The Ugly Singaporean Award
– that a little girl died because the clinic was closed for lunch break, and a Comfort cabby refused to pick them up upon learning the little girl’s condition. The taxi driver said he served only the Woodland area. (This heartless beast can forget about serving any other areas from now on! In fact, he should be banned from driving a cab, forever.)
The World This Week
| – that Michael Moore once proclaimed that “I don’t own a single share of stock!”, and he’s right. He doesn’t own a single share. He owns tens of thousands of shares – including nearly 2,000 shares of Boeing, nearly 1,000 of Sonoco, more than 4,000 of Best Foods, more than 3,000 of Eli Lilly, more than 8,000 of Bank One and more than 2,000 of Halliburton, the company most vilified by Moore in ‘Fahrenheit 9/11.’ (What else can we expect from this liar?) |  |
– that Dickhead Cheney’s ex-chief of staff, Mr Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby, is expected to plead not guilty to charges that he lied and obstructed justice in the CIA leak probe when he is arraigned. Libby, who was charged with five felonies, is putting the finishing touches on a new legal and public relations team. It will argue in court and in public that he is guilty of nothing more than having a foggy memory and a hectic schedule, according to people close to him. (Selective amnesia, eh?)
– that while members of the U.S. Senate are suggesting once again that no WMDs have been found in Iraq, Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin reviews the major discoveries, including more than 1.7 tons of enriched uranium. (I have soap in my bathroom too and there’s hell a lot of nitrogen in the air. Wanna accuse me of converting my soap into nitro-glycerine? Frankly, to still argue that there’s WMD is as good as Comical Ali saying that there are no Americans in Baghdad when one can see American tanks rumbling behind him on the screen as he said so. I have just lost a lot of respect for Joseph Farah.)
– that ‘Flip-Flop’ Kerry said that science is under attack by right-wing ideologues and the Bush administration regime, citing their ‘rigid refusal to listen to what the Earth is trying to tell us’. Speaking at the dedication of a new brain research center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ‘Flip-Flop’ said attacks on science have resulted in ‘a shortsighted period in the American experience’ where ‘facts are ignored and obscured and distorted’. (Hey, leave Al Gore to this environment chatter, and go find a platform of your own, can ya? And talking about ignoring, obscuring and distorting facts, talk about how you end up inside Cambodia ordered by Nixon when he was still President-Elect, alright?)
– that small, mobile groups of youths hit Paris’ riot-shaken suburbs with waves of arson attacks, torching hundreds of cars, as unrest entered its second week and spread to other towns in France. In the eastern city of Dijon, teens apparently angered by a police crackdown on drug trafficking in their neighborhood set fire to five cars, said Paul Ronciere, the region’s top gover-min official. (It’s high time to put the army on the streets with orders to shoot to kill. These unbecoming youngsters ought to be taught a lesson in respecting law and order.)
 Cities Hit Click to Enlarge |
– that the rioting started Oct. 27, after youths were angered over the deaths of two teenagers – Bouna Traore, 15, and Zyed Benna, 17. They were electrocuted in a power substation where they hid, thinking police were chasing them. (Why do they run if they have committed no offence? These two bozos should get a ‘Natural Selection’ Award for getting eliminated by nature for their own stupidity.) |
– that Nicolas Sarkozy, the French Interior Minister, pledged zero tolerance in the fight against urban violence as he visited a Paris suburb hit by five nights of rioting. In a sharp break from traditional French gover-min policies, he said that he would take a tough approach to the ‘hooligans…who make life impossible on our council estates’. (Shouldn’t that be the case already, the day before Monday, 31-10-2005?)
– that opponents of welfare cuts demonstrated against the proposed new German gover-min, which they fear will target social programs as it scrambles to plug a massive budget deficit. (And what welfare will they get when the country goes bankrupt? Oh, these losers don’t care even if it means their grandsons are paying for their welfare, right?)
– that these demonstrators converged on Berlin’s signature Brandenburg Gate with placards demanding politicians keep their ‘hands off wages and pensions’ and urging them to ‘fight unemployment, not the unemployed’. (The gover-min can’t do shit about unemployment if the unemployed makes no effort to become employed. So, be part of the unemployment fight by getting employed and stop thinking about welfare.)
