Amy Houston

A failed asylum-seeker who left a 12-year-old girl to die in a road traffic accident has won the right to remain in this country, Aso Mohammed Ibrahim, 32, had already been banned from driving and was facing deportation when he left Amy Houston dying under the wheels after colliding with her in his black Rover car.

The Kurdish Iraqi, who has since committed further driving offences, was told by a judge in Manchester that he could stay in Britain because, in the six years since the tragedy, he had put down roots, married a British woman and now had two daughters.

Amy was on her way to a record shop to buy the new CD of her favourite group, Busted, when she stepped into the road near her home in Blackburn and into the car’s path.

She was trapped under the vehicle and had to be freed by fire fighters. A police officer drove the ambulance to hospital to allow paramedics to treat the child but she died later that day.

While the rescue operation was under way Mr Ibrahim panicked and fled from the scene. He later confessed to a friend what he had done and gave himself up to police. He served two months of a four-month jail term.

In 2006 he was convicted on a fresh charge of driving while disqualified, the latest in a series of motoring offences.

The UK Border Agency had been anxious to deport Mr Ibrahim at the earliest opportunity, even taking him into the care of a deportation centre.

What planet do our Judges live on, is this really the type of man this Country needs don’t we have enough of our own scum without importing more, so what that he has fathered a couple of kids.

As  usual he is able to stay because of  human rights legislation, appealing on the grounds that deporting him would breach his right to “ respect for family life”

What about little Amy Houston’s human rights.

The sooner we kick this Government out and give David Cameron as he has promised the chance to repel some of these ridiculous laws the better.

DurdensView Tags: Amy Houston, Human rights act

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

 

 

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab the would be Christmas day airplane bomber has told investigators that he was inspired and trained by Al Quaeda to carry out his failed attack, he goes on to say their are 25 more “British “ suicide bombers

Acknowledging this information to be true a  security service spokesman said yesterday “we are aware of these individuals  they are due back into this country within the next two months”,  we will put them under 24 hour observation.

I cant believe that response no wonder the US  security services call London, Londonistan, it beggars belief that we know these individuals and are allowing them back into the country, and before anyone reminds me about their human rights, stuff their human rights.

We had a lucky escape the other day when the bomb did not explode, it malfunctioned because of a  a technical reason, that coupled with the bravery of a passenger on board the plane saved nearly 300 lives, but we cannot expect to be that lucky every time.

When is our Government going to stand up and and come down on the side of its citizens safety and say enough is enough, anyone with any sort of proven terrorist links is out, deported from this country no right of appeal, no chance of coming back, and if their rights are infringed, tough they should have thought about their rights as they  planned our destruction.

Isn’t it amazing how hard these people fight to get into this country and how hard they fight to stay here, when they hate us so much, they hate our way of life but have no problem taking our benefits accepting our free housing and letting their children be taught in our “infidel” schools and use our “infidel” health system.

There is no way this  group of 25 currently in the Yemen training should be allowed to set foot in this country again , I don’t care how many human rights laws we break to make that happen.

DurdensView Tags: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, Yemen

Akmal Shaikh

Akmal Shaikh faces the death sentence — most likely to be carried out by injection — for having four kilograms (8.8lbs) of heroin when he flew into the western city of Urumqi, in the mainly Muslim Xinjiang region, two years ago.

Calling for mercy, his supporters say that Shaikh, 53, a father of three, has bipolar disorder and should not be held responsible for his actions. China’s Supreme Court turned down his final appeal last week and set December 29 as the date of execution. Shaikh has not been informed of the date and will learn his fate today.

What a load of rubbish that a bi polar condition caused him to smuggle drugs, lots of people suffer from that and don’t smuggle heroin, least of all to a place like China that clearly warns anyone entering their borders that they will be executed for bringing drugs into their Country.

You have to abide by the rules of the Country that you visit, this is not some naive teenage girl duped into transporting drugs, this man knew what he was doing, you can make up to a 1000% profit on your outlay selling Heroin.

