Tuesday - December 16, 2008

ONE HELL OF AN AMERICAN THAT MAKES ME SO DAMN PROUD HE WAS OURS! RIP, Major Robert Furman.

This is in The Telegraph today.
How many American papers have told his story?  Has it been on TV back home?  I sure hope so.

Did this story at least make the papers in NJ?  NY? CT?  I have no idea why this is so late in coming as he passed away two months ago. But better late and learn about this guy then never know at all.  Damn it that was one hell of a generation!  What happened to us?

Major Robert Furman
Wartime intelligence officer charged with discovering the true extent of the German nuclear threat .

Robert Furman, civil engineer who helped to oversee the construction of the Pentagon and then played a clandestine role in the Manhattan Project. Photo: US Department of Defence.

Major Robert Furman, who has died aged 93, oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and played a vital part in the American struggle for nuclear supremacy when, in 1943, he was ordered to discover how far the Germans had advanced in developing the atomic bomb.

He began by interviewing scientists on campuses across the United States and was appointed the personal handler of Niels Bohr, the Nobel prizewinner who had worked on the understanding of atomic structure and had recently escaped from occupied Denmark. Furman was particularly impressed by the ability of Bohr and his associates to play chess without using a board.

Furman’s next task was to organise collection of water samples from the Upper Rhine and Lake Constance to check for evidence of German nuclear activity. After a failed attempt to kidnap the senior German scientist Werner Heisenberg, Bohr’s former assistant, he sent Moe Berg, a former baseball player for the Boston Red Sox among others, to hear Heisenberg address a scientific conference in neutral Switzerland. Berg was given a pistol to shoot him if he indicated that the Germans were working on a nuclear bomb and a cyanide capsule for himself in case the assignment failed. But after hearing Heisenberg’s talk, and then dining with him, Berg reported that he could find no evidence to support such suspicions.

As the Allied armies advanced across Europe, Furman ran Operation Peppermint, in which he led a team which searched for all existing uranium stocks, needed for nuclear fission. This involved his coming under German sniper fire in Belgium. But he eventually found a stockpile of 31 tons near Toulouse, which was duly dispatched to the United States. He also rounded up Heisenberg and nine other scientists; they were held at Farm Hall, Godmanchester, near Cambridge, to ensure that they did not end up in the Soviet Union.

When Germany surrendered Furman escorted a large consignment of uranium aboard the cruiser Indianapolis from the secret Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, New Mexico, to Tinian island in the Pacific. Four days after the cargo was discharged the ship was torpedoed, with the loss of 800 sailors’ lives.

From Tinian, Furman watched the B-29 Enola Gay take off to drop the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Later he visited Japan, but he continued to believe that the two atomic bombs had ensured that the Cold War “remained cold”.

The son of a bank teller descended from an immigrant who left Stoke-on-Trent in the early 18th century, Robert Ralph Furman was born on August 21 1915, at Trenton, New Jersey. He grew up a keen tennis player. On leaving Trenton High School he studied Civil Engineering at Princeton, where he joined the Reserve, then worked for the Pennsylvania railroad and the Turner construction company in New York.

After being called up in 1940 he was commissioned as an artillery officer with a horse-drawn unit and transferred to the Quartermaster Corps’ construction division. It was there that he attracted the attention of Colonel Leslie Groves, who was in charge of constructing the new War Department building in Washington, to be known as the Pentagon.

Groves appointed Furman the third-ranking supervisor of the project, but he soon took the major role, with responsibilities that ranged from the materials used to the 123,000-strong workforce. His duties involved staying overnight once a week to walk round the whole building, when he would stop workers on the night shift drinking on the job.

After 17 months the job was finished, and Furman was invited by Groves – who was by now a major-general and military director of the Manhattan Project – to become his chief of foreign intelligence.

When Furman left the Army in 1946 he settled at Bethesda, Maryland, and started a construction business building houses, schools, churches and offices, including the American embassy in Nicaragua.

He became a pillar of his local community, serving as an active president of the Rotary Club and becoming a member of the chamber of commerce and of his local Episcopalian church. He also sang baritone in a barbershop quartet.

For decades his role in the development of the atomic bomb was cloaked in secrecy, with his name eliminated from so many official documents that he was known to historians as “the mysterious major”.

His neighbours knew him to be a private man who was proud to have served in the war, but they were astonished when, in his last years, he appeared in a television programme about the Manhattan Project.

Recognising the growing interest in events that were receding from the public memory, he agreed to give a conducted tour of his old office in the Pentagon which, little changed in 60 years, now houses the Bureau of Verification and Implementation, which tracks arms control measures. Last December he took part in a seminar at the State Department on the atomic bomb.

Robert Furman died on October 14. He married, in 1952, Mary Eddy, who had worked for the Office of Strategic Services during the war. She survives him with their son and daughter and two daughters from her previous marriage.

TELEGRAPH

Hey .. is it just me or did the uniforms look better in his day then in the present time?  Seems that way.

Posted by peiper     on 12/16/2008 at 09:50 AM   
Filed Under: • History • News-Briefs • Patriotism • War-Stories •  
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   Monday - December 15, 2008

TERROR SUSPECT WANTED BY THE KEYSTONE COPS FOUND.  WORKING FOR THE KEYSTONE COPS.

