Monday - May 21, 2012

the shrine of the Blessed Barack ….

I’ve been reading this lady for awhile, and find she’s right most of the time. Of course, by her lights I’m sure she always correct on the things she writes about.
Sometimes I suspect she’s more conservative then I am, without being so extreme which in anger I tend to be at times.

A couple of years ago, she appeared on American TV for a Fox News program. I forgot which one.  I listen to her on BBC Radio, she has a great speaking voice and flawless delivery. 

Well, today I think she outdid herself.  I think this is the best column I’ve read by her, and I have read a lot.
I won’t post the whole column but hope you will see the rest at the link provided.  Just click on Melanie Phillips. It’s worth reading it all and I really think #10 and friends should be reading her too. Of course they won’t. And what she says about Labour possibly getting back in while scary, has a lot of truth in it if things play out as she says they could.  Question is, will Conservatives but especially Mr Cameron who is referred to as conservative lite, wake up in time.

This is no time for chillaxing, Dave. Even Labour looks more Tory than you

By MELANIE PHILLIPS

Maybe if the Prime Minister raised his eyes for a moment from playing Fruit Ninja on his iPad, and also paused from adoring at the shrine of the Blessed Barack, he should look behind him and worry.

Ed Miliband has been an object of scorn and derision for Conservatives from the moment he was elected leader of the Labour Party.

Recently, he appointed Jon Cruddas, described by Tories as a Left-wing union stooge, to take charge of the party’s policy review and thus be responsible for setting Labour’s course for the next general election.

t the same time, we read that Tony Blair hopes to make a come-back into British political life. Some may be tempted to greet this particular news as the political equivalent of the Return Of The Mummy.

Coupled with Cruddas’s appointment, it may lead them to conclude that the Labour Party is now lurching ever deeper into la-la-land and political irrelevance.

They could not be more wrong.

The appointment of Cruddas is an inspired move. Writing him off as a Left-winger is to miss the point by a mile.

For Cruddas possesses one very important insight which has so far quite eluded David Cameron and his band of muddled modernisers.
Cruddas realises that if socialism is to have any appeal, it must adopt a platform of social conservatism.

Some may be confused by this. How can socialism be conservative?

Very simply: by connecting to people’s experience of how the world actually is, rather than trying to reshape that world into some pre-ordained idea of how it should be.

Unlike so many on the Left, Mr Cruddas does not shudder at the purportedly knuckle-dragging views of ordinary people.

On the contrary, he respects their attachment to nation, family, community, tradition — all the things, in fact, that the Left has been busily tearing to shreds.

While others demonise the white working class as racists if they complain that immigrants are taking their jobs, Mr Cruddas sympathises with their situation and their anguish at the break-up of traditional communities. 

Criticising his own party’s indifference to these matters, he has called for tougher immigration controls. 

In similar vein, he strongly sympathises with public anger over the denial of a democratic voice on ever-deeper European union. As a result, he champions a referendum on whether or not Britain should stay in the EU at all.

With public fury over the EU growing exponentially by the day, if Labour calls for such an in/out referendum this will badly wrongfoot the Prime Minister. 

As it happens, not that long ago opposition to EU membership was a core position of the British left, not the right.

And when at the beginning of the 20th century the Labour Party famously ‘owed more to Methodism than Marx’, its hallmark was social conservatism — something that Cruddas, who teaches Labour history at Oxford, understands better than most.

The idealism of the Left was based then on the belief that strong families and deep attachments to community and nation were essential for a decent society, and to improve the life-chances of ordinary people.

You don’t have to endorse Cruddas’s union links to realise the importance of a society with deep roots, in which people believe in something beyond their own wants and needs.

And that’s where the return of Blair is potentially so very significant. For just like Cruddas, Blair’s great insight was that to win power he had to promote such socially conservative values.

The soundbite that gave him the party leadership, ‘Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’ conveyed the fact that he understood — just like Cruddas — that many were living in a state of siege from crime and disorder, and that he identified with the desperate desire for order and security.

Similarly, once he became leader he pronounced that he would stop the plunge in education standards and also end ‘something for nothing’ welfare dependency. 

