Allotments 4 All
General => The Shed => Topic started by: Vony on July 16, 2009, 06:07:21
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You could have heard a pin drop!
In England , at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the
Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of
‘empire building' by the United States . He answered by saying, 'Over the
years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into
great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount
of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not
return.’
You could have heard a pin drop.
.....
There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers
were taking part, including French and American. During a break, one
of the French engineers came back into the room saying 'Have you heard the latest
dumb stunt the United States has done? They have sent an aircraft
carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What do they intend
to do, bomb them?'
A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: 'Our carriers have three
hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear
powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they
have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a
day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from
sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting
victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such
ships; how many does France have?'
You could have heard a pin drop.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
A Canadian Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals
from the Canadian, U.S. , English, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail
reception, he found himself standing with a large group of officers that
included personnel from most of those countries.
Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a
French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many
languages, North Americans generally learn only English. He then asked,
'Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather
than speaking French?'
Without hesitating, the Admiral replied 'Maybe it's because the Brits,
Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak
German.'
You could have heard a pin drop.
.....
AND THIS STORY FITS RIGHT IN WITH THE ABOVE...
Robert Whiting, an elderly Canadian gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by
plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in
his carry on.
'You have been to France before, monsieur?' the customs officer
asked sarcastically.
Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.
'Then you should know enough to have your passport ready.'
The Canadian said, ''The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it.
'Impossible. Canadians always have to show passports on arrival in France !'
The Canadian senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly
explained, ’Well, when I came ashore on D-Day in 1944 to help
liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen to show a passport to.'
You could have heard a pin drop.
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OH Bravo!! I love these, more please. ;D
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I agree with the last three (though France does have some aircraft carriers) but the first one is just wrong. There are dozens of US bases across the world - notably Germany, Cuba, Japan and Iraq that were all the after effect of military excursions. There's nothing wrong with that it's just Powell's statement (if true) is wrong.
Also remember for a while that the US ran Singapore and that they expropriated places like Texas, California and much of the South Western US from the Mexicans. Also Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa and the US Virgin Islands are all US controlled but have little if any democratic influence or participation in the US Congress despite paying taxes and serving in the armed forces. All interesting nuances in the tapestry of the US.
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The bloody yanks are still here!! in mildenhall and lakenheath in east anglia, and they ain't buried!! (and they still train their pilots over our soil!!)
we already have democracy and freedoms, , so why are they still here? Yankee go home!!!!!
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USAF also have bases at Fairford and Upper H eyford and 6 more around the country not to mention Fylingdales, North Yorkshire who are probably listening right now.
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Like 'em all. 8) 8)
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wonderful! they certainly are a great case for not getting too 'up' oneself!
I certainly won' t be accusing the US of Empire building...being a Brit myself, that may be a tad hypocritical....
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Philippine America war circa 1900. Up to a million Philippeno dead, of which only about 30,000 were soldiers, out of a population of 9 million.
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Sack all our pilots, sell the planes and ships. Most of them are second rate to US stock anyway. Slash all defense spending.
Then just give the USA what they need to defend the world and democracy as they see fit.
No more British soldiers dying, no more hideous amounts of money wasted on crap equipment that is already out of date before it's even issued.
Spend the money on education.. Like how British Imperialism enslaved half the world, that our Industrial revolution was the by product of the slave trade etc etc.
Britian has long lost the need to have any major fighting force.
Just my humble opinion.
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Sack all our pilots, sell the planes and ships. Most of them are second rate to US stock anyway. Slash all defense spending.
Then just give the USA what they need to defend the world and democracy as they see fit.
No more British soldiers dying, no more hideous amounts of money wasted on crap equipment that is already out of date before it's even issued.
Spend the money on education.. Like how British Imperialism enslaved half the world, that our Industrial revolution was the by product of the slave trade etc etc.
Britian has long lost the need to have any major fighting force.
Just my humble opinion.
Don't panic - we're nearly there!
In the last 12 years we've nearly quadrupled spend on the NHS and doubled spend on schools. Defence spending has been cut.
Sure enough, it's been a wild success! The NHS now kills at least 80,000 people a year. That's far more than the Army, Navy, and Air Force combined have achieved in many a long year.
I'll admit that schools are a bit less successful. OK, so Peter Harvey attempted to kill a pupil the other week at a school in Ollerton. But that's not achieving the targets, is it? But in a few more years, I reckon that the product of British "education" will be so stupid that they'll probably qualify for Darwin awards in their tens of thousands. Just a bit more "funding" and we'll be there.
Way to go, BrianK! ;D
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The bloody yanks are still here!! in mildenhall and lakenheath in east anglia, and they ain't buried!! (and they still train their pilots over our soil!!)
we already have democracy and freedoms, , so why are they still here? Yankee go home!!!!!
Actually my American neighbour works at one of those two and he's the nicest guy in the street, he's lived in the UK since 1983 and has an English wife who tried to live in the US but hated it.....so don't send them all home.
However when in the Middle East during WW2 my Dad said "when the Germans flew over we ducked; when the RAF flew over the Germans ducked but when the USAF flew over everybody ducked!"
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Way to go, BrianK! ;D
hehe well it was worth a thought.
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Typical 'Readers' Digest' mumph.
