Archive for Politics
Petition
There’s currently one of those e-Government petitions on the Downing Street website calling for Gordon Brown to resign as PM. Obviously the results will be ignored, but I thought I’d share the link in case anyone was interested in making their opinion known.
Obama wins US election ’08
YAY! Thank f*** for that. 
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a truck load of sunshine and lollypops being delivered, and I’ve got to find somewhere to store them.
Voter Apathy
It’s polling day for the local council elections today, in our area at least, so I’ll be making a nostalgic trip to my old Infant school after work to visit the ballet boxes.
But who of the “big 3″ to vote for? Well, one of them I’d never vote for – local or general – in any but the most unusual circumstances, so that narrows it down a bit. Alas the representative of the pary I naturally vote for has been in office for three years, with very little to show for it other than a reasonable golfing average. I’ll still vote for their party in a general election, but at a local level they’ve gotten lazy and need a kick up the bum.
So that leaves my normal second choice. The only snag is I went to school with the candidate’s son, and he was a bit of a d*ck, so I’d rather not do that family any favours if I can help it.
A tough choice then. Part of me was tempted to say “screw the lot of them” and not vote. But then I’d feel guilty for not exercising my democratic right, especially when you think of all those places were people can’t vote as easily. Plus I’d loose any moral right to complain about local issues if I’d done nothing to shape how my town is run. Hmmm, sorry to sound a bit preachy there, but I think you all know what I mean.
So I guess I’m going to put personal differences to one side, and vote for my second choice, as they probably are the best choice for my local area if I’m honest. I hope that everyone who reads this will be thinking about what’s best for their community, and making the effort to vote today. 
Reincarnation Forbidden in Tibet?
Last night I watched a program about Chinese development of Tibet, and as a sort of passing comment, the narrator mentioned that it will soon be illegal for the Tibetan Buddhist monks to be reincarnated without first obtaining government permission.
Regardless of whether you believe in reincarnation or not, I think this is fairly intriguing. How would they “prove” that a child was the reincarnation of a Buddhist priest? What would the penalty be? Death? It’s not like that would stop repeat offenders! There doesn’t really seem to be any way to punish this “crime”, or even to prove that it had been committed in the first place.
Google didn’t turn-up too much about regarding the story, other than this article, which was then endlessly re-quoted by other sources. However a quick search off the BBC news website revealed this.
So it would seem that the actual law relates to declaring who is the next reincarnation of important Buddhist figureheads, like the Dalai Lama. As of September 1st, children cannot be declared a reincarnation unless central Chinese government approves the candidate first. So the story is not quite as bizarre as it originally sounded, but still an odd abuse of religious freedom. 
China in ‘Anti-Satellite Laser’ Shocker!
An interesting story from the Reuters news agency. When I first heard about this I imagined the spy satellite being blown out of the sky by a huge Chinese laser cannon. Sadly (from a hi-tech weapon POV) this was not the case – the craft in question was only temporarily blinded, suffering no permanent damage. Indeed the US remains unsure whether the Chinese were actually testing a new weapons system, or if it was actually a laser-based tracking device. Despite this, the article still makes interesting reading.
I’m in charge now, kneel pigs!
Following on closely from my last post about Planetarion, I wanted to spread the word about another browser-based game I’ve just found.
Nation States is a slightly different to other web games in that there’s no war element as such, it’s more of a political simulation. You create a country, choose a name, motto, flag, currency, etc, then decide on your political policies. You are presented with political issues each day that must be address. How you handle them determines aspects of your country, population, economy, etc, as well as what type of nation you control. Will you end-up with a liberal society or fascist dictatorship? It’s up to you!
Although there is no way to win as such, having outrageous policies will get you in the international rankings. There’s a comprehensive FAQ on the site that will probably cover all your questions.
I’d strongly recommend this to anyone with an interest in politics, or anyone who thinks they could do a better job than their current real-life rulers! As an interesting side-note, this game is based on the book Jennifer Goverment (which I’m aware of but haven’t read) and was actually coded by the author.
