No Mercy

You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace.

William Tecumseh Sherman, letter to Mayor James M. Calhoun of Atlanta.

The Telegraph reports on new orders that the American commander in Helmand province, Afghanistan has given to use relentless airpower against Taliban elements. There is no mercy and a relentless pursuit each and every time the Taliban launches an attack. And it has stunned the Taliban and completely disrupted their plans for a spring offensive.

Aircrews say they have been told to show no mercy, but to press home their advantage until all their targets have been destroyed. The Apache attack was one of five in three days in -Helmand, where British troops operate alongside a much smaller contingent of American infantry and special forces.

Capt Staley, the commander of the Apache unit based at Kandahar airfield, described how his helicopters had arrived just after an ambush by Taliban fighters with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns, on a detachment of American special forces and an infantry unit. In the second Apache, 1st Lt Jack Denton, 26, was in radio contact with the special forces unit, Scorpion 36, on the ground.

The soldiers said they had information that the Taliban were escaping across the river. "Look out for any boats," they said. He spotted a small aluminium fishing boat pushing out from the eastern shore of the 200-yard-wide river. In it were six or seven people. When they caught sight of the Apaches, they started to paddle back towards shore.

The aircrew hesitated. "It seemed a little premature," said Lt Denton. "We didn't have hostile intent or a positive ID from the ground commander." But the special forces soldiers were adamant that, although they could not themselves see the men on the boat, they must be the Taliban who had attacked them. That, said Lt Denton, was good enough for the Apache crews.

By then, most of the men were ashore, walking quickly towards the tree line. They appeared to be pulling clothing over their heads - burqas, Capt Staley thought, and Lt Denton concurred. As the helicopters came in to attack, Lt Denton said, one of the men turned to face him and dropped to his knees. "I think he knew that there was no hope," he said. "He was making his peace."

Capt Staley's helicopter hit them with its rockets while Lt Denton, the gunner in the other helicopter, opened up with his 30mm cannon. Three or four of the Taliban died where they stood and the rest made a dash for the trees. "They were trying to get to their bunkers," Capt Staley said. "We started a diving run and destroyed four of the six people we could see, including the Taliban commander."

War is a terrible, terrible thing. But when you are in it, you must win it. And the sooner you win it, the less the suffering all around will be. I think Sherman has it exactly right. You cannot refine it, you can not make it easier and you have to get it over as quickly as possible. There appears to be an American commander in Afghanistan who understand that. The war will be ultimately shorter as a result.

(Somewhere around the Crabitat I have a first edition copy of Lloyd Lewis' Sherman: Fighting Prophet, a biography of Sherman. It is actually still available, Amazon has it. Highly recommended.)

Riding Out The Typhoon

Or rather, riding IN the Typhoon. Telegraph reporter Adam Lusher draws the assignment of taking a ride in the newest British fighter aircraft, the Typhoon (aka Eurofighter). The long-delayed joint project by Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain is almost ready to go operational. That is, if they can get a gun for it. Or rather, get a way to load the gun. There is a 27mm cannon in the Typhoon. As ballast. There is no loading mechanism or ammunition. The RAF, understandably, wants that fixed.

Some joker has got his hands on of one of our aircraft. Unfortunately, that joker is me. I am at 36,000ft in an RAF Typhoon (aka the Eurofighter, cost £66.7 million), "flying" the result of Britain's most expensive and probably most controversial weapons project at almost the speed of sound above an unsuspecting part of Lincolnshire.

What is truly alarming is not the speed or the altitude or the cost, or even that I have just been asked to execute a turn, but the fact that to grip the control column, I have to detach at least one hand from the sick bag I am clutching to my chest.

My single-handed wobbling of the stick isn't the "right stuff" either. "Normally," muses Group Captain Al Mackay from the seat in front of me, "we would pull more than 1.1G - given that 1G is what pilots experience when they are sitting on the ground."

The head of 29 Squadron retakes control for another "gentle turn". An invisible hand clamps me to my seat, then hurls me through the sky. Resistance is useless. Because I can't lift my arms. And there's insufficient air in my lungs to beg for mercy. An alarmingly calm voice promises: "That was about 3.5G. Of course, we regularly use 7 to 8G."

