Right to Opine

Yet another reason the US should pull out of the UN and stop sinking your tax money in that disgraceful organization. The International Atomic Energy Agency, an arm of the UN, acknowledges that, among other dubious recipients, Iran & Syria received $55 million in funding for nuclear energy research. Our tax dollars provide “about a quarter of the budget.”

Of course the UN is rather egalitarian in its largess. According to the report,

there are no good countries and there are no bad countries.

As long as you don’t consider tyrranical regimes like Cuba, genocidal Sudan, or terrorist sponsors Iran & Syria “bad” countries.

Formula 1 racing is changing its championship system next season. Rather than relying on a strict points system, where the driver with the most consistent finishes takes the prize, the championship will be awarded to the driver with the most wins. How does this change the sport? In the words of “Formula One supremo” Bernie Ecclestone himself:

If you’re in the lead and I’m second, I’m not going to take the risk of falling off the circuit or doing something stupid to get two points. If I need a gold medal to win the championship, I will overtake.

In other words, under the points system drivers will drive safely. The new system will encourage them to do “something stupid” in order to get a win. Brilliant.

Over a 4 year period a hospital in the UK had around 400 unnecessary death due to horrendous emergency care. Per an inquiry into the outrage,

managers pursued targets at the detriment of patient care.

Targets, in this context, being financial targets set in order to keep costs down. This is what happens when medicine becomes more about cutting costs than treating patients. What else do you expect when the government runs the (increasingly expensive) show?

Gotta love the quotes from British politicians.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary, Norman Lamb, called for a “cultural change so that every part of this trust has open and transparent systems in place to ensure patient safety”.

and

Bill Cash, Conservative MP for Stone, said: “There have been systemic failures in the organisation and I have asked for resolute action to be taken.”

Mr. Lamb, that “cultural change” would be called the Hippocratic Oath. It makes the patient’s health a pretty darned high priority. There must be someone in the UK who’s heard of it.

Mr. Cash, how about this for “resolute action”: scrap socialized medicine. Otherwise you’ll just keep fighting this battle over and over again.

This is, of course, what you get when medical decisions are made by bureaucrats. Obama’s proposal for universal healthcare includes provisions for decisions regarding the availability and coverage for specific treatments. This will lead to denial of care and a reduction in the quality of healthcare we receive…just like we see in the UK.

You may recall a couple weeks ago the UK barred Dutch legislator Geert Wilders from entry because he is ostensibly a security threat, purveyor of hate, yada yada yada. Now they’re going to allow a spokesman for Hezbollah into the country to deliver a lecture. Go figure. Ban the critic of Islam, support the Islamic terrorist.

England, you’re getting the decrepit, decaying society you deserve. Sadly, I see too much of this happening here as well.

As in, gun control means hitting your target. There was another terrorist attack by a nutjob plowing a bulldozer through a couple police cars and into a bus full of schoolgirls. What slowed the goblin down long enough for the police to finish him off? A civilian taxi driver carrying a concealed handgun.

Self-defense works, folks, because even when the police are present, they sometimes can’t respond as quickly as an alert, armed civilian.

Great Britain provides further evidence that it has lost its collective mind, announcing that it will bestow honorary knighthood on Senator Ted Kennedy. Silly me. I thought knighthood actually meant something. Wonder if one of his ancestors drowned a peasant girl by riding a horse off a bridge?

Though they do enjoy playing the victim card, Palestinians aren’t at all serious about peace with Israel. Since the IDF withdrew from Gaza a month ago more than 100 rockets have been fired into Israel from Gaza…around 3 a day. Where’s the outcry from the world demanding that the rocket fire cease? Of course you won’t hear any. The liberal media can’t even call this what it is, naming the aggressors “militants” rather than what they are. When you target civilians, as in the latest attack which hit a school, you’re not a militant but a terrorist.

Claiming they would save dozens of lives each year, a doctor in the UK recommends mandatory usage of air bag jackets by motorcyclists.

There is a shocking number of deaths of motorcyclists on the roads. I think dozens of lives could be saved if these jackets were made compulsory.

Is this really the biggest health problem in a country where thousands of people die every year due to alcohol (more than 8,700 in 2007)? Suggestion for the UK: have your doctors work on a problem that affects a growing portion of your population and costs your socialized health care system far more than a few hundred motorcycle fatalities annually.

The US Navy has nabbed a group of pirates in the Gulf of Aden after receiving a distress call from the ship they were trying to commandeer. ‘Bout time we had some good news in that arena!

The Dutch MP I wrote about a couple weeks ago has been denied entrance to England because he purportedly poses a threat to public safety. Apparently taking a controversial, albeit legitimate, stand on Islamic terrorism constitutes such a threat. Per the UK’s Home Office:

“The government opposes extremism in all forms,” it said in a statement, adding that it had tightened up rules on excluding those engaging in “unacceptable behaviour” in October.

“It will stop those who want to spread extremism, hatred, and violent messages in our communities from coming to our country.”

Left unexamined is the fact that the UK doesn’t have an official problem with the large number of extremist Muslim imams in England. Nor does it have the stones to bar entrance to more of their ilk. It increasingly appears that the US is fast becoming the last bastion of free speech.