Tuesday - November 04, 2008
My one and only Election Day post. Until later I guess.
I am not even going to watch TV today, nor listen to the radio. I will find out who won this thing tomorrow. Well, maybe late this evening. I’m not hiding from it, I just want a break. I’ve had my fill. I’m gonna have lunch, then go and get some bowling practice in.
Anyway, I got over to my polling place this morning. I’m living out here in sleepy little Union Township in nearly rural western New Jersey. Usually when I vote I just about have to wake the poll worker ladies up. Today the parking lot was jammed, and people were parking out on the street. The poll ladies told me the place had been a madhouse since the doors opened at 6am. I actually had to stand on line for a couple minutes and wait my turn to vote. I haven’t missed an election of any kind here in 10 years, and this is the first time that has ever happened. Record turnouts. And the same thing is going on everywhere.
OUTSTANDING !!
It’s high time America woke up. I hope we have voter turnout today somewhere north of 90%. Why not? The Australians routinely get a 95% turnout, so should we. So cast your ballot and git ‘er done!
On the downside, the FBI and police departments across the country are prepared to deal with rioting. It’s their job to be
News From The North
dateline Oslo Norway
The Norwegian government’s operating profit on its direct investment in the Nordic countries offshore oil fields rose 27 percent in the third quarter to 35.6 billion kroner ($5.3 billion) on high crude prices, Petoro AS announced Tuesday.
The government company Petoro AS, which manages investments but does not operate fields, also said the government’s net income for the first nine months of 2008 of 118.9 billion kroner ($17.7 billion) already exceeded net income for all of 2007 by 6.6 billion kroner ($985 million).
“The fact that we have already exceeded last year’s very good result after nine months reflects the very high prices we have enjoyed during 2008,” said Marion Svihus, Petoro’s chief financial officer. “But the sharp fall in prices this autumn is a matter of concern, particularly since we still don’t know if the decline has bottomed out.”
Crude oil prices peaked at a record $147 per barrel in July, at the start of the third quarter, but have now fallen to about $64 per barrel on a slowdown triggered by the global financial crisis.
“Even after this dramatic drop, however, oil prices remain historically high,” she said. Svihus said the turbulence “makes it all the more important to take care of these huge national assets in a professional, commercial manner.”
Meanwhile, Norwegian oil company Petoro AS is trying to get at least one more oil rig up and running, and is willing to partner with other oil companies to share the cost. What the above article does not tell you is that the Norwegian’s production in the Barents Sea is rapidly declining. They need more wells in more places to maintain production. Also they are looking into using nanotechnology to increase the output of old wells by a significant percent. Oh, and all of this is being done without spilling a drop, and they’ve managed to cut their other pollutants 95% in the past 7 years, though the level of CO2 has gone up a bit per unit volume of oil pumped. Read more about all of it here. For more on the nanotechnology bit, go here. If the Norskis can do it, so can we. Drill here, drill now, drill smart. You betcha!
In other oil news, crude prices continue to drop. Funny thing though, the price of gas went up 2 cents at my local station. Anyway, crude fell below $59/bbl in London this morning, but bounced back to just under $64 in New York. Still, that’s a lot better than the $147 high this summer.
on 11/04/2008 at 09:16 AM
Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink
VOTE!
As Christopher says below, get out and vote today. Don’t be fooled by what the media says...we are well within reach of victory. Think about a landslide...for McCain!
Don’t be discouraged, don’t give up the fight, don’t let up.
We. Will. Win.
It’s Christmas as usual and it would appear the press have it wrong? (Thanks, Fido)
Yesterday, yours truly caught an article in The Telegraph that I thought was total insanity. I think on reflection, that I should perhaps have emailed or even called the city council to see if the story about a ban on Christmas was some silly mistake. In my (very weak) defense may I say that even the Telegraph didn’t do that and they are getting paid. But no matter. I SHOULD HAVE! And it’s thanks to Fidothedog who I now nominate as an official watchdog in case I screw up again, that the error was found. So H/T Fido and thanks for this link to the correct story.
An interesting and telling comment by our Dr. Jeff belongs here as well. It’s sadly the way of our present world.
“The scariest part is that we have reached the state of affairs where we’ve come to expect this sort of insanity from government institutions. It is easy to believe that the Oxford City Council or the Oxford Inspires could have come up with such an insane idea. It’s equally possible to believe that they immediately backed up in response to the ensuing firestorm. Who knows? It was believable regardless.” Dr. Jeff
Latest News
Statement on Christmas Celebrations 2008
News Christmas Lights
After recent articles in the local and national press about Christmas Celebrations in Oxford, we have issued the following statement.
