In North London on the 4th or perhaps 5th of October 1985 a car driven by a young black male was stopped by the police.  It was immediately noticed that the road tax disc did not match the vehicle.  It was a none too clever substitute.  The driver made matters worse for himself by providing a false name, and was duly arrested.

At Tottenham police station the driver told his interviewers that his real name was Floyd Jarrett.  A decision was taken to conduct a search of his home address.  Four officers were detailed for the task.  For reasons one can only speculate the arrival of the officers caused panic among some of the occupants.  In the furore Jarrett’s mother, Mrs Cynthia Jarrett, collapsed.  She had a weak heart and this was the moment it gave out.  The police officers did everything they could to save her but she was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.

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This story has already done the rounds on a couple of websites. But I thought it significant enough to also get a run here.

In short, there is a Catholic Center at New York University. An attendee of a Catholic retreat at the centre was surprised to find that the opening prayer was made not only to Jesus but also to Muhammad.

He was even more disconcerted to find that the Catholic Center hosted in its basement an Islamic Cultural Centre, complete with prayer rugs, pictures of Mecca and Islamic literature.

So here we have the the ecumenical spirit turned up to full blast. And what was the response of the Muslim side to all this? Did they give equally in return?

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The BBC’s “interactive Power Play game, in which players were invited to choose a team of 11 to run the world from a list of around 100 of the most powerful leaders, thinkers and other high-profile people on the planet”, has declared for ... well, it’s bloody obvious really.

The runner-up was the man who never had sex with that woman.  Still more inexplicable, Noam Chomski came in at number 4 and Archbishop Desmond Tutu - a nifty dancer but not hitherto a man I would have judged fit for global governance - made it at number 8.

George Soros, the well-known

philanthropist just pipped that embodiment of open-handed diplomacy, Kofi Annan - who came in last of the eleven.

Pixie-Face grinned his way to number 12.  Michael Moore - wouldn’t you love to have that guy in charge? - was 15th.

The good news is that the game was intended for the BBC’s younger readers who are yet to develop much in the way of critical thinking - more than half of respondents voted for the godman of Africa.  The bad news is that modern educational methods may deprive these young and impressionable minds forever of that possibility.

Let it also be noted that the BBC picked the list of 100 possible candidates itself, which narrowed the field somewhat.  As a sop to Conservatives they included OBL.  He came 70th but has declared jihad on the top 69.  He has also declared jihad on everyone below him.  Well, just on everyone, actually.

Thanks to Johan for the link

Does anyone know the history of the 1965 law?  I just can’t figure out why anyone would be in favor of such a law.  Who were the backers for this sort of thing?  Who lobbied for such a bill and why?

A comment on this Amren post, which somehow slipped past Ian Jobling’s eagle eye.

Is there anyone out there who is still so innocent ... even at Amren?  Or is this Alex Linder in playful mood?

Browsing the, of course, always racist and fascist website of the BNP I came across this dhimmitudinous tale.  And then this one.  I just thought, what with the Eurasian Union and all, our banner should, for once, reflect diverse and, of course, always, always, always vibrant modernity.

Every month I get a magazine from my old school, Xavier College, which is the leading Catholic private school here in Melbourne.

Up to now, I’ve been uncertain whether I want to send my own son to Xavier. But the latest school magazine has made the decision easy. He won’t be going.

The latest magazine shows all too clearly how far the school has drifted away from Catholicism into a modernist, secularised liberalism. In fact, going by the magazine the school has dropped religion altogether in favour of a new kind of cult called “social justice”.

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Oxford Street was closed today.  Our taxi driver told us as soon as he pulled away from where we had hailed him.  Getting to Victoria would be slower than usual, and time – as well as distance - is money in the taxi business.

The closure was to accomodate the final event in Ken Livingstone’s series of special promotions which, with superb irony, went under the title “Everyone’s London”.  I would have named it “London is Anybody’s” but that would probably be too honest and, anyway, I’m not the Mayor.

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A fascinating story that complements Heinrich Schliemann’s discovery of Troy in 1871 has appeared in the press today.  To quote from Nasa’s pre-press announcement:-

The location of Greek hero Odysseus’ homeland - the island of Ithaca described in the poet Homer’s Odyssey - is a mystery that has baffled scholars for nearly 3,000 years. Now this ancient enigma has been solved with the help of World Wind, NASA’s 3D planetary visualisation tool.

The site of Homer’s Ithaca has been identified by Robert Bittlestone, Chairman of the UK management consultancy Metapraxis, whose quest was motivated by combining his company’s experience in the visualisation of complex data with a lifelong interest in Greece and the classics. He has solved the problem with the help of James Diggle, Professor of Greek and Latin at Cambridge University, and John Underhill , Professor of Geology at Edinburgh University.

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