Without the state

Book meme (via Norm)

What was the last book you bought?

I think probably 'The Execution Channel' by Ken McLeod

Name a book you have read more than once

Probably hundreds, but recently 'The Kindness of Women' by J G Ballard, 'Earth Abides', by George R Stewart, 'In the Wet' by Nevil Shute, 'Cyteen' by C J Cherryh, 'The Illuminatus Trilogy' by Shea and Wilson and more generally I keep going back to Dickens, Wodehouse, Heinlein

Has a book ever fundamentally changed the way you see life? If yes, what was it?

Yes at the risk of repeating myself - Architecture: City Sense, by Theo Crosby did just that. There have been many books since that have brought me up with a jolt, but nothing has had the impact of this one.

How do you choose a book? e.g., by cover design and summary, recommendations or reviews

I find them in all sorts of ways - book lists, blog posts, reviews, 'others bought this' on Amazon.

Do you prefer fiction or non-fiction?

No

What's more important in a novel - beautiful writing or a gripping plot?

It needs to hang together - good writing on its own isn't enough for me - it has to be saying something. A gripping plot on the other hand is great for the times you don't want to be mentally engaged, but diverted. Having said that of course without good writing a gripping plotline is easily thrown away.

Most loved/memorable character

Betsy Trotwood, Jeeves, Lazarus Long (I have a slightly ambiguous relationship with this last)

Which book or books can be found on your nightstand at the moment?

Just and Unjust Wars by Michael Walzer, PrairyErth by William Least Heat-Moon, Just Law by Helena Kennedy, The End of Politics by Chris Dillow and The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bkorn Lomborg

What was the last book you've read, and when was it?

Lomborg

Have you ever given up on a book half way in?

I see no point in persisting with fiction I am not enjoying, but I tend simply to lose interest rather than actively saying 'No'. Non-fiction is slightly different, but even then since I no longer have to read anything, I will give up if the writing is bad. I don't give up because I disagree however.

I have never finished Midnight's Children or A Glastonbury Romance, several times.

(via Norm)

Brown lawn means jail time - St. Petersburg Times

Brown lawn means jail time - St. Petersburg Times.

On Friday morning Joseph Prudente put on a pair of shorts and his "Grandpa Gone Wild" T-shirt. He took off his wedding band and put his heart medication in a plastic Wal-Mart bag. Then his daughter drove him to jail. Grandpa had time to do.

His crime? - He had disobeyed a court order that he sod the lawn at his Beacon Woods home.

His bail? -  Zero.

Prudente 66 must stay in the Pasco County jail in Land O Lakes until the required sod work is completed under a September court order signed by Circuit Judge W. Lowell Bray.

...and from the comments:

50 years ago, instead of taking him to court, the neighbors would have gotten together to fix his yard for him.

which leads to this...

[Law] got a guy to let him borrow a machine to remove the old grass. Two companies donated sod. Soon, the yard was full of people. Pasco County Commissioner Jack Mariano also read the story, found the house, canceled a speech and went to work.

"I've never seen someone so important get dirty," said Jennifer Lehr, 32, who is Pat's daughter and calls Joseph her dad. Lehr, her husband and their two young daughters moved into the house two years ago after barely scraping by on their own.

Jennifer and Pat kept trying to feed the strangers working on their lawn, but they kept saying no, to not spend their money.

A man came to fix the sprinkler. People dropped off checks. A neighbor looked at all the work being done and cried because she felt her faith in humanity restored.

How far is any of this likely in the UK? Thankfully we don't have HOAs with this sort of power, but some local authorities are getting pretty close in their behaviour over things like bin collections, ASBOs etc.

Side effects of the credit crunch?

My Name is Ms. Lolly Stevens, the eldest child/daughter Of late Mr. Chico Stevens and I am 31 years old.My father was a big time farmer in South Wales, he uses most of South Wales farm land for farming.

