Key Posts Category
TSA stops man with rocket-propelled grenade launcher in bags
To Pennsylvania airport, where a traveller is being met by the traditional refrain “Anything to declare, sir?” Yes and no. He does have a rocket-propelled grenade launcher in his bags. But it’s not working. But it looks as though it might.
The Transportation and Security Administration says the unassembled parts of the launcher and a replica grenade were found on Monday when an alarm went off as the bag passed through security equipment at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown, about 60 miles north of Philadelphia.
The man, from St. Augustine, was stopped by police and told officials he thought he could bring the non-functioning launcher onboard in a checked bag.
The items were confiscated and he was able to catch his flight to Orlando.
Rocket-propelled grenade launchers are not yet Government issue in Florida. But give it time.
Posted: 6th, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, Strange But True | Comment
Ilan Omar: the Left knows a Muslim woman can’t be an anti-Semite
Ilhan Omar is the Somali-American elected to a seat in the US congress. She is noticeable by her hijab, a rare sight in Congress. This Democrat is also making headlines for her problem with Jews.
She’s not a far-Right anti-Semite. No tattooed knuckles, Swastika and bone head for her. Omar’s little problem is that she keeps casting Jews as things less worthy than the rest of society, things outside the civilised norm. She says “Israel has hypnotised the world” for its “evil doings”. She says US politicians defend Israel because “It’s all about the Benjamins” paid by the American Israel Political Action Committee to blind the world to that age-old unique Jewish barbarity.
This is about Jews and their kabbalistic rites. Jews and their money. Jews and their control of world affairs. Jews cannot be trusted. Jews can never be patriots. Jews are always something other. Never trust a Jew.
Alerted to such blatant anti-semitism – I believe they’re called tropes – and pressured by leading members in her party to apologise – Omar realised her error. She offered an apology or sorts in which she cast herself as the victim and embarked on a familiar journey away from ignorance.
And then she took a turn back to her old path. “It’s all about the Benjamins,” shouted a member of her fan club as she attended a meet and greet at a Washington DC book store. Omar did not slap the commenter down. She smiled. And then she told the throng: “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay to push for allegiance to a foreign country”.
Got that? Pledge allegiance to the US flag and you’re pledging allegiance to Israel and those pesky Jews. That’s not a long-standing alliance. It is, dear readers, a Jewish conspiracy. Klu Klux Klan leader David Duke branded the US federal government the ZOG (Zionist-Occupied Government). But Omar’s nothing like that white, Christian man.
She dug down. Omar replied to a tweet from Representative Nita Lowey of New York, “should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress.”
To Omar’s side at the book store sat her fellow Muslim congresswoman, Rashida Tlaib. She once opined that American political supporters of Israel “forgot what country they represent”. To see Israel as an ally is to be a traitor to the USA. Anti-Semitic much? No! Perish the thought. “A lot of our Jewish colleagues, a lot of constituents, a lot of our allies, go to thinking that everything we say about Israel to be anti-Semitic because we are Muslim,” says Omar.
You see. She can’t be an anti-Semite because she’s a Muslim woman. Everyone on the enlightened, colour-blind Left knows that.
Posted: 5th, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Politicians | Comment
Jeremy Corbyn and the egging: what really happened
John Murphy, the man accused of assaulting Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, has been talking. He tells the Guido Fawkes blog:
“Yesterday I squished an egg on Jeremy Corbyn’s head. I look forward to coming to parliament to meet with Mr Corbyn. He has invited Hamas and IRA so I am sure he will be happy to invite a harmless egg thrower like me. My one request? That he respect the referendum result. The suffragettes believed that if you reject democratic rights, civil disobedience is acceptable. Jeremy Corbyn and hundreds of other MPs are seeking to deny the democratic rights of most of our country, so I believe that makes civil disobedience egg-ceptable.”
Yep. “Squished”. There is no footage of the incident. Corbyn was “unharmed” says the BBC. And if Murphy claims it was a “squished” egg, can we argue otherwise? Yes, because how the egg made contact with Corbyn has been the matter of much heated debate.
“The Labour leader was visiting a mosque in north London when the egg was thrown at him on Sunday” – BBC
Corbyn was “punched” with an egg:
The egg was “fisted” in the Guardian:
The Labour MP Jess Phillips tweeted after the Corbyn incident: “Acts of violence against politicians, loses your argument, lessens your cause and demeans our democracy. It’s also just horrid. Don’t do it. If you don’t agree with him raise your voice not your fists.”
The “punched” egg might have contained a knife:
The Scottish Daily Record says Corbyn was “pelted” with a “thrown” egg.
The Metro says: “A man has been arrested after hitting Jeremy Corbyn with an egg.”
What egg? Show me the egg!
Sky News says the egg was “placed” on Corbyn’s head.
It’ll all come out in court, of course – and in the wash, should Corbyn have an eggy stain to remove.
Posted: 5th, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Politicians | Comment
Knife Crime: stop and search wanted; austerity blamed; a Government licence to carry a knife
The Times is alone in not leading with knife crime. For all other national newspapers the biggest story is of “warzones on our streets” (Express) and what the Government can and cannot do about teenagers being stabbed to death.
The Telegraph wants police to be given stop-and-search powers. Readers see a photo of school friends of stabbing victim Yousef Makki embracing. Yousef, a pupil at Manchester Grammar school, was stabbed to death in Gorse Bank Road, Hale Barns, near Altrincham, on Saturday. Two 17-year-old boys have been arrested on suspicion of murder.
Are more police the answer to the “knife crime epidemic’? The Guardian says it is. The paper says there is a link between stabbings and reduced police numbers brought about by austerity. “How many more, Mrs May?” asks the Mirror, blaming the Prime Minister for 27 murders.
But is that why 27 teenagers have been knifed to death this year, because there are not enough police to control them? Surely there’s something more at the root of the matter than control? May says there is “no direct correlation between certain crimes and police numbers”. So certain crimes police are powerless to stop? Focus less on knife crime, perhaps, and more on people not paying their TV licence, doing 34mph in a 30mph zone and saying nasty things online.
