How Much Is That Doggie In The.... Aggh Get Off!

Following on from my previous post about owners of dangerous dogs being idiots I would like to back up the claim with two pieces of evidence, a news story:

BOSSIER CITY, La. — A pit bull puppy chewed off four of a baby girl's toes while the child's parents slept, police here said Monday.

New born baby, pit bull puppy. The dog was obviously not an animal that predated the baby, they actually decided that after having a baby they should buy a pit bull terrier to go with it! At least one scientific study also backs up the idea that dangerous dogs attract stupid people:

People who own vicious dogs such as pit bulls have significantly more criminal convictions -- including crimes against children -- than owners of licensed, gentler dogs such as beagles, researchers reported on Thursday.

A study of 355 dog owners in Ohio showed that every owner of a high-risk breed known for aggression had at least one brush with the law, from traffic citations to serious criminal convictions.

And 30 percent of people who owned an aggressive breed of dog and who also had been cited at least once for failure to register it had at least five criminal convictions or traffic citations.

This compared to 1 percent of owners of low-risk, licensed dogs such as poodles, beagles or collies, the researchers reported in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence

Figures.
(second story via Foreign Dispatches)

Iraq Troop Levels.

Almost everyone agrees that one of the biggest failiures of the Iraq war was going in with insufficient troops numbers to maintain a reasonable level of security. In large part this was due to the focus on defeating the Iraqi military rather than terrorists. So if we know that there were too few troops then why has it become the received wisdom that the troop 'surge' that Bush is currently implementing is doomed to failiure and we should be cutting the number of coalition personel? It seems to me that the surge is the correct policy and that only by wresting control of Baghdad from sectarian militias will Iraq be stabilised.

Quote of the Week.

Dumbjon uncovers a member of the educational establishment sharing her thoughts on schooling matters:

The reason that uniform is not popular in continental Europe is that it does still have associations with Nazi youth. Making everyone look the same can of course be associated with making everyone think the same. Whilst we want to have discipline in schools, we certainly don't want to be bringing up a generation of Nazi youth.

Professor Sheila Riddell of the Moray House faculty of education at Edinburgh University should be praised for her courage in uncovering the hidden agenda behind school uniforms.

Note To Stupid People.

When choosing a family pet it is inadvisable to choose Pit Bulls as they are illegal and bred specifically for the purpose of viciously attacking people or animals. If you are too stupid to understand this then it would be for the best if you refrain from being responsible for any life form more advanced than a cactus.

Hanging Around.

One of the overlooked facets of the recent Saddam hanging is the fact that George Galloway has a lost an indefatigable friend. What's more it came as a terrible surprise to him, the day before Saddam went to the gallows George was informed that one of his closest allies would be swinging that night but naturally he assumed that it was a reference to Tommy Sheridan's plans for the holiday season.

Ten Worst... British Newspaper Columnists.

What is the point of general purpose newpaper columnists? They are by and large pompous, ill informed and a complete waste of oxygen. If a writer is neither particularly intelligent or a specialist in a particular field why on earth does anyone want to read 800 words of unoriginal reporting? Reporters as opposed to columnists do at least provide fresh information to a subject, even if they do make it up themselves, but these fuckwits just babble idiotically on whatever topic entered their third rate minds on deadline day whether that is Iraq, Big Brother or Llama farming, or if they've got an agenda to advance they try to steer every subject to arrive at the same pre determined conclusion every single week. Wankers the lot of them.

1: Martin Jacques- Guardian.
2: Yasmin Alibiah Brown- Independent.
3: Johann Hari- Independent
4: Polly Toynbee- Guardian
5: Max Hastings- Guardian & Daily Mail.
6: A.N. Wilson- Evening Standard & Daily Telegraph.
7: Madelaine Bunting- Guardian.
8: Phillip Hensher- Independent
9: Sam Leith- Telegraph
10: Gary Younge- Guardian.

