Mandelson censors Jeremy Clarkson

From Old Holborn blog...:---

Jeremy Clarkson
Sunday Times

I’ve given the matter a great deal of thought all week, and I’m afraid I’ve decided that it’s no good putting Peter Mandelson in a prison. I’m afraid he will have to be tied to the front of a van and driven round the country until he isn’t alive any more.
He announced last week that middle-class children will simply not be allowed into the country’s top universities even if they have 4,000 A-levels, because all the places will be taken by Albanians and guillemots and whatever other stupid bandwagon the conniving idiot has leapt

I hate Peter Mandelson. I hate his fondness for extremely pale blue jeans and I hate that preposterous moustache he used to sport in the days when he didn’t bother trying to cover up his left-wing fanaticism. I hate the way he quite literally lords it over us even though he’s resigned in disgrace twice, and now holds an important decision-making job for which he was not elected. Mostly, though, I hate him because his one-man war on the bright and the witty and the successful means that half my friends now seem to be taking leave of their senses.

There’s talk of emigration in the air. It’s everywhere I go. Parties. Work. In the supermarket. My daughter is working herself half to death to get good grades at GSCE and can’t see the point because she won’t be going to university, because she doesn’t have a beak or flippers or a qualification in washing windscreens at the lights. She wonders, often, why we don’t live in America.

Then you have the chaps and chapesses who can’t stand the constant raids on their wallets and their privacy. They can’t understand why they are taxed at 50% on their income and then taxed again for driving into the nation’s capital. They can’t understand what happened to the hunt for the weapons of mass destruction. They can’t understand anything. They see the Highway Wombles in those brand new 4x4s that they paid for, and they see the M4 bus lane and they see the speed cameras and the community support officers and they see the Albanians stealing their wheelbarrows and nothing can be done because it’s racist.

And they see Alistair Darling handing over £4,350 of their money to not sort out the banking crisis that he doesn’t understand because he’s a small-town solicitor, and they see the stupid war on drugs and the war on drink and the war on smoking and the war on hunting and the war on fun and the war on scientists and the obsession with the climate and the price of train fares soaring past £1,000 and the Guardian power-brokers getting uppity about one shot baboon and not uppity at all about all the dead soldiers in Afghanistan, and how they got rid of Blair only to find the lying twerp is now going to come back even more powerful than ever, and they think, “I’ve had enough of this. I’m off.”

It’s a lovely idea, to get out of this stupid, Fairtrade, Brown-stained, Mandelson-skewed, equal-opportunities, multicultural, carbon-neutral, trendily left, regionally assembled, big-government, trilingual, mosque-drenched, all-the-pigs-are-equal, property-is-theft hellhole and set up shop somewhere else. But where?

You can’t go to France because you need to complete 17 forms in triplicate every time you want to build a greenhouse, and you can’t go to Switzerland because you will be reported to your neighbours by the police and subsequently shot in the head if you don’t sweep your lawn properly, and you can’t go to Italy because you’ll soon tire of waking up in the morning to find a horse’s head in your bed because you forgot to give a man called Don a bundle of used notes for “organising” a plumber.

You can’t go to Australia because it’s full of things that will eat you, you can’t go to New Zealand because they don’t accept anyone who is more than 40 and you can’t go to Monte Carlo because they don’t accept anyone who has less than 40 mill. And you can’t go to Spain because you’re not called Del and you weren’t involved in the Walthamstow blag. And you can’t go to Germany ... because you just can’t.

The Caribbean sounds tempting, but there is no work, which means that one day, whether you like it or not, you’ll end up like all the other expats, with a nose like a burst beetroot, wondering if it’s okay to have a small sharpener at 10 in the morning. And, as I keep explaining to my daughter, we can’t go to America because if you catch a cold over there, the health system is designed in such a way that you end up without a house. Or dead.

Canada’s full of people pretending to be French, South Africa’s too risky, Russia’s worse and everywhere else is too full of snow, too full of flies or too full of people who want to cut your head off on the internet. So you can dream all you like about upping sticks and moving to a country that doesn’t help itself to half of everything you earn and then spend the money it gets on bus lanes and advertisements about the dangers of salt. But wherever you go you’ll wind up an alcoholic or dead or bored or in a cellar, in an orange jumpsuit, gently wetting yourself on the web. All of these things are worse than being persecuted for eating a sandwich at the wheel.

