So why wasn't Series 2 anything like as well-written as Series 1? Series 2 relies on plot-twists whereas Series one has much better storytelling build up, character interaction, charm etc.
I'm assuming a change of writers but would like to know for sure.
I suspect framing is easy to detect since it's all subjective.
Method: a) filter statement for assertions and presuppositions. The remaining proportion is 'dressing up'. b) filter out which assertions and presups are testable. The remaining proportion is framing/hyperbole.
Newspapers should employ de-spinners. All major politicians' statements should be followed by testable assertions and presups, otherwise known as things they actually mean and thus are willing to put their reputation on the line for.
"Reported"? How come we've had 3 official reports and none of them tell us what 4 exploded and 2 unexploded bombs were made of, or how they were detonated?
Maybe it's the history of the British fight against the IRA, but it seems
to me that the British people have been a little more tolerant of state intrusion
than Americans. What I infer is happening now is that the overboard Orwellianism
of the current British government is reaching a tipping point where a lot of
Brits are wondering, "How much is too much?".
Your replies from Brits so far are quite informative in the sense of why Britons
have been so tolerant. They have no idea how close Britain is to a totalitarian
dictatorship.
This Government has already passed 2 truly totalitarian laws:
2. The Identity Cards
Act, which not only forces passport renewers on to a database, it also connects
that database with 4 other significant databases (tax system, police records,
ANPR & passports) thus creating the world's most intrusive database.
It does not stop there either. There is nothing preventing our medical
records, phone records, email & surfing records, credit card records etc
being linked to the meta-database.
The Govt is trying to get a 3rd totalitarian law through, the Legislative
and Regulatory Reform Bill. This, like the Civil Contingencies Act,
grants almost unfettered power to a handful of people. While CCA requires
an emergency to be declared and cannot abolish elections or amend the European
Convention of Human Rights (its only limitations), legislation under LRRB currently
requires approval (without debate) by both Houses and likewise cannot amend
the ECHR. It's amended version is no less dangerous AFAIK.
There are also 4 anti-terror laws, all worse than your Patriot Act and two
of which have been ruled to contravene the ECHR (both for locking people up
without trial).
Thanks to people like Lord Phillips, the House of Lords has been doing a reasonable
job of standing up to Blair's executive, with the two obvious exceptions above.
They have very little power (which they are reluctant to use), merely being
able to hold up a Bill for about a year. The Law Lords are not able to
overturn laws, but simply rule them incompatible with other laws like the ECHR.
As I implied at the start, the reason we've allowed this is that almost
no-one knows. I bet less than 1% of Britons have even heard of
the Civil Contingencies Act.
We are not taught to scrutinise our Govt as I understand Americans are.
We haven't had to fear our Govt in modern times, and most people who did were
left wingers who voted for Blair and have been slow to realise how dangerous
he is.
We also don't realise that Britain is an elective dictatorship which has respected
freedoms only because of the benign nature of its governments. The Conservative
opposition has been remarkably quiet as has the media until the last few months.
I kid you not, if Britain survives this attack on our freedoms (and that's a
big if) it will be because of blogs,
unfunded campaigns, leaks
and Blair's mistakes like Iraq & pushing for 90-days detention.
I wrote about Britain's remaining safeguards here.
After high-profile suicide bombings the police found a guy
Correct.
(that happened to live next door to the suspect)
Correct (although the suspect was innocent).
with a bulky jacket with wires visible poking out
Incorrect.
(and who happened to be an electrician),
Correct.
and who made a desperate run for it
Incorrect.
the moment the police tried to ask him to identify himself
Incorrect.
(and who happened to be working illegaly
Correct.
and thought the police had actually come to arrest him)?
Who knows.
We can argue whether or not the police panicked and could have tried to
incapacitate him
Incorrect. The armed police thought they were told to eliminate him (check link below).
or whether they had no choice in ensuring public safety,
Menezes was a member of the public.
but at the end of the day the guy was a VERY unfortunate victim of circumstance.
Undoubtedly, although to what degree and why he was shot 9 times in the head remains a mystery.
Although his family is suing her, the person in charge of the operation is now
being offered a promotion.
Don't make me laugh. My guess is that the Govt will continue to make
vague references to ID cards somehow preventing terror. Charles Clarke
was quick to point out that ID cards would have made no difference to 7/7 and
obviously telling the truth did him no favours.
