Sunday - November 09, 2008

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?

http://tinyurl.com/5mwues

Posted by peiper     on 11/09/2008 at 08:57 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • UK •  
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TO MY DEAR FRIENDS IN BRITAIN. OBAMA CAN NOT SAVE YOU FROM THIS LUNACY. ONLY YOU CAN!

AS ONE WHO HAS LONG ADMIRED AND OFTEN BEEN MADDENED BY THINGS BRITISH, INCLUDING MY OWN DEAR WIFE,
I really can’t view this as anything but another bit of Moonbat lunacy that is eroding and bringing down this country.
The process started long ago, there hasn’t been any real public outrage or revolt save for the few letters to an editor here and there. As an outsider in a manner of speaking, maybe I shouldn’t point that out.  But if many Brits have some sort of right to point out failings in my country and even get involved in our internal laws re. guns and gun control, then I figure I have a right to comment on the lunacy here. 

HOW’S THIS FOR OUTRAGE:
A week ago I happened to see a short blurb with regard to just what flags a Brit could have on their car license plate.  The flag of England? Wales? Scotland?  Oh no,no!  Do it and you will be fined.

The EU flag?
Sure thing.  In fact, the Eu flag is already on all the newer plates that roll off the production line.

When (not if) you folks start seeing that back home in USA, you’ll know it’s definitely time to break out the ammo.

“Singing from the same hymn sheet” may upset atheists.
Town hall staff have been banned from using the phrase ‘singing from the same hymn sheet’ because it could upset atheists.

By Chris Hastings, Public Affairs Editor
Last Updated: 7:20AM GMT 09 Nov 2008

Salisbury council has told employees that the religious connotations of the saying, which has been in common parlance for centuries, can offend non-believers.

(THAT IS PURE B.S.! Where do these nuts get ideas like this? Do they have to stay up all night dreaming up this stuff?  Must do I guess.  They need to spend more time in their new Obama church worshiping their new messiah. And even he couldn’t think up this. Least I hope not. )

The same authority has also instructed officials not to use the phrase ‘colour blind’ but instead to refer to a person as having ‘colour visual impairment’.

Other councils have instructed staff to be careful about using the word ‘black’ as well as ‘British’, because they could upset people, while the phrase ‘West Indian’ should also be avoided.

The instructions, which have been criticised for showing excessive political correctness, come a week after The Sunday Telegraph revealed that several authorities had banned basic Latin phrases such as ‘ad hoc’, ‘etc’ and ‘status quo’ because they were too complicated for people to understand.

The advice from Salisbury council says: “Avoid office and council jargon wherever possible, including phrases such as ‘moving forward’ and ‘singing from the same hymn sheet’.

Say what you mean, so instead of ‘moving forward’ try ‘in the future’. Not everyone understand these phrases – some can actually cause offence (what would an atheist want with your hymn sheet?).”

Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, last night condemned the move.

“I think it has gone far too far,” he said. “The phrase has been around for a very long time and is very common. I use it myself. Of course we should all avoid phrases which can cause unnecessary offence, but this isn’t one of them.”

Colin Slee, the Dean of Southwark, last night accused the council of excessive politically correctness.

“This is complete nonsense and yet another example of political correctness being dictated by someone who doesn’t understand religious faith,” he said.

The Royal National Institute for the Blind said it avoided the term “visual impairment’; a spokesman said: “We always use the terms ‘blind’ and ‘partially sighted’ when talking to members of the public.”

Other local authorities across the country have also declared war on particular words and phrases which they consider racist, sexist, nationalistic or homophobic.

Caerphilly council in Wales has asked staff to be careful about using the phrase British, because “it implies a false sense of unity” and is upsetting to many people in Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

The council’s written guidance to staff states: “Many would argue that one way to denote ethnic minority people in this country would be to describe them as ‘British Asians’, ‘Chinese British’ etc.

One advantage is that by referring to two ethnicities it avoids any suggestion that a person has to choose between them for identity.

However, the idea of ‘British’ implies a false sense of unity – many Scots, Welsh and Irish resist being called British and the land denoted by the term contains a wide variety of cultures, languages and religions.”

In guidance on the issue of race, the same council has asked staff to be “sensitive to the many negative connotations relating to the word ‘black’ in the English language (black leg, black list, black spot etc)”

Watford council has banned the term West Indian because “it’s inappropriate and never used in the Caribbean”. Yet the Caribbean cricket team is known as the West Indies and dozens of British organisations are proud to advertise their West Indian credentials in their names.

Andrew Roberts, the broadcaster and historian said: “The British West Indian regiment won 19 military crosses during World War One. It is a slur on their memory that the title ‘West Indian’ should be singled out by some know-nothing, politically-correct bureaucrat.”

Kathy Lette, the author and broadcaster, said: “Political correction is a vowel cancer eating away at the English language. The PC police are not just washing our mouths out with soap, they’re dipping our mother tongue in disinfectant - and the taste is terrible.

