RANT: Blair the (B)LIAR

It seems appropriate that my first rant of my blog must have something to do with the war in Iraq. And, in particular, it has to do with that stooge and schmuck known as Tony Blair and his appearance yesterday before the Iraq Inquiry in the UK.

It took me a day just to compose myself and write this post.

Words cannot fully express how I feel about this. Not to mention how my stomach turned listening to his convoluted lies and backtracking on all that he did back in 2003. I couldn't watch much of it - my anger knew no bounds.

I say he's a stooge because any sane, objective person should know that he got the UK into an illegal, immoral and cynical (oil anyone?) war because of his 'special relationship' lapping up everything that bowlegged, cowboy wannabe joke known as Dubya had to say. And he's a schmuck because he, the Grand Machiavelli that saw the demise of the old Labour party and the ushering in of the travesty that is 'New Labour', is a disgraceful, false (little) human being. Or pod person - take your pick.

His smirking appearance before the Inquiry (a sham in and of itself, by the way) was unbelievable in the display of stupendous mendacity and sheer arrogance. Now the bastard claims that 'regime change' was the goal from the very beginning. Um, interesting, Mr. Bliar. That's NOT what you and El Presidente Arbusto said at the time, you lying, snivelling sack of shit. Oh Tonykins, your constant, deafening mantra at the time was but three letters - WMD. Remember? Not all of us are suffering from early onset Alzheimer's, you shameless liar.

He even had the gall to appear irritated and impatient with some of the Inquiry questions. Like some paternalistic headmaster tut-tutting that a bunch of schoolkids 'just don't get' how terribly 'difficult' and 'complex' his job was. Boo hoo. What a bloody nerve.

For all his countless lies to his own country and the rest of the world, for all the tens of thousands of deaths he and his Texan Neo-Nazi Ringmaster have caused in Iraq (alone) since 2003, I have only this to say - Tony Blair should be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity. It's really quite simple.

Do you get my point?

POLL: Do you trust the global banking system?

Hi there:

Please take part in my POLL. The question being asked is "How much do you trust the global banking system?". You will see the poll and four different responses on the sidebar to this blog.

So, PLEASE VOTE IN MY POLL.

And PLEASE feel free to make any comments of your own to this post with regard to the poll and the whole issue of the global banking system. Go for it ;-)

Thank you very much.

SITE OF THE DAY: Renegade Economist

My site for today is Renegade Economist. Please check it out at renegadeeconomist.com, or click on the link in my list of site links in this blog.

This site came to my attention when I was watching Max Keiser's brilliant half-hour show on RTV last night (see my previous post with Max as my Man of the Day). He was interviewing an economist by the name of Fred Harrison (the 'Renegade Economist') who was offering his views on why the current global economic system, especially in the USA and UK, is so geared towards constant 'boom and bust' cycles that average 18 years.

What I especially liked about what Mr. Harrison had to say was his insistence that the system is so bad and so prone to busts because of the way taxation revenue is generated by governments. I'm no economist, but I believe what he said is that the current tax regimes of taxing people's incomes never allows true growth to occur. It suppresses wages, obviously eats into net earnings and allows for less money in the economy. Rather, he argues, taxation should be based solely on the one asset that always values the most over the longer-term, namely land. By taxing land ownership, and not people's incomes, government will, in fact, according to him, generate more income and allow people to fully bear the fruits of their production, i.e. their wages, non-land generated income, etc.

He is convinced that this taxation model (which I'm sure is alot more complex than what I have stated above, and which I need to further understand myself) will be more equitable, be far less onerous on the lower- and middle-classes, and more fairly tax where the money really is, i.e. in land ownership.

He does acknowledge that there is currently no political will whatsoever to overhaul a system that is over a hundred years old but is convinced his system is worth trying out. Let's face it, in my opinion this economic system of constant booms and busts simply cannot be 'the best' solution that there is to the world's economy or even to economies in individual countries.

What I also liked is how he spoke of a 'sustainable' economic system that is not prone to the ridiculous highs and terrible lows of the current system. Sustainability is what I'm about, and a more sustainable, far less erratic (not to mention often grossly skewered) economic system is part of that sustainability for the future.

A free market at all costs is NOT the answer.

In a world commandeered by economists, bankers and politicians who genuflect quasi-religiously and without question to the rightwing, elitist and absolutist tenets of the 'Chicago School' of economics (and its guru, the despicable Milton Friedman), we need to hear the voices and opinions of economists like Fred Harrison.

Below I have taken the liberty of directly quoting from one of the pages on this website. If you like what you read, explore further, okay.