BANGkok!

Bombs have been detonated in the Thai capital killing at least two people and the most likely suspects appear to be islamist fanatics. Told you 2007 was going to be a lot like 2006.

New Year's Day 2007 Predictions.

2007 will be very much like 2006.

Saddam's Execution.

I'm ashamed to confess feeling a little bit sorry for Saddam Hussein whilst I listened to the reports of his imminent execution that were coming in yesterday evening and the early hours of today. Thank goodness the Iraqi courts and government did not share my queasiness though, because it was a brave and correct decision. The benefits of Saddams death seem pretty clear to me:

• 1) It removes the (surprisingly widely held) fear amoung Shias and Kurds that Saddam might come back. One of the reason for the emergence of Shia militias ethnically cleansing Sunnis is to make sure that they will never again be in the helpless position they were under Saddam, making sure the Sunnis will never rise again as one observer describes it.

• 2) It makes it clear to Sunni death squads that he is not coming back. If they have less to fight for then they may fight less.

• 3) The Prime Minister might finally be willing to allow the coalition forces to seriously confront the Sadr death squads in Baghdad. Up until now Maliki has been preventing this but with his prestige enhanced amoung the Shias he might be more willing to risk incurring Moqtada Al Sadr's wrath-

• 4) Maliki's hatred of the Baath party, whilst justified, has hindered efforts at reconciling the low level Baathists to the new regime. Having humiliated Baathism by executing the former dictator he might well be willing to allow reconciliation to happen.

• 5) His crimes simply merit death regardless of the utilitarian arguments for and against.

The idea that there will be a fresh wave of violence seems unlikely because anyone who could be inspired to violence by the death of Saddam is likely to already be part of a terrorist insurgent group.

Down With Me!

It was pretty absurd when Tony Blair signed a petition to himself last year, but with Labour ministers such as Hazel Blears protesting against their own decisions it goes from comical to offensive. Labour has never really lost the opportunistic qualities of opposition so it is of little surprise that they want to exercise power but hide from responsibility. John Redwood on his blog (must update blogroll soon) explains how ministers ought to conduct themselves:

Has no-one told Labour Ministers they are all responsible for every policy and action of their government? If they don’t like something, and they cannot persuade their colleagues in private to change things, they have to resign.

We now see Labour Ministers rushing to distance themselves from the NHS cuts that are becoming visible. As the next couple of years unfold there should be many more pressure points on public spending. The blow out years are past, and even this Chancellor and this government are going to have to cut the rate of increase in public spending considerably. Given the poor way they manage the public sector, that will doubtless mean cuts in those services which Labour MPs cherish. We will become used to Minister after Minister lobbying against their own government, even at times lobbying against their own department!

Labour are so incompetent that ministers don't even dare to associate themselves with their own decisions.

Quote of the Week.

Who are these minority of the world's population who own a majority of the world's wealth?

They are the population of the United States, Western Europe, Japan and a few other affluent countries. How did these particular people come to possess so much more wealth than other people?

They did it the old-fashioned way. They produced the wealth that they own. You might as well ask why bees have so much more honey than other creatures.

-Thomas Sowell.

How Convenient

The Guardian's article on Gerald Ford notes that:

Mr Ford was the last surviving member of the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of President John Kennedy in 1963 and concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin.

This cpuld explain the untimely death of the 93 year old ex president.

Gerald Ford.

Former US President Gerald Ford has died. Which reminds me of something I discovered a couple of years ago, that there is a Gerald Ford stadium in Dallas, Texas which was named after some generous billionaire also called Gerald Ford. It must be pretty dispiriting for the latter Gerald Ford to realise that rather than the stadium acting as a monument to himself his philanthropy will be credited by future generations to his more famous namesake. Texas also has a Mike Myers stadium which suffers from the same problem.

SWINE.

The Tehran Times must have been thrilled when Holocaustapalooza was greeted with this message of Solidarity from a group of Danes.