Of course, once in office things didn’t work out like that. Education and welfare reforms ran into the sand. And far from conserving and protecting what people cherished about their society, Blair set about reshaping it in order to create a utopia of the brotherhood of man.

Hence his insistence that all family lifestyles — married, one-parent, gay — were equally desirable. Hence also his promotion of the oppressive PC agenda of self-proclaimed ‘victim’ groups and hate crime laws, in the apparent belief that prejudice could be eradicated from the human heart. 

The genius of Tony Blair — and it was political genius — was to understand that elections can only be won on the true centre ground, which means respecting the innate social conservatism of the public.

And so now Cameron faces the prospect of a Labour opposition that is more Right-wing than he is — and which may come to power as a result.

‘I am the heir to Blair,’ Cameron famously said. In his dreams. He never even understood what that meant.

This has to be my only post for today. Apologies to all.

Posted by peiper     on 05/21/2012 at 11:54 AM   
Filed Under: • Politics • UK •  
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   Saturday - May 19, 2012

A MISS ENGLAND CONTENDER ….. GETS MY VOTE

I wasn’t even thinking Eye Candy when I came across this young and pretty lady.

She is hopeful of becoming Miss England and she’d sure get my vote.

Side story here ... she didn’t speak until age 7.

MORE PHOTOS HERE

Below the fold is strictly for you art lovers and I know there’s one or two. I’m off now to read my copy Gibbon’s Rise and Fall, and the latest articles of intellectual interest in Playboy. 

Posted by peiper     on 05/19/2012 at 07:05 AM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •  
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justice brit style … more law and disorder

Never mind what you may have read or been told.  Brit judges take law and order and justice very seriously and work above and beyond the call of logic and common sense and here’s proof how serious they are about crime and punishment.
Don’t mess with these hard asses.

Career criminal with 100 theft offences walks free AGAIN after judge fails to enact suspended prison sentence

Drug addict Sundee Spaulding promised was given ‘one last chance’ when she last appeared before the court for theft

25-year-old had been serving 12 month suspended jail term for previous thefts when she went on shoplifting spree
Judge Carol Hagen told Spaulding has had ‘just about every sentence the court could possible give her’
Judge Hagen decided it was not ‘in the interests of justice’ to jail the repeat offender
Mother-of-one given yet another 12-month supervision order as well as a curfew and a six month drugs rehabilitation order

By TOM GARDNER

A career criminal with more than 100 offences has again walked free from court, despite getting a ‘last chance’ from the same judge two years ago.
Judge Carol Hagen decided it was ‘not in the interests of justice’ to enact the suspended sentence drug addict Sundee Spaulding had been serving during her shoplifting spree.
The mother-of-one, 25, already has 33 convictions for more than 100 theft-related and dishonesty crimes.
But Judge Hagen gave her one ‘final chance’ and let her walk free – even though she had broken her supposed ‘last chance’ given after her last conviction.

She told Spaulding: ‘You present me with a real problem Sundee Spaulding. You commit offence after offence and always there is some excuse on your part.
‘The question for me is do I send you to prison or not. I am persuaded that it is in the interests of justice that I do not activate that suspended sentence.

‘It seems to me to offer the best chance at this point in time to dissuade you from committing further criminal offences.
‘I’m giving you a final chance. If any of these conditions I impose are breached you are going to prison for 12 months.  ‘This is a real opportunity.’

Bristol Crown Court was told Spaulding had stolen two meat joints from a Co-op, in Avonmouth, Somerset, on April 12.
After handing herself in to police, Spaulding, from Shirehampton, Bristol, then tried to steal £241 worth of shopping from a nearby Asda in nearby Patchway.
It was only when she tried to exit the store through a closed door and security guards approached her to tell her which door to leave by, that the theft was spotted.
Nadeem Aullybocus, prosecuting, said: ‘Miss Spaulding has 33 convictions for an impressive 100 offences.

