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Search - List of Books by Molly Ivins
"I dearly love the state of Texas, but I consider that a harmless perversion on my part, and discuss it only with consenting adults." -- Molly Ivins
Mary Tyler "Molly" Ivins (August 30, 1944 – January 31, 2007) was a liberal American newspaper columnist, political commentator, humorist and bestselling author from Austin, Texas.
Quotes more less
"As they say around the Texas Legislature, if you can't drink their whiskey, screw their women, take their money, and vote against 'em anyway, you don't belong in office.""Being slightly paranoid is like being slightly pregnant - it tends to get worse.""Good thing we've still got politics in Texas - finest form of free entertainment ever invented.""I believe in practicing prudence at least once every two or three years.""I believe that ignorance is the root of all evil. And that no one knows the truth.""It is possible to read the history of this country as one long struggle to extend the liberties established in our Constitution to everyone in America.""Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the United States, please pay attention.""Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful.""The thing about democracy, beloveds, is that it is not neat, orderly, or quiet. It requires a certain relish for confusion.""You can't ignore politics, no matter how much you'd like to."
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Biography more less
Ivins was born in Monterey, California and raised in Houston, Texas. Her father Jim Ivins, known as "General Jim" because of his rigid authoritarianism (or sometimes "Admiral Jim" for his love of sailing), was an oil and gas executive, and the family lived in Houston's affluent River Oaks neighborhood.Ivins graduated from St. John's School in 1962. In high school, she was active in extracurricular activities, including the yearbook staff. She had her first pieces of journalism published in The Review, the official student newspaper of St. John's School, though she never wrote any of the political columns that would become her specialty later in life. Ivins later became co-editor of the arts and culture section of the student paper. In addition, she frequently participated in theater productions and earned a lifetime membership to Johnnycake, the drama club.
Ivins enrolled in Scripps College in 1962 but was not happy there, and transferred to Smith College in 1963. During this time, she became romantically involved with Henry "Hank" Holland, Jr., a family friend, and then a student at Yale, whom she referred to as "the love of my life." When he was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1964, her friends would later say that she never seemed to find anyone else who could replace his memory, and she never married. She spent her junior year at the Institute of Political Science in Paris, and received her B.A. in history in 1966. She earned a master's degree at Columbia University's school of journalism in 1967.
While at Smith, Ivins spent three summers as an intern at the Houston Chronicle. Her jobs there included the complaint department as well as "sewer editor," as she put it, responsible an reported on the nuts and bolts of local city life.
After graduating from Columbia, she took a job in the Twin Cities at the Minneapolis Tribune, where she covered "militant blacks, angry Indians, radical students, uppity women and a motley assortment of other misfits and troublemakers."
In 1970 Ivins left the Tribune for Austin, Texas to be the co-editor and political reporter for the Texas Observer. She covered the Texas Legislature and befriended folklorist John Henry Faulk, Secretary of State Bob Bullock and future Governor Ann Richards, among others. She also gained increasing national attention through op-ed and feature stories in The New York Times and The Washington Post along with a busy speaking schedule inside and outside Texas. The Times, concerned that its prevailing writing style was too staid and lifeless, hired her away from the Observer in 1976, and she wrote for the Times until 1982. During her run there, Ivins became Rocky Mountain bureau chief, covering nine western states, although the writer was known to say she was named chief because there was no one else in the bureau. Ivins also wrote the obituary for Elvis Presley in The New York Times for the August 17, 1977 edition. Generally, her more colorful writing style clashed with the editors' expectations, and in 1980, after she wrote about a "community chicken-killing festival" in New Mexico and called it a "gang-pluck," she was recalled to New York as punishment. When Abe Rosenthal, editor of the Times, accused her of trying to inspire readers to think "dirty thoughts" with these words, her response was, "Damn if I could fool you, Mr. Rosenthal." One friend saw her rebellion against the Times authority structure as a continuation of her rebellion against her father's authority. In late 1981, after receiving an offer from the Dallas Times Herald to write a column about anything she liked, Ivins left New York for Dallas.
Ivins wrote for the Dallas Times Herald for ten years, although by 1985 the editors had moved her to the paper's Austin bureau to reduce friction with Dallas city leaders. Her freelance work and speaking engagements continued to grow, and she hired Elizabeth Faulk, John Henry Faulk's widow, as a personal assistant. In 1991, her book Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? was published, and spent 29 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Also in 1991, rival newspaper Dallas Morning News bought the Times Herald and closed it down. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram immediately made Ivins an offer and said she could stay in Austin. Ivins accepted, and wrote a column for the Fort Worth paper from 1982 until 2001, when she became an independent journalist. Her column, syndicated by Creators Syndicate, eventually appeared in nearly 400 newspapers nationwide.
Ivins also remained a board member and contributor to the Texas Democracy Foundation, which publishes the Texas Observer in Austin.
In 1995, humorist Florence King wrote in a The American Enterprise column that Ivins had plagiarized King's work and mis-stated a quotation from a King column in a 1988 Mother Jones article. David Rubien, writing in Salon, described the incident: "In a 1995 article for Mother Jones on Southern manners and mores, she extensively quoted, with affectionate attribution, statements from Florence King's book Southern Ladies and Gentlemen. But for some careless reason Ivins still fails to comprehend, she left the attribution off a few King statements." Ivins wrote a letter of apology to King, but characteristically ended it with:"...boy you really are a mean bitch, aren't you? Sincerely, Molly Ivins, plagiarist." King published Ivins's apology and her own reply in a later article.
In 1999, Ivins was diagnosed with stage III inflammatory breast cancer. The cancer recurred in 2003 and again in late 2005. In January 2006 she reported that she was again undergoing chemotherapy. In December 2006 she took leave from her column to again undergo treatment. She wrote two columns in January 2007, but returned to the hospital on the 26th for further treatment. Ivins died at her Austin, Texas home in hospice care on January 31, 2007, at age 62.
After her death, George W. Bush, a frequent target of her barbs, said in a statement, "I respected her convictions, her passionate belief in the power of words. She fought her illness with that same passion. Her quick wit and commitment will be missed."
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Writing Style more less
Written from an unabashed liberal perspective, Ivins's style was peppered with colorful phrases to create the "feel" of Texas. When outraged by instances of what she considered malfeasance or stupidity on the part of public officials, she couched her argument in an air of stunned amusement. She enjoyed telling stories about the Texas Legislature, which she simply called "The Lege." She contended that it is one of the most corrupt, most incompetent, and funniest governing bodies in the nation—a well she dipped from on a regular basis. For example:
Practice, practice, practice, that's what Texas provides when it comes to sleaze and stink. Who can forget such great explanations as "Well, I'll just make a little bit of money, I won't make a whole lot"? And "There was never a Bible in the room"?