The Chinese are right to have such strict laws to control the influx of drugs into their Lands, in Countries where Governments were slow to react to the threat of drugs and I will use Mexico as a example though there are many more, there have been 15000 murders in the last three years, FIFTEEN thousand lives wasted in turf wars fighting for the control of the lucrative drug trade. that is 13 murders a day every day all connected to drugs .

Not all nations problems are as severe but where drugs are a part of a society’s make up  crime is on the increase. Can you imagine what this Country would be like if we had 13 murders a day for 3 years connected to drugs, actually imagine what it would be like if we had 13 murders consecutively for 3 days let alone 3 years  and you see the scale of the problem.

So as terrible as it is to condone the taking of someone's life in this case I have no sympathy with Mr Shaikh and applaud the Chinese for sending a strong message, I wish our leaders were as strong.

DurdensView Tags: Akmal Shaikh, Drugs, China, Execution

Seasons Greetings

A very merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous new year to my friends and  family and not forgetting all the new friends I have made through these pages.

Boy George

I am amazed at the fuss at the decision to not allow Boy George to appear in next weeks TV show Celebrity Big Brother.

Mr Justice Bean dismissed the application, saying that an offender serving the non-custodial part of a sentence should not be allowed to “take part in a high-profile television production”.

Lawyers acting for the  musician, whose real name is George O’Dowd, had claimed that the ban was imposed amid fears that the Probation Service would come under attack from the media if he was allowed to take part in the show, which begins on January 3. He was expected to have earned £400,000 for his appearance.

Yesterday there were radio shows that dedicated huge sections of their programme to that decision, most of them that I heard were criticizing the Judge, these people who are backing George today are the same ones spouting of the rest of the year about how weak and ineffectual our justice system is, how there is one law for the rich and one for the poor.

George was not jailed for a traffic offence or non payment of a fine,  or even for using drugs where you could argue that he was only hurting himself.

Have these people have forgotten what it was he was jailed  for. it was for  assaulting and falsely imprisoning Auden Carlsen a male escort that George had hired for the evening, following a trivial argument George chained him to a radiator and beat him with a chain, his ordeal only ended when he managed to escape George did not release him who knows what George had in mind for, this could have ended in more serious injury or worse with  murder.

Imagine the roles reversed and the escort had done the same to Gorge he would have got at least 5 years, so for George to get sentenced to 15 months only was a good result for him and out of that he served only 4 months, and is out on licence until April of 2010, the terms of his licence state that he may not change his address and must be able to be visited by his social worker daily.

As these terms would be violated if he entered the Big Brother house his request was rightly  denied, why should he be treated preferentially because of his celebrity status.

Hats of to Justice Bean for treating George as the criminal that he is.

DurdensView Tags: Boy George, Justice Bean

Kim Peek-Savant

Kim Peek, the autistic savant who inspired the Oscar-winning film Rain man has died, aged 58,  He suffered a heart attack on Saturday night.

Born in 1951 in Salt Lake city, Mr Peek was diagnosed as severely mentally retarded and his parents were advised to place him in an institution and forget about him. Thirty years later, he was classified as a "mega-savant," a genius in about 15 different subjects, from history and literature and geography to numbers, sports, music and dates.

He had read and memorised over 9000 books by the time of his death, he would read 8 books a day each taking only 10 seconds a page, also incredibly reading 2 pages  at a time, his left eye reading one page while his right eye read the other. He can read the books even if they are upside down or laying sideways, he is the only Savant in the world who can do this.

This remarkable man for all his genius though could not do simple things like dress himself or comb his hair and needed constant care, care that was provided by his father Fran who after meeting Dustin Hoffman (who portrayed him in the Oscar winning Rain Man) was advised by the actor to “share him with the world” and not hide him away.

Following that advice Kim was put on the stage where he astounded audiences by answering the most obscure of questions while they tried to catch him out.

