"The Rant of the Week" found to cure warts.

Hello,

I am creating a web directory, The-Insight.com, and would like to include your website Brianhughes.blogspot.com under the "health/herbal remedies" category.(!?!?) If you'd like to be added, please follow this url:

http://www.the-insight.com/add.cgi

We shall put all our efforts into having your link up in less than 24 hours; and if you find our site useful for your visitors, please add a reciprocal link.

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Thank you very much,
James T. Monaghan
webmaster

Chaps, I have ordered Airforces I, 2, 3, 4 and 5 to swing by your various abodes to collect you for an emergency summit in Montecarlo. I believe that at the end of a week of full and frank constructive networking we will have come up with a satisfactory and mutually beneficial response to Mr. Monaghan's invitation.

(Please note, I do not think that terrorists are involved. However the current advice to stay indoors, down in the cellar with enough Mars bars to see you through the next four or five decades still applies.)

Resourceful Thinking

Who says Americans don't have great ideas?

Hello Happiness...

To quote Alistair Campbell's diary, as read to the extremely impartial Lord Hutton during the inquiry that, should Tony Blair forget, the rest of us watched in full and managed to make up our own minds about..."We need to fuck Andrew Gilligan where it hurts!"
Mission accomplished it would appear. And Greg Dyke's head hits the floor with a well-aimed machette courtesy of Campbell and Blair as well!
I never thought I'd find myself defending the BBC...or to give it its proper Orwellian name, 'The Ministry of Truth' (no seriously...Orwell's Ministry of Truth really was actually aimed at the BBC where he originally worked before becoming a novelist)...but in this particular instance I'll gladly side with them.
The Hutton report is one step closer to all-out facism. So far we've had the removal of human rights, access to lawyers and freedom of choice because of terrorist fears, the increase of racism in the form of convincing the general public that asylum seekers who are trying to escape the horrors of dictatorship have no place in our glorious nation, and the restructuring of education only for those elite enough to accept a right-wing agenda. And now Auntie Beeb is being forced to rethink itself and comply with government spin, or to put it another way, the surpression of real news in favour of pro-government rhetoric.
At this rate the television will be full of scenes of Tony Blair every night set to up-lifting music after the fashion of Saddam in his salad days. Oh wait...we already had that at the election.
These are disturbing times. To think my grandfather fought a war to keep fascism at bay! And now we've elected it into power...and we smile happily as the rascism rises, the oppression tightens and the right-wing religious extremists remove truth, freedom and tolerance from our daily lives.
Tony Blair is a lying shit! He did 'Sex-up' the dossier. Claire Short and Robin Cook, along with various heads of intelligence that Lord Fucking Hutton conveniently ignored, actually said so on Channel Fours 'What the Hutton Report Won't Tell You' as broadcast the other night.
I don't know what Screaming Lord Hutton's fucking definition of 'a lie' is. But to me, somebody altering the wording of a document in order to sell it incorrectly to a cynical country as a basis to murder thousands of innocent people abroad constitutes a lie of fucking enormous proportions!
As for Campbell...what a cunt! What an unbelievable cunt! He wasn't even elected for Christ's sake!
So...the question is folks...do we let these bastards continue to destroy democracy? Do we allow them free reign to lock people up without question, to censor the news, to control our lives, to destroy freedom of choice and to keep us subdued?
Unfortunately the answer is yes...because we've got our football and our 'I'm a Celebrity, Get me out of here' and our Harry Potter et al. And as long as we've got our mindless shit then we're happy, right?
Well, tough shit folks...we're going down.
And so's my bottle of Scotch.

The Lord is my shepherd.

The long awaited Hutton Report has been rapturously welcomed by Tony Blair.

British prime minister Tony Blair said a judge's report into the suicide of an Iraq weapons expert had exonerated him of the charges of lying to parliament and cleared his government of any underhand dealings.

