BMEWS
 
Sarah Palin will pry your Klondike bar from your cold dead fingers.

calendar   Friday - August 24, 2012

Burn The Witch!! Burn The Witch!!

Lance Armstrong To Be Stripped Of All Cycling Awards

USADA: By Giving Up The Fight Against 13 Years Of Spurious Charges, He Is Admitting Guilt

File this one under “damned if you do”

Armstrong faces lifetime ban, loss of 7 Tour titles after dropping doping charges fight

With stunning swiftness, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said Thursday night it will strip Lance Armstrong of his unprecedented seven Tour de France titles after he dropped his fight against drug charges that threatened his legacy as one of the greatest cyclists of all time.

Travis Tygart, USADA’s chief executive, said Armstrong would also be hit with a lifetime ban on Friday. And under the World Anti-Doping Code, he would lose the bronze medal from the 2000 Olympics as well as any awards, event titles and cash earnings.

Armstrong, who retired last year, effectively dropped his fight by declining to enter USADA’s arbitration process—his last option—because he said he was weary of fighting accusations that have dogged him for years. He has consistently pointed to the hundreds of drug tests he passed as proof of his innocence while piling up Tour titles from 1999 to 2005.

“There comes a point in every man’s life when he has to say, `Enough is enough.’ For me, that time is now,” Armstrong said. He called the USADA investigation an “unconstitutional witch hunt.”

USADA reacted quickly and treated Armstrong’s decision as an admission of guilt, hanging the label of drug cheat on an athlete who was a hero to thousands for overcoming life-threatening testicular cancer and for his foundation’s support for cancer research.

“It is a sad day for all of us who love sport and athletes,” Tygart said. “It’s a heartbreaking example of win at all costs overtaking the fair and safe option. There’s no success in cheating to win.”


And it goes on and on. Disgusting. Armstrong has been under these accusations for nearly a decade and a half. A two year federal investigation turned up NOTHING, yet half a year later USADA was ready to burn him at the stake because some other bicycle doper dropped a dime on him while trying to lessen his own charges. And we MUST pander to Europe, especially those sniveling, sanctimonious, snide, and envious Fwench, who just can not stand it that an American won their beloved event. Time. After. Time. After. Time. After. Time. Impossible! Inconceivable! There must be cheating!!

USADA maintains that Armstrong has used banned substances as far back as 1996, including the blood-booster EPO and steroids as well as blood transfusions—all to boost his performance.

...

“There is zero physical evidence to support (the) outlandish and heinous claims,” Armstrong said. “The only physical evidence here is the hundreds of (doping) controls I have passed with flying colors.”

Armstrong sued USADA in Austin, where he lives, in an attempt to block the case and was supported by the UCI. A judge threw out the case on Monday, siding with USADA despite questioning the agency’s pursuit of Armstrong in his retirement.

“USADA’s conduct raises serious questions about whether its real interest in charging Armstrong is to combat doping, or if it is acting according to less noble motives,” such as politics or publicity, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks wrote.

And yet this judge, this Texas judge, let the witch hunt start right up again.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 08/24/2012 at 07:32 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat LeftistsJudges-Courts-LawyersSports •  
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calendar   Thursday - August 23, 2012

Old Local Good News

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I for one am glad of it. We’ve got radon here, one of the highest concentrations in the entire world. So it’s no surprise to me that there’s something else radioactive underground. I’m just glad there wasn’t enough of it to make a going mine, or else we’d have pale green slag heaps everywhere, and the steady tick-ticking of Geiger counters.

I walked to Pennsylvania and back 3 times today yet only strolled for a bit over a mile. I never took the same way more than once. And there is a river between here and there, a significant one.

See More Below The Fold

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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 08/23/2012 at 09:17 PM   
Filed Under: • BridgesHistory •  
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Thurs. night eye candy

She looks familiar to me but I can’t remember if I’ve posted her before.
I may have but maybe not these exact pix.
Anyway, she is

MIRANDA KERR

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See More Below The Fold

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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 08/23/2012 at 11:56 AM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •  
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all it takes is boatloads of money

I was just about ready to cash in tonight when I ran across this.
We’re all interested in real estate. Aren’t we?

