Glasgow Attack

Two "Asian" men rammed a Jeep Cherokee into the main terminal at Glasgow airport with the vehicle bursting into flames. The men in the car and two others are reported to be under arrest by Strathclyde police. Eye witnesses say that this was no accident and that the driver deliberately swung the car into the entry way. According to Sky News, one witness said that the men were "throwing petrol around".

Who is behind this attack, what their motive might be, whether it is part of some larger events, if it is related to the failed London bomb attacks, if there is some religious element (Heaven knows what), or if anyone named "Mohammad" is involved remains an utter mystery and will remain so for as long as the major media outlets can manage.

Update: Sky News is now reporting that only two men have been arrested.

Update: Witness tells Sky News that one of the suspects shouted "Allah" while attacking a policemen.

Update: Fox News has reported that Britain's threat level has been raised to "critical", meaning that another attack is thought imminent. The BBC confirms.

Update: The BBC is reporting that two people have been detained in Cheshire in connection with the bombings in Glasgow & London. Looks as if the two incidents are part of the same plot.

Update: The Jihadist who was taken to hospital in critical condition from severe burns was wearing a suicide bomb belt.

Update: CNN reports that there may be a third Jihadist in the Jeep. Also, the burns of the bomb belt terrorist are explained:

Witness Jackie Kennedy told the BBC that after the crash, a passenger in the Jeep doused himself with fuel from a can and ignited it, then got out of the vehicle. Airport police used fire extinguishers on him, and he fell to the ground, she said.

"I realized that this was obviously deliberately done -- the fact that the guy was in flames and seemed to be enjoying himself, even smiling," Kennedy told the BBC.

How anyone can read this and think it's no problem if these madmen get their hands on nuclear weapons is beyond me.

Catch and Release

According to ABC News, British police have identified the suspect and (surprise!) it isn't a rogue IRA operative or Mafia hit man, but is Al Qaeda (emphasis added):

British police have a "crystal clear" picture of the man who drove the bomb-rigged silver Mercedes outside a London nightclub, and officials tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com he bears "a close resemblance" to a man arrested by police in connection with another bomb plot but released for lack of evidence.

Officials say the suspect had been taken into custody in connection with the case of al Qaeda operative Dhiren Barot (pictured), who was convicted of orchestrating a vehicle bomb plot involving targets in London, New York, Newark, N.J. and Washington, D.C.

And some people can't understand why it's a bad idea to use the police and civilian courts to solve what is a military problem.

Robotaser

Police robots with tasers? Could be worse.

Ground Force

An impressive shot the the International Space Station taken from the ground-- even more impressive when you learn that it was taken by a load of high school students.

London Bombing Attempt

Authorities in London have neutralised a car bomb in the Haymarket. Planted outside of the Tiger Tiger nightclub, which has a maximum capacity of 1700, a green metallic Mercedes packed with petrol, propane and nails was discovered by an ambulance crew when it started emitting smoke at about 1:30 AM. Police destroyed the vehicle with a controlled explosion and a second car in Park Lane is under investigation.

This bomb smells so heavily of Al Qaeda that even the BBC can't skirt around the obvious, though the AP does a valiant effort by reporting that "Police were also investigating the possibility that the planned attack could have been criminal in nature."

Uh, yeah.

My impression is that this happening within two days of Gordon Brown becoming Prime Minister is no coincidence and that the Jihadis were hoping to pull a Madrid by killing hundreds, if not thousands within a stone's throw of Piccadilly Circus before Mr. Brown had a chance to finish unpacking his underwear at No. 10. Hopefully this misfire will turn into a backfire that will make Mr. Brown declare what his predecessor could never bring himself to do, which is that what is happening on the streets of Britain is nothing less than enemy action in time of war and that those who carry these acts out, those who aid them, and those who support their goals are nothing less than enemy agents or traitors to be treated accordingly..

But I'm not holding my breath.