Councillor Bob Price, Leader Oxford City Council says: ”Oxford City Council has not ‘banned Christmas’ and has not banned the use of the word ‘Christmas’. The Council has not even considered doing either of these.
“Oxford City Council will celebrate Christmas 2008 in the same way as it has celebrated all previous Christmases: we will have Christmas trees in the Town Hall and in Broad Street, the Lord Mayor will host a Christmas reception for community workers and will hold the annual Christmas Carols event, and we will be sending out Christmas cards.
“Oxford Inspires, who is jointly funded by Oxford University, Oxford Brookes University, the City and County Councils and the Arts Council to sponsor cultural and arts events across the county, designed the WinterLight event for 2008. This builds on the very successful event of December 2007, with the same name, which involved the late night opening of many museums and galleries, with musical events, food and drink, and activities for children.
“For Christmas 2008, Oxford Inspires agreed with the City Council to time the WinterLight event for November and to have it on the same evening as the switch on of the city centre Christmas Lights and the re-opening of Bonn Square.
“Oxford Inspires WinterLight event in Oxford builds on similar events in many cities across the world where the arrival of darker evenings and colder weather creates the opportunity for some magical and exciting events in public buildings and public squares. It is a cultural event without any specific reference to the religious festivals that also occur in this period.”
A spokesman for Oxford Inspires says: “WinterLight Oxford is part of a wider countywide programme which incorporates Christmas Lights switch on events in towns from Abingdon to Woodstock, Christmas Carol concerts, pantomimes and other seasonal events.
“Other Oxfordshire towns have events which combine their Christmas Lights switch on with other entertainment - such as Woodstock’s “Night of a Thousand Candles” on 29th November or Burford’s Advent Fair on 30th November.”
We Won’t Get Fooled Again!
No we won’t. While I hope McCain will pull an upset, and if he does, I’ve bought plenty of ammo for Erica Jong’s prediction of blood running in the streets in the event that the ObaMessiah loses, what will change?
WE WILL BE the party of Change! We, the Conservatives of the Republican Party. First, we gain back control of the Republican Party, next, we kick Dem Ass in 2010, and again in 2012!
Who will be our standard-bearer in 2010-2012? I don’t know. Maybe Gov. Palin. Who knows? She’s on record stating that basically she doesn’t want anything to do with faux party. (Ooops. Used some elitist lingo there).
Regardless of the outcome folks, get off your @sses and VOTE!
As Rush says, drag McCain across the finish line, then deal with him. Meanwhile, rebuild the conservative movement within the Republican Party.
UPDATE: Do it for the Gipper!
Hello New Haven. Birth place of the late and great Artie Shaw. Something different for a change.
At first, I wanted to post her photo because I think she is drop dead gorgeous and I thought hey, we can use a bit of beginning of the week eye candy.
Most especially this morning. I wasn’t going to post the article that went with the photo, which I think is pretty darn nice.
But then I read it and found it interesting, and thought you might too. Hey, just a bit of nothing much. A pleasant time waster.
So, just to take our minds off really important stuff for just a few minutes, (but no more)
Here’s KATE WINSLET.
She is famously deprecating about her looks and claims to be a normal mother-of-two with bad skin and cellulite, but Kate Winslet’s latest photoshoot rather suggests otherwise.
By Anita Singh, Showbusiness Editor
Last Updated: 9:25AM GMT 04 Nov 2008
Kate Winslet poses for Vanity Fair
Best foot forward: Kate Winslet in Deneuve tribute Photo: Exclusively for Vanity Fair by Steven MeiselThe 33-year-old British actress has posed for one of her most glamorous sets of pictures yet in the new issue of Vanity Fair magazine, showing off a flawless complexion and enviably svelte figure. The images are a tribute to Catherine Deneuve in the 1967 film Belle de Jour.
In the accompanying interview, Winslet says she realises that the pictures will raise eyebrows among other mothers on the school run.
The mother of two children, Mia, eight, and Joe, five, said: “I know when I walk into that classrom in the morning, even if it’s for a split second, at some point I’m being checked out. Some of them will even say to me, ‘OK, what’s the secret with the skin?’ At which point I’m like, ‘Oh my God, there’s no secret. I have make-up on. And by the way, since I turned 30 I’ve had an acne problem on my chin. I’m just like everybody else - I just know how to cover it. If you’d like me to show you how, I’d be more than happy.”
However, a spokesman for Vanity Fair admitted there had been “a minimal amount of retouching”.
But her publicist said that while there had been some skin tone correction, her body had “not been airbrushed at all”.
Digital retouching expert Joanne Craske said: “The first place to look is under the eyes, because whether you’re two or 92 you have darkness there, and the pictures of Kate have none. There’s certainly no sign of acne either.
