Tuesday - November 11, 2008

My aborted meeting with The Skipper

Ladies and so-called Gentlemen,

In May of last year The Skipper and I were supposed to meet.

In May of 2007, I had actually executed a 2-yr plan to meet with my high school buddy mkmchevy in Branson, MO.

Having done that much, I started negotiating with The Skipper to meet with him on my way home from Branson. We exchanged cell phone numbers so as to finalize the when and where while I drove home from Branson. We were to meet for lunch or dinner in St. Louis, MO.

History shows that my cell phone calls went unanswered on my homeward trip. In fact, it was only when I got home and accessed BMEWS that I read the bad news.

So, on May 22nd, 2007, I was in Branson, MO at a Jim Stafford show. Something I didn’t know up front, and I was glad I brought extra cash, was that you could buy a DVD of THAT show...you know, you are in it!.

I’m not gonna post the whole show, I’ll just post one of my favorite parts:

May 22nd, 2007.

   Monday - November 10, 2008

My reply II

Flapjawman sent me another email… here is my response.

This is actually a compliment. Consider, if you will, how few Mormons there are in the world, much less in Kalifornia.

Trust me when I say that there aren’t not enough Mormons in Kalifornia to sway the vote. Must be a bunch of other Christian churches, and otherwise decent folk, who thought that there was no right to be a sodomite.

But, we have the Temples… obvious targets for the mobs. Much like Lot in Sodom.

BTW, just what ‘rights’ are violated? Do not homosexuals have the same marriage rights as anyone else? The right to marry someone of the opposite sex? The same rights as pedophiles?  The incestuous? Marriage as an institution has many restrictions. Note that the Left tries to violate them all. Woody Allen has violated all of them without even marrying the female.

No rights are violated. I can’t marry my sister. Why not? There’s no good reason for such a restriction, unless possible genetic problems with progeny are the issue. In this day and age, we can abort.

But that would not be a problem in a homosexual ‘marriage’. Progeny is not an issue for queers.

So, if progeny is not the issue, why have marriage at all?

Ahhh! Grasshopper! You’ve stumbled upon the goal of the homosexuals. Destroy marriage, and you destroy the civilization.

My reply

I got an email from my buddy flapjawman. He urged me to run for public office. Here is my reply:

First, I’m not sure I got what you were referencing here. I got a bunch of comments.

Second: If I ever do run for office, it will not be the ‘law and order’ candidate. I would run as the ‘Freedom and Constitution’ candidate.

I think there is a difference.

I don’t know about you Chris, but I put in six years of active duty to defend this country from just what Obama represents. It’s so bad that I’m wondering if a legal challenge can’t be made because, based on his past history and statements, that he cannot, in fact, take the oath of office! (said challenge would invalidate his Senator oath also. Ditto for John McCain.)

I think we have a bona fide Constitutional Crisis on our hands.

As a government employee, I swore to protect the Constitution against ALL enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC.

My oath is to the Constitution, not the US of KKA, as Obama’s pastor so inelegantly put it.

Quite frankly, Obama is a domestic enemy of the Constitution. That is an inarguable fact.

Trash Removal

I went into the back room here at BMEWS and emptied out the dustbins. By which I mean I cleaned out another batch of old and probably fake membership applications. We get a lot of those. You get a month to respond, which is plenty. After that it’s into the trash.

There were a couple in there that looked real, so I left them. That means you “CrowsNest”. You’ve got another month to activate. If I snipped anyone who was planning on doing it, sorry. Re-apply and then activate it when you get the email. It’s that easy.

I am very glad to see that a large number of the applications in the past few weeks have been from readers in the UK. Welcome aboard mates! Have something to say whenever you’d like. We here on the left side of the big pond are quite aware of what’s going on on your island, from the VAT to the knives to the wonders of National Health, Nu Labor and the fun from Belgium. So sound off, even if it’s about something only Englishmen would really know about. Here you are not alone.

FER ALL A YOU GUN TOTIN’ WILD WEST BUCK-A-ROOS BACK IN THE USA,

Here’s about the shortest post I’ve ever done and sorry no link but it comes from The Telegraph originally.

By that I mean, that’s where I found it.  Ya ready?

