Monday - May 12, 2008

Addicts who steal may escape jail.  makes about as much sense as health and safety regs.

Well ur honor ya see t’was like this here.  I had this urrrrrgent need for sex and being horny with no money I just HAAAAAD to rob that jewler or bank and mugg that old lady for the cash to pay for MY ADDICTION ....

Ah .. what this now? A free jail pass?  Thankye ur honor, much obliged.

Fraken Idiots .....  Even if it doesn’t pass the thinking alone shows how doooooomed this place is.  No wonder Lyndon says he’s leaving.  I would too except I have to wait till somone dies.

By Christopher Hope, Home Affairs Editor
Last Updated: 11:37PM BST 11/05/2008

Burglars and thieves could escape jail if they commit their crimes because of addiction to drink, drugs or gambling, under proposed sentencing guidelines.
The recommendation is contained in a consultation on how judges should punish those convicted of thefts and burglaries.

The document, from the Sentencing Guidelines Council, details how serious offences should be assessed and when judges should make allowances for mitigating circumstances.

The guidelines say: “Many offenders convicted of acquisitive crimes are motivated by an addiction, often to drugs or gambling. This does not mitigate the seriousness of the offence but an offender’s dependency may properly influence the type of sentence.”

They suggest that rather than a prison term, “it may sometimes be appropriate to impose a drug rehabilitation requirement or an alcohol treatment requirement as part of a community order or a suspended sentence order in an attempt to break the cycle of addiction and offending, even if an immediate custodial sentence would otherwise be warranted”.

The document states that if “an offence has been committed in desperation or need arising from particular hardship”, that may keep someone out of jail in exceptional circumstances.

The Conservatives suggested that judges were being pressed to keep offenders out of jail to ease over-crowding in cells.

Nick Herbert, the shadow justice secretary, said: “People will be uncomfortable with the idea that professional thieves who prey on the vulnerable may only receive community service.”

Patrick Mercer, a Tory member of the Commons home affairs committee, said: “Rehabilitation can go on in prison. I don’t see why these are mitigating factors.”

The deadline for consultation is the end of next week.

http://tinyurl.com/5oaw8p

‘Mobile’ phone enjoys centenery

My contribution to the world of hi-tek news for today.
It is much harder to spot in the online version but ..... see the group of three ppl off to the right? OK .. There’s a huge metal ring (Xmitter) in that area.
Here, you can just (with some difficulty) make out part of the loop. Or circle that is part of the equipment.

By Joanna Corrigan

Last Updated: 11:30PM BST 11/05/2008
Photographs of the world’s first “wireless telephone” have revealed that it was not quite as mobile as its modern counterparts.

Invented by Nathan Stubblefield in 1908, the device came complete with an unwieldy metal transmitter.

A far cry from the tiny mobile phones in use today, the telephone was made up of a system of wire suspended between metal rods with the transmitter placed on a train carriage or boat.

When the vehicle neared, a signal was sent through the air to the telephone using magnetic fields. It could be heard near the other end of the wire through another phone.

One hundred years on, Stubblefield is finally being recognised as the inventor of the mobile phone. Just 30 years after the first proper long-distance phone network was set up, the Kentucky melon farmer was awarded the patent for his “wireless telephone”.

Stubblefield created the “portable” phone after managing to send his and his son’s voices between early telephones through the ground and even through water.

His device never caught on but now he is being honoured with his very own page on the Virgin Mobile website to mark the anniversary of his creation.

Virgin’s founder Sir Richard Branson said: “Nathan is the father of the mobile phone and I’m thrilled we can celebrate the 100-year anniversary of his invention that in some way went on to change the way the world communicates.”

Mr Stubblefield was granted a patent for his invention in 1908
http://tinyurl.com/5xw4vx

   Sunday - May 11, 2008

Obama, Super Patriot

Obama Campaign Introduces Customized Lapel Pins

In celebration of his having traveled to an impressive 57 states in his bid for the Presidency (and to finally put to rest the notion that he abhors patriotic accessories), Barack Obama’s campaign has introduced a custom line of American flag lapel pins.

