Art Imitating Preventing Life

So today at work, as usual, there was a crash, followed by snarky commentary:

Stuff: (crash)
RR: Safety first!
NP: Safety third!
VFD: Safety somewhere in the consideration, but let's not get carried away.

This sort of amusement happens more-or-less constantly at our company, so this one slipped into my personal /dev/null. Then to my surprise, I read a story from Skegness (in England, as you know) that illustrates the principle that we can, indeed, get carried away with safety considerations.

Skegness has a jolly fisherman for a mascot. There's an antique statue and everything. The statue has its arms out to the sides, all gay & skippin' around & whatnot. Well there are plans being laid for another statue. This replacement was to have its arms tight in by the body. This, of course, prevents children swinging on the outstretched arms, slipping off, getting hurt, and bringing lawsuits. The decision to be safer than reasonable so outraged the citizens that the plan to sissify the statue is being reconsidered.

Because [deleted] the kids. And safety. They'll figure it out after a couple of falls anyway.

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England used to be the power of the western world, and truly manly beards were in evidence everywhere. They barely decided not to have Awesome be part of their name but settled on Great instead. Now look. Look and point and laugh, and be sure to never, ever vote Democrat.

Coming Soon to a Government Near You?

Man arrested at his kid's school, jailed overnight, house searched for illegal weapons . . . because a 4 year-old girl thinks of her daddy as the hero who shoots bad guys and monsters, and drew a picture of a man with a gun. In Canada.

Man fined $200 for littering . . . for pouring out warm water from his water bottle onto the street. In Australia.

This is what happens when people let their governments get out of hand. What are YOU doing to check YOUR government?

THIS Is What Soft Tyranny Looks Like

• You move into a house
• The land nearby is covered with weeds and trash
• You can't even see around the corners when you drive
• Residents waiting at the bus stop are crowded by blackberry bushes
• So you clean it up
• And the local council says you are "Cultivating" and
• orders you to pay $100 for a retroactive license
• or you have to put the car suspension parts back on the land
• and plant weeds again.

In England, where the Nanny State is approaching its zenith, this is The Way Things Are. The slope from "no cell phones in school zones" to "no removing weeds without a license" is very steep and very slippery. Where do you draw the line? After all, all the regulations sound perfectly reeeeeeeasonable, don't they? You are not against people enjoying the land, are you? What kind of a person would object to licenses for cultivating public land?

The Good People did nothing in England and the Evil has prospered.

Don't be too amused - we are hard on their heels down this road. I know an arborist who had to pay $20,000 to have trees planted, after he cleared someone's private property of . . . unwanted trees.

But, surely, someone else will run for office where you live. Not because they want control, do they spend their time getting control. No, surely they are dedicated public seeeeervants writing the rules! Surely! I mean, otherwise you would have to GET OFF YOUR DUFF and look into your local government and maybe even (gasp) give up Friday night happy hour and attend City Council meetings!

The World: Gone Mad!

A couple of random Chinese tourists were walking around in UK and heard sumdood singing Kung Fu Fighting in a pub. They were offended at this blatant racism, summoned the Police, and the singer was arrested.

Superman (the comic book hero) says (in the cartoon) he's tired of being perceived as a tool of the government and renounces his US Citizenship

A surgeon at the top of his field (President of the American College of Surgeons, inventor, super-genius and possibly a huge stud) makes a passing reference to a scientific study and is forced to resign. The study says having unprotected sex makes women less depressed, and is Actual Legitimate Science, but apparently the chicks at Surgery News need to [content redacted] a little more and maybe lighten up a little. Bonus points to this story for legitimate use of the term richly vascularized vagina

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(only one link was provided for three stories, because let's be honest - you were clicking on vagina regardless, so why bother putting a link to a comic book or a police arrest story?)

England Retreats Nearer to Third World Nation Status

Electricity: maybe.

In the name of "da envirument" they are upgrading their electric grid in UK to one with occasional outages, but which is much hipper with the environmentally-correct jetsetting crowd. I'm sure it will be totally worth it.

England used to be the height of western power. Now they won't even have electric power all the time. *sigh*

Regulations (and Crows) be D----ed

In Cirencester, UK, a crow is costing hundreds of pounds, ripping the wiper blades off cars. It is reported that if a car is left with its wipers uncovered for half an hour, the crow or crows will come along and strip the rubber off the blades.

