The Irish vote

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Sp!ked: Ireland, you ungrateful wretch!
The bile-filled assault on Irish voters who are thinking of rejecting the Lisbon Treaty shows just how corrupt and undemocratic is the EU.

The assaults on Irish voters also show what it means to be a ‘democratic citizen’ in the EU: that is, someone who is financially cared for by caring-but-faceless bureaucrats in Brussels, and who should be ‘overflowing with appreciation’ for the EU elite’s grace and favour. This is the very opposite of political citizenship; it is a distortion of the traditional relationship between citizens and their governing bodies. In place of free and open debate, in which citizens are treated as adults who can have political views independent of any welfare they might receive from the authorities, we have a situation where those who dare to criticise or complain or say ‘No’ are denounced as ‘extraordinarily ungrateful’ and even ‘treacherous’. This is the kind of relationship a child has with his guardian, or a mentally ill person with his carer – it has nothing whatever to do with democracy.

Massage on the NHS (figures only)

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NHS £1.7bn surplus spending row
The government has come under fire after figures showed a £1.658bn surplus in the NHS last year. Ministers say the surplus will be used to improve patient care but opposition parties warned NHS services were being "starved of cash".
The BBC seems to have swallowed these figures without question. The fact is that a series of measures has been taken to ensure that the surplus was kept below the government target figure of £1.8 billion and without them the true figure would be closer to £3 billion and be a huge embarrassment to ministers.

A Whole School of Trout in the Milk...

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...What We Already Know About Iraq From the People Who Launched the War
We don’t know (because the White House doesn’t want us to know) how many Iraqis have perished for Mr. Bush’s Folly, but the best estimates are over one million. We know that almost five million have been turned into refugees. Combined, that is over one-fifth of this country’s population. We know that over 4,000 Americans have been sacrificed, with tens of thousands gravely wounded and uncounted more tens of thousands psychologically traumatized. We know that our country’s reputation has been shattered, and that we’ve spent our children’s future livelihoods to pay for it by borrowing from them, without even asking for the money.

That is a very large load to bear, so now people are compounding their original sin with additional ones, because they are so frightened of what they’ve caused that they’d rather continue causing more of the same than confront their responsibility, even when a Scott McClellan comes along and sticks it in their face.


Bring me a Camberwell carrot, quick!

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Marijuana may up heart attack, stroke risk: study
Heavy marijuana use can boost blood levels of a particular protein, perhaps raising a person's risk of a heart attack or stroke, U.S. government researchers said on Tuesday. Dr. Jean Lud Cadet of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health, said the findings point to another example of long-term harm from marijuana. But marijuana activists expressed doubt about the findings.
And what is 'heavy use'?
The marijuana users in the study averaged smoking 78 to 350 marijuana cigarettes per week.
350 joints a week!! That must be like drinking three bottles of scotch a day or smoking eight packs of unfiltered Turkish cigarettes or eating two dozen burgers a day. But here is the best part.
The study did not look at whether the heavy marijuana users actually had heart disease.
Ha ha! So these potheads might well have extremely healthy hearts in spite of (or even because of) their herbal intake? Jeez, what a crock of shite.

Permanent Occupation

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Patrick Cockburn: Bush's Secret Deal Would Ensure Permanent U.S. Occupation of Iraq
A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the U.S. presidential election in November.

The terms of the impending deal, details of which have been leaked to this reporter, are likely to have an explosive political effect in Iraq.
Iraqi officials fear that the accord, under which U.S. troops would occupy permanent bases, conduct military operations, arrest Iraqis and enjoy immunity from Iraqi law, will destabilize Iraq's position in the Middle East and lay the basis for unending conflict in their country.
But the accord also threatens to provoke a political crisis in the U.S.
President Bush wants to push it through by the end of next month so he can declare a military victory and claim his 2003 invasion has been vindicated.


And tighten your buttocks, pour juice on your chin; I promised my girlfriend I'd play the the violin, violin, violin ...

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Oo-er! And you thought pelvic exercises were only for women
For six months her husband Robert had been suffering from impotence, so Sue Langton suggested they consult their GP. The couple assumed Robert, a 45-year-old teacher, would be prescribed Viagra. They were astonished when instead, the GP referred him to a physiotherapist to be taught pelvic floor exercises - the same 'women's exercises' Sue, 43, had done after giving birth to their daughter.
And hey, it worked. After a few months Robert was back shagging the missus like there was no tomorrow and all due to squeezing his arse muscles a few times a day. Or was it? Half way down the Daily Mail article we read this:

Robert scored four out of six in his test of pelvic floor muscle strength - below par, probably because he was overweight, drinking too much and unfit. He was told to eat a healthier diet, start regular exercise and drink no more than two glasses of wine a night. Most importantly (sic), he began the pelvic floor exercises as often as possible during the day.
Fat, middle-aged, pissed-up couch potato has trouble getting it up. Oooh, I bet it's those pesky pelvic floor muscles...