“It definitely looks like there has been a bit of work done.”
Winslet famously objected when GQ magazine airbrushed away her curves and elongated her legs for a 2003 cover shoot. “I don’t look like that and I don’t desire to look like that,” she said at the time. “It wasn’t that they simply retouched my image - they completely stretched it so I looked like I was six feet tall and a size two.”
At school, Winslet was bullied for being overweight and nicknamed ‘Blubber’. She told Vanity Fair: “I never had huge ambitions - never. I was fat. I didn’t know any fat famous actresses. I just did not see myself in that world at all, and I’m being very sincere. You know, once a fat kid, always a fat kid. Because you always think that you just look a little bit wrong or a little bit different from everyone else. And I still sort of have that.”
Winslet stars in two forthcoming films which are already being talked of as Oscar contenders: Revolutionary Road, a 1950s drama which reunites her with Titanic co-star Leonardo DiCaprio, and The Reader, in which she plays a German woman exposed as a former Nazi.
She holds the record as the youngest actress ever to earn five Oscar nominations and makes no bones about how desperately she wants to win this time. “Do I want it? You bet your ***ing a** I do! I think that people assume that I don’t care or don’t want it or don’t need it or something. It’s hard to be there five times and I’m only human, you know? But I don’t go home and cry, because we’re all grown-ups here.”
This one’s for Grumpy
I just started reading Terry Pratchett’s works a couple of months ago. I find this quote to be especially relevant today.
The Ephebians believed that every man should have the vote. Every five years someone was elected to be Tyrant, provided he could prove that he was honest, intelligent, sensible, and trustworthy. Immediately after he was elected, of course, it was obvious to everyone that he was a criminal madman and totally out of touch with the view of the ordinary philosopher in the street looking for a towel. And then five years later they elected another one just like him, and really it was amazing how intelligent people kept on making the same mistakes.
This comes from Discworld #13, small gods.
Keep this in mind as you vote today. 
US elections: Danger lurks in Barack Obama’s comfort zone. (but, he’s been sent by god.)
And |I won’t even post the editorial cartoon illustration in todays paper. Jeesh ... and for a conservative (?) paper. Well anyway,
Simon Heffer here at least is on the mark if nobody else is.
The remark re. O. sent by God. Yeah. And who says that? Stupid white folks and not the ones on the fringe right either.
I need a coffee break. First of the morning.
Stay Tuned.
US elections: Danger lurks in Barack Obama’s comfort zoneBy Simon Heffer in New York
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 04/11/2008Two days ago, when the Sunday political talk shows of the US television networks were brimming with pundits announcing a landslide victory for Barack Obama, John McCain was jetting around America making five campaign stops. Yesterday, with the polls still showing him up to seven points behind his rival, he took in another seven. Most men would have wound down in the face of such apparently inevitable defeat. But John McCain, for whom life has never been so rewarding as when fighting against a seemingly intractable problem, is not most men.
What is regarded as the inevitability of defeat has given Mr McCain new energy. Being 72, it is certainly his last chance. He joked as much during Saturday Night Live last weekend, saying Mr Obama was young enough to have more opportunities, and now was his turn. The joke was only so funny because of its element of truth.
It is no reason to elect Mr McCain. His determination and his warrior-like quality never to admit defeat until it is obvious certainly are. There is an even more important point: he is laden with experience relevant to the job. He is not a rock star like his opponent, but no one has yet argued that this would make him a better chief executive of the world’s only superpower. This contest comes at a unique moment in modern American history and Mr McCain, despite the obliviousness of so much of America to the point, is the man for that moment.
The country is not merely at war in two theatres. It is not merely facing threats to its security. It is also trying to come to terms with the worst economic outlook since the 1930s. Add to that the constantly expressed concern about those scores of thousands of fellow Americans “in harm’s way” on foreign battlefields, and the fear of what challenge might be thrown up next, and you have a landscape of extreme uncertainty.
The choice faced by the electorate is clear. It can either vote for reality or for escapism: and John McCain has the greater appreciation of what reality might entail. I have been struck on several visits here this year just how much Americans, worn down by the failures and embarrassments of the Bush years, want something other than reality. That, though, is simply storing up troubles. The landscape of uncertainty requires someone tested in fire to lead people through it: not just for America’s sake but for the sake of that portion of the world that looks to America for leadership.