Get yours today and show your support for the least senile candidate in the race!

Don’t laugh too hard ... the assumption is that those extra 7 states would be the islands we currently hold as territories. And Obama somehow swept the US Virgin Islands DNC primary vote, snagging all their delegates and getting 90% of the vote.

Signs of the Apocolypse

‘Gong Show’ set to return to TV

Comedy Central Thursday announced it is bringing “The Gong Show” back to U.S. television with a new version of the classic variety series.

Lauren Corrao, the network’s president of original programming and development, said “The Gong Show with Dave Attell” is to premiere July 17.

The new series will feature eight to 10 “off-beat and hilarious acts” that will be judged by a panel of three revolving celebrity judges, Comedy Central said.

The search for talent has already begun and submissions are being accepted at gongshowcasting@aol.com.

“We are very excited to welcome Dave Attell back to the network and put the Comedy Central touch on such a classic game/variety show,” Corrao said in a statement. “Dave is the perfect guy to host this series. His dry, comedic wit paired with the outspoken personalities of our celebrity judges and the outrageous acts will create a fresh, new take on the famed series.”

“Stars will be made, feelings will be hurt,” Attell warned.

Attell was the creator and host of “Insomniac with Dave Attell,” ran for four season on Comedy Central beginning in 2001.

Yes, I remember Insomniac, in which Dave “played” a foul mouthed sarcastic scruffy drunk, who would visit a different city each week to cruise the late night bars, chat up the hookers, and visit the unusual people who work the overnight shift in various odd businesses. It was slightly funny and slightly educational.

The original Gong Show was perhaps the worst game show that was ever on TV, back in the mid 70s when TV was at its lowest ebb. It was funny in a very painful way; if you could take everything bad about Idol and it’s predecessor Star Search and magnify it ten times, you’d have The Gong Show.

Thanks to Rancino for the link. I think.

Truly we are living in End Times.

Motorvator Mouse

   Saturday - May 10, 2008

Naughty Admiral caught on his own tailhook

18 years after the fact, Vice Admiral John Stufflebeem is trying to get forced retirement instead of censure because of an affair he had. In the White House. In 1990. When he was Military Aide to President Geoge H.W. Bush.

Vice Admiral Stufflebeem is a 1975 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, he enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserves in 1969 beginning his service as a deck seaman. He was designated a Surface Warfare Officer in 1978 and Naval Aviator in 1980.

As a commissioned officer, Vice Adm. Stufflebeem has served operational tours in a surface combatant, various fighter squadrons and carrier air wing staffs in the Pacific and Atlantic Fleets. He commanded Fighter Squadron 84 and Carrier Air Wing 1 during combat operations in the Balkans and Persian Gulf and Carrier Group 2/Task Force 60 during Operation Iraqi Freedom. His previous assignment prior to returning to Washington was Commander 6th Fleet, Deputy Commander Naval Forces Europe, Joint Force Maritime Component Commander Europe, Commander Strike and Support Forces NATO, and Allied Commander Joint Command Lisbon. Vice Adm. Stufflebeem has flown over 4,000 hours in a variety of fighter aircraft and has more than 1,000 aircraft carrier landings.

Additionally, Vice Adm. Stufflebeem has served in staff assignments including Military Aide to President George H.W. Bush, Deputy Executive Assistant and later, Executive Assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations. His first assignment as a flag officer was Deputy Director for Global Operations (J-3) on the Joint Staff during Operation Enduring Freedom. Subsequent to Operation Iraqi Freedom he was the Assistant Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information, Plans and Strategy.

Vice Adm. Stufflebeem’s decorations include the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal and Air Medal.

Great. Just fargin great. Another damned flyboy who can’t keep his winky in his pants. Who got laid in the White House long before Slick Willy ever even had the chance. Who has spent the last decade or more trying to lie his way out of the allegations of this affair, but the system finally caught up with him:

A Navy admiral engaged in sexual relations in the White House in 1990 with a federal employee whom he falsely told he was a widower, according to a report released Friday by the Defense Department.  In March, when the report was submitted to Pentagon officials, Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem was demoted and fired from his post as director of the Navy staff.  Stufflebeem told investigators he couldn’t remember the name of the woman he had an affair with. He also lied when he told investigators he did not engage in sexual relations with the woman, identified as “Jane Doe,” the Defense Department’s inspector general’s report said.