Maybe the State could issue licences for people to own a knife, making a nice little earner from the horror and hitting the perps where the Government likes to hit them hardest: in their pockets?
Nuts? One other proposal for knife control was floated:
A judge wants the points of kitchen knives to be rounded and blunted to reduce the number of young men dying from stab wounds in street attacks.
Judge Nic Madge said ordinary kitchen knives were causing a “soaring loss of life”, rather than more heavily regulated large-bladed weapons… Kitchens contain lethal knives which are potential murder weapons and only butchers and fishmongers need eight or 10 inch kitchen knives with points,” the judge said.
Knives for only those who need them? Look out for the looming fork crime epidemic.
Posted: 5th, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Tabloids | Comment
When Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott and Barry Gardiner wanted to ban Keith Flint
On 08 December 1997, Jeremy Corbyn wanted to ban us from knowing about a song by The Prodigy. The groups’ frontman Keith Flint has died too soon at the age of just 49. The early day motion to ban the mesmeric, relentless Smack My Bitch Up went:
That this House expresses its disgust and outrage at the advertising billboard campaign to promote a record album entitled Smack my Bitch Up; and urges the recording company to withdraw this advertisement immediately.
Of the 41 people who wanted music banned, the following are notable:
Where are they now? Yep – ‘Disgusted of Westminster’ are threatening to lead the country.
Spotter: Keith Flint, the last punk
Posted: 4th, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, Music, News, Politicians | Comment
Labour’s Anti-Semitism: Rachel Riley sues Jeremy Corbyn staffer for libel
More now on the egg that was “tossed”, “pelted”, thrown” and smashed down on Jeremy Corbyn’s head with a clenched “fist“. After much debate on the nature of how the egg came into contact with the Labour leader’s bonce, and that’s before we get into the nature of Big-Endians and Little-Endians, know that the matter has ended in legal action for three people. John Murphy will answer the charge of assault by beating at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court on 19 March. And Countdown presenter Rachel Riley has instructed Mark Lewis to pursue a libel claim against Corbyn’s well-blooded staffer Laura Murray, reports the Jewish Chronicle.
After Corbyn was allegedly assaulted by someone who reportedly “broke” an egg over his head, Murray tweeted: “Today Jeremy Corbyn went to his local mosque for visit my mosque day, and was attacked by a Brexiteer. Rachel Riley tweets that Corbyn deserves to be violently attacked because he is a Nazi. This woman is as dangerous as she is stupid. Nobody should engage with her. Ever.” Don’t bother looking it up. Murray has paused / deleted her account. But there is a screengrab of the allegedly libellous tweet:
That comment was a reaction to Riley triggering Owen Jones, the insufferably smug Guardian columnist and Corbyn lickspittle who had previously tweeted in reaction to another egging – an egg was aimed at BNP leader Nick Griffin: “I think sound life advice is, if you don’t want eggs thrown at you, don’t be a Nazi. Seems fair to me.” After Corbyn’s egging, Riley added the bon mots “good advice”.
Called out for his hypocrisy, Jones went for the pile on:
Nasty stuff. And given Labour’s “institutional racism” against Jews, deeply worrying, too. The Telegraph reports on another angle to this farago:
The daughter of one of Jeremy Corbyn’s closest allies has been transferred to the Labour party’s complaints team, despite launching an online attack on anti-Semitism campaigner Rachel Riley. Laura Murray, an aide in Mr Corbyn’s office, has been moved to help process anti-Semitism cases faster.
She is the daughter of Andrew Murray, chief of staff to Unite union leader Len McCluskey.
Louise Ellman, the Labour MP, said the appointment “puts a major question mark on whether the people running this organisation understand the concerns.”
Are those investigations fair and proper? The FT says Lord Falconer, a lord chancellor under Tony Blair’s administration invited by Labour to review their approach to anti-semitism in the party, wants to see all emails about the issue and how they are stores. The paper hears insiders say Falconer’s demand “could potentially reveal political interference from advisers to Jeremy Corbyn, the party leader, or the use of non-party email accounts”. Expect to read more on gutters and moral compasses.
But Riley is no pushover:
Rachel Riley is a Jew. Labour has a problem with Jews.
And so to court. In he meanwhile, the curate has a point:
Posted: 4th, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Politicians | Comment
Hurray for Troy Deeney: Watford’s anti-role model role model
If Wayne Rooney is your role model, you’re either one of his sons or mentally negligible. The Government loves to portray footballers as our moral guides, whether they’re being wheeled out tell us what to eat, who to shag and what not to smoke.
The nadir was when David Cameron saw Liverpool’s Luis Suárez bite an opponent and lamented how the Uruguayan had set “the most appalling example” to children. Dad might have ordered the bombing of Libya, accidentally left his eight-year-old daughter in the pub, said he supported West Ham having already declared an allegiance to Aston Villa but all that was small fry to stories of a stranger biting a stranger. You can topple Muammar Gaddafi, creating a power vacuum and instability in North Africa, encourage the rise of Islamist militancy within range of Italy, but it’s a footballer who teaches by example.
And so it was that Watford striker Troy Deeney was asked what he could do to stop knife crime in Britain. “I don’t like the word role model, first and foremost,” Deeney told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“The role model should be in the house at all times. We’re all humans – people make mistakes. We’re putting emphasis on being famous as more important than being a good person. What are we basing the role model on? Because we’re in the limelight. I don’t like that. If my kids look up to a man bigger and better than me, then that’s me not doing my job. My dad was not a footballer. He wasn’t anything remotely what the average person would say was a role model – but in my eyes he was Superman.”
Next up: why no-one in politics ever talks about politicians being role models for the kidz.
Posted: 4th, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Sports | Comment
I’m not just masturbating in the mirror – I’m being autosexual with my selfie stick
A question for readers The Metro: “What’s it like being autosexual, when you’re attracted to yourself?” Is it a bit like being a wanker, only with more mirrors, a selfie stick and an Instagram account? It’s just Me, Myself & O:
The story, such as it is, is choice. It is, of course, written in the first person:
“My earliest memories of checking myself out in the mirror and feeling attraction happened at around age seven. I didn’t learn the term “autosexual” until after I graduated from college in 2013. My attraction to myself made me confused at times, but once I learned about autosexuality, I was glad there was a word for my experience. I’ve recognised myself as being in a relationship with myself since I was in college. I just didn’t have the vocabulary to express my experiences.”
