Tuesday - February 08, 2011
Lines Drawn In The Sand
“We’re leaving and we’re taking all the money with us!”: oil producing Christian black southern Sudan votes to split from piss poor Arab muslim northern Sudan. Years of civil war have destroyed Sudan, and the sub-Saharan southerners have voted to divorce themselves from the pan-Saharan northerners. Borders have to be drawn, and the new country has to pick out a name. But the USA has already agreed to recognize them ($$$$), even if the country won’t even exist until July.
KHARTOUM (Reuters) – South Sudan voted overwhelmingly to declare independence in final results of a referendum announced on Monday, opening the door to Africa’s newest state and a fresh period of uncertainty for the fractured region.
Hundreds of south Sudanese danced, screamed and waved flags as the announcement was broadcast on a line of TV sets in a square in the center of the southern capital Juba.
A total of 98.83 percent of voters from Sudan’s oil-producing south chose to secede from the north in last month’s referendum, the chairman of the vote’s organizing commission Mohammed Ibrahim Khalil said.
...
The referendum is the climax of a 2005 north-south peace accord that set out to end Africa’s longest civil war and instill democracy in a country that straddles the continent’s Arab-sub Saharan divide.Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir earlier said he accepted the result, allaying fears that the split could reignite conflict over the control of the south’s oil reserves.
“Today we received these results and we accept and welcome these results because they represent the will of the southern people,” he said in an address on state TV.
Southern officials say the question of a name for the new state is unresolved but it could become just “South Sudan.”
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“Southern Sudanese are a new people now. We have a new identity. We have respect from everyone at last. Our country has come today,” said Rebecca Maluk, a war widow and mother-of-three in the crowd in Juba.
U.S. to recognize south Sudan as a new country
President Obama says the Sudan split will be officially recognized in July. In a Jan. 9 vote, 98% of southern Sudanese voters chose independence. Obama calls for peaceful resolutions to disputes and an end to attacks on civilians in Darfur.
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The south is principally Christian, and the north Muslim. The separate countries still have to negotiate a range of issues, including citizenship, borders, and oil rights and revenues. In his statement, Obama said the “outstanding disputes must be resolved peacefully. At the same time, there must be an end to attacks on civilians in Darfur and a definitive end to that conflict.”
Funny how the more that things change, the more they stay the same. Way back when, back in the days of Pharaoh, the southern border of upper Egypt was usually considered to be either the First Cataract of the Nile (at modern Aswan), or the Second Cataract of the Nile (currently underneath Lake Nasser by present day Wadi Halfa), depending on how subservient the Nubians were being. 4000 years later, and the modern border between upper Egypt and Sudan is ... in exactly the same place. The ancient land of Damot is pretty much the modern country of Eritrea. Across the Red Sea, the biblical land of Sheba is nowadays called Yemen. These are all natural borders formed by rivers and mountain ranges.
In another Once Upon A Time, somewhere between then and now, the land of Punt ruled both sides of the mouth of the Red Sea down to the Horn of Africa, which is now part of Ethiopia and Somalia. So Punt doesn’t work as a name for the new country. I think it was also more of a confederation of tribes too, since the kingdom went across several natural borders. But Kush historically began at the Sixth Cataract, and the city near there, where the White Nile meets the Blue Nile, is called Khartoum. It makes sense to put the border near there, because the land changes radically at that point, and for all I know the people do as well. I don’t know where the population demarcations are in Sudan, but I’m pretty sure they’re not far from this city. The White Nile comes up out of the fever swamps of tropical Africa, and the Blue Nile comes down from the more temperate highlands of Ethiopia. Neither area is historically Arab. Upper Nubia would be a good name to tie this new country to it’s African roots. Aksum (Axum) would work too, and celebrate the area’s Christianity. It wouldn’t be a perfect geographical fit, but it would be one in a Prestor John kind of way, since the old kingdom of Aksum was the first African nation to go Christian. You can look at a map of Sudan and see how the northern cities have Arabic names, while the southern ones have African names. So it would seem smart to me to draw the borders on as natural a line as possible
So peace may finally be at hand in this troubled corner of the world, and a new Christian nation may be about to rise in Africa. One with an actual revenue stream. Now if they can just negotiate a border so that they wind up with a few miles of water front property on the Red Sea, they’ll be in clover. Well, maybe not clover, but emmer or kef.
UPDATE:
I do not know if the United States has ever before extended diplomatic recognition to a nation that does not yet exist. Is this a first? More importantly, is this recognition some kind of imprimatur, a sign that the nation being born has the support and backing of the USA? A Christian nation on the borders of muzzie-land? That itself would be such a bold move that ... I’m having a Vizzini Moment - “it’s inconceivable!!” - and have it happen under the pro-Arab, anti-Christian, no-push-for-international-freedom Obama regime? A total break with our historic “hands off, mostly” Africa policy? I’m thunderstruck. And if it settles the Darfur genocide without bringing in armies? Holy cow. We’re talking major legacy and another Nobel Peace prize, IF - and it seems to be a doubtful if - IF the USA is the driving force behind this. I do not think they are. I can not let myself believe that our diplomatic corps could pull off such a miracle and NOT have a single word to say about it in the press until after it was a done deal. That could never happen. So my thought is that this is a solution the people in southern Sudan came up with all by themselves. And while the world may be only too happy to recognize their nascent independence, the question remains whether their neighbors - crazy people with lots of guns on all sides - will also do so. Keep your fingers crossed.
