The following blog entry should be read with the expression, 'A Pig in a Poke', in mind. A very old expression, a 'Pig in a Poke' means: "An offering or deal that is foolishly accepted without being examined first...'Don't buy a pig in a poke' might seem odd and archaic language. It's true that the phrase is very old, but actually it can be taken quite literally and remains good advice. The advice being given is 'don't buy a pig until you have seen it'. This is enshrined in British commercial law as 'caveat emptor' - Latin for 'let the buyer beware'. This remains the guiding principle of commerce in many countries and, in essence, supports the view that if you buy something you take responsibility to make sure it is what you intended to buy."
"A poke is a small sack or bag and is the origin of the word pocket. The word is still in use in several English-speaking countries, notably Scotland and USA. A poke is just the sort of bag that would be useful for carrying a piglet to market. A pig that's in a poke may turn out to be no pig at all. If a merchant tried to cheat by substituting a lower value animal, the trick could be uncovered by letting the cat out of the bag. The advice has stood the test of time and people have been repeating it for getting on for five hundred years, maybe longer. Fraser's Magazine (1858) reprinted a piece from Richard Hill's (or Hilles') Common-place Book, 1530, which gave this advice to market traders: "When ye proffer the pigge open the poke."
[See: Pig in a Poke, Phrasefinder at: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/282900.html ].
[IF THIS IS SO, WHY THEN DOESN'T BRITISH PRIME MINISTER GORDON BROWN FOLLOW HIS COUNTRY'S OWN ADVICE??? HIS FAILURE TO DO SO MAY PERHAPS BE THE REASON WHY HIS POLL NUMBERS ARE SO LOW!]
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[EURObama Returns From His European Vacation With A New European Family?
Poll: US-Europe relations need Obama
Yahoo News
By Alexander Burns
Wed Sep 10, 9:26 AM ET
By significant margins, Europeans have high hopes for a potential Obama administration, according to a Transatlantic Trends poll of 12 European countries.
Forty-seven percent of Europeans believe an Obama victory in November would lead to a better relationship between the United States and Europe, versus just 5 percent who think Obama would weaken the trans-Atlantic relationship[AND, THE U.S. BLUE PARTY MUST BELIEVE THAT THE EUROPEAN UNION'S SUPPORT FOR OBAMA IS NECESSARY IN ORDER FOR HIM TO WIN THE U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. See: Eurobama Seeks Support From Green EU Social Welfare Regulatory State to 'Change' America, ITSSD Journal on Pathological Communalism at: http://itssdpathologicalcommunalism.blogspot.com/2008/08/eurobama-seeks-support-from-green-eu.html ].
By comparison, only 11 percent think Sen. John McCain would strengthen European-American relations if he were elected president. More than half of respondents said a McCain administration would keep relations between the United States and Europe in roughly the condition they are now.
The poll, commissioned by the German Marshall Fund and conducted by the firm TNS Opinion from June 4-28, queried at least a thousand respondents in each of a dozen countries, including Germany, France, Poland, Slovakia and Turkey.The survey’s release Wednesday follows the news of a BBC poll, conducted by the GlobeScan service and published Tuesday, showing that in 17 of 22 nations tested, respondents across the globe expected an Obama win would improve American relations with the rest of the world. [AT WHAT COST - LOSS OF AMERICAN'S CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS???]
It also comes on the heels of a report Tuesday that Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, intends to publish a column praising Obama’s response to the troubled real estate market. In an unorthodox step for a foreign leader, Brown is expected to argue: “In the electrifying U.S. Presidential campaign, it is the Democrats who are generating the ideas to help people through more difficult times.”[ARE THESE THE IDEAS THAT PRIME MINISTER BROWN IS REFERRING TO?? IN OTHER WORDS, IS GORDON BROWN, WHO DISPENSED WITH THE NEED TO HOLD A PUBLIC PLEBSCITE ENTITLING BRITISH CITIZENS TO VOTE ON WHETHER THE UK SHOULD RATIFY THE EU CONSTITUTION, BECAUSE HE KNEW WHAT WAS BEST FOR THEM, OF THE SAME MIND AND SPIRIT AS BARACK OBAMA AND HIS LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC ELITES, WHO BELIEVE THAT LIBERAL 'CHANGE', CONSISTENT WITH EUROPE'S IDEAS FOR CENTRALIZED WELFARE STATE BUREAUCRACY, GLOBAL GOVERNANCE, AND LOST NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY, IS IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF ALL AMERICANS??]
