"If the bubble touches me, you're going to be arrested for assault"

More about this policeman protecting us all at the G20 recently can be found at Boing Boing. Also at Boing Boing news of what the Toronto Policemen is doing now...

Howard Cunningham R.I.P.

Tom Bosley who played mild-mannered, father of Richie, Howard Cunningham in the US sitcom Happy Days has died at the age of 83. A part of my growing up has come to an end...


All together now: "Sunday, Monday - Happy Days..."

The BBC seem unable to help themselves

Yesterday afternoon I found myself listening to Robert Elms on BBC Radio London. I only listened to about 15 minutes, here's why...

First in honour of a collector's re-release of Heaven 17's 'Penthouse and Pavement' Robert Elms played 'We Don't Need This Fascist Groove Thang', here are the lyrics (my emphasis):

"(Everybody move to prove the groove)
Have you heard it on the news
About this fascist groove thang
Evil men with racist views
Spreading all across the land
Don't just sit there on your ass
Unlock that funky chaindance
Brothers, sisters shoot your best
We don't need this fascist groove thang
Chorus:
Brothers, sisters, we don't need this fascist groove thang
History will repeat itself
Crisis point we're near the hour
Counterforce will do no good
Hot you ass I feel your power
Hitler proves that funky stuff
Is not for you and me girl
Europe's an unhappy land
They've had their fascist groove thang
Chorus
Democrats are out of power
Across that great wide ocean
Reagan's president elect
Fascist god in motion
Generals tell him what to do
Stop your good time dancing
Train their guns on me and you
Fascist thang advancing
Chorus
Sisters, brothers lend a hand
Increase our population
Grab that groove thang by the throat
And throw it in the ocean
You're real tonight you move my soul
Let's cruise out of the dance war
Come out your house and dance your dance
Shake that fascist groove thang
(Shake it!)"

Robert's comment as the track finished? "Still sounds great and very very timely as well..." Odd remark; who are the fascists in motion Robert? Islamists across the Middle East and beyond killing homosexuals and adulterers? Or does Robert Elms think its topical with a 'Tory' government back in power in Great Britain?

The next interviewee was Rebecca Taylor of Time Out with her tips on what you can do at lunchtime in London, some interesting ideas that but included this one (from 1:39:20):

"In this week of particular political interest where people are thinking about austerity and possibly the government there's the Marx Memorial Library in Clerkenwell. Clerkenwell which was a hotbed of communism in the 18th and 19th Century... it was also the place where Lenin, when he was in exile, worked when he was in London and there is a room and an office preserved as it was in Lenin's time... amazing collection of pamphlets, badges relating to the Trade Union movement, the early Socialist movement... So if you're feeling particularly political at the moment then that's an interesting one to go to."
Robert Elms: "Get yourself down to the Marx Memorial Library".

Yeah, right on Robert, keep up the fight and if you can influence just a few Londoners to follow the true path, all the better. Of course cuddly Marx's revolutionary ideas resulted in the deaths of many millions but those were just ideas. Lenin however was directly responsible for the deaths of tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of Russians but hey let's have lunch looking at his desk!


You can listen for yourself here - from 1:32:00.


And here's Heaven 17, dodgy political sentiments but a great groove...

Not guilty

'A hiker was killed by a mountain goat on Washington's Olympic Peninsula, a companion said Sunday.

Bob Boardman, 63, of Port Angeles, Wash., his wife Susan Chadd and their friend, Pat Willits, had gone for a day hike Saturday on the Switchback Trail to Klahhane Ridge, the Peninsula Daily News of Port Angeles reported.

The three had stopped for lunch at an overlook when a goat appeared and moved toward them, Willits said. When the goat became aggressive, Boardman urged her and Chadd to leave the scene, the newspaper said. Then he tried to shoo the ram away.

Although Boardman also tried to leave, the goat attacked him, goring him in the thigh, the report said.

At 1:23 p.m., park rangers called the Coast Guard. A Coast Guard helicopter crew made it to Klahhane Ridge at 1:51 p.m., Lt. Cmdr. Scott Sanborn said.

An emergency medical technician was lowered to administer electric shock to revive Boardman. He had no pulse, Sanborn said, and was lifted into the helicopter, where the crew restarted resuscitation efforts, the Peninsula Daily News Report said.

Boardman arrived at Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles at 2:47 p.m., where further efforts to revive him were unsuccessful. (c) UPI'

Thanks to Post Chronicle for the spot.

Felicity Kendal very flexible for 64

Wow, Felicity Kendal is very very flexible for a 64 year old...

Why are cuts in Public Spending necessary?

'Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.'

Charles Dickens - David Copperfield (1850)


Need any more be said?

Actually yes it does, for if we were to extend the above analogy to Gordon Brown's Labour government then we would actually have

'Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen shillings and six pence, result national solvency. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty six pounds thirteen shillings and and four pence, result misery for many future generations.'

