Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, and CEO until recently, has passed away from Pancreatic cancer.

Say what you will about Apple, call me a fanboi if you like, but there is absolutely no denying that Steve Jobs was a visionary.

Without Steve Jobs you wouldn't be touching the screen of that phone in your pocket. Without Steve Jobs you wouldn't have the iPod - the greatest (and best-selling portable music device ever). Without Steve Jobs you wouldn't have tablet computers actually selling in the marketplace.

The man was amazing.

Rest in peace, Steve.

From The Mirror:
David Cameron faced a furious backlash last night after claiming Jesus was the original founder of the Big Society.

His remark - made to Christians at a Downing Street reception - provoked astonishment among religious leaders, charities and politicians.

Labour MP and former Anglican vicar Chris Bryant said: "It's ludicrous and offensive for ­Cameron to try to recruit Jesus to the Tory cause. He is just using decent people in the church and charities to mask the unfair way he's cutting services for the vulnerable."

Mr Cameron told church leaders they would be "absolutely right" to claim Jesus founded the Big Society 2,000 years ago, joking: "I'm not saying we've invented some great new idea here."

He added: "One of the best things about our country is that people step forward as individuals, as families, as communities, as organisations, as churches, and do extraordinary things... helping to build a bigger, richer, more prosperous, more generous society. And all I'm saying is, 'Wouldn't it be great if we did more of that?'"

But Jonathan Bartley, director of Christian think-tank Ekklesia, said Mr Cameron's brutal cuts ­programme was attacking the poor and the weak - and would not have had Jesus's support.

"Jesus's harshest words were reserved for those who had wealth and power and who failed to protect the most vulnerable," he said.

A senior Labour source added: “We know politicians like a big-name endorsement but this seems to be going a bit far."
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Christians are so happy to push their religion into our faces, and then they get upset when someone tries to directly link politics to Christianity...? Yes, and fucking right too! Stop linking religion with government. The government is here to govern everyone in the UK, not just the fucking meely-mouthed Christians. How much more religious bullshit is going to be forced upon those of us who are not religious?

Fucking Tories.

There really *is* a god!!!

Good riddance to that murdering fuckface Osama bin Laden. Nuff said.

"I really don't believe in abortion," Bieber says. "It's like killing a baby?"

When pressed about abortion when the pregnancy is the result of rape, Bieber says: "Um. Well, I think that's really sad, but everything happens for a reason. I guess I haven't been in that position, so I wouldn't be able to judge that."
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So, if everything happens for a reason... I think you're an annoying little fucktard because of what you said there.

And yes, Bieber, an abortion is *like* killing a baby, but not *actually* killing a baby. There is a limit to when you can legally abort a pregnancy. Oh, and given that you're a Christian, please note the following:
- Most pregnancies do not come to term.
- Most are actually terminated by the woman's body itself.
- You think your Christian god created woman, and that everything happens for a reason...
That would make YOUR god the biggest abortionist EVER!!!

From BBC News:
Attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have "utterly failed", Chancellor Angela Merkel says. She said the so-called "multikulti" concept - where people would "live side-by-side" happily - did not work, and immigrants needed to do more to integrate - including learning German. The comments come amid rising anti-immigration feeling in Germany.

A recent survey suggested more than 30% of people believed the country was "overrun by foreigners". The study - by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation think-tank - also showed that roughly the same number thought that some 16 million of Germany's immigrants or people with foreign origins had come to the country for its social benefits.

Foreign workers
Mrs Merkel told a gathering of younger members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party on Saturday that at "the beginning of the 60s our country called the foreign workers to come to Germany and now they live in our country." She added: "We kidded ourselves a while, we said: 'They won't stay, sometime they will be gone', but this isn't reality. And of course, the approach [to build] a multicultural [society] and to live side-by-side and to enjoy each other... has failed, utterly failed."