In a slightly freer country, this means that, at the half-hour of a man's choosing, the crow will be perforated and dead, dead, dead. In the UK where guns are essentially banned, they will continue to lose wiper blades by the dozen until the crows get tired of the game. I would be surprised if someone didn't get into big trouble trying to trap the stupid birds, too. Health & Safety regulations being what they are (stupid), it would probably be cheaper just to continue replacing the wiper blades, even if jail for the bird trapper is avoided.

What a stupid country UK is turning out to be. Note that this used to be a nation where men were required to maintain proficiency with the long bow, the "assault rifle" of the day. Now look at you.

Therapist Helps People? That's Insensitive!

When I was a lad, my suspicion of government interference in private affairs was fertilized by a story I read. The protagonist got in Big Trouble because he not only wrote a book, but asked if a friend wanted to read it after the friend asked about the work.

And in the place where England used to be, in real life, you can lose your professional license for responding to what looked like a plea for help from someone with a voluntary self-harmful behavior. Queer activists succeed there beyond the wildest dreams (well . . . ) of queer activists on this side of the pond.

Dr. Laura said -before she went soft on homersexuals- the end-game of the normalization of deviant sexuality is being able to have sex with children with impunity. You are to be jailed for your failure to recognize that they HAVE TO do what you recognize is destructive, sinful, disgusting, and just plain wrong to the most defenseless among us.

Coming soon to a country near you, if you will let it.

What, AGAIN? Free Homes In UK!

~or~ More News From the Place where England Used to Be:

This is the second time in as many years this story line has made its way across the Atlantic. This time it's a million-dollar property. A guy leaves for a vacation and finds out his house has been taken over by "students" . . . and the Police won't kick them out. This cat has to wait and see if a civil court judge will issue an eviction notice.

I like one of the commenters' ideas: have a true friend* lob a wasp's nest through the window and the bums will self-evict. Then you fumigate and move back in.

Note: in a land where the people are not forbidden to own guns this is a simple fix.
Homeowner: You are trespassing, and depriving me of $1,000,000 and everything I own
Trespasser: So?
Homeowner: So if you don't get out I'll cap you. You have three seconds. Two . . .

The rest of the scenario is up to the bum to decide how it turns out. Fun fact: a knife can be planted on a corpse after a murder is done, and BAM you've got self-defense!

(note: VoteForDavid strictly condemns murder, and house stealing. Don't do either.)

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*"Friends help you move. True friends help you move bodies."
Hat tip: Moonbattery

Well, That's It For England, Then.

When you can sue your boss for something a customer said at your business, when you were not there, and it was not directed at you, but sort-of was related to your third cousin (once removed), and win damages from your boss, your boss is sunk.

Welcome to the place where England used to be.

So, Britons, how's that whole "subjects" thing working out for you? Ever think about following our example, do you? No? Well, for heaven's sake don't joke about it at work!

More News From the Place Where England Used to Be

If you watch a video of people burning the koran in the UK, and somebody invades your privacy by looking over your shoulder? That's an arrest for suspicion of inciting racial hatred. Not burning the book, which would be possibly inciting religious hatred, but merely watching the video: ARRESTED.

Oh, and because Communism is really the superior system, a modest proposal: seeing we already take most of "your" money anyhow, and seeing that (to quote Barbie) "Math is hard," how about we just take all your money and give you what's left when we're done with it. Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs thinks they could juice her subjects for more revenue, if all the revenue went through them first. This idea has not been laughed off the planet, because the English are thoroughly conditioned to being taken care of by their government. Unlike us. oh, wait.

Make That TWO Unreasonable Refusals of Help

"I cannot say why they have not accepted the offer. That is a question for the US State Department."

So says the anonymous spokeswoman for the UK's Department of Energy and Climate Change. Was she talking about the Obama administration's refusal of Dutch ships equipped with oil skimming equipment on day 3 after the accident? No, she was referring to the fact that we turned down an offer of HALF of the UK's stockpiles of oil dispersant chemicals at their cost price.

So, Hillary, What do you say? Nothing. Alright then.

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That is now representatives of two foreign nations who were trying to help deal with what was obviously an international disaster, days before the President of the USA had said public word #1 on the subject.

More News From The Place Where England Used To Be

A woman has died.

She got drunk. She went to the restroom. She missed the toilet and caught a toilet brush up her rectum in her butt cheek. 6" of it broke off inside her bum. She went to the Emergency Department at the hospital and they missed it. She went back, over and over again, complaining of abdominal problems and pain. Guess how many x-rays were added to her medical record during that period.

Two years later, they figured out that she had a piece of brush handle in her, but by then it had fused to her bones. Surgical removal, they said could prove fatal. It was.

Such is the state of medical care in the United Kingdom, where the government provides everyone with state-rationed care in approved-cost doses.