I have since watching Rain Man been fascinated by a “Savant” and like everybody else would love to know how they do what they do, having a mind that cant remember how to dress but yet can look at the sky and notice a change in star formation, that can retain and repeat word for word thousands of books, yet is unable to make his own dinner.

Sadly Kim has died at a young age, but there are other Savants in the world though none in the class of Kim, maybe scientists will one day unlock the secret of their amazing minds.

His obituary makes fascinating reading, published in today’s times newspaper.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6965115.ece

DurdensView Tags: Kim Peek, Savant

Ahmadinejad running out of time

President Ahmadinejad has denounced as an American government forgery a secret nuclear document unearthed by the Times, as the top general in the United States warned that military force could not be ruled out against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

It shows  how unstable the Iranian leader is when he was shown the documents he replied,  “No, I don’t want to see this kind of document,” Mr Ahmadinejad said. “These are some fabricated papers issued by the American Government.”

It’s about time The Americans stopped pussyfooting around Ahmadinejad and let him know exactly what will happen unless he reins in or better still completely stops his nuclear programme, if he is seriously looking for nuclear power for energy purposes only he would not object to the plan whereby Russia would enrich uranium for Iran.

In the past it has been reported that in the event of an attack on Iran they would Blockade the Gulf, especially the Straits of Hormuz blocking vital shipping lanes, I never understood why that was a big deal if the Iranians put ships there the Americans are more than capable of blasting them out of the water.

As for their threat of launching missiles at Israel, if attacked Israel is more than capable of looking after itself,  Ahmadinejad should know by now that the Israeli response wont be proportional it will be excessive and brutal.

I suspect that the Iranian leader is gambling that the west lack the will to attack, a certain Saddam Hussein took the same gamble and ended up swinging from a rope.

So no more talk lets deal with this issue now and put it to bed, I said some months ago that I thought there would some sort of military action by year end, I may be a little out on the timescale but an attack on their installations  looks inevitable with American Generals talking about Military action for the first time.

Personally my money is on Israel launching a strike first.

DurdensView Tags: Ahmadinejad, Israel, America, Nuclear

Obama is all talk

Western governments united to denounce Iran’s test-firing of a long-range ballistic missile yesterday, warning that it would only increase international determination to press for more sanctions on Tehran if it refused to negotiate over its nuclear programme.

I am getting a bit sick of keep hearing this, its warning warning warning, that’s all we read, it reminds me of the dance that the West had with Saddam before eventually having to take action.

Iran has made it clear by saying they will not under any circumstance stop their Nuclear programme, so the West and by the West I mean specifically America has to make a decision and act on it,  the longer this drags out the scarier it gets there will be a point when Iran will announce we have the bomb, after that they will be untouchable.

If Obama hasn’t the balls for military action then he should  take the shackles of Israel and let them deal with Iran, so far he has been all talk with no substance regards Iran,

I am amazed that Israel have been this restrained, but its getting to the point that with or without US blessing Israel will deal with this soon.

DurdensView Tags: Obama, Israel, Iran

Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi

Mystery surrounded the Lockerbie bomber last night after he could not be reached at his home or in hospital.

Libyan officials could say nothing about the whereabouts of Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, and his Scottish monitors could not contact him by telephone. They will try again to speak to him today but if they fail to reach him, the Scottish government could face a new crisis.

What a shock,  he is still alive and he has disappeared, I said at the time I did not believe how ill he was and this was just about BP getting a huge oil deal. http://durdensview.blogspot.com/2009/08/lockerbie.html

Relatives of the victims were furious in August when Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Secretary, released al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds because he was expected to die of prostate cancer within three months.

al-Megrahi was monitored by Jonathan Hinds, of East Renfrewshire council who called him by telephone every other Tuesday.

What an absolutely water tight security procedure.

As usual we have become the laughing stock of the World, and though its a Scottish problem everybody knows it was sanctioned by Westminster.

DurdensView Tags: Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, Macaskill

Climate Change – A lot of hot air?