– that John Howard’s Coward’s decision to go public on a specific terrorist threat may have been linked to reports of suspects filming potential targets in Melbourne. But the gover-min’s announcement that it would rush tough new anti-terrorism laws through Parliament may also have scared off the very people it was trying to catch, the opposition Labor Party suggested. (No wonder John Coward continued to win elections! His opponents are too kriffing dumb. Labour should by now figure out that the terrorists probably take this as the final obstacle before they go to hell ‘enter heaven’. Go look for a book called ‘Terrorists for Dummies’, alright? And by the way, when you finish the entire ‘For Dummies’ series, you will be the perfect dummy.)
– that Hugo Chavez threatened to share Venezuela’s U.S.-made F-16 fighters with Cuba and China, accusing the U.S. of making it difficult for his country to obtain spare parts for the aircraft. Chavez claimed the U.S. broke a contract to supply parts for Venezuela’s fleet of 21 F-16s and pressured other countries not to help maintain them. (Please do, Chavez. Maybe then we can have a countdown to see how fast you’ll end up joining Saddam.)
– that a ‘Palestinian’ cleric terrorist sympathiser from one of the most popular mosques in the Gaza Strip asked his congregation to pray for terrorist lea-duh Osama bin Laden and his deputy Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, explaining the global terror lea-duhs share the ‘Palestinian’ goals of destroying Israel and ending ‘American world domination’. “May Allah guard and bless Sheikh Shit Osama bin Laden and Sheikh Shit Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who are both leading the jihad against the Zionist entity and against American domination of the world. Pray for Sheikh Shit bin Laden and Sheikh Shit Zarqawi,” said Jamil Mutaweh, a lea-duh of the large Abu Dur Mosque in Khan Yunis. (And hopefully he has time to give thanks to his God when Israeli helicopters find this shithead on the receiving end of their weaponary too.)
– that the military wing of the Fatah party expressed solidarity with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s remarks to ‘wipe Israel off the map’, and is currently the only ‘Palestinian’ terror group to reject a cease fire being quietly negotiated by Egypt. “We express our full support and solidarity with the Iranian President in which he frankly called to erase Israel from the map of the world. We support the Iranian President’s position vis-à-vis this illusion that is the state of Israel and we say that with the help of Allah this illusion will disappear,” stated a pamphlet distributed in Gaza by the SS [Schutzstaffeln] Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. (They can all stand together in hell.)
– that China reacted coolly to Japan’s Cabinet reshuffle, saying that it continued to value bilateral relations. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan declined to comment on the specific appointment of several hardliners to the new Japanese Cabinet, such as Mr Shinzo Abe who has vowed to continue visiting the controversial Yasukuni war shrine. (Just ignore the buggers and strengthen the economy and military to such a point that the Japanese will only be dumping more money to bankrupt its own economy and benefit the Americans.)
– that China has declared war on scams using mobile phone short messages that promise everything from fake cash prizes to sexual services and contract killings. The new campaign is an extension of a crackdown started last year on pornographic and subversive content and spam messages sent by mobile phones or through the Internet. The Ministry of Public Security would work with the Ministry of Information Industry and the China Banking Regulatory Commission to stamp out messages that dupe people into turning over personal account information and those that involve prostitution, gambling, contract murder, guns for sale, fake lotteries and more. (Too bad there isn’t a way to swindle the swindlers. That would be soooo poetic.)
– that in their quest for profits, Western companies are selling press-muzzling equipment to China, censoring their search engines or blog tools and even passing on information that may help reveal the identity of journalists critical of Beijing, media freedom groups have said. These companies, including French Group Thales, and US companies Cisco and Yahoo!, are being accused of looking the other way while their gover-mins are increasingly critical of curbs to freedom in China. (Freedom without responsibility is not freedom. Would these whining gover-mins be happy if some Chinese are spreading a message of hate against them using their blogs, and then a massive riot breaks out in China attacking one of their embassies?)
– that Japan’s new Foreign Minister Taro Aso Arsehole, who described his country’s ties with Washington as the world’s most important bilateral relationship, has made it clear that Tokyo’s ties with Asia are but a function of that link. In remarks made on TV, Arsehole virtually certified the perception that Japan under Junk-ichiro Konkz-umi, and probably after him, regards its links with Asia as of clearly lesser importance. (Is this even news? Wasn’t Japanese policies after the Meiji Restoration ‘to leave Asia for Europe’ or something to that effect? The Japanese have always been the most ‘un-Asian’ among Asians. And anyone who falls for that ‘Asian values’ bullshit probably heard about that crap during the Japanese occupation.)