Posted by Drew458
on 02/08/2011 at 12:21 PM
Filed Under: • Africa • Politics • Racism and race relations • RoPMA •
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Permalink • A MATTER OF SOVEREIGNTY AND MEDICAL SAFETY
I have myself come into contact with doctors (not a lot) who I have had to ask to repeat themselves. Doesn’t happen often but when it does, I’m always left wondering, do they understand me? Do they know what I’m trying to describe? It’s just a feeling sometimes of confidence as in, Lack Of!
This article in the Mail today hasn’t made me feel any more confident I can tell ya.
To be fair, the nurses I have come into contact with on the odd occasion, were highly competent and professional and kindly. I found that in Winchester as well as Southampton. Which does not make this article any the less scary.
I thought it should be shared as much for the issue of sovereignty as for medical safety. I bang on a lot, on the issue of ‘sovereignty,’ but find I can’t help myself because of what I have seen here over the last 6 and more years. Keep in mind please that I remember an England that did not have to answer to foreign powers or blocks in the way they do now. Another example of that is the vote for prisoners. The European Court of Human Rights has ruled and EU members must follow.
There’s a huge fight going on as I write this on that subject. If this country refuses the edict, they will face millions in legal action. It’s a mess folks and I know of few here who like the idea. Well, except for one writer in today’s Telegraph who thinks refusing the vote to prisoners undermines Democracy. Oh really? Then why has it done so well (mostly) over all these years? And here’s an interesting aside. It won’t be the EU or their courts that will lose monies. It’ll be the Brit taxpayer if things go haywire. Who else?
So naturally me being me, I transfer what I see and read here, to my own country thinking that anything is possible. And it most assuredly is. There’s many a rough and tumble Brit who never dreamed his country would be thus in 2011. If you could time travel and meet Churchill and tell him what’s happened to his country, he’d think you utterly mad or drunk or both. It would be beyond his imagining. As an American, I’m inclined that way. In my country? Not a chance of losing our sovereignty. Oh yeah? I’m seeing first hand what the pc left has done here. And there damn well are Americans who are their first cousins.
So I worry. The only saving grace, maybe, is that Americans are armed to the teeth. The question is, will those weapons actually come into use?
Stay Tuned.
Foreign nurses will be able to work here with just TWO days’ testing in EU shake-upBy SOPHIE BORLAND
Poorly-trained foreign nurses will be allowed to work in Britain after completing only two days of role playing and multiple choice tests.
The short course replaces the rigorous assessments and exams currently undertaken by those failing to meet NHS standards.
To work on wards, nurses are likely to need to show only their skills on dummies, with no requirement to speak good English.
The shake-up is being imposed by the European Union, which says tests on foreign workers go against its freedom of movement laws.
Senior health officials fear the multiple choice assessments, which will begin in April, will be unrealistic and too easy.
Under the existing rules, any EU nurse whose training is deemed substandard must go on an intensive adaptation programme lasting up to six months before they can work in UK hospitals. The courses, which can cost up to £1,500, are run by universities and consist of theory tests, written coursework and practical exams in wards or nursing homes.
Although not directly assessed on their English, candidates would struggle to pass without good language skills.
The regime is so strict that only a quarter of the 8,000 EU nurses who apply to work in the UK every year see the process through.
Most are put off by the cost and difficulty of making the grade.
Those not up to scratch largely come from states relatively new to the EU such as Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Estonia and Latvia.
When the MIL was still alive and there were care givers assigned to help my wife, and these weren’t volunteers but paid workers, we had one mouthy and disagreeable young woman from one of those countries mentioned. Not that she was the only troublesome helper, there were a couple of native Brits who were less then agreeable altho competent enough. But it wasn’t easy getting ppl and the MIL was totally bedridden and so the wife let some things slide rather then gripe. In the case of the foreign worker, she left for a nursing job somewhere, and I feel sorry for whoever finds themselves in her care. She spoke English very well, but I don’t think she understood it as well as she spoke it, and pointing out a mistake was taken as an insult.
The new tests are being drawn up by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. It is understood they will involve multiple choice, role plays and demonstrations on dummy patients – and may last just two days.
Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: ‘These multiple choice tests will be far too simple.
‘This is giving patient safety no priority. How can nurses’ ability to carry out drug calculations and all the other skills required on the ward be assessed in a multiple choice test? It’s disgraceful that this is allowed to happen.’
John Lister, director of campaign group London Health Emergency, said: ‘This is a retrograde step and this is something the NMC should be challenging in court.’
The council is being forced to take action after being threatened with lawsuits by Bulgarian nurses who claimed it was too difficult to register to work in Britain.
The EU has also blocked rigorous checks on foreign GPs who want to work here. This had disastrous results in 2008 when engineer David Gray died at the hands of German locum Daniel Ubani, who gave him ten times the normal dose of diamorphine.
Mr Gray’s son Stuart, who is a GP in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, said: ‘It’s a ludicrous system. The NHS is a very different to other countries’ health systems and people need training before they can practise here.’
Nurses from countries outside the EU will still face stringent tests.
The NHS relies on foreign nurses and in the past decade more than 90,000 have registered to work in the UK, mainly from the Philippines, Australia, India and South Africa.
Relaxing the entry requirements for EU nurses is likely to see an influx of nurses who had felt it too much trouble to work in Britain.
