Tag Archives: British

News

Woman offended by seeing-eye dog ejects blind man from bus

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Note: My opinion is that the woman in the story is probably a Muslim because Muslims have an aversion to dogs, but the news article is not conclusive on this point.

ECM likes dogs, while I like birds. He sent me this story from the Reading Post in the UK.

Excerpt:

A driver told a blind cancer sufferer to get off his bus when a woman and her children became hysterical at the sight of his guide dog.

George Herridge, 71, told how the mum flew into a rage and shouted at him in a foreign language. A passenger explained she wanted him to get off the bus during the incident on May 20.

ECM also sent me this story from the UK Telegraph, linked by David Thompson, about the death of initiative and outrage.

Excerpt:

Few people now dare to challenge just simple, inconsiderate behaviour in others – behaviour which flies well under the criminality radar but which manages to alienate and intimidate. It’s this which is the most worrying, though understandable, aspect to it all. There is a section of our society that remains awfully polite about such issues, and prefers to see such non-reaction as part of a British desire not to make a fuss or cause embarrassment. It’s a nice, quaint idea but it no longer plays: they simply don’t get the fact that now, it’s all about fear.

And alongside this fear is the sense that the order of things has become so inverted that one will be on shaky ground if one does indeed speak up. Most people now register some degree of outrage at being asked to desist, no matter how politely you do it. You are the rude troublemaker in their eyes. For some kind of order to be restored, back-up is crucial. And formal authority has more or less left the scene. You are on your own.

I actually blame secularism for eroding the objective morality that was, until recently, dominant in the West. The moral relativism that emerged as objective morality declined does not allow people to rationally oppose injustice. Instead, people just keep quiet. If moral relativism is true, you can’t make moral judgments against anyone.

Commentary

Understanding the effects of government-run health care

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Previous health care posts

Before we see today’s post, here are some of my previous posts on health care.

Socialized medicine by the numbers

I was having a nice chat today with a friend about whether we should expect government-run health care to work as well as private health care. I asked to him to reflect on how incompetent government offices are for services like driver’s licenses, vehicle titles, immigration, postal services, etc. Then I asked him how satisfied he was shopping online from Amazo.com or in person at Wal-mart. A private seller in the free market needs to meet your needs better than other competitors, so you will get good service – because you have a free choice. But what happens when you have only one option?

Hot Air has a post by DirectorBlue that analyzes government-run health care.

Here are just a few of his numbers related to waiting times:

14: The percentage of all patients in Britain who wait more than one (1) year to receive treatment after a referral by a general practitioner. Half of all National Health Care patients in Britain wait between 18 and 52 weeks for treatment.

90: Number of days, on average, each Canadian patient must wait for an MRI under the Canadian government-run health care system.

750: The estimated number of people waiting in line (in the pouring rain) at Britain’s Bury Office attempting to register for dental care.

10,000: Number of Canadian breast cancer patients to file a class action lawsuit against Quebec’s hospitals because, on average, they were forced to wait 60 days to begin post-operative radiation treatments.

443,849: The number of British patients of the National Healthcare Service (NHS) who waited four or more weeks for inpatient admittance into a hospital (Excel file) in May of 2009 (more than 75% of all patients).

1,500,000: The number of Canadians who do not have — and cannot find — a general practitioner/primary care physician due to shortages in medical staff: “In Norwood, Ontario, 20/20 videotaped a town clerk pulling the names of the lucky winners out of a lottery box. The losers must wait to see a doctor… Shirley Healy, like many sick Canadians, came to America for surgery. Her doctor in British Columbia told her she had only a few weeks to live because a blocked artery kept her from digesting food. Yet Canadian officials called her surgery ‘elective.’ …’The only thing elective about this surgery was I elected to live,’ she said.”

The article also discusses the costs of socialized medicine, patient outcomes, illegal immigrants, fraud, waste, etc.

Needless to say, this is a MUST-READ. Send it to all your friends!

News

Round-up of stories from around the world

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United Kingdom

Here’s an article from the BBC News from reader Steven about the suppression of the rights of medical personnel by secular humanists. This time, we get some good news.

Excerpt:

Doctors are demanding that NHS staff be given a right to discuss spiritual issues with patients as well as being allowed to offer to pray for them.

Medics will tell the British Medical Association conference this week that staff should not be disciplined as long as they handle the issue sensitively.

The doctors said recent cases where health workers had got into trouble were making people fearful.

But atheists said it was wrong to mix religion and health care.

I also noticed this related article on LifeSiteNews linked by Binks in his latest round-up. Another Christian nurse gets flak from the atheistic fascists for daring to not behave as an atheist in public.

Excerpt:

Nurse Slatter was told by her employer, the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, that the 1-inch gold necklace could “harbour and spread infections” or be used as weapon. She refused the hospital’s suggestion that she carry the necklace in her pocket and has resigned, saying she would not choose between her job and her religion.