Are there other words to define such grinding narcissism?
Posted: 4th, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Strange But True, Tabloids | Comment
Jeremy Corbyn egged; John Murphy charged with assault by beating; Brexit not Islam
John Murphy from Barnet has been arrested and charged with assault by beating. It’s alleged he egged Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn as he and the shadow home secretary Diane Abbott visited the Finsbury Park Mosque in north London as part of My Mosque Day, when people are invited to step inside a local mosque.
Mr Murphy will appear at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court on 19 March. At least then we’ll find out what happened. There is, lamentably, no video of the incident. The BBC says an egg was thrown at Corbyn and Mr Murphy is 31. The Times says Murphy is 41 and that the eggs “was pressed down on his [Corbyn’s] head rather than thrown”. CNN says Corbyn was “pelted with an egg”.
Play it down or talk it up? Or maybe just tell it like it is?
“Mr Corbyn got a warm welcome when he was round the corner at the Finsbury Park Mosque,” said Jon Craig. “But then he came here, to the Muslim Welfare Centre, with [shadow home secretary] Diane Abbott. While he was here in an upstairs room, a protester – a pro-Brexit protester we understand, according to eyewitnesses – placed an egg on his head.” PA reported that the attacker was overheard to say “when you vote you get what you vote for”.
It’s about Brexit not Islam.
And was Corbyn in the Mosque or not in the Mosque? Sky says he wasn’t. The Independent agrees: “Corbyn egg attack: Man charged over ‘assault’ outside London mosque.” But the Guardian says Corbyn was inside:
The Labour leader was unharmed and left the mosque with a police escort at about 6.30pm. Corbyn’s alleged attacker, who was not a regular visitor to the mosque, had been waiting inside the building.
Pick a prejudice and run with it:
An MP joins in:
As ever, Jews are dragged into it:
Jeremy Corbyn: enemy of the people?
Blame the media for this eggy smear? Now, when’s Easter..?
Posted: 4th, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Politicians | Comment
Shamima Begum should be executed: Yezidi victims speak out
And now in the break between instalments in the life and times of jihadi Shamima Begum, we get to hear from Pari Ibrahim, Executive Director at the Free Yezidi Foundation. High time we heard from the victims.
Pari Ibrahim has a word:
I lost 19 girls from my family – two of them came back but 17 are still missing. Of the men, 21 members of my family have been murdered by ISIS. Or, we assume they have been murdered because they are still missing…
ISIS’s genocidal campaign against the Yazidi community started in Sinjar in August 2014. They killed men and older women. They kidnapped women and children. Young children were brainwashed to become child soldiers and suicide bombers for ISIS. Women and girls were sold as sex slaves in markets in Iraq and Syria. Yazidi girls that escaped have told me that the ISIS brides would lock them up and beat them. They would shower the girls, put them in nice clothes and put makeup on their faces to get them ready to be raped.
What does she think should happen to people like Shamima Begum? Pari suggests the death penalty.
Shamima Begum is a good example because she does not regret what she did. People like her still support ISIS. It is only because they are losing the war that she and others want to return home. They have no regrets about participating in genocide, sex slavery or imprisoning and killing Yazidi women. It is astonishing that they expect to just return to their old lives just because the caliphate is losing ground. But wherever they go, they will continue to spread their ideology.
Pari asks the victims a question: “What if you could face them in court and see them answer for what they did to you?”
What if the world took the plight of Yazidi people seriously and sued for justice? What if they became a nation?
Image: A shooting range in Liverpool has been offering customers an image of Shamima Begum as a target.
Spotter: Spiked: ‘ISIS brides like Shamima are guilty of genocide’
MOMO ate my videos nasties
Did you take the “momo challenge”? Did you see the hacker, a woman with bulging eyes and superior facelift who sneaks into your WhatsApp account and demands children do dangerous “challenges”, like self-harming and other violent stuff? If you did, you’re the only person on planet Earth who did.
“News coverage of the momo challenge is prompting schools or the police to warn about the supposed risks posed by the momo challenge, which has in turn produced more news stories warning about the challenge,” says Jim Waterson. Momo is not a real person. It’s just a photo created by a Japanese special-effects company called Link Factory a few years ago.
Although the Momo challenge has been circulating on social media and among schoolchildren in various forms since last year, the recent coverage appears to have started with a single warning posted by a mother on a Facebook group for residents of Westhoughton, a small Lancashire town on the edge of Bolton. This post, based on an anecdote she had heard from her son at school, went viral before being picked up by her local newspaper and then covered by outlets from around the world…
Hundreds of separate articles have been written on the topic by British news websites in the last three days, dominating the most-read lists on tabloid news sites…. Celebrities such as Stacey Solomon have weighed in and expressed their concerns, creating even more justifications for headlines.
Multiple police forces have issued formal warnings about the supposed risks of the Momo challenge, in addition to hundreds of schools. In one example, a Hull primary school posted on its Facebook page an unsourced claim that clips of the Momo challenge image are “hacking into children’s programmes”, with no evidence of what is meant by this claim.
It’s a moral panic! Like video nasties and the Gorbals Vampire.
The pick of the bollocks was in the Sun: “ABSOLUTELY DEVASTATED’ Boy, 5, threatened to stab classmates ‘after Momo Challenge appeared on screen’, reveals horrified mother.”
Blimey! Mum Elli Spicer has a story to tell. Light the campfire. Hold the torch under your chin. They say…
“Four weeks ago I was called into his school because he’d said to two children he was going to “stab them” – I was devastated and it’s been dealt with accordingly. (Bare in mind he turned five in January!). He’s been wetting the bed & he’s been coming into my bedroom early hours because of scary dreams! I am absolutely gutted, I honestly thought my children were quite sheltered. This freak scares me let alone my kids.