[See: UK Labor Party Willing to Give-Away Country's Sovereignty to EU; Does the US Democratic Party Wish to Do the Same for America??, ITSSD Journal on Pathological Communalism, at: http://itssdpathologicalcommunalism.blogspot.com/2008/04/uk-labor-party-willing-to-give-away.html .]
[See: Charting The Evolution of the Berlin-Paris-Brussels 'Homo Bureaucrat Federalis', ITSSD Journal on Economic Freedom, at: http://itssdeconomicfreedom.blogspot.com/2008/08/charting-evolution-of-berlin-paris.html ].
[See: Gordon Brown Wants 'Next' Democratic President to Submit America's Unique Constitution and National Sovereignty to Global Governance (UN/EU) Override, ITSSD Journal on Economic Freedom, at: http://itssdeconomicfreedom.blogspot.com/2008/04/gordon-brown-wants-next-democratic.html ].
According to the Transatlantic Trends report, Brown’s upbeat assessment of the Democratic presidential nominee is shared by the majority of his country: 75 percent of British respondents said they had a favorable or very favorable opinion of Obama. Among Europeans more generally, that number was only slightly lower: 69 percent said they had a favorable impression of the Illinois senator.
[AMERICANS, LIKE THE IRISH, SHOULD DO WHAT EUROPEANS WANT, NON?]
[See: The Irish People Have Spoken: NO EU TREATY; EU Commission & US Democratic Congress BEWARE!!, ITSSD Journal on Economic Freedom, at: http://itssdeconomicfreedom.blogspot.com/2008/06/irish-people-have-spoken-no-eu-treaty.html ].
[See: What Aspect of the Irish 'NON' Do the Brussels & Paris Philosopher Kings Not Understand?, ITSSD Journal on Economic Freedom, at: http://itssdeconomicfreedom.blogspot.com/2008/07/what-aspect-of-irish-non-do-brussels.html ].
McCain’s favorability ratings are considerably lower, with just 26 percent of Europeans giving him the thumbs up. He is also significantly less well-known than Obama: 29 percent of respondents did not render an up-or-down judgment on the Republican nominee, compared with just 19 percent who had no impression of Obama.
It is hardly shocking that Obama would be better liked in Europe than his opponent, given that McCain is a member of the same political party as President Bush.
[IN OTHER WORDS, SINCE OBAMA AND PRIME MINISTER GORDON BROWN ARE ESSENTIALLY OF THE SAME POLITICAL PARTY, IT IS HARDLY SHOCKING THAT McCAIN IS LESS LIKED BY THE LABOR PARTY IN BRITAIN AND BY OTHER GREEN & SOCIAL[IST] DEMOCRATIC PARTIES IN CONTINENTAL EUROPE].
The president has consistently received dismal poll ratings from abroad, and in 2004 a GlobeScan survey showed Europeans favored the election of Sen. John F. Kerry by similarly wide margins — 74 percent to 7 percent in Norway, 74 percent to 10 percent in Germany and 64 percent to 5 percent in France.
[IS THIS WHAT KERRY HAD PLANNED AND OBAMA NOW CONSIDERS? ECO-TOWNS? See: Gordon Brown Gives New Meaning To Marxist Central Planning in British Eco-Towns, ITSSD Journal on Economic Freedom, at:
It is also no surprise that Europeans would be more familiar with Obama than with McCain. In late July, Obama toured several European nations as part of a weeklong trip [EUROPEAN VACATION] abroad, giving a speech in Berlin that attracted an audience in the hundreds of thousands.
Yet even as the Transatlantic Trends poll highlights Obama’s popularity in Europe, it outlines some of the diplomatic hurdles that any American president will face, regardless of party.
While 80 percent of Americans call it very or somewhat desirable for the United States to “exert strong leadership in world affairs,” just 33 percent of Europeans say the same. A quarter of European respondents called an assertive United States “very undesirable.”
[THIS CLEARLY REFLECTS EUROPE'S PREDICTION: AN OBAMA PRESIDENCY WOULD WEAKEN U.S. SOVEREIGNTY, STRENGTH & INFLUENCE ABROAD.]
While a majority of Europeans — 55 percent — said the United States and the European Union have close enough values to make diplomatic cooperation possible, they’re still less confident about it than Americans, 67 percent of whom said the United States and the EU could tackle international issues together.
And some persistent diplomatic disagreements, such as resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, also remain: Europeans expressed considerably less positive feelings about the state of Israel than did Americans.
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[IS GORDON BROWN VYING TO SERVE AS OBAMA'S EUROPEAN MENTOR? AND, IS THIS THE TYPE OF CENTRAL PLANNING THAT OBAMA HAS IN MIND??]
