Galloway Eats More Humble Pie

BB celebs reeling after vote twist

The atmosphere in the Celebrity Big Brother house is grim after Wednesday's shock nominations.

Rula Lenska was left stunned at the betrayal by Respect MP George Galloway, who chose her despite being her closest friend in the house.

As a punishment for discussing previous nominations, George and Preston were called to the Diary Room and forced to choose three housemates who would automatically face the public vote.

They chose Traci Bingham, Rula and Maggot - unaware their comments were being shown to the rest of the group via the plasma screen. Both nominated Traci, while Preston chose Maggot.

George nominated Rula, explaining: "Mine would be Rula on the basis that she's trying too hard, in fact, she said that she was now going out to win.

"I never said I was out to win!" a furious Rula shouted at the screen.

Preston and George were left close to tears when they discovered everyone had heard their Diary Room comments. The pair had to spend the next hour trying to appease the nominees, who were all visibly upset. Redhead Rula spent the day giving George the silent treatment.

My heart bleeds for the stupid lapdog!

Quote of the Day 20.1.2006

Queen could punish BB MP under law

George Galloway could be punished by the Queen for entering the Celebrity Big Brother house under an ancient unearthed law.

Anyone absenting themselves from Parliament can be "amerced" - arbitrarily punished - under the 1382 Summons to Parliament Act.

The anti-war Respect MP faces that threat if the Queen decided he has not "reasonably and honestly" excused himself.

Former Labour colleagues would be only too pleased to see the 14th Century law used against him.

His antics on the show, including impersonating a cat, have already been raised at Westminster where MPs questioned how he was signing Commons motions while taking part in the contest.

Speaker Michael Martin, who confessed to watching the show, cleared him of wrong-doing after it was discovered the motions were posted before he went in.

Now opponents want the 1382 Act, which is still on the statute book, used against the MP for Bethnal Green and Bow.

Martin Salter, Labour MP for Reading West, urged Her Majesty to act.

"Should Galloway be prosecuted under this ancient law I trust that the Queen would deliver an appropriate punishment," he said.

"In my view Galloway should be sent back to the Big Brother house for the rest of his life with the instruction to perform deeming impressions of every animal that walks the earth."

Personally, I was going to suggest that Galloway should be hung, drawn and quartered, but the highlighted quote is a more fitting punishment for Saddam's lapdog.

Quote of the Day 19.1.2006

There are no wise people, only wisdom!

Men Enjoy Others' Misfortune More Than Women

Men enjoy others' misfortune more than women -study

LONDON (Reuters) - Germans have a word for it -- schadenfreude -- and when it comes to getting pleasure from someone else's misfortune, men seem to enjoy it more than women.

Such is the conclusion reached by scientists at University College London in what they say is the first neuroscientific evidence of schadenfreude.

Using brain-imaging techniques, they compared how men and women reacted when watching other people suffer pain.

If the sufferer was someone they liked, areas of the brain linked to empathy and pain were activated in both sexes.

Women had a similar response if they disliked the person experiencing the pain but men showed a surge in the reward areas of the brain.

"The women had a diminished empathic response," said Dr Klaas Enoo Stephan, a co-author of the report. "But it was still there, whereas in the men it was completely absent," he added in an interview.

The scientists, who reported their findings in the journal Nature, said the research shows that empathic responses in men are shaped by the perceived fairness of others.

"Empathic responses to other people are not automatic, as has been assumed in the past, but depend on the emotional link to the person who is observed suffering," Stephan said.

In the two-part study, 32 men and women volunteers played a game in which they exchanged money with four other people who were actors playing a part.

The actors were either fair characters, who returned equal amounts of cash that have been given to them, or unfair people who gave little or no money back to the volunteers.

In the second part of the experiment, the volunteers were placed in magnetic imaging brain scanners as they watched the actors receiving a mild electric shock, similar to a bee sting.

The scientists measured reactions of the volunteers in areas of the brain associated with pain and empathy and reward while the actors experienced pain.

The responses shown in the brain images were backed up with questionnaires filled in by the volunteers. Men admitted to having a much higher desire for revenge than women and derived satisfaction from seeing the unfair person being punished.

"We will need to confirm these gender differences in larger studies because it is possible the experimental design favoured men as there was a physical rather than psychological or financial threat involved," said Dr Tania Singer, who led the study.