– that Japan should exhaust all other options before allowing a woman to ascend its imperial throne, including reviving pre-war princely houses and the practice of royal concubines, said a cousin of Japan’s Emperor Akihito. An essay in a private newsletter by the 59-year-old Prince Tomohito suggested reviving former princely houses – which were abolished after World War II – to allow their male members to be eligible to succeed the throne, and also bringing back concubines to increase the chances of producing a male heir. (Don’t bother and let the Imperial house die. It’s the price it needs to pay for Hirohito’s and his predecessors’ numerous wars of aggression against Japan’s neighbours. After all, Hirohito did not pay with his life for his crimes against humanity.)
– that Chen Shui-bian has apologised to the public as a corruption scandal involving his longtime confidant threatens to hurt his political party in upcoming islandwide elections. The DPP also expelled Mr Chen Che-nan, the man at the centre of the scandal. (It’s high time the Taiwanese people see Chen and his party for what they really are and give them the boot in all future elections.)
– that Taiwanese authorities have threatened to revoke the licence of TVBS Cable News, which has attacked corruption scandals relentlessly in a daily prime-time talk show, on the grounds that the station’s foreign ownership exceeds the legal limit. Taiwanese law sets a 50% limit on foreign ownership of TV stations, and media ownership by mainland Chinese is especially sensitive. TVB Super Channel, or TVBS, says it is 47% owned by TVB – a television group based in Hong Kong. TVBS says the majority of its shares are Taiwanese-owned. (If TVBS was exposing the scandals of the opposition, will it get citations and medals for its ‘patriotic’ action?)
– that Chen Shui-bian pledged that none of Taiwan’s television outlets would be closed during his tenure. “I will not shut down any television stations during my term in office,” Chen said. Chen’s comments came after officials threatened to shut down TVB Super Channel (TVBS) for breaching laws governing foreign ownership of media outlets. TVBS has been under fire after it exposed details of a corruption probe into gover-min officials. (I suppose if TVBS is forced to close on its own accord, then Chen technically didn’t close it.)
– that 2 decommissioned Kidd-class U.S. destroyers purchased by Taiwan have departed for the island and will arrive next month, a television station reported. A 600-member Taiwanese crew set sail with the warships Keelung and Suao from Port Charleston, South Carolina, CTI cable station reported. Taiwan purchased four of the 8,000-tonne guided-missile ships equipped with Harpoon missiles, five-inch guns and anti-air warfare systems in 2001 for US$800 million. (No one pays a better price than Taiwan for scrap.)
– that KMT lea-duh Ma Ying-jeou says that the island’s reunification with mainland China would not be possible until Beijing reassesses its 1989 bloody crackdown on protests in Tiananmen Square. China has called the non-violent demonstrations a ‘counter-revolutionary riot’. Hundreds of protesters are believed to have been killed when military tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square to crush the June 3-4 student-led rally. (There’s much reassessment necessary in China. For e.g. The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.)
– that Vietnam described as a ‘historic fact’ a U.S. report that false intelligence given to the White House in 1964 led to the first major escalation of the Vietnam War. A U.S. historian has said that officials of the U.S. National Security Agency had provided erroneous intelligence to the White House about a clash between U.S. and North Vietnamese ships. Reacting to the report, Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said: “Everybody knows that the Tonkin Gulf event in 1964 was created by the then-U.S. administration, using it as a reason to extend the war to the whole territory of Vietnam. This is a historic fact.” (Just wondering if the same things will be said about the ‘intelligence’ provided to the White House about Iraq before the war in 2003.)
– that many ethnic Chinese Indonesians have received anonymous text messages threatening them with brutal murders and rapes after the Hari Raya Aidilfitri holidays, raising fears of another major racial riot in the capital. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressed ‘deep concern’ over the messages sent from unregistered cellular pre-paid numbers and ordered security bodies to investigate. (And will any culprits be found or it’s just another of those investigations that is the equivalent of catching smoke?)
