What is this man's secret?

The story of how this guy ended up with a harem of women seems out of this world - even before seeing this photograph of the harem master. Apparently "The 57-year-old fornicating fortuneteller with a penchant for wearing sunglasses and military fatigues is now under arrest for intimidation after allegedly bullying at least one of the 11 women who made up his "harem" into joining him in their home in the Tokyo suburb of Higashi Yamato"

Whatever he had going for him must have been pretty potent as
"Of Shibuya's 11 "wives" -- and they had all been married to him for various periods at one stage or another -- 10 were in their 20s and the remaining woman in her 50s.

All the women worked at part-time jobs, mostly in the retail sector. They all returned home at 5 p.m. and gathered together as a group to partake in the evening meal"

Really brings to mind the film where diners view a make-believe orgasm and then ask for "some of what she's having"

Thanks for a bit of quiet

Well, a flat sort of day really.
The Islamic demonstration march in London appears to have been about as dramatic as a Womens’ Institute shopping trip. The Rugby games have been OK at most. I hate it when one spends the day with adrenaline on tap and everything just fizzles out. At least my flu has got to the stage where I actually care about what might happen rather than the ‘who cares’ attitude of the last few days.
It looks as though we are drawing to a close with the Sharon stroke. His drawn-out demise very well illustrates just what I would not want to happen to me. They have installed tubing to replace a long section of diseased intestine that had to be removed. He remains in a coma. So, just what is there remaining for relatives and loved ones?. No personality, no spirit, no mental contact – without these what is left that might be described as life? Regardless of how one may regard what he has done in his life, there is no love or reason for sustaining the hulk that is all that remains.

Cream crackered canine

Going to the beach can be just as tiring as that picnic place!
I wish he'd bugger off with that flash. I'm trying to get some sleep here.

Changes in my life

I’m facing a couple of issues I’d rather avoid.

Firstly, me and pointy nose dog will have to stop going to the picnic place exercise area. We were there last week and she was doing her thing on the hill. A passing farmer stopped to watch and then reversed to me and asked if I would call her off the hill. Very reasonable and well tempered. Thankfully, she came the instant I whistled.

On Monday this week we were there again and she caught a pheasant. Not much to it really as it was all hunched up at the side of the river and didn’t respond when she pointed at it. She was showing it to Norma when a passing farmer, different one, stopped. He came over and checked the bird without saying anything at first. He realised it was warm and then said we were poaching and the dog had to be kept on a lead. He mentioned something about the week before so we had obviously been under suspicion although we were in the public area and not up on the hill as previously.

We had a small debate without any unreasonable words. He stuck to the poaching. My attitude was that we had not gone there to catch birds and what happened was sort of fate anyway. Bird may have been on point of death when caught. The birds are bred to be shot as sport in the prime of their life. In the end, we agreed to differ and he went off with the bird. Decent bloke who made his point well and listened to what I had to say.

I’ve been thinking about it. Sable does hunt on his land. Very enthusiastically and is quite often lucky. He does not raise and maintain birds for our amusement. What we used to do was not poaching but might just as well have been in light of end result. There is no way to exercise her on the lead so only solution is to strike the place off the list of exercise areas. Mind you, any of his birds that stray in front of the car are certainly dead ‘uns from now on.

I’m now on track in respect of the warfarin dosage to get my blood factor to a suitable range. This has meant that I cannot use the ibuprofen tablets to deal with the arthritis pain. I have to use Tylex but the number I can take in a day is limited. The pain has not gone away and whereas ibuprofen and Tylex used to work, the pain still gets through now there is no ibuprofen. I’ve never been one to worry about maximum dosages (I’m a big lad and the stated safe limits have a safety factor built in) but the risk is that excess Tylex can cause internal bleeding. Therein lies the rub. I suppose I might get very soggy insides before the clotting kicks in – if at all.

Oh well – things are sent to try us, worse things at sea etc. It is just that immobilised with the dreaded lurgy, I’ve had more time to think and brood.

E-fit photo

Yes - I know it is Norfolk police. But surely they could find someone who looks like this? Especially as he wanders around, I bet, saying Caaaaal Hoooome or My Head Hurts.

Yes - I know what I said but this is significant....

