Saturday - May 19, 2012

ORGANIC JERKS?

Sometime during the past week I happen to see but didn’t read, an article in the health section of our paper claiming that health food may not really be all that healthy.  But I wasn’t really interested and so ignored it but for the headline.
I try when possible not to over do the yummy stuff that has added to my girth. But that is I’m sorry to say, about as far as it goes.  All the stuff that is supposed to keep me healthy and fit does not taste nearly as good as the stuff that health nazis say is gonna do me in.  He writes as he enjoys a hot cup of PG-Tips xtra strong tea (with Jersey milk which has more cream in it then reg. milk. YUM!) and a strawberry crumpet loaded with real whipped cream.

Anyway, due to things that keep me much preoccupied here, I don’t check my email everyday. But I did this morning and was greeted by the following sent to us by Doc Jeff, and so thanks doc.

H/T Doc Jeff

Does organic food turn people into jerks?

By Diane Mapes

Renate Raymond has encountered her fair share of but a recent trip to a Seattle market left her feeling like she’d stumbled onto the set of Portlandia.

“I stopped at a market to get a fruit platter for a movie night with friends but I couldn’t find one so I asked the produce guy,” says the 40-year-old arts administrator from Seattle. “And he was like, ‘If you want fruit platters, go to Safeway. We’re organic.’ I finally bought a small cake and some strawberries and then at the check stand, the guy was like ‘You didn’t bring your own bag? I need to charge you if you didn’t bring your own bag.’ It was like a ‘Portlandia skit.’ They were so snotty and arrogant.”

As it turns out, new research has determined that a judgmental attitude may just go hand in hand with exposure to organic foods. In fact, a new study published this week in the journal of Social Psychological and Personality Science, has found that organic food may just make people act a bit like jerks.

“There’s a line of research showing that when people can pat themselves on the back for their moral behavior, they can become self-righteous,” says author Kendall Eskine, assistant professor of the department of psychological sciences at Loyola University in New Orleans. “I’ve noticed a lot of organic foods are marketed with moral terminology, like Honest Tea, and wondered if you exposed people to organic food, if it would make them pat themselves on the back for their moral and environmental choices. I wondered if they would be more altruistic or not.”

To find out, Eskine and his team divided 60 people into three groups. One group was shown pictures of clearly labeled organic food, like apples and spinach. Another group was shown comfort foods such as brownies and cookies. And a third group—the controls—were shown non-organic, non-comfort foods like rice, mustard and oatmeal. After viewing the pictures, each person was then asked to read a series of vignettes describing moral transgressions.

SOURCE

Some of you may have seen this on CNBC and so this is for those who didn’t as well as our foreign audience.
And btw .......  how’s this for silly and if anyone understands it, speak up.

I saw some bottled water with a label that read, drawn from organic land.  WTH?

Posted by peiper     on 05/19/2012 at 02:27 AM   
Filed Under: • Health and Safety • Miscellaneous • USA •  
• Comments (15) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Friday - May 11, 2012

How to avoid airport security: Wear a burka.

I wasn’t going to bring this one up again as I’d posted the issue yesterday.
However, Littlejohn writing in the Daily Mail, has addressed it well and really shows the absurdity of the officious trolls who along with the terrorist scum, make the travelling public dread the thought of airports and waits and searches. I think his column today is well worth reading, as it is almost all of the time.

How to avoid airport security: Wear a burka

By RICHARD LITTLEJOHN

White airline passengers are routinely stopped and searched unnecessarily at Britain’s airports just so staff can prove they’re not ‘racist’.

Even when customs officials have been tipped off about a black drugs mule arriving on a plane from the Caribbean, they deliberately intercept a number of innocent white passengers so they can’t be accused of discrimination.

John Vine, chief inspector of the UK Border Agency, says staff try to ensure the right racial ‘mix’ even though they have no legal right to detain people on such grounds.  This is because they are petrified about being hammered with allegations of racism every time they stop and search someone from an ethnic minority background.

Tell us something we don’t know. Airport security operates on the same senseless basis.

We’ve all watched elderly white passengers being put through the third degree, while young Asian men wearing backpacks waft past unchallenged.
I’ve seen distressed grey-haired pensioners being patted down intimately and forced to empty all their belongings out of their hand luggage.
Meanwhile, women in full burkas are waved through with a cheery: ‘Have a nice flight.’

Like it or not, though, the fact is that potential suicide bombers do tend to come from that particular demographic. And Al Qaeda suspects have been known to shield their identities behind a burka.  Humiliating every Howard and Hilda heading off on a package holiday, just to meet some artificial racial quota, doesn’t serve to make air travel any safer. It is witless, inconvenient and inefficient.

