Thursday - October 16, 2008

PEOPLE, AS LONG AS BIG BROTHER KEEPS DOING STUPID THINGS I’M COMPELLED TO SHARE THE LUNACY.

NOW WHAT DO YA MAKE OF THIS LATEST BIT OF MOONBATTERY?

Council bans man from tending his front garden - because it is too tidy
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 12:21 PM on 16th October 2008

Brian Hubbard has been banned from gardening by his local council because his lawn is too tidy

A dedicated gardener has been banned from trimming the grass outside his house - because it is TOO tidy.

Brian Hubbard, 72, has been mowing, weeding and edging the verge outside his home for the past eight years.

But now Herefordshire Council have ordered him to stop because he is encroaching on council-owned grass.

Mr Hubbard, who worked as a civil servant for 40 years, has served as a parish councillor in his home district of Belmont, Hereford, with special responsibility for green surroundings.

Mr Hubbard was sent a letter from the council’s parks, countryside and leisure development service, giving him 28 days to return the area to its original state.

The letter ordered the removal of garden tools and furnishings, path and bed covering material, and all vegetation not in keeping with the surrounding area.

It warned if there was still a problem after that period, works would be carried out and re-charged to him.

Mr Hubbard branded the council’s warning as absurd. ‘The council said it sent me this letter after noticing that my grass verge was tidier than the other ones on the street’ he said.

‘All I have done is cut the grass and keep it as tidy as possible.

‘I was told to stop doing it and somebody from the council said it was because that if it was too tidy people might not feel they could walk over it.

‘It is absolutely ridiculous, I am just trying to help the council with what their job is.

‘If I was a timid or nervous type of person I might feel rather threatened by the letter, which I think is utter nonsense.
‘The contractors that cut the grass verges use heavy duty sit on lawn mowers.

‘I’m going to ignore the letter - they won’t stop me.’

Belmont district councillors have reacted with disbelief at the council’s actions.

Independent councillor Glenda Powell believes that the pensioner should have been praised for his work. ‘I think it’s absolutely ridiculous’ she said. ‘Whether it’s a piece of council ground or not if it’s a bit untidy we should be commending people who help clear it up.

Mr Hubbard, whose local council has banned him from gardening, says he will ignore the warning

‘It is barmy, I think it’s absurd and I don’t understand the logic to what they have said to Brian.
‘I have been to his home many times and his role on the council was actually to look after all the trees and bushes in the community.
‘I know Brian well and he used to be a parish councillor and has a great reputation.’

Councillor Heather Davies said Mr Hubbard and his wife should be congratulated for taking pride in the area.

She said: ‘When I was on my way to see them, the road looked a mess because the grass had been cut but the cuttings left.

Local councillors are shocked at Herefordshire council’s treatment of Mr Hubbard

‘Mr Hubbard should be thanked for picking his cuttings up.

‘If more people were like that, the area would look really nice. We should be supporting him because its brilliant what he does - not sending him letters like this.’

A spokesman for Herefordshire Council said it apologised if Mr Hubbard thought the letter was too strongly worded.

He said: ‘We are aware of Mr Hubbard’s endeavours to tend the land next to his home in Dorchester Way and commend him for his public spiritedness.

‘Public open spaces are there for everyone to enjoy and in Herefordshire we have 1,400 which are maintained by the council’s contractors.

‘These contractors are paid out of the public purse and have a responsibility to meet standards laid out in the contracts which govern their work.

‘If anyone feels a public open space is not being cared for as it should, please contact the council and we will speak to our contractors.

‘We apologise if Mr Hubbard feels the letter he received from us is heavy-handed. We are happy to meet Mr Hubbard to discuss the issue.’

http://tinyurl.com/4szycm

   Wednesday - October 15, 2008

FYI

We all owe a debt of gratitude to Peiper. Because of his post earlier today, BMEWS did NOT miss out on Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty.

What is Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty?

Today thousands of bloggers will unite to discuss a single issue - poverty. We aim to raise awareness, initiate action and to shake the web!

I’d like to initiate action by expressing my concern for the greedy poor like the Crompton family. . .

scroungers.

Awareness raised. Action taken. Web shaken. . . well, maybe only stirred.

Good work Peiper! (and there was much rejoicing. Yaaayyy.)

