Anders Breivik, self-confessed Nazi mass-murderer, has won a court case against the ever-correct state of Norway. The food and living conditions are not up to snuff, as it were.
Not that the monster is likely to be treated very much differently in future. Perhaps an M & S ready meal now and then, but certainly no ‘association’ with other inmates.
So was it worth the legal costs – not a krone paid by him, I’m sure? Even the purists must wonder.
While I can still run it crossed my mind to complete a marathon. Reasonably fit, for my age, with a bit of training the 26 miles would be a walk in the park for me. My feat would evoke envy in those runners that have the marathon on their bucket list. With the goal of outbucketing the bucketeers I prepared. I got as far as buying comfortable training shoes but after a few jogs I got phed up with dese and chucked them in the bin.
There’s no point in a marathon. Going pell-mell with the hoi polloi in the peloton, all those miles of torture just to fleetingly pass El Diablo and then there’s the side stiches. Do it for charity not the glory, opined some. I do charity, I never pass a bucket in the street or shops without throwing in some loose drachma. You can do it in a chicken suit, opined others. οικόσιτα πτηνά, my left caruncle. Don’t spartan something you can’t finish, opined the do ‘ave ’ems. They were right, that’s what got this silly run going in the first place.
I blame the Persians. If only those ancient sons of Zoroaster could fight.
Politics has always been a mean and dirty business. It’s what makes historical tales of power and passion so fascinating. Think Caesar, the Plantagenets, the Tudors, the Kennedies….pick your favourites.
So of course the Brexit issue is a messy, manic business – even dirtier than the US primaries will become. So many individual reputations are at stake – but truth be told, little else. Yes, I mean it.
‘Markets’ will wobble, governments will fall and rise again, but otherwise Brexit will be less risky than Remain. Why? Because unelected oligarchies mean trouble, controlling economies without popular choice. Because for every Remain argument there is a balancing reply in the real, non-political world.
So there.
The building designers of the future have their work cut out if things carry on as they’re going. It’s all The Boss’ fault. Bruce Springsteen cancelled a concert in North Carolina over its “anti-gay” law. The state law requires people to use public toilets that correspond to the sex listed on their birth certificates. Apple, PayPal and the Bank of America are amongst others criticising the law.
Supporters of the law said allowing transgender people to choose their restroom could lead to women and children being attacked. My proposal is that the only way to please everyone is by building more toilets. The current three outlets- men, women and disabled- are clearly not enough to cater for the modern world in all its legalised eccentricities. A separate toilet for the LGBT community should be introduced. Architects will be up all night figuring out the design for that one.
So Wikileaks now confirms what we have suspected for ever: rich, powerful people hide their money from tax authorities.
No names, no pack-drill but I often ask myself how the head honchos of big corporations (in DK for example) manage to work here and pay the taxes demanded. And how come the allegedly ever-vigilant tax folk don’t seem to do anything about it?
We shall now witness governments issuing their usual lip-service responses to the ‘news’, much sighing and tutting and promises of crack-downs, all lasting the requisite nine days; whereupon business as usual.
The people of Iceland will perhaps spill some blood but there’ll be no volcanic dust and the storms will be confined to tea cups around the world.
The story so far:
Negotiations for Cameron’s Stay campaign ended in stalemate. The Tories started to fall apart, as ever unsure what Europe has to do with real life. Cameron shows signs of panic, faced with his own party’s schizophrenia. The Leave campaign shows clear signs of winning the battle, with so many reputations at stake.
Enter the IMF, the perennial prophet of economic doom, to announce that the UK’s referendum will coincide with a very relevant event: another Greek default! Mama mia! (Sorry, my modern Greek is shaky, like their economy.)
That should liven up the debate, nicht Wahr/n’est-ce pas?
So Capn Cook didn’t discover owt – he just mapped it. And Oz was conquered, not colonised. Mind you don’t offend any sensitivities then by suggesting England had any positive role in the history of Downunder.
Or is that a term no longer acceptable to the new NSW academics?
The anti-colonial era is over! There is a new pride in belonging to the British worldwide club – which rejects the demands of envious foreign cultures.
NZ has voted to retain its union-jacked flag!
Look on, you outmoded defectors – and weep.
Fame corrupts, etc. OK so far?
Sponsors tend to run a mile when scandal threatens. Would you sponsor a Russian athlete? No.
So will Nike abandon Rooney now? I think Man U have already realised he’s a dead man but don’t want to lower his resale value.
Btw the indoor World Champs in Oregon this week already look more honest.
That’s the sound of silence, a pause, a cease-fire, a wha’evah!
24 hours of it anyway.
Is it the inevitable apathy?
Boadicea's Chariot 
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