AIR RIFLE USED TO CONFRONT TEENAGERS

HA. EXCEPT THE DAMN THING WASN’T LOADED BUT NEVER MIND.  AN ARREST WAS MADE BY THE KEYSTONE KOPS.

A grandfather has been arrested after using an unloaded air rifle to confront a gang of “youths” who had fired rockets at his house.

Alan Parker, 62, said he finally “snapped” when fireworks rained down on his house.

He was given a caution for possessing a fire arm with the intent to cause “FEAR OF VIOLENCE.”

-end-

So, what do ya think people?  Justice served? The youths must be shaking in their boots. From laughter.

This isn’t even funny.  So it’s simply a caution.  It should have been a medal he was given.

Italy considers legalising vigilante groups .

H/T LyndonB.
Lyndon brought it back to my attention after I totally forgot to find and post it. So thanks again L.

Almost wish it could be done here.  You know, you get so angry at what you see and hear.  But I’m not, in saner moments, certain about how wise this is.  I can see it being used wrongly and illegally.  It worked fine in California in 1849.  But that was a different time and a far different sort of people.

If laws were strictly enforced and liberals and their lawyers could be made to disappear, there might not be a need for this.
But it’s comforting anyway to think about the possibility of doing unto others what they’ve done to their victims.

Bravo Italy .... at least someone is raising a very public cry re. mosques and all the problems they’ll bring.  Imagine that.  Some Italians are actually trying to save their country and culture.  Why .... the very nerve of them.

Italy considers legalising vigilante groups
The Italian parliament is considering the legalisation of citizen vigilante groups as part of a further crackdown on law and order.

By Nick Pisa in Rome
Last Updated: 12:37AM GMT 10 Nov 2008

Unauthorised patrols of several northern Italian cities have been underway for the last year and authorities have turned a blind eye to them as concerned locals fight back against rising crime rates.

Under the proposals by the anti-immigration Northern League, the vigilante patrols would have the backing of the local police. The plan is now to be considered by the Italian Upper House.

Another controversial proposal by the Northern League the introduction of a referendum before a mosque or other place of worship is built.

The League is part of centre right Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s coalition. Mr Berlusconi was elected on a tough law and order campaign.

Northern League MP Mario Borghezio said: “Thanks to the initiatives of the Northern League these ronde (vigilante) patrols will soon be working with the forces of law and order.

“Now all honest citizens will no longer feel that they have to hand over the areas where they live to criminals, drug dealers and prostitutes. It’s a very proud day.”

The Northern League, is led by firebrand Umberto Bossi, who once said the Italian navy should shell boats carrying immigrants. In April’s general election it doubled its national vote to more than 8 per cent.

The League capitalised on the fear of immigration with its election posters which showed an American Indian in a feathered headdress, with a caption saying: “They suffered immigration: Now they live in reserves.”

Many of the vigilante groups are based in the Veneto region which has a high proportion of Muslims and the outcry against the building of mosques has been stronger there than anywhere in Italy.

Last year the League’s Roberto Calderoli suggested a ‘pig day’ against new mosques across Italy. The idea was that a pig should be taken to any land where Muslims proposed to construct a mosque.

He said:"We will walk up and down on the land where they want to build, after which it will be considered infected and no longer suitable.”

The League has also proposed that no mosque should be able to have a minaret or loudspeakers calling the faithful to prayer, and sermons must be in Italian, not Arabic.

Given that many of the one million Muslims who are in Italy live in areas with a heavy Northern League influence, if passed the legislation is almost certain to mean no new mosques.

http://tinyurl.com/6qvbkl

Gag Me

“You wanna be a part of America, but we’ve been rejected for so long that it’s hard to take ownership.”
near-billionaire Will Smith commiserating with billionaire Oprah Winfrey




If this quote alone doesn’t make you heave, read the rest in Debbie Schlussel’s latest post.



Ultra A-list celebrity Will “Hitler wasn’t a bad guy really” Smith has just turned 40. Raised in a comfortable middle class suburb of Philadelphia where he attended a very high-end private high school, Smith has been raking it in since shortly after he graduated. He reportedly earned over $20 million just for his work in his latest film Seven Pounds, which is more money than you would make working your entire career at a job that pays a meager $220 per hour. PER HOUR.

