Up all night

Warren Beatty slept with 12,775 women, claims biographer - The Guardian

Hollywood star's sexual conquests said to have included Isabelle Adjani, Diane Keaton and Madonna

Conquests? Is this the Guardian I'm reading? Surely some of these women were as equally enthusiastic as Beatty? Maybe some of them even seduced him?

No mention of one of his 'conquests', our very own Professor Germaine Greer, who raved about the 'something special' that Beatty had going for him sexually. A something she wasn't prepared to reveal.

Salaam, salaam, salaam.

Justice on Bradford's streets, the Muslim way

With his dark-blue uniform, earpiece and walkie-talkie, Yousaf Rahman could pass for a police officer as he patrols the streets of Bradford's Manningham neighbourhood. Like an officer of the law, he responds to emergency calls, visits crime scenes and pursues suspects.

However, he is a member not of the constabulary but of the Manningham Islamic Rescue Patrol, a group of devout Muslim men who, for the past two years, have been “policing” the streets of their community...

Set up nearly two years ago, the group now has 22 patrolling members, a headquarters and even a 24-hour emergency number, staffed by six operators, which residents call to report crime. “Every house and child in the community knows this number off by heart,” said Mr Rahman, one of the group’s committee members.

OK, I made it up. They aren't actually Muslims...they are Jews.  Feel better now?

Here, let's have a go!

Cameron error gives Labour first blood in election campaign

I know this will come as a huge shock to political bloggers and party activists but the fact is that most people find politics boring and the thought of months of campaigning in this phoney-war stage of an election campaign leaves them cold. Whatever Cameron or Brown say or do this week will be utterly irrelevant in an election which is not expected to happen for five months.

Nobody gives a shit whether the Tories have fully costed their policies. Nobody cares whether Brown details where he will cut public spending. Most of us will have switched off for the next four months only becoming interested again much closer to the actual election. In any case, the election won't be about policies. It will be a demonstration of the British electorate making it's periodic decision to let someone else have a go. And that, regardless of policies or majorities, is a very healthy thing for democracy.

A little upset

Muslim protesters 'branded British soldiers rapists and baby killers during homecoming parade'

Seven Muslim protesters accused of screaming insults at soldiers during an Iraq homecoming parade refused to stand for a judge yesterday.The men are alleged to have shouted 'murderers', 'rapists', 'terrorists' and 'baby killers' while waving placards at the 2nd Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment marching through Luton.

What a sad and pathetic little country we have become if we can't just suck up a little 'alarm and distress'.

This is a wholly pointless prosecution that will be counterproductive. Today it will be a group of Muslim men but tomorrow it will be YOU in court for speaking your mind.

What use is free speech if you aren't able to alarm, upset, disturb or distress anyone?

Let's face it, they've won!

Scanning Debate Heats Up after Terror Scare

Pictures obtained through use of a scanner that uses a low-energy full-body x-ray. Professor Rolf Michel, the head of the Commission on Radiological Protection at Germany's Environment Ministry, has warned against the using x-ray scanners on humans at airports. Long-term exposure to frequent fliers, he said, have the potential to cause cancer.

To say nothing of dying from embarrassment.

Porco Dio!

A new web site has been set up to campaign against the Irish blasphemy law, more info here and here.

(via Organized Rage)

blasphemy.ie

Atheists have begun a campaign against (Ireland's) new blasphemy law, which came into force on January 1st as part of the Defamation Act.

The group Atheist Ireland has published 25 quotes it says are blasphemous, attributed to people from Jesus Christ to Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern.

Under the new law, which the group is campaigning to have repealed, blasphemy is punishable by a fine of up to €25,000.
It defines blasphemy as publishing or uttering matter grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby intentionally causing outrage among a substantial number of adherents of that religion, and intending by such publication to cause such outrage.

Intelligence?!

The Man Who Conned The Pentagon by Aram Roston

The weeks before Christmas brought no hint of terror. But by the afternoon of December 21, 2003, police stood guard in heavy assault gear on the streets of Manhattan. Fighter jets patrolled the skies. When a gift box was left on Fifth Avenue, it was labeled a suspicious package and 5,000 people in the Metropolitan Museum of Art were herded into the cold.

