Wednesday - December 17, 2008

I have abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system

Yes, this is an actual quote by President Bush.

He’s talking about the probable bailout of U.S. automakers, using money authorized earlier this year and given to Hank Paulson to hand out to whomever he wants.  Paulson said that all he is thinking about right now is the automakers.

I believe him.  I know no one there is thinking about the Constitution.  No one there is thinking of Adam Smith.  No one there is thinking of Milton Friedman.  No one there is thinking of the future generations of Americans who will be burdened by this.

Re-read that headline.  Try to wrap your brain around that.  I’m still trying to figure it out.  So is Jimmie from The Sundries Shack:

I seriously have no idea how that works. You do not burn a village to save it. You do not kill a patient to cure them. And you do not throw free-market principles into the dumpster to save the free-market.

How does this work?  Do we try a little socialism until we can get back to being capitalists?  A little bit of Marxism makes the medicine go down?

Another question is:  How do you plan on fixing a problem using the same thinking that created it? 

If you have not read “Atlas Shrugged,” there is no better time to do so than now.  Or, you can watch the nightly news for the television version. 

Sooner or later, companies are just going to close and heads of industry are going to start disappearing.  People will wonder where they went, shrug and say, “Who is John Galt?”

Posted by Drew458     on 12/17/2008 at 09:25 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics • Insanity •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Tuesday - December 02, 2008

Muslim prayer rooms should be opened in Catholic schools, say church leaders.  Huh? Say what?

Tempted to say so what. Not my church.  I have a feeling that it isn’t the church of many Catholics anymore either.
Can not say that and believe it however.  It’s bothersome on a level I’m not sure I understand.  Actually, it seems really crazy. It’s like one more backward bending appeasement to a group that will be happy to see you dead. 

According to another newspaper this morning, these plans include also making prayer rooms available for Hindus and Jews as well.
Nice to see the church has so much money to throw around in these financially hard times. 

Muslim prayer rooms should be opened in Catholic schools, say church leaders

By Simon Caldwell
Last updated at 11:44 AM on 02nd December 2008

Muslim prayer rooms should be opened in every Roman Catholic school, Church leaders have said.

The Catholic bishops of England and Wales also want special toilet facilities in schools to be adapted for Islamic cleaning rituals.

Their demands will shock both Catholic parents and the Government because they go way beyond the legal requirements on catering for the rights and needs of religious minorities.

But the bishops are keen to answer critics who say religious schools sow division - and to show that they are leading the way in building bridges between people of different faiths.

The bishops acknowledge in a new document proposing the measures that 30 per cent of pupils attending Catholic schools hold a non-Christian faith.

“If practicable, a room (or rooms) might be made available for the use of pupils and staff from other faiths for prayer,” the bishops said in the document, Catholic Schools, Children of Other Faiths and Community Cohesion.

“Existing toilet facilities might be adapted to accommodate individual ritual cleansing which is sometimes part of religious lifestyle and worship,” they said.

“If such space is not available on a permanent or regular basis, extra efforts might be made to address such need for major religious festivals.”

The Islamic cleansing ritual, called “Wudhu”, is carried out by Muslims before they pray.

Islam teaches that Muslims are unfit for prayer if they have not performed Wudhu after breaking wind or using the toilet.

Wudhu involves washing the face, hands, arms and feet three times each, gargling the mouth three times and washing the neck and inside the nose and ears. Some Muslims also wash their private parts.

Catholic schools would need to install bidets, foot spas and hoses to facilitate such extensive cleansing rituals, Muslims say.

The document has been published by the Catholic Education Service, an agency of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.

But it has been personally approved by Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Birmingham and the favourite to succeed Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor next year as the leader of the country’s 4.3 million Catholics.

It will inevitably lead to accusations that the Catholic Church is ready to cave in to the Government’s agenda and some Catholics have questioned the wisdom of the policies as well as the cost.

Daphne McLeod, a former Catholic head teacher from south London, said it would be “terribly expensive” for the country’s 2,300 Catholic primary and secondary schools to provide ritual cleansing facilities.

She said: “If Muslim parents choose a Catholic school then they accept that it is going to be a Catholic school and there will not be facilities for ritual cleansing and prayer rooms.

