Friday, August 12, 2011

It's a poor craftsman that blames the tools.

The Place Where Great Britain Used To Be, having already confiscated the guns and invented the anti-stab knife, still has a problem with howling mobs of angry yobs torching city blocks for recreation. What to do?

What do you mean "what to do"? They know what to do. This is Jolly Olde England, where (just like Jolly New England) the knee-jerk response to problems these days is "Ban Something!"
[Prime Minister David Cameron] said the government, police and intelligence services were looking at whether there should be limits on the use social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to spread disorder. Authorities are considering "whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality," he said.
Looking at limits on Twitter and Facebook? That's your answer? Buddy, I hate to break it to you, but they almost burned Los Angeles down back in the '90s, when cell phones were the size of bricks and didn't even have custom ring-tones, let alone 3G internet connections. Hell, the Watts Riots of the '60s happened half a decade before you could play Space War over ARPANET, let alone Farmville on Facebook.

If this simpering twit had been running things during the Blitz, he would have formed a committee to study the feasibility of outlawing Nazi bombers. (The Department of Transport would have grounded the Spitfires and Hurricanes as being too dangerous and insufficiently bulletproof.)

I mean, look at Cameron's résumé: He's a blandly handsome guy who went to all the right schools and has never had a productive non-government job in his life... No wonder Obama hates him; they both wore the same dress to the prom.

England used to be a cool place. It used to rule the world. Now it's like an island of California, except without the nice weather and food.

29 comments:

Jon said...

As someone who just spent a month over there (not necessarily my own idea, it was a work trip) That last sentence? Nail on the head.

Nice work Tam.

Borepatch said...

A pride of lions
A murder of crows
A convocation of eagles
A mob of yobs

Peter said...

For a very penetrating analysis of British (and US) social problems, and their causes, I highly recommend the books and articles of Theodore Dalrymple. For a list of (online) articles, and some of his books, see:

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/dalrymple.htm

Very highly recommended and thought-provoking reading.

Lewis said...

We need to ban cricket bats, and "Shaun of the Dead" which is really just a training video for cricket bat violence.

Tam said...

Peter,

Love Dalrymple! I've got a bunch of his books. :)

Brick O'Lore said...

I lived in London for about a year and I must disagree with your statement regarding the food. We had fantastic food there... Italian, Indian, Thai, etc.

;)

genedunn said...

Wait a minute, I thought unfettered access to the interwebs was a basic human right that could not be infringed by any government... right... the UN said so!

Besides, aren't we bombing Lybia over the exact same thing right now?

Anonymous said...

"No wonder Obama hates him; they both wore the same dress to the prom."

Now that's gotta leave a mark. Tam's been dipping her pen in vinegar again. I have to wipe the coffee off of my monitor now.......

Joe said...

They would have grounded the Spitfires because fighting back increases the violence.

SpeakerTweaker said...

Wow! Tam scores the elusive Double QotD with the second-to-last paragraph and the last paragraph of this post. Nice!

Also, Brick? You may be surprised to know that cell phones used to be the size of you.



tweaker

staghounds said...

Can't agree- California feeds itself and exports food, as well as lots of other products. More like the island of Massachusetts.

Holy #$%^&, the captcha is OPINE

Tam said...

staghounds,

"...as well as lots of other products."

Willya give Sacramento a minute? They're chasing business out of the state as fast as they can, but Rome wasn't burnt in a day, ya know.

Anonymous said...

Politicians.
It's good to start the day with a belly laugh.

Charlie
III

og said...

Blame the tools? Sure. Cameron and Labour are tools. Blame the tools. Only makes good sense.

RM1(SS) (ret) said...

The obvious solution (or at least the first step toward a solution), I think, is to outlaw politicians.

theirritablearchitect said...

"No wonder Obama hates him; they both wore the same dress to the prom."

Had wipe the spittle off of my screen to write this.

Robert Langham said...

Tam should be the next face on Rushmore, just on the dress quote. (If you are having a heath issue, now would be a good time to grasp the hem of her garmet.)

I bow before your awesomeness.

Bubblehead Les. said...