I see no reason to be miserable. Yes, Britain now is worse than it’s been for decades, but the lunatics who’ve made it so ghastly are on their way out. Soon, they will be back in Hackney with their South African nuclear-free peace polenta. And instead the show will be run by a bloke whose dad has a wallpaper shop and possibly, terrifyingly, a twerp in Belgium whose fruitless game of hunt-the-WMD has netted him £15m on the lecture circuit.

So actually I do see a reason to be miserable. Which is why I think it’s a good idea to tie Peter Mandelson to a van. Such an act would be cruel and barbaric and inhuman. But it would at least cheer everyone up a bit. onto in the meantime.

Guess what? It's gone

I guess Pinky Mandelbum didn't like it and leaned on The Thunderer...

Health and happiness

For those of you not already in the know, I've been a bit poorly of late. For the avoidance of doubt, I am alive and well.

However...

I spent two nights in Queen Elizabeths Hospital in Woolwich (QEH) early last week attached to lots of machines that go ping. Let me explain a little.

I had a massive dizzy spell a couple of Wednesdays ago which last about three hours. That Friday I came home from work and went straight to bed. On the Sunday, I had some weird shit going on in my chest which lasted a couple of hours. At that point I decided to go to the Doctor's if I had another dizzy spell.

I had that on Monday afternoon.

Monday evening I rocked up at the Quack's and she did some basic tests and sent me packing to the A&E department of QEH. There was a 6 hour wait but I gave them the note, was seen by triage in 10 minutes, had an ECG 10 minutes after that and was in the full blown Resus room within 30 minutes of arriving. They called Janet and she arrived to pick up the car only to see me attached to two drips and an ECG machine. My heart rate was 158bpm, blood pressure was all over the place and I had more drugs thrown at me than I care to remember. At least the Quack didn't hoick me off to QEH in an ambulance.

I was admitted that evening and spent the next three days attached to various drips and machines until I had an "echo cardiogram" which finally nailed my condition down to "atrial fibrillation". [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrial_fibrillation]

I was released last Wednesday and am now back at work. I have boxes of hardcore heart and blood drugs to take so I've got a multi-day multi-dose pill box into which I have decanted a weeks worth of pills which should make it a bit easier to remember what to take and when. I have regular appointments with the Anticoagulation Clinic who monitor my INR (International Normalised Ratio - a measure of the ability of the blood to clot) and make sure my blood stays nice and non-sticky. The heart is not pumping properly at the moment (the speed is fine, it's just not doing it properly) so there is a risk that blood clots could form in the heart as a result of the blood not being completely flushed from the heart on each cycle. I am taking Warfarin (rat poison) to stop the blood from clotting - thus (hopefully) removing that risk.

The next step will be "cardioversion" which is essentially a rebooting of the heart with a jolt of electricity to put it back into normal rhythm. The last thing they want is for the heart to be rebooted and have all the gunge which has built up in the bit that isn't working properly blasted out into the bloodstream by a working heart. Blood clots in the blood stream are generally considered a bad thing (stroke, pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis being some of the BAD that could happen). This is the reason for taking warfarin - to stop clots from forming. The cardioversion is booked for 24th July assuming my INR is between 2.0 and 3.0 for the two week period beforehand. General anasthetic but in and out in about 6 to 8 hours. The cardioversion should fix it completely but there is a risk it might come back in the future

So until then: no flying, no dramatic increase alcohol intake, no aspirin, no cranberry juice and no cutting myself with carving knives (oops, did that on Sunday, bled like a pig). I was due to go to the GSK in Orlando next week. That's been binned now.

The thing is I feel fine! On the outside I'm still me. I'm still active and okay. The machines in the hospital were telling a very different story though.

Malevolent voices that despise our freedoms - Philip Pulman

A rather worrisome development since yesterday's Convention on Modern Liberty.