What, you think I’m kidding?

Here ya go.  Read All About It!

Man wanted by Interpol for terrorist offences ‘advising Scotland Yard’

A man wanted by Interpol for terrorist offences has been advising Scotland Yard, it was claimed.

Last Updated: 3:15PM GMT 15 Dec 2008

The Times claimed Mohamed Ali Harrath had been advising the Metropolitan Police, the UK’s biggest force, on countering Muslim extremism.
Tunisian-born Mr Harrath, 45, is listed as wanted on the Interpol website as the subject of a red notice issued in 1992.
Interpol is the world’s largest international police organisation.

The site lists his categories of alleged offences as counterfeiting, forgery, crimes involving the use of weapons, explosives and terrorism.

He has allegedly been convicted in absentia of numerous criminal and terrorism-related offences by Tunisian courts and sentenced to 56 years in prison.
Mr Harrath allegedly co-founded the Tunisian Islamic Front (FIT), an organisation which the Tunisian government claims has the aim of establishing “an Islamic state by means of armed revolutionary violence”.

Mr Harrath has denied that the FIT has any terrorist link, saying in the past that it was simply a “nonviolent political party founded in 1986 to oppose the one-party state in Tunisia”. However, he is also reported to have said: “There is nothing wrong or criminal in trying to establish an Islamic state”.

The Times reported that Mr Harrath had been appointed by Scotland Yard as an adviser to its Muslim Contact Unit on preventing terrorism.
Mr Harrath is reportedly the chief executive of the broadcaster the Islam Channel, based in London.
The Met refused to comment on the story.

TELEGRAPH

Posted by peiper     on 12/15/2008 at 02:38 PM   
Filed Under: • RoPMA • Terrorists • UK •  
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Global Warming Update

President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday praised former Vice President Al Gore’s ideas on the environment as one part of helping the nation’s struggling economy recovery. Obama, Gore and Vice President-elect Joe Biden met privately at Obama’s transition headquarters here for almost two hours.

We all believe what the scientists have been telling us for years now, that this is a matter of urgency and national security, and it has to be dealt with in a serious way,” Obama told reporters

Since Clinton’s inauguration, summer Arctic sea ice has lost the equivalent of Alaska, California and Texas. The 10 hottest years on record have occurred since Clinton’s second inauguration. Global warming is accelerating. Time is close to running out, and Obama knows it.

“The time for delay is over; the time for denial is over,” he said on Tuesday after meeting with former Vice President Al Gore

Mother Nature, of course, is oblivious to the federal government’s machinations. Ironically, 2008 is on pace to be a slightly cooler year in a steadily rising temperature trend line. Experts say it’s thanks to a La Nina weather variation. While skeptics are already using it as evidence of some kind of cooling trend, it actually illustrates how fast the world is warming.

Obama is likely to name Steven Chu, a physicist who runs the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as his energy secretary, three Democratic officials close to the transition team said last week. Chu won the 1997 Nobel Prize in physics and is highly respected in energy circles.


summer ice levels tell a different story. But look how much “new ice” there was in 1979!


Obama also is expected to name Carol ["delete those records, do it now!"] Browner, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in the Clinton administration, as the newly created “climate czar” inside the White House.

Chu is known to be a big Alternative Energy researcher and a firm believer in Glowball Wurming.

Obama is stacking his Cabinet and inner circle with advocates who have pushed for deep mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas pollution and even with government officials who have achieved results at the local level.

The President-elect has said that one of the first things he will do when he gets to Washington is grant California and other states permission to control car tailpipe emissions, something the Bush administration denied.

Posted by Drew458     on 12/15/2008 at 02:21 PM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather •  
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Our Jersey Girl

NEW YORK — The New York Giants need another sack — to cover a flamboyant fan who wears skimpy outfits. Sondra Fortunato went to Giants Stadium last week wearing a Santa Claus outfit, a tiara, fishnet stockings, a bathing suit bottom and high-heeled boots. She also had a suitcase and two 11-by-17 signs reading “Go Giants” and “Have a No Guns Christmas,” referring to the team’s wide receiver shooting himself in the leg.

She insists nothing naughty was showing even though she’s “well-endowed.” As the middle-aged woman puts it, “You couldn’t even see my underwear.”

The Giants apparently saw it another way. Security escorted her out, saying signs and baggage weren’t allowed and telling her to cover up because there were children present. She figures other women “got jealous and complained.”

What FoxNews forgets to mention is that Sondra, known as Miss Football, perhaps the Giant’s biggest fan, has been attending games for 30 years wearing outfits such as this one.

Over 30 years, Sondra Fortunato has become the unofficial mascot of her favorite NFL team, delighting and annoying fans at Giants home games with her bodacious physique, rhinestone tiara and skimpy outfits that heat up the frigid stadium. But now, team management wants Sondra to hang up her D-cups. Sondra will have to dress like a - shudder! - normal person if she wants to cheer on Big Blue.

“I love the Giants! I’m a flamboyant dresser and I’m well-endowed,” Sondra told me.

