Merry Christmas

carolersHave yourself a merry little Christmas,
Let your heart be light

From now on,
Our troubles will be out of sight

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Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Make the Yule-tide gay,

garlandFrom now on,
Our troubles will be miles away.

Here we are as in olden days,
Happy golden days of yore.
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more.

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Through the years we all will be together
If the Fates allow

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Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.
And have yourself a merry little Christmas now

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America, The Disgraced Super-power

For the choice of Trump reveals most Americans as immature and prone to juvenile behavior. To vote for Trump is the ultimate act of political immaturity. There are, of course, identifiable reasons why many were drawn to the flamboyant candidate, why his demagoguery resonated, why his exaggerated imagery struck a receptive nerve. However, for that emotional response to translate into the actual selection of this man to be president crosses a critical threshold. Children – at times – let emotion rule their conduct. Children only weakly feel the imperative to impose logic and a modicum reason on their impulses. Children disregard consequences. Children overlook the downside in their implicit weighing of the balance in giving in to those impulses or not. Grown-ups do not.

Source: America, The Disgraced Super-power | The Huffington Post

To be strictly accurate, more Americans voted for Hillary than The Donald, but I can’t help thinking, “For US, read UK; for presidential elections, read Brexit referendum.”

Little Box

Some Christmas humour from the excellent Simon’s Cat.

Leavers are angry, for their lies will return to haunt them

The only thing worse than sore losers are sore winners. They have the victory, the field is theirs, but still they scream bitter abuse at the defeated.

Source: Leavers are angry, for their lies will return to haunt them | Nick Cohen | Opinion | The Guardian

How you can turn a lie into a truth (according to the sinister Brexit playbook)

What Kahneman and other researchers have empirically confirmed in their work is that the majority of people are ‘System One’ or ‘quick’ thinkers in that they make decisions on impulse, feeling, emotion, and first impressions, rather than ‘System Two’ or ‘slow’ thinkers who seek information, analyse it, and weigh arguments in order to come to decisions. System One thinkers can be captured by slogans, statements dramatised to the point of falsehood, and even downright lies, because they will not check the validity of what is said, but instead will mistrust System Two thinkers whose lengthier arguments and appeals to data are often regarded as efforts to bamboozle and mislead.

Source: How you can turn a lie into a truth (according to the sinister Brexit playbook) – Top Stories – The New European

I sure that not everyone who voted leave is a System One thinker, but I guess these are the ones who keep claiming that they’re not stupid, but can’t provide any explanation for their decision based on evidence and reason.

Old Jokes

I have an Outlook PST file that I have religiously copied from one computer to the next for more than 15 years. The file is named humour.pst; it hasn’t been used since the year 2000. I decided to have a look through the emails to see if there was anything notable. I found this:

Diana always wanted an expensive car—a status symbol to drive around and be seen in. She scrimps and saves, goes to the BMW dealer, and plops down several years income for a brand new state-of-the-art, computer-enhanced, kick-ass, dream mobile. She’s driving off. Decides she wants some music and searches for the radio.

The dashboard looks like a control panel at NASA. She fiddles with this button, that gizmo…  jiggles these and those, but finally gives up. Can’t find the damned thing.

Furious, she races back to the dealership, screams at the salesman and tells him they forgot to install the radio!

He assures her it’s right there in front of her. It’s hooked into the onboard computer. All she has to do is tell it what she wants.  He demonstrates: “Classical,” he says.

The car fills with the sounds of Paganini.

“Blues,” she says, and “click” a B.B. King classic plays.

She drives off amazed. “Country,” she says, and “click” a Garth Brooks tune comes on.

“Folk” and “click” Joan Baez sings about the night they drove ol’ Dixie down.

“New Age” and “click” Yanni at the Acropolis snaps on.

She’s so captivated by this new toy that she isn’t paying much attention to the road.  A driver runs a light and cuts her off.

“Asshole!!!” she screams.

“Click”… “Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.”

How a US PR company conned UK voters into voting for Brexit

Run out of words…

Tom Pride's avatarPride's Purge

gunster-brexit

Sorry Brexiters – but you’ve been conned. By an American. And he’s not even hiding the fact.

PR executive Gerry Gunster has been boasting about how his firm was behind the successful Brexit campaign – and how he used sales techniques instead of facts to trick British voters into voting for Brexit.

Gunster claims he was behind the successful slogan “take back control” and was the person who directed the Leave campaign to run a campaign free of facts which played on voters’ emotions, in particular fears about immigration.

Gunster even employed the services of a hypnotist to work on Leave campaign videos.

The extremely expensive services of Gunster’s Washington firm were bankrolled to run the Brexit campaign by multi-millionare UKIP backer Arron Banks.

gunster-winning

In the past, Gunster’s firm has helped big US corporations fight unpopular public health measures such as sugar taxes.

It’s ironic the very voters who…

View original post 39 more words

MPs should not vote for Article 50 until they are sure what it means

⭐️

Rick's avatarFlip Chart Fairy Tales

If you give notice to your landlord or your employer, you trigger a process which, if you don’t do anything else, will leave you homeless or jobless after a given period. Furthermore, even if you do take some action, the decision is still partly in the hands of others. You need to find a house you like and a landlord that will let to you or a job you like and an employer that will have you. For this reason, most people don’t give notice to their landlords without having another home to go to or notice to their employers without having another job lined up. The only people who do are those who have enough money behind them to give them other options. Or those who are extremely reckless.

Something similar applies to the triggering of Article 50. As we understand it at the moment, once triggered, Article 50 is irrevocable…

View original post 2,005 more words

Why I Insist on Voting for Hillary Clinton

I’m with the NATO allies that want to count on America’s word, and every person on earth who’ll sleep easier on November 9 knowing Trump’s finger won’t be on the button.

Source: Why I Insist on Voting for Hillary Clinton – The Atlantic

And that includes me.

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Offended? That’s the price of freedom.

In our liberal democratic society, public authorities have a duty to protect and advance human rights, including our right to freedom of expression. They should not be victimising individuals for lawful actions, however offensive. Individuals, of course, have other obligations, and will keep their own conscience. We may exercise self-restraint in our own expressions out of politeness or respect. We may even urge others to do the same. But we should never call on the law to enforce our personal values or tastes, however deeply held these may be.

Source: Offended? That’s the price of freedom.