YOUR CALL IS IMPORTANT TO US, PLEASE STAY ON THE LINE.

YOUR CALL IS IMPORTANT TO US, PLEASE STAY ON THE LINE.
Heck, I didn’t even get that far.

Due to a family medical history, every four or five years I have to go through the
bother of a Colonoscopy.  Routine and thousands are done every year and I’ve had this done in the past.  But to be honest, I have a few concerns.

When my GP gave me the paperwork to call the hosp. unit , Gastroenterology,
I was given a password.  Huh?  I need a password to call and make an appointment?
Yup.  Seemed weird ta me but hey.  If that’s how it’s done.  Stupid sounding password though but okay.

So I called and the appointment was made to ‘consult’ with the doctor who would then schedule the procedure.  Well, it was almost nine weeks before I got to see the doctor for about 15 minutes.  I was then informed that I would get something in the mail in six weeks informing me of the time and date when they would do the exam.
Ok … whenever.

I have an appointment for a medical exam on the 20th of the month.
So here’s the routine and I’ll tell ya but just between us.  I’m not sure I have much faith in these folks.  I’m certain it’s only me but …..  so here you are.

You get a letter finally setting the date and time with a request to call and confirm your appointment.  If you don’t, the appointment will be given to someone else and there’s a time frame in which you should confirm the date. 
Hmmmm, you consider that option.  Maybe you can get away with doing nothing for another year.  You really don’t want to go to the bother of this, especially when you sign that god awful paper that tells you about the things that can go wrong. 
But with a family history of Colin Cancer, always better to be seen and checked because …. ya never do know.  Right? 

So then, you call this number they’ve given you to confirm.  The line is busy. Wait a few minutes and call back but the line is still busy.  This goes on for about five or so minutes and then suddenly when you call back for perhaps the third time, bingo.  It’s ringing.  Oh joy.  It’s still ringing.  Ring-Ring-Ring.  It goes on.  And on.  No automated pick up that tells you how important your call is to them (not that you’d believe it anyway) and no request to please stay on the line.  Ring-Ring $£!!#~!*

Say wait a minute.  Did you even dial the correct number?  A quick glance at the number showing on your phone screen confirms you have dialed correctly.
Ring-Ring-Ring and by now you say aw the hell with it.  Hang up and wait about fifteen minutes and making sure you’re dialing the right number with eyes on the screen …. Bzzzzzzzzzzy!  AhhhhhhGDit %$!!£”%*.  So you wait some more and call again.  Surely this time.  Ring,ring,ring,ring, but you have to hang up this time because you have a desperate need to use the loo (bathroom to us yanks) and you can only keep your legs crossed tightly for so long.

AH … THE PAUSE THAT REFRESHES!

Now back to the damn phone which by now you regard as a mortal enemy to be overcome by whatever means.
Ring,ring,ring,ring and another dozen of the same and still nobody answers.
You get to thinking, maybe your call to confirm your appointment is only important to you and this confirms that.  Ring,ring.

Well finally you’ve had enough and so call the hospital’s main switchboard and ask if there’s perhaps another number for the Gastroenterology dept., as the number you are calling doesn’t answer.  By this time about a half hour has passed.  You ask if maybe you’re calling after hours in error.  You have to ask that because of all the stuff they sent in the mail, the instructions, the powder you’re to mix with water and drink before the exam, the paperwork and the map and the warning about mistakes etc., there are NO hours of operation listed therein.

No, I haven’t called after hours the switchboard tell me, and they do have another number for that department and will call it for me and wait on the line.
Whatever … (they never did give the other number though. Hmm, maybe it’s a secret.  Maybe they’d give it out if you send in a cereal boxtop. ) RING! Ah, success!
Someone has actually picked up the phone.  But ,,, they don’t say anything. After a slight pause they finally say …. “Yes?” In other words, they don’t answer with a dept. name.  You know.  Like for instance, “Hello, Morgue Dept.  How may we be of service?” You drop em we cart em. haha.