I know that I had said there would be no more cartoon news here but I have now come across an article that sets out exactly how they came into existence. It makes the press freedom angle seem more plausible than the Muslim insult theory.

The global furor over cartoons of the prophet Muhammad can be traced to one day last September when newspaper editor Flemming Rose smelled a good story.
He said he'd read that museums in Sweden and London had recently removed artworks their staff deemed offensive to Muslims. A Danish comedian told him that he felt free to desecrate the Bible but that he'd be afraid to do the same to the Koran. Then Rose read that a Danish children's book author couldn't find illustrators who dared draw Muhammad for a new book on Islam.
Rose, culture editor of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, suspected the art world was self-censoring out of fear of Islamic radicals. So he contacted 25 Danish newspaper cartoonists with a challenge: Draw Muhammad as you see him. Twelve responded, and the newspaper printed their submissions, including one that depicted Islam's holiest figure with a bomb in his turban.
"We have a tradition of satire in Denmark," Rose, 47, said in an interview. "We do the same with the royal family, politicians, anyone. In a modern secular society, nobody can impose their religious taboos in the public domain."
At the Islamic Cultural Center in Copenhagen, Ahmed Abu Laban saw the cartoons. "We were astonished and extremely shocked," said Laban, 60. One of Denmark's most prominent Muslim clerics, he said the faith's tradition forbids any depictions of Muhammad. He saw the crude drawings as the latest smear against Muslims in Denmark, a nation whose long history of tolerance has been tested in recent years by rising anti-immigrant sentiment.
Laban immediately called together 11 other Muslim leaders to plan a response. Eliciting no regrets from the newspaper or the Danish government, they sent envoys to the Middle East to seek support there. The chain of events illustrates how, in the current climate of tension between Islam and the West, a small spark, printed on an inside page of a midsize newspaper in a small country, can escalate into an international conflagration.

Here we come to a bit that I personally find very fishy

Government officials and other critics here said Laban's delegations intentionally inflamed Islamic leaders in Egypt and Lebanon by passing off several obscene cartoons of Muhammad as among those published in the newspaper. Laban said those had been sent anonymously to Muslim leaders in Denmark and were shown to the Islamic officials as examples of anti-Muslim feeling in the country. He said no one suggested they had been published in the newspaper.

Have a Duvet Day

I read this in a blog kept up by an American police officer. Sounds like it was a day when the drug store clerk should have stayed at home.

He was walking home from work, some drug store, when a young guy pulled out a sawed off shotgun and demanded his money. He handed it over and then turned and ran. After running for a few blocks and seeing that he was alone he pulled out his cell phone and dialled 9-1-1. Just as the operator came on the line someone came up from behind him and grabbed his cell phone. When he turned around he noticed that this was a different guy, this time with a pistol. When he asked for his wallet too he explained he was just calling the police because someone had just robbed him.

Actually, it was a bad day for the cell phone thief. Police swamped the area and one officer cornered him only to have the crook draw a weapon and shoot him twice. Both shots were on target but were stopped by the policeman’s vest. The shooter ran off but, thinking he had killed a law officer, handed himself in to police a few hours later.

I had a Duvet Day today. Woke up about 6 am'ish feeling like death not fully warmed up. I dressed quickly but temperature slid down to something akin to freezer shelf. Just about made it to the quack's for my weekly blood check and then staggered home to hand over duty to Norma. Slept as if drugged until dinner time and now seem a little bit better. So much for all the fuss about getting a flu jab at the end of last year!

I found this at another place. It was not fixed down and looked abandoned so I had no qualms in taking it away. I cannot attribute it to anyone as that information was missing. However, it is quite witty and wiil doubtless appear many more times in many more places.

Latest News from Washington

Washington, D.C. (AP) - Congress today announced that the office of President of the United States of America will be out-sourced to India as of January 1, 2006.

The move is being made to save the President's $400,000 yearly salary, and also a record $521 billion in deficit expenditures and related overhead the office has incurred during the last 5 years.

"We believe this is a wise move financially. The cost savings should be significant" stated Congressman Thomas Reynolds (R-WA). Reynolds, with the aid of the Government Accounting Office, has studied outsourcing of American jobs extensively. "We cannot expect to remain competitive on the world stage with the current level of cash outlay" Reynolds noted.