The authorities know that it causes widespread resentment, which is why airports are plastered with notices giving dire warnings that anyone abusing staff will be arrested immediately and prosecuted.  There’s something horribly wrong with any organisation which has to threaten its customers with arrest before they get to the counter.  I have to bite my lip every time I travel by air to stop myself railing against the insanity of it all, otherwise I’d be in handcuffs before I got anywhere near the departure gate.
Don’t do it, Rich, it’s not worth it.

Passing through Britain’s airports is already an ordeal. And now that the CIA claims to have discovered a new Al Qaeda metal-free explosive device aimed at bringing down aircraft, it’s about to get a whole lot worse. Expect even more stringent security, especially on transatlantic flights.

As someone who travels to the U.S. fairly regularly, I’m acutely aware of the threat posed by terrorists. I was on a North West flight into Detroit just two weeks before the so-called underpants bomber tried to bring down another North West plane above the same airport in 2009. So I’m glad that the authorities are doing everything possible to prevent more aircraft being blown up or flown into skyscrapers.
I just wish a little more intelligence was applied to the process.
When was the last time any plane was hijacked by a 78-year-old granny from Leamington Spa? Precisely.

The nature of the threat makes the case for racial profiling at airports compelling. The security services already do it covertly. Stopping and searching those who plainly pose no danger, simply for the sake of keeping up appearances, is obtuse.
Yet when Jeremy Clarkson suggested recently that a little light profiling of air passengers might not be a bad thing, the twittering lynch mob went knee-jerk berserk and there were bovine calls for him to be sacked from the BBC.

While we are all being urged to ‘celebrate diversity’, we shouldn’t try to kid ourselves that multiculturalism hasn’t brought with it some serious downsides — such as home-grown Islamist terrorists and gangs of Pakistani child rapists.

We’ve all got to rub along in this modern-day melting pot. And that noble ambition isn’t served by ignoring genuine prejudice where it exists, from whichever inconvenient quarter, and gormlessly screeching ‘racism’ where it doesn’t.

Disingenuously insisting that Pakistani child rapists aren’t motivated at least in part by their own wicked brand of racial and cultural bigotry doesn’t do anyone any favours.

And neither does stopping and searching blameless white passengers at Britain’s airports, when you are hoping to catch a black drugs mule.

That’s not a bold demonstration of anti-racism. It’s just plain stupid.

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 05/11/2012 at 11:04 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Health and Safety • muslims •  
• Comments (1) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Tuesday - January 31, 2012

pc health police shut down hospital burger king

This is I gather, what happens in a socialist nanny state.  What an outrage.
It is not as though Burger King doesn’t sell salads and other items with less calories and fat.  But that aside, there are damn few hospital cafeterias and none in our area, that are worth much.  So personally, I’d welcome mouth satisfying food as served by BK. And it isn’t like I eat there every day or even every month.
Why can’t people choose for themselves without having other people decide for them? 

And talking about sending out the wrong messages.  I have seen a few medical staff who didn’t exactly fit the image of exercise and healthy eating. 
I wonder what sort of brainwashed world this new generation born in 2012, will see in 2037 when I won’t be here to see it for myself.  And perhaps I won’t want to witness it all and so might be lucky.  They’re being born into a world where everything will be proscribed for them.  Things will be forbidden but it won’t matter since they won’t grow up in a world where they’ll have the experience of choice.
Pessimistic I suppose but that’s how I see it.

Hospital facing $4.8m cuts forced to pay $31,395 to shut Burger King on its site

Fast food store which opened in 1997 has been replaced by Costa Coffee
By ROB COOPER

An NHS trust paid £24,000 to shutdown a Burger King restaurant inside a hospital.

The outlet in the entrance area of Croydon University Hospital in Surrey has sold burgers and high fat meals to patients for 14 years.
But it was replaced with a Costa Coffee outlet at hefty cost to the taxpayer in December last year following pressure from health campaigners.
The £24,000 ($31,395) cost is enough to cover the salary of lower grade nurse for a whole year.

They accused the hospital of hypocrisy for taking money from the fast food chain at a time when Britain is undergoing an obesity crisis.
The Burger King was located close to notice boards promoting healthy eating.
Explaining the decision, Croydon Health Service said the ‘world had changed’ since bosses signed the contract with Burger King in 1997 to open the fast food restaurant.
Figures obtained under freedom of information laws reveal the NHS Trust paid £24,000 to Compass UK - the company operating the fast food franchise - to terminate the contract.
The trust said none of the money would go to Burger King itself. 
The hospital has to find £34.7million savings over the next three years and has been forced to axe 200 jobs and close four wards.
Hospital bosses hope to claw back some of the money by opening a new pharmacy in the entrance area.
The decision has been welcomed by Croydon North MP Malcolm Wicks.
The Labour MP said: ‘From the first time I saw the wretched burger joint, I was upset about it.

“The trust said none of the money would go to Burger King itself.”
They make it appear as if money going to BK would be a high crime, and saying that none of the money would go them, makes it look more like an apology.  But we’re not giving money to “those people.”

