Leader Nigel Farage’s protégé Richard Elvin scooped 24 per cent of the by-election vote in South Shields, North East England, taking 5,988 votes behind Labour’s winning 12,493. This is “more than DOUBLE the Conservatives’ 2,857,” a statement issued by the party pointed out. Labour MP David Miliband resigned from the South Shields seat at the end of March. The constituency is traditionally a Labour safe-seat. However, the country’s ruling party, the Conservatives, was pushed into third place behind the party that they have previously dismissed as ‘loonies and closet racists.’“The message to the Coalition is you are losing the argument. If I was a Tory MP in a marginal constituency I would be worried. If I was a Labour MP in a marginal I would be worried too,” said UKIP Deputy Leader Paul Nuttall speaking at the count.“We are not just taking votes from Conservatives. This is the fourth by-election on the trot in the North where UKIP has finished second,” he stated. Constituency residents and voters shed some light on why the party is enjoying so much newfound success.“Politicians now can never give a straight answer to a question…they trip themselves up. Nigel Farage, ask him a question, you get a straight answer. He’s a straight-talking man; a spade is a spade,” one South Shields voter told RT. The Liberal Democrats, in a coalition with the ruling Conservative party, finished with fewer than 400 votes, a mere seventh, just ahead of the Monster Raving Loony Party leader, ‘Howling Laud Hope.’Early successes in local council election results Early local council election results, being announced on Friday, also bode well for the anti-EU party. UKIP succeeded in winning 42 council seats – equaling Labour – after seven of the results from 35 councils nationwide had been declared, meaning that the party had polled roughly 26 per cent of the vote, widely considered to be the best result by a fourth party since World War II, according to Reuters. Among their victories was winning Lincolnshire County Council in east England from the Conservative party, leading to the founders of the Conservative Home blog, Lord Ashcroft and Stephan Shakespeare, to state:“The Lincolnshire result, in particular, is disappointing. Even in 2005 the Conservatives had a substantial majority – the result last time in 2009 increased that majority still further.” The party also won its first seats in Dorset and Somerset, also taking five seats in Norfolk and winning Tunbridge Wells East (three of 20 possible wards) from the Conservatives: 1,386 to 1,005. Tunbridge Wells has been a Conservative safe-seat in both local and national elections for some 40 years, excluding a two-year Liberal Democrat hiatus in the mid-1990s. Conservatives managed to hold onto Hertfordshire, Dorset, Essex, Somerset and Hampshire councils overall. Among the elected UKIP councilors is one distant relative of Guy Fawkes, famed for attempting to blow up the houses of Parliament in the 17th century. The Hampshire candidate, where UKIP gained 10 new seats, and the infamous gunpowder plotter share a relative in the latter’s 15th-century great-great-grandfather, leading Farage to comment that the blood of rebellion still run his veins. Fawkes took a 37.2 per cent share of the vote. “We’ve seen a growing public support for non-mainstream parties, and certainly UKIP’s been right at the center of that. They were coming right up on Labour’s heels throughout the campaign trail,” said RT’s Sara Firth in South Shields.“The mainstream political parties are going to be looking very closely at this now, because whilst many dismiss this as a protest vote, the support the UKIP’s had recently, it does represent quite a significant sea change,” she said. The still-incoming results, favorable towards UKIP, are widely regarded as symptomatic of an increasingly euro-skeptic and disillusioned UK. UKIP argues that all three main parties are share similar values, and is absorbing traditionally Conservative voters into their support base through their harder-line stance on immigration policy – something the three main parties have all begun to imitate in recent months. Grant Shapps, the Conservative chairman, issued a statement in the fallout from the local election results on Friday morning.“People have sent a message, we get it, we hear what people are saying, people are concerned that we get on with the big issues facing hard-working people in this country, like fixing the economy, sorting out the welfare system, helping hard-working people to get on,” it said. Final results of the local council elections, which encompass over 2,000 council seats in England and Wales, are to be announced later on Friday. … Read More
Judge Napolitano on Drones, Guns, and Obama
As if to antagonize further
those who believe the Constitution means what it says, writes Judge
Andrew Napolitano, the same president who says he can’t reveal the
legal basis for his targeted killing program wants to take away
your right to self-defense against a killer, and he wants to
prevent you from having the means with which to shoot at a tyrant
should such a monster take over the government. … Read More
My secret condom use
Dear Cary,Exactly two years ago my mother died. I went to the hometown to take care of things and then my girlfriend joined me for the funeral. She acted her part great, but there was something in the air.After the ceremony we went home, and as I got undressed and lay on the bed I was thinking, “Now I can fall apart, and cry and mourn.” In that exact moment, my girlfriend approached me and said that when she was preparing for travel to the funeral, she found an opened box of condoms. She was on the pill; I used them for hygienic purposes in our lovemaking that she didn’t know about, and she expects me to explain it.The next three hours is a blur. I finally managed to ease her concerns, but the moment for mourning was lost. And I can’t get over it.My relationship with my mother was a difficult one. Lately I had thought of her as the always demanding monster who took away the best years of my life. And in the moment the monster died, when I was to be free at last, another one took its place and presented her demands.I didn’t cheat on my girlfriend, but it was this moment I felt that that sacrifice on my part was wasted.Continue Reading… … Read More
