Monday - August 06, 2012

here we are still

Not so much a here we go again as a here we still are.

Months ago I mentioned this story.  There’s an illegal traveller site, as there always is, and they are ripping up some part of the green belt it is illegal to build on. Matters not at all to them of course.  Just one of many reasons so many Brits hate these folks but then, it just raaaaaacism.  Nothing to do with what they are and how they behave. Nah. It’s just race. Altho how a traveller is equated in that way is beyond me.

So anyway …. the weak powers that be ordered these vermin to vacate the land and as expected they went to court and things drag on and the weak powers that be say okay.  We’ll give you a year to move. But you’re out in the year 2013.  What a joke.

Meanwhile, a group of humans, (as opposed to travellers) who are residents of the village, took up a vigil round the clock to stop the vermin from bringing in more construction equipment and damaging any more of the green belt. As well they didn’t want to see the site expanded. 
In addition to the vigil they set themselves up to protest, which they’ve been doing.

Now being the wroooooong racial make up (Caucasion) and so not belonging to any particular favored racial or religious group, the protestors have been ordered to move.  Of course they have.  The illegals damaging land that is not supposed to be built on can get another grace period but the ppl who’ve been living in the area simply get the shaft.

Figures don’t it .

See for yourself.

End protest at travellers’ site or face jail, villagers told

Villagers who set up a protest camp after a group of travellers moved on to green belt land near their homes were last night facing threats of £20,000 fines or even jail unless they leave.

By Andrew Hough

More than 250 residents of Meriden, Warwickshire, have maintained a protest around the clock outside the illegal 10-acre site since May 2010. Despite council officials deciding to allow the travellers to remain until next year, they have threatened villagers with legal action unless they abandon their protest as it breaks local planning laws. 

(Erm, pardon me there fella but, the protesters aren’t ripping up your green English garden of 10 acres.  They are in fact trying to halt any further damage.)

“Instead they have gone for an option which will waste taxpayers’ money, even though we have stated that we will leave in March 2013 if the travellers keep to their agreement to go.

“We will not stop protesting until they go, even if that risks imprisonment.”

The travellers bought the land for £100,000 from a local businessman. They arrived at the site on April 30, 2010, one day before the May bank holiday, when Town Hall officials were powerless to stop them illegally developing the site.

Using bulldozers and heavy machinery, they tore up the green belt land on Green Eaves Lane to create what has been described as “a motorway services car park”. However, they were then unable to unload a further 1,800 tons of hardcore on to the site as locals formed a human blockade and have since been fighting to have the site closed

The travellers’ application for retrospective planning permission was refused by the local authority and a High Court judge refused their appeal against eviction in April. The council has since allowed them to stay until March.

However, officials have told the protesters to leave and issued them with an enforcement notice ordering them to remove a tarpaulin and caravan from their makeshift camp.

A council email was sent to the group after councillors this week voted in secret to prosecute locals who defy the enforcement notice. It states that legal action is being considered, with the maximum fine for breaching a planning enforcement order being £20,000.
Russ Thomas, 72 said he was “prepared to go to jail”. “It’s disgraceful the council can behave in such a manner,” he said.

Jean Greenfield, 80, a retired welfare officer said: “I wonder where our equal rights are? It’s not feasible at my age to go to prison.”
Nikki Sinclaire, an MEP who is supporting the residents, said the council had got it wrong. “Solihull council should use their own judgment to dismiss the thought of action against this temporary presence,” she said.

Ken Meeson, the leader of the council, refused to rule out taking legal action against the protesters.
He added: “We are currently awaiting legal advice on this matter and therefore cannot comment further.”

Neither the villagers nor the travellers have planning permission for their camps.

Last night the Residents Against Inappropriate Development (Raid) criticised Solihull council and said they would not leave before the travellers.

“The council could have given us the same extra time deal as they gave to the travellers who don’t live at the site at night but are causing daytime harm to the green belt,” said David McGrath, the chairman of Raid.

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 08/06/2012 at 05:00 AM   
Filed Under: • Travelers/Gypsies/Squatters •  
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ppl who drive farraris are exempt from police authority.  Oh yeah? think so?

While Drew is busy waving the middle finger under YT’s nose, I thought it might be fitting if I came in on a different corp. ruling, which has to do with censorship based on the number of complaints received in the comments section.

I’ve had this before once or 2wice and it always frustrates because, they never tell you how many complaints they received.

Here. Take a look.

Hello jd peiper,

We have received a number of complaints about the comment you made on article “Watch moment Ferrari driver runs over police officer’s foot after refusing to accept parking fine “ (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2183982/Watch-moment-Ferrari-driver-runs-police-officers-foot-refusing-accept-parking-fine.html), 05/08/2012 at 05:51

Due to the number of complaints received, your comment has been removed from MailOnline.

You guys must have seen the video I’m sure. I mean after all, a NY city cop tried to ticket someone who thought his expensive Ferrari was a get out of jail pass. It may have been an accident that he ran over the officers’s foot. Never mind, you do not drive away from a cop and the video showed all of it.  The guy walking to his car as the officer was writing a parking ticket, he gets into car, starts it and tries to drive away.

So ... in the comments section I wrote.

I wish that cop had broken every bone in that guy’s face.
jd peiper

That’s it. That’s all I said.
But apparently there are enough bleeding heart hand wringers out there to get the comment taken away. Oh to whack them.

OK, see the guy in the purple shirt? He’s the perp. Now watch the video if you haven’t already seen it.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2183982/Watch-moment-Ferrari-driver-runs-police-officers-foot-refusing-accept-parking-fine.html

This is his girl friend. I just thought I’d add her here for the visual altho she isn’t guilty of anything except bad taste.

