Posh Nosh - Episode 7

Sauces

The episode where Richard E. Grant aka the Hon. Simon Marchmont is a little 'sauced' himself.


Sorry about the sound glitch near the start and the adverts near the end.

More on the Barack Obama birth-certificate

Obama Release Your Records has a fascinating piece on the Barack Obama birth-certificate story, a story that just won't disappear...
Do read the whole article but here's a taster:

'The investigation's technical analysis relied on the work of Mara Zebest, an author and tech editor, who was enlisted by the Cold Case Posse to look at the documents. She concluded in a report that: “Obama’s PDF file can no longer be referred to as a ‘document,’ since that term implies it existed and started in paper form. Obama’s PDF must be referred to as a ‘digital file’ because that is all it has ever been. …”

Ms. Zebest says Obama’s long-form birth certificate is not even a good forgery. “Poor is an understatement. It’s horrific,” she said. “When it was released, I still expected a file that would be difficult to determine as fraudulent, but when I opened it up, within seconds it was clear it was an obvious fake.” In order to make sure she wasn’t seeing things, she says she called a friend who was also familiar with computer programming. He downloaded if from the White House website and had the same reaction. “Oh my God, somebody has been very sloppy here,” he said, according to Zebest.

For Ms. Zebest, the foremost sign that the document has been tampered with is the existence of layers. “Layers are a very damning part of why this is a forgery,” she said. Layers appear when a document is opened in a graphics program, like Adobe Illustrator. These layers contain elements from the document, but not the whole document. One layer may contain the background color. Another layer may contain only black text. The information that appears on each layer depends on how the document was originally created.

For those more familiar with a non-digital era, think of layers as transparencies used with a slide projector. Multiple transparencies may make up a single image. In this case, the transparencies are stacked one on top of the other to create a composite of Mr. Obama’s long-form birth certificate.

Ms. Zebest says there should be no layers in Mr. Obama’s birth certificate. “If you take a birth certificate and scan it into a computer, you’re going to end up with a flat document. You're not going to have anything with layers. The fact that it has multiple layers in itself means manipulation,” she said.

Obama’s long-form birth certificate contains nine layers.'

The story of Barack Obama's birth certificate interests me because I find it so unlikely that he was not born in Hawaii. However I think that there are many other questions that do need to be asked  about his history, questions that are easily evaded by the Obama camp by denigrating anybody who asks such questions with the insult 'birther'. Why have Barack Obama's educational records not been released? BIRTHER  So is it beyond the realm of possibility that the birth certificate released by the Barack Obama camp was deliberately made to look like a forgery?

Paranoid, Moi?

The BBC are shameless

The BBC like using experts to explain issues to their website readers. It's the Republican Party's National Convention so the BBC have an analysis piece from someone billed at the top of the article as 'PJ Crowley Former US Assistant Secretary of State' and at the bottom of the piece thus 'PJ Crowley is a former US assistant secretary of state and now a professor of practice and fellow at the Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication at The George Washington University.'

The piece is a gentle attack on Mitt Romney as you would expect from someone who in 2009 was nominated by President Barack Obama to be Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. A Democrat commenting on the Republican candidate for President but not being identified as such. Can we expect the BBC to ask a former Republican to comment negatively on Barack Obama's speech to the Democratic Convention, and not identify him/her as a Republican? I think we all know the answers to those questions...

Clint Eastwood's speech to the Republican National Conference

Do watch it all. Here thanks to The Washington Post is the full text of Clint Eastwood's speech:

'EASTWOOD: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Save a little for Mitt. (APPLAUSE) I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, what’s a movie tradesman doing out here? You know they are all left wingers out there, left of Lenin. At least that is what people think. That is not really the case. There are a lot of conservative people, a lot of moderate people, Republicans, Democrats, in Hollywood. It is just that the conservative people by the nature of the word itself play closer to the vest. They do not go around hot dogging it. (APPLAUSE) So -- but they are there, believe me, they are there. I just think, in fact, some of them around town, I saw Jon Voight, a lot of people around. (APPLAUSE) Jon’s here, an academy award winner. A terrific guy. These people are all like-minded, like all of us. So I -- so I’ve got Mr. Obama sitting here. And he’s -- I was going to ask him a couple of questions. But -- you know about -- I remember three and a half years ago, when Mr. Obama won the election. And though I was not a big supporter, I was watching that night when he was having that thing and they were talking about hope and change and they were talking about, yes we can, and it was dark outdoors, and it was nice, and people were lighting candles. They were saying, I just thought, this was great. Everybody is trying, Oprah was crying. (LAUGHTER) EASTWOOD: I was even crying. And then finally -- and I haven’t cried that hard since I found out that there is 23 million unemployed people in this country. (APPLAUSE) Now that is something to cry for because that is a disgrace, a national disgrace, and we haven’t done enough, obviously -- this administration hasn’t done enough to cure that. Whenever interest they have is not strong enough, and I think possibly now it may be time for somebody else to come along and solve the problem. (APPLAUSE) So, Mr. President, how do you handle promises that you have made when you were running for election, and how do you handle them? I mean, what do you say to people? Do you just -- you know -- I know -- people were wondering -- you don’t -- handle that OK. Well, I know even people in your own party were very disappointed when you didn’t close Gitmo. And I thought, well closing Gitmo -- why close that, we spent so much money on it. But, I thought maybe as an excuse -- what do you mean shut up? (LAUGHTER) OK, I thought maybe it was just because somebody had the stupid idea of trying terrorists in downtown New York City. (APPLAUSE) I’ve got to to hand it to you. I have to give credit where credit is due. You did finally overrule that finally. And that’s -- now we are moving onward. I know you were against the war in Iraq, and that’s okay. But you thought the war in Afghanistan was OK. You know, I mean -- you thought that was something worth doing. We didn’t check with the Russians to see how did it -- they did there for 10 years. (APPLAUSE) But we did it, and it is something to be thought about, and I think that, when we get to maybe -- I think you’ve mentioned something about having a target date for bringing everybody home. You gave that target date, and I think Mr. Romney asked the only sensible question, you know, he says, “Why are you giving the date out now? Why don’t you just bring them home tomorrow morning?” (APPLAUSE) And I thought -- I thought, yeah -- I am not going to shut up, it is my turn. (LAUGHTER) So anyway, we’re going to have -- we’re going to have to have a little chat about that. And then, I just wondered, all these promises -- I wondered about when the -- what do you want me to tell Romney? I can’t tell him to do that. I can’t tell him to do that to himself. (APPLAUSE) You’re crazy, you’re absolutely crazy. You’re getting as bad as Biden. (APPLAUSE) Of course we all now Biden is the intellect of the Democratic party. (LAUGHTER) Kind of a grin with a body behind it. (LAUGHTER) But I just think that there is so much to be done, and I think that Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan are two guys that can come along. See, I never thought it was a good idea for attorneys to the president, anyway. (APPLAUSE) I think attorneys are so busy -- you know they’re always taught to argue everything, and always weight everything -- weigh both sides... MORE (INSERT ZACH) XXX I think attorneys are so busy -- you know they’re always taught to argue everything, always weigh everything, weigh both sides. EASTWOOD: They are always devil’s advocating this and bifurcating this and bifurcating that. You know all that stuff. But, I think it is maybe time -- what do you think -- for maybe a businessman. How about that? (APPLAUSE) A stellar businessman. Quote, unquote, “a stellar businessman.” And I think it’s that time. And I think if you just step aside and Mr. Romney can kind of take over. You can maybe still use a plane. (APPLAUSE) Though maybe a smaller one. Not that big gas guzzler you are going around to colleges and talking about student loans and stuff like that. (APPLAUSE) You are an -- an ecological man. Why would you want to drive that around? OK, well anyway. All right, I’m sorry. I can’t do that to myself either. (APPLAUSE) I would just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen. Something that I think is very important. It is that, you, we -- we own this country. (APPLAUSE) We -- we own it. It is not you owning it, and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours. (APPLAUSE) And -- so -- they are just going to come around and beg for votes every few years. It is the same old deal. But I just think it is important that you realize , that you’re the best in the world. Whether you are a Democrat or Republican or whether you’re libertarian or whatever, you are the best. And we should not ever forget that. And when somebody does not do the job, we got to let them go. (APPLAUSE) Okay, just remember that. And I’m speaking out for everybody out there. It doesn’t hurt, we don’t have to be (AUDIENCE MEMBER): (inaudible) (LAUGHTER) I do not say that word anymore. Well, maybe one last time. (LAUGHTER) We don’t have to be -- what I’m saying, we do not have to be metal (ph) masochists and vote for somebody that we don’t really even want in office just because they seem to be nice guys or maybe not so nice guys, if you look at some of the recent ads going out there, I don’t know. (APPLAUSE) But OK. You want to make my day? (APPLAUSE) All right. I started, you finish it. Go ahead. AUDIENCE: Make my day! EASTWOOD: Thank you. Thank you very much.'