Last Sunday, Sondra, whose niece, Paula, is divorcing Sumner Redstone, arrived at the Meadowlands in a tiara, fishnets, a Santa outfit, a bathing-suit bottom and high-heeled boots. “Nothing was showing,” she insisted. “You couldn’t even see my underwear. I don’t flash!”

She carried a suitcase containing Christmas presents, and held a pair of 11-by-17 signs. One read, “Go Giants.” The other, “Have a No Guns Christmas.” [referring to

Then, Sondra was escorted to the security office - “where all the alcoholics and drunks and people ejected from the stadium stay.”

She was told that her bag and signs were not allowed in the stadium, which she knew: In 2006, Sondra was arrested after carrying a sign, but was quickly allowed back in the stadium. She says team brass routinely ignores its no-sign policy - for others.

Then, she was lectured about her clothes.

“They said, ‘Can’t you come to the stadium dressed like a regular person?’ “ she said. “They said there were a lot of kids there.”

She was advised to wear a sweater to games. [perhaps a new jersey?]

“I guess some ladies got jealous and complained,” groused Sondra, who lives in Toms River, NJ.

Posted by Drew458     on 12/15/2008 at 01:50 PM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff •  
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Teenage thug jailed for killing good Samaritan as he gave first aid to attacker’s drunken friend.

It has been a number of days since I posted any sort of crime stories here.  There are so many I think I could easily do a minimum of two a day. Probably more.
I don’t for obvious reasons.  This isn’t an online version of the tabloid press.  But there are things out there that are so damn upsetting and defy any kind of logic that make me want to share.

This isn’t a new story. It’s just a new victim of the same old kind of violence that has this country in it’s grip.

No need for guns here.  The thugs seems quite happy to cause death by beating and stomping and then tell friends all about their manly deed.  If not by foot then by knife. 

The police often look like the Keystone Cops, and the courts belong in a Tom and Jerry cartoon.  I wish they would stop calling the system a Criminal ‘Justice’ System when there hasn’t been any real justice in anyone’s memory.  Just like the USA, the system looks to be geared to protect the rights of the killers and muggers and rapists etc.

Any lawyer who could in good conscience defend this worthless piece of useless crap, should be lynched.  That’s what I believe and I’ll not move from that position.

So .... just how much is a life worth? Apparently not much when it’s the victim.

Good Samaritan Killed Trying To Give Aid

By Luke Salkeld
Last updated at 6:27 PM on 15th December 2008

Joseph Thomas 18, has been jailed after beating to death a father who gave first aid to his friend.

A father was beaten to death as he tried to give first aid to an unconscious youth - by a teenager who police had failed to apprehend over a previous attack.

Nick Baty, 48, was kicked and stamped on after he went to help a young man who was unconscious in the street.

Now it has emerged that his killer, Joseph Thomas, had been involved in another vicious assault which was not properly investigated by the police.

Officers did not arrest the 18-year-old after he carried out the earlier attack just two months before Mr Baty, a father of one, died.

They did not even make a record of the incident for four months, by which time Mr Baty had been fatally injured.

Today, after Thomas was jailed for the killing, and sentenced to a total of ten years for the two attacks, it was revealed that two police officers have received official warnings for failing to arrest him.

Mr Baty’s family said the devoted father might still be alive if the initial case has been dealt with properly.

His former partner Lyn Pembury, mother of Mr Baty’s 13-year-old daughter Katy, said: ‘If they had followed the correct procedures and done their job properly Nick might be here today and my daughter might still have her daddy.’

She added: ‘The police have to be aware of their mistake. They have to bear some responsibility for what happened.’

Commenting on Thomas’ punishment, she said: ‘It’s not even a disruption to his life. He’ll be out in five years - he can have a career and a family.

‘He should have had 15 years or 10 without parole. Nick is dead and his daughter has lost her father.

‘He attacked Nick and then bragged about it. How can someone like that be allowed back on the streets so quickly?’

Mr Baty had rushed to the aid of a boy who collapsed after drinking with other teenagers in a shopping centre car park.

But when he did so, Thomas knocked him to the ground where he repeatedly kicked him and left him in a pool of blood.

Mr Baty went into a coma and died a month later when his life support machine was switched off.

Prosecutor Roger Thomas QC told a court: ‘This was a vicious attack. Mr Baty was only concerned about the welfare of the teenager unconscious on the floor.

‘Mr Baty moved towards the unconscious teenager when, suddenly and without warning, Thomas ran at him from behind shouting: “Leave him alone”.

‘He grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him to ground. Mr Baty’s head struck the ground with a thud but Thomas didn’t leave him - he attacked him as he lay defenceless on the ground.’

The court heard Thomas later boasted to a friend about what he had done.

Nick Baty went into a coma after being brutally attacked. His daughter Katy, right, suffers from nightmares as a result of his death

Thomas, of Bridgend, was cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter at Cardiff Crown Court and sentenced to eight years in prison.

He was also sentenced to two years for the earlier remarkably similar attack which took place near the same shopping centre car park.

In that unprovoked assault 20-year-old Mark Bridgeman was left with fractures to both sides of his jaw and had to have three metal plates and 12 screws inserted into his skull.

