Pigs In Space, And The Rabbis Too
Whereas I try to treat all religions with equal contempt, I think this is a first for featuring the Jewish faith in these unhallowed pages.
Not by design that Judaism has previously slipped under the radar, unless of course I have subconsciously given them a free pass because I know I'm never going to get a Jew knocking at my door trying to sell me a Bible or their god.
That said, and perhaps after watching the forty second clip, you might agree with me that they are just as loopy and batshit crazy as all the rest of the nutters.
Flying rabbis fight swine fluA group of rabbis and Jewish mystics have taken to the skies over Israel, praying and blowing ceremonial horns in a plane to ward off swine flu.
About 50 religious leaders circled over the country on Monday, chanting prayers and blowing horns, called shofars.
The flight's aim was "to stop the pandemic so people will stop dying from it", Rabbi Yitzhak Batzri was quoted as saying in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.
The flu is often called simply "H1N1" in Israel, as pigs are seen as unclean.
Eating pork is banned under Jewish dietary laws.
According to Israel's health ministry, there have been more than 2,000 cases of swine flu in the country, with five fatalities so far.
"We are certain that, thanks to the prayer, the danger is already behind us," added Mr Batzri was quoted as saying.
Television footage showed rabbis in black hats rocking backwards and forwards as they read prayers from Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism which counts the singer Madonna among its devotees.
The shofar is the horn of a ram, and is used to mark major religious occasions in Judaism. BBC
Respect People's Religious Beliefs. Why?
Ali Dizaei: Scotland Yard insiders describe the decision as "unbelievable"
When you've read the report, should you wish, you can go here and follow the link and listen to the events of the evening that Dizaei had Waad al-Baghdadi nicked.
Originally I had featured both the Guardian and Telegraph reports on this astounding piece of news, both are now consigned to the memory hole in favour of this report from the London Evening Standard, who seem to be a bit more in touch with the reality of the situation.
Though I guess, in the case of a prosecutor, it's something you would hardly want to go to court with, there arise certain situations where one has to ask a question, of yourself or others or the world for that matter. Let me give you a for instance.
A three year old child, in the care of her parents goes missing without a trace. The parents claim she was kidnapped. The dogs are brought in, and everywhere stinks of death.
What are the odds?
From the highest echelons of the shiny buttons brigade, to the lowest of the low, the barely literate woodentops, corruption runs through the Met like water over Niagara, always has, always will, and like the water over Niagara, in amounts that stagger the imagination.
That one of the shiny button brigade, gets nicked and convicted for misconduct, such a polite term isn't it? Now none of us are strangers to cases of wrongful conviction, but when one of the shiny button brigade, gets nicked and convicted for corruption and abusing his power, among other things, and then somehow manages to have that conviction overturned, what are the odds?
Police forced to give Ali Dizaei his job backCome back Andy Hayman, all is forgiven.
Justin Davenport,
30 Sep 2011Ali Dizaei, the Scotland Yard chief jailed for corruption, has been sensationally reinstated today as a Met commander.
The officer won his job back four months after his convictions for misconduct were quashed by the Appeal Court.
Mr Dizaei, 49, who spent a year in prison, was allowed to return by a secret meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority's professional standards sub-committee.
He said: "I am delighted and really happy to be back in the police service. I intend to clear my name and I will do that irrespective of how long it takes."
However, it is understood MPA officials today took the decision to suspend him as a police officer pending his retrial on corruption allegations.
Technically he has been reinstated as a £90,000-a-year Met commander on full pay and conditions. He said he would appeal to the High Court against any decision to suspend him.
Mr Dizaei claimed the MPA committee took the reinstatement decision after a police appeals tribunal headed by a QC "unanimously" dismissed his sacking. Neither the MPA nor the Met made any initial comment today.
But the decision sent shockwaves through Scotland Yard, with insiders describing the decision as "unbelievable".
Mr Dizaei's lawyers are expected to challenge his suspension in the courts, arguing that other senior white police staff have been allowed to stay in their posts while investigations into misconduct take place.
Mr Dizaei will be formally reinstated when his police warrant card is re-
turned. It is understood that other members of the MPA were unaware of the move this morning.The decision was taken last night by six members of the sub-committee, who held a session behind closed doors to discuss the case.
One insider said officials were left with no legal alternative but to overturn the decision to dismiss the officer after the appeal court quashed his conviction.
Mr Dizaei last year became the most senior officer in 33 years to be jailed for corruption.
He was convicted in February last year after a jury at Southwark crown court found him guilty of perverting the course of justice and misconduct in a public office.
The policeman was found to have arranged the false arrest of Waad al-Baghdadi, a web designer who had done some work with him.
Iranian-born Mr Dizaei, who wore his uniform at the time, was accused of arresting Mr al-Baghdadi outside the Persian Yas restaurant in Kensington, despite knowing he did not have reasonable grounds to do so.
He was also alleged to have perverted the course of justice by falsely claiming in written statements that he was a victim of an unprovoked assault by the man.
