Wednesday - December 23, 2009

Firearms Sales Slowing?

Are Less Sales A Seasonal Anomaly?





National Instant Criminal Background Checks were slightly down for November. This doesn’t surprise me; November is typically the heart of the hunting season, and the gun owners are out using the new guns they bought earlier in the year. November is the only month so far in 2009 that hasn’t broken all previous sales records; expect holiday sales in December to put the firearms industry over the top once again. All told, it is estimated that close to 14,000,000 NICS checks will be performed for 2009. That’s a solid 10% gain over 2008, which itself was a 10% gain over 2007, which was in turn a 10% gain over 2006. And 2006 was more than 10% more than 2005. So 2009 is up more than 50% compared to 2005. That’s quite a gain in just 4 years.


The NICS system, now a bit over 11 years old, checks prospective gun buyers to make sure they aren’t criminals or crazy people or other undesirables. And in 11 years and 1 month, this is what they have caught:

5.5 million negative hits from over 107 million checks. That’s just over 5%. And nearly 71% of those hits are from illegal aliens. A miniscule 0.00505% - about 1 in 2000 - were hits relating to the so-called Lautenberg Amendment, which prohibits people charged or convicted of domestic violence from purchasing guns.


Meanwhile, the National Shooting Sports Foundation has taken a look at their own data and shown us the most popular gun purchases by region:

So overall NICS looks like a pretty decent system. But look what NSSF can extract from the same data! If only those records were kept longer, and had more detail, the government would know everything! So ... as always, here we go again. Lautenberg, Bloomberg, and Chucky Shumer are at it again ...

This week Lautenberg introduced a separate bill (S. 2820), calling for NICS firearm transaction records to be retained for 10 years on a person suspected of being a member of a terrorist organization. That, however, is a smokescreen for another provision in the same bill, to retain NICS records of approved firearm transfers for 180 days for other gun buyers.

While Lautenberg introduced S. 2820 in the wake of Ft. Hood (with terrorism fresh on Americans’ minds), gun control supporters have wanted NICS records retained for longer than 24 hours since NICS’ inception. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), a co-sponsor of the Lautenberg bill, argued in favor of a 180-day retention back in 2001. After all, the Brady Act, as passed by Congress, required that NICS “destroy” the records of approved firearm purchases.

Along with the Lautenberg bills described above, gun control supporters are concurrently campaigning for a law to force all private gun sales to be run through NICS. Connecting the dots is a simple task. The goal shared by gun control supporters and by government entities for whom no amount of knowledge about American citizens is too much, is to incrementally increase the amount of information the government possesses on gun owners who, through no fault of their own, end up on a secret government list.

As I said earlier, it never ends. Absolute power corrupts. Absolutely.

Harry Reid Saves Your Guns

Yes, you read that right. Harry Reid has set you free. Well, for today anyway.

Health Bill Excludes Guns as Health Threat

Guns could no longer be considered a threat to health under health care reform if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s compromise passes.

Really.

In all the the deal making and tinkering to win support for the bill, Reid added a provision to prevent the Secretary of Health and Human Services from collecting data on guns and ammunition in households, and using it in any relation to health care.

It also bars insurers from taking into account the risks guns might pose to people’s health in setting premiums or offering rebates to people with healthy lifestyles. For instance, if someone were to find people in houses with firearms were more likely to suffer gun injuries, that could not be used to set premiums, sort of like barring the use of pre-existing conditions.

This is, of course, to protect gun owners’ rights in health reform.

Here’s the provision:

”(c) PROTECTION OF SECOND AMENDMENT GUN RIGHTS.—

”(1) WELLNESS AND PREVENTION PROGRAMS.—A wellness and health promotion activity implemented under subsection (a)(1)(D) may not require the disclosure or collection of any information relating to— ”(A) the presence or storage of a lawfully possessed firearm or ammunition in the residence or on the property of an individual; or ”(B) the lawful use, possession, or storage of a firearm or ammunition by an individual.

”(2) LIMITATION ON DATA COLLECTION.—None of the authorities provided to the Secretary under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or an amendment made by that Act shall be construed to authorize or may be used for the collection of any information relating to— ”(A) the lawful ownership or possession of a firearm or ammunition; ”(B) the lawful use of a firearm or ammunition; or ”(C) the lawful storage of a firearm or ammunition.

”(3) LIMITATION ON DATABASES OR DATA BANKS.—None of the authorities provided to the Secretary under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or an amendment made by that Act shall be construed to authorize or may be used to maintain records of individual ownership or possession of a firearm or ammunition.

”(4) LIMITATION ON DETERMINATION OF PREMIUM RATES OR ELIGIBILITY FOR HEALTH INSURANCE.—A premium rate may not be increased, health insurance coverage may not be denied, and a discount, rebate, or reward offered for participation in a wellness program may not be reduced or withheld under any health benefit plan issued pursuant to or in accordance with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or an amendment made by that Act on the basis of, or on reliance upon— ”(A) the lawful ownership or possession of a firearm or ammunition; or ”(B) the lawful use or storage of a firearm or ammunition.