Update: In a concerted effort to sweep things under the carpet, AP (no surprise here) is reporting that terror links were "not found," though a closer reading indicates that there isn't any positive evidence linking the bomb to specific terrorist suspects. It's important to keep an open mind in these situations, but until the police put the finger on someone who isn't named Mohammad, I'm leaving this in the Jihad basket.

Update: Fleet street has been closed off because of a third suspicious vehicle.

Update: CBS claims to have uncovered a connection to a posting on a Jihadist web site.

The Cat Came Back

Why I don't have a cat.

Revenge of the Sushi

Before


After

In an unprecedented example of lunch gone horribly wrong, an island in Japan has been literally eaten by crustaceans.

Ganime was unavailable for comment.

Odd Jobs

Mr. Tony Blair has officially resigned as Prime Minister and Member of Parliament.

Seeing as he'll have some time on his hands and a reduced income now, I'd like Mr. Blair to know that I could do with a baby sitter on Mondays and there's some work needing done in the garden, so if he'd like to make a couple of extra quid, tell him to give me a ring.

Big Brother Want You To Take Shorter Showers

I'd love to see the marketing strategy on this one. It's a device for your shower that shuts off the water after twelve minutes whether you want it to or not. Amazingly, the Australian company that makes these things expects you to install one voluntarily and pay for the privilege.

Aside from the niche miser-and-masochist market, I can't see this one going anywhere, though I have no doubt that the Ministry of Busybodies Intent On Controlling Every Minuscule Aspect Of Everyone's Lives On General Principles will be jumping up and down with glee at the idea of having these Orwellian things required by law.

C5 Upgrade

Remember the painfully awful Sinclair C5 of the 1980s? Under-engineered, underpowered, and under-whelming; If only Sir Clive had swapped that piddly 12-volt motor for a dirty big jet engine, it might have been a different story.

Plus Ça Change, Plus C'est La Même Chose

From parody to policy was only a matter of time, it seems.

William Wallace, Call Your Service

Scotland: A nation of an indomitable people whose proud heritage of fighting spirit has become a banner of liberty throughout the world.

Scotland: Land of the free and home of the brave.

Scotland: A people who will stand up for what is rightfully theirs even in the face of hopeless odds.

Scotland: Where you now need a licence for your sporran.

God help us all.

I Don't Think That Word Means What You Think It Means

From the BBC:

The EU's foreign policy chief has described as "constructive" talks with Iran's top nuclear negotiator.

That's "constructive" as in "we've given Iran all the time it needs to build a bomb and haven't made them pay any price for such insanity whatsoever."

Future Tea

Thought of food pills too depressing? Stand by for tea pills.

Now that's depressing.

Robopicker

One side effect of the immigration debate in the United States is that fruit growers, nervous about their supply of cheap Latin American labour. are starting to look at robots to take up the slack.

I don't have much interest in the US immigration issue in general (Solving the problem of Mexican incursions is infinitely preferable to that of dealing with Jihadi-inclined Muslims), but it's a beautiful example of how technological change works. I have no doubt that if it weren't for the large influx of illegal workers, we'd have seen these machines being developed a generation ago.

Bunsen Burner Barman

In the past few years something called "molecular gastronomy" has become all the rage in the same way that nouveau cuisine of a generation ago taught diners that you can drop a packet on a meal and still come away starving.

Basically, molecular gastronomy is cooking combined with chemistry that translates into dishes that are far too over-prepared. When most people hear the word "Frankenfood" they think of genetically modified crops. I think of a chef with a test tube and an Erlenmeyer flask churning out repellent foamed sauces to go on foodstuffs that resemble nothing meant for the human pallet in either taste or texture.

