The Urban Grind

For a country that’s bankrupt, I would think their government would have more important things to do than adding yet another group of people to be given financial assistance. But that’s what they’ve done.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek disabled groups are angry at a government decision to expand a list of state-recognized disability categories to include pedophiles, exhibitionists and kleptomaniacs.
The National Confederation of Disabled People called the action “incomprehensible,” and said pedophiles are now awarded a higher government disability pay than some people who have received organ transplants.

But the Labor Ministry on Monday said categories added to the expanded list — that also includes pyromaniacs, compulsive gamblers, fetishists and sadomasochists — were included for purposes of medical assessment and used as a gauge for allocating financial assistance.

I wouldn’t be surprised if our Democrats get some ideas from the Greeks.

This article was so ridiculous that I had to post it.

Let me just say that I think breast implants are totally disgusting. The whole of idea of a healthy woman having her breasts cut open to insert foreign bodies of silicone into them is just gross! Also it makes finding cancerous lumps more difficult, never mind nursing a baby.

On another note, what is so bad about being flat-chested. Models are all flat chested, and they easily wear backless dresses, halter tops, and gowns with spaghetti straps. So I just don’t understand where these women are coming from.

Also, if you’re going have cosmetic surgery, it should be *your* job to know what you’re getting into. (That’s not to say doctors shouldn’t be sued for malpractice.) So if you (I used this word in the general sense) are SO stupid and SO desperate for a larger cup size that you would let some doctor put mattress grade silicone into your breasts, why should the government/taxpayers have to foot the fill?

Paris (CNN) — The French government will pay for tens of thousands of women to have silicone breast implants removed over concerns about a possible link to a rare form of cancer, the Ministry of Health said Wednesday.

French health authorities are due to make a recommendation Friday about whether women with implants by a company called Poly Implant Prosthese (PIP) must have them removed.
The ministry says about 30,000 French women have PIP implants, which are not currently approved for use in the United States.
According to a news release from the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, PIP is now defunct. It says the company “used non-medical grade silicone believed by the manufacturers to be made for mattresses.”

The French government agency that evaluates the safety of medical products says 523 women have had them removed since a defect was discovered last year.
More than 1,000 implants have ruptured since then, the agency says.

{snip}

Women will only be reimbursed for new implants if they were originally for reconstructive surgery, the Health Ministry said.

What will these crazy French people think of next?

At least that’s what the French would have people believe. Obviously they never heard of the Miss Cicciona 2010 beauty contest.

Check out this letter written to a newspaper by a European man.

I am an Anglo-Irishman who has the good fortune to be married to a girl from Minnesota. We return to our home in France mystified by the aberration in your legal system that already has taken 30 lives in Minneapolis this year alone. Mystified by the lack of gun control, and aware that guns are out there in people’s houses, cars, handbags and pockets. In most cases they are legally held and ready to carry out their purpose: to kill or to maim. When will your great country learn from the shocking statistics of gun-related killings? I know about your Constitution, which is the admiration of the world. But it was written for a pioneer society without a proper police force. I also know about your powerful gun lobby. But I also know the outrage of my American family, which dearly wants laws changed to control this senseless access to such an amazingly easy way of killing. I leave America with this notice in my mind: “In accordance with Minnesota law, Mall of America bans guns in these premises.” Could not this extend to the whole of your society? I hope so.

PADDY CARPENTER, FERICY, FRANCE

Silly, silly silly man! The police can’t be everywhere at once, nor do they have the duty to preemptively do anything to protect people from criminals. (If the police *were* everywhere at once, there would be a police state, and liberals hate the police.) They’re good for catching fleeing criminals, and for collecting information at a crime scene. Besides which, once these darling hoodlums get their day in court, they have access to the best of lawyers who’ll stop at nothing to get them freed.

I would also recommend that Mr. Carpenter Fericy Google Channon Christian and Chris Newsome. When he’s done, he can look up the Wichita Massacres.

Also, I think Mr. Fericy could use a history lesson. Europeans love to go on about how awful it is that (some) Americans can freely own guns. So what about Switzerland, which has the highest per capita firepower in the world? No wonder Hitler didn’t invade that country. Also, why does he think the Japanese only bombed Pearl Harbor rather than invade the mainland U.S?

Anyway, that’s just my two cents. I just wish there New York would have such a gun culture.

Another hat tip to Ambiorix

Here’s what was written in a very liberal newspaper in Belgium:

American presidential elections are not “home affairs.” American decisions have repercussions all over the globe. The American mortgage crisis affects banks in Europe. The insatiable American demand for oil makes the Arabian sheiks rich. The American refusal to care for the environment causes the North Pole ice to melt and coastal areas in Asia to flood. A weakened dollar and an immense budget deficit affect the global economy.