“He refused to tell me at first not taking his eyes off me in the mirror and was completely in denial about ever seeing this ugly c***. Finally when I told him the silly ‘Person’ who made this fake creepy looking creature was in jail with all the other bad guys and that the YouTube police are hunting down all the Momo videos and deleting them, he told me he’d seen it loads of times!”…
“I’m not sure if this influenced (his) behaviour at school, his bed wetting and his bad dreams but nearly two weeks of certain apps being uninstalled on their tablets, extreme parental controls activated and YouTube totally banned because of Momo NOT them, he’s had more good days at school than bad, hasn’t woke once complaining of a bad dream & has been dry for almost a week.”
Mummy. What’s a c***? I saw it on the Internet.
Katie Notopoulos tweets: “The Momo panic works bc it taps into parents’ guilt that the demands of modern parenting require sometimes just letting kids watch YouTube videos on the phone. The real Momo is the lack of social services in the US like paid maternity leave/affordable childcare.”
They says the real Momo voted for Brexit.
Posted: 1st, March 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Strange But True | Comment
An Epic caveat to a book review on German author and war hero Ernst Jünger
“Totally normal caveat such as you might find in any normal book review,” tweets Richard Smyth. He points us to a book review by Nigel Jones in the latest issue of History Today. The subject is German author and war hero Ernst Jünger (29 March 1895 – 17 February 1998).
Spotter: Richard Smyth
Posted: 28th, February 2019 | In: Books, Key Posts, Reviews | Comment
Spurs Balls: Harry Kane’s Chelsea headbutt; banned for Arsenal match; it’s England captain Alan Shearer all over again
Did Spurs and England captain Harry Kane attempt to headbutt Chelsea skipper Cesar Azpilicueta and miss in last night’s Premier League match? There’s a think layer of hair lacquer on Kane’s bonce making it near impossible for his head to get within an inch of anyone’s without causing an acute hair fracture. Kane played on unaffected. Injury averted.
Of course, Kane should have been sent off. But Azpilicueta did not make a meal of it, helping the match officials to ignore the England’s man’s blatant offence. But the FA should now take retrospective action against Kane and ban him for three matches. That would mean him missing the North London derby with Arsenal.
If the FA don’t act, well, it’ll be like Alan Shearar all over again. In 1998, England and Newcastle United skipper Alan Shearer appeared to kick Leicester City’s Neil Lennon in the face. “I have now seen the television pictures of the incident and I am amazed how bad it looks by comparison to what actually happened,” said Shearer. “I was brought down by Neil Lennon over by the touchline and we both fell clumsily. As I tried to get to my feet I had to really tug my left foot free and the momentum of doing this looked on television liked a kick. It certainly wasn’t and the fact that Neil is virtually unmarked confirms this. If I did accidentally catch him, I certainly did not mean to. I would never try and deliberately hurt a fellow professional.”
The FA agreed. The England captain had no case to answer. Shearer was free to play on – and play in the FA Cup final against Arsenal. Here’s that moment when Lennon headbutted Shearer’s boot:
Harry Kane is a saint. And England players never dive.
Posted: 28th, February 2019 | In: Chelsea, Key Posts, Sports, Spurs | Comment
Chris Williamson suspended: ‘We’re not anti-Semitic’ but white privileged Jews have it easy, says Labour
It’s a “hateful new low” says the Mail in the paper’s take on Chris Williamson, the Labour MP suspended for comments about the party’s handling of anti-Semitism. Williamson, Labour MP for Derby North, opined to a group of Jeremy Corbyn supporters that the party had “given too much ground” in the face of criticism over anti-semitism. He now “deeply regrets” his thoughts. He is “determined” to clear his name. He is aghast and affronted that anyone could believe he was “minimising the cancer of anti-Semitism”.
We know Williamson’s views that fighting racism has its limits when you’re dealing with the Jew hatred rife in Labour ranks because the Yorkshire Post broadcast footage of him telling activists Labour had been “too apologetic” over anti-Semitism and was being “demonised as a racist, bigoted party”. The audience applauds.
Williamson then does as all MPs must: he takes to Twitter to issue an apology built on a sympathetic backstory. He reminds us that there are “very few cases” of Jew hatred within Labour. Not so. There are many.
Too little, too late, says the BBC.
The suspension of Chris Williamson was relatively swift, but not swift enough to suggest there has been a sea-change in dealing with the problems of anti-Semitism in the party.
The initial briefing from sources close to the Labour leadership was that Chris Williamson needed to apologise, withdraw his comments and be subject to an investigation into “his pattern of behaviour”.
If he had also been suspended at this stage, it would have been a clearer signal that the leadership were imposing their avowed policy of “zero tolerance” on the issue.But it wasn’t until Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson, its reviewer of anti-Semitism cases Lord Falconer, and some of the party’s prominent Jewish MPs intervened that the suspension took place.
The Mail does the numbers: “38 moderate MPs pressed for Mr Williamson’s removal in a letter.” Yep. Just 38. And one of them wasn’t Corbyn, who “is believed to have intervened personally to block his suspension”.
Why do they appear to have it in for Jews? Make a list. And now riding at the top is the line that Jews are white and privileged. It’s got legs.
The Jewish Chronicle has more:
Labour MP Chris Williamson described the parliamentarians who marched in solidarity with Jewish MP Ruth Smeeth at an antisemitism hearing against a black activist who was later expelled by the party as “white privileged,” the JC can reveal.
In a recording obtained by the JC, the Derby North MP repeatedly attempted to portray the hearing into the black activist Marc Wadsworth, who was expelled by Labour for bringing the party into disrepute, as an example of “white people trying to shout down a black guy.”
MPs including Luciana Berger, Dame Margaret Hodge and Jess Philips were photographed walking with Ms Smeeth ahead of last year’s hearing into Mr Wadsworth’s conduct.
Mr Williamson compared it to a film that dramatises the KKK’s murder of civil rights activists, saying: “It looked like a scene out of Mississippi Burning. It was disgraceful, absolutely despicable in my opinion.”
In the Left’s sad game of identity politics, Jews always come off worse. Sure there’s the Holocaust, say the enlightened and righteous. But with your Jew wealth, Jew power, Jew influence, Jew barbarism and support for Israel, a country cast by the hard Left as Nazism’s bastard child, you Jews don’t deserve it. In the hunt for victims and victimhood, Jews have been pushed back to their age-old societal position of being the nadir of humanity, a people whose only redeeming feature would be self-hatred and guilt.
