Warren Zevon - Gone 10 years

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Great piece in the Guardian about one of my musical heroes.  

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Warren Zevon, who died a decade ago this September at the far-too-premature age of 56, was a singer, a songwriter and one of the great under-appreciated talents in modern America. But he could also be, as his friends, family and lovers will quickly tell you, a pain in the ass. He was at times intimidating, self-destructive, aloof. "He had tonnes of charisma, but when he didn't want people coming up to him, he had charisma in reverse," his ex-wife Crystal Zevon remembers.

As a father, he was largely absent until his son and daughter were adults: "He had no language for dealing with children. As a teenager, I was angry that he wasn't there for me as a kid, angry at him for mistreating my mom," says his and Crystal's daughter, Ariel. And when he was drinking, he was almost unbearable: erratic, violent, emotionally absent, impossible.

The rotten side of the NHS

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In an interview on BBC radio, Care QualityCommission chairman David Prior described the allegation that his organisation covered up failings as "shocking".

But perhaps the truly most shocking element of all this is that we are not really that surprised.

The findings laid bare by consultants Grant Thornton on Wednesday confirms something that is becoming clearer and clearer as the months go by: that the in the early part of the 21st century a rotten culture developed in the NHS that put the self-interest ahead of patients.

In short, the NHS stopped caring.

Peter Walsh, of the patient group Action Against Medical Accidents, says while it is pleasing the NHS is admitting it has a problem, he is still not sure the systems being put in place are "robust or proactive" enough to deal with problems when they happen.

"I am not confident we have the right systems in place, the regulatory system is still not simple enough."

It's not about having the right systems, it's about having the right PEOPLE. As has been shown time and time again. 

Families condemn 'rotten' NHS cover-up over 16 baby deaths at Morecambe Bay as data protection stops culprits being named. Daily Mail


 

Most borrowed book in Parliament

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It offers tips on how to ‘doughnut’ - or surround a speaker in Parliament in order to create the impression on television that the session is well-attended - and how to prevent a political career from derailing a marriage.

Chapter titles include “How to convince voters that the MP never stops working”, “How to dilute boredom”, “How to Climb the Greasy Pole” and “How to write an Abusive Letter”.

 

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It says of IPSA, the expenses watchdog loathed by many Members: "It should be humanely put down, buried under a slab of concrete never to rise again from its dishonoured grave. But until that happens, you'll just have to live with it."

A chapter towards the end of the book gives advice on “How to be Ennobled.”

In the foreword Speaker John Bercow “thoroughly recommends” the book.

Source: Daily Telegraph

Suicide Rates Rise Sharply in U.S.

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An extraordinary thing has happened. Now, thanks to severely depressed Americans, neither chance nor intention… neither the gods nor terrorists… pose a bigger threat to them than they pose to themselves

Preliminary research at Rutgers suggests that the risk for suicide is unlikely to abate for future generations. Changes in marriage, social isolation and family roles mean many of the pressures faced by baby boomers will continue in the next generation, Dr. Phillips said.

“The boomers had great expectations for what their life might look like, but I think perhaps it hasn’t panned out that way,” she said. “All these conditions the boomers are facing, future cohorts are going to be facing many of these conditions as well.”