UPDATE: Apologies. I forgot the warning:

This post, while not about Europe in any meaningful sense, does reference a post about Europeons.

There. Must.not.upset.Walt.

   Monday - October 13, 2008

I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS IS FOR REAL. BUT NO, I CAN. HAS ANYONE HEARD THIS YET. LISTEN, PLEASE!

HT/Jim Miller

It’s about 3am in NJ as I post this.  It’ shortly after 8am here. I received it from a trusted source.  My former neighbor.
There is no video. This is radio.

And these folks vote?  You bet your ass. And our country’s.

Taint Funny McGee.

http://www.bpmdeejays.com/upload/hs_sal_in_Harlem_100108.mp3

   Saturday - October 11, 2008

US Election: Why top Tories are turning their backs on John McCain .

I think this falls under something like misery loves company. So does anger.  Yeah,yeah the right to opinion and all that.  I still don’t think our internal politics and especially an election this important, is any of their damn business.  So yeah, I’m a bit miffed.  And I’m not in love with McAmnasty either but he’s all we got except for Sarah Palin and countless ppl who could do the job but won’t run.
It is true sadly, that McCain is not an inspirational speaker.

US Election: Why top Tories are turning their backs on John McCain

By Iain Dale
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 10/10/2008

Have your say Read comments

All my adult life I have supported Republican candidates in American presidential elections. Like most Tory MPs and activists, I have wanted to be impressed by John McCain. I went to see him speak at the Tory conference in 2006, expecting to be wowed. Like most others, I left profoundly disappointed by his speech, which was pedestrian and devoid of inspiration. Maybe he was having an off day, I thought.

I felt McCain - as a maverick - could distance himself from the ideological zealots in his party who have done so much to turn it from a political party into a narrow sect. Many of us thought Sarah Palin could give his ticket the “wow” factor Barack Obama had given the Democrats. We were wrong on both counts.

Few senior Tories have expressed any enthusiasm for John McCain as US President.

(and I bet fewer still know anything about the supreme court and what left leaning administration would do to the USA. Well screw these ppl. Frankly, I’m bothered that foreigners would stick their unwanted fuckin noses in our politics anyway. I don’t want them showing anything for either party.  And I resent the FACT that many come to the states and work for both. It shouldn’t be allowed. )

Many Conservative MPs have travelled a similar journey over the past few months - a journey most of us thought we could never make, and a journey that has resulted in a decision to break the habit of a lifetime and declare our support for the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama.

Tory MP Richard Spring, who doubles as David Cameron’s envoy to the City of London, is one of many who have always supported the Republicans, but are now backing Obama. “It’s important for America’s reputation in the world to be improved and Obama can be instrumental in bringing this about,” he says. ”He sends out a signal of change.”

Oh that’s just peachy.  Our reputation rests on electing a left leaning socialist who belonged to a church where his preacher “God Damned America”

Spring’s colleague Andrew Tyrie agrees: “I have always been a Republican, but Bush has done so much damage to the project of the family of western nations that I feel only an Obama presidency can rectify it. We need something that is demonstrably a huge change.”

(Family of WHAT?  WTF is that all about?  Sure, if we agree with everything they (euros) decree and go sheep like along with their demands, we’re good guys. Otherwise I guess we’re guilty of the fall of western civilization.)

Richard Spring estimates that at least half the Conservative Parliamentary Party would vote for Obama given the chance, something that would have been unthinkable in the pre-George W. Bush era.

Many shadow ministers remain publicly coy about their leanings, but it’s remarkable how few, even privately, express any enthusiasm for the McCain-Palin ticket.

(Well screw them anyway. Who are they to be enthused or not? Whose election is it? What? We have to impress these asswipes?)

Senior whip Simon Burns and the shadow business secretary, Alan Duncan, have both outed themselves as Democrat supporters, but few others are willing to go on the record.

One shadow cabinet member is a signed-up member of the Obama fan club, yet believes if he were to admit to it publicly, it would damage his status within the party. He likens it to the reluctance of so many Tory MPs to sign up to David Cameron’s leadership campaign in the early days. “We thought people would think we had taken leave of our senses,” he tells me. “Cameron and Obama are both agents of change, in a way that their opponents never could be.” He adds: “The Conservative Party is always suspicious of change - until it has been proved to work.”