In 2003, she coined the term "Great Liberal Backlash of 2003," and was a passionate critic of the 2003 Iraq War. She is also credited with applying the nickname "Shrub" to George W. Bush.
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Quotations more less
On the subject of Pat Buchanan's famously combative "culture war speech" at the 1992 Republican Convention, which attracted controversy over Buchanan's aggressive rhetoric against Bill Clinton, liberals, supporters of reproductive and gay rights, and for his comparison of American politics to religious warfare, Ivins famously quipped that the speech had "probably sounded better in the original German," implicitly comparing Buchanan to Nazism.
"We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war...We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, 'Stop it, now!'" (from her last column)
"Having breast cancer is massive amounts of no fun. First they mutilate you; then they poison you; then they burn you. I have been on blind dates better than that."
"So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was."—quoted by John Nichols for The Nation Original source: "The Fun's in the Fight" column for Mother Jones, 1993.
On Bill Clinton: "If left to my own devices, I'd spend all my time pointing out that he's weaker than bus-station chili. But the man is so constantly subjected to such hideous and unfair abuse that I wind up standing up for him on the general principle that some fairness should be applied. Besides, no one but a fool or a Republican ever took him for a liberal." (Introduction to You Got to Dance With Them What Brung You)
On James M. Collins, US Representative, R-Dallas: "If his IQ slips any lower we'll have to water him twice a day." Collins had said that the current energy crisis could be averted if "...we didn't use all that gas on school busing..." Ivins' quote engendered substantial controversy, with calls and letters pouring into her newspaper, The Dallas Times Herald. The newspaper turned the controversy into a publicity campaign, with billboards all over the city asking, "Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?"—which she later employed as the title for her first book.
On George W. Bush, she likened him to a Post Turtle.
"Of Bush's credentials as an economic conservative, there is no question at all - he owes his political life to big corporate money; he's a CEO's wet dream. He carries their water, he's stumpbroke - however you put it, George W. Bush is a wholly owned subsidiary of corporate America. ... We can find no evidence that it has ever occurred to him to question whether it is wise to do what big business wants."
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Awards more less
William Allen White Award from the University of Kansas (2001)
Smith Medal from Smith College (2001)
Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2001)
Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Progress and Service (2003)
Pringle Prize for Washington Journalism from Columbia University (2003)
Eugene V. Debs Award in the field of journalism (2003)
David Brower Award for journalism from the Sierra Club (2004)
David Nyhan Prize for Political Journalism from the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard University (2006)
The Molly National Journalism Prize from the Texas Democracy Foundation (2006)
In addition to these formal awards, Ivins said that she was particularly proud of two distinct honors: having the Minneapolis police force's mascot pig named after her, and being banned from the Texas A&M campus.
In Huntsville, TX each year the Walker County Democrat Club has a Charity Dinner in honor of Molly Ivins.
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Bibliography more less
Bill of Wrongs: The Executive Branch's Assault on America's Fundamental Rights (Random House, 2007) ISBN 1-4000-6286-1
Who Let the Dogs In?: Incredible Political Animals I Have Known (Random House, 2004) ISBN 1-4000-6285-3
Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America with Lou Dubose (Random House, 2003) ISBN 0-375-50752-3
Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron by Robert Bryce, foreword by Molly Ivins (PublicAffairs, 2002) ISBN 1-58648-138-X
Sugar's Life in the Hood: The Story of a Former Welfare Mother by Sugar Turner and Tracy Bachrach Ehlers, foreword by Molly Ivins (University of Texas Press, 2002) ISBN 0-292-72102-1
The Betrayal of America: How the Supreme Court Undermined the Constitution and Chose Our President (2001) with Vincent Bugliosi (Thunder's Mouth Press, 2001) ISBN 1-56025-355-X
Shrub: The Short But Happy Political Life of George W. Bush with Lou Dubose (Random House, 2000) ISBN 0-375-50399-4
You Got to Dance With Them What Brung You: Politics in the Clinton Years (Random House, 1998) ISBN 0-679-40446-5
Nothin' But Good Times Ahead (Random House, 1995) ISBN 0-517-16429-9
Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? (Random House, 1991) ISBN 0-679-40445-7
The Edge of the West and Other Texas Stories with Bryan Wooley (Texas Western Pr, 1987) ISBN 0-87404-214-3
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Notes more less
Ivins, Molly. " Bush-hater strikes again". The Free Press. October 16, 2003.
Ivins, Molly. " There Goes the Electrical Grid". AlterNet. July 12, 2005.
Ivins, Molly. " Who Needs Breasts, Anyway?" Time Magazine. Feb. 18, 2002.
Robert Siegel and Wade Goodwyn, " Molly Ivins Dies at 62 After Bout with Breast Cancer", including interviews with and commentaries by Ivins, NPR, January 31, 2007.
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This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Molly Ivins", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0
2008 - Bill of Wrongs the Executive Branch's Assault on America's Fundamental Rights (Paperback) → Hardcover
Genre: Politics & Social Sciences
2007 - Bill of Wrongs [Audio CD - Abridged] (Audio CD)
2005 - Who Let the Dogs in Incredible Political Animals I Have Known (Paperback) → Hardcover
Genres: Nonfiction, Humor & Entertainment
2005 - Who Let the Dogs In (Paperback) → Audio Cassette, Audio CD
2004 - Fifty Years of the Texas Observer (Hardcover) → Paperback
Genres: History, Literature & Fiction, Reference, Nonfiction
2004 - Who Let the Dogs in Incredible Political Animals I Have Known (Hardcover) → Paperback
2004 - Bushwhacked Life in George W Bush's America (Paperback) → Paperback, Hardcover
2004 - The Deluxe Election Edition Bushisms the First Term in His Own Special Words (Hardcover)
Genre: Humor & Entertainment
2004 - Bushwhacked Life in George W Bush's America [Large Print] (Hardcover)
Genres: Biographies & Memoirs, History, Nonfiction
2003 - Bushwhacked Life in George W Bush's America (Hardcover) → Paperback
Genres: History, Nonfiction
2001 - Shrub the Short But Happy Political Life of George W Bush (Other) → Paperback, Hardcover
Genres: Biographies & Memoirs, Nonfiction
2000 - Shrub the Short But Happy Political Life of George W Bush (Paperback) → Hardcover
2000 - Shrub the Short But Happy Political Life of George W Bush [Audio Cassette - Unabridged] (Audio Cassette)
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
2000 - Shrub the Short But Happy Political Life of George W Bush (Hardcover) → Paperback
1999 - You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You (Paperback) → Audio Cassette
1998 - You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You (Audio Cassette) → Paperback
Genres: Biographies & Memoirs, History, Humor & Entertainment
1998 - You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You Politics in the Clinton Years (Hardcover)
Genres: Biographies & Memoirs, Nonfiction, Humor & Entertainment
1997 - Nothin' But Good (Hardcover)
1995 - Nothin' But Good Times (Hardcover)
1995 - Molly IVins Can't Say That Can She (Hardcover) → Paperback, Hardcover, Audio Cassette
1994 - Nothin' But Good Times Ahead (Paperback) → Paperback, Hardcover, Audio Cassette
1994 - Nothin' But Good Times Ahead/large Print (Other)
1993 - Nothin' But Good Times Ahead (Audio Cassette) → Paperback, Hardcover
1993 - Nothin' But Good Times Ahead (Hardcover) → Paperback, Audio Cassette
1993 - Old Dogs Remembered (Hardcover)
1992 - Molly IVins Can't Say That Can She (Paperback) → Paperback, Hardcover, Audio Cassette
Bushwacked Life in George W Bush's America (Audio Cassette) → Paperback
Bushwacked Life in George W Bush's America (Paperback) → Audio Cassette
Who Let He Dogs In (Audio CD)
Molly IVins Letters to the Nation (Paperback)


