Several someones are not minding their pence! This is just plain ludicrous and slightly obscene.

HMG’s vaunted Admiralty has simply gone round the bend.

As a reminder to the readership, the Carnival of the Vanities # 54 will be here Wednesday next, the first of October, so please get your entries in to us as soon as possible. The correct eMail address is:

jfm1612 – [at] – neaccess.net

All the details for submission can be found h e r e!

All entries received before 9 P.M., Eastern Daylight Time, on Tuesday, 30SEP2003, will be included.

Jackie has written a rather long, but clever, piece on Labour’s troubles. I was going to post something about the habit of speakers at this year’s conference slamming the media. Instead, I will just make this brief point.

It’s generally not a good idea to call the media liars when you are at a conference with lots of them in attendance. Most journalists I know aren’t prone to say nice things after being called dishonest.

Hey, get this ... I want to talk about this Wednesdays debate for governor in the once great state of California. Lets take a quick look at the racing form. ... The Green Party guy. He doesnt just fan the class warfare fire, he brings out the industrial-sized bellows and gets it white hot like those glass blowers in Venice. I thought the Green name had something to do with the environment but obviously its all about envy. There are a lot of problems in California, but under-taxing is not one of them.” (09/28/03)

Via: Rational Review

When I lived in Mali, West Africa in 1976-78 one of the great parlour games we played was: guess who the CIA agents attached to the American Embassy are.

I had a certain advantage here — I’d once read that the CIA heavily recruited in Ivy League schools, employing bright young men, degreed in economics.

So I had him nailed: xxxx xxxxx, from Princeton, an economics major, with some vague title, like, “economics advisor to the Ambassador.”

And it turned out that xxxx xxxxx was indeed with the CIA.

I teased that out of yyyyyy yyyy, after a very long evening of drinking.

What surprised me was the identity of the station chief. He didn’t fit the profile at all.

And, no, I didn’t run down to the Soviet Embassy and rat on them, or on my informant.

Fun’s fun; but then someone gets their eye poked out, and mama’s worst dreams come true.

Besides: the Americans are the GOOD guys; the Soviets were MASS MURDERING SCUM.

Cruz Bustamante is the ultimate political hack. Unfortuantely for California, he isnt even a good political hack. Bustamante served in the Assembly, as Speaker of the Assembly, and then was elected to serve a Lieutenant Governor for Gray Davis. Since California does not run on a combined ticket for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, there is a certain degree of enmity between Gray Davis and Cruz Bustamante. However, let there be no equivocating, Cruz is a through and through liberal.

Cruz is panders to the Latino community. He has in the past suggested that his assembly district needed illegal immigration. He also, if elected, would give undocumented workers, i.e. illegal immigrants, all basic government services. This includes the same rights to attend the University of California system (at in-state tuition rates). Bustamante claims credit for repudiating the will of Californias voters and leading the charge to overturn Proposition 187. Coupled with these lamentable parts of his record are his ties with the organization MEChA, which advocates separatism for Latino students and the cession of the formerly-Mexican states of the union. His efforts are so laudable, Tom Metzger, the former Grand Wizard of the California KKK has endorsed Bustamante for governor. Bustamante has consistently refused to disavow any support or links with MEChA from his past. Instead he solidly remains separatist ideals that work to divide, not unite, the people of California and the United States.

Oh yes, sorcery is going to be outlawed as well. Nice to see Indonesia is advancing into the 21st century. Sex and sorcery, have these people been reading Jerry Falwell?

Well the upside is that it won’t be too hard to be a rebellious youth in Indonesia.

Well the answer is a resounding NO! South Korean authorities, however, don’t agree with me. I think in-game solutions are more satisfying to all involved. The ultimate sanction is a ban from the game or even a ban from all MMORPGs run by the company involved. Why get the state, officialdom and lawyers into something that can quite easily be handled without them?

This should provide a warning to MMORPG game companies. They need to give players ways of getting justice in-game or those truly slighted might feel the need to go out of game. This would be detrimental to both players and game companies alike.