Mr Obama is a confection; he is an image, a brand, a lifestyle. He has the talents of the thespian, less obviously those of the executive. He has been branded a socialist by Sarah Palin and, because it was Sarah Palin doing the branding, the term was ridiculed by media here who are almost clinically biased against the Republicans. However, when one examines Mr Obama’s rhetoric about “spreading the wealth”, and looks at spending promises made in the past 21 months, socialism is a fair term. He plans, or at least has promised, expensive projects - such as healthcare reforms. Inflicting tax rises on a country where people are losing their jobs, having their homes foreclosed upon and having their businesses driven into bankruptcy is something whose consequences Mr Obama has yet to outline.
Neither candidate sees that the economic policies they have dealt in have been rendered anachronistic by recent events. Mr McCain was all at sea at the height of the crisis and it damaged him badly, perhaps terminally. Mr Obama knew no better: he just had the sense to keep quiet. As president, he would find he can’t keep quiet. At least Mr McCain, with his long?standing message of smaller government, less regulation and reduced spending, has a better chance of adapting to the new circumstances. An Obama presidency, given the dire straits of America’s economy, will quickly and inevitably disappoint once reality kicks in.
The clinching reason why America should vote for McCain over Obama rests, however, in the question of foreign policy and international security. It is to be hoped that America (and therefore the free world) faces no new security challenges in the years ahead and can extract itself from Iraq and assert control in Afghanistan. But these are only hopes. There are unscrupulous and fanatical elements who may take the election of President Obama as an invitation to see how far America can be pushed. One thinks of Iran, or the failure of Pakistan to rein in malevolent elements. Some argue that the advice of the State Department would be the same to President Obama as to President McCain, and that it would have to be followed. I am not so sure. Mr McCain, who understands well how foreign powers and military operations work, would have a much more informed discussion with his advisers. Mr Obama would be starting from a position of near total ignorance, and on a matter of life and death.
That question of international security is fundamental. It is the case for voting McCain. America is famed for its parochialism, even in time of war. That is why so many have found it easy to enter the Obama comfort zone. Whoever wins, being comfortable will not be part of the job of being president. A man with five-and-a-half years in the Hanoi Hilton under his belt would adapt better to that ultimate reality than would his rival.
Monday - November 03, 2008
nothin from me
I’m tapped out here folks. I can’t stomach to make another post about what a leftist clown Obullshit is. By now you’ve heard it all 100 times over. Get out and vote, and vote for McCain/Palin even if you have to hold your nose the whole time. Our very future depends on it.
Other than that, I’m having a rotten problem with one of my bowling leagues. I’ve spent the better part of today writing things down, and composing a long letter. The league that I am secretary for has a team, all of whom are, um, “natural” Obama supporters and redistribution beneficiaries I guess you could say, who cause a whole lot of dissension. Even though every one of them is a highly experienced bowler, and every one of them drives at least 50 miles to take part in our dinky little 5 1/2 team bowling league up in the sticks of NJ, they make “innocent” mistakes just about every week that cause the scores to appear better for them than they actually are. And when I bring this to their attention, just letting them know that mistakes were made -no accusations from me- the denial and reverse accusations are instant and thunderous. Our league had a lot of problems last year, and we lost half our membership because of it. Those few who did return have told me many times that this same group caused trouble all of last year too. Maybe I should just refer to them as “Team Sharpton”, but that isn’t at all subtle. True though, just not subtle.
So now I am a lying cheating mother fucker who is out to get them. I’ve been told that right to my face. No witnesses of course. I’ve been accused of stealing points, changing the scores, ripping them off, rigging the rules, etc. To say that I am a bit upset by this projectionist BS is about the largest understatement in the world. I fully understand why people got into duels back in the day. I am doing my best to overcome my reflexively violent reaction and to devise a diplomatic solution. If that does not work, then I will be faced with a no-win decision: I can walk away from this league and it will die, or I can push for adjudication and get this team kicked off the league, in which case this league will die. The only way forward that I can see is for me to suck up my injured honor, ignore these accusations, and create a “we all have to try harder” speech to present to the whole league. I am not a happy camper here. I will try to contact our league president and get some advice, though earlier attempts have been fruitless. He doesn’t want to be bothered. I’ve put together some pages that I want to share with the bowling alley owner too, just to keep him appraised of what’s going on.
I’m not sure what to do here. Maybe the best approach is to accept that some people are whiny little crybabies, that some people feel entitled to push as hard as they can, screw other people’s feelings, to get what they want ... and just let the whole thing slide. Ignore it. Eat the whole shit sandwich and hope it’s the last one that shows up on my plate. Yeah right.
Don’t worry about my league though. When Obama becomes President I’m sure the rules will change so that this team wins automatically just because they show up. Have to give certain folks more opportunity you know.