Making fun of the Obamamessiah, the liberals will not be happy.

Another Twitter twit - @Nafeezi (updated)

Further to this post from last night, I have to report that @Nafeezi didn't respond to my tweets with a justification for his original claim...

He did however come up with some conspiracy theories...

I will be answering his tweets, it seems only polite, but somehow I doubt that I will ever receive a sensible response.

That's odd

The BBC report that:

'Summer 'wettest in 100 years', Met Office figures show'

Apparently:

'This summer is set to be the second wettest in the UK since records began - and the wettest summer in 100 years - provisional Met Office figures suggest. The wettest summer - defined as June, July and August - since national records began was in 1912. Figures up until 29 August show that 366.8 mm of rain fell across the UK this summer, compared with 384.4 mm rainfall in 1912. The April to June period was also the wettest recorded in the UK. The figures are provisional as there are still two days remaining in August, but the BBC Weather Centre said the rainfall was not expected to exceed the total amount in 1912. Records began in 1910.'

That's very odd because I remember the certainty with which The Guardian reported in 2006 as fact that:

'Scientists know a lot about how events will unfold...which means that whatever we do, our climate destiny is fixed for the next few decades... Rainfall will decline in the summer and the increased deluges in winter will struggle to replenish thirsty reservoirs because much of the water will run off the baked ground.'

I wonder if the BBC/Guardian recall the narrative they used to push just a few years ago. Or do they switch from believing in drought to flood as easily as the citizens of Oceania swapped between believing the enemy was Eurasia or Eastasia.

'Scientists know... climate destiny is fixed... Rainfall will decline in the summer...' It's all rubbish folks; most of these scientists are not predicting based on science, they are designing science to fit the desired predictions.

Posh Nosh - Episode 6

Leftovers

"Brando the butter" - foodie reference?!

The wine is "Pure and well-balanced, like a nun on a tightrope"
'Vinegars from Je Vinnegrette Rien'

Well I can't do that!

Another Twitter twit - @Nafeezi

I have been having another Twitter conversation with a hater of Israel. Just like @Jew4palestine he tweets rubbish and just won't admit it. Here's the sequence of tweets, in this case another Tweeter was also trying to point out the lie told.

For the record, even Wikipedia reports the total deaths in the Israel/Palestinian conflict thus:

'A variety of studies provide differing casualty data for the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 13,000 Israelis and Palestinians were killed in conflict with each other between 1948 and 1997. Other estimations give 14,500 killed between 1948–2009.Palestinian fatalities during the 1982 Lebanon War were 2,000 PLO combatants killed in armed conflict with Israel.'

So who to believe, the Stockhold Peace Research Institute and others that show a total of 27,500 Israelis and Palestinians killed 1947 to 2009 or @Nafeezi who claims to remember 'the tens of thousands of Palestinian children being exterminated daily by #IDF' ?

@Nafeezi has not admitted his mistake/lie, indeed he as you can see above, he just went on the attack. He has of course not responded to me or @Israelradioguy.

The trouble is that @Nafeezi is not alone in believing this rubbish, and spreading it. I see it as my duty to correct such lies. In case you can't be bothered with following the links to @Nafeezi, here's the man himself...

Some mistake surely...

The Times reports on the outside earnings of MPs, the highest 'earner', I use the term loosely, being Gordon 'sold the gold' Brown. The graphic shows Conservative MPs in blue and Labour MPs in red but there seems to be one mistake

David Blunkett a Conservative? I think not.

I remember when The Times was the paper of record...

Israel always and only to blame

Recently the BBC posted this report on their website, here's the whole report:

'The Gaza Strip will not be "a liveable place" by 2020 unless action is taken to improve basic services in the territory, according to a UN report.

Basic infrastructure "is struggling to keep pace with a growing population", the UN Country Team (UNCT) in the occupied Palestinian territory said.

It estimates Gaza's population will rise from 1.6m to 2.1m by 2020.

Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza after the Islamist movement Hamas seized power in the coastal territory in 2007.

Israel says the restrictions, which are policed with Egyptian co-operation, are necessary to prevent weapons reaching Hamas. Palestinians and human rights group denounce them as "collective punishment".

The UN report, "Gaza in 2020: A liveable place?", estimates the territory will need double the number of schools and 800 more hospital beds by 2020, and says it is already suffering from a housing shortage.

The report also says the coastal aquifer, the territory's only natural source of fresh water, may become unusable by 2016.

UN officials point to the difficulty of improving the situation given "the closure of the Gaza Strip, violent conflict, and the pressing need for Palestinian reconciliation".

"An urban area cannot survive without being connected," said Maxwell Gaylard, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Co-ordinator.

Gaza has no air or sea ports, and the economy is heavily dependent on outside funding and smuggling through tunnels under the Egyptian border.

Even though Gaza has experienced some economic growth in recent years, the report says it "does not seem to be sustainable" and finds that Gazans are worse off now than in the 1990s.

Unemployment was at 29% in 2011 and has risen since then, particularly affecting women and young people.

Traffic through the cross-border tunnels was hit in recent weeks by violence between Egyptian security forces and militants in Egypt's Sinai peninsula, which borders Israel and Gaza.'

It was these two lines that particularly caught my eye:

'Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza after the Islamist movement Hamas seized power in the coastal territory in 2007.

Israel says the restrictions, which are policed with Egyptian co-operation, are necessary to prevent weapons reaching Hamas. Palestinians and human rights group denounce them as "collective punishment".'

The first line was interesting as it did at least acknowledge that Hamas seized power in Gaza and that they are Islamists, albeit the word terrorists was not used. The second line was also interesting as it did acknowledge something that the BBC rarely acknowledge, that Egypt cooperates with the blockade of Gaza.

Something made me check with News Sniffer as to how the article changed over time. Here's some of the changes, I think that they are interesting.
The very first version of the BBC report included this line:

'Hamas leaders in Gaza had hoped that the administration of the new Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, a fellow Islamist, would ease the blockade but so far there has not been any sign that Egypt will open its border.'

That soon disappeared, I wonder why? Maybe it doesn't fit the BBC narrative to call Egypt's new Muslim Brotherhood President, Mohamed Morsi, an Islamist. Linking the Muslim Brotherhood with Hamas is also tricky for the BBC, so maybe best to just drop this line...

Now this is interesting, that second line above started like this:

'Israel says the blockade, policed with Egyptian co-operation, is necessary to prevent weapons reaching Hamas. '

Reporting Israel's line without any countering 'facts', that will never do. So the BBC version changed to:

'Israel says the blockade, which is policed with Egyptian co-operation and has never been fully lifted, is necessary to prevent weapons reaching Hamas.'

And then to:

'Israel says the restrictions, which are policed with Egyptian co-operation, are necessary to prevent weapons reaching Hamas. Palestinians and human rights group denounce them as "collective punishment".'

The BBC try not to let people know that Gaza has a border with Egypt and therefore that Egypt is blockading Gaza just as much as Israel. Remember this post? After all how would that aid their narrative of a big bad Israel and poor defenceless Palestinians? How would it fit in with the BBC's support for blockade breaking organisations if people knew that Egypt was also blockading Gaza? People might start to wonder why only the blockade busters and other supporters of the Palestinians only protest about Israel's blockade of Gaza and not the Egyptian's.

The BBC Trust has ruled that Labour MP Diane Abbott should not have been paid for recent appearances on This Week.

The BBC are reporting that: 

'The BBC Trust has ruled that Labour MP Diane Abbott should not have been paid for recent appearances on flagship political programme This Week.

Ms Abbott, a regular guest with Tory MP Michael Portillo and presenter Andrew Neil, has been paid thousands in appearance fees.

The BBC claimed rules banning payments to MPs representing their parties did not apply as This Week was not a "normal" political show.

But this was rejected by the Trust.

The Trust also ruled the MP's appearances had been "too frequent" since she became a shadow minister.

In January crossbench peer Lord Laird complained that Ms Abbott had received five payments of £839 and one of £869 for appearances on This Week.

The BBC's editorial guidelines state that MPs should not be paid for appearances where they are "speaking as a member of their party or expressing political views".

The guidelines allow for the payment of a realistic "disturbance fee" to cover the time and inconvenience i
involved in appearing in a broadcast but Lord Laird argued that the payments to Ms Abbott went beyond this.'

 Well that's settled then? Well no, not really as the last line of the report makes clear:

'A spokeswoman for BBC News said that they "note the findings" of the Trust.'

 Ah the BBC, will they ignore the ruling of the BBC Trust? After all it is a Labour shadow minister whose nose needs to be kept in the public trough.

Because dead Israeli Jews aren't newsworthy at the BBC

The BBC have been in full two-minute hate mode in their coverage of the latest judicial instalment of the story of the unfortunate and accidental death of the 'peace campaigner' Rachel Corrie. In all the interviews with Rachel Corrie's family and representatives of the anti-Israel International Solidarity Movement I did not hear any interviewer ask the questions 'Were there any arms smuggling tunnels underneath the family home that Rachel Corrie was trying to protect?' and 'Did Rachel Corrie know that there were  smuggling tunnels underneath the family home that she was trying to protect?'. I think we all know why the BBC would never ask such a question.

Bearing in mind the amount of coverage that the BBC have accorded to the death of Rachel Corrie, how much coverage have they ever given the deaths of these other Rachels?

'Some of the forgotten Rachels: 

Rachel Levy (aged 17, blown up in a grocery store)

Rachel Levi (19, shot while waiting for the bus)

Rachel Gavish (killed with her husband, son and father while at home celebrating a Passover meal)

Rachel Charhi (blown up while sitting in a Tel Aviv cafe, leaving three young children)

Rachel Shabo (murdered with her three sons aged 5, 13 and 16 while at home)

Rachel Ben Abu (16, blown up outside the entrance of a Netanya shopping mall)

Rachel Kol, 53, who worked at a Jerusalem hospital and was killed with her husband in a Palestinian terrorist attack in July a few days after the London bombs.

Rachel Sela, 82, murdered the day before Purim on March 4th, 1996 when an Palestinian suicide bomber exploded at Dizingoff Center, Tel Aviv.

Rachel Tajgatrio, 83, murdered while shopping in Jerusalem's "Machaneh Yehuda" market when 2 bombs went off on July 30th, 1997.