Well here’s how the conversation goes from there.
You:  Is this Gastroenterology?
Them:  pause …
You:  Hello?
Them:  Yes?
You:  Ah .. Enterology – Colonoscopy dept.? 
Them:  Yes.  (sounding very much put out and a bit annoyed. probably because they had to pick the phone up.  I don’t blame them at all honestly.  Who knows what I may have interrupted. Maybe something … you know … lets not go there.

Fine. It’s done. Your appointment is officially confirmed but you’re left wondering again if you really want to go through with this on the 20th.  It’s a real pain but in the end (lol) you know you must.

It’s taken over two months to get this far in the process.

Stay Tuned.  See the extended text because ..... 

Carla Bruni has said she is glad she is no longer an Italian.  (she’s beautiful,,but stupid!)

Yeah, she is one class act and I love her looks.  If she had more then ego for brains though, she would know she can’t sing and can’t carry a tune in a paper bag. OK, in her case a Versacse bag.

Don’t ya just gag over folks who automatically become offended on behalf of other folks they don’t even know.
Well, this ain’t about that anyway.

Here, you read and see where she shows how little she knows.  Or is making up stories.
Actually ... if ya read this you may agree with my wife who believes Carla is the Italian version of Paris Hilton except Carla does show some class.
It’s her damn brain that needs an overhaul.  Surely even Paris wouldn’t be this far left.

What is it with very wealthy good looking white women, born into fortunes and grow up loving the left.  Had they been able to, the left in Italy would have left her an orphan.  No, Paris has got to be smarter then this broad.

I don’t see that Berlusconi’s remark is racist.  Was it in bad taste?  Don’t know. Maybe. But she really impresses as one who will use anything to garner attention in the media.

Carla Bruni angry at Silvio Berlusconi’s ‘suntanned’ Barack Obama jibe
Carla Bruni has said she is glad she is no longer an Italian following Silvio Berlusconi’s crude joke about Barrack Obama’s “suntan”.

By Peter Allen in Paris
Last Updated: 10:32PM GMT 09 Nov 2008

In a strongly-worded attack on racism, France’s first lady said prejudice and discrimination should be eradicated from the modern world.

The 40-year-old top model turned pop singer was infuriated when the Italian prime minister paid “tribute” to America’s first black president on Thursday, saying he was “handsome, young and also suntanned”.

The Italian-born Ms Bruni, who became a French national following her marriage to President Nicolas Sarkozy earlier this year, said: “When I hear Silvio Berlusconi making light of the event (Obama’s election) and joking about the fact that Obama is “always tanned”, it feels strange to me.

“Some people will no doubt put it down to humour, but often I find that I am pleased to have become French.”

Italy’s left-wing opposition parties have accused Mr Berlusconi of embarrassing the nation with the quip.

He responded by calling them “imbeciles” with no sense of humour.

In an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper, Ms Bruni also referred to racism being directed at black British supermodel Naomi Campbell.

Referring to her adopted country, Carla said: “We are not affected by the brutal, impassive racism which exists in America.

“I remember as a young model - I was 25 - during a photo shoot organised in South Carolina. We stayed there for a few days.

“We were given trays of food delivered to our caravan from a restaurant next door.

“I asked why, and they said because the diner would not accept Naomi Campbell, because she was black.

(Hey ... do ANY of you believe that? In 1992?  Maybe 1952 or even ‘62.  But 1992 ?)

“That was America in 1992! Now, look at the arrival of Obama, it’s clearly an immense joy. For me, for everyone who loves America. For all the French, and notably one of them who I know well.”

In a further reference to Mr Sarkozy, she said: “My husband is not Obama. But the French voted for the son of a Hungarian immigrant, whose father had an accent, whose mother was of Jewish origin, and his stance has always been to say that he’s French although he comes from somewhere else.

“He doesn’t look like the traditional French elite but that didn’t stop him. And, personally, I don’t correspond to the profile of a first lady! I’m an artist, born Italian.

(yeah right. she’s an artist like I’m Drew’s technology guru. lol)

“Of course, we are, him and me, of European stock, and that’s easier.”

Ms Bruni was backing a petition calling for positive discrimination in favour of people from ethnic minorities.

Despite being one of the most racially mixed countries in the world, France’s rulers are almost exclusively white and middle aged.

She said: “Power has often had the same face: that of men who are white and ageing.