Quotes of the Day 18.1.2006

"In short, we need to campaign for capitalism. To promote profit. To fight for free trade. To remind, indeed to educate our citizens about the facts of economic life." - David Cameron, 8.11.2005

"I don't believe in 'isms'. Words like communism, socialism, capitalism and republicanism all conjure up one image in my mind: extremism." - David Cameron, 1.1.2006

Does Cameron have solid convictions about anything, and if so, what are they?

Galloway Is A Pussy

It looks like the man with more lives than a Hindu cat maybe about to finally commit political suicide.

The REAL Wrestling God

For those who have not heard the news yet, RAW Superstar Kurt Angle invaded Smack Down and captured the vacant World Heavyweight Championship in a 20-man Battle Royal. Congratulations to the 1996 Olympic Gold Medallist, he earned it due to his epics with Shawn Michaels last year!

Forget Hulk Hogan and John Bradshaw Layfield, Angle is the real god of professional wrestling. It's true, it's damn true!

My Sentiments Exactly

BB's Galloway voters in MP protest

Rebel MP George Galloway has been accused of betraying his Muslim constituents for appearing on Celebrity Big Brother.

The Respect Party politician came under fire from a dozen local residents who staged a protest outside his office in east London.

They said he had abandoned his responsibilities in Bethnal Green and Bow and demanded he give back his MP's pay for the time he is in the house.

A Muslim voter, who wanted to be known only as Ali, said Mr Galloway was setting a bad example to Muslim children.

The community worker said: "I have spoken to a number of people at Friday prayers who voted for him who are very disappointed.

"They are disappointed that he's gone on the TV with a Page 3 model and a Baywatch woman. What sign is that giving to the Muslim community?. It's not what the Muslim community wants from their MP.

Michael Keith, leader of the Labour-led Tower Hamlets council, added: "We think the public should know that our MP is not here. He's not doing his job in Parliament and he's not doing his job in this community.

The group held up banners with slogans including "Get back to work Galloway", "Where's our MP?" and "Give your MP's salary back".

George Galloway & Celebrity Big Brother

“I am not too surprised about it, as Mr Galloway is a C-list politician with an A-list ego.” - Jim Fitzpatrick, Minister for London

Blair, Howard & Jiāng: The Retiring Axis of Evil

Ever wonder what the future holds for Tony Blair and his Australian counterpart John Howard after they leave office? Chances are that their retirements will parallel that of the former Chinese President Jiāng Zémín.

For 15 years Jiāng ruled China with an iron fist, suppressing religion, defaming, persecuting, imprisoning and murdering Falun Gong practitioners, political dissidents, human rights activists and ethnic minorities. Jiāng ‘retired’ from all his official state and Communist Party posts between 2002 and 2005. In ‘retirement’, Jiāng’s authority and prestige as a party grandee has been severely diminished by his successor Hu Jintao and Hu’s allies.

The career of the ‘Shanghai Snake’ is mirrored by those of the ‘Cheshire Cat’ and ‘Howard The Duck’. Just as Hangman Jiāng did, Blair and Howard are systematically targeting the Muslim minorities of their respective nations for persecution on the pretext of fighting the war against terrorism; treating other minorities such as the Aborigine and Jewish communities with latent contempt while demonising and detaining genuine refugees in what are nothing more than modern-day concentration camps. Blair, as Jiāng did, presides over a socialist-turned-fascist (if you believe there is any real difference between both fascism and socialism) organisation that remains socialist in name only, engages in corrupt practices, cronyism and subverts the rule of law when it suits him. As Tony Benn aptly put it in his memoirs, Blair behaves as if he is a medieval monarch with a divine right to rule.

When Blair and Howard do finally retire, they will eventually be seen as the vile and prejudiced autocrats that they are just as Jiāng is discreetly being exposed as within China itself. Unfortunately, their corrupt and evil legacies will live on for the foreseeable future and like Jiāng, will never be brought to justice for their crimes against humanity.

I Miss Old Labour.... ....Sometimes!

Skinner attacks Tory MP over cocaine

LONDON (Reuters) - Veteran left-wing politician Dennis Skinner was thrown out of Parliament on Thursday after accusing opposition Treasury spokesman George Osborne of taking cocaine.