”(5) LIMITATION ON DATA COLLECTION REQUIREMENTS FOR INDIVIDUALS.—No individual shall be required to disclose any information under any data collection activity authorized under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or an amendment made by that Act relating to— ”(A) the lawful ownership or possession of a firearm or ammunition; or ”(B) the lawful use, possession, or storage of a firearm or ammunition.”.

Read between the lines people. What this means is that such a concept - guns are a threat to your health - had ALREADY BEEN IN THE BILL. And was removed by Reid, as a small sop to the NRA or to Democratic Senators from pro-gun states. 

Do you really think this provision is going to stay removed? Look at the BS over the Public Option. In. Out. In. Out. Here again gone again. Pay no attention to the little man behind the curtain.

Search warrants are a thing of the past, thanks to the Patriot Act and other bits of “necessary” “emergency” legislation. You no longer have the right to private property thanks to the Kelo decision. What makes you think that you have the right to private possessions? Don’t forget that YOU are a suspected terrorist, you right wing gun owning zealot. The climate bill demands government inspectors to come to your home looking for bad insulation and leaky pipes. You think such an inspection isn’t part of the health bill? Only because we haven’t found it yet.

And notice how the language keeps referring to “lawful” ownership and possession. In other words, NONE OF THIS APPLIES to “unlawful” possession. And We The Government suspect YOU of unlawful guns (hey, we had an anonymous tip) ... therefore it’s Jackbooted Thugs At 3am Time.

The left never stops. They will use anything and everything to try and disarm the people. And they will never let up. Unlike the Republicans, who value getting home early for Christmas more than trying to stop this major train wreck of a bill.

[ funny thought - if this stays in, then the “lawful” concept could be extended. To also cover other lawful things like smoking, drinking lots of booze, and eating too many Twinkies. Which means no person could be hit with higher health insurance premiums due to their lawful behavior. ]

Woman dies after routine medical exam ….  just the tip of this medical iceberg

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve.  Tomorrow morning I am scheduled to have a routine exam.  An endoscopy to be exact.  Usually a straight forward thing and I had one many years ago.  Of course, back home they put us under and we wake happy.  But no matter, I’d prefer not to be sedated anyway.  It’s a ‘routine’ that’s done thousands of times every year.  Piece of cake. Maybe.  Thing is ... I’m not home in the USA where I have (naive?) trust.  Accidents happen there everyday.
But I’m here and I read this sort of thing way too often.  That’s cause it happens way too often.

CORONER FURIOUS AFTER A WOMAN DIES IN “BURNING AGONY” FOLLOWING NHS INJECTION BLUNDER

By Fay Schlesinger
Daily Mail
December 23rd 2009

A grandmother died after ‘gross failures’ by NHS doctors who injected her lungs with a chemical that was ten times the recommended strength, a coroner ruled today.

Rosemary McFarlane, 64, spent ten days in ‘burning agony’ after receiving the lethal dose during what should have been a routine procedure.

The caustic chemical, phosphate buffered saline, burned the inside of her lungs.

The hospital’s usual supplier had run out of the PBS fluid and a pharmacy was asked to provide the solution.

It was bought over the internet by a junior pharmacist, who mistook ‘10x’ on the label to mean ten bottles of the liquid rather than its super-strength concentration, an inquest heard.

At that strength it is used for preserving tissue samples in laboratories and is unlicensed for use on the living.

Coroner Aiden Cotter launched a stinging attack on staff at Heartlands Hospital, in Birmingham.

Addressing the workers at Birmingham Coroner’s Court, he said: ‘I have dealt with far too many deaths from NHS hospitals in recent years.

‘We hold out our arms and trust medical professionals to inject things into us and the thought some people do not check something that could kill us is appalling.

‘You hold our lives in your hands every day when you are at work when people need to act professionally. Too many people are unprofessional.’

He added: ‘There are many people working in the NHS who are hard working and professional, but there are a significant number who are not.

‘The failures made by the doctors and the pharmacy team are gross failures. I consider they have sufficient causal connection to the death of Mrs McFarlane.’

He recorded a narrative verdict with neglect as a contributing factor.

HERE FOR MORE ON THIS STORY

Here’s a comment left by a reader of the Mail article above.

See that word ‘locum’ down there in the letter?  Well, that’s what I think about on Christmas Eve. Now the writer of course is referring to GPs.  But how about the techs who’ll be doing a procedure like an endoscopy?
Hey .... if someone whispers akbar-snackbar in my hearing, I’m not staying.  On the other hand .... while a lot of ice has been melting today, we’ve just had more sleet on top of the snow from two days ago.  Usually, we get snow and then it all melts away by the afternoon.  But not the last few days.  No buses were running here yesterday, and we didn’t see any today till afternoon.