A Labour MP. Tells ya all you need to know.  Not that many conservatives don’t deserve a swift kick. The left is ever happy to be outraged or offended on behalf of others and will happily do the thinking for others as well.

‘Advertising and selling fast food, which is generally unhealthy, really grates with what a modern hospital is about.
‘I’ve badgered successive chief executives about getting rid of the thing, so I wouldn’t criticise the hospital for finally taking the right decision, though the costs are substantial.’
Folake Segun from patients group Croydon Shadow Health Watch said: ‘Hopefully the trust will take the opportunity to properly consult with the community before bringing in such companies in the future.’
he original contract was signed in 1997 between the hospital’s landlord Heathcrof Properties and Compass UK.
Croydon Health Service chief executive Nick Hulme said the hospital had never had direct control over what businesses operate in the entrance area.
He said: ‘We made a business decision to invest in this change which will give our patients and visitors a better service.’

Wanna bet? Don’t hold your breath for that. It’s what they always chant. It’s a mantra. Better service, we’ll learn from our mistakes, it’s good for the kids who are our only concern, yadda,yadda.  It all translates to, stop thinking for yourself. We know what’s best for you.

Posted by peiper     on 01/31/2012 at 01:38 PM   
Filed Under: • Big Brother • Commies • Daily Life • Health and Safety • Nanny State •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Saturday - November 19, 2011

mom dies after fall down shaft, firemen told not to break health and safety rules.

This is my final for the night. Hate to end on this sad note but feel compelled to post this story.
A very sad comment on the world we now inhabit.
Sitting here trying to come up with something but hell, I’ll just let the article speak for itself.
Take a look at this, and be sure to see the link below before the Mail removes the story.

Left to die by the health and safety jobsworths: Mother who fell 45ft down mine shaft wasn’t rescued - because firemen were told life-saving gear would break the rules

Alison Hume left at bottom of collapsed 45ft mine shaft for six hours
She suffered fatal heart attack brought on by hypothermia
Inquiry found fire service evidence ‘bullish, if not arrogant’

Strathclyde Fire and Rescue said her death was a source of ‘enormous regret’ but did not apologise

By JONATHAN BROCKLEBANK

A mother of two who fell 45ft down a mine shaft died after fire chiefs refused to mount an immediate rescue operation because of health and safety fears.

Alison Hume, 44, was left lying in agony in the cold and dark for eight hours with several broken bones.

A report into her death yesterday found she could have survived if rank-and-file firemen had been allowed to do their job and bring her out.

One fireman had been lowered down while a paramedic was strapped up in a harness ready to follow.

But bosses refused to use a winch to lift out the mother-of-two because they were slavishly following rules which said the equipment could only be used to save their own staff.

Instead they waited through the early hours of the morning for a police mountain rescue team to arrive.

Mrs Hume was lifted out but died shortly afterwards from a heart attack brought on by hypothermia.

Last night her stepfather Hugh Cowan, 69, said: ‘They need to ask why people are using health and safety as an excuse for failure, rather than a reason for success.’

The case is the latest example of emergency service personnel putting their safety ahead of those they are supposed to be rescuing. Ten-year-old Jordan Lyon, of Wigan, drowned in a pond in 2007 after two police community support officers said they were unable to help him due to health and safety regulations.

Earlier this year coroner David Roberts said the emergency services must be prepared to ‘risk their lives’ after hearing how red tape cost vital minutes during Derrick Bird’s Cumbrian gun massacre.

Mrs Hume fell down the 45ft mine shaft, part of a coal mine that closed in 1926, at 11.30pm while taking a shortcut home across a field near Galston in Ayrshire after visiting friends in July 2008.

She was found by her teenage daughter before Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service arrived and fireman Alexander Dunn was lowered to the bottom of the shaft.

Please see this link for the whole story and photos.
lots more here

Posted by peiper     on 11/19/2011 at 04:50 PM   
Filed Under: • CULTURE IN DECLINE • Health and Safety • UK •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Tuesday - April 26, 2011

a ban on bumper cars, or dodgems as we’d say in the usa.

OK, do I file this under humor?  Or stupid people?

I think we called em Dodgems when I was a kid.  The goal of course was to avoid being bumped while aiming for someone else. Heck, I don’t recall anyone ever being hurt. But hey ... health and safety ya know.  And then sadly, there is the legal thing in these days of a very litigious culture. 

I guess maybe I should file under law and courts and lawyers etc. I just discovered there isn’t really anything funny here. 

Bumping in bumper cars is banned at Butlins in the name of ‘health and safety’

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 8:45 AM on 26th April 2011

You could be forgiven for thinking bumper cars were, well, for bumping.

But seaside resorts are introducing their own strict Highway Code on the fairground ride because of health and safety concerns.

Bosses at all three Butlins resorts – in Bognor Regis, Minehead and Skegness – have decided that the point of dodgems is to dodge one another.

