R.I.P.

It seems as if every year someone the world will miss dies at Christmas. This year there were two: Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter and my favourite Catwoman Eartha Kitt.

They shall be heroes

Amongst the illustrious guests at Barack Obama's inauguration next month will be some, but not all, of the "Little Rock Nine whose attendance at a previously all white high school in Little Rock Arkansas over fifty years ago required the intervention some damned activist judges and the US Army.

Returning to the blogosphere...

...following the Christmas frenzy. I've just returned from several lovely days in the Kentish countryside to find that Captain Codpiece's competence remains unchanged in the (thankfully) final days of his imperial reigh.

A seranade for "I'm a Big" Dick Cheney

It seems that the evil one behind the throne has no regrets. Nonetheless I would think he probably should avoid holidaying in Spain in his retirement. They take a hard view on war criminals there.

And so in memory of "I'm a Big" Dick I give you the Sparrow.

A good week for Leonard Cohen

Sorry for the hiatus but suddenly Xmas activities seem overwhelming. I'm finally off duty for the year and have finished my shopping as of an hour ago so there is hope. Off to the pub for a pint.

In the meantime Leonard Cohen should be happy as three versions of his song Hallelujah find themselves in the British holiday charts; a so-so version by a reality TV (not really a) star is Xmas number one, Jeff Buckley's extraordinary version at number two and Mr. Cohen's own version snuck in at number thirty six.

Today in Schadenfreude

I'm sorry for the silence; blame it on job and social business. In the meantime read this and enjoy!

Because I've had this song stuck in my head for three days!

A great and important American voice falls silent

The great America folk singer and activist Odetta has died at 77. Sadly she was hoping to be able to sing at Obama's inagguaration next month.

War is Peace

Captain Codpiece has finally expressed regret over Iraq. Unfortunately his regret is that the intelligence was wrong NOT because he sent his country to war without any legal justification. But it's a start.

Today in Schadenfreude

Anorexic, radical right wing hag-ette Ann Coulter has had her jaw wired shut. I would have preferred that it was welded shut but one must take what one is offered!

Today in infamy

On this day in 1955 a tired Negro woman named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a richly deserving white man and America has been heading down the slippery slope towards multi-culturalism and away from the Anglo-Saxon dominated society envisioned by the founding fathers every since.

How I spent my Thanksgiving

I spent the first hour and a half of the day testing fuzzy matching algorithms and then spent the next six hours reviewing a (not quite normalised) data model. I rounded this lovely day off by watching Portsmouth fail to beat AC Milan.

I hope yours was better.

There is no joy in Whoville...

...or in Louisville for that matter as Dr. Seuss's lawyers strike. Of course it probably serves them right for thinking that they could just have a "LouWhoVille" celebration without even asking.

Unfortunately looters will not be shot on sight

Wachovia Corporation which has seen losses of over $30,000,000,000 in the last half of a year and is fleeing to the hopefully safe arms of Wells Fargo in a "merger" that was forced upon it by its dire financial position looks set to award $98,000,000 in platinum parachutes to its top ten executives should the merger go through.

The first person to say that they "earned it" gets waterboarded.

Apparently the tips ARE good!

It seems as if your mohel might be making a quid or two from recycling your sons foreskin. Waste not, want not, eh?

Mr. Darling's stealth sin tax

Those of us with the character flaws that lead us to smoke and drink were left out in the cold yesterday by the Chancellor's reduction in VAT to 15% as he increased alcohol & tobacco duty by the 2.5 percentage points necessary to offset the reduction in VAT. Anyone want to guess whether this increase is reversed when VAT rates go back up in a year's time? To quote the immortal Damon Runyon:

"The race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong -- but that's the way to bet it."

He came in just under the wire

According to the BBC...

"1555: Mr Darling says VAT will be cut from 17.5 to 15% until the end of next year, coming into effect next Monday."

Sometime in the next half hour or so...

...the Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling is set to announce a reduction in the standard VAT rate from 17.5% to 15%; an announcement that will send financial controllers up and down the country, often accompanied by their sales and marketing staff, in search of their IT support staff to ask the following two questions:

"Can we deal with this in the next 6 days?"

and

"Can we do it properly?"

The answers in virtually all cases will be "probably" and "probably not".

I await the approach of my local finance folks with bated breath.

The death knell for Islam?

Rumours have it that paler-than-pale rock legend and life long weirdo Michael (now Mikaeel) Jackson has converted to Islam in Los Angeles.

Welcome to the no fly list Wacko. I don't think you're going to like it there.

They make such a lovely couple

Former publisher of the pre-eminent right wing publications the Daily Torygraph and the Jerusalem Post, and convicted felon, Baron Black of Crossharbour is begging Captain Codpiece for a pardon. This is hardly the act of the innocent man the poor Peer claims to be but then who believes him?

Today in infamy

At least the day is infamous if you are one of those who, like former US Vice Presidential nominee Sarah "Ramb-ette" Palin", believes that the planet is about 6000 years old. On this day in 1859 The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin and an anti-scientific "scientific" industry is born!

The friends we keep

The Ottawa Convention to ban land mines is ban the use of land mines is ten years old and guess who hasn't ratified or signed it? Go on. I know you can.

"Evidence? We don't need no stinkin' evidence!"

US Federal Judge Richard Leon, a rock solid conservative judge, has upset the court of Captain Codpiece by ordering the release of five more innocent men, in this case Algerians, from the Guantánamo Bay Beach and Leisure Resort. He demanded that they be released "forthwith" which I assume means sometime after President Obama's inauguration.

Happy Birthday!

Today is the 110th birthday of surrealist painter AND famous Belgian René Magritte. All is not what it appears to be.

Today in Schadenfreude

If this video from the G20 is any indication Captain Codpiece isn't one of the cool kids anymore.

Gone but not forgotten

With her usual tastefulness Ramb-ette pardons a turkey in Alaska whilst the pardonees friends and neighbours are slaughtered in the background. I'm surprised she didn't gut one for us whilst she was at it.

Obama's not even President yet...

...and already he's destroyed America. Curiously the dangerous and unabashedly leftist NY Times fails to mention the decline of American influence in it's headline preferring to highlight the waning appeal of al Qaeda instead and it's equally treasonous liberal counterpart the Washington Post decided to focus on nuclear proliferation and scarce natural resources. Why do they hate America so?

War crimes conference planned for February in London

Rumours that former US Defence Secretary Donald "The Unknown Unknown" Rumsfeld and by-then former US Vice President "I'm a Big" Dick Cheney will be on hand to offer pointers cannot be confirmed at this time.

I may attend if my work schedule permits.

Terrorism spews forth from the occupied territories!

Lawless zealots in Hebron have desecrated a place of worship and vandalised a cemetery whilst elsewhere on the West Bank illegal squatters attacked peaceful farmers and Christians who accompanied them. Surely these vicious terrorists must be wiped out, possibly by an attack from an unmanned drone, and if innocent civilians were to die in such an attack that is the price that must be paid if these cowardly evildoers insist on sheltering themselves amongst the civilian population instead of standing up and fighting like men.

Hey, wait a second. These weren't evil acts of mindless and unprovoked aggression by Muslims but legal and legitimate acts of self defence by members of the heroic (if illegal) Jewish community in the (illegally) occupied territories.

We must salute them for their valour and their steadfastness, right?

It will almost certainly come to nothing...

...but for the moment the indictment of "I'm a Big" Dick Cheney and Alberto "Gone-zo" Gonzales in Texas allows a man to dream. I mean who wouldn't pay to see those two in chains!