Just As Well The Dog's Name Wasn't 'Rover'...

...or, given this is Birmingham, 'Tyson'...

H/T: Robert Hale via email

Taxonomy With The 'Dail Mail'.. Again

/facepalm

As pointed out by Stephen Brown and Pavlov's Cat via email

Assault With A Deadly….Reptile?

A father-of-four threw a lizard at a man in a revenge attack, a court heard yesterday.

We aren’t told what type. Of lizard, I mean. I think we can guess what type of ‘father of four’ we’re dealing with here…

“The defendant walked off to a nearby park, where he was seen sitting quietly with the lizard on his shoulder,” said Lynsey Knott, prosecuting in Nottingham.

When put inside a police van, Dunn urinated in the rear and spat at a police officer.

There’s no mention of how the lizard behaved, though we can only assume it was a lot better…

Miss Knott said Dunn told police he launched the attack because the man had assaulted him several years earlier. A nine-month prison term, suspended for two years, was imposed on Dunn, of Clifford Avenue, Beeston.

Steve Ramsell, in mitigation, said Dunn had a series of problems and had been drinking on the day of the offences.

Bit of an understatement there...

Sunday Funnies...

Oi, science! Cut it out!

Best quote:

"The deep sea is made almost entirely out of wrong."

Yes. Yes, it is...

It’s Instructive…

Oh, gosh!

And who is Farhia? Is she a property owner who faces compulsory purchase to build a vanity project like HS2, perhaps?

Well, no. Of course not! When would someone like that ever draw the attention, not to mention the sympathy, of a ‘Guardian’ columnist?

Farhia settled in north Fulham in 1999 after fleeing Somalia's civil war. Seeking asylum, she was granted indefinite leave to stay in Britain.

Just the sort of person a ‘Guardian’ columnist would fawn over!

Farhia's part of the estate is earmarked for Phase Two of the demolition schedule, which could be several years off if it occurs at all. But her need for stability and security is a recurring theme. With the help of an interpreter, a fellow estate resident, Farhia explained to me that she likes the area, values the friends she has nearby, and is happy with the local schools her four sons attend.

She’s been here eleven years and she can’t speak English? Goodness, she really values her roots in Fulham, doesn’t she?

What about the council's insistence that the redevelopment will generate thousands of new jobs, opening up avenues of prosperity for all residents, including the up and coming young? Such improvements would be welcome, Farhia thinks. But why do they require knocking down her home?

It’s not, though, is it? Her home is in Somalia…

Meanwhile, in South Norwood, completely unobserved by ‘Guardian’ columnists:

Elderly tenants of Tonbridge House, a sheltered housing block in Penge Road, South Norwood, learned last week their homes had been targeted to help tackle the borough's housing crisis and reduce the number of families in bed-and-breakfast accommodation.

Yes, you read that right – the council wants to decant pensioners to house the ‘homeless’. Probably more people like Farhia…

William Ramsey, 80, who has lived there 14 years, said: "To try to remove these people from their own homes, I strongly feel it is an infringement of our human rights. Surely you are allowed to take the last few years of your life with a bit of peace?"

Donald Donaldson, 82, said: "I don't want to move. I have lived here for 18 years and I love living here. I feel we are being bullied."

But no-one’s listening, William & Donald. There’ll be no searing ‘Guardian’ exposes of your plight.

You’re just too….well, unsympathetic, I suppose.

Is Failing ObamaCare Really Just ‘Working As Intended’..?

Marc Rubin certainly seems to be hinting at that:

The glitches and problems with the website are actually, for the moment a blessing for Democrats and Obama himself. They serve as a temporary smoke screen to the real problems which will soon become evident and which were inherent in the law itself, a law for those not aware, that was primarily written by the insurance industry (see the PBS documentary on Frontline) after Obama gave in to their demands and dropped the public option. Obamacare won't be the signature accomplishment of his presidency as his supporters like to trumpet, but his signature failure.

Yup, they wanted single payer, but they settled for ObamaCare. Now the impending failure of the program gives them the impetus they need to push for an abomination like the NHS.

What will soon be apparent once the glitches with the web sites are fixed is that Obamacare will not get remotely close to the 32 million needed to make the program work (or even the 7 million the government predicts will sign up by March 2014). And that will have nothing to do with the website, but what people see on the site once they get there.

Yes, indeed!

As noted at Patterico and Protein Wisdom, once the LIVs that Obama has bamboozled see just what it is they are going to have to pay for – yes, them, not ‘the rich’! – they suddenly realise they’ve been had.

As Robert Frank pointed out in the business section of the New York Times, for Obamacare to succeed, millions of young, healthy uninsured people need to buy into the program and purchase insurance. All of them. One look at the proposed premiums for the bottom tier plans designed to attract those millions and anyone not blinded by wishful thinking could have seen that Obamacare was going to fail.

The assumption is either that Obama and his acolytes are truly blind, or that they had an ulterior motive all along...

The cost alone of these "low end" policies are producing sticker shock when people see them. It gets worse when people see what the insurance companies are actually offering for these premiums. That's when they get the second shock.

Well, indeed! And why wouldn't they?

Congressional Democrats should start getting out in front of what is going to be a mammoth failure, and start running on the idea of having supported a public option in the first place over Obamacare. They should promote the idea of a Democratic Congress in 2014 passing a public option to make this work.

