Magic Statistics

Lord Turnbull, one-time advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, rose to become British Cabinet Secretary (head of the civil service).  On the way, he served four years as the top Treasury bureaucrat under Gordon Brown (at right), the man who today took over as Prime Minister from Tony Blair.  Lord Turnbull recently accused Mr Brown of “Stalinist ruthlessness”, but he had previously suggested an even more shocking analogy.

The National Post’s Peter Foster reports.

You might think that a comparison with Stalin would be about the most damning condemnation you might make, but the year before, over lunch, Lord Turnbull had said something to me that might make the new Prime Minister even more livid, or –perhaps more appropriately - scared. "Gordon Brown," he said, "could be Britain's Paul Martin."

Like Paul Martin, Gordon Brown spent years scheming and plotting to push aside a detested rival and seize the top office in the land.  Also like Mr Martin, he has succeeded only to find that his predecessor's odious legacy has left his party’s popularity at a very low ebb, while the opposition party is led by an appealing younger man.

Canadian voters turfed Paul Martin from office barely two years after he became Prime Minister. Gordon Brown may be hard-pressed to avoid the same fate.

Two weeks ago, the 16th-century Chapel of the Cross, Loqueffret, France, was burned down, the latest in a series of attacks on Christian sites in Brittany.  Seven people aged between 20 and 30 years old were arrested last week.

They belong to "True Armorik Black Metal" (TABM), an anti-Christian, anti-church movement that has threatened to continue attacking Christian shrines and holy places.

Police officials said to Rev. Paul Ciniraj, the Director of the Salem Voice Ministries and the SVM News Service by a telephone conversation that the people of TABM forcely opened the doors of the chapel, and several original polychrome statues were destroyed.

Three of the arrestees have reportedly confessed, and the other four have been released.

Although TABM was at one time believed to be involved in Satanism, the suspects deny that.

The suspects, who belong to a shadowy anti-religious group with links to heavy metal music, denied having commited the acts as part of a satanic ritual and claimed to have carried out the attacks as a way to protest "the excessive power of Christianity and the abolition of pagan worship."

A French policeman says that there are too many Christian holy places for police to guard them all.  Also, there are now so few priests that many sites are left unattended.

The Chapel of the Cross was the ninth Christian site desecrated by TABM since the beginning of May.  This slideshow (with a heavy-metal soundtrack) shows the ruined chapel.

That annoying little smiley-face guy who rolls back prices in Wal-Mart commercials has a new gig—in Zimbabwe.  In a desperate and futile attempt to combat hyper-inflation, the government has ordered factories and businesses to cut prices by half.

The price of basic commodities such as oil and bread must be reduced with "immediate effect" said the government.

But the benefit to consumers will be limited in view of overall inflation, which hit 3,700% in April on a yearly basis and 300% in the last week alone.
. . .
Economists warn that the measures are likely to lead to shortages, as companies either stop producing because they cannot afford to, or sell their goods on the black market.

The government’s paranoid delusions surface even in economic policy announcements.

Industry and International Trade Minister Obert Mpofu told the AFP news agency the price rises were "unscrupulous".

"Government is aware that these price increases are a political ploy engineered by our detractors to effect an illegal regime change against the ruling party and the government following the failure of illegal economic sanctions."

Zimbabwe’s inflation is so bad that even if, per impossibile, the policy were to be fully effective, the price reduction would hardly be noticeable and prices would return to their original levels in less than a week.

Harare businesses have ignored the edict and, thus far, the government is making no effort to enforce it.

As an example of the economic inefficiencies caused by hyper-inflation, a Zimbabwean dentist says that he no longer gives patients price estimates in Zimbabwean dollars because, by the time a patient shows up for his procedure, the price has jumped.  So, he quotes in US dollars.

Previous related posts:

• Can Zimbabwe’s economy get any worse? Just watch
• Zimbabwe’s latest dubious achievement: Hyperinflation
• More worthless Zimbabwean currency

So, you move your mouse across your desk or mouse pad—and the pointer on the computer screen also moves.  Have you ever wondered, “How does it know?”  Wonder no more.

Mine’s not quite that noisy.

h/t: Thinking Christian

The pro-homosexual agenda of Anglican Bishop Michael Ingham has received a ton of free publicity from Globe and Mail reporter Michael Valpy in recent months, but the newspaper’s readers are not fooled.  This Globe online poll was taken after General Synod concluded.

For the record, I do not post this because it’s supposed to be a scientific random-sample poll.  Obviously, it’s not.  It cannot be taken as representative of the opinion of Canadians as a whole or of Canadian Anglicans.  It’s just a knee-slapper.

h/t: TitusOneNine

Previous related posts:

• The Globe and Mail is so predictable
• Globe and Mail catches up with Archbishop Andrew
• Globe and Mail regurgitates Ingham’s speech

In this 1959 video clip, Canadian rockabilly legend Ronnie “The Hawk” Hawkins performs “I Need Your Lovin'”, the B-side of one of his first big hits, “Mary Lou”.  Check out his early version of the moonwalk.

Yes, that is Levon Helm on the drums.

You can watch Ronnie singing “Mary Lou” at his 60th birthday party in 1995 here.   He may be a geezer, but he can still rock and roll.

By the by, it’s been “Dr Hawk” since Laurentian University conferred an honourary Doctor of Letters in 2005.

h/t: Expecting Rain