Thursday - August 14, 2008

The West must support Georgia and spell out costs of Vladimir Putin’s actions.

THE FOLLOWING IS THE EDITORIAL FROM TODAY’S TELEGRAPH.

YOU MIGHT WANT TO FOLLOW THE COMMENTS AS WELL. GET SOME IDEA OF PPL’S THINKING HERE.

The most telling support for the beleaguered Georgian government has come from Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. They, after all, have first-hand experience of living under the Russian boot.

Elsewhere, America has taken the lead in denouncing the annexation by Moscow of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. George W. Bush, who visited Tbilisi in 2005, said he was dispatching his Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, to the Georgian capital, and yesterday saw the landing of the first American military aircraft, carrying humanitarian aid.

Washington, along with Britain and France, had already cancelled joint military exercises with the Russians.

Meanwhile, the EU has, unconvincingly, taken on the role of mediator. At a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels yesterday, it expressed willingness to monitor the terms of the truce agreed by Nicolas Sarkozy, its current president.

However, Poland and the three Baltic states rightly condemned Mr Sarkozy’s intervention as failing to respect the territorial integrity of Georgia.

The West must now spell out the cost to Vladimir Putin of his revanchism in former “Soviet space”. The talks between the EU and Moscow on a new “strategic partnership” and meetings of the Nato-Russia Council should be put on hold. Russia should be expelled from the G8 and denied entry to the World Trade Organisation.

The first three steps would be a blow to the pride of a country that craves to be considered a great power again. The fourth could also have a long-term effect on a state that is still overwhelmingly dependent on oil and gas. Consider the boost that WTO membership has given to the more diversified Chinese economy.

To treat with impunity what has happened in Georgia will merely encourage Mr Putin to apply the screw elsewhere in the former Soviet empire. The most obvious target is Ukraine, which, like Georgia, aspires to join Nato.

The bone of contention could be the Russian Black Sea fleet’s base in Sevastopol, whose current lease expires in 2017.

Further north, Moscow might be tempted to intervene in Estonia and Latvia in the support of the Russian-speaking minority, and will certainly put further pressure on Lithuania to establish a visa-free corridor between the mainland and the maritime exclave of Kaliningrad.

To forestall further revanchism, the Russians should be left in no doubt that the consequence will be the freezing of their considerable assets in the West.

Diplomatic isolation and financial sequestration are the best means of curbing the sinister attempt to recreate their old sphere of influence.

http://tinyurl.com/5fzd9q

Posted by Drew458     on 08/14/2008 at 12:50 PM   
Filed Under: • Military • Tyrants and Dictators • UK • War-Stories •  
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AN OBIT FOR A BATTLING BRIT FROM ANOTHER TIME. RIP COLONEL JOHNSON.

THIS IS A FAIRLY LONG STORY BUT FASCINATING OR IT WOULDN’T BE HERE.  THIS MAN WAS MOSTLY UNKNOWN TO THE PUBLIC AT LARGE, AND THIS READS LIKE AN IAN FLEMMING STORY.  THIS IS HOW THE TELEGRAPH DOES OBITS ON THOSE WHO’VE PASSED AND LEFT A STORY BEHIND THEM.  IN OTHER WORDS, YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE FAMOUS.

BRITS HAVE BEEN PRETTY DARN GOOD AT THIS IN THE PAST.  COULD DO WITH ANOTHER ENTIRE GENERATION LIKE HIM.  BUT HEALTH AND SAFETY ACTS WOULDN’T ALLOW FOR IT.  MORE’S THE PITY AND SAD FOR ENGLAND AS WELL.

Colonel Jim Johnson
Former SAS officer who in the 1960s led a three-year guerrilla campaign against Egyptian forces in Yemen.

Colonel Jim Johnson, who has died aged 83, was responsible for running Britain’s clandestine war against Egyptian forces in Yemen during the mid-1960s, an experience that inspired him to set up Britain’s first post-war private military company.

Six years after the allied withdrawal from Suez in 1956, the Yemeni monarchy fell victim to a military coup staged by Egyptian-trained officers, an event which served as a warning to the British protectorates of Aden and Oman.

In London the Macmillan cabinet was divided between those who were ready to recognise the new Yemeni regime (the approach taken by Washington) and those who favoured supporting a guerrilla campaign of resistance on behalf of the displaced ruler, Imam al Badr, who had been forced to retreat into the hills.

As the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) dithered, Colonel David Stirling, founder of the Special Air Service (SAS), suggested that Jim Johnson, a retired SAS officer, “put something together”. Johnson was then asked if he might be willing to go to Yemen to destroy the Egyptian Mig aircraft which were bombing tribes loyal to Imam al Badr with phosgene poison gas; and there followed an adventure that would have done credit to Bulldog Drummond.

Weapons of indeterminate origin were stored at Johnson’s home in Sloane Avenue, Chelsea, for use by former SAS regulars and reservists, some of whom had left the Army to take part in the operation.
Among the leaders selected for the operation were Colonel John Woodhouse, a prominent figure in the fortunes of the post-war SAS, and Major John Cooper, David Stirling’s wartime driver, who was now working as a professional freelance soldier.

A cheque for £5,000, signed by the Imam al Badr’s foreign minister, was paid through the bank account of the Hyde Park Hotel, where the SAS’s colonel commandant, Brian Franks, was chairman of the board.
Johnson took leave of absence from his job as a Lloyd’s underwriter and recruited a number of French mercenaries, among them Colonel Roger Faulques, a veteran of the Foreign Legion, and the notorious Robert Denard.

Then, the day before the first reconnaissance team, led by John Cooper, was due to leave London, Macmillan’s war minister, John Profumo, resigned because he had lied to the House of Commons. The Foreign Office now became concerned by the possibility of political embarrassment, and it seemed as if the Yemeni operation might be called off.
Johnson, however, reasoned that SIS would probably not put the brakes on before the relevant duty officer took over at 9am the next morning, and Cooper’s team left the country.

When David Stirling then received a telephone call from the Colonial Secretary, Duncan Sandys, he denied any knowledge. Immediately afterwards Stirling then rang Johnson, who told him: “Too late. They are half way across already.”
While they were changing planes in Libya, one of Cooper’s suitcases broke open and rolls of plastic explosive spilled out; he explained that the substance was marzipan, and the Libyans obligingly helped with the repacking.

