Wednesday - August 14, 2013

Burn The Heretics

On Tuesday, the Missouri State National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) issued a statement asking for federal involvement in the case of a rodeo clown who wore an Obama mask and then asked the crowd if they’d like to see Obama run down by a bull. “The activities at the Missouri State Fair targeting and inciting violence against our President are serious and warrant a full review by both the Secret Service and the Justice Department,” said State President Mary Ratliff. “Incidents involving individuals acting out with extreme violent behavior in movie theaters, schools, churches, political appearances, and outdoor events in general speaks volume to the irresponsible behavior of all the parties involved with the incendiary events at the Missouri State Fair.”

So now the rodeo clown is out of a job forever. And he has to go to Camp Ayers for sensitivity training. And the announcer and the rodeo president have been forced to resign. And now the NAACP wants to bring federal charges to bear.

WTF. WTF?? Oh, I get it: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain

But the last guy who was President ... it was not just OK to mock on him, it was somehow the highest form of patriotism. So we got essays, books, and movies about assassinating him. And he was derided in the press every single day for 8 years. And the target of comedians and late night talk show hosts on TV. And you couldn’t hardly click a mouse online without seeing a picture of him portrayed as a chimpanzee. Only President in history that had a prime time sitcom devoted to mocking him as a trigger happy imbecile. And a cartoon series that did the same. And all that was wonderful. The hate filled left worked themselves into such a rabid lather so often that psychologists came up with a new mental disorder: Bush Derangement Syndrome.

But this guy ... not one word of criticism is allowed. Not one joke. Or else RACIST!! Because he’s half-white you know. Far more a “white-black” than George Zimmerman is a “white hispanic”. But these days the old “one drop” rule works the other way (for everyone except Zimmerman). So mentioning the mom jeans, the faggola vacation bicycle, a million rounds of golf, or that he throws like a girl ... RACIST.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/article/2534213
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/aug/13/rodeo-clowns-asked-take-sensitivity-training/

Sondra K has a great, but long, post on it: The Republic Is Dead. And she’s right. It’s disgusting. It’s sickening. And it will only get worse. Free Speech exists only for the people in power and their friends. Not for you. You clown.




You have been warned. Here in Black Run America, this halfrican is sacrosanct. Above the law, and above reproach. Show respect. OR ELSE.

(not that this is anything new. Anyone who asked anything about him during the 2008 campaign, or questioned his stances, was immediately hammered into oblivion as a racist. Because the campaign wasn’t about race at all. Remember how it took the late night TV guys YEARS to crack a single Obama joke? Because ... he just wasn’t funny. And they weren’t kidding.)

Posted by Drew458     on 08/14/2013 at 07:31 AM   
Filed Under: • Obama, The One •  
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Let’s Roll The Dice

Former Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. and his wife, Sandra, learn their fates Wednesday when a federal judge in Washington, D.C., sentences the one-time power couple for misusing $750,000 in campaign money on everything from a gold-plated Rolex watch and mink capes to vacations and mounted elk heads.

The 48-year-old son of civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson is expected to step before the judge at the hearing to make a statement, a moment defendants typically use to apologize or ask for mercy. An emotional Jackson held back tears earlier this year when he entered a guilty plea to conspiring to defraud his campaign.

Citing the brazenness of his illegal spending, prosecutors are recommending a four-year prison term for the Chicago Democrat once seen as a possible candidate for U.S. president. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson—who is not related to the defendants—could give him as little as probation or impose the maximum five-year prison term.

JJ Jr is begging the courts for mercy, seeing as he is now (suddenly, amazingly!) bipolar. And his wife, the tax cheat, wants to do her time when he isn’t in the hoosegow. Because the children.

But prosecutors dismiss the notion that Jackson’s bipolar disorder explains his misdeeds.

There is no proof his mood swings had any bearing on the ”3,100 illegal transactions that occurred during the life of the conspiracy,” they say in one filing.