“That is why I can identify with this appeal. Without political measures we will be waiting too long.” She said she could not sign the petition - called ‘Yes We Can’ - because of her position at first lady.

There is only one black member of parliament from mainland France and none of Arab origin.

Ms Bruni’s multi-millionaire family left Italy in the 1970s to live in Paris following threats from Left Wing terrorists, including the Red Brigade.

Mr and Mrs Sarkozy will host Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, at a dinner at the Elysee Palace on Monday prior to Tuesday’s commemorations of the 90th anniversary of the end of World War One in France.

http://tinyurl.com/5zk8ww

Oh yeah one more thing for the record.

Naomi Campbel has a reputation for being rude and very difficult. At times she can be quite nasty.  When an airline lost her baggage, it was due to racism.  Remember that one?  How much ya wanna bet that place that may have “refused” to serve her, had problems with her and they refused to have anything to do with her. Not because she’s Negro.  But because she was most likely acting like the second coming.  Anyway, I don’t believe Carla Bruni.  Not a word of it.  The one thing I do believe is that she is firmly among the ranks of the lunatic and loony left.  As Drew would say, “BAH!”

Gordon Brown is to warn Barack Obama not to introduce “protectionist” trade policies .

OK, Finally.  Here’s the follow up in full.  I see the online headline different.  However, this has some interesting (to Americans) comments.

Gordon Brown to warn Barack Obama over protectionism
Gordon Brown is to warn Barack Obama not to introduce “protectionist” trade policies after the President-Elect moves into the White House.

By Rosa Prince, Political Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:04PM GMT 10 Nov 2008

In a speech, the Prime Minister will urge Mr Obama to form a “pact” with the world and not introduce new tariffs or rules to prevent other countries trading with America. The warning comes amid fears that the Americans will introduce new rules to boost their own industries as the global recession takes hold.

The British Government has also made clear to the incoming administration that the President-Elect should not rely on British troops to support his proposed “surge” against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Mr Brown will travel to Washington later this week to hold talks with other world leaders over setting up new safeguards for the global financial system. However, it is currently thought unlikely that Mr Obama will attend the talks or meet with Mr Brown. The President-Elect is today visiting the White House for the first time since last week’s election.

Despite his desire to share Mr Obama’s popularity by associating himself with the Democrat’s policies, the Prime Minister is prepared to risk incurring his displeasure by publicly warning America not to adopt protectionist trade policies.

Mr Brown is said to be confident that Mr Obama will prove an advocate of free trade and international cooperation once he assumes the presidency in January.

But he is alarmed enough by the protectionist rhetoric used by the then-challenger during the Democratic primaries, which determined the party’s candidate for the presidency, to risk a public rebuke.

In a speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet, the Prime Minister will say: “My message is that we must be internationalist not protectionist, interventionist not neutral, progressive not reactive, and forward looking not frozen by events. We can seize the moment and in doing so build a truly global society.

“As America stands at its own dawn of hope, so let that hope be fulfilled through a pact with the wider world to lead and shape the 21st century as the century of a truly global society.”

A Downing Street source said that Mr Brown hoped that, freed from the immediate need to appeal to marginal voters in some states, where concerns about unemployment are a priority, the President-Elect would strike a less protectionist note in future.

Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, has also used a speech in London to accuse Democrats in Congress of being “isolationists” who will try to push the president-elect into closing the US economy to trade.

The former European trade commissioner said: “We need to work with Barack Obama to defeat those forces inside America that will try to hold him back. These include isolationists and protectionists and on Capitol Hill these forces are strongly featured in the Democratic Party itself.

He added: “We want America to seize the opportunity of the Obama victory to reclaim its leadership role in the world. But Mr Obama will never succeed if Congress forces the new President into isolationism and protectionism, which forces America to turn in on itself.“

The Prime Minister will also warn Mr Obama that the British military can not bear the burden of committing greater forces to Afghanistan

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, confirmed that the UK deployment was unlikely to increase in number from the current level of 8,100.

Asked on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show if asked if Mr Obama’s proposed surge would require an increase in the size of Britain’s commitment there, he said: “Not necessarily, no. As the second-largest contributor of troops in Afghanistan, the first thing we say is that we don’t want to bear an unfair share of the burden.”

