Olympics 2012 - 3

 

Well the games have started, all be it before the opening ceremony, GB ladies soccer team beating NZ 1-0 and USA beating France 4-2.

 Of course there are some who already will not be taking part in the games. Greece with all it’s issues have already sent one of their smallest group of athletes ever, and this has been reduced even more by the banning of Triple jumper Voula Papachristou who was expelled from Greece's Olympic team Wednesday for her comments on Twitter mocking African immigrants and expressing support for a far-right party.

It was her attempt at a joke Sunday that went viral. Commenting on the widely reported appearance of Nile-virus-carrying mosquitoes in Athens, Papachristou wrote: ''With so many Africans in Greece, the West Nile mosquitoes will be getting home food!!!''. Her tweet prompted thousands of negative comments that snowballed Wednesday leading to her being banned.

 

She is not the only one however, Moroccan runner Mariem Alaoui Selsouli, one of the medal favorites for the woman’s 1500 meters has been tested positive for the diuretic furosemide at the Paris Diamond League meeting on July 6. 

 

Selsouli became an Olympic medal favorite after clocking 3 minutes 56.15 seconds in the 1,500 meters - more than four seconds below her personal best time at the Paris event…hmm wonder how she managed that?

 

To me perhaps the most worrying is for the French athletes…

 

A convoy of cars carrying French athletes and officials crawled through central London, enmeshed in a fiendish traffic jam.

 

To their right: A specially created and pristine Games Lane set aside for the exclusive use of the so-called "Olympic Family", much to the chagrin of many Londoners.

 

Alas, it appeared no-one had told the Gallic branch of the lineage.

 

So off they went, trundling east in the direction of the Olympic Park at 2mph, perhaps even grousing at the infamous London traffic.

 

One hopes for the sake of the French that their sprint relay tactics are a little more well-honed.

Barry Eva (Storyheart)

My Blogs:

Book Information and Things UK - Across the Pond

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Was the Declaration of Independence legal?

Was the Declaration of Independence legal?

reported by BBC...

On Tuesday night, while Republican candidates in Nevada were debating such American issues as nuclear waste disposal and the immigration status of Mitt Romney's gardener, American and British lawyers in Philadelphia were taking on a far more fundamental topic.

Namely, just what did Thomas Jefferson think he was doing?

Some background: during the hot and sweltering summer of 1776, members of the second Continental Congress travelled to Philadelphia to discuss their frustration with royal rule.

By 4 July, America's founding fathers approved a simple document penned by Jefferson that enumerated their grievances and announced themselves a sovereign nation.

"When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security”

Called the Declaration of Independence, it was a blow for freedom, a call to war, and the founding of a new empire.

It was also totally illegitimate and illegal.

At least, that was what lawyers from the UK argued during a debate at Philadelphia's Ben Franklin Hall.

The event, presented by the Temple American Inn of Court in conjunction with Gray's Inn, London, pitted British barristers against American lawyers to determine whether or not the American colonists had legal grounds to declare secession.

For American lawyers, the answer is simple: "The English had used their own Declaration of Rights to depose James II and these acts were deemed completely lawful and justified," they say in their summary.

To the British, however, secession isn't the legal or proper tool by which to settle internal disputes. "What if Texas decided today it wanted to secede from the Union? Lincoln made the case against secession and he was right," they argue in their brief.

A vote at the end of the debate reaffirmed the legality of Jefferson and company's insurrection, and the American experiment survived to see another day.

It was an unsurprising result, considering the venue - just a few blocks away from where the Declaration was drafted. But did they get it right? Below are some more of the arguments from both sides.

The American case for the Declaration

Did the Founding Fathers have any respect for the law? The Declaration is unquestionably "legal". Under basic principles of "Natural Law", government can only be by the consent of the people and there comes a point when allegiance is no longer required in face of tyranny.

The legality of the Declaration and its validity is proven by subsequent independence movements which have been enforced by world opinion as right and just, based on the fundamental principles of equality and self-determination now reflected in the UN Charter.