(via the Sandmonkey)

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is here and the puppies I'm giving away are all wrapped up, so all that remains for me to do is write a festive post for my blog. Will this do?:

A DIY store has been playing foul-mouthed Christmas songs to their customers.

Staff at B&Q in Stockport, Greater Manchester, mistakenly put on a South Park CD entitled Mr Hankey The Christmas Poo, reports The Sun.

Dad Grant Sullivan, who was shopping with his four-year-old daughter Deonne, said: "The song was playing in the Christmas grotto - I couldn't believe my ears.

"We were buying a tree and Deonne was looking for the star for the top of it. I was speechless."

One of the songs contains the lyrics: "Mr Hankey the Christmas Poo, small and brown he comes from you."

Obnoxious, Moi?

I've heard of 'Jerusalem Syndrome' where visitors to the city become convinced that they are the messiah, but Paris Syndrome in a new one to me, although the story is not recent:

An encounter with a rude taxi driver, or a Parisian waiter who shouts at customers who cannot speak fluent French, might be laughed off by those from other Western cultures.

But for the Japanese - used to a more polite and helpful society in which voices are rarely raised in anger - the experience of their dream city turning into a nightmare can simply be too much.

This year alone, the Japanese embassy in Paris has had to repatriate four people with a doctor or nurse on board the plane to help them get over the shock.

An encounter with a rude Parisian can be a shocking experience
They were suffering from "Paris syndrome".

The Japanese need to learn more foreign languages if the want to be made to feel welcomed in Paris, German is especially useful. Paris syndrome does thankfully have a remedy.

the only permanent cure is to go back to Japan - never to return to Paris.

So Farewell Then.... Turkmenbashi.

Saparmurat Nyazov, president of Turkmenistan also known as Turkmenbashi- The Father of all Turkmens, has died. So the world loses it's finest comedy dictator since the late Idi Amin, Nuazov's 'achievements included:

• Renaming Turkmen cities after himself and his family.
• Placing a gold-plated statue of himself on top of Ashgabat's largest building, the Neutrality Arch, that rotates so it will always face into the sun and shine light onto the capital city. Though as he himself said- "I'm personally against seeing my pictures and statues in the streets - but it's what the people want,"
• Naming months of the year after himself and his mother.
• Replacing the Hippocratic Oath with the Turkmenbashi Oath.
• Winning the Turkmen 'Hero of the year' award five times.
• Ordering the construction of an Ice Palace in the Turkmenistan desert.

Obviously for all his absurdity he wasn't much fun to live under. The grim comedy of Turkmenbashi was probably not unintentional as with Amin, but rather it was a way of reinforcing his power by saying to the Turkmen's by emphasising that they were so fearful they couldn't even laugh at things which they knew were preposterous.

Wannabe Hack Meets Wannabe Head Hacker.

Are newspaper columnists gullible morons? Consider the evidence from this article by the Independent's most challenged writer, Johann Hari (sorry Yaz you've lost your crown):

“I want to kill and kill and kill again. I want to be a killing machine until, inshallah [God willing], I become a martyr,” he said, staring at me intensely. He is 27 – my age – and murderous. He has just described how he slashed the throats of four female Israeli soldiers in an illegal settlement in 2002, and he chuckled as he described how they cried for their mothers. “All the Jews have to be killed,”

He certainly talks the talk but wouldn't an event like that make the news somewhere? Google-ing 'israeli' 'female' 'soldiers' throats' brings up no incident that fits this description. Wikipedia's list of 2002 deaths in the Israel-Palestine conflict also fails to yield any event that resembles what Walter Bin Mitty claims to have committed. Hari's whole article is based on the premise that if Israel and the West do not prostrate themselves before Hamas then they will face something even worse, yet the exemplar of this supposedly scary Palestinian radicalism is some pathetic fantasist who's as much of a jihadi as Colonel Mustard is a military hero.