Dick Quest Heads to Rehab

This is a real shocker. A week after being busted in Central Park with some crystal meth and in the midst of performing some weird kind of circus act with a noose wrapped around his neck and genitals, CNN's own Richard Quest is headed to a rehab facility.

Naturally, the good folks at CNN are keeping his seat warm until he returns. Can't ever let a major talent like this slip away.

Like so many Lohans and Spears before him, CNN anchor Richard Quest has checked himself in to a drug-treatment facility. Quest accepted the deal to enter rehab in order avoid jail time for his arrest last Friday. According to The Guardian, CNN has issued a statement confirming that Quest had entered a "drug rehabilitation facility" on the orders of a judge. "At this time, CNN's primary concern is for his health and well being. We look forward to Richard returning to CNN International," the statement said.

If you hadn't heard about this story it's no surprise since there's been a virtual media blackout since it first broke last week. It's tough when one of their own is found with in a compromising position, let alone being nabbed with sex toys and a noose wrapped around his private parts.

Police found Quest in Central Park at 3:40 a.m. on Friday and initially stopped him for violating park curfew because the park is closed from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. However, a subsequent search revealed that he had a small bag of methamphetamine in his pocket (a fact confirmed when he told the officer, “I’ve got some meth in my pocket”). Officers also found a sex toy in his boot, and a rope around his neck that was tied around his genitals. For backstory, Gawker has all the breathless coverage. Quest was arrested and arraigned on a charge of loitering and a misdemeanor charge of possessing methamphetamine.

'He Bashes His Head in the Wall, Too'

Don't know about you, but I'd like to see some video of this.

The honeymoon is over for Gary Coleman and his new bride.

The 40-year-old actor and his 22-year-old wife, Shannon Price, are set to appear on TV's "Divorce Court" on May 1 and 2. The couple wed in August after meeting on the set of the 2006 comedy "Church Ball."

Among the problems the pair discusses with Judge Lynn Toler are Coleman's anger and intimacy issues. Coleman and Price agree they have "ugly" monthly fights.

"If he doesn't get his way, he throws a temper tantrum like a five-year-old does," Price says, according to a transcript of the show obtained by The Associated Press. "He like stomps the floor and yells, 'Meehhhh,' and starts throwing stuff around. He bashes his head in the wall, too."

Coleman says he gets frustrated because "the male is always the bad guy."

Well, he may have a point. Still no reason to bash your head into a wall.

IAEA Springs Into Action, Plans to Probe Syrian Nuke Reactor Destroyed Seven Months Ago

Do not fear, Mr. Potato Head is on the job!

Totally laughable, of course. Shouldn't have this alleged watchdog group known of the existence of the Syrian reactor?

If this doesn't expose them as frauds, nothing ever will.

The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog pledged on Friday to investigate what he called serious U.S. accusations that Syria secretly built a nuclear reactor with North Korean help.

Syria, which denies the U.S. allegations, accused the United States of involvement in an Israeli air attack in September that Washington says destroyed the site of an atomic reactor in a remote part of the Arab state.

Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the allegations by U.S. intelligence against Syria would be investigated with due vigor.

"The Agency will treat this information with the seriousness it deserves and will investigate the veracity of the information," ElBaradei said in a statement.

Sure.

Naturally, the schmuck criticizes the United States.

He criticized the United States for not disclosing its intelligence information sooner. Israel should have given IAEA inspectors a chance to investigate any Syrian nuclear activity before bombing the site, he added.

This reactor started going up seven years ago and this supersleuth was totally clueless. Now it's CYA time.

ElBaradei bemoaned Washington's failure to turn the information over to the IAEA on the alleged reactor, said to have been launched in 2001, much earlier to help "enable us to verify its veracity and establish the facts".

"In light of the above, (I) view the unilateral use of force by Israel as undermining the due process of verification that is at the heart of the non-proliferation regime," he added.

What a comedian.