(Marzipan is an almond and sugar paste used to ice cakes and other pastries or sculpted into a variety of shapes to be eaten as candy or used as cake decorations. Marzipan is simply a mixture of almond paste, powdered sugar, and a moistening agent such as water, corn syrup, glucose, fondant, or egg whites. After the ingredients are mixed, marzipan reaches a consistency of dough or soft rubber and can be rolled, shaped, cut, or molded.)

After the team had arrived in Yemen, supplies were dropped from a variety of aircraft – some of them Israeli – using the drop-zone expertise Cooper had acquired during the war in Occupied Europe. Johnson himself flew in to Yemen later, on a Canadian passport in the name of Cohen and with a pocketful of gold sovereigns.

Over the next three years he and his men conducted a resistance campaign, wearing down the Egyptian forces sent in by Nasser. The Saudi Arabian government, meanwhile, funded the Yemeni royalist faction and dictated overall strategy, but the hostilities became a war of attrition which eventually led to stalemate. Nevertheless, the Egyptians lost 10,000 men. “Yemen,” Nasser later reflected, “was my Vietnam.”

Henry James Johnson born on December 21 1924, the son of a Ceylon tea planter who was employed on the Enigma project at Bletchley Park during the Second World War; one of his forebears had been a soldier in the privatised East India Company army who had later guarded Napoleon on St Helena.
The young Jim was educated at Westminster, where he was a contemporary of Tony Benn, and as a schoolboy he joined the Home Guard.

Subsequently he was serving as a junior officer with the 2nd Battalion, Welsh Guards, near Caen in 1944 when the artist Rex Whistler was killed.

After his unit had liberated Brussels, he was involved in the hard fighting across northern Germany until he and a brother officer found themselves on the steps of Cologne cathedral. As two armed Wehrmacht officers ran past them, Johnson reached for his revolver, but his companion exclaimed: “No, Jim! Not from the cathedral.”
After the war Johnson joined Lloyd’s, and in his spare time rose to command 21 SAS (TA). On retiring from the TA in 1963 he was appointed OBE, and was later appointed ADC to the Queen.

After his three years running the operation in Yemen, Johnson wrote a memorandum for the British and Saudi governments pointing to “the apparent lack of interest by HMG and the stated indifference to our activities by MI6”, and the “absolute disinterest” of the Saudis. He identified three possible policies in such circumstances: to withdraw; to replace resistance with intelligence-gathering; or to “hang on… and hope we will be used sensibly again”. But he added the reminder that the operation had “discovered, trained and helped arm tens of thousands of tribesmen without official help”.

In 1975 Johnson and David Walker, a former regular officer in 22 SAS, set up their firm to operate in the grey area between the politically acceptable and the officially deniable. Having begun by providing protection for British diplomats in South America, and then for foreign statesmen, the firm trained mujahideen to fight the Russians in Afghanistan.

It also made a substantial contribution to the defence of Oman after the British-backed victory over Communist forces in that country. KMS was allowed by Whitehall to set up the Sultan’s Special Force, an elite unit modelled on the SAS and trained by former SAS personnel. Now “omanised”, it remains an integral part of the country’s armed forces.
In later years Johnson recalled that, during his final audience with a member of the Saudi royal family after leaving Yemen, he had made two requests. These were for the orderly disposal of the heavy weapons, particularly mortars, under his control, and for his men to receive an enhanced month’s severance pay. He had added: “French mercenaries have a habit of blowing up the aircraft of national airlines if they don’t get paid properly.”

Both his requests were granted, and Johnson and his comrades celebrated with champagne a month later at the Hyde Park Hotel.
The final reunion of those who took part in the Yemen operation was attended by eight survivors last year.
Jim Johnson died on July 20. His first wife was Judith Lyttleton, with whom he had a son and a daughter. After her death he married, in 1982, Jan Gay.

http://tinyurl.com/57mxu6

Posted by Drew458     on 08/14/2008 at 11:04 AM   
Filed Under: • Heroes • UK • War-Stories •  
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The Sat-Nav wristwatch from 1920.  Who would have thought. There really isn’t anything new.

THIS STORY REMINDS ME OF MY DAYS IN NASHVILLE, WORKING WITH WRITERS AND MUSICIANS AND THE OLD SAYING, “THERE’S NOTHING NEW.”

It contains no temperamental microchips and would never send a lorry truck down a bike track.

By Nick Allen
Last Updated: 4:16PM BST 14 Aug 2008

Invented in 1920 the original Sat-Nav wristwatch relied instead on good old fashioned paper maps wound around wooden rollers.
It was intended to allow drivers to navigate around the UK but with so few cars on the roads the invention never really took off.

Now consigned to the scrap heap of history the watch is one of many gadgets patented by inventors looking to strike it rich with their bizarre contraptions.
Fifty of the labour saving devices, all conceived between 1851 and 1951, have been collected by author Maurice Collins.
They are on show as part of the British Library’s Weird and Wonderful Inventions Display.

Many of them reflect the inventive spirit of the Victorian era and embraced new technology to make every day tasks easier.
They include a mechanical page turner from 1890, a two-handled self-pouring teapot from 1886 and a whisky bottle lock patented in 1882 which was designed to stop servants pilfering the drink.
There were also self-lighting matches and “Go no further” honeymoon garters.

Other potentially ingenious, but ultimately futile, inventions included a clockwork burglar alarm from 1852, a grenade that puts out fires from 1890 and an automatic nose hair cutter from 1920.

In 1940, as the Blitz began, one budding inventor was more worried about patenting his new beer can hole maker. Needless to say his creation did not make a him a millionaire.

http://tinyurl.com/6quzpd

Posted by Drew458     on 08/14/2008 at 10:45 AM   
Filed Under: • Science-Technology • UK •  
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A rare record of life “below decks” in the British Navy between 1790 and 1833. A MUST READ

FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN HISTORY, THIS IS AN AWESOME FIND.  SELF EDUCATED AND IN THE NAVY AT AGE 13. IMAGINE THAT FOLKS.  AND NOWADAYS STREET PUNKS ARE PROTECTED FROM HAVING THEIR UGLY FACES OR NAMES IN THE NEWSPAPER IF THEY’RE “YOUTHS” OF AGE 16.

