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In February, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, delivered a speech on Islamist extremism to the delegates of the forty-seventh Munich Security Conference. After speaking on foreign policy, he shifted to domestic matters. "We will not defeat terrorism simply by the action we take outside our borders," Cameron said. "Europe needs to wake up to what is happening in our own countries." Poverty and political injustice, he continued, may contribute to extremism, but many of the perpetrators of Islamist terrorism in the United Kingdom had been well educated and middle class. In Cameron's view, the "process of radicalization" that prompted someone like Mohammad Sidique Khan, a thirty-year-old primary-school teaching assistant from Dewsbury, to blow up a train was a crisis of identity, precipitated by the erosion of the British character. "Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives," he said. "We have even tolerated these segregated communities behaving in ways that run completely counter to our values." Britons, fortified by a "much more active, muscular liberalism," Cameron told the audience, would no longer truckle to politically correct notions of passive tolerance.
Repudiating multiculturalism—the notion that varying ethnic, religious, and racial groups can exist separately but peaceably within a society—has lately become obligatory among European leaders. Last October, Germany's Chancellor, Angela Merkel, reiterated her belief that her countrymen's attempts to "live side by side" had "failed, utterly failed." In February, the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, announced a nationwide debate on Islam and respect for French secularism, saying, "The truth is that in all our democracies we've been too concerned about the identity of the new arrivals and not enough about the identity of the country receiving them."
According to a study commissioned by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, anxiety about immigration is more acute in Britain than in any other European country surveyed. Britain, as Cameron has noted, is experiencing the largest influx of people in the country's history; in the year ending in September of 2010, five hundred and eighty-six thousand immigrants came to live in Britain. "We've seen record levels of immigration in the last ten years," a Home Office spokesperson told me. "The British public quite rightly want to see those levels drastically reduced. This sort of uncontrolled immigration leads to the loss of public confidence and is a drain on public services."
As in the rest of Europe, in Britain—where the Muslim population has increased by seventy-four per cent, from 1.6 million to an estimated 2.8 million, since 2001—concern about immigration is often a euphemism for concern about Islam. Fifty-two per cent of respondents to a poll of five thousand Britons believed that Muslims create problems in their country. The newspapers are filled with stories about the loss of the British way of life, with halal meat and niqabs as its despoilers. Britons are worried as much about legal immigrants as about illegal ones, and some of the Muslims they regard as foreign are actually second- or third-generation citizens. It did not go unremarked last year that in the West Midlands region Mohammed became the most popular name for baby boys, overtaking Jack.
The cultural stresses besetting Britain are profound. Legitimate fears about the allocation of resources and the preservation of liberal democracy mingle—at times indistinguishably—with racism and hysteria. In December, the Sun's front page warned of an "AL-QAEDA CORRIE THREAT." It turned out that Al Qaeda did not have plans to bomb the set of "Coronation Street," Britain's longest-running soap opera. But this spring four Muslim men were convicted of attacking an East London teacher with a brick and a metal rod; they did not approve of his course on world religions. In May of 2010, Roshonara Choudhry, a former top student at King's College, London—she had dropped out after watching hours of YouTube sermons by Anwar al-Awlaki, the Al Qaeda leader in Yemen—stabbed Stephen Timms, a Labour M.P., because he had voted for the Iraq war. Timms survived, and Choudhry was sentenced to life imprisonment. After her arrest, Choudhry told the police that she was pleased with what she had done, and that she had not feared for her life.
Q: Why?
A: I wanted to be a martyr.
Q: Why?
A: 'Cos, erm, that's the best way to die.
Cameron had maintained a moderate stance on immigration since assuming the leadership of the Tory Party, in 2005. Unlike his predecessor, Michael Howard, he avoided the sort of rhetoric that had given the Tories a reputation as the "Nasty Party," conjuring the xenophobic nationalism of Enoch Powell and his 1968 "rivers of blood" speech. But in Munich this year Cameron sounded newly combative. Conflating the issues of security and integration, he framed the battle against terrorism as a culture war.
In an unseemly coincidence, as Cameron spoke thousands of Britons were preparing to take to the streets in Luton, thirty miles north of London. The occasion was the latest in a series of marches organized by a two-year-old group called the English Defence League. The E.D.L. bills itself as "a human rights organization that exists to protect the inalienable rights of all people to protest against radical Islam's encroachment into the lives of non-Muslims." E.D.L. members fancy themselves modern-day knights, Jacks defending Queen and country against those Mohammeds who would turn it into a green and pleasant caliphate. (Last year, Anjem Choudary, one of Britain's more provocative Islamist leaders, said that he would strive to implement Sharia law "from Land's End to John o' Groats.")
To its critics, the E.D.L. is, at best, a nuisance and, at worst, a scourge—a travelling team of troublemakers who descend upon a town on a Saturday afternoon; take it over for a few hours; and scram, leaving behind bruised bodies, shattered glass, and bad feelings. Parading through Leicester in October, E.D.L. members kicked in the door of a halal restaurant and threw smoke bombs at policemen. The papers carried a photograph of a shaven-headed teen-ager in a black hoodie, blood streaming down his face. The E.D.L. is "a dangerous cocktail of football hooligans, far-right activists, and pub racists," the Labour M.P. Jon Cruddas said; they posed "the biggest danger to community cohesion in Britain today." The Home Office declared, of the E.D.L., "The Government condemns extremism in all its forms, and those who seek to spread hatred. There is no place for violence, intimidation, and criminal damage, irrespective of how strongly people hold views."
The E.D.L.'s twenty-four demonstrations, in cities across the country, have resulted in hundreds of arrests. According to the police, the Luton march cost taxpayers about three million dollars. Cruddas's characterization of the group's membership is accurate but not exhaustive; along with some thugs, the E.D.L. attracts an array of not particularly violent people who either lack access to other outlets of political expression or have nothing more exciting to do with their weekends. Unlike Britain's far-right movements of years past, such as the British National Party, the E.D.L. is an explicitly non-racist organization. It welcomes, and even solicits, the participation of blacks, Jews, Sikhs, and gays—few of whom have jumped at the chance to hang around people wearing balaclavas and yelling things like "Allah is a Paedo."
On the day of the Luton demonstration, the foot soldiers of the E.D.L. were massing in the city's pubs, downing pints and shouting chants, in anticipation of their biggest march yet—"Back Where It All Began," the flyers read. They were an army of rowdies in white sneakers and black jackets. Merchants had boarded up shop windows. According to the Luton Today, citizens were "living in fear." Tommy Robinson, the E.D.L.'s leader (his real name is Stephen Lennon), stood in the smoky basement of a pub called Charlie Browns. He is twenty-eight, and had dressed for the occasion in a toggle coat, pressed jeans, and a bulletproof vest. He was drinking his usual, a vodka lemonade.
"I just really want to get today out of the way," Robinson said. "My missus has been crying for three weeks."
Someone mentioned the comments that Cameron had made in Germany that morning.
"Look at his timing," Robinson said. "We are the voice of the English people. Whether the politicians like it or not, we are."
That day, the Labour M.P. Sadiq Khan accused Cameron of "writing propaganda for the E.D.L." Later, the E.D.L.'s leaders bragged on Facebook that they had basically secured an endorsement: "An order has just come in for a hoodie in the name of David Cameron wanting Downing Street Division on the back." William Hague, Cameron's Foreign Secretary, was forced to defend his boss's timing: why, he argued, should Cameron have had to reschedule a speech just because "some people have chosen to march down a street"? Still, the impression remained that Cameron had either pandered to the E.D.L.—whom the year before he had deemed "terrible people"—or had been oblivious of the fact that the group had become a significant enough force in British political life that people would think that he had. Gavin Shuker, a Labour M.P. from Luton, told me that the Prime Minister's words had exacerbated what had, in his constituency, been extremely difficult days. "My gut feeling is that it was a cock-up, not a conspiracy," Shuker said. "Having said that, it's a pretty major cock-up."
At the pub, the din grew to a roar, and Robinson offered some parting words: "David Cameron's a knob. Tell him I said that."
The Saxons invaded Bedfordshire in the sixth century, establishing farmsteads on sloping hills that line the River Lea. By the time William the Conqueror commissioned the Domesday Book, in 1085, the settlement had become known as Lintone or Loitone, a mill town of seven hundred inhabitants and their pigs and sheep. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Luton thrived as a center of the straw-hat-making trade. In the twentieth, Vauxhall Motors became the town's main employer. During the Second World War, the workers of Luton produced ball bearings and Churchill tanks.
During the nineteen-seventies, Luton's fortunes foundered. Vauxhall closed its car plant in 2002, after years of declining revenues. Now Luton ranks sixty-ninth out of three hundred and twenty-six English districts on the government's Index of Multiple Deprivation. In 2004, the Idler named Luton the United Kingdom's No. 1 "crap town." Sarfraz Manzoor, the author of "Greetings from Bury Park," a memoir of growing up in Luton in the eighties, described it as a sort of English New Jersey. He said, "You could see the shining city—you knew you could be in the heart of metropolitan, sophisticated, glamorous life on a thirty-five-minute train ride, but you never went there."
Luton is a bellwether for the British polity. Until last year, when Gavin Shuker was elected, his seat had been won by the party that went on to form the government in every election since 1951. Luton is home to a large proportion of Muslims—14.6 per cent of its population, versus the nation's 2.8, according to the 2001 census—and, so, serves as a laboratory for the multicultural experiment. The results have not been heartening. The cleric Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, who praised the September 11th terrorists as the "Magnificent Nineteen," preached in Luton. He was barred from Britain in 2005, but exponents of Al Muhajiroun—a group that he ran with Anjem Choudary which was banned in 2004—have continued to proselytize in Luton. The 2005 London transport bombers embarked from Luton's train station; Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, the Stockholm suicide bomber, received a degree in physical therapy from a university in Luton.
Community leaders argue that these events are more significant anecdotally than statistically. Still, they have contributed to Luton's reputation as a "hotbed of extremism." A report leaked in 2008 from the intelligence branch of the Ministry of Defence concluded that the main concentrations of extremists were in London and Birmingham, "with significant extremist networks in the South East, notably Luton."