The Danes sum up our presidential race nicely

I am shamelessly lifting this from Neal Boortz's blog.

'We in Denmark cannot figure out why you are even bothering to hold an election.
On one side, you have a lawyer who is married to a lawyer, and a lawyer who is married to a lawyer.
On the other side, you have a true war hero married to a blonde with a huge chest who owns a beer distributorship.
Is there a contest here?'

Islamist Morons Respond to Fitna

A couple of weeks ago it was some semi-retarded Saudi blogger who spliced together some clips taken completely out of context.

Now an al-Qaeda linked website has released another attempt at responding to Geert Wilders' Fitna by reportedly showing alleged civilian victims of U.S. and Israeli airstrikes.

Weak.

An al Qaeda-linked website has posted a 10-minute film showing civilians killed or maimed in U.S. and Israeli air strikes as an answer to an anti-Koran film released by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders last month.

The video, billed as a "response to the film called 'fitna' produced by the hateful crusader Wilders", is dedicated more to criticizing the U.S.-led "war on terror" than Wilders himself.

Whatever.

The response, posted on an al Qaeda-linked website that has carried videos from Osama bin Laden, paints U.S.-led wars as modern-day Crusades led by President George W. Bush, a devout Christian whose two terms in office were won with strong backing from the religious right.

One in four U.S. adults count themselves as evangelical or "born again", giving them political clout in the United States.

The film was described as an Al-Muraiqib production but its makers did not identify themselves further. It opens with marching soldiers before cutting to a poster reading "Jesus Camp: America is born again".

Not sure where they got these statistics claiming one in four U.S. adults is born again. Seems to me that's way too high a number. What it has to do with anything is anyone's guess.

"Nazarenes and Jews are the terrorists and their past and their present bear witness to this," read a statement presenting the film. "The true enemy of Islam is the Crusader Pope, God curse him, and the leader of the Crusader campaign Bush."

Yawn. These idiots really need to freshen up their material.

The story provides no link to the video and frankly, it's probably not worth your time.

NYPD Detectives Acquitted On All Charges in Bell Shooting

The verdict is in in the shooting of Sean Bell: Not guilty.

NEW YORK (AP) -- UPDATE: Three NYPD officers have been acquitted of all charges in the 50-shot killing of an unarmed man on his wedding day.

More to follow.

Update here.

Three detectives were acquitted of all charges Friday in the 50-shot killing of an unarmed groom-to-be on his wedding day after a trial that that put the NYPD at the center of another highly charged case involving allegations of excessive firepower.

Justice Arthur Cooperman delivered the verdict in a Queens courtroom packed with spectators, including victim Sean Bell's fiancee and parents, as at least 200 people gathered outside the building.

The officers, complaining that pretrial publicity had unfairly painted them as cold-blooded killers, opted to have the judge decide the case rather than a jury.

Bell, a 23-year-old black man, was killed in a hail of gunfire outside a seedy strip club in Queens on Nov. 25, 2006 - his wedding day - as he was leaving his bachelor party with two friends.

Officers Michael Oliver, 36, and Gescard Isnora, 29, stood trial for manslaughter while Officer Marc Cooper, 40, was charged only with reckless endangerment. Two other shooters weren't charged. Oliver squeezed off 31 shots; Isnora fired 11 rounds; and Cooper shot four times.

A conviction on manslaughter could have brought up to 25 years in prison; the penalty for reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor, is a year behind bars.

The case brought back painful memories of other NYPD shootings, such as the 1999 shooting of Amadou Diallo - an African immigrant who was gunned down in a hail of 41 bullets by police officers who mistook his wallet for a gun. The acquittal of the officers in that case created a storm of protest, with hundreds arrested after taking to the streets in demonstration.

Update: Suitably Flip has reaction and a video clip from a few months back of racial arsonist Charles Barron promising trouble.

Latest Net Craze: Blogstalkers

Whether this is harmless mischief or a potential threat to this young lady's lifestyle isn't quite clear, but it does strike me as rather pernicious. The one doing the stalking is probably just consumed with envy or has some psychological issues.