So roll the dice and take your guess. 5 years? 3 years? Or 5 hours community service and a PSA? I’m betting he gets next to nothing. Much ado about nothing, when all is said and done. And he’ll be back in politics inside a year, just like Spitzer and Weiner. After all, a Chicago Democrat stealing hundreds of thousands from his campaign fund ... par for the course.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/14/2013 at 07:03 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •  
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   Tuesday - August 13, 2013

Happy Music, Amazing Memories

So, looking for a bit of fun to watch on the telly again tonight. We found that the On Demand folks have finally loaded up Season 1 of Torchwood, that dark and somewhat wobbly spin-off from Dr. Who. So we’re watching episode 1.5, in which the Torchwood team has to try and stop some fairies who are on a bit of a murderous rampage in protecting their next Chosen One, a little girl who will become one of them but back in time. That’s not all that important to this post. One scene was at a school playground, where all the golden and ginger haired children (it’s set in Wales, m’kay?) are skipping about ... and the background music is a chorus of young voices singing The Lord of the Dance. A song I haven’t heard in more than 45 years. So of course it all came back to me in the blink of an eye and I knew every word. And I also immediately made the connection that it’s the same tune as The Gift To Be Simple. And the Mrs. is looking at me funny as I’m quietly singing along with the TV show as the fairies are raising a storm and killing everybody ... How do you know that song? What, didn’t they teach you this in Sunday School? Um, no, not at all. We did our catechisms and that was about it. Egads, Catholics. They miss out on all the good stuff. I’ve know this since I was a little kid. I’ve never heard this tune in my entire life. O. M. G. 

A few minutes of net research shows me that I learned LOTD when it was practically new. I doubt if I was as old as 9 ... coulda been 6 or 7 ... spent part of one summer going to multi-denominational Protestant Summer Day Camp. I must have learned a whole bunch of worship music then, and it’s all been in the back of my head ever since. Years ago I saw the film Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? and knew Down to the River to Pray the instant I heard it. Memory. It’s funny stuff.

Anyway, here’s some nice easy orchestra music to listen too, that’s almost guaranteed to make you happy. Copeland’s Appalachian Spring from 1945. You’ve heard all of it, or large parts of it, a million times before, in countless films. The bit of music I’m talking about is also the heart of the theme of the second movement of this piece, and starts right about the 4:18 mark. Simple Gifts was actually put to paper nearly 100 years earlier, back around 1848, so I’ve heard.

A lovely rendition of the old hymn ...

Posted by Drew458     on 08/13/2013 at 10:43 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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I’d rather have the cocktail instead

If you mix black rum and ginger beer on the rocks you get a cocktail called a Dark and Stormy. The classic version is made with Gosling’s rum, which is about as ink dark a black rum as you’ll ever find. Good stuff.

Outside today it’s also dark and stormy. Raining like mad, and so dreary that the street lights are still on at 10am. Blah. A great day to have a nice breakfast and then crawl back under the covers for a few more hours sleep. As if.

No, got stuff to do. Waiting for a minor break in the downpour so I can run out to the store.

Oh, and that Gosling’s rum? The regular bottle is a bit weak at 80 proof. They make a 151 proof version too. Both cost the same, and neither is that expensive. Very strong flavor, but good. I like to get one of each proof and mix them, giving me 2 bottles of 115 proof, which is about where rum really ought to be. It’s got snap and fire at that point, but isn’t so strong that it burns out your throat.

I don’t know why the booze guys don’t sell rum in the 100-110 proof range. That’s where it wakes up, and makes for a vastly better drinking experience. Oh, I know why. It’s because Americans are pretty juvenile when it comes to hard liquor. Most of it isn’t for drinking straight, it’s for mixing with soda and artificial fruit juice. That’s why vodka comes in 15 different flavors, and at least half the shelf space for rum is given over to the candy flavored stuff. It’s all crap. Low quality spirits, roughly fermented and unaged, sweetened up with some artificial rubber banana nonsense.  Bah, just shut up Drew. You’re the only guy out there who thinks the perfect mixed for most booze is a single ice cube.  right, rant over.

Hey, I think the rain has let up. It’s still quite dark out, but I’ll hazard a quick trip to the store anyway.