THIS SAILOR BELONGED TO A TIME WHEN THE SHIPS WERE MADE OF WOOD AND THE MEN MADE OF IRON!  FEAST YOUR EYES ON THIS.

IT BELONGS IN THE BRIT MARITIME MUSEUM. IT BOTHERS ME THAT IT ISN’T HERE.  IT NEEDS TO COME HOME!  THE GOVT. SHOULD BUY IT BUT DON’T HAVE ENOUGH CASH AS THEY’RE SAVING TO PUT ON THE 2012 OLYMPICS.  DICK HEADS.

Diary of 19th Century British Navy life ‘below decks’ for sale
A rare record of life “below decks” in the British Navy between 1790 and 1833 penned by a sailor who served under Lord Nelson has been unearthed.

By Richard Savill
Last Updated: 2:01PM BST 14 Aug 2008

The diary of George Hodge, a lowly sailor, whose rank is unknown, contains colour paintings and the words to sea shanties that the men sang.
The self-educated seaman, who spells words as they sound, begins the journal: “George Hodge his Book Consisting of Difrint ports & ships that I have sailed in since the year 1790. Aged 13 years.”

He recorded details of the ladies of leisure with whom he associated, and painted pictures of ships and flags as well as a self portrait. Images of ordinary seamen from the time of Nelson’s Navy are rare.
Hodge lists one or two skirmishes, but many entries cover the mundane activities of life on board vessels.
He began his career at sea as a cabin boy in coaling vessels between Northumberland and London.

In 1794 he travelled to a Russian Baltic port and on the way back was captured by the French, but was then sent home in a cartel sloop.
He was captured again in 1797, but was returned home and then spent months on the run from press gangs.
But in 1798 he was caught and joined HMS Lancaster. For the next nine years he served mainly along the West African coast, but also in Ceylon and the East Indies.

In 1808 he joined HMS Marlborough, 74 guns, and spent the years until 1812 mostly on blockade duty around Europe.
In 1815 he returned to Britain and served at Greenwich, ending his career in the merchant navy. An addition made after his death shows he had children.

The 500-page journal includes lists of ships and their guns, lists of crew, and a list of 192 flag formations. These include: “1. An enemy is in sight. 2. Prepare for battle. 3. Sail by divisions… 5. Engage the enemy (If red penant shown engage more closely) ... 10. Enemy retreating at full speed.”
It also shows that danger was ever present for crews, even when the ships were not in battle.

On Dec 26, 1812, an entry reads: “A fresh breeze a strange sail in sight. Empl painting quarterdeck. Fell from the for top mast Mathew Donelson and was drownded.”
Another entry reads: “July 19 light breeze at 5am picked up body of John Carter and buried him on the Isle of White.”

On Christmas Day, 1806, he writes: “Employ’d in wartering ship and seting up the riger ... fish for dinner.”
Hodge writes that he was born “In the Parish of Tinmouth in the County of Northumberland” and that his career began under “Capt Edger” who commanded the “brig Margerey.”

The journal belonged to the maritime collection of American J Welles Henderson, who died last year. He bought it at a rare book shop in London in the 1980s.
It is being offered for sale on August 16 by Peter Coccoluto, from Northeast Auctions in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, America, is expected to fetch £30,000.
He said: “It is very unusual because the man appears to be self-educated which is why he spells as the words sound.

“You do get midshipmen’s diaries that they had to keep which show sextant readings, weather conditions and diagrams of ports.
“But this is much different because it is from below decks.”
“There are wonderful water colour paintings of ships and flags and various other subjects are depicted.”

http://preview.tinyurl.com/6bph65

Posted by Drew458     on 08/14/2008 at 10:26 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous • UK •  
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Rat’s ‘brain’ used to power robot .  Not a joke. It’s for real.

I THOUGHT AT FIRST HEY! WHAT AN OPPORTUNITY TO BUILD THE FIRST EVER ROBOT POLITICIAN.  BUT THEN I REMEMBERED, THERE ARE SOME THINGS EVEN

A RAT WILL NOT AGREE TO.

A robot has been created which is powered by a rat’s “brain”.

By Kate Devlin
Last Updated: 1:14PM BST 14 Aug 2008

Electrical signals from rat cells have been harnessed to drive the robot, which is on wheels, around a laboratory.
By stimulating certain responses within the cells scientists have even been able to make the robot, or “animat”, move.
The “brain” is actually rat brain tissue which has been artificially grown in a lab.

The scientists at Reading University hope that they can use the machine to understand more about how our brains work, and even to develop treatments for diseases such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Disease.

To create the machine scientists first grew rat nerve cells in a laboratory.
These cells connect with each other, sending signals within around 24 hours.

After a week the scientists can detect activity similar to brain activity. Within two or three weeks the cells can be hooked up to the robot.
The team uses bluetooth technology, which allows them to send communication without the use of wires.

Scientists can also use sonar signals to cause the robot to swerve to avoid a wall, by triggering different signals in the “brain”, reports New Scientist magazine.
The robots currently turn eight out of 10 times, but Professor Kevin Warwick, head of cybernetics at Reading University, who led the study, said that figure could increase substantially.

He said: “[The animal] is actively learning.
“The signals and the pathways are strengthening as each action gets repeated.”

Prof Warwick said he believed that eventually the robot would turn 100 per cent of the time.
He also hopes to use the animat to try to understand more about how the brain works, for example how it remembers things, by capturing the signals.

However, these “brains” have a limited lifespan and currently live for only around three months, as long as they are regularly fed in temperature controlled incubators.
Prof Steve Potter, from the Georgia Institute of Technology, who has been involved in similar technology involving animals and robots, said that it was clear that brain cells have “evolved to reconnect under almost any circumstance that doesn’t kill them.”

http://tinyurl.com/5w3nkj

Posted by Drew458     on 08/14/2008 at 09:56 AM   
Filed Under: • Medical • Science-Technology • UK •  
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   Wednesday - August 13, 2008

Card-playing pensioners landed with £250 health and safety bill .

