Iain Murray, of the Edge of Corporate America's Sword fame, has an article on the environment in the Washington Times in his capacity as a senior fellow of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Known funders of the CEI include Texaco, Inc, Ford Motor Company Fund, American Petroleum Institute and more.

You can check out the credentials of the CEI here.

And the Washington Times here.

Merry Christmas

A Merry Christmas to all my readers and balls to the rest of you.

Only joking. Compliments of the season to everyone passing by.

I will endeavour to blog a bit more frequently and cogently in the new year.

Brace yourself, Peter, for the inevitable accusations of anti semitism.

Good news for the world.

It will be interesting to see what the pro and anti Bush camps make of this news. Well, obviously, Bushies will take it as an indication of the success of their post 9/11 policies, and if this leads to a further reduction of WMDs worldwide it will might make the fact that there doesn't seem to be any in Iraq less of a problem.

Cynics might say that since Qadafi's nuclear programme was not exactly well advanced, this could just be a smart move by the wily Colonel to rehabilitate himself with the West at little or no cost to himself.

It could happen to anybody - it is very plausible.

'Course it could, dear. If you are a gullible idiot or Polly Toynbee

Dumbjon has a blog.

The world would be a duller place without him.

So where will this end?

And I thought it was just Halliburton et al.

Nice work if you can get it.

And you can get it if you're Halliburton

Iraq delays hand Cheney firm $1bn

Julie Burchill on Anti-Semitism:

Just a few weeks ago, a German MP was forced to resign after claiming that the Jews were responsible for Soviet army "atrocities" against the defeated Nazi state (makes you want to go back and bomb Dresden all over again, only properly this time).

Actually, Julie, it makes you wish squeaky voiced controversialists would shut the fuck up about important stuff in case they make a complete twat of themselves and debase their own argument in the process.

A fine, amiable and dreamy young man, skilled in horsemanship and archery, you were also from a long line of dribbling madmen. King at 12 and quickly married to your sweetheart, Bavarian Princess Isabeau, you enjoyed many happy months together before either of you could speak anything of the other's language. However, after illness you became a tad unstable. When a raving lunatic ran up to your entourage spouting an incoherent prophecy of doom, you were unsettled enough to slaughter four of your best men when a page dropped a lance. Your hair and nails fell out. At a royal masquerade, you and your courtiers dressed as wild men, ending in tragedy when four of them accidentally caught fire and burned to death. You were saved by the timely intervention of the Duchess of Berry's underskirts.

In 1405 you stopped bathing, shaving or changing your clothes. This went on until several men were hired to blacken their faces, hide, jump out and shout "boo!", upon which you resumed basic hygiene. Despite this, your wife continued sleeping with you until 1407, when she hired a young beauty, Odette de Champdivers, to take her place. Isabeau then consoled herself, as it were, with your brother. Her lovers followed thick and fast while you became a pawn of your court, until you had her latest beau strangled and drowned.

A severe fever was fended off with oranges and pomegranates in vast quantities, but you succumbed again in 1422 and died. Your disease was most likely hereditary. Unfortunately, you had anywhere up to eleven children, who variously went on to develop capriciousness, great cruelty, insecurity, paranoia, revulsion towards food and, in one case, a phobia of bridges.
Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.

Thanks to the prof for the heads up.

I Don't Know What to Tell You

Ouch. OUCH.

In case you can't be arsed to read it, the big ouch is the German cannibal story. It's all very bizarre, of course, but what I find fascinating are the things you can be charged for in Germany - "disturbing the peace of the dead", "murder for the purposes of sexual pleasure" and, get this, "killing on demand."