Here is what Cameron actually said about the ID Bill: "A vast and growing maze of bureaucracy, pen-pushing and paper-chasing. It's now moving towards its grotesque conclusion in the nightmare, waste and shambles of Labour's ID cards scheme: costing billions, curtailing our freedom, and failing to protect us in these dangerous times. This costly ID card scheme, this plastic poll tax, will be a monument to the failure of big government. And we must tear it down." - http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=news.stor y.page&obj_id=128289&speeches=1
Not to be picky, but "must" doesn't mean they'll do anything. The Tories subsequently let the Bill through the Lords at a time when we were reasonably placed to force it to go to the Parliament Act (and might have even won that vote). Even Lord Falconer was surprised and was recorded in the Lords wondering what the hell the Tories were doing.
The Human Rights Act only works in hindsight. The Civil Contingencies Act could dismantle Parliament, the monarchy & the judiciary before anyone gets a chance to legally challenge the Govt.
As far as Blair's summary orders speech, I was campaigning outside the building in Bristol. I was even the first to tell the media where and when it was.;) Of course, none of us got near Blair. The audience was thoroughly vetted for anyone with an interest in human rights...
PR will help but isn't nearly enough. Multiple electoral candidates from
parties will help too.
We need to devolve power from the PM. He/she should not be allowed to
exert undue influence over ministers and MPs - perhaps by no-one (including
the electorate) knowing who the PM will be, thus voting purely on which candidate
you trust. The elected MPs will subsequently vote for a PM, and perhaps several
senior ministers.
The House of Lords should be able to set up courts to hold ministers accountable
under existing behavioural guidelines.
I'd be tempted to try secret ballots too. The data could always be revealed
just before the next election.
I'm not sure the PM's office should be able write legislation. The Civil
Contingencies Act 2004 (never heard of it?) contains a clause which is equivalent
to Hitler's Enabling Act ie instant dictatorship in the event of an emergency
(Reichstag). I'm still not sure if the Legislative
and Regulatory Reform Bill (since amended) is even worse.
Our Parliamentary Committee for the Constitution said that the National Identity
Cards Bill should be renamed the National
Identity Register and Identity Cards Bill. They were ignored and thus
only now, once the legislation has been passed, do the public (and MPs) get
to see the massive privacy implications.
Last time we had these kind of upstarts abusing the will of the people, we
had a Civil War and chopped off the leader's head.
The British Government know that no-one in their right mind will actually volunteer
for mass-surveillance and so they've forced the passport agency (now the Identity
and Passport Service) to do the dirty for them.
As soon as they can get the tech working, passport applicants/renewers
will be entered on the National Identity Register (NIR). There is no
opt out.
This NIR is initially planned to be linked to your tax records, police records, passport records and
even the new Automated
Number Plate Recogntion system which tracks all your car journeys.
This, of course, is just
the beginning, but is already the world's most intrusive database on citizens,
going further than even China. If Brown gets his way, it looks like your
credit card transactions, phone calls & emails will soon be able to automatically
flag you as a possible troublemaker.
Britain's democracy has failed to stop this. It will likewise not stop
future governments of any variety abusing you via your data.
NO2ID has known about this all along and
we have been telling anyone who would listen. The campaign is extremely well
run and full of great people, but we need YOUR help to stop this Orwellian
nightmare.
I believe you. I was seeing a chick who went AWOL on me because she could tell I was psychically spying on her. Now I didn't even start trying until after the previous time we were in contact so there's no way she could have picked it up using normal means. One could say it was a lucky guess, but then one would be merely asserting that without evidence.
I agree with your explanation of higher perception too. Also, the more you hone in on genuine perceptions as opposed to one's imagination, the more the barriers to higher perception disappear. The effect is exponential and I think I know why.
PS. Funny how those claiming scientific authority think they know everything there is to know.
Dunno about your Govt but ours (British) crows every opportunity they get about fighting terrorism, even when they get it completely wrong and shoot innocent people.
Slashdot Mirror
So why wasn't Series 2 anything like as well-written as Series 1? Series 2 relies on plot-twists whereas Series one has much better storytelling build up, character interaction, charm etc.
I'm assuming a change of writers but would like to know for sure.
The answer is simple:
Who are the main threats to a Government and how can information on them be used to suppress those threats?
I suspect framing is easy to detect since it's all subjective.
Method:
a) filter statement for assertions and presuppositions. The remaining proportion is 'dressing up'.
b) filter out which assertions and presups are testable. The remaining proportion is framing/hyperbole.
Newspapers should employ de-spinners. All major politicians' statements should be followed by testable assertions and presups, otherwise known as things they actually mean and thus are willing to put their reputation on the line for.
I wrote a page on this sort of thing tho it's a couple of years old:
http://www.deep-trance.com/political-spin.html
Unfortunately, it won't be a two-way thing, National Security and other excuses for hiding what we have a right to know.
Also, there'll be no more undercover reporting, battered wives/rape victims will forever be in fear, no more Witness Relocation.
I also have a feeling that society isn't tolerant enough to deal with individual differences yet.