‘The defendant has had every single sentence the court could possibly give her. Alongside the thefts she has also breached her suspended sentence.
‘This is not the first time she has done this.’
Spaulding was given eight months suspended prison sentence by Judge Hagen in 2010 for handling stolen goods and shoplifting.
On that occasion Neil Treharne, defending Spaulding, said: ‘She’s well aware that this is her last chance.’
Mr Treharne, again representing Spaulding today, asked the judge to give his client a spell at outreach centre Eden House Project instead of jail.
Defending, Neil Treharne, said: ‘The Eden House Project is a very worthwhile project.
‘I have seen great success in the past and on this occasion I really think that Sundee is motivated and she would succeed.

I had to post this story as yet another example of a system that is just totally broken and defies any logic. And some wonder at the public skepticism of justice in our countries. What the heck brought courts to thinking like this? 

Should you care to read the rest, it’s HERE

Posted by peiper     on 05/19/2012 at 04:50 AM   
Filed Under: • CULTURE IN DECLINE • Daily Life •  
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FORSOOTH!  CHESS A SILLY GAME? NONONONONONONONNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Drew happens to be one of the very best friends I have never met.  He has done favors and given me tech help, some of which I don’t understand to this day.
He’s never offered bad advice and from time to time has saved me from myself.  He’s gone out of his way to snail mail me stuff because I asked. So yeah, I consider him a very good friend.
However ...... 

Gee Drew ... after all this time ... is this our first spat? LOL

It all started with Christopher’s chess game and a comment Drew made as follows.

I think you take this silly game way too seriously.

Now Dear Friend Drew, this deserves a post all its own, not under comments.

Drew. Chess a silly game? OMG!  Crivens! Et tu Brute? Or whatever’s close. No. Never that.

Wish I were a good player but my brain does not engage to a high chess standard. And you have be serious about this activity (game seems so, ??? ordinary?)

Haven’t played in years. Wife and I used to spend hours at it. Alas, she is a better player and once played on several boards. In a tournament, England’s Southern Champ fought off all comers on lots of boards till my wife sat down and fought him to a stalemate. She always felt she might have won but lost concentration due to many ppl crowding around them and especially her, being the only female. This was in the days when ladies weren’t supposed to be doing such things. The games were hosted by the IBM chess club. Of which my wife was a member. She belonged to team two and waited for an opening on the first team. Which came open and they picked a man for the spot on team one, who Jennifer had beaten more then once.

So then ….  Just how serious can some folks take this …. game?

She quit IBM

Christopher… Love the animation on that game but it moved so fast I had a hard time. Put it down to age etc.
It was especially interesting because each and every move seemed to be synced with a loud ticking clock we have in this room.

I haven’t been much up to date and forgot how to ID the moves as I was used to the old way.
But I did notice something with pawns. At one point is looked like a white pawn had a clear and safe capture of an undefended black pawn, but did not take and so on a following move the black advanced and protected the other black. But the animation was moving too fast for me to figure out why the white never took black pawn. Anyway, even tho I don’t contribute to it I really enjoy looking in on games. 

Posted by peiper     on 05/19/2012 at 03:53 AM   
Filed Under: • CHESS •  
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ORGANIC JERKS?

Sometime during the past week I happen to see but didn’t read, an article in the health section of our paper claiming that health food may not really be all that healthy.  But I wasn’t really interested and so ignored it but for the headline.
I try when possible not to over do the yummy stuff that has added to my girth. But that is I’m sorry to say, about as far as it goes.  All the stuff that is supposed to keep me healthy and fit does not taste nearly as good as the stuff that health nazis say is gonna do me in.  He writes as he enjoys a hot cup of PG-Tips xtra strong tea (with Jersey milk which has more cream in it then reg. milk. YUM!) and a strawberry crumpet loaded with real whipped cream.

Anyway, due to things that keep me much preoccupied here, I don’t check my email everyday. But I did this morning and was greeted by the following sent to us by Doc Jeff, and so thanks doc.

H/T Doc Jeff

Does organic food turn people into jerks?

By Diane Mapes

Renate Raymond has encountered her fair share of but a recent trip to a Seattle market left her feeling like she’d stumbled onto the set of Portlandia.

