Paul Brownjohn @Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org

What a truly gigantic hypocritiacal
twat this man is!

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62r38gd76jo

@kottke

Not forgetting that massive SUVs are dreadful gas-guzzlers and therefore make a disproportionate contribution not only to CO2 and NOx emmissions but to plastics pollution due to the relatively more massive amounts of tyre tread dust and brake pad dust they produce compared to an ordinary family car.

@MatWright

I would add that being against, and calling out, the deliberate mass murder of women and children is not anti-semitism either!

@ColinTHFC Yes - there are no winter fuel allowance payments from the pension provider where I live in Luxembourg but then with one of the most generous state pension in the world, pensioners here don't need one.

About 5 years back, the CNAP the state pension providor here anounced that its AVERAGE pension payout was around £800 a week. Pensioners over here don't need top ups to pay their heating bills (although we do get an 'end of year bonus' which is a percentage of your pension and for most people that amounts to a lot more that the winter fuel allowance). Given the numerous pension rises we have had since then, I would guess that average is probably around £1000 a week now!

@DrALJONES

That's a bit rich coming from a man who has cheats like a dog at golf - ask anyone who has played against him.

Back in the 1980s when I was shacked up with a woman who was very enthusiastic about fortune tellers and other soothsayers, I was persuaded to see such a woman who practised her ‘gifts’ in a shop in Brighton.
During our session which lasted for around 30 minutes, she predicted that I would become a computer programmer, that I would study for a university degree, and that if I obtained the degree, which she said I probably wouldn't, it might result in my death! She went on to say that if it happened, it would be a pretty quick death (how very comforting) She went on to say that even if all this sounds highly unlikely, it is, nevertheless, going to happen and you will only realise how the jigsaw of that phase of your life fits together, when one particular earth-shattering event occurs.
At the time, I was a carpenter and builder and had never laid a finger on a computer. However, some years later I injured my back and my right arm so badly that I was pretty much incapable of making a living in the trade, so I bought myself a computer, taught myself computer programming and eventually found a job doing exactly that. I also started studying for a degree at the Open University, but as the soothsayer had predicted, I never finished the degree.
In 1999, I was working on a project at British Airways who usually recycled their contractors onto other projects. However, we were told that because that year’s IT budget had been completely gobbled up fixing the year 2000 bug, none of us would have our contracts extended after our respective projects ended. The same budget constraints applied to many other companies who employed large numbers of computer contractors so there was a glut of available IT contractors and a dearth of contracts needing programmers.
I had the advantage of being footloose and fancy free and also of speaking fluent French so, when sending out my CV, I made sure to emphasise my French language skills and that I would accept work anywhere, world-wide.
I was contacted by two specialist IT agencies one offering me a potential job working for a mobile phone company in Brussels and the other working for a finance company in the USA. I was quite enthusiastic about the US job as the pay rate was very high ($1000 a day) but when I was talking to the agent about the position I was asked a very peculiar question: “are you afraid of heights?” To which I replied, “how is that relevant to the proposed contract?” The agent replied “because the offices are near the top of the tallest building in New York” - “the Empire State Building” I tentatively suggested, “no, you are a bit out of date, the World Trade Centre is now the tallest building in New York and This contract is based in offices on the 105th floor” (honestly, I can’t remember which exact floor or indeed which tower it was, but I do remember that it was above the 100th floor).
Given the day rate was exceptionally good; much higher than the Brussels job, I leapt at the chance. A few days later the agent got back in touch with me to say that he was sorry but the client had decided that they couldn't take me because I didn't have a university degree and therefore it would be extremely challenging to get me a green card to work in the USA. So, in the end I took the Brussels job.
On the evening of 9/11, the words of the soothsayer suddenly crashed into my consciousness; had I obtained the degree that I had studied for, I would have taken the New York job and it's quite possible therefore that I would have been in one of the twin towers when the aircraft smashed into them. If I remember rightly, no one from above the hundredth floor in either tower, escaped with their lives that day.
To me, it is downright scary shit the fortune teller could predict my future with such unerring accuracy - in fact it makes me shudder every time I think about it!

@are0h

Apparently, a lot of Americans of Irish descent go to Ireland proudly claiming to be Irish to which the real Irish tend to reply
"You're never Irish y'fuckin eejit, you're American"

@lydialurch @Cdespinosa

I can only suspect that for him it was like a toddler's safetly blanket or teddy bear!

@FluentInFinance

Very wisely, in Luxembourg, where I live, credit agencies are illegal! The only organization permitted to hold credit information about individuals is the Luxembourg central bank. There are no scores just "does this person have outstanding bad debts" yes or no. If the answer is yes no one will give you credit if the answer is no, then your credit is as good as anyone else's.

@Cdespinosa

I met an American guy in a bar in Thailand. We got chatting and he told me that he had just arrived from the USA to retire in Thailand. He asked me if I knew how you go about getting a permit to conceled carry a firearm in Thailand. I explained that, as a foreign national, you would never be given such a permit - ever!

I heard from mutual acquintances that he had said if he couldn't carry a firearm, he didn't want to stay and he decided Thailand wasn't for him and left the country a week of so later!

@Heliograph

However, they are rarely used as most house martins seem to prefer to build their own; often right next door to the prefabricated ones.