The E.D.L. traces its origins to March 10, 2009, when Luton hosted a homecoming parade for the soldiers of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Anglian Regiment, who were returning from a second tour of duty in Iraq. They had lost two men. It was a dry, gray day. Lutonians waved Union Jacks while a brass band played. As the Sunday Times later recounted, the soldiers made their way to St. George's Square, the heart of the town. On the way, they encountered a group of about a dozen Muslim men, who were holding placards: "BUTCHERS OF BASRA" ; "ANGLIAN SOLDIERS GO TO HELL." Later, the men started shouting that the British soldiers were baby-killers. (Five of them have since been convicted of using threatening and abusive language.) The crowd shouted back: "Eng-er-land!" "We pay your benefits!" A woman shrieked, "They're all in their nightdresses. Go 'ome and get dressed!" Someone climbed onto the roof of Luton's shopping mall, known as the Arndale center, and dumped bacon on the protesters' heads.
After the fracas, local soccer fans— "football casuals"—banded together to make their displeasure known. The men, some of whom have been banned from matches because of hooliganism, were primed for a fight. "The only blokes who had the nerve to take to the streets were proper young lads who could go to the football and shout, who had a bit of courage about them," Robinson said. Calling themselves United People of Luton, they began recruiting in local pubs. On the Internet, they joined up with similar groups across the country. Within a few months, the various confederations had formed the English Defence League. "We have nothing against Muslims, only those who preach hatred," Robinson told reporters. "They are traitors who should be hanged, and we'll keep taking to the streets until the Government kicks them out."
The E.D.L. has attracted more than ninety thousand fans on Facebook, but it does not keep formal rolls. The absence of membership requirements enables the group to take credit for having lots of adherents while conveniently disowning them when they do things, such as burning the Koran, that the group purports to disdain. Officially, the E.D.L. opposes only extremists, but its message boards abound with generalized abuse toward Muslims. Robinson claims that the group relies on donations and the proceeds from hat and T-shirt sales, and his style of leadership is mostly improvisational. "You shoulda chinned him!" I heard his top lieutenant say to a regional organizer, who had called in to complain about a member who was getting out of hand.
Robinson has not read much of the Koran. He says that he has not read any books at all. But he is a skilled rhetorician. It is easy to see how, under different circumstances, he might have become a lawyer. He has made several visits to the United Arab Emirates, initially to support England in a soccer tournament. "The women with burkas were so nice, in Dubai, that I didn't care if they were wearing them," he told me. But what counts as hospitality in a far-away land constitutes, on native soil, a siege. Although Robinson boasts of the diversity of the E.D.L.'s membership—"Black, Brown, and White Unite"—the group has had only one Muslim member. In the time that I spent with Robinson and his pals, I heard a grab bag of grievances: Muslims want to institute Sharia law in Britain, Muslims marry their cousins, Muslims beat their wives, Muslims are on steroids, Muslims drive Porsches, Christ has been taken out of Christmas, armed robbers are dressing in burkas, mosques are being built higher than castles. "Luton Mall is planning to open a multi faith (mosque) in the Mall centre next to Robbys bakery," an E.D.L. recruiting pamphlet read. "A mosque in the Arndale spells the end of the Arndale Centre as we know it." The mosque, which was actually an interfaith prayer room, has not opened. If the E.D.L. had its way, no new mosques would be built in Britain.
This winter, I attended a meeting of the E.D.L.'s leadership at a hotel near Birmingham. One of the group's obsessions has been sexual abuse of British girls by men of Asian origin. (The term "Asian," in Britain, typically refers to South Asia, rather than to East Asia.) In a highly publicized case in November, two British Pakistani men were jailed for leading a gang that raped and abused teen-age girls. The conviction, in Derby, followed similar prosecutions in Rotherham, Preston, Blackburn, and Rochdale. Jack Straw, the former Home Secretary, told the BBC that there was "a specific problem which involves Pakistani heritage men" targeting "vulnerable young white girls," whom they saw as "easy meat."
Robinson agreed. "It's not Asian pimping gangs, it's Muslim pimping gangs," he declared, standing at the front of a conference room. He went on, "It's like having Germans, specifically, raping our kids and saying it's Europeans."
"Correct, mate!" a man with a football tattoo that read "Wolves Til I Die" yelled. "Bang on, yeah!"
"We'll make leaflets advising everyone, 'Don't let your daughters go near young Muslim lads,' " Robinson said. He concluded the meeting with a plea for calm in Luton.
"We're going to be on the world stage at this demo," he said. "This is the biggest thing for us, if we want to become a mainstream organization. Every single one of us is working class. To be honest, we need Middle England."
Unlike the Tea Party in America, the E.D.L. does not want to overthrow the establishment. Its ideology is paradoxical, advocating revolt as a means of preserving the status quo. On matters of class, the group is almost touchingly complacent. "I'm not Oxford-educated," Robinson told me, when I asked if he planned to run for office. "We're not idiots. We know who our masters are. We just want them to do their job."
For now, the E.D.L. revels in the adrenal romance of vigilantism. Its sorties are half statecraft, half pure sport. Several days before the Luton march, I visited Robinson at a tanning salon that he owns in Luton. Kevin Carroll, his cousin, and his second-in-command, burst into the salon, wearing a bulky coat, jeans, one Adidas sneaker, and— on his left foot—a sandal with a sock. "Hand on me heart, I thought, Fuck, my head's gonna come off my face!" he began. The night before, I had got a breathless e-mail from a young E.D.L. member: "SHOOTING IN LUTON!" the subject line read. It continued:
A group of Muslim members coaxed EDL member "Kev" out of his house then shot at him with a shotgun,
Police have put containment in that area of Luton and moved Kev and his family to safety,
Our leader Tommy also has armed guards at his abode.
Carroll took off the sock. He had not been shot, it turned out, but he had injured his toes, having stubbed them against a curbstone. He had been running from his attacker, he said, through the front gardens of Luton. "It was the fucking trippiest moment ever!" he said, showing off a row of purple knuckles.
Later that afternoon, Robinson and a friend of his, Danny Wilson, were cruising around Luton in a pot-scented plumber's van. They listened to a CD—"Songs for Our Cause"—that a musician member of the E.D.L. had recorded. Robinson put on a track called "E, E, E-D-L," and sang, "On the streets of Luton the people stood up to Al Qaeda / And decided to take no more. / And made a stand for this glorious country / Fuck them and Sharia law."
Robinson and Wilson were going to pick up some leaflets, which they planned to distribute at the Arndale center. After a stop at a gas station for a pack of Wotsits cheese puffs and a strawberry milkshake, Wilson eventually pulled up at a residential cul-de-sac. Robinson ran inside a house and returned with a cardboard box of leaflets. Written on its side, graffiti style, was the E.D.L. slogan "No Surrender."
The march was three days away. Robinson decided to make a reconnaissance run into Bury Park, where most of Luton's Muslims live. Wilson made a turn onto Bury Park Road, the neighborhood's main thoroughfare.
They saw a man standing on the sidewalk outside a chicken joint. They thought he was Sayful Islam, a student of the radical cleric Sheikh Omar Bakri. A Luton native, Islam is about the same age as Robinson. In 2003, he quit his job as an accountant in order to become a full-time proselytizer, living off welfare while promoting the violent overthrow of the British government. He was one of the protesters at the 2009 homecoming march. ("Sharia law should be implemented in the U.K., in the U.S., and all over the world," he told me last week.)
"There he is!" Robinson cried out. "There he is!"
Wilson cruised by slowly.
"Leave a gap," Robinson instructed, as if he were a mob don talking to his getaway driver.
The man started punching numbers into his cell phone's keypad. Robinson thought that he was calling for reinforcements.
"Get ready to drive, bro!" Robinson yelled to Wilson. "Just ram it if you have to. They're going to be here in seconds!"
Wilson screeched away, wedging the van between two lanes of traffic.
"Aw, thank fuck for that, mate," Robinson said. He was laughing nervously, elated and scared. (Islam was actually in London that day. He told me, "They probably cannot tell one bearded man from another.")
I was wondering how the feud, a Jets vs. Sharks turf war played out against the topography of one town, had metastasized into a national drama.
Before leading me from a waiting room to Abdul Qadeer Baksh's office, Baksh's assistant informed me that his boss didn't shake hands with women. (I hadn't offered.) Baksh is the chairman of the Luton Islamic Center. He is a spokesman for a contingent of Muslims in Luton who feel that Islamist extremists' relish for riling the E.D.L.—and vice versa—makes their lives in Luton significantly more difficult. (The Islamic Center was firebombed several weeks after the homecoming scuffle.) In 2009, Baksh led a campaign to drive former Al Muhajiroun activists out of Bury Park. But his position as one of Luton's leading "moderate Muslims"—the phrase is crude, but it persists—was complicated by the revelation, in December, that Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, the Stockholm suicide bomber, had worshipped at his mosque several years earlier. Baksh told reporters that he had challenged Abdaly's views on jihad, and that Abdaly had quit the mosque in a huff.
Baksh was sitting on a metal chair, wearing a kameez with trousers, a skullcap, and hiking boots. He said that generally Luton was a harmonious place to live, but that, since September 11, 2001, there had been a palpable rise in anti-Muslim harassment—children had been teased, hijab-wearing women had been spat at. He was girding himself for the E.D.L.'s march, which would take place in less than seventy-two hours. He hoped there would be no violence. "If the E.D.L. break our ranks, then the Muslim community will indeed fight back," he said. "We will defend our blood, our property, our families, like anyone would."
During the course of our conversation, Baksh called Sharia "the best law for the whole of humanity," but he said that he would "never force it on Muslim or non-Muslim." He added, "We tolerate all different kinds of people, because we are all part of a multicultural society," but he described homosexuality as "an abomination."
I asked Baksh whether his beliefs were irreconcilable with those of Robinson and his supporters, and with the British populace at large. He thought that they could find common ground. "Get us round a table with some chicken and chips, and we'll talk," he said. But resentments surfaced. "When they say we don't integrate, what they mean is we don't assimilate," he said. "We're not required to look like you, be like you—especially when we look at the state of you. You get drunk, you beat up your wives, you sell drugs."
Britain's first mosque was established in 1889, in Liverpool. Muslim migration to Britain on a large scale began after the Second World War, when the loss of able-bodied men, coupled with economic expansion, precipitated a labor shortage. Men from South Asia flocked to industrial cities like Luton. Many of their wives and children followed in the early nineteen-sixties, owing to changes in immigration laws. Between 1961 and 1971, the Muslim population in Britain grew by about three hundred and fifty per cent.
In 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in which he called for the death of Salman Rushdie, the author of "The Satanic Verses." According to Ron Geaves, writing in "Muslim Britain: Communities Under Pressure," the Rushdie affair was a watershed moment for British Muslims, many of whom found the book offensive. It spurred "political mobilisation and the provision of a national voice of protest with remarkable speed." The next year, the Conservative politician Norman (now Lord) Tebbit proposed a "cricket test" to measure the loyalties of immigrants. "A large proportion of Britain's Asian population fail to pass the cricket test," he said. "Which side do they cheer for?"
