I will say the same thing, just with added profanity

The Anchoress has an excellent point about how demeaning the whole "oh don't eat in front of the poor wee Muslims during Ramadan" is to Muslims.

Look, I work with a bunch of really, really, really, REALLY Catholic people and I joke every year that I want a list of what they give up for Lent so I can eat it in front of them.  Yes, it's a joke (even though I totally do it) because the entire point of fasting is to resist temptation and to give things up.  I've done religious fasts in the past and, for one of them, one of the tests was to go to dinner with others and still maintain the fast.  It's a sign of devotion to be able to do so in the face of direct temptation.

So this ever so helpful advice is actually an insult because it implies that a person of faith is so weakwilled as to need a pat on the head and help from others.  Yeah.  No.

Or, to include the profanity, stop being fucktards.  Not only does this piss of others for treating Islamic faith differently, it should piss off those who practice that faith by pretty much blatantly stating that they're too weak to actually abide by their faith.  That's not insulting at all.

Posted by: alexthechick at 11:44 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Gotta love that socialized medicine!

Government-run health care, the Democrats tell us, will eliminate inefficiency. Sally Thompson would beg to differ. If she hadn't bled to death in a British hospital, that is...

A young woman died in hospital after waiting almost two hours for a blood transfusion that could have saved her.

Sally Thompson, 20, bled to death after a doctor accidentally punctured her jugular vein during a bungled procedure.

Despite an urgent request to the blood bank at Manchester Royal Infirmary, she died one hour and 45 minutes later, before any arrived.

Speaking after her inquest, her father John, 62, said she would still be alive if the blood had been available sooner.

The retired farmer said: 'This hospital is supposed to be the cornerstone of the NHS in Manchester, but they couldn't get any blood for two hours.

'We have never had any answers about why it took so long. I feel very let down by the hospital.'

Coroner Nigel Meadows said the inability to supply the blood was a 'significant failure' and he would write to hospital bosses.

Well, I'm sure that's a comfort to her family.

Oh, and that "bungled procedure" might not have happened if the NHS doctor had followed hospital procedures and used ultrasound equipment to find the vein. The thing is, there was no ultrasound equipment available. Yeah.

By the way, I'd like to apologize for my RAAAAACISM, which is the only explanation for why I would ever possibly link this article.

Posted by: Sean M. at 09:00 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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What's after "fail"?

Via Say Uncle we find another example of Britain circling the bowl.

So some thugs invade a family's home and said they were going to kill them all.

One of the kids in the family escaped so two of the thugs ran away.
The father and some other family members grabbed the remaining thug and beat the shit out of him.
Yay! right?
Wrong
Judge John Reddihough freed the brothers on bail until October 9, but warned them that this did not mean they would not be jailed. The maximum sentence for GBH with intent is life.

And the thug can sue them.
And check out the players in this little drama.
The thug
The court heard that Salem, from Borehamwood, had a long criminal record, with over 50 convictions.

The homeowner who's been convicted of defending his home.
In contrast, Munir Hussain, an engineer by training, had an impeccable character. He came to Britain in 1964 and founded a company which employs nine people and had a £2.4million turnover last year.
In 2004 he won the Business Link small business of the year award. He is a former chairman of the Wycombe Race Equality Council and chairman of the Asian Business Council, which he helped found.

So contributing members of society are punished while thugs are rewarded.
That's not exactly a formula for societal advance.
But leftist do-gooders get to feel better about themselves, so that's something.

Posted by: Veeshir at 08:04 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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What could possibly go wrong?

Gee, I'm sure that under ObamaCare, nothing like this could ever happen...

Rosemary Munkenbeck says her father Eric Troake, who entered hospital after suffering a stroke, had fluid and drugs withdrawn and she claims doctors wanted to put him on morphine until he passed away under a scheme for dying patients called the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP).

Mrs Munkenbeck, 56, from Bracknell, said her father, who previously said he wanted to live until he was 100, has now said he wants to die after being deprived of fluids for five days.

Well, good for you, Mr. Troake. That will certainly help to keep that pesky "cost curve" down.

Along with her sister Jocelyn Troake, 60, who lived in Bermuda until recently moving to Frimley, Surrey, to care full time for her father and her mother Edna, 93, they are convinced their father is a victim of the system.

Last week The Daily Telegraph reported a warning from experts that some patients with terminal illnesses were being wrongly put on the NHS scheme and allowed to die prematurely if they ticked “the right boxes".