"Lord Hutton has concluded that all of my government's ridiculous claims, exaggerations, inaccuracies and massive whirling dervish spin doctoring of the British intelligence dossier were the result of honest error, not of dishonest scheming."

"I am proud to lead a government that does not engage in deception. I am proud to lead a government that listens to the people. If these people happen to be inept, ill-informed and incompetent Dolly the sheep toadies is that my fault? (Not that thay are of course.) No, and the good Lord agrees. How much worse would it be if the British public had to suffer an arrogant government which only listened to smartarses, experts and boffins? My government is on first name terms with the vast range of well qualified soothsayers, conspiracy theorists and spoon-benders and these are very nice people with their hearts and minds in the right place. Cherie even knows a nice bloke from Australia who has lots of good ideas about lots of things. If more Australians were like Peter Foster the world would be a far better place ... and he can get you a slice of the action at a damn good price."

"I invite the doomsayers and the Doubting Thomases to read the report in its entirety, not just the sexed up excerpts that are splashed across page three of "The Dirty Digger". In particular I would refer these people to Lord Hutton's recognition of my government's record. Legislation that found a cure for the common cold, eliminated world famine, reversed global warming, banned whales from maliciously beaching themselves and put the taste back into tomatoes."

As a token of the government's appreciation of Lord Hutton's magnificent public service, a celebration is to be held next Tuesday. After the hanging of Robin Cook, Claire Short and a number of former BBC executives at Traitor's Gate, the public is invited to proceed in an orderly fashion to Buckingham Palace where they can join members of the government for strawberries and champagne, tea and scones and the ever popular bread and circuses.

Prime Minister Blair has foreshadowed legislation that will make it mandatory for copies of Gideon's version of the Hutton Report to placed in all British hotel and motel rooms.

On a personal note Mr. Blair added, "Whilst I appreciate and am indeed flattered by his Lord Huttonship's recommendation, I believe His Holiness already has enough on his plate without having to consider this 'umble, ever so 'umble prime minister's elevation to sainthood."

In conclusion the Prime Minister said: "I want to make it absolutely clear I fully respect the independence of the BBC. I have no doubt that the BBC will continue as it should do to probe and question the Government in every proper way. What this does now is allow us to draw a line in the sand on the new level playing field. There will be no more shifting of the goal posts and everyone will be expected to play with a straight bat until we get the chequered flag."

*****************************************
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's former communications director Alastair Campbell has welcomed the impending execution of the Chairman and a number of other BBC executives, "What a pack of arseholes! Gave spin doctoring a bad name, the whole lot of them. Got sprung. Unforgivable! Dickheads!"

Sir Uriah Heep, the new chairman of the BBC has unreservedly apologised to the Government and the family of David Kelly. On his way to work Sir Heep also apologised to all his fellow bus passengers. Alighting from the bus he apologised to a large number of pedestrians, several sets of traffic lights and a flock of pigeons.

"My task now is to restore honesty, accountability and integrity to the BBC. As a first step the entire News and Current Affairs staff will be sent off to "The Alistair Campbell Re-education Holiday Camp" to sharpen up their which side their bread is buttered on skills", said Sir Heep.

Pulling a cat of nine tails from his briefcase and giving himself a damn good thrashing he added, "See! Now look what they've gone and made me do!"

*****************************************

News of the Whitewash Report swiftly spread around the world. The Australian Prime Minister, stepping out of a telephone booth and assuming his role as The Man of Steel, demanded that all naughty children what had called him bad names come up in front of the class and write "Sorry" a hundred times on the blackboard and promise never ever to do it again. "How hard is it to apologise?", he thundered, "I'm going to stay here until everyone understands what they've done wrong and have received their full punishment."

President Bush when asked if the Hutton Report had any consequences for his administration forcefully retaliated, "Errr derrr guys? Reality check! What the goddam hell has a survey about the sexual behaviour of Americans in the 1950s got to do with the price of eggs in Chinastan!"