Relations deteriorated further when, in the spring and summer months of 2001, thousands of young men of Bangladeshi and Pakistani origin fought with white youths in Britain's northern cities. (More than three hundred police officers were injured in a riot in Bradford.) After 2001, according to a study entitled "Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime," the "violent extremist nationalist milieu"—encompassing such groups as the B.N.P. and, lately, the E.D.L.—began to shift the focus of its opprobrium from race to religion. Now the onus was cultural rather than biological; the same person might still be bashed, but because he was a Muslim, rather than because he was brown-skinned. (The estimated hundred thousand Britons who have converted to Islam are not exempt from the E.D.L.'s invective.)
The recession and the expenses scandal of 2009, in which M.P.s charged British taxpayers for such personal items as the cleaning of a moat, have created a fertile environment for groups like the E.D.L. Roger Eatwell and Matthew J. Goodwin write, in "The New Extremism in 21st Century Britain," that extremism tends to thrive when government is unresponsive and "civil society fails as a prophylactic." In January, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, a Muslim who serves as the co-chairman of the Conservative Party and is a Minister in Cameron's cabinet, said, in a speech on Islamophobia, that prejudice against Muslims now passes the "dinner-table test," having become socially acceptable. According to the Telegraph, the speech had not been cleared with Downing Street; Cameron's spokespeople refused to say whether or not the Prime Minister agreed with Warsi.
Of course, even the most discriminating racists sometimes get confused. On the day of the Luton military parade, an eighteen-year-old named Kier McElroy, incensed by the Muslim protesters' insults to the Armed Forces, ran up behind an older Asian man and launched a flying karate kick to his back. The man was Lakhbir Singh, Luton's mayor. Singh is a Sikh.
It is no accident that the E.D.L.'s name is the English, rather than the British, Defence League. "England" can connote a homogeneous land of tea and cakes, the parson and the village green, in a way that "Britain" does not. This spring, the producer of a popular television show called "Midsomer Murders" was suspended after reflecting on the heartwarming pallor of his cast. "We just don't have ethnic minorities involved. Because it wouldn't be the English village with them," he said. "We're the last bastion of Englishness, and I want to keep it that way."
The E.D.L. has not achieved the electoral stature of groups like Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom, in the Netherlands, or France's National Front, but Tommy Robinson hopes to export its brand of nationalist vigilantism to the rest of Europe, and beyond. Recently, the group has established embryonic divisions in Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, and the United States. Robinson plans to travel to New York to commemorate the tenth anniversary of September 11th. (He says that the last time he tried to enter the United States he was turned away at immigration.) In May, he appeared at a rally in Lyon that was organized by the French far-right group Bloc Identitaire, which is known for handing out food that contains pork—"identity soups"—to homeless people. The rally, a protest against halal meat, was billed as La Marche des Cochons. With a guy in a pink polo shirt translating, Robinson told the crowd, "This is not a Western front, but this is a battle against radical Islam. . . . You are the resistance!"
In 2004, Robinson spent several months in jail for assaulting an off-duty police officer who intervened in a domestic dispute between him and his fiancée. He is being investigated for money laundering; he has several public-order and assault charges pending. In May, he was found guilty of a public-order offense for an incident in which he hurdled a metal blockade and ripped a flag out of the hands of a member of a Muslim group that had earlier burned poppies, Britain's symbol of military remembrance. (He is appealing.)
Some of the E.D.L.'s troublemaking has been petty, but a 2010 assault on Big John's fast-food restaurant, in Leicester, was genuinely terrifying. (You can see it on YouTube, along with Robinson's strike on the poppy burners.) As women and children take cover in a storeroom amid vats of ketchup, a marauding band of E.D.L. members burst through the door and stream into the dining room, beating their chests. I asked Robinson how he could defend such an attack. "It was bad, wasn't it?" he said. "That Leicester day was mental. I felt sick when I watched it. It wasn't fucking clever at all." Then he launched into a moral-equivalency argument. "But, at the same time, it's happening all over the country every day to us."
The lead-up to the Luton march was frenzied. Local officials tried to get the E.D.L. banned from coming to town. "All in all, the possibility for serious disorder in Luton on the 5th February is real," the Borough Council wrote, in a letter to Theresa May, the Home Secretary. When May declined to issue a banning order, community activists railed at the council for ceding St. George's Square to the E.D.L. as part of its processional route. At an informational meeting, a woman screamed from the back row, "Why are you bending over backward to keep a group of Fascist thugs happy?"
Meanwhile, the E.D.L. and its rivals—among them the Muslim Defence League and United Against Fascism—were trading threats, insults, and reprisals. Opponents had a song of their own, by an East London rapper named Naga. It was called "E.D.L., Burn in Hell":
As a family we can stay strong
The E.D.L. we can take on
Cuss my race, my culture
I'll leave you chavs, head gone.
As the leader of the council suggested that law-abiding citizens might want to stay home on February 5th, E.D.L. members offered pump-ups to one another:
What else are you gonna do on a Saturday? Sit in your fucking armchair wanking off to Dancing on Ice? . . . Then go and spunk your wages on kebabs, fruit machines and brasses? Fuck that for a laugh! I know what I would rather do. Luton away, love it!
The Saturday before the march, the Luton Borough Council had urged citizens to "turn the town purple" by attending an event called Luton in Harmony, a sort of field day for the community that would counteract the corrosive effects of the looming showdown. "It was freezing cold and people came out and we had a carnival and a little parade, and everyone shared cakes," Sarah Allen, the Inclusion and Cohesion Manager of the Luton Borough Council, told me. She talked about how there had been face-painting, and salsa dancers, and how stilt walkers had entertained the kids. While acknowledging that the municipality has had its problems, she said, "As far as I'm concerned, Luton is a town that offers a whole range of advantages." She sounded a little exasperated. "Life in Luton is absolutely fine!"
The morning of the march arrived: cold, misting, miserable. By seven-thirty, fifty or so members of the London division of the E.D.L. had gathered at a pub in the concourse of the Liverpool Street railway station. For breakfast, there was beer, tomatoes, bacon, and beans on toast. One member was selling collectible pins—they said things like "Don't Unpack, You're Going Back," and "Enoch Was Right."
An hour later, the members boarded three buses. I was assigned to the first bus, which one of the younger members told me was "the geezer bus"—its passengers included some visiting Germans, who sat quietly in the front, and a few other dignitaries. We pulled out from Liverpool Street. My seatmate was a fortyish man who gave his name only as Merriott Chard, after the British soldier who led the defense of Rorke's Drift, in the Anglo-Zulu War. Chard, a cabinetmaker, had come with his housemate, who sat in the row behind us, reading aloud obscure passages of the Koran that he had highlighted in yellow. Chard, wearing fatigues and a maroon beret, said that he had once been a member of the Army, and of the B.N.P. "I found it, basically, mundane," he said, of the latter. "They were just plagiarizing things said fifty years ago. The B.N.P. was just dictation, but with the E.D.L. there's a sense of spiritual entity. It's void of all politics and politicians. We only represent ourselves."
Figuring that it was a special occasion, Chard had bought two bottles of Taittinger.
"We're not here for a flower-arranging competition!" someone yelled, as a cork whizzed perilously close to my eye.
"Cheers, boys," Chard said, pouring the warm champagne into red plastic cups.
As we approached the outskirts of Luton, the mood tensed. We passed the old Vauxhall recreation club, which had been commandeered as a police staging ground. Hundreds of riot police in fluorescent vests filed out of vans, clutching shields and nightsticks. It looked like a scene from "Star Wars." Someone on the bus bellowed an "E," and the passengers began chanting "E-E-E-D-L" in menacing staccato barks.
We parked near the Luton train station and got off the bus. The town was deserted. The only sounds were a helicopter buzzing above and a pack of dogs howling from the back of a paddy wagon.
The police escorted the E.D.L. members to Midland Road, the beginning of the parade route. For several hours, the E.D.L. rank and file wandered back and forth between "muster pubs." I saw one man wearing a mask of a pig's head, and another dressed as a skeleton. In Charlie Browns, the atmosphere was wired. A sort of mosh pit erupted. "Let's go fucking mental, la la la!" boys yelled—a chant from the football terraces.
The police had cordoned off the top of Midland Road. A gusty wind sent trash boomeranging through the street, giving the place an apocalyptic air. The road was bounded by buildings on one side and, on the other, by a brick wall, so that the street turned into a sort of chute, plugged at one end and backing up, toward the west, with increasingly restless men (and a few women). By noon, it was impossible to take a step.
At twelve-thirty, the crowd broke loose, with a primal surge. Yelling "Whose streets? Our streets!" and waving whipping flags, they poured down Midland Road and into St. George's Square. There Robinson delivered a speech under a drizzling sky. The sound system was abysmal, and people milled about. Someone punched someone over something, and gave him a bloody nose. Newspapers reported that fifteen hundred people had turned out for the E.D.L., but it seemed closer to three thousand. The day ended with eight arrests, mostly for fighting.
Early last month, I met Robinson in Luton, in a hotel dining room. He was wearing Prada bug-eyed sunglasses, Louis Vuitton flip-flops, a blue polo shirt, and cargo shorts. On his left calf was a large tattoo: three lions and a shield. Since the Luton march, Robinson had led three more demonstrations. He had gate-crashed a meeting that Theresa May, the Home Secretary, held for constituents, urging her to recognize the concerns of the E.D.L. Robinson said that the Luton march had sent a message that the United Kingdom, like the rest of Europe, had had enough of Muslim extremism. He told me, "The Luton homecoming lit the beacon, and now people feel they can stand up and start saying it."
In mid-April, David Cameron gave another major speech on immigration, in which he vowed to confront the "discomfort and disjointedness" that immigrants—"perhaps not able to speak the same language as those living there" and "on occasions not really wanting or even willing to integrate"—had created in British neighborhoods. The speech provoked an embarrassing rift with Liberal Democrat members of his cabinet; according to his Business Secretary, Vince Cable, Cameron's words had been "very unwise," and "risked inflaming extremism." (Cable quickly retracted his remarks.)
Meanwhile, Maurice Glasman, a prominent adviser to the Labour Party, was urging its leadership to reconnect with the disenfranchised working class, even if that meant accommodating an ideologically repugnant fringe within it. Glasman recently told an interviewer that Labour must acknowledge "responsibility for the generation of far-right populism." Its leaders must "build a party that brokers a common good, that involves those people who support the E.D.L. within our party."
Robinson saw these developments as vindication of the E.D.L.'s mission, and he was full of plans to expand its reach. "I want to get six lads, all with burkas on, to these fancy villages—we'll bring a CD player, blast the call to prayer, and then let's see how they feel," he said. "It don't matter when it's down in rough old Luton, but when it's on the politicians' doorstep, that's when they'll do something about it." He continued, "When you're thinking of the working class now, you think of the English Defence League. When politicians start seeing power, they start seeing votes. There'll be a time when, instead of looking down on us like racist fucks, they'll look at us as a big voting bloc. And that's already happened." The E.D.L.'s next protests—Cambridge, Plymouth, Halifax, Middlesborough—will take place on July 9th. ♦