Posted by peiper     on 08/06/2012 at 03:33 AM   
Filed Under: • USA •  
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   Sunday - August 05, 2012

I don’t know where to begin

Sometimes I find things online that I disagree with so damn much it’s staggering. I sit in front of the PC shaking my head, going “huh??” and wondering just what planet these people live on ... and then it hits me that there’s only one answer to that question, which makes me sad because it shows just how far apart some of the sides are ... and never the twains shall meet.

the “point” which labors under a false assumption:

As women have moved into traditionally male spaces, the argument goes, men have begun to feel unneeded, redundant, disposable. Rather than adapt, many guys are disappearing into the online worlds of porn and gaming where they can, at least for a while, feel powerful once more. If we want men to “show up” again, the ladies need to go back to feigning helplessness –- or so the conservative argument goes.

the “counter-point” comment which did NOT start a rational and reasoned discussion:

This article shows how stunted the male voice in gender studies really is. Can we imagine an article that stated there was a nation-wide organization to teach women to give amazing hand-jobs, hand-jobs that made men come for 15 minutes . . . and that this was the way for women to be socially empowered, happy, confident and successful?

Framing men’s empowerment in terms of pleasing women is equally as erroneous as framing women’s empowerment in terms of how to please men.

The article, at the web site Jezebel, which has long had the power to annoy me: How a Woman’s Orgasm Can Save a Man ... because, now that women have nearly achieved full equality, men can only find some sort of self-worth by being (literally) digital vibrators.

Oy vey. At least there’s a link to a pretty decent country video

On the third hand, this is the same Cosmopolitan Magazine kind of web page blog that tells me in no uncertain terms that to be human is to be their kind of feminist, or else: “If you are not a feminist ... then you are a bad person. Those are the only options. It also puts me in my place for being critical of gold medal winning Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas because of her hair??? I wasn’t aware that there was any such issue, and I find it difficult to accept. It’s the Olympics. I’ve seen some godawful hairstyles on nearly every athlete. Who cares? I’m proud of Miss Douglas for her achievement, but if someone asked me to comment on her appearance her choice of hairstyle worn during competition would be about the last thing I’d notice.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/05/2012 at 10:19 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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just for laffs

I happen to see this and thought, that’s funny. I don’t think this was what they had in mind.

Posted by peiper     on 08/05/2012 at 09:52 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
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Romney scores no points on trip.

I’m not sure if Americans are getting news of, or are even interested in the recent artificial bru-haha created overseas during speeches and Q & A sessions with Mitt Romney.  Below is just one of the usual swipes taken by Martin Samuel, who delights in finding fault with things American on the political front.  Now that’s my take mind ya and I could just be a bit thin skinned on the subject of things American.

So the first thing that happened was, Romney was asked a question and he answered it based on all the news that the Brits themselves were putting forward.  What else was he supposed to base his answer on?  And .... btw .... he didn’t come into the Brit house as a guest and be all critical about the house curtains, as suggested by CNN’s Brit mouthpiece, Piers Morgan. 

For some few weeks before the Olympics, there was GREAT concern about security. Seems the company that was contracted to provide the bodies at just about the last minute, suddenly announced that they were unable to provide the trained personal needed. In fact dear reader, it turned out that they were, SEVERAL THOUSAND SHORT! Sooooooo, the powers that be here filled the shortage with, the Army.  Many returning from a war zone and leaves cancelled etc.  There were a few other problems reported on.  Also, before Romney’s visit there was threat of a couple of strikes by unions the day before the games began.  So you can see where people would worry or at least show some concern about the London Olympics.  And naturally, the newspapers weren’t shy and didn’t avoid loud headlines.  Especially were the issue of security was concerned.

Enter Mitt Romney on the heels of all of this.  He was asked his view about the games which, keep in mind had not yet begun. And so he said,
It’s too soon to tell and went on to explain all of the above that he’d read or had heard.
Wellllllll boys and girls.  The poo hit the proverbial thingy that goes round and round and came out having Romney sticking his nose in Brit business and commenting on things best left not commented on and as described by Morgan, came into their house as a guest and was critical of the curtains.
All of it rubbish. 

Mitt’s a disaster — except in the U.S.
By Martin Samuel
Daily Mail

Mitt Romney certainly is a U.S. presidential candidate who could unite the world. Everybody hates him.

This last week, Romney has been crossing continents and boundaries, bringing people together with their shared belief that he is a complete doofus.

Britons, Russians, Palestinians, Slovakians, Chinese, Polish union leaders, somehow Romney has alienated them all — yet back home his popularity has risen to the extent he is tied in the polls with Barack Obama.

Further evidence, if any were needed, that America is the most foreign country of all.

The trip got off on the wrong foot immediately after Romney questioned whether London could pull off holding the Olympics.

Romney, who managed the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002, faced an angry British public and press, putting Cameron on the defensive.

“We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world. Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere,” the prime minister fired back.

The cheeky British press had a field day with Romney, basically labelling him an “American Mr. Bean.” It was a far cry from the hero’s welcome Barack Obama received in Europe during his 2008 campaign.

SOURCE, NATL. POST

Now then, the remark made by the PM, Dave Cameron, was a reference to the games held in Utah and provoked a reply from the mayor of Salt Lake City.

Salt Lake City’s mayor on Thursday extended a tongue-in-cheek invitation to host British Prime Minister David Cameron, offering him a map to show him where the “middle of nowhere” is.

“While those of us who have had the fortune of visiting London know it is certainly a wonderful city, Prime Minister Cameron’s comments likely reflect his lack of familiarity with Salt Lake City,” he said through his spokesman Art Raymond.

“He can stop by, any time — we’d love to have him and happy to send a map so he doesn’t run into any trouble locating the middle of nowhere,” he said in a statement.

The taunt was the latest salvo in a heated transatlantic exchange over the Olympics.

It all started when US presidential hopeful Mitt Romney made some ill-advised remarks about London’s Olympic preparations after arriving in Britain on the first-stop of an international tour designed to showcase his diplomatic skills.

