Sunday - December 06, 2009
people making up their own health and dumb safety rules. lunacy limit not reached
I think I could fill this entire page with bats and just post the headline and of course the link, and let it go at that.
These folks clearly have not reached their loony limit as yet. That’s one reason I try to avoid that old phrase, things can’t get any dumber, cos obviously they can and they alway do. As in this case.
Sell you a sandwich? Sorry, you might choke, says train steward
By Luke Salkeld
The MailA train steward refused to sell a passenger an egg sandwich . . . because he might choke on it.
Chris Haynes had gone to the buffet car after the crew announced that everyone on board would get a free soft drink as compensation for the train breaking down.
After suffering the long delay and a lengthy queue to be served, Mr Haynes was understandably hungry.
He saw some egg sandwiches on sale behind the bar that looked appetising, but when the 58-year-old came to order he was astonished to be told he couldn’t buy one.
Mr Haynes explained that he was not trying to get a free meal and was happy to pay, but the steward again told him that he could not sell him a sandwich.
Recalling the bizarre exchange yesterday, Mr Haynes said: ‘When I asked the man why not he said it was for health and safety reasons.
‘I told him I didn’t understand how health and safety came into selling a hungry stranded passenger an egg sandwich on a broken-down train.’
A First Great Western train steward refused to serve Mr Haynes
Mr Haynes said that when he asked for an explanation a second time, the steward replied: ‘Don’t you see?
If the train has to be evacuated you could choke to death on the sandwich.’ Mr Haynes, a bar manager himself, said: ‘I’ve never, ever heard anything so ludicrous in my life. There was a queue of people behind me and they all looked shocked.’
The grandfather, who is about to emigrate to New Zealand to run a tour company, said he was astonished by the steward’s reaction to his simple request.
‘First Great Western were quite happy to give out free drinks but weren’t prepared to sell egg sandwiches for health and safety reasons,’ he added.
Mr Haynes had been travelling back to London from a day at Newbury-Racecourse in Berkshire when his packed evening train came to a standstill less than half way into the journey.
First Great Western run a special service to Newbury Racecourse on race days.
The train last Saturday, carrying racegoers from the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury Races, eventually arrived at Paddington Station two and a quarter hours late.
‘Everything was going well until we broke down somewhere around Reading,’ Mr Haynes said.
A spokesman for First Great Western said yesterday that she was not aware of the incident. She added: ‘It is not our policy to refuse to serve customers on these grounds.’
Posted by peiper
on 12/06/2009 at 05:55 AM
Filed Under: • CULTURE IN DECLINE • Daily Life • Stoopid-People • UK •
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Permalink • Saturday - December 05, 2009
Monday is an important anniversary…
Monday will be December 7th, 2009.
68 years ago the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. This caused the United States to enter World War Two.
Now, we are once again involved in a world war. Western Civilization vs. Islam. If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on Islam. The West is led by beta-males like Barack Obama, who bows to all and sundry. He’s never even served his country in uniform. If, in fact, the United States IS his country… where’s the birth certificate?
Never again will I vote for any male candidate for President who hasn’t served in the armed forces. The one time I did I ended up with ‘Slick Willy’. (yes, I voted against George H. W. Bush. Apparently he couldn’t ‘read’ his own ‘lips’. RINOs should take note.)
Having said all of that, in honor of the upcoming ‘Pearl Harbor Day’, I submit this speech by Gen. George Patton.
Posted by Christopher
on 12/05/2009 at 10:45 PM
Filed Under: • Patriotism • War On Terror •
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Permalink • kartoon kollection: animal edition
Posted by Drew458
on 12/05/2009 at 02:59 PM
Filed Under: • Humor •
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Permalink • Interesting New Metric, the TWI
This meme is running around the intranets today. It’s a focused update on the old giveashitometer ( or whatever you call yours ) ...
... which has been with us since analog days.
The TMI is focused because it deals with the Tiger Woods brouhaha, and ranks what people really do find important with what the media tells us is important. Big difference there. I haven’t posted anything on the Tiger tales ... because it ranks a big fat ZERO on my personal meter. Oh sure, I considered it, just for eye candy purposes. I don’t know the guy. Don’t know what he’s like as a person. But he’s young, he’s athletic, he’s got a goofy disarming smile, and he’s got a BILLION DOLLARS in the bank. Is that all it takes to have legions of gorgeous women throw themselves at him? Um, dur!