I don’t believe that climate change is happening to the extent the Government scientists claim, I’m sure that is a change in climate but that is cyclical it has happened since the earth was created, and will continue to change with or without our help,  just look at the ice age.

Are we expected to believe our way of life now is affecting the climate, when for 300 years every house in Europe used coal for heat and our chimneys billowed thick black smoke around the clock.

Though we are more efficient in our factory’s now it was not always like that, our factory’s also fouled  the atmosphere with smoke , in China it is still happening, China is the worlds worst polluter of  air.

Climate change is just a tool used as a scare tactic to extract extra taxes from the population, its just the latest scare of many.

In the early 80’s I can remember the adverts claiming that within 5 years everybody in the Country would know someone who had aids or had died of aids, then we had Ebola that was meant to kill half the worlds population, Salmonella, bird flu, Swine flu, its always something, coffee is good for us coffee is bad for us , a glass of red a day prevents heart disease, then a few years down the line a glass of red a day causes heart disease.

Back in the 50’s we were told smoking was good,  it made men manly and attractive to women, ( remember the Marlboro man) it made women  sexy and sophisticated, today it kills us, smoking is bad. Incidentally the Marlboro man died of lung cancer caused by smoking.

So for now they beat the climate change drum with enthusiasm, until its noticed that the World is ticking along ok, and then its on to the next scare.

DurdensView Tags: Climate Change, Aids, Swine flu

Tiger Tamed

Tigers wife has discarded her wedding ring, Pepsi-co have dropped their  Tiger brand drinks, Accenture have sacked him as their company “face”,  Tag Haur are looking at the small print to cancel their contract with him, so far only Nike have stood by Tiger but how long can that last given we don’t expect Tiger on a golf course in the foreseeable future.

The picture above was some time ago long before this scandal broke, it’s funny given what we now know how sinister Wood’s pose is, an arrogant almost dismissive look on his face aimed at his wife  that was not noticeable before.

One  final thought  about Tiger as it is getting a little boring now.

If Tiger does come back to golf, in a sick kind of way he will be an even more valuable commodity than he is now, can you imagine the interest in his comeback tournament, that would be the most watched golf tournament in history.

Advertisers would be charged astronomical fees to be associated with that tournament, Tigers appearance money would dwarf any he has received to date, television revenue would have so many nought on it you would need two calculators to count it.

And if he were to actually win it he may as well be given the keys to Fort Knox. pathetic I know but it’s true, even the most hardened anti Tiger fan now would want to see him play just to see how he plays how he copes with the crowds and the obvious flak he will get.

Me included.

DurdensView Tags: Tiger Woods

Tiger Gags Britain

The Guardian has  reported that Woods has successfully gained an injunction preventing the British Media from printing any more revelations about his personal life.
What an earth happened to Absolute Privilege and a free press in this country?

It is absolutely outrageous that Woods would be granted this, of course a persons sex life is private but not when your image and persona is built on a clean living family man image that you “sell” to the public, then you must be accountable.

And what of  Tigers infamous crash outside his home where he drove into a tree then a hydrant he could just as easily have driven into a person,  that alone makes the story newsworthy, which then means we are entitled to the background of what happened.

I am disgusted that our courts have capitulated to him so easily and hope that our press are already preparing appeals against this pathetic decision.

DurdensView Tags: Guardian, Woods, Injunction

Pakistani Intelligence

A U.S. drone strike this week killed a senior al Qaeda operator in a Pakistani tribal area near the Afghan border, U.S. and Pakistani officials said Friday.

U.S. officials said Saleh al-Somali, who was responsible for al Qaeda's operations outside of Afghanistan and Pakistan, was killed in the strike Tuesday. He was on the C.I.A.’S  list of the top 20 al Qaeda targets, according to an official familiar with the list.

For all the Pakistani Governments public berating of the Americans for using drones on Pakistan territory it was information provided by Pakistan’s SIS that led to the death of al-Somali.

The SIS (Pakistan intelligence service) has in the past been accused of having very close ties to Al Quaeda, so its about time they came on board.

