Tom McMahon

Guantanamo Military Judge Sentences September 11 Mastermind To Full Body Wax

Guantanamo Military Judge Sentences September 11 Mastermind To Full Body Wax

The Obamacare Debacle: In Retrospect, It May Not Have Been A Wise Move To Elect The Quasi-Alcoholic Illegitimate Indonesian Grandson Of An African Witch Doctor As President Of The USA

Don't you think?

Facing Overflow, U.K. Hospitals Treating Patients In Cupboards And Kitchens

Confronting full wards and an overflow of patients, hospitals in the United Kingdom (U.K.) are treating patients in areas not designed for clinical care, according to a recent survey of the nation’s nurses.

The survey, conducted by Nursing Times, polled more than 900 nurses and found that about 63% of respondents reported that patients were being moved to “store rooms, mop cupboards,” or a “kitchen area” for treatment. Nearly 60% of respondents who witnessed these situations said that it happened more than once per week, according to the survey. Seventy-nine percent of respondents said the safety of patients is being compromised, as patients may have no access to call bells, water or emergency exits. Meanwhile, hospital staff may have difficulty obtaining medical equipment, emptying urine bottles and providing meals, and the proximity of patient beds increases the risk of infection spread, respondents noted.

Among the nurses who responded to the survey:

83% said they had reported instances of moving patients to senior staff, but just 4% said corrective action had been taken; and 29% said the practice of moving patients happened daily.

Among nurses who raised the issue to management, some reported being bullied or being accused of “not being a team player.” Unions representing health care workers cautioned that the situation may deteriorate because hospitals around the U.K. are planning to shut down clinical wards in order to save money, the London Daily Telegraph notes.

Nurses were told to move patients for several reasons, the survey found. In some cases, patients were moved due to directives from senior managers—even the CEO—or because the hospitals’ four-hour wait time target in the accident and emergency department was “under pressure.” In addition, nurses also were told to move patients because “unfortunately the hospital is full,” according to the survey.

The U.K. Department of Health in a statement said that the “vast majority” of National Health Service (NHS) patients receive safe and effective health care, London’s Times reports. A spokesperson for the health department added that local health providers have the authority to assess the quality of health services.

The director of the U.K. Patients Association said that the survey suggests the practice of moving patients may be more widespread than reported. She added that the survey “highlights the gap between rhetoric and reality in the NHS lottery of care” and that funding for front-line care may be inadequate

Mousse And Squirrel

Mousse And Squirrel

Why Democrat Frank Church Should Be Burning in Hell Right About Now

Larrey Anderson:

(The Church Committee, for example, conducted more than eight hundred interviews -- mostly with people involved in intelligence-gathering -- and produced more than 110,000 pages of documents. Almost all of the information gathered by both committees ended up in the hands of our adversaries.)

The reports, taken together, literally destroyed America's worldwide intelligence-gathering network. The Pike Committee report was so obviously and outrageously a threat to the intelligence community that even the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives voted against its publication. The report was nevertheless leaked to the media.

Within days of the release of the reports and documents, thousands of people sympathetic to the cause of freedom in communist countries around the world were arrested. Hundreds of people simply disappeared -- most of them were executed.

In the late 1970s, I worked for the Justice Department while I was in law school. I was able to meet some of the people mentioned in the documents -- and some individuals who knew the people rounded up by the communists as a result of the Church and Pike reports.

One of the close friends I made in D.C. worked with a U.S. intelligence agency[vii]. He had been a MIG fighter pilot for a communist country in Eastern Europe. One night, he snuck his wife and two young children to the airfield where he was stationed. He stripped a MIG fighter of all unnecessary weight. He stuffed his wife and two little kids onto the floor of the MIG.

He took off and headed west. He flew less than a hundred feet above the ground to avoid radar detection. He fled to the West with his family until the jet ran out of fuel. He landed in a farmer's field...just a few miles inside the border of a free European country. He had escaped communism with his entire family.

He was one of the men who told me what was happening (and had already happened) to the "informants" that had been identified by the KGB and other communist security organizations because of the Church and Pike reports. From my friend and other sources, I learned the names and locations of some of the American "sympathizers" who had managed to escape detection by the KGB.

It Is Embarrassing

Peggy Noonan:

Excuse me, but it is embarrassing—really, embarrassing to our country—that the president of the United States has again put off a state visit to Australia and Indonesia because he's having trouble passing a piece of domestic legislation he's been promising for a year will be passed next week. What an air of chaos this signals to the world. And to do this to Australia of all countries, a nation that has always had America's back and been America's friend.

How bush league, how undisciplined, how kid's stuff.

You could see the startled looks on the faces of reporters as Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, who had the grace to look embarrassed, made the announcement on Thursday afternoon. The president "regrets the delay"—the trip is rescheduled for June—but "passage of the health insurance reform is of paramount importance." Indonesia must be glad to know it's not.

Squirrel In Front Of A Long-Form Birth Certificate From The State Of Hawaii

Squirrel In Front Of A Long-Form Birth Certificate From The State Of Hawaii

The Top Ten Myths of Higher Education

Via Joanne Jacobs:

1. There is no liberal bias in academia.
2. Everybody should go to college.
3. Academia is more noble than the business community.
4. Diversity makes everything better.
5. All faculty research is necessary and/or important.
6. Academic freedom means anything goes.
7. Higher Education drives the economy.
8. Natural aptitude doesn’t matter.
9. Morality is relative.
10. All cultures are equally good.

Let's Have A Puppet Show Right Now!

Let's Have A Puppet Show Right Now!

Das Squirrel Und Schnitzelbank

Das Squirrel Und Schnitzelbank

My grade-school music teacher Mrs. Freebourn used to lead us in singing with this very poster at Carrollton Elementary School in Bridgeton, Missouri.

Conservative or Conservationist?

From Joseph C. Phillips:

Conservatives might be more properly understood if we referred to ourselves as conservationists. Like conservationists conservatives are not content with current conditions. Rather they are both seeking to prevent the depletion of some treasured resource. Both Conservatives and conservationists act to defend and protect; to restore, to supervise and nurture those things essential for the survival of a society or culture. Preservation is achieved through education and prudent management or husbandry.

For many citizens stepping forward and demanding that we conserve trees or some rare species of bird is looked upon as a noble undertaking. It is a pity that some of those same eyes view the act of conserving, defending, restoring and supervising the prudent management of the principles upon which this nation was founded as a whacky or evil endeavor.

The National Debt: In Retrospect, It May Not Have Been A Wise Move To Elect The Drunken Illegitimate Indonesian Grandson Of An African Witch Doctor As President Of The USA

The National Debt: In Retrospect, It May Not Have Been A Wise Move To Elect The Drunken Illegitimate Indonesian Grandson Of An African Witch Doctor As President Of The USA

Hippies With Squirrel

Hippies With Squirrel

RIP Peter Graves

RIP Peter Graves

Get more great screen shots at MovieScreenShots. Peter Graves' IMDB entry.

The Death of Superman

The Death of Superman

Jim

Jim