Starved to death in an NHS hospital

A vulnerable patient starved to death in an NHS hospital after 26 days without proper nourishment.
Martin Ryan, 43, had suffered a stroke which left him unable to swallow.
But a 'total breakdown in communication' meant he was never fitted with a feeding tube.

Emma Kemp, 26, was denied cancer treatment that could have saved her life, while 30-year-old Mark Cannon died two months after being admitted to hospital with a broken leg.

Three other cases followed similar patterns, with warnings ignored or problems missed until it was too late, often because the patients had difficulty communicating.

Ann Abraham, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, is expected to deliver a withering verdict in her report.

Socialized medicine anyone? Read the article. This is what you can expect if we are taken to a National Health Care System.

WTF Game Show?

This week we travel to Japan for the WTF Game Show. Enjoy!
This is some crazy stuff.

Japanese Human Slip-n-Slide - Watch more free videos

Saint Tim Tebow

If you missed the last 5 minutes of last night's BCS Championship game you missed the impressive list of all the off the field accomplishments of Tim Tebow.

The boys in the booth were slow to get the sideline reporters involved during the game. If they had they could quite possibly gotten an Emmy for broadcasting the game. They were broadcasting about Tim Tebow so anything was possible.

Here's what they missed during the game:
During the 1st quarter Tim performed not one, but two circumcisions while he was talking to the Florida offensive coordinators. While he was trotting up the tunnel to the locker room at half time he caught a baby who had fallen out of the arms of a cheering Gator fan who was doing the Gator chomp.

During half time he helped close an emergency open heart by-pass surgery, saved a kitten from being trapped in a tree just across the street from the stadium. And served soup to homeless people at a shelter set up in the parking lot.

During the third quarter he wrote a proposal to rescue the economy from the recession and faxed it to President-Elect Obama.

Sadly Tim was too overwhelmed with keeping his helmet on during the 4th quarter to do any spectacular and amazing things. Just imagine all the people he could have helped if he wasn't having to be the quarterback during the 4th quarter. If my head had swollen up as much as his from all the praise he was getting you'd take your helmet off as well.

National Championship

By Gregg Doyel
CBSSports.com National Columnist

SEC defensive supremacy? More like hubris, and it's offensive
"... and the point of this is not to predict that Oklahoma will beat Florida. Honestly, I have no idea who will win. This game will be sensational, that's all I know. But the arrogant assumption that Florida's defense will be the difference makes me giggle."

I couldn't have said it better myself. Enjoy the game tonight.

Surprise Find: A 139-Year-Old Baseball Card

"When I came to meet her and she took it out of a sandwich Baggie and she was smoking a cigarette, I almost fainted," Rick Mirigian, a local concert promoter and card trader says.

Yeah, you don't find these things very often. What's truly amazing is this woman didn't know anything about our "national past time" or who George Steinbrenner was.

Mississippi is Number One

ATLANTA – Mississippi now has the nation's highest teen pregnancy rate, displacing Texas and New Mexico for that lamentable title, according to a new federal report released Wednesday.

Mississippi's rate was more than 60 percent higher than the national average in 2006, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The teen pregnancy rate in Texas and New Mexico was more than 50 percent higher.

Some how I wasn't surprised by this news report. Congrats Mississippi.

Psst! Want to join MI6?

SIS, popularly known as MI6, Britain's foreign intelligence service, which this year celebrates its 100th birthday, has tiptoed into the modern world. Faced with the threat of Islamist terrorism, it has had to cast its net wider than the cloisters of Oxbridge and a few other favoured universities to find recruits who look the part. That increasingly means people from the ethnic minorities.

The FBI and CIA are also on the recruiting binge. It is becoming an increasingly difficult thing to keep up with the fanatical religious extremists who are bend on the destruction of the infidels of the "west".

G-Men (and women) Wanted

Spies Like Us
Not the movie. I bet you thought I was going to link this picture...silly boys.