With the 30.000 extra troops  “surge” in Afghanistan expected to be in full flow by the summer of 2010, and victory over the Taliban said to be accomplished in approx 18 months, the Pakistani’s know that the next major  battle in the war on terror  will be  fought in Pakistan’s border regions.

It will be interesting to see how accurate the time scale predicted for victory in Afghanistan is, with the new tactics of actively going after the Taliban and smashing them wherever they are found is.

Obama has said the troop pullout starts in July 2011.  and security handed over to the Afghans themselves to take responsibility for their own Country I believe its possible.

DurdensView Tags: Pakistan, al -Somali, Afghanistan

Tiger Retires

It was reported by the New York Times  today that Tiger Woods has retired from competitive golf, as predicted by this column some 5 days ago http://durdensview.blogspot.com/2009/12/tiger-will-retire.html

Another DurdensView piece that was on the money.

Jacob Hadcock

Young Jacob Hadcock is 4 years old and has a terminal illness he lives in the United States, He would love to recieve xmas cards or letters from people all over the world, this may be Jacobs last Xmas so lets make his wish come true.

My daughter is a friend of his carer that’s how I became aware of Jacob, so if you are feeling festive and want to make a young child happy send your cards or letters to.

Jacob Hadcock

127 north Street Mexico

New York 13114

America

Thank you.

Wood Woes Continue

Poor Tiger it looks like there is no end in sight  to his problems his daily humiliations continue with a succession of porn stars now crawling out of the woodwork to claim affairs, to date no denials to any of these women’s story’s have come from the Woods camp.

Tigers sponsors look to be turning their backs on him to with Pepsi co dropping the range of Tiger Focus energy drinks, this was worth a reported  six million dollars a year to the golfer, Pepsi Co are the first but they wont be the last, with other sponsors frantically looking at the small print esp the Morality clauses, expect more contracts cancelled sooner rather than later.

A recent poll also found an 80% negative feedback on tigers personal popularity with the public, his standing with black Americans also falls with some pointing out that all Tigers mistress’s are white, quite what the women in questions colour  has to do with anything I’m not sure but that’s one more nail in Tigers advertising coffin.

As I said in an earlier piece I think Tiger will struggle to come back from this, reports on the USA are saying that he has already attempted suicide once on the night of the crash swallowing  handfuls of prescription pills and washing them down with alcohol, the paramedic report on the night had Woods down as an OD (overdose) patient.

I will be amazed if we see Tiger playing competitive golf again.

Pop goes the Student

A chemistry student in the Ukraine had  his face blown off by what is believed to be exploding chewing gum, The 25-year-olds disfigured remains were discovered at his parent's home in the northern Ukrainian city of Konotop.

The young man, who studied at Kiev Polytechnic Institute, was working at his  computer late on Saturday when the alleged explosion happened." A loud pop was heard from the student's room," the ukranews.com Web site said, quoting  the city's police chief.

When his relatives entered the room, they saw that the lower part of the young man's face had been blown off. A forensic examination established that the chewing gum was covered with an unidentified chemical substance, thought to be some type of explosive material.

The student apparently had a bizarre habit of chewing gum after dipping it into citric acid.

Officers found both citric acid packets and a similar-looking unidentified substance, believed to be some kind of explosive material, on a table near the body. Investigators suspect that the student simply confused the packets and put gum covered with explosive material into his mouth.

It is a common mistake to make if you leave your chewing and bomb making equipment side by side on a table, odds of blowing your face of rise dramatically if you dip said chewing gum in explosive acids before chewing, its difficult to feel sorry for this idiot, but it made for a interesting story.

DurdensView Tags: Ukraine, Exploding, Gum

Tiger Will Retire

The stories about Tigers private life just keep coming and coming, and they are sounding worse and worse, the latest woman to come forward is a hard core porn star. Holly Sampson is the “star” of some pretty hardcore material including Bondage movies.

