Richard Melvin

Richard Melvin

  • Commented on Paging Agent 007
    Armor based bean-stalk-level material science might not be able to stop a equivtech bullet, but they could make for some very interesting extreme sports....
  • Commented on Some notes on the worst-case scenario
    Can those of youbashing identity politics please explain what exacly you mean? Identity politics means appealing to a group, outside the scope where the commonality of the group actually has some causal relation to the policy proposal. So gay...
  • Commented on Some notes on the worst-case scenario
    fascism is more properly called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power. Mussolini didn't say that, because he was Italian, and had limited English. What's more, there is in fact no record of him saying...
  • Commented on Some notes on the worst-case scenario
    I don't think the drone-patrolled borders thing can work, as you'd have to distribute drones across the whole border. An organised gang can pick any spot, achieve local superiority with black-market/improvised/captured drones, and rush a few thousand people across before...
  • Commented on Reality is broken
    I've always thought the key premise of the Laundry novels is providing a minimal rational explanation for the insanity of British politics. So Trident exists primarily to prevent anything worse than a nuke happening to London, Iraq was invaded because...
  • Commented on How I learned to stop worrying and love the concept of punitive slating....
    Because that's exactly the issue she's addressing. Yes, which is why I am basically saying her solution is the preferred one. If you disagree, and think it is wrong, you may need to explain your reasoning a bit better......
  • Commented on How I learned to stop worrying and love the concept of punitive slating....
    They're implicitly accepting the slate nomination, just holding it at arm's reach. So I'd vote "no award". Have to disagree with this; it is basically handing VD control of your vote. Which if widely followed would mean he could...
  • Commented on Crib Sheet: The Rhesus Chart
    It's an interesting point that: the Laundry Series, Dresden Files, Rivers of London, Doctor Who and Harry Potter all feature super-powerful super-secret British occult agencies who were largely responsible for the unfortunate period where Britain kind of conquered the world...
  • Commented on Thoughtcrime
    The counter-argument to the point being made here is that, some time in the mid-1930s, a bunch of German conservative party grandees set up a meeting with Hitler. At it, they pointed out that they had, in fact, correctly drafted...
  • Commented on Aftermath
    Don't confuse class and money. I'm using roughly the Marxist definition of class, where it's about the source of the money, not the amount. There are far more socialists in the upper-middle and upper classes Sure, once you get to...
  • Commented on Aftermath
    What sort of political black arts gets the common Brit to vote against his own best interests and side with the party of Thatcher, may dung and misery be upon her? In a word, class. Nation-wide, 62% of households...
  • Commented on Cloud cuckoo politics
    Naturally, everyone is having great fun explaining how Cameron is an idiot. Certainly his only notable political skill seems to the ability to eat a bacon sandwich with the aid of only a single roomfull of media advisors; such is...
  • Commented on Oh dear
    @93: point is, if you do personally screw up badly enough to leave the middle class, you are statistically unlikely to stop at working class. Plenty of circumstances can stop your income, your assets are much safer (until they aren't,...
  • Commented on Oh dear
    The former ( i.e. 1850 - 1980 ) middle class & working classes - like you & me - are all being compressed into a semi-subservient working class. I suspect it is more complicated than that. The useful defininition of...
  • Commented on Who ordered THAT?!?
    With what we get, the only way the LibDems can get any credit from what has happened is if the Conservatives were blocked from setting up Concentration Camps. If the conservatives wanted to set up camps, the lib dems would...
  • Commented on Unwelcome reality excursion
    A bit off topic but I've always wondered. Just what is done with all those CCTV feeds? It's economics. 99.99% of them are owned by shops, restaurants, garages, etc. The owners of those institutions want an economy in which people...
  • Commented on Unwelcome reality excursion
    Basically comes down to a formula: control = delta(current, required) economic system The bigger the difference between the economic system you have and the one you want to impose, the more oppression you end up using. For Lenin and Stalin...
  • Commented on The referendum question
    'in other words, to position Scotland as a tax shelter wrt. the UK, in order to retain their business.' Surely that works for approximately the number of seconds it will take the rUK government to think of a lower number?...
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