Jane Doe, who was then unmarried and working for a federal agency, told the investigators the allegations were true, the report said. Her supervisor and Stufflebeem’s superiors supported her testimony.

Stufflebeem was convicted April 18 of making false official statements to investigators. After the hearing, called an admiral’s mast, he requested retirement.

The lying little dirtbag. Can’t remember the woman’s name huh? Like bloody hell. At least “I will not divulge her name” has a teensy bit of honor. Nope, she’s just some tramp he was doinking for awhile, that’s all. Heck, he even tried denying the whole thing for quite some time -

“I did not have sex with this woman,” he said during one of two interviews with investigators.

Yeah right, like that one is gonna fly in DC ever again.

Stufflebeem was still claiming a frame-up as recently as February, and honestly, without a stained blue dress or two, we’ll never know for sure.

“[I] find it extremely regrettable, in a case that has such far reaching implications for my career, that you have chosen to question my integrity,” he wrote in a February 15 letter. “The unfortunate truth in this case is that, as a result of lack of evidence to substantiate the allegation of a sexual relationship and in lieu of investigating the underlying allegations, you have chosen to accuse me of being untruthful as I defended myself against these allegations.”

Stufflebeem further castigated the investigators because, at that time, they had chosen not to interview Jane Doe “in deference to Ms. Doe’s privacy,” according to the report. Doe “readily agreed” to testify when they contacted her after Stufflebeem’s rebuttal.

“Ms. Doe confirmed that she and Stufflebeem had an extensive physical relationship which began on an overseas trip and lasted intermittently for approximately eight months,” the investigators wrote. “The relationship included sexual intercourse on approximately one dozen occasions, to include intercourse during overseas travel, in the White House and in her home.”

Hmmm ... 9 years after and the Navy still hadn’t talked to Miss Thang? Maybe this really is a frame. You can’t prove it one way or the other. So he’ll just get retirement, after a 33 year career.

Well Admiral, thanks for your service, here’s your retirement check, DLTDHYOTWO. buh bye. Snufflebean. Two faced twat, or innocent guy brought low by the old honey pot gambit?

I Guess She Said NO

A 12-year-old boy and his family said they were searching for the owner of a diamond ring found floating in the San Francisco Bay.

Joe Carter said he saw something floating in the water that appeared to be a charcoal briquette while he was boating Sunday with his father, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday.

However, when the boy took the item out of the water, he discovered it was a Macy’s jewelry box containing a diamond ring—complete with price tag.

“Romance Princess. One-quarter carat. Diamond Wedding Ring. $499,” the tag said.

Carter and his family said they took out a lost-and-found ad on an Internet bulletin board for the ring, which experts said is actually worth closer to $150, but no one has yet come forward to claim the item.

“I think it would be pretty sad to be someone reaching into your pocket for a diamond ring and find out it’s not there,” the boy said. “I hope I can find whoever that person is. That would be great.”

Nah, I doubt this one was actually lost. I bet the owner tried to set up one of those “perfect moment” situations to propose in. The beach at sunset perhaps. And she didn’t show. Or she complained about the sand the whole time. Or maybe she just laughed at him and his stupid ideas. So he got pissed and chucked the thing out to sea. We’ll never know. The only thing we really learn in this article is that Macy’s jewlry is way overpriced. And that isn’t news either.

Of course, now that the press has published the kid’s name, and the brand, style, and size of the diamond, he’ll be swamped by people claiming it was theirs, but oh sorry, I lost the receipt.

The lesson to be learned here, all you young turks, is twofold: a) always save the receipt, b) don’t buy a ring if you aren’t 500% sure she’ll accept it. You don’t need to ask. You should know. If there’s the smallest doubt, don’t go shopping.

Environmentalist Daydream May Come True: Billions Could Starve

Give us this day our daily bread ...

If you are one of the lucky ones.

