Every death is a death, but Comparing the death count from the Tsunami to the deaths at the World Trade Center gives a sense of perspective. (via Manic who has loads of links about the horror)

The Premier League Chairmen have pledged £1 million between them for the disaster relief. That's £50,000 from you then Doug! Not out of your personal wealth estimated at over £20 millionthough, eh? Well worth a gong!

The War on Want

When the Coalition of the Willing declare their intention to spend as much on helping the victims of the Tsunami as they have spent on waging war in Iraq... I might start to believe their motives.

"To The People Of Islam:
Just think: If we'd invaded your countries, killed your leaders and converted you to Christianity YOU'D ALL BE OPENING CHRISTMAS PRESENTS RIGHT ABOUT NOW!
Merry Christmas"

No... not a sick joke... these people believe this stuff!!!

Fantastic news tonight. Apparently the odious Blue Chip Casinos have decided not to convert one of our local pubs into an all-night gambling den following protests from residents in the area. The people of Bearwood could not have had a better Christmas present.

Tonight we went out to celebrate at the Bearwood Corks Club and listened to some cool jazz from Andy Hamilton and his incredible Blue Notes... and assorted celebrated jazzmen. A great night was had by all... especially Big Chris Price, a legend in many a lunchtime!

Have a nice Xmas everyone.

A satirical portrait of George Dubya composed of monkeys swimming in a marsh has been placed on a billboard at the entrance to a Hudson river tunnel used by thousands of commuters, a week after it was removed from a gallery in Manhattan amid allegations of censorship.


Of course, it's nothing new. If you type the words Bush and Monkey into google you will come across numerous sites like this with pictures which compare Dubya's expression with primates.

Guardian photographer of the year Dan Chung selects his favourite pictures of 2004 and explains why...



Looking out...Zainab Hamid, now 10, lost her leg and 17 family members in the Iraq war.What Dan said: "This girl was one of the lucky ones. A journalist brought her back to Britain and had a prosthetic leg paid for by Heather McCartney!"

Thank heavens it is not just Sandwell that suffers from this assault on good taste and light pollution.

Still, as Howlingspoons reminds us... its downhill all the way from today until Summer.

With God On Their Side

I can remember the ridicule heaped on the head of busy-body Mary Whitehouse when she wanted Python's Life of Brian banned on the grounds of blasphemy. Well frankly, these people deserve the same. There are so many people who want to force their faith on the rest of us... and many of them have the sort of levels of intolerance that beggar belief. Last week on the radio I heard someone calling for a law against religious persecution who, when challenged on the attitude of the catholic church to homosexuality nearly blew his gasket. If a religion is not strong enough to stand its ground against a book, play or film, it has got big, big problems.

Tony Blair says we must maintain the right to detain foreign people without charge (or even telling them what is alleged against them) "on the advice of the security services". Yes... well... that will convince everyone I suppose.

Whitby Watch

Over the last few weeks Lib Dem Watch has been succesfully exposing Birmingham City Council's Deputy Leader, Lib Dem millionaire John Hemming, as a total opportunist. My beef, however, is with his coalition Leader, Conservative Councillor Mike Whitby. You see, Mike Whitby may lead Birmingham City Council... but he lives in my Ward in neighbouring Sandwell and only jumped on the Birmingham Council bandwagon after the people of Sandwell had rejected him a number of times. To complicate matters there is a local park just 300 yards from Whitby's house that is in Sandwell... but is owned and managed (due to an accident of history) by Birmingham City Council. It is by far the most run down and desolate piece of land in the area, with footpaths that are virtually impossible for anyone with a pushchair, wheelchair or anything short of a mountain bike to navigate, and no improvements since Aneka Rice parachuted in about 10 years ago. Community groups in Bearwood are now planning an all-night torchlit vigil outside Whitby's house in protest at the state of the park.

With apologies to Comrade Hallam (who used to be an MEP) for looking at the bigger picture, but can there be anybody, outside of the most Eurofanatical Lib-Dems, that is the slightest bit surprised by this story about our European partners?

This could not have happened to a more deserving person.

Steve Bell on Blunkett and Prescott.

Don't listen to the miserablists. Eat, drink and cheer up. Life cannot be all about guilt.

The debate about assisted suicide rumbles on... perhaps they should ask him for some advice.

Spooks?

This letter writer to our local newspaper, The Express and Swastika, purports to be responding to the BNP and then uses the letter to attack the Labour Party for "political correctness". My kids are a bit too old now for Postman Pat.... but I've never heard anyone accuse him of that! Is it true? Or just another Tory fantasy?

This is the end....

A nice letter in the Guardian Obituaries about the late Kevin Coyne... who can now discuss the finer points of rock and roll with Jim Morrison.
An interesting medical proposition?

Bloggerheads has had a revamp

Now with new, added comments!

Sad song

The great Kevin Coyne, rocker extraordinaire, is now the late, great Kevin Coyne. I've got his debut album on vinyl somewhere, recorded and produced by Peel on Dandelion Records. News courtesy of the Fat Buddah who has replaced the extremely ugly picture of a Birmingham City shirt.... with a picture of himself (out of the frying pan...).

A Telephone Scam

If you think Spam is bad... wait until you read this I have been sent by West Midlands Police Fraud Investigation Unit.

"I have been advised of a telephone fraud currently in operation (this applies
to home and/or work telephones - land lines and mobiles):

”If you do receive one of these calls, upon answering the telephone, you will
hear a recorded message congratulating you on winning an all-expenses trip to an exotic location. You will then be asked to press 9 to hear further details. If you then press 9 you will be connected to a premium rate line that costs approximately £20 per minute.

Even if you disconnect immediately, it will remain connected for a minimum of 5 minutes, costing around £100. The final part of the call involves you being asked to key in your postcode and house number which, as you all no doubt know, has serious other consequences.

After a further 2 minutes you will receive a message informing you that you are not one of the lucky winners. The total bill will be £260. Since the calls are originating from outside the UK, BT and other telephone companies are left relatively powerless to act. The only safe solution is to HANG UP before the message prompts you to press 9; even safer is to HANG UP on any unsolicited 'free offer' calls.

This appears to be a variation on a theme, warnings have been circulated
previously regarding calls made by individuals claiming to be engineers
conducting a test on the line and asking for 9,0# and text messages similar to
the routine described above. Do not dial 9 (or 9,0# or 0.9#) for anyone. BT are aware of this and have confirmed the details as being true.

There is yet another scam operating on Mobile Phones. A missed call comes up. The number is 0709 020 3840. The last four numbers may vary but certainly the first four numbers will remain the same. If you call this number back, you will be charged £50 per minute. People have complained about their phone bills, once they have realised the cost of the call but obviously too late for any action to be taken. Therefore do not call back any numbers beginning with 0709."

The Welsh Assembly is suspended because a Labour Member objected to the Queen being referred to as "Mrs Windsor". Love a bloody duck...how much further into the abyss will some of these people drag the Party of Hardie, Bevan and Benn. I'm at my wits end!

Another pin in another balloon

One of the most popular stories about Ronald Reagan was that he was originally cast for Bogart's role in Casablanca. It ain't true.


He wasn't in this either!!! The man was a fraud.