“I stopped at a market to get a fruit platter for a movie night with friends but I couldn’t find one so I asked the produce guy,” says the 40-year-old arts administrator from Seattle. “And he was like, ‘If you want fruit platters, go to Safeway. We’re organic.’ I finally bought a small cake and some strawberries and then at the check stand, the guy was like ‘You didn’t bring your own bag? I need to charge you if you didn’t bring your own bag.’ It was like a ‘Portlandia skit.’ They were so snotty and arrogant.”

As it turns out, new research has determined that a judgmental attitude may just go hand in hand with exposure to organic foods. In fact, a new study published this week in the journal of Social Psychological and Personality Science, has found that organic food may just make people act a bit like jerks.

“There’s a line of research showing that when people can pat themselves on the back for their moral behavior, they can become self-righteous,” says author Kendall Eskine, assistant professor of the department of psychological sciences at Loyola University in New Orleans. “I’ve noticed a lot of organic foods are marketed with moral terminology, like Honest Tea, and wondered if you exposed people to organic food, if it would make them pat themselves on the back for their moral and environmental choices. I wondered if they would be more altruistic or not.”

To find out, Eskine and his team divided 60 people into three groups. One group was shown pictures of clearly labeled organic food, like apples and spinach. Another group was shown comfort foods such as brownies and cookies. And a third group—the controls—were shown non-organic, non-comfort foods like rice, mustard and oatmeal. After viewing the pictures, each person was then asked to read a series of vignettes describing moral transgressions.

SOURCE

Some of you may have seen this on CNBC and so this is for those who didn’t as well as our foreign audience.
And btw .......  how’s this for silly and if anyone understands it, speak up.

I saw some bottled water with a label that read, drawn from organic land.  WTH?

Posted by peiper     on 05/19/2012 at 02:27 AM   
Filed Under: • Health and Safety • Miscellaneous • USA •  
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   Friday - May 18, 2012

Past The Tipping Point And Down The Slippery Slope

Lack of babies could mean the extinction of the Japanese people

Japan has a problem, a lack of children, and it seems likely there will be even fewer in the future.

Japanese researchers have now warned of a doomsday scenario if it carries on this way with the last child to be born there in 3011 and the Japanese people potentially disappearing a few generations later.

Academics from the city of Sendai, which was hit hard by last year’s tsunami, calculate there are now 16.6 million children under the age of 14 now in Japan.

And they say that number is shrinking at a disturbing rate of one every 100 seconds.

So if you do the mathematics, as they did, then the country will have no children within a millennium.

Another study recently showed Japan’s population is expected to fall a third from its current 127.7 million over the next century.

Government projections show the birth rate will hit just 1.35 children per woman within 50 years, well below the replacement rate.

Hmm, I wonder if this always happens when the standard of living gets too high? Or perhaps it always happens when the State gets too powerful, beneficent or not. When life is too easy, do people just stop trying? Or perhaps when the definition of “the good life” is set too high, they sacrifice their future to attain it? One thing I can say about the Japanese is that they don’t suffer a moment of “yellow guilt”. They believe in their own racial superiority but good. But we’re talking Japan now, so it will be for some really strange reason the rest of the world can’t even fathom.

The question everybody asks is why is there a lack of children?

The answer seems to lie in several reasons.

One reason is the cost. Japan is an extremely expensive country and getting a child through college can wipe out a family’s finances.

But research shows it goes much deeper than that as the Japanese state does throw a lot of money at people with children.

Another argument is that there are more effeminate men now called “Herbivores” there who are either not interested in sex or women don’t find masculine enough.

Then some suggest many young Japanese people prefer “virtual” friends with a robot or on the internet, while others suggest their fascination with comics rather than relationships is the cause for a lack of babies.

A study was released earlier this year in which it showed Japan’s young people are shunning the idea of marriage and having children.

The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research study also showed one in four unmarried men and women in their 30s had never had sex, and most young women preferred being single.

It also showed over 60 percent of unmarried young men didn’t have a girlfriend, and nearly 50 percent of women of the same age weren’t dating.

If that wasn’t bad enough, young Japanese people are also, it seems, increasingly not interested in sex.

A survey by the Japan Family Planning Association found that 36 percent of males between 16 and 19 had “no interest” in sex.