In her speech in Potsdam, however, the chancellor made clear that immigrants were welcome in Germany. She specifically referred to recent comments by German President Christian Wulff who said that Islam was "part of Germany", like Christianity and Judaism. Mrs Merkel said: "We should not be a country either which gives the impression to the outside world that those who don't speak German immediately or who were not raised speaking German are not welcome here."

Mounting debate
There has been intense debate about multiculturalism in Germany in recent months. Correspondents say Mrs Merkel faces pressure from within her CDU and its allies to take a tougher stance and require immigrants to do more to adapt to German society. Earlier this week, Horst Seehofer, the leader of the CDU's Bavarian sister party, the CSU, said it was "obvious that immigrants from different cultures like Turkey and Arab countries, all in all, find it harder" to integrate. "'Multikulti' is dead," Mr Seehofer said.

Earlier this month the chancellor held talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which the two leaders pledged to do more to improve the often poor integration record of Germany's estimated 2.5 million-strong Turkish community.

The debate first heated up in August when Thilo Sarrazin, a senior official at Germany's central bank, said that "no immigrant group other than Muslims is so strongly connected with claims on the welfare state and crime". Mr Sarrazin has since resigned.

Such recent strong anti-immigration feelings from mainstream politicians come amid an anger in Germany about high unemployment, even if the economy is growing faster than those of its rivals, our correspondent says. He adds that there also seems to be a new strident tone in the country, perhaps leading to less reticence about no-go-areas of the past.
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Thank Jeebus for someone in the political arena finally speaking the truth about this multiculturalism nonsense. Multiculturalism is a lie. It doesn't work. NOT ALL CULTURES ARE EQUAL! And why, when this was forced upon us in the UK by the Labour government without our consent (was it mentioned in their manifestos...?), do WE have to give overt respect to other cultures yet they don't have to move an inch to respect our own?

Well done, Mrs. Merkel. Well done for understanding that the truth isn't illegal. If there is a roar of oncoming dissent in Europe it will be specifically because the people of this continent have been bullied and ignored by our political leaders for far too long.

And on the subject of no-go areas, there are lots of them in Malmo in Sweden. Look what a shithole that place is turning into. There are immigrants (mostly, if not all, Muslim) who think they rule that city. The emergency services are scared to go into them because of the violence they've encountered there. There IS a link between Muslim immigration and crime, but people are too weak-minded and weak-willed to say it. Show me the statistics.

From BBC News:
Eggs, bottles and shoes have been thrown at the former prime minister Tony Blair as he attended a book signing in Dublin. [HAHAHAHAHAHAHA - Ed]

It happened as he arrived at Easons on O'Connell Street in the city to sign copies of his autobiography. The missiles, which were thrown by anti-war protesters, did not hit Mr Blair. Four people were arrested as activists clashed with Irish police at a security barrier outside the bookshop. Around 200 protesters demonstrated at Mr Blair's role in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on one side of the street on Saturday morning. On the other side, more than 300 people gathered to get a copy of his book signed. It was Mr Blair's first book-signing since the publication of his autobiography.

BBC Northern Ireland reporter Julian O'Neill said one of the activists had managed to get into the book shop. "We talked to one person who managed to get in the book shop to get her book signed and as Mr Blair was signing her copy she said she wanted to make a citizen's arrest for war crimes," he said. "She said Mr Blair looked a little taken aback but before she knew it she was surrounded by four security personnel who ushered her into the stairwell."

There was a large police presence in Dublin and O'Connell Street was closed to traffic. Among those who turned out to see Mr Blair was Emily Lynch, from Termofeckin, County Louth, who praised him for playing a huge part in Irish history. "He helped make a very important moment in Ireland," she said.

'On our side'
"I remember him coming out and giving a speech on the steps in Belfast in 1998. He is the only prime minister Irish people can relate to and feel he's on our side, before that there had been nothing like that."

Groups represented at the demonstration included the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Coalition and the 32-County Sovereignty Movement. Richard Boyd-Barrett, of the Irish Anti-War Movement, accused Mr Blair of making "blood money" from the memoirs.

