Sunday - August 04, 2013

The Laugh Graph

“Normally the high Arctic has about 90 days above freezing. This year there was less than half that,” says Steven Goddard website.

A graph of the Arctic ice area shows that there is more ice - new, old, thick, thin: it’s still ice - up at the top of the world than has been there in 6 years.

I wonder if this has anything to do with the sun being so quiescent?

Meanwhile, at the other end of the Big Blue Marble ... Antarctic sea ice is growing like mad, breaking all kinds of records. Golly, it’s like a little Ice Age is headed our way!

Antarctic sea ice extent at the end of July was the highest on record for that day, growing to 18.077 million sq km. The previous record of 17.783 was set in 2010, whilst the 1981-2010 average was 16.869.

Ice extent has been above average all year, and, according to NSIDC, is outside the 2 Standard Deviation range now. [statistics freaks understand that this means the growth is really significant]

Sea ice area also continues to run at well above average.

Remember, it’s the middle of winter way down under, so this is probably about the peak of the sea ice season.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/04/2013 at 08:36 AM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather •  
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We Lost Their World

The terror threat prompting the U.S. government to close nearly two dozen embassies and consulates Sunday is the most specific, credible threat information in years, CBS News senior correspondent John Miller reports.

Intelligence officers have reporting from a reliable source that a major plot is under way and that the team to carry it out has been selected and is in place, Miller reports.

The threat information has been described as the most specific and credible since the foiled plot to blow up British planes en route to the United States in 2006, Miller reports. The specificity ends there.

What authorities don’t have is the date, the timing or the target of the attack, which is why they have taken such an approach to warning potential targets, Miller reports.

The threat has prompted the U.S. to issue a global travel alert to all Americans for the first time since the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

White House officials said President Obama was briefed Saturday morning on the potential terrorist threat before departing for Camp David, CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues reports.

Even the embassies in Iraq and Afghanistan are closing. Gosh, and I thought we’d rescued one of those countries and had armies in the other one. But hey, let’s run away anyway.

Right. So there is a plot afoot to blow up one or more embassies. But we don’t know when. So better to cut and run now, just in case the plan was for something soon. And when those embassies remain closed for months? Or when the empty buildings get torched? What then, Mr. pResident?


Update: Just for gits and shiggles, I moused over to CNN to see what they had on this sordid tale. And found them hard at work, still perpetuating the Benghazi lie, nearly a year later. Horry Clap.

As a result, an unprecedented 21 embassies and consulates in 17 countries in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia will close on Sunday.

Sunday is also the 27th day of Ramadan and a particularly holy day for the world’s Muslims as it is the “Night of Power,” when the first verses of the Koran were revealed to the Prophet Mohammed.

It is also seen by al Qaeda’s would-be martyrs as a particularly auspicious day to die.
...
Another possible factor in the timing of the al Qaeda alert is that in the past two weeks, massive jailbreaks in Iraq and Libya have released more than a thousand prisoners, some with significant ties to al Qaeda. Very few of those inmates have been recaptured.

Jailbreak in Iraq? Again? Funny, I must have missed this story on the news ... and a Google net and news search doesn’t turn up anything from Big US Media, but hits on a couple stories in the EU press. Guess we weren’t supposed to know about it?

PARIS: Interpol issued a global security alert on Saturday advising its members to increase their vigilance against attacks after a series of prison breaks in Iraq, Libya and Pakistan that the agency is investigating to determine if they were linked.

The Lyon, France-based Interpol said given that al-Qaeda was suspected to be involved in some of the incidents of jailbreak in nine countries, including Pakistan, it was asking its 190 member countries to watch out for information connected to the prison breaks, with an aim to determine whether they were coordinated and also locate the escaped prisoners.
...
Britain said it would close its embassy in Yemen today (Sunday) and tomorrow (Monday).

“We are particularly concerned about the security situation in the final days of Ramazan and into Eid,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.

France also plans to close its embassy in Yemen today (Sunday), a spokesman for the foreign ministry said.