At the very same time that US farmers are cutting wheat production so that they can grow more corn to sell to the government to make ethanol fuel from, a new variety of wheat rust is spreading across a large part of the rest of the world at an alarming rate. Rust is a kind of plant disease. It’s a parasitic fungus that sucks the life out of crops, and causes much lower yields. Rusts spread their spores on the wind. Saddle up the other 3 horses, because it looks like Famine may have his spurs on already.

Wheat Disease Threatens Supplies

A lethal variant on an ancient disease affecting wheat has spread from its base in Africa to Iran and now threatens vast fields in South Asia, the Middle East and Europe at a time of global food shortages, agricultural specialists warn.

The new strain of wheat-stem rust, first identified in Uganda nine years ago, is threatening crops during a global crisis over rising food prices, depleted reserves, rising agricultural trade barriers and violent food-related protests on four continents.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported in early March that the new wheat fungus had been found in fields in western Iran far earlier than computer models anticipated, perhaps carried on the high winds generated by Cyclone Gonu in June. The geographical leap means that the spread of the disease to countries such as Pakistan and India may be just a matter of time.

“The detection of the wheat-rust fungus in Iran is very worrisome,” Shivaji Pandey, director of the FAO’s Plant Production and Protection Division, said in early March. “The fungus is spreading rapidly and could seriously lower wheat production in countries at direct risk.”

Wheat represents nearly a third of the world grain-crop production and a fifth of the world’s caloric intake, but soaring prices and competition for land from biofuels have left reserves low and prices high. Wheat hit a record $13.49 a bushel in February, up 67 percent in just 12 months.

The Asian Development Bank said this week that more than 1 billion Asians may sink back into extreme poverty without extra aid to counter soaring food prices.

The East African stem rust, which is resistant to two main genetic defenses bred into 90 percent of the world’s grain crop, could pose a greater risk to stability in the Middle East than the Iranian missile program, the Iraq war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to the Middle East Times.
“All these threats pale almost into insignificance by comparison with the confirmation [that the wheat-rust strain] has crossed the Red Sea,” the journal said

This is not news, but very few people have listened. This rust has been spreading for nearly a decade. There are lots of articles out there giving warning, but if you don’t know about it you will never see them. Here’s one from a year ago:

Billions at risk from wheat super-blight
”This thing has immense potential for social and human destruction.” Startling words - but spoken by the father of the Green Revolution, Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug, they are not easily dismissed.

An infection is coming, and almost no one has heard about it. This infection isn’t going to give you flu, or TB. In fact, it isn’t interested in you at all. It is after the wheat plants that feed more people than any other single food source on the planet. And because of cutbacks in international research, we aren’t prepared. The famines that were banished by the advent of disease-resistant crops in the Green Revolution of the 1960s could return, Borlaug told New Scientist.

The disease is Ug99, a virulent strain of black stem rust fungus (Puccinia graminis), discovered in Uganda in 1999. Since the Green Revolution, farmers everywhere have grown wheat varieties that resist stem rust, but Ug99 has evolved to take advantage of those varieties, and almost no wheat crops anywhere are resistant to it.
...
The threat couldn’t have come at a worse time. Consumption has outstripped production in six of the last seven years, and stocks are at their lowest since 1972. Wheat prices jumped 14 per cent last year.

So this horror has come up out of Africa, just like most of the really really nasty germs, and has managed to jump an ocean already, against prevailing winds. From Yemen to Iran in just one year. From Iran it will travel into India, Turkey and Pakistan. From Turkey into Europe and Russia. From Pakistan and India into China. And decimate the crops in all those places. The same places where most of the world’s poor already live. And already live only 3 or 4 meals away from starvation. Places where food riots are already going on, merely because of higher prices. How do think they will react when there simply isn’t any food to buy at any price? Well, at first they’ll be really angry and violent. Soon after that though, they’ll be dead quiet. Where the black horse (Famine) rides, the white horse (Pestilence) follows. And the red horse (war) doesn’t stop the ride; at best he changes its direction.

