The Anonymous Widower

The Disgrace of Augusta

I quite like golf on the television, but I never watch the Masters at Augusta.

Like many people, I can remember when blacks could only be caddies or waiters. In fact the founder of the tournament insisted that in his lifetime, it was only contested by white players with black caddies.

At least now President Obama has weighed into the row about women being allowed to watch. But then he knows that with the issues of birth control and abortion likely to figure in the next election, it will help him get re-elected.

The Masters also have an interesting problem this year, in that one of their major sponsors, IBM, has a female Chief Executive. Will they go for money or ditch an outdated principle?

In The Times today, Matthew Syed, one of their most-respected sports writers, calls Augusta a laughing stock.

The Times also indicates that some Scottish golf clubs have a similar attitude to women and St. Andrews has a particular problem, in that the Principal of the University is female.

I also remember a friend, who couldn’t use a corporate membership at a golf club in the south of England. But being the man he was, he talked them round.

April 7, 2012 Posted by | Sport | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Another Mass Shooting In the United States

Sadly, there is has been another mass shooting in the United States, this time in Oakland.

When is the country going to get the simple relation, that guns kill people?

They send an awful message to the rest of the world. Look at the latest film from Hollywood; The Hunger Games.  Quite frankly it is sick. Why has it been given a certificate in the UK?

April 3, 2012 Posted by | World | , , , | 2 Comments

The American Lottery

The news this morning carries a story that the Mega Millions lottery in the United States

It used to be the case, that American lottery winners paid tax on the winnings.

So that might be the worst prize as well!

March 31, 2012 Posted by | Finance, News | , , | Leave a comment

Japan Joins the Evil Empire

Yesterday, Japan hanged three men.

The death penalty is barbaric, but in Japan, they just take you in the morning and hang you, after you might have been in jail for twenty or thirty years.  Your relatives aren’ even told.

That though is truly barbaric.  Even when we had the death penalty, it was carried out as humanely as possible, according to the standards of the time.

So Japan now joins the Evil Empire of Iran, China and the United States.

March 30, 2012 Posted by | News | , , , , | Leave a comment

Sir Roger Bannister and the Affect of Heat and Humidity

I didn’t realise that one of the first papers that Sir Roger produced was about the affect of heat and humidity on people. He did his research in Aden in 1957.

I couldn’t find the paper, but I did find him quoted in a Powerpoint presentation on the subject, written Col. John Gardner, MD for the United States Army or Marines.

The notion that courage and esprit de corps can somehow defeat the principles of physiology is not only wrong but dangerously wrong. 

I don’t know what the temperatures and humidity are like in Afghanistan are like, but do the British and American forces take note of the doctor.

March 26, 2012 Posted by | Health, World | , , | Leave a comment

The United States Looks After Its Own

The fact that Sergeant Robert Bales, has been quickly returned to the US is no surprise to me.

 

In areas around the US bases in the UK in the 1970s, there were a couple of cases of death by dangerous driving caused by US servicemen.

 

No prosecution in the UK ever happened and in one case familiar to my late wife, a barrister in Suffolk at the time, nothing more was heard of the case, after the perpetrator was returned quickly to the United States.

The current case is very different and I suspect that he will face a Court of Law.

March 17, 2012 Posted by | News | , , , | Leave a comment

What Would Jamie Oliver Think of This Rubbish?

A report on the BBC has said that so-called ‘pink slime’ is being withdrawn from school dinners in the United States.

No wonder the country has so many problems, if this is considered an acceptable food for children.

They make the dreaded turkey twizzlers, so hated by Jamie Oliver, look perfectly edible and wonderfully nutritious.

March 16, 2012 Posted by | Food, News | | Leave a comment

FT Says Afghans Want Local Trial

The shooting of Afghans by a rogue US serviceman, is absolutely awful and I dread to think where it will lead. I think if I was a soldier out there now, I’d be watching a few Black Adder Goes Forth videos, to get myself invalided home.

The FT this morning is claiming that the Afghan government want a local trial.

I hope that Afghanistan doesn’t have the death penalty!

 

March 13, 2012 Posted by | News | , , , | 2 Comments

America Has Too Many Lawyers

This must be true as lawyers are now suing the law schools for producing too many lawyers and it’s reported in today’s Times.

I think we’ve had the same problem here for some years, as C always said that when she retired, the new barristers wouldn’t or couldn’t afford to do the important work she used to do with respect to sorting out children, as there was no money in it.

She always said that fewer and better lawyers, might produce some, who had the conscience and ability to do the work she did.

There is always the old joke.

Q. What do you call a 1,000 American lawyer at the bottom of the sea?

A. A good start!

 

March 13, 2012 Posted by | News | , | Leave a comment

They’ll Have to Saw It Into Logs

I had to laugh at this story from the BBC web site, about how they are running out of toilet paper in New Jersey.

There’s an old ribald schoolboy or rugby club rhyme called In Mobile. One phrase is something like.

There’s a shortage of loo paper in Mobile.

So they’ll wait until it clogs,

Then they’ll saw it into logs in Mobile.

I can’t find the complete lyrics on the Internet.

Interestingly, the story was the second most read one on the BBC this morning.

March 13, 2012 Posted by | News | , | Leave a comment