Shiny Chapeau Alert!
American RealPolitik finds just the gift for your Leftist pals.

Wussification Alert!
WPVI in Philadelphia relates the sad state of childhood in the Garden State in Schools Ban Tag, Dodge Ball and Other Games:

Tag, dodge ball and other playground favorites are coming under more scrutiny at many New Jersey schools, as the threat of injuries and lawsuits spurs more districts to ban the games.

In Long Hill, a ban on tag was part of a code of conduct signed by pupils at one of the Morris County district's elementary schools this year. Instead, a modified version of the game is played indoors with plenty of supervision.

"The idea of loosely running around and chasing each other is not safe," Long Hill Superintendent Arthur DiBenedetto told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Monday's editions.

This just in! Death toll rising from tag game on the 200 block of Maple Street!

Somehow I avoided signing a "code of conduct" when I was in elementary school. I must have been recovering from my injuries.

Tag is not the only game that has been targeted. Dodge ball, also known as bombardment, was banned at several schools in New Jersey and other states because officials feared that some students were being singled out as targets by bullies.

"There's potential for some victimization," said Mary Beth Klotz, a psychologist with the National Association of School Psychologists. "Tag may look OK socially, but it can be a double standard because kids can use it to bully a certain student."

No truth to the rumor that Ms. Klotz was the recipient of numerous noogies in her youth.

Too much cheese alert!
Agence France-Presse astounds with We invented cricket, say French:

A Former president of the French cricket federation has revived claims that his country invented a sport widely regarded as the embodiment of Englishness.

Didier Marchois, who plays for Chauny, northern France, told Britain's Sunday Express newspaper that medieval documents referred to matches near the battlefields of Crecy and Agincourt during the Hundred Years War.

"They leave no room for doubt," Marchois said. "Cricket was born in the north of France and taken across the Channel by English soldiers who picked it up from us during truce periods in the Hundred Years War."

I find it hard to believe that the French army had time for cricket at Crecy and Agincourt as they were kept rather busy plucking arrows out of their butts.

Bobby Mugabe Alert
The Daily News (Zimbabwe) alarms with Public faces arrest for talking or pointing at Mugabe's motorcade:

Government has legislated that Zimbabweans will not be allowed to utter any words, or make any movement or gesture that might be construed to be offensive to President Mugabe or any member of his escort, when the presidential motorcade passes.

Hey Bobby, this is for you!

I wonder what the betting is on how long before someone shows this thug the business end of an RPG?

Buddy, can you spare a riyal?
The Arab News claims that Beggary up 50% in Ramadan:

The number of beggars in the Kingdom increases by 50 percent during Ramadan, according to Awadh Al-Radadi, deputy minister of labor and social affairs. He told Al-Watan daily that 80 percent of beggars are non-Saudis.

"The beggars use different methods to draw the attention and sympathy of philanthropists. They often display medical bills and house rent agreements and tell sob stories of their sufferings to win sympathy," he said.

The beggars use modern telecommunication methods such as mobiles to inform one another about the arrival of anti-beggary squads.

What happened to "washing windshields" at stop lights?

The increasing irrelevance of the Church of England
In the Telegraph (UK), Jonathan Petre reports that Church backs raves to bring in young people:

The Church of England gave its official blessing to alternative forms of youth worship such as "raves in the nave" yesterday as part of its efforts to attract young people into church.

Against a backdrop of declining churchgoing among children and teenagers, the General Synod supported a new "national youth strategy" and a new fund designed to encourage greater participation by the under-30s.

During the debate speakers commended the types of services that would have aroused the wrath of many liturgical traditionalists.

Youth services range from those organised by Soul Survivor, which feature rock bands or Christian disc jockeys, to those that favour "post-modern symbolism", from surreal video images with ambient music to offerings of salt or sunflower seeds.

The most notorious of recent times was the "nine o'clock service" in Sheffield, which was closed down after allegations of improper relations between the clergyman and female members of the congregation.

How about a keg party?