A spokesman for the Nursing and Midwifery Council said: ‘The test will ensure that EU-trained nurses are able to meet the same standards that we require of nurses who trained in the UK.’
A Department of Health spokesman said foreign healthcare professionals would need to pass robust language and competency tests.
Posted by peiper
on 02/08/2011 at 11:17 AM
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Permalink • Sounds Racist To Me
I try to avoid the Hollywood gossip stories, but this one blew me away. Actress Halle Berry, herself half-black, is having a custody dispute over her daughter by ex-boyfriend Gabriel Aubry, a white guy. That makes the child one quarter black, which in the bad old days would have labeled her as a “quadroon”. 50 years after the Civil Rights movement, here in Obama’s “post racial” society, I would have thought such things were ... Gone With The Wind. Guess not.
Horry clap. The “one drop theory” - the concept of hypodescent - was the very worst part of racism. It’s the same evil core belief that brought us eugenics and the Nazi’s aryan purity. Hypodescent assigns membership to a “lesser” ethnic group all people who have even the smallest lineage to that group: you’re categorized as black whether every parent, grandparent, and progenitor you ever had is black, or even just one, no matter how far back. Was your great-great-great-great-great-grandfather black? That makes you 1/128 black - less than one percent - but you still have to use that other water fountain.
Turn hypodescent around and it becomes hyperdescent, which is the same idea only the group you get assigned to is the “superior” one. And these days, it is not difficult to argue that being black is a distinct advantage for certain people, at least for those with some combination of money, education, fame, and good looks.
But hypo- or hyper-, I’m a bit shocked. I had hoped we were past all this. Ok, maybe not ALL all this, but at least the “one drop” part. My God. Certainly if you enforce such a thing, and do your genetic research, you’ll find out that your labeling system doubles, triples, or maybe even quadruples your ethnic base. Which would mean that black people are no longer a minority; they’re the majority. In which case all those special rules, regulations, scholarships, and work opportunities would instantly become the racist tools of the oppressor, because “the man” is the one who is the majority.
Halle Berry has said she considers her daughter Nahla, who is at the centre of a bitter custody battle, to be ‘black’. Her comment emerged a week after the fight between Berry and her ex boyfriend Gabriel Aubry over the two-year-old turned ugly.
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The Oscar-winning actress, 44, tells Ebony magazine ‘I feel like she’s black. I’m black and I’m her mother and I believe in the one-drop theory.’The ‘one-drop theory’ refers to the controversial racial classification of African-Americans that determined who was black in the US. Although it was only made law in the early 20th century for decades before that it was used in some states to determine who was black, regardless of how many white ancestors they had or even if they looked Caucasian.
When asked to define her daughter’s race, Berry - who has both white and African-American heritage - tells Ebony: ‘What I think is that that’s something she’s going to have to decide. ‘I’m not going to put a label on it. I had to decide for myself and that’s what she’s going to have to decide - how she identifies herself in the world. ‘And I think, largely, that will be based on how the world identifies her. That’s how I identified myself. ‘But I feel like she’s black.’
This is at odds with a report on website TMZ which alleges the French-Canadian model did not like his mixed-race daughter being identified as black. Sources connected with the former couple told TMZ: ‘Whenever Gabriel would read a story about Nahla that referred to her as “black,” he would go off, insisting his baby was white.
Berry says that she struggled to determine her own racial identity. Her parents had a turbulent relationship and, while being raised by her white mother, the actress sees herself as being black.
She says: ‘I identify as a black woman, but I’ve always had to embrace my mother and the white side of who I am, too.
Wouldn’t it be great if Americans could move beyond all this color garbage? If we could advance to some kind of “melting pot” culture? Kind of like what France has been mostly able to do? Speak French, think French, act French and you are French; it doesn’t matter too much whether you’re pale French or dark French. Be citizens instead of ethnics. Seriously, when you’re at the point where you and your child have to actively CHOOSE what race you belong to, isn’t it all a bit moot?
Posted by Drew458
on 02/08/2011 at 10:22 AM
Filed Under: • Racism and race relations •
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Permalink • Wilders speaks out at retrial. He seems to be an almost lone voice in the wilderness
BMEWS might be familiar with this man who has produced a video, which ultimately got him pilloried and hauled into court on race hate charges by the appeasers to islam on the left. He is hated by the left which alone makes him our guy. But he also calls a spade a spade and has very openly highlighted the menace to us all, by muslims. So they want to jail the guy which might not be too smart cos he is also a politician and head of his party which is showing strength. And btw ... there are more and more people in his part of the world I have listened to on radio, man in the street kind of interviews, and they are saying enough immigration from anywhere and islam especially. Of course the big question remains, will the ppl in power listen?
I’ve been trying to keep myself informed re. this issue, I believe it’s outcome one way or another will have some impact on Europe.
H/T Radio Netherlands
WILDER ON TRIAL --- Update
At the first day of his retrial, Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders said he hoped the court would drop his case. His lawyer, Bram Moszkowicz, has submitted various pleas to this effect.
The defence believes the court should not be authorised and the Public Prosecution should be barred. Nevertheless Mr Wilders says he expects to be acquitted if the trial does go ahead.
The controversial MP says he feels obliged to fight against an ideology which threatens freedom of speech in the Netherlands and Europe.