Bosnia’s ‘Monster of Grbavica’ gets 45 years for war crimes
A former member of the Bosnian Serb paramilitary forces was jailed Friday for 45 years for carrying out a reign of terror against Sarajevo civilians during the 1992-1995 war. Veselin Vlahovic, dubbed the “Monster of Grbavica”, was “found guilty of crimes against humanity and this…
Alex Jones Maniac Monster Ape
http://www.youtube.com/v/Q-pNO0KUicc?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata Original article: Alex Jones Maniac Monster Ape
Monster Energy poses monster threat to consumers
A backlash against energy drinks is afoot.On Long Island, Suffolk County passed three new bills “aimed at keeping energy drinks out of the hands of minors, citing health concerns, over objections of beverage industry lobbyists who called it unfair,” reported Long Island Press. The bills haven’t been signed yet by the county executive.There is concern over the consumption of caffeine by kids, which has led many people to speak out, something that hasn’t made energy drink companies too happy. One of those, Monster Beverage, has threatened to sue nutritionist Deborah Kennedy who publishes a newsletter sent to elementary school children. The New York Times reports that the company, “objected to several statements in the newsletter, Build Healthy Kids, including one that said children had died from energy drinks and should ‘never drink’ them.”Continue Reading… … Read More
Now caffeine’s turn: Scientist urges for energy drink regulation
Now caffeine’s turn: Scientist urges for energy drink regulation
Published time: February 27, 2013 01:35
TagsBiology, Drugs, Health, Law, Medicine, Science, USACaffeine addicts, beware: a leading scientist is calling for the regulation of caffeine in the United States, where tens of thousands of people are hospitalized for ‘overdosing’ on energy drinks each year.In a frantic desperation to stay awake, Americans frequently opt
for highly caffeinated energy drinks such as Monster and 5-hour
Energy shots. Filled with sugar and 240 milligrams of caffeine –
which is seven times the dose found in a regular can of soda –
Monster energy drinks have recently been investigated for causing
five deaths and one non-fatal heart attack in the US, AP
reports.Consuming too much caffeine can be fatal: in 2011, 20,783 people
were hospitalized for overdosing on energy drinks, the Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reports. This is
more than twice as high as the 10,068 that were hospitalized in
2007.The increasing trend of caffeine poisoning in the US has
prompted at least one scientist to call for the regulation of the
substance. Jack E. James, editor-in-chief of Journal of Caffeine
Research, said lawmakers need to consider the high number of
caffeine-related deaths and near-deaths in the US in order to
understand the need for regulation.The lethal dose of caffeine for adults is estimated to be
approximately 10 grams. While consuming several cups of coffee is
usually harmless, combining caffeine with other substances, like
alcohol or prescription drugs, can be dangerous. And with the
presence of caffeine in a range of foods and drinks including beer
and liquor, flavored milk, sunflower seeds, chewing gum, chocolate,
ice cream, and cereal, it’s almost impossible to keep track of the
amount of caffeine a person consumes each day.In an editorial published Monday, James argues that as the
number of caffeine-related hospitalizations increase, lawmakers are
paying less attention to the idea of regulating caffeine.“Armed with improved knowledge of caffeine toxicity and faced
with extensive evidence of substantial harm to public health,
today’s authorities appear more perplexed and less decisive than
their counterparts of more than a century earlier,” James
writes. “In light of current international befuddlement and
inaction, legislators, policy makers, and regulators of today
confront a stark question – how many caffeine-related fatalities
and near-misses must there be before we regulate?”In 1911, federal agents seized quantities of Coca-Cola syrup and
declared its caffeine content a threat to public health. In
response, Coco-Cola was required to lower its caffeine content, or
else face legal action. James believes that similar initiatives
should be taken with energy drinks today – especially since there
is a greater knowledge base about the effect of the substance.“The absence of a discernible policy framework for addressing
such concerns continues to be an obstacle to needed action,”
James writes.While
2000
caffeine addicts may not be too pleased with the
scientist’s report, not all American lawmakers are opposed to the
idea of regulation. US Sens. Dick Durbin and Richard Blumenthal
last year proposed that the Food and Drug Administration restrict
caffeine levels in energy drinks. The call to action came after at
least 13 deaths had been tied to the consumption of 5-hour Energy
shots.But because energy drinks are classified as “food supplements”,
FDA limits on caffeine levels in beverages have no effect on
“substances” like Monster, Full Throttle, Red Bull and 5-hour
Energy. The FDA limits caffeine levels in beverages to about 70
milligrams per 12 ounces. But food supplements like energy drinks
are not required to follow this rule.“There’s increasing evidence of the very urgent and dangerous
threat posed by these drinks because of their high levels of
caffeine, which are often undisclosed, and the effects of combining
that caffeine with other ingredients,” Blumenthal told Fox
News.And although there are presently no major initiatives to
restrict the legal limits of caffeine in beverages, the scientist’s
report sheds further light on a problem that has been ongoing for
decades – especially among those who overestimate their
limits.Share on Tumblr … Read More