Having said that, bloggers should know better than to splash every intimate detail of their lives on the web. There are a lot of crazies out there.

New York City blogger and Star Magazine editor-at-large Julia Allison says she has a stalker -- a blog stalker, that is.

"She follows every single thing I say or do on the Internet," Allison, 27, told ABCNEWS.com, adding that she knows the blogger's identity but is still debating what to do with it. "She has references about me that I didn't know existed. She is a veritable storehouse of Julia Allison history and trivia."

Allison, who spends much of her time blogging on such things as the baths she gives her dog and lunches with her grandmother, claims the blogger -- who uses Allison's real name, Julia Baugher, to write on the blog "Reblogging Julia," has "crossed the line."

"I get criticized a ton on the Internet, but I have never become frightened," Allison said. "This steps beyond the line of a harmless activity and is obsessive."

"I can take a lot of criticism, I have a thick skin," added Allison, who's frequently the butt of jokes on New York-area media blogs like Gawker.com and Valleywag.com.

The mystery blogger -- who has never approached Allison in real life -- has called Allison a liar, an insult the blogger takes most personally that has even led her parents to disown her, she told ABCNEWS.com. When approached for comment, the anonymous blogger did not respond to an e-mail sent to her blog from ABCNEWS.com.

"She's [screwing] with my personal life, and she's [screwing] with my professional life, said Allison, who said that she's "good natured about criticism" and can take more "than the average person."

Allison, who has not alerted the police, said she is undecided on how to proceed against the blogger and doesn't want to respond and encourage anymore disparaging posts. "Infuriated," Allison said she wished the blogger would be like any other gossip columnist, and provide a byline along with her posts.

"I don't believe that all press is good press," said Allison, who is often criticized for being an aggressive self-promoter. "This is scary."

Read the rest.

Best of Both Worlds: Lingerie Football

Definitely looks like a niche sport. Doubtful the insatiable American appetite for football will attract many viewers. I suspect it'll be the ladies guys tune in for.

Let's put it this way: It has to be more watchable than the XFL.

A group of young, attractive women wearing skimpy workout gear gathered at Speed Source Athletics to put their football and sports skills to the test. Although most of them look they could be Buccaneer cheerleaders, these ladies are hoping to make the cut and secure a spot on a full contact, competitive football team, the Tampa Breeze.

The LFL has becoming increasingly popular since they first made their debut during Super Bowl halftime shows.

Now there are 10 teams forming in major cities across the country and they will kick off a regular season starting in September 2009.

They've been playing these Lingerie Bowls during Super Bowl halftimes, though I must admit I've never seen one.

Quagmire at the New York Times: Bloodbath Coming

Looks like a bloodbath is imminent.

Of course, they'll blame, in nor particular order, the economy, Bush, cost of paper, plummeting ad revenue and the ignorance of the great unwashed for not reading them.

Everything under the sun except for their condescending, elitist snobbery and reactionary leftwing reportage.

THE New York Times' news room is bracing for a bloodbath in the next 10 days.

The word from inside is that approximately 50 unionized journalists have accepted the buyout proposal, and only another 20 non-union editorial employees have gotten on board.

That means the ax could fall on as many as 30 editorial people in the company's first-ever mass firing of journalists in its 156-year history.

Executive Editor William Keller had said originally that he was looking to cut 100 people from the Times staff in response to the dismal newspaper advertising environment.

But then a week ago Assistant Managing Editor William Schmidt issued a memo saying it was almost certain that the company would be forced to make involuntary cuts, and he urged more volunteers to come forward.

The plea apparently fell on deaf ears.

With just 70 people stepping forward for buyouts, it is very likely that 30 newsroom staffers will be forced out in coming days.

"We're bracing for it," said one insider with some knowledge of the developments. "There's a lot of anxiety."