Cross posted from http://sedgwick.bloghorn.com/

Hutton dressed up as Spam...

Calls have been made for an inquiry into allegations that the Hutton Report was 'sexed-up' in favour of the British government. Angry protestors, having dismissed the report as a great big 'whitewash', are now demanding a full investigation, claiming that Hutton deliberately ignored testimonials from Robin Cook and Claire Short.
Said a spokesman for the general public, "This report has been deliberately fabricated to mislead parliament in order to save Tony Blair's rubbery neck. Ultimately it has lead to the death of Andrew Gilligan's career."
"The whole thing is a total fabrication of the facts," said Mr Hogwart, owner of the Fisherman's Arms tonight. "We all know that Blair's a bullshitter an' no poncy mate of 'is 'oo claims he's an ex-judge can palm us off with a load of arse-lickin' lies."
After several more pints Hogwart added, "This seriously calls into question the legal system. Some of those stuck-up, wig-covered heads ought to roll."
Bowing to demand for the immediate inquiry into the Hutton affair Tony Blair has appointed Alistair Campbell to spearhead the investigation in order to preserve integrity and approach the subject from an unbiased point of view.

Why go to Mars?

Though I can not reveal my source for this incredible information, I felt compelled to reveal to the millions of visitors to this website the real reason that American President George W. Bush is pushing for manned missions to Mars. According to Professor Gwelix of the University of Boston Albuquerque Campus, NASA is working hand in hand with the Vatican, and by orders of The Pope must begin sending real live people, specifically Catholic Priests, to Mars. Professor Gwelix worked hard to confirm rumors that The Pope believes Jesus now lives on Mars because of a theory that the Red Planet is actually the secret location of Heaven, and if we can find Jesus there, then we can maybe coax him to introduce us to God himself. This rumor proved false, however, with Vatican Spokesmen strictly denying that they ever believed Mars to be the location of Heaven. The Vatican wants to make it very clear that they do not believe Heaven could possibly exist on another planet because they are still pissed at Astronomers like Copernicus and Gallileo for ruining the idea that Earth is the only planet in The Universe.

Upon further investigation, Professor Gwelix is now working to confirm a new theory that the reason Catholic priests want so much to go to Mars is more for vacationing reasons. While vacationing on the Red Planet, priests will be free from all behavioral restrictions they live under on Earth, as Vatican Law does not reach beyond the boundries of Planet Earth. Professor Gwelix has found plans for the construction of a resort on Mars for vacationing Catholic Priests that will be regularly stocked with 14-year-old homosexual boys.

I would like to point out that, at the start of this post, I mentioned that I could not reveal my source for this amazing information, then proceeded to mention a Professor Gwelix of the University of Boston Albuquerque Campus. Please forget that I ever mentioned this man's name.

John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia, Man of Steel and owner of a very nice cardy.

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Just passing through...as the turd said to the string underpants.

It's become a bit dusty round these parts recently. (Personally I blame Sedgwick for shooting his crusty old load all over those photographs of Steve Irwin below.) But archaeology, diets and whisky by the bucket have been keeping me busy. Anyhow, I just thought I'd drop by and check on how things were going...or 'not' as the case might be. Since not being bothered to write a single word for this board after Christmas 2003, our viewing figures have dropped to twenty a day. Exactly the same as they were when I was composing fifty-thousand word essays every day for the damned thing, which just goes to show what a waste of time that was.
So I'm off again for another six months. I shall leave you with these words of wisdom: The expression 'If you haven't got anything nice to say don't say anything at all' lies at the root of totalitarianism.
TTFN

Out of the mouths of babes, crocs and dickheads.

Crikey, every man and his blue heeler has had a bite of this one. Figured I might as well dangle my thoughts out as well. (No children or other animals were harmed in the making of this posting.)

The Australian "crocodile hunter" Steve Irwin has sparked outrage because he dangled his baby son in front of a 13ft crocodile's jaws.