…Many of these clashes have been the result of action by homosexual activists and the help of the Labour government’s “anti-discrimination” laws. Most recently, the General Teaching Council for England (GTCE) has issued draft “guidance” for schools that say teachers must hide their religion from students and colleagues. They must “promote equality and value diversity” by keeping their religious beliefs to themselves it said.

You can listen to a debate here that shows how naturally atheism leads to fascism in places like the UK. Or you can read my exchange with a British fascist here. (Fascism is the system of government in which individual rights, such as the right to free speech, are curtailed by the state)

India

You might remember that I blogged about the persecution of Christians in the eastern state of Orissa when I covered the recent Indian election.

Orissa is one of the states where Christians are really in the minority and there are Hindu schools teaching the Hindu-nationalist doctrine of Hindutva, which is extremely hostile to Christianity.

Well, Shalini sent me some good news about the situation in Orissa:

Excerpt:

Home Minister P Chidambaram, who is on a two-day visit to Orissa, visited one of the relief camps in riot-hit Kandhmal district on Friday.

While speaking to the victims, he apologised for the conditions they had to face in the wake of a series of communal clashes following the killing of 85-year-old VHP leader Swami Laxmananda Saraswati in August 2008.

…Condemning the incident, Chidambaram asked them to start life afresh, build the churches and practice their religion.

“Whatever happened was wrong. Build your churches and practice your dharma,” he said.

When some refugees spoke of fear of RSS and Bajrang Dal, the Home Minister assured then that the guilty will be “prosecuted and punished.”

I hope that this is a sign of better things to come for Indian Christians. I must admit that I spoke to a few Indian Hindus here in the USA, and they were not supportive of the rights of Christians to evangelize or to exercise freedom of religious expression in India.

Australia

Looks like Australia is considering implementing Human Rights Commissions, exactly like the ones that Canada has. Story from Life Site News. (H/T Free Canuckistan)

Excerpt:

Australian life and family advocates are deeply concerned with plans by a government agency to institute new “human rights” legislation modelled on that of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Endeavour Forum, a national pro-life and pro-family advocacy group, has submitted a brief to a consultative committee, warning that since the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has “consistently failed” to protect the Christian values of the majority of Australians, “its probable recommendations will diminish, not enhance, our freedom.”

The AHRC is conducting national consultations on a proposed Human Rights Charter that is supported by the Attorney General, Robert McClelland, who has argued that since other countries, such as Canada, have such documents, Australia should follow suit.

And to think there was a time when I wanted to move to Queensland! Ha!

Canada

A Quebec court will hear from a Catholic school that is resisting the anti-Christian curriculum that is being pushed by the province. The article is from LifeSiteNews courtesy of Binks.

Excerpt:

Loyola Catholic High School has finished presenting its case in court against Quebec’s mandatory Ethics and Religious Culture (ERC) program. The case was launched after the Department of Education refused to allow the school to continue teaching its own Catholic-centered religion course.

The private Catholic boys’ school objects to the province’s mandatory course on the grounds that it conflicts with the school’s Catholic character and presents a relativistic world-view of religion.

…Quebec Education Minister Michelle Courchesne has denied all applications for exemption from the ERC and has made it clear that any religious education program that promotes one religion over any other is not acceptable.

Quebec is the most secular, left-wing province in Canada.

Pakistan

I spotted this story over at The Lambeth Walk blog. It recounts the details of some anti-Christian crimes in Muslim-dominated Pakistan.

Excerpt:

Recently two very disturbing cases have emerged from Pakistan which give some insight into the risks which non-Muslims face in Muslim countries, particularly if they fail to pay the jizya.

The first concerns a Christian man who was sexually abused, raped and murdered for refusing to convert to Islam…

The second case involves the police torturing a Christian man and then denying him medical treatment…

Here’s another one from Weasel Zippers, also via Binks.

Excerpt from the linked BosNewsLife article:

Two Pakistani Christians remained detained Thursday, June 25, on false charges of “blasphemy” and “robbery”, advocacy groups said.

Asia Bibi, 37, was reportedly detained by police on allegations of blasphemy in the village of Ittanwali in Punjab province on June 19, following heated discussions about Islam with Muslim women who work with her on a farm.

“Bibi told them that Christ died on the cross for their sins and asked them what Mohammed had done for them,”said Voice Of the Martyrs Canada (VOMC), which monitored the case. “Our Christ is the true prophet of God and yours is not true,” Bibi reportedly said.

Something to pray about, and there’s no time like the present for prayer.

Mauritania

Al-Qaeda kills an American missionary in Mauritania. Story from Jihad Watch, via Binks.

Excerpt from the linked AFP story:

The man was shot several times in the head from close range after he resisted an apparent kidnap attempt, a witness told AFP, after the shooting outside a private language and computer school run by the American.

“A foreigner has been shot dead, apparently by youths who fled. We are investigating the case,” police said, while the interior ministry identified the man as Christopher Logest and said he also worked for a charity, Noura.

Mauritania is in northwest Africa.