Within hours of landing, NBC television broadcast an interview in which Romney, a Republican, said it was “hard to know just how well” the Olympics would turn out and said there were “a few things that were disconcerting.”

The British press poured scorn on Romney’s comments.

“A few things that were disconcerting”
So that’s all it takes to bring the house down.  But hey, when one is desperate to find fault with a Republican candidate, one takes whatever one can grab at.  Bad American Romney.

Then Mitt flew on to Israel where he spoke in support of the Israeli state and had some words about, oh right. You can read.
Here. Take a look.

It was Romney’s comments in the Middle East that drew the most serious rebuke, however.

On Sunday, he seemingly set aside decades of U.S. foreign policy by calling Jerusalem Israel’s capital and also had an aide say he would “respect” Israel unilaterally striking against Iran.

On Monday, Romney was forced on the defensive after he told a group of wealthy Jewish donors at a breakfast in Jerusalem that their culture was one of the reasons Israelis were more economically successful than Palestinians.

“And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things,” Romney said citing an innovative business climate, the Jewish history of thriving in difficult circumstances and the “hand of providence.”

SOURCE, NATL. POST

The wire services were full of this meanwhile.

Mitt Romney creates fresh divisions on Israel tour with ‘racist’ economic remarks.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has been accused of undermining the Middle East peace process and making “racist” statements during his trip to Israel after telling wealthy Jewish donors that their culture is part of the reason Israelis are more economically successful than nearby Palestinians.

How is it “raaaaaaacist” to point out the obvious truth of a situation?  How far along have the richer Arab countries come with all that oil money?
Sure, they’re better off then the Palestinians.  But as a people, they so far have not matched the Jewish culture in human achievements.
What’s so racist about that?

Posted by peiper     on 08/05/2012 at 08:31 AM   
Filed Under: • Politically-Incorrect • Politics • Republicans •  
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   Friday - August 03, 2012

Red Reds

One thing I love about the .ru domain is that so many of the sites out there are home to some seriously massive photographs. Awesome content, and skill, plus often 12MP and larger. Loads and loads of unknown photographers, models, scenes, you name it. Makes Tumblr look like an amateur’s page. Come on, look at the quality woodwork on this headboard. You just don’t see that level of perfection down at your local Ethan Allen store.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/03/2012 at 11:39 PM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •  
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The Best Part Of the Olympics you’re Not Seeing

Are you watching the fencing?

Probably not.

It’s hard to watch on TV. The blades move faster than the TV camera can follow them and the judges speak in French.

It’s hard to understand the rules, of which there are many, and quite a few of them are really hard to understand even if you are a fencer yourself.

You won’t see gigantic muscular people performing superhuman feats of strength and endurance. You won’t see microscopic people twisting turning and spinning as they go flying through the air. You won’t see much of anything really, but what you see will be in a brightly lit and colorful environment, like watching some kind of sporting event held at the local dance club.

And the announcers can explain it all to you, and it still won’t make much sense.

But there has been incredible drama on the fencing strip at this Olympics.

• Bad judging cost South Korea’s Shin A-Lam her shot at the gold and silver medals. The referee kept resetting the time clock to a second even though in any normal circumstance this next picture is that of a victory:
  

  The fastest human eyeblink is around 125ms. The fastest reaction time to an external stimulus is about twice that: 250ms or a quarter second. In the fencing sport of epee, a hit has to last at least 10ms to be valid, but if the other fencer lands a hit within 40ms of that hit, then both hits are valid. Epee models the duel, and in a duel it is certainly possible for both swordsmen to get wounded. But to keep it fair, once the time between my hit and your hit is more than half the blink of an eye, then it is no longer a double hit and I’ll get the point if I hit you before you hit me. But even though the rules allow for double hits, no match can end in a tie, so unless there is priority the last double hits are thrown out. Priority??? Yes. An odd rule put in so that no match ends in a tie when the clock runs out. A halt is called when only 1 minute remains on the clock, and a coin is tossed. The winner is given priority, which means that IF the match score is tied AND that tie score is less than the number of points the match is being played to (usually 5 or 15, but sometimes only 1) AND the clock runs out, THEN the person with priority is declared to be the winner. Although I think that for the Olympics, what they do is add some extra seconds but they keep the priority. So you get 30 seconds of overtime, try and score as much as you can, and THEN if the clock runs out without a single winning touch then the priority person wins. It is a bit confusing.

  But that is not what happened here. The ref (aka the President) kept throwing out the final double touch and resetting the clock to 1 second. Unlike swimming or any of the racing sports, fencing doesn’t use a partial second clock. No tenths or hundredths of a second, even though the computer powered scoring equipment is accurate down to the nanosecond level. So. It takes a quarter second to respond to the Go! command ("Allez!"), it takes some small by measurable amount of time for one fencer to get close enough to strike at the other fencer (6 feet at 30mph is 150ms), and it takes at least 10ms for a single, and probably 30ms for a double hit to occur. So between the Allez! and the Halt! is 250+150+30=430 ... almost a half second, if not more. So by the 2nd double the clock should have run down. But the President is all powerful, and he reset the clock. Bad. And the winner lost. And I guess no one explained it to her in her native tongue, because she could have just retreated 3 steps and let the clock run out.

  And there were tears. Lots. And there was an instant and prolonged protest, which left Shin standing on the piste in front of a crowd of thousands, because if she left the strip then she’d be quitting the bout and her protest would be invalid. And they left her there for an hour. On international TV. Crying. And nobody else could fence either.

  Nice work scumbags.

  And while her protest was ineffective - not because her claim was invalid, but because the bout President is effectively all powerful, the international fencing federation (the FIE) came back a day later and offered her a good sportsmanship medal. Which is pretty much them admitting that they messed up, and that it was their poor judging that threw the match - she politely told them to go fuck themselves. In Korean of course, which is a language the FIE doesn’t use, so all they heard was No.