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WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court made it easier on Wednesday for shareholders to bring class-action lawsuits, breaking a recent line of decisions that had made it harder to sue corporate defendants collectively and perhaps obtain greater recoveries.
By a 6-3 vote, the court allowed shareholders of Amgen Inc to sue the biotechnology company as a group without first having to show that misinformation had materially and fraudulently inflated its stock price.
Shareholders, led by the Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds, had accused the Thousand Oaks, California-based Amgen of misleading them between April 2004 and May 2007 by exaggerating the safety of its anti-anemia drugs, Aranesp and Epogen.
Writing for the majority, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said early stages of class-action litigation are meant simply to ensure that cases are litigated fairly and efficiently.
Amgen "would have us put the cart before the horse," she wrote. "Congress, we count it significant, has addressed the settlement pressures associated with securities-fraud class actions through means other than requiring proof of materiality at the class-certification stage."
David Frederick, a lawyer for Amgen shareholders, said: "We're very pleased by the court's decision. It's a good day for investors."
Amgen spokeswoman Ashleigh Koss said the company expects the case to return to U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez in Los Angeles for further proceedings, and "will vigorously defend itself" when it does.
Wednesday's decision upheld a November 2011 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California, that allowed the class action to proceed. Lower courts had been divided on the central issue.
"This is a big win for shareholder plaintiffs," said Jill Fisch, a securities law professor at the University of Pennsylvania. "It doesn't just say you don't have to prove materiality, but the majority slaps down the policy argument that there is too much securities fraud litigation. It says Congress already took care of that."
Some business groups supported Amgen's appeal.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said the 9th Circuit decision encouraged premature class certifications that could pressure corporate defendants to settle even "frivolous" cases.
Several former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission commissioners agreed, saying that securities fraud cases almost always are settled after classes are certified, and that an Amgen loss would "compel settlement of even questionable claims."
Shareholders had sought class certification against the "fraud on the market" theory endorsed by the Supreme Court in a 1988 case, Basic Inc v. Levinson.
This assumes that the price of a stock in an efficient market reflects all public information, and that a purchaser is presumed to have relied on the verity of that information.
Fisch said securities fraud cases could be costly to litigate virtually at the outset because of the need to show a strong inference of fraudulent intent and losses.
"This opinion doesn't change that, but also doesn't require an extra complication - effectively a mini-trial - on materiality," she said.
The decision included an unusual voting lineup.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, along with the more liberal justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, signed on to Ginsburg's opinion.
Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas dissented. Scalia accused the majority of making it too easy to pursue class actions, expanding the consequences of Basic "from the arguably regrettable to the unquestionably disastrous."
Shares of Amgen rose $1.39, or 1.6 percent, to $90.86 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq.
Wednesday's decision also breaks a recent trend by the court to narrow class-action litigation.
The April 2011 decision in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion upheld contracts that required customers to arbitrate disputes individually, and waived their right to pursue class actions.
Two months later, the court decertified a class action of as many as 1.5 million Wal-Mart Stores Inc female workers who accused the world's largest retailer of bias in pay and promotions, saying they raised too many different claims.
But Wednesday's decision "suggests that the court is not going to simply be a lackey of well-capitalized defendants, and make it more difficult than as explicitly required by law for shareholders to recover for economic loss," said Heidi Li Feldman, a professor at Georgetown Law School.
"The class action," she said, "is a perfect tool to prevent someone whose securities trade in a large, impersonal market from committing fraud on everyone else."
On March 25, the Supreme Court will take up class actions again when it hears arguments on whether doctors may arbitrate a dispute over payments with Oxford Health Plans LLC collectively, though the governing agreement did not mention class actions.
Meanwhile, on the same day the Amgen case was argued, the court heard arguments involving cable TV company Comcast Corp over what evidence must be presented before companies can be sued in class actions. A decision has not been issued.
The case is Amgen Inc et al v. Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 11-1085.
Reporting by Lawrence Hurley and David Ingram in Washington; and Jonathan Stempel, Bill Berkrot and Ransdell Pierson in New York; Editing by Howard Goller, Gerald E. McCormick, Andrew Hay and Bernadette Baum