The television celebrity, famous for picking up poisonous snakes and wrestling with huge reptiles for the cameras, brought his month-old baby into an enclosure during a public show at the Australian Zoo reptile park in Queensland. He held the child, called Robert, in one arm while using his other to hold a dead chicken in front of the crocodile, named Murray.



Irwin was unrepentant: "I was in complete control of the crocodile. Robert was tucked right in my arm. This kid has to grow up to be croc savvy. I am teaching him to be completely familiar with crocodiles."

Wife Terri also came to Mr Irwin's defence claiming it was a parent's duty to educate children against the dangers of tropical life.

"Children learn to swim at an early age. Would you rather have a child learning to swim under duress or to have them drown?," she said. "Children need to be taught the dangers of crocodiles."

Evidence would suggest that Steve Irwin had a frontal lobotomy immediately after his birth. Sadly a swift and sure vasectomy did not immediately follow.

Not to put too fine a point on it Steve is a prize goose. This fine upstanding Aussie icon much beloved of Dubbya dickhead is to parenting what Herod was to the 'Stranger Danger' campaign.

Right Steve, it is essential to teach young Bob about the dangers of the big bad backpacker eating crocodiles. I'm sure that he was taking in your every warning word, making relevant notes on his Palm Pilot and texting your bon mots to every one of his one month old peers.

Yes Steve, it is wise to teach children about danger. I remember doing it with my child. I don't remember doing in front of a large crowd of camera toting, fee paying tourists at my workplace. I don't remember using my child as a prop for my circus act.

O.K. Mrs. Steve I would rather have a child learning to swim under duress than have it drown. Better still I'd rather have it eaten by a crocodile. Crikey, that'd teach it. By the livin' jingoes it wouldn't do anything careless ever again!

Poor old Steve is a bit pissed off at the treatment he is copping from the media. Steve has happily sucked on the bountiful and nurturing nipple of the media in recent years. Tough titty Steve if the media then turns all Lady Macbeth turn my milk into gall on you. The media is reptilian by nature Steve. Didn't your dad ever tell you "never smile at crocodiles" ... and never hop into bed with them without using protection.

Speaking on Channel Nine's A Current Affair, Mr Irwin says he did it to help his child become more familiar with the environment he lives in.

"What I would do differently is I would make sure that there was no cameras around," he said. "But unfortunately you're under the microscope and I can't escape cameras."

Gee whiz Steve, you didn't know that all those tourists what bought tickets to your performance would be taking pictures did you? I've never heard of that happening before.

From David Salmon Producer/Reporter Seven News - Brisbane. "Australia Zoo put out a media alert on Friday morning (Jan 2) advising the arrival of three elephants to the zoo, along with some Tibetan nuns, and the Croc Hunter. Believing that such a grouping could provide some interesting pics we decided to take a look for a possible colour story. Our Seven Queensland crew did a great job in recognising the potential of the yarn while still at the zoo, at what was a media event called by the croc-hunter himself!"

What was that Steve said again? "But unfortunately you're under the microscope and I can't escape cameras."

By the living Jiminy Crickets Steve, looks like you were desperately trying to hide your light under a microscopic bushel and then out of the blue along came all those bloody stickybeak Channel Seven media types what ambushed you good and proper. What bastards, Steve!

"I will continue to educate my children and the children of the world so that they don't share water with crocs, that's the most important thing," he said. "That's why I was put on this planet, that's why God built me and put me on this earth, is to show people how to avoid conflict with animals that can kill you."

Good thinking Steve, but the most important thing you could do is to make sure that your own child doesn't share centre stage with his dad ... and probably not during the croc feeding part of the show.

As anyone who has a dog knows, it isn't exactly wise to go near the animal when its eating its food. I know from my own experience that if a waiter comes too close to my table when I'm tucking into a delicious "Canard a la Montmorency" he can expect a pretty conflictful nip on the ankle.