Yesterday, a 12 minute trip took the wife’s cousin 2 hours she claims.  I think I can believe her because I’m familiar with the area where traffic was on hold.
The town had NO grit or salt or anything ready for this, and some folks had to abandon their cars.  And Winchester not being the most car friendly place anyway, lots of ppl found clamps on their wheels and have to pay to get released. 

I am concerned with the amount of foreign nationals employed by NHS in this country who do not have a good command of English - how are they supposed to understand medical records, drug labels and communicate with patients accurately? GP locums are a prime example.

This all boils down to hospital and primary care management with their umpteen government targets to meet, which quite often compromise patient care. Common sense doesn’t seem to prevail in healthcare anymore.

I’ve had to use our local hospital several times this year, and luckily I have had good consultants looking after me. I do ask a lot of questions, which maybe a nuisance to medical staff, but it’s my life in their hands.
Even a junior pharmacist and a doctor should be checking two or three times though that they got it right with such drugs/chemicals. Are we going to hear of over-doses of morphine next?

- Anon, Cheshire, 23/12/2009 09:53

So ... the weather and road conditions might force a cancellation of my routine exam. 

Stay Tuned and oh yeah .....

I WISH ALL AT BMEWS A MOST JOYOUS CHRISTMAS.

True friends don’t lie

I don’t know why, but lately several people—friends, family, co-workers—have been telling me to go into radio. “You have the voice for it.” they all say. “You also articulate conservative positions when talking to us,” they all say. I’ll plead guilty to the second offense: I do articulate conservative views.

So, while talking to my oldest and best friend last night I asked him about this:

“Hey Mike, do you think my voice is good enough for radio?”

“Chris,” he said, “you have a face made for radio.”

I don’t think I’ve laughed so hard in years. Mike’s a true friend—he’ll tell you the sorry truth, and make you laugh about it!

Boy George loses court case over right to be on TV, and a justice system minus the justice.

This is not how I planned to start the blog day. I had planned on making public how Drew managed to burn a pot on the stove here in Winchester, England, while sitting at home in the USA. However as often happens when reading all the morning papers, I had to stop because I found something that (to me) just screamed ...  stop everything else and post this NOW, before you forget.  As if I could.

We often joke about loony tune law suits and how quick ppl are to insist on their day in court.  Well folks, we need to stop joking cos things stopped being funny long ago.  This post concerns a fellow who calls himself Boy George.  I don’t care that he’s queer.  It’s his life he has to live, and his life isn’t our business.  Unless he makes things public and we’re drawn in.  By drawn in in my case means, he looks totally disgusting to me. He really does. And decadent. And going to court, which is after all, very public. So naturally ppl like me are gonna make comments.

Two of the things I fail to understand are, how is it that he can’t look in the mirror and fail to see just how stupid he looks? How can he not see?
The other thing I fail to understand, is how in the world someone so bizarre looking and so creepy looking, found a large following. I also wonder about that other loony tune in the rock world, Ozzie Osborne.  Although to be honest, while I’m no fan and think he was nuts in his behavior, he has often shown a funny side in sober moments, and has managed to show a weirdly friendly side. You could even say likable, which is trying things a bit I know.  But this is all about the man who calls himself “boy.”

Apparently, he believes he has a right that none of us mortals possess.  A right that certainly no conservative would ever dream was his or hers.

Boy George thinks he has a RIGHT to be on TV, and specifically he has a RIGHT to appear on Big Brother. And so he went to court to somehow prove his case for this very human right.  He lost the case but it made the news.

His sort of people seem to find “rights” in all sorts of places. 

Boy George loses Big Brother legal battle

Boy George has been told he cannot participate in the final series of Celebrity Big Brother, a judge at the High Court has ruled.

The star’s legal team had been trying to lift a Probation Service ban on him appearing on the Channel 4 show.

The singer - real name George O’Dowd - was released on licence from prison early for imprisoning a male escort.

Mr Justice Bean said the Probation Service was within its rights to refuse the star permission to appear.

He added that somebody who is out on licence and the restrictions placed on their freedom are part of their punishment.

Public confidence

A spokesman for the Probation Service said they were “pleased” with the judgement.

“We believe we made a common sense direction and this has been endorsed by the judge.

“We expect offenders to keep to their licence conditions which are in place to protect the public, punish offenders for their crime and aid rehabilitation,” he added.

The 48-year-old former Culture Club singer and DJ went to the High Court to quash a decision by the Probation Service banning him from appearing on the show.

On Tuesday Richard Clayton QC, representing the Probation Service, said O’Dowd’s participation would pose “a high level of risk” to the service’s reputation.

The former Culture Club star is currently on licence and wears an electronic tag.

Mr Clayton argued that if he used the show to promote his status as a celebrity and earn “a lucrative sum of money” it could undermine public confidence in the criminal justice system.