Mr. Bush was informed by email this morning of his termination. Preparations for the job move have been underway for sometime. Gurvinder Singh of Indus Teleservices, Mumbai, India will be assuming the office of President as of January 1st.

Mr. Singh was born in the United States while his Indian parents were vacationing at Niagara Falls, thus making him eligible for the position. He will receive a salary of $320 (USD) a month but with no health coverage or other benefits.

It is believed that Mr. Singh will be able to handle his job responsibilities without a support staff. Due to the time difference between the US and India, he will be working primarily at night, when few offices of the US Government will be open. "Working nights will allow me to keep my day job at the American Express call center" stated Mr. Singh in an exclusive interview. "I am excited about this position. I always hoped I would be President."

A Congressional Spokesperson noted that while Mr. Singh may not be fully aware of all the issues involved in the office of President, this should not be a problem because Bush was not familiar with the issues either. Mr. Singh will rely upon a script tree that will enable him to respond effectively to most topics of concern. Using these canned responses, he can address common concerns without having to understand the underlying issues at all.

"We know these scripting tools work" stated the spokesperson. "President Bush has used them successfully for years." Mr. Singh may have problems with the Texas drawl, but lately Bush has abandoned the "down home" persona in his effort to appear intelligent and on top of the Katrina situation.

Mr. Bush has been provided the outplacement services of Manpower, Inc. to help him write a resume and prepare for his upcoming job transition. According to Manpower, Mr. Bush may have difficulties in securing a new position due to limited practical work experience.
A Greeter position at Wal-Mart was suggested due to Bush's extensive experience with shaking hands and a phony smile.

Another possibility is Bush's re-enlistment in the Texas Air National Guard. His prior records are conspicuously vague but should he choose this option, he would likely be stationed in Waco, TX for a month, before being sent to Iraq, a country he has visited.

"I've been there, I know all about Iraq," stated Mr. Bush, who gained invaluable knowledge of the country in a visit to the Baghdad Airport's terminal and gift shop.

Sources in Baghdad and Fallujah say Mr. Bush would receive a warm reception from local Iraqis. They have asked to be provided with details of his arrival so that they might arrange an appropriate welcome.

The message is in the media?

Artist's Statement:
My images have a naive, whimsical quality. Macabre and odious topics are transmuted into approachable, vivid narratives. What appears childish at first sight; upon careful examination, reveals a complex interpretation of foreboding and exhilaration that necessitates a re-acquaintance with one's intuition. The Images suggest the inevitability of an archaic revival while impulsively generating a greater cumulative significance that beckons to the very near future; hence Techno-Shamanism. Wholly antithetical to the anthropocentric mode of logic, the images no less mock the abstruse mytho-occult spinsters as well. They have been extracted from the edge of our burgeoning psychotronic consciousness.

That’s it. His statement. I suppose he knows what he is trying to convey. I have had the benefit of seeing some of his work and, even with this advantage, am unable to connect output with the description and meanings of the work.
I hate it when pretension gets in the way of enjoying art. I am capable of enjoying images for image sake without needing to know what was in the artist’s mind but I am sure that there is much that I miss.
I recently spent a little time looking at a drawing of a small girl bringing flowers to a young boy. He was in a dressing gown, slumped in an easy chair. His face had a sharpness about it as if he were in pain. I got the clue of some flowers dropping to the floor, There was a grandfather clock in the background to which I attached little significance. I Googled about a bit and finally came upon an analysis or whatever of the drawing. The clock also symbolised a passing of time, the time in which the lad’s life was ebbing away.
I achieved nothing from the statement-writers work. His loss or mine? Both I suppose as I will not recommend his work – even by linking to it – and he by failing to get his point across in text or image.

One born every ..........

Away from all the argy-bargey of cartoons, I did have a funny communication in response to my £20 Maglite torch. This pointed out that the state of the art torch for use by rufty tufty soldiers was a thing called the SureFire Magnum M6 Guardian. I have looked at the specification and it is indeed a fearsome beast. However, at a price of £230 or so, it is well outside what I need as a little bedside supplement. The sort of bedside companion I would expect at that sort of cost is a crate full of Viagra. I suspect the purchase came from the days when the ruling cry amongst the Big Swinging Dicks was that he who dies with the most toys wins. My response at that time was - who cares; they are still dead Dicks, they have ceased to swing, they are no more etc. etc.
The title is apt - maybe - but does not take away my pride that one of mine was able to get to such a state that he could expend that sort of wedge on that sort of toy. I do reflect that when I was a kid in the market for toys, I could have purchased an entire Royal Artillery searchlight battery - personnel and all - for that sort of money.

