Why The Pope Retired

(from a link by Beedok in Things that look like alternate history but aren't IIa at AH.com.)

Haroon Siddiqui Unwittingly Condemns Jihad and by Implication Mohammed

In a oped at the Toronto Star, Siddiqui: Old foreign policy problems haunt Obama’s new term, Haroon Siddiqui unwittingly condemns jihad. In a the middle of a long essays smearing any attempt to deal with muslim terrorism as colonism Siddiqui has this gem.

The jihadists invoke Islam but they are brigands and terrorists, living off smuggling and extracting ransom from hostages.

The problem is that jihad and jihadists, from from the day that Mohammed went out with his gang to loot and rape, has primarily been about brigands, the terror they engender and the crimes they commit.

Todd Bridges - Classy Guy

At the end of the NY Times obit for Conrad Bain, Conrad Bain, Father on ‘Diff’rent Strokes’, Dies at 89. Todd Bridges reveals himself as a classy guy. Really.

Mr. Bridges, who remained in contact with Mr. Bain, said in a statement that “in addition to being a positive and supportive father figure both on and off screen, Conrad was well loved and made going to work each day enjoyable for all of us.”

Anti Television Protest in Tunisia

An anti TV protest in Tunisia leads to art installation, story on France 24.

50 50 Florida

Screen scrape from Real Clear Politics election night coverage at 21:40 

Pirate Bay is Down

This story repeated at news sites, The Pirate Bay hit by DDoS attack, and nerd sites. The Pirate Bay Suffering Global Outage From Massive DDoS Attack.

I am reminded of a footer/quote I used to see;

More people support the KKK
Than the RIAA  

Rick Santorum Promotes Heavy Metal to Today's Teens

News reports, actually one blogger,  have him denouncing heavy metal as "satanic".  He goes on to condemn "new' bands such as Black Sabbath (founded 1969). This is probably satire, highly plausible satire. However Santorum (NSFW) is known for taking extreme positions. 

This is the best thing that has happened to Heavy Metal for a long time.

Russia, Where the Living is Hard

This image of a dead Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was taken 2006 when he was 34. He was on the front page of a NY Times article about a Russian commission that investigates prison conditions and prison deaths, Documents Raise Questions About Russian Case. I showed his picture about half a dozen people and asked them to estimate his age. Most thought he was in his late 50's. The lowest estimate was 40. When this picture was taken he was 32. I wonder just how hard was life to look like this.

Oh, Great, Qatar Gets the 2018 World Cup

Qatar, pronounced catarrh, has won the right to host the 2018 World Cup, Retreat and revenge: England's options after their 2018 World Cup snub. A commenter on Jihadwatcher Droptheveil
has this reaction to sleazy dusty hell of Qatar.

I just can't imagine why ANYONE would want to go to Qatar let alone watch football matches in 50 degrees of heat. No matter how much air conditioning there will be in the stadiums, they will overheat very quickly with all those bodies and the sun throwing out so much heat, most air conditioning units there just cannot cope. English football fans like a pint of beer on such occasions and the only places to buy a drink is in the odd small bar on a top floor in hotels at huge prices, or around the pool of expensive hotels. No guest houses as we are used to in the UK. Drinking is not allowed in public apart from these very few bars. The traffic and driving must be some of the most dangerous in the world and I forecast now that there will be serious road accidents because the locals are idiots behind the wheel and have no road sense, it's them first in the queue and to hell with the rest of us. Car hire is very basic and from experience cars are not serviced to any of our western standards, so good luck. One cannot usually hire a car unless you are a resident and prove such. If a foreigner is involved in such an accident he is automatically the guilty party and the locals can do no wrong, I kid you not. You have been warned. They will need very large numbers of taxis and drivers because currently one cannot get a taxi for love or money unless you get one from a hotel at enormous costs. The place is a dust bucket and with all the building that will be necessary, built on slave labour by the way, it will be so much worse than it is now being a climate where dust hangs in the air. My advice, don't go, it's a dump, nothing to do in the evenings, and a spare day to 'sight-see' is too hot to go out although there are 'glamourous' shopping malls where you will be ripped off further. Sharia law already exists there and the place is half a step up from Saudi Arabia - just. I've lived there for several years so I speak from experience, one I could have done without!! The locals are surly and full of their own piss and importance. How was this country half the size of Wales been awarded the 2022 world football tournament? It beggars belief. Nuf said.