Rachel Thaler, 16 years old from Ginot Shomron died of her wounds on February 27 2002, after a Palestinian bomber exploded in a shopping mall's food court, killing 3, wounding 30.

Rachel Tamari,  61, murdered by a Palestinian bomb on the Dan #20 bus in Ramat Gan, on July 24, 1995.  6 Israelis died in that attack, and dozens were wounded.

Rachel Drouk, 35, mother of 7 from the Shilo community was murdered by Palestinian terrorist gunfire while on her way to a demonstration (October 28, 1991) -- that negotiating with Palestinian terrorists would be dangerous to Israel.  The driver of her car, Yitzchak Rofeh was also killed and 5 others wounded.

Rachel Weiss, 26, pregnant and mother of 3 small children (Rafael, Netanel and Efraim), were all murdered by Palestinian terrorists who threw a molotov cocktail at her car in the Jordan Valley (October 31, 1988)

Rachel Weiss, 69, stabbed to death by Palestinian terrorists who were sent by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin to as an "entrance test" to the Hamas organizations.  She was murdered in her home in Moshav Shapir, August 3rd, 1988.

Rachel Munk, 24, [married 6 weeks earlier] was murdered in a drive-by terror attack by on July 26, 1996, along with her husband Zeev Munk.  The attack took place on the Beit Shemesh - Kiryat Melachi road near Moshav Gefen.

Rachel Stern, 8 years old,  stabbed to death, along with her mother, while eating breakfast in their home in Kiryat Shmona, on April 11, 1974.  16 people were murdered that day by Palestinian terrorists in that attack.

Rachel Afita, 16, murdered by Palestinian terrorists in the Northern Israeli community of Maalot on May 15, 1974

Rachel Lev, 50, murdered by Palestinian terrorists when 5 bombs exploded throughout the Haifa area on October 23, 1969.  7 people were killed in the attack, including her husband Eliyahu and son Avraham.

Rachel Mizrachi, 38, stabbed to death by Arab terrorists in her home in Tiberias, October 2, 1939.

May their memories be blessed.'

Most of these Rachels have never merited more than a one line on the BBC, if that. None have had the manner and circumstances of their deaths examined in such detail as was accorded the death of Rachel Corrie. Yes Rachel corrie was British and thus to the BBC's eyes her death was more newsworthy but do these Rachels really deserve to die with their deaths unrecorded on the BBC?

I suppose that as with the vile murder of the Fogel family each of these murdered Rachels might have been killed during a 'very busy news period' but somehow I doubt that was the reason for the Rachels or the Fogel family. The real reason is clear to anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear.


Thanks to The Muqata for the list of murdered Rachels.

Posh Nosh - Episode 5

Bread AND Butter Pudding

"Next week... we'll be taunting an aubergine"

What is a hate crime?

What’s more of a hate crime, a Jewish student whose jaw was broken… or a burnt Koran left outside a mosque? Lansing State Journal reports that:

'The 19-year-old victim, Zachary Tennen, told his parents and the police that two men with shaved heads broke his jaw at an off-campus party in East Lansing. The men asked whether he was Jewish, his mother and father, Tina and Bruce Tennen, said, then raised their arms in a Nazi salute, chanted “Heil Hitler” and knocked him to the ground. They then “stapled me in the back side of my bottom teeth, starting in my gums and going upwards,” his father said, reading from Zachary’s statement to East Lansing Police.'

What a horrible experience but according to the same news report:

'Though the incident has provoked outrage around the state, police haven’t found evidence so far to support the idea that it was a hate crime, (East Lansing police Capt. Jeff Murphy) said.

“With a hate crime, the motive is what’s in question. We have the victim’s family saying that he was assaulted because of his religion and that’s obviously a very serious thing,” Murphy said. “The problem is, right now, we don’t have anybody else who says that’s the case. In fact, we’ve got witnesses that say that was not at all the case.”

It is interesting to note that whilst the East Lansing Police are currently sceptical as to whether this was a hate crime, they were less reticent when a burnt Koran was left outside East Lansing's Islamic Centre last September. In that instance the East Lansing Police Department is offering $10,000 for information that leads to the identification and prosecution of those responsible for the act. Is it really the case that the East Lansing Police deem a burnt Koran merits a $10,000 reward but a badly beaten Jewish college student's evidence can be closely questioned?

You won't be surprised to learn that the BBC have not reported this news story.

 

4 Happy Spice Girls and 1 Not - Can Victoria Beckham actually smile?

 Does she have really bad teeth? She doesn't seem to want to show them off, anyway.
 

Thanks to MSN and Mel B for the pictures.

BBC biased reporting

When George Osborne made his 110% effort remarks the usual suspects at the BBC were in raptures at the mathematical stupidity of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Oddly I have not seen the BBC even mention Barack Obama's rather similar error

Why the difference in coverage BBC? It's alright, don't bother answering I already know the reason.

CiF Watch ‘Style’ Guide to the Middle East for the Perplexed: A to Z | CiF Watch

http://cifwatch.com/2012/08/06/cif-watch-style-guide-to-the-middle-east-for-the-perplexed-a-to-z/

Posh Nosh - Episode 4

Beautiful Food
Lemon positioning is key...

Yet another Barack Obama supporter with a rather sick line in Tweeting

Further to my earlier post about Samuel L. Jackson's off-colour tweeting, I see on Guido Fawkes that George Monbiot has tweeting similarly...

These left-wing types really have a nasty streak don't they. Yet the Conservatives/Republicans are deemed to be the 'nasty party'.

Reasons to be angry

Seems about right.

Thanks to this oddly named blog(!) for the spot.

Just listen to what they say

Islamists make no secret of their aims, here's another one:

'Jerusalem is at the heart of the Palestinian cause, and the Palestinian cause is the cause of all Arabs and Muslims. Therefore, the elimination of the Zionist entity is beyond debate, and the only question has to do with the circumstances.

I believe that the Arab revolutions, which broke out in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen – as well as in Bahrain and elsewhere – generate the peoples' hope that one day, Jerusalem and Palestine will return to them....

We are constantly keeping the memory alive among the younger generations, so that they will realize that the Palestinian cause is an essential one. The hope and the memory will later turn into action. By next year, Allah willing, Israel will be annihilated.'

