Abortion foes breathe life into Pro-Choice ad

Abortion is illegal in Poland. To no one’s surprise this doesn’t mean abortions aren’t performed there, it’s just moved them to the back alleys – unless, of course, you’re rich. Or maybe not. A pro-abortion group has been up hanging posters which claim it’s cheaper (and less dangerous) to leave the country than to get one in country. And they did it using the MasterCard “Priceless” trope.

Plane ticket to England – 300 zloty. 

Accommodation – 240 zloty.

Abortion in a public clinic – 0 zloty.

Relief after a procedure carried out in decent conditions – priceless.

There’s a line at the bottom which reads: "For everything, you pay less than an underground abortion in Poland." (FYI: $1 = 2.81 zloty)

Some of the Brits have their knickers in a twist and claim this promotes “abortion tourism.” (Headlines like “NOW POLES GET FREE ABORTIONS ON NHS,” make me suspect the press has manufactured at least some of the alleged outrage.)

Several stories from UK news organizations include the following claim (or something much like it): “Thousands of Polish women travel to Britain for an abortion each year, taking advantage of the reciprocal agreement for the provision of free medical care under EU laws.” However the closest any of the reports come to citing the basis for this claim is by identifying it as coming from “A Polish source.”

A church publication called The Trumpet says, “A report by the Polish Federation for Women and Family Planning stated that 10,000 Polish women had abortions in Britain in 2007—costing the National Health Service (nhs) between ₤5 and ₤10 million.” Oddly, the most recent report in English on the group’s website is dated 2002. Also it is hard for me to understand why a Polish group in favor of liberalization of the abortion laws would have calculated the cost of all this to the NHS. But what do I know?

Even if somehow these statistics were true, it means 2007 was a banner year. The UK’s Office of National Statistics said only 30 Polish women took this course of action in 2008.

The only truly priceless thing here is the free publicity all this has given to SROM, the group behind the ad. Hard to see how else a bunch of street posters in Lodz would be making international headlines.

Advertisement

War On Terror brand suffers major setback as UK ends partnership

File under: Declare victory and go home.

The words “war on terror” will no longer be used by the British government to describe attacks on the public, the country’s chief prosecutor said Dec. 27. Sir Ken Macdonald said terrorist fanatics were not soldiers fighting a war but simply members of an aimless “death cult.” The Director of Public Prosecutions said: ‘We resist the language of warfare, and I think the government has moved on this. It no longer uses this sort of language.” … His remarks signal a change in emphasis across Whitehall, where the “war on terror” language has officially been ditched. Officials were concerned it could act as a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda, which is determined to manufacture a battle between Islam and the West.

NO WAR ON TERROR? But what brand will you use to scare the electorate with????

Make up your mind! Italy busts the ultra thin while the UK wants to put warning lables on “plus-sized” clothes

Why the EU will never last.

Italy’s government and its fashion chiefs issued a manifesto on Saturday to crack down on the use of ultra-thin teenagers on the catwalk, requiring models to show proof of their good health or be barred from fashion shows.

A leading professor in the U.K. said that obese people should be warned about the health risks of their weight when buying clothes, according to The Daily Mail.

Radiation poisoning is good exposure for UK restaurant

Bookings are way up at a UK restaurant named “Polonium Restaurant” following the death-by-radiation murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent and foe of Russian President-For-Life Putin. The owner of the restaurant, Boguslaw Sidorowicz, said he named the eatery after a band he was in.

“When I saw the restaurant’s name all over the papers — I thought someone had booked us an advert. We’ve had an incredible 728,000 hits on the Polonium website, and have been inundated with calls from around the globe,” he said.

Meanwhile in China … The Dayawan nuclear power plant located by the South China Sea in southern Guangdong province is opening up its doors to tourists. For 30 Yuan entry fee you get to learn about its construction and safety measures and get “access to ‘Lovers’ Island,’ a wharf and a lookout point offering a view of Dayawan and Lingao, another nuclear plant being built nearby.” No word on a gift shop or t-shirts yet but all proceeds will go to charity. Could amount to $3 a year…

… which could be used to repair a new hole in the Great Wall. The Hongji Landbridge construction company has been fined $62K for blowing up a chunk of the Wall and building a highway through it. Officials say they warned the company against doing this. And after issuing the warning they laughed all the way to the bank.

Technorati Tags: Litvinenko, Polonium, Restaurant, Dayawan, Nuclear, Power, Atomic, Great, Wall, China, UK, KGB

Eau de smell

This should go well with the new Play Doh Perfume: Makers of Britain's wonderful Stilton blue cheese are turning it's "rare odour" into a perfume to be called Eau de Stilton. The Stilton Cheese Makers Association describes the new perfume as featuring a "symphony of natural base notes including Yarrow, Angelica seed, Clary Sage and Valerian." Well if they don't know then who would?

"Blue Stilton cheese has a very distinctive mellow aroma and our perfumier was able to capture the key essence of that scent and recreate it in an unusual but highly wearable perfume," said an association spokesman.

Speaking as one who knows and loves his cheeses (and not just my jokes), stilton — or maybe it's Stilton™® — and all blue cheeses are a big fave of mine. But the smell I associate with blues is … well … uric. The perfume will be available from www.stiltoncheese.com. You first. (BTW, the site has a number of different language options. It has been translated into English, Spanish, Germa, French, Italian and … American. I kid you not.)
While we're on the topic of UK oddities…quoth Reuters:

More than 60 percent of Britons use items such as screwdrivers, scissors and earrings to remove food from between their teeth, according to a survey published Friday.

So if you didn't already know how to make your fortune … Go to Great Britain and become a dentist. Clearly it doesn't matter if you have any training in the field.