Death once had a near-Sarah Palin experience.
Thursday - November 29, 2007
Council tax spies 'to pry into attics'
I don't know if this falls into the catagory of nanny state or not guys. After all, if the govt. is looking for cheats ...?
Oh btw boys and girls, Council Tax here in UK is our form of property tax. And trust me please ... The Brits are overtaxed and overcharged for everything!
By Lewis Carter
Last Updated: 2:38am BST 24/10/2007
Lavatories, conservatories and greenhouses will come under the scrutiny of inspectors revaluing millions of homes for council tax, it has been claimed.
Tax inspectors have been told to take into account even the smallest property feature such as an outside lavatory, the Conservatives said.
The new guidelines, detailed in Valuation Office Agency (VOA) training documents unearthed by the Tories, have led to fears of higher bills and claims that the Government is "deceiving" the public on revaluation plans.
The training documents show new proposals to grade and tax homes, taking account of breakfast rooms, storage cupboards, dressing rooms, lavatories, sun lounges and attics.
http://tinyurl.com/2qthwr for the rest of the story
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •
Wednesday - November 28, 2007
Nanny State will now tell your children how, when, and where to play
Unlike most government programs that only pretend to be all about the chiiiildrentm ...
Introducing the National Center for Physical Development and Outdoor Play
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Senior Editor
(CNSNews.com) - The government bureaucracy just got a little bigger: The latest addition is something called the National Center for Physical Development and Outdoor Play.
It's part of a new effort by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to "coordinate and expand" the government's existing efforts to prevent childhood obesity.
First Lady Laura Bush made the announcement on Tuesday at a national health promotion summit in Washington.
According to Mrs. Bush, the Administration for Children and Families (part of HHS) will establish a new National Center for Physical Development and Outdoor Play. "With a $12 million, four-year grant, the Center will help Head Start programs across the country evaluate their playgrounds and their outdoor play spaces, and educate children and families about the importance of healthy food and physical activity."
She said ACF also will provide $10 million to build and upgrade Head Start Playgrounds - "making sure children have safe places to play and exercise outdoors."
Mrs. Bush thanked Acting Surgeon General Dr. Steven Galson "for helping to lead these important programs."
A new government department of playgrounds. Stick a fork in me, I'm done. Next we'll have the Special Council for Kickball, the Hopscotch Appropriations Committee, a Special Prosecutor for "Am not! Are too! I know you are but what am I!", and the Surgeon General issuing a report that running on the ground can be severly dangerous without supervision and lots of protective gear, and a half billion dollar grant to the NEA to promote drawing on the sidewalk with big fat chalk crayons.
Earth calling CNN
So I'm watching the YouTube GOP debate on CNN. It's been going on a while, and some of the video clip questions are great, and some are kinda lame. Ok fine. But up comes a question from a retired general on gays in the military, and in the middle of Romney's response CNN fades him out and goes to Robin Hill to get her to question the "nielson" audience about their feeeeelings. Then we get 10 minutes of Nancy Grace ... and now we're back to the debate.
What the heck????
Got a light?
Once a year, the Light Station at Pigeon Point near San Francisco, California, USA is lit as it was over 100 years ago. During this time, light generated by five kerosene lamps pours through 24 rotating Fresnel lenses, warning approaching ships to stay away. Early last week, light emanating from the Pigeon Point Lighthouse was particularly picturesque because of a thin fog, also blurring the distant Moon. During the latter 1970s, the lighthouse was guarded by an 800 pound pig named Lester. In modern times, the light house is still active but has been supplied with a more efficient flashing aerobeacon.
Source is here. You can DL larger versions too.
All you photography buffs who're wondering how it was made, go here. I figured he used a star filter, but I was wrong. I figured multiple exposure on fine grained film, but I was wrong too: this is a digital image, taken with a Nikon D40. Too cool, eh?
Thanks to Carole, who is no slouch with a lens either.
Tuesday - November 27, 2007
Heading out to the Woods
Taking my ten year old son out to the woods today for his first hunting experience. The weather looks good and he is excited. Wish us luck!
Filed Under: • Personal •
Monday - November 26, 2007
Why we don't gossip blog at BMEWS
Here at BMEWS we try to keep our standards high. Well written prose, properly checked links, hat-tips and story credits all the time. Extensive use of spell checkers and grammar fixers. We try to stay above the gossip sites and the cheesecake sites, even though they get MILLIONS OF HITS A DAY AND ARE RAKING IN A BLOODY FORTUNE. You will rarely see any of that silly blog stuff here; no goofy polls, no LOLCatz. Lately we don't even make fun of the fwench, or rag on Islamic Rage Boy. But what if things were different ... maybe just once?