subset: commoncrawl


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Geology of the Brecon Beacons National Park
The geological foundations of the Brecon Beacons National Park are of global significance. In October 2005, the western half of the National Park was accepted into the prestigious European and Global Geoparks Network as Fforest Fawr Geopark. The Brecon Beacons remains the only British national park to encompass a geopark.Click anywhere on the map to see a larger version
Sandstone hills
Two thirds of the area of the Park is comprised of Old Red Sandstone rocks. They form four distinct blocks of hills which are cut through by major river valleys, such as the Honddu, Grwynne Fawr and Fechan, Usk, Taf Fawr and Fechan, Hepste, Mellte, Nedd Fechan, Tawe, Twrch and Sawdde.
In the east of the Park are the Black Mountains, with a high point of 810m at Waun Fach. South of Brecon are the Central Beacons, which rise to 886m at Pen y Fan, the highest point in southern Britain.
Further west lies the sandstone massif of Fforest Fawr, comprising a series of hills all named as 'fans', with Fan Fawr the highest point at 734m. Water rushing southwards from this area has formed steep river valleys with spectacular waterfalls.
The most westerly block of sandstone is Y Mynydd Du, The Black Mountain, which culminates in the summit of Fan Brycheiniog at 802m and contains the two enchanting glacial lakes of Llyn y Fan Fach and Llyn y Fan Fawr.
Limestone edges, pavements and caves
Along the southern edge of the National Park the geology alters, and outcrops of limestone and millstone grit predominate. The limestone scenery contains many edges and screes and in some areas the land is pockmarked with hollows known as shakeholes.
When ice carved the landscape more than 10,000 years ago it exposed and ground smooth areas of limestone. The limestone has now been partly dissolved by rainwater creating a pattern of blocks and fissures. These fissures are called grykes and support communities of plants forming the habitat known as limestone pavement. It is one of the most scarce habitats in Wales.
There is only a thin band of limestone running east-west across the south of the Park. In places this limestone is exposed at the surface, particularly on higher ground. This forms a network of small, scattered pavements totalling only about 20 hectares. Many of these pavements have been damaged by the removal of the stone blocks known as clints. However, others have not been so disturbed or at least were damaged long ago.
The thin fissures provide shelter and protection for plants like limestone fern and herb robert. The flowers on the pavements and surrounding grasslands attract a number of flying insects while the rocks themselves catch the sun, attracting common lizards and slow-worms.
Where pavements have been left ungrazed, woodland has developed over them. These wooded pavements are also important for small mammals, while the shade and bare rock encourage the growth of lichens and mosses.
Beneath the surface there are magnificent caves and passages, often adorned with stalagmites and stalactites.
The millstone grit and Coal Measures rocks produce a tough, rather sombre landscape which is often waterlogged. It is these rocks which are which is largely responsible for the formation of the National Park's most famous waterfalls.


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We are committed to comply with environmental laws and regulatory standards on a worldwide basis. We have the highest expectations for our Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) performance. This is why we're committed to listening and responding to the needs of our customers - and to working within our industry to raise HSE standards. The care that we put into the safety of our products and practices directly benefits our customers, their employees and the communities in which they operate. As a company, we are committed to comply with environmental laws and regulatory standards on a worldwide basis. We will continue to drive down the environmental and health impact of our operations by reducing waste, emissions and discharges and by using energy efficiently. We will produce quality products that can be used safely by our customers. Our stated goals are:
- no accidents
- no harm to people
- no damage to the environment
For more information on health and safety data sheets for particular products, please visit your local Castrol website or contact your local Castrol office.
Everyone who works for us, anywhere, is responsible for getting HSE right. Good HSE performance and the health, safety and security of everyone who works for us are critical to the success of our business.
In all our activities and operations, we will:
- Comply fully with all legal requirements and meet or exceed these expectations wherever we operate in the world
- Provide a secure working environment by protecting ourselves, our assets, and our operations against risk of injury, loss or damage from criminal or hostile acts
- Make sure that all our employees, contractors and others are well informed, well trained, engaged and committed to the HSE improvement process. We recognise that safe operations depend not only on technically sound plant and equipment but also on competent people and an active HSE culture, and that no activity is so important that it cannot be done safely
- Regularly provide assurance that the processes in place are working effectively. While all Castrol employees and contractors are responsible for HSE performance, line management is accountable for understanding and managing HSE risks
- Fully participate in hazard identification and risk assessments, assurance audits, and reporting of HSE results
- Maintain public confidence in the integrity of our operations. We will openlyreport our performance and consult with people outside the company to improve our understanding of external and internal HSE issues associated with our operations
- Expect that all parties working on our behalf recognise that they can impact our operations and reputation, and must operate to our standards. We will assure ourselves that our contractors' and others' management systems fully support our commitment to HSE Performance


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Police arrested several people Saturday in San Francisco for protesting the city's nudity ban.
Advocates rallied and held what they called a "Body Freedom" parade in the Castro District. San Francisco's so-called nudity ban has been in effect for one year as of Saturday and nude activists staged the rally to mark the anniversary.
Protest leader Gypsy Taub said since the ban has been in effect, she was arrested for standing naked in front of City Hall on the first day of the ban. She said there has been growing acceptance of the body freedom movement.
"We're here to protest the nudity ban," she said. "This is draconian legislation. Somehow it's a crime to appear in your most-natural state."
U.S. & World
There are exceptions under the nudity ban for children under 5 and for certain events, such as the Folsom Street Fair and Bay to Breakers.