Yes, this is Tony Blair's plan.
http://www.bristol-no2id.org.uk/blog/?page_id=5
As of Monday, it's fixed.
I'm not sure what is supposed to happen, but there's no way to adjust threshold and the floating window is just annoying.
I'm using the lastest weekly, 8573.
Opera are pretty good at fixing bugs promptly if you let them know. Use the form if you don't have other contacts:
https://bugs.opera.com/wizard/
Why on earth is it being left to the Information Commissioner to pursue spammers? Does he not have enough on his plate with the British Govt...
a) ... about to reverse
the legal right to privacy trying create the
world's most intrusive database on citizens. ... using taxpayers' resources to frustrate
hundreds of thousands of valid requests under the Freedom of Information Act?
b)
"Reported"? How come we've had 3 official reports and none of them tell us what 4 exploded and 2 unexploded bombs were made of, or how they were detonated?
- part-2.html
http://www.julyseventh.co.uk/july-7-mind-the-gaps
FYI
FYI
FYI
Maybe it's the history of the British fight against the IRA, but it seems to me that the British people have been a little more tolerant of state intrusion than Americans. What I infer is happening now is that the overboard Orwellianism of the current British government is reaching a tipping point where a lot of Brits are wondering, "How much is too much?".
Your replies from Brits so far are quite informative in the sense of why Britons have been so tolerant. They have no idea how close Britain is to a totalitarian dictatorship.
This Government has already passed 2 truly totalitarian laws:
1. The Civil Contingencies Act, which is almost exactly the same as Hitler's Enabling Act.
2. The Identity Cards Act, which not only forces passport renewers on to a database, it also connects that database with 4 other significant databases (tax system, police records, ANPR & passports) thus creating the world's most intrusive database. It does not stop there either. There is nothing preventing our medical records, phone records, email & surfing records, credit card records etc being linked to the meta-database.
The Govt is trying to get a 3rd totalitarian law through, the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. This, like the Civil Contingencies Act, grants almost unfettered power to a handful of people. While CCA requires an emergency to be declared and cannot abolish elections or amend the European Convention of Human Rights (its only limitations), legislation under LRRB currently requires approval (without debate) by both Houses and likewise cannot amend the ECHR. It's amended version is no less dangerous AFAIK.
There are also 4 anti-terror laws, all worse than your Patriot Act and two of which have been ruled to contravene the ECHR (both for locking people up without trial).
Thanks to people like Lord Phillips, the House of Lords has been doing a reasonable job of standing up to Blair's executive, with the two obvious exceptions above. They have very little power (which they are reluctant to use), merely being able to hold up a Bill for about a year. The Law Lords are not able to overturn laws, but simply rule them incompatible with other laws like the ECHR.
As I implied at the start, the reason we've allowed this is that almost no-one knows. I bet less than 1% of Britons have even heard of the Civil Contingencies Act.
We are not taught to scrutinise our Govt as I understand Americans are. We haven't had to fear our Govt in modern times, and most people who did were left wingers who voted for Blair and have been slow to realise how dangerous he is.
We also don't realise that Britain is an elective dictatorship which has respected freedoms only because of the benign nature of its governments. The Conservative opposition has been remarkably quiet as has the media until the last few months. I kid you not, if Britain survives this attack on our freedoms (and that's a big if) it will be because of blogs, unfunded campaigns, leaks and Blair's mistakes like Iraq & pushing for 90-days detention.
I wrote about Britain's remaining safeguards here.
After high-profile suicide bombings the police found a guy
Correct.
(that happened to live next door to the suspect)
Correct (although the suspect was innocent).
with a bulky jacket with wires visible poking out
Incorrect.
(and who happened to be an electrician),
Correct.
and who made a desperate run for it
Incorrect.
the moment the police tried to ask him to identify himself
Incorrect.
(and who happened to be working illegaly
Correct.
and thought the police had actually come to arrest him)?
Who knows.
We can argue whether or not the police panicked and could have tried to incapacitate him
Incorrect. The armed police thought they were told to eliminate him (check link below).
or whether they had no choice in ensuring public safety,
Menezes was a member of the public.
but at the end of the day the guy was a VERY unfortunate victim of circumstance.
Undoubtedly, although to what degree and why he was shot 9 times in the head remains a mystery. Although his family is suing her, the person in charge of the operation is now being offered a promotion.
Would ID cards have helped?
Don't make me laugh. My guess is that the Govt will continue to make vague references to ID cards somehow preventing terror. Charles Clarke was quick to point out that ID cards would have made no difference to 7/7 and obviously telling the truth did him no favours.
No, ID cards will either bankrupt the country or turn us all into real-life Sims any future government can persecute at will.
