grahambinns.com

I know I'm not American. I know that America is not my country. I know that, in fact, America had quite a big argument with my country a while back and we split up and did our own things for a while (but we're friends now, so that's okay). I know I have no right to tell the people who read this and who are of an American persuasion anything about what to do or not to do in the next few days, particularly when what I'm talking about is something that, really, has nothing to do with me.

Except that it does have something to do with me. It has something to do with all of us. Every last one of us on this tiny little planet, sooner or later, is affected by what America does or does not do. Every. Single. One. It's just a matter of time. This shit matters.

And I know that the people reading this to whom this actually applies are smart enough for it not to apply anyway. I get that. But I'm saying it anyway.

So seriously, guys, I'm just asking you: Don't vote. 'Kay?

Link via.

My colleague and friend Matt Revell has a nice summary of some of the reasons for rising domestic fuel prices in the UK at the moment. A phrase that particularly caught my eye was this one:

Wind power, also, is not reliable nor particularly efficient and requires generation from other sources (coal, gas, nuclear, for example) to back it up when it’s either too windy or not quite windy enough. So, this is the Goldilocks of power generation and just like Goldilocks in the story, it can’t go for that long without needing a lie down; it’s the energy source with ME. So, no, your electricity won’t be free and nor should it be.

I confess that I don't pay a huge amount of attention to the telly these days. It's a means for me to watch DVDs and little else; most of the news content I read on a daily basis is read via the intertubes. But the point that Matt is making in his post, the one about the problem with TV audiences, or rather with TV programs who cater to the lowest common denominator and require no effort from their audience (that's how I see it, it may not be how Matt sees it) is a valid one.

One of the problems with living in an age of high information availability, when all you need to do to be able to know something more about an issue is look it up on Google, is that people accept the information that comes to them almost without question, in the same way that a stereotypical Daily Wail reader will accept the paper's opinion that the country is going to the dogs almost every single day of the week.

Is this just a human problem? Are we just naturally rather too trusting of, well, just about anyone who seems to be better informed than us? One of the most common phrases I've heard - and which has irked me no end - over the years is "It's (in the paper|on the web|on the TV) so it must be true!"

Anyway, I'm not going to go on further in a post that started out with a purpose but has subsequently become somewhat disjointed and is turning into a rant. Go and read Matt's post for a saner and less crabby commentary on matters.

Instead, dear reader, I'll leave you with a summary of my thinking on such matters by that other web luminary, XKCD:

Excellent. Short, (enforcedly) honest and to the point:

New Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has answered "no" when asked on BBC radio if he believed in God.

The rapid-fire question and answer format on 5 Live meant the 40-year-old did not have the chance to elaborate.

I know that a politician's religious beliefs are not as big a deal over here in Blighty as they are stateside, much to my relief. But it's nice to see someone come out and say "No," when asked the question. To be fair to the guy, he did elaborate later:

He later said he had "enormous respect for people who have religious faith", that his wife is Catholic and that his children are being brought up Catholic.

He also said:

"However, I myself am not an active believer, but the last thing I would do when talking or thinking about religion is approach it with a closed heart or a closed mind."

Which I think is the right attitude all round.

So good on you Nick Clegg. Buggered if I know how good a Lib Dem leader you'll be, though.

Another link to another petition for you, this time via BoingBoing (link) and the Open Rights Group:

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to abandon plans to create the Information Sharing Index, a national database of all children aged between birth and eighteen.

You can find the petion at petitions.pm.gov.uk as usual.

Right, that's it for petitions and political statements this week. Promise.

[Edited to add]

By the way, I'm largely cynical about these petitions. I don't honestly believe that a government, particularly our government, particularly at the moment, is going to give any of these results more than a passing glance without dismissing the petitioners as uninformed.

Nevertheless, I'm also of the opinion that not putting my name to these things, whether or not I believe they're going to have any notice taken of them, would be tantamount to giving my consent to the very things against which the petitions stand. It's the same reason that I turn out and vote: I may be all but certain that my chosen candidate isn't going to get in but not voting is just another way of saying that I don't really care, when in fact I care very much. To put it another way, as the old saying goes, "Them as don't ask don't get." 

Oh do fuck off, the Rt. Hon. Liam Byrne.

ID cards 'to be UK institution'

The identity card scheme will become a "great British institution" on a par with the railways in the 19th Century, Home Office minister Liam Byrne says.