Sarah Palin's Speech

In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.
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I guess that a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organiser', except that you have actual responsibilities.
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I might add that in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening."
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We tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.

Nicely done.

Green Intolerance

A teenage waitress has been warned she will be sacked unless she quits smoking.

Fair enough. After all, it's for employers to set the terms under which they will employ staff, and if they don't want her to smoke on company premises, then they have the backing of law. After all, businesses lose a lot of time from employee smoking breaks.

But wait:

Bethany South, 16, has been told to give up the habit for good – both during breaks from work and even in her spare time – or risk losing her job.

Her boss Julian Preston-Powers issued the warning after catching her lighting up outside Intenso Espresso Bar in Portland Road, Hove.

He said her smoking went against the policy of the café, which serves healthy, organic food.

Anything else you'd like to ban in her own time, Mr Prat-Power? No drinking alcohol, unless it's sourced from naturally-grown grapes tended by Provencal peasants and flown to the UK by carrier pigeons? Uneconomic day trips by car to Alton Towers, oooh, no, we can't have that, can we? Would you like to regulate the newspaper she reads too? Pop into her living room and check that she's watching an 'ecologically approved' TV programme, something by David Attenborough?

I hope she takes him to a tribunal and wins big. In fact, she could:

Mr Preston-Powers, who is franchise director for the coffee shop, said: “I contacted employment lawyers and they told me I wouldn’t have a leg to stand on in front of a tribunal but I feel so strongly about this that I was happy to go ahead with it.".

And there you have the green approach to the law in its purest form; I know I'm in the wrong, but I just don't care...

And I'll remember this the next time some authoritarian little creep is promoting his green agenda. Because this is what they are all like, deep down - people who want to bully and control teenage girls, because they can.

Another Guard Dog Bitten...

Sergeant Roy Jennings now has something in common with former police officer Paul Lawson. Something, that is, other than their choice of careers:

A police sergeant launched an angry attack on his own force yesterday after yobs who threw a stone that smashed his car window were let off without prosecution.

Yeah, soft policing. It's a crime, isn't it, Sergeant Jennings?

The policeman said: 'I feel very frustrated and angry'.

Welcome to the club!

But he later discovered to his astonishment that his bosses had decided the boys should not be taken to court.

Sergeant Jennings, who has served with Hampshire Police for 22 years, called the punishment 'a slap on the wrist'.

He said the boys should have faced the more serious charge of causing criminal damage likely to endanger life. This would have meant a court appearance.

'In my view this was a case that could only be dealt with in the courts,' the sergeant added.

'It was so severe that it didn't warrant a simple warning.'

Hard to disagree, given they stoned a moving vehicle, showering Mrs Jennings with broken glass. However, Inspector Dave Hunter isn't moved:

Inspector Dave Hunter rejected his criticisms and defended the decision not to prosecute.

He said: 'All that happened was that a window was broken because of a moment of impulsive stupidity. They'd say it's just criminal damage.'

Hard not to read that in the voice of a sulky teenager forced to do chores, isn't it? 'Oh, Muuuum, but it's too hard!'

Perhaps the ranks should be reversed, and 'Inspector' (Ed - of what, exactly?) Hunter could do a bit of sergeanting for a change...

Naturally enough, this wasn't the yobs first offence:

In this case one of the two boys, who admitted throwing the stones, was given a reprimand, and the other a final warning.

Bet he's shaking in his trainers...

Yeah, Let's Give People Like This More Pay..

The big civil service unions are whinging about 'below-inflation payrises' for their members, and threatening a series of strikes.

So, if people like this did go on strike, wouldn't we be better off?

Samantha Corbridge, 24, was thrown out of the Jobcentre Plus office after being told she was breaking the 'food and drink policy' by giving her daughter a bottle of milk.

Coming from the people employed by the government making an almighty fuss about public breastfeeding, would that have made a difference? Apparently not:

She went on: "A few people tried to stick up for me. One lady asked if I would have been allowed to stay if I was breastfeeding but the worker said no – 'because that is food.'

And you know you are on solid ground when, of all people, a local council worker thinks things have gone too far!

Lindsey Singleton, an employee at Brighton and Hove City Council who witnessed the incident, said: "I was absolutely appalled. I have made a formal complaint about this member of staff's treatment of this young mother.

"The member of staff was very rude and humiliated this young woman. I have raised the issue with the council."

