The Great Orator, not

Plato has never quite understood how Obama became POTUS - apart from the fact he was a Democrat, and black and did a big line in soaring rhetoric that'd put Moses to shame - oh did did Good Teleprompter.

So how did he come up with this tripe? His speech writers need shooting, quite frankly...

"I mean, think about it, these are the folks who were behind the steering wheel and drove the car into the ditch. So we’ve had to put on our galoshes, we went down there in the mud, we’ve been pushing, we’ve been shoving. They’ve been standing back, watching, say you’re not moving fast enough, you ain’t doing it right. (Laughter.) Why are you doing it that way? You got some mud on the car. Right? (Applause.)

That’s all right. We don’t need help. We’re just going to keep on pushing. We push, we push. The thing is slipping a little bit, but we stay with it. Finally -- finally -- we get this car out of the ditch, where we’re just right there on the blacktop. We’re about to start driving forward again. They say, hold on, we want the keys back. (Laughter and applause.) You can’t have the keys back -- you don’t know how to drive. (Laughter and applause.) You don’t know how to drive.

And I do want to point out, when you get in your car, when you go forward, what do you do? You put it in “D.” When you want to go back, what do you do? (Laughter.) You put it in “R.” We won’t do want to go into reverse back in the ditch. We want to go forwards. We got to put it in “D.” (Applause.) Can’t have the keys back. (Laughter.)

But the fact is, most of the members of the other party voted no on each and every one of these initiatives. No on tax cuts to small businesses. No to clean energy jobs. No to the railroad and highway projects."

Richard Dawkins would be weeping at this point... 

Cheap house even if you don't need it? Eh?

Sometimes Plato really does wonder at the 'entitlement society' we seem to have drifted into over the last 40 yrs.

Since when is it okay for your circumstances to be pressing enough for you to benefit from taxpayer largesse and live somewhere you couldn't afford in a month of Sundays - and when you can, you can squat there until you drop dead/then bequeath it to your other half or kids irrespective of your wealth?

What a completely WTF policy is that?

Yet Simon 'I have lots of council estates in my constituency' Hughes in up in arms about it - and ticking off the Prime Minister for daring to talk about it because 'it wasn't discussed by the Coalition'.


Who the fuck does he think he is? Plato was surprised at his willingness to bat for the Coalition after the GE, but frankly he's going native again and being very silly.

*off to watch back to back episodes of House MD = cracking stuff*

Getting Life Insurance Quotes

When you begin to consider the importance of having life insurance, you soon realize that it is an essential tool for protecting your loved ones. Of course, life insurance prices and policies can vary quite widely, so it is important that you search for some life insurance quotes and do some comparisons prior to your purchase.

It is quite easy to get life insurance quotes over the Internet today, and this is also the fastest way to get your life insurance quotes today. A simple Internet search will present you with many options for life insurance quotes. You will need only to enter some information regarding your age, place of residence, and what sort of job that you do to get some basic quotes.

Your life insurance quotes can differ quite a bit depending upon your selected policy maximum. Only you can be sure how much life insurance to purchase, but it is important that you have a policy large enough that you are certain your family would be cared for in the event of your unfortunate death.

Are you tasty?

Well I certainly am considering the number of mozzy bites I've accrued in the last week - I think it's about 20 and counting :-(

The little buggers have nibbled away at any exposed bit of flesh - my love handles, ankles, forehead and yesterday even the hole in the knee of my jeans FFS.  Three of them are now itching like hell despite being smothered in anti-wotsit cream.

I even had to hide under the bed clothes last night and sweltered as another evil insect buzzed about my bedroom going zmzmzzzmmzmzmzmzmmzmzmzmz.

I always thought my kitties would eat these obnoxious insects, yet sadly no - they just snooze on the bed like unwelcome hot-water bottles on a warm night.

I used to love warm sunny weather - now I'm turning into a grumpy after weeks of hot, humid and fly ridden weather... still at least I'm not spending anything on electricity or oil!

*goes off to medicine cabinet for more anti-wotsit cream*

Zithers

Plato's Mum and Dad brought a zither home from one of their many foreign trips in the 70s - as well as a guitar made from a tortoise... and a lot of questionable African 'tribal' art that seemed over-represented with Easter Island style statues with enormous breasts [perhaps Dr Pachauri would be interested...]

If you're thinking WTF is a zither - enjoy a master at work

The penny has dropped

The BBC have just published details of a poll conducted by Populus that shows a big drop in belief in AGW - here's the polling data

And here's an excerpt from their report:

"'Exaggerated risks'

Of the 75% of respondents who agreed that climate change was happening, one-in-three people felt that the potential consequences of living in a warming world had been exaggerated, up from one-in-five people in November.

The number of people who felt the risks of climate change had been understated dropped from 38% in November to 25% in the latest poll.

During the intervening period between the two polls, there was a series of high profile climate-related stories, some of which made grim reading for climate scientists and policymakers.

In November, the contents of emails stolen from a leading climate science unit led to accusations that a number of researchers had manipulated data.

And in January, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) admitted that it had made a mistake in asserting that Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035.

All of this happened against the backdrop of many parts of the northern hemisphere being gripped by a prolonged period of sub-zero temperatures.

However, 73% of the people who said that they were aware of the "science flaws" stories stated that the media coverage had not changed their views about the risks of climate change.

"People tend to make judgements over time based on a whole range of different sources," Mr Simmonds explained.

He added that it was very unusual for single events to have a dramatic impact on public opinion.

"Normally, people make their minds up over a longer period and are influenced by all the voices they hear, what they read and what people they know are talking about."

So - media coverage is helping, but word of mouth is making a big difference too [I know from my own friends what impact a few simple facts can have]. Opinion has shifted massively away from AGW... great news - the door is unlocked, all we have to do now is push it wide open.