Mr Thomas said: ‘Mr Bridgeman was the victim of an unprovoked, unnecessary and quite vicious attack by Thomas. He was repeatedly punched and kicked to the face - and hit while still on the ground.’

He continued: ‘One witness saw the attack. Thomas ran towards Mr Bridgeman, punched him to the face and then wrestled him to the ground.

‘The witness could hear the man screaming and hear the impact of the kicks to the head. He simply couldn’t believe the violence taking place before him.’

The court heard Thomas and another attacker were not arrested immediately by South Wales Police after the attack on Mr Bridgeman.

Mr Thomas said: ‘Unfortunately, the police investigation did not proceed in the manner it should have and is now the subject of an investigation by the Police Complaints Commission.’

The results of that investigation were released after the court was told Mr Baty’s death could have been avoided if Thomas had been arrested earlier.

John Charles Rees QC, defending, said: ‘It may be the offence of manslaughter may not have been committed if Thomas had been arrested when he should have been for the first attack.’

A subsequent inquiry by the Independent Police Complaints Commission led to two police officers being given ‘written warnings for failing to properly deal with this crime’.

It said that the first crime in November 2007 was not recorded until March 2008.

An IPCC spokesman said: ‘The investigating officer concluded that if more positive action had been taken it would have identified the assailants in the November assault much earlier.

‘But the failings identified would not necessarily have had any impact on the subsequent assault upon Mr Baty in January 2008.

South Wales Police Assistant Chief Constable Nick Croft said: ‘The investigation into an assault in November 2007 fell short of the standard that the force would expect.’

PHOTOS HERE

Posted by peiper     on 12/15/2008 at 01:33 PM   
Filed Under: • Crime • UK •  
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After 130 years of fundraising, Salvation Army rattling tins might offend or frighten, wanna guess?

They just don’t want to name any one religion in particular but come on, who do you suppose these dunderheads have in mind.  You get ten guesses.

Tell ya what though.  It isn’t anyone from any religion, not even the muslims, who make these kinds of silly rules or worries about offense. It’s stupid white folks EVERY TIME!  Or almost every time.

Personally, I always thought all that damn rattling was a lot of unwanted noise. But otherwise, it never would have occurred to me that it might be “intimidating” or somehow offensive.  This latest action really is stupid.

What religion is there in this country that that might be offended or intimidated by a charity tin making some noise?  Answer, > 0.

After 130 years of fundraising, Salvation Army told to stop rattling collecting tins because it might ‘offend other religions’

By Paul Harris
Last updated at 12:07 PM on 15th December 2008

For 130 years they have been part of Christmas, filling the air in towns across the land with music and carols.

But one thing is missing from the repertoire of Salvation Army bands this year - the percussion of rattling tins.

Members have been forbidden to shake their charity tins - even if it’s done in time to the music - in case it harasses or intimidates people. One said she had been told it might also offend other religions.

Tin man: Salvation Army collectors have been told not to rattle their tins as it could be construed as religious harassment.

Guidelines for branches organising public collections say tinholders should simply keep the tin still.

It means that when the brass bands start up they can rock and roll all they want - but if they shake and rattle, it could put them in conflict with the law.

Councils and police can enforce the no-rattle rule and have powers to prosecute or ban offenders. The restriction was branded ‘bonkers’ yesterday both by donors and long-serving Salvation Army volunteers.

More…

* Prison bans chapel crucifix to avoid offending Muslims

One collector told the Daily Mail: ‘I’ve been doing this for more than 40 years and I fail to see how rattling a tin could cause offence. If I was shaking a tambourine I could do it all day - if I shake my tin, I could end up in court.’

The ‘Silent Night’ rattle ban manifested itself at the weekend in Uxbridge, West London, when musicians from two local branches performed outside a shopping mall.

(They were outside because traders complained last year they were too loud to play inside).

Tony Keywood, shopping with his wife Sheila, was among a crowd enjoying the carols and stepped forward to make a donation.

‘I jokingly told them off for not shaking their tins,’ said Mr Keywood, 78, a retired telecoms executive. ‘They said they weren’t allowed to do that in case it caused offence to other religions. They said they’d been told rattling a tin was considered to be intimidating.

‘I don’t know who makes up these rules but I suspect it will have something to do with human rights. I do feel Britain has lost its way on things like this.’

Laws on public collections are long-established, but until the recent proliferation of so-called ‘charity muggers’ were not widely utilised.

Fundraisers have to be licensed, usually by the local authority, police or landowner. Councils and police can decide whom to license and how the rules are enforced.

The Salvation Army relies heavily on public generosity and believes street collections help to foster good relations.

Guidance now, however, is that members should not shake their tins. A Salvation Army source said: ‘We don’t have a formal policy of “You Shall Not Rattle” but we always act within the law.

‘Some authorities specifically ask us not to shake our tins. It is seen as harassment, or making people feel uncomfortable. I don’t think it’s to do with other religions. But it can make people feel we’re putting them under pressure to give.’

A spokesman added: ‘We want people to donate from the best of motives, so we advise collectors to avoid rattling their tins or asking people directly for money when stood on the high street.’