“They do their ritual cleansing before they go to a mosque, but they are not going to a mosque.

“I don’t think the bishops should go looking for problems. Where will it stop?”

(wanna guess?)

But Majid Khatme, a Muslim who sent his children to a London Catholic school, said he was delighted by the gesture.

“It is very kind of the bishops if they give this facility for Muslims to pray,” he said.

“I would love to send a letter of thanks to the bishops, really. If they do this all Muslims in Britain will be thankful to the Catholic Church to have facilities to pray. It is very, very encouraging.”

Archbishop Nichols, the chairman of the bishops’ Department for Education and Formation, said in his foreword to the document that inter-faith dialogue has become increasingly important to the Church “as the presence of other faith communities grows and becomes more evident in our society”.

He said that the publication was being “offered to our schools in the hope that the good work already being done in them for children and young people of other faiths can be further strengthened and so that the lives of all our pupils, students and staff can be enriched”.

The document also urges head teachers to “keep under review” all policies which touched on other religions, including school uniform, dietary needs and the time-tabling of events.

Laura McCann, spokeswoman for the Catholic Education Service, said it would be a matter for the governing body of each school to decide whether to adopt the recommendations.

“It would depend on the resources that they have and also other factors such as the numbers of non-Catholic pupils attending the school,” she said.

CATHOLICS

Posted by peiper     on 12/02/2008 at 08:27 AM   
Filed Under: • Insanity • Stoopid-People • UK •  
• Comments (6) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Thursday - November 20, 2008

Where’s My Indictment?

Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have been indicted on state charges involving federal prisons in a South Texas county that has been a source of bizarre legal and political battles under the outgoing prosecutor.

The indictment returned Monday has not yet been signed by the presiding judge, and no action can be taken until that happens.

The seven indictments made public in Willacy County on Tuesday included one naming state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. and some targeting public officials connected to District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra’s own legal battles.

Regarding the indictments targeting the public officials, Guerra said, “the grand jury is the one that made those decisions, not me.”

Guerra himself was under indictment for more than a year and half until a judge dismissed the indictments last month. Guerra’s tenure ends this year after nearly two decades in office. He lost convincingly in a Democratic primary in March.

Guerra said the prison-related charges against Cheney and Gonzales are a national issue and experts from across the country testified to the grand jury.

Cheney is charged with engaging in an organized criminal activity related to the vice president’s investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds financial interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. It accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and “at least misdemeanor assaults” on detainees because of his link to the prison companies.

One indictment charges Cheney and Gonzales with engaging in organized criminal activity. It alleges that the men neglected federal prisoners and are responsible for assaults in the facilities.

The grand jury accused Cheney of a conflict of interest because of his influence over the county’s federal immigrant detention center and his substantial holdings in the Vanguard Group, which invests in private prison companies.

So why is the Vice President being charged? Because he has money in an index fund (yes, it’s that Vanguard Group), and one of the companies in the fund is a prison management company, and some of the prisoners complained that the prison guards employed by that company abused them. Therefore it’s Cheny’s fault. Gonzales’s too, but the news didn’t say whether he had shares in the fund or not.

Well, gosh-a-roonie, Vanguard holds my 401K. Guess I’d better be on the lookout for the police.

h/t to the CNN TV news ticker, and a little help from PoliPundit.

Posted by Drew458     on 11/20/2008 at 04:09 PM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Insanity •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Joe Biden, Genius And Savant

“Mark my words,” the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

DOT ONE: Remember how, 6 or 8 months ago, we were told that Iran wouldn’t have enough centrifuges to make enough enriched uranium to build a bomb with for at least the better part of a decade?


DOT TWO: Remember how, a few months before that, we were told that Iran really didn’t have nuclear weapons ambitions because they had stopped work on bomb design several years ago?


DOT THREE: Remember the news, a couple years before that, about the Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan, the guy who developed that country’s functional nukes, who had given the plans to every rogue islamic nation he could get in touch with? Then how Musharraf pardoned him, and how now he denies the whole thing and claims he was a scapegoat? Even though Libya, in the wake of 9/11, gave up it’s nuclear ambitions and turned the plans over to the US?