Friends close to the couple  say Tigers wife has packed her stuff and moved out, and who can blame her it must be humiliating beyond belief for her as each new allegation is aired, if it wasn’t enough that he has been cheating , but to find out while she was pregnant as well through two pregnancies.

Over the years Woods has cultivated this image of a focused individual with tremendous mental strength but sadly that may not be enough, a proud man like Woods being exposed like this will take it badly, from being held in almost reverence by adoring fans to suddenly become the butt of every ones jokes.

He is currently the number one article googled on the net, most of them jokes.

In America the late night talk show hosts like Letterman and Jay Leno are ripping Tiger into shreds.

And that’s where I see the problem, whenever and wherever Tiger plays from now on some sections of the crowd will shout abuse at him he will be ridiculed, even if its just one or two people shouting comments it will always bring to everybody’s mind what Tiger had been up to.

Tigers sponsors have so far stayed quiet but expect contacts to be cancelled and soon, there will be clauses in the contracts referring to of field behaviour I believe they are called “morality Clause’s”. I am sure Tiger is in breach of those.

With £600 million pounds in the bank Tiger does not need to put himself through that. I personally don’t believe he will compete again, I hope I am wrong a talent like his comes around once in  a lifetime.

DurdensView Tags: Tiger Woods

Boy-Chester Utd

Manchester Utd face Wolfsburg tonight with 15 players out through injury, they are so desperate for players to make up the 11 starters that they have called up the Chief Executives son.

Oliver Gill is the son of David Gill who has been in charge at Utd for a number of years, even seasoned Utd fans will struggle with the names of some of the players out there tonight.

Bookies have Utd at 12/5 to get a result there and finish top of the group.  I still fancy them to win.

Come on the Reds.

Iranian Leadership Desperate

Iranian authorities have slowed internet connections to a crawl or choked them of completely before expected student protests today to deny the opposition vital means of communications.

In another tactic Journalists have been banned from leaving their offices.

It could be an explosive day as Iran’s Chief of police has promised to crush any dissent

This smacks of the desperation of a doomed regime, lets hope these protesters can keep the momentum going and maybe force a regime change themselves before the maniac in charge involves them in a war with the West.

Last weeks announcement that they would be constructing ten more nuclear sites has hardly endeared them to the rest of the world, least of all to Israel who are itching to destroy their existing sites.

Because no foreign media will be allowed to report on today’s events it may be a while before information leaks out, we are after all now used to watching news as it happens, but I’m sure by tonight mobile phone footage and eye witness accounts will be available.

This could be the beginning of the end of Ahmadinejad’s rule, lets hope so.

DurdensView Tags: Iranian, Protests, Ahmadinejad

Violent Video Games

I cant believe I am still getting chastised for daring to suggest that prolonged playing of violent  video games can have an adverse affect on youngsters who seem to spend all their time locked away in their rooms playing these types of games.

Its been said to me that its easy to pick holes in something and highlight a problem, but not very helpful when you don’t offer a solution.

I’m not sure there is a solution to this after all these games make billions and they are not going away, putting an 18 certificate on them does not stop teens getting their hands on them, but what about this for an  idea, with technology where it is I am sure it would not be to difficult for manufacturers to slip a kind of safety device on them, centred around the amount of time you can play these games in one sitting, or say a 24 hour period, for example every six hours something activates within the game that does not allow it to be played for at least 12 hours, forcing the player to have a break from it.

So every time a new game is released you will have two versions on sale,  the adult version, and the “safety”version that responsible parents can buy for their children.

I realise  that critics of the idea will say, what’s to stop the teen taking that game out and replacing it with others until the 12 hours are up, well  there is nothing to stop that, but this is a start in trying to tackle the problem.

When the idea of no smoking indoors at any public building was first mooted, that was called unworkable, but  now its accepted and people go outside to smoke.

DurdensView Tags: Video games, Violent

Lee Ryan

Who says pop stars are thick, this quote is from Ex Blue star Lee Ryan.

