An intolerant nation?

"Rules for Female Teachers":

1. Do not get married.
2. Do not leave town at any time without permission of the school board.
3. Do not keep company with men.
4. Be home between the hours of 8 PM and 6 AM.
5. Do not loiter downtown in...stores.
6. Do not smoke.
7. Do not get into a [vehicle] with any man except your father or brother.
8. Do not dress in bright colors.
9. Do not dye your hair.
10. Do not wear any dress more than two inches above the ankle.

This is just a reminder for those of us who might wish to be adopt a smug, "holier than thou" attitude to other cultures' treatment of women. These rules come from a town in Massachusetts, circa 1900, which after all isn't all that long ago. Shamelessly "borrowed" from Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States.

Paging Randy Newman!

These people need a song too!

Where's the British John Gibson?

Clearly one is desperately needed to talk up the fertility rate of proper, white, British women as we now discover that one in four British babies is born to foreigners!

Get out there and get shagging!

And yet his is still a talentless twat!

B list actor (except in Germany where he is top of the A list) David Hassellhoff has won a libel judgement against OK! magazine which had reported him to be "drunk and abusive" at a London nightspot.

Kit, the smarter and more talented half of the Knightrider duo, could not be reached for comment.

Quotes of the day

"Intolerance is the natural concomitant of strong faith; tolerance grows only when faith loses certainty; certainty is murderous." Will Durant The Age of Faith

"Any organization created out of fear must create fear in order to survive" Bill Hicks

Monsieur le président - sans ses poignées d'amour

French President Nicholas Sarkozy gets the airbrush treatment de ses amis à Paris Match.

Gone-zo watch (day 154)

With the resignation of the embattled head of the US Justice Department's "Civil Rights" Division, Wan Kim, I now believe that US Attorney General and Bush succubus Alberto "Gone-zo" is the DoJ's sole remaining employee. Confirmation when available.

(To be continued...)

Christ - not him again!

I thought Iraq was rid of Ayad Allawi for once and for all. Now, however, it looks like he's hired a Washington DC lobbying firm to promote his candidacy amongst the DC neo-cons who will apparently decided who the next Iraqi PM is. Democracy is hard, isn't it?

I'd have them talk to Krauthammer. He's in charge or at least thinks he is!

For your listening pleasure

Tom Rush & "No Regrets"

Nutter-naut in court plea

Former American astronaut Lisa Nowak has asked a court to please let her take off her tracking anklet. Why not? It's not like she's going to leave the planet or anything.

It is not known at this time if she also asked to have her nappy changed.

Shorter Charles Krauthammer

I decide who rules Iraq damnit! Otherwise we will be defeated.

A sign from God

What else could a giant sinkhole in the centre of Baghdad be?

Good news!

Now that there's anti-land mine radar we won't need to sign up to that anti-land mine convention after all. We'll just have to equip all six year olds in former war zones with the radar and problem solved!

One hour and twenty two minutes

That is how much more jail time ersatz celebrity Nicole Richie served for driving under the influence of drugs than I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby served for perjury.

But how much jail time did Ms. Richie serve? One hour and twenty two minutes.

A 20" TV?

Yes. I was born a long, long time ago but I find this list of college dorm necessities appalling. Am I turning into a grumpy old man or is it unnecessary to have a 20" LCD TV AND a fridge in your room? What kind of energy consumption are they responsible for? Whatever happened to the green generation?

The ten dorm necessities when I went off to university in 1973 were:

1. Bong
2. Backup bong
3. Poster from "Dark Side of the Moon"
4. Frisbee
5. The collected works of Carlos Castaneda
6. Rolling papers
7. Fake ID
8. Cocktail shaker
9. Tang
10. Condoms

What's with all this materialism all of a sudden?

Can one be an agnostic and still become a saint?

There may still be hope that someday in the future there will be a St. Yank in London. Why? Because it seems that Mother Theresa spent the last fifty or so years of her life as an agnostic or an atheist. Is it enough to change the Pope's mind about that fast track to sainthood though?

I thought God took care of the void on the first day, didn't She?

So how can we explain that astronomers have found a big, fuck all hole in the universe?

Till death do them part

More news on the happy evangelical preacher marriage front.

In Atlanta evangelist preacher Juanita Bynum was allegedly beaten with a baseball bat in a car park by her estranged husband Thomas Week with whom she shares her Global Destiny Church ministry. Ms. Bynum is known for preaching empowerment to women in abusive relationships. Shouldn't God be taking care of these people? Why doesn't She care?

Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

Across the US, especially in the south, it is getting more difficult for prisoners facing the death penalty to get adequate representation.

The Bush administration reaction to this? The predictable: "Let's get a move on! We've got a hell of a queue here."

Shorter (but not thinner) Rush Limbaugh

Republicans want to keep US forces out of Darfur because they hate black people! I hope that is helpful for you.

Meet the Phlash

There's always something interesting happening in Philadelphia.

"Has the Decider(TM) been consistent in his remarks about the Iraqi PM?"

"Yes!" - says unimpeachable and unbiased source at the White House press office.

Sorted.

Progress report

From the US government's own National "Intelligence" Estimate on Iraq.

High level of violence? √
Al Qaeda able to mount major attacks? √
Iraqi security forces unable to operate alone? √
Iraqi government unable to function effectively? √
American recruiting of Sunni militia undermining elected Iraqi government? √

It smells like victory. I wonder what Ari Fleischer thinks?

R.I.P.

Grace Paley - 1992 - 2007. Poet. Short story writer. Pacifist. Extraordinary human being.

Didn't we used to condemn China for behaving like this?

The Arizona Department of Corrections is hiring out prison inmates to help make up for a shortage in migrant workers caused by immigration crackdowns and Michelle Malkin's refusal to take the place of the illegal workers she says we don't need or want; it would ruin her nails after all.

Somehow I suspect that the ADC gets paid a lot more than is passed on to the prisoners but that is just a wild guess.

Say it ain't so!

The (not so?) Right Randy White is getting a divorce from his wife the Right Reverend Paula White. Together the soon-to-be-ex-pair run the 25,000 member strong Without Walls International Church in Tampa FL. It will be the second divorce for each member of this family friendly couple. Why do they hate the baby Jesus?

The question on every one's lips, as is always the way in cases like this, is "who gets to keep the congregation?".

Meanwhile whilst the western world isn't watching...

...the situation in Darfur continues to deteriorate and Amnesty International provides evidence that the Sudanese government is violating the United Nations arms embargo. Maybe the missing American munitions from Iraq will turn up there.

"Does this taste funny to you? It tastes funny to me."

I hope none of your work in the Fenton Business Center in Southern California. It seems that for the past two years you have been drinking sewage

."We thought we had a good process," said Mark Watton, Otay Water District's general manager. "Obviously, there's a gap."

No shit Sherlock!

Big Brother IS watching (one in an occasional series)

The US government is set to start investigating workers for organisations that receive funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development. Information including Social Security numbers, birth dates and email address will be required. According to an unnamed executive from an affected NGO "[w]e don't know who will do the vetting, what the standards are and whether we could answer any allegation". I can't see the problem, can you?

Is Japan the new Texas?

Under the guiding hand of Justice Minister Jinen Nagase Japan has now executed ten people in less than ten years. It's a good start but Mr. Nagase has a long way to go to rival the Decider(TM).