I think the Tories said that LRRB would have to be further amended to get it thru the Lords.
r y.page&obj_id=123647
- new-labour-systematically-legislated-to-abolish-el ections-ii/
Davis on ID cards:
http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=news.sto
As regards a grab for power, I wrote this blog entry:
http://waronfreedom.wordpress.com/2006/02/16/have
A bit out of date and I left the Queen out. She still has powers to block Bills, dissolve Parliament and change the PM.
Hi ABG,
u r-democracy-still-on-the-verge-of-destruction/
r y.page&obj_id=128289&speeches=1
;)
I don't know why anyone thinks LRRB is any safer. Rather than explain my doubts about the amendments, I'll merely point you at my blog entry on the subject:
http://waronfreedom.wordpress.com/2006/07/02/is-o
Here is what Cameron actually said about the ID Bill:
"A vast and growing maze of bureaucracy, pen-pushing and paper-chasing. It's now moving towards its grotesque conclusion in the nightmare, waste and shambles of Labour's ID cards scheme: costing billions, curtailing our freedom, and failing to protect us in these dangerous times. This costly ID card scheme, this plastic poll tax, will be a monument to the failure of big government. And we must tear it down." - http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=news.sto
Not to be picky, but "must" doesn't mean they'll do anything. The Tories subsequently let the Bill through the Lords at a time when we were reasonably placed to force it to go to the Parliament Act (and might have even won that vote). Even Lord Falconer was surprised and was recorded in the Lords wondering what the hell the Tories were doing.
The Human Rights Act only works in hindsight. The Civil Contingencies Act could dismantle Parliament, the monarchy & the judiciary before anyone gets a chance to legally challenge the Govt.
As far as Blair's summary orders speech, I was campaigning outside the building in Bristol. I was even the first to tell the media where and when it was.
Of course, none of us got near Blair. The audience was thoroughly vetted for anyone with an interest in human rights...
Earlier comment
And who says whether what we end up with will be any better?
Earlier comment
Re: stopping ID cards, go to NO2ID.
PR will help but isn't nearly enough. Multiple electoral candidates from parties will help too.
We need to devolve power from the PM. He/she should not be allowed to exert undue influence over ministers and MPs - perhaps by no-one (including the electorate) knowing who the PM will be, thus voting purely on which candidate you trust. The elected MPs will subsequently vote for a PM, and perhaps several senior ministers.
The House of Lords should be able to set up courts to hold ministers accountable under existing behavioural guidelines.
I'd be tempted to try secret ballots too. The data could always be revealed just before the next election.
I'm not sure the PM's office should be able write legislation. The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (never heard of it?) contains a clause which is equivalent to Hitler's Enabling Act ie instant dictatorship in the event of an emergency (Reichstag). I'm still not sure if the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill (since amended) is even worse.
Our Parliamentary Committee for the Constitution said that the National Identity Cards Bill should be renamed the National Identity Register and Identity Cards Bill. They were ignored and thus only now, once the legislation has been passed, do the public (and MPs) get to see the massive privacy implications.
Last time we had these kind of upstarts abusing the will of the people, we had a Civil War and chopped off the leader's head.
As soon as they can get the tech working, passport applicants/renewers will be entered on the National Identity Register (NIR). There is no opt out.
This NIR is initially planned to be linked to your tax records, police records, passport records and even the new Automated Number Plate Recogntion system which tracks all your car journeys.
This, of course, is just the beginning, but is already the world's most intrusive database on citizens, going further than even China. If Brown gets his way, it looks like your credit card transactions, phone calls & emails will soon be able to automatically flag you as a possible troublemaker.
Britain's democracy has failed to stop this. It will likewise not stop future governments of any variety abusing you via your data.
NO2ID has known about this all along and we have been telling anyone who would listen. The campaign is extremely well run and full of great people, but we need YOUR help to stop this Orwellian nightmare.
I believe you. I was seeing a chick who went AWOL on me because she could tell I was psychically spying on her. Now I didn't even start trying until after the previous time we were in contact so there's no way she could have picked it up using normal means. One could say it was a lucky guess, but then one would be merely asserting that without evidence.
I agree with your explanation of higher perception too. Also, the more you hone in on genuine perceptions as opposed to one's imagination, the more the barriers to higher perception disappear. The effect is exponential and I think I know why.
PS. Funny how those claiming scientific authority think they know everything there is to know.
The Firefox ad worked solely because it was a novel idea and every newspaper, blog & media station covered it.
Honestly, take it from an advertising pro, please please please save the money and spend it on encouraging word of mouth.
Dunno about your Govt but ours (British) crows every opportunity they get about fighting terrorism, even when they get it completely wrong and shoot innocent people.
I agree and this is what I understand science is.