As advertised

My last word on cartoons

OK - promise this is the end. There is such a lot out there that I find rings my bell and says things in a way I'd like to have the ability to do.

Stole this from Boortz.

Muslim outrage huh. OK ... let's do a little historical review. Just some lowlights:

* Muslims fly commercial airliners into buildings in New York City. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslim officials block the exit where school girls are trying to escape a burning building because their faces were exposed. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims cut off the heads of three teenaged girls on their way to school in Indonesia. A Christian school. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder teachers trying to teach Muslim children in Iraq. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder over 80 tourists with car bombs outside cafes and hotels in Egypt. No Muslim outrage.
* A Muslim attacks a missionary children's school in India. Kills six. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims slaughter hundreds of children and teachers in Beslan, Russia. Muslims shoot children in the back. No Muslim outrage.
* Let's go way back. Muslims kidnap and kill athletes at the Munich Summer Olympics. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims fire rocket-propelled grenades into schools full of children in Israel. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder more than 50 commuters in attacks on London subways and busses. Over 700 are injured. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims massacre dozens of innocents at a Passover Seder. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder innocent vacationers in Bali. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslim newspapers publish anti-Semitic cartoons. No Muslim outrage
* Muslims are involved, on one side or the other, in almost every one of the 125+ shooting wars around the world. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims beat the charred bodies of Western civilians with their shoes, then hang them from a bridge. No Muslim outrage.
* Newspapers in Denmark and Norway publish cartoons depicting Mohammed. Muslims are outraged.

Dead children. Dead tourists. Dead teachers. Dead doctors and nurses. Death, destruction and mayhem around the world at the hands of Muslims .. no Muslim outrage ... but publish a cartoon depicting Mohammed with a bomb in his turban and all hell breaks loose.

Come on, is this really about cartoons? They're rampaging and burning flags. They're looking for Europeans to kidnap. They're threatening innkeepers and generally raising holy Muslim hell not because of any outrage over a cartoon. They're outraged because it is part of the Islamic jihadist culture to be outraged. You don't really need a reason. You just need an excuse. Wandering around, destroying property, murdering children, firing guns into the air and feigning outrage over the slightest perceived insult is to a jihadist what tailgating is to a Steeler's fan.

I know and understand that these bloodthirsty murderers do not represent the majority of the world's Muslims. When, though, do they become outraged? When do they take to the streets to express their outrage at the radicals who are making their religion the object of worldwide hatred and ridicule? Islamic writer Salman Rushdie wrote of these silent Muslims in a New York Times article three years ago. "As their ancient, deeply civilized culture of love, art and philosophical reflection is hijacked by paranoiacs, racists, liars, male supremacists, tyrants, fanatics and violence junkies, why are they not screaming?"

Indeed. Why not?

I'll tell you why not. Islam is a nihilistic death cult. It is a midieval religion that needs to reform itself and join us in the 21st Century. Unfortunately, it ain't gonna happen in my lifetime.

My new toy

Sad really but this has acquired the status of new toy. Yes; that's right. £20 worth of torch. What a come down - me who specialises in shiny things that normally cost a rajah's ransom in terms of £ per ounce or inch.
It is the Maglite model that takes 2 D size batteries so is just a nice size and heft. It is meant for use in my bedroom so that when I wake at night wanting a drink or need to take tablets - or just cannot sleep - it is there to illuminate the scene but is not so dramatic as to light the whole room and bring me fully to my senses. It is very tactile, the smooth bits are very smooth and the knurled bits have a proper bite. Everything fits properly so that as well as being correctly designed in terms of proportions and shape it has been produced to close engineering tolerances. The colour is another thing I find pleasing; the blue has just the right depth. It really demands fondling. The urge to hold it, press the on/off switch, swing the beam about or adjust it from spot to flood is almost beyond resistance. I sat for about twenty minutes in the dark last night just playing with it.
If there were some sort of nomination right now for an item being an icon of somethingh or other, I would recommend this torch.