Prison breaks took place in Pakistan on July 31 in a Taliban-led operation, and in Iraq at the Abu Ghraib prison overnight on July 22. Some 500 convicts, among them senior al-Qaeda operatives, escaped from Abu Ghraib.

More than 1,100 inmates broke out of a prison on the outskirts of Benghazi on July 27. Interpol also noted that August was the anniversary of several violent attacks over the past years, including in Mumbai and Nairobi.

I’ll say it again ... you can’t keep these guys in local prisons. Ship them off to remote chilly islands in the far deep south Indian Ocean, or just shoot them. How many times has this cycle gone around already? And now, it’s the IED festival at the end of Ramadan, when all the starving camel boys go crazy. Oops, I meant Eid, not IED. Big difference to them, same result to us.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/04/2013 at 08:15 AM   
Filed Under: • Middle-East • RoPMA •  
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   Saturday - August 03, 2013

message for mr. heffer of the mail. mind your own damn business, not ours.

I never thought I’d be so disappointed by someone that I liked and read and agreed with so much.

I never thought someone who I knew to be a conservative, ok, I’m further to the right but still, he is not a left winger. Anyway, I read this by Simon Heffer of the Mail today and if I had any hair left, I’d probably have pulled it out by now.

There’s almost nothing I hate so much a foreigners telling us what we should do to be liked, and especially I hate the criticism of Guantanamo.

That is our business, not theirs.

Now comes the trial and the sentencing of that faggot Manning.  He betrayed his country and the trust placed in him. Why is that so damn hard for these bleeding hearts to understand?  And why is it thier business anyway?

I’ll be honest here.  My attitude re. sucking up to the world in an effort to be loved makes my blood boil.  Heffer speaks of our standing in the world. Oh yeah? Well if the frackin world doesn’t like what we do, declare war once and for all so we can clean the clock of America haters and the left.

He says we are unpopular across the globe due to Iraq war and Guantanamo Bay.  What planet is Heffer on?  We are ALWAYS unpopular.  We have a few friends, a few.  Mostly we have business arrangements and partners and security agreements with people.  We haven’t too many friends.

I wonder how unpopular we are where send billions of dollars to buy friends?  We’ve gotta be popular with whoever pockets the cash.

Oh btw .....  It has been discovered and reported today that there is some money missing in the sum of approx. £250,000 ( $382,175.00 ), from the comic relief Ugandan charity.  It was money donated by Brits to aid the starving and the kids yadda, yadda.  The Ugandans were given £450,000 of which about 250 is missing.
You don’t say.  Now that is hard to believe.  Does anyone believe that the money is missing or stolen. Nah.

Mr. Heffer Sir, With NO respect intended in any way, Get Bent. Take your damned opinion and shove it where the sun don’t shine. And get yourself on a diet while you’re at it.

By Simon Heffer
s.heffer@dailymail.co.uk

Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier convicted of espionage for supplying information about some of his country’s less creditable activities to WikiLeaks, faces up to 136 years in jail.

He is clearly guilty. But the severity of his sentence will profoundly affect America’s standing in the civilised world.

The U.S. is deeply unpopular across much of the globe as a result of the Iraq war and Guantanamo Bay. It is even viewed with suspicion by traditional allies.

An excessive prison term for Manning would make it look as barbaric as the countries it opposes in the cause of freedom.

Posted by peiper     on 08/03/2013 at 01:26 PM   
Filed Under: • Editorials • Politically Correct B.S. •  
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see the pix, read the story. believable?  have your say.

OK .... Take a look at this. Nice?  She’s 18 and has a complaint about airport security.

Now I could be wrong on this one but, seems to me she has the body for modeling and just isn’t telling us everything or else some of what she says is exaggerated.  Or, what better way to get noticed.

Airline made me strip out of my shorts at the check-in desk because staff thought they were too revealing, says law student, 18

Alix Townsend told take off her shorts in front of hundreds of passengers

Monarch claims shorts were ‘cut extremely high and the cheeks of her bottom were visible’

By NAZIA PARVEEN

Getting ready to jet off to Mallorca, Alix Townsend picked what she thought was the perfect outfit for a holiday in the sun.

Unfortunately, her short denim shorts did not pass muster with airport staff.