Mr Blair has said he would hand over the reported £4m advance payment for the book plus all royalties to the Royal British Legion.

His memoirs detail his accounts of life in Downing Street, the Iraq war, the 9/11 terrorist attacks in America and Princess Diana's death. He also wrote about concerns over the amount he was drinking and of his rift with his successor Gordon Brown.

'Stretched the truth'
One of the chapters also deals with his efforts to secure peace in Northern Ireland and his relationships with the key political players. He admitted that he often stretched the truth past breaking point to get agreement during the peace process and he admits that he took horrendous chances with the political parties.
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LOL.

You know what? Blair should hand that money over, and any other money he makes from his life in No. 10. The man is a liar, a warmonger, and a total shit. He fucked our country over for years, sucking up to George W. Bush - and wasn't he a wonderful president - and sold us out to Europe. I hate the man. It's a shame none of the 'missiles' hit him, because he personally signed off on actual missiles hitting people for years.

From BBC News:
Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi says the EU should pay Libya at least 5bn euros (£4bn; $6.3bn) a year to stop illegal African immigration and avoid a "black Europe". Speaking on a visit to Italy, Col Gaddafi said Europe "could turn into Africa" as "there are millions of Africans who want to come in". Italy has drawn criticism for handing over to Libya migrants it intercepts at sea, without screening them first. Far fewer now reach Italy from Libya.

European Commission figures show that in 2009 the number of people caught trying to enter Italy illegally fell to 7,300, from 32,052 in 2008. The data was collected under the EU's Eurodac fingerprinting system.

Col Gaddafi has forged close ties with Italy since a friendship treaty was signed two years ago. It sought to draw a line under historic bitterness between Libya and Italy, its former colonial master. "Tomorrow Europe might no longer be European, and even black, as there are millions who want to come in," said Col Gaddafi, quoted by the AFP news agency. He was speaking at a ceremony in Rome late on Monday, standing next to Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. "We don't know what will happen, what will be the reaction of the white and Christian Europeans faced with this influx of starving and ignorant Africans," Col Gaddafi said. "We don't know if Europe will remain an advanced and united continent or if it will be destroyed, as happened with the barbarian invasions."

Audience of women
Col Gaddafi has long seen himself as a champion of African interests on the international stage and has hosted many summits with African leaders. Mr Berlusconi made no immediate comment on Col Gaddafi's demand. Italy has been carrying out joint naval patrols with Libya for the past year, intercepting illegal migrants at sea.

The BBC's David Willey says Col Gaddafi's visit to Rome was overshadowed by another controversial speech he made - to two groups of several hundred young Italian women, hired at a fee of 70 or 80 euros each from a local modelling agency.

He told them that Islam should become the religion of Europe and gave them free copies of the Koran, after he had lectured them for an hour on the freedoms enjoyed by women in Libya.
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First comes the offer to convert to Islam, then comes the threat. Typical behaviour by an Islamic leader.

I'll tell you what, Mr. Gaddafi, how about YOU pay US $5bn a year to stop YOUR African friends from getting into the EU? After all, you're a 'champion of African interests', aren't you? Surely you must want your friends to stay where they are and live under Islamic rule?

I fail to understand why assholes like this guy are given column inches. The guy's a cunt. Abdel bassett al-Megrahi (or whatever his fucking name is) is a convicted terrorist, and YOU welcomed him home as a national hero! You're a cunt, Gaddafi. Luckily, you're a really old cunt, so your particular brand of madness will be done with soon enough. Old, Islamic cunt.

From BBC News:
A US district court has issued a temporary injunction blocking plans by the Obama administration to increase funding for stem cell research. The court ruled in favour of researchers who say human embryonic stem cell research involved the destruction of human embryos. Judge Royce Lamberth said lawsuits brought against the new guidelines could now go ahead.