See? Just another nobody. So who cares really? But the story has been all over the news, every channel, every hour, every day. That is, when they aren’t prattling on endlessly about the Sahalis possibly sneaking into a party at the White House. And NEVER mentioning the PLO connection. Because they’re part of the ritzy Washington DC social circuit, and the Mrs. is a genuine beauty queen who looked great in that red sari. Ok, she’s a pretend genuine beauty queen, but fake but accurate is good enough for the MSM. And good enough for old “Plugs” Biden ...
Kind of makes you wonder if the “important” news stories aren’t based on cheesecake appeal, the old “Q factor”. Because pretty is more newsworthy than important?
OK, I was distracted by what statisticians call a “double blond test” for a moment ... where was I? Um, ah, got it. The TWI.
Right. So this guy Richard North at EUReferendum analyzes the comparative frequency of various stories written about on the internet vs. their MSM online news coverage, and uses the Tiger Woods thingy as a baseline. He’s counting up the Google hits and categorizing them, while ignoring any bias Google might have built in to their search engine. And just like that, a meme is born, and the web is all over it and soon thereafter so is the MSM. Or at least FoxNews. And away we go ...
s the public more interested in Tiger Woods than Climategate? And does the media coverage reflect the public interest? Those were the questions posed yesterday by Jan Corn in an obscure publication called Associated Content.
Corn had her own ideas, using Twitter searches as a measure, suggesting that Tiger Woods is grabbing the lion’s share of attention while issues like Climategate get a far smaller amount of interest – from the media at least.
Twitter may or may not be the best measure but, over the last two weeks, the measure most constantly referred to is the number of general web pages on Google compared with the number of news reports recorded.
This provides a measure in respect of one subject, but allows no comparison with other issues. Thus, as an experiment, I started trawling around, taking the stats on other issues in the news. To make the figures comparable, I then worked out the ratios of web pages to news pages reported.
On that basis, Tiger Woods delivered 22,500,000 web and 46,025 news pages, giving ratio of 489. That is the “Tiger Woods Index” (TWI) against which I chose to measure a raft of other issues.
“Climategate” was the next obvious choice and that produced 28,400,000 on the web page search, compared with 2,930 news items, delivering a ratio of 9,693. Using the TWI as a comparator, the public in general are more interested in “Climategate” than Tiger Woods, by a factor of nearly 20 times.
Cheese Whiz, there goes Drew, with the 3rd level meta-blogging again. But it’s true. His bit was picked up by the Telegraph, a UK online paper that is running the Climategate story, to which they add their own snark and observations, and bring Al Gore and Sarah Palin into the mix. And that post got picked up by David Horowitz. And so on and so on. It’s going viral. And they all print the same thing:
He explains the formula thusly:
Tiger Woods delivered 22,500,000 web and 46,025 news pages, giving ratio of 489. That is the “Tiger Woods Index” (TWI) against which I chose to measure a raft of other issues.
Here are the results:
1. Climategate: 28,400,000 – 2,930 = 9693
2. Afghanistan: 143,000,000 – 154,145 = 928
3. Obama: 202,000,000 – 252,583 = 800
4. Tiger Woods: 22,500,000 – 46,025 = 489
5. Gordon Brown: 12,300,000 – 37,021 = 332
6. Climate change: 22,200,000 – 68,419 = 324
7. Sally Bercow: 25,000 – 86 = 290
8. David Cameron: 545,000 – 4837 = 113
9. Meredith Kercher: 261,000 – 3,471 = 75
10. Chilcot Inquiry: 125,000 – 4,350 = 29Climategate has received less coverage in the fringe media than Meredith Kercher or the Chilcot Inquiry, of whom/which I’ve never even heard, but I’m sure they’re just fascinating. More surprisingly, Climategate is a bigger story from a consumer standpoint – 20 times over – than Tiger Woods.
Almost all the posts have some comment about how the data has been checked, and how it isn’t hacked, lost, thrown out, modified, managed, or had any “nature tricks” applied to it. Great fun. A bit of Saturday Snark.
And yet, every single one of these guys is DEAD WRONG. They have NOT checked their data, or at least not done any proof reading.
You’ve spotted the error already, yes? Good for you. No? It’s glaring. North developed a RATIO. How many of one thing compared proportionally to how many of another thing. Let me introduce you to some “ultra-advanced” html code (by which I mean it’s as basic as breathing):
AMPERSAND. D. I. V. I. D. E. SEMI-COLON written as “÷”
As in “1. Climategate: 28,400,000 ÷ 2,930 = 9693”
Or for our less advanced blog brethren, SLASH. “/”.
