NHS suffers ‘brain drain’ of doctors

The National Health Service is suffering a “brain drain” of doctors as more medics trained at taxpayers’ expense choose to pursue their careers overseas, according to Financial Times research.

Most go to Australia or New Zealand, say recruiters and doctors’ organisations, and data suggest more now choose to stay longer or settle permanently.

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Tracking the numbers of medical professionals leaving and returning to the UK is difficult because neither the government nor health industry bodies record that information.

However, the number of certificates of good standing – which the UK’s General Medical Council issues at a doctor’s request and are necessary to take up a post in another country – has risen steadily since records began in 2008. Since then, more than 8,000 people have requested such certificates for Australia and New Zealand alone.

Additionally, the number of Australian permanent visas issued to UK-trained doctors has almost tripled during the past five years, with 645 granted in 2010-11, according to immigration data.

But the lure of an improved lifestyle and better weather, along with higher pay, shorter hours and superior arrangements for professional study, are not the only reasons many are opting for a life abroad.

Many of the young medics have failed to secure jobs in the UK because there are more places in medical schools than jobs available and they are not sufficiently experienced to practise privately.

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Documentary Destined to Trigger Islamic Anger

A documentary that is critical of Islam is set to be screened on National Television next week, prepare for the inevitable death threats, violence and flying prayer mats from the religion of peace.

A new Channel 4 documentary entitled: Islam – The Untold Story, is destined to anger British Muslims, as it looks at the parts of Islam that just don’t add up and challenges long held opinions of the origins of Islam.

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What Liberals Don’t Understand About Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand, the Russian-born writer and self-styled philosopher who died three decades ago, is back in the news as a favorite author of Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan. In recent years, the passionately individualist, pro-capitalist Rand has been embraced as a champion of freedom by many conservatives and libertarians, and denounced as a prophet of greed and narcissism by many liberals. Yet, if Rand admirers tend to ignore the flaws of her vision, her detractors reduce her to grotesque caricature—and invoke her popularity as proof of right-wing nuttiness.

One major misconception is that Rand worshipped the rich and saw moneymaking as life’s highest goal. In fact, most wealthy characters in her novels are pathetic, repulsive, or both: businessmen fattened on shady deals or government perks, society people who fill their empty lives with luxury. (There are also sympathetic poor and working-class characters.)

In The Fountainhead, Rand’s first bestseller (and best novel), the hero, architect Howard Roark, describes “the man whose sole aim is to make money” as a variety of “the second-hander” who lives through others, seeking only to impress with his wealth. Roark himself turns down lucrative jobs rather than sacrifice his artistic integrity, at one point finding himself penniless.

Rand extolled “selfishness,” but not quite in its common meaning. (To some extent, she was using the now-familiar confrontational tactic of turning a slur against a stigmatized group—in this case, true individualists—into a badge of pride.) Roark’s foil, the social-climbing opportunist Peter Keating, gives up both the work and the woman he truly loves for career advancement. Most people, Rand says, would condemn Keating as “selfish”; yet his real problem is lack of self.

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“Because I’m worth it,” says arrogant Muslim parasite with her flock of seven little parasites-in-training

“I am entitled to live in a house like this and get welfare benefits,” claims jobless Palestinian Muslim mother-of-seven who insists her family deserves to live in the £1.25 million ($1.9 million) taxpayer-funded home that they wrecked.

UK Daily Mail: Manal Mahmoud and her seven children moved into the Victorian end-of-terrace home after it was given a £76,000 facelift.
But yesterday the Palestinian immigrants were branded the ‘family from hell’ by nearby residents as it emerged that they face eviction from the three-bedroom property in Fulham, West London, for their ‘appalling behavior.

It follows complaints to police about anti-social behavior at the property, where the driveway has been smashed up, doors are hanging off and rubbish and furniture have been dumped in the garden. Although the family claim they do not have the money to maintain the house, they drive a Mercedes and the house is fitted with expensive electronic goods including a widescreen plasma television and a laptop computer.
Yesterday Mrs Mahmoud, who came to Britain in 2000 with her husband before they split up, said she was living with six of her children aged between five and 17. Her 19-year-old son Ossama is in prison for drug dealing.
She added: ‘I am entitled to live in a house like this, even if I don’t pay for it and get benefits. ‘It is fair that the Government houses us. ‘I know I have a son who makes trouble but that doesn’t mean all my children are the same.

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AL QAEDA BEGINS PLOTTING DEATH OF OSAMA-KILLLING, BOOK-WRITING SEAL

Excerpted from CBS News: Al Qaeda has wasted no time in calling for the death of the former Navy SEAL who has written a book under a pseudonym which his publisher Dutton calls a first person account of the death of Osama bin Laden.

A jihadist forum, al-Fidaa, located in Malaysia, posted the death calls and provided the author’s name and photograph under a headline titled “First Image of One of the Dogs who killed Bin Laden.” Dogs are considered unclean in Islam.

Al-Fidaa, which is also used by al Qaeda to recruit suicide bombers, posted comments by one member, Abu (father of, in Arabic) Dujanah al-Kinani, warning that the “lion’s cubs,” the mujahedeen (holy warriors), are now waiting for the right time to avenge bin laden’s death. Usama means “lion” in Arabic. Ayman al-Zawahiri, the new leader of al-Qaeda has called bin Laden, “the lion of Islam.” Jihadi online forums sometimes refer to Bin Laden as the “Lion of the Holy Jihad.”

One posting on al-Fidaa called on Allah to kill the author sooner or later. Another member, in the thread, called on God to “make him a living example and let us witness his dark day.”