Herbivores? Ouch. And half the youth don’t even want to get busy. How in hell can you be a teenage boy and have no interest in sex?? Good grief, IIRC that’s pretty much all teenagers think about. It’s in the genes to get her out of her jeans.

Another point that Steyn makes, one that’s pretty obvious when you think about it, is that the aging population is not helping. Too much health care? I can’t say, but with everyone living forever, there is no room opening up for the next generations, so they aren’t bothering to even have next generations. This is how a really large part of Europe is, and now it looks like Japan is in the same boat. Is it as if human beings subconsciously feel a population density pressure point, and don’t breed past that level? That would explain the Red State population growth here, at the expense of the Blue State coastal growth where populations are dozens of times denser. On the other hand, if such innate pressure sensitivity exists, it might be racially connected. China and India have insanely large populations, with more people per square mile than anywhere on earth, yet they continue to churn out the young. Ah, but the quality of life there isn’t all that great, nor is health care, nor is longevity. So those “switches” might override the density switch and keep them in “panic mode” breeding? I don’t know. Is there a sociologist/anthropologist in the house?

Japan’s population isn’t falling faster because people there are living longer.

Japan has a life expectancy of about 86 years for women and 79 for men at present, and the ages are expected to rise in the coming decades.

More than 20 percent of Japan’s people are aged 65 or over, one of the highest proportions of elderly in the world.

Japan’s graying population is a real problem for the country’s leaders as they need to ensure the dwindling numbers of workers can pay for all the care needed for the growing army of pensioners.

And the elderly have increasingly more economic clout with Japanese companies targeting them increasingly.

Like I said. And like Steyn said, maybe the real reason for the breeders not breeding is that they don’t want to raise children who are only going to be slaves to the geezer-state.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/18/2012 at 09:59 AM   
Filed Under: • CULTURE IN DECLINE • International •  
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THE TIPPING POINT …. CONTINUED

Yesterday, under the heading THE TIPPING POINT, Drew posted an article on demographics relating to the USA and our future. (I’m using ‘future’ lightly) Some many years ago, Time or possibly Newsweek, forget which, ran a story titled ‘The Browning of America’.  Must have been some 25 yrs ago.

Well, last week there was a small blurb in our papers relating to the muslim population of the USA. It said that the muslim population in the USA has doubled.  It did not mention in what time frame, nor did it give their numbers.  Hey, one is two too many.

H/T Right Side News

And that brings me to this. The link below has all of the article.

MUSLIM VOTERS CHANGE EUROPE

Muslims cast the deciding voted that thrust Hollande into the Elysée Palace. He also pledged to change French electoral laws so that Muslim residents without French citizenship would be allowed to vote in municipal elections as of 2014, enabling the Socialist Party to tighten its grip on political power.

An analysis of the voting patterns that barrelled François Hollande to victory on May 6 as the first Socialist president of France since 1995 shows that this overthrow was due in large measure to Muslims, who voted for him in overwhelming numbers.

The French vote marks the first time that Muslims have determined the outcome of a presidential election in a major western European country; it is a preview of things to come.

As the politically active Muslim population in France continues to swell, and as most Muslims vote for Socialist and leftwing parties, conservative parties will find it increasingly difficult to win future elections in France.

According to a survey of 10,000 French voters conducted by the polling firm OpinionWay for the Paris-based newspaper Le Figaro, an extaordinary 93% of French Muslims voted for Hollande on May 6. By contrast, the poll shows that only 7% of French Muslims voted for the incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy.

An estimated 2 million Muslims participated in the 2012 election, meaning that roughly 1.7 million Muslim votes went to Hollande rather than to Sarkozy. In the election as a whole, however, Hollande won over Sarkozy by only 1.1 million votes. This figure implies that Muslims cast the deciding votes that thrust Hollande into the Élysée Palace.

France, home to between five and six million Muslims, already has the largest Muslim population in the European Union, and those numbers are expected to increase exponentially in coming years. According to conservative estimates, the Muslim population is projected to exceed 10% of the overall French population within the next decade-and-a-half.

