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calendar   Saturday - May 31, 2014

Held Captive So Long That He Forgot English

US soldier held captive by Afghan Taliban freed after 5 years

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Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only American soldier held captive in Afghanistan, was released Saturday by Taliban captors, an announcement that has Americans rejoicing but also raising questions on Capitol Hill and beyond about “negotiating with terrorists.”

Bergdahl was released from captivity after nearly five years, in exchange for five Taliban members being held in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Bergdahl was taken prisoner after leaving his base in east Afghanistan on June 30, 2009. Why he left and whether he’ll face any consequences for his actions remains unclear.

U.S. officials said the deal was reached after a week of intense negotiations that were mediated by the Qatar government, which will take custody of the Taliban detainees.

They said efforts to negotiate Bergdahl’s release began in November 2010, that his return has been a top priority since May 2011 and that the opportunity to resume diplomatic efforts emerged several weeks ago.

“We ...made an ironclad commitment to bring our prisoners of war home. It’s who we are as Americans,” President Obama said Saturday evening in a Rose Garden ceremony flanked by Bergdahl’s parents. “Today, at least in this instance, it’s a promise we’ve been able to keep.”

“Like all Americans, we celebrate the release of Sergeant Bergdahl,” California Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a joint statement.

“However, we must carefully examine the means by which we secured his freedom. America has maintained a prohibition on negotiating with terrorists for good reason. Trading five senior Taliban leaders from detention in Guantanamo Bay for Bergdahl’s release may have consequences for the rest of our forces and all Americans.”

They also argued that Obama “clearly violated laws” that require him to notify Congress 30 days before any transfer of terrorists from Guantanamo Bay and to explain how the threat posed by such terrorists has been substantially mitigated.

Bergdahl is reportedly in good condition and able to walk. He was taken first to Bagram Air Base, in Afghanistan, then to Landstuhl, German, and will likely go to Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.
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The announcement of Bergdahl’s release comes as the United States winds down its military operation in Afghanistan.

The Bergdahls spoke briefly after President Obama delivered his remarks, expressing their joy and thanking those who secured their son’s release.

Bob Bergdahl, the father, spoke briefly in what experts think was Pashtu. He suggested his son will need an extensive recovery period and is having trouble understanding English after five years.

In the foreign language, Bergdahl thanked the Afghan people and told his son, “I am your father.”

Glad we’ve got him back. And I do hope the 5 who were let go were first secretly given some CIA slow acting biological, so that in about 13 months they all suddenly develop an incurable, debilitating, fatal cancer or horrible pathogen.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 05/31/2014 at 10:29 PM   
Filed Under: • Military •  
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Don’t Nobody Sneeze

Take a random midnight wobble around the Internets and you’ll find the oddest things ...


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Royal Army Ordnance Corps men playing cards on bomb dump, Acheux, July 1916, Battle of the Somme.

Each one of those ball things is the 44lb explosive head from a device called a trench mortar, which would loft these bombs over the top and a few hundred yards towards the enemy in his trenches. A launching pipe was attached to the bomb part prior to firing, so that these things appeared to be launching large deadly lollipops, or candy apples on a stick.

And yes, there really is a place in France called   Achoo   Acheux.

Gesundheit.

Properly, it’s Acheux-en-Amiénois, and is about 2 miles SW of Gommecourt, infamous crossroads of the above battle, and about 10 miles NE of Amiens.

Wait, the formal name of the little town is even grosser than it’s short name? Achoo and a mayonnaise? Ewwwwww.

See More Below The Fold

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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 05/31/2014 at 12:23 AM   
Filed Under: • Fun-StuffHistoryMilitaryUK •  
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calendar   Friday - May 30, 2014

The Mane Attraction

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Yeah buddy, that’s her own hair*.

Florida native Sydney LaFaire has a career in Europe as a model and actress. Good for her. You go Syd.

You know, in all my life, this is only the second woman named Sydney I’ve ever run across. 

See More Below The Fold

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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 05/30/2014 at 09:18 PM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •  
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NOT PLEASANT STORIES, IN FACT, PRETTY DAMN SAD. WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?

Usually see darn near a story every week or two like these.  Gets so it’s hardly shocking anymore, but it’s always sad.  Very sad. But now two in the same paper? On the same day? 

I find it hard to believe that these cases, just two among the many, are indicative of the care country wide.  Of course that could well be due my age and that of my wife, who could be feeling lots better these days but isn’t.  So maybe a bit of self delusion here.  I don’t wanna believe it all this bad everywhere. Have to tell you though, there have been time I do wonder, seeing what the wife has put put up with over the last two years.
But nothing like these stories, and so for that I am very thankful.

Mother-of-four, 33, died after doctors missed her cancer THIRTY TIMES - blaming her symptoms on ‘nerve pain and anxiety’

· Jeannine Harvey had suffered agonising pain for several months
· Was repeatedly told it was due to torn ligament, nerve pain and anxiety
· Her family begged doctors to admit her to hospital but nothing happened
· Only diagnosed with advanced cervical cancer three months before she died
· Coroner recorded a narrative verdict and said there had been repeated failures to recognise, diagnose and treat her before her death in July 2012
· Hospital trust has apologised for ‘falling short in several areas of her care’
By ANNA HODGEKISS

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A mother-of-four died after doctors missed 30 chances to diagnose her cervical cancer, an inquest heard.

Jeannine Harvey, 33, was left so ravaged by pain that she was unable to get out of bed without help.

But despite consultations with her GP and doctors at three hospitals, her cervical cancer was repeatedly misdiagnosed as a potential torn ligament, protruding discs, sarcoma and ‘nerve pain’.
Doctors even suggested at one point that her agony was caused by anxiety.

At one point, Miss Harvey’s sister became so desperate for her sibling to be treated, she got down on her knees to beg doctors to admit her.
By the time medics realised the accountancy student – whose youngest child was only two when she died – was suffering from advanced uterine cancer of the cervix, it was too late.

She died at a hospice in July 2012 – eight months after a blood test first raised concerns.

Yesterday, recording a narrative verdict, the Birmingham and Solihull coroner concluded that Ms Harvey died of uterine cancer of the cervix, which was misdiagnosed on more than 30 occasions.

Repeated failures were made by medical staff to recognise, diagnose and treat her, the inquest heard.
Following a post-mortem examination, it was confirmed that the cancer had originated in the cervix and the Coroner’s interim death certificate stated the correct cause of death as cancer of the uterine cervix.

Jeannine’s sister, Marie Donovan, said ahead of the inquest: ‘All we’ve ever wanted is for someone to tell us how it was possible for medical professionals to miss so many opportunities to correctly diagnose and treat our sister, whose suffering and death were entirely preventable.

‘Throughout Jeannine’s illness, we got the impression that no one was listening to us, and felt doctors were constantly patronizing us by saying it was Jeannine’s anxiety that was making her pain worse.’

With regard to above ..... there’s a second and sad photo at the link I didn’t want to post here. Click the photo above and scroll down.

This next story is not pleasant either and frankly scares the heck outta me for lots of reasons.  Chief among them is, I have found by very personal experience when dealing with medical people here, namely doctors, they do not like the word, “Pain.” No, no.
I don’t care what you f*****g feel or think. Nope.  There isn’t any pain as such.  What you have is .... “Discomfort.”
I’m not being funny here. I’ve read reports on myself after undergoing procedures that described my experience as, “being in some discomfort” or “feeling discomfort.” No doc. what I felt was fucking pain!!!!  So please do not write about or speak the word, discomfort. There is a world of difference. I’ve had broken bones, a bladder tumor removed , a herniated disk and surgery , and a common cold.
I damn well know what pain feels like.  And it doesn’t feel like a fuckin’ cold and a runny, sore nose. 

Last photo of the mother left in such agonising pain in hospital she had to crawl on her hands and knees to beg for painkillers. Three days later she was dead - because ‘doctors missed’ fatal blood clot.

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· Margaret Lamberty was admitted to hospital with severe stomach pain

· 45-year-old grandmother had a history of suffering blood clots

· Family claim medics at University Hospital of North Staffordshire ‘abandoned’ her, failing to carry out the proper tests

· Mother-of-four was apparently forced to crawl on her hands and knees to beg for painkillers when her cries for help went unheard, the family say

· Mrs Lamberty’s children claim she was left lying in blood-stained sheets

· She died on April 30 in ‘agonising pain’ say the family, who claim a blood clot in her bowel caused multiple organ failure

· Relatives are considering taking legal action against the hospital
· The trust offered its ‘sincere condolences’ to Mrs Lamberty’s family

· The coroner confirmed an inquest is expected to open later this year

By LUCY OSBORNE

This is the harrowing last photograph of a dying grandmother who was left to crawl along the floor in agony after nurses ignored her cries for help.

Two days later, after being abandoned by staff, Margaret Lamberty died of a treatable blood clot in her bowel that staff had failed to detect.

She was taken to A&E at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire by her concerned family with chronic stomach pain on the morning of Sunday April 27.

They told staff the 45-year-old had a history of blood clots – which was also in her medical notes – and urged doctors to carry out tests straight away.

But her family claim medics ignored their pleas and failed to carry out a CT scan that would have detected the clot until two days later when it was too late.

Instead, the mother-of-four was left in a side ward at the scandal-hit hospital for three days. While there, her cries for help were repeatedly ignored – despite the fact the family claim plenty of staff were on duty and ‘didn’t seem busy at all’.

At around 6pm, after Miss Lamberty had been at the hospital for nine hours, her eldest daughter, Laura, 28, pressed an emergency buzzer as her mother screamed in pain.

She waited 30 minutes for assistance, but no one came to help, so she had to go to the reception desk to ask for more painkillers. Staff told her they couldn’t give her anything other than paracetamol.

In desperation, her mother then crawled on her hands and knees down the corridor to beg them for pain relief.

But instead of helping her to her feet or putting her in a wheelchair, her family say she was ignored then eventually walked back to her bed by a male nurse.

‘They looked at her like she was a deluded woman,’ mother-of-five Laura said last night.

‘After I went back to Mum and said they are not coming, that’s when she fell off the end of the bed and crawled out to try and get help. It was really awful.

‘She crawled out of the room and along the corridor. A male nurse came over and just put his hand on her shoulder and guided her back to her room.

‘Then they went and got her some morphine which took the edge off a bit but she was still in pain.’

Laura says she also had to wash her mother and make her bed because no staff were available. And she was allegedly left to lie in blood-stained sheets for 24 hours on her second day in hospital.

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On the morning of Tuesday 29 April – two days after she arrived at the hospital – she was taken to a critical care ward when her condition deteriorated. She died at 10pm of multiple organ failure.

Her family say doctors only discovered she had a blood clot in her bowel when it was too late to save her. They are now preparing to sue the hospital.

Laura said: ‘My mum was failed by the doctors and the nurses. She was abandoned in a side room while she died in agonising pain. It was the worst thing I have ever had to see. We told doctors over and over again she suffered from blood clots but they simply ignored us. We are determined to get justice for mum.’

Miss Lamberty, a stay-at-home mother, leaves behind four children – Laura, Sarah Lamberty, 27, Tony Hills, 19, and 14-year-old Gemma Riseley – and eight grandchildren.

Laura, from Chell Heath in Stoke-on-Trent, said that the family decided to take the shocking pictures of their mother, who lived in Stoke-on-Trent, to show the doctors how much pain she was in.

She added that their mother had an arterial disease which had caused blood clots in her legs a number of times before. They had been removed with surgery.

CONTINUED


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 05/30/2014 at 02:33 PM   
Filed Under: • Health and SafetyHealth-Medicine •  
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either someone having silly fun, or another serious sign of the times. take yer pik

OK… could be someone’s idea of a joke, or else some one or more ppl trying to stir things up.

Somehow though, and only time might tell, I think it’s hard to believe that muzzies would so easily play into the hands of so many who would easily believe it.
I know they have crap for brains believing the things they preach, but somehow this would be a step way over. Or, maybe not.  Some months ago after all, wasn’t there a group of them on the streets bullying folks about dress and drink and declaring parts of London a muslim district under sharia law? But many of those were also Brit born converts white guys, who even looked more stupid than the usual bearded freak.

Anyway .... it really looks like someone pasted over a sign in a petrol station at curb side, with a home printed notice.

Do not walk your dog here! Muslims do not like dogs’: Fury after poster discovered near popular London park warns dog-walkers to stay out of ‘Islamic areas’

· Sign sparked anger after being seen on railings of Bartlett Park, east London
· Notice advices pet owners not to walk dogs as it is an ‘Islamic area now’
· MP Jim Fitzpatrick has written letter of complaint to Tower Hamlets mayor
· It is not yet known who put the sign up and police are investigating
By JULIAN ROBINSON

An MP has complained after seeing a sign posted near a popular park warning dog-walkers to stay out of ‘Islamic areas’.
Conservative Member of Parliament Jim Fitzpatrick alerted police and the local mayor about the sign after it was flagged up by one of the residents in his east London constituency.
The sign, which was spotted on the railings of Bartlett Park, reads: ‘Do not walk your dog here! Muslims do not like dogs. This is an Islamic area now.’
Police say an investigation is now underway to find out who put it up.

a sign of the times, cont. reading


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 05/30/2014 at 01:52 PM   
Filed Under: • Daily LifeUK •  
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Obama Plays CYA At VA

Shinseki, Under The Bus

Obama: It’s Bush’s Fault

President Obama accepted the resignation Friday of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, amid a burgeoning scandal over delayed care for veterans at VA hospitals.

In a hastily arranged statement after meeting with Mr. Shinseki at the White House, the president said he accepted the resignation “with considerable regret” and admitted that the decision was partly political.

The president said Mr. Shinseki told him “that he could not carry out the next stages of reform without being a distraction himself.”

“And so, you know, my assessment was, unfortunately, that he was right,” the president told reporters. “We’ve also got to deal with Congress and you guys.”

The president said VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson, who has been in his post only three months, will take over on an interim basis.

The scandal became public several weeks ago, but the calls for Mr. Shinseki’s resignation among Democrats began in earnest Wednesday when a VA Inspector General’s report that showed the scope of the problem at the VA hospital in Phoenix had affected about 1,700 veterans.

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The scandal began last month when a whistleblower revealed that veterans were being placed on a “secret wait list” at the Phoenix VA facility that almost guaranteed they would not receive timely care. The initial report caused a handful of GOP lawmakers to call for Mr. Shinseki to step down.

[transcript of O’s speech] PRESIDENT OBAMA: In terms of responsibility, as I’ve said before, this is my administration; I always take responsibility for whatever happens, and this is an area that I have a particular concern with This predates my presidency. When I was in the Senate, I was on the Veterans Affairs Committee. I heard first-hand veterans who were not getting the kinds of services and benefits that they had earned.

Wow, 3 laugh tracks in that single short quote. I always take responsibility, an area I have particular concern with, and this predates my presidency. A lie, another lie, and a Blame Bush. Classic.

We’re not supposed to ask why Senator Obama, member of the Veteran’s Affairs Committee, didn’t make any effort to get to the bottom of the problem back then. And having known that this area, the one he is particularly concerned about, was having problems way back then, why is it only now, 5 years and more into his pResidency, that he’s even looking into it?


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 05/30/2014 at 11:56 AM   
Filed Under: • Health-MedicineMilitaryObama, The One •  
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calendar   Thursday - May 29, 2014

An Anti-WhatsIt

Y’all know what a WhatsIt is. That’s where I put up a picture of something strange, and everyone tries to figure out what it might be. This used to be a fun thing to post, but alas, these days is pretty much extinct because the image search engines have the entire world cataloged. Tens, hundreds, of billions of images, and some really amazing pattern recognition algorithms. Find a picture of anything online, and these search tools will find it in microseconds. So it’s just too easy to sneak a peak, and the game of WhatsIt pretty much died.

So here’s an anti-whatsit.


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What you’re looking at is a spatula (aka turner, flipper) made for outdoor grills (aka BBQ, barbecue). It’s made by the Outset brand (see their trademark PI symbol / picnic table symbol). The arm and blade are one solid chunk of stainless steel, and the highly polished rosewood scales have finger grooves. Construction is full tang, ending in a massive squared off hanging loop half an inch thick and over an inch long. The whole tool is 19.3” long, and it weighs nearly as much as a broadsword. Seriously, I’m only exaggerating a little bit here; this is a spatula that tips the scales at nearly 2 pounds. It’s not just a luxurious tool, it’s damn near a weapon. Fit and finish rivals most firearms too. It’s as well made as those fancy top of the line German kitchen knives.

So why is it an anti-whatsit? Because I’m challenging you ... go find one. Go to Google, or Bing, or Dogpile. Do any combination of search terms you want. Pull up images by the hundreds of spatulas, rosewood grill tools, Outset BBQ tools ... nothing. Visit eBay. Visit Wayfair. Visit the company homepage, and look at everything they make, including the rosewood line. Go to Amazon. And I predict you’ll come up with ... nothing. I’m a real gee-whiz at finding stuff on the internet. Usually in just a couple minutes. I looked around for more than an hour. Nada.

I even wrote a nice email to the company contact lady. And she replied how this was part of their rosewood line ... yet not only does this one not show up in that line, not one other piece in the line looks even remotely like it.

If you can find one online, please email me the link or put it in the comments here. Actually, I want the matching fork. Or the matching tongs, though we have nice tongs already.

Pretty sure my wife found this one at our local TJ Maxx, which is depressing, because our TJ’s is one of the ones that gets the close outs, the leftovers, the odd lots and the orphans. That bodes poorly.




I remember, once upon a time, my brother and I bought sets of combination flat wrenches from a tool catalog. It seemed that the original Black & Decker company was going to expand into chrome vanadium stainless steel tools, but after a trial production run decided not to. We got them for a song, regular and metric, and they’ve done the duty for 30 years now, although they are a little on the thin side across the handle edges. Craftsman wrenches are a little kinder on your hands. Perhaps this spatula/product line was the same way: an experiment that failed. Because who else other than me wants to wield a grill tool you could use to repel boarders, use as a pry bar, or even dig in the garden with?

Hey, that gives me an idea!!  (just kidding. She’d kill me.)


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 05/29/2014 at 11:08 PM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff •  
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I’ll Take The Steam Drill, Thanks Just The Same

John Henry was on the right hand side
The steam drill was on the left
Said before I will let that drill beat me down
I’ll hammer my old fool self to death, Lord Lord
I’ll hammer my old fool self to death




Whoever left the comment on one of my garden building posts that said I should get a break bar had the right idea. Damnation, we don’t have soil here. We have natural concrete, I swear. Limestone plus acid rain, right? With infinite amounts of aggregate in it too. I’ve got a couple of good shovels, but even if I wail the pointy one into the ground and then jump on the back of the blade, it does nothing. Makes a 1/4” scrape at best. And trust me, I weigh nearly double what your typical scrawny little illegal alien landscape worker guy weighs. I’ve had to result to using a garden trowel and the claw end of a hammer. When that went nowhere (Ok, it was just damn slow. As in No Progress Evah slow), I just gave up and started hammering the trowel into the ground, going down a couple inches and then levering out a handful of earth. Again, and again, and again, and again ... the first trowel broke after a few minutes. The second one, with a steel ringed socket, lasted the rest of the afternoon but at this point is bent up rather like a pretzel. On the positive side, I managed to get almost 4 feet of plinths in, which advances my stone border by 6 standing stones. I got them settled, level enough, and they’re glued up and clamped in for the next week until the masonry glue hardens.

Fuggit, tomorrow I’m just going to gently spread some topsoil in the finished area and plant some flowers before they become totally root bound. Give my old joints a rest while I try to decide whether to buy a breaker point or a long mason’s chisel. Phah, a nice railroad spike would do too. Pity there aren’t any along the train tracks these days.

And if I see the landscape guys, I’ll ask them if they have a jackhammer, and how much they’ll charge to dig the 70 foot long trench full depth. Phooey, that’s an hour’s work for an air hammer with a 4” spade bit.



John Henry he told his shaker
Shaker you better pray
For if I miss that old little piece of steel
Tomorrow’ll be your buryin’ day, Lord Lord
Tomorrow’ll be your buryin’ day



Update: Ha! I think Chris Muir reads BMEWS. Cool.

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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 05/29/2014 at 04:58 PM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life •  
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Death By Handicap

No, this is not one of those “special needs gone wrong” stories. It’s just another bowling post.

We got our 4th teammate last night, a young woman who went through college on a bowling scholarship. Oh yeah. She’s goood. Ok, she wasn’t rolling 290s, but her approach form is classical and fluid, and her spares game is just about perfect. With a 205 book average, we set her up as anchor right away. I did acceptably well the first two games, rolling 12 and 27 over average respectively. But then conditions broke down in the third game, and I couldn’t figure things out. I moved left, I threw right. I moved up and then back. No matter what I did, the ball would either cross over or come in really high to the pocket. Plus, suddenly I was tired and achy. Age. Anyway, after 5 opens and an abhorrent score of 59 in the 7th frame, I just said to hell with it and enlarged my approach to throw a faster ball. You never want to muscle the ball because you’ll almost always pull the shot to the left. The better way is to start out with a higher push away, which gives you a larger pendulum arm swing, which requires you to take bigger steps to keep the timing right ... all of which adds up to the ball being launched at a higher speed. And that did it; I was able to pile on a bunch of strikes to finish only a bit low with a 169.

But I’m pretty sure we lost all 3 games last night, even though we won them all hugely in terms of raw scores. Heck, we won two of them by more than 200 pins. But we were bowling a team of beginners, and half of them were bowling for average. And that’s a terrible situation, because they’re going to get a massive handicap (one of their bowlers has an 81 average now), but you won’t know what it is until after the bowling is over for the whole night. And summer league is a 90% handicap affair. So ... grrr ... at the end of the night it looked like we were giving them 213 pins per game. That’s a mighty hurdle to overcome even when you know about it in advance. Ex post facto, it’s a real kick in the nutz.

Ah well. At least we had a nice time, and our new teamie seems like a nice person. A little bit quiet and reserved, but we can cure that. Mwahahhaahaha.



Thoughts on summer league: Since it is a very short season, usually only 12 to 15 weeks, keeping the winter season practice of using your entering book average for the first 9 games rolled may not be the best idea. That’s a fifth to a quarter of the season. Too long, and not really fair. The reason it isn’t fair is because other bowlers, those without established book averages, have a dynamic average for those games. Better might be to use the book average for the first 3 games only, then weigh that in equally with what you roll the first night to give you your average for Week 2, and thereafter to base your weekly average on total pins rolled. And for newbies without a book average, they use the Vacancy score as their average for the first 3 games, which is then weighed equally with their results from Week 1 for their average for Week 2, and thereafter based on total pins rolled. That might alleviate some of these blind hammer beat downs like the one we got slammed with last night. You’d have to keep the vacancy score low though; 100 or 120 instead of the 150 or 170 used by the better leagues.

Examples:

Yup, that’s pretty fair. Newbies only get a small bite in weeks 1 and 2, but they’re also getting a 90% handicap which makes up for a lot of that. Using a lower vacancy score of 110 will soften that by a couple pins. 

Yeah, and we would have won at least 12 out of 20 if we’d been using the Average Sorted Match Point handicap method too. Team handicap is so 1958; it’s well past it’s use-by date. Might have to change it a bit to make the maximum handicap per pairing 50 pins instead of 30, which would allow a 145 bowler to play against a 201 bowler.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 05/29/2014 at 09:08 AM   
Filed Under: • Bowling Blogging •  
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Obama, Still At Sea

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Obama urges against ‘military adventures’

President Obama, in a commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, signaled a significant shift in U.S. foreign policy—one that pulls back from what he described as “military adventures” while wielding American power in other ways.

The president described the new American foreign policy as one of “collective action” and restraint, deploying unilateral U.S. military force only when the American people are threatened. He outlined his vision a day after announcing his plan for gradually drawing down the U.S. force in Afghanistan once the war formally ends later this year.

“The landscape has changed,” Obama told the graduating class at West Point on Wednesday, citing the end of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The president took on what he described as “interventionists” from both parties, and said that while “isolationism” is not an option, “U.S. military action cannot be the only—or even primary—component of our leadership in every instance.”

The president advised that crises around the world that don’t directly threaten Americans be met first with non-military options: diplomacy, sanctions and “collective action.”

The president pointed to Syria as one battlefield where allies could work together to ease the crisis. He pledged to work with Congress to “ramp up support” for certain elements in the Syrian opposition who “offer the best alternative to terrorists and a brutal dictator.”

Separately, administration officials told The Associated Press that Obama and his team are weighing sending a limited number of U.S. troops to Jordan as part of a mission to train and equip certain moderate members of the Free Syrian Army.

Isolationist much?

And I’m pretty sure we’ve heard that very dangerous, open ended line about a limited number of military advisers and troops before. Yeah, around 1961 I think it was, to train some of the moderate locals to fight against the insurgency. And look where that got us. [cough cough]

Meanwhile, his One-derfulness’ plan to nip terrorism in the bud is to drop $5 Billion on raggy governments in the lands where jihad comes from. Because we can trust those tinpot dictators to spend the money wisely (Paris real estate is a great investment right now!), to talk peace love and granola to their wild eyed peasants, and to keep the imams in line. ( but wait, wasn’t Obama behind getting rid of the tinpot dictators in Libya and Egypt who had done just that?? ). And of course, once those leaders are bought off this time, they’ll stay bought off forever.

Bought off? Golly how America has gone full circle.
Didn’t we pretty much create our Navy and Marines in the first place because Thomas Jefferson was tired of paying bribes to leaders in that area to keep the peace in the first place? And he then engaged in a different kind of “collective action”?

As early as 1784 Congress followed the tradition of the European shipping powers and appropriated $80,000 as tribute to the Barbary states, directing its ministers in Europe, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, to begin negotiations with them. Trouble began the next year, in July 1785, when Algerians captured two American ships and the dey of Algiers held their crews of twenty-one people for a ransom of nearly $60,000.
...
When Jefferson became president in 1801 he refused to accede to Tripoli’s demands for an immediate payment of $225,000 and an annual payment of $25,000. The pasha of Tripoli then declared war on the United States. Although as secretary of state and vice president he had opposed developing an American navy capable of anything more than coastal defense, President Jefferson dispatched a squadron of naval vessels to the Mediterranean. As he declared in his first annual message to Congress: “To this state of general peace with which we have been blessed, one only exception exists. Tripoli, the least considerable of the Barbary States, had come forward with demands unfounded either in right or in compact, and had permitted itself to denounce war, on our failure to comply before a given day. The style of the demand admitted but one answer. I sent a small squadron of frigates into the Mediterranean. . . .”

Right. Obama, still at sea, still sailing in circles. Except he turns widdershins when the world needs him to turn deosil.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 05/29/2014 at 08:24 AM   
Filed Under: • InternationalObama, The One •  
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calendar   Wednesday - May 28, 2014

Islam, The Religion Of Peace And Love

Pregnant Woman Garroted and Stoned To Death By Her Family



Relatives of a pregnant woman beat her to death with bricks near a court building in eastern Pakistan after she married a man against their will, authorities said.

Farzana Parveen, 25, was attacked Tuesday close to the high court in Lahore by a group of about 20 people, including her brothers, father and cousin, police said.

One family member made a noose of rough cloth around her neck while her brothers smashed bricks into her skull, said Mushtaq Ahmed, a police official, citing the preliminary report into the killing. She was three months pregnant, he said.

What had Parveen, who came from a village in Punjab, done to provoke such a brutal attack?

Police officials said she had refused to wed the cousin whom her family had selected for her, choosing instead to elope with a widower named Mohammad Iqbal.

The cousin her family wanted her to marry was among the people who attacked her, police said.

The family had challenged her marriage to Iqbal in the courts, accusing him of abducting her. The attack took place as Parveen was on her way from her lawyer’s office headed to the high court in Lahore, where she was expected to make a declaration that she had married Iqbal of her own volition.

So-called honor killings often originate from tribal traditions in Pakistan, but are not a part of Islam. Although they’re common in rural areas, Tuesday’s attack in a public area of a big city was unusual.

Yeah, got to give us the Big Lie at the end. Truth, they may not be written down in the “holy” books, but they’re as much a part of the culture as Jooo Hating and falafel. And common (but only in those rural flyover areas).

Yeah right. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and roasts up crispy and fatty like a duck, then it ain’t no damn ocelot.

This bunch of psychotics didn’t even wait to get her home. They murdered her in public, right downtown. And everyone else just stood around and watched, doing nothing. Because, hey, Islam. Family Honor. None of my business. Just another worthless female.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 05/28/2014 at 08:12 AM   
Filed Under: • RoPMA •  
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calendar   Tuesday - May 27, 2014

Shoveled Out For Today

Digging in the garden all day long. Very tired now. And dirty.

But I am making progress. I made my own little soil sifter and used it to screen the dirt a foot deep across the whole lower bed. I have no idea how many pounds of stones I took out of the soil, but I kept dumping them over the edge of the steep embankment here, and twice made a mini-avalanche. Good. Rock rich soil is no fun to garden in. So after I filled up 3 20 gallon plastic storage bins and 2 18 gallon plastic storage bins with sifted cleaned subsoil, I had to put it all back. But first I mixed it with some manure compost and some bagged topsoil, so at least now it’s halfway decent for growing things in.

The rain came around just about the time my arms wore out, so I’ll let Mother Nature water things in so they settle. Then the garden will get a top layer of 4” of organic topsoil mixed with that Miracle Grow super garden stuff in the big yellow bags. Then I can plant.