"What about whales? They are ignoring animals that are more important. Animals need saving and that's more important. This New York thing (9/11) is being blown out of all proportion. Who gives as F**k about New York when elephants are being Killed”.

 

IDIOT.

Whitehall W**kers

This was taken from today’s Sun newspaper

“An eight-page Whitehall guide lists words they should not use when talking about terrorism in public and gives politically correct alternatives.

They are told not to refer to Muslim extremism as it links Islam to violence. Instead, they are urged to talk about terrorism or violent extremism.

Fundamentalist and Jihadi are also banned because they make an "explicit link" between Muslims and terror.

Ministers should say criminals, murderers or thugs instead. Radicalisation must be called brainwashing and talking about moderate or radical Muslims is to be avoided as it "splits the community".

Islamophobia is also out as it is received as "a slur that singles out Muslims".

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I say if it looks like a duck,  walks like a duck, and talks like a duck chances are its a duck. So lets stop bowing and scraping to terrorists, forget about hurting their feelings while they are trying to wipe us out, and hope our Politicians grow a pair. Islamic or otherwise they don’t deserve any kind of consideration.

Russian Nightclub Fire

At least a hundred people were killed and a 140 injured last night when a firework display went horribly wrong in a Russian nightclub.

Clubbers rushed for the doors of the Lame Horse nightspot in the centre of Perm, a city of 1.2m, 870 miles east of Moscow, after a pyrotechnics show went disastrously wrong.

Witnesses quoted by local media said a stray firework sparked the blaze during a stage show, prompting panic as hundreds of clubbers rushed for the exits.

Enforcement of fire safety standards in Russia is notoriously lax and in recent years there have been several catastrophic blazes at drug-treatment facilities and apartment buildings.

Russia records nearly 18,000 fire deaths a year, several times the per capita rate in the United States and other Western countries. Nightclub fires have killed thousands of people worldwide.

Ten people died when a so-called "fire show" went out of control at a Moscow club in March 2007.

In February 2008, a fire in the Golden Rock nightclub in the Siberian city of Omsk killed four people. Officials said the blast might have been caused by natural gas.

In Russia it appears they have no health and safety regulations, well at least none that are strict enough and none that anyone seems to take any notice of.

We complain all the time in this Country about what a nuisance our health and safety executive is and how they interfere to much in our lives, but given the appalling loss of life and most of them sadly in their teens, I wont be complaining about our health and safety rules anymore.

What a terrible way to lose your children, in something as innocent as a night out dancing, given the frequency of this type of tragedy,  worldwide there should be a immediate and total ban on fireworks indoors, it will take a while for everyone to fall into synch, but if the punishments for breaking the rules are severe enough eventually everyone will fall into line.

DurdensView Tags: Russia. Fire, Nightclub

Obama’s Mistake

Though I welcome President Obama’s pledge to send an extra thirty thousand troops to Afghanistan to have a final decisive push in wiping out the Taliban and settling the insurgency, I have reservations.

I think any right minded person would welcome a strategy that would get this awful conflict which has claimed so may lives over and done with, and we could finally bring our troops home leaving behind a settled Afghanistan.

But what was Obama and his team thinking when they announced a pull out date, they announced July 2011 as the start date for all troops to be out of the Country. This is a monumental error in judgement, all the Taliban need to do now if they don’t want to fight is sit tight  wait out the invaders.

One thing these fanatics have consistently shown is patience and durability, lessons they have learned the hard way most recently against the Russians. I would imagine now apart from sporadic attacks to show they are still around things will quieten down dramatically, until the coast is clear and then business as usual, the Taliban  have quietly been building bases they have  “Government” already in 11 of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan.

Obama and his team need to rethink the withdrawal policy and announce they are there until the job is finished.

DurdensView Tags: Obama, Afghanistan

Blanche

Maggie Jones, the actress best known for portraying the sharp-tongued Blanche Hunt in Coronation street has died at the age of 75.   after appearing to make a good recovery from surgery, she deteriorated rapidly yesterday morning and  passed away peacefully in her sleep,

I have to confess to being a fan, I didn’t like her character for a long time, but she wore me down over the last few years.