As in “1. Climategate: 28,400,000 / 2,930 = 9693”
Because otherwise it’s subtraction. And that doesn’t give you a ratio at all, just the number that’s left over. And I’m the only person who has noticed. Because I’m a total twit. And also because I have standards. I want my fake-but-accurate to be accurately fake. Not inaccurately fake. That’s sloppy work, which will only get me a job at CRU, when what I’d prefer is one of Tiger’s cast-offs. Well, when she isn’t busy banging actor David Boreanez when his wife is pregnant. Classy! Um, 2nd thought, maybe not ...
Posted by Drew458
on 12/05/2009 at 12:36 PM
Filed Under: • Celebrities • Climate-Weather • Humor •
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Permalink • WEEKEND WOMEN
She’s Amanda Holden, I understand she’s on TV a lot here and the USA. I keep seeing features on her in papers and magazines, but haven’t any TV.
I think I need to check out YT. I keep forgetting that. Anyway ... I think she’s very pretty.
“Amaanda, Light of my life. Fate should have made you a gentleman’s wife ....”
Don Williams (country music 70s)
AMANDA HOLDEN
Now this pretty lady will bring tears to your eyes when you learn her sad story. She and hubby got into a serious financial crunch of major proportions and had to give up their multi-million dollar mansion for one in single digits. Damn. See? Other people have problem too so we should never gripe about ours. The grass is not always greener.
ANTHEA TURNER
GO HERE To see the house they lost and what the poor kids had to move into. Oh how the mighty have fallen.
OK, now I get to go to my favorites. Eye Candy from the long dead past. Women of class and charm and beauty. Not to say many do not have that today. But there’s a mystique surrounding these others. Could be because most of their private lives really were mostly private. No intrusive hidden cameras to catch their bad days.
Sorry it doesn’t show it here but, she was very blond and very popular.
In days when actresses were billed as Miss and Mrs. Early 1900s.
MISS PAULINE CHASE
http://www.collectorspost.com/pauline-chase.htm
Posted by peiper
on 12/05/2009 at 09:49 AM
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •
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Permalink • Ah le belle France … There’s wonder and romance and blue skies and it’s all in the USA.
THE JOY OF FRANCE, MADE IN AMERICA
A promotional video showing the joys of the French way of life was filmed in America, it has emerged.
The film, made for the UMP Party of President Nicolas Sarkozy, shows an eco-friendly house with solar panels on the roof, smiling children and a mom hugging a little girl in a sunny garden.
A voice over boasts about Mr. Sarkozy’s achievements since 2007, and the benefits of living in France.
However, the French TV channel, Channel+, discovered that most of the footage was bought from Getty Images with the family house and hugging mother in California, and class of schoolchildren in Wisconsin
Posted by peiper
on 12/05/2009 at 08:35 AM
Filed Under: • FRANCE • Miscellaneous • USA •
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Permalink • The French, in the person of Mr. Sarkozy, have managed to anger the Brits this past week.
Just so you know, Sarko is referring to London when he says “city.”
Woo-Hoo and another Hoo. That caused a bit of a flap this week I must say. Whatcha gonna do? Brits and French have this love/hate thing. But really, Brits do not I don’t think, actually dislike the French. I may be wrong on that score. I think they laugh at em a lot though and the French know it.
War has not been declared.
We are in charge now, Sarkozy tells the City
Francis Elliott, Suzy Jagger, Martin Waller and David Charter
The TimesAlistair Darling has delivered a blunt warning to the EU’s new French finance chief against meddling with the City of London.
As Nicolas Sarkozy gloated over impending curbs on the City, the Chancellor said that such moves would drive financial services out of Europe.
The French President’s glee at the appointment of Michel Barnier as Commissioner for the Single Market took on an edge of menace when he said that unfettered City practices must end.
“Do you know what it means for me to see for the first time in 50 years a French European commissioner in charge of the internal market, including financial services, including the City [of London]?” he said yesterday.
One of the very bothersome things about the new French EU finance chief is .... he is very left wing and much given to govt. control.
He hasn’t been very big on capitalism either, and has made no bones about that in the past.
The Brits I think were hoping to get that post btw. At some point in time, either the EU will solidify and RULE supreme, or else collapse in upon itself.
“I want the world to see the victory of the European model, which has nothing to do with the excesses of financial capitalism,” he said.
His implicit threat was just what Downing Street had feared when Mr Barnier, formerly an agriculture minister, was given the portfolio last week.
Mr Darling, writing in The Times , said that it would be a “recipe for confusion” if firms were supervised by the EU as well as national watchdogs and that Britain would not accept new laws that could lead to taxpayers picking up the bill for bailouts ordered by Brussels.