Watford council has also told staff to replace ‘able-bodied’ with ‘non-disabled’, and not to use the term ‘homosexual’. It prefers the description ‘gay man’.

Several councils including Amber Valley, Broadland, Salisbury and North Yorkshire have banned words and phrases they consider sexist and which exclude ‘members of our audience’.

Salisbury has told staff to avoid “gender-specific roles” such as ‘cleaning lady’ and ‘ten man team’. It prefers the descriptions ‘cleaner’ and ‘ten strong team’. Amber Valley has banned such terms as ‘man made’, ‘man in the street’, ‘manning’ and ‘one man show’, replacing them with ‘synthetic’, ‘people in general’, ‘staffing’ and ‘one person show’. Broadland council in Norfolk has replaced ‘housewife’ with ‘homemaker’ and substituted ‘partner’ for ‘husband’ and ‘wife’.

Many councils say they are instituting ‘plain English’ policies to make their communications easier to understand.

Poole council said it had spent an undisclosed sum on a “successful plain English day last year” and was now booking additional sessions.

The plain English message seems to be struggling to hit home however.

In reply to The Sunday Telegraph’s Freedom of Information request, Poole council stated that it was booking the extra sessions due to “strong demand from our service functions”. The council also said it had issued a better English guide “to all our communication network facilitators”.

http://tinyurl.com/5bzxzf

Posted by peiper     on 11/09/2008 at 03:54 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Stoopid-People • UK •  
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   Saturday - November 08, 2008

bye bizzy backson

Very busy weekend for me. I’ve got a lot of things to do today, and bowling league tonight. Tomorrow I’ve got more of that repair carpentry work to do, fixing another 14 drawers on a massive file cabinet. Each drawer takes about 45 minutes to empty, remove, replace the sliders, re-glue the drawer bottom, reinforce the sides, reinstall, and fill. It’s good money, but it’s going to eat up just about my entire day. And that’s after I spend nearly 2 hours cleaning the place.

Maybe the cleaning will go a bit faster though. I picked up a new vacuum cleaner, a Eureka Smart Boss 4870HZ. I’ve been using a Hoover Wind Tunnel, the Mach 6.9 model that was their top of the line about 8 years ago. But it’s wearing out, even with all the maintenance I’ve done for it, and parts are hard to come by these days. The Eureka isn’t self-propelled like the Hoover, but on the rock hard short nap office carpet the Hoover’s brush roller grabs so well I think the thing is rocket powered. And it seems to have lot better suction, and this thing is nearly quiet. The Hoover roars; it’s always been very loud. So maybe the new vac will save me a bit of time. We’ll see.

So anyway, I’ve got a very full plate this weekend. I’ll post when I can.

Posted by Drew458     on 11/08/2008 at 12:02 PM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life •  
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   Monday - November 03, 2008

nothin from me

I’m tapped out here folks. I can’t stomach to make another post about what a leftist clown Obullshit is. By now you’ve heard it all 100 times over. Get out and vote, and vote for McCain/Palin even if you have to hold your nose the whole time. Our very future depends on it.

Other than that, I’m having a rotten problem with one of my bowling leagues. I’ve spent the better part of today writing things down, and composing a long letter. The league that I am secretary for has a team, all of whom are, um, “natural” Obama supporters and redistribution beneficiaries I guess you could say, who cause a whole lot of dissension. Even though every one of them is a highly experienced bowler, and every one of them drives at least 50 miles to take part in our dinky little 5 1/2 team bowling league up in the sticks of NJ, they make “innocent” mistakes just about every week that cause the scores to appear better for them than they actually are. And when I bring this to their attention, just letting them know that mistakes were made -no accusations from me- the denial and reverse accusations are instant and thunderous. Our league had a lot of problems last year, and we lost half our membership because of it. Those few who did return have told me many times that this same group caused trouble all of last year too. Maybe I should just refer to them as “Team Sharpton”, but that isn’t at all subtle. True though, just not subtle.

So now I am a lying cheating mother fucker who is out to get them. I’ve been told that right to my face. No witnesses of course. I’ve been accused of stealing points, changing the scores, ripping them off, rigging the rules, etc. To say that I am a bit upset by this projectionist BS is about the largest understatement in the world. I fully understand why people got into duels back in the day. I am doing my best to overcome my reflexively violent reaction and to devise a diplomatic solution. If that does not work, then I will be faced with a no-win decision: I can walk away from this league and it will die, or I can push for adjudication and get this team kicked off the league, in which case this league will die. The only way forward that I can see is for me to suck up my injured honor, ignore these accusations, and create a “we all have to try harder” speech to present to the whole league. I am not a happy camper here. I will try to contact our league president and get some advice, though earlier attempts have been fruitless. He doesn’t want to be bothered. I’ve put together some pages that I want to share with the bowling alley owner too, just to keep him appraised of what’s going on.

I’m not sure what to do here. Maybe the best approach is to accept that some people are whiny little crybabies, that some people feel entitled to push as hard as they can, screw other people’s feelings, to get what they want ... and just let the whole thing slide. Ignore it. Eat the whole shit sandwich and hope it’s the last one that shows up on my plate. Yeah right.