Not content with ruining people's dinner at a premium price, kitchen sadism has spread to the quiet refuge of the lounge, where there is now something that could be called molecular bartending, of which the Times has a frightening example:

“Take the Super Soda, for example. Really it’s a classic Tom Collins,” (says Tony Conigliari of London's Shochu Lounge), putting in front of me a tall glass of viscous liquid with green bubbles suspended in it. Alongside it is a paper perfume swatch. What he has done, he explains, is re-created the notes of the perfume – Soda by Comme des Garçons – by cooking lemon grass, lime and geranium essence in a vacuum with Tanqueray, lemon juice, sugar and gelling agents, and then stirred in frozen grapes and small pearls that he has made by syringing liquid cinnamon and nutmeg into a calcium base. At least I think that’s what he said. The result is like no Tom Collins I’ve tasted. You smell the perfume swatch and take a sip.

Then dash for the gents before the gag reflex becomes overpowering.

We used to laugh at the Romans with their hummingbird tongues dipped in honey, but 21^st century Britain has definitely done them one up in the decadence stakes. I remember when a cocktail was having a splash of tonic and in your gin and bitters. And if you were really on the cutting edge of depravity you might ask the barman if you could have a piece of ice with it.

If no one was looking, of course.

Mars Plan Marred

Looks like there aren't any takers for ESA's simulated Mars mission.

Can't imagine why. Seventeen months locked up in a tin can with no booze, no fags, no showers, nothing but freeze-dried meals and sharing a berth with some nit who listens to the Moody Blues at two in the morning; what's not to love?

Talking to Death

Iran now has enough nuclear material (that we know of) to construct two fission bombs.

Looks like all that talking did the job-- for the Mullahs.

Oh, That Invasion!

Al Reuters has a story about a demand request that Spain reverse the Reconquista give descendants of Muslims expelled in the 17^th century preferential immigration status. This is allegedly meant to address an "injustice" (i.e. Losing the war).

Not surprisingly, Al Reuters doesn't mention that pesky little Muslim invasion of Spain in the 8^th century until paragraph eleven-- and then only in passing.

The Gulf

Apparently the Royal Navy isn't the only service that the Iranians have attacked. In 2004, the mullahacracy tried to capture an Australian boarding party, but that one never made the headlines. Why?

Answer: They fought back and won.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald,

Quoting a "military source", BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner reported Iranian forces made a concerted attempt to seize a boarding party from the Royal Australian Navy and that the Australians "were having none of it".

"The BBC has been told the Australians re-boarded the vessel they had just searched," Gardner reports, "aimed their machine guns at the approaching Iranians, and warned them to back off, using what was said to be 'highly colourful language'.

Our sources inform us that the Royal Navy has requested a shipment of spines from the RAN.

And a Pint of Yogurt, Please

British police are considering equipping officers with tiny milk floats personal electric scooters capable of reaching speeds comparable to that of a clapped-out push bike.

The cunning of this scheme is breathtaking. Criminals will be so helpless with laughter that the police will be able to scoop them up like dead flies.

Are Nazis Involved?

From the Telegraph:

Archaeologist sparks hunt for Holy Grail

Dr. Henry Jones was unavailable for comment.

Mata Hari, Call Your Service

The BBC has hit rock bottom and started to dig. From the Telegraph comes this innocent little BBC request-- In a time of war, mind you (emphasis added):

Politicians reacted in disbelief to the revelation that for over two hours yesterday, the BBC News website carried a request for people in Iraq to report on troop movements.

The request was removed from the website after it sparked furious protests that the corporation was endangering the lives of British servicemen and women.

But according to accounts last night, a story on a major operation by US and Iraqi troops against al-Qa'eda somewhere north of Baghdad contained an extraordinary request for information about the movement of troops.

Last night the BBC confirmed the wording of the request was: "Are you in Iraq? Have you seen any troop movements? If you have any information you would like to share with the BBC, you can do so using the form below."

No doubt the BBC would have been happy if anyone had cared to send along any photographs, maps, battle plans, and code books they'd happened to come across.

To paraphrase an old Cold War quote, If the BBC was working for the other side, what would it do differently?