Mr Miliband added that the election of Mr Obama would bring about “fundamental change in America’s relationship with the rest of the world, saying the handover of power in Washington would have “big and positive” effects for Britain.

http://tinyurl.com/6a4cd6

BRIT PRIME MINISTER IS AT ODDS WITH OBAMA.

What? Is the honeymoon with Brit left over already?
Well friends, that’s what the front page headline reads.  No. Not the honeymoon part. I just asked the question.
Front page simply says Brown is at odds with Obama.
BUT .... The Telegraph being the usual idiot online place it is, there is no link to their own reporter or their own front page. Clever folks over there.

Going to several sources turns up nothing so I guess it’s a secret of some kind. 

So here’s the general idea and I’m not going to copy the whole article but will cover a few of the lines because it might be of interest to Americans reading here.

Written by Rosa Prince and nope, I can’t scan it to here at the moment and probably not at all with the stuff I have on hand here.

GORDON BROWN is in disagreement with Barack Obama on two major policy areas days before his first meeting with America’s President-elect.

Despite his desire to share in Mr. Obama’s popularity, the Prime Minister is prepared to risk incurring his displeasure by publicly warning America tonight not to adopt “beggar -thy-neighbor protectionism” as a solution to the financial crisis.

During their talks in Washington,DC this weekend, he will also make clear that the President-elect SHOULD NOT RELY ON BRITISH TROOPS to support his proposed “surge” against the Taliban in Afghanistan.


There is alarm in Downing Street over the protectionist rhetoric used by Mr. Obama in the Democratic primaries.

-30-

And that folks is the idea of it.  Sorry, no link.  Mr. Brown is urging Obama to be “internationalist” and not neutral yadda,yadda.

Does anyone remember the ‘stiff upper lip’ of the British? The fighting spirit?

I’ll answer that.  Not too many left who remember and those that are still here are rightly demoralized.

I had something else planned for my first post of this day until I ran across a comment from Lyndon and the link he provided to this. PLEASE go to the link and read the entire rant by this fellow.  He is right on target. He is correct and don’t think for a single minute we’re safe from the same mindless thing in America.  We’re already lost and doomed if you cave into the thinking that we’re “safe.” WE ARE NOT, damn it. So please take heed and pay attention.  The USA is NOT immune.

H/T LyndonB and much thanks for this.

Does anyone remember the ‘stiff upper lip’ of the British? The fighting spirit? The indomitable people who once ran a big chunk of the planet, and who could chase away armed guerillas with a walking stick and an angry voice? A people who, nevertheless, could laugh at themselves and had a great, if sometimes cruel, sense of humour? What happened to them?

Those people would never have set off a security scare because a schoolboy dressed up as the Joker and waved a plastic gun around. Those people would never have arrested a man in fancy dress because he had a plastic knife as part of his outfit (tipped by anon in the comments here). Those people would not have shrieked ‘Terrorist!’ at the sight of a plastic halloween skeleton. The first might have earned a caning, but not expulsion. The second and third should not even have raised an eyebrow. Neither should Old Holborn’s walk.

The people who replaced those real British are spineless weaklings who jump at shadows. Who call the police if they are slightly offended by a word or two. Worse, the police respond not by saying ‘It’s nothing, don’t worry about it’, but by harassing and usually arresting anyone complained about, no matter how trivial and all too often, no matter whether an offence has been committed or not.

These new people are quaking, trembling jellys. They are frightened by mere words, and terrified by a raised hand. They take offence at anything they’re told to take offence at. Those who consider themselves strong are those who have not yet experienced adversity because when they do, they run to the government for help. They cannot help themselves. They will not try.

Oh, there are a few real people left, for sure, but they are only a few. Most are now soft, weak loathsome creatures who stare at the unreality of reality TV from their well-pressed sofas and aim their rage wherever the Righteous tell them. The two minute hate. One day smokers, next day drinkers, next day hoodies, next the obese, next Eurasia… or is it Eastasia? Doesn’t matter. We are at war with the terrorists. We have always been at war with the terrorists.