LEE COUNTY, Fla. -- Deputies were unable to locate a man reportedly seen masturbating outside a home in a gated Estero community.
According to a Lee County Sheriff's incident report, a person driving through the Bella Terra community on Monday morning reported seeing a man masturbating in a side yard along Torre Del Lago Street.
The witness yelled out to the man, who fled toward the rear of the home.
Deputies responded to the scene and were unable to find the suspect.
He is described as a white middle-aged male, approximately 200 pounds and balding.
Deputies say the home where he was seen is vacant and up for sale.


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What's happening with Britain's DNA database?
Posted by James Hammerton @ 8:19 pm on 6 March, 2009.
Categories privacy and surveillance, British politics, the database state, European Convention on Human Rights.
Edit This Permalink to this article
David Mery, writing in the Register:
Almost three months on from the unanimous ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) against the UK's mass retention of DNA of innocent people, the situation has turned worse. Although eventually the UK should become compliant with the ruling, police forces are adopting a wait and see attitude, while Jacqui Smith is pushing back any response.
Meanwhile, the Government has tabled an amendment giving sweeping powers on DNA retention, use and destruction to the Secretary of State.
And later in the article:
Things got further muddled last Friday, when the Government submitted an amendment to the Policing and Crime Bill, which it claims will implement the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the Marper case. Thanks to GeneWatch UK for spotting that amendment, which has otherwise not received much publicity. From a cursory reading, this amendment gives a blank cheque to the Secretary of State:
"After section 64A of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (c. 60) insert - "64B Retention and destruction of samples etc
(1) The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision as to the retention, use and destruction of material to which this section applies.
(2) This section applies to the following material - (a) photographs falling within a description specified in the regulations, (b) fingerprints taken from a person in connection with the investigation of an offence, (c) impressions of footwear so taken from a person, (d) DNA and other samples so taken from a person, (e) information derived from DNA samples so taken from a person.
(8) The regulations may make provision amending, repealing, revoking or otherwise modifying any provision made by or under an Act (including this Act)."
A delayed response, no consultation yet (though they're often not effective) and an amendment letting the Home Secretary change the law not only to comply with the ECtHR ruling - whichever way she interprets it - but possibly to authorise new uses of our DNA without any review is what's on the table.
Did the British government rewrite the law to avoid contractual obligations with Railtrack?
Posted by James Hammerton @ 8:07 pm on .
Categories democracy and the rule of law, British politics.
Tom Winsor, the former Rail Regulator recounts how the British government rewrote the law to avoid some contractual obligations:
Trying to legislate to annul an inconvenient contract binding on the State (or a state-owned bank) would do massive harm to Britain. What company in its right mind would place reliance on a contract with a Government that is prepared, after the contract has been signed, to use its legislative pen to strike out the clauses it later decides that it doesn't like? If we go down this route we get close to the status of developing countries, such as as former Soviet republics, where foreign private companies need special protection against political interference in their contracts with host governments. Their technique is usually to set up enforcement of the contract in a neutral third country, with direct recourse against the foreign-held assets of the state in question. Is that really where the British Government wants to take us?
Unfortunately, the present Government has form. In 2001, the Government's No1 hate figure then was Railtrack. Ministers decided it had to be taken out, and a cunning plan was devised in the Treasury to euthanase the company and get its assets for nothing. To do this, in the words of Mr Brown's closest adviser then, Shriti (now Baroness) Vadera, they decided to "engineer the solution through insolvency". If they could persuade the High Court that Railtrack was insolvent, the plan would work.
But Railtrack was not insolvent, because of indemnity clauses in franchise contracts between the State and the private railway companies. Those companies had separate contracts with Railtrack, under which they paid track access charges. If the politically independent Rail Regulator increased the sums the franchisees paid Railtrack, they had back-to-back contractual rights to get the extra money from the State. Very awkward.
Ministers knew that if they simply refused to pay, the franchisees would sue and win. And so the Government decided that it would neutralise these inconvenient contractual indemnities. Emergency legislation was drafted to enable ministers to order the regulator not to increase Railtrack's income. The indemnities in the franchises would, therefore, never be triggered, and ministers would not have to pay out. Railtrack would be bust.
But hold on, the regulator might not acquiesce. The legislation would be extremely controversial. It couldn't be passed quickly enough to stop him raising Railtrack's charges before the door was bolted. Just before the Government revealed this supposed fait accompli to me, Shriti Vadera anxiously warned her colleagues that if I were to resist, "it could make the compensation claim huge".
When I was told at the very last minute about their great scheme, I was struck not only by the fact that the Government was prepared to do this, but by the information that it had been cleared by both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor.
Despite these very improper threats, I told Railtrack I was prepared to use my powers and race the legislation to the finishing post. But Railtrack had given up, and didn't fight back. The legislation was ready, but it wasn't used. Railtrack regarded the threat of it as enough, and went quietly into that long dark night. Threatening companies with legislation to extinguish their contractual rights was obviously a desperately clever thing, and it was kept for the next time some enemy of the State with an inconvenient contract had to be dealt with.
On October 24, 2005, having repeatedly insisted that the independence of the economic regulator for the railways was sacrosanct, Alistair Darling tabled a Commons motion congratulating the Government on the legislative threats it had made to me. So now we know what he thinks of contracts that government later wishes it hadn't signed. The damage caused by the Government's handling of Railtrack was severe, and it took years for confidence to recover.
British civil servants misused RIPA to spy on public
Categories privacy and surveillance, British politics.
The Guardian recently reported on the misuse of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act by civil servants:
Controversial surveillance powers employed to fight terrorism and combat crime have been misused by civil servants in undercover "spying" operations that breach official guidelines, the Guardian has learned.
Documents obtained under Freedom of Information show some government departments and agencies have used these powers incorrectly or without proper controls. They also show the official government watchdog set up to monitor the use of such clandestine techniques criticised the departments for their behaviour.
The watchdog twice threatened to inform Gordon Brown about the serious abuses of powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA).
The watchdog highlighted how:
Officials at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) did not have proper authorisation when they went undercover posing as anglers to glean information about imported fish;
A manager responsible for authorising surveillance at the NHS anti-fraud agency routinely gave officials "carte blanche" in surveillance operations;
Tracking devices were attached to vehicles in a bid to monitor the disposal of waste, after the Environment Agency received apparently incorrect advice from the Home Office
Potential prosecutions were jeopardised because those conducting the surveillance operations were not properly trained and had not followed procedures
A large array of public bodies are also using surveillance powers, including the Charity Commission, Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the BBC.
The Convention on Modern Liberty: a personal view, part two
Posted by James Hammerton @ 10:19 pm on 3 March, 2009.
Categories privacy and surveillance, democracy and the rule of law, British politics, the database state, European Convention on Human Rights.
In this article, I'll provide an overview of what was said at the Surveillance in Scottish Society sessions of the Glasgow Convention on Modern Liberty.
Please note however that there were parallel sessions on democracy (in the morning) and the liberty of vulnerable groups (in the afternoon) which I cannot cover.
Also the article below is constructed from rather haphazard notes and already fuzzy memories, but I hope it will convey a decent overview of my experience.
To British readers: Write to your MPs
Categories privacy and surveillance, British politics, the database state.
Phil Booth, quoted by Guy Herbert on Samizdata.net