During the campaign, Hollande offered an amnesty to all of the estimated 400,000 illegal Muslim immigrants currently in France. He also pledged to change French electoral laws so that Muslim residents without French citizenship would be allowed to vote in municipal elections as of 2014. These measures, if implemented, would enable the Socialist Party tighten its grip on political power, both at the regional and national levels.

Muslims in France—and across Europe as a whole—tend to support the Socialists for a variety of demographic, socio-economic and ideological reasons.

Most Muslims in Europe live in lower-income households and experience higher levels of unemployment. As a result, Socialists and Muslims are locked into a politically advantageous power-dependence relationship, between the givers of social welfare benefits and the givers of votes. Not surprisingly, Socialists favor increased Muslim immigration, which in turn produces more voters for Socialist parties.

In the ideological sphere, Socialists and Muslims generally share a mutual antipathy for traditional Judeo-Christian values. Although many Muslims oppose the secular agenda of the Socialists, most Muslims wholeheartedly support Socialist multicultural dogma, which they are leveraging to promote the Islamization of Europe.

In foreign policymaking, Socialists and Muslims share a mutual disdain for the United States and Israel. Leftwing parties across Europe have turned anti-Zionism into a politically correct form of anti-Semitism. The increasingly hysterical anti-Israel rhetoric emanating from Socialist circles has contributed to a spike in anti-Semitic hate crimes across the continent; many of these crimes against Jews are being perpetrated by Muslims.

MORE TO READ HERE

Posted by peiper     on 05/18/2012 at 07:17 AM   
Filed Under: • International • muslims •  
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   Thursday - May 17, 2012

Chess Problem #237

I know, the chess problems have been conspicuous by their absence. But here’s a new one. And a difficult one. #237 is White to move. Theme is ‘overload’. I’ll quote:

Overloading involves the exploitation of an enemy unit which must protect at least two other important pieces (or squares). The object of the attacker is to force the overloaded defending piece to relinquish its necessary defensive functions.

White to move and win

Taken from Combination Challenge by Lou Hayes and USCF Senior Master John Hall (2520)
Graphics courtesy of Exachess.

Also, for any who are interested, I’ve posted another amusing game of mine. This was in the second round of the 1993 Gem City Open. My opponent out-rated me by 162 points. He should have kicked my @ss. Indeed he was kicking my @ss. I was down a Bishop and two pawns, but my 27th move really confused him, and I won. I still don’t know if my 27th move was brilliant, bluff, or a brilliant bluff. I do know that if I’d lost, I’d have annotated it as ??, as in losing move. As things turned out, I gave it a !? which is chessic for interesting.

Here’s the link: Christopher (1809) - Friedman (1971), 1993 Gem City Open, Rd. 2.

It’s a javascript animated link. You can play through it right on the webpage.

UPDATE: 5/22/12 Solution to #237. Yes, this is what the book gives.

1. Nxg6! hxg6
2. Rxe6 Qd7

if 2 … fxe6
3. Qxg6+ winning.

3. Rxg6+ Kh7
4. Ree6 Bf6

if 4 … fxe6
5. Rg7+ Kh8
6. Qg6 and wins

5. Rgxf6 Rg8
6. Bg5 Rg7
7. Rh6+ Kg8
8. Qh5 and White wins. 

Posted by Christopher     on 05/17/2012 at 09:43 PM   
Filed Under: • CHESS •  
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Wheeeee

Posted by Drew458     on 05/17/2012 at 12:52 PM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •  
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The Tipping Point

For the first time in history, there were more minority children born in the United States than white, according to 2011 census data released on Thursday.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 50.4 percent of children born in a 12-month period that ended last July were Hispanic, black, Asian American or from other minorities groups, while non-Hispanic whites accounted for 49.6 percent of all births in that span. In 2010, minority babies accounted for 49.5 percent of all births.

Overall, minorities in the U.S. increased 1.9 percent to become 36.6 percent of the total U.S. population (114 million). But with the weak economy resulting in fewer Hispanics entering the U.S., demographers project that the tipping point when minorities become the majority in America may not happen as early as some predicted. After the 2010 census, experts suggested it could happen by 2040.

