Multiple bigamist escapes prison

Al Beeb:

A female bigamist who admitted bigamy for a fourth time is speared jail in Manchester, a court hears.

Well, especially given her job, an amusing typo.

Excuse of the Day

Mrs S-E: "Can I speak to the IT Helpdesk, please."

Reception: "Err, no, sorry."

Mrs S-E: "Is there a problem?"

Reception: "Well, somebody has spilt a can of Irn-Bru over their desk and their phone is out of order."

Hmmm. Lucky they're not the ICT helpdesk, then.

No, no, fuck-off, no

This.

Not for the reasons you might suspect - the government actually has a responsibility to ensure that taxpayers money is only paid out in compensation where it is either deserved (or legally entitled - we can argue about the mismatch between the two later). This is the other side of the responsibility it has to ensure that compensation is paid out when deserved (or legally ...)

Now, I have no idea on the number of squaddies who are actually exaggerating the effects of an injury to claim compensation but exaggerating the effects of an injury to avoid work / get on light duties / get some additional time off is an military pastime of considerable antiquity (rather than an 'honoured tradition'). And, to move uniforms for a moment, the number of police officers retiring on medical grounds, especially to avoid a disciplinary investigation, is something that has quite correctly attracted considerable opprobrium. So it isn't impossible, despite the overwhelming majority who, I am sure, are doing their best to get back to a reasonable life after horrific injury, that one or two are trying it on a bit.

Any way, back to the point. RIPA is not a fucking anti-terrorist law. It is not the "Regulation of Terrorist Investigations" Act. Yes, some of the powers available under the Act should only be used to investigation more serious crimes (calling Hazel Blears - a better example than Jacqui Smith - a thieving scumbag - for example) but the Act brought in to a regulatory / legal framework a whole bunch of investigatory techniques (i.e. covert surveillance, confidential informants) that were used anyway, as well as replacing the previous and largely inadequate regimes for other forms of surveillance.

More Wikistupidity

Ah, the lovely smell of hypocrisy. Wikipedia, with its overt insistence on "public domain" only - yet when an 'influential' Wikipedia editor is caught out stitching together partial hi-res images from the National Portrait Gallery, we get this nonsense from the borg:

But the (sic) Wikipedia volunteer David Gerard accuses the gallery of bureaucratic empire building.

"They honestly think the paintings belong to them rather than to us," he wrote.

Now, Mr Gerard is an Australian, albeit living in London, and the sub-title of his blog pretty much says it all. Even if he was a British citizen, the 'us' he is clearly referring to is the elitist (for a peculiar definition of elite) Wikimedia Foundation. You could make a moral case that the original paintings belong to the British public. Morally and legally, the hi-res pictures clearly belong, under British law, to the National Portrait Gallery.

David is asking for comments on the talks between the borg and the victims - personally, I'd like to see Wikimedia Foundation bankrupted for breach of real law as opposed to it editing inconvenient people (i.e. those who do not hold the borg opinion) out of existence. For an encore, what about Mr Coetzee prosecuted and imprisoned for breaching the DMCA (he claims he can pick and chose from copyright law - let's pick the legal jurisdiction of the cabal - he bypassed an electronic protection measure, the same crime that Jon Johansen was prosecuted for in Norway). But then I'm just a reactionary grumpy old git.

"Rule of Law" or "Whim of Bureaucrat"

Well, this cropped up in my morning reading. Well, Brunstrom's gone, so to keep the legally mandated average fuckwittedness level up in Wales, somebody has to turn into a real pillock - so, I thought "ASBO for growing tomatos" - seems like a pillock to me.

Then I read the article and the focus of my fury shifted, borrowed a spare booster rocket from ESA, and speed off in to the distance. Now, I don't know how much of this is unreliable BBC reporting, how much is Mrs Ware's opinion and how much is actually how things work in Port Talbot.

the council operates a green, amber and red warning system which ultimately leads to an anti-social behaviour order.

No, please. If the council wants to operate a system tracking behaviour before it applies to local magistrates for an ASBO and, in court, the matter is duly (Ed notes: the typo there was 'dully' which is most likely to be true as well) considered and stupid applications are thrown out, closely followed by the defenestration of the council official concerned, then fine. But that the council considers that it awards ASBOs or that the magistrates are so supine that they issue on demand (as they used to do with Community Charge default orders)?

Very Brunstrom.

Duh

England must play much better to win.

Not that this quote actually appears in the article, only in the taster, but Agnew actually gets paid for this level of insight?

Wikiunreliability

Thanks to TravelGall, I get this. Ahh, yes. Something highly secret, that was never referred to as "the letter of last resort" and contained instructions seen by few. Rumour had it, in my day, that it said "set course for Wellington and the best of British be with you, love and kisses, JM".

Monday, it must be Monday

Mrs S-E: Ugh, there are cat hairs on the scanner. Which cat has been copying its bum?

Master S-E: And who's it emailed the pictures to?

Little comment on a non-story

If (c)rap artistes can call themselves 'nigga', why can't a Nigerian company (that would be full of real Africans not 'African Americans') call a JV 'Nigaz'?

Are Americans of not-quite-recent African origin ('cauz homies, we're all Afro if you have long enough sight) really so special / delicate / in need of cosseting?

I will wish you good-night with a couple of links: here and here and the last word from the Ministry for the Eradication of Commonsense:

nigga

1. The spelling, pronounciation, meaning and usage of the word has been changed to convey a sense of pride and defiance, thereby removing the racial distinctness of the original term. Although similar in spelling and pronounciation to the original, its meaning is completely different. The word "nigga", when used between close friends, is as positive as the word "nigger" is negative. In general, whites should avoid use of the term, even in a positive sense, unless they are absolutely certain it will not be taken as derogatory.

God is Love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God

Okay, finding an appropriate quote for the title was hard work, but that is 1 John 4.16.

So, the Indian government has repealed the antique colonial law making male homosexual acts illegal. I am entirely happy about this - as a horrible right-wing reactionary (sorry, I meant libertarian but the new 'comment is free' translation module kicked in) the personal activities of consenting adults should not be a matter of the criminal law.

What I find luvverly is the contrasting reactions quoted of the Catholic and Muslim 'leaders':

"Our stand has always been very clear. The church has no serious objection to decriminalising homosexuality between consenting adults, the church has never considered homosexuals as criminals," said Father Emanuel.

"But the church does not approve of this behaviour. It doesn't consider it natural, ethical, or moral," he said.

Okay - I can live with that. The traditional interpretation of Christianity does not accept homosexuality but this appears to be a case of "love the sinner, hate the sin" - a perfectly rational position to take (even though I personally disagree with it - but then I am not a traditionalist Catholic, or any sort of Roman Catholic for that matter.) But here:

"This is absolutely wrong. We will not accept any such law," Ahmed Bukhari told the AFP news agency

What? They have repealed a previous law, not made mincing mandatory or arse-banditry compulsory. And anyway - fuck off you evil shit - you don't have the right to accept or reject laws, you pathetic 7th century bigot. Now, thank you, having got that off my chest, I can return to aimless web browsing.

Why's this so hard?

Cause: Government reduces orders for ships. (And this, and this and endless others)

Effect: Shipbuilders plan to close otherwise uncompetitive shipyards.

Simple, no? So why this?

Ah, yes. Because our politicians are incompetent fuckwits. SNAFU, then.

PS: Yes, I realise the irony of typing 'incompetence' as opposed to 'incompetent'. I'd blame the mists of screaming rage but I'm just taking a break from work.