as a sort of a limbo. We've had two very dramatic years, starting with a currency crisis and the collapse of the financial system. For a moment, in early 2009, during the so-called Pots and Pans Revolution, things seemed quite clear - the government that has presided over the fall was toppled, the governors of the Central Bank were forced to leave in disgrace, people in general were very engaged in politics, there was a sort of awakening, there was talk of a New Iceland. But now everything seems to be terribly muddled.

Spontaneous peasant uprisings tend to get muddled after the first victory due to the lack of political skills among the leaders and a inchoate political agenda other than "throw the bums out."  Getting rid of the local nobility is relatively easy; fixing the problem(s) is much harder.


If you never fail, you're not trying hard enough.

and to provide more evidence of how out of touch with Popular Culture I am.  

If you never fail, you're not trying hard enough.

Some of the tangible accomplishments of the President's plan over the next six years include:

• ROADS: Rebuild 150,000 miles of roads - renewing our commitment to the backbone of our transportation system;
   
• RAILWAYS: Construct and maintain 4,000 miles of rail - enough to go coast-to-coast;
   
• RUNWAYS: Rehabilitate or reconstruct 150 miles of runway - while putting in place a NextGen system that will reduce travel time and delays.

so a lifetimes supply (or it felt like it anyway) of various household items to see them through the winter.

keep to the Fen Causeway

The coroner presiding over the inquest into the death of Ian Tomlinson has officially requested that a senior judicial figure take over the case on the eve of formal proceedings.

City of London coroner Paul Matthews will tomorrow begin a pre-inquest review - a proceeding that will set out the scope of the judicial investigation into Tomlinson's death.

However the Guardian understands that Matthews, who controversially appointed pathologist Dr Freddy Patel to conduct the first postmortem into the newspaper vendor's death, has written to ministers raising doubts about his own lack of expertise in criminal cases.

The justice secretary, Ken Clarke, is considering the request, which has the support of Tomlinson's family.

3 September 2010
Radical Islam is world's greatest threat - Tony Blair

Asked about the argument that Chechens, Kashmiris, Palestinians, Iraqis and Afghans were resisting foreign occupation, he said Western policies were designed to confront radical Islamists because they were "regressive, wicked and backward-looking".

The aim of al-Qaeda in Iraq was "not to get American troops out of Baghdad [but] to destabilise a government the people of Iraq have voted for", he told the BBC's Owen Bennett Jones in a World Service interview.

The former British leader - who now acts as the Middle East envoy for the international Quartet - said that Iran was one of the biggest state sponsors of radical Islam, and it was necessary to prevent it by any means from developing a nuclear weapon.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11182225

Pefect guy for Middle East envoy for whatever they're calling permanent occupation these days.

fairleft

Boris Johnson on the deficit is extraordinary --- Ed Balls makes 'compelling argument' says BoJo http://bit.ly/b3eKUd

The Metropolitan Police and not the government should decide whether to re-open the investigation into the News of the World newspaper phone-hacking allegations, Home Secretary Theresa May has said.

Answering an urgent question on 6 September 2010 on fresh claims that No 10 aide Andy Coulson was complicit in phone-tapping while editor of the newspaper, Ms May told the House it was "right" for the police to say they would examine any new evidence in the case.

Fresh allegations made in the New York Times newspaper have renewed attention on the original investigation, which led to the paper's royal editor Clive Goodman being jailed in 2007; private investigator Glenn Mulcaire was also imprisoned.

Skennah Kowa

Anyway, I think that the US in general, and I hope California, is pursuing a successful path followed by some bacteria who find themselves in trouble because their environmental conditions change: loss of food, accumulation of wastes, drying, etc.  The bacterium sequesters vital resources within an endospore which is very hearty (endospores are one of the problems in the canning industry), the rest of the bacterium dies away, and the endospore sprouts once the environment improves. The wealthy are currently following this model and I hope the state of CA will also. Europe Is Doomed?  Hell, the US really is.

I love the smell of roast chicken in the morning!

Robert Sheer rips Obama a new one, and more.

Must see TV!

I love the smell of roast chicken in the morning!