I kinda think the public lost any confidence in the system a long,long time ago. For example, do you folks recall only a few days ago about a homeowner who caught one of the robbers who threatened to kill him and his family?  He and his brother chased and caught one of the gremlins, broke his jaw etc.  They were both jailed for their “assault” of the burglar, who it was claimed was now brain damaged and could not appear in court to answer to criminal charges. The public is outraged over the judge’s call to put the homeowner and his brother in jail, while setting free the gremlin.  Well BMEWS, here’s an interesting update on that one.

The brain damaged would be burglar recovered from his physical injuries it would appear, because after recovery he went on to commit a string of crimes bragging btw that the cops couldn’t touch him.  He didn’t seem to be too brain damaged to commit further crimes.

Sorry BMEWS, I can’t let it go here. One more choice example of how things don’t work.  Guy assaults his girlfriend. He’s a big bruiser and a former bouncer.
She wants to leave him and calls police to press charges.  He’s arrested threatening that if he couldn’t have her, then nobody else could either.
So he’s jailed for assault and after a short time he is released with “warning” and ordered to stay away from her, in fact, he was even banned from the town she lived in. I guess a restraining order.  One month after his EARLY release from jail, he caught up with her returning home from work, and stabbed her 13 times and killed her.  She had already told authorities she feared for her life and that he was not the sort of man to make idle threats.

So yeah.  I’d say the public has zero confidence.

But Alison MacDonald, representing O’Dowd, told the court his Probation Service licence was designed to monitor his behaviour, protect the public and rehabilitate rather than punish him.

O’Dowd’s lawyers could now take the matter further to the Court Of Appeal and ask the Lord Chief Justice if he will consider hearing the case.

It is not yet clear whether the star’s legal team will do that.

The singer was convicted of false imprisonment after admitting handcuffing Norwegian Audun Carlsen to a wall in his London home in April 2007.

Previously O’Dowd had been given permission to perform at Brighton’s Gay weirdo Pride event in August.

BBC NEWS

   Tuesday - December 22, 2009

SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT TO END MY EVENING HERE.  ALSO FITS THE SEASON.

I have visited this wondrous place on more then one occasion.  For all my ranting and griping and complaining fits of temper with this country, I suppose I’m lucky living in a place with so much history.  Not only that, but living in an age of digital cameras where I can record some of what I see.  Which would mean not a lot if I couldn’t share some of it now and then.  Still, these shots don’t quite convey what walking up that stairway to this ancient church is like. Or being inside it all alone.  No tourists. Just myself.  Darn.  Almost makes me wish I were religious. Well think about it.  I feel like I’m missing something.  Maybe it’s the season.

ST. SWITHUN’S CHURCH, WINCHESTER, ENGLAND

St Swithun-upon-Kingsgate is a very special church, one of the medieval gems of Winchester, built over one of its city gates on the line of the foundations of the Roman City wall. The first surviving reference to Kingsgate occurred in 1148, that to the church itself in 1264, when it was burned down. St Swithun-upon-Kingsgate has therefore been a house of prayer for at least seven hundred and fifty years.

HERE’S ONE VIEW OF KING’S GATE. I don’t know if they actually still close it at night. Never thought about that till now. On the other side is the Winchester Cathedral Close.  It houses buildings (olde) for retired clergy and anyone who’d been working for Winchester Cathedral.

Although common in medieval times, churches built over medieval city gates are now very rare. In those times, travel was dangerous, and it would have been common for travellers and pilgrims to give thanks for a safe journey in such a church. In the days before literacy was common, people would have used its wall paintings, statues, and other features as aids to their thanksgiving prayer.

NO SURPRISE HERE. THE CHURCH IS OVER THE ARCH.

AND HERE’S THE ENTRANCE, TO THE RIGHT OF THE ARCH UNDER THAT STEEP ROOF LINE.

THE PHOTO OF THE STAIRS GOING UP IS NOT MINE. IT WAS ON THE NET.

I TOOK THIS ONE COMING DOWN. I STILL CAN’T RECALL WHY I COULDN’T GET A SHOT GOING UP.

In the 1660’s, the porter of Kingsgate, Robert Allen, lived in the church and kept pigs in it. It is certainly possible that children were born here in something resembling the conditions of a stable. Also, as a very special upper room, the Parish is extremely fortunate to have this building as one of its churches. There could hardly be a better place to remember the incarnation and to celebrate the Last Supper. In these surroundings, it is not difficult to feel the thanksgiving, which is at the heart of any Eucharist. Many people come to sit here in silent thanksgiving. For the passing visitor or modern pilgrim, this is a great blessing but this building has much more to offer.

As we look at its features, it is not difficult to realise that they have a story to tell. We have put together some of these stories to help people on their own spiritual journeys. It is possible to do the same for churches and buildings in all our lives and we hope that this will encourage you to do so.