EVERYTHING here is Elf ‘n’ Safety.  Okay, Health and Safety. There. Said properly. But any way I say it, it’s spelled thus >>> royal pain in the arse.
Just ask any Brit.

So here are these older retired folks getting together for a game of cards. Simple enuff you might think. Not very complicated. Right? Ah well. Till gummint gets involved.
Generally as all know, gummints are made up of lots of bureaucrats with little or nothing to do. Which is really quite frustrating when you need to look busy to justify your pay packet to the people who are being robbed blind to pay the bill.  But never mind, given enough time and thought these “crats” can always come up with things for the taxpayer to do or else not do, all according to the whim of those in power.  Wouldn’t be so awfully bad if they had a real sense of humor. Like Macker and Drew for two zany examples.  Tis better to be tickled to death then stabbed if you’re gonna get screwed. (financially speaking.) But that isn’t quite the way it works over here.

Card-playing pensioners landed with £250 health and safety bill
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 13/08/2008

The 14 whist players - aged between 70 and 90 - met every Friday for almost 10 years in a communal room at a sheltered housing complex in Norfolk.

But officials at Neville Court, in Heacham, told the group they must pay liability insurance for all those who did not live at the complex before they could meet again.

Tom Coulstock, from Hunstanton, said the cheapest insurance the group could find was £250 a year, which would have to be paid in addition to the £1.50 a head entrance fee.

Just six of the players are residents and as none of the group can afford to pay the charge, the card-lovers have been forced to disband and re-locate elsewhere.

Freebridge Community Housing (FCH), which runs Neville Court which comprises 20 flats, said the insurance was “common practice”.

But player Bill Corbett, who lives nearby, said: “Perhaps they think that pensioners will attack one another with the playing cards? The situation is so stupid its laughable.

“Freebridge claim the insurance is a matter of course but you can’t tell me every group meeting needs public liability insurance.

“They are just trying to cover their own backs. We should not have to pay for that.”

Mr Corbett, 86, said the game took up five tables in a corner of the communal room and insisted there had never been any trouble in the club’s eight year history.

He said the six residents who live at the home find it hard to travel outside the premises.

“They don’t understand why they can’t have their friends over to play cards,” he said.

“It’s health and safety gone mad and it is short-sighted of Freebridge.”

Mr Coulstock said: “It’s a farce. If they offer room hire they should have the insurance cover in place for the service they offer.

“We won’t be using the room in the future. We’ll find somewhere that already has the insurance in place.”

Another player, who did not wish to be named, added: “It’s disgusting that Freebridge is more concerned about making sure no-one could ever sue them than ensuring their residents have a good quality of living.

“How on earth is someone going to injure themselves whilst playing cards?”

The card players were told they had been banned from the premises after their game on August 1.

Tony Hall, chief executive of FCH, said it was standard procedure to ensure members of the public using their facilities were insured.

“Freebridge Community Housing actively promotes the use of its community rooms as the social interaction of its elderly residents and people from the local community is a positive contribution to their lives,” he said.

“It is general practice that any room hire includes a requirement for insurance.

“This can be covered by the group, club insurance or could form part of the hire cost. Freebridge charges a nominal hire charge but then require individuals to organise their own insurance.

“The requirement has been in place for many years, but as Freebridge has recently updated the hire agreement it is checking that groups have their own insurance in place.

“I am surprised Mr Corbett has been quoted £250 for insurance and Freebridge will make enquiries with our own insurance company to see if alternative quotes are more competitive.”

FCH owns and manages around 7,000 properties for rent in the King’s Lynn and West Norfolk area.

http://tinyurl.com/636lv3

Posted by Drew458     on 08/13/2008 at 12:01 PM   
Filed Under: • Nanny State • UK •  
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forgot where he left them while practising yoga late at night. Forgot where he left his cloths.

Nobody could make this up I don’t think.  The guy actually forgot where he put his cloths and finally walks into cop shop in his briefs.
funny stuff.

Most American might not understand the reference to Reggie Perrin.  It was a very funny TV series with one heck of a wonderful acting cast and especially the lead who played Reggie.  Leonard Rossiter. Try YouTube if this link doesn’t work. http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/fallandriseofreginaldperrin/index.shtml

This guy was a gas.  Brits used to produce comedy shows that were classics right outta the box.  Seriously , seriously funny were the Brits. They still are actually. They just don’t produce the TV comedy series they once did. It’s cheaper to broadcast tripe like Big Brother. Which I grant ya, has an audience.

Yoga fanatic sparks police hunt after leaving his clothes on the beach
A man who sparked a Reggie Perrin-style mystery after two sets of abandoned clothes were found on a beach said he forgot where he left them while practising yoga late at night.

By Jessica Salter
Last Updated: 10:30PM BST 12 Aug 2008

A £10,000 police search involving lifeboat crews was launched when the clothes were found late on Monday night.
Officers feared that two people were in “grave danger”.
Police divers were expected to join the search, but a man in his 40s from Margate turned up at a police station in his boxer shorts and solved the mystery.

He told officers he had been practising yoga on the beach and had taken two sets of clothes with him in case he lost the first set.
A Kent Police spokesman said: “A man practising yoga on the beach in the early hours contacted police at 11.30am this morning to say both sets of clothes belonged to him.

“The man, in his 40s and from Margate, advised police he had forgotten where he had left them. He had taken a spare set in case he lost the first.
“Police divers, which had been due to search the pool this afternoon, have been stood down.
“No further police action will be taken.”

A source at Margate police station added: “The cost of the operation would have easily run into five figures – frankly we’ve got enough crime around here as it is without having our guys’ time wasted with some idiot who fancied trying out the Lotus position in the middle of the night.”
The riddle echoed 1970s sitcom character Reginald Perrin, who faked his own death by dumping his clothes on a beach and running into the sea then staring a new life

http://tinyurl.com/69qukb

Posted by Drew458     on 08/13/2008 at 11:38 AM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff • Humor • UK •  
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Patients ‘should not expect NHS to save their life if it costs too much’

It’s Natl. Health. It’s costly.  But what about the folks who have paid into the system for a lifetime? Anyway, this really is cold.
The Brits LOVE making words out of various initials. Sometimes not even words. OK, maybe not the Brits but the newspapers. They always lump a few letters together after the name of someplace or thing.
Now here, the letters NICE until very recently stood for, National Institute for Health and Excellence. Or something very close. Suddenly it’s, Health and Clinical Guidelines
But no matter. this is National Health in action if this goes thru.  And I believe every word of this article.  If you lived here, you would as well.