Link via Anna.

Peter Hain is putting his neck out (like John Prescott this morning while he was shaving) and will take questions from the punters who read the BBC site.

Thanks to Anna for the link.

A Muslim has been jailed in the UK after sliting his daughter’s throat for going out with a Christian man. Quite rightly, the man has been given a life sentence for his familial act of butchery. The court has made it clear that so-called “honour-killings” are nothing more than culturally justified murder and will not be tolerated in a civilised society.

Update: Perry has posted his thoughts on this horrible case.

Update: A prominent a Muslim leader in US has just been arrested for trying to run money for a group with links to Kaddafi. 10 Algerians have been arrested in raids in the UK. They are being held for alleged terrorist offences.

Update: The truth about CAIR.

Brown delivered a barnstorming speech today at the Labour Party Conference. He mentioned all the touch-stones of Labour and none of the contentious issues. To me, it sounded like he is laying his stall out in case the delegates don’t want to keep Dear Tony. He has certainly laid down a challenge to Blair for his leader’s speech.

R. James Woolsey has written a witty and amusing piece to celebrate Rosh Hashana. He makes some very good points, with a wonderful dash of humour.

Thanks to Tom Paine for pointing me to this wonderful piece.

Bruce Springsteen. the Beatles and U2 dominate in a new US survey to findthe best album. Publisher Tim Zagat surveyed some 10,500 music fans and
found the following to be most popular:

On his book Zagat told reporters: “I hope there is some controversy. People
can argue until the cows come home over whether Mozart was a better songwriter than Bob Dylan. But just that you are juxtaposing Dylan and Mozart catches you by surprise and makes you think.”

From: CMU

What the hell are Bruce and U2 doing in the top 5? Like that moronic Rolling Stone top 100 guitarists list, it seems whomever these people talked to didn’t know jack about music. Bruce better than the Beatles? I mean what the hell. No Led Zep, Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath or Iron Maiden?

Oh, and someone needs to inform Zagat that Mozart was not a songwriter, but a composer. Yes, there is a big difference.

For the record, my choice of number one would be Dark Side of the Moon. What would your top 10 albums of all time be? Answers in the comments section or blog it and I will link it.

Well it could be worse, at least REM is not in the top 5!

On Friday, I learned that my director in the movie-short;The Fallen, is back from spending the summer doing two museum pieces. I shall be getting together with him, after I attend the Tory Party conference. I am covering this event for The Sprout. Lucio seems to have retained his enthusiasm for using me in other projects.

On another note, I am sorry there was dearth of posting on Sunday. BT’s part of my DSL connection was down so I could IM but not get to the internet.

On the subject of Growing Old Disgracefully, things are moving along. Those involved are: old enough to know better but still young enough not to care.

Translator’s note:

Please do not quarrel over the window seats; while the vehicle is in motion, it is forbidden to jab, prod, or otherwise molest the driver with your pitiful replicas of the Eiffel Tower; and let Citoyen Vidocq be your dour guide as we cruise in air-conditioned comfort down the grim boulevards and sinister alleys once patrolled by this extraordinary officer of the Law.

Of course the linked abomination in his post could only have come from France, but James nails it with one line.

What is particularly galling is that that page seems to be the only page on that blog written in English in order to villify Americans. Of course, France knows no better than to be typically Gaulling.

Politics
A mess, as usual.

Science
People invent stuff.

Business
None of yours.

Arts
I know what I like.

Leisure
You must be kidding.

Classified
Access denied.

Letters
Trying to dodge your blogging obligations again, huh?

Editorial
Yep.

Tony Blair told us the truth. There, said it. Shocking, isnt it? Something you would never dream of reading in a family publication. Especially the Spectator, the paper which supports Andrew Gilligan.

Everyone knows, after all, that Mr Blair is a liar. We wouldnt believe him, would we, if he told us the time. Everyone knows he made up the threat from Saddams weapons of mass destruction because none has been found, and if something isnt found then it proves that it never existed. Everyone knows that this is, well, just obvious.