Few Obama-supporting Tories seem remotely bothered by his extremely liberal voting record in the Senate. Simon Burns says: “Obama is like any true compassionate Conservative. He is focusing on helping the vulnerable and the middle classes.” Another former Republican-supporting Tory MP, Ben Wallace, thinks an Obama victory is necessary to give the Republicans a much-needed jolt. “Young people on the centre-Right don’t have a home to go to,” he complains. “The religious Right has taken over the Republicans.” He cites the so-called Blue Dog Democrats, who believe in fiscal responsibility and balanced budgets, as the reason British Conservatives can feel comfortable about supporting Obama.

While Cameron remains a fan of McCain, he has been very careful to demonstrate even-handedness, as he knows only too well that Obama is closer to many of his own ideas and goals. Cameron’s trusted adviser, Steve Hilton, has wisely been give the task of developing closer relations with Obama’s entourage during his six-month stay in California. Could it be that the Tory leader himself is a closet Obama backer?

http://tinyurl.com/48d426

   Friday - October 10, 2008

Another Half Solution

NATO Troops to target Afghan Drug Operations

NATO defense ministers Friday authorized their troops in Afghanistan to attack drug barons blamed for pumping up to $100 million a year into the coffers of resurgent Taliban fighters.

“With regard to counter-narcotics ... ISAF can act in concert with the Afghans against facilities and facilitators supporting the insurgency,” said NATO spokesman James Appathurai, referring to the NATO force.

The United States had been pushing for NATO’s 50,000 troops to take on a counter-narcotics role to hit back at the Taliban, whose increasing attacks have cast doubt on the prospects of a Western military victory in Afghanistan.

However, Germany, Spain and others were wary and their doubts led to NATO imposing conditions on the anti-drug mandate for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

Troops will only be able to act against drug facilities if authorized by their own governments; only drug producers deemed to be supporting the insurgency will be targeted; and the operation must be designed to be temporary — lasting only until the Afghan security forces are deemed able to take on the task.

Afghanistan supplies 90 percent of the world’s heroin, a trade worth billions of dollars.

Until now, responsibility for dealing with the problem has lain with the Afghan police, but NATO commanders believe the fledgling force cannot cope with the problem. They say the time has come for NATO to move against the drug barons.
...
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer on Thursday stressed the need for action.
“Our guys are killed by the weapons bought by the Taliban, financed by drugs money,” de Hoop Scheffer said.

The War On Terror is inextricably linked to the War On Drugs. Not just in Afghanistan, but all across Central and South America, in Africa and Southern Asia too. The connections are blatant and are very easy to find with just the slightest bit of looking. And while drugs may be against pisslam, selling them to us infidels is A-Ok. If they can split hairs that fine, then so can we. All drug producers and carriers are therefore terrorists. Kill them.

Burn down every field you find. Every. Single. One. Arrest the farmers. Or just shoot them. And raze the villages if they give you any lip. Salt the ground; take the oldest of Old School approaches. That’s what primitives understand after all. Possession of opium plants or paste or even poppy seeds is an instant hanging offense. Jumping through velvet lined golden hoops to prove that some particular drug producer is involved with the Taliban is a waste of time. They are ALL involved, or at most one step away.

Let them grow wheat instead. Or potatoes. Or even saffron. You find one special farmer, and make him the only authorized grower, because the world needs some opium for medicine. 100 acres worth is probably enough. Put up a big fence and a few machine gun towers and add some really unclean vicious guard dogs. Better yet, just grow it at home. The damn flowers grow anywhere, even in the UK. Why buy it from foreigners in the first place?

Eliminating the Taliban’s source of income is the same as sinking Japanese shipping during WWII. Destroy their support infrastructure and they can’t fight nearly as well. This is a war. Start fighting it fully.

BARBED-WIRE GARDEN FALLS FOUL OF RED TAPE.  a story so dumb is HAS to be posted!

BUT FIRST…
HELLO BRISTOL,VA./TN.  BET THE PLACE HAS GROWN SOME SINCE I WORK ALL THREE STATIONS THERE. IS ZAP STILL ON THE AIR? AND KYE?