Sim Mars

The European Space Agency is calling for volunteers to be sealed inside a "spaceship" for 17 months to simulate a trip to Mars. According to the BBC,

With the exception of weightlessness and radiation, the crew will experience most other aspects of long-haul space travel, such as cramped conditions, a high workload, lack of privacy, and limited supplies.

I'm confused. Are they simulating space travel or working as a code writer at Microsoft?

BBC Bias

They discuss issues from the point of view that the earth is flat. If someone says the earth is round, they think this person is an extremist. That's what it's like for someone with my right-of-centre views working inside the BBC.

Jeff Randall, editor-at-large of The Daily Telegraph on BBC bias

A report has determined that the BBC has a distinct left-wing bias.

The main evidence of this is that when the Director General said that he was unaware of any such bias, the entire BBC staff started coughing, whistling and staring off into corners.

Guinness Dublin Brewery May Close

NNNOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Gingerism

From Out-Law.com:

Gingerism in the workplace could form the basis of formal grievances or constructive dismissal cases, an employment lawyer has warned. The news comes in the wake of one Newcastle family having to move house because of abuse about its members' red hair.

That's it. Civilisation's kaput. If you want me, I'll be waiting for the apes to take over.

Swings & Roundabouts

An Airbus A380 Superjumbo has been purchased for use as a private jet by an individual "not from Europe or the US" (*Cough* Saudi Arabia *Cough*).

The idea of a flying barn like the A380 being converted into a jumped-up Gulfstream strikes me as gauche, vulgar, and stinks to high heaven of the nouveau riche. On the other hand, it's managed to send unnamed "environmental groups" (*Cough* The BBC *Cough*) into a hissy fit.

And so balance is restored.

Passing of an Era

The RMS Queen Elizabeth 2, last of the transatlantic liners, has been sold to Dubai, where she will be converted into a floating hotel in 2009.

I suppose that many people, though saddened to see her leave service, will at least take solace that she's been spared the breaker's yard-- even if it means becoming a tourist attraction at a Gulf resort. For me, I'd rather see her broken up. I've never cared for the idea of museum ships; and less for the floating hotel. A ship is a living thing that is only truly what she is when she is going about her business on the sea. I'll be the first to admit that I love being able to see and even walk the decks of such great vessels as HMS Victory, the Cutty Sark, Gypsy Moth IV, or HMS Belfast, but there is also something profoundly sad about them in dry dock or permanently tethered to some quay where they are like aging race horses that are set out to pasture. It's even worse when some preserved vessel catches fire or capsizes at her moorings as has happened in the past and recently.

No, unless a ship has some incredible historic importance, such as with Victory (which is still a commissioned warship, by the way), I can't help feeling that it is better for for her to fade with dignity into history.

Cost of Living

London has been declared the second most expensive city in the world.

Come on, London! Don't stand for this. Call yourself a world capital? Get out there. Jack up those prices. Raise those rates.

No. 1! No. 1! No. 1!

Apostate in Seattle

Is this headline real or not?

Episcopal Church Appoints First Openly-Muslim Bishop

The answer is no, then damn-near yes.

What's the difference between parody and reality? Four years.

Via Mark Steyn at the Corner.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day from Ephemeral Isle

Conundrum

From The Times:

Tony Blair is preparing to cave in to pressure to sign up Britain to a sweeping new human rights charter.

The prime minister is ready to do a deal over the European charter of fundamental rights this week amid fears that plans for a treaty to replace the failed European Union constitution will collapse if he refuses to compromise.

So, Mr. Blair is going to do something that nobody wants in order to prevent the failure of something that nobody wants.

Next up: I'm going to Brillo pad that gash in my arm to prevent it from not getting infected.

With This Diode, I Thee Wed

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Robot to act as MC at S Korean wedding

Another triumph for the robovicar programme!

Top & Bottom

The Times has a very helpful list of the Top Ten Father's Day gifts that I sincerely hope I will not be receiving on Sunday.

It's a bit of a toss up, but I think the sheer terror of blasting down country roads in the jet-powered go-cart marginally beats the nauseating horror of the home fizzy lager dispenser.