That's Egyptian Professor of Political Science, Gamal Zahra. All clear and understood. Of course the BBC will not report Gamal Zahra's words as they have a policy of not reporting the regular genocidal comments of Islamists, they will happily (indeed eagerly) report any such utterances from fringe Israeli figures. I have blogged and complained about this before but the BBC just won't accept that they are in the wrong, here's my last piece on the matter.

Barack Obama narcissist

Neil Armstong, a great hero of mine, died over the weekend and images of him on the moon or in his NASA unifirm abounded. Barack Obama thought he'd commemorate Neil Armstrong's death with a picture of himself looking at the moon...

Narcissistic, isn't he? And what's with the gazing at the crescent moon? Subliminal message?

How long are their holidays?

The BBC's Newsnight Economics Editor, Paul Mason, usually updates his blog very regularly, however he seems to have gone off the boil recently. Here's a list of the dates of the last 20 updates to his BBC blog:
26 April
30 April
30 April
3 May
9 May
14 May
16 May
23 May
6 June
12 June
13 June
14 June
15 June
18 June
28 June
29 June
2 July
3 July
4 July
27 July - A brief musing seemingly sparked by landing at Heathrow

Since then not a word. Could it be that Paul Mason has been away on holiday for a month? Lucky him, nothing too good for the BBC's in-house 'ex-Trotskist' - 'up the workers'.

I suppose that the longer he's away and silent, the less chance he has to poison people's minds.

Another Barack Obama supporter with a rather sick line in Tweeting

Barack Obama supporters can't help but show their true colours. This time it's Samuel L. Jackson

This is the same Samuel L. Jackson who once said "I voted for Barack because he was black. ’Cuz that’s why other folks vote for other people – because they look like them".
Voting on race lines - tick
Wishing harm on Republicans - tick

Nice chap that Samuel L. Jackson, but then that tweet attracted the like-minded

What's sweet is how Samuel L. Jackson then rowed back, slowly but surely...

Samuel L. Jackson - busted.

Balen Report update

I have blogged about the disgusting way that the BBC have fought to keep the Balen Report secret for so long.

As I have said before, I think we can draw our own conclusions as to what the Balen Report found, from how resolutely the BBC has fought to keep its findings from reaching our eyes. I wonder how the BBC would react if the Balen Report was leaked, after all they do favour such leakings when it helps the interests of their friends on the left of politics.

So I was angered, if not surprised, to read at the Commentator the following:

'Today, The Commentator reveals a Freedom of Information request showing that the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has so far spent almost a third of a million pounds (more than half a million dollars) in order to conceal the infamous 'Balen Report', into the corporation's coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict, from the British public.

Britons are required by law to own licences in order to use televisions. This raises £3.6billion in funding for the state broadcaster. Despite this public funding, the BBC does not have to comply with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 with regard to actual information held for the purposes of journalism, art or literature.

The Balen Report was written in 2004 and campaigners say the BBC does not wish to release the document over fears that it will substantiate claims of BBC bias against Israel. Ironically, it is understood that former Director of News for the BBC, Richard Sambrook, commissioned the report in order to allay public fears.

The report, however, was never released.

Since 2004, campaigners have attempted to coax the BBC into releasing the report, taking the organisation through a series of legal battles in order to view the information held within.

It has now come to light that the BBC has spent almost a third of a million pounds to hide the report from the public eye: "The legal costs incurred by the BBC amount to £332,780.47," the BBC said.

 The actual cost to the BBC is likely to be far higher, as in-house legal time is not factored in and nor is Value Added Tax.'

Given the way that the BBC has fought so hard to keep the Balen Report secret, is it fair to assume that the report does not say that the BBC's coverage of the Israel-Palestinian conflict is entirely unbiased? What is also interesting is that the BBC is usually so in favour of 'freedom of information', witness their joy over the Wikileaks site. It couldn't be the case that the BBC only favour leaks that help further causes dear to their hearts, could it?

Anyone listening to or watching the BBC's coverage of Israel and the Palestinians can be in no doubt that the BBC is decidedly biased against Israel. It seems pretty clear that a report into this area would find such bias. The BBC's desperate and determined efforts to keep the Balen Report secret can only confirm this view.

It is pretty certain that if the Balen Report cleared the BBC of anti-Israel bias then they would happily release it, that they don't can mean just one thing.

It's odd where 'the left' draw the line

Over the past week 'the left' have criticised George Galloway twice. First for his rather unenlightened comments about rape, whilst defending Julian Assange and second for this Tweet

What is odd is that those up in arms about George Galloway's alleged misogyny and lack of sensitivity towards the disabled seem to have been less willing to criticise him for his working for Iran's Press TV and his less than pleasant views about Israel.

The double-standards of 'the left' are really quite abhorrent but not surprising. What is cheering is that, for whatever reason, this particular boil on the bum of British society might at last be ready for lancing.

I'm back

I'm back and what a lot to write about there is!

Postings to come this morning, unless work interrupts, will be on George Galloway and the inconsistencies of 'the left', the Balen Report and a catch-up article.

Posh Nosh - Episode 3

Paella

"When the fishermen are still wet"
"By all means buy stock cubes if you have no self-esteem"

Blog update

Posting will hopefully return to normal tomorrow. There's a lot I have missed out on and I may try and catch-up with a few articles on Tuesday and Wednsday.

Posh Nosh - Episode 2

Birthday Parties

"You can feel their nuts as they fall..."
"Like suckng nectar through a hangman's noose"

Jim Carrey also does good impressions

Just the two and only the faces: Jack Nicholson & Clint Eastwood

Kevin Spacey does some rather good impressions

Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, Christopher Walken, Clint Eastwood, Jack Lemmon, John Gielgud and others.

Oh JOY - Posh Nosh

I have just found all of the Posh Nosh episodes on YouTube. Richard E. Grant and Arabella Weir are a sheer joy to watch and listen to in this series of eight episodes. Joanna Lumley's voiceover is also frightfully good. One a night seems about right....

Episode 1 - Architects Chips

The first question, the oldest question...

Doctor Who: The First Question Teaser Trailer I managed to miss this at the time, just saw this recently...

A Brief Encounter parody

Victoria Wood is brilliant.

A Moody French Rugby Player

Sébastien Chabal - "We are in France, we speak French... OK ?" Except he said that in English...

An anniversary that the BBC will not be commemorating

'Starting on Friday, August 23, 1929 and lasting for a week, attacks by enraged Arab mobs were launched against Jews in the Old City in Jerusalem, in Jerusalem suburbs Sanhedria, Motza, Bayit Vegan, Ramat Rachel, in outlying Jewish communities, and in the Galilee town of Tzfat.  Small Jewish communities in Gaza, Ramla, Jenin, and Nablus had to be abandoned.

