Random News Stories

[P3nT4gR4m]

Senior UK police chief requests sack:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24320717

Class A drugs should be decriminalised and drug addicts "treated and cared for not criminalised", according to a senior UK police officer.

Writing in the Observer, Chief Constable Mike Barton of Durham Police said prohibition had put billions of pounds into the hands of criminals.

He called for an open debate on the problems caused by drugs.

The Home Office reiterated its stance and said drugs were illegal because they were dangerous.

Mr Barton compared drugs prohibition to the ban on alcohol in the US in the 1920s which fuelled organised crime.

Mr Barton told the Observer: "Have we not learned the lessons of prohibition in history?"

"The Mob's sinister rise to prominence in the US was pretty much funded through its supply of a prohibited drug, alcohol. That's arguably what we are doing in the UK."

A Home Office spokesman said: "Drugs are illegal because they are dangerous. They destroy lives and blight communities.

"The UK's approach on drugs remains clear, we must help individuals who are dependent by treatment, while ensuring law enforcement protects society by stopping the supply and tackling the organised crime that is associated with the drugs trade."

I assume he's got another job lined up. This is one of the more amusing ways for a cop to hand in their notice though.

LOL. What a fucking idiot. Did nobody explain to him how pissed off the emperor gets when you point out the fact that everyone can see his johnson??

[Cain]

-

[minuspace]

lolz

The Swiss army created a scenario in which France had split up into several regional entities, following a political and economic crisis.

One of these fictitious regions, known as Saonia, had decided to invade Switzerland to retrieve stolen money that was apparently held in Swiss banks.

The BBC's correspondent in Switzerland, Imogen Foulkes, says details of the exercise may surprise the French government.

"The fact that this story was dreamt up in the middle of a real tax row between France and Switzerland, over assets placed by wealthy French citizens in Swiss banks, is, the Swiss army insists, complete coincidence," she says.

Just coincidence.  Like this training exercise last year:

"Last year's practice imagined the collapse of the euro, leading to social chaos across Europe and an influx of refugees to Switzerland."

That means that next time we can count it as hostile?

[Telarus]

http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/206883/boat-filled-with-weed-crashes-into-nude-beach/

"A 20-foot boat filled with 80 pounds of weed capsized at a popular nude beach/surf spot in Santa Cruz, California. Nobody was hurt, because it was totally awesome."

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/206883/boat-filled-with-weed-crashes-into-nude-beach/

"A 20-foot boat filled with 80 pounds of weed capsized at a popular nude beach/surf spot in Santa Cruz, California. Nobody was hurt, because it was totally awesome."

[Junkenstein]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-24379841

A couple have been left "mystified" after an oil painting of an "ugly" woman in a white headscarf was sent to them in the post with no explanation.

The parcel was addressed to Keith Webb at his home in Winchester, Hampshire, and contained the unmarked portrait.

He said his wife Sue felt "threatened" by the image, which arrived on Wednesday without an accompanying note, so they banished it to the garage.

Royal Mail has been unable to tell the couple the identity of the sender.

Wonderful. More of this kind of thing.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-24379841

A couple have been left "mystified" after an oil painting of an "ugly" woman in a white headscarf was sent to them in the post with no explanation.

The parcel was addressed to Keith Webb at his home in Winchester, Hampshire, and contained the unmarked portrait.

He said his wife Sue felt "threatened" by the image, which arrived on Wednesday without an accompanying note, so they banished it to the garage.

Royal Mail has been unable to tell the couple the identity of the sender.

Wonderful. More of this kind of thing.

[Telarus]

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/05/holy-trollers-how-to-argue-about-religion-online/

[Trivial]

http://nationalreport.net/obama-uses-money-open-muslim-museum-amid-government-shutdown/  

Apparently Fox reported on this.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

http://nationalreport.net/obama-uses-money-open-muslim-museum-amid-government-shutdown/  

Apparently Fox reported on this.

Oh Fox. When will you ever learn?

One of the things I like about the current cultural trend is the enormous amount of hard-to-filter satire that's emerging everywhere. People are getting to a point where they are flooded with so much misinformation that it's breaking the sanctioned false information channels.

[Junkenstein]

Probably worth a thread of it's own but I just can't stop laughing yet:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24418847

A new body to tackle some of the UK's most serious crimes has been launched.