Or maybe not but hey.  Read it all at the link and be sure and see ALL the photos.

Maybe it’s just me but for the millions he’s shelling out, as nice as this one place is, I’ve seen a lot prettier. Not that that this place is a slum
Whoa. Far from it.

I haven’t used this line in awhile but it sure applies here and so I’ll repeat it.

IT IS NO SECRET WHAT MONEY CAN DO.  WHAT IT’S DONE FOR OTHERS, IT CAN DO FOR YOU.

But it would be of great help if ya had bags and bags of the stuff first.

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Even with all his ready money, he was rejected by a condo committee. They didn’t want him and he never even got a personal hearing. Good thing maybe because, he also has Diplomatic Immunity.  Can you just imagine what a nightmare that could have become, especially with all those offspring.

They do tend to have long names. Why is that? It’s like mommy wasn’t sure which one she liked best at birth and so used all the options.

His earlier $31.5m bid for two Fifth Avenue apartments belonging to the late copper heiress, Huguette Clark, was rejected
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Located at 22 E. 71st Street, the property was previously owned by real estate magnate Aby Rosen, the co-founder and president of RFR Holdings.

The 21,000-square-foot mansion boasts five floors, a reception hall, and a jacuzzi, according to property listings.

The New York Post reported that while Rosen was known to host extravagant parties at the property, he never actually lived there.

The super-secret deal was reportedly done without a broker to keep the sheikh’s name from getting out.

A source told the Post: ‘The house has been purchased through an LLC, Tower Management Holdings, to protect the identity of the buyer, Sheik Hamad, who has been looking to purchase a New York property.’

TAKE A LOOK AT THE PHOTOS HERE


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 08/23/2012 at 11:15 AM   
Filed Under: • News-Briefs •  
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Villagers With Torches?

I knew we had a covered bridge in my county, but I didn’t know the story behind it. Oh, those radical Red State clingers! Yes, in New Jersey. Conservatives in touch with tradition and history.


An Aroused Group Of Citizens



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This is the last public covered bridge in New Jersey. It was erected in 1872 on abutments dating back to colonial times. Damaged in 1960, the superstructure of this bridge was completely dismantled and removed to make way for a conventional span. However, in 1961, as a result of the efforts of AN AROUSED GROUP OF CITIZENS, the state of New Jersey, using the materials of the original covered bridge, fully restored this link with the past.

Well done. But to be fair, what they got back from the government may not have been exactly what they expected. Or perhaps even wanted. But it was what they needed though.

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The wooden truss inside the bridge is massive. The baulks are 15” across. The truss has iron rods for verticals. While wooden bridge truss designs are often called King Post, Queen Post, Long, or Howe, because of this one’s “double V” design it could just as easily be considered to be a double Warren with alternate verticals. Which would make it rather cutting edge, for 1872. But while the great wooden truss remains, and the thick wooden deck with rough planks bolted on gives passing vehicles that bump-a-dump-bump “crossing an old time bridge” sensation, the truss isn’t really doing anything more than holding the roof up. All the weight is born by the completely modern underpinnings, starting with the 24” tall I beam stringers crossing the creek and the slightly smaller floor beams and diagonals supporting the 4x12 wooden floor joists. This one only looks old and delicate on top. Underneath it’s a modern mini-monster.

This is the way that old bridges survive in the modern world. When the new bridge was put in back in 1961, just inches away from where this covered bridge now stands, it was built with even mightier beams which let it handle any kind of traffic load AND a set of picturesque stone side walls a foot and a half thick.

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Those beams underneath have to be three feet tall if they’re an inch. So traffic goes north on the open stone walled bridge, and south on the wooden covered bridge, and does it without weight limits or without even slowing down. Because 99% of all the drivers behind the wheel are just too damn busy getting on with their own lives, getting to where they have to be as fast as they can, to even notice where they are. There’s an observation about life in there somewhere ... if you’re willing to take the time to slow down and think about it.

