CALEDONIAN COMMENT

In the UK yesterday 3 New Labour MP’s and an opposition Conservative member of the House of Lords insisted that they should not be tried in the courts when they appeared before a judge on charges of expenses fraud. Elliot Morley, David Chaytor, Jim Devine and Lord Hanningfield said the allegations against them should be considered by parliamentary authorities instead of a jury. They said they were protected from criminal prosecution by the right of parliamentary privilege, dating back to the Bill of Rights of 1689. The MPs also asked to be spared the humiliation of being forced to stand in the dock at the City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court. Their request was denied and they then pleaded not guilty.

Now regardless of their guilt or innocence, which doubtless will be established in due course, does it not say something about the arrogance of these people that they even had the temerity to ask to be “spared” standing in the dock ? If an ordinary citizen tried that, they would probably be charged with contempt of court and it could be asked why these accused parliamentarians weren’t so charged. But their behaviour from the outset of the trial does appear to at least justify the caricature adopted (pictured above) by a protestor outside the court.

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A Roman Catholic cardinal tipped as a future Pope has broken with Vatican tradition by raising the possibility that priestly celibacy is among the causes of the ongoing sex abuse scandal sweeping the Roman Catholic Church. Cardinal Christoph Schönborn (pictured above), the Archbishop of Vienna and reportedly a favourite of former Hitler Youth and Nazi anti-aircraft gunner Pope Benedict XVI, has written in his archdiocese’s magazine this week that the Church must make an “unflinching examination” of the causes of paedophilia within its ranks. He said that these included “the issue of priests’ training and also include the question of priest celibacy and the question of personality development. It requires a great deal of honesty, both on the part of the Church and of society as a whole.” So as usual, the issue of priestly perverts is blamed on institutional causes, with the implication that somehow ”society as a whole” is to blame. Typical evasive sophistry on the part of the Vatican. And, as usual, not a word about having the dirty paedophiles posing as priests who are currently and shamefully being shielded by the Roman Catholic church ever being handed over for trial and sentencing. Suffer the little children.

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And more religious bullshit. This time, UK bank worker Toby Elles fell asleep earlier this week while cooking a late-night snack – and apparently it really was a case of divine intervention that saved his bacon. The 22-year-old was “miraculously woken” after an hour as his lounge filled with smoke – and he quickly had the realisation that he had left a frying pan cooking on a hob. While saying his prayers, Mr Elles reportedly scraped the remains of burnt crispy bacon rashers from the pan, but could not believe the vision (pictured above) that appeared before him – Jesus Christ staring back at him. And do you know, tonight I decided to cook beans on toast – and when I opened the tin, 12 beans were sticking to the underside of the lid, the same amount as the number of  Jesus’s disciples. Another miracle.

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In the UK it is reported that police are failing to visit tens of thousands of families whose lives are made a misery by anti-social louts (above), inspectors have warned. Chief Inspector of Constabulary Denis O’Connor added that half of all police forces may also fail to spot ongoing victimisation and recurring violence developing against helpless individuals. Gangs taunting and harrassing people for years on end are now common occurences, despite regular desperate calls to the police. In a blistering analysis, Mr O’Connor revealed officers do not even bother visiting 23% of victims who complain about anti-social behaviour. But there’s an easy answer – if you’re being victimised by an anti-social gang, just go upstairs and throw a few stones at them or turn a strong water hose on them. You’ll have police officers rushing to the scene to arrest you for assault and an assortment of social workers and do-gooders looking after the human rights of your helpless young attackers quicker than you can say “politically correct”.

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After 9/11, former US Vice President Dick Cheney said : “It will be necessary for us to be a nation of men, and not laws.” He then abrogated the US constitution and international law by promoting torture, indefinite detention without trial and support for secretive military tribunals in which defendants, including UK citizens, were stripped of their legal rights. Now Dick’s daughter, Liz Cheney (pictured above), has taken up the cudgel by heading what some are describing as a McCarthyite campaign to purge the government of lawyers who dared to defend men, and even a child, who were accused of terrorism. These lawyers sometimes defeated in court the Bush administration’s attempts to declare itself beyond the law. Ms Cheney and her organisation, “Keep America Safe” , have called lawyers who acted on behalf of accused terrorists, and who now work for the US Department of Justice, the “Al Qaeda 7″ and describe the Justice Department as the “Department of Jihad”. Good to see that the sanity and quality of Republican argument and logic in America is as consistent as ever – crap.