The wonderful article written by CoML Keynote speaker Philip Pullman on The Times website has disappeared. The link they have is giving a 404 error. Here is that link (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article5811412.ece)


[update: 2 March 08 - the article is back, under the original link above - but this posting is staying in case the Government The Times changes its mind]

In an email sent to a friend on the eve of the Convention on Modern Liberty, Mr Pullman said this to a colleague.


—–Original Message—–
From: pullman [mailto:---------------------]
Sent: Fri 2/27/2009 8:43 PM
To: **** **********
Subject: Sinister disappearance
Dear ****,
My article has disappeared from the Times Online website with no word of why or where it’s gone. I’m just letting you know so that when I fail to turn up tomorrow you’ll be able to tell people that the secret police have got me.
Yours
Philip

HERE IS THE ARTICLE:

Malevolent voices that despise our freedoms

Are such things done on Albion’s shore?

The image of this nation that haunts me most powerfully is that of the sleeping giant Albion in William Blake’s prophetic books. Sleep, profound and inveterate slumber: that is the condition of Britain today.

We do not know what is happening to us. In the world outside, great events take place, great figures move and act, great matters unfold, and this nation of Albion murmurs and stirs while malevolent voices whisper in the darkness - the voices of the new laws that are silently strangling the old freedoms the nation still dreams it enjoys.

We are so fast asleep that we don’t know who we are any more. Are we English? Scottish? Welsh? British? More than one of them? One but not another? Are we a Christian nation - after all we have an Established Church - or are we something post-Christian? Are we a secular state? Are we a multifaith state? Are we anything we can all agree on and feel proud of?

The new laws whisper:

You don’t know who you are

You’re mistaken about yourself

We know better than you do what you consist of, what labels apply to you, which facts about you are important and which are worthless

We do not believe you can be trusted to know these things, so we shall know them for you

And if we take against you, we shall remove from your possession the only proof we shall allow to be recognised

The sleeping nation dreams it has the freedom to speak its mind. It fantasises about making tyrants cringe with the bluff bold vigour of its ancient right to express its opinions in the street. This is what the new laws say about that:

Expressing an opinion is a dangerous activity

Whatever your opinions are, we don’t want to hear them

So if you threaten us or our friends with your opinions we shall treat you like the rabble you are

And we do not want to hear you arguing about it

So hold your tongue and forget about protesting

What we want from you is acquiescence

The nation dreams it is a democratic state where the laws were made by freely elected representatives who were answerable to the people. It used to be such a nation once, it dreams, so it must be that nation still. It is a sweet dream.

You are not to be trusted with laws

So we shall put ourselves out of your reach

We shall put ourselves beyond your amendment or abolition

You do not need to argue about any changes we make, or to debate them, or to send your representatives to vote against them

You do not need to hold us to account

You think you will get what you want from an inquiry?

Who do you think you are?

What sort of fools do you think we are?

The nation’s dreams are troubled, sometimes; dim rumours reach our sleeping ears, rumours that all is not well in the administration of justice; but an ancient spell murmurs through our somnolence, and we remember that the courts are bound to seek the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and we turn over and sleep soundly again.

And the new laws whisper:

We do not want to hear you talking about truth

Truth is a friend of yours, not a friend of ours

We have a better friend called hearsay, who is a witness we can always rely on

We do not want to hear you talking about innocence

Innocent means guilty of things not yet done

We do not want to hear you talking about the right to silence

You need to be told what silence means: it means guilt

We do not want to hear you talking about justice

Justice is whatever we want to do to you

And nothing else

Are we conscious of being watched, as we sleep? Are we aware of an ever-open eye at the corner of every street, of a watching presence in the very keyboards we type our messages on? The new laws don’t mind if we are. They don’t think we care about it.

