[ladies of the night] 95 year old man arrested

A 95-year-old man has been arrested in England during a crackdown on kerb-crawlers. Police detained the pensioner after he picked up a prostitute in Bournemouth, Dorset, but he was let off with a warning because of his age. Isn't that wonderful - you can raise hell if you're of a certain age and people just say 'the son of a gun'. It's like the crazed motorized wheelchair riders of London terrorizing the local populace, their vehicles decked out in Formula 1 livery. When one gets over the hill and can dimly see the River Styx in the distance, this sort of story is heartwarming, I can tell you.

[squash] rumsfeld plays hardball

Great piece from the NYT. For the last six years, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld [74] has slipped down to the Pentagon basement many afternoons and spent a heart-thumping hour playing squash. Mr. Rumsfeld is “very aggressive and he is very intense” on the court, says a former frequent partner [presumably he had a heart attack]. “He hits the ball well, but he doesn’t play by the rules,” says Chris Zimmerman, a devoted squash player who works in the Pentagon’s office of program analysis. He says Mr. Rumsfeld often wins points because, after hitting a shot, he does not get out of the way so his opponent has a chance to return the ball, a practice known in squash as “clearing.”

[sunday roundup] around the blogs

Norman Geras

Some people have asked me [actually I’m lying through my teeth – no people have asked me but hopefully they will in the future] what criteria I use in choosing the featured photo on Sunday’s blog roundup. The short answer is – possession of said photo. Anyway, this is what the lads and lasses are up to today:

Chris Dillow argues on political parties and their necessity: More here.

[tony blair] were you there

As it was in Manchester, I’ll have to check what Norman has to say on this. Lauren Booth, the half-sister of Blair's wife Cherie, led the protest with notable left-wingers plus Galloway. Would Tony Blair be overly concerned, do you think?

[india] pm’s daughter takes on bush

The New York-based 36 year old youngest daughter of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is in a legal battle against Pentagon. When Dr Singh talked with Cuban leader Fidel Castro on the world’s united fight against terrorism, Amrit was taking on Bush’s ‘war on terror’ for the American Civil Liberties Union. All of Dr Singh’s three daughters — Upender, Daman and Amrit — have chosen different, independent professions and it is said Dr Singh never interferes with their professional lives. The eldest has teaching background in history and political science at St Stephen’s College and the second worked as consultant with Tata Energy Research Institute. [Ravi S Jha] [I like the first daughter's name best.]

[christianity] the fourth monotheistic religion

It’s Sunday and last evening I posted on the three great monotheistic religions: Islam, Judaism and Money and now it is the turn of the other. To be healthy, we need to take care of spiritual, mental, physical and financial matters [four pillars], agreed? It could be said there are four spiritual situations – acknowledging we haven’t the equipment to stand alone and enlisting help, cutting a deal with darkness, exploring other dimensions or not giving it another thought and substituting financial success for spiritual harmony. What percentage do the latter, do you think? I prefer to play the percentages and opt for the former.