Mr Dizaei, previously a high-flying officer tipped as a possible Met Commissioner, was dismissed from the force in March last year.
In May this year he won an appeal against conviction.
The appeal court ruled that he should face a retrial and the case is expected to be heard early next year.
The officer, a former president of the National Black Police Association, pleaded not guilty to the charges at a court hearing in June. LES
Not Only is Rick Santorum a Homophobic Twat, He's One Very Sick Puppy Indeed
We have recently had a post Rick Santorum is a Twat, but this little.... I can't call it a gem, in fact I don't really know what to call it. But it comes in the second article after all the homophobia.
Forgive me do, I pray.
Santorum Says He "Didn't Hear" Audience Members Boo Gay Soldier, But Condemns Them; Perry and Romney Don't
It was one of the more jarring moments in Thursday night’s debate. Stephen Hill, a U.S. Army soldier serving in Iraq, asked whether he, as a gay American, would be able to continue serving if one of these Republican candidates won. Some in the audience booed, and Rick Santorum slammed the Obama administration for giving gay and lesbian troops “a special privilege,” which would end under a Santorum presidency.By Steve Benen | Sourced from Washington MonthlyThe former senator did not, however, have anything to say during the debate about the ugly audience reaction. Yesterday, in a Fox News interview, Santorum was willing to do the right thing.
“I condemn the people who booed that gay soldier. That soldier is serving our country. I thank him for his service to our country. I’m sure he’s doing an excellent job. I hope he’s safe and I hope he returns safely and does his mission well.
“I have to admit, I seriously did not hear those boos. Had I heard them, I certainly would have commented on them, but, as you know, when you’re in that sort of environment, you’re sort of focused on the question and formulating your answer. I just didn’t hear those couple of boos that were out there, but certainly had I, I would have said, ‘Don’t do that. This man is serving our country and we are to thank him for his service.’”
That’s a perfectly good answer. It may not be entirely truthful — other candidates said they heard the boos — and it doesn’t make up for Santorum’s awful substantive response to the question, but I’m glad he’s at least willing to condemn those booing a serviceman who’s putting his life on the line for the United States. It is, quite literally, the least he should do.
But what about the rest of the Republican field? Yesterday, Jon Huntsman and Gary Johnson, to their credit, also denounced those who booed Hill, albeit a day late. Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, however, refused requests for comment.
I don’t expect much from guys like Romney and Perry, and neither are likely to ever get a Profile in Courage award nomination any time soon, but if leading presidential candidates aren’t willing to stand up for an Army soldier serving honorably in Iraq, who will they stand up for?
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What Rick Santorum Means by 'Keeping Sex to Yourself'You know what Rick Santorum said last night regarding the fate of Don't Ask, Don't Tell in a Santorum administration:
That policy would be reinstituted. And as far as people who are in -- in -- I would not throw them out, because that would be unfair to them because of the policy of this administration, but we would move forward in -- in conformity with what was happening in the past, which was, sex is not an issue. It is -- it should not be an issue. Leave it alone, keep it -- keep it to yourself, whether you're a heterosexual or a homosexual.
Atrios noted the hypocrisy. ("If only the big gay gayeee gayee gays would stop talking about all the hot sexy sexytime all the damn sexytime everything would be ok. Oh, and have you met my wife and 4 children?") But let me just remind you of how Rick Santorum and his wife keep this personal stuff to themselves:
Father First, Senator Second
In his Senate office, on a shelf next to an autographed baseball, Sen. Rick Santorum keeps a framed photo of his son Gabriel Michael, the fourth of his seven children. Named for two archangels, Gabriel Michael was born prematurely, at 20 weeks, on Oct. 11, 1996, and lived two hours outside the womb.
Upon their son's death, Rick and Karen Santorum opted not to bring his body to a funeral home. Instead, they bundled him in a blanket and drove him to Karen's parents' home in Pittsburgh. There, they spent several hours kissing and cuddling Gabriel with his three siblings, ages 6, 4 and 1 1/2. They took photos, sang lullabies in his ear and held a private Mass.
"That's my little guy," Santorum says, pointing to the photo of Gabriel, in which his tiny physique is framed by his father's hand. The senator often speaks of his late son in the present tense. It is a rare instance in which he talks softly.
He and Karen brought Gabriel's body home so their children could "absorb and understand that they had a brother," Santorum says. "We wanted them to see that he was real," not an abstraction, he says. Not a "fetus," either, as Rick and Karen were appalled to see him described -- "a 20-week-old fetus" -- on a hospital form. They changed the form to read "20-week-old baby."
Karen Santorum, a former nurse, wrote letters to her son during and after her pregnancy. She compiled them into a book, "Letters to Gabriel," a collection of prayers, Bible passages and a chronicle of the prenatal complications that led to Gabriel's premature delivery....
That was in The Washington Post in 2005. That's how Santorum keeps this sort of thing to himself -- by welcoming a Post reporter into his office and showing him a picture of the now-dead fetus he and his wife heterosexually created. And talking about the book his wife wrote on the same subject.
By Steve M. | Sourced from No More Mister Nice Blog