Actress Salma Hayek introduced her baby Valentina Paloma Pinault to the world today. Valentina was born just two months ago. Ms. Hayek is enaged to Francois Henri Pinault, a multibillionare. Pinault is the CEO of PPR, a luxury goods company that owns Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Stella McCartney, Balenciaga, a french department store and a national music chain. Ms. Hayek is also a Golden Globe-winning producer on ABC's "Ugly Betty," on which she makes the occasional guest appearance. Mother and child seem to be doing just fine.
This is mommy:
This is baby:
Get a load of that kid's expression. Now, who wants to play Caption This?
• Comments (10) • Trackbacks(0) Permalink •
And Then There Were Two
I just flipped past CNN and saw Wolf Blitzer doing a video interview with Mitt Romney. They were talking about gun rights and gun control. Romney said he was in favor of the waiting period when we had that, now we have the instant background check and he's in favor of that, and that while he feels people have the right to own guns, he doesn't believe people have a right to guns that are unnecessarily powerful.
"Unnecessarily powerful". Uh huh. According to who Mitt? Who sets the rules on that one Mitt? Written in stone, or flexible somewhere down the road Mitt? I always thought he was a greasy politician, but I was trying to give the guy a chance. I'm not even close to a one issue voter either, but when a candidate can twist "shall not be infringed" into "unnecessarily powerful" he has utterly lost my support.
Fred, Mike, it's down to you. Don't drop the ball.
Fox and Fred
From The Hill.
Thompson charges Fox News is biased against his campaign
Former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) suggested on Sunday that Fox News is biased against his campaign, charging that the network highlights commentators who have been critical of his run for the presidency.
In an interview on "Fox News Sunday," host Chris Wallace pressed Thompson on how some conservatives have lambasted Thompson's campaign and showed clips of Fox conservative commentators Charles Krauthammer and Fred Barnes criticizing the former senator.
Thompson said, "This has been a constant mantra of Fox, to tell you the truth." He noted that other conservatives have praised his bid for the GOP nomination and took issue with a Fox promo that focused on polling in New Hampshire, where Thompson is registering in the single digits.
He said he is running second in national polls and has been leading or tied for the lead in South Carolina for "a long, long time."
Thompson, in a firm, but measured tone, scolded Wallace: "...for you to highlight nothing but the negatives in terms of the polls and then put on your own guys who have been predicting for four months, really, that I couldn't do it, kind of skew things a little bit. There's a lot of other opinion out there."
John Hawkins supposes it might be because the inside-the-beltway Republicans are all of the mind that you have to be more in the middle to win elections, which I think is possible. More than likely, the pundits have all decided who they like, or who they think has the most likely chance of winning and cannot fathom a come-from-behind pull for Fred, but I think differently. I believe that the national polls are more correct in saying that we the people want someone of his stripe who will move the political landscape more to the right and not compromise.
Filed Under: • Republicans •
Final Posters are in
Michelle Malkin held a contest to "posterize" the Democrat party as a spoof on the HuffPo project.
The finalists are in.
Here are some samples:
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •
Friday - November 23, 2007
Most influential Americans in the UK
50 top Americans. Interesting stuff guys.
With Americans celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday this week, we thought it would be timely, and no little fun, to remind our readers that the dollar's decline does not spell the end of American power and influence in the UK
# The 50 most influential Americans in Britain
# Most influential Americans: 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11
# The top US conservatives and Liberals
# Have your say | Read comments
http://tinyurl.com/2oswsj
Honoring Heroes at the Holidays
I received an email from Ryan Gill of "Move America Forward" asking for some help in promoting this event. It sounds very worthy, so if you are along the route, go out and support the effort.
Join Move America Forward for the "Honoring Heroes at the Holidays Tour" this November 26th - December 16th as we cross this nation holding pro-troop events in 40 cities across America to honor and salute the men and women of the U.S. military who will be thousands of miles away from their homes and families during this holiday season.
Along the tour we will be collecting more than 100,000 Christmas, Hanukkah and holiday greeting cards for our troops that we will deliver to them in Iraq and Afghanistan. Get your kids involved, and invite local schools to participate! On the outside envelope be sure to write either: "Christmas Card for Our Troops" or "Hanukkah Card for Our Troops" or "Holiday Card for Our Troops."