Mr Wilders addressed the court at the end of the session. He said,
“I believe Islam distinguishes itself by murder and killing. It is not just about me, but about something much bigger. We have fought for freedom for centuries. Now that freedom is being sacrificed for the sake of pampering to a totalitarian ideology. The final result is an Islamic Europe. A Europe without freedom. It is the duty of free people to resist this.”
The leader of the Freedom Party (PVV) also called Islam an ideology that comes from the desert which only deserts could produce. He thinks the multicultural elite in Europe are fighting a total war against their own people. He said, Europe is becoming “Eurabia”
The trial was abandoned last October, after defence lawyer Bram Moszkowicz accused one of the judges of prejudicial behaviour. A retrial was granted with new judges. Geert Wilders is charged with inciting hatred and discrimination and insulting groups of people because of his remarks in public about Islam and Muslims.
(nc)
© Radio Netherlands Worldwide
http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/wilders-speaks-out-retrial
Posted by peiper
on 02/08/2011 at 09:38 AM
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Permalink • Monday - February 07, 2011
I smell crossover
Did you see the Dilbert strip today? “It’s turtles all the way down”? Crivens, a direct steal. I think Adams is a Pratchett fan.
No, I got nada today. Listening to Beck, keeping an eye on the weather and the protest timeout over there in Egypt. That’s about it.
Oh, here’s a sweet one - to get the Ruskies to sign the latest SALT treaty, Obama shopped out all of the UK’s nuke secrets. So now the Reds now the location and the serial number of every missile and MIRV over there. Gosh, thanks a lot. Man, this guy’s got a real raging chubby for the old Jolly Olde, doesn’t he? I wonder if the rabid millions of fans he had over there in 2008 still think he’s the second coming?
Posted by Drew458
on 02/07/2011 at 05:26 PM
Filed Under: • Humor •
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Permalink • EYE CANDY
I think there might be a zillion photos of this lady on the net. I LOVE her look.
It has taken me YEARS(!) to find who she is, and then only by accident.
When we first came here some years ago, her photo posters where in countless store windows. She modeled underwear and swimsuits and those life size posters were eye catching. I thought she might be the most gorgeous female in the world. I didn’t know who she was and never saw her name. I later found she was contracted as a Marks and Sparks (Marks and Spencer) model. They are a major dept. store chain. But heck, I couldn’t walk into a store asking who that girl was. Could I? No way. I’d prolly be seen as some kind of crazy American, and most likely a randy old man as well.
After awhile she seemed to disappear from view and while I missed seeing her, I hadn’t a clue how to look for her when I started posting eye candy pix.
But last week .... I saw a photo of what I thought was an unnaturally thin woman. Almost emaciated I thought, but the face was vaguely familiar. Hard to place cos of the look but when I saw the name I Googled it and darn if it wasn’t her. Bingo. After all that time. But worth it far as I’m concerned.
NOEMIE LENOIR
ehhhhh, that isn’t all folks.
You see, once the lady I love above left M & S (Marks and Spencer)
The store had to have a new face .... so .... they have just chosen this lady who is a looker also. But truth to tell, I think I have a crush on Noemie. How the heck is that pronounced?
Anyway ... Here’s
Posted by peiper
on 02/07/2011 at 02:13 PM
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Permalink • ‘Racist US bankers’ to blame for credit crisis … that’s what this brit thinks … figures.
See? There’s the problem right there. The big ‘R’ at work again.
Dig deep enough and the great depression had it’s roots in racism too. Right?
Does anyone really buy this? I know what the banks are supposed to have done. But a racial issue?
Damn Yankees! As usual.
‘Racist US bankers’ to blame for credit crisisThe failure of racist American bankers to provide black home owners with fair mortgages fuelled the financial crisis, Trevor Phillips, the equalities chief, will claim in a major speech this week.
By Rosa Prince, Political Correspondent
Calling on the Government to ensure that the programme of public sector cuts does not fall disproportionately on minorities, Mr Phillips will warn that discrimination can have unexpected economic consequences.
Addressing the Policy Exchange think tank, he will argue that the phenomenon of subprime home loans, which led to the 2008 banking collapse, emerged because even wealthy black families could not obtain regular mortgages.
A number of banks involved in the crash, including Lehman Brothers and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), were over reliant on toxic subprime loans to customers who could not afford to maintain repayments.
Mr Phillips will say: “I know it’s not a thing that the bankers and economists like to talk about, but the American financial crisis was precipitated at least in part by racial prejudice.
“Why were so many minority families taking these expensive loans?
Because discrimination left them with no choice.
“The rapid growth of the sub-prime market in the past decade probably owed more to the history of racial discrimination than any other factor.”
Mr Phillips said before the crash that black families in the US were more likely than white people to be charged higher interest rates and have a subprime loan.
In order to prevent a repeat of the problem here during the recovery, he said the Equalities Commission would carry out a review of the Coalition’s cuts programme.
Mr Phillips will say: “Racism did not cause the crisis … we would probably have faced a meltdown at some point even if all the loans had been to white folks.
“But there is no doubt that when the full story is unravelled we’ll find that a racial factor did play a role in what happened.
“We now know what it led to. Perhaps now is the time to make sure that we don’t repeat the mistakes we made going into recession on the way out.
“The spending review and the cuts that follow must not fall disproportionately on already disadvantaged social groupings.”