However, since the covered bridge is only 84 feet long it is pretty comical to see front end of a full size tractor trailer come blasting out the south end of the bridge while the back end is still going in. Kind of like in those cartoons where the dachshund dog sticks out of both ends of the doghouse at the same time. And if you follow this link and look at the last picture added in the comments section, you’ll see that the entire wooden superstructure - the truss, the roof, and the walls - is supported by “puny” little 4” I beam stubs welded on to the main beams almost as an afterthought. That’s how strong modern steel is, that’s how weak even massive hardwood wooden trusses are, and it’s an indication of just how strong this “new” bridge really is: you could drive tanks across it if they’d fit inside.




I know. I know. Another boring ass bridge post by Drew, from his going crazy period. But I liked the “aroused citizens” part ... and I won’t bore you with the 2 turn of the century pony trusses I found up the road, nor with YET ANOTHER 1870s Phoenix column through truss 3 miles down the road from this one. Hunterdon County is an easy place to be a bridge spotter. You can get your fix every 100 yards or so, with fancy ones and historical ones hidden in the weeds every couple of miles.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 08/23/2012 at 10:29 AM   
Filed Under: • BridgesHistory •  
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calendar   Wednesday - August 22, 2012

good things come to those who wait.  really?

I keep threatening to quit reading papers or listening to radio news because I always find them so damned upsetting. And why shouldn’t they be? Many things defy logic by which I guess I mean the law for one thing. Oh there’s law okay. But there is simply no justice. If there is I can’t see it.
I won’t rehash some of the subjects I’ve already covered but would like to bring up something that we are faced with. So it’s personal.

I think I’ll start with a criminal that has no relation to our situation except for the fact that the bastard is getting what might be thought first rate medical care, in a private hospital and at the expense of the txpayer.

There’s this animal who weighs 322 pounds and is serving time for murder, and at the cost of £15,000 ($ 23,694.00 ) has had surgery and been fitted with a gastric band.
Let me tell you about this guy.

He was sent to prison for killing two women. He cut flesh from the arms of one of his victims and ate it.

Deprived of human flesh in Broadmoor, he piled on the pounds gorging on cake and potato chips until he was considered dangerously obese.
He was given private treatment after spending just three months on an NHS waiting list.

I’ll let Richard Littlejohn take up his story for a bit.

Before we get to the question of why he was given private treatment, it is legitimate to ask how he was ever allowed to stuff himself silly in the first place.
Broadmoor is a high-security hospital. They were in a position to control his food intake. Why was he allowed unlimited crisps and cakes? Didn’t anyone notice he was getting fat?
More to the point, wouldn’t it have been easier to put him on a diet instead of sending him for surgery?
And why let him go private? So what if he was on an NHS waiting list?
He wasn’t going anywhere.

Which brings me to my wife, who is still quite ill but mostly it’s the degenerative condition in her back causing unbearable pain at times.  As well, the never ending itchy head left by Shingles for which she is still taking mega doses of medication.

Well, as to the pain.  Most of the time she can’t even stand long enough to make a cup of tea or a salad and forget about breakfast.  Sometimes after the morphine I don’t even want her trying to stand up. Although things look pretty bad the way I write them, while they are indeed lousy, they are not dire or life threatening.

Well, almost three months ago her doctor wrote to the pain management clinic here. to set up a “consultation” with a specialist. Not the treatment mind, just the consultation which has to proceed any treatment if there is any for her condition.  And so we wait.

Well, fancy this bit of good luck. For our cannibal criminal. As I said above, he was given private treatment after spending just three months on an NHS waiting list.

My wife hasn’t gone quite three months yet, but it just annoys me that someone like that can get such quick treatment and private no less, while my wife waits just to speak to a specialist. His condition I take it is thought to be life threatening due to his overweight.
Now I can understand you asking, then why doesn’t she go private.
And that’s another subject for an even longer post I don’t have the patience or time for today.

Bah. Frankly I hope the bastard chokes on his next meal.


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 08/22/2012 at 08:49 AM   
Filed Under: • Health-Medicine •  
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calendar   Tuesday - August 21, 2012

Another Short Boat Ride

USS Constitution Sails For Half A Mile

2nd time oldest Navy ships sails in 131 years

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BOSTON—At 215 years old, the USS Constitution is the U.S. Navy’s oldest commissioned warship afloat. But it’s not too old to take a quick sail.

For 17 minutes on Sunday, the ship cruised west across Boston Harbor, reaching a maximum speed of 3.1 knots. It was its first sail under its own power since turning 200 in 1997.