DOT FOUR: Remember how Iran has been playing games with the UN for ages, whining and crying and threatening, and how they spit on any and all sanctions against them a lie about their intentions and activities? That this has been going on so long it’s their standard behavior pattern, just like their buddies over there in North Korea?


DOT FIVE: Remember how far more sophisticated nuke plans turned up later, and even the nay-sayers at the UN couldn’t be sure if these had been distributed?


DOT SIX: Remember how Iran has made the news many times this year for testing more and more of their long range missiles? Ok, some of the pictures were “enhanced” a bit via faux-tography, but the missile tests were conducted, and they seemed to work.


DOT SEVEN:

Iran said to have enough nuclear fuel for one weapon

Iran has now produced roughly enough nuclear material to make, with added purification, a single atom bomb, according to nuclear experts analyzing the latest report from global atomic inspectors.

The figures detailing Iran’s progress were contained in a routine update on Wednesday from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been conducting inspections of the country’s main nuclear plant at Natanz. The report concluded that as of early this month, Iran had made 630 kilograms, or about 1,390 pounds, of low-enriched uranium.

Several experts said that was enough for a bomb, but they cautioned that the milestone was mostly symbolic, because Iran would have to take additional steps. Not only would it have to breach its international agreements and kick out the inspectors, but it would also have to further purify the fuel and put it into a warhead design — a technical advance that Western experts are unsure Iran has yet achieved.

“They clearly have enough material for a bomb,” said Richard Garwin, a top nuclear physicist who helped invent the hydrogen bomb and has advised Washington for decades. “They know how to do the enrichment. Whether they know how to design a bomb, well, that’s another matter.”

For most of a decade the “intelligence” people in the West have continued to go out of their way to underestimate Iran as much as they could, and to tie a blindfold on themselves on a daily basis. Wouldn’t want to upset the sheeple you know. Or have to be pro-active or anything like that.


Got your pencils ready? Good.

Posted by Drew458     on 11/20/2008 at 09:56 AM   
Filed Under: • Insanity • Iran • Obama, The One • Terrorists •  
• Comments (6) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Saturday - November 15, 2008

Here’s a sure Moonbat award. Schools forced to seek pupils’ views on discipline.

The lunacy never ends.  They just keep on finding new things to be really silly about.  These ppl need real jobs I think.
Oh right.  Who’d hire em?  Forgot.  The state of course.

Schools will be forced to ask pupils’ permission before imposing rules on discipline, uniform and the curriculum under new legislation.

By Graeme Paton, Education Editor
Last Updated: 9:25PM GMT 14 Nov 2008

In a move branded “crazy” by head teachers, all state schools will be legally obliged to consult children on major policies, including health and safety, food and equality.

Baroness Morgan, the Children’s Minister, insisted schools must do more than simply solicit pupils’ views on “what colour to paint the walls”.

The rules will be introduced as part of the Education and Skills Bill currently being debated in Parliament.

But the disclosure sparked outrage among teachers who said it would be “open to abuse”.

There were also fears it could trigger a raft of legal action as pupils and parents sue local authorities claiming children’s views were ignored.

(and of course that would NEVER happen)

Lord Elton, the Conservative peer, insisted pupils’ opinions had to be taken into account but said: “I am sorry that it has to be in legislation. We are a litigious nation, and it would be very unfortunate if we were to have a rash of cases of parents saying, ‘You were not listening to my little Johnny’.”

The Liberal Democrats tabled an amendment to the Bill in the House of Lords requiring school governors to “invite and consider pupils’ views”.

Ministers said the change, which received cross-party support, would be added to the legislation. The Bill is due to be debated in Parliament for the last time next week.

Baroness Morgan said it went further than existing rules which require schools to “have regard” to pupils’ opinions.

“Governing bodies must do more than simply solicit pupils’ views,” she told the Lords. “Through regulations, we intend to require governing bodies to invite views on a core set of policy matters. As a minimum, schools should seek and take account of pupils’ views on policies on the delivery of the curriculum, behaviour, the uniform, school food, health and safety, equalities and sustainability, not simply on what colour to paint the walls.”