  The spineless dogs of the FIE (mostly Frenchmen) even tried to blame the whole thing on a 15 year old English kid who was volunteering as timekeeper, but let’s face it: the IOC may be in charge but it’s the FIE running the show, and they’re only an hour by Chunnel from their home grounds. They could have, and should have, provided their own professional timekeeper, one with loads of training and experience, and lightning fast reflexes and hearing. This is the Olympics after all, where fencing is pretty much the only sport that has ALWAYS been part of the games no matter what; you send your very best people, period.

  So that’s one bit of drama.

  UPDATE: I’m still a little connected to the fencing community. Here’s a link I got from some insiders that explains the situation clearly. And it turns out to be twice as bad as I originally thought. This was a really terrible fiasco. And perhaps NOT for Shin, as the claim in the comments that she was crowding (stealing yardage) would be very easy to prove if you had a video of the bout. Piss poor judging to allow that to happen, but piss poor judging on so many other aspects of the bout it will become a “how not to” instructional video in the future. Crivens, what a mess.
  

• A nice bit of Cool Factor. While the swimmers and gymnasts and weightlifters all have their nice little patriotic warmup jackets, the fencers have taken the patriotism to an extreme, with their hi-tech graphics. Awesome!!
  

  If you tuned in to fencing early Saturday morning—and you should, because it’s awesome—you caught a glimpse of the early leader in best uniforms. As modeled by American Nicole Ross, the already menacing fencing masks took on a layer of patriotism with the addition of the American flag. The whole goal of the Olympics is to get your flag raised.

  The Brits have done this too. Expect the rest of the world to follow suit soon. Want more hi tech gee-whiz-ardry? The foil bib is now half electric, connected to the electrically conductive torso cover called a lame (la may) by a clip and a wire. Nice, but it’s the wireless transceiver on the helmets that really rocks. Hit your opponent with the proper part of your weapon for the proper amount of time and in the proper place, and your helmet lights up in red or green. Say what? No more dragging a skinny wire up and down the piste, trying not to trip on it, praying that the body cord connection doesn’t fail, and hoping that nothing goes wrong with the reels this time ... fencing has gone wireless. Which is so cool ... but opens a whole new can of worms for the cheaters and hackers who might mess with the radio signals.
  

• More drama, or just more stupid?

  US Epee Fencer takes a gamble, loses everything. TWICE.
  

  

  With 20 seconds left in priority time (overtime) of the bronze medal match, Jinsun Jung of Korea had to be the aggressor. Had the bout ended in a tie in points, Kelsey would have captured bronze with “priority” in the extra session. Jung lunged with his epee and nicked Kesley on the foot — falling on his back in celebration, before running to hug his coaches after the bronze-clinching 12-11 win.

  “He hit my foot by, like a quarter of an inch,” said Kelsey, rolling his eyes as he moved his fingers closely to signify the lack of distance. The reason Kelsey faced Jung for third place was because he lost in the semifinals to Ruben Limardo Gascon of Venezuela — again in priority time, and completely by Kelsey’s choice.

  He was in good spirits after the fourth-place finish, which felt odd for a man who gambled twice and lost. Does he play poker? “Nope. Too poor,” he quipped.

  In the semifinal, Kelsey’s game plan involved trying to keep the score and the action to a minimum. At one point, both fencers were called for “passivity” as neither went on the attack.

  “I felt like Limardo was holding distance well, was making it incredibly difficult to attack. So take the passivity, maybe the pressure will build and he’ll crack.”

  Kelsey wanted the match to go to priority time, strategically. So he made a proposition to his foe. “I asked the guy if he wanted to go one-touch, and he said, ‘Yeah,’” he said. “I think I’m the only person in the world that does that.”

  In extra time, Kelsey had to be the aggressor. He lunged, missed, and Limardo counter-attacked for the win, 6-5.

  So Kelsey elected to do the one touch sudden death thing TWICE in overtime, and lost both times.

  “It’s fun. Olympic medal. All on one touch. It’s very exciting,” said Kelsey, whose fourth-place finish was one of the best in American history for the event.

  Which is all very honorable and sportsmanlike and so on, but puh-fuckin-leez. He could have had Silver at least just by taking the defense and being passive in both match’s overtimes. Getting into the final seed would mean either Silver or Gold. Losing the semi-final seed means he didn’t even get Bronze. Hooray for his sense of fun and adventure and all, now try and find someone who actually wants to WIN for the next Olympic team please.
  

• Oh, speaking of winners ... the guy who actually WON the Men’s Epee was Ruben Limardo Gascon of Venezuela. Venezuela’s first Gold Medal in 44 years. How prophetic. Gascon wins the dueling medal. Such perfection. How proper. Because everyone who doesn’t know jack about fencing will almost always make some Three Musketeers remark should the sport ever come up in conversation. And d’Artagnan was the Gascon.

  But it gets better than that. After his victory, a bemused Gascon left the competition venue, got on the public subway for the ride back to his hotel room, and showed all of London his medal and let them touch it if they wanted. And he didn’t even get mugged.

  A newly-crowned Olympic fencing champion proved he hasn’t let fame go his head when taking his medal home on the tube. Venezuela’s Ruben Limardo gave his fellow travellers a sight to remember when boarding the Jubilee line with his prize around his neck.

  

  A beaming Limardo posed for photos as he stood in the carriage on the London underground.

  The photo of the Venezuelan athlete who won gold in fencing Wednesday night and then boarded London’s subway system hours later, letting strangers touch his medal, has spread around the globe. At a time when the Olympic games are criticized for turning into a billion-dollar affair where athletes are treated as celebrities, Ruben Limardo’s simple decision to take public transport, instead of a chauffeured car, has received international praise.