Posted by peiper
on 02/07/2011 at 02:02 PM
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Permalink • lilly livered conservatives (some) cave into claims of race charge where none exist.
Before getting to my first post in a couple of days ... having to take off the weekend for personal things ....
My thanks to Christopher for the post on President Reagan yesterday. He very truly is missed by a lot of us. There were very kind words I never thought I’d see in, of all places, The Times. Which generally is a bit left of cntr. and safe to say not a bastion of Republican thought or attitudes.
Now then ... to something that is clearly a part of the ludicrous age we live in. And who allows it? The usual suspects.
Stupid white people who enable folks I don’t even believe are true liberals to begin with. That liberal label gets tossed around a lot and by myself as well as others. But there are some self serving slimy but not stupid bastards, that do things hiding behind any wall with a label to further their own personal agenda. Which is usually ego enhancing.
So anyway, Here I am. Pissed Off again. My permanent state of being.
Some of you may have noticed that over time my language has not improved.
Of course what I mean is, I find myself using some words I have tried very hard not to use. Like the ‘F’ word especially. It hardly ever adds anything to the subject, but as an escape valve to the building steam, it’s a tonic. Be that as it may, it gets harder and harder to even simulate civil when running across happenings that are so easily taken as gospel by idiot white ppl who are goaded by black human rights activists. It being understood of course that ALL the rights belong to them.
Well, I’m faced with that and worse after catching this story in the last day, and it’s repeated in more then one newspaper today.
You try and also avoid making comments about some ppl, try not to use the ‘N’ word, try not to refer to anyone as a miserable, thin skinned black shit faced bastard, all to no avail. No avail because there always seems to be one convenient member of some kind of “right” group that is able to find something that they claim upsets the race card apple cart.
In this case, the nigger is a phony fat faced piece of worthless dung named Sonia Carr, who does her race no favors and is a millstone around the neck of the millions of hard working responsible people of color who I’m certain must cringe at the antics of this human bug. Personally, I hope she develops a nice big tumor on her tongue so she can never again spew race lie garbage she makes up as she goes along.
Here’s what this fat and neckless pile of poo has started.
It all began with …..
A meeting of a watchdog group on health in the UK.
It was a meeting of volunteers to discuss the state of local health care.
The Wiltshire Involvement Network (WIN), a statutory, independent health watchdog.
There are some big changes coming about in the NHS (Natl. Health Service), and like all proposed changes in something that has become an entrenched part of daily life, change brings questions and also rumours.
During the meeting, As the conversation turned to changes in the NHS, and how rumours about them can spread, the chairman said: “You cannot help the jungle drums.”
You just knew this was coming. Didn’t you? Yeah. ONE self appointed judge of what is and isn’t racist, one fat negro who happens to sit on an …
Equalities Commission, and who happened to be in the meeting hall at the time, interrupted to state that the term “jungle drums” was a racist remark.
The speaker immediately apologised and carried on.
BUT … The CONSERVATIVE controlled council then accused the watchdog group of racism based on that one “activists” word that the phrase was a racist one.
The incident has led to an official investigation, six months of wrangling, and a decision to bar the health group from meeting councillors. And, it has cost the taxpayers a pile of money. Is that a surprise?
Conservatives are now split on the affair. Some insist on upholding the decision of racism. I guess that’s easier then admitting they were wrong and besides, it might get a few black votes. They hope. It never occurs to these fuckin wiggers that the vote they may get will be from the wrong people. The name of the game as always is, bow to the accuser and suck up.
The lady who used the expression, has said that as far as she was concerned, it was used in the manner of ‘grapevine’ or ‘rumour mill.’ That was her meaning. But she nevertheless apologized while insisting there was nothing racist about the term jungle drums. But I supposed there will always be darkies that hear that and think negative. Although how anyone can view the term that way is a mystery. The term “jungle drums” originates from wooden drums which were traditionally used in parts of Africa to communicate messages up to five miles across land.
As it happens, Sonia Carr, a member of the Wiltshire Racial Equality Council who was sitting in the public gallery observing the meeting, intervened to say that a racist remark had been used.
She wanted an apology, the speaker said sorry and continued the meeting.
Yet Mrs Carr submitted an official complaint to the Wiltshire council – which launched an investigation, produced a 10-page report upholding the complaint, and barred all watchdog members from council premises and meetings. AND ... cut off funding for expenses.
Well, I think we’re all familiar with the old expression, give certain ppl an inch and they take, with inflation considered, a hundred miles. Sonia Carr has said that an apology isn’t enough, it is she says, inadequate. Mrs. Carr further says that the Health Watchdog members did not understand “equality and diversity issues.” Well, it’s kind of hard to understand things when the goal posts keeps changing and being moved about so things can’t be honestly nailed down. Furthermore, fatface,no neck Carr is demanding that all members of the watchdog network be given diversity training. Translated I guess that means brainwashing. She also wants an apology not just from the 70 year old lady who made the innocent comment, but from ALL members of the network of volunteers.
Jeesh … and liberals still can’t understand why racism still exists, and where it comes from. But hey BMEWS … stay tuned. There’s even worse here. Worse you may ask? How can it get any worse then conservatives caving into this fraud? Oh well. Read on.
Ms. Carr has more to say. Remember the old give em an inch thing?
She says … quoting her now so pay attention.
“People need to think before they say things that could cause offence.”
And what things cause offence? Why, anything this fat turd says causes it of course. And she has been at it for awhile now.