The old anti-Semites never went away. But now they can blend in with the knowing and good.
Posted: 28th, February 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Politicians | Comment
Radioactive man cremated in Arizona
A man treated with a radioactive compound to fight his tumour died two days after treatment. The bright minds then cremated him, releasing Lutetium 177 into the environment. A month after the cremation, a Geiger detected radiation levels inside the cremation chamber, on the oven and over the bone crusher. Just over 50% of all American opt for cremation. A public health story looms:
This alarming case, reported in a new research letter this week, illustrates the collateral risks potentially posed by on average 18.6 million nuclear medicine procedures involving radiopharmaceuticals performed in the US every year.
While rules regulate how these drugs are administered to living patients, the picture can become less clear when those patients die, thanks to a patchwork of different laws and standards in each state – not to mention situations like the 69-year-old man, whose radioactive status simply slipped through the cracks.
“Radiopharmaceuticals present a unique and often overlooked postmortem safety challenge,” researchers from the Mayo Clinic explain in a case note.
“Cremating an exposed patient volatilises the radiopharmaceutical, which can then be inhaled by workers (or released into the adjacent community) and result in greater exposure than from a living patient.”
A scare story brews…
Image: William Price helped to legalize cremation and was himself cremated after his death in 1893.
Posted: 28th, February 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Strange But True | Comment
Mum destroys student’s automatic homework writing robot; now every student wants one
You can buy a robot to draw Chinese characters. One Chinese child bought one. One Chines mother of a Chinese student destroyed it.T
The Inquisitr:
In China, students are often burdened with the task of writing complex characters over and over in order to learn them. It appears that the girl digitized her handwriting and had the robot complete her work for her. Predictably, the girl finished her homework in record time. All seemed to go well for the girl. That is, until her mom found the machine while cleaning her room and promptly destroyed it.
The exact model of the robot is unnamed, but known robots that can “write” look like a square box with a black arm that holds a pen or pencil. For example, there’s a U.S. company called Bond that uses robots that can write in what looks like human handwriting. Some of these machines come with handwriting that’s already loaded onto the hardware, while others allow you to customize the handwriting.
No more writing lines, being beaten by nuns for holding the pencil in your left hand and having to earn a ‘pen licence’. Machines can do it all. And maybe – just maybe – they can also give you an Oriental tattoo that doesn’t make you look like a wally.
Posted: 27th, February 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Technology | Comment
Londoners tell Shamima Begum ‘You’re taking the piss’
Do you want to live next door to Shamima Begum? Would you feel good about yourself if you did, tucked in at night knowing you’re the kind the person who believes in giving her a second chance? Al Jazeera says residents in Begum’s old Bethnal Green stomping ground “feel under intense scrutiny”. They’re victims. Of what is uncertain, but Al Jazeera is on the hunt for them.
The area is described as a “neighbourhood with a history of migration and activism”. Blessedly, Begum chose to be active not in London E2 or Manchester but Syria, where she went to fight for ISIS, a group active in rape, decapitation, torture, slavery and the kind of armed fascism Nazis enjoyed. Dishing out pamphlets by Mile End Tube and marching down Colombia Road are not her bag. Although, as one Guardian journalist wrote at the time of Begum’s journey, joining ISIS is a bit like switching from Boyzone to Blur. A point validated when Damon Alban declared jihad on Oasis and their apologists.
A local tells Al Jazeera: “But as a British Bangladeshi parent, how can we tell our children they’re just as British as anyone else when you see the government effectively saying this girl is not?”
The Standard doesn’t hear anyone who wants to live close to Begum. “Shamima Begum’s neighbours say she should not be allowed to return to UK,” says the London free sheet. “Jihadi bride Shamima Begum’s neighbours says the 19-year-old is lying about wanting to change her ways to get back into Britain and should be punished,” says the Mail. The Express thunders: “Shamima Begum: Neighbours warn ISIS bride should NOT return – ‘It would be DANGEROUS’.” Not for her. For us.
The Times heads to Bethnal Green to gage views. It hears no-one who wants her back. Shamima Begum stands for no-one but herself. There is no fear of the State and persecution of Muslims, only fear of her:
Moulana Abdul Malik, 51, imam at the Baitul Aman mosque near where Ms Begum grew up, said he welcomed Sajid Javid’s move [Home Secretary Javid revoked her British citizenship], questioning her sincerity. “It might not really be in her heart. People who are brainwashed may not have changed their habits — those who go to extremism will not change. We think the decision taken by the Home Office was correct. I’m worried if Shamima Begum does return, she might influence other people. It would be dangerous for other young people.”
At the Burhan Uddin mosque Mustafa Nehreen, 53, said he would rather she face punishment in the UK and for those close to her take responsibility for her radicalisation. “Anybody in IS, there must be punishment… but I don’t know about removing citizenship. Father and mother, her neighbours, her teachers, there’s the responsibility.”
A 30-year-old man who attended the same mosque for afternoon prayers said he thought removing Ms Begum’s citizenship was “the right decision”. The man, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “She’s taking the piss. She’s not saying, ‘I’ve been groomed, it was a mistake.’ She only wants to come home for the NHS, for the healthcare. It would have been so different had she said, ‘I’ve done wrong, I’ve seen wrong.’ If I was the government I wouldn’t trust her. Not one of us disagree with what [it] has done.”
Ha. Isn’t that great. That huge balloon of guff about division, fear and the surge of the Far-Right is punctured by one bloke saying Begum’s “taking the piss”. How very British.
Chelsea Balls: Sarri sacked by clickbait
Remember when the Daily Mirror told us Maurizio Sarri was to be sacked should Chelsea lose the Carabao Cup final to Manchester City. They lost. He’s sill in the job.
The Mirror has form with predictions – see here. Of course, the paper’s online version writes for SEO bots and Google. Unlike these knowing bots, mere human have short memories and won’t call the paper out for writing utter tosh.