Just another reason no doubt Chris and LyndonB are leaving this place.

The NHS should not always attempt to save someone’s life if the cost is too much, the medical regulator has ruled
By Robert Winnett, Deputy Political Editor
Last Updated: 1:55PM BST 13 Aug 2008

Doctors have also criticised the ruling and would be opposed to ignoring a rule of rescue when it introduces a degree of flexibility around extreme cases Photo: IAN JONES
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Guidelines (Nice) has ruled for the first time that saving a life cannot be justified at any cost, in a review of its ethical guidelines.

The ruling - made by the board of the controversial organisation - contradicts advice it received from its own ‘Citizens Council’ which offers advice from a representative sample of the general public.
Nice is facing growing criticism over the number of drugs it is now rejecting which are available throughout Europe and in America. Last week, it refused to sanction four kidney cancer drugs which can double life expectancy.

It has now rejected the so-called “rule of rescue” which stipulates that people facing death should be treated regardless of the costs. The rule is based on the natural impulse to aid individuals in trouble.
In a report on “social values judgement” the regulator says: “There is a powerful human impulse, known as the ‘rule of rescue’, to attempt to help an identifiable person whose life is in danger, no matter how much it costs. When there are limited resources for healthcare, applying the ‘rule of rescue’ may mean that other people will not be able to have the care or treatment they need.

“Nice recognises that when it is making its decisions it should consider the needs of present and future patients of the NHS who are anonymous and who do not necessarily have people to argue their case on their behalf…The Institute has not therefore adopted an additional ‘rule of rescue’.”

The ruling contradicts the advice of Nice’s Citizens Council, which said that a rule of rescue was an essential mark of a humane society. The report said that where individuals are in “desperate and exceptional circumstances” they should sometimes receive greater help than can be justified by a “purely utilitarian approach”.

Doctors have also criticised the ruling. Tony Calland, chairman of the ethics committee of the British Medical Association, said: “We would be opposed to ignoring a rule of rescue when it introduces a degree of flexibility around extreme cases. So what if you waste a few pounds if you are doing your best for humanity?”

Nice defended its ruling last night saying that the Citizens Council provided useful input to its decisions but that the organisation’s role was to determine how best to allocate the health service’s limited resources.

Nice is facing increasing accusations that it is giving undue weight to financial considerations - rather than medical benefits - when making decisions on whether to allow drugs or other treatments on the NHS. Doctors and patients have alleged that they are treated with contempt by the organisation and that life-saving drugs are being unfairly denied.

The Daily Telegraph disclosed yesterday that Nice is preparing to offer patients advice on the medical benefits of drugs that are not available on the NHS. The disclosure is likely to anger patients who face paying tens of thousands of pounds for expensive drugs which may prolong their lives.

http://tinyurl.com/6lgbyf

Posted by Drew458     on 08/13/2008 at 11:04 AM   
Filed Under: • Health-Medicine • UK •  
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Tesco plastic bags go under the counter: What?  Are they filled with PORN? Gasp. More stupid stuf.

I reported on this insanity a week or more ago when the wife came home and told me about the new policy at the now gween supermarket.

But this is the official announcement I just spotted in the paper.  It’s so totally stupid there aren’t enuff Moonbats here to award.
And of course the gummint is gonna get into things to gum up the works for sure.  Jeez this was a great country once upon a time until the tree huggers and like minded twerps took control of the thinking of the public at large.  Least that’s my take on it.

Well, like 100w light bulbs, we’re taking as many bags as we can get away with as they are also used for trash.
Something you folks in the USA might find of interest.
The plastic bags here all have these little holes punched in them so mommy’s little helper won’t smother itself should it decide to try and wear one.  Thing is, many of these perforated bags don’t actually have the holes punched thru all the way. Parts of the plastic are still in place.  But I suppose it’s really a good thing in a way as it’s one less responsibility the customer has to carry in this busy world.  So much more comfortable to simply let the gummint think and do for us.

Notice to Macker:  Notice not even the use of frak here.

Tesco plastic bags go under the counter in green move By David Thomas
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 13/08/2008

Tesco is to stop the mass distribution of plastic carrier bags at its larger stores, in a move to boost its green credentials.

Government may stop supermarkets giving away plastic carrier bags

It has introduced a “bag on request” scheme at its larger “Extra” hypermarket stores, where bags are kept out of sight under the tills and only given out if customers specifically ask for them.

A spokesman for Tesco, the UK’s largest supermarket chain, denied that it would be banning bags entirely, saying that it was merely “offering choice” to its customers.

He also ruled out charging for bags. “While one-use carriers will no longer be on display at checkouts, customers can ask for them and they will be supplied without charge,” he said.

“A few Extras have been given the flexibility to remove bags from display but give them out on request.”

Plastic bags are the current bête noire of green campaigners. Up to 17 billion are currently given away annually – three billion by Tesco alone – and they take up to 1,000 years to decompose, taking a damaging toll on wildlife.

The Government has said that it will consider introducing a mandatory charge of up to 10p per bag unless retailers take greater steps to cut the number that are used.

Marks and Spencer, Aldi, Lidl and Netto already charge for carrier bags. And several towns, led by Modbury in Devon, have banned the distribution and use of plastic bags.

http://tinyurl.com/69kdyl

Posted by Drew458     on 08/13/2008 at 09:27 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous • Nanny State • Stoopid-People • UK •  
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   Tuesday - August 12, 2008

BEYOND MOONBAT … way beyond ….  THIS GUY IS NUTS and DANGEROUS..

Man what has gotten into folks these days. OUCH!  Musta hurt. 
Can’t even imagine what it must have been like for the other guy arrested for crimes he didn’t commit.

Man who stabbed himself to frame his neighbour is told to move house or go to jail
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 4:01 PM on 12th August 2008

A ‘neighbour from hell’ who stabbed himself to frame a husband has been given six months to move house - or face going to prison.

