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Win a soccer game by more than five points and you lose, Ottawa league says

In yet another nod to the protection of fledgling self-esteem, an Ottawa children’s soccer league has introduced a rule that says any team that wins a game by more than five points will lose by default.

The Gloucester Dragons Recreational Soccer league’s newly implemented edict is intended to dissuade a runaway game in favour of sportsmanship. The rule replaces its five-point mercy regulation, whereby any points scored beyond a five-point differential would not be registered.

Kevin Cappon said he first heard about the rule on May 20 — right after he had scored his team’s last allowable goal. His team then tossed the ball around for fear of losing the game.

He said if anything, the league’s new rule will coddle sore losers.

“They should be saying anything is possible. If we can get five goals really fast, well, so can the other team,” said Kevin, 17, who has played in the league for five years. “People grow in adversity, they don’t really get worse…. I think you’ll see more leadership skills being used if a losing team tries to recuperate than if they never got into that situation at all.”

Emphasis mine.

Sounds like they need to put the 17 year old in charge.

But don't dare call them death panels!

Kent Pankow lives in Edmonton, in a province and a country that is trying to either kill him or bankrupt him.

No sense mincing words.

Suffering from brain cancer, Kent Pankow was literally forced to go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. for lifesaving surgery — at a cost to family and friends of $106,000 — after the health-care system in Alberta left him hanging in bureaucratic limbo for 16 crucial days, his tumour meanwhile migrating to an unreachable part of the brain, while it dithered over his case file, ultimately deciding he was not surgery worthy.

Now, with the Mayo Clinic having done what the Alberta Cancer Board wouldn’t authorize or even explain, but with the tumour unable to be totally removed, the province will now not fund the expensive drug, Avastin, that the Mayo prescribed to keep him alive and keep the remaining tumour from increasing in size — despite the costs of the drug being totally funded by the province for other forms of cancer.

Kent Pankow, as it turns out, has the right disease but he has it in the wrong place.

Had he lung cancer, breast cancer, or colon cancer, then the cost of the drug — $4,555 per treatment, two times a month — would be totally covered by Alberta’s version of OHIP.

But he doesn’t.

And so he is not only a victim of brain cancer, he is also a victim of arbitrary discrimination.

And Ed at HotAir makes an important point:

Some will say that the runaround happens in America, too, with private insurers. And they’d be right. However, people in America have the ability to move to different insurers when they get lousy service, and still get treatment in their own country. They don’t have to flee across an international border to get medical attention.

Looks like the story still has legs.

Libyan suggestions that the UK released convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi in exchange for trade considerations has raised the spectre of Tripoli engaging in oil diplomacy, says the BBC's Rana Jawad, in the Libyan capital.

Even as the British Foreign Office denied the claims, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was hinting at the same allegation made by his son, Seif al-Islam, hours earlier.

"This step [Megrahi's release] is for the benefit of relations between Britain and Libya, and relations of personal friendship between me and them, and it will certainly be positively reflected in all fields of co-operation between the two countries," Col Gaddafi is reported to have said during his first meeting with the convicted Lockerbie bomber.

The UK government has vigorously denied that any under-the-table dealings were struck to secure Megrahi's release from jail on compassionate grounds.

However, this will do little to ease suspicions among its critics among the UK and US public that a deal was struck behind closed doors.

And this on ToL:

Scotland's government faces a fight for its survival as the furor over its decision to free the Lockerbie bomber escalated last night.

Opposition parties north of the Border are preparing to hold a confidence vote over the decision by Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Secretary, to free Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi. Alex Salmond, the First Minister, has confirmed that he would resign if the Holyrood vote went against him.

According to these articles - although I haven't seen it on the news here - some folks are calling for a boycott on Scottish products to protest the release, whatever the reasons were behind it. I just don't know how you could tell if something was Scottish-made. According to Wiki, "Scotland's primary exports include whisky, electronics and financial services." I don't drink whiskey and I don't need financial services... and when was the last time the sticker on your stereo or video game said 'Made in Scotland'?

I guess it could he a symbolic boycott if we just all stop wearing plaid.

Scotland releases Lockerbie bomber on terms of *compassion*

GREENOCK, Scotland (CNN) -- The man convicted of murdering 270 people by blowing Pan Am flight 103 out of the sky above the Scottish town of Lockerbie two decades ago was on his way home to Libya on Thursday after authorities set him free.

Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, 57, is suffering terminal prostate cancer and has three months to live. Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill ordered al Megrahi's release on compassionate grounds, saying he will be "going home to die."

So they finally get this pathetic excuse for a human being to trial, and he serves all of eight years for the murder of 270 people. As HotAir points out, that's less than 12 days behind bars per victim.