– that in the lengthy, vulgar text message, the Chinese Indonesians are accused of being ‘robbers of Indonesians’ money’ and ‘the number one enemies of the Muslims’. “The fuel prices went up because of the Chinese,” said part of the message, which blames the Chinese for the people’s suffering. It goes on to threaten the Chinese with death and rape after the Aidilfitri holidays and closes with ‘Allahu Akbar’, the Arabic phrase for ‘God is Great’. (Would have been more apt to close it with ‘Shaitan Akbar’, you blasted shitheads. And to look for the real ‘robbers of Indonesians’ money’, look no further than some of your very own Pribumi politicians, or your very own mouth frothing, rabis infected f*ckwits screaming religious murder.)
– that Malaysia’s gover-min has been accused of failing to act on evidence that licensed CD factories are producing pirated music, films and software. The country’s recording industry says pirated discs from 12 of the 44 factories licensed by the gover-min have been exported abroad. The suspect plants continue to operate despite complaints while illegal plants have been shut down, the industry says. (Soon, even our last source of pirated CDs in Johor Bahru will dry up.)
– that Malaysia is thought to be the world’s largest exporter of pirated discs. Pirated discs produced in Malaysia have been found across Europe, Asia, Latin America and, most recently, in South Africa. (The Chinese are smarter. They don’t make pirated CDs anymore. They just upload images to the net.)
Singapore This Week
– that a sordid picture of the sex trade in Batam – fuelled mainly by Singaporeans – has emerged from a recent survey of prostitutes working there. Some 43% of 733 women interviewed by a Batam-based NGO said they were forced into the trade or made to work under false pretences, many when they were in their mid-teens. More than nine in 10 came from other parts of Indonesia, mainly villages in East, Central and West Java. Many came to Batam on promises of well-paying jobs. Instead, they ended up with unwanted pregnancies and disease, exploited but afraid to leave. (Well, the Tali-PAP’s Machiavellian policy of placing ‘necessity above good’ have given us casinos. Perhaps it won’t be long they decide that they need to stem the outflow of money by setting up a few more Geylangs, say, one in the north and another in the west, just like NSmen get Bedok Fitness Conditioning Centre [FCC] in the East.)
– that in a letter from LOH CHOW KUANG, the PTC’s Secretary, in reply to the letter ‘Are bus operators taking commuters for a ride?’ it was mentioned that: “In practice, most commuters do not travel from one terminal to another. While the average one-way distance of trunk bus services is about 18km, the average travelling distance of bus passengers is only about one third of this.” (If that is the case, why not then do away with the stage-based fare system and implement a single fare system which can be based on adding the top fare and starting fare divided by two? Not only will it do away with the fare cheat problem, the bus companies can also reduce the number of validators needed per bus.)
– that ex-Regent Goh the index on International ranking on press freedom at face value, noted it was ‘a subjective measure computed through the prism of Western liberals’, pulled together from feedback mainly from 14 freedom of expression groups and 130 press correspondents. (Well, so who can say that rankings on how well Singapore is doing in certain aspects, e.g. corruption, economic freedom etc, which the Tali-PAP often used as evidence on how well it is running this country aren’t also ‘a subjective measure computed through the prism of certain blah blah blah’ har?)
– that even though there’s a number on the Ez-Link Itchy-Link card, it is unable to be used for stopping unauthorised usage if the card is lost. (The number is there for ‘bai swee’ – decorative purposes – one mah.)
– that an employer, SYN MEI LAN gave her maid all Sundays off, and even off-days on certain public holidays. She has also taken her maid along with the family on two trips to Malaysia and gave the maid a bonus of one month every 2 years. However, she was told that she is ‘spoiling the market’. (Well done, Ms Syn! Singapore remains in the good graces of God because there are people like you!! Those who tells Ms Syn that clearly don’t deserve a maid. What gives the losers the right to criticise Ms Syn simply because she’s outdoing them in treating her maid like a proper human being and not a slave? And what really is the ‘market’ huh? Taking erotic photos of one’s maids? F*cking them when the wife is away? Beating them and humiliating them in public? Make them sleep in the open on the floor? Some losers are just sooooo shameless.)