Sounds to me like Steve is trying to avoid conflict with media what can kill your image and career.

Look here Steve, I like a succulently sauteed infant in chasseur sauce as much as the next Aussie icon, but I dont pass off my gluttonous epicurean indulgence as Self Preservation 101 for Neonates. "Bobby, don't you go too close to Nigella's lovely busty substances lest she grabs you by the scruff of the neck, skins you, bones you, lightly coats you in seasoned flour and pops you in a preheated oven for 20 minutes, turning regularly."

Poor ole Steve. Why can't people leave him alone and treat him like any other common or garden millionaire in the street. (Oops, sorry! I forgot that's not currently P.C. ... tall iconic poppies and all that.)

Have to admit that I am really a bit torn on this issue. As Granny Biddy Stickynose I think Irwin was an absolute goose for this stunt. On the other hand I really do want Steve to keep dangling his offspring in front of 14 foot crocs thereby allowing the process of natural selection to proceed apace. With any luck, all Irwins would all end up as petit fours for reptiles. Crikey a world without feral Irwins sounds a pretty good place to me by jingoes golly gosh.

I lay before you evidence which might be offered as a defence against any charges that might be laid by the relevant legal authorities.

"In front of us right now is the greatest leader Australia has ever had and the greatest leader in the world," Mr Irwin told the audience at Australia Zoo, north of Brisbane. "




"Not guilty by reason of insanity, your Honour. "

Crikey, you just couldn't get a good reliable frontal lobotomy back in those days.

BTW Steve, I gather there's an orphan kiddy by name of Annie Borden currently up for adoption. I'm sure she'd be more than pleased to teach you and Mrs. Icon a thing or two about the dangers of sharp chopping instruments.

Pre-New Year Guff...

Bob Monkhouse, last of the orange-faced Great British Comics (and no I'm not including Des O'Conner in that statement who, despite having the obligatory perma-tan head, is about as much of a humorous comic as Zit Magazine was), one-time cartoonist and legendary smarmball has died aged 75. No Americans were involved.

An estimated 25,000 people have been killed in the Iranian earthquake. Fortunately the U.S. Government haven't deemed this a great enough tragedy to warrant another one of their bile-spewing feel-good concerts. The ancient world heritage town of Wham-Bam has been completely destroyed in the quake and a further 40,000 residents have been left homeless. No Americans were involved...apparently.

Michael Jackson claims that the police beat him up in custardy, displaying the bruises on his arm as proof. To be honest his arm's that thin and twisted just grabbing him with cotton wool would have had the same effect. No human beings were involved.

And finally I'm starting my New Year's drinking binge early, building up to a huge party on New Year's Eve followed by projectile vommitting on Thursday morning. You can rest assured that no Americans will be involved.

Festive Reindeer Droppings!

Bah humbug, Christmas bollocks, sweaty aggressive shoppers, cold rain, slush, sneezes, dribbles, dead turkeys, crap presents, rubbish telly... Jesus Harold Corbett, I can't be arsed with this one!
Christmas is way too obvious a target and festive rants have become almost a tradition now. If you're stupid enough to be manipulated by this crass comercialised bullshit (and you are...we all fucking are without exception) then it's hardly surprising that the war in Iraq happened, that Blair continues as head bastard and that Bush's plot to bring the Book of Revelation to life is allowed to go on. We're all weak and spineless and crap. We moan, we groan, we complain and we whinge and yet we continue, we decorate, we eat sprouts and fight queues and all the while we're saying, "It's for the children really," whilst thinking, "Actually it's all for the fucking economy" whilst trying to ignore that really it's "All because we haven't got the balls to humbugger the whole bastard thing and call it quits."
So happy Christmas folks. I'm off to prop up the Scottish alcohol industry until New Year.

Even more Bull's Gonads

"The American Soldier" has been named Time magazine's "person of the year".

The weekly magazine says it is using the term broadly to include men and women in all branches of the US armed forces.