Don’t worry about my league though. When Obama becomes President I’m sure the rules will change so that this team wins automatically just because they show up. Have to give certain folks more opportunity you know.

UPDATE: I’ve been advised that this kind of thing is par for the course. So I will do nothing other than let my league president know about it. Some people are just scum, and reacting to their petty nonsense is beneath my dignity. Like using logic to argue with a liberal, it’s just not worth it.

Posted by Drew458     on 11/03/2008 at 04:54 PM   
Filed Under: • Bowling Blogging • Daily Life • Politics •  
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   Thursday - October 30, 2008

children who walk to class each day along 5,000ft cliff ledge.  (A MUST SEE)

I can hardly believe this.  I keep getting away from Moonbat stuff but then, how do you avoid this?

If you go to the link, you’ll be able to see a full view and it really is a sight to see.

Here in the UK it would most assuredly violate Health and Safety act.

Be sure and see these enlarged. Awesome!

School drop-off: The children who walk to class each day along 5,000ft cliff ledge

By Eddie Wrenn
Last updated at 2:05 PM on 30th October 2008

For most parents the school-run may seem death-defying, but it usually only consists of a quick drive or walk to the gates.

So spare a thought for the families of Gulucan village in West China, who take their lives in their hands every day with a a school walk which involves navigating a narrow path carved into a 5,000-ft cliff-side.

It is the only way they can get to the school, which with its five concrete rooms is the known as the best construction in the village.

Cliff-top walk: The daily walk to and from Gulucun Primary school certainly takes some courage with a 5,000ft sheer drop on one side.

High school: The tiny village can be seen nestled in the bottom right of the picture.

http://tinyurl.com/6fdm7u

Posted by peiper     on 10/30/2008 at 11:41 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Education •  
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   Wednesday - October 22, 2008

No need for hunting

This happened less than 6 miles from where I live. I went past the scene on the way home from bowling Monday night. I figured it was just another accident.

Car kills bear in Hunterdon County
by George Berkin/The Star-Ledger
Monday October 20, 2008, 9:14 PM

A car collided with a 400-pound bear in Hunterdon County tonight, slightly injuring the driver but killing the bruin, State Police said.

The collision occurred at 8 p.m. on Route 31 North in Glen Gardner, said Sgt. Mark Dellavalle of the State Police barracks at Perryville.

A police dispatcher said it appeared the bear was attempting to cross the highway when it was hit.

The name of the driver was not immediately available. Two adult passengers in her car were not injured. No additional details were released.

A 400 pound black bear is quite a lot of bear. Certainly big enough to kill you with just a swipe or a bite or two. Living here in outer-surburbia in the most densely populated state in the nation. Nonchalantly crossing a very busy local highway after dark. 400 pounds. In rural Wisconsin some consider a bear of that size to be a “super heavyweight”. In parts of Canada, that size bear is one for the record books. Here in suburban NJ it’s just nuisance roadkill. “Aw geez, somebody hit another freakin beah. Now we’re gonna be stuck in freakin traffic freakin foreva!”

400 pounds. Probably very well fed on deer, road kill, trash can refuse, etc. And such bears are not really uncommon around here; several bears over 500 pounds have been shot recently just across the border in PA, not 20 miles away. Forget this greenie nonsense about encroaching habitats. Wildlife has adapted, and is doing much better living around people than it ever would out in the dirty old forest.

It truly is a wonder that these bears haven’t killed anyone at this point. Maybe that’s why we have such a ruckus every time the state brings up the subject of hunting them; it’s all fun and games and Bambi-World until someone loses a child. I guess it will take some fatalities to change people’s minds.

But I think I’ve just decided that I’m only going to take the garbage and the recycling out in the daytime.

Posted by Drew458     on 10/22/2008 at 11:07 AM   
Filed Under: • Animals • Daily Life •  
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   Tuesday - October 21, 2008

Stuck Inside These Four Walls

Stuck inside forever?

My condo park is at it again. It wasn’t enough that they had to disrupt everyone’s lives this summer by doing a massive residing project on the outside of all the units. No, now they’ve come up with an additional double whammy. First they decided that we all need brand new garage doors because the paint color on the old doors doesn’t coordinate with the new siding color. And then they decided that the walkways between the units need to be resurfaced. For 30 years those walkways have been plain concrete covered with Astroturf, but now we’re getting colorful patio pavers. Sure, they look nice, and they will stay cleaner and make for easier snow removal, but the paver project is so FUBAR it must be run by the government.

You see, they couldn’t just come along and tear up the Astroturf and then lay down pavers. Oh no. First they had to show up with teams of jackhammers and chip away all the old concrete. Several feet down! Then new concrete gets poured. Once it’s dry they come back with the jackhammers again, and chew a narrow trench along the front edge of it to put in brand new Belgian Block edging. Because the old Belgian Block edging is no good any more I guess? And to protect the brand new siding from flying chips of concrete during this process, the same crew who just installed it a month or two ago had to come back ... and uninstall it!! Well, for about 8 feet up the walls at any rate. In theory, once the new pavers are laid, the siding goes back up. The building across the way from us had their walkways done a month ago, and I’m still looking at sheets of Tyvek house wrap where the siding used to be. I guess that will go back up when the siding project is completely finished.