At the Convention on Modern Liberty, I launched NO2ID's request that everyone at the convention – and around the UK – tells their MP right now that they refuse their consent to having their information shared under any "information sharing order", a power currently being slipped onto the statute books in clause 152 of the coroners and justice bill .
Please tell yours too. It's important, and urgent – and something that only YOU can do. If you never have before, now's the time to write to your MP – in a letter, or via www.WriteToThem.com.
Jack Straw has been making noises that could signal a 'compromise', but the only acceptable action is to remove clause 152 entirely from the bill. It is not linked to any other clause, despite being sandwiched between other powers and so-called safeguards offered to the information commissioner. It cannot be improved, and Straw can't be allowed to merely "dilute" it. Clause 152 just has to go.
It's imperative that in coming days every MP hears from his or her constituents. Please tell them you refuse consent to having your information, taken for one purpose, arbitrarily used for any other purpose. And ask them to vote clause 152 off the bill.
I have already written to my MP making these points. I urge all those opposed to this measure to do so.
The Convention on Modern Liberty: a personal view, part one
Categories privacy and surveillance, political liberties, democracy and the rule of law, freedom of speech, British politics, the database state, freedom of information, European Convention on Human Rights.
Yesterday the Convention on Modern Liberty took place. I attended the Glasgow convention, organised jointly by NO2ID Scotland and the Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS).
In this article, I provide an overview of my experience attending the Glasgow convention. I shall delve into more detail about various topics later in followup articles.
The first thing I'd like to do is to congratulate both NO2ID Scotland, especially Dr Geraint Bevan, and the IAS, especially Professor Mike Nellis, for organising a highly successful event. There were over 100 people from all sorts of backgrounds attending, more than had originally been planned for. The video links from the London Convention worked very well and there was a wide range of speakers and topics covered in the Glasgow sessions. I was particularly impressed with the questions from the audience and subsequent discussions that accompanied the talks. Notably, most people stayed for the whole day, i.e. from 9.30am through to a slightly late 5.40pm finish. The atmosphere was positive and I think most people will have come away from the event knowing a lot more than they did before, knowing who to get in touch with about these issues, and also with some ideas to followup on for campaigning on these issues. I shall talk in a bit more detail about what was said at the Glasgow Convention in a followup article.
The impression I got of the London event was also positive. There were excellent speeches and talks from the likes of Shami Chakrabarti, Dominic Grieve, Chris Huhne and David Davis, and interesting, pertitinent questions from an audience numbering in the thousands, with £35 tickets having been sold out. Here, again the organisers deserve congratulations, most notably Henry Porter for kicking the whole thing off after David Davis's resignation.
As a starting point for a general campaign on liberty, the Convention has at least succeeded in getting large numbers of people from different backgrounds who are concerned about the erosion of liberty to talk to each other and start thinking about what to do about it. The main question is whether it'll amount to more than preaching to the converted. To an extent, on the day, the Convention was bound to involve only those who were concerned about or otherwise take an interest in the erosions of liberty because the audience is self selecting.
However the debates generated in the media in the run up to the Convention already involve a move beyond preaching to the converted. Also, some time was spent discussing ideas for what to do about the erosion of liberty, and various ideas have already been put forward. Examples of these ideas included Baroness Kennedy's suggestion of a concerted campaign involving drawing up a list of civil liberties issues and asking where candidates at the next election stand; Chris Huhne's Freedom Bill; one speaker's suggestion that we should educate children about the importance of human rights; Phil Booth urging people to write to their MPs to tell them they refuse consent to data sharing under the Coroners and Justice Bill and Patrick Harvie's suggestion of "liberty theatre" to try and make people aware of what liberty is, and how precious it is.
My overall impression is that, whilst the Convention has made a good start in getting people together/putting them in touch with each other, the question of what to do about the erosion of liberty has only begun to get a serious answer. This is not a criticism. It seems to me that it was only ever likely to make a start on this question in the first place, that it has done so with a broad range of people is a success. Also, there is clear intent to followup on the Convention, with suggestions for it becoming an annual event, plus people have exchanged contact details to start networking for followup events. My own view is that there is probably no particular magic bullet, but if everyone concerned with these issues can think of ways of getting the message out, ways of influencing both those in power and the general public to pay heed to liberty, and act upon their ideas, then the Convention stands a good chance of being the turning point that I hope it will be.
Good luck to the Convention on Modern Liberty
Posted by James Hammerton @ 9:01 pm on 27 February, 2009.
Tomorrow, the Convention on Modern Liberty will take place in London with satellite Conventions in Glasgow, Belfast, Manchester, Birmingham, Cambridge, Cardiff and Bristol.
I've been monitoring the erosion of civil liberties in Britain, with increasing concern, for a decade now, and I hope that this Convention will mark a turning point that will see these erosions of liberty halted and reversed. By getting people from different backgrounds and different political perspectives together to discuss these issues, hopefully eveyone who is concerned by this trend will be able to get together and campaign more effectively. Ideally the Convention will spawn a regular event, and/or renewed pressure on our politicians to listen.
So how successful will the Convention be? Time will tell of course, but it's worth noting that tickets for the London Convention sold out, whilst the Glasgow Convention has had to be extended to hold a second parallel session since it was oversubscribed. This suggests that people are concerned about these issues and are willing to give up a Saturday to find out more and to help campaign against it.
Update on data sharing proposals
Categories privacy and surveillance, British politics, the database state, accountability.
Regarding the proposed power to allow Ministers to order data sharing via statutory instrument, I thought I'd post an update on recent developments:
The British Medical Association have claimed that the data sharing powers will jeopardise medical confidentiality:
Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the British Medical Association, told the Guardian that the profession was "extremely concerned" about legislation tabled by Jack Straw, the justice secretary.
Clause 152 of the Coroners and Justice Bill would allow the Department of Health to share information on NHS databases with other ministries and private companies.
Health ministers have no immediate plan to make use of the power, which would give all Whitehall departments a fast-track procedure for getting permission to share data without parliamentary debate.
The NHS is proceeding slowly with a scheme to upload the medical records of everyone in England on to a national database known as the Spine. Ministers have given frequent assurances to patients that the information would only be accessed by healthcare staff who need it.
But Meldrum said patients could not know whether future ministers would abide by this undertaking. According to the BMA, the trust between doctors and patients would be destroyed if Straw's bill, as it stands, became law.
Meldrum told the Guardian: "The bill gives any minister the right to access patient-identifiable information - and give others access to it. There appears to be no limit to what could be done with this information as long as the minister can make a vague… justification, claiming that sharing the information is in line with government policy at the time.
"The doctor-patient relationship is built primarily on trust that information is given confidentially and will not normally be shared without the patient's consent. Once we go down the road where that principle can be breached, widespread possibilities could flow."
The British Computer Society and the Information Commissioner's Office have also both criticised the proposals:
The Bill would allow one of the central principles of the DPA – that information collected for one purpose by one organisation should not be used by another organisation for another – to be set aside.
It would allow ministers to issue an "information sharing order" as long as this will be in support of a public policy and held to be in the public interest.
The BCS said this would "devalue the principle of informed consent that lies at the heart of the DPA" which could "heighten distrust that citizens have of government and central initiatives" and have "disastrous consequences in the hands of a less benevolent government."
It also argued that the measures might not survive a challenge under Article 8 of the Human Rights Act, which guarantees a respect for private and family life.
