Author: bravo22c

Let’s think about taxes in a different way. Let’s consider what happens to money in the real World. I put up a comment on Zen’s post about taxes that pointed out that just one major company in the UK contributed half as much, on it’s own, to scientific research as the Government did in it’s entirety. But there’s more. Private enterprise at all levels does one thing successfully, (or goes out of business,) it takes money and adds value to it. It provides things to the community, money, yes buckets of of it, and lots of them, to the families of the people who help them make it all happen (known as employees); and as if that’s not enough, they pay more than a third of all they get after that to the people of the nation (its called tax). The things the enterprise provides also generate more added value as they are moved and traded, providing benefits to the peopl who do the movin’ and tradin.’ More than that they increase the social stock of the country by developing people, educating them and training them – or, more correctly, providing the opportunities for education, training and development.

And Government? Continue reading “Tax! (2)”

ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS: He said, “Where am I, Cathy?”
ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
WITNESS: My name is Susan!

Boom Boom.
and there’s more

About ten quid, innit?

I’ll close the door on my way out.

(Except our esteemed patrona and our other antipodeans)

A little boy got on the bus, sat next to a man reading a book and noticed he had his collar on backwards. The little boy asked why he wore his collar that way.

The man, who was a priest, said, “I am a Father.”

The little boy replied, “My daddy doesn’t wear his collar like that.”

The priest looked up from his book and answered, “I am the Father of many.”

The little boy said, “My dad has 4 boys and 4 girls and he doesn’t wear his collar that way.”

The priest, getting impatient, said, “I am the Father of hundreds,” and went back to reading his book.

The little boy sat quietly thinking for awhile, then leaned over and said, “Maybe you should wear your pants backwards instead of your collar.”

So don’t send the cart round yet – might be a bit difficult, anyway, since I’m writing this from my hotel room in Cairo. I have spent the last six weeks in Romania, Kiev, London, Cairo, Romania again and this last week I have been back in Cairo where I will get a bit of a break from aeroplanes and airports until Easter. (Orthodox-type.) As you can imagine, it was all a bit intense with that schedule, and I didn’t get much chance to take many decent photographs, but I snatched a few with my iPhone. (It wasn’t just the schedule that was intense – in the first week in Romania we had to drive 600 km in a blizzard to get to our meeting because our flights were cancelled – then 600 hairy km back on snow/iced up, treacherous roads, at best speed to get to a meeting in Bucharest… during the second trip to Romania we covered about 1,500 km in four days, of which more later. Continue reading “I’m not dead.”

Just now catching up – in all the excitement of the last few weeks, I somehow got the idea that the closing date was the 15th. Been busy all day writing invoices and expense statements for the last, hectic few weeks. And it’s not over yet; Cairo tomorrow – sparrow’s start at 04.30, then Romania for a week, then back to Cairo for at least three weeks. When I started this new contract, I envisaged a few weeks loafing in Cyprus, followed by a few days’ work, then another loaf…

Anyway, to the results.

You all produced some great shots, as always, and now I know how difficult it was for the judges in the previous competitions to come up with a winner. I have been fretting for an hour or so over who will get the award. I liked all of the shots and finally settled on Pseu’s sunflower head – I particularly like the way the pattern leaches away into the bleached background.

I was going to give a couple of honourable mentions, but i really liked the other shots so much that it would be invidious to single out others for particular praise, so let’s hear it for Pseu, and over to you for the next competition.

Andrew Mitchell, International Development Secretary, who said British taxpayers will continue to give money to help the poorest people in India despite the Asian giant’s booming economy with its own space programme.

Are we being taken for idiots, or what?

Story.

After much wracking of brains, I finally managed to dredge up an idea for the next Photo Comp. It’s a fairly simple idea, and I think it might be interesting to see where the Charioteers take it. We see patterns all around us, all the time, but sometimes we don’t ‘see’ them, (apart from the more artistic of us, who post images that the rest of us look at and think, ‘Why didn’t I see that..’)

So the theme for the next competition is simply that: ‘Patterns.’ No queensbury rules for this one, it’s rough and tumble, anything goes – in other words, images may be manipulated in any way wished to produce the effect desired by the entrant.

Following the example set by Coldwater John, I have pulled a few shots out of my albums. None of them would impress me enough to win this month’s competition, but they all have patterns in them that might be pulled, pushed, stretched, squashed or otherwise knocked into shape as a competition entry. (Except the fuel bowser, which I came across while I was looking and stuck in as a bit of nostalgia – it’s Cyprus as it was before the invasion and all the development that followed – 1969, in fact.) (Some of the shots are quite old and needed repair when they were scanned.)

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Deadline for entries is 23.59 hrs GMT on 11th March – that’s three weeks + a little bit because I’m going to be away – in London as it happens – that week.

Private Epeli Uluilakeba served with distinction in Iraq. In the aftermath…

Still deeply disturbed by his experiences, he took to heavy drinking. In the small hours of one morning, when an over-zealous corporal was shouting to evacuate the barracks for a fire-drill, Pex drew a knife on him. For this, he was court martialled in 2009. After a short spell in Colchester prison, the Army discharged him as “no longer being of service”.

Continue reading “A Disgrace.”