The pathway scheme was developed to improve the care of patients in their dying hours and ensure that they were not being "overmedicalised".

In other words, if you've got a loved one who goes into the hospital with a serious medical condition (a real no-stress situation right there) and they fill out a form incorrectly (I'm sorry, if they "ticked 'the right boxes'"), the staff of the government-run establishment can just let them die. You know, so they aren't "overmedicalised."

While that may seem a bit callous, on the other hand, just think of the savings!

Posted by: Sean M. at 11:46 PM | Comments (15) | Add Comment
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All that talk about "Death Panels"

Why, that was just a bunch of nonsense which was cooked up by Sarah Palin to scare people away from Obama's "Public Option," right? Right?

In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, a group of experts who care for the terminally ill claim that some patients are being wrongly judged as close to death.

Under NHS guidance introduced across England to help doctors and medical staff deal with dying patients, they can then have fluid and drugs withdrawn and many are put on continuous sedation until they pass away.

But this approach can also mask the signs that their condition is improving, the experts warn.

As a result the scheme is causing a “national crisis” in patient care, the letter states. It has been signed palliative care experts including Professor Peter Millard, Emeritus Professor of Geriatrics, University of London, Dr Peter Hargreaves, a consultant in Palliative Medicine at St Luke’s cancer centre in Guildford, and four others.

“Forecasting death is an inexact science,”they say. Patients are being diagnosed as being close to death “without regard to the fact that the diagnosis could be wrong.

“As a result a national wave of discontent is building up, as family and friends witness the denial of fluids and food to patients."

The warning comes just a week after a report by the Patients Association estimated that up to one million patients had received poor or cruel care on the NHS.

Now, to be fair, the article goes on to say that the decisions are made by the medical team treating the patient, including a "senior doctor," not some group of far-away faceless bureaucrats, but, really, what's the difference when it's one of your loved ones? You've got people working within the constraints of the government's health care system deciding that someone you care about isn't worth the resources.

Oh, and the next time someone you know brings up Britain's NHS as something we ought to emulate, remember to bring up that "national wave of discontent" about their friends and family being killed off. You know, to bend that cost curve. Yeah.

Posted by: Sean M. at 04:37 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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"Same again" != water

Never mind barhopping in Scotland - even if you speak any of their languages, if you ask for a refill, you're gonna get water.

Posted by: Alice H at 05:04 AM | Comments (19) | Add Comment
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What's the opposite of "Great"?

I needed this, it's about funny.
In Britain, if you leave your car unlocked, the cops are stealing your stuff to teach you a lesson.
In most places, according to the article, they send you a letter telling you to lock your car, in Twittenham...errr... Twickenham, they're taking your stuff and leaving a letter to tell you to come to the police station to retrieve it.

I assume they make you stand in the corner and go to bed without dinner too.

If you just leave your car unlocked or leave valuables visible in a locked car, they send you a warning letter.
My favorite quote
We have had a bit problem with thefts from cars, so we decided to be a bit more innovative," said Superintendent Jim Davis, the officer behind the initiative.
Cuz catching criminals is hard. It's so much safer and easier to deal with law-abiding people.

I gotta tell you, if this happened here, I wouldn't go to the police station to get my stuff, I would go to court and charge them with theft.

If they started doing it and I heard about it before it got to me, I would try to rig up a bag like they give bank robbers, where when you open it you get a blast of paint in the face.

What would be more fun than saying, "Hey, it's my property, I didn't tell you to go in my car" to some blue-faced nanny/cop?

They've gone back to being serfs. The laird of the land is telling them what to do and they're meekly doing it.
H/T The Agitator

Posted by: Veeshir at 09:10 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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UK trying to replace pint glasses with plastic

Because pint glasses are sometimes used as makeshift weapons...if this doesn't trigger a full on rebellion against Nanny Fascism in the UK, nothing will.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 11:51 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Irony defined

Pay attention, Alanis, because this is how it's actually done:

The Met Office's new supercomputer has scored it's second own goal since it was unveiled with much fanfare in May.

After tempting the nation into holidaying in Britain by wrongly forecasting a "barbecue Summer", it has now earned the Met Office's Exeter headquarters the shame of being named as one of the most polluting buildings in Britain.

By the time it reaches peak performance in 2011 the £30 million machine's massive processing power - it can perform 125 trillion calculations per second - will require 1.2 megawatts of power to run, enough energy to power a small town.