That'll ruin your day!
KMBC-TV reports that Raw Sewage Spews Into Calif. Homes Like Volcano:

PASADENA, Calif. -- Raw waste rushing through a city sewer line backed up into homes, blowing open toilet lids, filling bathtubs and damaging at least seven homes.

Waste began rushing into toilets and drains at about noon Saturday after city workers unblocked a clogged sewer line, city Street Supervisor Leo Alamillo said.

"It was like a volcano out of the commode," Mario Duenas told the Pasadena Star-News.

His wife, Janice, said she ran into the bathroom and held down the toilet lid, but her legs were still covered with sewage. The couple estimated it would cost more than $5,000 to clean up their home.

In another house, sewage soaked carpets and nearly filled an 18-inch-deep bathroom tub.

I deserve at least a minor award for not making even one play on words involving the 4 letter euphemism for excrement.

Yep, It's Bubba
The American Prowler chortles over You Pay, You Lose:

But Hawaii had a tight gubernatorial race going, with Republican former Maui Mayor Linda Lingle running neck and neck with Democratic Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono. This left the Hawaii Government Employees Association worried that their traditionally Democratic state was shifting. So they invited Clinton to rally the troops. The HGEA covered all of the expenses for Clinton and his entourage.

"It was classic Clinton," says a DNC staffer. "He hit Honolulu, did his usual shtick and then bolted."

In all, HGEA staffers estimate that Clinton campaigned for Democrats for about four hours, while he played better than a day's worth of golf, also on the HGEA's dime. What bang did it get for its buck? Republican Lingle beat Democrat Hirono by five percentage points.

Who'd Have Thunk It?
The Independent (UK) says Expelled asylum-seekers head back towards Calais:

Many of the asylum-seekers expelled from a Calais church on Thursday, and shipped by police to other parts of France, are already making their way back to the Channel coast, it emerged yesterday.

Although most have agreed verbally to seek asylum in France, abandoning all right to do so in Britain, very few have actually done so.

In a typical incident, 29 refugees, mostly Iraqi Kurds, arrived by train in the small town of Joué-les-Tours, on the Loire near Tours, 350 miles from Calais, on Thursday afternoon. They were taken to a refugee shelter in the town.

Thirteen left the shelter immediately, saying that they were going "shopping". They did not return, and are believed to have taken trains, or hitch-hiked, back to the Channel coast. The remaining 16 had not yet made formal asylum requests yesterday. The same pattern was reported from 15 other towns which received 250 refugees expelled from Calais on Thursday and Friday ? including 96 who had been expelled from the Saint-Pierre Saint-Paul church.

It was becoming clear that the French authorities and refugees were engaged in a giant game of cat and mouse. Refugees are being systematically swept from the streets of Calais and taken hundreds of miles away, but most are immediately setting out again for the north. Others have set up makeshift camps in the countryside around Calais, from which they attempt to make the increasingly difficult, illegal journey to Britain.

I'll skip my usual lecture about "The Camp of the Saints" and instead go for the best anecdote in the article:

Meanwhile, camp lists have turned up some anomalies: one resident for the past two years turns out to be a homeless 35-year-old British man known only as Chris L. Asked why he's there, he replies: "Because this is the place you find the best Afghan shit [cannabis]."

As Scooby Doo would say, "Ruh Oh!"
KYW radio in Philadelphia says Meteor Storm Coming:

People along the east coast, including in the Philadelphia region, are in for an astronomical spectacle Monday night into Tuesday morning. Forecasters are predicting not the annual Leonid meteor shower, but a meteor storm.

At the peak of a meteor shower you can usually see about 10 meteors an hour racing across the dark sky. But during a meteor storm, Wayne Adams, a sky watcher with the Bucks Mont Astronomical Association, says you see many, many more:

"This year they're predicting that we can see anywhere between three to five thousand meteors per hour at the peak."

Over at Free Republic, BenLurkin says:

Yikes! I know what happens next. The people who watch the meteors all go blind. . .and then the meteors deposit seeds that grow into trees . . . only the trees eat the blind people . . AND . . .these trees can pull up their roots and chase people down. . . it will be horrible . . .

Wait, that's the Triffids not the Leonids . . .

Never mind.