She said schools would be exempt from discussing staff appointments or the school budget with children.

Guidance is expected to be drafted - and sent to schools - setting out the full detail of the rules.

The move follows the introduction of new-style Ofsted inspections, in which pupils are asked to rate teaching standards and conditions in their own school.

Many schools already include children on interview panels when appointing new staff.

But John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the latest move went too far,

“This is crazy”, he told the Times Educational Supplement. “I am a strong supporter of pupil voice, but schools are increasingly consulting pupils because they think it is the right thing to do, not because Government tells them to. I am annoyed and furious that yet another in this continual stream of legal and educational duties is being placed on schools.”

Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT union, said: “This is completely unnecessary and will be open to abuse.”

http://tinyurl.com/5f7l5u

Oh Heaven help England.  The English won’t.

Posted by peiper     on 11/15/2008 at 09:41 AM   
Filed Under: • Education • Insanity • Stoopid-People • UK •  
• Comments (1) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Tuesday - November 11, 2008

Roadside snack vans threatened unless they offer healthy food .

THE NANNY STATE IN ACTION AND IT’S ALL FOR YOUR OWN GOOD SO STOP THINKING FOR YOURSELVES YOU MINDLESS NOTHINGS. JUST TRUST NANNY AND ALL WILL BE WELL.

Tuesday is usually a busy morning and day for us and so I hadn’t expected to post this early. However, this is soooo bizarre and soooo stupid it defies belief. It also defies logic of course but since when did logic ever come into play with those running a nanny knows best state.

I think in the USA they’re called catering vans. Yes? No?  Been so long away from home I can’t remember.  But these food and hot coffee dispensing vans that are often found at construction sites and in our case at boot sales (flea market to yanks except mostly ours here in Winchester really are boot sales.  Meaning folks selling things from the trunk of their cars or back end of an SUV. There are some professional sellers but mostly just folks getting rid of old treasures in attic and BOOKS. )

Well, I can just imagine some burly construction worker on a break begging for a salad and yogurt.  These health dictators drive us nuts with their plans and pronouncements. A pox on em I say!

Roadside snack vans threatened unless they offer healthy food
Roadside vans offering greasy snacks will be shut down if they fail to offer healthier alternatives, according to new rules.

Last Updated: 3:58PM GMT 10 Nov 2008

A woman prepares to bite into a burger. Roadside vans offering greasy snacks will be shut down if they fail to offer healthier alternatives, according to new rules.
Roadside takeways in Guildford, Surrey, must offer at least one healthy option besides burgers.

The snack vans, often found in busy lay-bys, must now offer soup, salads or low fat yogurts with their artery-clogging kebabs.

They must also limit the amount of mayonnaise served - because it has been branded a “very high fat product”.

Environmental health officers will inspect menus during routine hygiene checks.

And traders who fail to meet the strict new standards in Guildford, Surrey, will be refused a street trader’s licence when it comes up for renewal each year.

Councillors at Guildford Borough Council this week reviewed their street traders policy for the first time in seven years and insisted every menu has at least one healthy option.

The list of recommended food includes low fat grilled sausage with wholemeal bread, chilli con carne with lean mince and jacket potato with a selection of fillings.

A report to the council’s licensing committee said: “In accordance with the council’s health promotion programme, it is recommended that at least one healthy meal choice be provided for customers.”

The report added: “It is important that the use of mayonnaise is limited since this is a very high fat product.

“It could be offered to the customer to add himself as a choice.”

Grant Harris, who has run the Skip’s Catering food van from a lay-by on Guildford’s A281 for five years, thinks his customers will continue to eat burgers and chips.

He said: “Our customers are mainly scaffolders, builders and lorry drivers and they are not going to want this new food.

“The sandwiches and jacket potatoes are more suited to a sandwich bar.

“The rules seems to be going over the top with political correctness.

“Some of the things the council is suggesting I serve would cause a bit of a problem - I just can’t see people wanting them.”

But Clifford Bell, head of environmental health at the council, wants motorists to move away from high calorie, high-fat food.

He said: “It remains for the trader to design his menu around the principles of healthier catering, such as grilling rather than frying.

“The aim is to give consumers a wider choice and move away from the sole provision of high calories, high fat fast foods.”