As a result it will contribute 12,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide to the problem of global warming every year.

Which assumes that gorebell wormering is actually caused by carbon dioxide (see the two posts directly below) but having a "climate change supercomputer" as one of Britain's worst polluters is still pretty fucking funny.

Posted by: Sean M. at 07:04 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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NHS, here we come!

None of those ignorant Town Hall "Teabaggers" with their idiotic notions about so-called "socialized medicine" know what they're talking shouting about, right? Right?

In the last six years, the Patients Association claims hundreds of thousands have suffered from poor standards of nursing, often with 'neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel' treatment.

The charity has disclosed a horrifying catalogue of elderly people left in pain, in soiled bed clothes, denied adequate food and drink, and suffering from repeatedly cancelled operations, missed diagnoses and dismissive staff.

The Patients Association said the dossier proves that while the scale of the scandal at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust - where up to 1,200 people died through failings in urgent care - was a one off, there are repeated examples they have uncovered of the same appalling standards throughout the NHS.

Okay, that sounds a little unpleasant for the oldsters, but just think of the savings! We're talking big picture here, people, and that cost curve ain't gonna bend itself.

Yeah.

Update: I read this earlier today, and while you probably were already skeptical of the whole "If you like your plan, you can keep it," mantra that Obama keeps repeating, it gives the specifics that show that he either doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about or is flat-out bullshitting everyone when he says that. You tell me which is worse.

Posted by: Sean M. at 08:40 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Newspeak

We have the tag for a reason.  This time around, government organizations and "quangos",  British slang for quasi-NGOs which are largely subsidized by the government, are moving to eliminate phrases like "black mark" or "right hand man", because they may be offensive to women or minorities, and are offering up alternative phrases.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 11:05 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays Swine Flu!

I'm not a doctor (I just play one on teevee) but I think the correct diagnosis here is actually "beer flu."

Thousands may be using the national flu line to land themselves 'swine flu sickies', it was claimed last night.

Every Monday the number using the hotline or associated website to get Tamiflu is more than double that of the day before, Government figures show.

The service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so there is no reason why people should wait until after the weekend to use it.

It also emerged yesterday that fewer than 10 per cent of those prescribed Tamiflu actually have swine flu, according to estimates based on tests on a sample by the Health Protection Agency.

Chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson admitted the weekly Monday spikes in calls to the National Pandemic Flu Service were 'curious'. But he would not comment on the suggestion that people were using the disease as an excuse to get time off work.

So, let me get this straight...when you offer "free" health care to people, some of them might abuse the system for possibly trivial reasons? The hell, you say! We've been told over and over that a system like that would, you know, cut down on fraud and waste by none other than the president! Who you gonna believe?

Posted by: Sean M. at 08:13 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Chipmunk terror sweeps the UK

Heh.  Oddly enough, we don't have many chipmunks in town, save for just a few isolated pockets in a few neighborhoods.  Tons of squirrels though, and this year, rabbits, lots and lots of rabbits.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 10:35 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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We don't need no stinking death panels

I hadn't searched my nic in a long time, over a year probably, so I did it today. It was fun, since I'm my own best audience (I laugh at my own jokes and always have, if I didn't think they were funny, I wouldn't say them) I've been finding a lot of stuff to make me laugh.
Some, not so much.
Unfortunately, the link in the story is dead, but Tim of Tim Worstall's blog quotes it, I found this by searching for one of the Drs in the post

Peter Ashworth, the coroner for Derby, believes that it could be Britain's first case of forced 'mass euthanasia'.

They starved 11 old dudes to death. At first the cops said they saw no reason to investigate. Get it? 11 people starved to death and there's no reason to investigate. Our future if Obamacare gets done.

Quote from a family member of one of the useless mouths:
We kept being told that feeding him would be bad for his general health, and he was too frail to tell us otherwise,' he said.

Get it? They lied in order to kill these guys and the poor families have the rest of their lives to live with their guilt at being so stupid as to believe the bastards (I'm not blaming, I'm just noting that people feel guilty for stuff that's not really their fault, we're stupid that way)

The story is heart-breaking as you read about them stretching their hands out for food going to others but they got none.
And it helps the "healthcare professionals", no messy arguments with relatives about euthanasia drugs, just starve them to death. No fuss, no muss.
Quote
There is now increasing concern across Britain about the way hospitals appear to be hastening the deaths of elderly patients. These issues are being raised by the National Media.
Police in Leeds and Hampshire are also looking into similar cases. Investigations are underway into the unexpected deaths of 62 patients - all pensioners - who had been admitted for postoperative rehabilitation at the Gosport War Memorial hospital in Hampshire.