The editor of Time magazine, Nancy Gibbs, says US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggested the choice when Time editors met him at the Pentagon in November.


"They swept across Iraq and conquered it in 21 days. (!? ... seems like both "Time" and GWB suffer from nationalistic priapism and premature ejaculation.) They stand guard on streets pot-holed with skepticism and rancor. They caught Saddam Hussein. They are the face of America, its might and good will, in a region unused to democracy. The U.S. G.I. is TIME's Person of the Year ."

Amidst this crock of patriotic hyperbole from Time (what has outed itself as the publishing arm of the US Department of Defence) I'm surprised that no mention of The American Soldier being faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and possessing the ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

"The American solider was represented on the cover of Time by three helmeted and uniformed soldiers from an artillery survey unit of the US Army's 1st Armored Division nicknamed the "Tomb Raiders" after being assigned the task of searching for weapons in a Baghdad cemetery."

Seems odd to select the "Tomb Raiders" who seem to have been monumentally unsuccessful in their grave task of finding the legendary WMDs. Then again maybe Time has discovered that weapon which has always eluded the Americans ... irony.

More Bull's Gonads

Ian Huntley's mother told the Sun newspaper this morning that her son "...ought t' bleedin' hang for the monstrous crimes what he committed!"
And suddenly the reasons for Huntley ending up the way he did become apparent.
In a deliberately contentious poll last night 94% of Channel Five News viewers (all six of them) wanted a return of the death penalty for child molesters...which says more about Channel Five viewers than it does about the true state of affairs within the justice system.
One person on the new death row, of course, would be Michael Jackson who, whilst facing several accounts of child molestation, has been allowed to visit Britain this week. Still riding the Soham gravy train the British media are currently whipping the public into a Christmas lynching frenzy. All notions of 'innocent until proven guilty' have conveniently vanished along with 'human rights' and 'access to Belmarsh for lawyers.'
The cancer-stricken child at the centre of the Jackson allegations has, apparently, found himself on the receiving end of no less than seven 'celebrity paedophile' cases in the past.
"I've made a few bad choices in celebrity holiday destinations...for which, of course, we've been financially compensated," said the boy's mother. "But this Christmas I'm sending him round to Gary Glitter's house to make sure he's out of harm's way."

Anyone willing to brave the casting couch?

Pre-Christmas Bollocks

Tonight I'm bogged off by several items.
Firstly there's that advert on the telly sponsored by the Anti-Smoking Hitler Youth. The one with all those kids breathing out smoke accompanied by the words, "If you smoke then I smoke too." That's not on! Have you seen the price of fags these days? The little bastards can buy their own! It costs me an arm, a leg and one lung in taxes to give those little twats a pointless education as it is, just so they can leave school and embark on a life of mindless crime and shit, manufactured pop music. If they want to smoke they can get themselves a job or dowse themselves with petrol or something.
Secondly, what gives with all this crap about the government having to build loads more runways in Britain? The thought of John Prescott pushing a wheelbarrow of tarmac across an airfield with his arsecrack on display is bad enough...but I was under the impression that nobody flew anywhere any more. For the last two years, since that twin eyesore in New York was demolished, the news programmes have constantly been harping on about airlines going bankrupt. So how come suddenly there aren't enough runways to support the traffic? Is this just the government diverting our attention away from something more important? Such as the rising body count in Iraq.
Speaking of which...thirdly...the Americans now want to try a head of state for murdering half a million innocent Iraqis...presumably because they can't try him for harbouring weapons of mass destruction. Well, I'm all for it! Let's publicly execute Bush seeing as he's killed fifty-odd thousand innocent Iraqis on a false premise himself. Well...I say fifty-odd thousand...that was the last estimate and it's currently rising. We don't keep track of how many Iraqis are now dead...only American and British occupying forces have any relevance in the real world.
And finally...I've got the stinking flu again for Christmas! Every bastard year without fail! I've got snot coming out of every orifice including the letterbox on the front door, and then some. I'm virtually deaf on one side of my head and I ache in places that I didn't know existed this time last week. I blame it all on those dirty, little, cigarette stealing bastards in Iceland who can't be arsed covering their fucking mouths when they cough and sneeze and don't seem to understand the meaning of the words, "Get away from me you snotty faced little shit!"

