And two new nuclear hot spots detected. Authorities are ugring calm and noting the substance is unlikely to kill, except if ingested.

In a way, this was a small-bore WMD attack on London, launched by Russia.

Why would Russia believe it could get away with such an outrage?

Why, because they have nukes.

Which the even more confrontational and crazy Iran also wants.

Imagine Iran Unbound, now feeling beyond retaliation due to a nuclear force. Is there any doubt they would be doing this sort of thing every day? And giving toxic and radioactive materials to terrorists to use in a more wide-scale fashion?

Scientists discovered more traces of radiation and three people who fell sick were being tested Monday for the deadly radioactive poison that killed former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, prompting the British government to appeal for calm.

In a special address to the House of Commons, Home Secretary John Reid said the tests on the three people were only a precaution and pointed out that the radiation caused by polonium-210, the substance doctors say was used to poison the former KGB agent turned Kremlin critic, did not pose a threat to the general public.

"The nature of this radiation is such that it does not travel over long distances, a few centimeters at most, and therefore there is no need for public alarm," Reid said told lawmakers after opposition calls.

...

Two other sites — an office block in London's West End and an address in the posh neighborhood of Mayfair — also showed traces of radiation, according to residents, although police and health officials would not immediately confirm this.

Thanks to Larwyn.

Posted by: Ace at 11:50 AM | Comments (8)
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No Britney tape, but I think I'd rather have this one anyway.

The alleged X-rated home movie is said to show the 'Dukes of Hazzard' actress and her ex-husband Nick Lachey engaged in a number of sex acts.

...

According to reports the tape does exist and has fallen into the hands of the individuals responsible for leaking the Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee sex video.

It has been claimed that they are threatening to leak the tape if Jessica does not pay an undisclosed sum of money to keep it out of the public domain.

On Simpson's side is the fact, I think, it's getting harder and harder to make a buck off porn on the internet. Porn wants to be free.

Posted by: Ace at 11:40 AM | Comments (20)
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As Michael Medved notes, Hollywood can't give itself kudos on Oscar night for changing hearts and minds and then claim that they never change hearts and minds in a bad way. Sex and the City might have been harmlessly racy fun for adults, but what was the effect on younger girls?

The 20-year-old actress insists the hit show - which focused on the love lives of four single women in New York - taught her to avoid settling down with one guy and admits she is very happy seeing lots of different people.

Lindsay - who has been linked to several different famous men in recent months, including Paris Hilton's ex Stavros Niarchos - told Elle magazine: "My mum is going to kill me for speaking about sleeping with people. But I don't want to put myself in the position where I'm in a monogamous relationship right now. I'm not dating just one person. 'Sex and the City' changed everything for me because those girls would sleep with so many people."

It showed the women as having the sort of jobs a teenage girl would find fabuolous, living in fabulous New York City, attending all sort of fabulous premeires and art-gallery openings, and, well, generally whoring around.

The shows' producers may not have intended to do anything more than make a n all-female version of the Horny College Guys sex comedy, but in presenting the loose lifestyle so appealingly -- especially appealingly for younger girls -- it seems to have an impact. A bad one.

Posted by: Ace at 11:37 AM | Comments (28)
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If you recognize the subhuman turd in this picture, the London police would love to hear from you.

Sadly, scumbags like this have no problem with launching unprovoked attacks on women. If you dare to wear something as revealing as a pair of Levi’s and a long winter coat, you may not only be physically assaulted but have names like “slut” and “whore” screamed at you on a crowded Tube platform. About fifteen minutes of assault and abuse may pass before anyone watching this happen will say a word, or do anything to otherwise intervene.

My sister was recently rescued from a (somewhat different) situation by two teenagers who could not abide seeing a woman getting mistreated.

Unfortunately, in England, the criminals have more legal rights than victims and bystanders.
Via Treacher.

Posted by: LauraW. at 07:52 AM | Comments (82)
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Eh. It's not like people are going to soaps for sexual moral instruction anyhow.

In a story unusual even for a soap opera and believed to be a television first, ABC's "All My Children" this week will introduce a transgender character who is beginning to make the transition from a man into a woman.

The character, a flamboyant rock star known as Zarf, kisses the lesbian character Bianca and much drama ensues. The storyline begins with Thursday's episode of the daytime drama.

...

"All My Children" was looking for something new, and knows its audience is always interested in anything to do with sexuality, said Julie Hanan Carruthers, the show's executive producer.

"After 36 years, you start rehashing," she said. "It's inevitable. We didn't want to fall back on the baby-switch story again."

After 36 years, they start rehashing?

Thanks to Alabama Liberation Front.

Posted by: Ace at 05:52 PM | Comments (89)
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Charlie Rangel is a vet (Korean War), by the way. He mentions this nearly as often as John Kerry does.

So: if another veteran says stuff like this, how on earth is it "unthinkable" that John Kerry meant what he said?

Stop the ACLU wants the Dems to keep talking, talking, talking themselves back into the minority.

Posted by: Ace at 05:36 PM | Comments (32)
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Dan Riehl tries to figure out how radioactive poison could be found at the sushi bar, and yet also be found back at the hotel, where Litvinenko had met the KGB guys earlier.

He postulates that the KGB guys poisoned him at the hotel, then planted more poison at the sushi bar (poison not intended for Litvinenko, but rather meant to be found by sharp cops) in order to cloud the time of the poisoning.