In a commentary on its website, the ICO said the measures should be restricted to "precisely defined circumstances in which there is a legal barrier to information sharing that would be in the public interest" and that "large scale data sharing initiatives that would constitute significant changes to public policy" should be excluded.
It also argued that it should be stated explicitly that any data made subject to an information sharing order was still protected by the DPA and the Human Rights Act.
The Out-law.com website covers the Information Commissioner's Office concerns in more detail:
The ICO has released its second opinion on the contents of the Coroners and Justice Bill, which proposes legalising greater sharing of information between Government departments and with outside contractors and private companies who request it.
When the Bill's proposals were first published, the ICO was less critical.
"Some have suggested that the Bill's information sharing provisions represent an unwarranted interference with the privacy of personal information. We do not agree. The provisions of the DPA will continue to apply to the sharing of personal information whether undertaken within the scope of an information order or otherwise," said its opinion, published on 22 January.
The ICO now believes that the proposed new law poses some dangers to privacy and for Government's accountability for the processing of personal data it has collected.
"The Bill's information-sharing provisions are too wide, and its safeguards relatively weak," it said. "The provisions should only apply in precisely defined circumstances where there is a legal barrier to information sharing that would be in the public interest."
Rosemary Jay, a privacy law expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM, warned of similar concerns when the Bill was published.
"It would allow for information to be shared with banks or other financial institutions," she said in January. "There is no restriction on purpose of the sharing so for example it would enable the Minister to make an order empowering the tax authorities to disclose the earnings of individuals to credit reference agencies."
Jay said that such disclosures could be made without the person whose information is being shared ever knowing about it.
The ICO is also concerned that the law will allow Government to make major changes in the field of information law without consulting Parliament.
"The Bill needs an additional safeguard, to prevent the use of information-sharing orders in the context of large-scale data sharing initiatives that would constitute significant changes to public policy," said the opinion.
The Bill allows the ICO to investigate Government departments it suspects of not processing or sharing information properly through the issuing of an assessment notice.
"The Assessment Notice provisions need to be widened, so the Information Commissioner can serve an assessment notice on any data controller," said the ICO's latest opinion. "The risks can be just as great outside the public sector and the boundary lines between the sectors are increasingly blurred. The House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution supported this conclusion at paragraph 238 of its recent 'Surveillance: Citizens and the State' report."
The Coroners and Justice Bill passed its Second Reading in the House of Commons and is now in the Committee stages. NO2ID has covered the second reading debates and votes on their discussion forums, including links to transcripts of the debate and a list of how MPs voted. 278 MPs voted to allow a second reading, whilst 47 opposed. The NO2ID forums have also covered the Committee Stage debates that have occurred so far.
Met police impose CCTV surveillance on Islington pubs
From the Register:
The story begins with a letter to the Guardian last week, from Nick Gibson. He is currently renovating Islington pub The Drapers Arms, after its previous owners allowed it to go insolvent and then disappeared.
In his letter, he argues that if he had merely taken over an existing licence, the police could not have imposed any additional conditions. However, because this was now a new licence, the police were able to make specific requests, including one particular request in respect of installing CCTV.
Mr Gibson wrote: "I was stunned to find the police were prepared to approve, ie not fight, our licence on condition that we installed CCTV capturing the head and shoulders of everyone coming into the pub, to be made available to them upon request. There was no way that they could have imposed this on the previous licence holder."
We spoke to the Police and to Islington Council. The Council were clear that this was not their policy: they would look at individual licence applications in the light of representations made to the Licensing Committee and decide on a case by case basis.
It was left to the Met to confirm the existence of a blanket policy for some parts of London. A spokeswoman for the Met said: "The MPS overall does not have a policy of insisting CCTV is installed within licensed premises before supporting licence applications.
"However, individual boroughs may impose blanket rules in support of their objectives to prevent crime and disorder and to assist the investigation of offences when they do occur.
"Islington is one of the most densely populated districts for licensed premises in London and the borough's licensing authority is committed to providing a safe environment in which to socialise.
"To this end, Islington police recommend all premises are required to install CCTV and make those images available to police upon request before a licence is granted."
Yet again the Met police police are pushing for mass surveillance.
More on Britain's War on Photography
Categories privacy and surveillance, political liberties, British politics, accountability.
Further to my recent article on Britain's war on photography, I came via UK Liberty across septicisle's excellent article on his blog "Obsolete" about the new powers in Section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act 2008:
With this in mind, it's incredibly easy to be greatly cynical about the new offence created in the latest and greatest "Counter-Terrorism" Act. Contained in section 76 is the criminalisation of "[E]liciting, publishing or communicating information about members of armed forces etc", which you would imagine ostensibly is intended to stop individuals, such as those convicted of plotting to kidnap and behead a Muslim soldier, from compiling information on potential targets, whether it be home addresses or photographs of soldiers themselves. That alone is contentious; what is even more contentious is that this covers not just members of the armed force and the intelligence services, but also humble police constables.
It's rather difficult not to connect this directly to what has become more than just individual, jumped-up officers of the law asking members of the public what they're doing when they're seen taking photographs of almost anything, as has become almost routine for some whose simple pleasures including taking pictures of buildings, or even getting a camera out in the vicinity of children. While this does not directly cover that, what it will directly cover is the photographing of police officers, which has also become something of a point of concern, with those photographed routinely demanding that such pictures be deleted, even going so far as to confiscate the devices if they're digital and doing it for them. This has been especially noted on demonstrations, where ironically there are now almost always dedicated teams of officers, known as Forward Intelligence Teams, who film and take photographs of everyone, regardless of whether there is even the slightest likelihood of violence or the breaking of the law. FIT was originally set up to monitor football crowds for hooligans; now those exact same methods are used to do little more than intimidate peaceful protesters.
In response, the likes of FIT Watch have been set up to give the officers a taste of their own medicine. It could be argued that the archives of FIT Watch could be used by those with less salubrious methods to target officers for far more than just tit for tat gestures, but the chances of this seem to be negligible. Rather, what section 76 does is simply put into law what the officers have already been unofficially practising for some time.
The consequences of this could not potentially be more serious. It essentially means that anyone who comes across an instance of the police abusing their powers and manages to record it can have their evidence destroyed with next to no powers of appeal. It will further empower officers to intervene with photographers regardless of what they are doing. It in effect gives carte blanche to the police to stop anyone from recording almost anything, with the excuse being they themselves might be the ones being targeted. Furthermore, because of the vagueness of the legislation, which is almost certainly deliberate, it's up to the police and the courts themselves to intrepret when there was a breach. It's a recipe for completely disempowering the individual while empowering the authorities of the state to do almost whatever they feel like, with little sanction for appeal.
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© magnacartaplus.org2008, 2007, 2006 [1 December]
variable words
prints as variable A4 pages (on my printer and set-up)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Award winning mobile game now available on the internet. Build towers and cities.
Prove your skills by putting the Red Star on the platform before it falls down.
Mastermind but with numbers. The goal of the game is to guess the numbers in the right sequence.