.... ach, crivens! I thought I hit the publish key on this early this morning!!  Needless to say, I’ve been a busy bee all day. And now I have to go off to the Gathering o’ The Teams ... the get-together meeting for Greed League. Yeah, despite my bitching, I’m still in it. But I’ll be pushing for big changes this year.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/13/2013 at 04:41 PM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather • Daily Life •  
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   Monday - August 12, 2013

The internet sux

Write some crap that everybody already knows. Stick up a bunch of simple pictures with smart-alec remarks on them. Get half a million hits. Ok, being on a big-time site helps, but it doesn’t help that much, does it??

Posted by Drew458     on 08/12/2013 at 03:20 PM   
Filed Under: • Computers and Cyberspace • Fun-Stuff • Hollywood •  
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stuck here for awhile: Jersey Gridlock

There’s a tank truck fire on the highway 3 miles away. Rt 78 is closed in both directions. We live near the highway, so when traffic gets bad all the “smart” drivers try to get around the jam by taking local roads. Now all those roads are jammed to.  So I can’t get in, or out. Even the main road through our condo park is bumper to bumper, and it’s a private road. Not that that stops people from using us as a short cut.

Hope they get it fixed soon. Not that I was going anywhere ... well, maybe to the grocery store. We can always have peanut butter sandwiches for dinner, or some canned tuna. This is just another time when life in NJ, which is pretty congested to begin with, even out here in the sticks (we have cows on the farm one hill over from us), gets annoying. And it’s only the middle of the afternoon, that slack period before rush hour starts around 4:30. Looks like there’s an 8 mile tailback already to the East. If it builds up another 7 miles (not hard to do at all) it will hit Rt 287, and that will gridlock the entire center of the state. It’s happened before, believe you me. No telling how far west the jam extends, but there isn’t much out that way, other than Pennsylvania. Rt 31, the local north-south highway, is already frozen at least a few miles north and south of Rt 78.

I’ve heard rumors that in some places way out west, or on certain streets in quaint English villages out in the country, only a car or two a day go by. Times like this make those rumors pretty hard to believe.

UNION TWP. — The westbound lanes of Route 78 are closed between Exits 13 and 12, as firefighters respond to calls of a tractor-trailer on fire near mile marker 14.4.

Responding crews were told to enter the highway at Johnny’s truck stop and travel east in the westbound lanes to reach the site of the fire.

A hazmat crew was called to the scene to handle a spill of diesel fuel into a storm drain.

The initial call about the tractor-trailer fire was dispatched shortly before 2:30 p.m., according to unconfirmed radio reports.

Nah, that’s wrong. Marker 14.4 is just west of exit 15 at the end of my piece of Rt 173. I can see exit 13 from the top of our hill, and traffic is blocked way west of there. Johnny’s is at exit 12. If the accident was where they say, that part of the westbound highway would be empty. Pretty sure it’s west of exit 12, maybe as far as exit 11.

Yeah, we have exits nearly every mile. There’s just that much density around here.

update: fire is out, one lane open, but it’s too late. Traffic backup extends halfway across the state (which is all of 63 miles wide in our part here).

Guess it wasn’t a tanker truck after all. I still think this is west of exit 12. The land flattens out there; exit 12 is almost at the top of a hill.

Update: Nope, I was thinking mile marker 15.4. I went past the burned spot today, and it was west of exit 13 between marker 14.4 and 14.3. And it turns out that it was a truckload of diapers that burned up.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/12/2013 at 02:33 PM   
Filed Under: • planes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobiles •  
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crap news

Sometimes the news is crap.

Sometimes it’s little crap about big crap.

Other times it’s big crap about little crap.

On occasion it’s just plain old crap.

Maybe it doesn’t really make any difference.

Any which way, I wish I could un-see what I saw.

Gak.

Personally, I rather read about one great SSD than half a dozen SSDDs, even if it isn’t the newest of new news.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/12/2013 at 12:59 PM   
Filed Under: • News-Briefs •  
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pure coincidence I’m sure

Bang Bang
You’re Fired
You made a map
And now you’re mired




delayed justice is justice nonetheless

The Rockland County Times has learned that Rockland County Chief Editor Caryn McBride is among the casualties of the recent purge of 17 journalists and 26 total staffers at the Gannett-owned Journal News newspaper.