President Obama lifted a ban on funding for stem cell research in March. Critics say the ban, which was kept in place by Mr Obama's predecessor, George W Bush, impeded the fight to find treatments for diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and diabetes.

The suit, which was also backed by some Christian groups, is against the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Those against the new plan to increase funding argued the NIH policy violated US law and also took funds from researchers seeking to work with adult stem cells.

"ESC (embryonic stem cell) research is clearly research in which an embryo is destroyed," Judge Lamberth said. He added: "To conduct ESC research, ESCs must be derived from an embryo. The process of deriving ESCs from an embryo results in the destruction of the embryo. Thus ESC research necessarily depends upon the destruction of a human embryo."

But Judge Lamberth said an injunction would not "seriously harm" the embryonic studies because it did "not interfere with their [researchers'] ability to obtain private funding for their research".

The Dickey-Wicker Amendment, which Congress adds to budget legislation each year, played an important role in the case. The amendment bans the use of federal funds to destroy human embryos. With the injunction in place, Judge Royce Lamberth is now likely to hear groups on both sides of the case argue whether the new guidelines should be permanently blocked or allowed to continue.
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Well, I can't say I'm surprised that this was backed by "some Christian groups". After all, these are the people who think that there shouldn't be a national vaccination programme for the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) because the threat of cancer is a better deterrent to pre-marital sex. In other words these people (members of some Christian groups...) would like to see hundreds of young women in America die of HPV-related cancer rather than give them an effective, safe vaccine.

That sort of idiocy has no place in the modern world.

They would rather we don't advance in medicine and cure the little girl with burns over 80% of her body, or the young mother with a spinal injury, because ESC research necessarily involves the destruction of a human embryo. And what is a human embryo? Well, it's a little ickle human being, innit? To quote Sam Harris from the excellent book 'Letter to a Christian Nation': "A 3-day-old human embryo is a collection of 150 cells called a blastocyst. There are, for the sake of comparison, more than 100,000 cells in the brain of a fly. The embryos that are destroyed in stem-cell research do not have brains, or even neurons. Consequently, there is no reason to believe they can suffer their destruction in any way at all. The truth is that President Bush’s unjustified religious beliefs about the human soul are, at this very moment, prolonging the scarcely endurable misery of tens of millions of human beings."

Why not, eh? After all, your god has nothing to do with miscarriages, does he? It's estimated that 50% of all pregnancies are terminated naturally by the woman's body. If that's so, that makes 'god' the most prolific abortionist in history! (Sam Harris again.)

Do these people not understand what happens in IVF? More than one human embryo is used, and not all of them create babies. Where do the others go? Hmmm...

Seriously, it's 2010. The nonsense that the religious people of this world spew forth has truly awful consequences, and I'm fed up of society having to pander to it.

The BP oil spill will cost the company $32.2bn (story), and Greenpeace activists removed safety equipment from BP petrol stations across London this morning (story) to force BP to adopt greener policies. What a silly state of affairs.

If the American government would implement policies that forced car manufacturers to make their engines more efficient, and Americans would buy cars with engines smaller than, say, 6 litres, perhaps BP wouldn't need to be drilling where they are. Perhaps? I don't know why the oil spill happened, but I do know that the response from the American public, and especially Barack Hussein Obama's use of the word British in the company's name (even though it hasn't been called British Petroleum for years), has been inappropriate. Yes, there has been a massive oil spill, but it is being cleaned up and people are to be compensated for any losses.

If the American public don't want BP, then they should sell their 40% of the shares and put them into their own oil companies who are capable of drilling at those depths. Oh, right, there aren't any other companies who could actually step into the shoes of BP right now.

And Greenpeace, for fuck's sake. You spent the morning inconveniencing thousands of people across London today. Do you think people care what you want BP to do? You have merely angered them. They're still going to use BP because they need petrol. They aren't going to turn away because you have a problem with the company. You bunch of retards. All it does is point out to the people you annoyed this morning what a bunch of tools you are.