I knew I risked a rough ride with this aircraft, but then the Typhoon has had a pretty rough ride itself. Even when it was still just the "The Eurofighter", it was being derided as a "Cold War relic" - useful if the Soviet Union were to rise from the dead and send MiGs swarming into air-to-air dogfights over central Europe, but useless for supporting ground troops in today's battle against insurgents in the Afghan mountains.

Lusher has an amusing, self-depreciating writing style that makes the article quite fun to read. For example: "Quite why The Sunday Telegraph's most fearful flyer was chosen to be "informed" is another matter. Suffice to say that newsroom politics can get quite brutal." The article does provide a lot of background on the issue and is admittedly an attempt by the RAF to educate the public on the Typhoon. But next time, pick me to ride in the plane! I promise I'll write a very nice review. After I finish with the sick bag.

Hoo’s On First

Writer John Preston has an interesting article in the Telegraph today detailing a bit of his family's connection to the discovery of the Sutton Hoo trove. If you aren't familiar with Sutton Hoo, this was an enormous (and enormously important) archaeological find made in Britain just before the Second World War broke out. A complete ship had been buried under a mound, along with many fabulous objects. The burial site dates from the Anglo-Saxon period and is believed to have been the tomb of one of the Anglo-Saxon kings. It turns out that Preston's aunt was the first person to find many of these artifacts.

Not only that, the Sutton Hoo treasure had been discovered just as Britain – and the world – stood on the brink of war. As my aunt said later, ‘It was extraordinary to be uncovering the remains of this lost civilisation at a time when our own seemed about to be blown to smithereens.’

Somewhere in the back of my mind, a seed began to take root. Here, surely, was a terrific subject for a novel – one that would try to recreate the excitement of the dig while examining the relationships between the people concerned.

Over the next few days, I started reading everything I could about the 1939 excavation. A trip to the London Library revealed that several of the main players had left diaries and there were also exhaustive analyses of the discoveries.

The next week I went up to Sutton Hoo. On a bank above the Deben estuary stood a group of burial mounds. At first glance, they looked disappointingly like bunkers on a golf course. And yet it was here, beneath the largest of the mounds, that the treasure had been found. Two or three hundred yards away is a large white Edwardian house with views out over the water and, on the opposite bank, the town of Woodbridge.

In 1939, the house was occupied by a 56-year-old widow called Edith Pretty and her nine-year-old son, Robert. Mrs Pretty, it soon became apparent, was a woman of considerable abilities. A keen traveller, she had visited the Pyramids in her youth and she later became one of the first women magistrates.

She had also given birth to her only child at the then almost unheard-of age of 47. Four years later, her husband died, leaving her and Robert alone in the 15-bedroom mansion.

Edith Pretty was a keen spiritualist and made regular trips to London to see a medium. There, it’s thought, she tried to make contact with her dead husband. It also seems likely that her interest in spiritualism had some bearing on her decision to start excavating the mounds in the summer of 1938. According to some accounts, ghostly figures had been seen there, along with a man on a white horse.

When she approached Ipswich Museum for advice, they recommended a local archaeologist called Basil Brown. Socially, at least, Basil Brown was Edith Pretty’s polar opposite. He’d left school at 12 to become a farm labourer, and had later worked as a milkman and a wood-cutter.

His great interest, however, was archeology. He read voraciously, taught himself four languages and proved to have a remarkable flair for sniffing out antiquities. A colleague wrote of him later: ‘His method was to locate a feature and then pursue it wherever it led, in doing so becoming just like a terrier after a rat.’

Preston has written a fictionalized account of the events at Sutton Hoo that will be published next month (ironically, by Viking). But his article is well worth reading. It puts a human face on the archaeological discovery. I've also found a few worthwhile links that discuss the Sutton Hoo site and the trove of objects. The Sutton Hoo Society has an interactive tour of the site itself. Wikipedia entry here. Pictures and history here, here, here and here.

The discovery of Sutton Hoo changed the way historians viewed the Dark Ages. At the time, it was thought that most of civilization had fallen into outright barbarity and isolation. But the trove contained objects from the Byzantine Empire proving that some trade routes were still operating even then.