History
The Roman foundations of the city wall, of which Kingsgate arch is a part, can be seen near the river and also exist in the cellars of some houses in St Swithun Street. The arch is mentioned in the so-called Winchester Domesday Book in 1148. The first mention of St Swithun-upon-Kingsgate is in 1264 when citizens burned it down in a dispute with the Prior of the Abbey. The church was probably a chapel for lay people who worked for the Abbey in medieval times. Its walls were decorated with paintings, the statues removed by Cromwell’s reformers would still have been in the three niches, and there was glass in the windows.

HERE’S ANOTHER VIEW OF THE KINGSGATE:  SMALL SAMPLE OF THE HOMES IN THE CATHEDRAL CLOSE AND OCCUPIED BY CLERGY (RETIRED) AND PPL ASSOCIATED WITH THE CATHEDRAL. 

The Prior paid four shilling and eight pence to have the glass repaired in 1484. In 1660, the building was in a sad state of repair and misuse; Robert Allen, the porter of Kingsgate, lived in one end and kept pigs in the other. By 1677 it had been repaired and its bells re-hung. After the shrine of St Swithun in the Cathedral was destroyed in September 1538 and the Monastery dissolved in November 1539, it became a parish church and is now part of the parish of St Lawrence with St Swithun.

The church features in literature as Anthony Trollope’s St Cuthbert’s in his novel ‘The Warden’.

http://www.stlawrence.hampshire.org.uk/ptb.html

St. Swithin’s Day is 15 July, a day on which people watch the weather for tradition says that whatever the weather is like on St. Swithin’s Day, it will continue so for the next forty days. There is a weather-rhyme is well known throughout the British Isles since Elizabethan times.

‘St. Swithin’s day if thou dost rain

For forty days it will remain

St. Swithin’s day if thou be fair

For forty days ‘twill rain nae mair.

‘dost = doesthou =
younae mair = no more

St Swithun was a Saxon Bishop of Winchester.
He was born in the kingdom of Wessex and educated in its capital, Winchester. He was famous for charitable gifts and building churches.Why do people watch the weather on St. Swithin’s day?

A legend says that as the Bishop lay on his deathbed, he asked to be buried out of doors, where he would be trodden on and rained on. For nine years, his wishes were followed, but then, the monks of Winchester attempted to remove his remains to a splendid shrine inside the cathedral on 15 July 971. According to legend there was a heavy rain storm either during the ceremony or on its anniversary.This led to the old wives’ tale that if it rains on St Swithin’s Day (July 15th), it will rain for the next 40 days in succession, and a fine 15th July will be followed by 40 days of fine weather.

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/stswithun.html

St Swithun biography

(d. 862)

Very little is known for certain about the life of Winchester Cathedral’s first patron saint. Some biographies of Swithun state that he was once Prior of Winchester, but there is no evidence to support this belief. We do know that he was one of the chief advisors of Egbert, King of the West Saxons, and may have been responsible for the education of Egbert’s son, Ethelwulf. Egbert’s influence procured for Swithun the post of Bishop of Winchester, which he took up in 852.

When Swithun’s health failed in 862, and he lay near death, he is said to have asked that his body be buried outside his cathedral, rather than within it, as was customary. He wanted passers-by to walk upon his grave, and raindrops from the eaves of the cathedral fall upon his resting place. Although his wishes were granted, his grave did not long lie undisturbed. In 931 Bishop Ethelwulf had Swithun disinterred and reburied within the walls of the new church.

Shortly after, miracles were reported at Swithun’s tomb, which became a popular attraction for pilgrims. So clamorous were the voices reporting these miracles that Swithun was canonized, which further added to the allure of his shrine.

Yet, still his bones could not rest, for in 1093 his remains were once more dug up and reburied with great ceremony within the new cathedral built by Bishop Walkelin. There they remained until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538, when the shrine wa destroyed by Henry VIII’s men. Once more the saint’s bones were dug up, this time to scattered and lost for good.

ABOUT A BLOCK AWAY FROM THE CHURCH OR A FRACTION MORE BUT NOT MUCH, ON JULY 18, 1817, JANE AUSTEN SADLY DIED, TOO YOUNG AND WITH AN UNFINISHED BOOK.
SHE PASSED AWAY IN THIS HOUSE.

Tiz the season to be giving?  What have politicians done for them? Zilch.

Ran across this a few days ago, found it quite interesting and thought our readers might too.

Nothing to add from me so posting without comment.

From The Times
December 19, 2009

In the 50 years since I was in Malawi as a young boy, life in most African villages has not changed in the slightest

Matthew Parris

Before leaving Britain for Central Africa earlier this month, I saw the news that Gordon Brown was to place on the table at Copenhagen more than £1 billion in British aid to developing countries, to help them to combat climate change. The offer sounded generous. But could we, I wondered, ever really monitor how the money was spent? Could we micromanage its distribution? Alternatively, could we trust recipient governments to spend it for us?
In Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, where I landed three days ago, I passed a prominent sign on the outskirts of the city, notifying the public of the offices to which a driveway led. It read: “Capacity-building for non-government actors.”
“What does that mean?” I said to my companion, a well-educated Malawian woman with fluent English.
“We don’t know,” she said. “We’ve been trying to find out. We think it might be something to do with training for charity workers.” She paused, then added, half to herself: “They are talking to themselves.”