And so it is that despite making a statement that turned out to be total balls, the paper ploughs on regardless. Since handing Sarri advance warning that his P45 was in the post on February 20, the Mirror has written much more on the Italian’s sacking.
“Alan Shearer on why Kepa Arrizabalaga could get Maurizio Sarri sacked by Chelsea” – Feb 25
“Who’s running this show? Who’s driving this bus? And who will get sacked when results don’t go as required?” – Feb 25
“Jamie Redknapp lists three Chelsea games that will get Maurizio Sarri sacked” – Feb 25
“Maurizio Sarri ‘to hold talks with Chelsea over his future’ after Kepa Arrizabalaga row” – Feb 26
Such are the facts.
Posted: 26th, February 2019 | In: Back pages, Chelsea, Key Posts, Sports, Tabloids | Comment
What Anti-Semitism? Corbyn wants second EU referendum; Labour betrays working class voters; Thornberry removes Labour Brexit from ballot
“The last Party leader to do exactly the opposite to his manifesto promise was Nick Clegg. Remind me, where is he now?” wonders John Mann, although the question might be rhetorical. Clegg is earning shedloads of money doing PR at Facebook. Mann is using Clegg to aim a barb at Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who’s now campaigning for a second EU referendum.
Corbyn wants us to vote on the soft “Tory Brexit” guffed out by Theresa May or his “Labour Brexit”, details of which remains vague. Trouble is that members of Corbyn’s front Cabinet want it to be a choice between May’s deal and Remain. So are Labour campaigning for Remain or Brexit? Why would Labour want a referendum without its own ideas on the ballot?
“If we can’t get our deal through,” says shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry, “…then anything else would be a disastrous Tory Brexit and we would ask for the public to be able to have a vote on that. We would have a referendum on whatever deal may or may not pass through parliament, and we would be saying to people, ‘Do you want this? Or do you want to Remain?’”
Labour MP Caroline Flint is confused. She tweets: “Labour in danger of overturning an election promise to respect the 2016 Referendum result. We can’t ignore millions of Labour Leave voters. There are Labour MPs like me who will not support a second ref. @jeremycorbyn give us a free vote so Labour MPs can keep their promises.”
Is this about preventing more deserters to The Independent Group (TIG) which supports a second referendum? MPs who resigned from Labour to join TIG also condemned the party as “institutionally racist”. Labour is making it all about Brexit in an effort to bury the racism rife in its ranks. Shameful stuff.
Ian Austin, one of the Labour MPS who quit to join TIG, tells the Times: “The thing that I find really upsetting is that there are people who would never have thought about this stuff… for whom it would never be an issue, but because they think Jeremy is this wonderful decent guy, fought racism all his life or whatever, they can’t believe it’s true. So they end up defending the indefensible and some of them get sucked into this poison out of a desire to defend him.”
And on Corbyn’s attitude towards Jews, the people he others, Austin adds: “I can’t look into his heart and see what’s in there. But I know he has definitely done and said things that are antisemitic. What do we normally call people who say or do things that are racist?”
As for what it means for Labour, the single word answer is “goodbye”. Research shows us that 61 per cent of Labour constituencies voted Leave. Less well off voters – ‘those in social housing, those with no formal education and those earning below £1,200 a month’ – were the three groups most likely to back Brexit. But no matter. The daughter of an international lawyer and Assistant-Secretary-General of the United Nations (Emily Thornberry) knows what’s best for you.
Vote now and vote often. Well, so they used to say. If MPs deny Brexit, why bother voting at all?
Posted: 26th, February 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Politicians | Comment
Sleeping Gemma Collins has ‘more rolls than Greggs’ in world’s first sponsored row
What’s it like to sleep with jobbing celebrity Gemma Collins? Jobbing celebrity James Argent knows – and he apparently wants us to know. So he posted a video of Collins snoring. The couple then had a row, during which Argent told her she has “more rolls than Greggs”. Can this be the world’s first sponsored barney?
It was only in late December that Arg was telling his Instagram followers:
“Happy 1 Year Anniversary to me & my beautiful girlfriend @gemmacollins1 ❤️ This woman deserves a medal 🏅 or at least a #bluepeterbadge for putting up with me! 😆
Many more years to come darling…
Check out our Exclusive Christmas shoot in this weeks @ok_mag.”
Such is their fame and the many accompanying to-deadline stories of undying love.
His more recent message tells Collins: “You are a fat joke of a woman. An absolute car crash! You’re nearly 40 f***ing years old, you embarrassment. You fat horrible lump. Nasty mean woman. Who the f*** do you think you are? You’ve got more rolls than Greggs.”
News is that the pair have now split. Or maybe they can be persuaded to set aside their differences for a Gregg’s Easter treat?
Posted: 26th, February 2019 | In: Celebrities, Key Posts, News | Comment
Shamima Begum: meet Britain’s new celebrity role model
No longer on the front pages, nonetheless, Shamima Begum remains newsworthy. The Star catches up with the jihadi on page 7. “JIHADI BRIDE’S DAD: DON’T LET HER HOME,” comes the headline. The page is split between a photo of Begum looking like an extra from ‘Wallace and Gromit : The Wrong Gap Year’, a photo of her dad Ahmed Ali – he thinks the State’s decision to revoke his daughter’s citizenship sound because she “does not admit her wrong’ – and news that Begum’s mates in ISIS raped 10-year-olds and left the severed heads of 50 sex slaves in a hole.
Welcome home, Shamima!
Much the same news appears on the Mirror’s page 5. “I am on the side of the Government,” says Mr Ali, “if the law of the land says it’s correct to cancel her citizenships then I agree. I know they don’t want to take her back and in this I don’t have a problem.” Says Begum: “They are taking an example of me.” But Begum wants to make an example of herself.
Over pages 18 and 19, we meet the “famous” Begum and tour her home at the Al-Hawi refugee camp in northern Syria. Larisa Brown goes through the keyhole into Begum’s digs. Who lives in a tent like this? Is it an innocent teenager who suffered at the hands of ferociously influential adult ‘groomers’? Or is it the unapologetic member of a death cult?