The 18-year-old says she was horrified to be told by a Monarch Airlines supervisor to take off her high-cut shorts in front of hundreds of passengers before checking in.

READ THE REST HERE AND SEE WHAT YOU THINK. IS THIS BELIEVABLE?

Posted by peiper     on 08/03/2013 at 12:51 PM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy • Sex •  
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best Nick Cage flick ever

We caught the semi- art-house film Captain Corelli’s Mandolin on TV last night. It’s a WWII love story starring Nicholas Cage and Penelope Cruz. Yeah, he does this cheesy Italian accent throughout. And the film’s story is a takeoff on a book written about a terrible wartime atrocity committed by the Nazis, wherein that atrocity (the execution of thousands of surrendered Italian soldiers on this little Greek island) is rather minimized. But the cinematography is beautiful, and in HD it’s stunning. It’s a film you love to watch, with a lightweight story that doesn’t get in the way too much. The music is good too. And even with the no-makeup, slightly grubby, wartime-poverty-on-some-forgotten-island look, Cruz looks great. It must suck so much to be that beautiful all the time. So it was a nice way to spend a couple hours. I think this was my third viewing of this 2001 film, which seems to be about the right frequency. Once every 4 or 5 years. Any more often than that and Cage’s stereotype dripping portrayal of an artillery captain more concerned about his men’s ability to sing opera than to fight the war they’re involved in, while drinking, dancing, and charming the panties off the gorgeous but lonely local girl, would loose the magic. And that little touch of magic is what makes this film such a standout. Beats the heck out of watching Die Hard XVIII for the millionth time.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/03/2013 at 12:26 PM   
Filed Under: • Hollywood •  
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UPDATE!  on dinner lady article ….  appease,appease,appease and for what?

This is an update to the dinner lady story of yesterday, and part of it came as a surprise.

Note to LyndonB.  I was mistaken. They apparently are not converts but muslims to begin with. Reads that way.

Yesterday I posted a story about a lady called a dinner lady.  These are folks who serve lunch for young kids at school. This story involved a woman who in error put ham on the plate of a 7 year old muslim girl.  She pointed at it when asked what she wanted and the dinner lady put it on her plate.
The head teacher spotted the error and immediately took the plate away from the child, and gave her something else.
But not being happy with that, she told the kid’s family what happened.  They in turn demanded that the school sack the dinner lady, which they did.
As LyndonB so aptly put it;

This sacking of the dinner lady is likely to cost them (ie us) dear as I bet she sues for unfair dismissal. Typical councils run by bed wetters who think pandering to the mad mullahs is what people want. If muslims send their kids to state schools then they should give them packed lunches or expect to be served “dirty” pork. Don’t like it? Then sod off back to to pisspotistan.

Which, it has now been announced, the family is doing.  But first, the vermin just had to demand the dinner lady lose her job.  Which she says, she would not take back if they offered. She is sorely disappointed and I’d say, pretty damn angry.

Here’s the update.

And have a GOOD read on what daddy had been up to.  Not exactly an upstanding citizen even by muslim finance rules according to the koran.

Brits will be better off without this scum living among them.

Family who got dinner lady fired after she accidentally served their child gammon are emigrating to Muslim country

Zahid and Rumana Darr asked for Alison Waldock to be dismissed

Miss Waldock accidentally served pork, forbidden by Islam, to their daughter

The Darrs are now moving to the conservative UAE

By JOHN STEVENS

The parents involved in the sacking of a school dinner lady who mistakenly served gammon to their daughter are to emigrate to a Muslim country.

Alison Waldock, 51, was accused of gross misconduct and says she lost her job after Zahid and Rumana Darr asked that she be dismissed.

Today it can be revealed that Mr and Mrs Darr and their three children are emigrating to the United Arab Emirates later this month. The family have chosen to move from their home in Cambridge to Sharjah, where alcohol is banned and there are the strictest decency laws in the emirates.

Mrs Darr, 33, wrote on her Facebook page: ‘So we’re leaving the country end of August for good … We’re moving to Sharjah. We want to go relax in a nice hot Muslim country where the kids know their identities as Muslims.’