They are trying to say training for charity workers without using the words training, charity or workers.
I find myself making an unexpected connection between that exchange with my Malawian companion and an earlier conversation she had had with our Malawian driver.
“I say!” he had called to her, to gain her attention. The rest of their conversation was conducted in their shared language of Chichewa, but “I say!” had caught my ear.
I’ve heard it used in Malawi before and since. It means almost what it used to when employed by the officer class in Britain: something between “Look here”, “Do I have your attention?” and “Gosh”. It has almost certainly came into the local idiom via our colonial officers in the days when Malawi was the British Protectorate of Nyasaland.

My uncle was a forestry officer in the central region of the country, and to stay with him one Christmas I travelled on my own by train (a great three-day adventure) from what was then Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), via Mozambique, 50 years ago. Now I am back here in the sub-Sahara: a subcontinent I know well. This time I’m travelling under my own steam, with friends, in true rural Africa, a land I love.

Malawi is a friendly, safe and gentle country, welcoming to strangers, and not by African standards notably inefficient or corrupt. But what strikes me most — more than any of the changes I see in the cities — is how little has changed in the lives of the vast majority of the people of Africa, who live on the land. Fifty years ago “I say” had entered the lingo, and if overseas aid remains centre-stage here for much longer, perhaps “capacity-building” may pop up in the Chichewa language too, as part of the idiom, along with a new political language of Africanisation that independence has brought. All else remains the same.

During the half-century in which Harold Macmillan’s winds of change have blown themselves — in political terms — into a gale, half a century in which revolutions both violent and peaceful have thrown off the yoke of six great European empires and all the colours of the countries on the map have changed, half a century of tremendous political struggle, half a century about which it would be possible to fill a whole library with works of political science describing, analysing and disputing the processes of imperialism, decolonisation and liberation ... during the half-century between what I saw when I was 10 and what I see now at 60, life in the average African rural village is unaltered.

As a little boy I spent a week alone with my young brother staying in a remote village in Mashonaland in Rhodesia. My mother had organised this through an African friend, believing her children should know how other people live. That was 1959. This week I returned to a small village near Lake Malawi, where I went last November to write (for The Times Christmas Appeal) about the work of a small British charity. I am not exaggerating when I say, without qualification, that nothing — nothing — has changed for better or worse or at all, in village life. You could rewind the video 50 years and you would not spot a single feature that placed us in 2009 rather than 1959 — none, that is, except the lines of my face. Oh, there is, perhaps, one: the new pumps we were installing are of a more primitive design than the 19th-century style lever-pumps that used to be installed in colonial days, as these often proved too complicated to maintain in remote areas in Africa.

I do not, from this, conclude that colonialism was good, or that African independence has been bad. No, they have both proved largely irrelevant, hardly scratching the surface.
When we British marvel at how so small a nation managed to govern so much of so large a continent, with so few colonial officers on the ground, we overlook the fact that we weren’t really governing at all. We were just there. We were marching around, building and mending a few (rather bad) roads, policing (after a fashion) with the help of tribal chiefs and elders, and generally flying the flag. And on the whole, and for some time, the locals couldn’t be bothered to remove us.

Modern African governments in most African cities — so far as their rural hinterlands are concerned — are just there too: strutting around a bit too; mending a few bridges; sticking up signs announcing plans and schemes; jetting off around the world (as our Colonial Service sailed or flew back and forth) and suppressing opposition as our colonial predecessors did. Primary education has spread, but most rural children never go on to secondary school, and if they did there would be no jobs for them. Infant mortality remains, as it always was, unbelievably high.

From this we should perhaps draw no conclusion at all: for or against Africa. We should instead observe that in large parts of the world, and for billions more of our fellow human beings than it suits us political obsessives to acknowledge, politics hardly matters.

SOURCE

Men who put wife in burka ‘not welcome in France’

Once again, for whatever her faults, La Belle France seems to know something the rest of the world chooses to ignore.

Men who put wife in burka ‘not welcome in France’

Byline: From Ian Sparks in Paris

MUSLIM men who force their wives to wear a burka are not welcome in France, the justice minister said yesterday.

Michele Alliot-Marie said husbands who make their wives wear a full body covering do not ‘share the nation’s values’ and would have citizenship requests rejected.
She spoke out as the debate in France over the garments intensified.

A government committee is considering whether to make it illegal to wear burkas and niqabs - where the face is covered - on the streets.
A newspaper poll has suggested that almost half of the French think the beliefs of Islam are incompatible with France’s culture.

Le Parisien reported that almost 46 per cent of those questioned thought Islam was a threat to society.
Miss Alliot-Marie said that she would await the findings of the commission on the burka, due later this month. But she added: ‘There are still a certain number of basics on which we must stand firm.