"Fred Harrison is one of a band of renegade thinkers who challenge the misinformation being purveyed by once trusted political and financial institutions.

Governments and central bankers are scrambling to understand how they allowed the global financial crisis to occur. They rationalise these events (to avoid blame being pinned on them) while searching for ways to mitigate the damage inflicted on the global economy.

In 1997 Harrison warned Tony Blair and Gordon Brown that the British economy was heading for disaster. They didn’t listen. He then spent a decade telling politicians and central bankers how to avoid the looming crisis. They didn’t listen.

In 2005 his book Boom Bust: House Prices, Banking and the Depression of 2010 enjoyed substantial public response, which inspired this website. The Renegade Economist exists to challenge the increasingly desperate measures adopted in response to the deepening global depression."

MAN OF THE DAY: Max Keiser

Have you heard of Max Keiser? Well, to be honest, I only recently heard about this renegade NYU-educated former stockbroker on Wall Street - and thank goodness I have.

The man is a breath of fresh air when it comes to ripping and tearing into the banking and political systems of today that have created the current economic recession in so many countries, not to mention the very decline of democracy itself.

After all, I know that I feel that there's a real sense of 'malaise' when it comes to the state of the world's economy and political state of affairs. A sense that this is increasingly an uber-rich person's world where most of us simply don't count at all. Don't you?

Well, Max Keiser taps into those feelings of alienation and frustration I feel - and, wow, does he pack it with a punch!

Max is a force of nature on television as he rips into everything that is so bad about the current global banking system - the banking system, loans and mortgages system, rich-protecting-the-rich syndrome, etc, not to mention the collusion between politicians and the super-rich in guaranteeing that the very rich are protected at all times and that laws are enacted thereto.

Need I say more about the recent US Supreme Court decision to now allow corporations to make limitless contributions to political candidates? You should have seen Max Keiser rip into THAT decision yesterday on satellite Russian TV (RTV) - brilliant stuff.

Max shouts, rants and raves like no other commentator I have ever seen on television - the man is unrelenting as he tears into leaders, institutions, corporations, politicians, special interest groups, and the like. And this man NAMES NAMES. There is no pussyfooting with him. He tells it as it is, in his rather shrill and bombastic but always hilariously funny and on-the-mark way.

He has his detractors, of course, and those who belittle or ridicule what he says or some of what he has propounded. He is divisive and he is corrosive and not to every one's liking at all - no doubt about that. 'Polite' and 'demure' he most certainly is not. Controversial and relentlessly in-your-face he most certainly is. And thank goodness for that.

This is precisely the type of voice we need in this world of corporate-sanctioned packaged news and endless soundbites that mean nothing to most of us and can hardly be trusted.

Please visit his site at www.maxkeiser.com and, if at all possible, try and watch his show on satellite station RTV at 6:30pm CET/CAT on Thursdays. The show is brilliant.

Max Keiser for President!

Jeez, if only one could live in a world like that...

TAKE NOTE: Comments left on Blogger

Hi there, my readers:

It has come to my attention that comments left on my posts are NOT visible on the actual blog itself. You have to click on where it says 'comments' below the post and then the said comments appear in a pop-up, including my replies to comments made.

Therefore, to see these pop-ups ensure that pop-us is 'enabled' on your computer, ok.

I have tried to see if there was a way to include all comments made with each post. I have seen this on other sites, and I think it makes the site look more 'alive' and more viewed, etc. Unfortunately, my investigation into this has shown me that comments CANNOT be visible beneath the post with Blogger. They always have to be hidden - the reasoning given by Blogger is that having all the posts readily visible on the blog itself would make downloading all the posts and comments etc take too long. Be that as it may, I am NOT happy about this rationale.

Vittorio is NOT happy...

I may need to look into having a blog elsewhere that will allow me to have ALL comments readily available beneath each post. Anyone have any ideas or leads on that?

However, for now, please do keep coming back HERE for my blog, and just remember to click on the 'Comments' link beneath each post to see the comments of others, my replies, etc.

PLEASE KEEP LEAVING THOSE COMMENTS, OK!

Thank you so much.

RAVE: The New 2010 Ferrari F1 Racer!!!

Hi there. My first RAVE and it has to do with Formula 1...ahem...oh well...

The new Ferrari Formula 1 car was revealed today and I think it's an absolute thing of beauty! See the pics below or follow the link to a Ferrari F1 site to see more pics and news on this.

Even if you're not into Formula 1 - and, let's face it, most people aren't (poor things) - you have to admit that scarlet red and that shape is simply B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L...If you are a fan of another team and hate Ferrari (a pathological disorder, I know), including (gulp) Mclaren, then just keep your snarkey comments to yourself, ok. Grazie.