UPDATE: I’ve been advised that this kind of thing is par for the course. So I will do nothing other than let my league president know about it. Some people are just scum, and reacting to their petty nonsense is beneath my dignity. Like using logic to argue with a liberal, it’s just not worth it.
on 11/03/2008 at 04:54 PM
Bowling Blogging • Daily Life • Politics • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink
Man gets stuck to public lavatory and is rescued with,, ah. Seat attached.
And so with this little item I’m gone for the night.
Man gets stuck to public lavatory
Monday, November 3 2008, 12:06 GMT
By Sarah Rollo
A man who became stuck to a public lavatory had to be rushed to hospital while still attached to the seat.
It is thought a prankster had covered the rim of the stainless steel toilet with super glue.
An ambulance crew and a rapid response team were called to the cubicle in Brierley Hill, near Dudley, at the weekend but were unable to free the man, reports The Telegraph.
An ambulance service spokesman said: “Despite best efforts it was not possible to remove the 35-year-old local man from his position so, with the help of a local authority and the fire and rescue service, the man was removed from the cubicle still attached to the stainless steel toilet.”
The man was taken to hospital where he was freed with the help of special chemicals. “He appeared to be none the worse for his ordeal other than being understandably somewhat embarrassed,” the spokesman said.
Man gets stuck to public lavatory
MORE LAW AND DISORDER WITH TEEN KILLERS. AND NO, DON’T EXPECT JUSTICE.
YEAH, YEAH THE BASTARDS WILL GET SOME JAIL TIME AND THEN ....?
Take a good look at these animals. Jeesh ... and ppl wring their collective hands at the thought of a death penalty. And where there is a death penalty it MUST be oh so gentle.
I think I’ll quit right here cause I wanna let fly with words I don’t really wanna use, all beginning with the letter ‘f’
Note: 1 stone = 14 pounds
‘Eyes of killer’ teenager, 15, facing jail over death
A 15-year-old boy murdered a father-of-three and then filmed himself on his mobile phone as the words “eyes of a killer” were uttered in the background, a court was told.
By Daily Telegraph Reporter
Last Updated: 7:48PM GMT 31 Oct 2008
Jason Bolton (left) and Adam Smith were both convicted of murder. Photo: PAThe phone belonging to Andrew Smith was later recovered by police and the recording was shown to a jury at Manchester Crown Court where he was convicted of the killing.
Smith and his friend, Jason Bolton, 18, set upon Asaf Mahmood Ahmed in a motiveless attack in Deane, Bolton, Greater Manchester.
The pair were drinking on the night of December 21 last year and initially targeted another man in the street but he was too strong and escaped unhurt.
Moments later they turned their attention to Mr Ahmed, who was 5ft 5in and weighed seven stone, and assaulted him at the rear of the Derby Ward Labour Club.
Mr Ahmed left a family party to walk to a local shop when he was punched, kicked and stamped on.
The court was told Mr Ahmed died from an asthma attack as he lay in a pool of blood with his inhaler by his side.
Smith was later arrested at his home in Deane where detectives found the seven-second video clip on his phone which was recorded an hour after he committed the brutal assault.
Smith, now aged 16, and Bolton, also from Deane, were both convicted of murder following a two-week trial.
Reporting restrictions on identifying Smith were lifted by Mr Justice Alistair MacDuff after the verdicts were read out.
Sentencing will take place on a date yet to be fixed.
HAPPENS EVERY YEAR. CHRISTMAS IS BANNED YET AGAIN. REALLY! MORE MOON BAT FOLLIES.
Christmas banned in Oxford by council-owned charityBy Richard Savill
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 03/11/2008Oxford city council confirmed the events in the city would be renamed ‘Winter Light Festival‘ to make them more inclusive, provoking outrage among shoppers in the city who called for a return to tradition.
The idea has come from the charity Oxford Inspires, the cultural development agency for the county, which runs the celebrations.
Sabir Hussain Mirza, chairman of the Muslim Council of Oxford, said: “I am really upset about this. Christians, Muslims and other religions all look forward to Christmas.”
Fr Brian Van-Dungey, a priest in Garsington, Oxon, said: “I am a Christian and pleased to see my Muslim brothers joining in the condemnation of this stupid and dangerous idea; this sort of thinking creates racial problems and should be stopped in its tracks.”
Rabbi Eli Bracknell, who teaches at the Jewish Educational Centre in the city, said: “It is important to maintain a traditional British Christmas. Anything that waters down traditional culture and Christianity in the UK is not positive for the British identity.”
(something tells me that not enough Brits care anymore to overcome this sort of lunacy)Oxford Inspires spokesman Tei Williams said: “In Oxfordshire we have Winter Light which is a whole festival spanning two months. Within that festival will be Christmas Carol services.”
Liz Gresham of Oxford Inspires added: “We changed the name to be more inclusive.” Ed Turner, deputy leader of the council, said the renaming of the festival was “unfortunate and sends out a problematic message.”