Council sources said that Mrs Carr had previously submitted allegations against the police, the fire brigade and council officers. “
Said one WIN member. “The whole thing is ridiculous. It’s got to the point where you daren’t ask for a black coffee in case somebody takes offence.”
Phil Matthews, WIN’s vice-chairman and a member of the local Coalition Against Racism, said: “It was an innocent comment, a widely used phrase and certainly nothing that should have led to a formal complaint.”
Isn’t that funny? the local what? Coalition Against Racism? Looks like the left pc brigade came after you too Mr Matthews. How’s it feel? Betrayed maybe?
“I am outraged at how we have been treated. It’s the worst kind of political correctness. “You might expect this from loony Left councils in the big cities, but you don’t expect it in the Tory (conservative) shires.
On Dec 21 the council wrote to WIN urging it to accept the report’s findings. Three weeks later it informed the watchdog that it would no longer be providing it with funds to cover administration costs.
WIN has not seen any evidence taken during the inquiry and has been given no opportunity to be heard.
“These investigations are complicated and take up a lot of time and resources.
“But the chairman of a group offering services to the public has to be careful not to cause offence to people who may have need of those services.”
However, his view was disputed by fellow Conservative councillor Mike Hewitt, chairman of Wiltshire’s health and social care committee, who said: “This is complete nonsense.
“The phrase was not used in an offensive way. The council has overreacted.”John Glen, the Tory MP for Salisbury, said it was “ludicrous” that the case “had got this far when there was clearly no intention to cause offence”.
“This kind of unnecessary action and bureaucracy drives the public crazy.”
However:
THE LAW MAKES CLEAR THAT WHAT MATTERS IS NOT THE INTENTION OF THE PERSON WHO USES THE PHRASE BUT WHETHER ANYBODY IS OFFENDED BY IT.
Posted by peiper
on 02/07/2011 at 10:19 AM
Filed Under: • CULTURE IN DECLINE • Daily Life • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • DIVERSITY BS • Stoopid-People • UK •
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Permalink • Sunday - February 06, 2011
Roasting Reagan
Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of our 40th President. Doesn’t impress Don Rickles…
UPDATE:
I just found this video. Having trouble typing as the tears are obscuring my vision…
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the first President I was old enough to vote for. I was a freshman in college then. Me and my friends flirted with supporting John Anderson that year, but ultimately decided he was ‘flakey’. What finally caused me to support Reagan was a short news clip. Reagan was loading his luggage into the trunk of a car. That was the first thing that caught my eye. A former Governor and Presidential candidate loading his own luggage? Some reporter off-camera shouted some question like ‘how would you handle negotiations with Iran over the hostages?’ Something like that. Reagan, still loading luggage, replied: ‘We don’t negotiate with terrorists.’
He had my vote.
Posted by Christopher
on 02/06/2011 at 03:22 AM
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •
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Permalink • Saturday - February 05, 2011
Phew
We’re catching a small break in the weather here. All the snow and ice we expected turned out to be rain; it’s been raining steadily since 9:30 this morning. Temperature has gone up a lot; I can hardly see my breath outside. Right now at 10pm it’s 38°F out. All this means the roads are getting nice and clear, and some snow is thinning off the roofs. But the snow on the ground was already rain saturated and then frozen hard, so it isn’t melting much yet at all, or shrinking either. And the forecast is for an even warmer day tomorrow. Excellent. So we get a couple days off, before the next big storm hits us in a few days. There is no escape. Damn this global warming.
Here’s a link to how much snow has fallen in the major city areas around the USA. Although it’s still early February, we’ve had more than 4 times as much snow so far this season than the usual amount for the entire season.
Crivens, is it Spring yet?
Posted by Drew458
on 02/05/2011 at 09:52 PM
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather •
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Permalink • BIG,HUGE IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE PRIME MINISTER. BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! HUGE,BIG
Have about a half hour at most and then have to go out for part of the day.
Had to post this first thing cos I find it almost funny in a not so funny way.
Took all the papers from the front porch, dropped em on a chair and took one off the top to read with a fast breakfast. First headline on the second page caught my eye, how could it not as it was quite big. And why the second page instead of the first?
Because I think even the Mail doesn’t take this all that seriously. After all this time, suddenly ... the govt. is going to get down to the business of addressing terrorism. Gee, isn’t this a bit of a rush? Maybe they need to think about it a bit more. You know, we don’t want to rush things.
I’m not even posting the article in whole. The headline and a few words will do. If you’re that interested you’ll click the link as always.
I’m just doing this in this fashion by way of sarcastic DUH!
OK, Pay attention because this comes directly from the PRIME MINISTER.
(Oh if only The Goons could be brought back from the great beyond.)
Get ready.
Here comes the headline.
Cameron: It’s time to stop tolerating the Islamic extremists
Oh ... so after YEARS and YEARS someone has suddenly made public that that is exactly what has been going on for all this time. Who could have guessed?
The headline continues with:
and get immigrants to respect British ‘core values’
Oh come on sir. Isn’t that asking a bit much after all these years of them taking for granted that they can say fuck you to the British public and get benefits besides?
I think folks here will believe it when they see actual HARD evidence that deeds will follow the words.
By JASON GROVES
David Cameron will today pledge to make Britain ‘a lot less’ tolerant towards Islamic extremists who whip up hatred against the West.