David Constantine’s lies nearly led to newlywed Stefan Ward being charged with attempted murder after he was found with a knife sticking out of his chest.

Constantine was arrested after discharging himself from hospital.

He was originally charged with perverting the course of justice, which he denied - and causing the injuries to himself.

Today he admitted the charge of putting a person in fear of violence by a course of conduct between March 2006 and January this year.

Judge Peter Bowers deferred sentence for six months to allow Constantine time to sell his home in Lanchester, Co Durham.

In the meantime, he must live at a bail hostel.

He will only be allowed to visit the house to carry out work to make it saleable and must be accompanied by a solicitor, a probation worker, a police officer or a workman.

A restraining order was imposed to stop him communicating with the Wards or making complaints about them.

Christopher Knox, prosecuting, said the police search of Constantine’s home also revealed hostility towards Derwentside District Council officials.

He was said to have been angry that his complaints - even though they were clearly made up - were not being taken seriously.

Mr Knox told the court: ‘It was as a result of this accumulation of evidence that the Crown took the view he was not the victim, but the aggressor.’

Constantine’s barrister, Tony Davies said his client still denied causing the injuries to himself on New Year’s Eve and the previous December.

He said the log of complaints were ‘random ramblings’ and added: ‘He never intended to carry out any of the private things he had written about the Wards.’

Constantine disputed the elements contained in the admitted charge that on two separate occasions he made false allegations of assault against Mr Ward.

Officers also spoke to previous occupants of the Wards’ home and they revealed how they were forced to leave by Constantine’s aggressive behaviour.

The trouble for the Wards started soon after they moved into the semi-detached house in March 2006 and were unable to help Constantine with a problem.

Several weeks later the couple received the first of what became a flurry of letters from council officials.

Environmental health workers installed noise monitoring equipment, which proved the dog rarely barked, and it became clear Constantine’s complaints were unjustified.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the former Hell’s Angel waged a vendetta against his next door neighbours, Mr Ward and his wife, Lucy.

Police called to Constantine’s house found him in a chair with a knife sticking out of his chest.

The 60-year-old claimed his neighbour had assaulted him and police arrested Mr Ward on suspicion of attempted murder.

But the truth began to emerge when police searching Constantine’s home in Manor Grange, Lanchester, found his diary.

The court heard how Constantine fell out with his neighbours after they were unable to give him a lift to Newcastle to collect a bike.

Christopher Knox, prosecuting, told the court how:

Constantine complained to the council about the couple’s dog barking. Bur recording equipment proved the pet rarely made a sound;
Kept a log of incidents that did not take place;
Threatened to kill his neighbours, made vulgar gestures and used his fingers to imitate a gun;
Accused Mrs Ward of throwing a brick through a window. Although police proved that was impossible.
Mr Ward was twice arrested for crimes he did not commit.
In December 2006, Constantine claimed Mr Ward attacked him with a frying pan.

His neighbour was arrested but later released without charge.

Constantine, who needed six stitches, received £1,000 from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board.

His former girlfriend later told police that Constantine had admitted he had not been assaulted by Mr Ward.

Worse was to come, when police were called to the house on New Year’s Eve and found Constantine with a knife embedded in his chest.

Mr Ward was arrested and questioned about the stabbing, but freed when police found ‘a mass of disturbing material’ at Constantine’s home.

The search team uncovered knives, axes and airguns. A log containing fabricated complaints showed Constantine’s ‘extremely hostile’ behaviour.

http://tinyurl.com/6e98wy

photo at link ^

Posted by Drew458     on 08/12/2008 at 10:59 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Insanity • Stoopid-People • UK •  
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   Monday - August 11, 2008

BAD NEWS BEARS. THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING!

Pleassseee Mr. Custer, I don’t wanna go!

EDITORIAL IN THE MORNING TELEGRAPH
Monday, August 11, 08

War in Georgia needs to be stopped before it spreads further
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 11/08/2008

There is no purpose in deceiving ourselves. The West is in no position, practically or morally, to go to war with Russia. At the same time, we cannot afford to allow Russia unilaterally to redraw its borders, nor to place its heel upon the only oil pipeline in the former USSR outside its control.

In 1918, Balfour declared: “The only thing that interests me in the Caucasus is the railway line which delivers oil from Baku to Batumi. The natives can cut each other to pieces, for all I care.” These days, we have to care about both. Before peaceniks start dusting off their pre-Iraq war “Don’t die for oil” placards, we should remind ourselves that it is the Kremlin, not the West, that is the energy oligarchs’ instrument: their desire for a monopoly is in large part responsible for Russian revanchism in the Caucasus.

This is not to say that the blame is all on one side. Some commentators are portraying the conflict in cartoonish terms, as a plucky little democracy being attacked by an authoritarian neighbour. Things are not so simple. Mikheil Saakashvili is no more a convinced liberal than Vladimir Putin (who, it must by now be clear, is still running Russia).

President Saakashvili came to power in a coup in 2004, securing a Saddam-like score of 96 per cent in a subsequent election. Like Mr Putin - indeed, like almost all autocratic leaders - he knows that a sense of national crisis can boost a regime’s popularity.

This time he miscalculated, believing that he could seize South Ossetia without provoking retaliation. South Ossetia may lie within Georgia’s recognised frontiers, just as Chechnya lies within the Russian federation, but this does not justify, in either case, the deployment of military force against a population that has opted for autonomy.

Georgia, no less than Russia, is (in Lenin’s phrase) “a prison of nations”. In seeking to overwhelm a small ethnic group by force, Mr Saakashvili did precisely what he accuses Russia of doing. But Russia’s response has been opportunistic, belligerent and disproportionate.

With a small war raging, the issue is not who started it but how to stop it. The unilateral Georgian ceasefire announced by a chastened Mr Saakashvili yesterday does not bring matters to a close. What is at stake now is the balance of power in the region.

If the Kremlin can, to all intents and purposes, annex South Ossetia, what, as Denis MacShane asks on this page, is to stop it absorbing other parts of the former Soviet Union with Russian populations? Might Russia not claim the right to act in defence of ethnic Russians in the Baltic states, or demand a land corridor to Kaliningrad, or the secession of the Russophile parts of Ukraine, or formal union with Belarus?