The British case against it

The Declaration emerged from the second Continental Congress The Declaration of Independence was not only illegal, but actually treasonable. There is no legal principle then or now to allow a group of citizens to establish their own laws because they want to. What if Texas decided today it wanted to secede from the Union?

Lincoln made the case against secession and he was right. The Declaration of Independence itself, in the absence of any recognised legal basis, had to appeal to "natural law", an undefined concept, and to "self-evident truths", that is to say truths for which no evidence could be provided.

The grievances listed in the Declaration were too trivial to justify secession. The main one - no taxation without representation - was no more than a wish on the part of the colonists, to avoid paying for the expense of protecting them against the French during seven years of arduous war and conflict.


Barry Eva (Storyheart)

My Blogs:

Book Information and Things UK - Across the Pond

Book and a Chat Radio Show Guests - A Book and a Chat

Funny, Weird Or Just Interesting News From Around the World - Laugh I Thought My Trousers Would Never dry

Storyheart Sunday UK Blog - Beanz Meanz Heinz

One of the things I have really missed since being in the US, is a "Real English Breakfast". Of course once in England one of the locations I headed for was one where I could purchase a real "English Breakfast".


My English Breakfast

Americans seems to find it "interesting" to have bake beans for breakfast, but then this is a country that has "puffed up cakes" or muffins for their morning meal.

In England we are taught that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, after sleeping and not eaten for many hours. This being the case we have a "Full English Breakfast" which sees you though the day until your evening meal... except of course for a snack and a couple of beers at lunch time.

Baked Beans are part of the staple diet of people in the UK. Be it with a fry up breakfast, a "Bangers and Mash" lunch or on toast for tea. The old UK TV advert states...
"A million housewives every day, pick up a tin of beans and say..Beanz Meanz Heinz."


And basically that is what is does. While most of the supermarkets have their own brand of Baked Beans, Heinz is still the number one. For those colonials who do not know the difference, Heinz beans are closest to the Vegetarian beans in the US.

The Heinz company markets their product in the UK under the name "Heinz Beanz" (before July 2008 as "Heinz Baked Beans"), in reference to a 1960s advertisement campaign which used the slogan "Beanz Meanz Heinz".

There are substantial differences between the Heinz baked beans sold in the UK and the nearest equivalent US product (Heinz Premium Vegetarian Beans). The US beans contain brown sugar where the British beans do not, and the US product contains 14g of sugar per tin compared to 7g for the British version (equating to 140 vs 90 calories). The US beans have a mushier texture and are darker in color than their UK counterpart. For several years, the UK Heinz Baked Beans have been available in the US, either in different sized cans than those sold in the UK or in a 385 gram can (the same can as the 415 gram can in the UK) with an "export" label with American English spelling and the word "baked" dropped from the title on the label. These are sold in many US specialty stores.

In New England baked beans usually are sweetened with maple syrup, and are traditionally cooked with salt pork in a beanpot in a brick oven for a full day.

In southern states along the eastern seaboard of the US, the beans become tangier usually due to the addition of yellow mustard. Ground beef also becomes common alongside bacon in these beans. They take on a flavor similar to Cowboy Beans, a similar popular dish.

In Poland, with addition of bacon these are known as Breton Beans (fasolka po bretońsku).

Many unusual dishes are made with baked beans including the baked bean sandwich. These are slices of bread topped with beans and other additions, such as melted cheese.

In 2002 the British Dietetic Association allowed manufacturers of canned baked beans to advertise the product as contributing to the recommended daily consumption of five-six vegetables per person. This concession was criticized by heart specialists who pointed to the high levels of sugar and salt in the product. Some manufacturers produce a "healthy option" version of the product with lower levels of sugar and salt.

BE WARNED....Baked beans are known on occasion to cause a considerable increase in flatulence following consumption. (Don't we know it)

Their low price (The supermarket own brand or discount beans can cost as little and 30cents) and wide availability has led to baked beans becoming a staple food in the United Kingdom, especially popular among students and those on a tight budget.

Barry



BARRY EVA (Storyheart)

Author of Young Adult Romance/Fiction book
"Across the Pond"