The attack in Hebron became a frenzied pogrom with the Arab mob stabbing, axing, decapitating and disemboweling 67 men, women and children. At least 133 Jews were killed across Palestine.'

The BBC will not commemorate these massacres, including the most famous one in Hebron on 24 August 1929, because to do so would mean accepting that there were Jews living in what is now Israel, including all of Jerusalem as well as Judea & Samaria (what the BBC refer to as the West Bank). To accept this is to go against the Palestinian narrative of Jewish invaders of Palestinian land. Don't confuse the BBC with an impartial news reporting organisation, it's not.

Never Mind The Buzzcocks meets Doctor Who

The 'next lines' round is particularly fine, especially the last one.

Family Guy porn - don't worry this is SFW

This is the only part of the video I found that was not NSFW. The rest can be found quite easily on the web, along with some Simpsons and Futurama porn, should you be interested!

Fighting back against the BBC, Mark Reckless, MP takes it to the BBC's Evan Davis

Mark Reckless has the whole story on his blog. There are some things that the BBC just don't want to allow to be discussed.

"don't blink"

Chameleon Circuit- "Blink"

I think they may be Doctor Who fans!  Blink beling one of the best Doctor Who episodes ever.

Israel - Did you know?

The stories about Isreal on the BBC, in The Guardian and Indepndent newspapers and much of the West's media is overwhelmingly negative. Here's some more positive facts:

'Did you know...

...That Israel has the 8th longest life expectancy in the world: 80.7 years. More than the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany.

 

...That there are 26 official Muslim States, 18 official Christian States, but there is only 1 Jewish State-Israel.

 

...That relative to its size, Israel is the largest immigrant absorbing nation on Earth, it has absorbed 350% of its population in 60 years.

 

...That Israel has more Nobel Prizes per capita than any other country. It has more laureates, in real numbers, than Spain, Mexico and China.

 

...That Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain of trees, made more remarkable by the fact that it is 60% desert.

 

...That 93% of Israeli homes use Solar energy for water heating, the highest percentage in the world.

 

...That Israel scientific research institutions are ranked 3rd in the world.

 

...That Israel is ranked 2nd in space sciences.

 

...That Israel is one of the eight countries in the world capable of launching its own satellites.

 

...That Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin.

 

...That Israel has the 3rd highest rate of entrepreneurship amongst women in the world.

 

...That Israel has attracted the most venture capital investment per capita in the world, 30 times more than Europe.

 

...That Israel leads the world in patents for medical equipment.

 

...That Israel has more NASDAQ listed companies than any other country, besides the US. More than all of Europe, India, China and Japan combined.

 

...That in proportion to its population Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute numbers Israel has more startup companies than any other country besides the US.

 

...That Israel has the highest number of museums per capita in the world.

 

...That Israel is the world's 8th happiest country.

 ...That Israel is ranked 17th in the Human Development Index.

 

...That Israel is ranked 27th in terms of Gross domestic product per capita with $32,297.

 

...The proportion of women among R&D workers in Israel is approximately 23.4%. This puts Israel in second place behind Denmark. Women earned 37% of all degrees granted in science and engineering in Israel, one of the highest proportions in the world.

...That Israel is among the top three countries in cyber attack defense.'

Thanks to Double Tapper for the facts.

Some seriously beautiful underwater footage of dolphins

The Blue from Mark Peters on Vimeo.

How could George Galloway say such a thing?

How could the great egalitarian (sic) George Galloway say that the rape allegations facing Wikileaks founder Julian Assange amount to little more than "really bad manners" and "bad sexual etiquette"? It's beyond me...


In a completely unconnected matter I spotted this video of rules for Muslims during Ramadan, I found the first ruling from Palestinian Authority Mufti Muhammad Hussein most instructive...

Do you have an iPad and miss your old typewriter?

Austin Yang's iTypewriter - genius or insanity?

The top 10 funniest jokes from the Edinburgh Fringe 2012

• 1. Stewart Francis - "You know who really gives kids a bad name? Posh and Becks."

• 2. Tim Vine - "Last night me and my girlfriend watched three DVDs back to back. Luckily I was the one facing the telly. "

• 3. Will Marsh - "I was raised as an only child, which really annoyed my sister."

• 4. Rob Beckett - "You know you're working class when your TV is bigger than your book case."

• 5. Chris Turner - "I'm good friends with 25 letters of the alphabet… I don't know Y."

• 6. Tim Vine - "I took part in the sun tanning Olympics - I just got Bronze."

• 7. George Ryegold - "Pornography is often frowned upon, but that's only because I'm concentrating."

• 8. Stewart Francis - "I saw a documentary on how ships are kept together. Riveting!"

• 9. Lou Sanders - "I waited an hour for my starter so I complained: 'It's not rocket salad."

• 10. Nish Kumar - "My mum's so pessimistic, that if there was an Olympics for pessimism… she wouldn't fancy her chances."

The Enterprise IT adoption cycle

Yes, that looks about right!


Thanks to Boing Boing for the spot.

Hamas in their own words

I know I keep banging on about this but I am trying to counter the BBC/Guardian/Independent line that Hamas want a peaceful coexistence with Israel. That's not true and Hamas prove this time after time.

Two videos today, the first is of Hamas Deputy Speaker Ahmad Bahr preaching for the annihilation of Jews and Americans.

"Jihad... in order to annihilate those Jews..."
"Oh Allah, destroy the Jews and their supporters. Oh Allah, destroy the Americans and their supporters. Oh Allah, count them one by one, and kill them all, without leaving a single one."


Are these the words of someone looking to arrange peace with Israel? No, but that is why the BBC don't report such speeches, it would ruin their carefully constructed narrative.


This second video is of the released Hamas terrorist Ahlam Tamimi on the Palestinian public's delight at suicide bombings. This is the result of years of preaching hatred and encouraging murder of Jews.




Hamas spread hatred and incite murder of Jews (and others) on a regular basis, not that you would know this if you relied upon the BBC, The Guardian and The Independent for your Middle East news.
Thanks to the incredible MEMRI for the video clips.

Daled Amos: After Holocaust Denial, Is Mocking The Holocaust Now Acceptable?

http://daledamos.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/after-holocaust-denial-is-mocking.html

The financial mismanagement that is ingrained in the Labour party

Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Ed Balls & Ed Miliband helped to create a debt bubble that the UK may never recover from. Guido Fawkes has spotted that the Labour party is as addicted to debt as ever.

