As tragic as the consequences of suicide bombings in Israel always are, no-one has really talked about the extra shock and pain of being killed by your ethnic brothers. But many Arabs are Israelis too, and nine of them have been murdered by Palestinian terrorists. Ha'aretz, the leading liberal Israeli daily newspaper has an excellent article exploring the emotions and thoughts of a brother of one of these victims, and the way the Arab Israelis' lay leaders are responding (or not, as you find out by reading). It is all extremely sobering, and should make any sympathisers of the terrorists think twice about their methods for so-called "liberation".

An absolutely cracking piece of political satire from The Brains Trust. Yes, I know that's their raison d'�tre, stop being so pedantic. Anyway, this particular "story" is extremely funny and targets a politician who's got away with talking absolute rubbish for far too long [I should know: so have I]. Bravo TBT! Michael Meacher, the target of this superior lambasting, was formerly the Environment Minister (or Minister of State for Environment and Agri-Environment as he was officially known in the overblown way only the Establishment could come up with), and has long been infamous in the science community (as opposed to the art community) for such well-formed and rational opinions as finding GM "not necessary" (for isn't he clever enough to know what is good enough for the rest of us? Socialism in action!) or that "the real problem [of GM] is whether 10, 20, 30 years down the track serious and worrying things happen that none of us ever predicted". Like still having an extremely confused socialist in Government, to pick a totally random example? [Source: The Ecologist magazine interview with Michael Meacher]. Now he's been accused by Lord May of Oxford, a former chief scientific adviser to the Government, of "twisting the facts to suit the case against the introduction of GM foods". For example, Michael Meacher said that the notion of "substantial equivalence", which attempts to compare GM food with its non-GM alternative, was "scientifically vacuous" in an article for the Independent, but Lord May replied, quite correctly, that this concept "was being adopted by the World Health Organisation and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development". Lord May concluded that "Although Mr Meacher refers to our report, he conspicuously fails to mention its principal conclusion that there is no scientific reason to doubt the safety of foods made from GM ingredients that are currently available, nor to believe that genetic modification makes GM foods inherently less safe than their conventional counterparts", and that "The [Royal Society's] report pointed out that genetic modification may be used in future to improve the quality of food, which again Mr Meacher appears unwilling to acknowledge". Tut tut. Good riddance, say I. And just before I finish this no doubt misguided pseudo-rant, are you not wondering what Meacher said upon being appointed to the vice-chancellorship of a left-wing think-tank? This: "An independent voice of radicalism within the Labour movement is very much needed at the present time." Hilarious. -- Meacher, who for some reason is talking to a gendarme.

Dear God Almighty, What does the picture for this article (BBC NEWS -- Microsoft to fight virus writers head on) have to do with the actual story? Does it make any sense even to you, the Creator and Curator of this here Universe (allegedly)? Yours, Guido

Apparently, Egypt has banned the new Matrix film for being "too religious" [Source: BBC]. And Zionist and Jewish too, also apparently. This story is told in a dry way, but that doesn't hide the fact that this is a blatant breach of freedom of expression. Although this is a serious situation, what particularly annoys me is that firstly, Egypt is seen as a "developing economy", ie. is progressing towards a liberal capitalist democracy; and secondly, is one of America's closest allies. Yes, that paragon of democracy and freedom (and I'm trying not to sound sarcastic, because it is a democratic country) is allied to this blindly dictatorial regime. Schtop! But does anyone protest about this? Is anyone supporting a boycott of their universities? Is anyone going onto the streets to protest against such a vile government that's done much worse than ban a film? Like hell they do. We live in an age of hypocrisy, jealousy and ignorance [as well as beauty, peace and wealth], and the so-called activists are the most culpable of them all. Thank you for reading "The Daily Preach". Please come back soon, or send me some ice cubes or a back-scratcher.

Haven't referred to an NTKism for a while [heck, I haven't done anything with my blog for a while!], but this one was just so funny I had to laugh. An extraordinary thing to do, I know. See if it happens to you. Click on this No, you missed it. Back a bit. That's the one.