The move comes after Mr Darr’s recruitment firm was closed down in June when he was found to be working as a company director illegally.

Following an investigation by the Insolvency Service, he was banned from holding company directorships after he was caught pocketing over £500,000 owed in tax in 2008.

His firm Interecruit (UK) went into liquidation after Mr Darr, 36, ‘diverted’ money owed to the taxman in VAT, income tax and national insurance to another of his companies.

The nine-year ban was imposed in February 2011 but in May this year he was found to be operating a similar company named Interecruit (GB), which supplied agricultural workers.

As well as working as a director when disqualified, Mr Darr was not paying staff the minimum wage and failing to provide holiday pay. He had his gangmaster’s licence revoked by the licensing authority.

Yesterday Miss Waldock said she does not want to return to the canteen at Queen Edith Primary School in Cambridge, where she had worked for 11 years, even if she is reinstated by Lunchtime UK, which runs the service.

She told the Mail: ‘I’m just hoping to clear my name. I wouldn’t want my job back – look at the way I have been treated. I could not work for that company again and could not be in the school environment. It would be uncomfortable.’

see more

Posted by peiper     on 08/03/2013 at 12:08 PM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • DIVERSITY BS • Justice - LACK OF • muslims • Outrageous • UK • work and the workplace •  
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Get Rich Quick Scheme Not For Me

I was approached yesterday by an old friend who has become a sudden, rabid believer in the secondary energy supplier sales machine called Ignite. Ignite is the sales arm for a Texas based energy provider called Stream Energy. In states that have not be deregulated, local gas and electric companies enjoy territorial monopolies. You get service from them, or you don’t get service at all. A number of states have deregulated at this point, NJ among them. You can now sign up for an alternate service provider, which can save you money. Sometimes. Generally you still get a bill from the old power company, which owns the pipes and the wires; they now split the bill into a generation part and a delivery part. You still have to use their gas pipes and their wires to get your energy, so the theoretical savings are in the generation part. And you can save hundreds of dollars on your energy bills. I use one, and the savings are real.

There are more than 75 alternate providers operating in NJ.  Alternate provider energy is not a scam. You can save considerable money. Sometimes. Almost all of these companies give you a discount of several cents per Kwh (or cubic foot or whatever for gas) compared to your original provider. Some make you sign a contract for a couple years. Some promise a very low rate to begin with, with an adjustable rate later on, rather like an APR mortgage ... and we all know how dangerous that can be IF you don’t get out of it soon enough. Caveat emptor.

But for the most part, these alternate providers are on the up and up. “Energy” is pretty much a commodity, so they “buy” in bulk at wholesale, then “sell” to you a little every month at a competitive rate. It’s legit; this is how many of the late 90s phone companies made fortunes in the long distance market. They bought a few zillion minutes from AT&T, sold them to customers at a big discount, and made money. The problem for AT&T was that they had so much overhead (huge staff, giant computer systems, etc) that they couldn’t/wouldn’t match those rates, and eventually went under, being out-competed by other little companies selling their own product. This is not going to happen to the big power companies. Their infrastructure is leaner and simpler than what Ma Bell had, and most of them have modernized and minimized along with everyone else. Which is something AT&T would not/could not do. Plus they still get a slice of the pie from the delivery charges, so don’t fear that Con Ed is going under any time soon. Not going to happen.

BUT. Nearly all these secondary providers get new customers by advertising. Billboards, mailers, web sites. Stream, through it’s Ignite marketing arm, works differently. They use “multi level marketing”, MLM, where sales associates use a word of mouth campaign to sign up new customers. MLM has a dark side and is commonly known as a pyramid ploy or a Ponzi scheme. Technically those terms only apply if there is no end product for sale; I’m sure that Bernie Madhoff can explain this in detail from his prison cell. They are completely legal when and end product is for sale, as in this case. Energy.