Today is my lucky day. The jackhammer squad has been outside here since about 7:30 going at it. It sounds like a machine gun firing range here. And just for gits and shiggles, so that they could chip away the old concrete even better, they took apart the stairways. And I’m here on the second floor. I knew I should have brought my extension ladder inside last night! So until they put the stairs back in, or a ladder or something, I’m sort of stuck here. It takes about 3 or 4 days to do the pavers for each walkway. This is going to be a fun filled week!

I don’t know when my building is scheduled to get the new garage doors. I haven’t seen how that task gets done; those doors are going in at the other end of the complex several streets over. It would not surprise me at all if the doors they get are bigger than the old ones, which would require ripping off the old door frames, which would require removing more of that brand new siding that was just put up. And praying that it gets put back when that task is finished.

In the end everything should look super spiffy. But it’s a long road to travel. I’d like to suggest that they get new windows and patio sliders while they’re at it, because the ones we have are pretty old and not in the best condition. And they were cheap crap to begin with. But making that suggestion would be akin to volunteering to spend another few months in Hell.

One of the most fundamental skills of Project Management is task coordination. The paver and garage door projects should have been done as a wave that preceded the siding project. Go from unit to unit, get it all done at once. Nah, that would make sense.

Posted by Drew458     on 10/21/2008 at 10:07 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life •  
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To the scaffold with the rubbish Sandwich Stasi who thinks a workman’s lunch is industrial waste.

Oh people believe me.  This fellow must be read by you.  He often concerns himself with internal politics and names that would mean nothing to you, so I generally pick out the parts that would have meaning to us.  Or else as in this case, something so totally insane, so bizarre, so untotally unbelievable, so, so..
dumb?  Oh hell ... see for yourself.  This can’t all be true surely.  Even for here.  I tell ya people, this article has everything.

Below the fold, it even has muslims. Doesn’t everything these days?  Yeah. Apparently, Firemen are to take a compulsory course on, “Getting Along With Islam islam.”

RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: To the scaffold with the rubbish Sandwich Stasi who thinks a workman’s lunch is industrial waste

Last updated at 8:30 AM on 21st October 2008

The rubbish arm of the law: Bin rules are becoming a mockery of themselves

The rubbish arm of the law: Bin rules are becoming a mockery of themselves

Today’s edition of Warden Hodges’ Britain comes from Liverpool, where war has been declared on the illegal disposal of industrial waste. Every firm in the city is getting a visit from enforcement officers working for a public-private agency set up by the council.

Last week it was the turn of Frank Hughes, who runs a small scaffolding hire company. The inspector asked him how he disposes of his waste.

Frank said he doesn’t. He explained that scaffolding is a relatively simple business which doesn’t generate waste.

But you must eat lunch, the inspector retaliated. I bring sandwiches, Frank told him. And before you ask, I take the wrapping home with me.

In which case, you’re breaking the law, the jobsworth informed him. Sandwich wrappings are classified as industrial waste within the meaning of the Act. You need a licence to dispose of them.

And since you don’t have one, you are committing a criminal offence. Frank would be hearing from the litigation department in connection with this heinous crime and could expect a minimum fine of £300.

With that, the official ticked all the relevant boxes and goose-stepped his way out, another job well-done.

Frank wrote to me in despair. ‘I am not making this up,’ he assures me. I don’t think you are for a moment, guv.

It wouldn’t have surprised me if the inspector had produced a roll of CSI-style crime scene tape, cordoned off the building, declared the whole business off-limits, called for armed police back-up and ordered Frank to cease trading immediately.

‘Enviro-crime’ is the new ‘hate crime’. All must be punished, all the time.

Many councils have already hired teams of environmental crime enforcers. In Salford, they have started patrolling the streets looking for any emptied dustbins still on the pavement at 11am.

Offenders are issued with fixed-penalty fines.

This is particularly distressing for pensioners and for mothers with young children who return from shopping trips to discover they have been nicked.

How are people out at work expected to bring in their bins before 11am? Has that occurred to the morons at the Town Hall?

I shouldn’t have thought so for a moment. And even if it did, it would be considered a bonus, increasing the potential for punishment and revenue-raising.

These are just two, tiny examples of the perverted manner in which those we pay to perform straightforward duties go out of their way to persecute us. By tonight, my inbox will be full of dozens more.

Prevention of illegal dumping is a noble pursuit. No one wants chemicals poured away in suburban gutters, or asbestos casually chucked over the fence of the local children’s playground.

Too many country hedgerows and city side-streets are besmirched by fly-tipping, an unpleasant but inevitable side-effect of scrapping weekly rubbish collections in the name of saving the polar bears.

