India’s justice system

Posted on September 3, 2025 by odeboyz

Three years ago, after pondering a dispute for 16 years, the supreme court sent back a 60-year-old land case for fresh adjudication to a lower court, which had already taken over 30 years to give its judgment in 2006.

Source: Inside India’s endless trials – Marginal REVOLUTION

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Cooking for Slackers: A bacon sandwich

Posted on September 3, 2025 by odeboyz

The ‘Mission Statement’ of Cooking for Slackers says food should be cheap, quick and cheerful. A bacon sandwich is a multi-purpose meal. It cures hangovers, it’s one in the eye for food fascists, it’s incredibly tasty, minimalist, fast, cheap, and cheerful. No Slacker can live a full life without a bacon sandwich

Ingredients

Two thick slices of white bread

Four rashers of smoked bacon

Ketchup

Technique

Butter the bread with gleeful enthusiasm

Heat up frying pan with oil or rely on the fat from the bacon

Using a fork or, better, a wooden spatula, keep the bacon from over-cooking

(This is controversial. Many Slackers feel it isn’t possible to over-cook bacon)

Crispy bacon is my favourite but cook to taste

Put all four rashers onto the buttered bread

Ketchup to taste

Voila!

Outcome

Glorious food in five minutes.

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Hidden homelessness?

Posted on August 30, 2025 by odeboyz
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Book Review: Ben Elton ~ Inconceivable (1999)

Posted on August 30, 2025 by odeboyz

Sadly, I read this book the same week it was announced that fertility levels in Britain were at a record low. All of which means that this book is apposite. Thousands – tens of thousands – of people are going through, or will go through, the horrors of *trying* for a baby. Where sex ceases to be joyful but is a carefully timed and monitored event.

Ben Elton is a brilliant writer. He’s witty, intelligent, empathetic, and untouched by a desire to please a focus group. The heart-rending story maps the twin narrative of husband and wife as they navigate the NHS, private medicine, medical interventions, and their friends.

But, this horror story isn’t written as a train crash. It is written as an intensely human story of a commonplace experience.

A novel by Elton guarantees wit. And this lightens the mood. I was moved and entertained by this novel and firmly recommend it.

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War Studies: Britain’s Civil War (aka The Troubles), 1968-98

Posted on August 26, 2025 by odeboyz

The British civil war was centred in northern Ireland and later migrated to the mainland. Assassinations, atrocities, the breakdown of law and order, internment, loss of civil liberties and state repression occurred over 30 years. These techniques had failed when used to try to sustain the British empire. Three decades of civil war meant brutal acts of violence in northern Ireland and mainland Britain became ‘normal’ by the mid-1990s.

Skillful diplomacy and ‘war weariness’ led to the Good Friday Agreement, 1998, which ended a savage period in British history.

The disastrous ‘H’ blocks at Long Kesh for the internment of IRA suspects, 1971

IRA street patrols which both protected Roman Catholics and intimidated them

The massive Baltic Tower explosion in the city of London, 1992

The destruction of the Baltic Tower in the city of London in 1992
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Next we burn the books!

Posted on August 23, 2025 by odeboyz
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Why weren’t Auschwitz’s railway lines bombed?

Posted on August 20, 2025 by odeboyz

In desperation, some Jewish leaders asked the Allies to bomb the railway lines  leading to the extermination camps and even Auschwitz itself. The response…was negative…In fact, Allied aircraft  were already flying over Auschwitz, bombing nearby industrial targets and dropping supplies to the Polish resistance in Warsaw….In the end, it is hard to escape the conclusion that the Allied failure to do more to save Jewish lives derived not merely from a lack initiative but also lack of sympathy.

Tim Bouverie Allies at War pp438-9

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Cooking for Slackers: The Photo

Posted on August 15, 2025 by odeboyz
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A traditional Leeds pub

Posted on August 13, 2025 by odeboyz
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Christopher Hitchens on Stupidity

Posted on August 13, 2025 by odeboyz

“The governor of Texas, who, when asked if the Bible should also be taught in Spanish, replied that ‘if English was good enough for Jesus, then it’s good enough for me’.”

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