Ok everyone, this is a bit of work for me because I have to copy out the whole damn story.  No, there is no link as yet. In fact, I had to call the paper and ask about this and they sent the story by email. BUT ... I can’t do a cut or copy and paste. So, I have to copy the damn thing word for word.
The one place it does show up, is on Google but NOT so that I could capture it.  I really don’t understand how they do these things but for sure nothing makes sense to me and they don’t make it easy.  It doesn’t even have a reporters by line so that makes it harder to find.
Going into the paper itself and doing a search has brought up zero.  RCOB ... so frustrating. Well here goes.  Be interesting to know if any of you can top this for stupidity.

BARBED -WIRE GARDEN FALLS FOUL OF RED TAPE
by Daily Telegraph Reporter

A GARDENER who fenced off his patch with a single strand of barbed wire to protect it from thieves has been ordered to take it down in case intruders hurt themselves.

Bill Malcolm, 61, was told to “remove it on health and safety grounds” by his local council, which owns the allotments.

He erected the deterrent after thieves struck three times in four months, stealing more then $600 worth od spades, forks, hoes and wrecking his potato patch in the process.

Officials instructed Mr. Malcolm to remove the waist high wire from his plot.
He said:  “It’s an absolutely ridiculous situation, all I wanted was to protect my property but the wire had to go in case a thief scratched himself.  The council said they were unhappy about the precautions I had made but my response was to tell them that only someone climbing over on to my allotment could possibly hurt themselves.  They shouldn’t be trespassing in the first place but the council apologized and said they didn’t want to be sued by a wounded thief.”

“I told them to let the thief sue me so at least that way I’d know who was breaking into my allotment but everything I said fell on deaf ears.  It seems as though they are so wrapped up in red tape, they are unable to help me.”

The council responds that with regard to barbed wire, they are obliged to request removal on health and safety grounds to the general public.
-30-

Well hell ... if the general public and thieves don’t try and climb over waist high barbed wire .... where’s the health and safety issue? DUH!

   Wednesday - October 08, 2008

Teenage Trotsky is Cabinet’s new adviser on radical Islam.

OH TA BE YOUNG AND STUPID AGAIN INSTEAD OF JUST OLD. YOUTH ALWAYS HAS ALLLLL THE ANSWERS.  NOT MUCH EXPERIENCE IN LIFE BUT WHO NEEDS EXPERIENCE?

Wankers of the underworld unite .... you have nowhere to go but UP yours!

Sad to think this is the very same country that once upon a time (1940), was ready to fight em on the beaches bare handed if necessary.
Now it’s all, oh please. Do be welcome to our country and feel perfectly free to take any part of it that strikes your fancy. 

Take France too btw ... 

Our new national anthem will be, “I SURRENDER DEAR.”

Teenage Trotsky is Cabinet’s new adviser on radical Islam

By Steve Doughty and Chris Brooke
Last updated at 9:05 AM on 08th October 2008

Radicals want to bring down Governments in Leon Trotskys’ name.

A teenage Muslim enlisted to advise ministers on combating extremism is herself a member of a Trotskyist revolutionary party.

Sabiha Iqbal, 18, the privately educated daughter of a civil servant, belongs to the Socialist Workers Party, which is dedicated to the overthrow of parliament, the state and capitalism.

The appointment of the law student from Bradford to the Young Muslim Advisory Group was greeted with incredulity by intelligence experts yesterday.

Miss Iqbal herself described the decision to bring her in as a consultant to Communities Secretary Hazel Blears and Families Secretary Ed Balls as ‘very odd’.

But Mrs Blears said: ‘If you don’t want to change the world at 17, that’s a shame.’

Miss Iqbal insisted yesterday that she was not an extremist, saying ‘I am Left-wing about some things and Right-wing about others.

‘I agree with the equality ideas of socialism.’

Professor Anthony Glees, director of the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies at the University of Buckingham, said: ‘Ministers should be picking democratic leaders and people with experience, not people they think will bring in the “yoof” vote.

‘To go for somebody like Miss Iqbal is appalling.’

The student was named among 22 members of Labour’s ‘Young Muslim Advisory Group’, intended to ‘talk to ministers and policymakers first hand about the issues affecting their day-to-day lives.’

The group will get ‘direct access to senior Cabinet ministers’ to help fight discrimination and get jobs for young Muslims. They will also give views on British foreign policy over Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Miss Iqbal’s Trotskyist party campaigns against wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Its website declares that ‘on some issues we will find ourselves on the same side as the Islamists against the state’, and that ‘our rule should be, with the Islamists sometimes, with the state never.’