So they have banned visitors from bumping their cars together, requesting that they manoeuvre them carefully and sedately around the course instead.

They insist adults and children can still have ‘great fun’ overtaking other cars – but only while driving in an orderly fashion in the same direction.

However, disappointed visitors have described the experience as similar to navigating ‘an exitless roundabout’.

Ironically, it was Sir Billy Butlin himself who brought the electric bumper car, equipped with its distinctive large bumpers, to British fairgrounds from the U.S. in the 1920s.

The holiday camp confirmed that the rules for their ‘experience dodgems’ had been tightened to avoid customers injuring themselves or others. Staff have been ordered to ban any visitor who dares to flout the strict ‘no bump’ rule.

A spokesman for Butlins admitted the restrictions were ‘pretty vigilant’, but insisted they were necessary.

It is thought the company was concerned about potential legal claims for whiplash or other injuries suffered during a ‘crash’.

But although there have been attempts to claim compensation for injuries sustained while on a bumper car, none has succeeded.

Solicitors say it would be very difficult to prove fault on the part of a dodgem driver, and many believe the level of impact would simply be too low for a compensation claim. 

Jeremy Pardey, resort director at Butlins in Bognor Regis, said he could not allow the cars to bump for ‘health and safety reasons’.

He added: ‘The point of our dodgems is to dodge people, not to run into people.’

The holiday camp has fallen in line with many other fairgrounds which display ‘no bumping’ signs. But few go as far as banning those who break the rules.

Mr Butlin bought the UK franchise for Dodgem Cars, a brand manufactured in the U.S., and introduced them at his holiday camps 80 years ago.

source

Posted by peiper     on 04/26/2011 at 06:06 AM   
Filed Under: • Health and Safety • Judges-Courts-Lawyers •  
• Comments (1) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Wednesday - April 13, 2011

It Figures

Fire extinguishers could be removed from communal areas in flats throughout the country because they are a safety hazard, it has emerged.

The life-saving devices encourage untrained people to fight a fire rather than leave the building, risk assessors in Bournemouth decided.

There are fears that their recommendation, which has seen the extinguishers ripped out of several private, high-rise flats in the town, could set a national precedent.

Under the Fire Safety Order of 2005, fire assessments must be carried out to ‘eliminate or reduce risk as is reasonably practical’.

But Mike Edwards, who lives in one of the blocks, said he was ‘absolutely staggered’ that risk experts thought it a safe decision.

‘They are worried we will point them in the wrong direction or use the wrong extinguishers,’ he said. ‘But if you are trapped in a burning building, you will work out how to use one.’

The 61-year-old claimed his neighbours were now worried sick that a fire could break out.

Dorset Fire and Rescue defended the move, saying: ‘Obviously, in some cases, an extinguisher could come in useful but, with new building regulations, every escape route should be completely fireproof.’

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents backed their removal because different extinguishers should be used on different types of fire.

That’s why most American households have Class A-B-C extinguishers, which will do the job on anything other than burning Maseratis, which need those Class D extinguishers. The best informed of us who really love to deep fry have made the investment in a Class K extinguisher, made especially for fighting grease and oil fires, although I am reasonably sure that an A-B-C model can handle a small grease fire. Just step back a little so you don’t blast the burning grease right out of the pan or off the stove. Or have a big box of baking soda you can dust at it. A BIG box.

Pretty sure we learned in Cub Scouts that you shoot the source, not the flames. ”PASS”, right? Or was it PASS OUT - pull, aim, shoot, sweep, get OUT? Macht nichts. And that’s about all the training you need for most small fires.

Posted by Drew458     on 04/13/2011 at 11:55 AM   
Filed Under: • Health and Safety • UK •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Thursday - March 17, 2011

HEALTH AND SAFETY MEETS CHARITY SHOP … SHOP TO CLOSE …

On the face of it, when I first read this I thought oh no. The idiots at the HSE (Health & Safety Exec.) are at it again. And so it seems.
I’ve never worked in a charity shop and so have no experience there. But I have helped out on some charity events from time to time since, well, I guess since forever. Never occurred to me that I had to be mindful of H&S issues outside the ordinary things.  The wife currently helps out some aged ladies, it isn’t in a closed environment like a store. She does some grocery shopping for them and as needed when able to, takes them to doctors or gives them a lift if they need one.  It’s not every day though.  So I was surprised to read this about a charity shop, and I guess someone - somewhere has to cover eventualities.

Wasn’t always this way though. Was it?  And btw ... this salary works out to more then $50,000 a year. Yikes.

Red tape forces volunteer shop to close

Volunteers at a successful charity shop were forced out of business when the charity owners insisted on hiring a paid manager to look afetr them.

The volunteers had been running the Cancer Research UK charity shop in Cullompton, Devon since 2006 without any paid staff support and had been successul in raising over £40k of funds for the charity every year.