Social Space Justice

The European aerospace consortium EADS Astrium is set to enter the space tourism race with its own four-passenger suborbital craft, but this is not sitting well with the European Commission Vice President Guenter Verheugen.

It's only for the super rich, which is against my social convictions.

Especially if it means that the proles will be able to afford a go one day. It should be reserved for the exclusive use of Inner Party members Eurocrats and the self-selected progressive elite, which is the natural order of things.

Underpants Bureaucrats

Please, dear God, let this be a joke.

Dr. Van Helsing, Call Your Service

Global warming (the 21^st century's answer to nuclear testing) has been blamed for everything from hurricane Katrina to breeding cats, but it takes some real artistry to finger it for vampire moths.

You're Never Too Young

Children under ten are having their DNA samples added to the national criminal database.

Remember, citizens, there are only two types of people in the Blair New World: Criminals and criminals who haven't been rounded up yet.

Tipple of Choice

Russian men have taken to drinking aftershave.

As opposed to those half-litre bottles of vodka with the foil tops that just taste like it.

Just Imagine

The one and only science fiction musical comedy.

The reason why is self-evident.

Midget Horn

Sometimes comment is simply not necessary

Robinson Crusoe on Mars

Great movie; shame about the title.

Oddly, Mona the Wooly Monkey's career went pretty much nowhere after this.

Newspeak Update

Boaters to be breathalysed.

Bubbles to be banned.

"Fun" to be removed from the 11^th edition.

Lawfare

As if this war wasn't overlawyered enough, British soldiers in the field must now operate under the scrutiny of the Human Rights Act, which means that if a soldier puts a foot wrong, the Ministry of Defence can get the pants sued off it.

That slapping sound you hear is Jihadis everywhere high-fiving each other.

Welcome to the Balkans

The Commission on Integration and Cohesion, which must be the most misnamed body in British history, propose that,

Political parties should use "positive measures" and "targeted recruitment" to ensure their councillors reflect the increasingly diverse communities they serve.

Translation: If you're not a member of the tribe identity group in question, you needn't bother applying.

BRRAAAIIINNNSSS!!!!

From the BBC:

FBI tries to fight zombie hordes

Right. I don't know about you, I'm heading for the Winchester.

I'm Afraid I Can't Do That, Dave

I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you.

The computer that controls the International Space Station's orientation, oxygen and water has suffered a failure.

Though mission control insists that there is no cause for alarm, the crew has been told to disregard any computer suggestions to go outside to fix the communications antenna.

The Underpants Gnome Business Model

Step One: Advertise freelance writing services on web site
Step Two:
Step Three: Profit!

The Helvetica Scenario

Protect yourself. Learn the facts.

Sign of the Apocalypse

A cat with 26 toes.

Tea Up

In a great burst of sunshine, John Lewis has announced that it is bringing back the sorely missed Teasmade to their shelves.

The Teasmade is one of those things which mark the cultural fault lines between the United States and Great Britain. I regard the lack of the Teasmade in the US as a sign that America has yet to become a truly civilised nation. My American-born wife regards my opinion as proof that I'm mad. I contend that this is only because she doesn't drink tea. The hardest thing that I've had to adjust to while living in the States is not having my trusty automatic servant sitting on my bedside table with the reservoir filled with water ready to squirt boiling into the little square teapot with its waiting bag of Tetley's finest.

What, I ask you, is better than sleeping in the secure knowledge that you don't have to struggle blearily out of bed and into the kitchen to hunt down the kettle only to discover a half hour later that you forgot to turn the burner on or that the teabag in the pot is, in fact, the soggy one from the day before? Making tea before you've had your tea is far too complicated.

No, far better to be gently awoken by the whooshing and gurgling of the Teasmade minutes before its somewhat redundant alarm clock is set to go off and roll over to find a fresh pot of tea within easy reach, as is the familiar mug and the little pitcher of milk in its now-melted bowl of ice chips set out the night before; all waiting to come together in a welcoming reassurance that the day to come will not be quite so horrible after all.

