Reviews Category
We don’t just report off-beat news, breaking news and digest the best and worst of the news media analysis and commentary. We give an original take on what happened and why. We add lols, satire, news photos and original content.
Herman Wallace RIP: the Black Panther tortured by the US for 41 years
MAYBE Herman Wallace can find peace in death. The Black Panther fighter who spent 41 of his 71 years in solitary confinement in a US prison has died. For more than four decades he lived in a cell measuring 2m by 3m. Alone.
Three days before his death, the US freed him from the Louisiana State Penitentiary. And then the liver cancer got him. He died at a home in New Orleans.
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Halloween is a ‘slap in God’s face’ says Christian cartoonist Jack Chick
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Posted: 5th, October 2013 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
Samantha Lewthwaite is victim of white widow phobia and turns women into hawks
SAMANTHA Lewthwaite: Anorak’s look at the wanted British woman in the news.
Sky News has edited footage of the killers patrolling the Kenyan shopping centre where so many were murdered and maimed.
Having been told that Lewthwaite – the mythic White Widow – had run the operation – the Mail heard her barking out orders to her assassins – it’s noticeable that there are no women shown in the gang. We see four black men. The Black Widow and Orphan Makers, if you like.
Sky notes:
Kenya’s government initially said 10 to 15 attackers were involved in the assault, which left at least 67 people dead. However, the official now believes only four people took part in the protracted siege.
The video is from CCTV. Also filmed were Kenyan soldiers looting the mall. The Nairobi Star, reports:
“Virtually all the shops in the mall were looted except the Bata shoe shop. Jewellery, watch and mobile shops were emptied. ATMs, banks and a casino also lost funds.”
But no sign of Lewthwaite. Well, not unless you read the papers.
The Guardian: “From Zulu to the ‘White Widow’, why do all African stories need a white face?”
Afua Hirsch wants to know.
Into this fray steps a woman – originally from the UK – whose story as told in the British press is such an enthralling mix of the exotic, the horrific and the familiar that the ensuing intrigue can almost single-handedly power the Twittersphere. Enter Samantha Lewthwaite, aka the “white widow”, a British convert to Islam whose husband Germaine Lindsay killed 22 in the London 7/7 bomb attacks. She fascinates in the way that white women who wear hijab generally do – I’ve seen them stared at on the tube in London – and because we still don’t believe that women can be terrorists.
Is Samantha Lewthwaite a victim of white widowphobia?
The ratings appeal of a character such as Lewthwaite is obvious. You only have to look as far as Homeland – an entire series based around our fascination with western-born, white jihadist terrorists, which returns to UK screens this weekend – to find evidence of this. One character in the hit US show, which centers on a US marine who turns into a would-be suicide bomber, is Aileen Morgan, an American woman who plays a key role in a terrorist plot.
There are plenty of Somali-Brits, Somali-Canadian and other Somali dual citizens suspected of involvement with Al-Shabaab, but they are black and Somali-looking, and therefore their capacity for violence is apparently less surprising.
It’s high time we started to see black men as having the same power to end your life as white women. Let’s be fair.
Al Arabiya: “Secret diary: ‘White Widow’ was grooming her kids to be jihadists”
British fugitive female militant, Samantha Lewthwaite commonly referred to as the ‘White Widow,’ was grooming her children to be jihadists, her secret diary found by the Kenyan authorities shows. The diary was found in a luxury house in the Kenyan capital Nairobi where she reportedly stayed with her jhadist al-Shabab fellows planning to attack two hotels and a shopping mall…
“Recently, my beloved husband gave a talk to my eight year old son and five year old daughter. He asked them what do you want to be when you are old? Both had many answers, but both agreed to one of wanting to be a Mujahid,” Lewthwaite wrote in a crumpled paper.
Every young kid wants to be just like dad. Maybe when they become teenagers they’ll become more like mum and reject everything their parents stood for.
The Bucks Herald: “EXCLUSIVE: ‘Gobby’ Samantha Lewthwaite was ‘not the sort of character you messed with’”
Was she a – gulp! – bully?
A former friend of terror suspect Samantha Lewthwaite says she was a ‘very strong personality’ and ‘even boys were intimidated by her’…The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, said she was ‘good friends’ with Lewthwaite during their time at the Grange School. Lewthwaite has been described as a ‘shy girl’ by some who knew her, however the woman, who had a sleepover at her house when they were in their teens, said this was absolutely not the case.
She said: “To say Samantha Lewthwaite was shy at school is completely wrong. She was a very strong personality within the class. She never had loads of friends at once. If you were a fairly close friend, as I was for a time and someone upset you she would absolutely defend you. She never really got into any trouble but she was very gobby and always had her say. She always won arguments because she was the sort of character you didn’t mess with. Even the boys were intimidated by her.”
Adding:
“I have been watching the coverage like a hawk and it gives me butterflies.”