But that’s no excuse for the Sandwich Stasi. It takes a pedantry bordering on extreme mental illness to define greaseproof paper used for wrapping a round of cheese and pickle as ‘industrial waste’ - let alone demanding that someone has to possess a licence to dispose of it.

Similarly, having the pavements cluttered with empty dustbins isn’t particularly desirable. But fining people for not bringing them in by mid-morning is outrageous.

What are they supposed to do - take an hour off work or stay at home until the dustmen have been?

Of course, none of this would be necessary if councils hadn’t ended the traditional method of rubbish collection. Some of us can remember when dustmen came round to the back of your house, carried your bin to the cart, emptied it and then returned it to whence it came.

Now you are expected to wheel your own bin to the front gate - and woe betide you if you don’t leave it in exactly the place designated by the council. Even a few inches out and they’ll refuse to empty it. Then the ‘environmental crime’ wardens will come along and issue you with a fine.

Those charged with waste disposal in Britain have taken leave of their senses. They have forgotten that they are public servants. They see themselves as evangelical environmental warriors and the rest of us are their enemy.

They now exist purely to bully, fine and punish us.

It is nothing short of monstrous that hard-working, law-abiding small businessmen like Frank Hughes - the backbone of the nation - can be treated in this fashion.

While he is doing everything he can to battle through a recession not of his making, his taxes are going towards paying the salary and pension of a jumped-up, otherwise-unemployable twerp who proposes to fine him £300 for ‘illegal disposal’ of a sandwich wrapping.

For two decades, this column has made a career out of exposing the unbending lunacy and sheer bloody-mindedness of British bureaucrats, but the monster marches ravenously on.

At a time when we can least afford it, we are being bled white to finance the Sandwich Stasi and hundreds of thousands of index-linked, spiteful, self-righteous parasites.

In another life, these are the very people who would have been loading the cattle trucks to the concentration camps.

To the scaffold with the lot of them.

OH SO, YA THINK THE ABOVE IS A TAD OVER THE TOP?  YOU THINK THEY’VE FINALLY REACHED THE END OF THE DUMB LINE?
HA!  TAKE ANOTHER THUNK AND SEE THIS IN THE EXTENDED TEXT.  YOU MIGHT FALL DOWN SO PLEASE BE SEATED.

Posted by Drew458     on 10/21/2008 at 09:41 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Insanity • Nanny State • RoPMA • Stoopid-People • UK •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Girl, 13, has sex ‘rewarded’ by mother with cigarettes.  (Could this be a new age trend?)

This is NOT what I thought was going to be my first post of the new day. In fact, I have something almost worse lined up from the department of illogic. (DOL)
They love initials here and never pass an excuse to use em.
Anyway ... this really does defy any sort of logical, rational parental behavior.  Even I know that and I have never been a parent.  But, well,,, what do I know?
I guess you will have to read the story.  Maybe we should feel sorry for mom?  Like, she felt she couldn’t control things and so gave up?  How’d the kid get to be this way to begin with? How do any? 

Girl, 13, who smokes drinks and has sex ‘rewarded’ by mother with cigarettes
A 13-year-old girl who has had four sexual partners, smokes dope, drinks beer and has been excluded from school 40 times is considered “sweet” by her mother and given cigarettes as rewards for good behaviour.

By Aislinn Simpson
Last Updated: 7:28AM BST 21 Oct 2008

Tracy Holt, 43, says there are a “lot worse things” her daughter Sam could be doing than smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and believes that because she herself hasn’t yet suffered from cancer, “she’ll probably be alright anyway”.

(My kid brother died age 46 from lung cancer. He was six years my junior. I smoked unfiltered Lucky Strikes for 38 years before I quit.  I have no lung problem. Or I didn’t then and feel ok now.  But this lady is nuts to believe her daughter might not get smoker’s cancer because mom doesn’t have it now. Why chance it?  And my arteries on one side are not too good. Part diet sure, but part old smokers damage I think.  Nobody told me that. It’s just a feeling I have and might be groundless.  But I sure as heck wouldn’t encourage a kid to start as I did at 13.  Back then, way back then, we didn’t all make the connection. It is NOT an easy way to go either. Oh boy, if she has one, this little girl has a long life ahead of her.  What’s it gonna be like for her? Scary thought.)

She knows her daughter hangs out with friends in the street, drinking cans of lager and smoking pot, but says she is simply glad Sam is not “a proper drunk” and has not graduated to harder drugs.

“I don’t see the point in punishing her. If I ground her, I’m just punishing myself because I have to put up with her in the house,” she said.

“Instead, I reward her good behaviour by giving her cigarettes. If she’s bad, she goes without.

“She’s a little comedian. I let her get away with a lot of cheek. It’s sweet.”

Mrs Holt, a jobless single mother with two other grown-up children who smokes 20 cigarettes a day herself, said giving them out as a reward “works”.

She said: “There are a lot worse things she could be doing. We’ve all got to die sometime. I haven’t got cancer from smoking so she’ll probably be all right anyway.”