  “What a fantastic thing to do! Must have given all the passengers a real treat,” wrote one reader of Yahoo News.
  “I hope they gave him a round of applause, he deserves it. Good stuff mate,” said another.
  “Wow can’t imagine Michael Phelps doing something like that, well done!”

  “I’ve never seen someone so happy in my life,” Chris Scanlan, told the BBC. “And I touched his medal. It’s probably the first time a British hand has been on a fencing medal for centuries!”

  
  Ouch! Yet so true!
• More dramas? Any number of the fencers expected to win didn’t. They didn’t even make the finals. American Mariel Zagunis, perhaps the only professional female saver fencer in the nation, was one of them. What the heck happened? She had it sewn up, and then just let it go.

  LONDON — Mariel Zagunis, the top-ranked U.S. fencer who captured individual sabre gold in 2004 and 2008, was stunned in the semifinals of the London Games by Jiyeon Kim of Korea, ending Zagunis’ quest for a three-peat.

  Zagunis then lost to Olga Kharlan of Ukraine in the bronze-medal bout, leaving the event without a medal for the first time.

  At one point, it looked like Zagunis would cruise to the finals. Zagunis held a 12-5 lead at one point in the match, but watched Kim erode it with spectacular counter-attacks as the American star aggressively tried to close out the match. Kim won 10 of the last 11 points to advance to the gold-medal match, while Zagunis would fence for bronze against Olga Kharlan of Ukraine.

  The match began with Zagunis, the U.S. flag-bearer at the Opening Ceremony, opening with three points in five seconds of the first round. Kim was overly aggressive. [Zagunis’ 3 touches were stop hits made against Kim’s attacks. Be aggressive but don’t leave yourself exposed!]

  But as the match progressed, it was Zagunis that forced the issue, with Kim exhibiting great defense, patience and picking apart the U.S. champion’s attacks. Kim let out a loud celebration at 15-13, as Zagunis’ run ended.

  LONDON, Aug 1 (Reuters) - In one night of fencing at the London Olympics a mighty champion stumbled from her perch, a nation found redemption in gold and two men went where none of their compatriots had gone before.

  The biggest fencing upset of the Games so far was a self-inflicted wound by women’s sabre fencer, flag-bearer, and gold medal favorite Mariel Zagunis, 27, of the United States. In a spectacular collapse Zagunis, who needed just three more touches, or points, to make it into the gold medal match, went from leading South Korea’s Kim Jiyeon 12-5 to losing 15-13. Her attempt to win a third straight individual gold medal was compounded by a loss in the bronze medal match, meaning the world number one came away empty handed.

• South Korea’s Kim Jiyeon went on to take the Gold in Women’s Sabre, perhaps making up a little for the defeat suffered by her countrywoman Shin in epee.
• Venezuela’s Ruben Limardo Gascon won the nation’s first gold in 44 years and their first fencing medal at a Games by beating Bartosz Piasecki of Norway 15-10 in the epee.
  ...
  The silver marked Norway’s first Olympic fencing medal and for Piasecki, a high school maths teacher who heads back to the classroom in two weeks, an unexpected prize.

  Piasecki was not even expected to medal, and had been ranked 47th or something lowly like that before the Olympics.

We now return you to your nightly focus on perky bottomed barely pubescent little micro-women in sparkly tights covered in chalk dust, followed by giants in the swimming pools, in their rowboats, and on the volleyball and basketball courts.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/03/2012 at 01:45 PM   
Filed Under: • Sports •  
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vertigo bests citizen kane?  the xperts have it wrong imho

I can not imagine this has not made some news back in the states. It must have.

I don’t usually bother about Hollywood and movie stuff but this is different and personal.

I really like the movie Citizen Kane.  A lot.  For the past 50 years it’s been voted the best movie ever.
Until now.

I have nothing against the movie that replaced Kane, Vertigo, except the critics got it wrong.

Vertigo good but nothing bests Citizen Kane. Nothing!

So here’s the story.

Hitchcock Film Vertigo Voted Best Of All Time

For the first time in half a century Orson Welles’ classic Citizen Kane is knocked off the top spot in a poll of critics.

Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo has been named the greatest film of all time in a prestigious poll, knocking Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane off the top spot for the first time in 50 years.

Almost 900 film critics, academics, distributors and programmers from around the globe took part in the once-in-a-decade survey held by the British Film Institute (BFI) Sight & Sound magazine.

Nick James, editor of Sight & Sound, said this year’s results reflect transformations in the culture of film criticism.

“The new cinephilia seems to be not so much about films that strive to be great art, such as Citizen Kane, and that use cinema’s entire arsenal of effects to make a grand statement, but more about works that have personal meaning to the critic,” he said.

“Vertigo is the ultimate critics’ film because it is a dreamlike film about people who are not sure who they are but who are busy reconstructing themselves and each other to fit a kind of cinema ideal of the ideal soulmate.”

Other classics that made the top 10 in the poll, which started in 1952, include Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story, which bagged the third spot, and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, the most recent film listed, which came sixth.

The list also featured three silent films, two of which - Man With A Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov and The Passion Of Joan Of Arc by Carl Theodor Dreyer - made the cut for the first time.

Vertigo, a 1958 psychological suspense drama about a detective with a phobia of heights, was largely overlooked by critics for most of Hitchcock’s career.

It first appeared in the Sight & Sound poll in the seventh spot in 1982 - two years after Hitchcock died.

The acclaimed British director, whose other works include Psycho and The Birds, is hailed as a master of filmmaking.

BFI said his rise in this year’s film poll is a testament to how his reputation has progressively increased over time.

A separate poll of 358 film directors including Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino and Francis Ford Coppola voted Tokyo Story the greatest film of all time ahead of Citizen Kane.

http://news.sky.com/story/967784/hitchcock-film-vertigo-voted-best-of-all-time

Tokyo Story?  Huh?
Any of you seen that one?