– that a CHIA HERN KENG wrote that ‘Laws shouldn’t be too far off global standards’ to the Stooge Times Forum page. He cited examples like a shoplifter who was jailed for 11 years, and a man who punched a lawyer in front of the judge sentence to 6 years. He argued that ‘the idea of law enforcement as a deterrence against crime also implies that it is meant to be corrective. Will putting a man to death do anything to correct his erroneous ways than, say, 15 years’ imprisonment?’ and ‘No human being is perfect in every way. Offences like fisticuffs can be committed by anyone out of impulse or provocation of the moment. There is such a thing called sudden ‘loss of self-control’. There is no need to be overly harsh in punishing such offenders.’ (I am all in for making the punishment fit the crime. However, how does one deal with a repeated shoplifter? Does Chia knows if the shoplifter was a repeated offender, or a first time offender? Or how does one know that the person who hammered the lawyer didn’t have a track record of violence? Personally, I have a track record of smashing things when I gets mad, can I argue on the grounds of sudden ‘loss of self-control’ when I one day decided to do some geographical adjustments to your face and give you an unsolicited dental operation?)
– that plans to provide commuters with real-time information on bus arrivals have flopped at least twice, but that is not stopping SBS Transit from trying again. The transport operator is looking for a system that can give its passengers current bus arrival and departure times, as well as information on bus routes, via the Internet, cellphone, personal digital assistant (PDA) and other channels, a spokesman said. (The first time they tried that, they lost 100 million. Then the LTA spent another 40.3 million on it. Please, stop this nonsense, and instead work on giving something more useful to commuters than this money wasting crap.)
– that the LTA state that average travel speeds on the northbound CTE have improved and now fall within the optimal range of 45-65kmh in one of its reply to the Stooge Times Forum on Oct 31. A reader, ROLAND KING, shatters that illusion by pointing out that ‘There is a daily tailback of cars waiting to exit the CTE onto the PIE before the new gantry; only after that does traffic on the CTE start to speed up.’ In fact, according the Mr King, an unscientifically timing of his journey along the 4km stretch prior to the new gantry on each workday in the last two weeks got him an average of seven minutes, which equates to 34kmh. (In reality, even without the gantry, traffic seems to pick up after the exit at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 too. I am surprised that no one who used that stretch of the CTE had mentioned this in their letters to the Stooge Time Forum. In fact, it is common that traffic slows down significantly before all ERP gantries.)
– that some clowns argued that it is not necessary to hang Nguyen Tuong Van, the Vietnamese Australian caught for trafficking heroin through Singapore because he did not intend the drugs to be sold here. They argue that ‘in the interest of Singapore’s relation with Australia – or the West, or the rest of the so-called ‘civilised world’, Singapore can either deport the guy or jail him for certain long period. (Will these jokers said a rapist shouldn’t be caned too simply because he didn’t rape their mothers, wives and sisters?)
Trivial, Jokes and Thoughts from Discussions
– that ‘genius’ LOW KIM SONG, frustrated at having missed winning the lottery simply because there was no time to place a bet, wrote to TODAY saying that ‘Singapore Pools has tried to offer better service to its customers. It could go further by providing alternative ways to place bets. Perhaps it could consider having legalised Internet betting, or allowing bets to be placed through the AXS stations.’ (How about GIRO deduction for your weekly ticket too? Charge to your credit card perhaps? How about allowing you to use your Itchy-Link card too? 命里有时终须有，命里无时莫强求。)
– that another ‘genius’ ANDREW LEE complained to the Stooge Times Forum that a cabby demanded that he pays the ERP charges if he wants to alight outside YMCA at No. 1 Orchard Road and when he refused, the cabby stopped 10 meters away at a junction near YMCA instead. The reason being that the cabby wanted to turn towards Selegie Road to avoid paying the ERP. Andrew thinks it is unfair that he pays for the ERP when he’s not going entering the Orchard area. (For your information, Andrew Lee, people alighting at the IBM Towers also pays the ERP despite having alighted before the ERP gantry. So, how’s your situation at YMCA different, in this case? Have a heart for the poor cabby lah. You wanna say people got money to pay high installments but don’t want to pay ERP, then why you got money to take cab don’t want to pay ERP also wor? Seems like 恶人先告状 – ‘the person in wrong sue first’ – is a very common place thingie in Singapore leh.)