Vans operating on private land will not be affected.

http://tinyurl.com/6j5np5

Posted by peiper     on 11/11/2008 at 04:41 AM   
Filed Under: • Insanity • Jack Booted Thugs • Nanny State • Stoopid-People • UK •  
• Comments (9) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Thursday - October 30, 2008

Oh no way. Just no way.

Rancino sends me two links from the very far right edge of the blogosphere.

Naughty cheesecake nekkid pictures of the Obamomma and the theory that Frank Marshall Davis is Obama’s actual father.

See? We’re practically middle of the road in comparison.

I don’t buy it. Either one. But I kinda like the 1958 bad-girl FMPs. They even look rainbow colored.

Maybe I need a new posting category called Really Wild Theories, Conspiracy and Otherwise.

Posted by Drew458     on 10/30/2008 at 11:49 PM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff • Insanity •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Tuesday - October 21, 2008

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 •  

   Tuesday - September 30, 2008

It all started with Jimmah Cartah

And it was a decent, compassionate idea. Because it was small. But then PC took over. And so did Slick Willy.

And under Clinton it went straight into hell. And today brokerages and banks are dropping like flies. Which is why it HAS to be Bush’s fault.

Here is a 12 minute video that explains the roots of this financial mess. And puts the blame squarely where it belongs. Watch it, link it, get it out there everywhere.

I found it over at C&S, but I hope it’s viral everywhere by now.

Since I’m really got my cheese in the grater over this ENTIRE mess, I’ll throw in a couple bits that lean the other way:

Bush has been president for the last 8 years. He had a Republican congress for 6 of those years. Bush and McCain both tried to get some regulation going on. Nothing happened. WTF? It could not have been stopped. The Republicans wimped out. Perhaps because they feared being called racists. For the 7 trillionth time. But there it is. They had the power, some of their people saw the problem coming, and they did not push a fix through when they could not have been stopped.

The packaging of these securities was done deliberately to hide the risk. The manipulation of ratings of mortgage-backed securities could not have been accidental. The failure of the rating houses like S&P and Moody’s to demand risk level transparency for each mortgage backed security before rating them is what truly resulted in the crash. Nope. They just helped pad them up and pass them on. Hey, they’re government backed mortgages, so they must be just dandy.  (not totally sure this point is really all that good. But they went along with the scam when they could have dropped the dime)

Also lost in the background noise: the whole speculation market. If it wasn’t running utterly rampant, do you think there would be several popular television shows running on various channels, all telling you how to “Flip That House”? Anybody who could scrap toghether $50 was buying a dump house for a song, slapping on a coat of paint and a new kitchen counter, and trying to sell it for a huge profit. And for several years they were making money. Is this a factor, or just a symptom?  Just how big a slice of the pie was this? When the meltdown first hit, they were the first to foreclose, thus the foreclosure rates in some rather trendy areas went through the roof, before it blew up in the poorer areas. Enough to get the ball rolling, or perhaps rolling a bit faster?

In the same way, the home builders haven’t made a normal house in ages. Every new dwelling built over the last decade was a “McMansion”. Another symptom, or another bit of inertia keeping the old ball rolling?

Personally, I think there is plenty of blame to go around. And now I’m beginning to think that the failure of the bailout bill may not be such a bad thing. I’m really not sure that it’s a good idea.

Posted by Drew458     on 09/30/2008 at 03:48 PM   
Filed Under: • Finance and Investing • Insanity •  
• Comments (6) • Trackbacks(1)  Permalink •  

   Tuesday - September 23, 2008

Pelosi the Socialist Speaks Out

That’s right. It’s over. San Fran Nan was in her faded glory today, laying down the new rules for all the comrades in the finance industry. Socialism has arrived with a heavy hand, and Nancy P was there to rub salt into the wounds as hard as she could while doing her end zone victory dance. The woman is a red. There can be no doubt about it at all.