Privately-educated at the £10,500 a year Bradford Grammar School for Girls, Miss Iqbal, now a law student at Bradford University, is the youngest of three daughters from a middle class family living in the city’s Heaton district.

Yesterday she said that despite being a member of the Socialist Worker’s Party she was not an extremist.

‘I am left wing about some things and right wing about others,’ she said. ‘I agree with the equality ideas of socialism. Having a sense of equality is important.’

Asked about the SWP, she said: ‘I appreciate what the party is trying to do.’

Miss Iqbal said her religious beliefs were ‘the most important thing in my life’, and added that she hoped to ‘give a voice for young Muslims’ who felt they were being singled out in society.

A devotee of martial arts and a talented drummer, she lists her interests as hip hop activist, feminist, photographer, writer, film maker and youth mentor.

Born in Germany, she moved to the UK as a two-year-old. Her father runs a jeweller’s shop and her mother is a civil servant.

Her father Pervez Iqbal described his daughter as ‘a very sensible girl who wants to help people.’ He said she was ‘a good Muslim’, adding ‘but not extreme or anything.’

‘She has a very good heart,’ she said.

http://tinyurl.com/3ockmk

   Friday - October 03, 2008

Council tells allotment holders NOT to lock sheds in case thieves wreck them during break-in

I guess it makes sense to Moonbats.  What next?  Leave your front door open like it’s 1949 again? 

Council tells allotment holders NOT to lock sheds in case thieves wreck them during break-in

By Daily Mail Reporter

Allotment holders are being urged not to lock their sheds - in case burglars damage them while breaking in.

They have been warned that padlocks force robbers to smash their way through doors and windows, damaging the buildings in the process.

Bristol City Council is advising allotment holders not to leave expensive equipment where it might be targeted - and residents with only minor items such as tools should consider leaving their sheds unlocked.

Shocked: Allotment holders Colin White, Terry Nichols and Ted Morse received letters from Bristol City Council, urging them not to padlock their sheds

The council has issued a letter to one site of allotment holders which reads: ‘Don’t padlock your shed, it can save the shed being damaged if someone does try to get into it. If there is a break-in, always inform the police.’

But gardeners at Bifield Allotments, in the Stockwood area of the city, say the measure will leave their property unprotected.

Pensioner Terry Nichols, 71, who has rented a plot at the site for more than 25 years, said: ‘It beggars belief that the council are telling us to leave our sheds wide open.

‘Everyone who has an allotment has been sent a letter. I’ve never read anything so ridiculous in all my life.

‘Imagine what the response would be if they told council tenants to leave their houses unlocked to stop them getting damaged during a burglary.’

Police said gardeners should ignore the council’s advice.

http://tinyurl.com/4rlc8h

Mother is denied pill by Muslim pharmacist …..  RCOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First: 
I should not be so quick to blame the mudman because it’s the pc left lunatics and libtard fools that have indoctrinated various groups who now take for granted that they have all these “rights” under freedom of religion and civil rights etc.
Second:
This place is doomed anyway so it doesn’t matter anymore, I suppose. Nuts! 

Seems to me you’re hired to do a job and paid to service the community. Oh, but not so anymore.
Can you imagine what the reaction would have been say 50 years ago before this place got flooded with immigrants from another century?
Yeah I know this particular pill wasn’t around then but that ain’t the point.
Geez I am PO’d this could happen.  Tesco is WRONG and so is the organization that backs this kind of dumb and utterly moronic rule.

Mother is denied pill by Muslim pharmacist
A woman was refused the “morning-after pill” by a supermarket’s duty pharmacist because it was against his religious beliefs.

By Paul Stokes
Last Updated: 3:56PM BST 03 Oct 2008

Ruth Johnson, 33, who has two children, including a month-old baby, had not been using her usual method of contraception with her fiancée.

She went to the Tesco dispensary in Hewitts Circus, Cleethorpes, Lincs, and asked an as assistant for the pill Levanelle.

Miss Johnson was told it could only be dispensed by the locum pharmacist who was called to speak with her.

She said: “He came out from behind a screen and told me that he would not be allowing me to buy the pill from him because he had a right to refuse to sell it on the basis of his personal beliefs.