Joker beats the Ace of Spades

American intelligence agents (insert your own joke here) have finally finished checking Saddam's hair and throat for those elusive weapons of mass destruction and have now moved on to the question of how best to publicly humiliate/kill try him. Saddam was discovered on Saturday morning in an eight foot hole (shouldn't that be in metric figures these days?) beneath a privy in Tekrit, disguised rather stupidly as that other international figure of hate Terence Sedgwick. (Sedgwick himself was discovered last Tuesday hiding in Ann Widdicombe's own eight-foot hole.)
Tired and confused due to the concoction of drugs the American forces pumped into him, Saddam posed briefly for the cameras...defiantly proving what a big fuss about nothing American POWs had made in front of Iraqi cameras a few months ago.
Tony Blair has already distanced Britain from any trial that might involve the death penalty. (Nice one Tony! Pontious Pilot strikes again, eh?)
Said a spokesman for the Whitehouse, "We would have captured him earlier but it took us fifteen days to decide on a name for the operation. At first we thought, "Cobra Strike" but that sounded a bit gay. Eventually we hit upon the title of the little known and really shit film "Red Dawn." It's about a bunch of plucky young American students fighting back against terrorism...although on reflection Steptoe and Son might have been more appropriate."
Since Saddam's capture British news programmes have suspended all other news, preferring instead to repeat the three and a half seconds of his medical footage over and over again.
"Material hasn't been stretched this thin since the last series of Graham Norton," commented Mr Seagull in the Fisherman's Arms tonight. "Although Ann Diamond's knicker elastic has come pretty close at times."
The circus continues although edited highlights will be repeated through Bush's re-election campaign.

"We've got 'im ... By George we think we've got 'im ... errrr ... we think we've got 'im. Anyway we've got someone with a daggy beard."

Now, what about that other bloke...Ozzy bin Osbourne or whatever his name was...?

December 2003: Bugger! Obviously the false beard disguise wasn't as cunning as I originally thought.

Are you a friendly coalition folk? If not, go folk yourself!

Anger in Europe over the U.S. decision to exclude countries, including France, Germany and Russia, from billions of dollars worth of Iraqi reconstruction contracts is not going away. Thursday, the European Union called the move unjustified and difficult to accept.

"It does seem gratuitous and unnecessary," said Anthony Gooch, a spokesman for the EU's delegation in Washington. He denounced the move as puzzling, especially since it comes at a time when President Bush has been telephoning the leaders of European nations asking for their help in forgiving Iraqi debt.

"On a day when you see President Bush seeking the active support of three heads of government from Russia, Germany and France to help restructure Iraq's debt, that while the left hand is doing one thing while the right hand is doing something else, it does suggest a certain incoherence," he continued.

But the president, in his first public comments about the dispute, defended the decision in an exchange with reporters.

"Our people risked their lives," defended Mr. Bush. "Friendly coalition folks risked their lives and therefore the contracting is going to reflect that and that's what the U.S. voters taxpayers expect."

AKA Statement #319 in the re-election campaign or Item #23a/2b in the Haliburton Annual Report.

Might be nice if these contracts were "going to reflect" and address the needs of your common or garden embattled Iraqi in the street.

(Sorry about that. I just had a very silly Pollyanna moment.)

Strange Report of the Week

Yesterday, CNN reported a story of a burglar in Australia who is breaking into people's homes, stealing their valuables, and in each case leaves behind a sort of "calling card"...a photocopied picture of his naked bottom. Be honest, Sedgwick...do you have anything to do with this?