Fading Light

Mark Steyn has a must read column today in the Chicago Sun-Times. He takes a look at the Democrat's behavior recently and reminds us that there are other people in the world making decisions, plots and plans. Those schemes take into account what they see on the global news networks. They can draw their conclusions on what America is willing to do based what CNN is beaming out 24/7. And the Democrats are not sending out a pretty picture.

Everything's difficult, isn't it? In the Democratic presidential candidates' debate, Sen. Barack Obama was asked what he personally was doing to save the environment, and replied that his family was "working on" changing their light bulbs.

Is this the new version of the old joke? How many senators does it take to "work on" changing a light bulb? One to propose a bipartisan commission. One to threaten to de-fund the light bulbs. One to demand the impeachment of Bush and Cheney for keeping us all in the dark. One to vote to pull out the first of the light bulbs by fall of this year with a view to getting them all pulled out by the end of 2008.

In 1914, on the eve of the Great War, British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey observed, "The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime." Whether he was proposing a solution to global warming is unclear. But he would be impressed to hear that nine decades later the lights are going out all over Washington.

This week, both the House and the Senate voted for defeat in Iraq. That's to say, Congress got tired of waiting for deadbeat insurgents to get their act together and inflict devastating military humiliation on U.S. forces. So America's legislators have voted to mandate the certainty of defeat. They want the withdrawal of American forces to begin this October, which is a faintly surreal concept: Watching CNN International around the world, many viewers unversed in America's constitutional arrangements will have been puzzled by the spectacle of a nation giving six months' notice of surrender. But the cannier types in the presidential palaces will have drawn their own conclusions.

For example, as Congress was voting, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would withdraw from the post-Cold War arrangements of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty in protest at American plans to install missile defense systems on the Continent.

The damage of all of this to the US is real and will have real consequences. Hillary Clinton wants to tell us that the role of the US in the world is diminished because of the current administration. I'd say it is diminished by the behavior of the Democratic-led US Congress. It is not all about the US. There are others watching. And they are seeing weakness and a lack of will. They make their decisions based on what they are seeing. The lights are going out, alright.

Nothing To See

The lawyer for one of the men arrested in Alabama on weapons charges last week says that the arrests of his client was a big deal about nothing. Ok, he's a defense lawyer, that's his job. It's rather unlikely that he is going to give an interview to the media and say something along the lines of, "Heck, this is nothing, you should have seen what else they were hiding out in the rental unit on route 45." But, face it, 2,500 rounds of ammunition is small potatoes, the hand grenades are not.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Raids that resulted in the arrests of six alleged militia members and the seizure of hundreds of hand grenades and bullets were "much ado about nothing," a defense lawyer said Friday.

A cache of ammunition that was confiscated _ 2,500 rounds _ wasn't that large, and the scores of homemade hand grenades that agents seized could be made with powder from fireworks and components readily available in military surplus stores, attorney Scott Boudreaux said.

Even prosecutors say the ragtag group called the Alabama Free Militia had no intended target and was simply stockpiling munitions, said Boudreaux, who plans to meet this weekend with his client, Raymond Kirk Dillard, 46, of Collinsville, a supposed major in the paramilitary group…..

…..A court document indicates Dillard, unknowingly met with an ATF informant at a flea market in Collinsville about four months ago, told him he was organizing a militia and later accepted him into the group as a sergeant major.

The informant was at the home of Cole, an alleged militia lieutenant, about two months ago when he saw grenades, according to the document, a sworn statement by ATF agent Adam Nesmith. Investigators found more weapons as they monitored the group through the informant and with video and audio surveillance, Nesmith said.

During the raid, agents recovered 130 hand grenades, a grenade launcher, about 70 hand grenades rigged to be fired from a rifle, a machine gun, a short-barrel shotgun, 2,500 rounds of ammunition, explosives components, stolen fireworks and other items.