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UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown (pictured above) warned today that Britain’s economy is “still in choppy waters”  but he declared he had the character to lead the country to economic recovery. The PM stressed that the country was at a “crossroads” and faced “crucial decisions”, not least with regard to the impending general election, in the months ahead. He warned that “ideologically-driven” opposition Conservative party plans for spending cuts risked tipping the country back into recession. So presumably HIS spending cuts after the election wouldn’t be idealogically driven – though doubtless his tax rises after the election would be. And it also appears that New Labour doesn’t mind being idealogically driven when it forces policies like illegal wars, mass immigration and drivel like puerile climate change taxation down the throats of the electorate without a mandate for doing so – not to mention an unelected Prime Minister.

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An American woman who called herself Jihad Jane (various photos above) has been charged over an alleged plot to murder a Swedish man. Colleen Renee LaRose, from Philadelphia, is also accused of conspiracy to provide support to terrorists, making false statements and attempted identity theft.  Irish police yesterday arrested 7 people over an alleged plot to kill Lars Vilks, a Swedish cartoonist who had a bounty put on his head after depicting the prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog – and Jihad Jane is reportedly a suspect. This is a woman who apparently decided on this alleged course of bigotted, murderous action just TWO MONTHS after converting to Islam. What a resounding endorsement of the calming, peaceful effect of the “Religion of Peace”.

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And more religious nonsense. This time  – as you would expect – it’s the Roman Catholic church, headed up by our old friend former Hitler Youth and Nazi anti-aircraft gunner Pope Benedict XVI. Apparently sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church are proof that that “the Devil is at work inside the Vatican”, according to the Holy See’s chief exorcist. Father Gabriele Amorth (pictured above), who has been the Vatican’s chief exorcist for 25 years and says he has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic possession, said that the consequences of satanic infiltration included power struggles at the Vatican as well as “cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the Demon”. He added: “When one speaks of  ’the smoke of Satan’ (a phrase coined by Pope Paul VI in 1972) in the holy rooms, it is all true – including these latest stories of violence and paedophilia.”  What a load of inane bollocks – and typical of a corrupt international ecclesiastical front for child molesting perverts that tries to explain away that perversion with a crock of medieval bullshit instead of handing over the paedophiles within its ranks for trial, conviction and sentencing.

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And while we’re on about child molestation, The brother of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, who is wanted on child sex abuse charges in Northern Ireland, is reportedly going to lodge an appeal against his extradition from the Irish Republic, the high court in Dublin heard today. Liam Adams (pictured above) faces of charges of sexually abusing his daughter Aine when she was a child. He was due to appear in court in Northern Ireland in November 2008 to face 23 charges relating to the alleged abuse, but he failed to turn up. The alleged offences date from March 1977 to March 1983. Adams handed himself in to Irish police last week after a European arrest warrant was served. What possible grounds has this bloke got for such an appeal ? And what possible reason would the Irish authorities have for NOT extraditing him ? And why has the extradition case now been deferred until April ?  Unless of course the Dublin authorities are going to apply the same lenient criteria to Mr Adams as they seem to in the cases of paedophile Roman Catholic priests. All in all Mr Adams is a very lucky boy, not only because of the Irish authorities’ reticence – if his name hadn’t been Adams the Provisional IRA would probably have dealt with him –  as they did with other perverts - a long time ago.

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The Roman Catholic church is being plunged into a renewed crisis over how it has dealt with the sexual abuse of children by its clergy after it emerged that the brother of former Hitler Youth and Nazi anti-aircraft gunner Pope Benedict XVI, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger (pair pictured above), ran a renowned choir at the centre of child abuse claims.  Reports of systematic historical abuse by paedophile Roman Catholic clergy have surfaced at 3 schools in the Regensburg diocese in Bavaria. One of them is the much-heralded Regensburger Domspatzen, a 1000 year-old male choir and boarding school, whose choral master for 30 years was the Pope’s older brother, Georg Ratzinger. Monsignor Ratzinger has agreed to testify in any eventual prosecutions – but says that he knew of no abuse. The German Justice Minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, has joined a growing chorus of politicians in Berlin to criticise the church over its attitude to the investigation, accusing Roman Catholic institutions of a policy of secrecy.

She pointed to a Vatican directive from 2001 which required that even the most damaging allegations should be first “investigated internally” within the Roman Catholic church and only then then reported to the authorities. These new allegations are a source of major embarrassment to the Vatican, which had been hoping to draw a line under child abuse. Over the past decade the issue has enormously damaged the church’s reputation and finances. Well its reputation and finances may have been harmed, but STILL these priestly perverts seem able to avoid trial, sentencing and imprisonment. Unless and until they do, we must assume that the disgraceful conspiracy of silence over child abuse and the sickening encouragement of and collusion with paedophiles will continue within the Roman Catholic church.