ARMY

Posted by peiper     on 12/15/2008 at 09:08 AM   
Filed Under: • Nanny State • Outrageous • Religion • Stoopid-People • UK •  
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Asylum seekers should get benefits, says leading CONSERVATIVE (?) think-tank.

Sure wish someone could explain in terms I’d understand.  Must be me.  I don’t get it.

Tories are the Conservatives here.  I have to somehow shake off the thought that cons usually are right in all things.  We really aren’t ALWAYS correct.
But I don’t know too many conservatives who, when told they might have something wrong, take it as a personal attack on their character.
Anyway ... the idea that the govt. should pay folks in the hope they will not commit crimes is bizarre.  What kind of message is that?  What I personally believe is happening is, those folks (asylum seekers) see England a an easy and a soft touch and will take every single advantage of this place they can.  And when they succeed it’s because some Brits themselves have made it easy for them to do so.

I know this is apples and oranges and is not a view to build policy on but:

In 1939, England went to war with Germany because of their treaty to guarantee the territorial integrity of Poland.

In 2008, NOBODY seems to be worried about the integrity of these borders.  Or traditions, or religion or the culture and especially nobody seems to worry about costs except maybe the taxpayer.  But hey, when did he and she ever count except at election time?

Asylum seekers should get benefits, says leading Tory think-tank.

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:18 AM on 15th December 2008

The think tank founded by former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said failed asylum seekers should receive support.

Asylum seekers refused permission to live in the UK should continue to receive benefits to prevent them turning to crime, a report by former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith’s think-tank said today.

The Government’s ‘nasty’ policy of refusing to support failed asylum seekers in an effort to force them to return home has failed, Mr Duncan Smith said.

The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) report recommended sweeping changes to encourage failed asylum seekers to voluntarily go back to their country of origin.

The think tank found at least 26,000 failed asylum seekers in the UK are surviving on Red Cross food parcels.

There is a backlog of 280,000 failed applications which could take 20 years to clear, the CSJ warned.

The report said the existing system forces many refused applicants to face destitution or disappear off the authorities’ radar and drift into illegal employment, prostitution or crime.

It said: ‘Making refused asylum seekers homeless and penniless is hugely counterproductive.

‘It is much more difficult to work with them to encourage voluntary return or to ensure timely removal.’

The UK lags far behind countries such as Sweden or Canada in persuading failed asylum seekers to leave voluntarily, the report found. A forced removal costs around £11,000, 10-times as much as a voluntary return.

(according to some radio news reports, Sweden has an 80 percent rate of ppl who do return to their own country where the opposite is true of the UK. I haven’t a clue how true that is however.)

Mr Duncan Smith said: ‘The policy of making asylum seekers destitute is mean and nasty and has not worked.’

In a preface to the report, he said: ‘The evidence gathered for this report shows that the welcome offered today falls far short of our traditional standards.
asylum seekers

For the rest of this nonsense, go
HERE

Posted by peiper     on 12/15/2008 at 08:09 AM   
Filed Under: • Illegal-Aliens and Immigration • UK •  
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UNCLE JAY EXPLAINS THE NEWS ….. you WILL enjoy this.  Maybe.

http://www.unclejayexplains.com/

Posted by peiper     on 12/15/2008 at 07:38 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Politics •  
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   Sunday - December 14, 2008

Moonbats in Africa

HARARE, Zimbabwe – Zimbabwe on Saturday accused the West of waging biological warfare to deliberately start a cholera epidemic that has killed hundreds of people and sickened thousands.

The spread of the disease has focused the world’s attention on the spectacular collapse of the southern African nation, which often blames its troubles on the West.
...
The state-run Herald newspaper said comments by the U.S. ambassador that the U.S. had been preparing for the cholera outbreak raised suspicions that it was responsible.
...
After the first cholera cases, U.S. and other aid workers braced for the waterborne disease to spread quickly in an economically ravaged country where the sewage system and medical care have fallen apart. Zimbabwe also faces a hunger crisis, the world’s highest inflation and shortages of both the most basic necessities and the cash to buy them.

The Herald quoted the information minister, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, as blaming cholera on “serious biological chemical war ... a genocidal onslaught on the people of Zimbabwe by the British.”

“Cholera is a calculated racist terrorist attack on Zimbabwe by the unrepentant former colonial power which has enlisted support from its American and Western allies so that they invade the country,” Ndlovu was quoted as saying.

What a moron. No Bobby, letting everyone take a dump in the well causes cholera. Or running your beautiful country so far downhill that the whole place has become a cesspool. Not maintaining your infrastructure so that the water mains break forces the people to drink whatever water they can find. The stinky stagnant stuff filled with rhino poop and mosquitos is all that’s left. But no, it was done on purpose as a subtle ploy to run you out of office. Because we have no other way of getting rid of you, if we really decided we wanted you gone.

Why is it always the stupidest people who have the most delusional egos?

Posted by Drew458     on 12/14/2008 at 12:18 AM   
Filed Under: • Africa • Stoopid-People •  
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MEOW!!

Posted by Drew458     on 12/14/2008 at 12:06 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
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   Saturday - December 13, 2008

here’s your prescription now turn in your guns

Doctors Eisen (dentist) and Gallant (optometrist) take a look at the next “reason” to disarm the public. For your own good of course.