Now that is civilised.

But Don't Tell Anyone

From the Times:

Secret plan to send Harry to fight Taliban

At least, it was secret.

Start As You Intend To Continue

Mr. Gordon Brown says that when he becomes prime minister he wants to give up the PM's historic right to select the Archbishop of Canterbury and other bishops of the Church of England.

At first, this seems something of a miracle. Here is a British government (and a Labour one at that) willing to give up power-- something that is on a par with the Sun coming up in the West. But on closer examination, it turns out to be something completely different. If Mr. Brown were really giving up the royal prerogative, he'd be giving it back to the person in whose name he does the selecting: Her Majesty the Queen. Instead, he is embarking on something far more radical:

Mr Brown wants his government to be seen as representing "all faiths and all cultures," and not tied significantly to the Church of England. His proposals raise the possibility that he might take steps to remove the right of bishops to take their seats in the House of Lords.

In other words, Mr. Brown isn't giving up the royal prerogative, he's taking the first step towards disestablishing the Anglican Church in favour of more of the poison of multiculturalism.

Apparently Mr. Brown's idea of continuity is to be as anti-British as his predecessor.

Green Man's Burden

"People here have no jobs," Mark Fenn (coordinator of the World Wildlife Fund's campaign against a proposed mining project near Fort Dauphin, Madagascar) admitted, after taking documentary producers on a tour of his $35,000 catamaran and the site of his new coastal home. "But if you could count how many times they smile in a day, if you could measure stress" and compare that with "well-off people" in London or New York, "then tell me, who is rich and who is poor?"

Why is it that eco-crusaders so often sound like a slanderous caricature of the sort of old-style imperialist that they spend so much time condemning?

Driving Ambition

Robert Gifford, executive director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS), has suggested that prospective drivers in Britain should be given psychometric tests because some drivers have the "wrong attitude to the road."

Meanwhile, drivers have suggested that Robert Gifford should be given psychometric tests because he has the "wrong attitude to freeborn Englishmen who have had it up to the back teeth with jumped-up, micromanaging, technocratic busybodies."

Warning: This Government Is Bad For Your Liberty

Boris Johnson on the asinine government proposal to slap every bottle of plonk with a warning label:

For well over 45 centuries the human race has been squeezing grapes and fermenting the juice into anything between seven and 15 per cent alcohol, and so producing the ecstatic drink that has been as sacred to every pagan religion as it is to Christianity.

As a great French historian has pointed out, the vineyards of France are perhaps the single greatest cultural legacy of the Roman empire, and it is now more than two millennia since people in Britain first became aware of the intoxicating powers of wine.

In all that time, no government in history has yet thought the people so moronic that they needed to be told, on the bottle, that wine could go to your head.

But then, the British people didn't have such enlightened masters lording over them as now.

Sweet Insanity

"Campaigners" are worried that chocolate makers are indirectly funding wars in Africa and want them to print on their labels where they buy their cocoa so that consumers can make sure they're buying "conflict-free chocolate."

I'm rather glad that I have an aversion to sweets. It saves me from a good deal of silliness. If a government wishes to impose a trade embargo on a country engaged in hostilities, that is perfectly reasonable. If a pressure group wishes to boycott a company to change its purchasing policies, that is their right. But when said pressure group expects a company to participate in a boycott against itself, that is where we part brass rags.

Living in a Biscuit Tin

From at the Dymaxion House school of architecture: A shed house that makes my old boat look spacious and comfortable.

Stand by for the sound of the sales figures hitting the ground with a sickening thud.

Head Firmly Up His...

Michael Hodges in Time Out London argues that fears of Jihadists is nothing but a fantasy and that London would actually be much better off under Islam; healthier food, lots of exercise through praying, no racism, and all those bickering kuffar sects would learn to get along under the beneficent guidance of the Faithful.