‘The wearing of the niqab or burka is a problem that affects our ability to live together, the values of the republic and in particular human dignity.
‘For instance, someone who would be seeking French citizenship and whose wife wears the full veil is someone who would not appear to be sharing the values of our country.

‘Therefore in a case like that one, we would reject his request.’ It is not the first attack on burkas by French ministers.

President Nicolas Sarkozy called them ‘a sign of subservience and debasement that imprisoned women’ and said they were not welcome in France.
Immigration minister Eric Besson described them as ‘an affront to national identity’.

SOURCE

   Monday - December 21, 2009

Crowder, Finally

Been waiting all day for this. Steve writes that it took him extra time to do the editing, etc. So here you go. Steve Crowder looks at the mess that is Detroit. I haven’t seen it yet, but I know you can Google up “urban archeology Detroit” or “urban prairie Detroit” and get back lots and lots of hits. The whites have long since flown, the libs have been in power for generations, and the major industries have pretty much packed up and left. And the result ...

Bad Me

I guess I’m an official New Jersey resident now. I hit a deer with the car on the way to bowling tonight. We were going up the back way to Washington, which avoids all the lights and traffic on the local highway, and takes us down a woodsy but fairly high speed road. It was after dark, about 10 after 6. A vehicle was coming the other way, and when he was about a half second ahead of me I saw the briefest flicker across his headlights. “DEER!!” screams my wife, who has the best deer-dar (radar for deer spotting. Like gay-dar, only with antlers sometimes) I’ve ever seen. But as she was screaming and scrunching down into her seat I was stamping on the brakes. Too late. All I saw was a black dot (hoof, nose?) and some white underbelly passing in front of the car, below the hood level. Bam, ba-bump. Caught her on the spoiler below the bumper and went right over her with the front right tire.

Stone dead. Wife was semi-pissed at me because I wasn’t alert enough. I think the oncoming car hit the deer first and bounced it under our car. I’ve seen that happen right in front of me many times before, but always a little further away so I could stop or swerve. I simply didn’t have any time for that this time. That’s how it had to have happened; the nose of our car only comes up to mid-thigh; it’s an ‘03 Sentra. And the deer went under. Even the little micro-deer in NJ are taller than this car’s hood. If I’d hit it square on all by myself it would have flipped up over the hood and come right through the windshield.

Damage to the car - her car of course - is fairly slight. Tore a chunk out of the spoiler below the front bumper, got a tuft of hair stuck behind the headlight fascia. Couldn’t tell more than that since it was dark. I’ll call my insurance company tomorrow and see what can be done.

Poor deer. Sorry God.

Thou Shalt Not Steal

Unless it’s from Tesco, you’re hard up, and you really really want it





Father Tim: ‘My advice to poor is to shoplift’

A clergyman has been criticised as ‘highly irresponsible’ after advising his congregation to shoplift following his Nativity sermon.

[Anglican] Father Tim Jones, 41, broke off from his traditional annual sermon yesterday to tell his flock that stealing from large chains is sometimes the best option for vulnerable people.

It is far better for people desperate during the recession to shoplift than turn to ‘prostitution, mugging or burglary’, he said.

The married father-of-two insisted his unusual advice did not break the Bible commandment ‘Thou shalt not steal’ - because God’s love for the poor outweighs his love for the rich.

But the minister’s controversial sermon at St Lawrence Church in York has been slammed by police, the British Retail Consortium and a local MP, who all say that no matter what the circumstances, shoplifting is an offence.

Delivering his festive lesson, Father Jones told the congregation: ‘My advice, as a Christian priest, is to shoplift. I do not offer such advice because I think that stealing is a good thing, or because I think it is harmless, for it is neither.

‘I would ask that they do not steal from small family businesses, but from large national businesses, knowing that the costs are ultimately passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices.

This bit of modern moral relativism brought to you by

Next week: adultery - is it really that big a deal after all?

Um, why can’t the po’ brits get some of those £1000 a week handouts like the muzzie terrorists religious leaders seem to latch onto left and right?

Climate Conference Generates Nothing But Hot Air ….. continued …

I read someplace but really can not confirm, that the millionaire gas bags at this get together has over a thousand limos for their use. They also had like 34 thousand ppl with em. Aids, secretaries etc.  Then some (Like Tony Blair) flew in on private jets to make speeches.  What. They couldn’t use buses? Share planes?
Personally, I wouldn’t either if the folks footing the bill were happy enuff with how I was spending their money.

(c) peter brookes

Turn down the heat on warming

By Peter McKay

Half of the world’s population - probably more - don’t believe our carbon emissions damage the planet anyway. Far more haven’t even given consideration to the matter.

Even those who do believe we’re responsible for global warming are hopelessly divided. Some think we contribute to it while not being the real cause. Others think we’re the real cause but it’s already too late to do anything about it.

The BBC tells us the science is clear about the dangers, but there were plenty of reasons to doubt this, even before we saw the emails indicating that the experts responsible were tailoring their reports to fit the ‘we’re all doomed’ scenario.