Hence, the world should be given the right to vote. Because the current situation is a blatant case of taxation without representation, against which the Americans rebelled in 1776. But of course the world will not be allowed to vote. The best we can hope for is that the Americans choose a leader who is deeply aware of the U.S.’s responsibility, as a superpower, for the rest of mankind.

The international community was able to limit America’s hegemony somewhat through organisations for international consultation, agreements and the corresponding judicial apparatus. But that system is in crisis, partly through the actions of the current American president.

I think they can keep on dreaming. However, if Barack Hussein Obama becomes our next President, he might just allow that as a way of “improving America’s image around the world.”

After being exposed for printing lies about unfired bullets supposedly shot at some woman’s home, the AFP has made another photographic gaffe. This one involves misidentifying a U.S. military photo taken by a member of the 173rd Airborne in Afghanistan, as one of their own.

Looks like the AFP has got some ‘splainin to do.

Via The Sixth Column

Luckily, they’re not in America.

Serge Regnier is a Belgian man on welfare with three wives and thirty (30) children.

Serge R?gnier (as some readers may remember) is a 47-year old Belgian with three wives and thirty children. In 1986 R?gnier married Christine Wuest (who is now 38). They have fifteen children, between 19 years and 11 months old. A couple of years later, Christine?s homeless sister Karine Wuest (now 35 years old) came to live with the couple. Soon she fell in love with Serge. Christine consented in her husband taking her sister as a second wife. Serge and Karine have six children, between 10 years and 10 months old.

All that time, Serge had been meeting his former girlfriend Judith De Leenheer (now 38 years old). When Judith?s marriage broke up ? which was not altogether surprising since all her children were Serge?s rather than her husband?s ? Serge asked his two wives whether they would mind taking her in. They did not mind. Serge and Judith have nine children, between 18 years and 10 months old. They all live together in Serge?s house in Marcinelle, a town in Wallonia, the French-speaking South of Belgium.

{snip}

R?gnier applied for and received the status of an invalid from Wallonia’s generous welfare authorities. He consequently receives a welfare check of over ?1,000 a month. His three wives are all unemployed. Hence, they each get ?800 in unemployment benefits. On top of this the family receives ?4,000 in child allowances. This makes a grand total of more than ?7,400 a month ($9,700 or ?4,960) ? all of it provided by Belgium?s taxpayers. All the money matters in the household are taken care of by Serge. His wives are only interested in children. They have told the press that they each hope to have another baby in 2007.

Pretty darn pathetic!

The Euro-peons never cease to amaze with the kooky stuff they come up with.

Their latest wacky endeavor consists of doing away with traffic signs in seven European cities.

“The many rules strip us of the most important thing: the ability to be considerate. We’re losing our capacity for socially responsible behavior,” says Dutch traffic guru Hans Monderman, one of the project’s co-founders. “The greater the number of prescriptions, the more people’s sense of personal responsibility dwindles.”

Wrong! Having a cradle to grave welfare state is what causes people’s sense of personal responsibility to dwindle. But that could be the subject of an entire blog.

Anyway, moving along…

It may sound like chaos, but it’s only the lesson drawn from one of the insights of traffic psychology: Drivers will force the accelerator down ruthlessly only in situations where everything has been fully regulated. Where the situation is unclear, they’re forced to drive more carefully and cautiously.

Now what on earth is “traffic psychology?” Is that a new area of expertise for crazy shrinks whose livelihoods consist making all kinds of rude, anti social behaviors into “disorders?” It sure sounds like it!

Sheesh! Traffic signs should be the least of worries for these Euro-peons.

A while back Vilmar and I posted about a Christian woman working for British Airways who refused to remove her cross necklace despite the fact that the airline lets its Sikh and Muslim employees wear turbans and headscarves, respectively.

Now the bad news is that she lost her appeal.

Those stupid ethno-mashochist Brits are doing everything they can to commit cultural suicide!

Via Garfield Ridge

That’s how psychologists refer to the shock and trauma faced by Japanese tourists when they visit France and find out how rude the French can be.

PARIS (Reuters) – Around a dozen Japanese tourists a year need psychological treatment after visiting Paris as the reality of unfriendly locals and scruffy streets clashes with their expectations, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

“A third of patients get better immediately, a third suffer relapses and the rest have psychoses,” Yousef Mahmoudia, a psychologist at the Hotel-Dieu hospital, next to Notre Dame cathedral, told the newspaper Journal du Dimanche.

{snip}

“In Japanese shops, the customer is king, whereas here assistants hardly look at them … People using public transport all look stern, and handbag snatchers increase the ill feeling.”

A Japanese woman, Aimi, told the paper:

“For us, Paris is a dream city. All the French are beautiful and elegant … And then, when they arrive, the Japanese find the French character is the complete opposite of their own.”

Now I can understand how those Japanese tourists would be flabbergasted by the French, when politeness, and not embarrassing a person in front of others is such a strong part of their culture. And I know something about how rude those French people can be since I studied there one summer.