In an Islamic London, Christians and Jews – with their allegiance to the Bible and the Talmud – would be protected as ‘peoples of the book’. Hindus and Sikhs manage to live alongside a large Muslim population in India, so why not here? Although England has a long tradition of religious bigotry against, for instance, Roman Catholics, it is reasonable to assume that under the guiding hand of Islam a civilised accommodation could be made among faith groups in London. This welcoming stance already exists in the capital in the form of the City Circle (see Yahya Birt interview), which encourages inter-faith dialogue and open discussion.

Even on its own terms, Mr. Hodges's argument flies off at a tangent from reality and refuses to see any trouble with Islam that can't be explained away by blaming those nasty British racists who are the real problem. Take the start of the article:

The noise from the expectant crowd hushed to a murmur as an open-backed lorry that had driven slowly up the Mall – known since the Islamic revolution of 2021 as The Way of the Martyrs – nudged its way through the thousands gathered in Mohammad Sidique Khan Square. On the lorry, two masked guards held a young man, black hood over his head; a quiver running through the material suggested he knew what was coming.

The lorry halted by the plinth that had once held Marc Quinn’s sculpture ‘Alison Lapper Pregnant’ – long since removed as an insult to decency – and was now the place of public execution. A rope noose attached to a wire cable hung from a mechanised hoist. The main doors of what had been the National Gallery flung open and an Imam walked down the steps of the new Institute of Islamic Jurisprudence, opened only a week before by Sultan Charles, Prince of Islam and protector of the faithful in England.

The official executioner placed a stepladder against the plinth. The lorry pulled up and the young man was pushed out, then forced up the ladder. The noose was forced over the condemned man’s head. The crowd chanted ‘Allahu akbar’ (God is greater than everything).The hoist driver put his finger on a green button … Okay, not really – that’s a hysterical, right-wing nightmare of a future Muslim London: where an cruel alien creed is forced on a liberal city. A society where women are second-class citizens, same sex relationships a crime and Sharia law enforces terrible public disfigurement and death. But the reality is a long, long way from this dark vision.

On the terms of sanity, it's the ravings of a man who will be the first to embrace dhimmitude and then be all surprised when it's literally his turn for the chop. What Mr. Hodges completely fails to grasp is that while his scenario might be a "right-wing nightmare" it is also a Jihadi dream-- one which evil men of violence will do anything (and I mean anything) to inflict on the rest of the world. Add to this an Islam on the verge of a theological crisis as moderate is confronted with Jihadist and a growing Muslim immigrant population that has an alarming percentage that sympathise with the goals of these villains, if not their means, and you have a self-lighting powder keg. Perhaps Trafalgar Square will never be a place of public execution where bearded fanatics ululate in glory, but that doesn't mean that a future London couldn't end up looking like Gaza City with a bit more rainfall as it becomes a battleground between civilised men and the barbarians come again.

I haven't seen such willful blindness since the days of the Cold War when Stalin worshipers in the chattering classes of Islington used to tell Solzhenitsyn to his face that he didn't know what he was talking about. It puts me in mind of nothing less than the start of the Dark Ages when Roman upper-class ladies were said to greet the arrival of the Visigoths by calling out "When do the rapes begin?"

It looks as if things don't change that much in a millennium and a half.

Update: From the comments that follow the article, it looks as the Time Out's readers don't think much of Mr. Hodes either.

Robobear

The US military is developing a robot stretcher bearer with a "Teddy bear face designed to be reassuring."

That is "reassuring" as in "guaranteed to induce a fit of the screaming meemies."

Video Games For The Glory Of The Worker's Paradise

Why we won the Cold War.

George Romero, Call Your Service

From the Telegraph:

Lack of sleep 'is creating a zombie nation'

BRRAAAAIIINNNNSS!

St. Gildas, Call Your Service

Good news: Fertility rates in Britain are at a 26-year high.

Bad news: Mohammed is the second-most popular name for boys.