The camera zooms in. Shamima Begum “sits crossed-legged in her socks”. No, not school socks. Although given one narrative of the underage teen sexually abused by web perverts, you’d half expect it. On her knee is Jerah. Why the name? The Mail says its in honour of a “7th Century Islamic warlord”. He’s very much today’s modern man in ISIS circles.
As ever with ISIS, talks turns to love. She vows to wait for her husband, the child’s father, a Dutch Islamic convert called Abu Zoraya, but formerly known as Yago Riedijk. When they met she asked him some questions, one of which was what he wanted in a wife. “He told me he was strict and he wanted a good housewife that stays inside,” says Begum. He didn’t want someone who “wants to go out and stuff”. ‘Phew!’ thought Begum. No more competing with better looking, more intelligent women for sexual attention. Pass the shroud. Yago was chuffed. Not only would he get to shag a virgin who’d never know another man and thus remain dead to his limitations, but she was giving him tacit permission to live as a brutal thug and hang out with guys into murder, genocide and rape. I do!
It’s hot in the tent. Begum says there’s no tea because she’s can’t heat water. Where’s a Yazidi slave when you need one? (Raped and decapitated – ed).
Begum – whom Brown calls “Shamima” throughout, affording her celebrity status – is “at pains to be conciliatory”. “I am hoping to be given a second chance,” she says. “…I want to help encourage other young British people to think before they make life-changing decisions like this and not make the same mistakes as me.” Hard to make those mistakes now that ISIS is being smashed to bits. And until a new Islamists terror group rise from the blood, teens are advised to lay off pills, sugar and too much ‘screen time’.
“I can’t do that if I’m sitting here in a camp,” she adds of her offer to save young lives. “I can’t do that for you.” Thanks for the offer to work for us, Shamima Begum. But the position of moral guide has been filled. We appreciate your interest.
“Inshalla (God willing) I’ll see you soon,” says Brown to Begum as she leaves the tent. Where they will meet again, who knows where, who knows when. If the UK won’t take Begum, maybe the I’m A Celebrity jungle or Big Brother will?
Posted: 25th, February 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Tabloids | Comment
Danny Dyer rescues Shamima Begum: TV hardman brings home ISIS hardwoman
EastEnders actor Danny Dyer has yet to head to Syria to bring home Shamima Begum in a televised docudrama. But he was invited on to Good Morning Britain to tell us that Begum had “lost her soul” when she joined ISIS and should be allowed to come home. Lest you think it odd that an actor is invited to offer his opinion on world affairs on the mainstream telly, know that Geri Halliwell was (and still might be) a UN international ambassador. Her missions to heal the planet were picked up by OK! magazine, proving that when drought, famine and war strike any would-be refugee should ensure they possess a sympathetic backstory about miracle babies, being bullied at school and answer interrogators with the command “GIRL POWER!”. It’s enough.
What Dyer said has been picked up. In a clip posted somewhere on the internet, and picked up by the Sun, a man tells the camera: “This is a message for Danny Dyer, or anyone that f***ing knows him. I’m nearly 58 years old, a scaffolder and used to work for the Royal Marines Commandos… If you’ve got the bollocks to give all the s*** like that on TV and you don’t know anything about the armed forces with kids losing their dads, mums or anything like that then you need to get a grip. You’re making it out like you’re a hard man but you’re as hard as a f***ing lollipop.”
Mate. He’s an actor. But his mum’s up for it, telling us: “To all those w*ers out there slagging off my son for having an opinion. You do realise that he couldn’t give a tuppenny f*** what you think.”
Diplomacy reigns – until Jeremy’s Hunt’s aunty breaks ranks.
Posted: 23rd, February 2019 | In: Celebrities, Key Posts, News | Comment
Brexit stole my disabled child: a mother’s story that went viral gets corrected
The story went big. The Guardian comment piece about a mother and her disabled son remaining in the UK post Brexit gained more than 16,000 shares. “People didn’t vote leave for my son to be separated from his mother,” floats the headline about an article by Anna Maria Tuckett. Not that without a People’s Vote we can know for certain if she’s right. But let’s hear her out and assume most of us don’t approve of the State wrenching a mother from her disabled child. “I’m a full-time carer for my disabled son,” Tuckett adds. “What will happen if I’m denied settled status in the UK and have to return to Poland?”
The question might be rhetorical. If it’s not, you may care to without answering until the full facts are known. Happily, after publication and the story going viral, the Guardian bothered to check it:
This update was added on 20 February 2019: In wake of publication of this article, the home office challenged the accuracy of several assertions in the piece. Some amendments were made, and are explained in the footnote below; the following statement from a home office spokesperson is also being inserted here: “The basis of this article is fundamentally wrong. We have made clear that EU citizens will not be refused status under the EU Settlement Scheme because, for example, they are economically inactive. The application only has three key steps – to prove your identity, to prove that you are living here, and to declare any criminal convictions.” Information on funding for help to apply has been included in the footnote.]
FOOTNOTE:
• Anna Maria Tuckett is a former journalist, writer and full-time carer
• This article was amended on 19 and 20 February 2019 to clarify who warned the author she was “unlikely to qualify for citizenship”: in this case, friends and migration think tanks, as distinct from any government official (no residence application having yet been made, as the story later says). A subheading has been corrected because it wrongly stated that UK settled status could be denied “because” the author is a home-based carer. A paragraph has been deleted because it incorrectly quoted the home secretary, Sajid Javid, as saying EU citizens seeking to stay in Britain would have to prove they have been “assets” to the British economy. A home office statement added that: “We have made up to £9 million of funding available to voluntary and community sector organisations to help us reach more vulnerable or at-risk EU citizens and their family members directly to help them get the status they need.”
To recap: can we have a second read?
Posted: 23rd, February 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Politicians | Comment
Aaron Campbell: the face of ‘evil’
He’s called Aaron Campbell – the teenager convicted of abducting, raping and murdering six-year-old Alesha MacPhail on the Isle of Bute last July. The tabloids called him evil. This is, then, what evil looks like.