Can anything be done? Well, those evil White People have been busy in their ivory towers for years now, searching for new varieties of grain that can resist the new rust. One new idea that may work out well (I was going to write “bear fruit” but that would be crass in regards to this story) may be to develop a hybrid wheat that can live fairly well with the rust infection. That lets you fight the devil that you know, instead of using a fully resistant wheat variety that would force the rust fungus to mutate into something new.

Aberdeen scientists are augmenting the overseas tests with additional experiments closer to home. Molecular biologist Eric W. Jackson is putting some promising traditional wheats through their paces to see how plants react to Idaho races of stem rust. Jackson hopes to pinpoint resilient plants that can tolerate a low level of infection. Though infected and colonized by the rust microbe, the ideal plants “wouldn’t have any economic damage,” he says.

It’s a “live and let live” strategy that Jackson says may offer a longer lasting solution than absolute resistance.  “If you go with complete resistance,” he explains, “you’re putting selection pressure -survival of the fittest- on the rust fungus. You’re forcing it to evolve so that it can overcome the plants’ resistance. This pressure means you may end up with a more virulent strain of rust than you had in the first place.”

Partial resistance may be the work of several genes, not just one, he notes. That could further broaden and deepen this eco-friendly defense.

Seeds from the Aberdeen (Idaho) collection are commanding a starring role in Jackson’s tests, just as they are doing in the faraway fields of Africa. Rich and diverse, the collection offers new hope of protecting the world’s amber waves of grain.

My guess is, that without American intervention, gigantic aid packages, and a bio-research effort on a massive scale, that the death tolls will be astronomical. And it may be unstoppable no matter what the West can do. I’d give it ... just a bit more than 4 and a half years.

Here is another source link

an interesting factoid from one of these sources ... rice has not had any rusts for several million years now. 

a couple (of many) angry Brit letters.  OVERCROWDED ENGLAND

A TELEGRAPH EDITORIAL
http://tinyurl.com/575r8k

If some cataclysm should engulf our civilisation, future archaeologists, sifting through the remains of the 21st century, might assume that the prefix “eco” meant “hated and feared”. Higher taxes are made more palatable by being called “eco-taxes”. Inefficient and expensive cars are presented as “eco- cars”. And, paradoxically, the dumping of whole new towns in the middle of the English countryside is all right as long as they are labelled “eco-towns”.

The Government plans to inflict at least 10 new towns on Middle England. For once, the phrase “Middle England” applies literally and figuratively: eight of the 15 possible sites are clustered within a 150-mile radius in the English counties and 13 are in Tory constituencies. Local people are unhappy: already, tens of thousands of signatures have been gathered in petitions, even before the launch of any national campaign. At the same time, some urban areas that wanted the new dwellings - Trafford, Coventry, the Wirral - have been denied them.

We have complained before that much of the pressure for housing is a consequence of uncontrolled immigration. But, even starting from where we are, it seems bizarre to be knocking down whole streets in northern cities while squeezing yet more people into the southern half of our island. Nor can it be good for the environment to build new towns from scratch, thus ensuring that their inhabitants will have to drive to work. This, in short, is not only a fight for those who live in the scheduled areas: it is a fight for everyone who cares about the overcrowding of England.

I am in total accord with the sentiments posted by Alexander Stilwell, except on one important point, but even so, that point expands into many issues. I totally agree that Marxism sets out to destroy nation states and Labour is undeniably Marxist. Just do a small investigation of many of its leading politicians and the “think tanks” that inform their decisions if you require proof.

However, uncontrolled immigration and the failure to halt it, has also been a feature of Conservative governance. There is no evidence to suggest that a Lib/Dem administration would be any different. The problem with the “Establishment” parties is that they operate within a sytem known as “consensual politics”. The basic underlying direction that politics takes, remains basically the same for all these parties. They just basically fiddle with the smaller issues and call that policy. They are all in basic “agreement” over the really big issues, like European Union membership for instance. Not one of these parties have, or ever will come out strongly against mass immigration and the awful child it has spawned,ie. the Multicultural Society with all that entails. No one speaks out about the burden on our services and our resources. All we are ever told to do is, to “celebrate” the vibrant, enriched nation they have created. Many, otherwise decent people, have been brainwashed into believing that the Britain they have created is so much better than it was before. I wish fervently to see the end of this Marxist, anti-British Government, but I don’t hold much faith in the desire or ability of any of the others to bring about a change for the better.
Posted by Midenglander on May 10, 2008 2:21 PM

The overcrowding of England through uncontrolled immigration is central to New Labour’s ideology. It is one of the tenets of Marxism to destroy national identity and that is what they aim to achieve by filling the country with people who have no historical and cultural roots in these islands.