With competitive threats looming from The Wall Street Journal, which like The Post is owned by News Corp., sources said the business desk and national desk will be spared and will absorb only token cuts.

Apparently dismissing Bill Keller isn't on the horizon.

To put it into a sports analogy, when a team continues to lose and there's no prospect for a turnaround on the horizon, it's usually the coach and general manager who get the ax.

Why Keller and Schmidt are being spared the ax remains a mystery.

Update: Thanks to Ace for the link. Thanks also to Siter Toldjah!

BREAKING IN TO PRISON!

It tells you all you need to know about the unbelievable laxity of the British penal system when we discover that criminals are breaking IN to jail!

Geoff Travis, assistant general secretary of the Prison Officers' Association, revealed that Everthorpe Prison in East Yorkshire has been the location where a drug dealer was breaking in at night using a ladder, and passing drugs to inmates through their cell windows. He also sold women's clothing to a transvestite prisoner. He did this several times, apparently!

" Prisoners receive a wage for being in prison," he said. "They receive a bed, a TV in all cells, Sky television in most areas for recreational use, free telephones, breakfast in bed on many occasions, cash bonuses for good behaviour, and prison staff are forced to deal with them in such a subservient way it's ridiculous. Prison is no longer a deterrent. It is merely an occupational hazard."

I would phrase it differently. Under Labour, prison has become an INCENTIVE.

The British Labour Party came to power claiming they would be "Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime." As with all verminious socialists, they lied.

Cross-posted on A Tangled Web

'Take Care of Mummy - You Can Both Do Things Together Like Fighting and Stuff'

A real heartwarming father-daughter moment.

So loving, tender and psychotic.

Cradling his baby daughter in his arms, the ringleader of the July 7 suicide bombers says goodbye to her in an extraordinary family video.

At one stage, an emotional Mohammed Sidique Khan appears to be preparing six-month-old Maryam for a future as a terrorist, urging her: "Learn to fight, fighting is good."

He added: "Be mummy's best friend. Take care of mummy - you can both do things together like fighting and stuff."

The video was today played to Kingston Crown Court where three men are standing trial accused of helping plan the 2005 attacks on the London transport network.

It was shot two days before Khan flew to Pakistan in November 2004 and the jury were told it was a "farewell" before he left to "fight jihad".

What a special moment. I'm sure the little girl will look back wistfully while her piece of shit father rots away in hell.

Video here.

Man Who Sold Gun Used in VT Massacre to Speak on Campus

While I agree with Eric Thompson's stance on allowing concealed-carry permits on college campuses, and elsewhere, it doesn't seem to be the brightest idea to have him speak at Virginia Tech.

BLACKSBURG, Va. - The online weapons dealer who sold one of the guns used in the Virginia Tech shootings is planning to visit the campus Thursday, a decision the school's spokesman called "terribly offensive."

Dealer Eric Thompson was scheduled to speak at the school Thursday night as part of a weeklong demonstration in favor of allowing people to carry concealed weapons at colleges.

A school spokesman denounced the visit in a statement Wednesday, saying it was "terribly offensive" that Thompson would set foot on campus.

"The organizers appear to be incredibly insensitive to the families of the victims who lost loved ones and to the injured students still recovering from this horrendous tragedy," said the statement issued by spokesman Larry Hincker.

Andrew Goddard, whose son Colin was injured in the shootings, said it is Thompson's First Amendment right to speak at the school but added: "I think it's rather insensitive of him, though."

Ken Stanton, president of the university's chapter of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, the group advocating weapons on campus, said that he lost a friend in the April 2007 shootings and that it taught him "firsthand the importance of self-protection."

Virginia Tech last week marked the first anniversary of the shootings in a dormitory and classroom building in which 33 died, including shooter Seung-Hui Cho.

Organizers really need to step back and consider the emotional impact of this. It's a noble cause they're pursuing, but the message will definitely be drowned out in the ensuing uproar.

