When Worlds Collide

British Sausage Week and National Vegan Week occur at the same time this year.

Pity it isn't at the same place. It could be as much fun as the time I served up barbecued spare ribs to a couple of vegans as a thank you for the lentil salad and self-righteousness they'd thrust upon me previously.

Lifting the Veil

Remember that Muslim school teacher who was suspended because she insisted on teaching her class in a veil? It turns out that it wasn't her idea, but that she was following a fatwa from her local imam.

I haven't commented on it much because I was waiting for this little tidbit to surface, as I knew it would. As with the previous episode involving a girl who wanted to ditch her school uniform in favour of a burqa, this one revealed that the woman wanting to run around in a tent was really carrying out the demands of a third party-- usually her brothers or some cleric or both who were seeking a wedge to introduce sharia law into Britain.

You'd think they'd learn about Greeks bearing gifts by now.

Indiana Jones: Tenure Denied

I saw this one coming.

But Can You Fight Crime in It?

What is it with the Japanese and robot suits?

Muslims? What Muslims?

Good to see that the BBC is running true to form; an indepth article on the French intifada that never once uses the "M" word.

That's like covering the desrtuction of Pompeii and forgetting to mention the volcano.

Update: Yup. Just a bunch of unidentified "youths."

Not Surprising

Headline from the Daily Mail:

Britons 'could be microchipped like dogs in a decade'

Hands up, everyone who didn't see this one coming.

The Last Straw

As if things weren't bad enough, now there's a garlic shortage.

I tell you, it's more than flesh can bear!

The Equaliser

The only drawback that I can see about wearing a t-shirt with a built-in equaliser is the difficulty in keeping people from noticing that you're wearing a t-shirt with a built-in equaliser.

"Our" Boys and the Veil

Mark Byford, the deputy chief of the BBC said that the corporation is "not crammed full of soft liberals" and then went on to shoot himself squarely in the foot. According to the Telegraph:

He also said he was "proud" of the BBC's decision to include an interview with the Taliban in an item about the conflict in Afghanistan.

"Our job in journalism is to communicate to the audience effectively the information we are delivering to them," he said. "As far as the issue of dress is concerned, it must not get in the way of the audience being able to receive the information in a clear and effective manner."

Asked specifically about the issue of a Muslim newsreader wearing a veil, he said: "The key is, if it does not hamper our primary obligation to deliver the news and information to our viewers and listeners then we would be respectful of that.

Translation: We're not a bunch of lefties, but we are happy to transmit Taleban propaganda and you can expect to see masked newsreaders as soon as we can get away with it.

The words "own goal" spring lightly to mind.

Travelling with "Our" Boys II

David Loyn, the BBC "journalist" who was embedded with the Taleban, did a Q&A on the BBC web site where he answered a load of cherry-picked questions that allowed him to further depict the Taleban as a load of clean-cut, simple-living nationalists who "admit some mistakes were made" under their rule and to claim that even though he has no "crystal ball" NATO has no hope of winning the war.

My favourite bit of puff is this one:

Since the Taleban forces are employed fighting and killing British troops, I am at a loss to understand why the BBC feels that it is using our licence fees well by giving their propaganda oxygen? If you were killed during an attack by Nato, who would accept responsibility for your death? Paul Jewell, Ivinghoe, Buckinghamshire

I took an assessment of the risks, well aware of the possibility you talk about. The BBC would not have blamed Nato forces for my death in these circumstances. Like Churchill I rather think jaw-jaw is better than war-war, and feel that my job as a reporter is to explain best what is going on. Indeed in a democracy I have not just a right but a duty to do this as comprehensively as possible. 'Our licence fees' did indeed support what was actually rather a cheap trip by the standards of these things (I was both the cameraman and reporter). But on a separate point, 'our taxes' are paying for 'our soldiers' to fight a difficult conflict, and I rather wanted to know what they are up against and why. Don't you, Paul?

I think that's a nasty little bit of condescension at the end. Don't you, David? But on a separate point, "our taxes" are being used to kill Taleban while you are using "our licence fees" to help the Taleban. Aside from the sheer brass of comparing himself to Churchill or that there is an ocean of difference between "explaining what is going on" and carrying the enemy's water for them, Mr. Loyn sidesteps the burning question about all of this: Why is he actively engaged in helping spread propaganda for a load of evil men who are killing his own countrymen?

