An Unusual Case of Smothering Secondary to Ingesting Raw Pet Cat

Oh my good frickin' god. That must have been a bad puddy.

This report from the American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology (via Private Eye) reads like a horror story par excellence. It's the cool scientific tone that packs the punch as we see the whole episode and backstory played out in our mind's eye. Short story writers take note.

Motivation? Forensics should have looked for scratch-marks on the furniture or poo in the pot plants.

"Margaret Redpath MD — 'An Unusual Case of Smothering Secondary to Ingesting Raw Pet Cat'.
Abstract: Smothering is defined as an obstruction of the air passages above the level of the epiglottis, including the nose, mouth, and pharynx. This is in contrast to choking, which is considered to be due to an obstruction of the air passages below the epiglottis. The manner of death in smothering can be homicidal, suicidal, or an accident. Accidental smothering is considered rare among middle-aged adults, yet many cases still occur. Presented here is the case of a 39-year old woman who was found dead on her living room floor by her neighbours. Her hands were covered in scratches and her pet cat was found disembowelled in the kitchen with its tail hacked off. On autopsy her stomach was found to be full of cat intestines, adipose tissue, and strips of fur-covered skin. An intact left kidney and adipose tissue were found lodged in her throat just above her epiglottis. After a complete investigation, the cause of death was determined to be asphyxia by smothering due to animal tissue." 06/2011

Actually, this is similar to a scene in the late JG Ballard's "Home" which was dramatised for television with Anthony Sher in the main role. Wonderful it was, too.

Military industrial complex Skynet rewiring our brains

Not another radio drama about soldiers. Our 21st Century militarised culture seems to be shaping up with the help of an increasing number of army plays on BBC Radio 4 to go with the tedious humanisation of business drummed into us in programmes such as The Apprentice, Dragons Den, anything with Evan Davies, Secret Millionaire (boo-hoo!), and anything with Mary Portas.

Not to mention the bloody awful swathe of Confucian wet-dreams telling us where we are in the pecking order with a ready-made stratum of management big-heads enjoying putting the scum in their place. Very offending examples include: X-Factor, Pop Idol, Britain's Got Talent and anything involving Gordon Ramsey. Across the pond, there's a plethora of instances but let's go with America's Top Model where an imperious Tyra Banks and her thousand-yard stare regularly mash up young beauty, and Kate Perry's ghastly Part of Me video where she gets over a breakup by shearing off her lovely locks, donning khaki and learning how to shoot foreigners in their own lands.

Today we had Behind Enemy Lines in Radio 4's Red and Blue series, a tale about British Special Forces and war games. Last week it was Hearts and Minds. Even the National Theatre has got in on the act with its militarised Hamlet, although you'll have to take my word for it as all pix of the heavily tooled-up soldiery behind Fortinbras and manning Elsinore have disappeared off the net despite this being a crucial element of the production's mise en scene. Elsewhere we have images from Wootton Bassett stoking emotion so we daren't ask the important questions about why these young people were sent to fight, for what purpose and in whose interest.

Soldiers and commerce are stewing up a treat in a mercenary agenda where the state backs the interests of money, not unlike the East India Company of old. Even Islington Green isn't immune from that military magic now that the powers-that-be are changing its name to Islington Memorial Green.

Former residents of the one-time People's Republic of Islington are especially resentful of this. Shapely Charles Shaar Murray (42, 42, 42, 12.5) said: "I am especially resentful of this." He then flounced off, muttering, "I am a free man, not a cylinder."

UPDATE: Watching Britain's Got Talent, I realise that this breaks the mould in that it's not a freak show set up to entertain the mob. There's some awesome talent in there and the judges genuinely seem to care and want to develop the newcomers. So apologies to everyone at BGT — you're doing a great job.

Steve Bell on Tony Blair and rendition

Heh! This is pretty much how I see Blair after he helped start the Iraq war using the dodgy dossier and other untruths to initiate a conflagration that still cripples that country today, not to mention the cost in money and lives to Britain.

The bank that gained most out of the Iraq war was JP Morgan in its role as co-ordinating the institutions syphoning loot out of the country. Guess which bank pays Blair £2 million a year? Then there were all the other little tips and stipends, such as the million quid from the Israeli university. Interesting how American imperialist interests find all sorts of channels to pay their man.