Anachronism by Investment Advisor

The February 3, 2010 edition of the Report on Business had this image of James Hymas, actually the image above is cropped from a larger photo that appeared in the physical paper, in a article about preferred shares, An investor with a preference for preferreds. What I found interesting is that everything in the photograph, the man at the desk with flowing beard, the desk, the Persian carpet, the fireplace, the suit look as through they are from 1899. When I asked several people to point out what doesn't belong it woulkd take them a while to find the laptop.

As a comparison here is the cover art to the book Guns of the South. Note the similarities a bearded man in a old style suit with something that wasn't manufactured in the 19th century.

Oakland Refuses to Honor Emperor Norton I (5 year old story)

News report (5 years late) from the San Francisco Chronicle, "No offense to the emperor, but I don't know who he is", about how Oakland California refuses to respect Emperor Norton because he didn't "live in Oakland".

Malaysian Employers Complain About "Expensive" Employees

In many developed countries the average industrial wage tracks pretty closely to GNP per capita, as example here is a report with the Irish Republic's industrial wage. However in Malaysia employers have so hated the idea of paying people enough to live on that want to import workers form Bangladesh and other poverty stricken areas, Foreign Employees Limited, Malaysia Is Suffering Through a Labor Shortage, see Money for Nothing. For the record they don't a labor shortage but a shortage of people willing to accept crap wages. This also the reason that "business" Republicans in the US want there to a floating population of illegal aliens willing to accept crap wages.

There must be a rule of acquisition that everything is negotiable up or down, except wages for employees.

Malaysia
GNP per capita
$14,071
Industrial wage
650 to 700 ringgit ($183 to $197) per month
or $2196 to $2364 per year

as comparison
Ireland
GNP per capita
$49,095
Industrial Wage
$46604

The Mona Lisa Must be Protected or We Will ALL DIE

A madwomen threw a mug at the Mona Lisa today. This news was re-reported on AH.com which prompted Pkmatrix to repeat a Nostradamus prediction.

The people in Paris weep,
Death claims La Joconde.
The dead rise again,
And the Seine runs with blood.

- Nostradamus, VII Century, 30th Quatrain

I responded with

Do Super Villains know about this prediction? I can this imagine a thrill in which a Super Villain how the world by threatening to nuke the

How ever black angel remembered this has already happened in a movie.

any one ever seen the Movie "Equilibrium"? for those who haven't one of the opening parts is where they find The Mona Lisa under the floor and burn it with flamethrowers must of seen the movie 100 times, but every time i scream "NOOOOOO"

Crazy Temperance Types Upset with Harry Potter

Okay one columnist for the NY Times is shrieking; "Won't somebody please think of the children?" In recent article, Harry Potter and the Pint of Liquid Courage, Tara Parker-Pope lists with concern incidents of underage drinking in the latest Harry Potter movie. The writer is concerned because her country has the same drinking age tolerant and child centered Pakistan.

In the reader response to this article many posters point out that it is American drinking laws are so completely out of whack and not literary description of booze in Harry Potter.

Someone pseudonymously as Hermione has this response to the "life lessons" in literature.

Right.

and Quidditch encourages kids to jump off buildings.

and eating chocolate to ward off Dementors encourages emotional binge eating.

Does Hogwarts have a drinking problem? No. The people who came up with this idea need to swallow a few potent shots of Chill The **** Out.

Nancy Goodman seems to to agree the writer with Colbert enthusiasm.

Whoever heard of 16 year olds drinking “butterbeer” and “mead” and getting “tipsy”? Shame! When I was that age such behavior was unheard of. I spent my free time using Bible verses to derive my family’s direct lineage from Adam and Eve. I for one refuse to watch such filth lest the good Lord see fit to burn my eyes from their sockets with a finger of fire. Harry Potter is the Devil and anyone who would subject innocent children to such a debauchery deserves to burn in Hell.