Sam agrees that she will do more around the family home, in Gosport, Hampshire, when bribed.

“If Mum tells me to tidy my room, I ignore her but if she offers me a fag, I do it,” she said.

She admits to having had four sexual partners in less than a year, but told Closer magazine: “I only sleep with boyfriends. I worry about getting pregnant because I don’t want kids until I’m married so I always use condoms.”

Sam lost her virginity when she was 12, and told her mother shortly afterwards. Miss Holt said she was shocked at first but hid her feelings well.

“I thought it was a joke, so I laughed,” she said. “I was disappointed. No mother wants to know her 12-year-old is having sex but I’m glad she told me.

“I didn’t show I was angry and just kept it to myself.”

She went on: “It wasn’t a one-night stand. She had been dating the guy for a couple of weeks. I took her to the doctor’s the next day to get her on the Pill. I’ve told her to use condoms.”

Sam’s track record at school leaves a lot to be desired, and she has been excluded for bad behaviour more than 40 times.

“Sam got suspended for the first time after she climbed on to the school roof,” she said.

“I shouted at her and then explained she shouldn’t climb on roofs because she could fall off. I didn’t know what else to do.”

She believes her daughter’s behaviour is down to the teachers at her school who were “too soft” with her.

“Now she is at a special school where there are fewer kids in each class,” she said.

“Hopefully these teachers will be stricter and she will finally get the discipline that’s needed.”

* The full interview with Sam and Tracy Holt appears in Closer magazine.

http://tinyurl.com/64mvuo this link is for the Telegraph.

Posted by Drew458     on 10/21/2008 at 02:47 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Insanity • News-Briefs • Sex • UK •  
• Comments (1) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Saturday - October 18, 2008

Update on the scroungers!

This post is about a previous post which was about Europeons

Peiper might be mad at me for this. He’s probably thinking he has an easy post for later and I’ve beat him to it.

Remember the Cromptons?

The jobless couple with 10 children who rake in £32,000 a year in benefits.. and who STILL aren’t happy

Yeah the scroungers.

They found another poor family with 10 kids not two miles away from the Cromptons.

And boy were they p*ssed when they read about the Cromptons:

Mrs Tate, 43, a stay-at-home mother, could barely believe what she was reading when she saw media coverage of the Cromptons’ situation earlier this week.

‘I am absolutely furious,’ she said. ‘The Government want shooting for allowing people to get away with scrounging like this.

‘We have worked hard all our lives to provide for our kids, and when you see families like this it makes you wonder why you bother.

Exactly. Why bother?

(Why? Oh, yeah. Because you love your children more than the Cromptons do. You demonstrate sacrifice for your children, to your children. The Cromptons demostrate theft from the public trough.)

It is a story which crystalises the dubious values encouraged by the British welfare state.

While hardworking Sean and Anne Tate scrimp to afford a few little luxuries for their ten children on his £15,000 lorry driver’s salary, a family of the same size two miles away take things a little easier.

Harry Crompton, 50, has been out of work for 15 years and his wife Tracey, 40, has never had a job.

So go read about the Tates.

What is really interesting is the pictures of the two families.

The scrounging Cromptons

The hard-working Tates

Which family looks happier?

The idle rich Cromptons? (sit-on-their-@ss welfare income equivalent to £46,500)

Or the scrimping Tates? (actual hard-working income £15,000)

You decide.

Posted by Christopher     on 10/18/2008 at 09:46 PM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Economics • UK •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Thursday - October 16, 2008

Baby-faced gang of ‘feral youths’ named and shamed after reign of terror.

PLEASE See the link for the faces of these 9 miserable little shits!  They do not deserve to live but of course ... they’re getting ASBOS.
Now what the heck makes the authorities think these bastards can be “shamed.” More then likely they will brag about it in school. Assuming they attend school.  By right, their fingers should be broken one by one.  Next offence an arm.  Or an eye. The thing is, they are all of them old enough to know exactly what they were up to.  But there wasn’t any fear of reprisal or penalties. None!  What incentive do these creeps have to feel fear?  What examples have they seen that would make them think twice?  None.  And so it goes on. And on.

The Wild Runts: Baby-faced gang of ‘feral youths’ named and shamed after reign of terror
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 2:35 PM on 16th October 2008

Nine schoolchildren were named and shamed today as a hoodie gang nicknamed
‘The Wild Runts’ were given ASBOS and threatened with jail.

The two girls and seven boys aged between 12 and 16 ‘roamed the community like a pack of dogs’, as racial taunts, violence and vandalism left neighbours gripped by fear.

The youths hurled bricks into people’s homes, scratched cars, started a string of fires, opened guttering, and yelled abuse at the people on the Wigan estate.

Last June, police joined forces with the council and housing groups to nail the youngsters after complaints over a four-month period.

Locals were given anonymity in return for testifying against the gang and some were rehoused in another area.