The short trip—a distance of 1,100 yards—was to commemorate the Constitution’s victory over a British warship of a similar size in a fierce battle during the War of 1812. The victory earned the ship its nickname, “Old Ironsides.”

Chief Petty Officer Frank Neely, a Constitution spokesman and crew member, said he was among the 285 lucky people who were aboard on Sunday. It was a warn day with a few clouds, but still perfect for the sail, he said.

“This was really terrific,” Neely said. “It couldn’t have been more memorable.”

The trip marked the day two centuries ago when the Constitution defeated the British frigate HMS Guerriere during the War of 1812.

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As thousands of onlookers cheered from Castle Island in South Boston, the USS Constitution sailed under its own power Sunday for just the second time in 131 years, marking the 200th anniversary of the battle that earned it the nickname Old Ironsides. “It’s a twice-in-a-lifetime opportunity, sailing on her own power,” said Bob Poundcq, 48, of Quincy, referring to the last time the USS Constitution sailed on its own in 1997 for Marblehead’s 200th anniversary.

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click this pic for a MASSIVE super detailed photo

Patriotic music sounded from Fort Independence as the world’s oldest commissioned warship still afloat came into view. “Once again, Boston well shows her history,” said Ken Smith, 47, of Cambridge.

We’re hoping she goes rogue and goes off on her own,” joked his wife, Anne Marie, 47.

The Constitution was towed past the crowd to a point between Castle Island and Deer Island. About 200 sailors then unfurled four of its sails before it was released from its tugboat tethers and sailed toward open water for about 10 minutes.

Then, it slowly made its way back toward Castle Island, aided by a tugboat. After it approached and fired its cannons, the crowd cheered and boats honked their horns as they bobbed in the harbor a safe distance away.

Meanwhile, the Post Office has issued a commemorative stamp.

More links at the top of the comments section, including several videos, none of which actually show the ship under sail. duh.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 08/21/2012 at 09:21 AM   
Filed Under: • Militaryplanes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobilesUSA •  
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When Girls Gone Wild Grow Up

Newswoman wins lawsuit against Hustler over photo of her naked in bar

Because anything can happen in a courtroom. This one doesn’t sound proper to me in the least.

CLEVELAND – An Ohio TV newswoman has won a lawsuit against Hustler over publication of a photograph showing her dancing naked in a wet T-shirt contest.

The Plain Dealer newspaper reports a federal jury Thursday sided with Catherine Bosley and her husband over an image taken at a Florida bar in 2003. The jury awarded them $135,000 plus attorney fees.

Bosley and her husband gained rights to her contest photos after a photographer posted them online. She resigned from WKBN-TV in Youngstown and now works at WOIO-TV in Cleveland.

Larry Flynt’s Hustler magazine printed one of the photos in 2006. The 2008 lawsuit claimed the publication failed to get Bosley’s permission to print the photo. Hustler’s attorneys argued they didn’t need permission.

It’s unclear if Hustler Inc. will appeal the decision.

This is just one of the many pictures of her in the process of getting naked - fully 100% starkers, smoothie and implants showing, AND LOVING IT in front of a crowd - in this so-called competition that can be found in milliseconds online. [ OOPS SORRY, PICTURE REDACTED UNDER THREAT OF LAWSUIT. ] ( WTF, get your hoo-hoo out for the world to see and to photograph, then go lawyer happy when everyone actually looks. Digitally. Give me a break. She didn’t look naked to me in the picture. Trashed, low class, mostly showing, but not your actual naked. And now the prude routine? Please.)

And she wasn’t underage when she did it, or even just 19 or in college. From what I’ve seen, the contest looks like some MILFy thing and she and the other women involved were in their mid 30s at least.  So what gives?

Somebody took pictures, then posted them online where they remain today ... then she “acquired” the rights to them ... after they were released into the public domain ... and then she sued a skin mag and won when they got published? EXCUSE ME. Nuh uh. Talk to the hand. Puh Leez. Once it’s out in the PD, you CAN"T own it. Sor-ree.

Hell, I think I should own the words “the” and “is”. Cuz I feel like it. Now everytime anyone says or writes those words, they owe me $1. Each. Oh hella yeah. Where is that jury???

