"Führer as four-day OktoberFest London festival is Kanzlered"

From The Daily Mail.

Nigel Farage on top form

From the BBC:

Nigel Farage says he is "really rather bored" with the media's "obsession" that depicts UKIP as a racist party.

Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna told the Independent on Sunday that a "virus of racism" runs through UKIP. But Mr Farage described the claim as "complete and utter rubbish".

Farage then sort of proves Umunna's point by quoting Hitler*:

He said the Labour votes in the north of England were "incredibly soft", like a "rotten window frame" that if UKIP pushed, would collapse.

* The original quote was of course “You have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down.”

Gibraltar, Spain, sabre rattling* etc.

When Spanish politicians start yapping on about Gibraltar to their voters minds off the dire state of their economy, corruption scandals, poor safety record of their railways etc, it always reminds me of the mirror image dispute between Spain and Morocco.

They're all as bad as each other.

* How can you rattle a sabre? It's a single, solid object, it's not like a set of keys or a handful of change or something.

Real Estate Downfall

[Thoroughly Tasteless] Reader's Letter Of The Day

I'm surprised that The Metro printed this one:

Housemates who slam doors in the late hours. Should I moan or just give them a copy of Anne Frank's diary as a helpful guide to being quiet?

Jo, Bristol.

Tolerance

Spotted by Bob E in The Globe & Mail:

"There’s an epidemic of obesity in our society. ... We want to do something to turn back the clock," OMA [Ontario Medical Association] president Doug Weir said in an interview... "If we want to keep health care sustainable in the province, we have to do something," Weir said.

In a policy paper in this month’s issue of the Ontario Medical Review, the OMA said the success of anti-tobacco campaigns shows that there is now more tolerance for what may be perceived as manipulative or coercive measures.

A coincidence? I think not.

From The Daily Mail: SIX MILLION Britons have no savings at all

From The Evening Standard: Six million people employ home cleaner

I just can't make up my mind whether the six million people without savings are the ones who spent it on employing a cleaner, or whether the six million without savings are the ones doing cleaning for a living.

Either way, I'm surprised that only six million people have no savings - I thought the whole idea behind Home-Owner-Ism was to ensure that as few people as possible have any savings.

Good kitchen design (2)

Span Ows wades into the debate and reckons that the ideal hob/oven/microwave layout is like this:a) I can see the practical appeal of that layout - microwave and grill/oven at eye level; nice big drawer below the oven to put your pans in etc. This is much the same layout as we have in the house we are renting.*

b) Although electric ovens are every bit as good as gas ovens**, I don't like electric hobs, especially not these new-fangled glass induction ones. They just aren't as cosy as gas hobs. And at least you could light a cigarette on the old fashioned electric rings.

c) I think we'll mark him down for having fridge/freezer right next to the oven, but there is a small gap between them so fair enough.

* It's just that when I was a lad we had 'cookers' where the hob was always directly above the oven, and then the grill for making toast was directly above that (tastes much better than electric toast), it all being the same lump of metal. So even though nowadays the 'hob' and the 'oven/grill' are two quite separate bits, I still struggle with the idea that you can site them independently of each other.

** Godwin's Law.

Has there been a ClimateGate/Downfall spoof yet?

Just askin', is all.

UPDATE: Thanks to Richard North, this:
PS, NIH refers to the US National Institutes of Health, who dole out government money to people who'll do 'research' to back up whatever it is the MMGW lobby are trying to prove.

And you thought that OUR government wastes time and resources on non-existent problems ...

From the BBC:

A garden gnome giving the Nazi salute has landed a German artist in trouble with the authorities in Nuremberg.

Prosecutors are investigating whether the gnome, which went on show in one of the city's galleries, breaks the strict law banning Nazi symbols and gestures.

There's a Godwin Prize for the first person to make a spurious comparison with Germany between 1933 - 45.