Her comedy timing was impeccable and she often slipped in her own one liners, surprisingly to which the producers did not object  as her contributions were often better than the writers ones.

She won several comedy awards for playing Blanche, although she became a regular  cast member only in 1998, after numerous occasional appearances.  she was in 830 episodes.

RIP Blanche.

Tiger one liners

Tiger is being exposed as a bit of a cheat, two girls now are claiming to have been bedded by him while he has been married, there are a few obvious jokes here ,  these are all my own work. you read them first on DurdensView.

“Tiger enjoys another hole in one”

“Tiger has put it in the Bush”

“Tiger is using his favourite  wood”

“Tiger has plenty of Length”

“if he puts it there he could lose his balls”

and finally… “Tiger holes out from the back”

Not brilliant I know but they are original,

Tiger Bogeyed

Tiger Woods should not  be allowed to treat the law the way he has, three times he has cancelled scheduled appointments to talk to the police and give his version of events of the crash last Friday night, the obvious reason he is doing this is to give the wounds on his face time to heal.

The police should not be giving him preferential treatment because of his status, I understand their patience is wearing thin and they are threatening to get a warrant to raid his house, Woods has further muddied the waters by hiring a local criminal lawyer to represent him.

It does look as though Tiger has had a bit  of a beating of the wife, it seems that he was struck across the face before he ran out and jumped into his car barefoot, which in Florida is in itself an offence, you may not drive barefoot in any part of Florida private estate or not.

If his wife as she claims was rescuing woods from the car, why was she when police arrived in their words “hovering over him with a golf club in her hand” also if  Woods facial injuries were sustained by hitting the steering wheel why was there no blood on the wheel but blood all over his face and clothes.

The millionaires estate that Tiger lives on is covered by CCTV not one inch is left exposed there will be footage of the whole incident somewhere, I’m sure Tiger’s own security system will have picked it up,  this story still has a lot of mileage in it and will run and run.

My opinion is that Tigers team is now working on damage limitation, bearing in mind the lucrative endorsement contracts he has Tiger should come clean and admit to a domestic problem which he can get over, after all everyone has marriage problems from time to time, but if Tiger ties to play with the law and a criminal conviction is the end result  his endorsements will quickly dry up.

Tigers clean living and ideal family life  image alongside his extraordinary skill make him the superstar he is in the marketing world, but in America they do like their hero’s clean cut, so lets have the full story and move on.

DurdensView Tags: Tiger Woods

Iran Bullies us again

Diplomatic tension between Britain and Iran deepened yesterday with the news that Tehran is holding five British sailors after their yacht apparently strayed into Iranian waters.

This is not the first time British hostages have been taken by the Iranians, as recently a 2 years ago 15 British sailors were held hostage for 13 days, at least that time the Iranians could say it was a military type  vessel that strayed into their waters though that was not admitted by the the British who claimed they were in neutral waters, satellite pictures backed up the British version of events.

But this time its clearly a Yacht with a team of youngsters on board that apparently strayed a measly 500 yards into Iranian waters. The Britons were delivering the yacht to the annual Dubai to Muscat race, a 360-mile voyage through the Straits of Hormuz scheduled to begin the following day.

I suppose  we must now suffer the public humiliation of having our people paraded on TV, denounced as spies, and threatened with trials,  after all that and showing how toothless we are eventually releasing them.

We are viewed as such soft touches around the world, one more thing the Labour Government has done to this once great and proud Country is to extract  it’s teeth and remove its bite.

That’s why we are led by the nose in Europe to, having let France and Germany dictate to us for so long without standing up for ourselves. 

Unlike in Maggies day when she struck the fear of god into Europe and the rest of the world when Britain was respected. We need another Thatcher, roll on May lets kick this spineless bunch out and give Cameron a chance. Maybe we can get some of the Great back into Britain.

DurdensView Tags: Iran, Hostages, Maggie Thatcher