The new "Deposits"

Last night, I was reading the Daily Telegraph, came across this article, and felt like crying while reading it. First we have abortion for any/all unwanted babies. Then along came partial-birth abortions, where a baby who is almost newborn can be taken out of the womb and killed. Now, doctors in the UK are announcing that premature babies are just taking up too much space, time, and money, and are not worthy to live.

"Baroness Warnock, the leading medical ethics expert, has said that Britain should follow the example of Holland, the only European country that says such babies should die. She believes that it would prevent doctors from competing to keep alive babies that may not survive in the long-term."

The op-ed of the Daily yesterday had an excellent comment about these esteem members of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists:

"But there is a huge difference between turning off a life-support machine and the Dutch model, in which the survival of a baby depends on subjective assessment of its chances of survival or degree of disability. There are healthy children alive today who would have been left to die under the Dutch model. The distinction between that and infanticide is wafer-thin.

Clearly, neonatal care needs more resources. But surely the NHS is "overstretched"? Only up to a point: although there have been some job losses, it is not overstretched when it comes to "race equality steering groups" and other instruments of social engineering. Something has gone badly wrong with a health service that vigorously creates non-jobs while entertaining a policy change that is reminiscent of nothing so much as Spartans leaving feeble babies to die on hillsides."

Eugenics is what the Spartans believed in.

Spartan eugenics
The first test came early. A ravine a few miles outside the centre of Sparta was known as the Apothetae – the 'Deposits'. It was also called the 'place of rejection', because newly born Spartan boys were thrown into the ravine if they were judged unfit to live.

Infanticide was common throughout ancient Greece. Unwanted babies – usually girls – were left on hillsides. Sometimes they would be placed in a basket or protective pot so that there was at least a chance of someone coming along and taking the child in.

In Sparta, things were, as ever, different. Boys rather than girls were the likeliest candidates for infanticide. The decision about whether the child lived or died was not left to the parents but was taken by the city elders. And there was no possibility of a kindly shepherd rescuing a newborn child after it had been 'placed' down here. The decision of the city elders was final, terminal and absolute.

Such state-sponsored eugenics has won Sparta many admirers over the years. Here's what one 20th-century leader had to say on the subject:

The abandonment of sick, puny and misshapen children by the Spartans was more humanitarian and, in reality, a thousand times more humane than the pitiful madness of our present time where the most sickly subjects are preserved at any price only to be followed by the breeding of a race from degenerates burdened with disease.

No prizes for guessing that these are the words of Adolf Hitler.

After reading those articles in the Daily Telegraph, all I can say is thank God that I am no longer capable of having a child. However, if I was still able, I would make sure that I had my child back in America. When I did have my children, I was considered "high-risk." What chance, nowadays, would my daughter or others like her have growing up to be the accomplished person that she is today with three healthy and robust boys of her own? It sounds like, if the high mucky-mucks of the NHS have their way about it, not much.

I wonder how Baroness Warnock would react if she or one of her children should have a pre-mature baby. Would she be so quick to condem that child to the rocky ravins, or will she make sure her would-be child/grandchild get the best care in a private hospital.

Go figure.

So, I just walked back into the house, after taking the mutt for a walk in the woods, and I caught the tail end of a news burp about Gordon Brown's budget report.

Let's see, the price of a pack of cigarettes, a pint of beer, and a glass of wine are going up; however, the price of condoms and the morning-after-pill is going down.

Lovely.

Everything but the knee pads.

Have you seen this? I just got this off of Drudge this morning. Apparently, it's not a joke, like I thought it might be. There is a company in Italy who has decided to design and make jeans for Muslims.

Al Quds, based in Udine, hopes to make an impact first among Italy's 1.1 million Muslims. If successful, it will reach out to the estimated 18 million Muslims living in Europe.

The company's Web site advertises the jeans as "a new expression for an old tradition."

So if you are interested in ordering for you or a friend, here is the website. Gosh, what will they think of next.

It ain't happening.

Well, today is suppose to be the first day of Spring.
Right.
Looking around me, I think someone forgot to tell Mother Nature this little piece of information. I mean, look at the map of the US. That white blob that looks like a damn missile aimed at the East Coast is snow!
And as far as the UK goes, it's colder now than it was in January and February. We got the winds coming down from Norway, who got them from Siberia. Thanks alot for sharing guys; however, next time, don't call us, we'll call you. Okay?