The usual mealy-mouthed statement has been released:

A Jobcentre Plus spokesman said an investigation had been launched into the incident last Wednesday.

He added: "Jobcentre Plus asks our customers to attend on an individual basis in order to give an individual and personal service.

"We ask all customers to attend on their own unless they need assistance. There appears to have been an unfortunate misunderstanding in this instance.

"We will, as a matter of course, speak to the office involved in this case."

Hmm, yes. I think the 'misunderstanding' was when your staff member got caught doing this...

As Expected…

….though it took a little bit longer than I predicted:

How dare she impose her twisted logic upon other women who have endured similar, and want the right to demand justice as a rape victim or survivor?

I didn’t realise that expressing an opinion in a newspaper interview was ‘imposing’ on anyone…

Mirren has decided that men who rape women while out on a date should not be taken to court…

Wasn’t aware that she was in a position to ‘decide’ that. Nor that we do that sort of thing now via the medium of a newspaper interview with an actress (though, the way some laws get made I wouldn’t be too surprised…).

Actually, Mirren should stick to acting and shut up about atrocities towards women.

She should ‘shut up’..? I thought feminists encouraged women to speak out? *Confused*

And if actresses aren’t permitted to speak about anything other than acting, on the grounds that it’s not her subject, does that go for actors too? Poor old Leonardo Dicaprio – who’s going to listen to his global warming stuff now?

I can understand why radical feminists hate men. But I can’t figure out why they don’t seem to like women too much either.

Well, She’s Certainly Right There….

A Christian group is taking an art centre to court, claiming it displayed an indecent statue of Jesus Christ.
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Lawyers for Christian Emily Mapfuwa, 40, of Essex, are bringing a civil case for outraging public decency.
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Northumbria Police investigated following Mrs Mapfuwa's complaint, but ruled there was no case to answer.
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Mrs Mapfuwa, of Brentwood, said Baltic would not have dared depict Mohammed in such a way.

Rather hard to disagree with that comment, but even so, that doesn’t mean that her action is well thought out, or some kind of justifiable ‘tit for tat’ in the endless ‘my god is better than your god’ nonsense.

In fact, like the ‘CiF’ post highlighted yesterday by Longrider, it’s merely yet another case of a ‘nasty little fascist who thinks that her prejudices should be afforded the weight of the law’.

The ‘art’ probably isn’t the sort of stuff I’d hang on the wall (or even go to see), but the idea that adults should be prevented from seeing it because a bunch of religious nutcases think they can do an end-run around the law by bringing a civil case is absurd.

Total Self Absorption Is This Woman’s Real Disability…

New scientific techniques may restore the hearing of millions of deaf people, but Jessica Fellowes doesn't want it.

The news that deaf people can hope to have their hearing restored thanks to a groundbreaking gene therapy will have up to one in five of us breaking out the champagne. As someone who has worn hearing aids since the age of two, you would think I'd be one of them but strangely,

I'm not. An integral part of me, I can no more contemplate the loss of my deafness than that of my right leg.

Well, that’s her right, of course. Most won’t agree, but no-one’s forcing this decision on her. Which is as it should be.

Hence, various attempts to cure my ears have been tried: grommets, acupuncture and even a long, oily massage in Sri Lanka. But the only thing to make a real difference was five years ago when I at last acquired a pair of digital aids. When I first wore them, I admit, I sobbed as someone reborn. The world simply came alive: the words on the radio, the birds on the trees, even the click-click of the car indicator.

But at the same time as revelling in this new wall of sound was a worry: would I now be a normal person?

Hmm, odd way to look at it. Is there something wrong with being a ‘normal person’?

You see, I was brought up to feel special for having special needs. Without them I worry I would be just another ordinary person doing ordinary things. I love it when people exclaim that they hadn't realised and they look at me anew - as someone who has overcome great problems and managed to function successfully in the world.

Well, I’ve seen it all now….

Nor do I understand how everyone else copes with noise 24/7. My happiest moments are spent pottering around my flat in total silence, the outside world unable to encroach on my peace. I am able to get completely lost in a book and never have an interrupted night's sleep. But most of all, I am proud of my parents and friends for the way they handle it, never allowing my deafness to let me feel less than entirely good about myself.

It has undoubtedly made me a nicer and more sympathetic person.

Ummm….no further comment!