DHS secretary Tom Ridge announced the terror alert. “There’s continued discussion,” he told reporters, “these are from credible sources—about near-term attacks that could either rival or exceed what we experienced on September 11.” The New York Times reported that intelligence sources warned “about some unspecified but spectacular attack.”

The financial markets trembled. By Tuesday the panic had ratcheted up as the Associated Press reported threats to “power plants, dams and even oil facilities in Alaska.” The feds forced the cancellation of dozens of French, British and Mexican commercial “flights of interest” and pushed foreign governments to put armed air marshals on certain flights. Air France flight 68 was canceled, as was Air France flight 70. By Christmas the headline in the Los Angeles Times was "Six Flights Canceled as Signs of Terror Plot Point to L.A." Journalists speculated over the basis for these terror alerts. “Credible sources,” Ridge said. “Intelligence chatter,” said CNN.

But there were no real intercepts, no new informants, no increase in chatter. And the suspicious package turned out to contain a stuffed snowman. This was, instead, the beginning of a bizarre scam. Behind that terror alert, and a string of contracts and intrigue that continues to this date, there is one unlikely character.
The man’s name is Dennis Montgomery, a self-proclaimed scientist who said he could predict terrorist attacks. Operating with a small software development company, he apparently convinced the Bush White House, the CIA, the Air Force and other agencies that Al Jazeera—the Qatari-owned TV network—was unwittingly transmitting target data to Al Qaeda sleepers.

Read the whole, bizarre story

Via Dvorak

Will be?

Labour fears Blair will be a liability

Senior Labour figures have voiced concerns that Tony Blair’s appearance at the Iraq inquiry in the coming weeks will wreck any prospect of him helping the party at the general election.

What? Are there still people within Labour who think Blair could bring any help to them during the election campaign?

He is a liability now, never mind after giving evidence.

Sophisticated, eh?

I see Twitter is still a place for political bollocks. There is a new hashtag campaign called #kerryout which is something to do with trying to unseat Kerry McCarthy, Labour MP for Bristol East and the party's 'Twitter Tsar'.  The campaign, started by Tory Bear comes complete with website and the obligatory crappy and meaningless YouTube video.

I would have thought the aim of Tory supporters would be the unseating of every Labour MP. Has Ms McCarthy done something terrible that I'm not aware of or is this, as I suspect, just another example of silly, pointless fifth form political blogbollocks?

Sauce for the goose?

Polyandry call is 'akin to blasphemy'

Erm, only when women call for it.

Long way to go, folks.

Re-imagining Holmes

Andrew Collins walked out of 'Sherlock Holmes', Guy Richie's latest directorial effort. ("What a terrible film. Unengaging, overly fond of itself, miscast, and actually rather dull".)

I'm surprised he even bothered to go and see it. I was sure it was going to be a pile of cack and, notwithstanding it's decent box-office performance in the States, It seems I was right. It's a movie for youngsters (12 cert) with absolutely no idea about Sherlock Holmes or Conan Doyle. Fair enough, I suppose, but Jeremy Brett, the poor man, must be turning in his grave. As one of the commenters said: "Continuously in print for over 100 years. Does Sherlock Holmes need re-imagining? By Guy Ritchie? Exactly.

I Say A Little Prayer For You

There is almost always more to this kind of story than meets the eye. We usually only manage to get one side, initially. In many cases it is simply not possible, for a variety of reasons, for the others side's version of events to be aired in the early stages of a dispute or inquiry. But, in time, we get a fuller picture.

Bob Piper:
Remember the story of Mrs Jones... supposedly sacked for being a Christian, that the Daily Heil, Iain Dale and his slavering commenters got so excited about? Well, Jeremy Blatchford, the Conservative spokesperson on Education for the Council concerned, comments on my blog, and it makes very interesting reading. It would appear that not only wasn´t Mrs Jones sacked, she was actually insisting on continuing to force her religion on parents who had asked her not to.