In a major speech on terrorism, the Prime Minister will argue that Britain has been too ‘passive’ towards organisations and preachers who poison the minds of young Muslims.Mr Cameron will say Britain needs to be less tolerant and more judgemental when faced with ideologies that threaten the country’s basic values.
Signalling a major departure from Labour’s softly-softly approach, he will suggest that to ‘belong’ in Britain, individuals must sign up to core values such as freedom of speech, the rule of law and democracy.In a barely-concealed attack on the opposition, he will say: ‘It’s time to turn the page on the failed policies of the past.’
The Prime Minister will pledge to end all public funding for groups which give succour to extremist views. And he will call for action to ban extremists from radicalising young people in universities, prisons and internet chat rooms.At a security conference in Munich today, Mr Cameron will say: ‘Frankly, we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism.’
His warning comes just days after Britain’s independent reviewer of anti-terrorism laws, Lord Carlile, said that human rights rulings had made Britain a ‘safe haven’ for suspected foreign terrorists.
Posted by peiper
on 02/05/2011 at 04:20 AM
Filed Under: • Government • Terrorists • UK •
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Permalink • Friday - February 04, 2011
An English tribute to our great President Reagan … from Charles Moore of the Telegraph
He was the best Governor that Calif. had in my lifetime, and the best President too. Sure miss him.
I thought my countrymen and women passing through BMEWS, might be interested in a Brit’s view of Ronald Reagan.
In an age when conservatives find it embarrassing to talk frankly about their true beliefs, the example of Reagan is very important. He never compromised on his creed,
Ronald Reagan: warming to the cold war warriorRonald Reagan would have been 100 on Sunday. Charles Moore says our current leaders could learn a lot from the great man.
By Charles Moore
The TelegraphTo understand the genius of Ronald Reagan, one should focus on his handling of an event that occurred days before his 75th birthday. On January 28 1986, the space shuttle Challenger crashed on take-off, killing all seven astronauts on board. Millions watched it happen on television.
Reagan, a year into his second term as President of the United States, paid tribute: “The future doesn’t belong to the faint-hearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we’ll continue to follow them.” He ended by saying: “We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God’.”
Reagan’s great friend and close ally, Margaret Thatcher, immediately sent him a public message of commiseration at the disaster. But what privately impressed her most was what she saw as Reagan’s uncanny ability to find the words that expressed the deep feelings of a nation in its best idiom. She considered this the mark of a great democratic leader.
Analyse the Challenger tribute, and you find most of the best Reagan tricks – the celebration of human courage, the very American belief in the future and in technology, the capacity to capture, through some gift of imagination, a moment that people can hold in their minds. To do this in mass-communication politics requires an element of hokum. If you think, after all, about his use of the words (from a poem written by an American, British-educated fighter pilot whose plane crashed fatally in the young Margaret Thatcher’s Lincolnshire in 1941), you could argue that they do not fit the facts: it was precisely because the shuttle failed to “slip the surly bonds of earth” that the astronauts were killed. But that is pedantically to miss the Reagan magic. He had a way with him that was utterly persuasive. The sentence which includes the phrase is long and difficult to say, yet Reagan paced it beautifully. I remember watching the tribute that day and feeling it working, even on my own hard, journalistic heart.
I use the word “tricks” to describe Reagan’s methods, and that is what they were. But this does not mean that he was dishonest. He understood that the President of the United States, being head of state as well as head of government, is inevitably an actor. The presidency is the greatest stage that modern politics offers. The man elected to occupy it must act as well as he possibly can, and he is no more “lying” by doing so than was Laurence Olivier when he played Henry V. As a former Hollywood professional in the first age of American world domination, Reagan knew what the dreams of the people were, how to appeal to them and how to make them global.
But he also shared them. However corny and repetitive he was, Reagan believed completely in the American version of liberty, opportunity and limited government. He spent his youth on the moderate Left, but came to think differently: “Americans are, in their time of discontent, encouraged by doom and gloom criers who would have us believe our only salvation lies in becoming docile sheep for the government shepherd. I happen to believe government is not the solution to our problems – government is the problem.”
PLEASE READ ALL THE REST OF MOORE’S TRIBUTE HERE
Posted by peiper
on 02/04/2011 at 02:30 PM
Filed Under: • Editorials •
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Permalink • should this prank be made a court case? I have doubts, you may differ but it’s a fun read
Funny unless you were one of the teens in the car. Actually, it is funny but sadly the times have changed. In another world a long time ago, even the cops would have ignored this after seeing that there was no crime involved. But wait. In 2011, this is a crime of sorts because people have actually been killed on the city street in broad daylight, by an axe wielding madman. And not just the one off. But still, I think the authorities should cut a bit of slack here. Don’t you?
See for yourself.
THE AXEMAN COMETH, CHASING KETCHUP COVERED FIANCEE
The Westmorland GazetteBy Kate Proctor
A MAN and his fiancee acted out a spoof axe attack to scare away three teenagers who regularly sat in a parked car near their home.
Smeared in blood red ketchup, John Powell’s fiancee pretended to be chased down a moonlit farm track as he ran behind her wielding a four feet long axe.
A court was told how Powell, 28, of Hagg End Farm, Crook, hatched the plan with Lucy Walton, 27, to spook the men parked in a lay-by at Cleabarrows Lane.
Magistrates were told Miss Walton arrived at the car and banged on the window with a terrified look, screaming: ‘Let me in, let me in’.