Some of my favorite movies were Swingtime in the Rockies and almost any Ginger Rogers/Fred Astaire movie. I actually have a list too long for here.
Not that I don’t have likes among the more modern.  How come we haven’t produced another team like the Marx Bros. or Abbott and Costello?
And while I can greatly appreciate the sexiness of some actresses, they aren’t glamorous anymore.  Name one that actually exudes glamour. 

Hey ... almost forgot.
I need to say thanks again but forgot who posted the book title that came today.

GUNS OF THE SOUTH arrived today. Have to finish one I am reading now and Guns is next. 
Cheers all.
I’m gone.

Posted by peiper     on 08/03/2012 at 11:22 AM   
Filed Under: • MOVIES •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

no polish jokes allowed or police will be called

H/T to New Jersey Yankee for posting this in comments.

One hell of a note innit?

The story originates in Ireland but change their names and it could be anywhere.  We have speech and thought police today on a par with almost
any 3rd world dictatorship.  Heaven forbid anyone says anything that does not, but could, offend the race relations industry.
And it only needs one person to gripe.

Oh well, I guess Polish jokes are now outta bounds like everything else that was cruel but funny. And sometimes not so cruel either.

Judge sorry for ‘welfare cash is Polish charity’

By Cormac Murphy

A COMPLAINT has been made to gardai after a judge has been accused of insulting Polish people.

Judge Mary Devins had suggested in court that social welfare was a “Polish charity”.

She has since apologised, saying the comment was directed a specific group of individuals involved in an “alcohol-fuelled incident”.

But Killian Forde, of the Dublin-based Integration Centre, described her original comment as “absolutely disgraceful” and said her apology was insufficient.

Racist

He told the Herald he was to make a complaint to the gardai (Police) under the racist reporting mechanism on the basis that the centre believes the remark was contrary to the Incitement to Hatred Act 1989.

Mr Forde said the complaint means officers will look into the incident, even if nothing comes of it.

“It’s the only way to do it. It’s the first time I imagine there has been a judge complained about,” the former city councillor added.

She made the social welfare remark while hearing a case in Castlebar, Co Mayo, against a trainee plumber who called an Irish security guard a “fat Polish f***er”. Enda Moylette, of Derrycoorane, Islandeady, Castlebar, had pleaded guilty when his case was heard several months previously by Judge Conal Gibbons.

Judge Gibbons had adjourned the matter to allow Mr Moylette to pay €1,000 to a Polish charity in lieu of a conviction and a fine.

When the case came before Judge Devins last Friday, the question arose over whether a Polish charity was in operating in Ireland.

“A Polish charity? There is. It’s called the social welfare,” the judge commented, according to reports in local newspapers.

It was suggested the Polish Chaplaincy in Ireland could be suitable but Judge Devins said she would prefer a local charity to benefit.

She added she had a difficulty in granting the payment and adjourned the matter.

source

well now, here is a link to another site, same story but a load of reader comments which are quite interesting.
There seems to be a host of ppl who’d be happy to see the judge ridden out of town on a rail. I didn’t expect to see that many folks agree with the politically correct position of the complaining do gooder.

another link with interesting comments

Posted by peiper     on 08/03/2012 at 10:12 AM   
Filed Under: • Politically Correct B.S. •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

point - click - delete!

A couple of brief posts.

Here we all are, by which I mean the western world, there is no longer anything new, and the powers that be are struggling mightily to either accommodate, placate, or appease members of a sub human culture.  And woe to anyone who is too critical of this protected species of insect, of which there is no shortage.  They are not on any endangered list, but I would not bet on that being so for white Western Christians or Jews.
We do not have the birth rates the other side has, that can sustain our numbers as things now are.  And then too, there are far too many woolly headed libtards in both those groups, and especially among the Jewish population.  Who know well who the enemy is yet large numbers still insist on behaving as though adopting black babies and working among the poorer folks in the muslim world, or supporting pro Pal movements, will somehow set them apart.  Perhaps they think they won’t be seen as Jews.  I really don’t know. It’s just something I feel. Too many are just not conservative enough and even those who are and hold many views as expressed here, still hold back because deep inside, like many Brits of the Christian faith, there is a deep streak of sincere liberalism they adhere to.  Perhaps it’s because of past history and not just the last war alone.

I may not be any more civilized then the enemy is, but let me tell ya. Being civilized is not the answer to the fight western civilization has on it’s hands now.  We can no longer send a great white fleet around the world, neither us or the Brits, and shake a stick at people we want to behave.
The enemy has numbers higher then I can count on my hands.  As technology evolves they will become smarter and will adapt. The west will not be sitting still of course, intel agencies will track everything they are aware of.  Over time, of which I think we have less and less, there could be a stalemate of sorts.  While we still have the ability and the military and if will can be found somewhere, we should be nuking the vermin out of existence.  Our bombs should fall like heavy rain.  Hamburg and Dresden and Hiroshima and the cities of the last war that sustained such damage should be visited on today’s enemies 100 fold.  We could make those attacks look like the set for a doll house.  Left wing “activists” should be rounded up and deleted. 

Being civilized won’t save the west.  It will hasten its end.

France - Muslims Hijack and Set Fire to Bus to Protest Against Robber’s Arrest

H/T islam versus Europe

Last night, tensions mounted in the Pablo-Picasso district of Nanterre, a “Sensitive Urban Zone”, following the arrest of a 36-year-old man for aggravated theft.

To show their indignation about the enforcement of the law in what they presumably expected to be a lawless, no-go area, the “youths” stopped a bus, ordered the driver and passengers to leave, spread flammable liquid over it then set it on fire.

In other news worth the mention but no surprises here;

A judge has jailed a refugee who repaid Britain’s kindness (and weakness) by joining a riot mob. He’s an Afghan refugee who took part in last years riots and has been locked up for 10 months.