In Nassau County, New York, a revised handgun application went into effect in January 2007. A new question asks: “Have you used or still use narcotics, tranquilizers or anti depressant [sic] medication? If YES, record doctor’s name, address and phone number, (attach).” If the applicant answers in the affirmative, a list of those medications is also required.

The new question may have been added as a means of increasing public safety, but Nassau County licensees have maintained a nearly spotless record in this area. A more likely explanation is that this could be the next practical step in denying exercise of the Second Amendment.
The recent Heller Supreme Court decision gave gun-owners a tripartite victory: firearm possession is an individual right, a complete ban on firearms is unconstitutional, and the right to self-defense with firearms is affirmed. The Supreme Court nevertheless left plenty of wiggle room for the firearm-prohibitionists, by allowing for “reasonable regulation.”

“Reasonable” is a very big word, and it opens the way to the eradication of our rights. If firearms can no longer be banned, then expanding the list of prohibited persons is the next tactic for firearm-hostile politicians to explore. That subjective factor of “reasonable” regulation could cast an extremely wide net.

There is no scientific evidence to suggest that a history of legal drug use is a valid disqualifier of firearm ownership. According to the best criminological evidence, the most accurate predictor of violent behavior is a past history of violence.

The Nassau County Police Department (NCPD) acts as the county’s handgun licensing authority; licenses issued in Nassau County are valid for 5 years, after which time they must be renewed. If licensing authorities are allowed to determine that some drugs should be firearm “disqualifiers,” and others not, we will soon discover that there is no line between which drugs are dangerous, and which are not.

Use of anti-depressants has been linked to youngsters who have gone on high-profile, but rare, mass-shooting sprees. If these drugs can cause people to suddenly “snap,” it might seem reasonable to restrict legal possession of firearms to those taking such drugs as an effective strategy to prevent violent rampages. One point on which most researchers agree is that these incidents generally occur in a susceptible group of individuals under 25 years of age.

But because locks are easily disabled, in order to prevent any access to firearms by this class of individuals, or any other susceptible group, our society would need to tightly restrict the possession and storage of all weapons—exactly the goal of the firearm-prohibitionists.

If we allow fear mongering to replace good science and sound medical care, we can make the case that most drugs Americans commonly take could be used as firearm disqualifiers. That is because virtually all drugs—prescription and over-the-counter—have been associated with psychological and neurological adverse effects.

Nassau County NY is western and central Long Island, east of Queens. It costs $200 to apply for a pistol permit there, and another $99 to get fingerprinted, so there is already a bias against the poor inherent in the process. And the waiting time is 6 months, don’t call us, thank you. The permit is good for only 5 years, at which point it costs you $200 to renew it. And the list of questions asked on the form is onerous (and I’m saying that, living here in NJ!!) Not just “where do you work?” but “list every job you’ve had for the past 5 years.” 4 references, not 1 or 2. List next of kin. Who will get your guns when you die or become disabled? Were you given a dishonorable discharge from the military? Have you had a traffic ticket in the past 5 years? Have you ever been arrested? (not convicted, just arrested) Have you ever been fired from a job? Has any family member ever been in a mental institution? I bet this is the nastiest and most intrusive gun permit form in the country. Horry Clap. Even your character references get put through the wringer, threatened with a perjury charge, and then they have to have their form notarized. Oh, and do you own any guns too? But getting this permit isn’t enough! When 6 months have gone by and you have your permit, you then need to get a Purchase Document from the cops! One per gun thanks. Wonder how much they cost? And how often you’re allowed to get one? Or how long the cops take to process them?


At first read, and it’s a short article worth reading, I thought that perhaps Drs Eisen and Gallant were clutching at straws, and maybe trying to do some scare tactics of their own. But now that I’ve read through the Nassau County forms, I accept their premise fully. If there are any questions on this interrogation form about prescription drug use, they are there for one reason: to deny you the permit. This is out of control. And now they want to use what perfectly legal prescription drugs you take - or have ever taken!! - as a reason to deny you your constitutional rights. This isn’t moonbattery. It’s far beyond that. This is the sound of the hobnailed boots kicking in your door at 3am. This is government gone wild.

Heller was no where near a strong enough decision. The Nassau County form has been in use for 2 years now; Heller was only a couple of months ago. This form already is what the NY county feels is “reasonable regulation”, because it is possible that some people can put down the right questions, have the right folks speak up for them in the proper manner, have a past purer than the freshly fallen snow AND afford to pony up what is likely the highest gun application fee in the country. But God himself can’t help them if they take or have ever taken a certain kind of medicine. And you don’t have access to the list of proscribed prescribed drugs. So what’s on the list is what we want to be on the list. For the wrong kind of person. Mandatory urine and blood samples will be next. Pretty soon nobody will be able to buy a gun in Nassau County, but that’s Ok, because it’s all just “reasonable regulation”. Have to protect the public you know. [That’s what the cops are for, right? Well sure, until you actually demand that they do so. Then they’ll trot out the court cases that say they aren’t, after all. ]

Horry Clap. And I thought it was tough here in NJ.