He rejects claims that the economic crisis was the fault of the “Anglo-Saxon” model, pointing out that French and German banks were among the biggest creditors of the failed US insurance giant AIG.
Terry Smith, a prominent banker, said that the threat of increased regulation was already threatening the City’s future.
“I’ve never seen so much work going on by companies, individuals and teams of people to evaluate relocation out of the UK,” he said.
SOMETHIN TELLS ME THAT THIS IS THE ONLY SARKOZY THE BRITS WANT TO SEE FOR AWHILE! LOL
Posted by peiper
on 12/05/2009 at 08:00 AM
Filed Under: • Economics • EUro-peons • Eye-Candy • Finance and Investing • FRANCE • International • UK •
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Permalink • Forget climate change - save the planet from the thermomaniacs .
We follow Simon Heffer on a regular basis. I don’t post everything he does but generally the ones I think Americans can relate to easily.
Or the things he writes exposing the lunacy that has overtaken his country.
One thing I have found over time and I suspect you have as well, is that those on the left seem to get hysterical, their faces twist into misshapen masks of the most grotesque kind as they hiss and spit at authority. These are “Protesters” - “Activists” and generally, this is what they look like.
Male or female it never matters. They appear to be of a kind. Almost a race apart you might say.
Take a look at the face here. Is this a face of reason?
Forget climate change - save the planet from the thermomaniacs
At last people are telling David Cameron that his bunny-hugging has the potential to cause extreme economic and political damage, writes Simon Heffer.
By Simon Heffer
Saturday TelegraphAlthough I risk immediately being branded mentally defective for saying so, I am not convinced by the notion of man-made global warming. My lack of conviction, I would be the first to admit, is based on nothing resembling great scientific understanding: I have not so much as an O-level in physics or chemistry.
All I do know is this: that the planet has heated up and cooled down at various points in its history without any help from factories, lorries or a beef-farming industry. Other planets have done, and continue to do, the same: I am still waiting for an answer to John Redwood’s excellent point that the surface temperature of Mars has risen over the past few decades “and they are still looking for the 4x4s that did it”. I therefore remain, in the phrase of Sir Antony Jay, the creator of Yes Minister, a firm thermosceptic.
Various other factors have contributed to an acceleration of my thermoscepticism. There was Lord Lawson’s detailed and challenging riposte to the Stern report. There is Christopher Booker’s superb recent book, The Real Global Warming Disaster, which I recommend that you all read. There is the hectoring tone of the BBC on the question, where any contributor to any programme who appears to be a thermo-denier is treated with incredulity and astonishment.
Also, thermomania has become the latest rallying point for the Leftist rent-a-mob, which finds it a suitable focus for its hatred of capitalism and the established order. That so many respectable people feel happy getting into bed with international anarchy would be funny were it not so threatening to our futures.
The latest blow to the thermomaniacs is the leak of emails from the University of East Anglia which suggest a complete unwillingness to engage with the opposite point of view. This was rather how the church used to behave before Martin Luther, and it enforced its will by torture and burnings at the stake. With those sanctions not currently available, the thermomaniacs prefer simply to pretend that the argument has only one side.
That argument – well, their argument – seems also to have reached ludicrous levels. We are told to stop eating beef because eructating bovines are also damaging the planet. This is an object lesson in the madness of these people.
Not only is there no proof that every time a cow passes wind a flower dies, but such absurd claims are made with an utter disregard for the economy of large parts of the world (mainly the Third World) that depend on such farming. Mind you, the only time I ever attended a Green Party conference, 20 years ago, I heard a woman tell the assembly (to their agreement) that the population of this country would have to be halved to 30 million; though she failed to explain how this would be achieved.
Nutters, anarchists, anti-capitalists, fanatics, absolutists: why are these people taken seriously? Three cheers for the Australians, who this week have started to rise up against this indoctrination and lunacy.
Three cheers for David Davis and the Tories who think like him, who are at last telling Dave that this particular bit of grandstanding and bunny-hugging has the potential to cause the most extreme economic and political damage. At last, there is recognition not just that there are two sides to every story, but that when politicians conspire to limit argument, it is always an attack on the public interest.
So if, next week, the Copenhagen summit passes from fraudulence to complete collapse, and misery and panic break out, no one should feel it is the end of the world – yet.
Oh, I have a message from the Prime Minister of this country for all of us.
Mr, Brown says that climate sceptics are “flat-earthers” and that we are also “Anti Science.”
And if you would like to know exactly what he said, it was this.
“With only days to go before Copenhagen we mustn’t be distracted by the behind-the-times, anti-science, flat-earth climate sceptics. We know the science. We know what we must do.”