Bring the cards to one of our 40 pro-troop holiday events along the route of the "Honoring Our Heroes at the Holidays Tour"
Filed Under: • Heroes • Military • War-Stories •
Many essays will be written today giving thanks. We live in a great country which, even with the idiot laws, regulations and restrictions in place, is the freest nation in the history of the world. I have a devoted wife of 24 years and four wonderful children. I have a good career, a stable income, a roof over my head and food in the pantry.
But all of that pales in comparison to the one I am thankful to. I do not promote my faith much on these pages, but there are times when it is appropriate.
The few years I have on this earth are but a moment compared to the eternity we will all experience. That eternity will either be one filled with peace, tranquility, beauty, love and joy, or it will be one of pain, sorrow, anguish and despair. You may not believe in eternity, thinking that once you die there is nothing else, but that is simply not true.
Because of our sin (yes, a politically incorrect word in our day), we have chosen to separate ourselves from God. The pain, anguish and despair we experience in this world is simply a taste of what we've asked for in eternity. But there is another choice. That separation is not irreversible. Jesus came to take the punishment we deserve. When he died on that cross 2,000 years ago, he took the sentence for our crimes so we don't have to.
His gift to us is life. We experience a shadow of life here on earth. True life is one where there is no pain or suffering. Where there is no anger and fear. No death. No heartache. Only peace and joy.
We'll not experience that life here in our time on earth, but it is guaranteed that there is a second life we will all experience. Which will you choose?
I have chosen real life.
I want an existence of joy, peace and love, and on this Thanksgiving day, I give thanks to the one who made it possible for me to hope in that day.
Death holds no fear for me, because I know it is simply a transition to the real life I am destined to live…for eternity.
We're Not Worthy
Via Hot Air.
U.S. Soldier Re-Enlists Hours After Being Seriously Wounded in Iraq IED Attack
Spc. Christopher Hoyt, an infantryman from California with the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, based out of Fort Lewis, Wash., was injured after an improvised explosive device — or IED — exploded near him while he was out on a foot patrol near Zaganiyah, Iraq.
Two of Hoyt's fellow soldiers were killed in the attack. Hoyt was rushed to the emergency room at Logistics Support Area Anaconda where he was treated for cuts to his legs and body.
It was there, after having witnessed the deaths of his comrades, that Hoyt decided to re-enlist for four more years.
"He said he wasn't finished," Hoyt's battalion commander Lt. Col. Mark Landes said.
Landes conducted the re-enlistment himself. "He said, 'I still have a job to do.' "
Command Sgt. Maj. John Troxell, the brigade's top non-commissioned officer, who was also present during Hoyt's re-enlistment at Anaconda, said Hoyt was the epitome of what a soldier should be.
"It takes a person of very strong character to go through an incident where another soldier five feet away was killed, and he was severally wounded, and still say 'I believe in what we are doing and I want to stay on the team. I want to support the United States Army and my country,' " Troxell said.
"He is a model for what all men and women should be, and that is very patriotic and very selfless," Troxell said.
Hoyt is currently recovering in an Army hospital in Germany
As Bryan said, "Thank You" seems trite, but what else can we say? You, Spc Hoyt, give us hope for our great country. It is men and women like you that shine the light of valor and courage for all to see.
Next time someone calls our soldiers an evil baby-killing dolt, kick him in the nuts.
Filed Under: • Heroes •
We're from the Government, and we're here to protect your data
Wooops, sorry 'bout that mate.
UK bank data of millions missing
LONDON, England (CNN)—Britain's finance minister apologized Wednesday for the loss of two computer discs containing the personal data of 25 million people, calling it "inexcusable" and vowing to continue searching for the material.
The two discs contained the department's entire database relating to the payment of child benefits—a tax-free monthly payment available to everyone with children—Treasury chief Alistair Darling said.
The data on 25 million individuals and 7.25 million families, includes names, addresses, dates of birth, national insurance numbers, and, in some cases, bank account details.
The loss became public Tuesday and prompted the resignation of Paul Gray, the head of Revenue and Customs, which supervises taxation and welfare payments.
"People are entitled to trust the government or any other institution that holds personal information," Darling told Sky News on Wednesday. "There has been a colossal failure here which shouldn't have happened."
Darling said the loss happened in October, when a junior Revenue and Customs official downloaded the data onto two password-protected discs and sent them via internal mail to another.
The package, which was not registered or recorded, never arrived.
Although the CDs were mailed October 18, Darling said, the loss wasn't reported until November 8.
Just wait until our .gov controls your healthcare records.
Filed Under: • Government •
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