Spartacus

City of Brotherly Love vs Military Service in Iraq

According to an analysis in the Washington Post, being a young black man in Philadelphia is more dangerous than being a US soldier in Iraq. . .

Old time religion

You've gotta love how becoming a devout Muslim seems to often lead directly to study of bomb-making techniques.

This fellow Mohammed (pbuh) has a lot to answer for.

Culture Wars Down Under

An old friend of mine, Imre Salusinszky, has been appointed to chair the Australia Council's literature board. (The Australia Council is Oz's counterpart to the US' National Endowment for the Arts.) In spite of having been chairman of the English Department at the University of Newcastle and having a doctorate in English Literature from Oxford, his appointment appears to have upset some of Australia's arts establishment:

Fresh from appointing controversial historian Keith Windschuttle to the board of the ABC, the Federal Government yesterday revealed that The Australian's Imre Salusinszky will chair the Australia Council's literature board. Sydney Institute director Joe Gersh will become the council's deputy chair.

Former Australia Council chairwoman Hilary McPhee attacked the appointments. "This Government is shameless; their ideological bent is so palpable," she said.

But critic and cultural commentator Peter Craven said Dr Salusinszky "notwithstanding his deeply lunatic politics, is a man of considerable warmth with an intense feeling for the literature he likes".

Perhaps some of them are upset because Imre quit his tenured academic position several years ago to become a journalist working for that notorious fascist Rupert Murdock.

Anyway, I think Imre will do a wonderful job doling out writing grants since he cares a lot about good literature and not a whit about multiculti political correctness. (Of course, this begs the question of whether or not the government should be in the business of deciding which artists should receive funding in the first place, but that is another story.)

More on the Arsenic and Old Lace Killers

Today's LAT has another article detailing the scams of the alleged old lady murderers. Evidently they were very familiar with the ways of life insurance companies and were very aggressive in asserting their claims.

Today's WaPo also picks up on the story.

Technorati Tags: Olga Rutterschmidt, Helen Golay

Creepy

A couple of old ladies in LA apparently took out multiple life insurance policies on homeless men who were then run and over and killed in pedestrian "accidents." LAPD Det. Dennis Kilcoyne had this to say about the pair:

Our first thought was … they would leave the actual dirty work to someone else. We're not so sure about this anymore…. This is pretty evil."

Arsenic and Old Lace minus Cary Grant and the cuteness. Ugh.

Update

The LAT has a follow-up story with more details on the case. The cops suspect that there may have been other victims.

The Dream That Other People Dream

Science fiction legend Ray Bradbury has "An ode to immigrants" in today's Opinion Journal. Here is an excerpt:

. . . Refuse to see
We be what all the world would like to be.
Because we hive within this scheme
The obvious dream is blind to us.
We do not mind the miracle we are,
So stop our mouths with curses.
While all the world rehearses
Coming here to stay.
We busily make plans to go away. . .

This Swede is Toast

Poor Stefan Eriksson. Now he's being charged with hit and run for rear-ending someone in a Porsche Cayenne he was driving back in January. If only he'd bought a Kia, he would never have gotten involved in any of this meshugaas.

Technorati Tags: Stefan Eriksson, Ferrari Enzo

WTF? In Switzerland?!

Another sign of the coming Rapture. . .

Bush Was Right

Rock on, Brothers.

You Make the Call!

Is this Jeremy Clarkson piece in the Sunday Times a review of the Mini Cooper S Convertible or an exploration of the meaning of social class in contemporary Britain?