Those 'slashing cuts' in proportion

The Labour/BBC narrative is of slashing cuts, the truth is of course somewhat at variance and I do not understand why George Osborne, David Cameron et al are not shouting this fact in every interview.

Here is part of Tim Morgan's analysis for the centre for Policy Studies, Dr Tim Morgan being Global Head of Research at Tullett Prebon plc, one of the world's largest inter-dealer brokers:

'The public spending cuts planned by the Coalition only involve reversing, over five
years, a comparatively small part of the enormous real-terms increase which took
place over the preceding decade.

In 1999-2000, UK government spending was £343bn, a figure which would, had it simply
moved in line with inflation, have reached about £450bn by 2009-10. Actual spending in that year had risen to £669bn, a massive (53%) increase in real terms.

The spending plans outlined in the 2010 June budget reduce real-terms outlays from
a projected £697bn this year to £686bn in 2015-16. Spending then will actually be
higher than it was in 2009.

Interest payments and the political decision to maintain health and foreign aid budgets means that spending by unprotected departments will fall in real terms. But the fall is only 7% – from £523bn this year to £485bn by 2015-16.'

The BBC/Labour narrative does not allow for such comments to be explained, there is a government to destroy. The BBC's Robert Peston was decrying the business men who wrote supporting George Osborne's cuts by saying that they were business leaders not economists; what reason will he have for disallowing Dr Morgan's comments?

Thanks to Alex Masterley for the spot.

Corporal punishment and wife beating in the Western World and the BBC headline the news but when its a Sharia Law ruling not a word on the BBC

The Mail reports:

'Husbands are allowed to beat their wives and children - as long as they don’t leave any physical marks, an Islamic court in the United Arab Emirates has ruled.

The astonishing legal ruling gives all husbands and fathers in the ultra-rich Gulf state the 'right to discipline' female family members if they have first attempted reconciliation.

The judgement was made by one of the UAE’s most senior judge in the case of a man found guilty of slapping his wife and kicking his daughter.

Chief Justice Falah al Hajeri said: 'Although the law permits the husband to use his right to discipline, he has to abide by the limits of this right.

'If the husband abuses this right to discipline, he cannot be exempted from punishment.'

Mr al Hajeri went on to explain that one of the ways of determining whether a man had breached this limit was to look for physical traces of beating.

While the ruling was greeted with anger by many Arab world commentators, others claimed it is a ‘real-life compromise’ between the competing demands of the petro-state’s highly Westernised population and its conservative Muslim heritage.'

Why are the pro-feminist BBC not up in arms over this ruling? Do they not care about the rights of Muslim women? Are Muslim women's rights subservient to that of Islam? Because as of now there is nothing on BBC's Middle East News.

The one hundred and first weekly "No shit, Sherlock" award

This week's winner is the think tank Quilliam for the revelation that as reported in The mail:

'Radical Islamic extremism is being openly practised at a leading university campus , a report today claimed.

Think tank Quilliam said they had evidence of hard-line Islamist ideology being promoted through the leadership of the university's student Islamic Society at City University in central London.'

Radical Islam extremism being practiced in UK Universities? "No shit, Sherlock"

Immigration, World Poverty and Gumballs - Updated 2010

Food for thought?


Thanks to Theo Spark for the spot.

Congratulations West Ham

Congratulations West Ham. If you had been told at the start of season that in late Oct you would be just one place behind Liverpool you would have taken that, wouldn't you?

Electric cars are just as usable as petrol or diesel ones, or are they?

The Telegraph reports today that users of the Chevrolet Volt and Vauxhall/Opel Apera will have to plan ahead if they are going to be driving up a hill:

'GM revealed its new car will operate in four modes including Mountain Mode, which will need to be activated at least 20 minutes before reaching said mountain so that the petrol engine can be engaged early enough to produce enough electricity to allow full power up hills.'

I may have spotted a flaw, what if I don't know there is a hill coming up ahead?

"I am the very model of a modern US President"

Thanks to Theo Spark for the spot and Gilbert & Sullivan for the inspiration.

Crime and punishment in the UK after 20+ years of a liberal concensus

'A group of young workers who drunkenly attacked a man on a train celebrated with high fives... (the three) subjected their fellow passenger to a "volley of punches and kicks" and stamped on his head after he complained about their noise on a train between London and Hertford. Each pleaded guilty to violent disorder and assault and was given a four month suspended jail sentence and 300 hours community service'

The Telegraph also reported that

'A teacher who failed to mention being jailed abroad for membership of a banned Islamic group can remain in the classroom.

Ian Nisbet was one of three Britons jailed in Egypt in 2002 for being in Hizb ut-Tahrir, which wants Muslim countries to unite under Sharia Law.... It... decided that it was "not appropriate" to impose any sanction.'