If she wants to be suing someone, she should be suing her former employer that saw fit to fire her over this fully legal activity she took part in on her own time while not on the job. Personally, I think it’s about time the whole damn country learns to STEP OFF and STFU about a bit of skin. We all have some, down under the clothes. And lots of folks let lots of it ... sometimes all of it ... sometimes all of it in the most personal ways imaginable ... be seen in public. Or for profit. And you know what? It ain’t none of your damn business. None.

So the TV network firing her? The schools canning the pretty young teachers who flashed some titty online or in a sext message ... whether when they were employed as a teacher or not ... AIN’T NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS. People have their bodies and their sexuality and they have the right to express and exercise them however they feel like. As long as it isn’t illegal, and wasn’t forced ... then MYOB. It’s called freedom. And no one in this country should ever be punished for exercising freedom of any kind.

There, another fairly quick post with a debatable issue. You go Drew.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 08/21/2012 at 07:32 AM   
Filed Under: • CULTURE IN DECLINEEye-CandyJudges-Courts-LawyersSex •  
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Modern Parenting

Man Dumps Toddler At Bus Stop

Strangers take baby to church, police collect baby, mom picks up kid from cops later.

Is this the new model for free day care in Detroit?

DETROIT – Police in Detroit are searching for a man they say took a toddler girl to a bus stop and abandoned her, leaving the child standing alone on the street corner.

Late Monday night Detroit police identified the child and her mother, but still do not know the identity of the man who abandoned her, the Detroit Free Press reports. The child, 20-month-old Serenity Howell, was believed to be at home when she was left by the man and was picked up from the police station by her mother, 20-year-old Nicole Howell.

Witnesses say an African-American man in his twenties walked up to a bus stop with the toddler and left her. A Good Samaritan took the child to a nearby church, where the staff kept the child comfortable until police arrived.

“She couldn’t say her name. When I tried to say ‘mommy’ to see if any type of response came out, nothing,” one of the women at the church Renee Compton told MyFoxDetroit.com.

So you tell me. How did the mother know her toddler was at the police station? Did the people at the church recognize the kid? Did the cops? Was the drop off captured on surveillance cameras, and the police instantly recognized the guy?

Was this some new form of public daycare, or was the kid just a pawn in some nasty argument between the man and the mother?

Hours earlier, witness had told police the child, whose age is estimated to be about 18 to 24 months, came up to a bus stop at the corner of Van Dyke and Nevada with a black man in his 20s. The man struck up a conversation with another man who was waiting for a bus.

Knox said police aren’t sure who the man is or how he was involved, and that Serenity was believed to be at home when she was found at the bus stop.

After a short time, the man who brought the child just walked away, leaving the little girl behind. The second man who was waiting for the bus took the child to the Perfecting Church, on the nearby street corner, and police were called.

I dunno man. Some people are just not responsible parents. Or are they? What if this isn’t just an isolated incident, but the leading edge of a cultural movement? What if this kind of thing starts happening in bunches? 10, 100, 500 kids at the bus stop. Every morning. Let the man take care of the “lost” kids all day, feed them, clean them, watch over them. And the mommas come by in the evening to pick them up. Mostly. Unless, you know, unless there’s a really fine party on the block or something. Might not even matter if they take home the proper kid.

Are we on the cusp of seeing creche babies, like in the story Friday? Is this Hillary’s Dream coming true? “IT TAKES A VILLAGE”. Or at least a church and a police department.

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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 08/21/2012 at 06:55 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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Cinema warns against noisy Muslims, warning taken as, raaaaaaacism

H/T Europe News

Meant to close last night but found this.
Not surprising, and I think I’m thankful we no longer attend movie houses as I expect the same here before too long.
I think part of Europe woke up too late though.
It’s all over but the shouting and that shouting may well be something that sounds like akbar snackbar.
Thank heaven America at least is armed.  Of course, that means they’ll have access to the same thing.
Future looks like a bloody one.

The English translation here makes for a slightly clumsy ride but overall it’s understandable.

Denmark: Cinema warns against noisy Muslims

By Nicolai Sennels

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The cinema Palads is probably the biggest in Denmark. I and most of my friends always avoids it because of the many noisy and misbehaving immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa. The warning against noisy Muslims in certain cinemas thus applies unofficially all year round.