These people who once called themselves the Great of Great Britain (can we still use that name for this country, or is it not considered sufficiently self-humiliating now?) are useful only for rendering into animal feed. They accept every word they are fed and have no problem at all with the doublethink required to accept it all. Coal-fired power stations will kill us all through global warming. We must build huge windmills everywhere to save the environment and we must not install new power lines underground because that would harm the environment. Snow in October? That’s caused by global warming.

http://leg-iron.livejournal.com/100224.html

While you’re at it, read some of the comments from Brits to this.

   Sunday - November 09, 2008

Pass Me The Reynolds Wrap

This is exactly what I’ve been thinking for a couple of months now. And I’ll bet they were behind the gas price spike too. There are just too damn many big name dems involved behind the scenes in this whole financial fiasco, and it has been shown so many times that there is no limit to what they will do to put their party back in power.

So my only question is, should I go with the smooth skullcap kind, or should I make my tinfoil hat with dramatic points and spikes? How many dots are necessary before we’re allowed to start connecting them?

Read this and think about it




read the precursor article too. Is this just political payback for some huge campaign money, or is it a signpost on the road to hell? Remember, audacity knows no limits, and the far left makes 40 year plans. This one would have only taken a decade or less.

Waves of EU law leave us foundering.

Waves of EU law leave us foundering

By Christopher Booker
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 09/11/2008

One of the mysteries of our time is the perennial reluctance of so many politicians and journalists to explain how much of the mess we are making of the business of government in this country derives from the avalanche of new laws, policies and decisions pouring out of our hidden government in Brussels. Everywhere we look, businesses and other organisations are struggling in the miasma of confusion this creates, where it is no longer clear who is responsible for the laws they must obey, or what those laws are or are meant to say.

One recent example was the row which blew up over a ruling by Ofcom that one of Britain’s most admired charities, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), must increase its annual payment for using a dedicated radio wavelength, from £38,000 to £260,000. This meant that a quarter of a million pounds of the public donations that the RNLI relies on for its lifesaving work would be siphoned off as, in effect, a tax.

This was widely reported as an outrage in Scotland, though strangely ignored in England. But what somehow did not get mentioned was why Ofcom had imposed this staggering increase. It turns out that six years ago, with directive 2002/20, control of radio wavelengths was assumed by the EU. Under its interpretation of EU law, Ofcom decided that it would have to set up a complex new system to manage the wavebands allocated to public services such as the RNLI and mountain rescue teams, necessitating a huge rise in their fees.

The ensuing protest was so great that Ofcom has backtracked on its reading of EU law, deciding that, instead of raising its charges to the RNLI, it may now actually be able to reduce them to £20,000.

Not so lucky, however, is the Post Office which, it was announced last week, may have to close another 3,000 of its branches if, in 2010, as seems likely, it loses its contract to hand out pensions and other benefits which provide sub-postmasters with 12 per cent of their income.

Some of this won’t be of much interest to American viewers of this site so please let me explain as best I can, just a fraction of one of the problems caused by this Labour (read left)_ govt.
This thing about a contract to hand out pensions works thus.  Older folks who are retired and have a pension are issued a card, just like a credit card.  Each week money goes into an account and they can take that card to any post office either once a week, as we must do, or just once a month. They don’t even have to draw out all that’s in there but just what they need as they need it provided the funds are there.

Last year the govt. closed 2500 local and rural post offices including ours.  This village of 600 families has had a post office for well over 100 years.
Even before that but the last 100 have been continuous.  You can’t begin to imagine the honest hardship for many.  Not me personally, but many very much older folks.  Our post office was located in a place with parking for tons of cars because it’s located next to the village hall and playground.
I call it a playground because I can’t remember what the locals call it. Anyway, tons of parking.

Some older folks do not drive or can not drive btw, and the bus into the next village goes in once or 2wice a day.  For all practical purposes, we really don’t have a bus into the next village.

But the govt. now has us going into another village where parking is almost impossible and if I took a photo you’d understand.. Where our post office was self contained, this other PO is in a convenience store and the line between the store’s register and the line for mail etc. often merge. Of course the waits are longer as you may well imagine.  There was a meeting last year to “consult” with the ppl of the village before making a decision.
Well what a load of lying CRAP that was.  They already had the decision made long before the so called, “consultation,” which we all know is no more then tossing the dog a bone.  They are now set to close another 3,000 post offices around the country.