Oh, and you did notice the citation at the top of this post? This article was first printed in this month’s Blue Press, the combination magazine and catalog put out by Dillon Precision. They make superb reloading presses. They also make the miniguns for our military. And for readers of Vilmar’s and Rodger’s blogs, they have the new calendars ready. The ones that feature the “gun babe” you were all drooling over the other day, Cathy Rankin. You can get both large format Dillon Calendars for only $16.95, and Cathy is on the cover of one of them.

UPDATE: So much for Equal Treatment Under The Law. Rockland County NY is about the same distance west of NYC as Nassau County is to the east of NYC. But in Rockland, a pistol permit costs $10. Plus fingerprinting fees. But the permit is good forever. And you only need 2 references, not 4. I guess they don’t have people from Brady running their show like Nassau does. In between these two counties is Westchester County, which is directly north of NYC. There a pistol permit costs the same $10, but you have to recertify ever 5 years. And they will give you free gun locks if you ask for them. No mention of fingerprinting or fingerprinting costs at the Westchester web page.

Posted by Drew458     on 12/13/2008 at 10:44 PM   
Filed Under: • Government • Guns and Gun Control • Jack Booted Thugs •  
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22 pounds of innefficiency

Ever wonder what the efficient UAW contract looks like?  LaborPains went to the bench and got himself a copy.

22 Pounds of UAW Rules and Regulations

Ever wondered what a UAW contract looks like? Here is all 22 pounds of it (in this case, Ford’s 2,215 page 2007 master contract; Coke can is for scale and because I was thirsty).

I’ll tell you this much, those 2,215 pages don’t include much regarding efficiency and competitiveness. What you’ll find are hundreds of rules, regulations, and letters of understanding that have hamstrung the auto companies for years.

At his site, he’s got a link to the contract if you’d like some light reading.  Eeeesh, and they wonder why ther’re out of money.

Posted by Drew458     on 12/13/2008 at 06:24 PM   
Filed Under: • Unions-Labor •  
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WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL, WINCHESTER, ENGLAND.  video …

Going through some things I have stored and I thought you might enjoy a change of pace from the usual stuff I do here.

I am a rank beginner at video and putting stuff together, but learning.

The shot of original church foundation before the cathedral, was taken from cathedral website. Other shot from the rooftop was taken by my wife some 20 years ago. Peiper took the easy ones more recently.  I have more.  I think I should post stuff with some historical interest and old buildings.  Need to do that before the Labour Party paves over the rest of this island.

Have your sound on. Or not as the mood takes ya.

WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

A LOT OF HISTORY IN THIS PLACE.
This Cathedral Church, so named because it houses the throne (or ‘cathedra’) of the Bishop of Winchester, has its origins in the seventh century, when a Christian Church was first built on the site.  CATHEDRAL HISTORICAL INFO

Posted by peiper     on 12/13/2008 at 01:08 PM   
Filed Under: • Art-Photography • UK •  
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Pay £500,000? God help us, say couple forced by a medieval law to foot the bill for church repa

This is a very long but a MUST read!  So I won’t add to this and besides, there isn’t anything I could add.
Learn something new every day.

INTERESTING!

Gail and Andrew Wallbank inherited their beautiful home. But it came with a hidden timebomb...

By Victoria Moore
Last updated at 1:03 AM on 13th December 2008

This is a beautiful spot. The church of St John the Baptist stands in the Warwickshire village of Aston Cantlow, in a small churchyard scattered with gravestones and dotted with neatly trimmed yew and holly.

It’s here that Shakespeare’s parents are thought to have married, and if the walls look a little crumbly and uneven… well, perhaps that’s only to be expected of a building that dates back to the 13th century.

To Gail and Andrew Wallbank, however, the flaking masonry that surrounds the church’s stained-glass windows - and the suspiciously leaky-looking patches inside - are less a source of picturesque charm than one of stomach-gnawing anxiety.

This is because, due to a peculiar ancient law that goes back to the reign of Henry VIII, the Wallbanks, who own a nearby farmhouse, have found themselves saddled with the repair bill for the chancel - the eastern end of a church, in which the pulpit and choristers’ stalls are normally found. And it isn’t small.

At the last count, the sum owed was £186,989. Plus VAT. (They must, I think, be the only people in England feeling a real sense of relief about the 2.5per cent cut in VAT.) Oh, and then there’s the interest, which they say they are paying at 8per cent and which began accumulating in February 2007.

Add to that the £200,000 they have spent in legal fees fighting their case over the years, and the Wallbanks are looking at a figure close to half a million. ‘And it’s not as if that’s the end of it,’ says Gail, 60, fastening up a bobbly jacket that looks as if it has seen better days.

‘This could go on and on. We have to finance any repairs the chancel needs, which effectively means we’re in the position of providing an open cheque-book. We now have until February 16 to find the money and I just don’t know how we’re going to do it. We’re at our wits’ end.’

The Wallbanks are a warm, calm and attractively dishevelled couple who, as well as raising a family of seven, have been fighting the case for 18 stressful years.

So far, it has been to the High Court, the Court of Appeal and all the way to the House of Lords, which found in favour of the Parochial Church Councils (PCCs) in 2003, and in 2007 set the amount that the Wallbanks now have two months to pay.