Posted by peiper
on 12/05/2009 at 07:25 AM
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather • Environment • Science-Technology • UK •
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Permalink • Friday - December 04, 2009
D’oh! A Deer!
By the time the Tarboro [South Carolina] business owner looked up from the sidewalk, the herd was upon her, she said, too close for her to react and charging too quickly for her to run away.
Michelle Brewer, the 46-year-old co-owner of Brewer’s Fine Jewelry in Tarboro, was flipped up in the air and trampled in front of her Main Street storefront last week by a group of renegade deer.
The victim said she wouldn’t have believed the tale if she heard it from a friend – “Really? A herd of deer on Main Street?” Brewer said, seeming to question her own story – but she has the witnesses and the scars to prove it.
The deer were real, Brewer said. And they were fast. Shortly before 10 a.m. Saturday, Brewer was unlocking the front door to open her business for the day when she heard a beeping car horn.
“I think the woman must have seen what was about to happen and was trying to warn me,” Brewer said. “But I also wonder if that didn’t just make them run faster.”
Witnesses, including her husband, Kenny, later told Brewer the herd of seven to nine “good-sized does” must have been running at least 40 mph. Brewer doesn’t recall gauging the speed. She said she looked up as the first deer rushed past her.
“That was a confusing moment,” she said.
Brewer turned and saw the rest of the herd running toward her in a tight unit, she said, too close for her to dodge them individually but spread too wide for her to flee to the right or to the left.
The deer had a good game plan, Brewer said, and they executed it well. Brewer turned sideways and closed her eyes, hoping the deer would run around her. They did not.
“I don’t remember being hit,” Brewer said. “My husband and the guys over at the barber shop said I went airborne – flipping me probably three feet up in the air – and I landed on my face.”
Another deer stomped Brewer’s leg, witnesses said. Brewer looked up and saw one of the deer pinned under a car after being hit in the road, she said. The doe somehow pulled itself free and sprinted to catch the others, she said.
From there, the Tarboro deer herd later wreaked havoc at the Fountains at The Albemarle retirement home, also downtown, where a clerk said one deer failed at an attempt to enter through the automatic front door. Instead, the deer smashed through a glass window and thrashed about inside an unoccupied office room. Nobody was injured in that incident, authorities said.
Brewer added that when she becomes a grandparent, her sons can tell their kids that indeed, “grandmother did get run over by reindeer” before Christmas this year
Posted by Drew458
on 12/04/2009 at 01:47 PM
Filed Under: • Animals • Fun-Stuff • weird stuff •
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Permalink • You’d Better Watch Out
Well it’s about time. But can they arrange a public horse whipping?
Military impostors, beware: A Web site has been launched to root out fraudulent veterans and fakers in fatigues.
ReportStolenValor.org aims to expose people who fabricate or embellish military accomplishments by making it easier to report suspected Stolen Valor Act offenders to federal authorities and local media outlets.
AMVETS, an organization representing more than 250,000 veterans, will unveil the site Friday.
“As a veteran myself, it’s deeply offensive when someone claims to have served in uniform when they have not,” said Jay Agg, AMVET’s national communication director. “It’s just fundamentally wrong and an affront to all veterans.”
The Web site will also feature a link to the Military Times Hall of Valor, a comprehensive database of more than 26,000 military awards for valor searchable by service member, award and conflict.
The Stolen Valor Act, signed into law by President George W. Bush in December 2006, amended the provisions of previous laws concerning unauthorized usage, manufacture or sale of military decorations and medals. A violation of the law is a federal misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison and a $150,000 fine.
I am saddened that such a site even needs to exist, but it does. And while many old soldiers tend to exaggerate a bit when they tell their tales, that’s not what this is about. This is about the “heroes” that the anti-war left has championed, that turn out not to be heroes at all. Some of them, many of them, turn out never to have even been in uniform. That’s happened time and time again, and they’ve been debunked time and time again, yet the MSM often forgets to give us that follow on story. They’ll highlight this guy and his message, give it airplay, but when a few weeks later it’s found that he’s a fraud, they don’t tell us that. Small news, relegated to page D35 at best.
This is about the folks who lie about their service at job interviews. This is about stopping the phonies who claim the moral high ground because “I was there” when they weren’t.
It’s a great idea, and I really wish something like this was around a decade ago. But huge databases take time and money to build. I can guarantee that this one will have it’s teething problems too, but it should be pretty smooth after half a year or so.
