A nod to Metallica there, but without a 76-piece orchestra to fully capture the existentialist angst of all those riffs that go chugga chugga chugga as Metallica (and quite a few other Metal bands) seems to feel is a requirement these days.

Things well and truly kicking off in Burma, and although the army are still well behind their 1988 high-score of 3,000-or-so dead, it seems they are making a solid start by firing indiscriminately into bystanders. See the blog the Myanmar government tried to stop (with thanks to Subville). Meanwhile in response, the United Nations have unanimously decided to . . . make a statement.

That'll show them. Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for nearly 12 fucking years and it takes the prospect of massacre to get a "statement". No wonder the US thinks the UN is a big fucking joke. Not that America looks set to launch the freedom wagon just yet (after all, there's that little complication with China to think of) but at least they are being a little more foreceful in their wording.

Presumably it would be "BURR - MARR" on George's phonetic Idiot-Cards.

Just as I'm reeling from the ridiculousness of Shilpa Shetty being "arrested" for a clumsy stage grope with Richard Gere (typical patriarchal religious-based nonsense . . . we have rampant sectarian killing, widespread corruption and a burgeoning AIDS epidemic fuelled by [primarily] men and systemic child prostitution, but let's address the priorities and stamp on this moral outrage of kissing), I'm hit by an equally bizarre UK legal item:

Rapist of 91 year-old to be freed.

Eamon Foley is set to be freed "in weeks" after serving half of a 16-year sentence folllowing the rape of a frail pensioner, who died four months after the attack.

Foley has denied all responsibility, claimed a "conspiracy" convicted him, refused any counselling or treatment at sex offender's classes and is considered a 'high risk offender' by the assessment panel.

Apparently he's only supposed to use public transport and stay at one address when he gets out. Given that the symptoms above are classic diagnostic markers for a sexual psychopath (denial of responsibility, lack of compassion, shift of blame onto others), and that traditionally, behaviour of this sort is not moderated through punishment - indeed, it usually just serves to make the individual more manipulative and crafty in hiding their behaviour - can anyone guess the likely outcome of this?

I'm actually hoping that the victim's family get his location leaked to them and castrate him . . . but fate is not that kind. He'll vanish off the radar and re-offend, as it's unlikley the police have the time or money to mount 24-hour surveillance.

However, just when you think Western problems are secular, I happened across a creationist website. I won't link to it, as I refuse on principle to direct traffic to a site that presents "argument" in such a bastardised form.

It rubbishes the validity of the fossil record, then goes on to use the fossil record (which it has just "disproved") to argue that God created dinosaurs as they are, and there were no transitional forms.

It later goes on to state the dinosaurs are actually dragons, becuase there is early literature that mentions them! Granted the sole justification behind everything on the site is that the Bible (written a while ago) must be true, it now seems this extends to Old English poetry too. Does Walt Disney's Pete's Dragon now qualify as a historical document?

I used to know a former US Marine pilot on Occult Forums who believed in dragons and said they were real - I'd be more inclined to believe him than this creationist tosh, at least he was open-minded.

5 year-olds argue in a similar logical way to this website. So from now on, I'm going to use the Book of Vorty to determine the validity of Creationists. The Book of Vorty was divinely inspired by Hate. I'm sure we can all agree from a quick reading of the Old Testament that from all the floods, smitings, pillar-of-saltings and persecution of people called Job, that this is pretty close to the essence of God, who seems to be a mean old fucker.

The Book of Vorty is therefore the living spirit of the Mean, Hating God and must therefore be True. The Book of Vorty says that Creationists are dicks. As the Book is true, it must follow then that Creationists are dicks. End of argument.

This apparently, is how a large proportion of the world's biggest military power actually reasons.

Terrifying.