The irony abounds once again in Great Britain. Keeping the politics out of this as much as I can, remember that your priorities might not equal those of a national health care system.

LONDON (AP) - For two years, Frances Kinley-Manton says she lived with arthritis pain in her hips, a condition that kept her in a wheelchair.

She wanted hip replacement surgery. But doctors at Britain’s National Health Service said she was too fat for the operation.

“They wouldn’t even put me on a waiting list,” Kinley-Manton recalled.

Her doctor told the 210-pound woman to lose about 30 pounds before he would consider her for surgery.

Unable to drop the weight through dieting, the 68-year-old Scotland resident took out a mortgage on her house to pay for a private operation on the Mediterranean island of Malta. She had her first hip operation in July. Now she’s awaiting surgery on the other hip.

“I had no alternative,” she said in a telephone interview from the island. “NHS said they wouldn’t operate on me because I’m overweight, but I think they were just trying to keep their costs down.”

There are increased risks with surgery to overweight people, for sure. Mrs. Kinley-Manton was/is NOT morbidly overweight however. People in the US and most other nations can and do have hip operations at this weight; many are heavier. The risks are there, but not high enough to deny someone this operation. Doctors and other medical people realize the risks of doing nothing in these cases far outweigh the small chances of problems occurring during the surgery: A hip problem increases immobility, which leads to dependence and eventually the inability to take care of oneself. Um, this often leads to nursing home placement which is much more expensive than the operation in question here.

Contrary to what the NHS considers to be vital and important, we see the NHS pays for women to have their hymens repaired, so they have the look and feel of a virgin on their wedding night.

Women are being given controversial “virginity repair” operations on the NHS, it emerged last night.

Taxpayers funded 24 hymen replacement operations between 2005 and 2006, official figures revealed.

And increasing numbers of women are paying up to £4,000 in private clinics for the procedure apparently under pressure from future spouses or in-laws who believe they should be virgins on their wedding night.

Doctors said most patients are immigrants or British of ethnic origin.

Of course this is for women who are Muslims. That’s not important in my point here. What should concern people is the stark reality of a culture that disregards a real medical condition vs. a politically correct and religiously based “demand”.

Muslim non-virgin women should be the ones going to other countries and paying for their own non essential surgeries with their own money; not slightly to moderately overweight women who could very well end up living in nursing homes for the lack of a simple and very effective surgery. Of course Mrs. Kinley-Manton could claim herself a Muslim, demand a hymen repair and perhaps as an added benefit ask for the hip replacement surgery: She would probably have a good chance of getting both.

I just remembered Teach does open trackbacks now and again and I think this article is worthy of sharing. So go over and see what he has to say…

Huh?

What a damn waste. And a cryin shame if they do this:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Here’s a sobering thought: Hundreds of bottles of Jack Daniel’s whiskey, some of it almost 100 years old, may be unceremoniously poured down a drain because authorities suspect it was being sold by someone without a license.NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Here’s a sobering thought: Hundreds of bottles of Jack Daniel’s whiskey, some of it almost 100 years old, may be unceremoniously poured down a drain because authorities suspect it was being sold by someone without a license.

Stupid regulations and ordinances create waste like this! I want those bottles to be unceremoniously poured into little shot glasses of me and my friends.

Speaking of things to drink I consider the following to be good news:

SEATTLE (AP) — Fewer coffee drinkers have been streaming into Starbucks Corp.’s U.S. stores — news that overshadowed an otherwise healthy fiscal fourth quarter for the world’s largest chain of coffee houses.

The 1 percent drop in traffic at stores open at least 13 months marked the first time the company has seen such a decline, and it helped send Starbucks shares down nearly 8 percent in after-hours trading Thursday.

Starbucks coffee SUCKS!

That’s why sales are down. In my area the Dunkin Donut shops are hoppin busy…and the Starbucks are empty. Says much.

This is so cool.

FREDONIA, Kan. — When rancher Bill Inman decided to show there’s more to America than what’s seen on the nightly news, he hopped on his horse Blackie and started riding.

And riding, and riding.

Weary of the daily drumbeat over war, crime, poverty and assorted social ills, he and his wife are burning through their life savings to tell the stories of hardworking, honest everyday people in rural America. Inman soaks it all in atop Blackie, a 16-year thoroughbred-quarter horse mix who’s averaging 20-25 miles a day along backroads from Oregon to North Carolina.

“Unfortunately, the image they are portraying is there’s corruption in every politician and there’s criminals running everywhere,” he said. “I guess guys that rope like me, we wouldn’t need to rope steers. You could just sit out there and rope a criminal because they’re coming by every 10 minutes.”

Inman, 48, started June 2 from his hometown of Lebanon, Ore. Halfway through his cross-country trek dubbed Uncovering America by Horseback, he’s rolled up 1,700 miles. His wife, Brenda, also 48, drives ahead in a pickup and horse trailer filled with water and provisions for Blackie, three dogs and themselves.

If I were the Inmans, I would title this adventure “America The Beautiful”…because America is just that. The country itself and it’s average, everyday hard working blue collar citizens. The rich and famous have no place in this man’s quest, nor mine.

“If we waited until we could afford to do it, we could never do it. It was do it now or never do it,” Brenda said. “We gave everything up in our lives to do this. We used all our savings and everything else.”

Said Bill: “It’s probably the most stupid thing I’ve done financially, but I truly believe in it.”

Bah…just do it. Why wait for the elusive perfect moment? When people do that, things don’t happen.

He arrived in this rural town with jeans tucked into boots with spurs, a sweat-stained Stetson and a weathered face, leaving no doubt that ranching has been part of him all his life. As with most stops, they rely on a combination of media coverage and word-of-mouth to let people know.

We need more real and true cowboys who can spot the real important things in life and not just what the news and media tell us is real and important.

Mention diversity and Inman talks about the retired rancher in Idaho who he considers “a true image of America with his honesty and hospitality,” or people he’s met working multiple jobs to make ends meet, or another Idaho rancher e-mailing the progress of the journey to his son in Iraq.

“There is nothing like riding across the nation to learn about the people of this country,” he said.

I totally agree. In my brief travels here and there it is the people who have left the biggest impression on me. While the scenes of regions are certainly beautiful- it’s the “boring and average” people are what make America great. Kudos to the Inmans…and if this ever becomes a documentary I will watch. If a book is ever published I will buy.