I don’t know how far or how deep the citations database is, but it sure would be nice if it was exhaustive. Just so that folks could check up on things, like congressmen who wounded themselves accidentally but have heroic rumors around them, or senators who have seared-in memories of holidays spent in countries they were never in, or former vice presidents who claim to have been Action Man while in uniform who were actually do-nothing REMFs.
I don’t know if the database will extend to active duty personnel. Or if it will go back all the way to WWI or the banana wars of the 20s.
Agg said he hopes the new Web site gives potential poseurs some pause when considering the “extraordinarily distasteful” act of faking a military background.
“It really puts them on notice that major veteran groups are aware of this problem and are doing something about it,” he said. “It’s an issue of great interest, not just to the military community, but to the public at large.”
But I do like the grassroots flavor of this: doing the fact checking the media won’t do.
Darn shame it won’t be able to do anything about things like this ...
OK, I just linked over to the MilitaryTimes database. They’ve got entries in there going back at least as far as 1862. Enter a name and the system gives you a synopsis. You can then click on that to get the full citation.
Right now it appears that only the major awards are covered, which makes sense; this is a valor awards database, not a service records highlights database. So you can’t pull up grandpa Joe to check that he really did get a Good Conduct ribbon, or that he qualified Expert on the pistol range. And I don’t think MilitaryTimes is part of the government. So it may not be officially official. That kind of database would be huge, considering the millions of men and women who have spent time in uniform over the years. I’m sure the Pentagon has such a database, and I’m sure a channel exists for employers etc to query it. This isn’t that. This is just a fast check site.
Posted by Drew458
on 12/04/2009 at 12:28 PM
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Permalink • Could the EU ‘house grab’ law be applied to UK homes?
I have to post this bit of loony tune thing in case there’s something to it. Which I kinda doubt.
Looks like maybe the Mail needs to sell more papers. But then again .... wait a minute. This is the year 2009 where anything and everything can actually happen. In 1945 or 1950, this question could never come up. So, maybe .....
I saw a survey of some kind today with regard to Americans and our world attitude. It said that more and more Americans were looking inward and didn’t want to be bothered by events outside our own country. It said Americans in growing numbers did not want to police the world and want us out of foreign wars. Heck, I think lots of us and maybe a majority have long wanted us to be able to mind things at home first, and not be the worlds cop.
Could the EU ‘house grab’ law be applied to UK homes?
By Tim ShipmanBritish homeowners could potentially lose their property if it was ever owned by someone with relatives abroad.
British citizens could have their homes snatched from them on the orders of a European court under a new Brussels power grab.
Plans for an EU shake-up of inheritance law will leave homeowners vulnerable to the potential loss of their property if it was ever owned by someone with relatives abroad.
Most European countries force citizens to leave a proportion of their estate to certain relatives, known as ‘forced heirs’.
Under ‘clawback’ procedures outlawed in England forced heirs can undo property sales up to 30 years earlier if the deceased did not make adequate provision for his relatives in their will.
That means the relatives in France, Germany or Spain could stake a claim to property which has since been purchased by someone else in Britain.
Experts have warned that British citizens could lose their homes or be forced to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds to the foreign relatives of previous owners.
And the new Europe-wide laws could drive up the cost of buying a house because people would be forced to buy insurance to prevent them losing out if they fall foul of future land grab claims.
At the moment properties and land are always distributed according to English law.
A proposed EU regulation, which the Ministry of Justice is considering signing up to, would mean that legal cases affecting British properties would be heard in the country where the deceased was ‘habitually resident’.
That would leave British courts powerless to overturn rulings made by courts elsewhere in Europe, where 12 countries have clawback rules.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw has just closed a month long consultation on whether to sign up to the new rules.
But even an independent expert commissioned to look at the plans by the Ministry of Justice has written a report slamming the proposals.
Prof Roderick Paisley of the University of Aberdeen warned that if the regulation is introduced the possibility of clawback would undermine property rights in the UK.
‘The Regulation would force courts in the UK to recognise clawback under the law of other Member States in relation to cross-border successions,’ he wrote.
‘The difficulty with this is that gifts made validly under domestic law, which people expect to be subject to domestic law, could be invalidated by foreign courts. This would represent an interference with UK property law.’
He warned that ‘considerable cost’ would be added to buying a home. ‘In many cases a solicitor will feel obliged to obtain a legal opinion from an experienced foreign lawyer.
‘Alternatively, a practice may develop of taking out an insurance based title indemnity policy for each transaction.’
Shadow Justice Secretary, Dominic Grieve said: ‘It beggars belief that Ministers are considering signing up to rules which would create such uncertainty in the property market and could even see British families lose their homes as a result of legal cases overseas involving people they have never known and in which they might not be represented.
