Random News Stories

[Cain]

Just wait until you see their pictures:

The Heir Apparent to the Baronetcy of Osborne, George Gideon Oliver Osborne:



Edward Michael Balls

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

The word that comes to mind is "prig".

PRIGGISH BALLS.

[Cain]

Balls is actually somewhat more human than Osborne*.

I mean, there are things that dissect cows and kidnap people for anal probing experiments in flying saucers who are more human than Osborne, so I know it's not saying much.

*And a great deal less slimy.  Again though, not a hard achievement.

[Golden Applesauce]

There's a certain kind of face - tall, wide and flattish, especially a flat nose - that just feels like it needs to be punched, in the same way that big round bellies are meant to be rubbed.

Mr. Balls has such a face.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

I think it's his piggy little eyes.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/101880-why-gun-makers-fear-the-nra

In the days after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre on Dec. 14, executives with a half-dozen major U.S. gun manufacturers contacted the National Rifle Association. The firearm industry representatives didn't call the NRA, which they support with millions of dollars each year, to issue directives. On the contrary, they sought guidance on how to handle the public-relations crisis, according to people familiar with the situation who agreed to interviews on the condition they remain anonymous.

While the Obama administration had reacted meekly to mass shootings in Tucson and Aurora, Colo., Sandy Hook would be different. Twenty first-graders were dead. The president, a gun control supporter who previously had avoided the radioactive issue, wiped away tears when talking on television about the "beautiful little kids." As a nation, the normally stoic president added, "We have been through this too many times." In crass political terms, he was newly reelected and had less to lose in confronting pro-gun forces. The NRA's leadership faced a choice: Go to the mattresses as usual, or acknowledge the special horror of Sandy Hook and offer an olive branch.

[Junkenstein]

UK Press regulation bullshit part 442902 -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21825823

A deal has been struck between the three main political parties on measures to regulate the press in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal.

An independent regulator will be set up by royal charter, although opinions vary over whether this is now underpinned by law.

Labour leader Ed Miliband said the charter "would be underpinned by statute", but the PM denied this.

Press reform campaign group Hacked Off has welcomed the deal.

Deal struck, everyone relived that things can carry on as usual.

Note- People who have made the deal still can't agree. Hacked Off welcome a deal that they don't know the detail of.

Number of arrests and convictions still paltry. It's all OK though, 3 talking heads apparently agree.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21786506

The most notorious spy who fooled the world was the Iraqi defector, Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi.

His fabrications and lies were a crucial part of the intelligence used to justify one of the most divisive wars in recent history. And they contributed to one of the biggest intelligence failures in living memory.

He became known as Curveball, the codename given to him by US intelligence that turned out to be all too appropriate.

[Junkenstein]

Never saw this coming:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21835363

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner says she has asked for the Pope's intervention in the Falklands dispute between her country and the UK.

Visiting the Vatican, Mrs Kirchner said she had asked the Pope to promote dialogue between the two sides.

Argentine Pope Francis was elected last week and will be formally installed as pontiff at a Mass on Tuesday.

In the past he has said the Falkland Islands, a UK overseas territory, belong to Argentina.

"I asked for his intervention to avoid problems that could emerge from the militarization of Great Britain in the south Atlantic," Mrs Kirchner told reporters after having lunch with the Pope.

"We want a dialogue and that's why we asked the pope to intervene so that the dialogue is successful."

Kirchner: Crazy or Calculating? She may want to read up on the history of the catholic church in the UK. I wouldn't always call it accommodating. Until the potential oil is determined, this will just go on and on. Go and look at a drugs or guns story.

[Junkenstein]

I can't help but think "Golden Dawn"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21822165

Katidis denied he gave a Nazi salute. "I am not a fascist and would not have done it if I had known what it meant," Katidis said on his Twitter account.

The player - a former captain of Greece's under-19 team - was fiercely criticised on social media for the salute after scoring the winner in AEK's 2-1 victory over Veria in the Olympic stadium on Saturday.

He insisted he was simply pointing at a team mate in the stands.

It's impressive that the "I didn't know what it meant" defence is still alive.

It's also impressive that you have to be acknowledged as a certain kind of idiot to use it.

It's further impressing me that people still buy this.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9913463/My-father-the-hate-preacher-Nate-Phelps-on-escaping-Westboro-Baptist-Church.html

Because you haven't thought about these fools in a couple of months.

It was five minutes to midnight as Nate Phelps quietly picked his way through the three interconnected rooms where his siblings slept. At the end of the corridor there was the dining room. To the right, a closed door to the church which adjoined the house. There was no sound from the top of the staircase that led to his father's room. Nate stood there in the darkness, staring at the old red clock in front of him and watched as the minute hand approached 12 and the moment he would turn 18.
He ran as fast as he could, back through the three rooms and out of the door into the night. Nate had no idea who had heard him or who, if anyone, was coming after him. He jumped into his waiting car, an old banger he'd bought for $300 from the high school security guard the previous week, and prayed as the engine spluttered to life. Then he disappeared, away from the church, from his father's abuse and from the only life he'd ever known.
Phelps is the sixth of 13 children of Fred Phelps, the notorious pastor of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. Westboro first came to international attention after its members (consisting largely of members of Phelps's extended family) picketed the funeral of Matthew Shepard, the student who was murdered in 1998 because he was gay.

Article full of the expected. Enjoy.

By expected, I mean this kind of thing:

But Nate Phelps says the perception in some circles that his father was once this champion of civil rights, railing against discrimination, is laughable. "We would all call black people 'DNs' at home. It stood for Dumb N------ and was our private language," he says. "We thought it was clever to call them that in front of them. He was deeply prejudiced, and he believed the Bible said they were cursed."

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Wow, that was a really interesting article. Holy shit, those poor kids.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

I'm surprised there's only forty people in that church.
In a sane world, they'd be marginalized and overlooked. And Phelps would have been locked up a long time ago.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2416651,00.asp

Facebook CEO has 99% approval rating. Reminds me of somewhere.

[AFK]

America?