This sign was put up at the cinema Palads in connection with Ramadan 2012 before being taken down again a few hours later because of accusations of racism:

Translation of Palads’ warning:
“Ramadan and Eid
Saturday, Sunday and Monday (August 18.-19.-20) the Muslim month of fasting, Ramadan, ends and all Muslims will be celebrating.
It happens with food and drink, and some also go to the cinema. Therefore cinema guests all over the country must expect more guests and more noise than usual.
We expect that it will happen in connection with movies such as Batman 3, Bourne Legacy, Total Recall, Abraham Lincoln and Prometheus, but we of course can not know beforehand.
Guards from the security company GS4 will be patrolling the cinema all day long, and if you experience disturbances please contact them or our staff.
We apologise for any inconvenience.
Yours,
Palads”

MP Martin Henriksen (Danish Peoples Party) comments the case in Jyllands-Posten (August 19 2012 “OK to warn against Muslims"), Denmark’s biggest newspaper:
“It is well known that some Muslims behave differently when they are together with many other Muslims. For some it feel uncomfortable ... If you that ask Muslims to quiet down, they tend to show threatening behaviour. Therefore it is good that people are warned. ... I see Palads’ warning as pointing to reality. When it is Ramadan, some Muslims change their behavior. It is not all Muslims who misbehave but there are quite some who do. ... When many Muslims are gathered at one place there is a tendency for the formation of unpleasant situations. There is a tendency that this kind of problems appear in connection with Ramadan and they must be dealt with. There is a reason why Palads put up the warning.”
Two anonymous cinema workers comment the case - via the award winning and most read blog in Denmark, Uriasposten.net:
“My brother was manager in Palads for six years. He has asked me to post the following of his experience from five years of Eid:
- One stabbing incident.
- An episode of young immigrants running around with a knife and threatened Danish guests ‘for fun’
- A mass brawl between 40-50 Somalis, preferably girls (WTF!!)
- An episode where two rows of chairs had their seats and backrests slashed with a knife, all in all about 40 chairs.
- A manager got a gun to his forehead when he asked an immigrant to extinguish his cigarette inside the hall during the film.
- Several episodes of immigrants taking pictures of the staff when they were asked not to ruin the show for others by smoking, shouting, phoning, etc.
- Several episodes of young female workers being harassed sexually by immigrants.
Out of the approx. 200 guests that I have asked to leave the cinema because they could not behave properly only 20 of themhave been Danes, the rest were immigrants. Although there are less trouble over the years, I finally had enough and quit my job at Palads, because I found myself losing faith in my fellow citizens. It is depressing in the long run.”
And:
“I have worked in a cinema during Eid and believe me when I say it is Hell. People behave completely wild and I was not the only one receiving threats. We were told by our managers to take off our name tags after work because several from our staff got beaten up after work.”

Posted August 20th, 2012 by pk


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 08/21/2012 at 05:00 AM   
Filed Under: • DIVERSITY BSmuslims •  
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calendar   Monday - August 20, 2012

english and the spelling of

Not just becauz I am a louzey s9eller.  Which I are.
I was perhaps the worst in my family. Haven’t a clue why that was.

I was not rebelling against anything. Same with math. I used to marvel at my granddad, at the way he used to do what we called sums.
Just to entertain the kids he’d have us give him numbers he’d add, or subtract or multiply. My mother could do that too. With no paper and pencil. I work things out pretty well with those tools. I’ve always been more visual. So I was able to add up the numbers or divide them and always the grown ups were right.
Here’s a weird note tho. Really weird. And I do not think I could do it today.
I used to be able to work out the numbers on daily doubles and parleys and one or two other race combinations, all in my head.  When I checked things out for the totals using paper, damn if I didn’t have it all correct. ???  Go figure.  But add one plus one in civilian life was like, duh. 1+1=11.

And so to spelling.
When I got older I began to seriously question why English was spelled so many ways for the same word. To, Two, Too, for example. Surely we know by how a word is used, how it is meant to be understood.  Why is there a ‘K’ in knife and knight?
The list can go on but you see what I mean.