No death panel, just a bunch of bureaucrats deciding that they need to kill these folks so they can afford other stuff, like soap and clean sheets. This was around 2000, the deaths were in the late 90s. Now, I'm sure they hide these things.

This might be the story linked by Tim with this loveliest of murderousness

Quote from the judge in the inquest
He said that if "food and fluid was withdrawn at a time when they were perfectly capable of accepting it all because it was arbitrarily decided that it was time for them to die", it would amount to a policy that had been "totally unacceptable since the dark ages".

So far so good, "Why are you so pissed off?" you ask (Definitely with lots of cussing, you foulmouthed bunch)
Because he didn't stop there
"If it should transpire that food and fluids were withdrawn in good faith and in the not unreasonable belief that it was in their best interests as the lesser of two evils,

They starved the poor bastards to death and it was in good faith as the lesser of two evils? What was the other choice? Starving dogs fighting over their carcasses? Hung on the battlements for crows to peck out their eyes? Covered with honey and staked on an anthill?
Judge Mengele wasn't done
Quote
 it would be grossly unfair to record a verdict other than that of death by natural causes."

Purposely starved to death is "natural causes" if it's in good faith as the lesser of two evils? The greater evil is, of course, paying for them. 
The verdict?
Quote
The inquest at Derby's Pride Park heard it was common for severe dementia patients not to be given food and drink. Chris Gawne, a solicitor for some of the families in the case, said after the verdict, "The families are relieved that the inquests have now come to a conclusion and are confident that the causes of these patient's deaths have been properly and rigorously examined. The families can take comfort in the fact that their loved ones died solely because they reached the end of their natural lives." A consultant psychiatrist had told the inquest earlier that not feeding patients could be in their "best interests".

I'm pretty sure that's English for "Screw you, now shut up and like it."

See?For one of the few times in his presidency Obama was telling the truth, they don't need no stinking death panels, all they need are bureaucrats looking at the fact that their hospital doesn't have enough money to go around so the people with the least to lose and little or no ability to dispute the decision get to die  and then they get officialdom to explain exactly why it was for the best.

Don't click any of the links unless you have something to beat handy. Luckily, my dog loves a good beating.

Posted by: Veeshir at 04:25 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Buh?

Holy Moley! Words fail me (Mark you calendars) so I'll just quote, point and laugh derisively.
A shopper was astonished when staff at Marks and Spencer demanded that she prove her age before she bought a pizza-cutter
...snip...
Staff are required to ask for identification from any customer who tries to buy alcohol or a bladed item and appears younger than 25.

(Points east, toward Britain)
Ha-ha./ Nelson Muntz

Posted by: Veeshir at 08:01 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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What's after Fail?

I wasn't sure if this belonged in the Funniest End of Civilization Ever category or not, but I felt like making fun of the Brits after seeing the CCTV thing and this chipmunk thing so Fail Britannia it is.
Quote
A senior Tory MP has asked the home secretary whether al-Qaeda sympathisers were mistakenly recruited by MI5.
...snip...
Four were ejected at the initial vetting stage but two got "further down the system", he told the BBC.

Get it? We can't infiltrate al Quaeda but they can infiltrate us.

See? Endy and funny!
(Via Kyros at Jawa Report)

Posted by: Veeshir at 08:02 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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There's a reason for the tag

Well, this isn't creepy.

Look, if it's that bad, then take the kids.  This?  I don't think you can see the line from where this lands. 

I still wonder if there is a breaking point for the UK.  I would like to hope that at some point the citizens would rise up against this.  Unfortunately, all evidence points to no. 

Posted by: alexthechick at 02:38 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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This Is Why This Site Has A Fail Britannia Tag

What the flying fuck is this about? Grade schoolers still in diapers?

The charity Education and Resources for Improving Childhood Continence (Eric) runs at least one course a month to give school nurses advice about how to deal with late starters who turn up to school in nappies, as well as children with medical issues. Training sessions for teachers are also under discussion.

"With primary schools, toilet training is a real issue at the moment," said Natasha Collins, education and training coordinator. "There is no hard and fast rule about potty training, parents can only do it when their child is ready.