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Love the Yanks my sister is married to one also the Sergeants mess at RAF Woodbridge back in the 60's, :)
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I've liked most of the Americans I've ever met - it's not their fault that they come from a (very rich) third world country.
p.s. - shame a post about American supremacy had to have such an appalling grammatical mistake in the title! ;)
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I thought it was just me being picky so I didn't say.... :-[
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The NHS now kills at least 80,000 people a year.
Really? What's your source for this.
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I thought it was just me being picky so I didn't say.... :-[
haha, know it wos me to!
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The NHS now kills at least 80,000 people a year.
Really? What's your source for this.
It's difficult to find a single source because it is all reported separately. So who knows what the number is.
For example in 2007 there were 8,324 deaths where a contributing factor was hospital acquired C. Diff. Nigel Evans MP, whose mother died from a hospital acquired infection, wrote that there are an estimated 59,000 people in this country are disabled or die because of poor hygiene or care in our hospitals.
LINK (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1169785/The-NHS-killed-mother-MP-Nigel-Evans-reveals-routine-operation-ended-horror.html)
There was the mid-Staffordshire scandal which resulted in an estimated 1200 deaths as a direct result of NHS failures.
There's report from the Tax Payers Alliance called Wasting Lives: A statistical analysis of NHS performance in a European context since 1981 (http://tpa.typepad.com/bettergovernment/2008/01/major-study-on.html), which found A statistical analysis of World Health Organisation data reveals that the poor performance of the NHS is causing 17,157 deaths per year
and that despite $34 billion in extra NHS funding over the last 12 years there has been no difference in the rate of UK mortality for the preceding 16 years.
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The NHS now kills at least 80,000 people a year.
Add a zero and you would probably be nearer the figure!
I can think of several friends and family members who would probably still be alive had they not been treated according to the medical orthodoxy. The NHS (or rather Western medicine in general) is effectively run by pharmaceutical companies whose aim is to sell chemicals, not find cures that would put them out of business.
BTW I wouldnt cite the Archbishop of Canterbury as an expert on anything. This is the man who thinks Sharia law is OK.. Personally I would give him a sex change and a one-way ticket to Saudi Arabia!
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The NHS (or rather Western medicine in general) is effectively run by pharmaceutical companies whose aim is to sell chemicals, not find cures that would put them out of business.
Nonsense. I work at the coal face of pharmaceutical research and it is nothing like your description. 30 years ago the number one killer of men was ulcers - you don't hear anything about that nowadays due to pharmaceuticals. The near total eradication of smallpox due to a vaccine. There are a range of diseases, bacterial and viral, where there may never be 'cures' because of the constantly evolving nature of these organisms.
The number one contributory factor to rising life expectancy is modern medicine. So much so that the majority of diseases nowadays are a direct result of long life for which the human body is unused to.
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Close family who have had their lives saved by the NHS include:
My Mother
My Father
My Wife probably (twice)
Both of my children
Me probably
Nobody I know has been killed by the health system.
Some people are far too happy to knock... think about what happens to Americans that catch the wrong disease... we have a brilliant health service that, like everything, could be improved. It doesn't make it rubbish.
Anyway, how did we get onto this? I thought we were correcting grammar?! :P
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The near total eradication of smallpox due to a vaccine
No actually the Total eradication, the only case since 1977 was in a germ warfare lab...
That vaccine predates the chemical/pharmacutical "industry" by at least 100 years...
I hope you are all paying for "Bupa" so the NHS can bail you out if you get anything complicated/expensive/long-term... :-X
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The NHS has saved my life three times. That is probably enough reason for Melbourne18 et al to knock it. ;D
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The NHS does have it's problems but last year it saved my Dad's life twice in the space of 4 months and looked after my Mum in her dying days allowing her dignity till the end.
@lewic - I suffered from ulcers all my life and was told that it would kill me eventually. I am very thankful for the antibiotics that have saved me years of pain.
@labrat - Is there really no central collation of these figures? With the best will in the world a greiving son writting in the D. Mail with no references is not the most reliable source. I'm not saying there isnt a problem but I am amazed that there are no centrally collated figures for this data.
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The near total eradication of smallpox due to a vaccine
the only case since 1977 was in a germ warfare lab...
Hence the word 'near' because there are still samples of it in US and Russian labs as well as a host of other countries who are suspected of conducting biological warfare research. Therefore not total eradication.
That vaccine predates the chemical/pharmacutical "industry" by at least 100 years...
That's just a little silly because all scientific development stands on the shoulders of predecessors. It's a bit like saying that going to the moon wasn't a product of 20th century ingenuity because Newton had theorised gravity centuries before. However the fact is it was pharmaceutical companies working with WHO in the 50's and 60's that put an end to smallpox in the general populace. It's not necessarily the job of pharmaceutical companies to develop new science though many do and nearly all fund new research in universities and research institutes. Most of what pharmaceutical companies do is to use basic tools that are in the journals and adapt it to their needs.
@labrat - Is there really no central collation of these figures? With the best will in the world a greiving son writting in the D. Mail with no references is not the most reliable source. I'm not saying there isnt a problem but I am amazed that there are no centrally collated figures for this data.
I assume an MP can't just say these things because other polticians would pounce on them. But trying not to sound too pissy it is not my job to look for this information. I just highlighted a few things found with a cursory glance. There is the National Patient Safety Agency within the NHS (not great for impartiality like a NAO or ONS) which as yet doesn't publish incident reports (but plans to) but also there are many Trusts who don't submit reports or are serial low incident reporters. All a bit hap hazard from the sounds of it.