Today, Amanda Browitt, aged 14, her brother Connor, 15, Callum Doran, 15, Connah Doran, 12, Katy Sharrock ,16, Michael Lee, 14, Lewis Tracey, 12 , Joshua Tracey, 15, and Liam Brogan, 14, were given ASBOs threatening them with jail if they break the law or gather in large groups.

More…
Father almost beaten to death has his home burgled as doctors battle to save his life
Man, 21, collapses and dies in street after chasing yobs who threw lit firework at his bedroom window.
Just another week in an island paradise folks.

The two-year orders also threatened them with up to five years in jail if they are caught using threatening, abusive, or insulting words in public.

They are also forbidden from causing harassment, alarm or distress to any person not of the same household and avoid contact with other associates of their gang.

Terrorised: The Beech Hill Estate near Wigan where the gang started fires and threw bricks into residents’ windows

In two separate sittings, Wigan magistrates court heard how the gang terrorised the neighbourhood on the outskirts of the town with investigators saying racial abuse, wanton vandalism, harassment, threats and intimidation were hallmarks of the gang’s activities.

People and property were the targets and a catalogue of evidence was presented to the court.

As part of the court orders, the gang must not congregate in any group of more than three individuals within certain parts of Beech Hill whilst behaving in a manner causing, or likely to cause, any other person to fear for their safety or property, or the property of another.

One local too frightened to be named said: ‘These youths were an absolute menace. They may look like butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths but the reality is they have brought us nothing but misery.

‘Some of these kids are so small some might think it unbelievable for us to be terrified of them.

‘But they were very menacing indeed. They would wander around the estate like a pack of wild dogs - they always seemed to be be together in a pack. To us they were the wild runts.

‘They are just feral youths. They are wild. In general they just trouble makers. When they are in there gangs they can be up to anything.’

Another local Ian Shaw, 43, said: ‘This used to be a place with real family values, now its hell. These guys pick on the elderly and throw stones and start fires. Even when the Fire Brigade came out and put the blazes out they would start abusing them too.

‘They’ve got such a reputation, kids from other estates are coming over to fight with them. Its like gang warfare. They walk down the street with a key or whatever and scratch every car what is parked on the street.

‘There use to a be playing field behind us with an obstacle courses and basketball courts. Now they are gone. They set fire to the whole lot and the council had to take all the remains away.’

Joan Johnson, 66, retired said: “I was at home, sitting watching television and I saw a brick being thrown towards me. There are always cracks on my window.

‘They have broke my side window and it has me over £80 to get it fixed. I’m retired I shouldn’t have to go through this.”

“They have also thrown eggs at my house. I would move but we are too old and have nowhere to go.’

Inspector Glenn Jones of Greater Manchester Police said: ‘This is a landmark case and sends out the message that all of us - community safety agencies and decent people in local communities - can work together to combat crime and anti-social behaviour.’

http://tinyurl.com/473l6c

Posted by Drew458     on 10/16/2008 at 11:43 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Daily Life • UK •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Wednesday - October 15, 2008

still sick, might be getting better

I’ve spent the last week in Mucus Hell. Awful coughing, nose running like a faucet, bit of a fever, and enough sinus pressure to make my teeth hurt. So much nose blowing that I ought to be dehydrated by now. Doctor said bronchitis and a sinus infection. Two bottles of really large and expensive pills.

This happens to me just about every year when the seasons change. Beats me why. If we have a short fall, going straight from late summer into snow then I’m fine. But if we have an extended fall, where the temps go up and down and in and out for a month or two, then I’m screwed. This year we’ve had frost in September and 80 degree days in mid October. But we haven’t had the cold wet miserable duck hunting season weather of November yet, thank goodness.

So if you’ve been wondering why I haven’t been posting that much, now you know. But I think I might be coming out of it at this point. I’m back to the cough-so-hard-when-you-get-up-that-you-almost-puke-and-then-feel-Ok-for-a-few-hours stage that I came in on, so I’m hoping that’s an improvement. And I think I can find some energy to do some basic stuff around here like laundry and taking out the garbage and putting fresh sheets on the bed. All that basic stuff that just grinds to a halt when you’re sick.

Posted by Drew458     on 10/15/2008 at 07:30 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Monday - October 13, 2008

‘Next time, walk away’: What a magistrate told a husband who stood up to yob threatening his wife .

So where’s the guy supposed to walk away to?  He was at his home unless I misunderstood the article.

I know you ppl will have your own comments to make and they will surely mirror anything I might say.

The surprise is that the guy didn’t simply break the little bastard’s face.  Yeah, then he’d have been jailed. And the thug here damn sure knows his rights as you’ll see.  This kind of crap is maddening. RCOB!

Personally, I fear that if it were me and I let myself go and hit the little shit once, I just wouldn’t be able to stop.
I guess that doesn’t say much for my self control, but given this particular scenario, could ya blame me?

By Daniel Bates
Last updated at 7:56 AM on 13th October 2008

A husband who stood up to a yob who shouted vile abuse at his wife has been convicted of assault and told by a magistrate: ‘Next time, walk away.’

Stephan Toth acted after the 13-year-old threatened his wife Selina, who has cancer.

