I came across this story on the BBC News 24 website and just had to add it to my blog..................

North Carolina pair feud over leg A US man who stored his amputated leg in a barbecue smoker that was later auctioned off is locked in a custody dispute with the man who bought it.
John Wood's smoker was sold to Shannon Whisnant last week after he fell behind on payments at the storage facility in North Carolina where it was kept.
He wants his leg back but Mr Whisnant says he has a receipt for the smoker's contents and wants to share ownership.
Mr Wood's leg was amputated above the knee after a plane crash in 2004.
He asked to keep the leg so he could be buried as a whole man when he died, and stored it at the facility in Maiden after losing his home.
But when Mr Wood failed to pay the necessary rental fees, the storage company auctioned the smoker and all its contents.
'Strange incident'
After buying the smoker last Tuesday, Mr Whisnant looked inside and found a man's leg wrapped in a wire screen.
Halloween's just around the corner - the price will go up if I get the leg Shannon Whisnant
He initially gave the leg to the police, who concluded it had not been removed as a result of a crime and sent it to a funeral home until Mr Wood could pick it up.
But after making money by charging adults $3 (£1.47) and children $1 (49p) to look inside the empty smoker, Mr Whisnant asked for it back.
His request was refused by the funeral home, so he decided to try to persuade Mr Wood to share custody and profits.
"I told him I'd share custody of it..." Mr Whisnant said.
"It's a strange incident and Halloween's just around the corner. The price will go up if I get the leg."
'Despicable'
Mr Wood, who now lives in Greenville, South Carolina, has insisted he is not interested in using the leg to make money and plans to travel to Maiden as soon as possible to reclaim it.
"I just think it's despicable," he said.
"I don't mind having the 15 minutes of fame, but I'm not looking to really profit off this thing.
"He's making a freak show out of it."
Having had his offer rejected, Mr Whisnant has threatened to begin legal action if the leg is not returned to him by next week.
He says he has a receipt showing he bought both the smoker and its contents at the auction.
"Everybody knows it's mine, period," he said. "And if anyone tries to take it, I want everything they got."

The only thing that comes to my mind is why?

Nowt as queer as (American) folk!

Non-Disabled People's Unreasonable Expectations

I'm really pissed off with the attitude of non-disabled people.

They expect disabled people to compete with them on an equal bases on terms of their choosing and they call this equality - bollocks! Equality is about creating a level playing field so that everyone can join in the game.

So what has put me in this mood, well it is a company called Permtemps. My partner Alison works for these cretins who's idea of equality is to treat all their employees like shit - equally!

Alison has Cerebral Palsy, she is a wheelchair user, she also has Spacial Difficulties and Dyslexia. She works in a call centre where they handle calls for British Gas, which could not really be any worse! Permtemps are winging at Alison because she is performing at less than 95% of whatever 100% is. Apparently her average is about 84%. Now lets put that into the real world.

If someone gets 84% in a degree course at University, they would get a First Class Honours Degree. If when your on performance related pay you score 84%, you get the top bonus.

Permtemps have not made any adjustment to Alison's workstation to accommodate her impairments.

Instead they are threatening to discipline her for under performing. So much for equality of opportunity.

I think it is time to start looking for a new job Ali darling!

Old Farts with Acquired Disabilities

One group of disabled people who really annoy me, and I have to admit that I am frequently annoyed by other disabled people are, Old Farts with Acquired Disabilities.

Why should this particular group of old farts annoy me in particular, I hear readers asking themselves.

The reason for this is their attitude.

I think that the first time when I really found the old disabled farts irksome was when I was 16 and at Hereward College. There was a group of us, young disabled people from the college, and we had taken ourselves to see a football match at Coventry. The majority of us were wheelchair users and Coventry City Football Club had quite correctly let us in to their wheelchair enclosure - a dugout along the entire length of the touchline. As we were there first, we had chosen to place ourselves in the centre so that we could get a really good view (none of these spaces were reserved for individuals).

About 5 minutes before kickoff this old fart in a wheelchair came along and asked us to move so that he could get to "his" space. This would have meant shunting about a dozen wheelchair users about and there was ample room for his wheelchair elsewhere so we told his to go somewhere else. He called a steward over and the steward also told him to go elsewhere.

The old fart then complained to the steward, "I've fought in the war for that space." The steward looked aghast and, understandably, in unison, we told him to "Fuck off".

I think that it is, the attitude that the world somehow owes them something - just because they are older.

What these old farts fail to realise is that before they became disabled, they had the same advantages at their peers - I'm not saying that their lives were easy or somehow privileged, in many cases their lives were far from easy. The important thing is that they had the same opportunities as everyone else to an education, to get a job, to buy a house, save some money, have a family etc.

Those of us who have been disabled since birth have been denied these opportunities.

I went to a "special" school and I certainly did not find anything very special about the place as we were denied the depth of learning that is offered to non-disabled children and denied the opportunity to take any qualifications.

I was fortunate in that I was able to get a place at Hereward College in 1975 and this enabled me to get some qualifications and thereby get a reasonable career, but it took time to catch up and my knowledge base is still relatively narrow, which has in the past been a disadvantage. However most of the kids that I was at school with ended up attending their local council day centres, which are little more than adult "baby sitting" centres. They certainly have not had the opportunity to get jobs, save some money, buy a house and as for having sex - disabled people are not allowed to do that, did not you know!

Today, I had a situation where I was waiting patiently with my indicator flashing, for another disabled driver to vacate a designated parking space (she was genuinely disabled and was taking rather a long time - that is OK). I have a van-based wheelchair accessible vehicle and it is not as maneuverable as a car. The woman moved out the parking space and this elderly bloke in a Ford Ka just drove straight in from another direction and beat me to the space - Ford Kas are not available with automatic gearboxes and therefore are not usually driven by with lower limb impairments or mobility impairments.

The guy got out the car and he had a slight limp but could walk at a normal pace. How did that old fart qualify for a Blue Badge - it was very suspicious!

I hope he gets four flat tyres!