Sifting through all that based on media reporting isn't a precise science. If they are declaring one of the weapons to be a real machine gun - that is an automatic go to jail offense unless you have the proper Federal license. If the weapon is not capable of full-automatic, then it isn't a machine gun. But there's no way to tell which it is given the description. If the "short-barrel" shotgun was sawed off, that's usually a go to jail. (If it just had a plain old short barrel, you can buy those quite legally). The grenades will really get them sent to jail, though. There is no reason to have grenades and that should get these guys serious jail time. These guys sound more like idiots than a serious threat, but it's much better that they are off the streets before they did get dangerous.

To Be A Woman In Iran….

…..Is to be treated as rather a lot less than a second class citizen. If you dare to raise your voice about the injustice of that treatment, you can expect to go to prison. You won't get to go on Oprah and describe how you are being held down by the man. You will sit and rot in a prison.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Iranian police shoved and kicked them, loaded them into a curtained minibus and drove them away. Hours later, at the gates of Evin prison, they were blindfolded and forced to wear all-enveloping chadors, and then were interrogated through the night.

All 31 were women — activists accused of receiving foreign funds to stir up dissent in Iran. But their real crime, says Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh, was gathering peacefully outside Tehran's Revolutionary Court in support of five fellow activists on trial for demanding changes in laws that discriminate against women.

During her 15 days in prison, "I tried to convince them that asking for our rights had nothing to do with the enemy," Abbasgholizadeh told The Associated Press by telephone from Tehran. "But they insisted that foreign governments were exploiting our cause."

The March 4 arrests highlight how women's rights, which were making some advances under the reformist presidency of Mohammad Khatami, are being rolled back by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who succeeded him in August 2005.

Activists say that while world attention has focused on the West's standoff with Iran over its nuclear program, the abuses of women's rights have intensified, using fear of a U.S. attack as a pretext.

Over the past 10 months, security forces have "become more and more aggressive even as women's actions have become more peaceful and tame," said Jila Baniyaghoub, an activist who has also spent time in jail.

Liberals should be the most adamant critics of the regime in Iran - and the regimes in much of the Middle East. The arrest of these women for the "crime" of demanding equal rights should be enraging anyone who believes in equality. But it's easier and safer to bash George Bush, right? I have my differences with this administration, but the idea of spreading liberty - that one is completely, utterly acceptable to me. Because it is the right thing to do. Every, single time.

For Us And For Yourselves

Omar from Iraq the Model writes what should be a wake-up call for the posturing politicians. (No, I am not optimistic that it will be heard, but I hold out hope that the Reid-Pelosi regime is rapidly running up onto the rocks with the media turning on them). This one is a must read. (Including the extended entry where the title for this post came from).

Why Are the Democrats Doing This?

Instead of trying to come up with ideas to help they try to halt the sincere effort to stabilize Iraq and rescue the Middle East from a catastrophe.

I am Iraqi and to me the possible consequences of this vote are terrifying. Just as we began to see signs of progress in my country the Democrats come and say ‘well, it’s not worth it, so it’s time to leave’.
Evidently to them my life and the lives of twenty five million Iraqis are not worth trying for and they shouldn’t expect us to be grateful for this.

For four years everybody made mistakes; the administration made mistakes and admitted them and my people and leaders made mistakes as well and we regret them.
But now we have a fresh start; a new strategy with new ideas and tactics reached after studying previous mistakes and designed to reverse the setbacks we witnessed in the course of this war.

This strategy although its tools are not fully deployed yet is showing promising signs of progress.
General Petraeus said yesterday that things will get tougher before they get easier in Iraq and this is the kind of fact-based realistic assessment of the situation which politicians should listen to when they discuss the war thousands of miles away.

Reid and Pelosi are determined to lead America to defeat. They have no regard - none whatsoever - for the bloodbath that will ensue if we pull out of Iraq. They have no regard for the fact that AMERICA will lose, not the Republicans; our nation. They have not one, single bit of care about the victims they will leave behind in their mindless pursuit of defeat for their own nation. They have all the time in the world for dictators, no time at all for the man they sent to carry out a war in the nation's interest.

For them, there is only political advantage, not the real interests of the people they purport to serve. Nothing whatsoever for the people they are condemning to die for their perceived political advantage. The politicians running madly after the Democratic nomination for president say that Bush diminished the standing of the US in the world. They'd be more accurate if they looked in a mirror.