"Some parents do leave it later, perhaps because the children don't seem to be ready. They tend to take a step back and say 'well OK, I'll leave it' whereas in the past there might have been pressure for parents to conform.

"Historically, they really did almost force the children, whether it was the right time for them or not. I do think nowadays, parents seem to be a little more laid back and open to listening to their children, so that could be a reason for it."

Most children are potty trained between the ages of two and three. Although some schools and nurseries do not take children still in nappies, local authorities now warn that they could be breaking the law.

Any admission policy that sets a blanket standard of continence or requires parents to come and change a child, or leaves a child in a soiled nappy while they wait, could be considered discriminatory or even a from of abuse.

Posted by: eddiebear at 01:16 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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No Good Can Come From Negotiating With The Taliban

Seriously. Are the British really going to fucking talk and negotiate with the fucking Taliban? Sadly, it appears so.

For more than a year, British intelligence officers have been instigating contacts with Taliban commanders and their entourage. But their task has been very delicate given the sensitivities of the Karzai administration in Kabul {yeah, given the history of the Taliban to kill anybody not them, they damn well have a right to be concerned-ed.}.

The situation has been complicated further by the influx of hardline and ideologically motivated fighters joining the Taliban and other insurgent groups from across the Pakistani border {this sounds like 2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008-ed.}.

But the fact that senior ministers and military commanders seized on the apparent success of Operation Panther's Claw to highlight the possibility of talks with the Taliban reflects their concern about the lack of progress so far in Nato's counter-insurgency. Significantly, and as if to counter public aversion to talks with the Taliban, ministers and military commanders alike compared the current campaign in southern Afghanistan to anti-terrorist operations in Northern Ireland.

A ComRes poll in today's Independent suggests most people now believe British troops should be pulled out of Afghanistan. Most of those who responded (58%) said the Taliban could not be defeated militarily, and 52% of those surveyed said troops should be withdrawn immediately. This compares with a Guardian/ICM poll earlier this month which showed that 42% of those surveyed wanted troops to be withdrawn immediately.

America's priorities in Afghanistan will be spelled out in a briefing paper drawn up by General Stanley McChrystal, the new US commander in the country, due to be handed to Barack Obama tomorrow.

He will emphasise the need for speeding up the training of Afghan troops, according to defence sources. He is also expected to ask for more troops from Nato allies. British military commanders are drawing up contingency plans to increase the number of British forces to more than 10,000 from the current 9,000.

Asked whether he needed more troops, Brigadier Tim Radford, commander of British troops in Helmand, replied: "I have enough forces to do what I set out to do in Panther's Claw."

The number of British troops that might be deployed in future was "out of my hands", he said. But he added that as the number of Afghan army recruits increased, the number of Nato forces required to train them also increased {and other than the US, Canada, and UK, the NATO troops are in the pacified areas, not the hotspots-ed}.

Miliband's call for talks with more moderate Taliban elements {hah!-ed.}was echoed later by Gordon Brown, who said: "Our strategy has always been to complement the military action that we've got to take to clear the Taliban, to threaten al-Qaida in its bases – while at the same time we put in more money to build the Afghan forces, the troops, the police."

Posted by: eddiebear at 08:42 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Help us, Zombie Churchill!

Am I disappointed by this? Yes. Am I surprised? Hardly. It is, after all, a textbook example of FAIL Britannia:

Scores of Scotland Yard officers are in open revolt after being banned from wearing Union Flag badges in support of British troops.

Met chiefs have decreed that the tiny emblems – which cost £1 with proceeds going to charity – must be removed after a complaint that they are offensive.

But furious junior officers are continuing to wear them in defiance at the politically correct stance.

A petition has been launched on the Downing Street website demanding they be allowed to wear the badges, which are to raise funds for the Royal British Legion and the Help for Heroes charity.

Peter Smyth, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said: ‘The decision to forbid police officers from joining the rest of the country in showing support for those who are fighting for their country is nothing less than shameful.’

Um, maybe it's just me, but if you find the flag of the country you happen to be living in "offensive," you might want to, you know, relocate. Seeing as how you're likely to see that particular symbol rather frequently and all.

Oh, and good on the officers who are defying this stupid order. I don't know if it would help, us being Americans and all, but you can sign a petition supporting them here.

Posted by: Sean M. at 08:44 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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