“The party is over. The party is over for this compensation for CEOs who their golden parachute as they drive their companies into the ground. The party is over for the disparity in our country between the CEOs making almost immoral salaries and not being interested in lifting other people up. The party is over for financial institutions taking risks but at the same time privatizing any gains they may have while they nationalize the risks asking the taxpayers to pick up the tab. So we can’t even consider any legislation that the Republicans send us unless it ends, addresses, and reforms compensation for chief executives, officers; unless it has protection for the taxpayers, that’s our responsibility. Certainly we want to stabilize the market, but we want to do so at the same time as we protect the taxpayers. We want to insulate everyday Americans from the crisis on Wall Street. In order to do that we must have independent oversight. The party is over for this no regulation, no supervision, anything goes, so called free market which has taken us to this place. Clearly the Bush economic policies have failed. Do we need any further evidence?

Not to put too fine a point on it, but isn’t “no regulation, no supervision, anything goes” the basic definition of a “so-called” free market? So part of the Pelosi Fix will include a Ben ‘n Jerry’s salary cap for all the Big Bosses. And lots of Big Brother oversight and rules and regulations. Financial institutions take risks. That’s what they are there for. It’s called investing. And, please correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this bailout the government’s idea? Or did the big houses come to Uncle Sugar, hat in hand on bended knee?

Yes, I think these guys are paid way too much. By about 4 extra zeros on their paychecks. And I think the guys who trash a company and then bail with millions ought to be shot. And I think these incentive payments to executives is way out of proportion. But that’s what goes on in private business. It isn’t any of the governments business. So, while I might ordinarily agree with Ms. Pelosi on these items, I’m going to call her out and label her the nearest thing there is next to a communist. Because she WON’T stop playing the blame game on this. Lizzen up beyotch: you are ALL to blame. You. Reid. Bush. Wall Street. Washington. Fix the mess. Fix it now. Don’t add a single bacon slice worth of pork to the package. Not a dollar. And then resign in disgrace. Seppuku comes to mind, but I’m not sure you had any honor to lose in the first place, so that’s too easy an out for all of you. You ALL let this happen, made it happen, watched it happen ... and played partisan politics and blocked a myriad of bills for YEARS that would have stopped or at least mitigated this disaster. So sod off. You’re Fired^tm. Now go away. Leave now, and never come back!

Posted by Drew458     on 09/23/2008 at 05:39 PM   
Filed Under: • Government • Insanity • Politics •  
• Comments (8) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Saturday - September 20, 2008

The phrase Old Masters is sexist, authors and students are told.  (Here We Go Again)

About a month or so ago I posted something similar and asked, what next? How far is this gonna go?

Well, my answer appeared in today’s paper. These folks really need to find a job that involves an 8 hour day at the minimum.

I had originally intended to highlight just some lines to stand out, but this is so overly stupid and so overly bizarre, I’ve made bold the entire article.

My Moonbat Award for the week past ...  And it really is NOT funny.

The phrase Old Masters is sexist, authors and students are told
Students and academics are being banned from using the term “Old Masters” and “seminal” because of claims they are sexist.

By Martin Beckford, Social Affairs Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:40AM BST 20 Sep 20

Publishers and universities are outlawing dozens of seemingly innocuous words in case they cause offence.

Banned phrases on the list, which was originally drawn up by sociologists, include Old Masters, which has been used for centuries to refer to great painters - almost all of whom were in fact male.

It is claimed that the term discriminates against women and should be replaced by “classic artists”.

The list of banned words was written by the British Sociological Association, whose members include dozens of professors, lecturers and researchers.

The list of allegedly racist words includes immigrants, developing nations and black, while so-called “disablist” terms include patient, the elderly and special needs.

It comes after one council outlawed the allegedly sexist phrase “man on the street”, and another banned staff from saying “brainstorm” in case it offended people with epilepsy.

However the list of “sensitive” language is said by critics to amount to unwarranted censorship and wrongly assume that people are offended by words that have been in use for years.

Prof Frank Furedi, a sociologist at the University of Kent, said he was shocked when he saw the extent of the list and how readily academics had accepted it.

“I was genuinely taken aback when I discovered that the term ‘Chinese Whisper’ was offensive because of its apparently racist connotations. I was moved to despair when I found out that one of my favourite words, ‘civilised’, ought not be used by a culturally sensitive author because of its alleged racist implications.”