Much of our inherited culture lies in the countryside and it is this countryside that will be sacrificed to more urban space to house recent arrivals.

Quite apart from the damage to our culture and the threat to the landscape, the ordinary hard-working citizen will have to pay for this ridiculous immigration policy in endless gridlock, in overcrowded trains and in every other discomfort and inconvenience that will result from massive overcrowding.

There is real hope that the parlous state of New Labour in the polls may translate into the defeat of this awful administration when they are eventually forced to hold a general election. We should all pray that that day comes sooner rather than later before these individuals complete the destruction of our country.
Posted by Alexander Stilwell on May 10, 2008 1:25 PM
Report this comment

What do you mean If some cataclysm should engulf our civilisation? It already has its called Nu Labour. Brown the one eyed purple people eater and his crew of jock backstabbers are intent on the destruction of England. First they introduce laws to restrict freedom of thought and expression next they invite the foreign hordes to rape and pillage our people and our land swiftly followed by a mass building program to ensure our countryside can never again be used to feed us. Keep going Brown and just wait till you get a load of my Nu Model Army. In times of peace prepare for war.
Posted by Cromwell on May 10, 2008 1:14 PM

AMY WINEHOUSE ……. AGAIN

Geez what a wreck ...
no pun but ... they let her drive?  a car? in public?

Amy Winehouse stuck in traffic on M40

By Tom Peterkin
Last Updated: 7:54PM BST 09/05/2008

Normally she is photographed stumbling out of nightclubs in various states of intoxication, but Amy Winehouse has now been pictured cadging a cigarette on the side of the M40.

The Grammy-award winning singer, notorious for her alleged drug-taking and unpredictable behaviour, went for a wander by the side of the motorway while her car was caught up in a traffic jam.

As ever, Miss Winehouse, 24, attracted a pack of photographers, who noticed that her arm appeared to be covered in cuts and burns, as she stretched her legs while travelling from London to Henley.

Earlier this month Miss Winehouse was released from police custody after she was arrested on suspicion of drug offences. Miss Winehouse has not been charged.

She was questioned under caution at Limehouse police station, East London, over a video apparently showing her smoking from an alleged crack pipe.

The video handed to detectives in January appeared to show her inhaling fumes from a pipe for around 19 minutes. She also allegedly admitted taking around six valium pills.

The arrest came less than two weeks after admitting common assault after slapping a man in public. She was later released with a formal caution.
http://tinyurl.com/3vm8kk

Health and Safety and National Suicide in the PC Twilight Zone

I’m not certain how to title the story I wanna write.  The article here is probably the shortest story I’ve ever posted. My comment will take more room then the article.  But I just have to post this so it can be added to all the other wild assed moonbat things that a handfull of Brits are doing to their country.

First guys ... an explanation.  Back home (USA) if someone delivers papers it’s a paper route. Well over here, it’s called a “round.”
Same for the guy who delivers our milk. It’s a milk round. 
So,,, one day we got a notice that Ken, that’s the fellow who delivers our milk from the dairy, is going on vacation holiday for a week and that our usual good service will continue.  But what got to me was the oh so politically correct language used to tell us that .........

“Your Roundperson will be on holiday.” Fraken ROUNDPERSON?  A roundperson?  Have you ever heard anything more STUPID sounding then that?
Does that tell you anything about the direction this country has been FORCED to take?  Trust me folks.  The average Brit is NOT THAT STUPID!  Heaven only knows the why or how of things but the fact is ... this place is becoming a pc Twilight Zone.