Howevever a recent health and safety inspection identified what it called ‘significant gaps in regulatory compliance’ and Cancer Research UK were told they needed to install a paid manager or cease trading with immediate effect. The charity is unable to afford the £25k salary needed and so the shop has been closed down.

The ‘gaps’ identified by the health and safety executive included ‘inproper use of cleaning materials’ and storing heavy objects too high up on shelves.

The shop’s 30 plus volunteers, who between them have hundreds of years of life experience, are devastated by the decision. As well as raising funds for the charity the shop had become a hub for older people in the community and many of the volunteers had contributed their own funds to cover set up costs when they took over the shop in 2006.

A spokesperson for the volunteers told the Daily Mail, ‘This has become a real hub of the community and, quite apart from turning a tidy profit, has become a focal point for pensioners and widows to come and meet and browse through items.’

VOLUNTEER SOURCE

everything working well with no problems for some yrs now so let fix it.

Posted by peiper     on 03/17/2011 at 10:42 AM   
Filed Under: • Health and Safety •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Tuesday - February 08, 2011

A MATTER OF SOVEREIGNTY AND MEDICAL SAFETY

I have myself come into contact with doctors (not a lot) who I have had to ask to repeat themselves.  Doesn’t happen often but when it does, I’m always left wondering, do they understand me? Do they know what I’m trying to describe? It’s just a feeling sometimes of confidence as in, Lack Of!

This article in the Mail today hasn’t made me feel any more confident I can tell ya.

To be fair, the nurses I have come into contact with on the odd occasion, were highly competent and professional and kindly. I found that in Winchester as well as Southampton.  Which does not make this article any the less scary.

I thought it should be shared as much for the issue of sovereignty as for medical safety. I bang on a lot, on the issue of ‘sovereignty,’ but find I can’t help myself because of what I have seen here over the last 6 and more years.  Keep in mind please that I remember an England that did not have to answer to foreign powers or blocks in the way they do now.  Another example of that is the vote for prisoners.  The European Court of Human Rights has ruled and EU members must follow.
There’s a huge fight going on as I write this on that subject.  If this country refuses the edict, they will face millions in legal action. It’s a mess folks and I know of few here who like the idea.  Well, except for one writer in today’s Telegraph who thinks refusing the vote to prisoners undermines Democracy. Oh really? Then why has it done so well (mostly) over all these years?  And here’s an interesting aside.  It won’t be the EU or their courts that will lose monies.  It’ll be the Brit taxpayer if things go haywire.  Who else?

So naturally me being me, I transfer what I see and read here, to my own country thinking that anything is possible. And it most assuredly is. There’s many a rough and tumble Brit who never dreamed his country would be thus in 2011.  If you could time travel and meet Churchill and tell him what’s happened to his country, he’d think you utterly mad or drunk or both. It would be beyond his imagining.  As an American, I’m inclined that way. In my country? Not a chance of losing our sovereignty. Oh yeah?  I’m seeing first hand what the pc left has done here.  And there damn well are Americans who are their first cousins.
So I worry.  The only saving grace, maybe, is that Americans are armed to the teeth. The question is, will those weapons actually come into use?

Stay Tuned.

Foreign nurses will be able to work here with just TWO days’ testing in EU shake-up

By SOPHIE BORLAND

Poorly-trained foreign nurses will be allowed to work in Britain after completing only two days of role playing and multiple choice tests.

The short course replaces the rigorous assessments and exams currently undertaken by those failing to meet NHS standards.

To work on wards, nurses are likely to need to show only their skills on dummies, with no requirement to speak good English.

The shake-up is being imposed by the European Union, which says tests on foreign workers go against its freedom of movement laws.

Senior health officials fear the multiple choice assessments, which will begin in April, will be unrealistic and too easy.

Under the existing rules, any EU nurse whose training is deemed substandard must go on an intensive adaptation programme lasting up to six months before they can work in UK hospitals. The courses, which can cost up to £1,500, are run by universities and consist of theory tests, written coursework and practical exams in wards or nursing homes.

Although not directly assessed on their English, candidates would struggle to pass without good language skills.

The regime is so strict that only a quarter of the 8,000 EU nurses who apply to work in the UK every year see the process through.

Most are put off by the cost and difficulty of making the grade.

Those not up to scratch largely come from states relatively new to the EU such as Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Estonia and Latvia.

When the MIL was still alive and there were care givers assigned to help my wife, and these weren’t volunteers but paid workers, we had one mouthy and disagreeable young woman from one of those countries mentioned.  Not that she was the only troublesome helper, there were a couple of native Brits who were less then agreeable altho competent enough. But it wasn’t easy getting ppl and the MIL was totally bedridden and so the wife let some things slide rather then gripe. In the case of the foreign worker, she left for a nursing job somewhere, and I feel sorry for whoever finds themselves in her care. She spoke English very well, but I don’t think she understood it as well as she spoke it, and pointing out a mistake was taken as an insult.