Dutton is promoting the book, “No Easy Day,” as the first inside account of “Operation Neptune Spear,” the code name for the raid that took place on the night of May 1st, 2011. On that night, 23 Navy SEALS took off from Jalalabad Airfield in Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border, in two MH-60 Blackhawk helicopters, flew undetected 120 miles into Pakistan to Abbottabad, a city two hours north of Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan to the one acre compound where the CIA had determined that bin Laden was hiding.

A day after the author announced that he is publishing the book Navy Admiral Bill McRaven, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, warned his troops, current and retired, that he would take legal action against anyone who exposed sensitive information that could cause fellow forces harm.

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University of Virginia Rejects President Obama’s Speaking Request

The University of Virginia on Friday declined President Barack Obama’s request to speak at the university when he visits Charlottesville on Wednesday, a UVA spokesperson confirmed to WVIR-TV.

UVA shot down the president after his campaign reportedly requested the use of one of their two outdoor venues: the Amphitheater or the Harrison-Small Library plaza.

The university says it declined the commander-in-chief’s request for several reasons, citing class cancellation concerns and security costs

WVIR has more details:

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Oath Keepers to Place Billboard Near Army Base to Protest Article Demonizing Tea Party

Anti-Obama Movie #1

The anti-Obama movie 2016 Obama’s America went into wider release around America today and is opening right now in first place at the domestic box office. That’s quite a feat since the Rocky Mountain Pictures political documentary is still playing in only 1,090 North American theaters – or about 1/3 as many theaters as big-budget actioner The Expendables 2 (3,355 theaters). But these political documentaries like faith-based films are frontloaded. The Stallone picture from Millenium/Lionsgate is still expected to end the weekend #1 and should top the box office tonight. And, based on matinee trends, 2016 Obama’s America looks to gross $1.2M-$1.7M Friday for a $3.7M-$5.0M weekend. But right now it has grossed $700,000 today compared to $300,000 for The Expendables 2. Its new cume after this weekend could make it the #1 conservative documentary (ahead of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed’s $7.7M). The success of the anti-Obama pic is based on big pre-sales leading into the Republican National Convention August 27-30, and exhibitors are reporting busloads of filmgoers arriving at theaters around the country in pre-organized trips. It also employed much of the same marketing techniques used to garner attention and support for faith-based films, understandable since the audience is overlapping. Its campaign included advertising nationally over the past two weeks on talk radio and cable news channels including Fox News Channel, A&E, History and MSNBC.

Read more here.

How Voter Fraud Threatens Your Rights

The integrity of our electoral system and the voices of millions of Americans are at stake when governments, political parties, media and activists won’t crack down on fraud, abuse and outright cheating at the polls—and berate those who dare to stand up. A new movement of concerned voters, epitomized by the grassroots organization True the Vote, is taking the fight to the corrupt by appealing to ordinary citizens’ common sense.

With miserable unemployment numbers, crushing national debt and the battle over health care still raging, it’s difficult to overstate the importance that the results this fall’s election will have. But what happens if this most sacred of civic duties is compromised? What happens if there are people out there working to corrupt the system for their own personal gain?

If we don’t have truly free and fair elections, just where does that leave us as a nation?

At least 44 states have seen charges or convictions for voter fraud in the last 10 years, according to a vote fraud study from the Republican National Lawyers Association. Charges have included voter impersonation, vote buying, absentee ballot fraud and double voting. In 2010, a Nebraska man was arrested after investigators said he submitted nearly 200 phony names during a drive for a minority voter registration group. Last year, a Mississippi NAACP official was convicted of fraudulently casting absentee ballots in the names of 10 people—four of whom were dead—after forensics matched her DNA to the envelope seals.

The need to protect the voting process—above and beyond efforts local, state and federal governments happen to be taking—has led everyday citizens to take matters into their own hands. True the Vote is one such grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving election integrity. Self-described as “developed by citizens, for citizens,” the Houston-based group recruits and trains volunteers to serve as election monitors and also to validate existing voter rolls before a questionable registrant can cast a potentially fraudulent ballot. Their primary goal heading into the 2012 election is to have 1 million poll watchers in place around the country so that when Americans go to cast their ballots on Nov. 6 they do so freely and fairly.

Read more here.

Operation Red November

Young voters under 30 turned out in large numbers in 2008 for Barack Obama, but a new survey shows the economy under Obama’s watch has hit them hard.

A Generation Opportunity poll indicates 84 percent of voters aged 18 to 29 are planning a major life change because of the economy, including delaying marriage and a home purchase.

Twenty-six percent said they changed their living situation by taking in roommates or moving back home, 40 percent skipped a vacation and more than half have had to adjust their entertainment budget, the GO report said.

The poll also showed that while 51 percent of that age group voted in 2008, 76 percent plan to vote this fall.

So into that already volatile mix comes an announcement from the College Republican National Committee of the largest youth mobilization effort in the group’s 120-year history, a plan dubbed “Operation Red November.”

The grassroots movement of college Republicans nationwide aims to “recruit and mobilize college students to take back our future by voting and volunteering for Republican candidates in local and state level elections in 2012.”

The group is aiming for more than 6 million live voter contacts, 100,000 volunteer hours and 50,000 new College Republicans.

“The CRNC’s quarter million members provide the boots on the ground for the Republican Party. We will utilize our existing membership and our trained field staff to mobilize a youth effort that has never been seen before in our organization’s history,” CRNC Chairman Alex Schriver said.

According to the group, the operation will be based out of its office in Washington, D.C., and supported by a network of field offices throughout the country.

Read more here.