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...


The removal centre that doesn't

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Why this woman's story shames Scotland
Human rights campaigners and churches last night demanded the closure of Dungavel Removal Centre – Scotland's "Guantanamo" – saying the imprisonment of vulnerable women and children behind a wire fence was unacceptable in 21st-century Scotland.

They also said it was time the Scottish Government stopped saying immigration was a Westminster matter and found a solution for injustices happening on Scottish soil. The fresh outrage came after The Scotsman revealed the harrowing testimony of Corellie Bonhomme, 35, a Canadian national, who told of her despair inside Dungavel, and of how she was pinned down by immigration officials and had her two-year-old daughter, Fi, snatched from her.
Read the whole story of this shabby affair.

I fucking well HATE what this country has become

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Two tier, one life

I'm no supporter of John Redwood but he's right on this matter, as far as I'm concerned.
A woman dying of cancer was denied free National Health Service treatment in her final months because she had paid privately for a drug to try to prolong her life.

The government’s visceral hatred of co-payment for health is as absurd as it is dangerous. Practically everyone who uses the NHS practises co-payment. The very system Labour set up more than half a century ago soon required co-payment in the form of prescription charges. It always allowed private sector pharmacies to offer over the counter drugs to people for self treatment, or for treatment under the advice of the pharmacist. NHS Doctors have been known to tell people to buy an over the counter drug rather than a prescription one where this could be cheaper or better for them.

The discovery that the Health Secretary now thinks that if someone buys some drugs that are not available on the NHS from a private Doctor they should be banned from all NHS treatment for that condition is bad and mad. Logically on this Labour view if I try to treat myself for an ailment at home using over the counter medicines, and then have to go the GP because it is not working, he should say I have no right to free treatment for that as I have been spending my own money directly on the condition. Co-payment and alternative systems are fundamental to meeting the real pressures on health care in this country. The NHS could not manage without a flourishing pharmacy sector alongside it to handle many of the day to day and smaller items.