So, Here’s An Interesting question

If one keeps snakes as pets, the pet will require feeding. This entails, of course, feeding another animal to your pet. This is kind of how it works in the real world. So, this is actually an interesting little question. A Phoenix man is in rather serious trouble for feeding a three-week old mongrel puppy to his pet boa constrictor. The specific charge is felony animal cruelty.

PHOENIX — A man who admitted feeding an oil-slicked puppy to a pet boa constrictor was jailed Thursday and ordered to undergo drug and psychological testing before he's sentenced.

Joseph E. Beadle, 40, pleaded guilty last month to a charge of animal cruelty, a felony.

He was set for sentencing Tuesday but failed to appear and a Maricopa County Superior Court judge issued an arrest warrant for him. Beadle surrendered to authorities Thursday morning and was jailed with bond set at $5,000.

Police reports said Beadle fed the mixed-breed, 3-week-old puppy to the 8-foot-long snake in June as two 15-year-old boys watched. He poured cooking oil on the dog so it would be easier for the snake to swallow, according to the reports.

Ok, let's be clear here. I think the guy is a major jerk. But let's just ask a serious question: how, exactly, is this morally any different than PETA "rescuing" animals only to turn around, kill them and dump the dead, furry corpses in a dumpster? (The two PETA "activists" in North Carolina were acquitted of their animal cruelty charges but convicted of littering for dumping the victim's carcasses.) How? PETA killed over 14,000 "rescued" animals in the past few years. This guy, as reprehensible as his actions were, killed one puppy. He's found guilty of a felony and PETA gets hit with littering.

How, exactly, is this right?

No Cover At All

One of my astute readers pointed this out to me, I had missed it. But it indicates that Nancy Pelosi is in real trouble. Her friendly treatment by the media is rapidly evaporating. And they are exposing her fraudulent new direction and shadow foreign policies for what they are - meaningless words based on a "this is how the world should be" worldview instead of a "this is how the world actually functions when you aren't dreaming" reality check.

THE CONGRESSIONAL leaders who visited Damascus this month to meet Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad gave a practical test to the oft-stated theory that "engaging" his regime is more likely to produce results than the Bush administration's policy of isolating it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was particularly unstinting in her goodwill, declaring that she had come to see Mr. Assad "in friendship, hope, and determined that the road to Damascus is a road to peace." In a statement, her delegation reported that it had talked to Mr. Assad about stopping the flow of foreign terrorists to Iraq and about obtaining the release of kidnapped Israeli soldiers. It also said it had "conveyed our strong interest in the cases of [Syrian] democracy activists," such as imprisoned human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni.

Three weeks have passed, so it's fair to ask: Has there been any positive change in Syrian behavior — any return gesture of goodwill, however slight?

Mr. al-Bunni might offer the best answer — if he could. On Tuesday, one of Mr. Assad's judges sentenced him to five years in prison. His "crimes" were to speak out about the torture and persecution of regime opponents, to found the Syrian Human Rights Association and to sign the "Damascus Declaration," a pro-democracy manifesto.

Oh, please do read the whole thing. It is merciless. It all but calls Pelosi and those she purports to speak for completely out of touch with reality. I rather suspect the more centrist Democrats have about had it with Pelosi and Reid and the old excrement is about to hit the air-moving device. Expect rapidly deteriorating media coverage for the left-leading leadership.

Don’t Believe Everything You Read

There has been a lot - far too much - hyperventilation about the "scandal" at the World Bank involving Paul Wolfowitz. The Opinion Journal has been very vocal about trying to get the real story out. Because there is a lot more going on than the media would have you believe. Put in simple terms, the entire uproar appears to be manufactured by staff at the bank in reaction to Wolfowitz's reform efforts. And it isn't just the Opinion Journal that is supporting Wolfowitz. The primary clients of the World Bank are voicing support for him - against the European coup attempt.

One of the most revealing subplots in the European coup attempt against World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz is who is coming to the American's defense. The rich European donor countries want him to resign, while the Africans who are the bank's major clients are encouraging him to stay.