McBride gained fame earlier this year for her involvement in the Journal News gun map fiasco. Police reports indicated McBride had called the Clarkstown Police Department to notify them of torrents of angry phone calls and letters the newspaper received following the publication of the map.

The Rockland editor said she felt threatened by the complaints, but local police did not agree a credible threat against the safety of employees of the newspaper existed. Unsatisfied, McBride and other executives decided to hire armed guards to protect their property, causing an uproar due to the perceived hypocrisy of the avowed anti-gun editors hiring gun-toting men.

The decision to lay off McBride was made by Journal News Publisher and CEO Janet Hasson. The fate of Editor-in-Chief CynDee Royle and other editors that approved the gun map have not been made public. McBride had been with the newspaper approximately three years.

Layoffs took place company-wide for the Journal News parent Gannett. There is no indication the gun map played a role in the layoffs.

Oh no, no indication at all. Maybe the company did their annual quartiles and she came up in the fifth segment. Out of four. You know, because subscriptions and ad revenue dropped off the cliff starting the day after she published that map.

The article and the maps are still online, though the maps are no longer interactive. However the raw data was pasted elsewhere by some “mystery person” and is still available. No, I’m not telling you where, but I found it in less than 30 seconds.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/12/2013 at 12:39 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Guns and Gun Control • Media-Bias •  
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Every baby born in Britain may have the European Union flag stamped on its birth certificate

Glover here pretty darn good and frightening too if I were a Brit.  Good grief. I hardly know what I’d do if faced with having our national emblem replaced on a passport with say ... the UN logo. Same with birth and death certs.  Can you imagine that?
Well ... apparently some folks can and even want to bring it about. That is, the European Union flag and stamp on future passports and all birth certificates.

Here’s the story, and lets hope it eventually dies a death. A quick one. 

I was born a British citizen, and want to die as one. But unless our gutless leaders stand up to Brussels, I won’t be able to

By Stephen Glover

Every baby born in Britain may have the European Union flag stamped on its birth certificate within three years. Marriage and death certificates are likely to be similarly affected.

So says Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary. He warns that the move is part of a plot by the European Commission in Brussels to brand people as European citizens ‘from cradle to grave’.

Most depressing of all, Mr Pickles says there is absolutely nothing he can do to stop it. Parliament will have no say because the measure is being implemented under the Lisbon Treaty, signed by the last Labour government without a referendum, despite an earlier promise that there would be one.

Unsurprisingly, the Commission denies the new certificates will be compulsory. But, as Mr Pickles points out, that was what it said when it was optional for EU countries to put the 12-star EU symbol on driving licences. Five years later it became mandatory, and in 2011 they were re-branded as ‘European driving licences’.

What is going on is so monstrous that one has to pinch oneself in case it’s a bad dream. Bit by bit, Brussels is presumptuously attempting to re-arrange the furniture of our everyday lives in order to make us feel more ‘European’ and less attached to the nation state in which we happen to live.

First, there was the unprepossessing European flag which, according to Mr Pickles, local councils and public institutions are under pressure from Brussels to fly at every opportunity.

Then came the anthem — the rousing final passage of Beethoven’s great ninth symphony — which has almost made me fall out of love with that stupendous piece of music. Half-inched by the EU, it is intended to boost our pride in being European.

In the Eighties, the Commission harmonised passports in the belief that, if we carried similar documents with Europe emblazoned on the front, we would see ourselves as citizens of a nascent European super state. The old British dark blue hardback design was junked, though ministers did manage to cling on to the royal crest.

And, of course, the very name of this burgeoning institution has been changed from the Common Market (quite loose) to the European Community (getting stronger) to the European Union (practically a country, like the United States).

I want to die a British citizen, as I was born one and married as one, and I am certain that nine-tenths of my fellow countrymen feel exactly the same way. What the European Commission is proposing is nothing less than a further assault on our national identity.

READ MORE

Yeah, newer lic. plates all have the EU flag on them. 