Such are the facts…
Dear Daily Mail editor: Mehdi Hasan’s letter asking Paul Dacre for a job
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Smoking footballers photos: Revie’s Leeds United, Bolton’s Lofthouse, Norwich City and Manchester United give Bobby Charlton a cigarette case
SMOKING footballers: A quick look some who took a puff.
Leeds United – 28/04/1969:
Leeds United players celebrate with champagne and cigars in the dressing room after drawing 0-0 with Liverpool, a result which wrapped up Leeds’ first Division One Championship title: (back row, l-r) Mick Jones, Jack Charlton, Paul Reaney, Gary Sprake, Johnny Giles, Paul Madeley; (front row, l-r) manager Don Revie, Peter Lorimer, Billy Bremner, Eddie Gray
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Ten year old dressed as Hitler banned from Staffordshire school’s World War 2 day
But on arrival he was ordered to the changing rooms. His outfit was wrong. It was “extremely inappropriate”. Once changed, William was permitted to sit with the soldiers, Wrens, evacuees and spies for a lunch of beef stew and dumplings.
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Lancashire school refuses to teach bearded Muslim boys
MOUNT Carmel Roman Catholic High School in Accrington, Lancashire, says no student can sport a beard. That means two 14-year-old Muslim boys must shave or be isolated from their peers.
Head teacher Xavier Bowers says it all has nothing to do with religion. Which make you wonder what it does have to do with? Is Xavier worried that the kids will get teased? Is he intimidated by a powerful beard? Is the school crying out for a Catholic boy who can step up and grow some decent whiskers and not just bum fluff? He says:
“I have spent quite a lot of time researching the issue and speaking to Muslim elders. There is nothing specifically written in the Koran about wearing a beard. It is a choice those boys are making. However inclusive we are, we have standards to maintain.”
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The Council of Europe’s purge on circumcision enshrines anti-Semitism and anti-Islam in law
HAS the Council of Europe banned Jewish boys from being Jewish boys? The Council has decreed that circumcision is “a violation of the physical integrity of children”. It says all 47 nations in the Council’s zone will “initiate a public debate, including intercultural and interreligious dialogue, aimed at reaching a large consensus on the rights of children to protection against violations of their physical integrity according to human rights standards”.
Member stats should “adopt specific legal provisions to ensure that certain operations and practices will not be carried out before a child is old enough to be consulted”.
Hey, boys. You’ll get to be circumcised not when very young but when you’re 18. Happy days.
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Posted: 3rd, October 2013 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (2)
Bolton man who smoked legal high and might have taken other drugs and booze dies
GREATER Manchester Police says a “herbal incense” called Psyclone might be dangerous. They need to tell us this because a 38-year-old man died not long after smoking it at his friend’s home in Bolton.
Only, the man’s cause of death. But Greater Manchester Police ‘s Detective Sergeant Rob Parker says:
“We do not yet know how the man died but we are of course working with the coroner to establish the full circumstances. Worryingly we know the man and others he was with had smoked herbal incense. The sole purpose is to use it as a legal high and faced with what we know we feel it is incumbent upon us to send out what will appear to most to be an extremely obvious safety message. Put simply, do not smoke herbal incense. It is not for direct inhalation and you do not know what effect it will have on your well-being.”
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Make all drugs legal and stop censoring free thought and recklessness
DAVID Aaronovitch has something sensible to say on the war on drugs:
Take crime and contaminated supplies out of the equation and the number of deaths will certainly fall..
At huge expense we have put armies of people in prison, occupied millennia of police time, effectively ceded control of a big and lucrative trade to gangsters, while at the same time failing to meet any of our objectives for reducing illicit drug use. It is time to do something else…
The big problem, of course, is that there is no reliable model whatsoever for working out how much drug-taking would increase as a result of lifting the prohibition. For example one major recent attempt to quantify the cost benefit analysis of legalising cannabis gave a level of uncertainty that created a range of minus £1.3 billion in drugs-related costs to society to plus £400 million in benefit. I would anticipate even more uncertainty in any model dealing with “hard” drugs.
The “it’s illegal, don’t do it” message has a clarity that may well put many off experimenting with drugs. So my presumption is that legalisation risks creating a greater number of casual experimenters.
But set against this risk is the fact that criminalisation makes it virtually impossible to have the same conversations about drugs and sensible drug-taking (yes, there is such a thing) that you can have about fags and booze. The price of such legally induced opacity is impossible to calculate. To take the obvious example, which school is more likely to encourage pupils who have taken drugs to discuss their problems — one with a liberal outlook or one that prescribes automatic and unappealable expulsion for transgression? In one situation you can have a discussion and offer advice. In the other you drive the practice underground and hope that someone somewhere else — the police or drugs charities — will pick up the pieces.
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Amanda Hutton starved her mummified son to death: photos of a grim life inside the family home
HAMZAH Khan was starved to death by his mother.