As a prcis of the Blair/Kelly/BBC affair (to which I really didn’t pay much attention — my patience with mainstream media these days is, uh, limited) I thought this was worth reading.

It’s by Melanie Phillips, a British journalist, whom I hadn’t previously read. My loss.

There’s no permalink to the article, but you can get to it here, clicking on the first link, “The shocking truth about Tony Blair.”

JYB rightly coshes this bit of modern daftness. I am most amused that it seems the Bible says that “girls should not call boys”. Correct me if I am wrong, but phones weren’t around when Jesus was alive. I doubt the authors of the Bible contemplated telephony or the internet.

We wish all the best to my Jewish friends on Rosh Hashanah. Kesher talk has some interesting insight into this day.

Ben has done a Paul-esque round-up of things in blogdom that caught his eye.

The Telegraph today features a leader piece on Dr Edward Said, which is rather good, if a bit tame. Said was a terrorist enabler and a front man for Islamist terror worldwide. He was brilliant at convincing the academic world that terrorism was a reasonable response to percieved imperialism.

“I glance at the headlines just to kind of a flavor for what’s moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are probably read the news themselves.”Washington, D.C., Sept. 21, 2003

Southern Methodist University shut down a bake sale Wednesday in which cookies were offered for sale at different prices, depending on the buyer’s race or gender. The sale was organized by the Young Conservatives of Texas, who said it was intended as a protest of affirmative action. A sign said white males had to pay $1 for a cookie. The price was 75 cents for white women, 50 cents for Hispanics and 25 cents for blacks. ... Similar sales have been held by College Republican chapters at colleges in at least five other states since February. (09/25/03)

Via: Rational Review

A computer worm forced the State Department to shut down its database of terrorists and criminals for nine hours on Tuesday, disrupting the issuance of U.S. visas at embassies and consulates overseas. That database, known as the Consular Lookout and Support System (CLASS), is used to check every visa applicant. It is part of the department’s intranet unclassified network.” (09/24/03)

This bit of stupidity comes via Rational Review. What prat installed XP on these machines?

There seem to be a bunch of younger Republicans trying to convince the world they are not all like the anal-retentive socially inept Young Republicans. Its called GOPunk, and so far its just a discussion board and an FAQ. No doubt, like all other efforts to make young Republicans look vaguely “normal”, it will not be welcomed by the higher-ups.

It seems you can’t admit to being a Republican if you want to get a-head in Hollywood, but you can force young boys to give you head and no one cares. Paul reports on a Malkin article exposing Victor Salva, a convicted pederast, who is directing high profile films, like the recently released Jeepers Creepers 2.

Is there anything that is taboo in Hollywood…besides being a Republican?

Robert Palmer has died of a heart attack in Paris. He was 54. The man had a great set of pipes and will be missed by the entire rock world.

The Telegraph is reporting the brilliant news that Dr Who is returning to the BBC. Sadly it won’t be before 2005, but this is still very good news. The fact that Richard E Grant is being considered for the role, shows that someone is thinking. I think he would make a brilliant Dr Who, especially if he played it up, like he did in Spiceworld.

Andy Duncan is excited about the news as well.

You don’t want to know about my day, but I’ll tell you about it anyway. Down in the basement, refinishing doors, oh joy.

Spending the afternoon breathing in paint-stripper fumes has rendered me stupid, and incapable of blogging (not that that’s ever stopped me before).

I came up for air and turned on the TV and there were Tucker Carlson, etc., on Crossfire, yakking about telemarketers and the recent court decision overturning the Don’t Call list or whatever it’s called.

Which reminded me of a piece Carlson wrote for The Weekly Standard on the topic. Fortunately it’s available in the archives, and I bid you go read it now.

It’s short and sweet, and more importantly, much funnier than anything I’m likely to come up with tonight.

I wonder if inhaling paint fumes would somehow neutralize the paint-stripper…