It isn’t easy breaking old habits but friend Drew sorta , kinda pushed me in that direction long ago.  I liked to spell enough as, enuff. It made more sense to me.
Through as thru is another.  Laugh should be laff.

A big influence on me once was the comedian Gallagher. Long before this video clip he was doing this act and I saw him and thought, hey.  I was thinking the same but not as funny. I was taking it seriously.
But okay, now I use spell check more and even have a huge heavy dictionary.  I do use the darn thing but I still manage to get some things rong.
I also have a tendency to spell things the way my ear hears em.  And so I often pronounce werds, rongly.  And due to an accent which I guess was regional, I used to pronounce coffee as, cawfee.
But that’s all ancient history, mostly thanks to Drew when we exchanged some letters on the topic of language. 

Anyway, a week or so ago I found an article on the English language and spelling.
Pretty darn interesting. But it all brought me back to Gallagher, who poor man, has been gravely ill and in poor financial shape as well.  Here he is on, Spelling. 



Spelling it out: After 1,000 years of foreign meddling, no wonder the English language is so confusing

By David Crystal

Why is English spelling so difficult? Why do so many people feel they are bad at it? Why is there an h in ghost, but not in goat for instance, and why is there a silent b in debt?

The answers to these questions and to some of spelling’s most baffling eccentricities lie deep in the history of English and its progress from an obscure Germanic dialect to global language – with help on the way from medieval monks, our cousins in America and even a bunch of Flemish-speaking craftsmen.

By the 11th Century, English spelling was merely erratic. Within 400 years, it had become chaotic. The root cause was the arrival of the Normans and a cadre of French scribes who wrote official documents.

These scribes brought continental spelling habits honed through writing Latin and French. They looked at the way English was being written and didn’t like what they saw.

There were unfamiliar letters in the shape of, for example, ash (æ), thorn (þ), the g was being written in a curious way, and Z – a letter that had been borrowed from the Irish alphabet – had come to be called ‘yogh’. They had to go.

One of these ancient letters, thorn, continued in use longer than the others and is still reflected in such usages as ‘Ye Olde Tea Shoppe’. Ye is a misinterpretation – it should have been pronounced as ‘th’.

As thorn fell out of use, people who came across it thought it was a letter Y. They then pronounced it as a Y – and we continue to do so today, saying ‘Yee’ Olde Tea Shoppe.

The fynysshed article

William Caxton, who was the first person to set up a printing press in England in 1476, didn’t seem interested in spelling. As long as a word was recognisable, it would do.

Caxton usually spells the word finished as fynysshed, for example, but we also find fynisshed, fynysshid and fynysshyd.

Having flexible spelling was a gift for printers trying to make their pages look good, with a justified (aligned) right-hand margin. Adding extra letters, and especially an e, was a simple solution to the problem of line length, which is why we still live with such words as have, give, live, groove, sneeze, gone, come and done.

In some respects, Caxton’s choices made English spelling more, not less, irregular. This was certainly the case when it came to the spelling of ghost. Why is there an h there? It wasn’t there when the word first came into English. In Anglo-Saxon England, the Holy Ghost was a Hali Gast.

But Caxton had learned his trade in Cologne and Bruges and, when it came to the painstaking process of typesetting, he looked to the Continent for help. All his assistants spoke Flemish. It’s no surprise, then, when we read a reference to the seven gifts of the Holy Ghoost. The Flemings had imported the ‘h’ because in their language the word was spelled gheest.

But by the end of the 16th Century everyone was using the new form. And slowly the ‘h’ spread to related words. Aghast appears first in the 15th Century, and eventually replaces agast. Ghastly replaces gastly.

THE REST IS WELL WORTH THE READ. LINK TO IT HERE.


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 08/20/2012 at 12:28 PM   
Filed Under: • Education •  
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a little red

image


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 08/20/2012 at 09:01 AM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •  
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Off Roading

I am going to beat this. I am not giving up.

I beat the cigs, I’m trying to exercise and lose weight, I can find a steady job and repair my relationship. I can do it. Yes I can.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 08/20/2012 at 08:16 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life •  
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calendar   Sunday - August 19, 2012

candy for the eyes

hey, it’s 10pm here.
Gotta go.

image


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 08/19/2012 at 03:57 PM   
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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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