In a session of questions on the economy, Skinner responded to an attack from Conservative Osborne, 34, a key ally of the party's new leader David Cameron, on the government's decision to cut its growth forecasts.

"In the 1970s and in a lot of the 1980s we would have thanked our lucky stars in the coalfield areas to have got growth of 1.75 percent," said Skinner.

"The only thing that was growing then were the lines of coke in front of boy George and the rest of the Tories (Conservatives)," said Skinner, in an unusually blunt attack.

Skinner, 73, a frequent critic of Prime Minister Tony Blair, is a no-nonsense traditional Labour lawmaker who represents a former mining area in the north Midlands.

The Osborne drugs remark comes two days after Cameron became leader of the Conservative party. He has shaken off questions over possible drug use that overshadowed the early stages of his campaign.

Cameron has repeatedly declined to say whether he used hard drugs before he was elected a member of parliament.

The Speaker of the House of Commons, whose job it is to keep order in the oak-panelled chamber, ordered Skinner to withdraw the statement. He ejected Skinner when the MP refused.

I have got to give Mr. Skinner credit where credit is due!

Why Iran Needs Regime Change Part 2

Iran's Ahmadinejad casts doubt on Holocaust

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday expressed doubt that the Holocaust took place and suggested Israel be moved to Europe.

His comments, reported by Iran's official IRNA news agency from a news conference he gave in the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca, follow his call in October for Israel to be "wiped off the map", which sparked widespread international condemnation.

"Some European countries insist on saying that Hitler killed millions of innocent Jews in furnaces and they insist on it to the extent that if anyone proves something contrary to that they condemn that person and throw them in jail," IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

"Although we don't accept this claim, if we suppose it is true, our question for the Europeans is: is the killing of innocent Jewish people by Hitler the reason for their support to the occupiers of Jerusalem?" he said.

"If the Europeans are honest they should give some of their provinces in Europe -- like in Germany, Austria or other countries -- to the Zionists and the Zionists can establish their state in Europe. You offer part of Europe and we will support it.

Historians say six million Jews were killed in the Nazi Holocaust. Ahmadinejad's remarks drew swift rebukes from Israel and Washington.

Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said in Tel Aviv Ahmadinejad was voicing "the consensus that exists in many circles in the Arab world that the Jewish people ... do not have the right to establish a Jewish, democratic state in their ancestral homeland".

"Just to remind Mr. Ahmadinejad, we've been here long before his ancestors were here," Gissin said. "Therefore, we have a birthright to be here in the land of our forefathers and to live here. Thank God we have the capability to deter and to prevent such a statement from becoming a reality.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: "It just further underscores our concerns about the regime in Iran and its all the more reason why it's so important that the regime not have the ability to develop nuclear weapons.

ONCE ALLIES

Religious hardliners in Iran do not publicly deny the Holocaust occurred but say its scale has been exaggerated to justify the creation of Israel and continued Western support for it.

Close allies when Iran was ruled by the U.S.-backed Shah, Iran and Israel have become implacable foes since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

Israel accuses Iran of giving arms and funding to militant Palestinian groups such as Islamic Jihad and of building nuclear weapons. Iran denies the charges.

Tehran calls Israel a "terrorist state" and has developed missiles which can reach it. It says it would use them if Israel, itself believed to be nuclear armed, tried to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities.

"The question is where do those who rule in Palestine as occupiers come from? Where were they born? Where did their fathers live? They have no roots in Palestine but they have taken the fate of Palestine in their hands.

Jews trace their roots in Israel back to Biblical times.

Ahmadinejad concluded his remarks by reiterating Iran's proposal that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict be resolved via a referendum of all the inhabitants of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank as well as Palestinian refugees in neighbouring countries.

"Whatever they decide will be accepted by all humanity. This is a clear democratic solution which is based on international principles," he said.

Let’s hope that Ahmadinejad is assassinated by either a Mossad agent or the prowrestler Goldberg in the very near future.

AIDS or Ebola?: The Tory Leadership Contest

After over six months of uncertainty, the Conservatives finally have a new leader to contest what will most likely by another General Election defeat at the hands of the neo-Nazi New Labour party. I can not say that any of the candidates inspired me with any confidence in them. Choosing between the final two candidates was like choosing whether you wanted to die from either the AIDS or Ebola viruses. In the end, the party choose AIDS as at least scientists are closer to finding a cure for that disease than they are with Ebola.