The turd’s name is Amar Khan who is 20. He came here illegally to begin with, with no documents or passport, but was nevertheless granted temporary permission to stay.  Nice of the Brits, who never seem to tire of taking in and mothering the very scum who will undermine them.

He joined a looting mob and was filmed putting his hand through a broken jewellery store window.

The judge recommended his deportation on release.
Be interesting to see if that ever happens.
He’ll probably find a civil rights lawyer who specializes in outrages against muslims and while waiting for that to conclude will no doubt be cared for by the few who are paying taxes.

Problems like this could be solved much faster by shooting illegals as soon as discovered.  Just like you’d do any insect you find in your home. You eliminate them on sight.  You do not invite them in to build a nest where they will immediately breed more of their own kind.

Posted by peiper     on 08/03/2012 at 08:52 AM   
Filed Under: • Illegal-Aliens and Immigration • muslims •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

clean living? dependable and smart. she might kill someone but hey, she’s clean living.

clean-living, dependable and smart

Sure thing and someday as a clean living and smart woman, she’ll most likely kill someone.  What can you say about a nut case like this?

Just shows ya doesn’t it, that some people smart as they may be just don’t care. And somewhere down the line some innocent will pay the price of a dad’s love and over indulgence.  I pity the poor slob who this girl marries. I can’t imagine what sort of hell that might turn out to be.
Stuff of books.

Stratford woman jailed for driving over foot of paramedic on 999 call

by Hayley Draper, Coventry Telegraph

A PARAMEDIC answering a 999 call was injured when a young woman drove over his foot – when he got out to speak to her after she had run into the back of his ambulance.

And a judge expressed disbelief when he heard Terri O’Brien had been bought her powerful ($46,754.00) Audi TT by her father, days after she got her licence back after a ban for dangerous driving.

In a previous driving offence, she deliberately ran a car into a group of young woman.

She was still subject to a suspended prison sentence for that when she injured the paramedic.

The 21-year-old, from Maidenhead Road, Stratford, had denied dangerous driving, but changed her plea to guilty on the day of her trial at Warwick Crown Court.
She was jailed for 24 weeks, consecutive to 38 weeks of the suspended sentence which she also has to serve, banned for three years and ordered to pay £1,450 costs.

Prosecutor Samantha Forsyth said that paramedic Bobby Qayum was responding to a 999 call involving an eight-day-old baby.
As he drove along the Solihull by-pass with his blue lights on, O’Brien refused to let him past, so he was forced onto the wrong side of the road to overtake.

She began to ‘tailgate’ the ambulance, driving into the back of it when Mr Qayum had to brake suddenly.

“Mr Qayum got out and stood in front of her vehicle, but she drove off, driving over his left foot as she did so,” said Miss Forsyth.

A member of the public noted her lic. plate and reported it to the police.

The injury has left him with the loss of sensation in two of his toes.

When O’Brien was traced by the police she denied knowing where the Audi was.

In August 2009 she had been given a suspended prison sentence and banned from driving for 12 months for an earlier offence of dangerous driving in which she had deliberately driven at three other young women outside a Solihull bar.

She had only passed her extended driving test to get her licence back 19 days before the incident with the ambulance.

Lee Marklew, defending, said: “She is, in all other respects of her life, clean-living, dependable and smart.

“Her father, who is now beside himself, bought her the high-performance Audi to cheer her up, given her previous difficulties.”
But Judge Marten Coates told her: “In 2010, you deliberately drove a car at three girls, causing thankfully only minor injury.
“You were very fortunate to have received a suspended sentence, but you were again driving dangerously within days of passing your extended driving test.

“I cannot begin to imagine what message your father was giving in buying you that car. It is quite clear you have learned nothing.”

Posted by peiper     on 08/03/2012 at 06:17 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Judges-Courts-Lawyers •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Thursday - August 02, 2012

One Week In Or Another

Depending on how I look at it, I’ve made it through either my first or second week of quitting smoking.

I stopped around the 18th of July, and wore those nicotine patches for several days. But when I went to visit my mother for a few days on the 22nd, she who smokes like the proverbial chimney, I did a little backsliding. Over the course of a 3 day visit I think I smoked about 8 of her horrible Kent III cardboard cigarettes. They’re the super low tar kind, probably because there is next to no tobacco in them at all, and I swear they’re made from recycled newsprint soaked in tobacco juice then oven cured. That’s when I realized that the patches didn’t do much of anything. At best they helped me start breaking the smoking cycle and the finger habits. Well, maybe not even that, as I quickly found myself “smoking” a pen cap while I drove, manipulating a bit of carrot between my fingers, and finally just holding onto, smelling, breathing through, and chewing on, an unlit cigar. And that’s what it really took to get me past the urges.

So it’s been 14-16 days since I first made any kind of effort, but it’s now been 9 days since I’ve actually put anything in my face and set a match to it.

What they say about time dilation is absolutely correct. This past 2 weeks has lasted about 2 months. It’s not like the hours or minutes have dragged slowly by, but it’s as if the days have an extra 5 or 6 hours in them. And perhaps that’s a good thing! I’m getting up earlier, I’m sleeping better, I’m out for a 1+ mile walk every morning when it isn’t steaming hot or raining, and I’m doing my best not to binge eat.  My lungs and sinuses feel better, but 40 years worth of damage isn’t going away overnight. Or ever perhaps. But the constant phlegm level is down quite a bit. My sense of smell isn’t much better yet, though I know I want to get a new pillow. I’m having less in the way of night sweats too. Sense of taste? Hard to say. In flux I think. I’ll have to be patient there.