I have heard folks here say they’d never want a govt. like the one in the states.  Yeah well, at least we do get an opportunity once in awhile to, “throw the bums out” as was done by a Ca. referendum years ago to rid the state of a bad governor. Grey Davis was tossed out in ‘03.  Over here, they keep getting promises of referendums, but so far, Zilch. Nada. Zero.  Over here many have said that party politics keeps America from functioning full throttle, or words to that effect. They say Dems and Republicans refuse to compromise etc.  I suppose to a degree they’re correct. Like, look what happened to Robert Bork some years ago. But ...  I don’t see lots of beautiful things politically here either.  I think both our houses need a good cleaning. 

Posted by peiper     on 08/12/2013 at 10:03 AM   
Filed Under: • CULTURE IN DECLINE • EUro-peons • UK •  
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Ray-Bans and Paris Apartments, Part XXVII

No actual sunglasses or living quarters here. Just using the phrase Peiper brought to our attention the other day generically: yet another story of international aid gone awry. If you send cash, the dictators steal it. If you send food, clothing, and medicine then the local AQ steals it. Unless you deliver your nation’s aid packages surrounded by a medium army, it seems you’re just spitting into the wind. So why bother?

Thousands of pounds of UK-funded humanitarian supplies were stolen by members of the al Shabaab Islamist group in Somalia, an annual report by the UK Department for International Development revealed on Sunday.

Members of the Shebab Islamist group have stolen £480,000 ($750,000, 550,000 euros) worth of British government-funded humanitarian materials and supplies in Somalia, it emerged on Sunday.

The theft, revealed in the fine print of the Department for International Development’s annual accounts, is likely to fuel concerns about how Britain is spending its foreign aid at a time of budget cuts at home.

The accounts describe the “theft between November 2011 and February 2012, by al-Shebab in southern Somalia, of DFID funded humanitarian materials and supplies from the offices and warehouses of partner organisations, to which DFID had provided funding to deliver projects and programmes”.

“DFID’s partners had no prior warning of the confiscations being carried out and therefore had no time to prevent the loss by relocating goods,” the report said.

The loss, out of more than £80 million of aid allocated for Somalia in 2012-2013, appears in this year’s accounts because the investigation was only completed in the past 12 months.

Britain’s aid budget is protected from the government’s austerity programme and has recently reached the United Nations target of 0.7 percent of gross national income, according to ministers.

Gerald Howarth, a lawmaker in Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative party, said the theft raised concerns about how this money was being spent.

“There is huge public concern at the relentless increase in overseas aid. Incidents like this, where British taxpayers’ money is diverted into people fighting against us, are not acceptable,” he told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

A spokesman for DFID said there were always risks working in unstable countries such as Somalia, but it was doing everything it could to stop such thefts from occurring.

Ain’t that a kick in the pants? Bit of doublespeak here: nobody told DFID that the stuff was going to be snagged, so they couldn’t do anything. But hey, they’re doing everything they can to stop things like this. Yeah, because AQ, al-Shebah, and other thieves all phone in their plans in advance. Riiiight.

And while the whole UK is trying to cut expenses and run the place on an austerity budget (big joke, that, I’m sure), foreign aid is simply exempt from budget cuts. Oh that makes such good economic sense. Not. “Oh, we’ve got no money, must cut the budget.” FIRST THING CUT is foreign aid. Screw that.

Another site says the supplies weren’t even used; they were burned up. It seems a bunch of rebel types captured the warehouse, then put to the torch. So the stuff wasn’t actually stolen. Or maybe they did steal it, took it somewhere else, and then burned it. Sounds to me like Government can’t get it’s lies lined up here. Which reminds me a bit of how those poor starving Haitians set fire to several hundred tons of seeds, because they weren’t heirloom stock varieties and would only quickly grow a bumper crop to feed people this year.

Taxpayer-funded humanitarian aid worth £480,000 was captured by al Qaida-linked militants as they rampaged through southern Somalia.

The supplies were in warehouses seized by al-Shabaab and they were later believed to have been set ablaze, rather than stolen the Department for International Development (DfID) said.

Any way you look at it, it still sounds like bongo drumming to me.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/12/2013 at 08:59 AM   
Filed Under: • Government • TURD WORLD • UK •  
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redheads of scotland and eye candy too

I happened to see an article today, that followed something I heard in passing on the radio this weekend.
There’s a new ism?
Ginger-ism?