‘The Government’s own advisers say that this rule could “blight” properties and add considerable costs to moving home, so we should not hesitate to reject it.’
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: ‘The Government supports the principle of simplification of succession laws in the EU.
‘Whilst we welcome their publication, we are aware there are some potentially problematical issues within the EU Commission’s proposals and we are now considering and consulting on those and indeed the whole proposal.
‘The whole proposal will now be negotiated amongst all EU Members and the European Parliament. The consultation closed yesterday. The Government’s response will be published in due course.’
Oh btw ... happen to find this comment on a site a few minutes ago.
I suppose we should be glad of getting on with the US, might need their help over Europe. I’ll be voting UKIP anyway. Sigh.
- Ms B, London, UK, 04/12/2009 12:54
Posted by peiper
on 12/04/2009 at 10:22 AM
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Permalink • A PHONE CALL FROM HELL ….
I’m still laffing at this one, stolen from Vilmar who got it at Theo’s.
H/T Vilmar
An American, a Brit, and a Russian all died and went to hell. While there, they spy a red phone and ask what the phone is for. The devil tells them it is for calling back to Earth.
The Russian asked to call Russia and talks for 5 minutes. When he was finished the devil informs him that the cost is a million dollars, so the Russian writes him a check.
Next the Brit calls England and talks for 30 minutes. When she was finished the devil informs her that cost is 6 million dollars, so the Brit writes him a check.
Finally the American gets his turn and talks for 4 hours. When he was finished the devil informed him that there would be no charge for the call and
to feel free to call the USA anytime.When the Russian hears this he goes ballistic and asks the devil why the American got to call the USA free.
The devil replied, “Since Obama became president of the USA, the country has gone to hell, so naturally it’s a local call.”
Posted by peiper
on 12/04/2009 at 09:50 AM
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Permalink • A number of words about Switzerland from the Conservative Voice of Europe
I was led to this site via Europe News.
The guy writes exceptionally well BUT .... I know it’s a serious subject and I do find it interesting except it’s so darn long. So I haven’t posted all of it here. In fact, I can’t read all this at one sitting on line and am going to print it out. But what I have read is well worth my trouble. I think you will be interested in what he has to say as well.
The site is The Brussels Journal, which calls itself the Conservative Voice of Europe.
SWITZERLAND: THE GOVERNMENT -VS- THE PEOPLE
Brussels Journal 3 December 2009
By George HandleryGeorge Handlery about the week that was. Even in small countries, major trends can unfold early. About noble leaders and their reluctant peons that refuse to follow.
International protest and its use to the tottering local leadership. Security, fear and freedom. Radicalization as a face saving device. Immigration then and now. Imported prejudices, failure and the allegation of discrimination.
1. Small country, major issue. Normally, Switzerland is not of much interest to the international reader. Already by standing falsely accused of having invented the cuckoo clock, she is automatically downgraded. The neglect can also be attributed to her size, a functioning system – a juicy crisis brings attention.
Not being on the map is also the consequence of her ability to keep out of armed conflicts. Switzerland did not even need to be liberated in WW2! Some myths shatter on Swiss reality.
Effective armed neutrality invalidates a peacenik thesis that arms lead to war. Per capita Tell’s land has a huge army – 600,000 in WW2 out of 4.5 million. Reflecting her industrialization and armament industry, it is largely self sufficient and excellently equipped to exploit the best defense positions nature can provide.
Complete the achievements with Switzerland‘s top rating regarding the quality of life and the top earned per capita GDP coupled to being a leading financial center. In the case of a landlocked and no-resources country, this should not be the case. Besides bank secrecy – which is a settled issue and gone by now – Switzerland is currently getting perplexed attention because of the consequence of her direct democracy.
On a regular basis, the unique system enables the people to perform executive functions. The voter can make laws and invalidate legislative action. Therefore, if you want to know what the “people” want, then you might find out by consulting the results of the numerous referendums and initiatives. The people’s uncensored voice expressing its real opinion is a good indicator of what comparable societies would say if they would be able to speak up.
The latest, and internationally widely commented, Swiss initiative forbade the erection of further minarets. Expressly not effected are existing structures and new temples as well as the exercise of any religion.
To the surprise of all, the initiative passed in what is rated here as a landslide. The decision went against the will of the executive, the legislature, all but one of the political parties, the churches, the economic and social elites, “business,” the media and, belatedly, the Vatican. Why “surprise”? Opinion surveys predicted rejection. That teaches us right away something about surveys in general.