Scalia to Morons: It's Time You Got Over the Florida Recount

Over seven years now and the nitwit leftards are still whining about it.

People who believe the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision giving the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush was politically motivated should just get over it, says Justice Antonin Scalia.

Scalia denies that the controversial decision was political and discusses other aspects of his public and private life in a remarkably candid interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl, this Sunday, April 27, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

"I say nonsense," Scalia responds to Stahl’s observation that people say the Supreme Court’s decision in Gore v. Bush was based on politics and not justice. "Get over it. It’s so old by now. The principal issue in the case, whether the scheme that the Florida Supreme Court had put together violated the federal Constitution, that wasn’t even close. The vote was seven to two," he says, referring to the Supreme Court’s decision that the Supreme Court of Florida’s method for recounting ballots was unconstitutional.

Furthermore, says the outspoken conservative justice, it was Al Gore who ultimately put the issue into the courts. "It was Al Gore who made it a judicial question…. We didn’t go looking for trouble. It was he who said, 'I want this to be decided by the courts,'" says Scalia. "What are we supposed to say -- 'Not important enough?'" he jokes.

Heads to explode any moment now.

Why the Middle East is Afraid of Brazil

Much as been made of the discovery of some new oil fields off the coast of Brazil lately, even though they haven't started tapping into it yet, but it appears our friends in the Middle East are also very nervous about what this means for them.

America's Arab allies may be ill-advised to count on the presence of U.S. forces being permanent. America's enemies in the Middle East might foresee a day in which the Great Satan boards his ships and goes home, leaving the region to its fate.

What the author also hints at with this statement is that without the Americans fighting their battles for them the Arabs government might be in trouble without our presence.

What would cause us to get on our ships and leave? Simple, the ability to fill all of oil needs from right here in our hemisphere and no longer have to rely on the whims and volatile Arab countries for it.

The author sums it up this way.

And what would that fate be? If the main reason for America's military presence in the region has been dependence on oil, there are other oil-hungry powers. The three biggest customers for the oil of the Gulf will be China, Japan and India, and they have a keen a strategic interest in ensuring a reliable supply.

The problem is that there are three of them, and the two most populous, India and China, are developing almost inexhaustible appetites for imported oil. There is already a quiet arms race underway between them in the Indian Ocean, with China building ports that look like naval bases in Pakistan and Myanmar, and India building aircraft carriers. If the Americans turn away, and India and China rush in to fill the vacuum and secure their access to oil, the Arab world may yet come to look back on the American era in the region as a golden age.

Golden Age indeed.

I still would rather we start tapping into our own oil in the Gulf of Mexico and ANWR and, more importantly, build some more refineries. Sure we need to pursue other sources for our energy needs also but until that technology and ability is available we need to make the best use of what we have at our fingertips.

Well, It's About Time

The high price of oil has created a boom in domestic oil drilling and production.

We need a lot more of it. Now if we just started drilling in ANWR.

George Stapleton has been in the oil business for 30 years, helping plumb sands and shale across the Middle East, Asia and Europe. Now the chief executive of MegaWest Energy Corp is drilling deep into Missouri farmland.

In a non-descript pasture bordered by a pecan grove and a fish pond, Stapleton's company has hit black gold -- and in doing so is demonstrating how record prices of more than $100 a barrel are fueling a modern-day American wildcat oil era.

In other words, the higher prices and profit motive has generated a boom in oil exploration/drilling/production.

Indeed, as giant oil and gas conglomerates focus on key resource sites in Alaska, off shore and abroad, a new breed of speculator is emerging to dig deep into hard-to-mine areas abandoned when energy prices sank in the late 1980s. New technology has made many formerly abandoned U.S. oil fields easier to access, and recent high prices have made using that high-cost technology profitable.

More than 17,000 new U.S. oil wells were tapped in 2007, the most active pace since 1990, according to the American Petroleum Institute, a leading U.S. trade group.

So the higher prices have made previously costly to access oil now a reasonable source to tap.