Prof Furedi said that censorship is about the “policing of moral behaviour” by an army of campaign groups, teachers and media organisations who are on a “crusade” to ban certain words and promote their own politically correct alternatives.

He said people should see the efforts to ban certain words as the “coercive regulation” of everyday language and the “closing down of discussions” rather than positive attempts to protect vulnerable groups from offence.

The list of banned words is now sent out to prospective authors by Policy Press, a publisher of social science books and journals based at the University of Bristol, but is also used in many academic institutions.

The University of Bristol’s School for Policy Studies recommends the guidelines to help students “challenge heterosexist assumptions”, and they are included in a “toolkit” to combat institutional racism included on the University of Leeds’ website.

King’s College London says they “may provide a good starting point” and Liverpool John Moores University provides a link to them in its students’ guide. The Open University said they are an “appropriate source of reference and advice” for students.

Napier University in Edinburgh says the list is “well worth looking at” while the University of East London advises its students they should “attempt to incorporate” it.

Even a secondary school in Norwich includes a link to the list on its website, with the statement: “Students may care to consider how far we inadvertently reproduce inaccurate sexist assumptions in the language we use, both written and spoken.”

The list of racist terms features black, which “can be used in a racist sense” and should be changed to “black peoples” or “black communities”.

Immigrants is said to have “racist overtones” because of its association with “immigration legislation”, while developing nations - intended as a more sensitive replacement for Third World - is “prejudical” because it implies a comparison with developed countries.

Although not included on the Policy Press list, the BSA warns authors against using civilisation because of its “racist overtones that derive from a colonialist perception of the world”.

Among the “sexist” terms to be avoided are “seminal” and “disseminate” because they are derived from the word semen and supposedly imply a male-dominated view of the world.

Authors are also told to “avoid using medical labels” when writing about disabled people as this “may promote a view of them as patients”.

In addition, the list says “special needs” should be changed to “additional needs”, “patient” to “person” and “the elderly” to “older people”.

“Able-bodied person” should be replaced with “non-disabled person”, it is claimed.

http://tinyurl.com/4xymh5

Posted by Drew458     on 09/20/2008 at 09:36 AM   
Filed Under: • Awards • Education • Insanity • Stoopid-People • UK •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Tuesday - September 16, 2008

College bans ‘Christmas’ and ‘Easter’ from calendar for fear of offending ethnic students.

More lunacy from the pc crowd that today control England.  I’m not gonna add anything to this.  Isn’t that I wouldn’t like to. I would.
I just can not find the words.

College bans ‘Christmas’ and ‘Easter’ from calendar for fear of offending ethnic students

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 4:26 PM on 16th September 2008

Yorkshire Coast College has re-branded Christmas and Easter as ‘end of term breaks’

A college has renamed the traditional Christmas and Easter breaks in a bid to avoid offending students from other religions.

The college’s new calendar shows that both of the traditional holiday periods have now been re-branded as ‘end of term breaks’.

Critics have complained that the decision by Yorkshire Coast College is nothing more than ‘political correctness’.

Tory MP Robert Goodwill said: ‘I have heard that some people refer to the Christmas period as the Winterval, which is worse. This is absolutely barmy.

‘We are a Christian country and, to be honest, religious tolerance in this country is about respecting other people’s religious beliefs.’

‘We live in a country where there is a mutual respect for religious beliefs.

‘School terms are traditionally separated by Christmas and Easter and they should be referred to as such.

‘They are petrified that they offend the minority but what they are doing is offending the majority.

‘It’s political correctness gone mad and I am disappointed that it’s from an edict from Ofsted.’

The college, based in Scarborough, North Yorkshire offers a range of courses concentrating on training for ‘life skills’ such as Engineering, Motor Vehicle Training and IT.

The college insists that the decision is in line with Ofsted guidelines and has been made to ‘increase inclusion and diversity’.

It circulates the internal year planner annually to 150 teaching staff and up to 50 other workers to inform them of important dates such as term times and training days.

A spokeswoman for the college said: ‘Every school and college, wherever located, is responsible for educating its learners who will live and work in a country which is diverse in terms of cultures, religions or beliefs, ethnicities and social backgrounds.