NOW Will They Help This American Man?

President Obama signed the Freedom of the Press act, affirming the US' commitment to the freedom of the press internationally. The act was written in response to the beheading of a journalist by the peaceful adherents to the Religion of Peace.

Banned from the United Kingdom solely for expressing his opinion is only one man, an American known locally as Michael Savage. He is on a very short list of undesirables including the worst of the worst, almost entirely muslims. Not on the list are imams in UK calling for the violent overthrow of UK's government.

After announcing the signing of the act into law, President Obama took no questions from the press. Maybe because the first question from a responsible journalist would be "Hey what about Savage now?"

Why We Must Resist The Statists

~or~ More News From The Place Where England Used To Be:

If you think it is pointless to push back every. single. time. someone comes up with another well-intentioned but somewhat intrusive power grab (like, say, monitoring every child's Body Mass Index with no (as yet) stated purpose?) consider what it is like in a place where they let the control freaks go a little too far, too many times.

Some children sniff glue to get high. So we ban sales of glues with solvents to minors. Then this 17 year-old gets a flat tire. He goes to buy a tire repair kit and the clerk refuses to sell it to him. The glue has solvents. He might sniff it. They tell him right to his face! His father is standing next to the "boy" and asks if he, the father, can buy the tube patch kit. No. The teenager might sniff the glue.

A man donates some fish to a hospital pond. He has a pond at his house also. The pond suddenly needs maintenance, and he takes the fish to his own pond without waiting 30 days to get the transfer approved. Now he's up on charges.

They don't know better than you how to run your life, but they would sure like to get the chance to do it!

In Texas, They Call It "Justified"

In the place where England used to be, they call it "Murder"

. . . when a fellow comes home and sees his mother receiving a beat-down, and kills her assailant. Welcome to the UK, where the motto is "You can't defend yourself or anyone or anything else (including your cultural heritage) - and we won't either!"

Hat tip: Uncle

England: Culture Fail, Sniping WIN!

We can't know his name yet for security reasons, but the Brits have another national treasure/hero on the battlefield right now.

This time five Tangos in 28 seconds were taken out by one man, preventing an ambush. That right there is some impressive shooting, but consider that this was at a range in excess of a MILE.

That guy would come in handy when the culture war shooting starts in jolly ol' UK, if the subjects there were allowed arms by their royal overlords. Congratulations to this sniper, as well as to Accuracy International who are doing something very right with the rifles they send to UK these days.

UK Enforcing Sharia . . . ?

Because you didn't hear this on your nightly news cast:

Muslims in Dudley, UK, are getting uppity. And it looks like the Police are not necessarily above delivering beatings to those opposed to the islamic takeover of UK.

Have you ever seen a pickup truck backing down a boat slip, to let a boat into the water? Did you ever see the truck back down too far, and the driver realizes that, despite using 4 wheel drive to spin his tires, his truck is about to be underwater? The English Defence League is the driver in this mostly bloodless revolution analogy. . . but (like with the soon-to-be-wet driver) you have to root for them to succeed as they go down.

Alternate Headline: More News From The Place Where England Used to Be.

You Got No Right

. . . to secure your borders. That's our job. No, we won't be doing it. No, you can't either. Because shut up, that's why.

The only thing mitigating the horrendousness of government thinking like this, is that SCOTUS has already ruled the Police have no duty to protect an individual, whereas it is pretty clearly a Federal Government responsibility to tend to the security of our national borders.

How does that make it less bad?

In England, they don't have a right to individual self-defense as a practical matter, and the Police are failing to defend people individually. So you'll have (for example) a homeowner up on harder charges, facing more time, than the burglar he tackled breaking into his house.

ClimateGate Scientists Acquitted!

. . . or something. Well, it makes for a dandy headline, anyway.

Money quote from the article at Yahoo (emphasis mine):

Lawmakers stressed that their report — which was written after only a single day of oral testimony — did not cover all the issues and would not be as in-depth as the two other inquiries into the e-mail scandal that are still pending.

Willis said the lawmakers had been in a rush to publish something before Britain's next national election, which is widely expected in just over a month's time.

"Clearly we would have liked to spend more time of this," he said, before adding jokingly: "We had to get something out before we were sent packing."

Online Government for EVERYTHING. What Could POSSIBLY Go Wrong?

The government of UK wants every citizen subject to have an individualized web page, through which to have all interactions with their tyrants government. Because there is no possibility of a security breach of any sort, this is a wonderful way to save money. It also lends that personal touch to government.

. . . oh, wait.