The new tests are being drawn up by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. It is understood they will involve multiple choice, role plays and demonstrations on dummy patients – and may last just two days.

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: ‘These multiple choice tests will be far too simple.

‘This is giving patient safety no priority. How can nurses’ ability to carry out drug calculations and all the other skills required on the ward be assessed in a multiple choice test? It’s disgraceful that this is allowed to happen.’

John Lister, director of campaign group London Health Emergency, said: ‘This is a retrograde step and this is something the NMC should be challenging in court.’

The council is being forced to take action after being threatened with lawsuits by Bulgarian nurses who claimed it was too difficult to register to work in Britain.

The EU has also blocked rigorous checks on foreign GPs who want to work here. This had disastrous results in 2008 when engineer David Gray died at the hands of German locum Daniel Ubani, who gave him ten times the normal dose of diamorphine.

Mr Gray’s son Stuart, who is a GP in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, said: ‘It’s a ludicrous system. The NHS is a very different to other countries’ health systems and people need training before they can practise here.’

Nurses from countries outside the EU will still face stringent tests.

The NHS relies on foreign nurses and in the past decade more than 90,000 have registered to work in the UK, mainly from the Philippines, Australia, India and South Africa.

Relaxing the entry requirements for EU nurses is likely to see an influx of nurses who had felt it too much trouble to work in Britain.

A spokesman for the Nursing and Midwifery Council said: ‘The test will ensure that EU-trained nurses are able to meet the same standards that we require of nurses who trained in the UK.’

A Department of Health spokesman said foreign healthcare professionals would need to pass robust language and competency tests.

CARRY ON NURSE

Posted by peiper     on 02/08/2011 at 11:17 AM   
Filed Under: • Health and Safety •  
• Comments (1) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Saturday - January 22, 2011

michelle …. our pal …..

How in the world have we managed to live this long without Mrs. Obama’s nutritional input.

I guess every first lady just HAS to have a program but I’ll be darned if I understand why. Who voted for them?

Anyway ... Mrs. O. it appears is in partnership with Wal-Mart, it reads in our morning Telegraph, to lower prices on veggies (I guess that’s a good thing. Isn’t it?) and convinced the chain to make thousands of it’s packaged foods lower in fats and sugars. 

So I guess in addition to being the first lady, she’s also the first mama?

You can’t argue against those things that will benefit people, the argument will run.  And kids don’t generally have a choice when mom does her shopping.
BUT ... as an adult, it’s those bad things that make many foods taste better. As an adult I want to make my own choices.

There’s a drive on here to reduce salt in many foods. Which will be meaningless when ppl start pouring salt on food bought with less cos it tastes bland without it.

Michelle Obama joins forces with Wal-Mart for healthy food campaign

Michelle Obama has helped draw up an unprecedented five-year plan with Wal-Mart, America’s biggest retailer, to drop prices on fruits and vegetables and make thousands of its packaged foods lower in fats and sugars.

Joining Wal-Mart executives at a community centre in Washington, Mrs Obama described the company’s new initiative as “a huge victory for folks all across this country” and said it has the “potential to transform the marketplace”.

She said: “When I see a company like Wal-Mart launch an initiative like this, I feel more hopeful than ever before. We can improve how we make and sell food in this country.”

Wal-Mart, which has 60,000 suppliers, will make thousands of its packaged foods healthier and cheaper by 2015, build more stores in poor areas and increase its donations to nutrition programmes. Sodium and sugar will be reduced in some Wal-Mart foods and the price of fresh produce lowered.

source

oh right on Wal-Mart. Go ahead and build more stores in areas that looters and shoplifters will have easier access to. Nothing like having a Wal-Mart right on your doorstep.  And when they start losing money they’ll close em.
Jeesh ........ when the heck did I become this cynical?

Posted by peiper     on 01/22/2011 at 02:53 PM   
Filed Under: • Health and Safety • USA •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

why wasn’t he laughing when he got up?  some ppls idea of fun … have your sound on

Posted by peiper     on 01/22/2011 at 01:40 PM   
Filed Under: • Health and Safety • Insanity • Moonbat Award to: •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Thursday - December 30, 2010

docs mis diagnose …. man loses his … ah …. it got cut off in error. OUCH!

Somethin’ tells me this might be the end story of the year. Perhaps the decade? Scares one off doctors and the medical profession.  There are stories that pop up all year long about unfortunates who go through hell, some have amputations, only to find a mistake has been made.  For example, a kid with broken bones and missed at the ER. ??? How’s that happen?  One fellow you may recall, as reported here, had a broken back so the story went. And that was mis-diagnosed.
But this case .... well ..... ?

Swede told he had cancer and forced to have penis amputated following a YEAR of mis-diagnosis

By Daily Mail Reporter

An elderly Swedish man has had to have his penis amputated after doctors misdiagnosed his condition.

Rather than being the urinary tract infection doctors had thought, he had contracted cancer, and medics had missed the signs for over a YEAR.