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Refinery realizes significant maintenance cost savings with SKF pump solutions
The challenge
Hydrocarbon processing pumps battle hot, corrosive conditions that eventually defeat bearings and cause premature failure. The resulting downtime costs the industry hundreds of millions of euros a year in maintenance and lost productivity. A major refinery was looking to overcome these harsh conditions and increase the Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) of their pumps.
The SKF solution
Taking a "systems approach", SKF provided a combination of SKF Explorer bearings, laser shaft alignment, and improved mounting and lubrication methods. The "system" solution was designed to overcome the heat, contaminants, inadequate lubrication, and shaft misalignment that contribute to bearing failure and pump downtime.
The result
Partnering with SKF, the refinery was able to increase the MTBF among a large percentage of their pumps from 18 months to 54 months, over a period of 10 years. The positive financial impact of this for the refinery was significant, generating a 497% ROI over 54 months.


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An exhibition of Lester Raymer's religious art will be on display at the Red Barn Studio Museum, 212 S. Main St. in Lindsborg, from March 5 through April 7. Included in the exhibition are works from the Raymer Society's permanent collection, the Sandzen Gallery, Rick Nelson, Tim Johnson, and Dorothy Reddick. The exhibition depicts the life of Christ from the entry into Jerusalem through the Ascension.
Artist Lester Raymer (1907-1991) produced a large body of work that illustrates scenes from the life and death of Christ. The works are created in many of the mediums in which Raymer was skilled. From the late 1950's through the late 1960's Raymer submitted works to a number of exhibitions of religious art show throughout the United States. His work regularly won a top honors or a purchase prize. There are religious works by Raymer in churches across Kansas, in Elgin, Ill., and in Houston, Texas. In the late 1960's, Raymer was quoted in newspaper articles as saying that he was through with exhibitions and religious commissions. He was tired of the deadlines and the pressure.
The Red Barn Studio Museum is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday and by appointment. There is no admission charge but donations are appreciated. For more information call 785-227-2217 or visit our website: lesterraymer.org.


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As I was in the mood for creating a card today I thought I would join in with a new challenge blog fashionablestampingchallenges
The theme this week was easy, "Anything goes". No digis are allowed, so really stamping only.
I used a Bo Bunny Time Piece stamp set and created my background with distress inks Victorian Velvet, Chipped Sapphire and Weather Wood. I also used a Stempel Glede stamp and a Judikins stamp embossed with clear embossing powder for the background. The Lock and Key are part of the time piece set. I grunged them up with distress stickles and various colours of Perfect Pearls.
Mt 11, 11-15
1 hour ago


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Steel wool is in inexpensive and comes in a variety of grades of coarseness and you can use it all over your house, I'll show you how.
If a screw is too loose, stuff some steel wool into the hole and then replace the screw. The steel wool will give the screw threads a new surface to grip and the screw will stay nice and tight.
Push steel wool into gaps around the foundation of your house, and around pipes and vents. Critters like mice and squirrels can't chew through the steel wool so it will keep them outside where they belong.
If you have pets that you bathe at home, or if you tend to get a lot of clogs in your shower, stuff some steel wool into the drain before you use it. The water will drain through but it will catch the hair before it becomes a clog.
Superfine steel wool will scuff scuffs and imperfections from wood and vinyl floors. Just get it a little damp and buff in the direction of the grain.
Along those same lines, steel wool is perfect for removing the gloss layer from paint and stain finishes when you want to prime. So you don't need to sand the entire piece.
Easy ways to put steel wool to use around your home. I'm Mrs. FIXIT and it's just that simple!


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Article — From the April 2007 issue
The mirror of life
How Shakespeare conquered the world
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So What?
(outline) Magical Mystery Tour" 2000-2001 was extremely interesting, but it was only in Asia and Europe, so I started trip again in summer of 2007 for rounding the whole world, but then I realized only one short life is not enough to visit to all countries,,,I'M NOT ONLY INTENDING TO TELL YOU ONLY MY LATEST NEWS, BUT MORE MAKE MY COMPLETE JOURNAL SINCE I LEFT TOKYO , THE JOURNAL WITH " to be continued " HASN'T BEEN COMPLETED YET,,
,,so that if YOU had met with me before and had photos of you or me,PLEASE send me it by e-mail to make this blog better(even if you hadn't met)
Nov 21, 2010
Today is Sunday,but everyday is Sunday for me.
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text: Viewin the Hairstyles section. Trendy hairstyles for boys and girls trendy hairstyles and haircuts a large collection of popular hairstyles On our site you will find a large number of the best collections of photos in excellent quality. You can easily find you interesting and desired pictures and can download them for free.


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POLYTOUR PRO ranked No.1 on Stringforum
- Date
- 29 October 2012
YONEX's POLYTOUR PRO 125 tennis strings are currently ranked as No.1 on both the Stringforum/Saitenforum as of October 28th.
Stringforum/Saitenforum is a famous website, especially for stringers in Germany, which introduces various tennis strings from all brands. Stringforum is the English version for worldwide use and Saitenforum is in German, serving Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The two websites have been running since 1998, and up to now 12,887 testers have contributed their impressions to the site.
Based on monthly ranking as of October 28th, the POLYTOUR PRO 125 is ranked as No.1 with 1,376 points on Stringforum and 994 in Saitenforum. Especially, 'Control' and 'Feel' received high ratings from testers.
The quality of the POLYTOUR PRO 125 has also been proved by our tour players like Maria Kirilenko, who has just won a WTA Championships Doubles title. She has been using the POPLYTOUR PRO 125 for two years and commented, "I just love it and I will continue to play with this one. I don't wanna change it to anything else because I feel so good."


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Star on rise in 1880s, Ferguson's life cut short
Charlie Ferguson, a 6-foot, 170-pounder, was a gifted athlete with the Phillies during the early years of the franchise.
As a 21-year-old, he won his Major League debut on May 1, 1884, beating the Detroit Wolverines, 13-2. Not only was it a complete game, but he added a triple and two singles.
Many thought Ferguson would have gone down as one of the game's greatest players if his life hadn't ended April 29, 1888, from typhoid fever. Death came in Philadelphia less than two weeks after he turned 25.
His four-year pitching numbers were impressive: 21-25, 26-20, 30-9 and 22-10. In 183 games, he was 99-64 with a 2.67 ERA. In 1,514 2/3 innings, he allowed 1,402 hits and 290 walks, while striking out 728.
Ferguson's 99 wins rank seventh on the Phillies' all-time list.
When he wasn't pitching, he was used in the outfield, second base and third base. He was a .288 career hitter, driving in 157 runs in 257 games.
Ferguson was signed by the Phils for $1,500 off the sandlots of his hometown of Charlottesville, Va. He never played in the Minor Leagues.
He tossed a no-hitter on Aug. 29, 1885, 1-0, over Providence, the first in Phillies history.
During a three-city road trip to Chicago in 1886, Ferguson became ill and asked manager Harry Wright if he could return to his Virginia home for proper treatment. Wright refused, but Ferguson went anyway, taking a train. After spending 10 days in bed and missing the entire trip, he rejoined the team in Philadelphia with doctor's note in hand. While it isn't known how many starts he missed, Ferguson finished 30-9 with a 1.98 ERA that season. His 30 wins ranked sixth in the NL. The ERA was the lowest.
Ferguson won 12 in a row that season, a mark that stood in the Phils' record book until Steve Carlton's 15-game winning streak in 1972.
In 1887, Ferguson's final season, the Phillies came in second, their highest finish, and set a club attendance record of 253,671. They reached second by ending the season on a 16-game winning streak (plus one tie), including 11 on the road. By comparison, the club's modern winning streak is 13 consecutive games (1977, 1991).
Ferguson played in all 17 games, going 7-0 and hitting .361. Playing as the everyday second baseman when he didn't pitch, Ferguson led the club with 85 RBIs.
He never touched a baseball again.


