Rants ‘n’ Raves
Reciprocity on Republicans
A few days back, a particularly dim Republican God-botherer called the “Rev.” James Dobson (interestingly, an anagram of his name is:”Demon Ass Job” 
) asked his so-called “Christian” parish to pray that torrential rain would disrupt Obama’s acceptance speech, at the Democratic convention in Denver.
But it seems that the Lord got a mite pissed off with that request.
+21Rant: British Gas – Adding insult to injury
I’d like to think this could only in the UK, but I suspect that’s not true…
Yesterday, I reported on how Centrica / British Gas had jacked up it’s prices by 35%, less than 24 hours after it revealed it made almost a billion quid operating profit in 6 months.
Unbelievably, when I got home this evening there was a package from British Gas sitting on my doorstep. The package contained…wait for it…four long-life light bulbs, and a booklet containing energy saving tips (which were mostly straight out the the bleeding-obvious manual).
+19Rant: British Gas at it again!
Yesterday’s announcement by Centrica-owned British gas of a record 35% price increase would have been enough for most of their long-suffering customers to content with, if it had been the only rise this year.
But it’s not of course. Let’s not forget the 15% retail price increase in January of this year, the 12.4% increase in September 2006 and the 14% increase in 2005. Taken collectively, they represent a non inflation-adjusted (but still gobsmacking) 96% rise in the last 3 years!
+19Rant: Indefensible
You know it’s funny…every time I think that Sir Humprey’s snivil servants and the Whitehall worms can’t possibly screw up anything else, I read another story which illustrates even more monumental failings.
The recent reluctant admission by the Ministry of Defense, that more than 100 USB memory sticks, some containing secret information, have been lost or stolen from the Ministry of Defense since 2004, is a new low in data protection balls-ups.
+25Rant: Planning Palarva
Last night the Government hammered home the final nails in the coffin of the Planning application process, to ensure that the public no longer had any grounds for objection.
And in their usual chicken-shit style, they have also fobbed off responsibility for the unpopular decisions to an unelected quango, in a vain attempt to shield themselves from a voter backlash next election.
+19Farewell Liberty – It was nice knowing you
No real surprise that last night the government managed to push it’s new anti-terror legislation through Parliament, albeit with the narrowest of margins.
Despite the fact that this bill is likely to be killed before it reaches the statute books (either in the house of Lords unless the government invokes the parliament act, or in the EU human rights commission, which the government can’t influence too much), I can’t help but wonder what the hell the Whitehall worms are thinking.
+22Rave: The Future of Energy?
Already being done in New Zealand, but worth a look:-
…and this is worth a look too:-
GM bacteria that excretes crude oil
+22