September 8, 2009 Ronan
It is my observation — contrary to popular opinion over here — that America does not have a higher proportion of dullards than any other country, just that said dullards grab the microphone with greater passion than do their IQ-challenged European peers.
American thickos are vocal. In Britain they stay at home and watch ITV3.
Witness the terrifying idiocy of the American health care debate. You may know by now that the Brits are seething over the stupid and outrageous (cf. Stephen Hawking) characterisation of the NHS. It’s unfortunate really, as our passionate defence of nationalised healthcare can blind us to its problems, just as the Town Hall wackos with their silly straw men are oblivious to the moral embarrassment that is the American system and the rationing that already exists within it.
Anyway, it’s right to herald a triumph in NHS care, so here it is.
We recently went on vacation with my parents to Wales. My mum fell ill with a cold which she began to worry might be flu and thus H1N1. Despite being away from her home GP, care was easy to find. First, she rang the NHS flu line. Because she is on other medication, they had her speak to a local doctor over the phone. He then prescribed Tamiflu and told her to collect it — with an authorisation number — at a nearby pharmacy. Job done. Cost to her? Nothing. Time from first call to pills? Less than one hour.
Now, of course there is a cost and it’s called taxation, but then again, given that the NHS spends half as much per person as the American system but gets roughly comparable and sometimes better results, I’m inclined to say that it represents value for money. We could swap anecdotes all day, but in this case (and in a majority of cases since the NHS has received the funding it needs in the last decade or so — kudos to Blair and Brown), the system works and we are proud of it.
So there.
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August 31, 2009 Ronan
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Sad to say, I simply could not finish this book and I feel terribly guilty about that. Its fanciful world and level of quirky erudition ought to be right up my street, but as a (very) casual fiction reader, I found it impossible to move the narrative along. Total philistine. 100 lashes. Next time I’m on a desert island, I’ll give it another go.
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August 29, 2009 Ronan
Pembrokeshire county top (536m) in the Preseli hills.
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August 22, 2009 Ronan
Posted at Kulturblog:
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August 20, 2009 Ronan
You can summit and get back to the car in one day, but this means that:
(a) You have to get up early.
(b) Your knees take a pounding.
(c) You miss another evening playing cards in the Adamekhütte.
So, we came down the next day, taking a different, longer route to the Hinterer Gosausee.
Glacier, hut, Klettersteig, extreme mountain beauty: Dachstein FTW!
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August 18, 2009 Ronan
You can attack the Dachstein (2995m, Lower Austria/Styria) from the south, either using the cable car to get quick altitude or via rather difficult climbing routes.
The northern route is the classic choice, however, and it’s the one we took. Day one took us from the car park at the Lower Gosausee to the Upper Gosausee, on up the ancient glacial wall, and to our destination at the Adamek hut on the glacial moraines.
First picture from Peter.
Looking back on the Gosauseen.
The Adamek hut.
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July 1, 2009 Hellmut
Our revulsion at the cruelty of the Supreme Leader’s henchmen is a powerful refutation of the postmodernist credo that anything goes. After the enlightenment discredited the authority of tradition and religion, the notion that reason or civilization could provide an ersatz God has also collapsed. The efforts of analytical philosophy could neither remove the ambiguity from language nor provide mathematics with a foundation.
While most people could not care less, much less understand, analytical philosophy and its implications for everyday life, even the most casual observers realize in the wake of the World Wars, the Holocaust, and the impotence of imperial powers that claims of western superiority have become unsustainable. Rather than rectifying liberal and nationalist abuses, Marxism has turned out to become rationalism’s most murderous effort.
During the 20th century, the idols have been knocked of their pedestal. The absence of an ultimate authority, however, does not imply that there are no standards. Only the most partisan among us will support violence against women and children. That taboo is an implication of our mammal nature, perhaps the most consequential property of our species.
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June 29, 2009 Hellmut
Although the Waxman-Markey bill employs the market efficiencies of cap and trade, efforts of governments to reverse global warming by regulating production are bound to fail for two reasons. First, they create a competitive burden when they price carbon dioxide pollution that only affects their manufacturers. Second, any gains within a jurisdiction may be offset by pollution beyond its borders. Global warming requires is a global problem that requires a global solution.
Attempts by national governments, federal entities such as California, and even alliances such as the European Union do not have the ability to regulate carbon dioxide pollution globally. Nonetheless, a jurisdiction can address global warming effectively if property rights initially belong to citizens and residents rather than producers.
Some markets such as the G7 nations, the European Union and even the biggest American states can affect production practices around the world by regulating the products that may be marketed within their borders. Consumption regulations create a level playing field since imports are subject to the same costs as domestic products but exports are not. Even better, consumption regulations have had cascading effects that have reduced pollution beyond the borders of the regulating governments.
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