But a crime that is still punishable by the courts is shaving off part of an Imam's beard: 'Three Muslim men have been warned they face jail for shaving off a mosque leader's beard'

It truly is an odd world in which we live, especially as the Imam is himslef facing trial for allegedly sexually abusing boys.

That last element story made me wonder how the BBC were reporting the accusations against Imam Mohammed Hanif Khan bearing in mind their attacks on the Catholic Church for complicity in the sexual abuse of young boys. A quick Google search reveals that whilst all the other top 10 articles report the accustaions against the Imam, the BBC alone report the story from the point of view of the Imam 'BBC News - Ex mosque director denies sex charges in Stoke hearing'. How odd, why would this be? Did the BBC ever report the denials of Catholic priests rather than the accusations against them?

‘Who the hell has ever heard of an aircraft carrier with no jets?’

Good question, is ther a sensible answer? The Mail is the latest paper to point out the absurdity of building two new aircraft carriers to come into service in 2014 and 2016 that will have no jet planes until 2018. The carrier borne Harriers must not be taken out of service until the Joint Strike Fighters are delivered and working.

X Factor's Gamu Nhengu, te BBC and the truth

A week or so back the BBC, especially Radio 5Live, were obsessing over the decision to send X Factor entrant Gamu Nhengu back to Zimbabwe because her mother's visa had expired. The usual suspects decried this decision; why should Gamu not be allowed to stay and work in the UK. A spokesman for the UK Council for immigrants Interests (or something along those lines) seemed reluctant to explain who he would not think should stay in the country. But in particular we were told how Gamu would face danger persecuton should she ever returned to the land of her birth. So I was surprised to read in The Mail that

' X Factor reject Gamu Nhengu is likely to be turned down – after it emerged that she has enjoyed holidays in Zimbabwe.'

Apparently despite the fact that

'The talented 18-year-old has tearfully claimed that she will face a ‘firing squad’ if she is forced to return to the country under Robert Mugabe’s regime.

...

sources in Zimbabwe say that, since arriving in Britain as a young girl, she has made return visits to the country to see relatives, with the most recent trip being just ‘a couple of years ago’.'

So why have the BBC decided not to report this latest twist to the story of Gamu?

Bearing in mind The Mail telling us that:

'Miss Ngazana allegedly claimed £16,000 in benefits she was not entitled to for Gamu and her brothers Milton, 12, and Marty, ten.

Under immigration law, the family is not entitled to appeal.

The only option left open to Miss Nhengu is to claim asylum in the UK – but she will be at a disadvantage because she has already lived in Britain for seven years on a visa without telling officials she fears persecution in her homeland.'

Who would like to bet against her being allowed to stay in this country.


I must declare a complete lack of interest in the X-Factor, I have never watched it and would rather extract my own teeth than do so now.

Defending the indefensible

Yesterday I received a comment on my old post entitled '
The BBC/Labour relationship in one video clip'.

Here's the comment from 'Anonymous'

'What was it that we're supposed to be annoyed about? She said something to him, and he then interrupted IDS, but you can't say that one led to the other. All David Dimbleby does on that show is interupt and challenge the speakers - that's what he's there for. He does it to everyone - well, to all the politicians anyway, he usually gives journos and business types an easier ride.

By the way, Dimbleby is not employed by the BBC, he's always been a freelancer.'

And here's the video


So let's see: can you really watch that piece of video and not see Harriet Harman tell David Dimbleby what to do and him acquiesce? Check Beeb Bias Craig for figures detailing David Dimbleby's lack of bias. And as for David dimbleby not being employed by the BBC, so what? They pay him and they broadcast the programme.

Lipsynch music video filmed with just one travelling camera

There is a trend of groups of people producing their own lipsynched videos to pop music tracks with just one camera travelling around a building. Theo Spark has featured two recently, can you suggest any other good ones?

Wikipedia informs me that these videos are called Lip Dubs and there are loads, here are some of my favourites, many of which seem to be made in Israel...

EMLYON Business School in France

LipDub EMLYON 2009
Uploaded by josquinfarge. - Watch original web videos.


This is the most popular Israeli lip dub made at Dizengoff Center, in Tel Aviv, Israel, for "If We Ever Meet Again" (Timbaland ft. Katy Perry). Unlike most other lip dubs, it was filmed in a vibrant public mall, so the actors blend in the crowd and emerge from it.



Universitat de Vic (Vic, Spain) - This lip dub features over 900 people lipsynching to the song "Hey, Soul Sister" by Train.

LIPDUB - Hey Soul Sister - UVIC 2010 from R. Giskard Reventlov on Vimeo.

L'institute Français de Tel Aviv (Israel) - The first lip dub in Tel Aviv, made by the crew and students of the French institute in Tel Aviv. The song is Rockollection by Laurent Voulzy.