The captivating color of Rhodochrosite is an obvious draw of the wonderful mineral. One variety of the species is the "stalactitic" form, which provided this lapidary example. This sphere features the banded and multi-hued pattern of red and pink associated with the popular material. This orb has deep cavities.


text:
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The 30 Best College Dorms in the U.S.
Dorms at these colleges and universities are about more than bricks and mortar -- it's about the whole package, from student safety to dining hall sundaes, and everything in between.
William Richards
Updated Aug 22, 2016 12:31 PM EDT
In the last two decades, colleges and universities have focused on developing their campus life strategies -- often with dedicated directors, and sometimes with entire departments devoted to upping the ante by attracting more applicants. Niche's rankings of dorms at 1,713 colleges and universities are about more than bricks and mortar -- it's about the whole package, from student safety to dining hall sundaes, and everything in between. Student survey results factored heavily into this list -- weighted at 70%-- culled from Niche users. Also considered: the average cost of campus housing, total housing capacity, and, importantly, student crime rate (each weighted at 10% -- culled from US Department of Education statistics between 2013 and 2015, as reported by colleges and universities). Notably, many of the colleges and universities that appear on this list are Christian denominational in their founding and identity (and Jesuit schools, in particular, make a good showing on this list). Another trend is the correlation between the number of students and the party scene grade -- more undergrads usually meant a higher party score. Overall, this is not a list of the "usual suspects" and you will, undoubtedly, be surprised more than once.
30. Bryn Mawr College
Room & Board: $13,860
Undergrads: 1,309
The Main Line towns north of Philadelphia are some of the loveliest in the country, and Bryn Mawr is the crown jewel. This women's college gets high marks in several categories-A+s, in fact, for academics, campus food, and campus housing. While the party scene a Bryn Mawr gets a B-, there are plenty of trains into the city to fill the gap between your sleepy suburban weeks and your bleary eyed weekends.
29. University of Mobile
Room & Board: $8,830
Academics do not get high marks at the University of Mobile (a "gentleman's C"-or, to be exact, a C+). But, if you're not enrolling for academic reasons, it may come as a welcome surprise to find that campus housing at this school gets an A+, according to Niche. You may want to find a diner in the area, though, for everyday meals. Campus food gets a B- grade.
28. University of Scranton
The University of Scranton is one of 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the U.S. and, as is often the case with Jesuit schools, helps anchor its home city. Community service is an important thread that runs through dorm life, and students there will delight in the A+ grade for campus food and campus housing, as well as the solid A grade for campus quality.
27. Eastern Mennonite University
While the party scene at EMU gets a solid C grade (that, if you've ever been to Harrisonburg, is generous), the living situation for students gets As and Bs across the board, from housing to food, to health and safety. It's a small school, too, with a favorable student-teacher ratio and a reasonable price-tag for room and board compared to other schools its size.
26. Indiana Wesleyan University
Marion, Indiana
Once known as Marion College, IWU's global aspirations (and alignment with John Wesley's Wesleyan Methodist Church) have led to a B+ academic ranking, according to Niche. It's also led to solid As and Bs across the board for food, housing, campus quality, drug safety, and even parking. The local chamber of commerce's tagline "Make it Marion" may even resonate with you, too, even if Niche gives the local area a C+ grade.
25. Southwestern Assemblies of God University
A more awkward name for a school cannot be found. But, once you get beyond that record scratch, there are solid As and Bs across the board for academics, campus food, campus housing, health and safety, and parking. Drug safety is a stellar A+ at Southwestern Assemblies of God University. On a related note, the party scene is one of the lowest in the Top 30 with a C- grade.
24. Harvard University
Off-campus housing is one of the lowest the Top 30-a D+ grade. But, on-campus housing is a stellar A+, along with academics (obviously), diversity, and campus quality. Everyone knows what Harvard represents in the American academic lexicon, and if you're lucky enough to enroll there, you'll see why. The A- party scene grade is notable.
23. Pacific Union College
Angwin, California
Of course the weather gets an A+ for this Bay Area college, but more notable is the one-two punch of A+s for both campus food and campus housing. The 150-acre campus itself sits on 1,900 acres of prime California land, meaning there's plenty of room to roam around and have some off-campus adventures, particularly when the B+ party scene gets old.
22. Santa Clara University
There seems to be a correlation between a school's party scene and the number of undergrads enrolled there. SCU gets a solid A in that department, owing to the relative diversity of its more than 5,100 students. The second Jesuit school in the Top 30, SCU gets the highest marks for campus housing, food, and (unsurprisingly) weather. Academics get a solid A, making SJU a solid bet.
21. Wheaton College (Illinois)
Wheaton College is really a tale of two Wheatons (the other-related in name only-is in Norton, Massachusetts). The party scene at this particular Wheaton is a paltry D+, but if parties are a low priority for you, then the campus food, housing, and health and safety are all A+ grades, seconded only by academics, which gets a solid A grade.
20. Stanford University
Good luck getting into Stanford (6% acceptance rate), but if you do, you may never want to graduate. Breaking into the Top 20, Stanford boasts A+ grades for not only academics, but also campus food, housing, campus quality, diversity, and (unsurprisingly) technology. The B- party scene isn't great, but San Francisco is a quick car ride away.
19. Colorado Christian University
If you want to be a CCU Cougar, you stand an excellent chance-it has a 98% acceptance rate. But, will you enjoy it? Signs point to yes-solid A marks for on-campus housing, health and safety, the appeal of the local area, and the quality of off-campus dining and off-campus housing.
18. Corban University
Undergrads: 871
One of the defining characteristics of Corban is its intimacy, with fewer than 900 students. But, you don't have to go very far to feel something more expansive-Salem is the center of the Willamette Valley (read: vineyards), which contributes to Corban's decent off-campus grades. On campus? An enviable A+ for housing and a solid A for parking (so you can keep your Outback parked and ready for the next adventure).