In retrospect, the West mishandled relations with Russia in the 1990s. As with Germany after 1918, we went from unconscionable harshness to appeasement, with almost no intermediate stage. Had we been a little less triumphalist at the end of the Cold War, a bruised Russian population might not have responded to the strongman appeal of Mr Putin. Later, we swung too far in the opposite direction. We admitted Russia to the G8, for which neither the size of its economy nor the state of its democracy qualified it. (Can the G8 any longer accommodate such a bellicose member?)

We averted our gaze from the asphyxiation of Chechnya. We made possible the current war when we allowed Russia to breach the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, which limited the number of troops it could station in the Caucasian region. Russia has responded to these concessions by, among other things, harassing British diplomatic staff and refusing to co-operate over the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.

We cannot expect a UN rendered impotent by Russia’s veto to settle this problem. France’s EU presidency has the ambition to halt the fighting, but not the means. John McCain is making the defence of Georgia a campaign issue. As of old, the issue may yet come down to a face-off between Russia and America.

http://tinyurl.com/6gt2ls

OH GREAT. JUST WHAT WE NEED. 

Posted by Drew458     on 08/11/2008 at 04:18 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous • Politics • UK • War-Stories •  
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   Sunday - August 10, 2008

MUGGINGS BY CHILDREN DOUBLE AS MEAN STREETS GET MEANER

Steep rise in violent crime by children
The number of muggings committed by children has doubled, according to new crime figures.
By Melissa Kite, Deputy Political Editor
Last Updated: 2:16PM BST 09 Aug 2008

Government data showed that one in eight violent crimes, more than a quarter of a million, were committed by school-age offenders in the year to April.

Muggings committed by under-16s, including robberies and snatch thefts, doubled in one year to 55,000. Children also committed more than 70,000 offences of stranger violence, a 17 per cent increase on the previous year, according to the British Crime Survey.

In the survey, which is the Government’s own preferred measure of crime, victims are asked whether their attacker appeared to be “of school age or under”.

The figures come amid rising concern over the epidemic of knife crime commited by teenagers and after police warned yesterday of a huge rise in violence by women.

An average of 240 women a day are arrested for violent offences in England and Wales, often when drunk, and many were joining street gangs putting new pressure on resources, police chiefs said.

Although the crime figures for 2007/8 published last month showed an overall fall in crime, including violent crime, closer analysis has revealed the jump in youth violence. Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, who uncovered the true picture, said: “This is a shocking indictment of Labour’s failure. As well as inflicting misery on too many victims now, what kind of problems are we storing up for the future?”

Gordon Brown called on communities across Britain to rally against knife crime. The Prime Minister said it was “the biggest problem at the moment” in some cities.

But he said the Government alone could not tackle it and the community also had a role to play in changing the culture to make carrying knives unacceptable.

Speaking at the opening day of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the Prime Minister said: “Young people are thinking it’s acceptable, fashionable, necessary for them to protect themselves, to carry a knife.

“Just like we made guns unacceptable, we should make knives unacceptable.

(What kinda fool is this?  The latest two killings didn’t even involve knives. One was done with a screwdriver, and in another killing, some poor guy was beaten to death while out walking his dog.  NO. It isn’t the damn weapon(s) fool.  What needs to be made TOTALLY unacceptable and no excuses or lawyers tricks, are the slap on wrist oh they’re “youths” kind of thinking. What needs to be unacceptable is the lack of fear of the law among the worthless sub culture in total control of the streets.  What needs to be totally and absolutely UNACCEPTABLE is LIBERALISM in dealing with the kinds of out of control crime seen here over the years.)

“You need not just young people but parents and other people to say that knives in Britain, like guns, like bullying, like racism, all these things are unacceptable.

“There are certain boundaries in a decent society you don’t cross and these boundaries are cultural, because in America it is acceptable for many people to carry guns, it’s not in Britain. I think in Britain we’ve got to make it as unacceptable to carry knives.

“I think most decent people in our country would want to do that and I think what you will see over the next few months is this sort of campaign, which is led not just by Government but people in the country to say ‘get knives off our streets - it’s completely unacceptable’.”

The warning on violent women came from Paul McKeever, the chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, which represents rank-and-file officers.

He said: “Clearly there is an increase in the number of women who use violence in their everyday life and when they are out drinking on the streets around the country. It’s a new phenomenon and it does stretch the resources of the police service.”

http://tinyurl.com/6hquf8

IN CASE YOU’RE WONDERING JUST WHAT HAPPENED TO WIND ME UP ON A TOPIC I DIDN’T WANNA POST, IT’S BEEN BUILDING AS I READ THIS STUFF.
AND REALLY PPL, THERE ISN’T ANY WAY TO AVOID IT.  IMPOTENT ANGER I GUESS.  CAN YOU READ THIS CRAP AND NOT WONDER OR GET A BIT PO’d?

Now serial criminals could be let off with caution after caution
By James Slack

Under the Home Office guidance, anyone caught committing the same ‘trivial’ offence again can be let off with the equivalent of a slap on the wrist - providing two years have passed.

It means a thief could receive up to five cautions in ten years without ever having to face a court appearance.

THEN THERE’S THIS OF COURSE.  HEY ... THIS’LL STRIKE FEAR IN THE HEARTS OF THE GREMLINS. SURE IT WILL.

Go easier on inmates, prison told (and try using their first names)

By JAMES SLACK
A prison has been told by inspectors that it is being too hard on its inmates. Her Majesty’s Inspector of Prisons said convicts should be called by their first names.

http://tinyurl.com/59tubz

These last two stories both at the same link with several more to cause blood to boil.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/10/2008 at 09:26 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • UK •  
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ENGLAND’S MEAN STREETS.

Gee, heartwarming to understand the negra was “under supervision” at the time he murdered the kid.

With a record that goes back to the time he was 12, why wasn’t he taken out and shot at 13?  Not a chance in a million he or his pals will ever be any different.

Will the next victim please step forward.  Oh, and we mustn’t refer to the killers as thick lipped niggers because that’d be racist. Come on, see the video and look at the faces and tell me they’re not apes, at best.

