Arrogant pisshead

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Paul Staines aka Guido Fawkes
...admitted driving while under the influence and without insurance after being stopped by the police in the small hours of 17 April, driving his wife's Volkswagen fast and swerving across lanes in south London.

He was breathalysed and found to be almost twice the legal limit. Asked by District Judge Timothy Stone whether he had an alcohol problem, Staines said: "Possibly." Sentencing is on 15 May.

It is his fourth alcohol-related offence and second drink-driving reprimand – he was banned for 12 months in 2002 – requiring the judge to consider a jail sentence.

Via Unity



Something to relieve the pain?

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Medic says Army sergeant ordered him to suffocate Iraqi
After an Army medic, John Torres, reported that a bullet-riddled insurgent was going to die, his sergeant, Leonardo Trevino, ordered him to suffocate the Iraqi before fatally shooting the man himself, the medic testified during the sergeant's court-martial. The medic said he was kidding when he suggested suffocating the wounded man, but when ordered to do so, he pretended by lightly holding his hand over the man's mouth. Authorities say Trevino shot the insurgent in the abdomen, a non-fatal wound, before ordering Torres to suffocate him. They allege Trevino then shot the Iraqi in the head and tried to cover up the crime.


Ooh goody. Perhaps they can afford decent cleaners now

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Specialist nurses 'fear for jobs'
Some of the most experienced and highly skilled nurses in the NHS fear for their jobs despite the large surplus in the health service, a survey indicates.

Nurse leaders said it "beggars belief" that nurses were worrying about their jobs in the current climate. The health service is expected to post a large surplus when the accounts for 2007-8 are released later this year. The figure could be as high as £1.8bn.


So that's where that crucifix went

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Pregnant Woman Sees Jesus Image in Ultrasound
When an Ohio woman looked at an ultrasound she expected to see a developing fetus. Instead, she saw what she believes to be an image of Jesus Christ...on the cross.

"As soon as I saw it I was like oh my gosh." "People say maybe my baby is gonna be blessed and maybe it is a good sign," said mother-to-be Sledge. "I don't know, I've done wrong in my life, maybe he's forgiven me early."


Can you hear me, Gordon?

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Reason Magazine - Drug Policy, from Scratch
The ideal drug policy would apply to the currently illegal intoxicants the same distinctions we routinely apply to alcohol: between children and adults, between use and abuse, between abuse that harms only the user and abuse that harms others. Selling drugs to minors should remain illegal. But adults should be free to decide for themselves what goes into their bodies, provided they do not violate anyone else's rights in the process.


It's in the bag

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Jews sans frontieres: Family values Israel style

But it's OK because a) the Israelis weren't aiming at them and b) it was Palestinian explosives which did the damage. Yeah, right.



Reuters: The Israeli army said aircraft fired at two Palestinian militants near the house who were carrying bags. Based on the size of the resulting explosion, the army said it now believed that those bags were filled with bombs and other explosive devices. "As a result of this big explosion, extensive damage was caused to a house that was near the gunmen and uninvolved civilians were hit," the army said in a statement.
Remember 2006 and the Palestinian family wiped out on Gaza beach while pickniking? The Israelis claimed that they were killed by mines planted on the beach by militants but a thorough investigation later proved conclusively that they were killed by an Israeli shell fired at the beach from the sea.


Damn, and you'd just got it working nicely too...

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Jeffrey Zeldman Presents : The vanishing personal site
Our personal sites, once our primary points of online presence, are becoming sock drawers for displaced first-person content. We are witnessing the disappearance of the all-in-one, carefully designed personal site containing professional information, links, and brief bursts of frequently updated content to which others respond via comments. Did I say we are witnessing the traditional personal site’s disappearance? That is inaccurate. We are the ones making our own sites disappear. Obliterating our own readership and page views may not be a bad thing, but let’s be sure we are making conscious choices.


Whoops #792

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How the Iraq War Has Empowered Iran - Brookings Institution
Of the many American illusions and delusions surrounding this war, the Administration's calculations with respect to Iran were among the most wildly off base. Instead of generating a liberal, secular democracy whose reverberations would drive out Iran's clerical oligarchs, the disastrous Bush policies fostered a sectarian Iraq that has helped empower Iranian hardliners. Rather than serving as an anchor for a new era of stability and American preeminence in the Persian Gulf, the new Iraq represents a strategic black hole, bleeding Washington of military resources and political influence while extending Iran's primacy among its neighbors.


What liberation movement?

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Mixed Priorities: Why Palestinian Unity is Not an Option
While such noble efforts by the UN’s John Dugard, former US President Jimmy Carter and Bishop Desmond Tutu have brought much needed attention to the plight of Palestinians and Gazans in particular, PA officials are too busy attending donor’s conferences and issuing empty statements which few even bother to read. They act as if they are a neutral party caught in the middle of religious fanatics and Israel. Their fight no longer seems even remotely related to Palestine or its people


An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarian Action in the Twenty-first Century**

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'I know what genocide looks like'
She had been raped. Semen and blood covered her thighs. Her ears had been cut off. So had her breasts. Both Achilles tendons had been severed. Her attackers had carefully mutilated her, not to kill her quickly, but just enough to make her die slowly.

He noticed a pattern one of her attackers had carved into her face with a machete. “I turned from her and vomited for the first and only time during the genocide,” he writes. She touched his arm again. “ Ummera-sha,” she murmured. “ Allez, allez … Ummera-sha,” she repeated in a whisper. “Go, go. Courage, courage, my friend,” she was saying. She knew there were hundreds more who needed care. “It was the clearest voice I have ever heard,” Dr. Orbinski says.
"An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarian Action in the Twenty-first Century"
by James Orbinski, M.D. Past President of MSF.

The Arkansas Prison Diet - It Works!

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US prisoner sues over weight loss
Broderick Lloyd Laswell, an overweight prisoner in the United States who is awaiting trial for murder, is suing the authorities for not feeding him enough after he lost about seven stone in eight months inside an Arkansas prison. According to the suit, Laswell weighed 29 stone when he was jailed in September. Police say he has been charged with fatally beating and stabbing a man. He said: "About an hour after each meal my stomach starts to hurt and growl. I feel hungry again.  The only reason we lost weight in here is because we are literally being starved to death."