Cat Altogether

Henry McDonald says about the raid on Slab Murphy’s home:

Officers recovered £600,000 in cash and cheques, two laptop computers, 10,000 litres of fuel, 30,000 smuggled cigarettes and a highly toxic chemical mix to ‘wash’ 7.5 million litres of fuel.

Any ideas what the highly toxic chemical mix might be? The latest I hear is that cat litter is very much in vogue for cleaning diesel in border areas. It then gets dumped in the river, where it cleans the dead animals.

A Proper Charlie

The Times leader has a satisfied fawning waffle about Prince Charles’s visit to Saudi Arabia, where he met with King Abdullah. Islam needs a more tolerant vision, and Charles, future King of England, by jove, he may just be the man to do it. Angry Arab has more.

France and Racism

Interview with Lilian Thuram

Les mots ont un sens. Lorsqu’un philosophe respectable comme Alain Finkielkraut déclare que l’équipe de France de football fait rigoler toute l’Europe parce que, aujourd’hui, elle est “black, black, black”, cela signifie-t-il que les Noirs ne sont donc pas français ? Si vous êtes d’origine russe, italienne ou polonaise, vous êtes un Français parfaitement intégré. Mais moi qui suis antillais et français depuis une éternité, est-ce que je reste un non-Français à cause de la couleur de ma peau?

A survey, spotted last week on Back Seat Drivers, indicated that one third of French people say they are racist.

Copy Paste Copy

As any Smiths fan will tell you, there’s always someone somewhere with a big nose who knows, and this has just been revealed to Washington Post blogger Ben Domenech.