What is clear is the opportunity ‘global warming’ presents for posturing by politicians. Desperate to be elected PM before he’s put out to grass, Gordon Brown said: ‘I came here wanting the most ambitious deal possible. We have made a start.’

He ‘showed great leadership at Copenhagen’ say his supporters. But, according to The Observer, it was Energy Secretary Ed Miliband who salvaged the deal ‘just as it appeared on the verge of being rejected’.

‘Even those who do believe we’re responsible for global warming are hopelessly divided’

President Barack Obama’s spin doctors were talking up his performance, but in Europe it was seen to have been poor.

for more, go HERE

As long as I mentioned Hot Air, here’s the Brit PM who has the answer that’s gonna save us all.  His own country is in the crapper but he’s got the answer for saving the world.  Read All About It! paper,paper ... whoops. get lost in nostalgia from time to time.

Copenhagen climate summit: plan for EU to police countries’ emissions

Gordon Brown is drawing up plans for the European Union to become a global warming “policeman”, monitoring individual countries’ compliance with carbon-cutting targets.

By James Kirkup, and Louise Gray

The plan emerged from the chaotic Copenhagen conference on climate change, which ended in acrimony and mistrust between world leaders.

The summit was unable to reach a substantive deal on cutting greenhouse gases because of a row over how countries would prove that they are honouring promises to cut their carbon emissions. China in particular objected to any external monitoring of its actions.

HERE FOR THE REST AND VIDEO

NUTS!  Must restart puter ... problems.  see link above for whole article.

   Saturday - December 19, 2009

Absolute Disgrace

Senator Nelson (D-NE) Wipes Ass With Constitution

Reid Bribes Nelson To Vote For ObamaCare

Nature of Bribe: Nebraska will be exempt from State pay-in for Medicaid Expansion

All the other states will carry the load for Nebraska

Article 1 Section 9 part 6 of the Constitution:

No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.

Article 4 Section 2:

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.

“… the state of Nebraska ... shall be determined as provided for ... “ is government-speak for “They don’t have to pay. Everyone else will pay for them”.

Read this and rise up!

a HUGE h/t to Vilmar, who ran the Nelson Sell Out story earlier today.

Nelson’s money quote:

Nelson secured full federal funding for his state to expand Medicaid coverage to all individuals below 133 percent of the federal poverty level. Other states must pay a small portion of the additional cost.

“I know this is hard for some of my colleagues to accept and I appreciate their right to disagree,” Nelson told reporters at the Capitol, of the many changes made at his behest. “But I would not have voted for this bill without these provisions.”

“Their right to disagree”? How about our right to have you thrown out of office. Damnation, I want a new amendment. Part 1: any new bill must prove that it is constitutional. Part 2: any elected representative who introduces any legislation at the federal level that becomes law and is later found to be unconstitutional will be executed by flaming arrows to the groin.”

Want to stay up nights? It’s going to take that Wise Latina and the rest of the SCOTUS to overturn this train wreck.

Make Your Own Fire Water

As the snow piles up here in New Jersey, the cold wind whipping around, and I wimp out about going to a party 4 miles and 4 steep and dark hills away, here is a neat-o last minute Christmas gift idea for any geeks, dweebs, and people with a bit of a twisted sense of humor on your list.

LED Faucet Light, $19.99


Mouthwash on tap! Bowls full of blood! Rocket powered water! No, it’s none of these things, although it looks like it could be any of them. It’s just an aerator for your faucet that has several little LEDs built into it. As the water gets warmer the lights change color from blue to red, passing through yellow I think (ROY G. BIV in reverse). While the effect is visible in daylight, in the dark it will light up the whole room with it’s unearthly glow.

Tired of that same old monotonous water? Bored with water that doesn’t look like futuristic alien mouthwash? Need to make your midnight bathroom appointments more exhilarating? Then you need to get the LED faucet light attachment from ThinkGeek. You can turn any faucet in your home into a streaming fantasia of techie-bliss in just minutes. How does it work? Just attach to the end of your faucet (universal adapters included), and when the water flows through the magic chamber, it simply turns on the LED array and illuminates the stream with soothingly powerful hues.

Looks like a sink built by NASA!

But wait, there’s more! Not only does your water light up, but the color light changes with the water’s temperature. When the water is cold, you see BLUE LED’s until the water temperature hits 89 degrees after which the LEDs turn RED (now with a brushed chrome finish)!

For those who might find blood pouring from their faucets a bit too exciting, ThinkGeek also sells a version made only with blue LEDs. The screw-on device is 2 1/4” tall, so I’d recommend it only for faucets that are fairly tall to begin with.



Get yours now at this link. Comes with spare batteries too, so the thrill lasts longer!

For $39.99 they also sell a shower head version.
... and if the idea of a shower of red water puts you in mind of Norman Bates, they carry the proper blood-stained shower curtain and bath mat too.

---

---

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2008 Domain Owner

Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.