You wouldn't know this from the press coverage, which continues to report selective leaks from the bank staff and European sources who started this political putsch. The latest "news" is that the European Parliament has asked Mr. Wolfowitz to resign, thus sustaining that body's reputation for irrelevant but politically correct gestures. If Mr. Wolfowitz leaves, no doubt some of the europols will angle for the job.

The more telling story is the support for the bank president from reform-minded Africans. At a press conference during this month's World Bank-IMF meetings in Washington, four of the more progressive African finance ministers were asked about the Wolfowitz flap. Here's how Antoinette Sayeh, Liberia's finance minister, responded:

"I would say that Wolfowitz's performance over the last several years and his leadership on African issues should certainly feature prominently in the discussions . . . . In the Liberian case and the case of many forgotten post-conflict fragile countries, he has been a visionary. He has been absolutely supportive, responsive, there for us . . . . We think that he has done a lot to bring Africa in general . . . into the limelight and has certainly championed our cause over the last two years of his leadership, and we look forward to it continuing."

There are a lot of Afican countries that want Wolfowitz to stay on - but the Europeans appear to be doing their damnedest to get him. The media is playing along here. But maybe we should listen a bit to the people who will be impacted by the coup, no? Maybe their voices need to be heard and not just those of the "elites".

You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet

Get ready for the whole enormously over-long primary campaigns to be turned on their ear. It looks very, very likely that Fred Thompson is going to come in. And he has the backing of some of Ronald Reagan's inner circle. The world of politics just got very, very interesting.

Ronald Reagan's closest allies are throwing their weight behind the White House bid by the late president's fellow actor, Fred Thompson.

The film star and former Republican senator from Tennessee will this week use a speech in the heart of Reagan country, in southern California, to woo party bigwigs in what insiders say is the next step in his coming out as a candidate.

A key figure in the Reagan inner circle has now given his seal of approval to Mr Thompson, best known as a star of the television crime drama Law and Order.

As deputy chief of staff, Michael Deaver was a key member of the "troika" of aides who kept the Reagan White House on track. With the chief of staff James Baker and special assistant Ed Meese, he was the master of image and presentation.

Mr Deaver sees the same raw material in Mr Thompson as was perceived in Ronald Reagan, describing him as someone "that could really make a difference". He added: "He is very popular in his party. He could change this whole thing and turn this primary system upside down.

"As Ronald Reagan used to say, after he stole a line from Al Jolson, 'Stay tuned, you ain't seen nothing yet'."

Mr Thompson's political and acting careers have been closely interwoven for more than 20 years. He originally worked as a lawyer and -Republican campaign -manager, and was a key legal counsel in the Watergate scandal in the Seventies

He was then asked to play himself in a 1985 film about a real-life judicial corruption scandal in Tennessee, supposedly because the producers could not find a professional actor who could portray him plausibly. That launched his acting career, which he has maintained alongside stints as a senator and continued Republican campaigning.

This is going to be enormously entertaining. Fred Thompson is a real wild card in the 2008 presidential race. There will be much hyperventilation from the Democrats about Thompson's media exposure, there will be outright fear from a lot of candidates. Yep - should be fun to watch. Let's see if he can touch people the same way Reagan did. My guess? He can. And that is scaring the heck out of a lot of politicians.

Faux Outrage

Ok, was it a fairly tasteless stunt? Sure it was. But the puffed up, hyperventilating outrage in this article is a bit much. Sony threw a party to celebrate the release of it new PlayStation game, God of War 2. The party featured a decapitated goat. (This was frankly stupid on Sony's part).

Electronics giant Sony has sparked a major row over animal cruelty and the ethics of the computer industry by using a freshly slaughtered goat to promote a violent video game.

The corpse of the decapitated animal was the centrepiece of a party to celebrate the launch of the God Of War II game for the company’s PlayStation 2 console.

Guests at the event were even invited to reach inside the goat’s still-warm carcass to eat offal from its stomach.

Sickening images of the party have appeared in the company’s official PlayStation magazine – but after being contacted by The Mail on Sunday, Sony issued an apology for the gruesome stunt and promised to recall the entire print run.