According to the Cinema Blend website Warner Brothers is going to REMAKE Spies Like Us. It's sure to suck. Hollywood is totally out of ideas.

Editor's note: I was informed yesterday that DDDN offically has TWO female readers.
How about that?
So the pic goes out to "the ladies".
You both know who you are.
Get well Sally. Heather....get back to makin' your kids smarter than their dad.

Pwned, Porsche takes over VW

FRANKFURT (AFP) – German luxury sportscar maker Porsche has taken over Volkswagen, the biggest European car manufacturer, after purchasing more than 50 percent of VW shares, Porsche said.

The news sent Volkswagen shares rocketing up 13.48 percent in early afternoon trading on the Frankfurt stock market on Tuesday.

The takeover by a family-run company run by billionaire shareholders has been a culture shock for Volkswagen, a sprawling national institution seen as a model for cooperation between shareholders and unions.

Well how about that. I wonder how long it will take before they screw it up? I wonder how their image as a family friendly company selling environmentally sound autos will play now that it's owned by a company that sells cars to the rich elite screw you and your farfegnugen.




In related news...

German mogul kills self over financial meltdown

BERLIN – German billionaire Adolf Merckle has committed suicide after his business empire, which included interests ranging from pharmaceuticals to cement, ran into trouble in the global financial crisis, his family said Tuesday.
In addition, the holding company recently said it had suffered heavy losses on shares of automaker Volkswagen AG, which fluctuated wildly last fall as fellow car maker Porsche SE moved to increase its stake in the company.

Take overs are hard on people.
I can't imagine committing suicide over loosing 2 billion dollars when I still had 6 or 7 billion.
But that's probably why I'm not a billionaire too.

Ukraine: Russia cut gas to Europe by two-thirds

KIEV, Ukraine – Ukraine's gas company Naftogaz said Tuesday that Russia cut natural gas supplies to Europe by about two-thirds, raising the stakes in a spiraling dispute between the two neighbors that bodes ill for European consumers.

This is the kind of shit that gets you invaded by angry Germans. And the next time I don't think they wait for winter to start the campaign.

What the hell did they do?

It's tough being a panda in China.

Bushisms over the years

President George W. Bush will leave behind a legacy of Bushisms, the label stamped on the commander in chief's original speaking style.

"They misunderestimated the compassion of our country. I think they misunderestimated the will and determination of the commander in chief, too." — Sept. 26, 2001, in Langley, Va. Bush was referring to the terrorists who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks.

"Too many good docs are getting out of business. Too many OB/GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." — Sept. 6, 2004, at a rally in Poplar Bluff, Mo.

I'm gonna miss him. I wonder if I could buy a house next door in Dallas?

To boost recruits, US Army relaxes weight rules

Washington – The waistlines of America's youth are expanding, shrinking the pool of those eligible to join the US military. But an Army program is giving overweight enlistees a second chance – and helping the military with its own expansion.

The recently-introduced waiver program allows enlistees who don't qualify for the military because of their weight a chance to shape up after joining. So far, the program has helped the Army make its recruiting goals in what remains a tight recruiting market.

I remember the poor bastards in my platoon in Marine Corps boot camp. Labeled "fat bodies" for the entire time in boot. It didn't matter how lean or mean they got their PT clothing always had the red stripes.

When they get to the fat bottomed girls you know the Army's rockin' world will go 'round.

Good news on that front...according to Cell Metabolism (I only read it for the articles, I swear) "fat bottom girls might be healthier than the super-model shaped ones."

Stay strong, stay Army strong.

Roy Boehm, THE FIRST BAD-ASS, dead, 84

Roy Boehm of Punta Gorda, a cantankerous retired U.S. Navy lieutenant commander who fought three wars, started the Navy's first SEAL team and shared his harrowing adventures --and his battles against military bureaucracy --in an autobiography, has completed his last mission.

A true American hero. They don't make'm like that anymore.