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And yet more unacceptable criminality in the name of religion. This time Irish police have today arrested 7 suspects over an alleged plot to kill a Swedish artist who drew the Prophet Mohammad with the body of a dog. The target of the alleged assassination was Lars Vilks (pictured above right), who had a $100,000 bounty put on his head by that well known democratic philanthropic organisation, Al Qaeda,  in 2007, with a 50% bonus to any would-be assassins if  Mr Vilks was “slaughtered like a lamb” by having his throat cut. Another $50,000 was put on the life of Ulf Johansson, editor-in-chief of Nerikes Allehanda, the local newspaper that printed the cartoon.

The 4 men and 3 women, who were detained at around 10 am this morning, are in their mid-20s to late-40s and are being held at police stations in Waterford, Tramore, Dungarvan and Thomastown. Irish police sources have confirmed that some of those arrested hold Irish citizenship, and a number are from the Middle East. Some of those questioned have been confirmed as converts to Islam. It really is high time that the West stopped this bigotted bullshit from threatening our freedom of expression once and for all. Or else we’ll all be getting frogmarched to the mosque and our democratic societies will really go to the dogs.

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And while we’re on the subject, in the UK owners of dangerous dogs (above) face a new “pet tax” in a government initiative to tackle the menace of violent, untrained canines. The idea is to enforce the compulsory microchipping of every dog — which would cost owners an average of £30 — and is included in a consultation report published today. It also suggests that the 6 million dog owners in Britain should be covered by 3rd-party insurance to cover injuries to victims of dog attacks. I’ve got a better and simpler idea. Retards who deliberately keep dangerous dogs so that they can gain “respect” (what a joke) should be banned from doing so. And if they flout the ban, they should be jailed.

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Concerns have been raised about possible sex scandals if women are allowed to serve on British military submarines, it was reported today. A review is currently being carried out by the Government as to whether females should be included among underwater crew. According to a newspaper report, there are fears within the Navy about what could happen when members of the opposite sex live in such close quarters for months at a time. It said that women will be allowed to serve on submarines, but initially just 5 female officers will be deployed on each of the UK’s Vanquish-class nuclear submarines (pictured above). It seems on balance that with all the potential for scandal, it might be better if the ladies don’t go down.

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US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton  has said that America is ready to help Argentine and Britain resolve tensions over the ownership of the Falkland Islands. Mrs Clinton visited Buenos Aires as part of a 5-day South American tour which will also see her visit Chile.  The US remained neutral when Argentina invaded the Falklands in 1982, and has stayed impartial ever since. Tensions between Argentina and the UK have flared in recent weeks over British oil drilling in the islands’ waters. Mrs Clinton met Argentinian President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (pair pictured above) in Montevideo, Uruguay, yesterday, before flying to Buenos Aires for further talks today. She said : ”We are not interested in, and have no real role in, determining what Britain and Argentina decide between the 2 of them. What we want to do is facilitate them talking to each other.” No need Hillary – there’s nothing to talk about. The Falklands are British – especially if there’s oil there. Considering the oil-inspired US involvements in the Middle East, surely a US Secretary of State can understand THAT. So mind your own business and instead of appeasing the Argentinians remember who your allies getting killed are in Afghanistan.

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Britain reportedly emerged from recession (above)  more strongly than previously estimated in the fourth quarter of last year, figures have showed. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that British Gross Domestic product (GDP) grew (allegedly) by 0.3% in the final three months of 2009, revised up from the initial estimate of 0.1 %. The rise will be seen by some as a boost to  New Labour before the general election. Oh what a coincidence – an impending general election and the recession is over, more strongly than was previously thought. I’d like to get the musicians in to play “And the band played believe it if you like”  but they’ve all been made redundant and had their instruments repossessed.

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Looking more like an ageing rock star than ever, Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi (pictured above) has called for a jihad, a holy war, against  Switzerland, a country where police once arrested his son. At a meeting in the city of Benghazi to mark the prophet Mohammad’s birthday, Gaddafi described the country as an infidel state that was “destroying” mosques after a referendum there banned the building of minarets. Last year he urged the UN to abolish Switzerland and divide it between Germany, France and Italy. “Any Muslim in any part of the world who works with Switzerland is an apostate – is against Mohammad, God and the Koran,” Gaddafi said. Well Colonel, that’s what happens if you allow people votes – a mistake you’re not going to make any time soon.

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A smoker’s final wish was fulfilled today when his hearse was paraded through the streets bearing the sign Smoking Killed Me. Dick Whittamore’s last request was that the stark message be displayed alongside his coffin (pictured above) and by his gravestone as a warning to others. The signs, printed in the same typeface as the health warnings on a cigarette packet, read Smoking Killed Me, Albert (Dick) Whittamore. Passers-by stopped to watch the hearse as it made its way through Dover, in Kent, where Mr Whittamore, who was 85, lived. EIGHTY-FIVE ? How old would he have made it to if he HADN’T smoked ?

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