‘All employees at Yorkshire Coast College are encouraged to closely follow guidelines set out by Ofsted for the promotion of equality and diversity.

‘We constantly review the ways in which we communicate, to ensure that we do not discriminate, and part of those reviews means that we have stopped referring to the Christmas Break and Easter Break and we now have End of Term Break.’

However, Ofsted today denied this. A spokesperson said: ‘Ofsted inspection guidance for colleges makes no reference whatsoever to the observance of religious festivals; there is no ‘edict’ from Ofsted.’

http://tinyurl.com/5oazny

Posted by Drew458     on 09/16/2008 at 11:30 AM   
Filed Under: • Insanity • Nanny State • Outrageous • Stoopid-People • UK •  
• Comments (0) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

THIS IS SO TOTALLY STUPID ONLY FOUR LETTER WORDS SHOULD APPLY. I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS. NEITHER WILL U

HOW DO THINGS GET THIS SCREWED UP?  HOW ABOUT A FLAG THAT REPRESENTS YOUR FAVORITE FOOTBALL CLUB? IS THAT ADVERTISING?
THIS IS PLAIN NUTS! THE COUNCIL MEMBERS WHO ARE GIVING THIS GUY A HARD TIME REALLY NEED TO BE SERIOUSLY STRUNG UP AND THEIR BODIES LEFT TO ROT AS A WARNING TO OTHER WOULD BE JERKS.

AH ... I HAVE PROVED TO MYSELF THAT EVEN WHEN REALLY UPSET, EXCEPT RE. MY COMPUTER, I CAN WRITE AND VENT AND NOT USE FOUR LETTER WORDS.
I JUST THINK EM.

NOT MY COUNTRY, NOT MY ARMY FLAG.  BUT I’M PO’d. ??  I GUESS I’VE READ TOO MUCH HISTORY OF THIS PLACE AND DON’T SEE ANY ARMY OR NAVY OR MARINE FLAG AS ADVERTISING.  I SEE EM AS PROUD SYMBOLS OF THIS NATIONS HISTORY.

MY WIFE HAS NO COMMENT THAT I CAN PRINT HERE. SHE’S A BRIT.  RIGHT NOW, AN ANGRY ONE.

Council orders man to take down Army flag flying outside his house… because it’s ‘advertising’

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:21 PM on 16th September 2008

A patriot flying the British Army flag outside his house was told by council killjoys to take it down - because they considered it advertising.

Dave Dingvean today branded the order to remove the military colours as ‘treacherous’.

Mr Dingvean, 46, a volunteer for the British Army Association who raises money for the charity, was told any national flag was acceptable - but not those of our nation’s armed forces.

Furious: Dave Dingvean branded the council’s order to take down the Army flag as ‘treacherous’

And if the demolition contractor failed to comply, council bosses said he would face enforcement action which could end up in court.

Outraged Mr Dingvean, from Tolleshunt Major near Maldon, Essex, said: ‘A friend gave it to me and I decided to fly it to support our troops.

‘Someone must have seen it and reported me because within two days I had a letter from the council telling me to take it down.

‘They said only a certain type of flag is permitted to be flown - any national or state flag is allowed.

‘So I can fly the flag of Iraq, Baghdad or Afghanistan but not the Army flag. It’s ridiculous - it’s a show of support.

‘It’s a cause I feel strongly about.’

In protest, Mr Dingvean is now flying the national standard of Saudi Arabia on a flagpole outside his semi-detached bungalow, as he is flabbergasted this is allowed under the rules.

He added: ‘This is treacherous. It is petty minded - they are not thinking about the troops. No one in the village has complained to me.’

A council spokesman spokesman confirmed that under the Town and Country Planning Regulations 2007, only a certain type of flag as stated by the Department for Communities and Local Government is permitted to be flown.

He added: ‘Unfortunately, this flag is not one of them and the council have advised the resident that this is the case.

‘The council would be more than willing to advise residents on such issues in the future.’

http://tinyurl.com/5r36og

Posted by Drew458     on 09/16/2008 at 11:01 AM   
Filed Under: • Government • Insanity • Stoopid-People • UK •  
• Comments (3) • 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 © 2004-2015 Domain Owner