The urges come and go. Yesterday I was able to avoid my cigar binky ( a nice old El Rey Del Mundo fatty ) for most of the day. This morning I grabbed it before I was even out of bed. But I’m on my second coffee now, and I’ve got breakfast heating up downstairs, and the binky is already off to the side. So it’s still a One Day At A Time thing, but the urges now come whenever they feel like it. The good thing is that I can get past them pretty easily, and when I can’t, I have my tobacco chew toy. One day at a time; one hour at a time if necessary. But it is starting to get easier. The first 4 truly nicotine free days were the hardest, mostly because I couldn’t think of anything else. The urges tapered off a little in frequency and intensity after that, and I’m more able to think about other things. Like breakfast! Must get to the kitchen, I think I’m scorching something!

Posted by Drew458     on 08/02/2012 at 06:21 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
• Comments (10) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Wednesday - August 01, 2012

squatters in littleton, co, usa?  take a look at this bit of frustrating insanity.

I never actually thought this would be possible in the United States of America. NEVER!

In fact, I used to tell my friends here that it could not happen especially as many Americans are armed. So who’d be foolish enough to try this on?
In this case, the squatters claim they bought the house and indeed they may have. From a con man who is in jail and has sold houses like this before.

I read this hardly able to contain my temper.  I’m [pretty certain that were I home in the USA and this happened, I’d resort to the most extreme violence.  Fuck the law and what the legal bullshitters say and Fuck the lawyers who take their case. I’d try and kill them too. After all, at the age of 75, what would I have to lose. My runway is pretty short anyway at a guess.  Besides, a good lawyer would argue diminished responsibility.

So instead of me going into the whole thing, I’ll just let you read it all.

Un-F****n believable!

Squatters in Littleton, Colo., Couple’s Home Refuse to Vacate Despite Judge’s Ruling

Despite a judge’s ruling that a pair of squatters vacate a Colorado couple’s home in two days, two weeks later they are still there, forcing the home’s owners to stay put in a relative’s basement.

Troy and Dayna Donovan (pictured above) had spent a few months away from their home in Littleton, Colo., and when they returned late last year they found another couple, who claimed that they bought the house, living there.

Veronica Fernandez-Beleta and her husband, Jose Rafael Levya-Caraveo (pictured in the yellow shirt at right), said that a man named Alfonso Carillo offered them a deed of adverse possession—which purportedly allowed them, for $5,000, to take over the Donovans’ house as abandoned property.

Earlier this month, the Donovans won an eight-month legal battle against the two in their home, and a judge ordered Fernandez-Beleta and Levya-Caraveo to vacate in two days.

But that wasn’t the end of the story.

As CBS Denver reported, Fernandez-Beleta and Levya-Caraveo have filed a “flurry of legal paperwork,” and are still living in the home on Mabre Court (pictured below). First, the two took the Donovans to court after the Donovans walked into the house through an unlocked door. The home occupants said that they were afraid for their safety and they were granted a restraining order, keeping the Donovans away from their own home.

Then, Fernandez-Beleta filed for bankruptcy, canceling the entire eviction process just hours before sheriffs were scheduled to remove them from the property.

“The Sheriff’s Office will not proceed with an eviction if there is a bankruptcy in question,” Arapahoe County Undersheriff David Walcher told the TV station.

This means that a Federal Bankruptcy Court will have to determine ownership of the house, which could take months, CBS Denver said.

But the Donovans aren’t the only victims in this case. Fernandez-Beleta and Levya-Caraveo seemingly were conned by Carillo, a real estate agent whose license was revoked. Carillo has already been arrested twice in similar cases. In Colorado, a property can only be claimed through adverse possession if it is vacant for 18 years; the Donovans were only gone for six months.

“You’re going to lose your money, and you’re going to lose the house eventually,” criminal investigator Daniel Chun told Fernandez-Beleta and Levya-Caraveo.

When asked why they haven’t left the home yet, Fernandez-Beleta and Levya-Caraveo’s daughter, Caren, told OurLittletonNews.com: “We were going to leave on Thursday [July 19th], but then the reporters came yelling, so we went back inside and decided to stay.”

She said her family is unsure of what to do, and they can’t afford to move.

The Donovans are still living in a relative’s basement with their two children, possibly for the next several months, as this ordeal continues.

SOURCE FOR SQUATTERS IN LITTLETON, CO., USA

Posted by peiper     on 08/01/2012 at 10:30 AM   
Filed Under: • Judges-Courts-Lawyers •  
• Comments (7) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Swampy

It rained like Gosh Almighty around 5am here. Woke me up, and I usually sleep like a log.

Sun is out now, a little, and it’s not hot out, or even all that warm. About 70°F. But the humidity is right up there near the saturation point, 90% or thereabouts. Which means it’s another typical New Jersey super sticky summer day in the making. You feel uncomfortable even when it’s cool, because you can’t evaporate any moisture and there’s never any air movement.

I went and looked up that Heat Index thing this morning. It doesn’t even apply unless it’s 80 out or hotter! That sucks.  But a bit more looking about lead me to some info about the dew point that seems to be usable. Whenever the dew point is getting close to 70°F, or higher, it feels swampy. And I don’t like swampy. Currently our dew point is 68°F. That’s high enough in my opinion.

Another way to measure how hot it feels outside is to use the dew point temperature. The dew point temperature is an indicator of the absolute humidity — if the temperature drops to the dew point temperature, water vapor condenses to dew. No matter what the actual outside temperature is, most people begin to feel uncomfortable when the dew point approaches 70 degrees, and dew points above 70 degrees are oppressive.

What this chart really shows is that it’s got to be fairly dry to be comfortable when the weather gets hot. Somewhere there ought to be the winter version but I’m not sure how that one would work. High humidity and cold temps will cut right through your warm clothes, chilling you to the bone. I’ve noticed that blue jeans are especially sensitive to this. The weather folks always give us Wind Chill, but what we need just as much is something that deals with the moisture levels. 

Posted by Drew458     on 08/01/2012 at 07:45 AM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather •  
• Comments (0) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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