Another year older.

Yesterday was my birthday.
Yawn.
I'm at the point in my life where the number I am this year, feels just like the next number from last year. Oh damn, that probably makes absolutely no sense. Right. Let's try this again. Anotherwords, it's just a number. That's all. No more. No less. Like another notch on the bedpost. You know when you were younger, say 16, and you thought 30 was so damn old? Well, let me tell you, 70 is starting to seem right around the corner. Damn. Can't believe I said that.

Sniff, sniff.

Well, I found out exactly what decided to invade my body at this time. I have one hell of a head cold. The crud took the scenic route before deciding that this is where it wanted to put down roots and stay awhile. I'm thinking it's because there is plenty of space up in my head to make a nice little nest and stay awhile. Anyway, that's why I have been feeling so damn poorly. Krip asked me yesterday morning how I felt, the only description I could give him was that my head felt like the cotton at the top of a Q-Tip. There is one big lesson that I learned through all this and that is to make sure that if one is about to have a sneezing episode, make damn sure that your bladder is empty. And no, I didn't pee my knickers and that's because I know how to double cross my legs. So now that I know what I have, I can definitely deal with it.

Yesterday was our second anniversary, and this afternoon Krip is taking me to London to celebrate it. I haven't got the faintest idea of what he has up his sleeve; however, he has been making plans for about a week now and has been walking around the house with a little twinkle in his eyes. I've never been "Surprise!!" so I am rather looking forward to it....I think. My lovely man said that we could stay home instead since I am feeling so poorly, but I said absolutely not; I am really looking forward to this. So, anyone out and about the city tonight, will definitely be able to recognize me; I'll be the one with the neon-red nose, carrying a wad of tissues, and trying not to leave a pattern of drip, drip, drip along the pavement.

Ho hum.

I want to apologise to all for not writing much on my blog, nor visiting others on theirs. I'm not being anti-social, I've just been feeling a bit under the weather. I am coming down with something, but can't quite put my finger on what it is, but it's making me feel blahhhh all over. I think the weather changing and getting cold and damp didn't help things much. The wind coming down from Siberia is just too damn cold for my bones, and being March and all, it's too bloody late in the Winter season and too close to Spring to be rattling down our parts. Ugh. Haven't been able to walk to the gym for the last two weeks, and that's probably some of the problem.

On the bright side of things, I did get some wonderful news the other night. My youngest is coming over here early for Summer break! I will have her for three weeks more than last year. I am so delighted over this. Just can't wait to see her.

I'm hoping that perhaps in the next couple of days my brain will come out of hybernation and start doing its job, and if I'm really lucky (or if you are really lucky, heh) I will come up with something decent to write about.

So until then, I hope all are enjoying the remaining bits of your weekend, and don't let the Monday blues bite you in the arse.

Bullseye.

Last night we had such a good time down at our pub. Krip and I joined up with two other friends of ours and had a rousing game of darts that lasted quite a few hours. Too bad I was the only wife that decided to drag herself away from the boob tube and imbibe in a bit of fun and adult beverages. Normally I am a bit bored down at the pub, being the only wife (as mentioned above); however, last night was a great time had by all.

Maybe that's why my head hurts just a little bit this morning.

Whoa.

On Friday night we watched a movie called Wolf Creek. It was one of the scariest movies I have ever seen. I guess it effected me so much because it was one of those movies that you just know could really happen. Like the movie, Open Water, it left me unsettled for the rest of the night having me, much to my chagrin, dreaming about it and the fate of those people involved. Both of those movies were based on true accounts. Wolf Creek is (loosely) based on backpackers (since the kids were driving instead of walking) in Australia and of course Open Water was about scuba divers.

In Australia, there was a man, Ivan Milat, who was finally arrested in the serial killings of backpackers. This site actually chronicals the finding of his victims, talks about the sole survivor, and gives you a profile of said killer. Very interesting reading. Very scary movie. Not Freddie Kruger type of slasher movie, but Open Water and now Wolf Creek being the kind that gets under your skin and right into that primative area of everyone's soul when survival was everything.