The Side That Won the Civil War is Now Banning Books About Why the Civil War Was Fought. (via kottke)
How to make kebabs. (via Everlasting Blort)
Never lose your short friend in a crowd again. But don't pay too much. (Thanks, Ken!)
Behind the Kaleidoscope: The Women Busby Berkeley Used and the Deaths He Walked Away From.
None of The Countries That Bordered Romania Before World War 2, Border It Today. (via Nag on the Lake)
The Quiet Unraveling of America’s Food Safety Net. (via Fark)
17 Eerily Accurate Predictions Made By Pop Culture (And 12 Hilariously WRONG Ones).
Ukraine's Tunnel of Love: Nature's Romantic Railway.
Jeepers, I clicked on that food safety link and instantly thought 'Why is that old woman working ?'
ReplyDeleteThen I started to read and ... bloody heck, is Trump's Big stupid bill intended to help the apparent conspiracy that the elites want to either kill off the poor and turn them all into slave like worker bees, taking their houses and everything "You will own nothing and be happy" ?
Where I live the government pays out 65% of the average wage to everybody when they turn 65 years of age.
It used to be 80% and at age 60, but you really can't trust governments to have your best interests at heart ... still our older folk are able to live without working or begging.
Anyone unemployed gets a similar amount, but there are strong pushes to get people working again, if they are able, and if they are between 16 and 60 (60 to 65 they don't even suggest you look for work)
We pay a 15% Goods and Services tax on near everything (called VAT in Great Britain, I guess many other countries have a similar tax), and there are special taxes on fuel here, oh, and we pay road tax as well on diesel fuelled cars.
Apart from paying out a pension or benefit, he government's incoming money also allows us to have free health care for everyone, and, overall, we are more than happy with the way things are.
Nobody here loses their house or goes bankrupt because they needed medical help, ever ... because it is free ... paid for by everybody, with no one feeling that cost as an individual.
I guess it is the same as Americans paying health insurance, except we don't have those financially hungry middle men deciding if we really qualify, we just get the broken leg fixed, the blocked arteries replaced ... and paid an income while we recuperate.
If Trump breaks every rule and law he hasn't broken and abused so far, and becomes king of the USA or the very first 3 times president, I suggest you move here.
Basically we are a Christian country (whatever that means these days)
Racially we are 75% White, 13% 'native' maori, 12% various Asian/Middle Eastern (and the United Nations coerced African immigrant intake)
The climate is benign, southern parts get snow for maybe a week in August, summer, we have it in December through to the first week of March, like normal people, can be as hot as the late twenties or early thirties, I think that would be about 82 to 87 in ancient measurements.
We drive on the left side of the road, and use dollars as money.
We have elections every three years, and no one person gets to be overall boss ... because you see what happens when things are like that ... think Adolf, Benito, the short fat guy in North Korea .. Ung Un Ung or something ... Saddam, Mao, Donald, Joseph (not Clarice's father)
Of course, my suggestion to move here might be moot, given that every dictator known always closes the borders to stop people getting away from him (always a him, isn't it, never a woman being doing such cant things, spelling mistake for decency)
In which case ... what's that saying ... oh yeah, in which case you should 'cower in place'.