I hate how those three letters get attached to everything.  Gingerism indeed. Sounds so stupid but, hold on.  Apparently at least over here, and I didn’t believe it when I first read about it last year, people have been nasty to folks with red hair.  I find that so dumb. Why?  Why would anyone care that much? But apparently some do.
Well anyway, the article I read had to do with a small group of young folks in Scotland where there are more redheads than anywhere else. They are going to hold a Ginger Pride march.  It’s sort of tongue in cheek but as I read more, the problem really does exist and there has been violence and verbal abuse directed at them.  I’ll never understand that level of stupidity.

So then .....  Here are some girls from Scotland.

Of course, in the interest of not being misleading, we must acknowledge that not every cute young lady is a redhead. I know, I know. Hard to believe. Isn’t it?

Posted by peiper     on 08/12/2013 at 06:32 AM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •  
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   Saturday - August 10, 2013

chopin, copernicus and madame curie? not quite.

Just how pig ignorant does one have to be, to mistake a wheelchair for rubbish?

Remember all those Polish jokes from years past?

Well perhaps it’s time to substitute Romanians for Poles.  Who at least gave the world Chopin, Copernicus , Marie Curie, and memory not much for more, and I suppose if I looked it up which I will not, I might find a Romanian who isn’t a gypsy and did something of note.

I really should not say things like that, not because of political correctness but because it may not be at all fair.  Cept I am not feeling very fair minded today, having finished my daily read of two newspapers.
Maybe I should stick to comic books.  But then, they’re “coming out” in ever larger numbers these days and so no comfort there.

People who visit this site on a regular basis are well aware of the problem that this country has with people, (the term ‘people’ is used very loosely as they are really a plague in human form) .  The property they damage, the illegal use of land which in many cases they do not even own, their lifestyle of squatting in other people’s property, the theft and pickpockets trained at an early age; the list has almost no end.  They invade communities in mass and beware of what language you use against them, as they have been officially declared “A Race” and so charges of race hate can be used against you.

Well, with their record over some great amount of time, a stereotype has evolved that is very real and quite truthful.  A stereotype they have earned over time by nothing more than, being themselves and what they are. 

So along comes a government official with the unlikely name of Eric Pickles.  Good grief. His childhood in school must have been a chore.  So anyway, Mr. Pickles happens to be the government Communities Secretary.  Here’s the story of the latest charge of RAAAACE by the usual crowd of treasonous bastards of the left.

Here is his crime.

H/T Mail,Telegraph, and The Express from which this section comes.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said too many local authorities were claiming “nothing can be done” when residents complained about the nuisance caused by travellers.
The Tory Cabinet minister yesterday sent new guidance to councils outlining their powers to deal with makeshift sites set up by gypsies, protesters and squatters.

Mr Pickles said: “I want all councils to be ready to take action straightaway to stop illegal camps starting in the first place.

“Decisive action early on saves money and unnecessary upset for local residents. We’ve strengthened councils’ powers so they have the confidence to take decisive action.

“Too often, council officers wash their hands and say nothing can be done. This is not the case.”

He has revoked Labour’s Diversity and Equality in Planning guidance, which he said told councils not to take enforcement action against unauthorised travellers, and suggested planning rules should be applied differently to individuals depending on their background.

Powers that can be used include temporary stop notices to stop and remove unauthorised caravans, pre-emptive injunctions that protect vulnerable land in advance from unauthorised encampments and possession orders to remove trespassers from land. The guidelines also stress that council officers should work closely with police and other agencies to stop camps being set up when council offices are closed.

In other words as understood by the public and voiced as such; one law for them and another law for us.

A left wing paper ran a headline saying that;

“New rules on traveller sites ‘reinforce stereotypes”, forgetting quite conveniently of course that those stereotypes don’t just drop from the sky along with chicken little.

But Joseph Jones, chairman of the Gypsy Council, accused the Government of reinforcing “negative stereotypes” about travellers. He said: “It’s creating tension, it’s a negative thing to do.
“At the moment it seems like a theme. Recently we have had the Go Home campaign, then we have the ‘bongo bongo’ thing going on.
“It seems like open season on ethnic minorities.”