17. Asbury University
Wilmore, Kentucky
Academics at Asbury are a solid B, and while both diversity and athletics are in the C grade range, the campus housing situation is on point with an A+ grade. It's unclear why this school, which has otherwise lackluster grades across the board, according to Niche, is in the Top 20 at all, but its relatively modest tuition and 66% acceptance rate makes it an agreeable option worth investigating.
16. Loyola University Maryland
Baltimore has a lot to offer any undergrad-and Loyola University's location in the leafy area north of Johns Hopkins-is the best of both worlds: urban amenities and suburban comfort. Campus housing earns an A+ grade, along with most of the others in the Top 30, and campus quality earns a respectable B+ grade.
15. Whitworth University
Heading east, Spokane is the last stop before Montana (and half a morning's drive from the Canadian border)-a haven for outdoorsy types and a bastion of natural beauty. Off-campus housing gets an A grade (and the elk burgers on the off-campus menu earn it a B+ grade). On campus housing? A+ all the way, along with an equally high grade for campus quality.
14. Soka University of America
Sister school to the larger Soka University of Tokyo, this Soka is located just east of Laguna Beach in sunny southern California and earned solid A grades in almost all of the categories that Niche surveyed. One of Soka's 435 U.S.-based students notes, "This isn't college, it's a resort," and while Frosh have to still put up with having a roommate, the fact that each dorm room has a private bathroom makes it tolerable.
13. Pomona College
Pomona College is one of the pricier schools in the Top 30-and for good reason it seems: its students give it an A+ for academics, campus food, campus housing, and campus quality. Seventy-five percent of its dorm rooms are reportedly singles-and spacious single rooms, at that. Students give the party scene a B- grade, which is perhaps the only downside to this school if, you know, partying is your thing.
12. Liberty University
Undergrads: 24,777
Rev. Jerry Falwell's brainchild, Liberty University, hosts more than 14,000 resident undergraduates (although it counts 100,000 more who are enrolled online only), whose low, D+ grade for the local party scene is eclipsed by otherwise stellar grades for everything else. Much of the newer housing stock for undergrads is reportedly spacious and comfortable, and if you don't want to venture into town for BBQ, the campus food gets a solid A.
11. Johnson University
The second smallest school by undergrad population on the list, Johnson University offers a variety of spacious housing options for traditional and non-traditional students. The food is a B+ on campus (and an A- off-campus), and if you aren't interested in the B- party scene, you'll find that the city of Knoxville gets a slightly better B+ grade.
10. Florida Gulf Coast University
Tuition: $25,440 (out-of-state), $6,118 (in-state)
Southwest Florida is one of the nicest places to vacation in the U.S.-so, imagine how great you'd feel if you went to school there. Some dorms even have their own beaches for sunning, swimming, and kayaking-helping earn the school a solid A for campus quality. Off-campus dining gets a slightly better grade (A-) than on-campus food (B), but that seems like a reasonable trade-off if school too often feels like a day at the beach.
9. Christopher Newport University
Tuition: $20,992 (out-of-state), $11,092 (in-state)
CNU is a close-knit campus no bigger than a 15-minute walk, end to end, and relatively new dorms that are within spitting distance from academic buildings. Students give it a solid A for campus quality-and it is a handsome campus, indeed-and As all around for housing, food, and Greek life.
8. Union University
The bad news is that Union University gets a lowly C grade for campus food. The good news is that the housing is an A+, health and safety is an A-, and drug safety is an A+. Student comments, which largely drove Niche's results, are laudatory-especially on the appealing point that all students get their own room (many in a suite-style arrangement).
7. California Baptist University
Niche's overall grade for California Baptist University is a respectable A-, and according to it students, the best things about going to school at this Inland Empire institution are the food, health and safety, and the housing. The party scene falters a bit, with a C+, but the local area (and its bars) gets decent marks.
6. Rice University
Rice is a beacon of higher education in Texas, with an overall Niche grade of A+, and a slate of As and A+s from academics to food to housing, to diversity. The party scene is a solid A, and if you're heading off campus, the local dining and housing garner equally high marks. Drug safety is a worrying C-, but overall, students feel that health and safety at Rice is a solid B grade.
5. Yale University
It's no surprise that Yale gets an A+ for campus quality-some of the best Collegiate Gothic and Mid-Century Modern academic buildings in America define the cityscape. Yale's students give it As in key categories-on- and off-campus food, housing, transportation, and the party scene. Other categories struggle to rise above a C+, such as health and safety and Greek life.
4. High Point University
High Point, North Carolina
With so many solid Cs in key categories (and a straight D for drug safety), High Point's appearance in the Top 5 is puzzling. Still, the strength of its students' grades for campus housing, campus food, and Greek life (an A+ for each) is enough to raise its standing.
3. Regent University
While Regent's students offered up a C grade for academics, their grades for housing (A+), campus quality (A), and food (B) vault it into the Top 3. One thing the grades don't reveal, but the comments do, is the sheer beauty of its manicured and stately campus.
2. Bowdoin College
Bowdoin is one of the reasons we refer to its home as the Great State of Maine-it's a campus of almost unrivaled beauty and high academic rigor. Its students give it the highest grade for housing, food, and overall quality (as well as off-campus dining). Drug safety is a worrying D+, according to students, but overall health and safety is a respectable B+.
1. Washington University in St. Louis
The mighty WashU comes in at number one in the nation, according to Niche, for campus life and dorms. It earns an A+ grade for food, housing, off-campus housing, and off-campus dining (not to mention technology and transportation). The less-than-stellar C- grade for drug safety isn't unique-several schools on this list are challenged in that area-but on par, this St. Louis stronghold with considerable advantages for undergraduates.
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text:
Louans és un municipi francès, situat al departament de l'Indre i Loira i a la regió de . L'any 2007 tenia 604 habitants.

