I thought this was pretty stunning.
First, the quote.
“In fact, in the last six months more jobs were created than Bush was able to generate in eight years, Chris. People don’t understand that, the economy has recovered.” Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), June 26, 2010.
Now, the facts.
Hat-tip to the always great American Thinker.
The simple law of supply and demand seems to present certain vested interests with great trouble. Month after month, here in Northern Ireland, Property surveyors and Estate Agents have been claiming property prices are on the up. Not so.
The Northern Ireland housing market could take up to three years to recover from its current slump, experts have predicted. Local estate agents said the latest figures from the Nationwide House Price report, which revealed that prices here have fallen by 5.2% over the year, are the result of a “one of the most tumultuous periods” in housing market history.
That 5.2% in 2009 follows a massive slump of more than 20% in 2008 and a further slump in the second half of 2007. Anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that property prices here are STILL far too expensive and re-adjustment downwards will continue no matter what hype surrounds it.
But how then can we explain the bizarre decision by fun-loving Minister Sammy Wilson to ensure that empty homes in Northern Ireland will be subject to the same rates as occupied homes from next autumn.
Mr Wilson said: ‘Last year I postponed this measure because the housing market was in the doldrums. There are signs, however, that it is beginning to move again with more sales and lettings taking place”
Mmm …. wonder where these signs are, Sammy? Do you detect them in the runes, perhaps? Maybe you discern them in the tea-leaves? Wilson’s stupid legislative change will further bury the property market and lead to the tumbling of even more properties. He’s simply looking to rake in more revenue but in doing so he will compound the problem.
It has all the ingredients of a James Bond script. A Russian spy ring operating in the US with a sultry red-head beauty at the centre of it all!
“One day you’re a 28-year-old red-haired beauty from Russia trying to make it as a “businesswoman” in New York City. The next, your name and sexy Facebook profile photo are splashed all over the world, your every status update — “Pain is only weakness leaving the body,” for instance — the subject of international fascination. You are a femme fatale.”
A Pensioner widowed by the IRA has told how she felt ill following a BBC NI documentary in which a succession of celebrities were joined by churchmen in lauding Gerry Adams.
Part-time postman James McFall’s widow Muriel, who watched him lie dying in a pool of blood at their home more than 30 years ago, said she was “disgusted” by the programme broadcast on Monday night.
The 70-year-old from Belfast’s Shankill Road – one of three IRA victims who contacted the News Letter yesterday – said she could not watch all of the praise for the Sinn Fein president in the hour-long broadcast, given his widely documented IRA involvement at the time of her husband’s murder. “I was just disgusted,” the mother-of-five said.
“He and his cohorts are nothing but terrorists – I’d tell him to his face. “I just couldn’t watch it all. I’ve not been well all day because of it. “My youngest child was 10, I was 38 and was upstairs with the children (at the time of the murder)…to me, it seems we’re just a thorn in the side, so are forgotten.”
She’s right. She IS a thorn in the side and the sanitisation of the IRA is ongoing, supported by those Unionists who prefer to sit in power rather than confront terror godfathers.
I feel so sorry for Mrs McFall – to lose her husband at the hands of Provo-killers was awful. But her hurt must not stop the process, nothing must stop the process. We have prostituted our democracy and betrayed the innocents so the guilty can sit in government. Gerry Adams is being turned into a Nelson Mandela figure and the BBC is playing a central role in bringing this about.
The BBC. (Al-Jazeera on the license fee!) reveal that the Taliban have said that they see no reason to talk to NATO because they are beating them.
The Taliban statement is uncompromising, almost contemptuous. They believe they are winning the war, and cannot see why they should help Nato by talking to them.
I don’t blame them. Each time a western politician or a military General calls for “talks with the Taliban” it makes the Taliban stronger. Our desire to seek accommodation emboldens their belief that we are weak. The only discussion going on with the Taliban should be from the business end of a heavy duty machine gun. You wipe these scum out – you do not appease them by dangling prospects of “talks”. It is only when we define military victory as the wipe out of the Taliban that we have a chance of success. In the meantime, the dark ages savages laugh at us and the BBC bleats their propaganda for them.
A government department has admitted that lower corporation tax may have been a factor for companies investing in the Republic rather than NI. In the past five years, 21 companies were in talks with Invest NI, the body responsible for attracting investment, but subsequently went south. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment said infrastructure and skills may also have been issues.
What an Einsteinian breakthrough. Companies decisions MAY be motivated by the tax they pay. Wow. Whatever next. Thank goodness we fund these government departments that provide us with such cutting edge information. Keep up the good work, Arlene.
It certainly brings the cost of flying down further. Ryanair is planning to run flights where passengers stand during the journey at a cost of just £5 per ticket.
Michael O’Leary, the airline’s chief executive, will set out proposals today that include charging customers to use the loo. A standing area with “vertical seats” will be introduced at the back of its fleet of 250 planes. He said that charging customers £1 to make use of facilities would encourage travellers on one hour flights to use lavatories at the airport instead of on the aircraft. The Irishman said he intended to introduce coin-operated loos
Good luck to him. I’m afraid I choose a little more luxury when I fly and cattle-class just not do it for me. I would not fly Ryanair under any circumstances although I can accept that others will.
The odd thing about all this is that whilst the specific flight COST is being reduced through these PR stunts/innovations, because of increasing baggage costs and airport taxes, the overall cost of flying is escalating.