Mr Toth put his hands on the boy’s shoulders and guided him to his mother’s house, where he explained to her what her son had done. He then went home, only for the police to call at his flat and arrest him.

Stunned: Stephan Toth was charged with assaulting a teenage boy who verbally abused his wife

The 34-year-old father of one was kept in a dirty cell for eight hours and interviewed for two hours before being charged with common assault.

After a three-month wait he was convicted and given an absolute discharge, leaving him with a criminal record.

And he was stunned when chairman of the bench Tony Pomeroy told him to ‘just walk away’ next time.

Mr Toth said: ‘Am I supposed to just walk away when some yob screams such awful things at my wife? No way.

‘I did what any reasonable person would do yet the law is behind him, not me. I’m the victim here but somehow I’ve ended up becoming the criminal. Meanwhile that boy feels like he’s above the law.’

As he waited for the trial, Mr Toth, from Margate in Kent, lost his job as a carer and has been unable to find work since. He was hauled before Margate magistrates over the incident in front of his flat on June 1.

His 46-year-old wife, who is suffering from cervical cancer, was becoming upset by the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, screaming abuse through her open window.

Mr Toth said: ‘I went up to him and said, “Enough is enough”. He said, “You can’t touch me, I’ll get you sacked”. I thought his mum should hear this so with open palms I coaxed him towards her house, which is a few doors down.

‘My job is providing support and care at a school for children with learning and physical disabilities, so I’ve been trained on how to handle youths properly and barely even touched his shoulders.

‘I got him most of the way then he ran off, so I went and spoke to his mum. She refused to accept he had said anything and shouted at me so I called the police to let them deal with it.’

Officers arrived at Mr Toth’s flat half an hour later. The boy’s family claimed Mr Toth grabbed him in a bear hug and tried to pick him up, causing six scratches to his chest.

Mr Pomeroy said: ‘There is insufficient evidence that there was a bear hug causing injuries but the defendant has admitted that he took hold of him by his shoulders and that constitutes an assault in our opinion.

‘We think however that there was some degree of provocation in this.’ He added: ‘It would be an idea next time just to walk away.’

Mr Toth, who also had to pay £85 costs, is planning to appeal. He added: ‘I’ve been treated appallingly. My career is looking like it’s going to be crushed, we have bills to pay and my wife’s already fragile health is worse because of this.’

Kent Crown Prosecution Service defended its decision to take Mr Toth to court. A spokesman said: ‘The CPS only brings a prosecution if there is enough evidence to provide a reasonable chance of conviction and if the prosecution is in the public interest.’

http://tinyurl.com/476fhk

Posted by Drew458     on 10/13/2008 at 02:53 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Daily Life • Outrageous • UK •  
• Comments (11) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Thursday - October 09, 2008

Nebraska parents abandon teens in backfire of newborn drop-off policy .  WhooHoo. news from the USA

I guess most have seen this right?
If not .... what a hoot.  Woody Allen used to joke about his parents hiring kidnappers to remove him.  But that was a gag. I think.
Anyway ... seems these folks are really serious about getting rid of troubling teens.

A scheme in Nebraska intended to allow desperate young mothers to abandon their newborn child without facing prosecution has backfired after a string of parents delivered their troublesome teenagers to the authorities.


By Tom Leonard in New York
Last Updated: 8:53PM BST 08 Oct 2008

Seventeen children - many of them in their teens - have been abandoned since a new law in July allowed parents and guardians to leave their children at drop-off points at hospitals.

The rash of older children deposited has left state authorities struggling to cope. In the latest case this week - and the first involving a child from outside the state - a 14-year-old girl from Iowa was dropped off at a hospital in Omaha, Nebraska, on Tuesday.

State officials said the person who abandoned her could be prosecuted in the girl’s home state but authorities have so far been unable to do anything about the other cases because of the loose wording of its safe haven law.

Nebraska was the last state to introduce such legislation but it went much further than others. Instead of restricting those who could be abandoned to infants, as is the case elsewhere in the US, Nebraska effectively allowed it to apply to anyone up to the age of 18.

In the most serious case to date, a single father handed over nine of his 10 children - aged between 20 months and 17 - saying that he could no longer cope.

Other parents and guardians have brought in children, citing issues such as violence and disobedience as reasons for their abandonment.

The law stipulates that the child must be left in a state-approved hospital. A mother who tried to offload her 14-year-old son in September was foiled after she mistakenly tried to drop him off at a police station instead.

Dave Heineman, the state’s governor, has now pledged to tighten up the law so that it only applies to infants.

He appealed to fellow Nebraskans to take less drastic measures than abandonment if they were having trouble with children.

While conceding that raising a child can be “challenging at times”, he said: “Abandonment of an older child is potentially very devastating ... Nebraskans believe strongly in parental responsibility. The essential element defining any family is the knowledge that parents provide unconditional love for their children.”

http://tinyurl.com/4y9zjz

Posted by Drew458     on 10/09/2008 at 11:58 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Miscellaneous •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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