The Mirror calls Campbell the “Beast of Bute”. The Daily Mail brands him a “twisted narcissist”. You might all him a ****. The Mail also notes in a masterclass in opinion-triggering tabloidese:
The cat-torturing, adrenaline junkie teenager – who was obsessed with gaining YouTube followers, playing violent video games such as Fortnite and recording himself performing acrobatic moves on a trampoline – had received anonymity due to his age, but a judge unmasked him today.
For good measure, the Mail include football of the rapist jumping on a trampoline. They say Osama bin Laden cold do keepy-uppies for a full 30 seconds, and Jon Venables can whistle the Sesame Street theme song. But those videos for another time.
This is all about desperate-for-fame Aaron Campbell, who can now read about how his name came to be known by millions in the papers and online. Until yesterday his name could not be made public on pain of law. The law was unfit for purpose. Trial judge, Lord Matthews agreed with petitioners that naming Aaron Campbell was in the public interest.
The Sun says there is now “no hiding place” for Alesha’s murderer. The Mirror says there is a price on his head. Fellow inmates at Polmont Young Offenders’ prison know who he is. His lawyer says Campbell is at “risk of attack from others” or “potentially self harm” if his name and picture were in the public domain. They are. Few will weep for Campbell.
EVIL IS…
As for evil and what it is, a few words. Fr. Robert Barron looked at Hannah Arendt, and her book Eichmann in Jerusalem, and St. Augustine:
The young Hannah Arendt had written her doctoral dissertation under the great German philosopher Karl Jaspers, and the topic of her work was the concept of love in the writings of Saint Augustine. One of the most significant intellectual breakthroughs of Augustine’s life was the insight that evil is not something substantial, but rather a type of non-being, a lack of some perfection that ought to be present. Thus, a cancer is evil in the measure that it compromises the proper functioning of a bodily organ, and a sin is evil in the measure that it represents a distortion or twisting of a rightly functioning will. Accordingly, evil does not stand over and against the good as a kind of co-equal metaphysical force, as the Manichees would have it. Rather, it is invariably parasitic upon the good, existing only as a sort of shadow.
J.R.R. Tolkien gave visual expression to this Augustinian notion in his portrayal of the Nazgul in The Lord of the Rings. Those terrible and terrifying threats, flying through the air on fearsome beasts, are revealed, once their capes and hoods are pulled away, to be precisely nothing, emptiness. And this is exactly why, to return to Arendt’s description, evil can never be radical. It can never sink down into the roots of being; it can never stand on its own; it has no integrity, no real depth or substance. To be sure, it can be extreme and it can, as Arendt’s image suggests, spread far and wide, doing enormous damage. But it can never truly be.
Aaron Campbell – the face of evil – might have joined ISIS.
Posted: 23rd, February 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Tabloids | Comment
Alesha MacPhail: They know why the ‘boy’ killed and remembering Venables and Thompson
In July 2017 Alesha MacPhail was abducted, raped and murdered. Her killer’s name will not be known. The Mail calls him a “boy”. The Scotsman calls him a “teenager”. He’s a “16-year-old” on The Scotsman’s front page. The Metro just says “the teen” in “PURE EVIL”. But we won’t get to know his name.
Alesha was murdered on the Isle of Bute, an island in the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. The country’s law rules that to publish the name, address, school or any other information which could identify anyone under the age of 18 who is the accused, victim or witness in a criminal case in any media is illegal. So don’t. You can, however, name the victim. Alesha MacPhail is the only name that matters.
Minds turn to the abduction and murder of James Bulger, 2, in 1993. The names of the guilty – two boys aged 10 – were soon known. Tony Blair stirred the mob, positioning the crime as one emblematic of the country’s dire straits and moral disintegration.
The killers’ families lived in fear of revenge attacks. In 2012, 38 year-old Scott Bradley committed suicide, unable to cope with people mistaking him for Jon Venables, one of the killers. “My son was tormented by the allegations,” said Mr Bradley;s mother. “He had a good heart and didn’t deserve this. It’s been heartbreaking.”
Do we need to know the name of Alesha MacPhail’s murderer? The killer’s own mother helped bring him to justice. She alerted detectives after reviewing footage from two CCTV cameras outside the family home. She watched her son coming and going three times between 01:54 and 04:07 on the night Alesha was murdered. If we know the killer, we know her. Why should an innocent woman wear the stain in public? He will be in jail for a long, long time. Isn’t that enough?
Venables and Thompson were released on parole in 2001 under new identities. They must not ever reveal to anyone who they once were. To do so would land them back in prison. Venables was caught downloading child pornography. He has been jailed indefinitely as it is feared he is likely to reveal his true identity.
We don’t know the killer’s name. But do we know why he did it?
Revenge:
The BBC: “The jury heard the teenager previously bought cannabis from Alesha’s father, Robert MacPhail, but the pair fell out five months before her death over an unpaid £10 drug debt.”
A Meme:
The Star: “The unnamed boy, 16, searched for the Slender Man meme, and some of his sick acts mirrored those carried out by the character… Slender Man was invented by users on the Something Awful forum in 2009 for a paranormal Photoshop competition. Shown as a thin, tall, featureless figure in a black suit, in many stories written online about him feature stalking or abducting people, especially children.
Gaming:
The Sun: “The teenager got sick thrills from playing gory video games.”
Bute:
Daily Mail: “How the boy of 16 who murdered ‘angel’ Alesha MacPhail, six, had already ‘almost drowned a girl’ and was mired in a culture of drugs and cheap booze that has gripped the Isle of Bute”
One heinous and blessedly rare crime now defines a place?
His Looks:
Daily Mail: “He is handsome, in a modern, metrosexual way, with luxuriant, swept-over hair and a milky complexion. Dressed immaculately, in a tartan suit and collar and tie, he gave evidence with great self-assurance.”
So much for the CV.
No Idea:
BBC: ‘Judge Lord Matthews told the killer he had stolen Alesha’s life by “committing some of the most wicked and evil crimes this court has ever heard of in decades of dealing with depravity”. He said he had “no idea” why the teenager carried out the murder, and described the evidence in the case as “overwhelming”.’
Kicks:
Sky News: “Alesha MacPhail: Killed for the ‘life experience’?”
Posted: 22nd, February 2019 | In: Key Posts, News, Tabloids | Comment