I don't buy it. I think the whole point here was to poison him with something believed undetectable, so the second "fake poisoning" seems unnecessary, given their plan.

I think either it was a double-poisoning -- two smaller doses given hours apart to keep him from falling over almost immediately after leaving the company of the two poisoners.

Or, simpler yet: Prof. Scaramello received the poison from the KGB guys at the hotel, in order to poison the ex-spy later at the sushi bar; in the transfer, some trace was left at the sushi bar.

Though if that's the case I'm confounded at why on earth the men delivering the poison to the actual assassin would put the spotlight on themselves by meeting Litvinenko hours earlier.

Okay, now that that crap you don't care about is out of the way:

A Page 3 girl, dubbed the second most beautiful in the world (how specific!), is all the rage in Britain, as well as in American lad-mags.

Keeley Hazell has a terrific pair of breasts. This, it would probably be wise to elucidate upfront, is not so much crude bloke conjecture as much as it is concrete fact. Courtesy of her assets, the woman has risen to the ranks of cultural phenomenon in just 18 months, in a manner many thought had gone out, if not quite with the ark, then certainly with the likes of Samantha Fox and Linda Lusardi. Her achievement is all the more remarkable when you consider that, due to the flourishing men's magazine market, there appear to be more topless women around these days than ever. Most remain entirely anonymous, but not Keeley. In 2004, having just turned 18, she won the Sun's "Page 3 Idol" competition - by some considerable margin. Things got meteoric almost immediately thereafter.

It's like a Horatio Alger story, except with big honkin' hooters.

You should probably not click on this Google image search with your wife around. Or your pets. (You might have to change your mature-content screen to see the really good ones.)

Posted by: Ace at 04:33 PM | Comments (23)
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At least Europe as we know it.

A harrowing argument between Steyn and Ralph Peters linked at Hot Air. Peters dismisses the powerful demographic evidence that Europeans, as a people and culture, are more or less doomed, noting they always have that Final Solution ace up their sleeve.

Peters will be widely (and deliberately) misinterpreted as endorsing such a strategem. He doesn't, he's pretty clear that this is an awful habit of the Europeans. Still, I think he's wrong and Steyn is right: as Steyn observed, fascism of any stripe requires a lot of young men of fighting age willing to carry out such a scheme and impose it on an obviously unwilling minority population.

The Europeans just won't have the young men in twenty years, or even ten. Sure, they'll still nominally be the majority population, but most of their population will be quite old, and in no shape to don the jackboots and stormtrooper skulls.

Powerline, where Steyn responds by comment, also has this glimpse into the European mindset:

Bishop Kate gave an interview to the New York Times revealing what passes for orthodoxy in this most flexible of faiths. She was asked a simple enough question: "How many members of the Episcopal Church are there?"

"About 2.2 million," replied the presiding bishop. "It used to be larger percentage-wise, but Episcopalians tend to be better educated and tend to reproduce at lower rates than other denominations."

This was a bit of a jaw-dropper even for a New York Times hackette, so, with vague memories of God saying something about going forth and multiplying floating around the back of her head, a bewildered Deborah Solomon said: "Episcopalians aren't interested in replenishing their ranks by having children?"

"No," agreed Bishop Kate. "It's probably the opposite. We encourage people to pay attention to the stewardship of the earth and not use more than their portion."

Powerline makes the obvious point:

Is that a death wish, or what? As Steyn points out, "Here's the question for Bishop Kate: If Fatma An-Najar has 41 grandchildren and a responsible 'better educated' Episcopalian has one or two, into whose hands are we delivering 'the stewardship of the earth'? If your crowd isn't around in any numbers, how much influence can they have in shaping the future?"

The Irony-Rich Israeli Solution? Israel has a similar demographic problem -- they can't allow Palestinians the right of return, nor make all Palestinians in the Palestinian territories Israeli citizens, or else they'll simply be giving the country to the PA. They'd be outvoted in three seconds. (And then killed.)

Will the Europeans begin retreating from large parts of Europe to create majority-European populations in a few bastions, basically partitioning Europe internally to at least keep control of Little Europe? Creating whole new independent European statelettes?

With walls and checkpoints and such?

In thirty years we may get to see Israel criticizing Europe for its racist policies and fascist wall-building.

Posted by: Ace at 12:40 PM | Comments (56)
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If she'd fully committed to watching TV rather than keeping those useless, smelly old books about, she might still be with us:

The body of a missing US woman has been found by her family, wedged upside down behind a bookcase in her room.

Mariesa Weber, 38, is believed to have fallen over and become trapped as she tried to reach behind the bookcase to adjust the plug for a TV set.

Her family spent nearly two weeks searching for her, fearing she had been kidnapped from the house she shared with them in Florida.

Ms Weber may have died of suffocation, a local police spokesman said.

Her death was not being treated as suspicious, the spokesman said.

Posted by: Ace at 12:20 PM | Comments (17)
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Not "fat studies" as you may encounter in biochemistry, or even studying nutrition.

Nope. Just as there are feminist critiques, queer critiques, person-of-color critiques and what now, now we may have a new identity group with its own academic attack on everyone else.

A suggestion: start calling yourselves People of Girth.

Posted by: Ace at 12:13 PM | Comments (35)
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