But the bastards have enough cash to fund muslims who “can’t be deported for humanitarian reasons” and they somehow found BILLIONS of pounds (dollars) for the 2012 Olympics.  I won’t even start on the lifeboat thing mentioned above. Least, not here right now. 

Again, what was not reported was the reason: the requirement, under EU procurement directives, that the contract, which cost the Post Office £1 billiion to set up, must be put out to tender. It is these directives which have already lost the Post Office its contracts to supply other public services, such as the provision of TV and driving licences which earned it £168 million a year, more than the £150 million which, by agreement with Brussels, it receives in state subsidy. By continually undermining its income in this way, the EU has played a key part in that closure programme which has already inconvenienced millions of customers and now seems set to get worse.

( Right.  When we get mail from the states, most often it is stamped, Deutsch Post. What does that say? And if any of you think that what happens here is not duplicated in the USA, think again.  Over a year ago a new way of weighting and charging for mail in the USA and including SIZE of whatever was being mailed, went into effect some months after being introduced here, and that was AFTER being introduced in Europe, as it was explained to me.)

It was also reported last week that vast quantities of packaging waste collected for recycling - paper, plastic and cans - may have to be stored in warehouses or piled up on old airfields, because of a collapse in demand for recycling waste from China and elsewhere. The hidden part of this shambles is the fact that how we collect and dispose of our rubbish is dictated by laws imposed on us by Brussels, which are supposedly intended to phase out the burying of waste in holes in the ground and encourage recycling.

A recurring theme of this column in recent years has been the colossal hypocrisy of the system thus devised to enable Britain to meet its EU “recycling” targets. The only way we have been able to pretend that we were meeting these targets was by cheaply shipping to Asia millions of tons of the waste we collect for recycling, using the same container ships that brought much of it to Britain in the first place. Much of this waste was not recycled at all, but simply consigned to unregulated dumps, But as I warned here in November 2006, “if countries such as China become less willing to take so much of our waste, we could find ourselves in serious trouble”.

With the collapse of the export trade that provided those container ships, that is precisely what has happened. Our monstrous bluff has been called. And in a year’s time, as waste piles up around Britain, we shall face fines of hundreds of millions of pounds a year from Brussels for failing to meet its targets.

Finally, a highly-enterprising British industry last week faced a crisis, thanks to a new tax introduced, so our Government insists, to comply with EU law. It turns out to be nothing of the kind.

OSS, based in Liverpool and employing 170 people, has in recent years invested heavily in the technology which enables it to collect 330,000 tons a year of used oil from 22,000 garages, factories and other workplaces round the country, and recycle it into Clean Fuel Oil, as pure as any virgin oil from a refinery.

When Brussels insisted, under its Energy Tax directive (2003/96), that recycled waste oil should be taxed, several EU countries, led by Britain, strongly objected. They protested that this would make recycled oil uncompetitive, thus losing a valuable resource and encouraging the illegal disposal of waste oil in ways that would be harnful to the environment. Brussels rejected their pleas, but allowed that the tax could be as little as 1p a litre.

Astonishingly, however, the UK Government then forgot all its earlier objections. Last week, claiming it had been forced to do so by Brussels, it imposed the same tax on recycled oil as it levies on other oil - 9.29p a litre. This raises the cost of recycled oil by 30 per cent, making it uncompetitive.

Other countries have imposed the tax at the minimum level Brussels allows. In France, recycled oil is taxed at only £12 a ton; here the tax is £105. As Andy McNair, the chief executive of OSS, puts it, this “would make it cheaper to transport our oil to France than to sell it here”. It is hardly surprising that, having been betrayed by our Government in this way over a business worth nearly £200 million a year, OSS executives were last week locked in crisis meetings wondering where to go next.

Similar crises are all too frequent these days, yet how rarely they are properly explained or reported by those whose responsibility it should be to do so. Oddly, the politicians and newspapers that fail to explain this kind of nonsense all claim to support Britain’s membership of the EU. If they are genuinely in favour of this curious form of government - and that, after all, is precisely what the EU is - should they not be rather happier to tell us how it works in practice, rather than so consistently hiding it away?

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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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