Now then .... regulars of this site have read my past stories with regard to Health and Safety laws here.  Like barbers who can’t use a straight razor, cops who can not use a slim jim to get ppl out of locked cars, all due to Health and Safety regs.  And you’ve read here how stupidly tiresome it is to get a simple Rx filled and the hoops ya have to jump thru.

Of course, the Brits have been doing some things for so long they haven’t any idea how easy some basic things could or should be.  And the holy of holy mantras is .... Health and Safety.

Safety? Good grief Charlie Brown, their streets aren’t safe and neither are their homes. 
Well anyway ....Here we are again with another H & S thingy.

Look, I’m all for safe environments for the kiddies.  I don’t much care for em as a rule but I don’t wanna see em hurt either. But this article doesn’t really tell us much, does it?  Of course, we’re kind of rural and our paper is delivered via car with an adult. But this newest thing sure does appear like all the other ...
“It’s for the kids” kind of rules and regs.

Seems ta me that if Health and Safety were really top of the pops with the folks who makes rules and laws and such, you’d think they’d be a hollerin’ and screaming about the many lawless let out of jails who go on to do more crimes.  You’d think, being a reasonable person, that anyone who’d try and poison her own 7 year old daughter would spend enuff time in the slammer that she couldn’t get out to then try and poison another person. Right? But oh no. Now she’s back in jail for trying the same with hubby.

OK, that’s my say. For now anyway. Cue the music for T.Zone

Paper rounds threatened by safety checks

By Graeme Paton
Last updated: 2:12 AM BST 10/05/2008

Paper rounds are under threat from rules forcing shopkeepers to have safety checks, the Federation of Small Businesses said on Friday.
Thousands of young people face being laid off as newsagents axe deliveries instead of paying for staff to be vetted so they can work with children, it was claimed.

Under new rules, businesses face a £64 fee to register adults with the Independent Safeguarding Authority.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families insisted child safety was paramount.

The ISA’s scope had not been finalised, a spokesman said.

Story from Telegraph News:
http://tinyurl.com/6r4hpp

UK drivers pay highest fuel taxes in Europe, and probably the world!

For my compatriots back home who may not know ... simply double the prices mentioned here and you get US Dollars.
So the £900 mentioned here converts to $1,800.  And btw, I believe that might be a tad on the low side. Anyway ... even tho the Brit gal. is somewhat larger then ours, it isn’t so large that what Brits are being screwed for as to make it reasonable.  And Brits have been paying way,way more then Americans could imagine, and have been doing it for a very long,long time.  It’s an island that has to import many items, and Brits are paying dear for it all.

I think you’re now paying about $3 and change back home. Is that right?  Brits paying over $8.

UK drivers pay highest fuel taxes in Europe
By Robert Winnett, Deputy Political Editor

Last Updated: 2:34AM BST 10/05/2008

British motorists are paying the highest fuel taxes in Europe – and probably the world – a study has disclosed.
About 57p of the cost of a litre of petrol in Britain is tax, compared with 31p in Spain, 45p in Italy, 48p in France and 52p in Germany.

The Telegraph launched a campaign this week calling on Gordon Brown to scrap plans to increase road tax and a planned 2p per litre rise in fuel duty.

The average Briton pays almost £900 in petrol taxes annually.

The study, by the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers, shows that Britain has the highest fuel taxes of 27 European countries surveyed.

The tax is also higher than in America, Canada and Australia.

Edmund King, the president of the AA, which is supporting the Telegraph’s campaign, said: “We may be pleased that we have two English teams in the Uefa Champions League final but it is more worrying that we are top of the European fuel taxation league in terms of unleaded petrol and diesel.”

Mr Brown is under growing pressure from Conservatives and his own MPs to help motorists.

A study from accountants Grant Thornton shows that the rise in oil prices will see the Treasury take over £1 billion extra in VAT on petrol – more than would have been garnered from the 2p duty rise.

A Treasury spokesman said yesterday: “The Government understands that families are feeling the pressure from high fuel prices. To respond to short-term pressures, we announced in the Budget that the 2 pence per litre increase, scheduled for April 1, will be deferred until October 1.