Tomorrow, if it is done raining, I’ll lay in a few more plinths and glue on some edgers. That’s turning into odd work, the kind you do either on your knees or lying down, digging a narrow groove in the hard ground with a trowel and a claw hammer. So it goes really slow, but the result looks really nice.

I figure I’m building a garden that should last a couple decades, and I’m fine with that.

And yes, I remembered to put the cover on the brand new grill. Don’t want it getting wet now, do we?

Oh gawd, my arms hurt. I’m too old for this Farmer Bob stuff, by half. Time for a long hot shower.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 05/27/2014 at 04:34 PM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life •  
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calendar   Monday - May 26, 2014

another knife in the back of England and the military by idiot civilian judges

For some time now I have been certain that western countries, and especially the one I am in right now, weren’t really much interested in saving their culture and country.
Of course what I meant to say was that the rulers weren’t much interested. The recent elections across the EU show that unsurprisingly, a good many ppl do care, the ones who haven’t been given votes on things that alter their countries.  It’s all over the news and I suspect it will continue for some days.  After the recent elections in EU,
there has been a serious drift to the right.  Only now are the cowards in office suddenly making all kinds of promises, in efforts to save political lives and earnings.

Now then, when I say the west just will not go the extra mile to protect itself, here’s a fine example of that.
Look at this headline below.  That alone says it all. 


Taliban can’t be held more than 96 hours decides judge: Human rights ruling could hinder our troops in all wars, warn top brass

· Mr Justice Leggatt made the 117-page High Court judgement yesterday
· Ruled that British soldiers may not hold enemies for more than 96 hours
· This is because to do so would breach Afghan prisoners’ human rights
· It means Taliban chieftains must be freed to fight again within four days
· It followed claims brought by Taliban commanders held in Afghan jails
By Steve Doughty, Social Affairs Correspondent

British soldiers may not hold their enemies in Afghanistan as prisoners for longer than 96 hours because to do so would breach their human rights, a judge ruled yesterday.

It means that Taliban chieftains captured by British troops must be freed to fight again within four days.
The judgment – which followed claims brought by four Taliban commanders now held in Afghan jails – alarmed military chiefs and politicians.
They believe soldiers should not be asked to fight and die on the battlefield according to the letter of human rights law.

The 117-page High Court ruling by Mr Justice Leggatt means that the European Convention on Human Rights, and the UK’s Human Rights Act, which made the convention part of British law, apply wherever British troops are fighting.

The judge said that by detaining Taliban leader Serdar Mohammed for 106 days beyond the legal 96-hour limit, Britain had breached his right to liberty.

Taxpayers will now have to pay compensation running into tens of thousands to Mohammed and three other captives involved in the case.

The ruling also opens the way for many other Afghan detainees to sue for compensation, with British law firms likely to be queuing up to help them.

Pretty damn sorry innit?

There a lot more HERE TO READ


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 05/26/2014 at 02:17 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat LeftistsJudges-Courts-LawyersPolitically Correct B.S.Stoopid-People •  
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these folks got ready for a politically correct world, and a new low in dumb

Well, a brand new idiot low is reached by a radio network that once was perhaps the best to be found.  Mind now, there is still some programming that deserves credit for a job well done.  But ...  Sadly the BBC has lowered it’s pc standards by banning a common English word.  While I’m confident they will do a u-turn,
they were beyond stupid in an effort to be certain that nobody was offended by the word.

The potential offensive word .....  r u sitting down?  Best if you lay down.

G * I * R * L

Yup folks.  As in ... “girl.” gerl, Like as in, Girl’s night out or the girl’s toy or pet or dress. A female but a young one, usually. Although I have heard an older woman once say she was having “the girls over for poker” as in cards.
Here’s what happened.

Now BBC bans the G-word: Sports reporter joked that he’d been beaten in judo bout by a 19-year-old GIRL… so ‘sexist’ word cut from broadcast

Mark Beaumont, 31, made joke after being hurled to floor by judo champion
Remark aired in full when programme first broadcast last month
Show was edited when rebroadcast last week to remove word
Athlete herself Cynthia Rahming left bemused: ‘I wasn’t offended – I didn’t find it sexist’
Mariella Frostrup and Miriam O’Reilly support BBC stance
Anthea Turner and Kathy Lette both think corporation’s edit was wrong

By Ian Gallagher

I am not sure it can get any dumber but then, what do I know?

You can read the rest of this insanity HERE


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 05/26/2014 at 10:41 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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