One of my greatest bits of distaste that I have in this war is that we very quickly lost the spirit of the early days when, at a press conference in Iraq, a reporter started to frame his question to a U S official by quoting a local terrorist he'd recently interviewed. The official interrupted the reporter and demanded to know if he'd turned the terrorist in. The reporter said no and the official dismissed the reporter by telling him that next time he should do so.

Moving Up

It looks as though French "youths" are getting tired of torching cars night after night.

Now they're going after buses.

Travelling with "Our" Boys

Having completely forgotten whose side they're supposed to be on, the BBC not only is willing to act as a conduit for enemy propaganda, it embeds reporters with the Taleban while they are fight British forces in Afghanistan.

Auntie has reached rock bottom and is starting to dig.

THIS is a Bomb

Forget Iran and North Korea, the real nuclear threat is... Australia.

Harold Ford, a handsome 36-year-old from Tennessee, has become one of the sensations of the mid-term elections in the US and a reason why Democrats are a good chance of winning back control of the US Congress for the first time in 12 years.

But if Mr. Ford, already a US congressman, wins his bid to become a more powerful senator, Australia had better watch out.

Because according to Mr. Ford, Australia has an interest in nuclear weapons and is part of the broader nuclear threat to the US.

I suspect that Mr. Ford needs to clear a few toys out his attic.

The Miracle of Great Yeovil

Semolina is falling from the skies!

Slip of the Lip

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva says that he regrets that Fidel Castro did not democratise Cuba while "he was still alive."

Cubans say "Whaaa?!?"

Le Intifada

It's one year since the French Muslim youth intifada violence began.

Brace yourselves.

When the Bottom Falls Out of the World

It's like something out of a late-night sketch comedy: Poledancing for four-year olds.

Civilisation was nice while it lasted.

Women are Meat

From a sermon by Sheik Taj Din al-Hilaly, cheif Muslim cleric in Australia:

Those atheists, people of the book (Christians and Jews), where will they end up? In Surfers Paradise? On the Gold Coast? Where will they end up? In hell and not part-time, for eternity. They are the worst in God’s creation.

When it comes to adultery, it’s 90 percent the woman’s responsibility. Why? Because a woman owns the weapon of seduction. It’s she who takes off her clothes, shortens them, flirts, puts on make-up and powder and takes to the streets, God protect us, dallying. It’s she who shortens, raises and lowers. Then, it’s a look, a smile, a conversation, a greeting, a talk, a date, a meeting, a crime, then Long Bay jail. Then you get a judge, who has no mercy, and he gives you 65 years.

But when it comes to this disaster, who started it? In his literature, writer al-Rafee says, if I came across a rape crime, I would discipline the man and order that the woman be jailed for life. Why would you do this, Rafee? He said because if she had not left the meat uncovered, the cat wouldn’t have snatched it.

If you get a kilo of meat, and you don’t put it in the fridge or in the pot or in the kitchen but you leave it on a plate in the backyard, and then you have a fight with the neighbour because his cats eat the meat, you’re crazy. Isn’t this true?

If you take uncovered meat and put it on the street, on the pavement, in a garden, in a park, or in the backyard, without a cover and the cats eat it, then whose fault will it be, the cats, or the uncovered meat’s? The uncovered meat is the disaster. If the meat was covered the cats wouldn’t roam around it. If the meat is inside the fridge, they won’t get it.

If the woman is in her boudoir, in her house and if she’s wearing the veil and if she shows modesty, disasters don’t happen.

Satan sees women as half his soldiers. You’re my messenger in necessity, Satan tells women you‘re my weapon to bring down any stubborn man. There are men that I fail with. But you’re the best of my weapons.

…The woman was behind Satan playing a role when she disobeyed God and went out all dolled up and unveiled and made of herself palatable food that rakes and perverts would race for. She was the reason behind this sin taking place.

This doesn't need comment. Just a trip to the compost heap.

Poster Girl

Most people have heard of the Dixie Chicks and how they got their knickers in a twist when their albums and concert tickets stopped selling because of their anti-war outbursts, but not nearly as many people have heard of Australian country singer Beccy Cole, who has been having trouble with her fans because of her patriotism and support for Australia's troops in the Middle East.

This is a pity, as her response shows that her feather of dignity has more weight than the Dixie Chicks' boulder of martyrdom.

Victory Gin

Fancy going out for a pint?

Yes, please.

Fancy getting fingerprinted at the pub?

No, thank you.

Too bad.