A plague on unwitting homeowners

Having exhausted all their legal options, the couple understandably feel some degree of despair as the deadline approaches. Soon they may not be the only ones - indeed, there may be many thousands of other Britons who are unknowingly in the same position.

For the implications of what is effectively a test case could be wide-reaching: a blessing for the cash-strapped Church of England, which has many dilapidated buildings in urgent need of repair, but a plague on homeowners who may unwittingly own land - a garden, field, allotment or even the plot on which their house is built - that carries a chancel repair liability.

This, as Andrew Wallbank drily puts it, can be ‘a bit like winning the Lottery in reverse’. In other words, it can suck hundreds of thousands of pounds from the unfortunate loser’s bank account.

Such chancel repair liabilities are thought to apply to some 5,200 pre-Reformation parishes in England and Wales - though nobody knows for sure how many properties might be affected, as the legal documents are, in some cases, both ancient and in poor condition. That’s if they can be traced at all. The law in question dates back to medieval times, when the parishioners had a duty to repair the nave - the part of a church in which the congregation sits to worship - while the rector had a responsibility to repair the chancel end. A rector would pay for his share of the repairs using income from land attached to his rectory - ‘glebe land’ - as well as from tithes.

After the dissolution of the monasteries, that land was dispersed but never separated from the obligation to pay for chancel repairs, making the new landowners ‘lay rectors’.

In successive years, some of this land has been sold and re-sold, divided up, developed on and changed hands many times so that its history of liability has sometimes been forgotten. Nor is it always found in rural parishes: one case is known of in Fulham, South-West London.

Fast-forward to recent times, and the cash-strapped Church has been busy encouraging its PCCs to seek out any lay rectors it can find - and quickly, because chancel repair liabilities will become unenforceable unless they are registered at HM Land Registry by 2013. For some people, their happy ignorance may be about to come to a halt, as it did for the Wallbanks.

‘I inherited Glebe Farm, which is about half a mile away from the church, from my father,’ explains Gail. ‘We were actually married in the church, in September 1973, but moved away from Aston Cantlow a few years later to live on a sheep farm in Wales.

‘After my father died, rather than sell the farmhouse or move back, we rented it out. At first, my mother and brother lived here; afterwards we had other tenants.’

And then, out of the blue one day at the beginning of 1990, a letter arrived from the church wardens of St John the Baptist.

‘We hope that you are well and are enjoying your life in that beautiful part of Wales in which you now live,’ it began with ominous good cheer. But it then continued: ‘As the owner of Glebe Farm, you know that there is a charge. . . for the maintenance and the repair of the Chancel of St John the Baptist.’

It went on to detail the outcome of an architect’s report, which suggested that a large amount of expensive work needed to be done to the Grade I listed church - among which were three windows that needed repairing at a cost of £2,000 each - and concluded that, ‘if a large job is necessary, we are obliged to ask for your financial support’.

The ever-increasing demands for cash

To Gail and her husband Andrew, far more alarming than this polite request for money was its open-ended nature. As Mrs Wallbank puts it: ‘We didn’t mind making a voluntary donation to its upkeep - someone, after all, has to pay for these beautiful old buildings and we’d got married in this church - but the fear was that this would go on and on. If we paid one year, how much the next, and the next? How much would it end up costing us?’

The answer to that we now know to be about £200,000. But back then the Wallbanks were merely at the start of a protracted legal odyssey that has consumed their lives for almost two decades since.

They have had to become experts in tithe law, and spend days poring over the minutes of PCC committee meetings. They have even commissioned experts to transcribe an 18th-century Enclosures Award document written on vellum - fine parchment made from calfskin - so fragile it can be handled only by someone wearing gloves and whose script is so faint it must be examined under ultraviolet light.

Mrs Wallbank’s father bought Glebe Farm at auction in 1970 (a year when the average house price was £4,950) for the sum of £41,500. The sale documents do include a clear reference to the chancel repair liability, which it notes ‘is still subsisting and capable of being enforced’.

Gail, however, says her father had made inquiries, including with the vicar at the time, and was confident this clause was a mere anachronism with no legal force. Thus, on inheriting the farm, she too felt reassured that this amounted to nothing more than a gentleman’s agreement.

With the benefit of hindsight, this assumption sounds naive. But the Wallbanks point to the handwritten minutes of an extraordinary meeting of the PCC in July 1968 which was concerned with raising funds for work on the chancel roof. In these, it is noted: ‘Vicar said that while he would approach Mr Terry [the then owner of Glebe farm] he had been informed by Diocesean lawyers that this [obligation] had no weight in law.’

The Wallbanks also say they have been unable to find any case in which any owner of Glebe Farm has, over the centuries, been required to foot any bill for the chancel, though some have done so voluntarily.

‘My father had also made a contribution to the church repairs,’ says Gail. ‘He paid for some of the ornamentation on the church tower to be replaced, and that wasn’t connected at all to the chancel.’

The church fights back

SEE CHURCH FIGHTS BACK for all the photos and the rest of the story. Yes, there’s more.

Posted by peiper     on 12/13/2008 at 11:21 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics • Religion • Taxes • UK •  
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