“The pharmacist was of Asian origin so I asked him if it was because of his religion and he replied ‘Yes’.”

Miss Johnson, from Cleethorpes, was left feeling ashamed and worried and complained to the store manager who told her they couldn’t force the pharmacist to sell the product.

She said: “I asked him if a Jewish or Muslim checkout operator could refuse to sell pork or alcohol or if a Jehovah’s Witness could refuse to sell birthday and Christmas cards.”

Her concern is that the policy could deter teenage girls from seeking the morning-after pill.

“I appreciate we live in a multi-cultural society but what gives him the right to impose his beliefs onto me?” she added.

(Righst? What rights? In a multi culture society, only minorities have any “rights.” And these days, especially mudslimes. Stone age MFers)

A Tesco spokesman said the pharmacist was acting within his rights to refuse to sell the pill and the customer was advised where else she could buy the product.

(Well Tesco is bloody well WRONG!  Why should a customer have to go somewhere else to buy a legal product ok’d by her doctor as I’m sure she must have had an Rx or why ask the pharmacist? This kinda crap is getting worse by the day. And oh btw, a pharmacist can and they do refuse to sell legal drugs they do not approve of, as my post of some months ago pointed out.  They have a totally insane system here. )

He said: “We do apologise to Miss Johnson for the inconvenience caused. However, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s code of ethics allows pharmacists the right to refuse.”

The Society said its code of ethics and standards is adopted by all healthcare bodies.

Its does not require a pharmacist to provide a service that is contrary to their religious or moral beliefs but any attempt by a pharmacist to impose their beliefs on a customer seeking professional help without offering an alternative could form the basis of a professional misconduct complaint.

Two years ago Jo-Ann Thomas, a school crossing patrolwoman with two children, faced a similar situation in Thurcroft, Rotherham, South Yorkshire.

She was told by a Muslim pharmacist at Lloyds Pharmacy near her home that she should go to her doctor for supplies even though the item was in stock.

She said at the time: “I’m a 37 year old woman, not a daft girl who doesn’t know what she’s doing. It’s my choice not his. It’s his religion not mine. He’s a dispensing chemist and his job is to dispense drugs.”

http://tinyurl.com/3n72ou

   Thursday - October 02, 2008

Nobel literature prize judge: American authors ‘insular and ignorant’ .

What an ass this jerk is.  I really can’t think of anything else to say on the subject.  Well actually I can but I recall being warned, rightly, that it never pays to post in too pissed a mood.  One loses track of the issue.  Typical euro attitude though.

Nobel literature prize judge: American authors ‘insular and ignorant’
American authors are too “insular and ignorant” to compete with their European counterparts, according to a member of the Nobel judging panel.

By Aislinn Simpson
Last Updated: 8:16AM BST 02 Oct 2008

As the Swedish Academy enters final deliberations for this year’s literature award, permanent secretary Horace Engdahl said that writers from the country that produced Philip Roth, John Updike, Ernest Hemingway and F Scott Fitzgerald were “too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture,” dragging down the quality of their work.

“Of course there is powerful literature in all big cultures, but you can’t get away from the fact that Europe still is the centre of the literary world, not the United States,” he said.

“The US is too isolated, too insular. They don’t translate enough and don’t really participate in the big dialogue of literature. That ignorance is restraining.”

Although Mr Engdahl insisted later he had been misunderstood by the Associated Press, with whom he conducted the interview, the chances of the two American authors, Philip Roth and Joyce Carol Oates, thought to be on this year’s secret five-person shortlist now look slim.

His comments were met with outrage among figures in the US industry that published more than 50,000 works of fiction last year.

Harold Augenbraum, executive director of US National Book Foundation said: “Put him in touch with me, and I’ll send him a reading list.

“Such a comment makes me think that Mr Engdahl has read little of American literature outside the mainstream and has a very narrow view of what constitutes literature in this age.”

But David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker magazine, said they came as little surprise since the 16-member Nobel award jury had historically overlooked some of the world’s best authors.

“You would think that the permanent secretary of an academy that pretends to wisdom but has historically overlooked Proust, Joyce, and Nabokov, to name just a few non-Nobelists, would spare us the categorical lectures,” he said.

