By Richard Alleyne

The mother aged 59 and father, 72, conceived in India with fertility treatment and returned to England for the birth.

They told horrified medics they did not want the “wrong sex” babies immediately after the Caesarean section in Wolverhampton.

The husband then asked how soon it would be before his wife was fit enough to fly out again for further IVF in the hope of getting a boy to continue the family name.

(more…)

“A nation of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves.”
~ Bertrand de Jouvenal

At this point in time, few people have not heard the stories about the West Texas Polygamists who had some 440 children seized by local authorities. The courts recently ruled that there was insufficient evidence to seize the children in the first place. The authorities acted outside their rights in taking the children from their mothers, members of the sect, so says the Austin-based, Texas Third Court of Appeals. Regardless of one’s feelings about this particular group of people, it still strikes me as convenient selective logic to attack this group, or any other supposed cult, particularly when those attacks come from the State. When those attacks are supplemented with the cataclysmically misnamed Child Protective Services it just makes bad matters worse.

(more…)

by L. Brent Bozell III

Imagine that John McCain named a young running mate to campaign with him, and this national rookie suggested America had 58 states, repeatedly used the wrong names for the cities he was visiting, and honored a Memorial Day crowd by acknowledging the “fallen heroes” who were present, somehow alive and standing in the audience. How long would it take for the national media to see another Dan Quayle caricature? Let’s raise the stakes. What if it was the GOP presidential candidate making these thoroughly ridiculous comments? This scenario is very real, except it isn’t McCain. It’s the other fellow.

(more…)

Probably almost everyone is familiar with the hyperinflationary episode that engulfed Germany after the First World War. That nation’s economy was crippled by monetary problems that resulted in dreadful personal hardships, even though up to that time Germany had achieved one of the highest living standards in the world.

The newly formed German government, named for the city where their constitution was drafted after the Kaiser’s abdication in 1918, kept pumping up the money supply. The process started relatively slowly, but quickly the pace of money creation accelerated.

(more…)

Vic Walter and Krista Kjellman

Cell phone users, beware.  The FBI can listen to everything you say, even when the cell phone is turned off.

A recent court ruling in a case against the Genovese crime family revealed that the FBI has the ability from a remote location to activate a cell phone and turn its microphone into a listening device that transmits to an FBI listening post, a method known as a “roving bug.”  Experts say the only way to defeat it is to remove the cell phone battery.

(more…)

It is hospital chain HCA’s policy to “wrest as much cash as humanly possible out of patients before they leave the building,” even if the patient hasn’t yet recovered from major surgery. The bedside shakedowns occur before the for-profit hospital submits its claims to the insurance company, shifting the burden of payment from insurance companies to patients. Stephanie Mencimer wrote about her experience with HCA after her father underwent knee replacement surgery:

Among the many hospital personnel who stopped in to see my father after surgery was a “financial counselor” from the billing office, who basically started stalking him from the minute he left the intensive care unit.

(more…)

hospital scams medical malpractice broken health care