Labelled the "British FBI", the National Crime Agency (NCA) will "relentlessly pursue" organised criminals, the home secretary said.

Theresa May told the BBC it would focus on organised, economic and cyber crime, border policing and child protection.

Its head, Keith Bristow, warned criminals to expect "continuous disruption", including the confiscation of their assets.

Keith Vaz, the chairman of the influential Home Affairs Select Committee said: "The organisations going into the NCA have a combined budget of £812m, yet the new agency will only have £473.9m next year.

"The Home Office needs to account for where this money has gone."

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Probably worth a thread of it's own but I just can't stop laughing yet:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24418847

A new body to tackle some of the UK's most serious crimes has been launched.

Labelled the "British FBI", the National Crime Agency (NCA) will "relentlessly pursue" organised criminals, the home secretary said.

Theresa May told the BBC it would focus on organised, economic and cyber crime, border policing and child protection.

Its head, Keith Bristow, warned criminals to expect "continuous disruption", including the confiscation of their assets.

Keith Vaz, the chairman of the influential Home Affairs Select Committee said: "The organisations going into the NCA have a combined budget of £812m, yet the new agency will only have £473.9m next year.

"The Home Office needs to account for where this money has gone."

Now all you have to do is find a self-loathing cross-dresser that likes to eavesdrop.

Wait.  England.

Carry on.

[Junkenstein]

The day gets funnier with EDL incompetence:

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/04/edl-leader-stalks-tweets-wrong-person

As intimidation tactics by a leader of a far-right group go, it sounds scarily effective: using Twitter to invite yourself round to the home of a leading critic for "a chat" before tweeting photos of the person's block of flats, the front door of their apartment and a letter addressed to them.

However, it would have been somewhat more effective if Tommy Robinson, the leader of the English Defence League, had not gone to the address of someone with a differently-spelled name about 40 miles away from his intended target.

The editor of EDL News, a critical website and Twitter feed which bills itself as "bringing you the news that the English Defence League often won't", has labelled the incident embarrassing and bizarre for Robinson.

Amazing. Just imagine the stream of thoughts that resulted in this being a good idea. Try and do this without laughing. 

[Junkenstein]

The day gets funnier with EDL incompetence:

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/04/edl-leader-stalks-tweets-wrong-person

As intimidation tactics by a leader of a far-right group go, it sounds scarily effective: using Twitter to invite yourself round to the home of a leading critic for "a chat" before tweeting photos of the person's block of flats, the front door of their apartment and a letter addressed to them.

However, it would have been somewhat more effective if Tommy Robinson, the leader of the English Defence League, had not gone to the address of someone with a differently-spelled name about 40 miles away from his intended target.

The editor of EDL News, a critical website and Twitter feed which bills itself as "bringing you the news that the English Defence League often won't", has labelled the incident embarrassing and bizarre for Robinson.

Amazing. Just imagine the stream of thoughts that resulted in this being a good idea. Try and do this without laughing.

Moon, who lives in London and has helped run the EDL News site since 2010, said he was away watching football but was alerted to the tweets and photos by a friend, and left baffled.

"I didn't understand them," Moon said. "I thought he seemed to be stalking someone but it didn't seem to have anything to do with me." Then came another tweet, showing a man's hand holding a letter addressed to a "Garry Moon" at an address in Reading. This was when the penny dropped.

Moon said: "Robinson had been helped out in the past by someone who tracked down the servers we were using at the time, which were in Reading. I thought, 'He's only gone and found a slightly different name in a phone book and headed to Reading by mistake'."

[MMIX]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-24379841

A couple have been left "mystified" after an oil painting of an "ugly" woman in a white headscarf was sent to them in the post with no explanation.

The parcel was addressed to Keith Webb at his home in Winchester, Hampshire, and contained the unmarked portrait.

He said his wife Sue felt "threatened" by the image, which arrived on Wednesday without an accompanying note, so they banished it to the garage.

Royal Mail has been unable to tell the couple the identity of the sender.

Wonderful. More of this kind of thing.

Its a portrait of his great great grandma sent by an unknown family member. Apparently he's quite embarrassed to have blown off like that about it since he's related to the ugly old crone. His wife is still insisting it stays in the garage though.