The bottom line here is we don't have to build expensive, government grant-funded ethanol plants, we don't have to take millions of tons of grain out of the food supply, and we don't have to try to invent expensive new energy sources. We just have to let the law of supply and demand work in the oil industry, watch the higher price cause some efficiency and drop in demand, plus watch the profit motive generate an increased supply.

I expect to see a significant surplus of supply in the future.

Obama's Psycho Preacher Claims His Words Were Twisted

This is just pathetic.

Anyone who's seen the video knows all too well this jerk meant what he said, so playing some word games isn't going to float. No doubt his interviewer lapped it up, but he's a lost cause anyway.

In his first wide-ranging interview since video clips of his inflammatory sermons were aired, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. defended himself over the controversy, saying that his words were twisted.
Mr. Wright, Senator Barack Obama’s former pastor, gave an interview to Bill Moyers on Wednesday, to air on PBS tomorrow.

“I felt it was unfair,” Mr. Wright said, according to excerpts of the interview released Thursday. “I felt it was unjust. I felt it was untrue. I felt for those who were doing that, were doing it for some very devious reasons.”

What was untrue about "God Damn America"?

You said it. Deal with it.

In Mr. Wright’s sermons, he suggested that Americans bore some responsibility for the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, saying “America’s chickens are coming home to roost.” He also blamed the government for the spread of AIDS among African-Americans, characterized the United States government as corrupt and referred to the “U.S. of K.K.K. A.”

Seems pretty clear to me where he's coming from.

“It’s to paint me as something — ‘Something’s wrong with me. There’s nothing wrong with this country … for its policies. We’re perfect. Our hands are free. Our hands have no blood on them,’” he said. “That’s not a failure to communicate. The message that is being communicated by the sound bites is exactly what those pushing those sound bites want to communicate.”

Aww, the poor baby.

Mr. Wright, who has acted as Mr. Obama’s spiritual mentor and retired in February as pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, said that he has never heard Mr. Obama repeat any of his controversial statements.

“Absolutely not,” Mr. Wright said. “I don’t talk to him about politics. And so he had a political event, he goes out as a politician and says what he has to say as a politician. I continue to to be a pastor who speaks to the people of God about the things of God.”

Says what he has to say? In other words, it isn't what he really believes?

And what's this about he continues to be a pastor? The second paragraph of the story says he's a former pastor?

Update: More reaction at LGF, Hot Air, Gateway Pundit, Ace of Spades HQ.

A Must Have Job: Getting Paid to Drink

Life made simple.

Probably shouldn't be a problem if you show up hungover at work.

Found: drinking companions to join elderly gentleman for a friendly beer at his local pub.

Mike Hammond was bombarded with offers after advertising in his village post office for someone to accompany his 88-year-old father Jack on visits to a southern England pub from a nursing home.

He offered the lucky winner 7 pounds ($14) an hour plus expenses and, after sifting through the applicants, decided on a job-share. Drinking duties are to be divided between a retired doctor and a former military man.

Stealing the BlackBerries Americans Won't Steal

Our friends, the Mexicans.

Whether he was up to no good or simply desperate to play BrickBreaker, a Mexican press attaché was caught on camera by Secret Service pocketing several White House BlackBerries during a recent meeting in New Orleans, FOX News has learned.

Sources with knowledge of the incident said the official, Rafael Quintero Curiel, served as the lead press advance person for the Mexican Delegation and was responsible for handling logistics and guiding the Mexican media around at the conference. He took six or seven of the handheld devices from a table outside a special room in the hotel where the Mexican delegation was meeting with President Bush earlier this week.

Everyone entering the room was required to leave his or her cell phone, BlackBerry and other such devices on the table, a common practice when high-level meetings are held. American officials discovered their missing belongings when they were leaving the session.

It didn't take long before Secret Service officials reviewed videotape taken by a surveillance camera and found footage showing Quintero Curiel absconding with the BlackBerries.

