LOL DEMOCRACY SUX!

[Cain]

I remember a Political Science professor I knew predicting an upsurge in sentiments like these several months ago.  I shall defer to his wisdom and send him enough money to buy a pint on my behalf

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/19/democracy-overrated-open-thread

As well as admitting to admiring Maggie, Bernie Ecclestone thinks democracy is no way to run anything – do you agree?

Bernie Ecclestone, the billionaire supremo of Formula One racing (and a former donor to the Labour party) has been sharing his thoughts on politics in an 80th birthday interview with the Guardian.

"I get myself into so much trouble when I say these things but I don't think democracy is the way to run anything," he said.

"Whether it's a company or anything you need someone who is going to turn the lights on and off. We had Mrs Thatcher and when she was in charge she did turn the lights on and off. She brought the country to where it was before it got muddled up again."

Besides admiring Margaret Thatcher, Ecclestone seems also to have a soft spot for dictatorship – though he thinks torture is "an old-fashioned way" of getting things done.

But do you agree with him about democracy? Is it often a barrier to getting things done?

And

http://www.slate.com/id/2271265?wpisrc=xs_wp_0001

To describe Peter Thiel as simply a libertarian wildly understates the case... In a personal statement produced last year for the Cato Institute, Thiel announced: "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible." The public, he says, doesn't support unregulated, winner-take-all capitalism and so he doesn't support the public making decisions... Thiel says that the Roaring 20s were the last period when it was possible for supporters of freedom like him to be optimistic about politics. "Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women—two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians—have rendered the notion of 'capitalist democracy' into an oxymoron," he writes.

... Thiel, who is openly gay, wants to flee the mob, not rally it... Having given up hope for American democracy, he writes that he has decided to focus "my efforts on new technologies that may create a new space for freedom." Both his entrepreneurship and his philanthropy have been animated by techno-utopianism. In founding PayPal, which made his first fortune when he sold it to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002, Thiel sought to create a global currency beyond the reach of taxation or central bank policy. He likewise sees Facebook as a way to form voluntary supra-national communities.

[Jenne]

Cain, while talking to my two cousins-in-law that are visiting us, one is from the UK (by way of Afghanistan, but has been there for 23 or so of her 26 years of life), and we were discussing the other one (who was the guy who got his visa and then his green card here by being an interpreter for US Army in 01-04 or so) going to the UK to visit.

On the "visas to the UK" page was a section needing to pass an English test before they let you stay--if you are coming to be a significant other of another person currently living in the UK legally.

THIS is the first I've heard of this.  And the requirements of it made me raise my eyebrows.  Especially given the list of the countries they gave that they already consider English-speaking and therefore visitors from there are exempt from this English-speaking requirement.

[Cain]

You can thank the Tories for that

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/immigrants-to-face-english-language-test-1995248.html

[Jenne]

You can thank the Tories for that

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/immigrants-to-face-english-language-test-1995248.html

"The measure, due to come into force this autumn, will apply to spouses and unmarried couples who are already in Britain as well as overseas applicants. "

Really?  How they gonna track that one?  LAEM.

[Cain]

They're bringing in tax breaks for married couples.  Who isn't going to apply for a tax break?

[Jenne]

They're bringing in tax breaks for married couples.  Who isn't going to apply for a tax break?

  It just KILLS me that in an economic downturn, this is the kind of "public service" being offered and paid for.  Oh well, anything to keep the smudgies out.