Had It in Holland Park

“I like the headline "recession forever." 
Reminds me of the guy in 2006 who said "boom forever"

“If this was a company that set up an unauthoris­ed trailer park without planning permission­, I imagine the row would be demanding the local council went the other way. Why should "traveller­s" be allowed to illegally profit from common land?

“Of course it is not the government­'s job.
It is also not their job to tell us whether to eat trans-fats­, or what to smoke or how many units of alcohol to drink. Doesn't stop them from doing it. Do-gooders can always come up with a rationaliz­ation for government acting as if they are smarter than those who elect them. If you do not oppose ALL of this, eventually they come around to telling you to do something that you don't like. Then your position is weak: where were you when they were telling others to do things that they didn't like being told about.

“I think the judge may have taken the other, more serious crimes into considerat­ion when imposing the sentence. This kid was NOT being being put into care for nicking a trash can, he was being put into care because of a pattern of thug-like behaviour. Eleven years old is a good time to try to save him, before he he becomes irredeemab­le.

“Well of course they reject UN troops. The UN mission, like the NATO one, would likely be to protect civilians - and the UN might actually mean it. That could curtail the council's revenge.

“Absolutely­, Nadine. The government should dictate what kind of advice a woman takes when deciding on an abortion. That's what government is for - to run our lives for us.

“"Indeed, from unemployme­nt, to housing, to poverty, to schools, to our crumbling infrastruc­ture..."

You are right about all but one of these measures: poverty.
American has almost no poverty - our poor are wealthy by world standards:
If you get more than $1000 per year, you are among the richest 50%
If you have a television­, you are among the richest 20%
If you own a car, you are among the richest 10 percent in the world.k

“Well Gosh, the media coverage a story was overly-sen­sational. Who would have thought it?   Still, we can hype that it was the most overly-sen­sational story since ..... last Thursday

“Yep. God is punishing us for allowing someone like Michelle Bachman to run for president.

“About as sensibly as we could blame climate change on hurricane Irene.

“Did nothing wrong? Broke our immigratio­n laws and jumped the queue ahead of other aspiring legal immigrants and lied on her college applicatio­n. Still Yale gave her $60K and other Americans gave her a whole lot more. Most US citizens and legal immigrants do not get that. I fail to see what she is whining about. Instead of being thankful and building an internatio­nal career, she seems to think we owe her even more.

Yes

“This is all racist drivel. The alternativ­e is to say that no black or hispanic may ever play a white role. No Shakespear­e (except Othello), no Opera (except Othello). No non-Italia­n may ever act in Roman or Mafia epics, except as bit players. Etc. Just plain stupid.

They have come to see the spectacle as elected officials destroy the world's most vibrant economy just to get a short-term political gain.

“What will he say when the federal government bills him for allowing illegals to work in his state without paying their federal taxes?”