Michael gets in such a good shot the author of this oped cries ouch.

Did Dolores Umbridge write this article?

What Happened to Following the Rules of Fight Club

Father In Mass. Ran Fight Club For Son James Dexter Says He Supervised Fights, Intervened When Someone Was Clearly Losing

NEWBURY, Mass. (CBS) ―

A father who helped his son set up an ultimate fighting club in his home may face serious charges.

James Dexter of Newbury admits 15 to 20 high schoolers gathered to fight in his living room, but he says it was just a sport.

"We had moved all the furniture to one side, and put a cushion on the wall. I set rules that they couldn't be using their elbows, their knees, and they couldn't lift them up off the ground and slam them to the floor," said Dexter.

He said his 16-year-old son had been planning to hold the fights in a nearby field, when Dexter intervened and said they had to do it under his supervision.

"I was standing there and if one kid was losing obviously, I broke it up right away rather than letting them get extra hits on him."

The kids wore fingerless boxing gloves and mouth guards, and fought in the style of the popular Ultimate Fighting Club.

"It's a hobby of mine," said Dexter. "We enjoy it. It's a sport."

Dexter faces four counts of reckless endangerment of a child, but a judge is giving him a chance to clear his record.

He's on probation for two years, during which he can not have anyone under 18 in his home.

As long as he obeys the conditions, the charges will be dropped.

(screen scrape from CBS Denver)

This terrible story has a moral, don't let teenagers join fight club because can't follow rules 1 & 2, Don't talk About Fight Club. Lousy punks.

Here are the rules of Fight Club.

Man on the Moon - As It Would Be Reported Today

China - Canada Uranium Deal

China seeking supply deal with Cameco


And Japan was buying scrap metal from the US until they attacked Pearl Harbor.

Madness from the Fans of the ChiComs and other Commie Bastards

What is with Adrienne Clarkson? In the Globe and Mail on Friday she pens praise to the crazy madman commie Norman Bethune; Remember Bethune? Apparently not. In the Sunday Toronto Star, Let's elect our head of state; she is positively referred to in an op-ed by a committed Canadian republican, in other words in the writings of a traitor. Let us leave the case of the madness of republicanism, if the fact that "el presidente" is a the title that most despots of the last 50 years have held cannot convince such ideologues.

Norman Bethune was a great man. He pioneered the technology of mobile blood banks. He was in the Spanish civil war on the side of legitimate government. I myself attended school in the same building that he was educated. Yes, he was a great man. But to turn to communism in the age of Stalin shows a distinct lack of sanity. Because of WWII many remember Stalin somewhat positively. He helped the west defeat Hitler and Nazis and the then occupied most of Hitler's Eastern European conquests. Except we, in the west allied with a regime that had killed 20 million defeat another regime that was going to kill 10 million. In China there was another dilemma. Norman Bethune and other commies helped to replace a corrupt and incompetent regime with an incorruptible and competent tyranny. Mao eventually, after the death of Bethune, went on to kill 20 million plus people. Like Stalin. Like Stalin his name is not a curse of the world's lips. Instead, like Stalin, Mao corpse squats in the centre of his conquered capital.

Evil Paleontologist Robber Baron

The Times of India business section has a slide show of the worst American CEOs. Unfortunately they confused Stephen Jay Gould with Jay Gould.

Somalia - The Self Failed State

(Brian Gable of the Globe and Mail, April 14, 2009)

Many sensitive well meaning people wonder that if we could just address the grievances of criminals crime would disappear. Well no actual. Very little crime is the hungry stealing bread. Some theives might start that way but mostly crininals is the well fed stealingf luxaries. The Somali pirates style themselves as a coastguard of a failed state. The rewards of piracy is seen as proper repayment for depleted fish stocks. Fishing can provide a hard dangerous living, piracy on the other hand is hard and dangerous but could provide fortunes. The other point about the sheen of legitimacy when Somali pirates style themselves as a "coast guard". Yes Somalia is a Failed state. Failure wasn't thrust apon Somali, Somalis in all walks of life worked hard to fail as a country.