Critics condemned the entertainment giant, which produces scores of Hollywood blockbusters each year, for its "blood lust" and said the grotesque "sacrifice" highlighted increasing concerns over the content of video games and the lengths to which the industry will go to exploit youngsters.

At the event, guests competed to see who could eat the most offal – procured elsewhere and intended to resemble the goat’s intestines – from its stomach.

Now, here's what, pardon the expression, gets my goat about this. The newspaper reproduces a picture from the Sony magazine layout starring the goat. But they have pixellated the goat to avoid offending delicate sensibilities. They have left - completely unpixellated or cropped out - a young woman with a rather obviously painted on costume. And the paint is not opaque (pause for the vast sucking sound as readers jump to the link). Yep - no problem with that, but the goat has to go. The paper also gets all het up about this, but expresses no outrage over the massive ritual slaughter of animals, including goats, by slitting their throats in many countries.

What Sony did was pointless and tasteless. But I'll bet they sell a lot of video games. So maybe it wasn't pointless at all, was it?

How Many MPPs Does It Get?

That's Miles Per Plank. The Daily Mail is running a story about a three wheel car made of wood. The builder, a furniture maker, took more than 2000 hours to complete his masterpiece. And it's pretty darn sharp looking, I might add.

The two-seater was put together using the chassis and 602cc engine from a Citroen 2CV. Mr Wood then built up layers of African mahogany around a basic mould using a boat-building technique known as 'cold moulding'.

The car is a a three-wheel adaption of the classic four-wheeled 1969 Citroen Diane and is able to do between 55 and 70 miles per gallon.

Cool looking car. I don't think it would pass US safety standards, though.

Today’s Ironic News Department

Warning: Your "green" solution may turn your house black - as in burned out ruin. Residents of a highly touted "low carbon" housing development in Britain have been warned that should not, under any circumstances, turn on their rooftop solar photovoltaic panels. Because they may start a fire and burn the entire house to the ground.

Residents of a low-carbon housing development endorsed by the Prince of Wales have been warned not to activate solar tiles on their roofs as they may catch fire.

The housebuilder responsible for the five homes, part of a development of 123 in Upton, Northants, has used the incident to question whether Gordon Brown's intention of building "zero carbon" homes is deliverable by 2016.

The problem on the site, which was master-planned by the architect EADW in conjunction with the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment, emerged weeks after Ruth Kelly, the Communities Secretary, announced plans to slash red tape "to make it easier for people to put green technology on their homes".

Lafarge, the roofing manufacturer, warned customers that, as a "precautionary measure", they should not connect up its PV-80 solar photovoltaic roof tiles after a defect was found on a site in Germany last year, according to an investigation by Regenerate magazine.

Photovoltaic tiles generate electricity from sunlight and Lafarge said that it had been informed of a problem within one of BP Solar's junction boxes which had overheated and partially melted.

"In this case, the underlying wood structure near the junction box was scorched. No other damage occurred," it said in a statement.

Just another indication that there are no easy, simple solutions to complex problems. (How much carbon does a house fire emit? Want to bet it is more than the carbon savings over the entire projected design life of the house?)

On Another Rat Front

I guess today must be Raturday. Related to the previous post, we have this item from the Daily Mail. It seems that there is a big stink in Britain over a decision to go to an every other week garbage collection scheme. (If it doesn't stink now, it will soon, but we digress). Anyway to prove how foolish this idea is, a television station aired video of rats gamboling in an overflowing dumpster. The problem, as the Daily Mail reports, is that the television station used stunt rats.

Apparently in London you are only ever a few metres away from a rat, which was definitely true of GMTV presenter Ben Shepherd.

With the fortnightly rubbish collection issue hitting the headlines, the breakfast TV programme featured a rat infested bin outside the studio, but failed to mention that the rodents had been deliberately placed for dramatic effect.

Standing outside the GMTV studio just after 8am, presenter Ben Shepherd, stood in front of an over-flowing rubbish bin crawling with rats as he spoke about the issue, leading viewers to believe the vermin are a naturally occurring sight at the London studio.

There is no word if the stunt rats were from Chicago. Who knew there were stunt rat rentals?