[IS GORDON BROWN VYING TO SERVE AS OBAMA'S EUROPEAN MENTOR? AND, IS THIS THE TYPE OF CENTRAL PLANNING THAT OBAMA HAS IN MIND??]
[See Also: Brown's 'Get Fit' Towns: Kim Jong-il Would Be Proud, ITSSD Journal on Economic Freedom, at: http://itssdeconomicfreedom.blogspot.com/2008/01/browns-get-fit-towns-kim-jong-il-would.html ].
[See: Gordon Brown Gives New Meaning To Marxist Central Planning in British Eco-Towns, ITSSD Journal on Economic Freedom, at:
http://itssdeconomicfreedom.blogspot.com/2008/03/httpnews.html ].
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Gordon Brown's futuristic eco-towns to fine residents for driving out of city limits
By Jill Sherman
UK Timesonline
June 17, 2008
Motorists living in Gordon Brown's futuristic green communities face fines for driving their cars out of town, under radical proposals being drawn up by ministers, The Times has learnt.
Residents of the largely pedestrianised eco-towns may also be expected to park their cars at the outskirts and walk or cycle to their homes, up to ten minutes away.
These are among possible ways being discussed with ministers to meet a government target to cut car use in eco-towns by half. Detailed planning proposals will be published next month, a senior Whitehall official said.
The proposals could include a fee for a permanent car space at the edge of town, charges for driving out at peak congestion times, or penalties for taking a car out of town above a set number of agreed journeys.
The official emphasised that the rules would be adapted for more rural areas, where there was less public transport. “But outside Cambridge or near Stansted airport, for example, where there are strong transport links, you could be charged for driving out [of the eco-town],” the official said.
The proposals, which are also being discussed with developers, are part of a plan to cut carbon emissions within up to ten eco-towns to be built from 2013. They are also key to the Prime Minister's ambition to build three million new homes by 2020, 30 per cent of which will be affordable.
The towns of between 5,000 and 20,000 homes each will be mainly pedestrianised, with cycle lanes and a few highways with limits of 15mph (24km/h). The houses, built on narrow lanes, surrounded by gardens, parks and waterways, will have no garages or parking spaces — just a cycle rack, under plans modelled on European schemes, such as Vauban, a neighbourhood in Freiburg, Germany.
Town plans will differ, but most shops, schools and GP surgeries will be within walking or cycling distance. People usually reliant on cars will have a far more difficult journey — walking to the edge of towns to get their car, driving it back to pick up shopping, with few parking spaces available, unloading at home and then taking the car back to the edge.
A free minibus will tour round the high streets to shops, schools and GPs' surgeries and stop within five minutes' walk of every home. Residents will be able to consult in their homes an electronic board, which displays bus times and flashes an alert when one is approaching.
Fifteen potential sites have been shortlisted, including Pennbury, Leicestershire; Hanley Grange, Cambridgeshire; Weston Otmoor, Oxfordshire; and Ford, West Sussex. A final list of up to ten will be announced in October, with five to be built by 2016.
Each town is expected to be carbon-neutral, but the Government has bowed to developers' concerns that the highest criteria (Level 6) for zero-carbon homes could add £30,000 to building costs. Caroline Flint, the Housing Minister, told The Times yesterday that, until 2016, the new homes could be built at the much lower Level 3, provided that this was balanced by other energy reducing measures. “We are in negotiations with developers and hope many of them will go further,” she said.
She admitted that the key to the design would be the ability to plan towns with walkways and cycle paths, so that cars would be used less. “It's not about banning cars, but about reducing reliance on cars,” Ms Flint said.
Other “eco-measures” include plans to install underground vacuum recycling, where residents have chutes for different types of waste, which is then automatically taken to a recyling centre on site. Solar panels and wind turbines will be used for power, as well as biomass boilers, fuelled by wood chips from the surrounding forests. Electric vehicles charged from shops and schools would also be encouraged.
Most of the 15 shortlisted areas were put forward by developers, and there has been widespread opposition by councils and residents, who claim that the towns are an excuse for sprawling developments to meet a housing shortage. The first consultation period for the 15 ends in two weeks and residents are planning protests. Some claim that the carbon emissions produced to build the towns will outstrip the benefits, while others fear that they will be marooned on car-free campuses built on greenfield sites.
Glimpse of [CENTRAL GOVERNMENT CONTROLLED BUREAUCRATIC] future
— Penalties for cars driving out of eco-towns in peak times and exceeding journey limits
— Electronic noticeboards in homes to give bus times and locations
— Wood from local forests will be used to fuel biomass boilers
— Recycled waste will be processed underground after being sorted in household chutes
— Residents with electric cars will be able to charge their vehicles in shops and schools