He added: “It is the charity’s festival. Among councillors there is certainly no desire to downgrade the importance or the prominence given to Christmas.
“There is going to be a Christmas tree and even if the lights are called something else to me they will be Christmas lights.”
Stephen Fry attacks sneering anti-Americanism.
Well at least this is nice.
And for once, I don’t have anything to add.” And that’s a good thing.”
Stephen Fry attacks sneering anti-Americanism
Last Updated: 1:26PM GMT 03 Nov 2008
In his BBC TV documentary Stephen Fry in America, he toured the 50 states of the US in a black cab
Fry told Good Housekeeping magazine British snobbery towards Americans “horrifies” him.
He said: “When they mock America for its supposed lack of knowledge, irony or sophistication, they are revealing nothing but the pathetic inadequacy and inferiority complex of the British.
“I absolutely hate that sneering anti-Americanism.”
The comedian, writer and actor has published a book version of his BBC TV documentary Stephen Fry in America, for which he toured the 50 states of the US in a black cab.
He told the magazine: “It always comes from people who don’t know America – outside of TV or a holiday in Orlando.
“It has its share of nuts: out of a quarter of a billion people you’re always going to get some.
“But they are as polite, friendly, charming and honourable as any people I have encountered.”
Stephen Fry has criticised “sneering” anti-Americanism among the British, ahead of the US Presidential elections.
Unruly school pupils will be punished with… a foot massage. (punishment liberal style)
Ever see anything so totally stupid?
Oh right. Not since yesterday.
I GUESS THIS IS HOW THE LEFTARDS THAT MAKE THESE DECISIONS THINK THEY CAN CONTROL BAD BEHAVIOR.
How much more stupid will they get?
Unruly school pupils will be punished with… a foot massageBy Ryan Kisiel
Last updated at 7:46 AM on 03rd November 2008Some say massaging feet can curb aggression.
Pupils who create mayhem in the classroom are to face a punishment that will make them quake in their shoes.
They will be asked to slip off their socks before being given a foot massage designed to control their unruly behaviour.
Medical experts say there is little evidence that such treatment can improve the behaviour of young tearaways.
Yet Labour-run Lambeth Council in South London is to spend £90,000 next year sending reflexologists into its schools to practise their soothing art.
The team, from a company known as Bud-Umbrella, will work in 60 primary and 14 secondary schools, with children under 13 deemed to be badly behaved.
The firm is run out of a flat in Brixton and its website claims reflexology ‘releases energy blockages’, ‘can calm aggressive feelings, improve listening skills, concentration and focus’ and ‘relieves headaches and sinus problems’.
Tory MP John Penrose is unimpressed. ‘The idea that a foot massage is going to keep a hoodie happy is laughable,’ said the member for Weston-super-Mare.
‘Experienced teachers have a range of ways of dealing with badlybehaved pupils and stroking their feet is not one of them.
‘Dealing with bad behaviour should not look like a reward to those who misbehave. Discipline should be brought back into schools.’
Mark Wallace, spokesman for the TaxPayers’ Alliance campaign group, said: ‘How on earth is the education system going to succeed if there are luxuries given out for naughty children and nothing at all given to those who work hard and do well?
‘With everyone struggling in the financial crisis, this is crazy money being paid out on a crazy scheme.’
Despite Lambeth’s enthusiasm for foot massage in schools, reflexology sessions are not provided for the wider public by the local primary care trust.
The traditional healing art dates from the ancient Egyptians and Chinese. It involves manipulation of pressure points in the hands and feet and is often used to ease period pain, headaches, sinus and back problems as well as the effects of chemotherapy.
By massaging different points on the feet, therapists claim they can unblock energy pathways and help the body regain its natural balance and heal itself.
Reflexology is not a regulated therapy and medical authorities have raised concerns that qualifications are not needed to perform the massages.
However Lambeth Labour councillor Paul McGlone said the council was right to provide the alternative treatment.
‘It’s incredibly important that we address young people’s behavioural problems and we make no apologies for using different and innovative methods but this obviously won’t replace more traditional ways of dealing with anti-social behaviour.
‘We need to deal with the root causes of young people’s behavioural problems and nip them in the bud - prevention is better than cure.’
Wanna bet the kids are laughing their socks off?
on 11/03/2008 at 10:32 AM
Education • Stoopid-People • UK • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink
WELL IT’s DOWN TO THE WIRE AND MINDS ARE MADE UP BY NOW AND MY STOMACH HURTS.
I guess it’s all that anxiety catching up to me. Thought I’d outrun it.
A NEED TO SHARE SOMETHING I HEARD ON RADIO.