I think I’m wound up again. It never ends, does it?

Teenager who murdered schoolboy Martin Dinnegan was under supervision
A teenager with a history of violent crime has been jailed for life for murdering a talented schoolboy while under supervision for an earlier attack.
By John Bingham
Last Updated: 3:24AM BST 09 Aug 2008

Joseph Chin, 16, who has a criminal record dating back to when he was 12, was part of the gang which chased 14-year-old Martin Dinnegan down a street on bicycles and mopeds before stabbing him to death in broad daylight last year.

Chin, who can be named for the first time after a court order was lifted, was found guilty at the Old Bailey last month of the killing which came just an hour after two groups of youths exchanged “dirty looks”.

He was himself stabbed twice during a series of flare-ups between the groups. But, ordering him to serve a minimum of 12 years in jail, the Common Serjeant of London, Judge Brian Barker QC told him he was responsible for a “vengeful attack out of all proportion to what may have gone on before”.

Kevron Williams, 17, who was convicted of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm over the same attack, was given four years in youth detention.

Martin, who had just earned a place on an engineering course, was stabbed four times in the back near his home in Holloway, north London, on June 26 last year.

A pupil at St Aloysius College, a popular catholic boys’ school in nearby Archway, he was on a bus when looks were exchanged with a rival group on bicycles sparking a series of confrontations.

Fleeing a subsequent fight he found himself chased along the street by youths on bicycles and mopeds.
Williams was first to catch up with him, punching him to the ground and stabbing him with a screwdriver.

The jury heard how Chin then arrived on a BMX bicycle, knocking him back to the ground and pinning him down before stabbing him to death.

Tom Morgan, a witness who lived in the area, told the court now he saw Martin running past him, looking pale, pleading: “Please help me.”

Prosecutor Aftab Jafferjee QC said Martin’s death illustrated the “growing scourge of urban posturing” among the youths of Britain.

“It was the equivalent of being hunted in a pack,” he said. “Dirty looks turned to death in an hour.”

The judge disclosed in his sentencing how Chin, of Finsbury Park, north London, had a criminal history dating back to January 2004 when he was caught carrying a snooker ball in a sock.

The following April he threatened a man with a hollow bar and was given a warning for affray.

In September 2006 he was given a 12-month supervision order after kicking a shopkeeper unconscious when challenged for stealing some food from outside the store.

The order was still in force when he carried out the murder the following June. Because of his age he was being supervised by his local authority Islington Council’s Youth Offending Team rather than the Probation Service.

“This was a deliberate attack requiring a long chase with revenge in mind,” the judge told Chin.

“This was really arrogant group violence and the result is totally unacceptable.

“It was an attack carried out without any regard to the standards and rules that we live by and no thought for the victim, his friends and his family.”

In a statement read to the court Martin’s mother Lorraine Dinnegan said “Life will never be the same, a piece of our heart has been taken.”

She also disclosed that shortly after her son’s death she found a religious studies essay about the parable of the Good Samaritan in which he wrote about being chased by a group and left for dead by the side of a road.

Youths given a supervision order by the courts must have regular appointments a member of the council Youth Offending Team to discuss causes of their criminal behaviour and work out an individual supervision plan designed to prevent a repeat.

They must also notifying them of any changes of address and could face criminal charges for failing to attend regular sessions.

http://tinyurl.com/6zd2vx

Posted by Drew458     on 08/10/2008 at 09:10 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Outrageous • UK •  
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   Thursday - August 07, 2008

Teenagers as young as 16 are to be drafted into primary schools to plug gaps left by teacher shortag

Be interesting to see how this one works out.

16-year-olds to work in primary schools

By Lewis Carter

Under the Government plans, young people will be offered apprenticeships to train as teaching assistants in primary school classrooms.

However ministers have been urged to abandon the “absurd” scheme, amid fears teenagers were underqualified and too immature to work in schools.

Phil Parkin, general secretary of the 35,000-strong teaching union Voice, said: “At 16-years-old the vast majority of young people are simply not mature enough to work in a classroom.

“In many ways their behaviour is not a lot different from the children they will be teaching. And schools should not be a dumping ground for youngsters that can’t get a job elsewhere either, we need high standards of literacy and numeracy to drive up quality.

“There’s also a question mark over whether schools will have the financial capacity to support the help with development these teenagers will need.”

Government hopes each of the 18,000 primary schools in England will have its own trainee classroom assistant via the scheme. The new recruits will help fill the void created by rules which allocate teachers time to mark and prepare work during school hours.

Under the plans apprentices will cover for teachers in group reading and other simple lessons, eventually moving on to more complicated tasks.

Nick Gibb MP, the Tory shadow schools minister, said: “I think this idea is totally absurd. Schools need to be run professionally and as a basic requirement there should not be anyone under the age of 18 working in them – after they have achieved the necessary qualifications.

“I hope the Government will realise this is a non-starter and drop the plans.”

As part of the proposals, a diploma for 14-year-olds, the same level as a GCSE, is also being created in Society, Health and Development to offer the skills required to get on the apprenticeship schemes.

The move to further bolster classroom support comes three years after rules were introduced stating teachers in England were allowed 10 per cent of their timetable for the planning, preparation and assessment of lessons.

The “PPA time” proved popular with teachers but it has put financial pressure on schools, leading to accusations of gross underfunding.

Last week the Daily Telegraph reported that schools were relying on poorly-paid assistants – most of whom do not have full teaching qualifications – to plug gaps in the teaching workforce.

The number of classroom assistants has soared almost threefold from 61,000 to 177,000 in the past 10 years, far higher than the 10 per cent increase in teachers over the same period.

Earlier this year the public sector union Unison claimed that teaching assistants were a method of teaching children “on the cheap”.

It called for tough new rules to stamp out the exploitation of teaching assistants, who earn an average of just £50 a day, compared to a supply teacher who earns £150.

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: “Teaching assistants play an increasingly vital role in schools. Our qualification reforms will ensure a range of routes to the world of work are available meaning there will be something for everyone.”

http://tinyurl.com/6rg5fl

Posted by Drew458     on 08/07/2008 at 12:05 PM   
Filed Under: • Education • UK •  
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