BUT. These same sales associates spend as much, or far more, time recruiting new sales associates to “spread the word” as they do getting people to sign up to get their energy from this secondary provider company. And the part that makes my eyes cross is that you have to buy in to become one. Riight. They charge you more than $325 for the right to become one of their worker bees. And you get no territory, no sales area, that is exclusively yours. But it’s so easy! Just switch over your own house and convince a few friends and family members to do that too, and you’ve earned your initial investment back. In less than a day! I sat and watched the digital presentation, heard all about how “regular folks just like me” are making tens of thousands of dollars per week, how this was a “ground floor” opportunity, yadda yadda. And every time I asked about that the discount rate was I got cut off and told that it didn’t matter, that I was “stuck in the weeds” and not seeing the forest for the trees. I spent an hour an a half watching the videos, looking at the web pages, hearing about all the fantastic success stories. And I decided this was not for me.

Oh, I could become a believer. I could. IF. I accept that this is a legitimate business model; it isn’t a Ponzi scheme, a pyramid ploy, because there is an actual end product for sale. So it’s not just a shell game. But the emphasis seemed to be 95% on the shells, and only 5% on the hidden pea under one of them. Seriously, I must have heard “energy, schmemergy” 30 times. As if it didn’t matter. Heck, I was told a dozen times that it didn’t matter at all.

No. It does matter. Just about every one of those secondary providers here in NJ will sell you electricity for about a nickel less per Kwh than the big boys charge. And just about every one of those providers offers you a rate that is at best only a few hundredths of a cent less than that nickel discount. In other words, even the secondary providers are a commodity. So why bother? Oh, I should transfer to Stream to a)help a buddy out, b) get in on this life changing opportunity myself, and c) stick it to big business who doesn’t care about me. Hey, you know what? I like our power company. The power here is pretty darn reliable, and when it isn’t they have crews out working hard day and night to fix things. Yeah, they charge a bit much, but I’ve already signed up with another secondary provider, 2 year contract I think, and I’m getting that nickel discount. So not only is there no financial incentive for me to switch from my current secondary to this one, I couldn’t do it for another year even if I wanted to.

So, why didn’t I want to become one of their salesmen, and get in on this “ground floor opportunity” to get rich myself? Well, NJ has been deregulated for several years now. Stream/Ignite has been working in NJ for nearly two years. To be a successful salesman, they want you to complete the “3 and 10” sales model in 30 days: sign up 10 people as customers, and also sign up 3 new people as salesmen. And then the money will just start flowing in automatically. And the more new sales folks you get on board, the more impressive your job title becomes, the bigger your slice of pie grows, and the faster your race to fame and fortune. By merely passing along the good word to your friends and by helping other folks get on board this solid gold train to the promised land.

Hmm. A year has 365 days. That’s 12 30 day periods. If I join in, and make my “3 and 10”, and every new salesperson I sign up does the same ... in one year that’s 3^12 new salesmen. 531,441 to be exact. And 5,344,100 new customers. In just one year. All of them under my own personal hierarchy. Fantastic!! Cha-ching $$$!!!  Except that a) NJ has a population of 8.9 million living in 3.4 million households, b) Ignite has already been playing here for nearly two years (3^24=282 billion, 35 times more than the earth’s population), and c) since the salesmen aren’t territorially limited, and since Stream Energy already has several hundred thousand sales people ... you do the math. Sure, you can probably make a little money doing this. But I would be flat out amazed if it amounted to more than a couple thousand dollars per year, no matter how much effort you put in. This isn’t the ground floor. It’s the 3000th floor. The market is super saturated with sales chumps already.

This is a great marketing effort for Stream Energy. They get themselves a gigantic sales force at almost no cost to themselves. Not a cent spent on any traditional advertising. And many/all/most/lots of their sales people are also willing to pay $25/mo for access to the company web page with all it’s sales secrets and motivational videos, and to get their very own boilerplate promotional web page too! So Stream has a nice fat cash cow there as well. Outstanding. And it isn’t actually a con. No, because some very select few are getting rich here. And hope and greed are the best motivators out there.

It isn’t a real shell game, but it can’t be anything other than mostly a shell game. Not for me, I’ll pass.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/03/2013 at 10:52 AM   
Filed Under: • Big Business • Economics •  
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   Friday - August 02, 2013

Grill Like A Man

I did a butterfly chicken on the grill tonight. You have to cut the chicken along the breastbone and fold it back, then grill it. It cooks pretty quickly.