Also, were Greenpeace planning to do this before the oil spill? I doubt it. They're just doing it for publicity. Well, they've got it, but they've also got a bunch of enemies, too.

From BBC News:
David Cameron is to argue strongly for Turkey's membership of the European Union, saying he is "angry" at the slow pace of negotiations.

On his first visit to Turkey as prime minister, Mr Cameron will say he will "fight" for Turkey's bid to join the EU and to become a "great European power". He is expected to compare hostility to the bid in some parts of the EU to the way in which UK entry was once regarded.

After concluding his visit to Turkey, Mr Cameron will travel on to India. He will be joined by a host of British business leaders as he seeks to boost trade links with one of the world's fastest growing economies.

Mr Cameron - who arrived in Ankara on Monday - is expected to agree a new strategic partnership with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan during his visit.

'Frustrating progress'
In a speech on Tuesday, Mr Cameron will say he wants to "pave the road" for Turkey to join the EU and he will criticise those who want to delay the process. A European Union without Turkey at its heart is "not stronger but weaker....not more secure but less...not richer but poorer," he is expected to say. "I'm here to make the case for Turkey's membership of the EU. And to fight for it."

Referring to former French leader General de Gaulle's efforts to block British membership of the EU in the 1960s, he is expected to take a swipe at some other EU countries' attitude to Turkey. "We know what it's like to be shut out of the club. But we also know that these things can change. When I think about what Turkey has done to defend Europe as a Nato ally, and what Turkey is doing today in Afghanistan alongside our European allies, it makes me angry that your progress towards EU membership can be frustrated in the way it has been.... My view is clear. I believe it is just wrong to say Turkey can guard the camp but not be allowed to sit inside the tent."

Turkey opened accession negotiations with the EU in 2005 but is considered very unlikely to join in the next 10 years, partly due to opposition from countries such as France. Turkey's refusal to recognise EU member Cyprus, growing support for pro-Islamic parties on the mainland and the treatment of the Kurdish minority in the country all remain potential stumbling blocks.

Since 2005, only 11 out of 35 "negotiating chapters" relating to accession talks have been opened for discussion and only one has been "provisionally closed".

Regional role
Describing himself as the "strongest possible advocate" for greater Turkish influence in Europe, Mr Cameron will say that those who oppose EU membership are driven by protectionism, narrow nationalism or prejudice. "Those who wilfully misunderstand Islam, they see no difference between real Islam and the distorted version of the extremists. They think the problem is Islam itself. And they think the values of Islam can just never be compatible with the values of other religions, societies or cultures. All of these arguments are just plain wrong. And as a new government in Britain, I want us to be at the forefront of an international effort to defeat them."

While praising Turkey's secular and democratic traditions, Mr Cameron is likely to stress that Turkey must continue to push forward "aggressively" with economic and political reform to maintain momentum towards EU membership. Stressing the vital role Turkey plays in the region, he will say it has a "unique influence" in helping to build a stable Afghanistan through political and economic co-operation and fostering understanding between Israel and the Arab world.
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Really? Cameron wants to let into the EU a country that refuses to recognise another EU country? He wants to let in a country whose leader is in the process of removing the secular and democratic traditions that Cameron praises, in favour of pro-Islamic ideals? He wants to let in a country whose population would then be free to wander to Britain for free? How many more millions of Muslims can our country take?

You think we're equating Islam with terrorism, I think you'll find, Mr. Cameron, that the terrorists themselves are doing that! They sit in front of cameras quoting from the koran. How much more evidence do you need? They killed 52 people on the London Underground and a bus on 7/7/2005. Have you forgotten that?

Besides, the country has not met all of the requirements for their entry into the EU. If you are now changing the rules just because you want to appeal to Muslims, then you are not leading our country the way the population of this country want you to. I don't expect you'll be in power for much longer, you vapid little man.

You cannot let a wolf in sheep's clothing into the camp. It will bite you, and you won't be able to remove it.