Blaming the Riots on Cell Phones is like blaming the Telegraph for the Haymarket Square Rebellion.

(And no, I wasn't around for that one). ; )

Stephen said...

"No wonder Obama hates him; they both wore the same dress to the prom."


I wish I had written that.

Nylarthotep said...

New England isn't that bad...At least north of the Massachusetts border.

Ed Foster said...

Anent the "Anti-Stab Knife", Google up the lyrics to a charming old Belfast folk tune called "William Bloat".

Firehand said...

http://chivalry.com/cantaria/lyrics/william_bloat.html

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately Britain (and Australia) suffer a blight of politicians who have gone straight into politics from university, working initially as aides and advisors, then back benchers etc. This is compounded by the failure of schools and universities (at least in undergraduate courses) to teach people how to think and how to innovate.

Besides, as the old adage goes "if a man has a hammer as his only tool, every problem will look like a nail". Politicians these days are unable to lead the populace in the way Churchill did, ie voluntarily, so all they can do is legislate against things and, as Tam points out, British politicians have banned almost everything and are left trying to ban electrons from moving in particular ways.

Yours in despair,

mike

Anonymous said...

Joe said...
"They would have grounded the Spitfires because fighting back increases the violence.",

and Tam said . . .
"The Department of Transport would have grounded the Spitfires and Hurricanes as being too dangerous and insufficiently bulletproof."

Joe & Tam:

They unions/labor very nearly did ground the Spitfires. At the height of the Battle of Britain, the unions making Spitfire wings at Supermarine went on strike, completely shutting down Spitfire production.

Sadly, that wasn't the first time. They were pulling this type of stupid stunt long before WWII. The union at Bristol Aircraft went on strike in 1921 costing the company an opportunity to compete in the Coupe Deutche Air Race of the same year.

The decendents of those union workers and their political backers have a long and sorry history of throwing the proverbial monkey wrench into the works.

BoxStockRacer

Shane said...

Re: Jobs in Kalifornya -- My job with the Big Company that Everyone Hates leaves Sacratomato at the end of the month for Nashville. I made it to retirement just in time.

Andrew Weitzman said...

The Sikhs of Southall, on the other hand, knew that social media can also be monitored for intelligence. When one found out there was a call-out to raid the jewellery stores next door to their temple, a neighborhood welcoming committee of turbaned men wielding hockey sticks and swords turned out to talk with any boisterous youth.

Easy solution to the rioting would be emergency powers granted to the Home Office to swear the Sikh community into the Met's Special Constable force.

Barry said...

Gee - always a good idea to take a play from the Mubarik playbook.

Library-Gryffon said...

Also in re: Stab-Proof Knives:

I've never accidently injured myself or anyone else with the point of a kitchen knife. The blade is a whole 'nother story. As the nurse at the ER last week asked me while they were getting ready for the stitching, "Onions or chicken?"

They'll probably start mandating kitchen mandolins since I'm really not sure how you'd injure someone else with that. Though I'm sure that someone will figure it out, if only by whacking folks over the head with them. Though I imagine a good old rock would work better. Are politicians going to figure out how to ban those too? They're already making it impossible for kids to go outside and burn off energy, and then they blame the parents for the kids' weight problems.

G*d, I'm sick of being bubble-wrapped!

Dr_Mike said...

Library-Gryffon:

Never had a problem with the stab either. At my weight I just have to lean into it and it will happen if I need it to. The slice, now that is another issue....

I've long since taken to having a piece of 600 grit paper on a board next to my morning computer ablutions. I sip my cuppa, and the vorpal blade doth go snick and snack. The paper is well past 1200 grit through wear and tear, but the principle is sound. Just do not try it with your morning coffee ablutions.

A knife in the lunchroom at work begged for my attention, alas I was too late; I went for it three days after a coworker snapped the blade slicing through a bagel. A freakin NY, LI water bagel that's supposed to be the best a Lawn Guylander can buy.

Yeah, the sharp knife is the dangerous one. I work with enough MDs (Sorry, Ph.D., you can't have vicodin with that....) that we can consult a few surgeons about that one...

WV: tuasc. I got nothin...