...and of course, it reminds them of the crusades, which took place quite a few centuries ago. However, this is reason enough to haul in the St. Georges flag:

Saudi Arabia is not forcibly known to be a tourist destination if you're not muslim. However, if you're a fervent muslim who things that literally implementing the 'holy' Quran is a good idea, you might even get rewarded:

Margaret Thatcher, British PM from 1979 to 1990, has died. A stalwart fighter who turned the UK back into a economically viable country who saw all the problems that the EU is still suffering from today - more than 20 years ago:

Else, in order to read what she was all about, read "Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World".

A very interesting information has come up on the Aurora Cinema shooting - the shooter might have well picked it because he would be more 'successful' at his task, i.e. kill as many people as possible:

The solution to the Cyprus-style confiscation of your money on your bank account:

Alas, after the Cyprus events, this likely to be the only option since what happened in Cyprus can now happen everywhere.

(Hat tip to Zerohedge)

Remember all these games you played as a child? Cops and Robbers? Who's afraid of the black man? No? Too bad. If your children go to school in the UK, they might soon never enjoy these games again since they are culturally insenstive:

If you can't rake in enough money, steal it from the citizens:

Even 'Helicopter Ben' can't print and not face consequences:

Because one day, the prices are coming home to roost, or in this case, roast the consumer through price increases. Or basically, they take off like the proverbial helicopter after it dumped it's load of greenbacks on the economy.

(H/T to Zerohedge)

...and want to avoid producing CO2 by taxing it even more, and in order to get that, they need to bribe members of the parliament:

...and there are more than two. However, these two are the most egregious ones I have come across in some time:

Danny Creamer, 21, and Gina Allan, 18, spend each day watching their 47in flatscreen TV and smoking 40 cigarettes between them in their comfy two-bedroom flat. It is all funded by the taxpayer, yet the couple say they deserve sympathy because they are “trapped”.

On January 5, my ole reliable web server on this address decided to call it quits after 11 years of faithful service.

I finally got a new machine with about 3-5 times more computing power 4x the RAM, 3x the disk capacity for a third of the price of the old one.

And the blog is online again, together with most of the other functionality.

"Cramming legislation down your throat" is the better term to describe this:

Multiple Senate sources have confirmed to CNSNews.com that senators received the bill at approximately 1:36 AM on Jan. 1, 2013 – a mere three minutes before they voted to approve it at 1:39 AM.

Even people like me who have trained quick-reading techniques cannot read 154 pages that fast.

"Habeas Papam", or so it seems in Washington after enough 'conservative' representatives voted to avoid a 'fiscal cliff'. However, the compromise is very hollow, and just prolongs the agony of the US budget:

The sequester will be delayed for two months. Half of the delay will be offset by discretionary cuts, split between defense and non-defense. 

Yes, I tried this too. It makes normal IT people go nuts, and yes, I support the call for a total product recall of Windows 8. However, I was not able to put it into such eloquent words as this bloke who made it into a Youtube movie:

For this year's Christmas, an innocous disney movie from 1932 about how Santa prepares for Christmas has gotten into the crosshairs of Swedish political correctness advocates. But first, let's check out the movie itself: