Posted on 07/28/2012 11:12:05 AM PDT by Mozilla
The letters ‘NHS’ dazzled in bright red, like some triumphant advert. All around pranced self-indulgent nurses who had volunteered to take a few days off to be part of the ceremony.
And how long did this shameful propaganda last for? A whole 15 minutes at the top of proceedings before viewers dozed off to the procession of banana republics and far-flung destinations nobody has ever heard of or even cares for.
That such a politically divisive subject was included at all is utterly shocking. Not least because it glossed over the cracks in a system that is creaking at its seams - crying out for urgent reform.
And nobody seems to have considered the sheer hypocrisy that the majority of the athletes taking part in the Games will have access to the most expensive cutting-edge private treatment available in the world for even the slightest graze on their bodies.
The NHS segment came after a mildly moving rendition of Jerusalem (though this will move any patriot) and a play depicting the industrial revolution tearing up Blake’s ‘green and pleasant land’.
It was the absurdly unrealistic scene – and indeed one that would spring from the kind of nonsensical targets and equality quotas we see in the NHS - showing a mixed-race middle-class family in a detached new-build suburban home, which was most symptomatic of the politically correct agenda in modern Britain.
This was supposed to be a representation of modern life in England but it is likely to be a challenge for the organisers to find an educated white middle-aged mother and black father living together with a happy family in such a set-up.
This multicultural equality agenda was so staged it was painful to watch.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Was it only 15 minutes? It seemed like a lot longer.
Of course, having to listen to Matt Lauer and Bob Costas blabber on and on will do that.
What I found most enlightening about the whole thing was the “modern” tech set.
OK, I get it. We have to have the cute girl have a black father and white mother. But what was the reason behind having her new boyfriend be himself black? Wouldn’t it have made more sense for him to be a blond “English” type? That is, if we want to be representative and all that.
The way they did it edited out most of the actual indigenous English in favor of recent immigrants, as if they are the only “English” that matter.
I watched re-runs. On that front, Lucy stomped grapes with Ethel, and Mike Nelson rescued a bicycle. And My Mother the Car was still stupid.
It’s a perfect example of why exposure to LSD for 50 years is bad for your brain.
When I saw the “tribute” to the NHS, I thought they were trying to show health care during the time of Charles Dickens...
My 13-year-old son had some pals over last night to watch the opening ceremonies. After an hour or two of the gibberish, I turned off the boob tube, and gave the boys a brief lecture on the history of the Olympic Games (ancient and modern), and the greatness of Great Britain - starting with colonization of the New World and carrying on through the Battle of Britain. When I was done, the kids said: “That would have been a lot better than what they did.”
The opening hoopla is always about 2 hours. It takes about an hour before the US team marches in. I missed the NHS bit since I knew when to tune in. I did watch most of the parade of nations. Amazing how many flag bearers were either in Judo or Taekwando. I do love some of the costumes. Unfortunately, NBC didn’t get close ups or full body shots of everybody and I think we missed a few good ones.
You’d have thought they would have shown a muslim
(read Asian) couple with six children for that matter.
C’mon, Danny ‘Joseph G.’ Boyle did a great job! (As far as reaching the propaganda quota.)
I quite agree. England and Britain have a fascinating history. Arguably it’s the most important country in the modern world, since representative government and the Industrial Revolution were both birthed there.
And they managed to reduce that to this?
Reminds me of my visit to Epcot Center 25 years ago, which is supposed to be about the rich tapestry of our diversity. Made me want to run screaming from the park.
I thought it was kind of appropriate to lump it in with all the other fictional characters.
1. Leaches for blood letting.
2. Maggots for wound treatment.
3. Garlic for flesh eating bacteria.
4. Islamic nurses not required to roll up sleeves to wash and can't use alcohol based scrubs.
5. Wards still based on the Victorian system
6. Do it yourself dental kits are a must have item.
6. Old folks denied cataract operations
7. Doctors prescribe water to prevent dehydration death
8. All enjoy the fast track to the morgue.
The Olympics should be a celebration of greatness. It should be about what is best in Man. The Brits conquered and ran a huge part of the world, all from a tiny island with no natural resources. Dancing nurses? WGAS?
The author sounds like a grumpy sod. I am British, and my experience of the NHS, and those of most people I know, is nothing like the horror stories reported in the likes of the Daily Mail for the consumption of an increasingly American audience.
The NHS doubtless has its faults, and needs to be reformed in some areas, but it is a public institution here in Britain for which many people have reason to be thankful for. My grandmother, who has never been well off, would have died about 40 years ago if not for the NHS keeping her alive with treatment that she could not otherwise afford and which no insurance company would have willing to pay for this long without charging sky-high premiums.
IMHO, associating paying tribute to the NHS as symptomatic of being a muesli-munching leftie puts one in the same category of idiocy as claiming that paying tribute to the armed forces makes you a right-wing nutjob.
All I will say to any Americans on here who will doubtless scream at me for defending the NHS, is that you needn’t concern yourselves with it. Fight your own politicians for the 100% privatized healthcare system that you all want in your country, the British NHS is not your problem.
While I kept flipping the dial away to more entertaining stuff, I was very impressed--in the most negative sense possible--by the Marxist imagery in the segment on the Industrial Revolution. The way it was handled served to deny images of brilliant innovation, as from Scotland's Watts, and the wise use of private capital, to what seemed like an endless stream of grimy "exploited workers."
Of course to anyone who actually understands the economic & social dynamics, the Industrial Revolution was not about exploiting the poor. It was in fact the dawn of opportunity for urban dwellers, who for two centuries had been living in some really abject slums.
I do not know the philosophy of the director of the farce--whether he is a doctrinaire Leftist, or simply a brainwashed toady, reflecting that British education has become as corrupt as public education in much of America; but visual Egalitarian propaganda has no place in something like the Olympics, which is supposed to be about affording an opportunity for the best athletes in the world, to excel--to achieve above & beyond the ordinary; to demonstrate that there is joy in excelling.
William Flax
(posted earlier here on FR)
Brain dead patients could be kept alive to harvest their organs for NHS July 28, 2012 9:42:26 AM PDT · by Free ThinkerNY
· 24 replies The Telegraph ^ | July 27, 2012 | Stephen Adams
Hospitals could be allowed to keep patients with massive brain injuries alive solely to harvest their organs, under controversial plans being floated by the NHS.
The 19 million people on the Organ Donation Register could also be given preference in the event of needing an organ, over those who are not.
These are two of the proposals mooted in a consultation being carried out by NHS Blood and Transplant this summer.
Yes! That would be the rational approach. But modern Britain has been led down the "primrose path," with much the same idiocy that has virtually destroyed a large segment of modern American education. Here is my analysis of the false dogma, as reflected on our side of the Atlantic--of course with one Brit included: Myths & Myth Makers In American "Higher" Education. Note, especially the segment on Gordon Allport, the Harvard "Fellow Traveler," who considered favoring your own people as an unacceptable form of prejudice.
Britain needs a contemporary Dean Swift, who would pen some new voyages for Gulliver, to adequately describe what Britain has become. Can she yet be redeemed? I wish I knew. She obviously is bedeviled with her own Gordon Allports & other crackpots.
William Flax
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