“Our immediate priority, however, is to encourage international pressure on the oil-producing countries in Opec to bring down high oil prices.”

http://tinyurl.com/69c535

Rapist murderer had rights - or - The continuing story of national suicide.

I am so damn tired of reading and hearing about all the rights bastards like this have.
And with his record, what was he doing out in the first place?

Rapist murderer had right to be housed
Last updated: 2:25 AM BST 10/05/2008
By Paul Stokes
Last updated: 2:25 AM BST 10/05/2008

A convicted rapist sexually assaulted and murdered a teenage girl after a council was told he could not be evicted because it would breach his human rights.
Michael Clark, 40, was on the Sex Offenders Register and subject to official checks. But he was able to move into a city of his choosing where neighbours did not know his past.

The council considered him too dangerous to live there, but had to house him after being warned of legal action for breaching his human rights as a homeless person.

Clark had just been released from a three-year jail term for sexually assaulting a prostitute and had been given a seven-year sentence for raping a woman in her own home.

yeah, we can all see how much that 3 year jail term impressed this vicious piece of filth.

Within a year he befriended a family as they moved in two doors from the privately-rented house the local authority provided for him in Harehills, Leeds.

Robert and Matgorzarta Zommer came to Britain from Poland with their daughter Zuzanna, 14, and nine-year-old son Mikotej.

Clark, a jobless solvent abuser, struck as the couple walked their son to his first day at school two months after arriving in the country.

He is thought to have let himself into the house where he sexually assaulted Zuzanna before stabbing her in the stomach, fracturing her skull by stamping on her head and slitting her throat.

Afterwards he drew his benefits from a Post Office and went to Blackpool.

Yesterday he was jailed for a minimum of 35 years at Sheffield Crown Court after being convicted of murder and sexual assault.

Clark also had convictions for assaulting a woman friend and assaulting two police officers, biting a testicle off one of them.
When he was released from jail for attacking the prostitute it was considered too dangerous for him to return to Scunthorpe, Lincs.

He moved to Leeds, where the city council rejected his request to house him.

Les Carter, Leeds city council’s head of neighbourhood and housing, said the homeless charity Shelter warned of possible judicial review because the decision infringed his human rights.

He said: “I’m not worried about his rights, I’m more concerned about the rights of a 14-year-old girl who should be alive today.”

Det Supt Bill Shackleton, who led the police inquiry, said: “Clark was on the Sex Offenders Register and regular checks were carried out on him.

“He was being managed mismanaged?  in the community.”

Right, we can all see how well it was done.

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Probation Service said: “We had no statutory supervision of Clark. He was not on licence or any other kind of sentence that involved probation.”

A Shelter spokesman said: “This is a tragic case and we send our sincerest sympathies to the family.

oh good. I’m glad it was their “sincerest sympathies” instead of just their ordinary ones. That’ll make mom and dad feel sooooo much better.
Fraken damn idiots and stupid non justice system that allows a wild animal loose on society. 

“We did not ask or threaten a judicial review.

“The decisions on where to place Clark and who to house next to him were taken by Leeds city council.

“Questions need to be asked as to why this young girl and her family were housed next to a known sex offender.”

Story from Telegraph News:

http://tinyurl.com/68y58c

Girl gang killed neighbour with ‘internet’ bomb

Richard Edwards, Crime Correspondent and Lucy Cockcroft
Last Updated: 2:06PM BST 10/05/2008

A gang of teenage girls may have blown up a rival’s home, killing her neighbour, with a liquid bomb they researched on the internet after an argument about a boy.

The explosion collapsed three Victorian houses in north-west London, killing a resident in one property and leaving the intended target – 17-year-old Charlotte Anderson – in intensive care with severe burns.

Miss Anderson called police 10 hours before the blast on Wednesday to report that a group of girls aged 16 and 17 were causing trouble outside her house in Harrow. Another resident has claimed they were pouring a “purple and smelly” liquid through the letterbox.

Experts have told police that the volatile substance, which has not yet been identified, may have vapourised and exploded.

http://tinyurl.com/4su75u

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