I used to wonder, based on things read in the last few years, if I was going to have a country to come back to when the time came.
My old enemy insomnia had me it it’s grip last night and at around 1am I thought oh the heck with it, I am not a toss and turn type and so turned on the bedside light and the radio. Apparently I hear better when the light’s on. ??
First of all I want to point out that in spite of all I have heard about the BBC being biased in favor of the left, what really very little I’ve listened to doesn’t bear that out. And when I do listen, it’s generally only BBC-4. I could be wrong of course as I’m not a radio listener anymore. Or not much anyway.
To be honest, yes. There are news programs and interview shows on topics that cover everything from health and politics to zoos. And yes, no matter what the subject there is ALWAYS going to be one or two people on the panel that are not friends of America or Americans. And no matter what the subject is, somehow, someway we (USA) always seem to become either a part of the discussion or else a snide aside. I’ve no idea how they manage it but they seem to do so fairly easily. Which isn’t to say we don’t have our defenders. We certainly do. Just not a lot of em.
Quite often it’s maddening to note, there might be a guest on from the states and no surprise, where an audience is present the American (?) will play to the house and make some crack about the dumb cowboy from Texas who is the chief reason for the ruin of the planet. Yadda,yadda.
This of course generates great laughter and applause and thus proves that not all Americans are cave dwelling gun nuts. As long as you’re anti-Bush and buy the planet warming thing you are a most intelligent and rational fellow.
Well, last night (this morning actually at around 1am) I caught reports from a few Brit reporters covering our election in the states. They were reporting on what they (said) they have seen so far, and even they concede that while it certainly does appear to be Obama, things are not totally settled just yet.
The press here for the most part is firmly in favor of Obama with a few exceptions and I should tell you that looking at political cartoons,
(no they are not I have been informed. They are “illustrations.” ) if you look at those, the majority I have seen here are not only pro Obama.
They are pretty much very rudely Anti-Bush.
During that broadcast when they came back to the studio, they had two guests, one I think I heard a member of the Lib/Dems (liberal democrat party) and a lawyer, and the other a conservative. I didn’t quite catch if he was an MP (Member of Parliament) or a journalist.
It was I have to say interesting listening and very scary as well. The soft spoken lady lawyer and Lib/Dem member spoke of how urgently the USA needed an Obama victory and she cited among her reasons one of the really frightening aspects of this election.
THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT and appointments to same.
Now why in the darn world would some Brit politician be concerned with OUR freeken court ? That bothered me a lot and it still does.
Why should our court be of any concern to anyone outside our country? But this lady knew her stuff, she is after all a lawyer and a Democrat sweep of the USA bodes ill for the future.
She then went on to say, and you have all heard this already, how much our image would improve by electing the O man.
Oh good. We should all vote the way folks here would like to see us vote so as to appear what? Less like racists I guess. It’s like we have to prove something to Europeans maybe and a victory for Obama will put us all in their good graces again.
Oh right I almost forgot. Another reason to vote Democrat she said, was the green issue. With them in power, America would finally see the light and join Europe in securing the planet and at last join the majority instead of being obstructionists. I’m not certain she used that exact word but hey, a rose is rose.
Meanwhile, the conservative guest stated that Obama had no real experience and there was reason to question him. BUT ... there’s always a but isn’t there. While he does lean toward McCain, he does believe Obama might instill something or bring something new to the USA and honestly I forgot what else he said as it was lost in the statement he made to the effect that he held two passports and could were he in the states vote. And would probably vote Obama.
So ,,, How’s your stomach this day?
Stay Tuned ...
Barack Obama victory will hurt US firms - and world economy. (PLEASE READ ALL OF IT PPL)
This is I know a wordy but worthy editorial and I would urge you all to PLEASE read all of it. See the link and read some of the comments as well.
I don’t want to make this long and so will post something later that NEEDS sharing with you.
Barack Obama victory will hurt US firms - and world economy
By Janet Daley
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 03/11/2008Read comments:
(by all means folks, do read some of the comments that follow the editorial in the Telegraph. Amazing that so many ppl who really know so damn little about us, now think they can advise us on how and why we NEED to vote Obama. I guess I’m a bit thin skinned when foreigners tell me who to vote for. But there are some very good comments as well. Perhaps not always seeing our side it, but at least thought out and well expressed without always being nasty.)
Well, it’s nearly over - this presidential election campaign that has gone on for so long I can scarcely remember what life was like before it started. So long has it been running that the world has actually gone through two tumultuous transformations of political reality during its span.