I just hope this team WINS big time in 2010. Forza FERRARI!!!

TAKE A LOOK - New kulula airline livery

I had to post these pics. They show the new livery of a no-frills airline here in South Africa called kulula.com - I, for one, like the bright green they use. It's not your usual airline colour or look. And they have consistently made the funniest and most distinct TV ads and other publicity campaigns in this country. I actually think it's a crap airline, but all kudos to them for what must be one of the most innovative airline livery designs ever...some of it is really hilarious.

SITE OF THE DAY: Slow Food

Slow Food. The antithesis of the horror that is fast food and industrialized food production. The mass-industrialization and commoditization of food as we know it in the post-WW2 era has been both meteoric in its rise and catastrophic on so many fronts. Industrialized farming/agriculture and food production has resulted in processed or fast food that is unhealthy and toxic to both humans and the environment, it has accelerated animal cruelty to depraved levels, and completely altered ecosystems and destroyed biodiversity in rural areas.

Furthermore, this industrialized food industry has disconnected many people worldwide from the reality of how food is actually grown and made, and created a health epidemic of food-related allergies, vitamin and mineral deficiency-related ailments and diseases, obesity, hypertension, cardiac disease, and ALL that goes with that, not to mention a host of other shocking and frankly unacceptable negative impacts.

Industrialized eating, as I call it, has also resulted in poorer standards of food (including even how most fruit and vegetables taste, if anyone has noticed?) and, increasingly, less people being able to appreciate what makes a good, healthy and tasty meal, let alone be able to make one...

I have been following the Slow Food movement for the last few years, and it's fantastic, important stuff. The more I read up on this amazing movement, the more it makes me passionate about how important good, wholesome, organic, traditional, locally produced food is. What makes me especially proud, in a vicarious sort of way, is that the Slow Food movement had its origins in the very region from which the paternal side of my Italian family originates, namely the Piedmont region in the northwest corner of Italy. It's a region that takes its food extremely seriously in a country that takes its food extremely seriously. I've been told that Piedmont possibly ranks alongside regions like Emilia-Romagna and Toscana as the best regions to eat the very best food Italy has to offer.

The founder and guru of the Slow Food movement is Carlo Petrini, an extremely charismatic and amiable man who's passion for good, wholesome, organic food is religious in its intensity. He's a terrific and passionate public speaker, making him a highly praised and respected speaker at many conferences and symposia on Slow Food, healthy eating, sustainable agriculture, organic food and farming, and so forth.

One simply cannot wish to improve the state of the environment or the quality of one's life, health and well being without taking a serious and even life-altering look at how food is grown, made and eaten. Hence the importance of Slow Food.

Please visit the Slow Food International site, at www.slowfood.com, if you are not already a Slow Food fan or convert - it's a great site with so much to read and learn about. And it just may change the very way in which you eat and view food.

Features of my Blog

I thought it best to give an outline of what might be some of the 'features' of my blog in the coming days, weeks, months, etc. I am going to try and differentiate each of my posts into the following category types:

RANT = Something, anything that is really making me upset, angry or downright fucking incensed. Anything goes here - and I won't be kind...

RAVE = Something, anything that makes me laugh, happy, really happy, downright gleeful or even wryly amused in a 'nudge nudge wink wink' sort of way...

PERSONAL = Just something going on in my own life - it can be something good or positive that happened that I'd like to write about, or even about the weather...heaven knows, with the current grotty weather we're having in Johannesburg that is somewhat of an obsession of now...

SITE OF THE DAY = This is where I'll recommend a site to any of my readers who care to look it up. These may comprise sites listed in my List of Sites (as listed below 'Sites I Enjoy or Recommend' in the sidebar of this blog) or simply any other sites I'd like to enthuse about...

VITTORIO PREDICTS = I'm a presumptuous, opinionated little so-and-so, so this will include anything about which I'd like to predict - and I mean a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g. This may get me into some trouble, but so be it...;-)

That should do it for now. If I want to add any more of these titles, I will be sure to do so.

Now I need to get on with posts that actually mean something...

Welcome to my Blog!

Finalmente. Finalment. Finally. I have done it. This is my very first entry in my blog. It is so overdue, it's frankly embarrassing. But here it is. I hope you will enjoy this ride with me. And I do hope you will come back again and again. I want this to be as much about what YOU out there have to say, as what I have to say. I will RANT and I will RAVE - you may just get used to my style. But I also want to ENGAGE - engage myself in my thoughts and in my views of this world, as well as engage with you, my reader; my experience-sharer. Enjoy - I sure hope to do so ;-)