– that a BAN LEONG, who is in Massachusetts, wrote a reply to ANDREW LEE on the Stooge Times Forum. One part of the reply reads: “This is not an example of bad service. It is an example of a demanding consumer who refuses to pay a fair price for service. Taxi drivers are having a hard time earning a living on our streets given the current glut of taxis. I hope that commuters can be a little more considerate and not be so self-centred and demanding. It seems to me that by identifying the taxi, Mr Lee is suggesting that Comfort should take action against the driver. I believe that no action is necessary. In fact, I would suggest that a response from the company is not required.” (It is a good thing to know that there are still reasonable people out there in the world who still got their heads screwed on tightly to their necks. The only response necessary from Comfort, and also the rest of the cab companies, is simply to add YMCA along with IBM Towers as a place where ERP charges are to be paid. This is to deal with those unreasonably calculative people.)
– that actor Bruce Willis wanted to serve his country as far back as the Gulf War. His friends laughed at him, telling him he was too old. So the star of ‘Die Hard’, ‘The Sixth Sense’, ‘Hostage’ and dozens of other movies, did the next best thing. He traveled to Iraq with his band, the Accelerators, to entertain troops with the USO. He is also planning to join returning troops at Fort Lewis in Washington state Nov. 5. (What a hero! IIRC, this is the same Bruce Willis who didn’t dare take a flight after 9-11, right? Or maybe I have mistaken you for a Puss Willie?)
– that the one thing that will invite the wrath of all other than teaching people to do the wrong things, is to give yourself the justification for not doing the right things. For e.g. You can turn a blind eye to a pregnant woman standing in front of you and not give your seat and tell yourself ‘Well, I paid too, and thus I don’t have an obligation to give up my seat./’ and probably no one can force you to, except to give you the dirty look. Or you can tell yourself, ‘There is no big deal using handicapped toilets.’ and all the handicapped person can do is scold you. But if you actually write a stupid letter to the press or post it on your own kriffing blog, then you are a freaking dumb idiot. (If that doesn’t make any sense to you, here’s an analogy: I found your wallet with $10,000 in it and I justify not returning it to you because I have a $10,000 debt. You probably will find it hard to be sympathetic to my plight. Or if I take that same $10,000 and give it to say, a charity for cancer patients, because I felt that those people needed it more than you, you will probably skin me alive too. It sometimes makes me freaking wonder what goes on in the brains of some, like xiasuay, for e.g.)
– that xiasuay remains unrepentant over her views on toilets for the handicapped.She defended her right to speak her mind: “There are a million views out there. Why do they want to change my one view to fit theirs?” (Look, not every million views out there get thousands of audience a day, geddit? Xiasuay should be reminded that she has ‘celebrity’ status. And guess what? Hitler would just be another cranky old kook if he has no audience.)
– that the best way to get back at the public transport companies for over-charging you is to buy their shares. (So, even when you aren’t over-charged, a little wee bit of that money comes back to you in the form of dividends every time someone else is overcharged and it went un-noticed.)
– that using the same principle, you should get the shares of those companies which will be investing in the casinos too, once the gover-min announce which of them will be running our casinos. (So, every time an gambling addict f*cks himself up in the casinos, you get a bit of that money he lost. In the event you ended up getting robbed by such an idiot – without getting killed – you can at least console yourself that the dividends you get from the casino companies will be paying for part of your damages. And if you never get robbed, then at least the idiots who end up ‘pok-kai’ will contribute a little to your own prosperity.)
– that Sony BMG, the record company part of the multinational corporation that makes laptops, TVs, movies and many other things, is in trouble this week thanks to a copy protection scheme it has used on a number of its CDs. The software, called Extended Copy Protection or XCP, hides itself on your hard drive using techniques normally reserved for viruses, worms and trojans, which use similar ‘rootkits’ to evade detection. And if you notice it is there and try to remove it you may stop your computer recognising its CD drive. (To install something onto my PC and then make it hard to remove is just plain rude. It is like a guest refusing to leave after being invited in, and above that, starts taking over a part of my home, and at his own liberty, inspect everything in the house.)
– thta family groups and educators in Queensland, Australia, who breathed a sigh of relief when a teacher who was discovered moonlighting at a brothel was dismissed and de-certified, are shocked to learn that education officials instead helped the woman change her identity and reassigned her to a new school. And all parties are shocked at reports the woman is still working as a prostitute. (The only to ‘get rid’ of her maybe to just set up a Institute of Prostitution, so she can both be a prostitute and teach at the same time. Like real.)