First there was the emergence of Russia as a threat to international stability in a form that should not have, but nevertheless did, come as a startling revelation to a complacent free world: a phenomenon which, in cynical partisan terms, played heavily in John McCain’s favour. But that was followed, and almost totally eclipsed, by the economic implosion that brought every earlier assumption about the electorate crashing down with it.
So, in one of those bizarre jokes that history sometimes plays, the United States is apparently about to choose as president the most inexperienced, untried and virtually unknowable (because there is so little to know) candidate who has ever run for that office at a time of unquantifiable international risk and unprecedented economic instability: a candidate who, as Bill Clinton revealed in a wonderfully back-handed “tribute”, responded to the banking collapse by ringing every expert he could find (including Bill) to ask them what he should be saying.
And not only does it seem likely that Barack Obama will be elected president, but that he will arrive in office accompanied by a legion of new Democratic senators and congressmen which will give his party a lock on both the executive and legislative branches of government, thus permitting it to do precisely anything it wants.
A week ago in New York, I talked to senior Republicans who were dividing their time between conference calls to the White House to discuss the economic crisis and exasperated confrontations with the McCain campaign team over the ineffectiveness of its strategy. It is almost impossible to exaggerate the state of dissension and dissatisfaction within the higher ranks of the Republican Party - which is why the Obama claim that a McCain White House would simply be George Bush by other means is so ludicrous and disingenuous.
In truth, McCain’s status as an outlaw within his own party ("maverick" is much too mild a word) has meant that he has had only the most ambivalent relationship with what was once a very professional Republican campaigning machine. Those members of the Bush team who have been involved with the McCain-Palin ticket have been accused of being so out of sympathy with its message and tone as to be positively counter-productive.
Combine this with the fact that McCain has been running against not just a super-financed Obama machine but the most monolithically hostile media barrage in electoral history, which forced him to spend most of his time and energy on defensive fire-fighting, and you get a sense of why the Republican effort has so often seemed at cross-purposes with itself.
This media phenomenon may yet prove double-edged. There is just a possibility (maybe I am clutching at straws here, but we shall see) that the relentless onslaught from the mainstream press and television networks has made support for McCain unsayable rather than impossible and that this is producing seriously skewed opinion-polling results. This could mean, to put it in British historical terms, that this election will be 1992 (complete with premature victory celebrations) rather than 1997. Interestingly, in the 1992 election it was the issue of tax that brought about Labour’s defeat in the face of resounding leads in the polls. And it is tax policy that is Obama’s most dangerous ground. It must be surprising to British observers that his proposal to cut taxes for the 95 per cent of people who earn less than $200,000 a year (down, incidentally, from his initial figure of $250,000) has not straightforwardly won the day in the American national debate.
In Britain, such a promise (if believed) would be an electoral free pass to Downing Street. But in the US, voters are aware that the largest category of people who would be hit by Obama’s higher tax would be those who own small businesses, as Joe the Plumber famously aspired to do and as many, many of his countrymen already do. Ordinary working-class people in America do not automatically expect to be low earners, or even employees, all of their lives: they believe that through hard work and resourcefulness, they are as likely as anyone to rise in the world. And so they do not necessarily take kindly to someone who wants to penalise them as soon as they break through an income ceiling in order, as Obama fatally put it, to “spread the wealth around”.
But there is another facet of Obama taxation with even more serious consequences for the US. In order to pay for his tax cut for 95 per cent of the population (half of whom do not pay income tax and whose “cut” would be in the form of a cash rebate), President Obama and his Democratic Congress would raise the US rate of corporation tax - already the second highest in the world - from 15 to 20 per cent. They also plan to punish through taxation companies that employ people overseas rather than “creating American jobs”. These measures would have the almost immediate effect of driving companies and capital out of the US.
In the same “help the little guy” spirit, Obama proposes to raise capital gains tax, thus penalising those whose investment is desperately needed for market recovery. As my economist friends always tell me when I advocate tax cuts for the low-paid: it may seem a morally and politically attractive policy but it doesn’t do a damn thing for economic growth. The tiny amounts that the lower-paid receive in such wide-ranging cuts make little difference as a stimulus and if they are balanced by penalties on business and on the investing classes, they are worse than useless.
So what will happen? For what it is worth, I think it will be a close presidential race with the favourite, Obama, winning by a squeak (which is what happened in 1960 when the then favourite, John Kennedy, was the voice of the “future"). Whoever gets the White House, America will eventually return to being what it must be: the economic engine of the world and the greatest testimony to the power of human initiative in history. On both of those counts, it will once again be resented. But it will take a while longer to reach that point under Barack Obama.
on 11/03/2008 at 04:58 AM
Economics • Editorials • Politics • Republicans • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink
![[ Registered ]](/images/diarist.gif){kind=small}