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leading. Univolt® trunking systems are an ideal solution for numerous modern commercial applications and provide perfect protection for the latest technology in data and energy transfer.
solid. The special clip-on system of the lid as well as the design of the cross section give the trunkings extraordinary stability. With a complete separation of the covering parts from the main trunking bodies it becomes very easy to exchange damaged sections.
clear. The plug-in system of maxi trunking accessories is not only functional, but optically appealing, giving the whole installation a clear and smoothe shape.


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When it comes to these gun shaped egg molds, other acceptable headlines include:
•"Say hello to my little chicken!"
•A great source of Omega-357 and Anti-Uzidents.
•Gun shaped eggs promote fowl play.
•This is your brain. This is your brain shaped like an uzi.
•Shot in the yolk, and you're to blame. you give breakfast a bad name.
•Nothing says "I love you honey" like a gun in the mouth.
•Make one false move and i'll scramble your eggs.
•That's what I call "insani-tasty."
Got something better? I hope so —because these are horrible. So bring it on. [Product Page via Spluch via Laughing Squid]


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20th Sunday after PentecostSpeaker: Fr. Curatolo
- Details
- Series: 2006 Sermons
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Second series of talks on Modernism entitled "The Wake of Vatican II"
New Articles from old Roman Catholic Magazines added
Bishop Santay's talks on Modernism
Live Mass broadcast on Sundays at 5PM from Our Lady of Peace Chapel in Boynton Beach, Fl


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Cartoon Cool: How to Draw New Retro-style Characters
Watson-Guptill, 2005 - Art - 111 pages
Love that Sponge Bob? Always lurking in Dexter's lab? Wishing for Fairly Odd Parents? Millions of fans watch these shows avidly, often solely for their zingy, stylized look and hip visual jokes. Now there's a drawing book just right for everyone who admires that quirky style: Cartoon Cool. Top-selling author Christopher Hart shows beginning cartoonists, retro fans, and all other hipsters how to get that almost-1950s look in their drawings. His trademark step-by-step drawings and crystal-clear text are sure to make Saturday mornings more creative!
What people are saying - Write a review
LibraryThing ReviewUser Review - xsherix - LibraryThing
This is a book about how to draw the retro cartoons. I was a bit disappointed because I thought it would include more than it did. Nonetheless, it is a good buy and will teach you how to draw a few characters. Read full review
NiceUser Review - algedonic - Overstock.com
Very good resource on the 50s look and how to achieve it in cartoon drawing.Looking forward to completing all the exercises and seeing what I end up with the book makes each drawing look easy by breaking it down to its component steps. Read full review
Other editions - View all
Cartoon Cool: How to Draw the New Retro Characters of Today's Cartoons
Christopher Hart
Limited preview - 2014
Common terms and phrases
action comics action poses adult animated TV shows athlete birds bottom Bright eyes calf muscles caricature CARTOON CAT cartoon characters cartoon dog character goes character look character needs character type character's cheeks chin collarbone comic book comic strips cool create curve draw drawn ears everything evil expression eyeballs eyebrows eyelashes eyelids face feet figure flat look floating funny girl next door give goofy hair hairstyle HEAD SHAPES heads tall hips irises joint kids legs male characters manga muscle neck never nose Note Notice outline oval overbite oversized PARROT PENCIL VERSION perky pink flamingo pointy ponytails popular posture punch pupils retro cartoons retro characters retro look round ruffles scenes shoulders Siamese cat side view simple simplify skinny slinky sneakers stretch style technique teen teeth there's thick thigh thin thing tiny toeA traditional cartoons trapezius muscle younger brother younger characters


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Resources for Purchase
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Understanding Ignatian and Jesuit Spirituality
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Jesuit Education and Ignatian Pedagogy
A Desktop Primer
This colorful, double-sided desktop primer has basic facts about Jesuit Education and Ignatian Pedagogy on one side and the Gifts of Our Ignatian Heritage (mission, reflection, discernment, solidarity and kinship, service rooted in justice and love and justice, cura personalis and magis) defined on the other side. Available in packs of 25 for $15.00. View testimonials
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Teaching to the Mission - 7th Edition
A Compendium of the Ignatian Mentoring Program
In this updated pedagogical resource, faculty describe how they incorporate the Jesuit mission and identity into their specific courses, from chemistry to marketing to theology. Available for $20.00. View testimonialsBack to Top
A Best Practice Checklist for Jesuit Education and Online Learning
This brochure is a practical guide for best practices in on-line instruction, today's fastest growing educational model. Purchase a pack of 10 for $12.50.
An Ignatian Journal
This handsome, spiral-bound journal is perfect for faculty, staff, and students alike. Its pages include quotes, illustrations, and reflections. Use it for your daily schedule or journaling. Its 5 1/2"x8" size fits well in both briefcases and backpacks. Available for $10.00
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Leading With Moxie
A 31-Day Guide for Career Satisfaction and Success
Leadership Mastery and Moxie in 31 Days
A Guide and Journal for Career Women
Leadership in Balance
Communal Discernment Prayer Card
A Double-Sided Prayer Card
A double-sided prayer card with the purpose of guiding Ignatian communal discernment. One side features the Prayer to Open a Meeting, the other features an 8-step approach to spiritual group decision-making.
Purchase 10 laminated Communal Discernment Prayer Cards for $15.00.
Post-It Notes
Our post-it notes are emblazoned with the message "Go forth and set the world on fire." They are perfect for spreading St. Ignatius' message to all faculty, staff, and students. Pads measure 3"x4" with 25 post-it notes each. Sold in bundles of 100 pads.
The Daily Examen
Prayer Card
The Examen, a prayer of awareness that Ignatius of Loyola taught in his Spiritual Exercises, helps one notice God's presence in our daily lives. This modern adaptation invites reflection upon five points for spiritual thanksgiving, grace, and introspection. The 3.5"x2" card fits easily in wallets and purses for your convenience. It is sold in packs of 10 for $7.50.
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The Daily Examen for Diversity
Prayer Card
This adaptation of the Daily Examen helps one reflect on their experience with diversity with five points for spiritual thanksgiving, grace, and introspection. The coated 3.5"x2" card fits easily in wallets and purses for long-lasting convenience. It is sold in packs of 10 for $7.50.
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Lighting the Way (Student Leaders)
Incorporating Jesuit Values as a Student Leader
This book of reflections on Jesuit values was written by student leaders for student leaders. Articles include: A.M.D.G., Cura Personalis, Discernment, Reflection, Finding God in All Things, and several others. Reflection questions help students think about how these values impact their studies and leadership. It is perfect for training student government, resident hall advisors, orientation leaders, retreat leaders and other students who have leadership roles on campus.
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Lighting The Way (Graduate Students)
Incorporating Jesuit Values as a Graduate Student
This book of reflections on Jesuit values was written by graduate students for graduate students. Articles include: Cura Personalis, Discernment, Finding God in All Things, and several others. Reflection questions at the end of the book provide an opportunity for graduate students to reflect on these values in light of their studies and worldview.
Lighting the Way (Student Athletes)
Incorporating Jesuit Values as a Student Athlete
This excellent book of reflections on Jesuit values was written by student athletes for student athletes. Articles include: Magis, Cura Personalis, Solidarity, Service, and several others. The book concludes with reflection questions to help student athletes reflect on their development of these values. Available for $3.50.
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The Martyrs of the University
A Virtual Pilgrim Walk
Written by George Traub, SJ, this 28-page inspirational primer on the Martyrs of the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) provides a brief account of the story of the eight martyrs with short bios of each. It includes full-page original artwork by professional sculptor Karen Heyl and sketches of the martyrs by Stephen Kroeger. Purchase for $3.75.
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Gifts of Our Ignatian Heritage
22"x28" Poster
This vibrant wall poster describes, both pictorially and with brief text, "Five Gifts of Our Ignatian Heritage." The poster is the standard size of 22"x28" and is fitting for high school and university offices and student rooms. Available for $5.00.Back to Top
The Spirit of a University
Prayers for an Academic Year
This collection of prayers and invocations offered at Xavier University reflect the collective spirit, mission and identity of a Jesuit university. Available for $5.00.Back to Top