As the disease had been undetected for so long, the cancer had taken hold and doctors were left with no option other than to lop off his manhood.

The sexagenarian originally visited his local clinic in Blekinge, southern Sweden, in September 2009 for treatment on what he was told was an infection.

When he returned in March 2010 complaining of foreskin irritation, the doctor on duty at the time diagnosed the problem as a simple case of inflammation, the local paper, Blekinge Läns Tidning (BLT), reported.

After three weeks passed without the prescribed treatment alleviating the man’s condition, he was instructed to seek further treatment at Blekinge Hospital.

But it took five MONTHS before he was able to schedule an appointment at the hospital.

When he finally met with doctors at the hospital, the man was informed he had cancer and his penis would have to be removed.

It remains unclear if the man would have been able to keep his penis had the cancer been detected sooner.

But the matter has been reported to the National Board of Health and Welfare in Sweden.

Two years ago Philip Seaton also suffered a similar fate when went to be circumcised at a hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, but awoke to find his penis had been amputated.

Mr Seaton filed a lawsuit against the doctor who performed the procedure and the anesthetist, claiming mental anguish and pain.

He also said he has lost the enjoyment of life, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit says doctors only received consent to perform a circumcision and that Mr Seaton did not consent to his penis being removed.

His lawyer, Kevin George, said the organ was cut off after cancer was found, but that doctors only had consent to remove the foreskin.

Mr George said: ‘Sometimes you have an emergency and you have to do this, but he could very easily closed him up and said, “Here are your options. You have cancer,” and the family would have said, “We want a second opinion. This is a big deal.“‘

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 12/30/2010 at 12:14 PM   
Filed Under: • Health and Safety • Health-Medicine •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Sunday - December 12, 2010

“This bumptious Idiot.”

My last post highlighted a screeching left wing liberal moonbat with no more brains then god gave a banana.

Well, just to be politically fair …. we have our share of Moonbats among convs. as well.  And here’s an example. His name is Ken Clarke and he is the “Justice Secretary.” (Justice. Now there’s a word that causes a giggle or two) He has been in the news quite a bit lately and not a few are confusing him with the left.  He has a few interesting ideas about criminality and prisons and rehabilitation of criminals.  As opposed to jailing them.
For instance … he says,
“The first time someone bumps someone off the fortnight after they are let out, there will be outrage. But you have to explain to the sensible public that you can’t give an absolute guarantee.”

What he is referring to are the criminals and as well, those who are mentally unbalanced, getting out of prison early.  He does not appear to have the support of the Prime Minister on this issue. Or I don’t think he does.

Mr Clarke says that the public “Must accept the danger that his plan to free mentally ill prisoners could lead to someone being bumped off.” Nice phrase that.  Bumped off.  Cool.  Has a Hollywood ring to it but …. it still means KILLED. As in MURDERED!

I don’t know because I have not counted nor have I researched the issue.  But I damn well know what I read all to often in all our papers.  Sure, if it bleeds it leads.  I understand that.  The problem is that there seem to be a number of folks who have become victims and are doing the bleeding.  And the numbers do not seem to be getting any smaller.  Do any of you out there actually think someone like say, Charles Manson, could be rehabilitated?  I for one do not.  And there are a few crazies running about here who should be shot, hung or gassed to make the law abiding safer. Safer in their homes and safer on their streets.  You do not get that by releasing prisoners with long records or being off the rails mentally.  And I do not make an exception for those who hear voices and so get off due to “diminished responsibility.” Take a look at a couple of the photos at the link below. Do those guys even appear human?  How many times do we read that some wanker was off his meds poor boy, and so quite naturally stabbed the first person he saw after breakfast. Or dinner. Or at the first inner voice he heard.  I have no patience for them and do not trust the shrinks who say someone is “now safe” to be out in the public. 

By the way … Mr Clarke admitted that he may be more liberal then most conservatives.

Freed mentally ill prisoners could ‘bump someone off’ - but they should NOT be in prison, claims Ken Clarke
By Simon Walters

Mr Clarke’s chief Tory opponent, Shipley MP Philip Davies, said: ‘Ken Clarke does have a tendency to political pig-headedness. His law and order beliefs are like his pro-Euro beliefs – he is equally wrong and equally adamant about both.
‘It is a false argument for him to claim that those of us who want criminals sent to prison somehow do not believe in rehabilitation. It is a question of where the rehabilitation takes place.’
Conservative MPs are divided over laid-back grandee Mr Clarke. Some say his experience is a huge asset, but others claim his off-hand manner is as damaging as his lenient stance on prisons.
When popular ‘Cameron Cutie’ Essex Tory MP Priti Patel asked him for an assurance last week that scrapping laws designed to keep paedophiles behind bars until they are no longer dangerous would not backfire, Mr Clarke scoffed at ‘loony tunes’ critics.
And former Labour Home Secretary Jack Straw says he fears Mr Clarke’s policies will lead to more lawlessness not less.
Film-maker Julian Hendy, whose father Philip was murdered in Bristol in 2007 by a mentally unstable man with a history of criminal behaviour, said Mr Clarke ‘sounded pretty glib’.
Mr Hendy, who spent nearly three years researching mental health homicides in Britain after the murder, said: ‘I’d like to meet Ken Clarke to talk about the reality of losing someone to someone who has mental health problems.
‘Every year, 100 people are killed by someone who has mental health problems. It would be OK to release them if they were to get proper treatment – but the system is simply not up to it.’