– that Jay Chou Chow [i.e. Stink in Hokkien] is using his song writing skills to deal with the paparazzi. In ‘November’s Chopin’, has written a song for them titled Si Mian Chu Ge. At a press conference to launch the album, he said: “This song is not about fruits but about a particular magazine. I hope they won’t get angry when they hear it.” He was presumably referring to Next magazine, which is a sister publication of tabloid Apple Daily. In August, Stink had apologised to the public for pointing his middle finger at a Next Magazine reporter. (Apple Daily definitely won’t get angry. They will just redouble their efforts to ensure you get all the ‘popularity’ Stink needs. Especially the negative ones. And I doubt Stink gives a flying damn as long as his album sells in spite of the negative popularity. Just like xiasuay wouldn’t give a damn what the world thinks about the pink shits she sprouts on her blog.)
– that at one point, Albert Einstein resorted to collecting cigarette butts from the streets to circumvent his doctor’s effort to stop him from smoking. (Well, obviously God didn’t play dice with Einstein’s life either. God ensured that Einstein wouldn’t miss the date He would have him recalled.)
– that a SHERANN TANG wrote a letter of complaint to Voices on Today that one of her friends was rejected entry on Ladies Night at Double O Bar on the grounds that she’s a ‘butch’. The reason being that she was dressed casually in jeans and a short-sleeve shirt. (Even a ‘butch’ is still a lady. Not to mention that, won’t ‘butches’ be hanging out in a lesbian bar instead? Abd whatever the hell defines a lady wearing jeans and short sleeves a ‘butch’? I think a lot of ladies in that kind of attire will be thoroughly offended.)
– that a few day later, ‘genius’ JANICE LEE wrote the following in her reply: “If a guest intends to attend a function at a club, it is only right that he or she abides by the policies set by the organisation. Since her friend should have been aware that Ladies’ Night is obviously a gimmick to promote heterosexual culture, she should not have bothered to be present, unless she is prepared to be chatted up by male patrons. So it’s really a non-issue. Don’t like the rules and policy, move on to the other 101 watering holes in the vicinity. Want the free drinks? Then play by the rules.” (Imagine this that one day Janice Lee comes upon a pub, and then she’s rejected for her looks! Would she not scream discrimination? If she has enough neurons to make a synapse, she would have realised that the matter is not about rules of the club, but a matter of discrimination! Because if it has been the rules then wouldn’t it be sufficient to say, “I am sorry the rules of Double O for Ladies Night is to be in a dress.” Janice Lee and Wendy Cheng aka xiasuay can team up and be Singapore’s ‘Moronic Blogging Twins’.)
– that a Hong Kong court sentenced a man to 3 months in prison in what is believed to be the first jailing for sharing movie files over the popular online BitTorrent network. In a stark warning to online file sharers worldwide, Chan Nai-ming, 38, an unemployed man who called himself ‘Big Crook’, was jailed for uploading three Hollywood movies onto the Web via the BitTorrent (BT) network. (He might have better luck doing it in mainland China.)
– that file-swapping company Grokster has agreed to stop distributing its peer-to-peer software and stop supporting its file-swapping network, following a $50 million legal settlement announced Monday with Hollywood studios and record labels. However, Morpheus parent StreamCast Networks, remains operating, and it has previously indicated that it would continue fighting the case in lower courts. Prior to this, the distributors of the WinMX software has taken their program offline and executives at Meta Machine, which distributes eDonkey, the most popular file-sharing program, have said they hope to reach a settlement with the music industry, and change their business into a licensed, industry-approved service. (Time to find a way to get access to the more ‘traditional’ P2P networks in China.)
– that fed-up actress, Kate Hudson, is leading the fightback against media obsession with ‘skinny’ stars. She is taking legal action against five publications for publishing pictures of her accompanied by articles suggesting that she was suffering from an eating disorder, which she denies. (‘Skinny’ Stars is so politically correct. The real term should be ‘Stick Insect’ and these stick insects are either an insult to their husbands, their fathers or society. It is as if one of those has ill-traeted them so much that they didn’t get enough to eat.)
– that Taiwanese boyband ‘Old Man Acting Like Boys’ Band F4 might be better off calling itself F3 from now on. Jerry Yen has struck out on his own, forming an artiste company to manage his projects. Website Sina.com reported that Yen and his staff were in Malaysia recently, where they gave away new namecards printed with the words StarJerry. That was the first sign that Yen has severed ties with F4 manager Angie Chai. (Didn’t it already say F4? Finish in 4 years. That’s what F4 means.)