“And if he looked harder at the American scene that he dwells on, he would see the vitality in the generation of Roth, Updike, and DeLillo, as well as in many younger writers, some of them sons and daughters of immigrants writing in their adopted English. None of these poor souls, old or young, seem ravaged by the horrors of Coca-Cola.”

However, his criticism was given some backing by a French publishing magnate, who declined to be named.

“It is true that American publishers rarely buy books in translation from foreign languages. That is to America’s shame and also its loss,” he said.

“But that does not mean all American contemporary literature is parochial or ignorant.

“Yes, it sometimes seems that the typical American novel is about a writer who has six friends who also happen to be writers. But there are also excellent modern American authors.”

The last American to win the Nobel prize was Toni Morrison, the author of The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and Beloved, in 1993 before Mr Engdahl took charge. As permanent secretary, he is a voting member of and spokesman for the secretive panel that selects the winners of what many consider the most prestigious award in literature.

The academy often picks obscure writers and hardly ever selects best-selling authors. It regularly faces accusations of snobbery, political bias and even poor taste.

Since Japanese writer Kenzaburo Oe won the award in 1994, the selections have had a distinctly European flavour. Nine of the subsequent laureates were Europeans, including last year’s winner, Briton Doris Lessing, who wrote The Grass is Singing and The Golden Notebook.

Of the other four, one was from Turkey and the others from South Africa, China and Trinidad. All had strong ties to Europe.

Mr Engdahl said Europe draws literary exiles because it “respects the independence of literature” and can serve as a safe haven.

“Very many authors who have their roots in other countries work in Europe, because it is only here where you can be left alone and write, without being beaten to death,” he said. “It is dangerous to be an author in big parts of Asia and Africa.”

But he insisted that his views on national prose had no bearing on the panel’s decision, which is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

“The Nobel prize is not a contest between nations but an award to individual authors,” he said.

The eventual winner of the prize will receive a one million euro purse, a gold medal and a diploma. The awards are handed out December 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.

http://tinyurl.com/4x89jh

   Saturday - September 27, 2008

Now councils tell us what to eat.  (now I ask you. how could I ignore this one?) for real? yup.

Ain’t this stupid?  See where tree hugging left wing PC leads?
I don’t have time to make the MANY comments running through my head at the moment. Or the questions.

Like most ppl have the time for this stupidity.  Sure, many folks grow their own veggies and such. But this goes way beyond that and anyway, you’d need to involve the whole country to get anywhere.  Fat chance of that.

Have to go off line for some hours.  Just couldn’t save this for later.  Duh! 

Bin collections row: Now councils tell us what to eat
Householders are being told what to eat by councils in the latest controversial plan to cut down on domestic waste.

By Christopher Hope, Home Affairs Editor
Last Updated: 2:06PM BST 26 Sep 2008

Local authorities have devised a “council cook book” featuring such culinary delights as beans and egg on toast, lentil salad and home-made muesli, which can be made without buying anything in throwaway packaging.

It has been produced as part of Zero Waste Challenge Week, in which four councils in the West Country are challenging residents to go for a seven days without producing any rubbish.

But critics claim it is yet more evidence of a sustained assault on people’s rights to weekly bin collections, as well as being patronising.

Among the tips contained in leaflets produced by the councils are that people should make their own food, such as yogurt, and take resealable boxes to the butcher so meat does not have to be put in plastic bags.

Recipes contained in the leaflets are made up of ingredients which can all be bought either in paper bags, cardboard boxes, tins or jars, which can all be recycled.

Zero Waste Challenge Week, which has been devised by Bristol City Council, Bath and North East Somerset Council, South Gloucestershire Council and North Somerset Council, starts on Monday.

The councils want community groups, schools and residents to sign up to the challenge not to throw anything away in the dustbin by only using products that can be reused or recycled.

A leaflet says: “That way we’re left with nothing else to throw away in the bin.”

The leaflet adds: “We believe that if you make enough changes, it is possible to achieve a Zero Waste Week. However, the aim of the challenge is to see how close you can go.

“Circumstances are different for everyone and even if you don’t quite manage to achieve Zero Waste, you’ll find you can have a dramatic effect on the amount you throw away.”

The results will be used by the councils to advise on future recycling and rubbish collection strategies.