ALL THE STORY IS HERE

Here a few local quotes and on writer for the Mail, Peter Hitchens, refers to Mr. Clarke as, “This bumptious Idiot.”

Kenneth Clarke - the Conservatives’ answer to Harriet Harman. Bonkers!
- Phil, Braintree, Essex

Maybe Clarke himself should be ‘locked up’ - and kept away from frightening people.

I’m sure he’d be quite so relaxed about his stupid idea if any member of his family encountered one of the people who shouldn’t be allowed to roam free.

This man is dangerous; he’s a lunatic; he needs his medication and the attention of doctors - to prevent his stupid ideas harming and causing danger to the people of the UK.

A Government’s first duty is the safety and security of its citizens; but then Clarke was one of the Traitors who happily signed us further into the Animal Farm EUSSR, so we can’t expect him to acknowledge any idea of safeguarding UK citizens.

Yeah, that confirms it - the man is dangerous......
- Anne Smith, Grey & Sad & Weary UK,

Posted by peiper     on 12/12/2010 at 02:53 PM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Health and Safety • UK •  
• Comments (0) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Friday - December 10, 2010

student injury but, posted only cos he looks so damn dorky. wonder if he gets hissy fits.

Oh woo-wussy-hoo. Mammas wittle boy get him head bump. He get hurt put on him.  And mommy was attending the protests also. Hey, they family that protests together ... ? ...

Meanwhile ....

Not a hell of a lot of reporting about the injuries sustained by the police. Well of course not.  They were only there to riot and club innocent young students.

Student has emergency brain surgery after ‘being beaten around the head with police truncheon’ during protest

By Daily Mail Reporter

A student was rushed to hospital for emergency brain surgery after he was allegedly hit with a police truncheon during last night’s tuition fees protest.

Alfie Meadows, 20, developed bleeding on his brain when he was hit as he tried leave the ‘kettling’ area outside Westminster Abbey, his mother said.

The Middlesex University student fell unconscious on the way to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, where he underwent a three-hour operation to save his life.

He was one of 44 people, including six police officer, treated in hospital after London’s most violent night of student rioting over fees.

A further 14 people, including six police, were treated by paramedics at the scene.

Alfie’s mother, Susan Meadows, 55, an English literature lecturer at Roehampton University, said her son had described the blow to his head as ‘the hugest he had ever felt’.

‘Basically he had a stroke last night,’ she said. ‘He couldn’t speak or move his hand.

‘The surface wound wasn’t very big but three hours after the blow, he suffered bleeding to the brain,’ she said.

‘He survived the operation and he’s in the recovery room.

‘He’s an extraordinarily idealistic and committed and political person. He cares passionately about the cause,’ she said, adding that he had been to training sessions at the University of London.

‘They had been given advice on how to stay safe. He would never try to be a martyr.’

more@source

‘He would never try to be a martyr.’

Yeah, somehow I think we can tell that.

Posted by peiper     on 12/10/2010 at 12:37 PM   
Filed Under: • Health and Safety • UK •  
• Comments (7) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Friday - October 22, 2010

something went bump in the night … ?

Brand-new £1bn nuclear submarine on the rocks: Navy shame as Britain’s most deadly vessel runs aground

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:44 PM on 22nd October 2010

The Royal Navy’s newest and largest attack submarine has run aground during routine sea trials off the coast of Scotland.

In a severe embarrassment for the Royal Navy, the £1billion nuclear-powered HMS Astute became stuck on rocks near the Isle of Skye this morning.

Astute does not carry nuclear warheads but has a greater firepower than any previous attack sub making it Britain’s most deadly vessel.

making it Britain’s most deadly vessel.

Right, providing there’s no land nearby.

Hey. My first posting when I was in the Navy was on the USS Watts.  That ship used to run into other ships. At the dock. Sometimes we ran into the dock.
We tore a piece out of the Turner Joy.  Never forget that.  Of course, that was in the old days of sail. lol.

that’s supposed to read, 3.5 billion. that’s about 6 billion in dollars I think. haven’t checked rate of exchange.

BUNCH MORE HERE

Posted by peiper     on 10/22/2010 at 09:50 AM   
Filed Under: • Health and Safety • UK •  
• Comments (6) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

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:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

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.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2008 Domain Owner