"Tory Blair v2.0" David Cameron (Michael Portillo was the original Tory clone of Adolf Blair) has a better chance of reducing "Mr. Recession" Gordon Brown's parliamentary majority in 2009/10, whereas David "Alan B'Stard with SAS training" Davis would have done far more damage to the party than Michael Foot did to Labour as party leader. Davis would have only plunged the Tories further into the abyss. For the most part, Cameron does seem to be making the right noises and has promised to move the party back towards the centre ground. Unfortunately, his morals and character leave a lot to be desired. The party has already had at least two drug abusers lead it in the past (Eden and more understandably the elderly Churchill during his second and final term as Prime Minister), do we really need another?

Quote of the Day 21.11.2005

The pen maybe mightier than the sword, but you should still carry a sword incase the pen fails to get the job done.

Middle Earth

To which race of Middle Earth do you belong? Find out at http://quizilla.com/users/dphenreckson/quizzes/To%20which%20race%20of%20Middle%20Earth%20do%20you%20belong%3F/

Roy Keane Leaves Manchester United

Today is the end of an era as Roy Keane, arguably the finest all-round midfielder of his generation has left Manchester United by mutual consent.

Life Is Not Fair

As Jeremy Irons' character, Scar, in The Lion King commented, "Life isn't fair!" Why do some individuals such as Eddie Guerrero die years after they stopped using drugs and alcohol, yet others such as George Best and professional wrestler Scott Hall continue to abuse their bodies to the point of near destruction, yet are still alive and older than Eddie was before his untimely death?

Eddie Guerrero Update

The initial autopsy reports on Eddie Guerrero state that he died from heart failure brought by both his heavy work schedule and his previous substance abuse before he adopted a straight edge lifestyle.

Religion, Thatcher, the Left & Hypocrisy

This past Sunday, I attended a public meeting organised by the local Campaign Against Climate Change (CACC). Although it was a very informative meeting, there were a number of comments and one particular incident that I took great expectation to.

Despite being a public meeting concerning climate change, a couple of the speakers used it as a platform to make a few jibes at Baroness Thatcher and her policies. While I am not exactly one of Thatcher's biggest supporters, I totally disagree with the claim of the UNISON speaker that the Iron Lady wanted to destroy the trade unions. While Thatcher was understandable hostile to the trade unions, she only set out to destroy trade union militancy that had held Britain to ransom for much of the 1970's, destroying productivity and increasing inflation up to 27%. The result of this militancy only ended up harming the trade union's own members and their families most.

What disturbed me more than the digs at Thatcher was the way a Christian youth leader was heckled at by the pre-dominantly left-wing crowd for expressing his views on climate change in the context of the End Times. One elderly and hard of hearing individual commented to me that if he wanted to hear such “rubbish”, he would go to church instead, seemingly unaware of the fact the meeting was being held inside a Unitarian Church.

As far as the Left is concerned, it is acceptable to make off-topic slurs against Thatcher, but anti-social to express a religious viewpoint on the matter at hand. It only goes to show how hostile the Left is to religion and why it is so out of touch with people’s need to believe in something far greater than themselves. As I commented at the meeting, if an Imam had expressed an Islamic attitude to climate change, no would have dared said a word against him because the Left subscribe to the French Trotskyite doctrine of Political Correctness. Yet because the person in question was a Christian, he’s fair game!

Proof positive that familiarity does breed contempt!

R.I.P Eddie Guerrero 1967-2005

In extremely sad news, the 38-year-old World Wrestling Entertainment Superstar, "Latino Heat" Eddie Guerrero passed away in his hotel room yesterday in Minneapolis. The cause of death has yet to be determined, although Eddie has had past drug and alcohol abuse issues up until four years ago.

World Wrestling Entertainment Chairman Vince McMahon described Eddie's death as a huge loss, commenting that “Eddie was a wonderful, fun-loving human being. Eddie was a consummate performer.” Eddie was a proud and talented man, devoted to both his family and the Almighty and took great pride in his profession. However Eddie was also tortured by his own inner demons and sometimes his fiery nature and temperament got the better of him. I hope Eddie is finally at peace with both himself and the Almighty.

Eddie is survived by his wife Vickie and daughters Shaul, 14, Sherilyn, 9, and Kaylie Marie, 3.