The councils say: “Completing and returning your record sheet will allow us to assess the success of the scheme and help us to find ways to tackle waste minimisation in the future.”

Crucially, commercial waste – such as rubbish thrown away at work – is not included in the project.

Last night the Conservatives criticised the plans.

Eric Pickles, the shadow local government secretary, said: “We are entering a brave new world of fortnightly rubbish collections that we all know is going to fuel a surge in fly-tipping and backyard burning.

“This is not a responsible or practical way of encouraging recycling but merely a cleverly disguised form of propaganda attempting to peddle the benefits of fortnightly rubbish collections for town halls. This is bureaucratic convenience, without any public benefit.

“Recycling rates are going up which begs the question why do we need this. We want people to be environmentally responsible but employing the heavy hand of the state is not the solution.”
Top Tips for Zero Waste Week

* Avoid food contained in packaging that cannot be recycled, like crisps

* Try making your own food, like yogurt

* Take your own plastic boxes to the local butcher or green grocer to cut back on packaging

* Plan ahead so that you are not caught out throwing something away.

* Buy bread wrapped in paper, rather than plastic packaging

http://tinyurl.com/3ut5qc

   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

   Friday - September 19, 2008

OKAY FOLKS … MY FIRST POSTING OF THE MORNING AND I NEED SOME HELP HERE. GUNS,GUNS.

I keep saying I won’t look at the paper until after the first coffee. I lied.
So then, this letter appeared in response to an article (I think I posted it here in fact) from The Daily Telegraph.  The article was in defense of Mrs. Palin and said, You Brits Will Never Get Sarah Palin. 

I am not good on stats and to be very honest, it’s really only in the last year that I’ve been made more and more aware of gun technology and gun laws.
Perhaps were I still living at home in the US, maybe I’d be more up to date but I kind of doubt it.  I suppose that’s because I never really had to think about or debate the point before. 

Now then, we all know stats can be played with.  I don’t know where this person gets hers as her letter does not say.  My guess is some left wing tree hugging green journal that has an argument with my country’s gun laws. But who knows.

Drew and Grumpy are two (among quite a few here at BMEWS) I know for sure are killers on research and always seem to know exactly where to find stats that mean something.

Valgerd as well I know has tons of research on this topic.  So I’m inviting anyone with any honest knowledge to drop The Telegraph a line in reply to this letter.

She seems to ignore the fact that our population is what? Over 300 million while the UK is...?  65?

She also doesn’t guess at the number of knife attacks that might have been prevented or the number of home invasions that might have been defended against.

If you missed the article she is alluding to, it’s this: => http://tinyurl.com/68r7t4

Understanding Palin

Sir – Irwin Stelzer (Comment, September 17) chides wimpish Britons for getting spooked by Sarah Palin’s passion for guns, saying that we slow Brits are only just learning that “laws do not keep guns out of the hands of the bad guys”.

All of this is very lovely until you look at the numbers. The latest available figures in America are from 2005: 31,000 gun deaths, of which more than half were suicides.

In slower Britain, with its misplaced faith in the law: 59 gun homicides in 2006-2007.

Tania Kindersley, Aboyne, Aberdeenshire

http://tinyurl.com/3bjrb9

   Thursday - September 18, 2008

No pole, just goat

Bicyclist arrested while carrying stolen goat



Ok, this sounds like a story from some turd world country on a slow news day. No. Happened right here in the USA in wonderful wacky Massachusetts!

SEEKONK, Mass. (WPRI) - It’s a crime you don’t hear about every day. A Rhode Island man is accused of stealing a goat from a Seekonk family, all to settle a bad debt.

According to officers, Tania DaSilva saw 50-year-old Anthony Pereira Sunday morning riding away from her family’s Elm St. home on a bicycle. She said he was also carrying a goat he had taken from their barn.

When police stopped Pereira a short time later, they said he was riding his bicycle and was still carrying the goat.

Pereira told police he stopped by the home because DaSilva’s father, Alberto, owed him money for work he had done on the property. However, when no one answered the door, he decided to take the goat instead.

Police arrested Pereira on three warrants and charged him with breaking and entering for a misdemeanor and larceny over $250.

Pereira was arraigned Monday at Taunton District Court. The case has been continued to Oct. 14.

The goat was returned to the DaSilva family unharmed.

---

---

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