One of the teenagers in the car, Simon Jackson, 19, told South Lakeland Magistrates’ Court that the incident had left he and his friends petrified.
Presiding magistrate Mary Goldie adjourned the hearing for reports and said custody was an option.
Mr Jackson told the court: “We were parked in the lay-by playing cards when we saw a woman come from down the lane.
“She got to the car and was asking us to help her saying: ‘Let me in, let me in’. She was banging on the window in terror.
“Then he came with an axe and was tapping on the window.
“We were scared because we thought he was going to smash through it.”
He said the event left them ‘absolutely terrified’ and they drove back down the lane to Crook Road and called police.
The court was told the couple were later pulled over by officers in their car near to Windermere Golf Club.
Police cautioned Miss Walton and arrested Mr Powell, who works at Hawkshead Brewery.
Weeping as she gave evidence to the court, Miss Walton said the spoof attack had been her idea and a split-second decision.
She said they had wanted to scare the men, who she believed regularly parked in the lay-by next to their farmland.
“We’ve had problems with youths on the lane. We’d seen that car in the past and called police but thought this time we’d scare them ourselves,” she said.
“There’s litter and my horse had recently been injured because of people driving across the fields.”
“I waved to them and I was laughing, I don’t understand how they didn’t realise it was a joke.”
Mr Powell pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two charges of possessing an axe in a public place and using behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress on October 20 2010.
He denied tapping on the window of the car with the axe and trying to get into the vehicle.
But magistrates said they believed he had done both, which made the sentencing options more severe.
Speaking to the Westmorland Gazette after the hearing, Mr Powell said he deeply regretted the incident but had felt forced to take matters into this own hands after years of problems with people parking in the lay-by.
“My fiancee’s family have been blighted by people parking up in that lay-by for the past 20 years.
“We spend hours every week clearing up litter and there’s been tyre marks all over our fields.
“We’ve phoned police countless times to get them to help us but we’ve had no support,” he said.
The couple have now had to cancel their wedding in Jamaica and a planned move to Australia as the court case prevents him travelling.
“This whole incident has ruined my life and I could be facing prison.
“I deeply regret everything but our family are the real victims in all of this.
“I can’t believe something this stupid has come to court,” he said.
Posted by peiper
on 02/04/2011 at 11:48 AM
Filed Under: • Humor •
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Permalink • been a few months since I had a man under me. whoops. ur fired.
Don’t know how much I’ll get in tonight postwise, but couldn’t let this one get away.
On the one hand it is quite funny and the lady exhibited a quick sense of humor.
The downside is ... some humorless pc idiot had her fired.
Upside .. an appeal court found in her favor so someone has a partial functioning brain.
Downside ... Well, it isn’t all over and this all started in 2006.
The really sad part of it all is, some years ago people would have realized that humor of this sort in very stressful situations is usually automatic and beneficial.
Who could possibly find fault with her comment, except for some uptight, pc self hating inadequate fool? “Gross misconduct?” Jeesh. Some ppl.
Take a look.
Health worker sacked for making cheeky joke as she straddled naked patient was unfairly dismissedBy DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 12:14 PM on 4th February 2011A nurse who cracked a saucy joke as she helped to restrain a patient having an epileptic fit was unfairly fired, the Appeal Court has ruled.
Laura Bowater, 34, quipped: ‘It’s been a few months since I have been in this position with a man underneath me’ as she straddled his naked body while doctors tried to give him an injection.
The trousers of the ‘extremely strong’ 31-year-old patient had been removed so doctors could inject his buttock and Ms Bowater sat on his ankles to control his flailing legs.
But the patient spun on to his back, exposing himself and kicking her forward so that she ended up astride him.
The senior staff nurse’s remark would have been considered ‘merely humorous’ by many people and did not warrant losing her job, the judges found.
Ms Bowater was on her way home from a 12-hour shift in the accident and emergency department at London’s Central Middlesex Hospital in July 2006 when she stopped to help staff.
A complaint was made six weeks later even though no-one suggested the unconscious patient could have heard what Ms Bowater said.
She was fired from her £25,000-a-year post for gross misconduct over the quip despite four years’ unblemished service.
A panel at Watford Employment Tribunal upheld her unfair dismissal claim but North West London Hospitals NHS Trust successfully challenged it at the Employment Appeal Tribunal.
Appeal Court judge Lord Justice Burnton has now overturned that decision but ruled that the nurse ‘contributed’ 25 per cent to her own dismissal.
The case will return to the original employment tribunal for Ms Bowater’s unfair dismissal payment to be decided.
Tory MP for Mid Bedfordshire Nadine Dorries, a former nurse, had slammed the sacking, saying: ‘This is insane. Why has she lost her job?
‘She made a joke as her way of having to deal with a stressful situation.
‘She perhaps could have been given some kind of warning. There are ways of dealing with it and sacking her was not the correct way.
‘It’s difficult enough trying to recruit and retain nurses at the moment.’
Ms Bowater refused to comment on the case.
How did the judge arrive at 25% her own fault? Why not 50? Or 5?
Or none!
Lesson learned? Keep your mouths shut, say nothing to anyone about anything. Voice no opinions, tell no jokes and utter no quips.
The goal?
A nice silent society.
Posted by peiper
on 02/04/2011 at 11:11 AM
Filed Under: • work and the workplace •
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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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