You can of course see the problem.  Pity the left and Mr. Jones don’t see it, or more likely refuse to acknowledge what they and the public can see and experience for themselves.  Daily.

Oh yes.  About that wheelchair.

Romanians who took disabled teenager’s wheelchair for scrap are cleared of theft because they ‘thought it was rubbish’

· Gheorghita Stan, 28, and Florin Axima, 36, dragged chair into van
· Wheelchair’s owner Jack Benton, 17, suffers from rare Moebius Syndrome
· Pair, both from Essex, spotted it outside teenager’s aunt’s home
· Court heard the men made ‘reasonable assumption’ it had been abandoned
By KERRY MCDERMOTT

A pair of Romanian ‘rag and bone’ men who took a disabled teenager’s wheelchair to sell for scrap have been cleared of theft.

A court heard Gheorghita Stan and Florin Axima, who dragged 17-year-old Jack Benton’s wheelchair into their van after spotting it outside his aunt’s home in Watford, thought the chair was being thrown away.

In fact, Jack’s father had deliberately left it outside the house along with his son’s schoolbag ready for him to board a bus to college.

Jacqueline Lyon, prosecuting, had told the court that the pair were ‘dishonest’ and should be found guilty of theft.

The incident was dishonest according to the ordinary standards of reasonable and honest people,’ she said.

Maria Moody, defending Mr Stan, told the court that he ‘mistakenly believed’ the wheelchair had been abandoned, adding: ‘The Crown has failed to establish the element of dishonesty.’

Mr Axima’s defence lawyer, Rebecca Filletti, said: ‘This was a mistaken but honest belief that this item had been left out to be thrown away.’

SATURDAY MAIL

Hmmm. Will this ruling henceforth mean Brits will have to leave notes in their cars when parked?  Not rubbish. Do not remove.

Posted by peiper     on 08/10/2013 at 10:45 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Travelers/Gypsies/Squatters •  
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   Friday - August 09, 2013

Last Cruise For The Love Boat

You are now officially old ... the Pacific Princess has been sent to the scrapyard.

ISTANBUL —
The MS Pacific, a cruise ship made famous by the popular U.S. 1970s television show “The Love Boat,” has sailed its final voyage to a ship-breaking yard on Turkey’s Aegean Sea coast, a shipping group said on Wednesday.

Called the Pacific Princess when it was on the long-running comedy, the iconic 13,500-tonne, 171-m-long (561-foot-long) vessel will be stripped for its metal and parts, said Ersin Ceviker of the Ship Recyclers’ Association of Turkey.

...

“This ship has undergone several modifications over its lifespan. It had been decommissioned for five years, and renovation now would have been too costly,” Ceviker said.

Turkey’s Izmir Ship Recycling Co. acquired the 42-year-old Pacific for 2.5 million euros ($3.3 million).

The vintage cruiseliner arrived from Genoa, Italy, at the breakers in the seaside town of Aliaga in Turkey late on Tuesday after a difficult trip in a violent storm, Ceviker said.

The Pacific began taking on water and required the help of additional tugboats to make it to Aliaga. It was now listing on its starboard side at Aliaga.

Scrap steel currently sells for $383 per metric ton in Turkey, 25% less than at it’s peak 3 years ago.

Leyal, the ship breaker, has managed to make this dirty and dangerous task a “green” business. This is the same bone yard that the HMS Invincible and HMS Ark Royal went to (one of which is still visible on Bing maps).

LEYAL Ship Recycling Ltd. (LEYAL Gemi Söküm Ldt Şti) is the leading ship dismantling and recycling company in Turkey. Established in early 1980s, the Company has evolved to become the owner of the largest ship dismantling facilities in the country. With approximately 5 hectares of land dedicated to ship dismantling, the company is capable of directly or indirectly processing up to 100,000 tons -nominal capacity- of steel per year. LEYAL is fully licensed for its ship recycling operations by the relevant competent authorities in Turkey, namely the Ministry of Environment and Forests, the Undersecretariat of Maritime Affairs, and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (in Turkey the three ministries jointly regulate the ship recycling industry).