Maybe it’s time we all got past our colors and categories and just started being Americans. Unfortunately, very few people of any color or category know what ‘being Americans’ actually is supposed to mean.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/17/2012 at 12:45 PM   
Filed Under: • Racism and race relations •  
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senior sees off two thugs putting hurt on one.

Do not get a lot of stories like this so like to pass on.

Might seem a bit weird and maybe I have missed other examples but, over the last 6 months or so with other stories dealing with people who have fought back and been lucky, it just seems as though the majority of them have been older folk like this fellow, or else women and then no spring chickens either.

They picked on the wrong pensioner! Boxer, 77, who trained with Henry Cooper, beats up two club-wielding thugs after home attack

· Michael Mather dusted off his fighting skills to send to thugs packing
· He smashed the nose of one of the yobs after they ‘walloped’ him on head

By RICHARD HARTLEY-PARKINSON
In his younger days, pensioner Michael Mather was used to sparring in the ring with boxing legend Henry Cooper.
But more recently he has dusted off his fighting skills to put up a fight against two brutal thugs who attacked him outside his home in Ilford, Essex.
The 77-year-old was hit on the head with a wooden club as they tried to force their way into his house while he loaded his car.
Proving he can still throw a good punch, Mr Mather hit one of them in the face and the pair, in their late teens, fled the scene.

Mr Mather spent his youth training with post-war heavyweight boxing icon Henry Cooper and East End gangsters, the Kray twins.
Mr Mather said: ‘One of the boys walloped me on the head with a two foot log and it started bleeding. I was so angry I swore at them and told them I was going to kill them.

‘They then tried to push past me to get into the house.
‘I went to hit one of the boys in the solar plexus with my left and then with my right hand hit him on the nose and it just burst which I do feel a bit guilty about.’
Mr Mather was on his way to referee a local football tournament when he was confronted by his attackers.
‘I was putting my ref’s gear into the car and I didn’t really notice the boys,’ he said. ‘I heard a voice saying “can I use your toilet mister?” but I told them it was out of order,’ he said.

They thugs insisted that Mr Mather let them into his house and attacked him from behind after he turned his back.
‘After I hit him the boys ran off,’ he added.
‘I assume it was the sight of me with blood over my face which was so thick I couldn’t see through my glasses.’
He was then taken to Queen’s Hospital, Romford.

He said: ‘When the nurse at the hospital was stitching my head back together all I could think about was getting to the football match as I didn’t want to let the boys down.

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 05/17/2012 at 11:37 AM   
Filed Under: • Battling Brits • Crime •  
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Last Dance

It’s the Last Dance for Donna Summer, 1948-2012

Yes, one of the few bright spots of disco is gone. 

Donna Summer—the Queen of Disco—died this morning after a battle with cancer ... TMZ has learned.

We’re told Summer was in Florida at the time of her death. She was 63 years old.

Sources close to Summer tell us ... the singer was trying to keep the extent of her illness under wraps.

My favorites were:

Love to Love You Baby
Hot Stuff
She Works Hard For The Money
I Feel Love
Plus, her version of MacArthur Park is my favorite version.

She had a lot more that were pretty good. I have her Greatest Hits on vinyl LP. It’s a two-record set.

UPDATE:

I just read her Wikipedia entry. I had no idea she started out singing background for Three Dog Night. That’s one of my favorite bands from my early teens. She is survived by her second husband and their two daughters, as well as a daughter from her first marriage.

Posted by Christopher     on 05/17/2012 at 12:00 PM   
Filed Under: • Celebrities •  
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   Wednesday - May 16, 2012

FOREIGN DOCTORS WITH MINIMUM LANGUAGE SKILLS

I’m not trying to compete with Drew for the prizewinning moonbat warning award, and while this may not beat his posting of that poor guy who got fired cos he turned in a found gun, this sure does come close if it doesn’t tie.