Demografia

Població
El 2007 la població de fet de Louans era de 604 persones. Hi havia 232 famílies, de les quals 52 eren unipersonals (36 homes vivint sols i 16 dones vivint soles), 76 parelles sense fills, 92 parelles amb fills i 12 famílies monoparentals amb fills.

La població ha evolucionat segons el següent gràfic:

Habitants censats

Habitatges
El 2007 hi havia 267 habitatges, 236 eren l'habitatge principal de la família, 19 eren segones residències i 12 estaven desocupats. 263 eren cases i 3 eren apartaments. Dels 236 habitatges principals, 191 estaven ocupats pels seus propietaris, 39 estaven llogats i ocupats pels llogaters i 6 estaven cedits a títol gratuït; 2 tenien dues cambres, 28 en tenien tres, 68 en tenien quatre i 138 en tenien cinc o més. 191 habitatges disposaven pel capbaix d'una plaça de pàrquing. A 74 habitatges hi havia un automòbil i a 144 n'hi havia dos o més.

Piràmide de població
La piràmide de població per edats i sexe el 2009 era:

Economia
El 2007 la població en edat de treballar era de 385 persones, 317 eren actives i 68 eren inactives. De les 317 persones actives 297 estaven ocupades (161 homes i 136 dones) i 20 estaven aturades (6 homes i 14 dones). De les 68 persones inactives 29 estaven jubilades, 26 estaven estudiant i 13 estaven classificades com a «altres inactius».

Ingressos
El 2009 a Louans hi havia 241 unitats fiscals que integraven 631,5 persones, la mediana anual d'ingressos fiscals per persona era de 17.841 €.

Activitats econòmiques
Dels 30 establiments que hi havia el 2007, 1 era d'una empresa alimentària, 1 d'una empresa de fabricació d'elements pel transport, 3 d'empreses de fabricació d'altres productes industrials, 11 d'empreses de construcció, 4 d'empreses de comerç i reparació d'automòbils, 1 d'una empresa d'hostatgeria i restauració, 2 d'empreses d'informació i comunicació, 5 d'empreses de serveis i 2 d'entitats de l'administració pública.

Dels 10 establiments de servei als particulars que hi havia el 2009, 1 era un taller de reparació d'automòbils i de material agrícola, 1 paleta, 1 guixaire pintor, 3 fusteries, 1 lampisteria, 2 electricistes i 1 veterinari.

L'únic establiment comercial que hi havia el 2009 era una fleca.

L'any 2000 a Louans hi havia 22 explotacions agrícoles que ocupaven un total de 1.368 hectàrees.

Equipaments sanitaris i escolars
El 2009 hi havia una escola elemental.

Poblacions més properes
El següent diagrama mostra les poblacions més properes.

Referències

 Résumé statistique Fitxa resum de dades estadístiques de Louans a l'INSEE.
 Évolution et structure de la population Fitxa amb el detall de dades de Louans a l'INSEE
 France par commune Dades detallades de tots els municipis de França accessibles a partir del mapa.

Municipis d'Indre i Loira

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Newtonhill nr Stonehaven. Born Norwich England. Lived in Scotland since 1978 on return from working in Italy.
Last position Technical Sales Manager Drilling Fluids for Baker Hughes Continental Europe Geomarket. Retired December 18th. Previously was Regional Technical Manager for EARC (Europe Africa Russia Caspian) for BHDF.
64. Married 3 children. 2 Grandchildren.
What is your club/are your clubs?
Aberdeen Petroleum. Current Secretary and President (Latter appears to be permanent!) Past member AWW also.
Winning AJ knockout 2011/12 in Aberdeen with a mixed team to represent North East Province in playdowns 2012. Won section, knocked out in quarter final.
What are you doing now in curling?
Currently skip a club team and a club team in Province. Withdrew from Superleague this year due to team issues.
What motivated you to come on tour?
Liked the idea and as retiring could get the time off work. Any other time not possible (before or after!). Should also serve to improve my curling skills.
What are you most looking forward to/what have you enjoyed most about tour?
The whole experience of being on Tour and meeting everybody.
Any specific roles in the tour planning and/or during the tour?
Golf. Member Peterculter GC and Edzell GC. Handicap 15.
My dog. A Chesapeake. My wife's Aunt lives in Guelph!