Except I couldn’t find the poultry shears in the kitchen.

So I used the Fiskars titanium coated geared pruning loppers. And they cut through the chicken like it wasn’t even there. Friggin’ awesome.

OK, I did actually clean the loppers first. But damn, for a couple of seconds there, I felt like one of those TV crime drama coroners cracking a ribcage with a Stryker saw. Crunch, crunch, crunch, done. Cool.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/02/2013 at 06:17 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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Old and creaky

I got pictures in the mail from P.S., a guy I was in college with. Photos of the 20th reunion of our fencing team. 5 years ago.

Crap. We all got old. And fat.

But once ... once, we were heroes.

Age sucks.

Êtes-vous prêt?
Oui.
Oui!
Allez!

Posted by Drew458     on 08/02/2013 at 05:52 PM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life •  
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black gang violence exported to Greece. Like the Greeks really need their kind.

Like the Greeks don’t have enough problems as it is. And make no mistake, white Brit thugs can be a huge problem as well and the Greeks have had them too.
But somehow, this seems worse yet.  Because they’re black?  In part yes.  Because in this case the other part is they apparently are bringing their lifestyle with them to the poor Greeks. And wherever these vermin land, just like gypsies, they bring trouble and strife and filth and anything else you can name that is objectionable.  I find their breathing objectionable. 

One of these guys is said to be, “ studying towards an Economics degree at Northampton University “.  Yeah. Could be true. Standards are low enough I’m sure to insure his place at a university.

‘They brought their gang warfare to Greece’:  Student charged with the ‘execution’ of a British teenager during clash between suspected gang rivals at holiday resort

By KEITH GLADDIS

Greek police investigating the ‘execution-style’ murder of a 19-year-old say British youths have brought ‘gang warfare’ to the holiday island of Crete.

Tyrell Matthews-Burton was stabbed through the heart during a bar fight involving more than 30 British tourists in the rowdy resort of Malia.

Myles Litchmore-Dunbar, a 19-year-old model and university student, has been charged with murder and possession of a weapon.

Litchmore-Dunbar, from Catford, South-East London, is believed to have been detained after leaving the scene on a quad bike. Another Briton has allegedly confessed to being involved in the killing and more than a dozen have appeared in court following the brawl.

Police on Crete have attributed the murder in the early hours of Tuesday to gang violence imported from the streets of London.

‘They had scores to settle long before they arrived here. What we are hearing is that they brought their gang warfare to Crete.’

It is claimed Mr Matthews- Burton was pinned down on the cobbled street of the Beach Road in Malia and stabbed in the back and chest.

An ambulance arrived but the teenager from Leyton, East London, died on his way to hospital. He was killed on his 19th birthday. Greek coroner Manolis Michalodimitrakis said: ‘He was clearly pinned down and killed execution-style – there were no defence wounds. The knife punctured his lung and heart. He lost almost half of his blood.’

read more & see more

Posted by peiper     on 08/02/2013 at 05:02 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime •  
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   Thursday - August 01, 2013

eye candy and home sick and dodger blue

I don’t know who she is but saw a photo in the paper today.  I think I’m in love again.  Not to worry, happens every time I post these goddesses.

I think she’s an actress.

OLIVIA HALLINAN

Posted by peiper     on 08/01/2013 at 01:33 PM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •  
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bizzy bizzy bee

Up early this morning, getting things done. Light rain today, but that isn’t stopping me.

Looks like somebody drank too much at bowling league yesterday and is having a sick day. Guess I’ll have to be extra quiet. Aww, poor thing. I always advise having a large order of french fries before having a few beers if you’re running on an empty stomach. I also advise taking pain relievers and upset tummy meds before going to bed, along with a big drink of water. Cuts down on the morning after feeling the morning after.

OK, it’s off to the Post Office and the gas station and the grocery store and a bunch of other stuff. Save the louder activities for later.

Saw some garbage article online this morning about What Will Happen To Trayvon’s Hoodie ... there’s some motion to put this in the Smithsonian? Oh nigga, puh-lease.