We want to watch you day and night

We think you are abject enough to feel safe when we watch you

We can see you have lost all sense of what is proper to a free people

We can see you have abandoned modesty

Some of our friends have seen to that

They have arranged for you to find modesty contemptible

In a thousand ways they have led you to think that whoever does not want to be watched must have something shameful to hide

We want you to feel that solitude is frightening and unnatural

We want you to feel that being watched is the natural state of things

One of the pleasant fantasies that consoles us in our sleep is that we are a sovereign nation, and safe within our borders. This is what the new laws say about that:

We know who our friends are

And when our friends want to have words with one of you

We shall make it easy for them to take you away to a country where you will learn that you have more fingernails than you need

It will be no use bleating that you know of no offence you have committed under British law

It is for us to know what your offence is

Angering our friends is an offence

It is inconceivable to me that a waking nation in the full consciousness of its freedom would have allowed its government to pass such laws as the Protection from Harassment Act (1997), the Crime and Disorder Act (1998), the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (2000), the Terrorism Act (2000), the Criminal Justice and Police Act (2001), the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act (2001), the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Extension Act (2002), the Criminal Justice Act (2003), the Extradition Act (2003), the Anti-Social Behaviour Act (2003), the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act (2004), the Civil Contingencies Act (2004), the Prevention of Terrorism Act (2005), the Inquiries Act (2005), the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (2005), not to mention a host of pending legislation such as the Identity Cards Bill, the Coroners and Justice Bill, and the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill.

Inconceivable.

And those laws say:

Sleep, you stinking cowards

Sweating as you dream of rights and freedoms

Freedom is too hard for you

We shall decide what freedom is

Sleep, you vermin

Sleep, you scum.

25 Random Things about me

1 I used to collect sink plugs from trains – I had a collection of around 20 of them at one point.
2 I still get reminded of the wizard prank I pulled at school in 1980 when I had spider on a piece of cotton above the headmasters head in school assembly
3 I enjoy playing bass guitar and wish I still had one.
4 Podcasting is really important to me but I don’t seem to be able to make the time for it
5 International travel used to be fun but now it’s just boring. I still like Eurostar though.
6 I own too many CD’s (DVD’s, LP’s, cassettes and 7” singles) but I can’t get rid of any. It’s a visceral thing.
7 I once turned down the chance to go to a party with Lemmy from Motorhead. On reflection, 25 years later, it was probably the right thing to do.
8 I wish I had had the courage to be more entrepreneurial. I am sure it would have worked out in the end.
9 I still miss Simon Osborne who died nearly 15 years ago from leukaemia, aged 31
10 I can do realistic impressions of a plughole and a Spitfire.
11 I used to make Airfix kits and when I got bored of them would fill them with cotton wool and meths, light them and throw them out of the window
12 I value the friendships I have made through podcasting – Paul Nicholls, Mike O’Hara, Jason Jarrett to name but a very few
13 Listener feedback for my podcast is a real win for me
14 I own too many gadgets – but he who has most toys wins.
15 Photography is becoming an obsession
16 I don’t like prunes, rhubarb, liver or kidneys.
17 I don’t eat too much – just too often.
18 I am allergic to penicillin. Really allergic. Parky + penicillin = reaction to DEATH
19 I support Arsenal Football Club
20 I still beat myself up over missing my youngest son’s birthday last year. He still beats me up too.
21 I used to make prank phone calls to taxi companies, restaurants and builders merchants.
22 I am an atheist. You don’t have to believe in an invisible man and his zombie son to think it’s a good idea to treat others as you would like to be treated. It’s called the Golden Rule. Look it up.
23 I am a liberal – in every sense of the word. This Thing doesn’t apply to Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.
24 I used to sit at the front of the carriage on the DLR and pretend to drive. I still do, if no-one is watching
25 I can be an arrogant shit but I try not to be.

The Worst Food In America

Is it any wonder that America is the land of the Blimp-People? People that make me look positively anorexic…

The link above takes you to the source but to make it easier for you to digest (sorry) here are the main points. 

Parky

1. The Worst Food in America of 2009

Baskin Robbins Large Chocolate Oreo Shake
2,600 calories
135 g fat (59 g saturated fat, 2.5 g trans fats)
263 g sugars
1,700 mg sodium

We didn't think anything could be worse than Baskin Robbins' 2008 bombshell, the Heath Bar Shake. After all, it had more sugar (266 grams) than 20 bowls of Froot Loops, more calories (2,310) than 11 actual Heath Bars, and more ingredients (73) than you'll find in most chemist labs.