For some time now there has apparently been quite a problem with foreign doctors working in this country, whose English leaves much to be desired. In fact, there have been reports of doctors who hardly understood the language of the country they were attending to patients in.  There have been some disasters and a promise to do more to vet doctors from other countries more closely.  Now wouldn’t you think that should have been the rule from the get-go?
Hang there ... wait a minute.  This is gonna get sticky. Not so cut and dried as you may think. Remember, this isn’t the USA where we all speak Spanish.
Right. Not funny.

Here’s the headline.

Foreign doctors who can’t speak proper English to be struck off: NHS must check language skills

By JAMES CHAPMAN

Doctors will be struck off if they cannot speak proper English amid fears that patients’ lives are being put at risk, the Health Secretary will say today.

Hospitals and GPs’ surgeries will also be legally obliged to make sure foreign medics have a proper grasp of the language and the way the NHS works.

Andrew Lansley plans to change the rules so doctors found to fall short of the required standards can be permanently barred from practising in this country.

Under the existing system, as many as 23,000 doctors from Europe have registered to work in the NHS despite never having been asked if they can speak English properly.

This gets interesting right about here.

To comply with EU freedom-of-movement requirements, continental doctors and nurses are allowed to work without any formal NHS training.

They can be struck off only if they are found to have harmed patients.

What? So they get to work but the public has to be open to just one mistake. As in a deadly one? Like this?

In one notorious case, pensioner David Gray died after out-of-hours locum Dr Daniel Ubani gave him up to 20 times the recommended amount of diamorphine to treat pain in his kidneys.

The German doctor had failed an English test for one primary care trust, so simply applied to work at another.

(he was German like I’m a rocket scientist. He was NOT German. Does Ubani look like a German word or name? )

UNEDITED AND ALL OF STORY HERE

I only used that article to set the stage. This one is more recent and falls into another category.
Guy visits doctor who happens to be Spanish but.
no entiendo Inglés.  okay I exaggerated a bit the doc may have understood a little but not enough.
Because the doctor reported to authorities that the fellow, who was a bus driver, was also a drunk. But he made NO tests. Nice huh?
So now the patient is out of a job. 

A whole year of hell, thanks to a foreign doctor

By KELVIN MACKENZIE

Last week, I raised the uncomfortable issue of foreign doctors working in this country, and targeted the offensive behaviour of a Spanish consultant. I have since received, and investigated to my satisfaction, an even more shocking case.

Bus driver Kevin Jones, aged 53, turned up with his wife, Samantha, to see Dr Antonio Serrano, a Spaniard, at his surgery in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex.

Mr Jones was suffering pain from swollen legs. Almost immediately, the doctor diagnosed gout and asked how much he drank. He said he might have a pint or two after work and if he went out with his wife and friends at the weekend, a couple of spirits.

When he discovered Mr Jones drove a bus for a living — and had done for 30 years — his attitude changed and, without any research into any kind of alcohol dependency — such as liver or blood tests — he said he would write to the DVLA to have his licence revoked.

Mr Jones told me: ‘This is where the language barrier hit home. He took it that I drank every night, and when I tried to explain, he wouldn’t listen and just spoke over me.’

Several days later, Dr Serrano wrote to the DVLA. Mr Jones asked to see another doctor at the surgery, who agreed to send Mr Jones for blood, liver and kidney tests over a six-week period, all of which showed that Mr Jones was not alcohol dependent.

By now, though, Mr Jones had been signed off sick by his employers, Countryliner.

Astonishingly, without asking for any evidence, the DVLA took the doctor’s word and revoked not only his bus driver’s licence but also his car and motorbike licence.

Mr Jones, who earned £17,000 a year, says: ‘It was a living hell. I could not persuade the DVLA that I was not alcohol dependent, and the only person who could get it revoked was Dr Serrano, who refused to do so.’

By July last year, Mr Jones resigned from the bus company while he battled to clear his name. He had seen other doctors who, although they could not rule out gout, said it was most likely he had arthritis.

READ THE REST OF IT HERE AND THE DOCTOR’S REPLY

Posted by peiper     on 05/16/2012 at 12:59 PM   
Filed Under: • Health-Medicine •  
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Palm Desert?

good grief I am homesik

freezing here and mostly cloudy

Posted by peiper     on 05/16/2012 at 12:57 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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