There hasn't been anything like this since the Saxon invasions.

I Knew It Would End In Tears

From This is Lancashire:

Doctor who groped nurses spared prison

He is, however, under Tardis arrest.

Death, Lies & Videotape

Fidel Castro appeared in a taped interview on Cuban television, where he discussed world events-- from 1973.

The interview was taped on Monday. Which Monday is left to viewer's interpretation

The Future Died of Irony

Matt Novak of Paleo-Future has an article in MungBeing magazine.

We retrofuturists have to stick together, you know.

History Lesson

Lately I’m identifying with the Jews and all the horrible things that happened to them during Vietnam.

Paris Hilton, historian, on lessons learned from her stay in prison.

Not a Spectrum, But a Circle

From thisislondon.co.uk:

PC brigade ban pin-ups on RAF jets - in case they offend women and Muslims

And thus feminism and dhimmitude join hands.

I guess it's true that extremes eventually do meet.

Carts & Horses

Britain is faced with an epidemic of drunken young louts downing 18 pints of lager in an evening and then going on mindless, vomit-spumed rampages of smashing and yelling in the High Street. The solution?

Middle-class wine drinkers will be the focus of government plans to make drunkenness as socially unacceptable as smoking, The Times has learnt

Classic Blairite solution: When faced with a violent, recalcitrant enemy, go after the harmless and law-abiding. They're a softer target.

According to Vivienne Nathanson, the head of science and ethics at the BMA,

It is not the nanny state.

Translation:

It is the nanny state

Some Animals Are More, Etc. II

The government has finally found a persecuted minority to which it can say "Suck it up and keep your head down" rather than encouraging to beat its chest with pride and a fat subsidy courtesy of the British taxpayer.

The ginger-haired.

Tulsa Time Capsule

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, they're opening a time capsule that's been sealed since 1957.

So what? They buried a Plymouth.

Does It Come With Chips?

Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered that certain forms of fungi responsible for rather nasty skin conditions grow when exposed to ionising radiation and have proposed using them as a source of food for future space travellers.

Future space travellers proposed what the scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University can do with their fungus

Postcards From The Edge

For some unexplained reason, Swedish scientists have developed talking paper.

Great, that's all I need; chatty postcards

Doppelgänger

Another new section; this one for the Gerry Anderson set.

We invite you to have a look at Doppelgänger.

How the Mighty Have Fallen

This is sad. A couple in Silicon Valley picked up an old Cray supercomputer, once worth $5 million, for a song and have turned it into a corner seat for the nursery.

From State of the Art to kitsch in only 19 years. It's like seeing the International Space Station turned into a hotel for billionaire tourists.

Oh, wait...

Eldon Tyrell, Call Your Service

From Newsweek:

Scientists in the last couple of years have been trying to create novel forms of life from scratch. They've forged chemicals into synthetic DNA, the DNA into genes, genes into genomes, and built the molecular machinery of completely new organisms in the lab—organisms that are nothing like anything nature has produced.

What could possibly be wrong with that, Mr Deckard?

Blind Spot

The Prime Minister Mr. Tony Blair says that he would like to see university Islamic studies revamped, more imams trained in Britain, closer links between madrassas and mainstream schools and for politicians to listen harder to the "voice of moderation."

I understand what Mr. Blair is trying to accomplish, and it's a logical part of fighting the Jihadists to make sure that Islamic studies departments and local mosques aren't staffed by Islamofascists, but given the lingering poison of multiculturalism and Mr. Blair's utter refusal to treat an enemy in time of war as an enemy in time of war, I keep getting a vision of a backside getting firmly bitten.

Alternative Menus

Test-tube meat creeps out of the Petri dish again as Dutch scientists announce that they are working on lab-grown pork. Exactly how raising meat in a bio-factory with all that that entails is more "enviro-friendly" is beyond me.

I prefer the plan put forward in the Times by Jeremy Clarkson: Save the Planet; eat a hippie.

On second thoughts: Yuk!