On that same tired subject, I read the Wiki entry for the Zimmerman trial. With more than 400 references, it’s perhaps the best researched post they’ve ever done. And reading their reporting of the trial ... it was a no-brainer exoneration from the get-go.  For all the media hoopla, this was a real nothing of a case.

Right. Off to run errands and stuff.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/01/2013 at 09:07 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life •  
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school dinner lady serves wrong dish to muslim kid, gets the sack. says was accident.

Just another reason I think this place is doomed.  And don’t be to quick to feel safe America.  I have doubts we’ll escape the same sort of political right thinking back home.  Especially from what some of you have said and mailed to me.  It’ll just take a bit longer due to our size. Unless we get help from our good friends in,
in, uh,,, wait a minute.  I have to think. Our friends in Europe? Nah. That doesn’t look right.
Guess we’re on our own.

Meanwhile, while waiting for the sky to fall, take a look at this.

Primary school dinner lady sacked for ‘negligence, carelessness or idleness’ after she accidentally served gammon to a Muslim pupil

Alison Waldock, 51, apologised for mistake as soon as error was spotted

She said it was difficult to keep track of more than 40 students with different dietary requirements with the lists she was given

But despite 11 years working as a dinner lady, she was sacked by Queen Edith Primary School in Cambridge

By SUZANNAH HILLS

A primary school dinner lady has been sacked for accidentally serving pork to a Muslim pupil.

Alison Waldock, 51, ‘forgot’ the seven-year-old dietary needs when she asked if the schoolgirl wanted gammon and the youngster said yes.

The school’s headteacher spotted the mistake as the youngster was about to tuck into the meat and swept the plate away from her.

The girl’s parents were then told how close their daughter had come to eating the meat, which is banned in their religion.

They complained to the school’s catering firm and Ms Waldock, a dinner lady for 11 years, was suspended pending an investigation.

She insisted she had made an honest mistake and had simply lost track of all the dietary requirements of the children at Queen Edith Primary School in Cambridge.

But she was dismissed a month later for gross misconduct due to ‘negligence, carelessness or idleness’.

Ms Waldock, a mother-of-two, said: ‘I feel the school and catering company made me a scapegoat so they can’t be seen as politically incorrect.
‘I was really upset when I found out what I’d done. I’d never have done something like this on purpose. It was a simple mistake - I was so gutted with the school’s reaction.
‘I’m now too scared to take any similar catering jobs with the council.
‘I don’t think I will ever work as a dinner lady again. I don’t want to go through all this again - it has been horrible.’

Ms Waldock, of Cambridge, added there were around 40 pupils with various dietary requirements and it was impossible to keep track of them with the lists she was given.

British Muslim groups said Ms Waldock’s sacking was ‘heavy-handed’ and an ‘overreaction’.

Inayat Buglawala of campaign group Muslim4UK said: ‘Mistakes occasionally happen. I’m sure the overwhelming majority of Muslim parents would be understanding.

READ MORE

I seriously have my doubts that a 7 year old girl would even know what Gammon is. But then, not having kids, how would I know. But it sure does look from here, like politically correct overreaction.  Even muslim groups aren’t complaining and appear to be against the action taken by the school.
I also wonder why the dish could not have been removed and some believable story given the girl, and not said anything to parents but just a warning to the dinner lady.  Nit picky stuff and shame someone has lost her job.  That is, if it was as appears. Just an accident.

btw, read about a school here that has substituted those fluffy balls, darn it I can’t remember what they are called. They float safely even hit hard. Damn, what are they?  Well anyway, one school has taken away the hard balls used in some sports lest some kid get hit and hurt. Schools are afraid of law suits. One has replaced hockey pucks with some kind of soft thing that hardly goes anywhere.

A hundred million years ago when I was in school, I got hit by a softball during recess.  I was under the damn thing and lost it somehow. Maybe the sun. I don’t remember but it landed on my head. No big deal and mom didn’t take anyone to court and the school didn’t expect that kind of thing anyway.
How times and attitudes have changed.

Posted by peiper     on 08/01/2013 at 05:00 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Politically Correct B.S. •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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