So, was thre (planned) disaster of ObamaCare just a way of softening the American public up for what they wanted all along?

Once More, With Feeling…

…’the world’ is not ‘the watercooler discussion at Guardian HQ’. Nor is it the totally self-selecting sample of users of Jezebel or Buzzfeed:

An unknown Australian girl decides to host an "African"-themed 21st birthday party.

Hilarity, as you might expect, doesn’t ensue…

When confronted … she posts an apology for the unintended offence she had caused, rather than addressing the problem with hosting such a party. Coverage on American websites Buzzfeed and Jezebel is met with disgust and outrage.

So? I rarely use them, but from what I've seen, they - like Twitter and Facebook - are outlets for disgust and outrage. And kittens.

Certainly not to be taken seriously, but some seem to take a perverse delight in finding reasons to do their country down...

But other, more thoughtful commentary could prompt some Australian introspection. Hundreds of comments show how we are seen on the world stage – “Listen to white people there talk about Abo’s on welfare, and you’ll quickly realise America doesn’t really have a race problem,” suggests one Jezebel commentator. Over on Buzzfeed things aren’t much better, where the comment “Australians are well-known for their racism” was widely lauded.

 By people on social media. It's hardly representative, is it?

This isn’t the first incident of Australian racism being spotlighted in America, either – John Oliver recently called Australia “the most comfortably racist place” he’d ever been. To his mind, “They’ve really settled into their intolerance like an old resentful slipper.”

Oh, wow, Australia's lost the world-leading 'British comedian working in America' demographic! However will it cope..?

Has anyone who matters actually been consulted? It seems the answer is 'No':

No studies have been completed on international perceptions of Australian racism, but this avalanche of anecdotes demonstrates that there is a definite disconnect between our perceptions of ourselves, and how we appear to others.

What happened to ‘the plural of anecdote is not data’? Or does that not apply when the Left want to use it?

In the age of increasing globalization, this old-world White Australia approach is less and less appealing; more than one Jezebel commentator states they won’t be visiting Australia due to our atrocious treatment of our Indigenous population.

Their loss is definitely Australia’a gain!

… viewing our treatment of racial minorities through the lens of Europe’s treatment of the Roma doesn’t render our home-grown brand any less entrenched or problematic. Nor does it change the global perception that Australia is a racist paradise, a haven for discrimination and bigotry.

What 'global perception'..?

The disconnect between the perspective espoused by the Challenging Racism Report and the observations made by our foreign friends must surely undermine any confidence we have that Australia is a multicultural place where a fair go is offered to all.

Yes. God forbid Australians have any confidence. Self-loathing is much better...

The Progressives Can Whine All They Want…

…but while these stories keep happening, that ‘stigma’ of mental illness is not going to go away:

A woman has spoken of her horror after being thrown in front of a lorry by a paranoid schizophrenic.

Lauren Hickson, 23, was pushed in the back by John Touray into the path of an oncoming lorry as she waited at a pedestrian crossing by the A63.

She was extraordinarily lucky – she fell into the gap between the cab and the trailer.

Touray, 52, has been convicted of attempted murder by a jury at Hull Crown Court.

Suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, he was declared unfit to plead or to appear in the dock of the court.

Judge Jeremy Richardson QC has deemed Touray will remain a danger for life after ruling Miss Hickson was lucky to be alive.

And once again, this was not an unforeseen act.

Touray had been living in the nearby Dock House hostel and had a long history of mental health problems.

Of course he did. Which is why he was left to wander the streets...

You Have Got To Be Kidding Me..!?

A woman who was mauled by a dog while at work in Lincoln has been awarded £11,500.

Ruth Henderson suffered multiple injuries including a fractured neck, broken hand, and permanent scars on her left thigh.

It happened when the 68-year-old was carrying out a market research survey at a house in Tower Avenue on February 23, 2010.

Hurrah! It’s about time the irresponsible owners of dangerous dogs faced massive bills. This, along with the news that a dog owner who wouldn’t admit fault for his dog biting a postman is having to fork out an eye-watering sum of money, is very welcome news.

Oh. Wait a minute…

Employers IPSOS Mori were ordered by Northampton County Court to pay Ms Anderson £11,500.

Her…employers?!? Just how were they at fault?

Jayne Campbell, personal injury lawyer at Slater and Gordon, said: “Ruth was the victim of a terrifying dog attack which resulted in serious injuries to her hand as well as severe emotional trauma.

“This injury may have been avoided if her employers had given her the correct training to deal with the situation.”

*speechless*

I Think It Must Run In The Family…

Adjei Amaning, 52, from Croydon, set up the Stigma charity last year after hiding the fact that two of his brothers suffered from schizophrenia for much of his life.

Setting up the charity cost Mr Amaning his marriage and his house, he now lives on a friend’s floor and is facing bankruptcy.

Oh dear! But…

But he said it was worth it.

/facepalm

In its latest campaign the mental health charity is calling for people to turn their own cameras on themselves for its new campaign against the stigma of mental illness.

Stigma wants to compile a giant collage of 'selfies' - self-shot snaps of yourself - to highlight how widespread mental issues are.

Well, I heartily approve! As long as their names & addresses are attached, I feel it’s good to have fair warning.