The Company’s recycling facilities are located near the city of Aliaga on Turkey’s Aegean coast ( map link )
...
Working with LEYAL also carries the stamp of approval of the International Ship Recycling Association (ISRA), a Dutch non-government organization formed to promote safe and environmentally sound ship recycling around the world, especially in the absence of globally enforceable “green” standards for ship recycling.

LEYAL is your reliable partner for the safe and environmentally sound recycling of your obsolete seagoing vessels assisting you in emphasizing your “green” CSR credentials. In a rapidly changing environment, LEYAL’s management was quick to recognize the difference between traditional ship breaking vs. ship recycling that contributes to Green Growth by offering a high standard and cost effective operation in line with the new international “green” norms.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/09/2013 at 02:32 PM   
Filed Under: • Hollywood • planes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobiles •  
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Easter Ham Stew In August

Mmm, yumm.

Back just before Easter we got a free ham from the grocery store. Since we spent the holiday at the relative’s homes, we put that great lump of meat in the freezer. And mostly forgot about it. I finally got around to thawing it out last week, and we’ve been eating ham every since. Just about every day, every meal. A 12lb ham goes a long, long way when there’s just two people eating on it, and one of them tends to eat more like a bird.

I was starting to get sick of it. I was even having ham for breakfast - toast an Everything bagel while frying a bit of ham on the stove. Brown it a bit then dice it. Butter and cream cheese on the bagel, then pack on as much diced ham as will stick. Makes a really solid breakfast.

So I finally got down to the joint, and being naturally thrifty, decided to make split pea soup. I’d never pass muster in Fwance, but the loggers up in Canada would love me. I can’t make soup. I can make stew. I can make stew so thick you need a double bladed axe to cut yourself a bowlful. And somehow that’s what happened.  And I’m not complaining, not one little bit. But I wish I had another bagel on the side to go with it. So I don’t go hungry, you know.

1lb dried split peas
2 cloves garlic, peeled
4 stalks of celery, diced
3 medium carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
2 large yellow onions, roughly chopped
3 quarts low-sodium chicken broth
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tbl dried oregeno
1/2 tbl dried thyme
1 tbl Penzey’s “bouquet garni” because I couldn’t find a bay leaf
1 10” ham bone joint with lots of fat and meat bits still attached
1 hand-sized (5x3-ish) piece of smoked pork skin, well browned from roasting, with 1/4” layer of fat still attached

In a pot big enough to boil lobsters in, combine all the above ingredients. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer. Cover, and let simmer for 2 hours. Check things every 5 minutes and give them a stir.

After about 2 hours, fish out the skin and the joint. Throw away the skin, and use a small knife to remove a surprisingly large amount of meat from the bone. Dig the marrow out of the bone ends, finely chop the meat and toss it back in the pot. Throw away the bone.

Decide things look a little bit thin, so throw in another ...

3 more stalks of celery, diced
a bit more ground pepper
1/2 lb red lentils
1 lb leftover ham found in the fridge in one of those plastic tubs women love, diced finely

And let it stew for another hour and 15 minutes, uncovered. Stir every few minutes. Do your best to keep things from burning on the bottom of the pot, but if they do *ahem*, then transfer everything to another pot. Don’t scrape the burned bits back into the stew; throw them away.
When the bits of carrot are mush, the green peas and celery have totally disintegrated, and the lentils are nice and soft, it’s done. Somewhere in there are the two garlic cloves, which will be a nice surprise for someone at some point.

Run out of patience, and take the pot off the heat. Ladle yourself out a bowlful to try it, and be amazed at how heavy it is. Eat.

Pure heaven. And I didn’t add even a single shake of salt. It wasn’t needed, and we had already soaked the ham for a couple days in water before we started eating it. My guess is that this 3 quarts of soup has nearly 3lb of ham in it. Yup; I can’t make soup at all. But I sure make a good pot of stew.

And I won’t make another ham until Christmas, at the earliest. Sweet.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/09/2013 at 12:10 PM   
Filed Under: • Fine-Dining •  
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