2. Worst Pasta of 2009

Romano’s Macaroni Grill Spaghetti and Meatballs with Meat Sauce
2,430 calories
128 g fat
207 g carbs
5,290 mg sodium
      
With three times your recommended daily intake of saturated fat and two days’ worth of salt, these ain’t your mama’s meatballs (at least we hope not). This dish debuted on last year’s list, but there’s no other pasta that delivers this bad of a blow.

3. Worst Starter of 2009

Uno Chicago Grill Pizza Skins (full order)
2,400 calories
155 g fat (50 g saturated)
3,600 mg sodium

This appetizer is like eating a Large Domino’s Hand-Tossed Sausage Pizza! Would you ever think of saying to a waiter: “Why don’t you start us off with a large meat pizza?” If you’re ordering for a party of more than 5 it might be OK, but for smaller groups, it's tilting toward gluttony gone wild. Order the Thai Vegetable Pot Stickers instead—the only item carrying fewer than 800 calories.

4. Worst Pizza of 2009

Uno Chicago Grill Chicago Classic Deep Dish Pizza
2,310 calories
162 g fat
123 g carbohydrates
4,470 mg sodium

A horrific 228 percent of your daily allowance of fat and 167 percent of your daily sodium intake.

5. Worst Ribs of 2009

Outback Steakhouse Baby Back Ribs (full rack)
2,260 calories
(no other nutritional information available)

Let’s be honest: Ribs are rarely served alone on a plate. When you add a sweet potato and Outback’s Classic Wedge salad, this meal is a 3,340-calorie blowout.  

6. Worst Chicken Entrée of 2009

Romano’s Macaroni Grill Primo Chicken Parmesan
2,220 calories
148 g fat (53 g saturated fat)
4,440 mg sodium
126 g carbohydrates
      
“Primo” refers to something that’s the greatest of its kind. Sure, if the ranking is based on the ability to deliver unnecessary calories and fat—this glorified chicken breast is great at that.

7. Worst Sandwich of 2009

Quizno’s Tuna Melt (large)
2,090 calories
175 g fat (31 g saturated fat, 2.5 g trans fats)
2,190 mg sodium

This sandwich puts tuna’s healthy reputation on the line. A large homemade sandwich would likely provide one-fourth of the calorie

8. Worst Burger of 2009

Chili’s Smokehouse Bacon Triple-The-Cheese Big Mouth Burger with Jalapeno Ranch Dressing
2,040 calories
150 g fat (53 g saturated)
110 g protein
4,900 mg sodium

You know this burger's in trouble when it takes more than 20 syllables just to identify it. If you think the name’s a mouthful, just wait until the burger hits the table. You’ll be face to face with two-and-a-half day’s worth of fat—a full third of which is saturated. To do that much damage with roasted sirloin, you’d have to eat about eight 6-ounce steaks. It’s nearly three days’ worth of saturated fat.

9. Worst Mexican Entrée of 2009

Chili’s Buffalo Chicken Fajitas with The Works (Ranch Dressing, Guacamole, Sour Cream, Cheese, and Pico de Gallo + 4 tortillas)
1,730 calories
117 g fat (31 g saturated fat)
5,690 mg sodium

Here are a few offenders to choke on: fried chicken, Buffalo sauce, blue cheese, ranch dressing, and sour cream. All make this the sodium equivalent of single-handedly downing three and a half baskets of Chili's bottomless tostada chips or eating 3 ½ pounds of salted peanuts. Add rice and beans, and you've just ordered 3 days' worth of sodium and an entire day of calories.

10. Worst Chinese Entrée of 2009

P.F. Chang’s Tam’s Noodles
1, 678 calories
93 g fat (17 g saturated fat)

You’d have to eat 42 Krispy Kreme Glazed Doughnut Holes to match the fat content in these noodles.

11. Worst Surf and Turf of 2009

T.G.I. Friday’s NY Strip & Shrimp
1,660 calories
(no other nutritional information available)

Diversity on your plate is usually a good thing, but not with this entrée. It has more calories than three Big Macs. Add variety with healthy sides like a house salad or Friday’s broccoli instead.