Amanda Hutton, 43 – a mother to eight – was convicted of manslaughter at Bradford Crown Court.
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1964: Malcolm X evokes Shakespear as he thrills the Oxford Union with talk of armed rebellion
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Posted: 3rd, October 2013 | In: Flashback, Politicians | Comment
How Trendy Are You? Take the 1983 taste chellenge
ON August 18, 1983, Smash Hits magazine asked ‘How Trendy Are You?’ Take the quiz:
Posted: 3rd, October 2013 | In: Fashion, Flashback | Comment
Motorists nicked for brushing teeth and browsing the internet while driving in Hampshire
LORRY drivers get a hard time don’t they? People unfairly chide them, when they’re just trying to do their job, like those nice men on Convoy or Smokey and the Bandit.
And so, to a news story about a lorry driver was caught brushing his teeth while driving his long, flammable death machine. And also to a car driver was pulled over for shaving with a razor and a water bottle, during a police crackdown.
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Posted: 3rd, October 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
Christina Edkins: the remarkable compassion shown to her mentally ill killer
THE Sun says Christina Edkins, 16, was “killed by the system”.
Phillip Simelane, 23, had been freed from prison. Despite his severe mental health issues, no-one thought it best to watch him.
Yesterday he was back in prison, starting a life sentence for killing Miss Edkins on a Birmingham bus. They had never met before.
Simelane admitted to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility at Birmingham Crown Court.
The Sun produces gory details of his crime:
As Christina sat down after boarding the bus, paranoid schizophrenic Simelane — a man described as a “ticking timebomb” — slouched seemingly asleep in the back seat. But Simelane swiftly stood up and moved to a seat directly behind her. Seconds later he stood again, clutching a kitchen knife he had pulled from a plastic bag. Chilling CCTV footage from the bus shows Simelane plunging the knife into Christina’s chest without uttering a single word. Then he calmly goes downstairs and gets off at the next stop.
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Mark Twain’s Advice to Little Girls
MARK Twain has Advice to Little Girls. As told to them in 1865:
Good little girls ought not to make mouths at their teachers for every trifling offense. This retaliation should only be resorted to under peculiarly aggravated circumstances.
If you have nothing but a rag-doll stuffed with sawdust, while one of your more fortunate little playmates has a costly China one, you should treat her with a show of kindness nevertheless. And you ought not to attempt to make a forcible swap with her unless your conscience would justify you in it, and you know you are able to do it.
You ought never to take your little brother’s “chewing-gum” away from him by main force; it is better to rope him in with the promise of the first two dollars and a half you find floating down the river on a grindstone. In the artless simplicity natural to this time of life, he will regard it as a perfectly fair transaction. In all ages of the world this eminently plausible fiction has lured the obtuse infant to financial ruin and disaster.
If at any time you find it necessary to correct your brother, do not correct him with mud—never, on any account, throw mud at him, because it will spoil his clothes. It is better to scald him a little, for then you obtain desirable results. You secure his immediate attention to the lessons you are inculcating, and at the same time your hot water will have a tendency to move impurities from his person, and possibly the skin, in spots.
If your mother tells you to do a thing, it is wrong to reply that you won’t. It is better and more becoming to intimate that you will do as she bids you, and then afterward act quietly in the matter according to the dictates of your best judgment.
You should ever bear in mind that it is to your kind parents that you are indebted for your food, and for the privilege of staying home from school when you let on that you are sick. Therefore you ought to respect their little prejudices, and humor their little whims, and put up with their little foibles until they get to crowding you too much.
Good little girls always show marked deference for the aged. You ought never to “sass” old people unless they “sass” you first.
Spotter: NYRB
1983: Macho George Michael loves The Sweet but hates the ‘effeminate one’
1991: Nirvana’s first televised performance of Smells Like Teen Spirit and Kurt is unplugged and contracted in a Radio Shack
TWENTY years ago, Nirvana released In Utero. Anorak bought it. And played it loud. In 1991, Nirvana appeared on MTV’s 120 Minutes to perform Smells Like Teen Spirit. Grunge went mainstream.
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Posted: 1st, October 2013 | In: Flashback, Music, TV & Radio | Comment
The 17 British sports legends and pop stars who owned their own shops
WHEN Huddersfield Giants star Danny Brough (seen here with his bestselling blueberry bonbons) revealed his other life as co-owner of the Hull confectionery shop Sweeet Shack (with an extra ‘e’) some people may have raised an eyebrow or two.
Once upon a time, however, there was nothing unusual about celebrities operating a sideline. Former footballers, boxers and cricketers opened newsagents, sports shops and pubs. And they weren’t the only ones. Even the Beatles got in on the act.
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Posted: 1st, October 2013 | In: Celebrities, Flashback, Key Posts, Music, Sports | Comment (1)