People give PC responses to surveyors who are themselves PC. This is what makes surveys into useful weapons in the hands of those who can afford them. More important is another insight. It suggests that the governments, parliaments and the elites of western democracies might not quite express the will of those they claim to represent.
Additionally, thanks to the media control of the political class, real public opinion does not always equal what little people are made to think by pundits that have the power to determine what proper views must be.
Now, “the day after”, Europe’s governments and institutions condemn the vote’s result and the voters who “committed” the outrage. Amnesty International finds that the Swiss voted “against religious freedom”. “Scandalized” France’s Foreign Minister bemoans the same – while his government forbids burqas. Those veils express in textile what the minarets say in stone.
(Oddly, with eight times the population, France has 5 minarets and 500 mosques while Switzerland has four minarets.) Indeed, governments and the governing elite’s shock and outrage might have a simple reason. It flows not from principle but reflects interest. They attack the frightening precedent created by the Swiss because the political classes fear their own peoples. Just take a fresh opinion survey from Germany. There 70% (sound too high to the writer) of the “barefooted” would vote – if their system would let them – the way the Swiss have.
GOOD TO KNOW: THE FINAL CHAPTER IS NOT YET WRITTEN
The defeated leadership chides the voters about their mistake. In addition, the disavowed local political class tries to assert itself against its recalcitrant people. One way to do that is to encourage international pressure to demand that the new law not be implemented. The minaret-builders are not idle either. Emboldened by the angered local elite, they will ultimately turn to international courts – such as the one that forbade the display of crosses in Italian schools – demanding that religious freedom be protected. Naturally, that bold and principled pronouncement will limit itself to Switzerland as representing Europe. So as to avoid insult, the decision will ignore Middle Eastern states or Taliban ruled areas.
2. A sign of the times. A friend has submitted a letter to the editor. Without mentioning the minarets, the note raises questions regarding demonstrators that protested the vote’s result. He was advised that, in the interest of his own safety and the careers of his children (one is married to a Muslim), he should desist. While the fears moving him seem to be exaggerated, the man wrote to the paper requesting that his submission not be published.
It is not conceivable that, had he supported the after-the-fact demonstrations or “minarets for all”, anyone would have discovered a risk implied by turning to the Editor. The case suggests two points to be made here. 1. Without security there is no freedom. 2. Fear cancels out liberty.
Posted by peiper
on 12/04/2009 at 05:44 AM
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Permalink • war games with live ammo and German kids aged five … how the Stasi did it.
Isn’t this something else?
Can’t imagine age five. Eight maybe. But five? I can’t help but wonder, here they’re promoting sex ed. at age five and some other things by 7. But in the divided Germany kids were training at that age with small tanks and live ammo. At least according to this report. It was a very long time ago of course. But it’s still interesting. Not to worry though. Really. Now a days Europe is enrolling all their children in the church of gore.
On the whole I think I’d rather have em trained for war of a different nature.
I first found this in the Telegraph, but there isn’t any link to the story there. Found it finally at The AgeDotCom
Stasi ran ‘real war’ games for childrenBERLIN
A PROPAGANDA film made by the Stasi secret police in East Germany has surfaced showing children as young as five being made to simulate war games using miniature tanks and machine guns.
The black-and-white footage, titled The Sun Always Lives, shows boys firing live ammunition as shells and smoke bombs explode around them.
The film, made in 1977, features members of the Communist Party’s Young Pioneer youth movement. It was recorded at one of their summer camps and was intended to be shown in schools ‘’to instil true socialist patriotic values in the young’’.
The film lasts for 21 minutes, with the young participants mimicking the military manoeuvres of the People’s Army of East Germany.
At the film’s end, a live shell from one of the miniature tanks hits a wall. At this point, a voice-over says: ‘’Show your soldierly face for the socialist Fatherland as these brave warriors do!’’
Hubertus Knabe, 50, director of the Stasi memorial museum in Hohenschoenhausen in Berlin, where dissidents opposed to the regime were held, was shocked by the film.
He said: ‘’This is a perversion of childhood by the Stasi of a kind I haven’t seen before. All kids played with toy guns but this was meant to turn them into child soldiers of the sort who have raped and killed in Africa in recent years. To let little kids loose with real guns to prove a political point seems about as sick as it can get.’’
The film was found in the Birthler Archive, the repository of the remaining files of the Stasi, which was shut down at the same time as the East German state 20 years ago.
The film is being screened in Berlin, with other propaganda from the Stasi and secret service organisations in former communist Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
TELEGRAPH
Posted by peiper
on 12/04/2009 at 04:41 AM
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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.
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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.
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