Sources said Quintero Curiel made it all the way to the airport before Secret Service officers caught up with him. He initially denied taking the devices, but after agents showed him the DVD, Quintero Curiel said it was purely accidental, gave them back, claimed diplomatic immunity and left New Orleans with the Mexican delegation.

Update: More from Michelle Malkin.

Good News: British Prisoners Have It So Easy, Nobody Wants to Leave

Hey, when it comes down to the hard choices, like getting your fix at a cheaper price or paying more on the street, the decision is easy.

They could probably save a bundle on nattering court-appointed lawyers gumming up the system trying to get them out early.

Prisoners are ignoring chances to escape because they would rather stay in their cushy jails where drugs are cheaper than on the outside, a prison chief has said.

Lags at Britain's 'toughest' prisons are treated to breakfast in bed, have Sky TV in every cell and are given cash bonuses for good behaviour.

Sweet. When was the last time any of you got breakfast in bed?

At one prison in Yorkshire, drug dealers and hookers regularly break IN to ply their trade by leaning ladders up against prison walls.

But none of the criminals take the opportunity to leave because they have got it so easy, according to assistant general secretary of the Prison Officers Association Glyn Travis.

He says Britain's jails are close to anarchy and staff morale is at rock-bottom due to under-funding by the Government.

He said: "We're trying to manage a system that's just snowballing out of control.

"The drug problem within prisons is massive. What prison officers find is only the tip of the iceberg. The quantity of drugs in our prisons today is absolutely vast.

"Prison staff are doing everything they possibly can, despite the shortage of resources, to stem the flow.

Unfortunately, we have got far more intricate systems now, fewer staff, and basic security measures are not being performed.

"Drugs are coming into prisons at a rate that's so dramatic that drugs in prisons are actually cheaper than on the outside.

"Every prison in Britain is under-staffed and over-crowded. The Government believes the only way forward is to reduce the cost of public prisons, making them less safe and less secure. Staff feel very vulnerable."

He added: "There's a classic case in Yorkshire where members of the public were climbing over the prison walls to take drugs into the prison. They put up ladders to climb over the walls, but prisoners were so comfortable in the environment they were living in that none of them tried to climb up the ladders and escape.

"When the ladders came down at night, the members of the public hide inside the prison until their colleagues come over the following morning at 6am, put the ladders back up and they were able to get out.

"None of the prisoners inside tried to escape. It tells me there's something wrong in society when people are breaking into prisons to bring in drugs and prostitutes, but the prisoners are quite happy to stay inside."

I'm surprised they don't have a waiting list to get in.

Beating a Dead Horse, I Know: Clayton County School Board

I know I am beating a dead horse here, and I have written about many times but I just can't get over the arrogance of the school board in Clayton County. The schools are going to lose thier accreditation and The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS)has given them until Sept 1 to get their act together. They simply refuse to do so. Only one member of the school board has stepped down despite the SACS making a condition that they all step down. Now to spit in the eye of the accreditation board again they have hired a new superintendent whom the SACS says is unacceptable.

A man previously deemed not qualified by Clayton County schools' accrediting agency has been named the school district's temporary superintendent.

The Clayton County school board voted 5-1 Wednesday night to hire John W. Thompson to help save the district's accreditation. Board Chairman Eddie White voted against the hire.

A little background on this guy.

Last month, Thompson withdrew his name from consideration; his attorney said at the time the board had refused to meet his demands. It was not clear if he had changed his mind Wednesday night.

And what were those demands? Why nothing any other county school superintendent wouldn't want.

Thompson initially asked Clayton for a $275,000 salary and up to $2 million for a consultant team, along with 24-hour security and 24-hour access to a car and driver, according to the district's search firm and someone who sat in on Thompson's interview.

So folks, seriously, if you are planning a move to the Atlanta area in the near future and you have school age children please avoid Clayton county. They are bent on self destruction and a lot of kids are going to wind up being hurt for their arrogance.