12. Worst Dessert of 2009

Romano’s Macaroni Grill Dessert Ravioli
1,630 calories
74 g fat
33 g saturated fat
1150 mg sodium
223 g carbohydrates

Would you eat a Quarter Pounder for dessert? How about four? That’s how many it takes to match to calorie-load of this decadent dish.  It’s the quickest way to ruin what may have been a sensible dinner.

13. Worst Fish Entrée of 2009

Outback Steakhouse Atlantic Salmon (9 oz)
1,640 calories
(no other nutritional information available)

Salmon is normally a healthier alternative to loaded burgers and creamy pastas, but this dish—with as many calories as 35 Chicken McNuggets—isn’t one of those substitutes.

14. Worst Breakfast of 2009

Bob Evans Stacked and Stuffed Caramel Banana Pecan Hotcakes
1,543 calories
77 g fat (26 g saturated; 9 g trans)
2,259 mg sodium
198 g carbs
109 g sugars

It’s not a good sign when it takes you nearly five seconds to spit out the name of your breakfast. This bad boy packs in more than 75 percent of your calories for the day, along with more sugar and fat than nine glazed Dunkin’ Donuts, and nearly as much sodium as five Bloody Marys. That’s why it’s back on our list of the 20 Worst Foods in America again this year.

15. Worst Salad of 2009

T.G.I. Fridays Pecan Crusted Chicken Salad
1,360 calories
Fat: unknown (The company refuses to disclose the nutritional content of the food they’re serving you.)
Sodium: unknown
  
Turns out Friday’s monster salads aren’t much better than their burgers. Six out of the seven we analyzed topped out with more than 900 calories, which means that lunchtime can be the start of something big—namely, your belly.

16. Worst Fast-Food Chicken Meal of 2009

Dairy Queen 6-Piece Chicken Strip Basket
1,270 calories
67 g fat (11 g saturated fat)
2,910 mg sodium

The strips deliver more grams of fat than four DQ Homestyle Burgers, and nearly 300 more calories than a Large Strawberry CheeseQuake Blizzard.

17. Worst Kids' Meal of 2009

Chili’s Pepper Pals Country-Fried Chicken Crispers with Ranch Dressing and Homestyle Fries
1,110 calories
82 g fat (15 g saturated)
1,980 mg sodium
56 g carbohydrates

Most kids, if given the choice, would live on chicken fingers for the duration of their adolescent lives. If those chicken fingers happened to come from Chili’s, it might be a pretty short life. A moderately active 8-year-old boy should eat around 1,600 calories a day. This single meal plows through 75 percent of that allotment. So unless he plans to eat carrots and celery sticks for the rest of the day (and we know he doesn’t), find a healthier chicken alternative.

18. Worst "Healthy" Sandwich of 2009

Blimpie Veggie Supreme (12”)
1,106 calories
56 g fat (33 g saturated fat)
2,831 mg sodium
96 g carbohydrates

Sure, a Veggie Supreme sandwich sounds healthy, but this foot-long comes with three different kinds of cheese, and it’s drenched in oil.

19. Worst Supermarket Meal of 2009

Marie Callender’s Creamy Parmesan Chicken Pot Pie
1,060 calories
64 g fat (24 g saturated fat)
1,440 mg sodium

Marie Callender’s perpetrates the ultimate sleight of hand here: the nutrition information says this medium-size entrée has two servings, but honestly, when have you ever split a potpie? Lard-strewn pastry tops and cream-based fillings are the lowest common denominators of the nutritionally nefarious potpie, and this one, with an ingredient list that reads like an O-Chem final, beats out dozens of horrendous iterations to earn this special place on our list.

20. Worst Breakfast Sandwich of 2009

Hardee’s Monster Biscuit
710 calories
51 g fat (17 g saturated)
2,250 mg sodium
37 g carbohydrates

When they say “Monster,” they mean it. This 700-calorie behemoth should be enough to scare anyone: It contains nearly a full day’s worth of sodium and saturated fat. Instead, try the Sunrise Croissant with Bacon. It’s not exactly diet-friendly, but if you’re stuck at Hardee’s, it’s a way to escape without too much damage.

Efficiency vs. Effectiveness

I had an experience this morning that I wanted to share with you.

As some/many of you will know I work in sales for a major software house, based in London. Industry knowledge is an important part of the job so I subscribe to various email lists and RSS feeds which give me the information I need to do my job.

One particular company started to change the mix of their messages to me - more product selling than information delivery. So I decided to cancel the subscription. I checked the email and sure enough there was the unsubscribe link. I told it to open in a new window - fully expecting it to be one of those "Your unsubscribe request has been accepted" type messages. It wasn't. It opened a blank email to the unsubscribe list manager.

Now, you have to understand that 99 times out of a hundred I just hit send. This time I did something different. I sent them a message to tell them why. It looked like this:

"From: Parkinson, Paul
Sent: 26 November 2008 11:52
To: remove@XYZpublishing.com (Not the real name!)
Subject: Reason for removal request.

The signal to noise ratio was too high. Too much “product for sale” marketing compared with the information content. Sorry."

Here is where it gets interesting. I got the following email back - within 10 minutes no less.

"From: SC [mailto:remove@XYZpublishing.com]
Sent: 26 November 2008 12:02
To: Parkinson, Paul
Subject: RE: Reason for removal request.

Dear Paul,

Thank you for your email and feedback. We always welcome feedback and have found your comments useful. Would you like to still receive our weekly ezine which is an information/news email?

Kind regards,

SC
Sales Administrator"

Brilliant! SC turned an unsubscribe request into resubscribe with one great question. Do I want to receive the weekly e-zine? Why yes I do! Thank you very much. And I stayed with them.

Some of you might be thinking "so what?"

They used a human being to capture the unsubscribe requests which is is unusual these days. All too often it's just a machine. It's true that with many large lists the job is a painfully tedious one which could be done "better" by a program BUT could a program have given me feedback understanding the issue I experienced and offer to improve their service to me by fine tuning their lists to my benefit? Furthermore could a program have made me feel better about the company I am doing business with (albeit in a small way) - to the extent I am blogging about it?

I guess what I am driving at is the difference between efficiency and effectiveness. Using a "remove" program is very efficient but a human being is more effective.

As one of my sales trainers from back the day said:
Efficiency vs. Effectiveness - don't mop harder. Turn off the tap.

A little human intervention goes a long, long, way and THAT is the important thing we need to remember in this connected world.

The company? www.ibspublishing.com
Thank you, SC.

Bushisms...

While large corners of the world are busy celebrating Obama's presidential victory there will be some people feeling slightly deflated to see George Bush step down as US president.

Over the past eight years Bush has provided us with endless amusement as a result of his faux pas or ‘Bushisms' as they've been dubbed. Here are twenty favourites.

20. "Those who enter the country illegally violate the law." - Nov. 28, 2005

19. "We don't believe in planners and deciders making the decisions on behalf of Americans." - Sept. 6, 2000

18. "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." - Dec. 19, 2000

17. "Well, I think if you say you're going to do something and don't do it, that's trustworthiness." - Aug. 30, 2000

16. "I think we agree, the past is over." - May 10, 2000

15. "I understand small business growth. I was one." - Feb. 19, 2000

14. "This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating." - April 23, 2002

13. "I want everybody to hear loud and clear that I'm going to be the president of everybody." - Jan. 18, 2001

12. "One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures." - Jan. 3, 2000

11. "I was proud the other day when both Republicans and Democrats stood with me in the Rose Garden to announce their support for a clear statement of purpose: you disarm, or we will." - Oct. 5, 2002

10. "I just want you to know that when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace." - June 18, 2002

9. "I'm honored to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen who had his hand cut off by Saddam Hussein." - May 25, 2004

8. "I firmly believe the death tax is good for people from all walks of life all throughout our society." - Aug. 13, 2002

7. "There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again." - Sept. 17, 2002

6. "The truth of that matter is, if you listen carefully, Saddam would still be in power if he were the president of the United States, and the world would be a lot better off." - Oct. 8, 2004

5. "I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully." - Sept. 29, 2000

4. "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." - Aug. 5, 2004

3. "Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?" - Jan. 11, 2000

2. "I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family." - Jan. 27, 2000

1. "They misunderestimated me." - Nov. 6, 2000