Odd things tongues

YouTube has some rather odd tongue related videos, here are some of them.

A split tongue, how and why do spring to my mind...



A talented tongue...


A very wide tongue...


A very fast tongue...


Nick's 9cm long tongue...



I think that's enough for now.

'The envy of the world'

Two articles from a while back that make you wonder how those people who claim the NHS is 'the envy of the world' can sleep at night.

The first is from early July and reports:

'A young patient who died of dehydration at a leading teaching hospital phoned police from his bed because he was so thirsty, an inquest heard yesterday. Officers arrived at Kane Gorny's bedside, but were told by nurses that he was in a confused state and were sent away. The keen footballer and runner, 22, died of dehydration a few hours later. ... Yesterday an inquest was told how Mr Gorny died after blunders and neglect by 'lazy and careless' medical staff at St George's Hospital in Tooting, South London. His mother Rita Cronin, a civil servant told Westminster Coroner's Court that staff tutted at her and repeatedly refused to listen to her concerns that her son hadn't been given vital medication. ... At one point he became so desperate and upset that staff sedated and restrained him – and on the night before his death, his mother said, he was not checked on by medical staff, despite being in a room on his own. Following his death, a nurse allegedly inquired whether the family, from Balham, South-West London, was 'finished' and asked a matron in front of them whether she could 'bag him up'. ... Miss Cronin said she sat in his room for three hours the night before he died without a single nurse checking on him or giving him vital medicine. She said she told a nurse who walked past the room that Mr Gorny had not had his medication. When Miss Cronin volunteered to return to the hospital should he wake, another nurse allegedly told her: 'You don't need to do that. If he makes noise, I'll close the door and then he won't wake everyone up.' She added: 'I later realised that her comment was unbelievable but I was so distraught that it didn't register.' The morning of her son's death, May 28, 2009, Miss Cronin arrived at the hospital early to find him delirious with swollen lips and a swollen tongue. She recalled: 'I then heard three nurses outside his room and I said: "There's something wrong with my son. He doesn't look right." 'The nurse said to me "He had a good night. There's nothing wrong with him and he's just had breakfast and a chat with us." 'I thought: "How could he have had breakfast? There's no evidence (of breakfast)." 'The nurse carried on her handover then I interrupted again and said: “He's not right.” 'The other nurse then tutted and said: "She's already told you he had a good night." And with that the three of them walked off.' Miss Cronin said she then noticed that her son hadn't been given his medication because the packet was still on the table by his bed. She told the locum doctor about her concerns, but the doctor said it wouldn't do him any harm. A doctor doing the rounds then checked on Mr Gorny. Miss Cronin said: 'He took one look at him then he started calling to everyone “Get in there quickly”. 'It suddenly dawned on me he hasn't had his medication, hasn't had his bloods done, nobody's given him a drink, nobody's bothered to put his drip back on him. 'Nobody's done anything since yesterday afternoon when he became aggressive.' She said there was a 'flurry of activity' and everyone 'had a very sad look on their face' as they battled to save her son's life. Miss Cronin said: 'The main doctor came out and you could tell he was really angry. He said: “You need to go and see your son. He's dying.” The couple then found their son lying in blood and fluid-soaked sheets and a nurse came in and asked them to help her to change them. The same nurse later came into the matron's office and asked whether they were 'finished', adding: 'Can I bag him up?' The death certificate said Mr Gorny died of a 'water deficit' and 'hypernatraemia' – a medical term for dehydration.'

In case you think that NHS staff that neglect patients to that sort of degree would get adequately punished, you should read this Mail article which reported that:

'Rogue nurses who have been found guilty of threatening or abusing patients, stealing from them or being drunk on duty are being allowed to continue working, a Daily Mail investigation has revealed. The nursing profession's official regulator, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is repeatedly letting nurses go back to work despite being found guilty of a catalogue of offences, including just being dangerously incompetent. Today, the regulator’s overseer, the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence, has released a hard-hitting report demanding fundamental changes in the way the NMC is run after concluding that patients are being let down because of 'failings at every level'. As a Daily Mail investigation reveals, this is not before time. For not only has the body failed in important cases to protect vulnerable patients from rogue staff, it has run its administration system so badly that, even when such nurses have been disciplined, the sanctions against them did not go on their professional records for employers to see. This occurred in at least 500 cases, of which around 100 were ‘of major concern’. ... Meanwhile, the nurses’ regulator, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, has seemed concerned less with protecting patients from harm than with saving the careers of nurses who have seriously transgressed the laws of their profession and the basic tenets of human decency. The body is responsible for the regulation of the 670,000 nurses and midwives currently registered in the UK. Last month, for example, a nurse who was sacked for hitting a patient and charged with common assault by the police was allowed by the NMC to remain working. The council’s disciplinary panel heard how Maureen Yoliswa Booi, a Registered Mental Nurse, struck a resident in her care at an NHS-run unit. The incident was witnessed by a colleague, the hearing was told. Ms Booi was dismissed by her employer and has since been charged with common assault. But instead of being struck off, she was placed under a ‘conditions of practice order’ for 18 months, which stipulates that Ms Booi must not, at any time, be the sole registered nurse on duty, and that she must tell the Nursing and Midwifery Council of the outcome of her pending prosecution for assault. This means she is free to apply for a job with any employer, though the NMC requires that she tell them that there is an ‘order’ on her record. This is perturbing enough as an isolated judgment, but it has remarkable similarities to another case heard last month, of Loveness Makombe, a registered nurse working at the Bupa-run St Christopher’s Care Home in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. The NMC panel found her guilty of ‘shouting aggressively’ at a confused elderly patient, as well as verbally threatening the woman, who had dementia, and dragging her out of a room ‘in a manner that caused her to become distressed’. Rather than cracking down on this abuse, which bears disturbing similarities with the sort of intimidation exposed at Winterbourne View, the disciplinary panel said it ‘does not believe there is an under-lying attitudinal or behavioural problem with the nurse’. The sanction it handed down amounted to a regulatory slap on the risk — it placed only a ‘caution’ on her record for a three-year period.'

Ah the NHS, 'envy of the world' you know!

Scott McKenzie RIP

Scott McKenzie, whose 1967 hit San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair) was an anthem for the flower power hippy age, has died aged 73.