My father was very successful/wealthy Business Farmer. Some years ago, a drastic riot broke out in our community and my father's farm was invaded by the angry prostesters. My father was at his farm that day and trying to rescue his farm, he was brutally beaten up by those people, his farm was set on fire.He was rushed to the hospital by his workers but he did not make it, he had severe internal bleeding.Before his death he transfered most of his fund to a Security company in Holland.

He gave me the contact Information to the Security company which the fund is located. We had to move out of our community immediately because of safety purpose, we lived in my fathers ranch but everything were burnt, vandalised and destroyed.I contacted the Security company yesterday on how I could collect the funds with my lawyer assistance and they told me that I need a foreign beneficiary outside United Kingdom because of Security reasons.

And I don’t have anyone outside the UK that will stand for me as a beneficiary. They said they are holding (TWENTY MILLION USDOLLARS) for my father.The funds have been deposited there for four years now and it has accumulated charges which I must pay before the consignment will be released.All my father properties were destroyed and we fled with nothing.Please assist me and my family in claiming the funds from the security company. My family and I shall/will reinburse you in double of any amount of money you spent in helping us,when you receive the total sum from the security company in Holland.

I didn't realise conditions in South Wales had deteriorated so quickly.

Conservatives for revolution

Stumbling and Mumbling:

The conservative temperament gave us mutual building societies, with their local roots and long traditions. The Conservative party gave us the demutualized societies, which blew up spectacularly.

Some ideas to ponder

Liberal Conspiracy

Vince Cable (who else) has suggested that one way to keep the number of house repossessions down might be to allow councils and RSLs to buy out home owners who’re in serious difficulties, either entirely or as part of a shared equity deal. In principle that looks to be an idea that’s worth exploring, at least as far as figuring out what the bottom line might be in terms of cost and whether or not that could realistically be financed without relying on another round of large-scale government borrowing or an increase in taxation.

...

...one thing that would help first-time buyers and people on low-ish incomes get on to the property ladder, and help to get the housing market moving a little, but which has been almost entirely absent from the mortgage market, is long-term fixed rate mortgages.

The commercial mortgage lenders haven’t developed these products because they don’t generate the kind of short-term profit that can be screwed out of variable rate mortgages and that means they’ve not been a priority. But now the rules of the game have changed and the priority for the government in maganing out Northern Rock and the Bradford and Bingley isn’t about short-term profit and shareholder value its about the taxpayer taking as small a hit from defaults as possible.

...

how about we start by looking at a policy of offering long-term fixed rate mortgages to sitting tenants if their landlord defaults on a buy-to-let mortgage, especially as we’ve already quite a lot of those (buy-to-let mortgages) on our hands thanks to the Bradford & Bingley.

Quote of the week

Ophelia Benson

If not offending others becomes the criterion for free speech ... there will be no free speech at all. That would not be a minor crimp, it would be obliteration.

Park yourself...

CoolTown Studios.

For those of you who have casually wondered what an auto-oriented street would be like if it were reclaimed by people, for people, Park(ing) Day is an annual step in that direction. Participants in cities around the U.S. and the world ‘park’ themselves in a parking space for the day, paying the meter of course, and make a third place of it.

A nice example of direct action.

More videos here

Thinking allowed

Although not triggered by recent events in the financial markets, they have certainly reinforced a changing attitude to the vagaries of life that I have observed in myself over the past few months. As the world outside gets ever more desperate, I find myself becoming more introspective, more inward looking. Don't get me wrong - I still fume and do a Meldrew at the stupidities of politicians and bureaucrats, but I no longer have the urge to get out there and break down walls and change things.

Is this age related? I have just turned 62, and I know from bitter experience that I have bugger all chance of making a difference politically. Indeed my head is still sore from 40 odd (some very odd, but that's another story) years of brick walls. So I suppose it is. Whatever the trigger, from now on life is for me and my family and I shall do whatever seems like a good idea at the time.

For now that means my energies are directed into creative activity. Alongside photography and digital artwork I am sketching and painting and I have just started a printmaking workshop where I hope to learn and develop new skills. At the moment I am concentrating on monoprinting and collagraphy. If I get involved in the community again it will be artistically, joining with other artists and writers to share and talk and generally have a good time - and about bloody time too...