The first lip dub in Israel, made by 4th year Visual Communications Students, at the Holon Technological Institute's School of Design. The song is "Let's Get it Started" by the Black Eyed Peas.



Lady Gaga's Bad Romamnce - NETANYA ACADEMIC COLLEGE



And finally the biggest one to date... Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Catalonia, Spain) -
A group of students of the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) presented in June of 2010 a lip dub with 1,200 participants, a current world record.[4] Participants included students, teachers and administrative personnel. The chosen song was "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" and the last scene included 700 persons dancing at the same time.

The last one is a touch 'FAME' but it like the others is guaranteed to raise a smile.

I am not a happy blogger

Archbishop Cranmer informs me that

'The ‘Tory Teacher’ who dared to make a speech at the Conservative Party conference about the parlous state of state education has been so appallingly treated by her 'Blairite’ headteacher and her Anglican Chairman of Governors that she has been forced to resign.

They will probably take issue with the word ‘forced’.

Well, let them sue.

It was they who decided to ‘suspend’ Ms Birbalsingh after making her speech, on the trumped-up charge of using children’s photographs and offending the entire teaching profession.

His Grace is angered beyond verbal expression at this outcome, and he promised a ‘terrors of the earth’ apocalypse if these myopic politically-correct-socialist-ecumenicals got this wrong.

And they did.

Spectacularly so.'

Rad the whole piece and Toby Young who wrote:

'When she returned to work last Thursday her executive head teacher instructed her to spend the rest of the week at home. Proof, if proof were needed, that anyone who questions the prevailing socialist dogma within the state education system is immediately punished. Had Miss Birbalsingh made a speech at the Labour conference in which she endorsed Ed Balls's education policies, she would have been hailed as a conquering hero on her return to work. Her head teacher is the one who should be sent home, where she'd have an opportunity to reflect on the message her actions sent to her pupils about the school's tolerance of dissenting views.'

I am angry, very angry. Will Michael Gove take action? If not, why not? Will the BBC report this scandal or are they so blinkered in their support for the Labour party that they agree with the action taken against Miss Snuffy? What action can we take to show our support for Katherine Birbalsingh?

'American Jews and President Obama - An in-depth look at what went wrong. More importantly, how it happened'

Jewish World Review has the details... Here's how the article starts, do read it all:

' In the nearly 80 years since President Franklin Roosevelt launched the New Deal with a pledge to "help the forgotten man," relations between American Jews and the Democratic Party have been as close as lips and teeth. Even as Jews prospered and assimilated into the mainstream of American life, most of them remained loyal to F.D.R.'s liberal vision and refrained from following the pattern of other affluent groups by shifting to the Republican Party. Over the course of the past 20 elections, 75 percent of the Jewish vote has on average gone to the Democratic presidential candidate. As the old saying goes, "Jews earn like Episcopalians and vote like Puerto Ricans."

If further proof of this were needed, it was provided by the 2008 election of Barack Obama. On a key issue for many Jewish voters—support for Israel—the hawkish John McCain had an advantage over Obama, whose past associations with the anti-Semitic Reverend Jeremiah Wright and the Israel-bashing Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi raised troubling questions. Yet, when the vote was tallied, Obama trounced McCain among Jews by a staggering 57-point margin.

"After decades of involvement in the civil rights movement by American Jews, Obama stirred deep emotions in the Jewish community," Bret Stephens, a deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page, told us. "The black-Jewish alliance was shattered in the late 1960s, and Jews have yearned ever since to restore it. Jews felt good about voting for Obama, for not only were they voting for a guy they agreed with and liked, but they were also voting for a kind of redemption."

All this should give comfort to President Obama as his party heads into the fall's hotly contested mid-term elections and struggles to hold on to its majorities in the House and Senate. Faced with public frustration over the flailing economy, high unemployment, massive federal deficits, and out-of-control illegal immigration, Democratic candidates need all the help they can get. And although Jews represent a mere 4 percent of the American electorate, their political activism and fund-raising prowess give them leverage in important battleground states.

There's only one hitch. Today, a sizable number of American Jews are having some serious misgivings regarding Obama. Recent polls of the Jewish community reflect a significant decline in support from 2008, when 78 percent of Jewish voters pulled the lever for him. According to a recent McLaughlin & Associates poll, nearly 40 percent of Jewish voters disapprove of the president's handling of relations with Israel, and a majority of them would now consider voting for someone else for president.

These poll numbers do not begin to measure the depth of displeasure felt by many Jews over President Obama's performance. Their bill of particulars covers a wide variety of complaints, including the president's frosty behavior toward businessmen in general and Wall Street in particular. But what really appears to irritate American Jews is the president's roughhouse treatment of Israel. '