And guess who, along with his lovely wife, is preparing their companies for the carve-up of the NHS? No, surely not the former leader of the Labour Party? Health clinics in Sainsbury's and Tesco, anyone?

Chinese seamen and Britain's betrayal

An interesting piece in the Independent on the history of Chinese seamen who have served Britain and been badly mistreated for their efforts by my two friends Sonny Leong and Yvonne Foley.

Britain’s double Chinese betrayal?
Tuesday, 28 February 2012 at 10:02 am

The relationship between the Chinese and the British goes back over 200 years. And the products of that relationship are evident throughout what used to be Britain’s Empire. It can be seen in the architecture it left behind in Shanghai and Hong Kong and in the populations of Chinese descent living in Britain and the countries that were part of that Empire, both formal and informal.

The East India Company recruited Chinese seamen in the eighteenth century to man its trading vessels in the Far East. The Royal Navy recruited them in the Napoleonic Wars. Heirs to the Great Voyages of Admiral Zheng He, they were known to be excellent seamen, sober and industrious.

Chinese seamen in their thousands were used in the British merchant fleet in both the First and Second World Wars, most sailing out of the city of Liverpool in the North West of England. Hundreds of these men settled down with local women and began to raise families only to find that at the end of the conflict that they were no longer needed.

After World War I men found themselves unable to get work, some waiting two years to find a ship. After World War II, the situation was to be far worse. Almost twenty thousand Chinese mariners were based in Liverpool manning the convoys that brought the supplies from the USA without which Britain could not fight the War. Like in the first conflict, hundreds formed relationships with girls in the city and had children. At least a thousand babies were born to these Anglo-Chinese couples.

Read more here

What the Tory bottom-feeders and their Lib Dem low life human shield have done so far

Let's have a quick Tory tally this Easter weekend in case they come to bury bad news, not raise it. How's it going with the Ancien Regime and are we having fun yet?

Ever since they assumed power with the help of their Renfield Lib Dem crew, the unelected Tories have nicked from grannies, pasty-eaters, poor families, children, rough sleepers, college kids and the arts, while continuing to hack away at the NHS ... but they have cut their own taxes. O brave new world that has such people, innit! Noble George Osborne, Boris Johnson et al.

This holiday weekend, we learn that London Mayor Boris Johnson skimmed £5.3mn from the homeless budget, no-one knows what for or where it is.

Not content with raids on pensions and the Granny Tax, plans are afoot to tax pensioners at source in Granny Tax II — this time it's personal. Thus, a weekly pension of £107 miraculously turns into £86.

In a bit of a blur off the top of my head: Arts Council budget has been cut by 30 percent. The EMA £30 per week to college kids has gone. Cuts to services means that youth workers' jobs have been lost. Everything is going up in price despite corporate profits being at a 50-year high. Supermarkets have been caught diddling the public. A world-leading forensic lab has gone.

Anyone still bleating about anarchist Trenton Oldfield should really STFU and focus on where we all are right now because if you can weigh all this up and it's Oldfield's protest that makes you reach for your gun, then you have not been paying attention. Swallow the red pill because the thieving elite in charge is dismantling British society before our eyes.

There's no moral or intellectual content to Tory policy: money-making for their mates is all. Everything's up for grabs like the Russian cowboys' carve-up of state assets in the 1990s.

Not that I'm letting Labour off the hook, not when Tony and Cherie Blair (along with former health minister Alan Milburn) have their paws all over NHS privatisation. And certainly not when Jack Straw did what we all know he did on behalf of their Bush government friends and sent British subjects into rendition hell.

We are being run by some rather unpleasant people.

Phwoar! Panda love

Fucking pandas! Or so the news tells us. Last night was the night for bamboo romance and four black eyes — Venus is in Gemini and Yang Guang is in Tian Tian (or vice versa). Good luck, my bredren and sistren. Hope you got it on. Or we'll have to wait another year for her eggs to be in the mood. No pressure. But hurry up.

With our furry chums on loan to Edinburgh Zoo from China for ten years, panda porn followed by the patter of tiny claws is a sure-fire way to draw in the punters.

Here's a video of Tian Tian gagging for it. I sometimes make those whimpering sounds ...