RIP Scott McKenzie, whereever you are I hope you meet some 'gentle people there'...

In Mallorca?

I read today that the British Prime Minister is currently on holiday in Mallorca, which is a very nice place to go on holiday. I wonder if he is aware of what happened in the capital of Mallorca, Palma, just 10 days ago?

Here's some amateur footage of some minor rioting by (apparently illegal North African immigrants)

Oddly I do not recall hearing about this in the UK media at the time. I only heard about it yesterday and so went looking for any video.

Finally someone takes the fight to the BBC's Stephanie '2 Eds' Flanders

The Mail reports that:

'A major row erupted after a Cabinet Minister accused BBC Economics Editor Stephanie Flanders of showing a pro-Labour bias by undermining the Government’s jobs claims. Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has made a formal complaint to the BBC about its ‘carping and moaning’. He singled out Ms Flanders over her coverage of figures that showed unemployment and welfare handouts are falling in spite of the slump. In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, he claimed that the BBC backs the economic stance of Labour leader Ed Miliband and Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls and seizes every chance to ‘dump on the Government’. And he accused influential Ms Flanders of ‘pouring cold water’ over the rise in employment and ‘peeing all over’ British business. He said the BBC had ‘set up’ an interview with a self-employed nurse who agreed when Ms Flanders suggested that she was among the ‘hidden unemployed’. Last week’s recession-defying leap in jobs in the three months to June surprised experts. Mr Duncan Smith claimed it was evidence that Government policies are working. He was furious when Ms Flanders questioned the figures in the BBC Six O’Clock and Ten O’Clock TV news on Wednesday – and did not screen an interview with him proclaiming the Coalition’s success. On screen, she said: ‘Britain’s jobs numbers are a puzzle which keeps getting harder to solve. Of course it’s good news .  .  . but it is not necessarily good news for us or the Chancellor if we are needing more people as a country to make less stuff.’ Ms Flanders claimed ‘hidden unemployment’ could be ‘lurking behind the statistics’. She interviewed nurse Jacqui Connell, who was made redundant last year and is now self-employed, taking her off the dole register. Ms Connell agreed: ‘I do think I’m a hidden figure.’ Ms Flanders added that ‘many in the City’ expected dole queues to rise over the coming months.'

The Mail report the BBC's defence, which is what you would expect. The Mail also report some background on Stephanie Flanders:

'Ms Flanders, 44, is the daughter of British actor and comic singer Michael Flanders, of Flanders and Swann fame. She attended the fee-paying St Paul’s Girls’ School in London and studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford. She lives with long-term partner John Arlidge and their two children in a £1 million West London home.'

Oddly they omit some rather relevant information about Stephanie Flanders' background. Some information that I have reported before:

'Stephanie Flanders earned her nickname as Wikipedia delicately put it 'She previously dated Ed Balls and Ed Miliband who went on to become Shadow Chancellor and leader of the Labour Party respectively.' What is less well known about the BBC's economics editor is that she also worked as a speechwriter and adviser to the U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers in 1997. You will not be surprised to learn that Mr Summers was the United States Secretary of the Treasury for Bill Clinton. So in summary Stephanie Flanders previously dated two men who went on to be the two leading figures in the Labour party and then went on to work for a US Democrat administration.'

As I blogged only last week:

'I am not saying that Stephanie Flanders is biased in favour of the British Labour party and against the British Conservative party. I am not saying that Stephanie Flanders is biased in favour of the US Democrat party and against the US Republican party. Many would say that she is guilty of both these types of bias, what do you think? However I do think that the BBC, if they insist on presenting Stephanie Flanders as their unbiased economics editor should at least subtitle her reports with a health warning as to her background.'

A small news article about Gordon Brown that seems to have passed pretty much unnoticed

The Telegraph reports that:

'Gordon Brown has spent nearly £20,000 of his parliamentary expenses on flying between London and Edinburgh, despite rarely appearing in the House of Commons.

Rules allow MPs to claim for the cost of travelling between London and their constituency homes if they are on parliamentary business. However the former prime minister has only spoken in the Commons on three occasions since May 2010. Mr Brown has also participated in only 15 per cent of parliamentary votes since the 2010 election, according to an analysis by the politics website publicwhip.co.uk.

In all, he has claimed £19,237 in parliamentary expenses on air travel between London and Edinburgh between June 29 2010 and Jan 23, 2012.

Priti Patel, the Conservative MP for Witham, Essex, said: “It’s shocking that Gordon Brown is claiming thousands for travel, but rarely turns up to speak or even vote on his constituents’ behalf in the Commons.”

A spokesman for Mr Brown’s office said it was “obvious” that when Mr Brown travelled between London and Scotland “he has expenses for travel by aeroplane or train which have to be — and are — fully accounted for”.'

So MPs 'claim for the cost of travelling between London and their constituency homes if they are on parliamentary business'. Was Gordon Brown on parliamentary business? Note that Gordon Brown's spokesman doesn't actually confirm/claim that - “he has expenses for travel by aeroplane or train which have to be — and are — fully accounted for”.

I have no doubt that Gordon Brown or his staff have the receipts for his air travel to and from London but that does not mean that the flights were to enable Gordon Brown to undertake parliamentary business.

Maybe Gordon Brown or one of his spokesman could identify the parliamentary business that Gordon Brown was undertaking on his trips to London, he wasn't appearing in the House of Commons chamber.

Mrs NotaSheep and I are now on holiday for a week, blogging may be light

We are surprisingly good on a surfboard!

Hmm, now what might Jew4Palestine be advocating?

'Palestine by any means necessary' - I think we know what that means...

Barack Obama is above criticism

To this social studies teacher, Tanya Dixon-Neely, criticism of Barack Obama is is not allowed - it's disrespectful.




You can read more at the Examiner here's an extract:

'Another great moment in modern education was preserved for posterity—literally, on acell phone recording—last Monday. The Salisbury Post reports that a social studies teacher at North Rowan High School, in Spencer, N.C., told her class during an animated debate on the relative merits of the two major party presidential candidates that a person could be arrested for speaking ill of President Obama.

The teacher, who is quite obviously an Obama supporter, didn’t specify whether the “law” she was referencing applied to all presidents or just the current one, though she did read students the riot act for daring to “disrespect” Obama in her class, making it clear several times that she will not tolerate this behavior.'

Somehow I doubt that the teacher would have defended George W. Bush from criticism. Despite her comments from 6:00.

You might be interested in this article as well.