Tokenism

Over at the Social Work Blog, Daniel Lombard has a horrifying tale to tell of incompetence, failure to check references and chaos caused by the hiring of a social worker (by three councils in Wales, Scotland and north-west England) who turned out to be….well, who knows what he really was:

He joined them as an ultra-qualified, registered social worker with bags of experience. But what clinched it for this idealistic young people's champion was an unsolicited reference purporting to be from a former employer, describing him as an "easy-going fellow" with a "passion for children".

He wasn’t a registered social worker though, he had no qualifications, and his glowing references were a pile of poo:

A Denbighshire council manager reported that in just two months of bungling, (redacted reference to name) he left Rhyl's child protection team in "chaos", causing serious problems for his one-time colleagues and putting vulnerable children at risk.

A Highland council boss said (redacted reference to name and nationality) he frequently failed to turn up to supervision sessions and she had to "go and find him on several occasions".

In a night shift job at a children's emergency accommodation unit at the Together Trust, he was dismissed for "poor interaction with young people and persistent use of his personal mobile phone".

So, what possessed these three councils to offer him a job in the first place?

Well, the clue might be in the name I’ve redacted from that excerpt. It’s Christopher Nwokoro, and he was a Nigerian national.

It’s hard not to think that what really ‘clinched it’ for Nwokoro was the fact that he ticked the ‘diversity’ box on all three of those councils, isn’t it…?

They Are At It Yet Again…

It beggars belief that in the UK in 2008, a teenage mother has to flee to a neighbouring country to keep her child. Yet that’s just what Sam Thomas has to do:

A mother-to-be has fled to Ireland because she fears social services are planning to seize her newborn child and have it adopted.

Sam Thomas, 19, left Britain alone, despite being heavily pregnant.

She discovered that her social worker had told the local hospital not to let her leave the maternity ward with her child - a girl - without social services being involved.

Sounds awfully familiar.

Hmm, so, what’s the history here? Previous child cruelty? Mental issues? Lack of parental support?

Oh, right, of course. Nothing at all:

The county council has not obtained a court order giving it authority to keep Miss Thomas in the hospital, and she has no history of being a danger to children - yet social workers appear convinced she is unfit to care for her baby.

Once again, we see a disturbing pattern – pounce on a newborn (born to a teenager who can be bullied andbamboozled) which will be easy to place, and ignore the older children clearly at risk from their parents because they don’t fit the all-important adoption profile.

She had been living in Yeovil, Somerset, with her mother Carol Hughes and looking forward to the birth of her first child.

She became concerned, however, at Somerset County Council's growing interest in the birth, due in early October - and says it soon became clear that there was a risk she would not be able to keep her child.

And that risk? Well, it seems that despite vocal protests about the way mental health issues are ‘stigmatising people’, the social services aren’t above stigmatising people themselves, when there’s something in it for them:

Miss Thomas accepts that she has harmed herself and taken an overdose in the past, but insists she has not been troubled by problems related to depression for two years.

Yet council documents show her past difficulties are still considered serious.

There is a further issue surrounding claims that she has failed to take medication for a health condition related to blood-clotting.

Hmm, perhaps instead of having a child she should have a serious mental disorder that threatens the safety of others, then no-one would care whether she took her medication or not…

Sisters Better Not Do It For Themselves….Or Else!

As Dumb Jon has pointed out, the loony left have seized on the selection of Sarah Palin as Republican VP pick as an example of her ‘inauthenticity’ as a woman (because she hunts, fishes and has a happy family life, devoid of whinges about ‘sexism’ and the glass ceiling).

Similarly, Ross points out the absurd claims that would be drawing furious support and claims of ‘unfair’ smears from the ‘sisterhood’ were they pointed at a Democrat candidate.

Indeed, the crazy feminists usually treat any female who dares to march out of lockstep with current feminist ‘thinking’ with the same compassion and respect for individuality as you might expect for a Borg drone who unplugged itself one morning and decided to throw on a Day-Glo pink t-shirt for a change…

So, we can expect Helen Mirren to be next in the womyn’s firing line after this display of common sense:

If a woman voluntarily ends up in a man's bedroom, takes all her clothes off and engages in sexual activity in bed with him she has the right to say "no" at the last second, Dame Helen said.

If the man ignored her it was rape, Dame Helen said.

But she said: "I don't think she can have that man into court under those circumstances.

"I guess it is one of the many subtle parts of the men/women relationship that has to be negotiated and worked out between them”.

Oh dear.

Cue frothing outrage and denunciation from the likes of Cath Elliot and the Bindelbeast in 3….2….1….