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Approx. 1 1/8" x 3 1/2". Copper shapes are 18 gauge, flat pieces of solid copper. Most commonly used for Copper enameling, which is a process of firing/melting powdered glass onto the copper, to give it a beautiful, colorful finish. These shapes can be used for anything at all. Copper is a conductive metal, and easy to solder with enough heat. The metal is thick enough so that it is not malleable without tools, and it's durability makes it great for outdoor sculptures. You can patina or age your copper with "Patina-It" or "Blacken-It", available in our finishing supplies category on your left. Use a buffing wheel to polish your copper to a reflective shine. Use a fine grit sandpaper to give it a dull, frosted look. Copper is a fun material with lots of potential. Kit Kraft also has copper tooling foil, sheet metal, tubes, rods, wire, mesh, and more.
Kit Kraft is a craft and hobby shop in the Los Angeles area and an online store that sells a large variety of arts and craft supplies. Whether it is bulk quantities of glitter to cover a fashion show runway, sculpting material for your art piece or crafting a gift to inspire a friend, our supplies are designed to help bring creative ideas to life.


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According to figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, Time Out had an average weekly circulation of 305,530 in the final four months of 2012, over five and a half times its 54,875-strong circulation in the same period of 2011.
The figures were welcomed by executives at Time Out, who had stated they wanted the magazine to achieve a circulation of 305,000 within three months of going free ahead of the redesigned magazine's launch.
David Pepper, chief commercial officer of Time Out, said: "[305,000] was always the target. We were aiming for around 170,000 on hand distribution and we probably got to where wanted to be by week number two.
"As a brand that people recognise it was quite easy for people to accept and pick up a copy, we weren't having to build a brand. Everyone [from the magazine] has been out distributing copies; we've all been out on the streets in the red hat.
"It never rains on Tuesday mornings. If you're ever planning anything you should do it on Tuesdays. We have been really lucky."
The weekly Time Out became a free magazine on 25 September. The average circulation figure was calculated using issues from October, November and December 2012.
Although Pepper declined to comment on profit targets for the free magazine he said the Time Out business "makes money" and he hopes it will stay in profit.
Pepper said: "Ad revenue has massively exceeded our expectations. We have seen very strong double-digit year-on-year growth. You can read as much as you like in to that but the print market is not having a strong time in general.
"We have high double digit ad revenue growth. We're getting good spend from brands as well as our core music, film and arts clients. We can play a bit of a bigger scale game."
Media Week's sister magazine Campaign revealed Time Out was considering going free in July 2012.
Meanwhile, Shortlist had a circulation of 531,733 in the final six months of 2012, up 1% year on year, while its sister women's magazine Stylist had a circulation of 433,482, up 1% year on year.
UTV's free sports magazine Sport had an average circulation of 302,466 copies a week, down 0.7% year on year.
|Dec end 2012
|Prd/prd % change
|Yr/yr % change
|Time Out


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Subscribe To Epic Trailer Reveals Nature, Adventure And A Talking Slug Updates
I've already subscribed
Having recently revisited A Bug's Life, one of the things that stood out to me was just how well --at least, for its time-- the 1998 Pixar film did in magnifying the nature-focused setting to tell a story from the perspective of bugs. It also made me wonder how a film like that might be done today, more than a decade later. Shrinking down the camera's eye to show nature from a bug-size perspective has the potential for something visually extraordinary given the advancements in animation since A Bug's Life. Looking at the trailer for Twentieth Century Fox's upcoming 3D CG animated film Epic, it seems like this movie may attempt to demonstrate just that.
From Twentieth Century Fox and Blue Sky, Epic is described as "an ongoing battle [that takes place] deep in the forest between the forces of good and the forces of evil. When a teenage girl finds herself magically transported into this secret universe, she must band together with a rag-tag team of fun and whimsical characters in order to save their world…and ours." We learned this Spring that Beyonce Knowles, Colin Farrell, Amanda Seyfried and Josh Hutcherson are among those whose voices will be featured in the film. And today Good Morning America unveiled the new trailer.
Set to Snow Patrol's "The Lightning Strike," the trailer focuses on the visuals and the promise of adventure, leaving just a little extra for a bit of humor in the form of a slug, and the introduction of the teenage girl who's been "magically transported" into this exciting and likely dangerous adventure. While the perspective is a little reminiscent of A Bug's Life, the description and setting seems like it may be closer to Fern Gully. Comparison's aside, it looks like an exciting story and one that may prove to be a visual treat on the big screen.
Epic arrives in theaters May 24, 2013.


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Stocks to watch on Wednesday
Stocks to watch on the Australian stock exchange on Wednesday, July 16:
OZL - OZ MINERALS - down one cent, or 0.23 per cent, to $4.30
Oz Minerals lifted its full year copper production target but warned its gold output may be at the bottom of its forecast range.
SPN - SP AUSNET - down 1.5 cents, or 1.1 per cent, to $1.35
Survivors of Victoria's Black Saturday bushfires will receive nearly $500 million in the largest class action settlement in Australian history.
WES - WESFARMERS - up three cents, or 0.07 per cent, to $43.13
Wesfarmers' supermarket chain Coles is taking on the big four banks by offering customers loans and other personal finance products at the same time as they buy their groceries.
WHC - WHITEHAVEN COAL - up 7.5 cents, or 5.08 per cent, to $1.55
The NSW miner pleased investors with news it had sold 22 per cent more coal in 2013/14 than the previous year and reached record production levels.
Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.


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Performing a HP h1945 Normal Reset - Soft resetA normal reset is sometimes referred to as a "soft reset." A normal reset stops all running applications, but does not erase any
programs or saved data.
CAUTION: Be sure to save any unsaved data before performing a normal reset since normal reset erases all unsaved data.
To perform a normal reset:
1. Locate the Reset button on the side of your iPAQ Pocket PC.
2. Use the stylus to lightly press the Reset button for two seconds. The Pocket PC restarts in approximately five
seconds and displays the Today screen.
Performing a HP h1945 Full Reset - Hard reset
A full reset is sometimes referred to as a "hard reset." Perform a full reset when you want to clear all settings, programs, and data from RAM.
CAUTION: If you perform a full reset, your iPAQ Pocket PC returns
to its default settings and loses all information that is not recorded
in iPAQ File Storage.
To perform a full reset:
1. Press and hold the Power button.
2. Press the Reset button on the side of the iPAQ Pocket PC with the Stylus.
3. Hold both buttons until the Pocket PC resets. A progress graph displays on the lower portion of the screen.
4. Release the Power button and remove the stylus. The Pocket PC powers on.
You can verify a full reset by pressing the Power button. If the iPAQ Pocket PC has been fully reset, it will not turn on.
5. Set up your iPAQ Pocket PC.


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New voter rule likely to go into effect this month
A new voting rule proposed by Secretary of State Matt Schultz will likely go into effect later this month after a legislative committee that oversees state government agency rules failed to stop it.
The Administrative Rules Review Committee on Friday voted 5-5 on a motion to object to the rule. Democrats supported the motion while Republicans voted against it. The motion needed at least six votes to pass.
That means the rules goes into effect automatically on March 27.
The rule establishes a way to remove from voter registration lists an individual whose citizenship is questioned.
The ACLU of Iowa wanted the committee to halt implementation of the rule so lawmakers could consider the issue.
The ACLU plans to continue challenging the proposed rule in court.


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If you enjoyed Lysley Tenorio's Monstress, you might also like these novels:
In this collection, Alarcon takes the reader from Third World urban centers to the fault lines that divide nations and people, personalizing the shifting realities of our own contemporary world.
The stories in this collection explore those moments when the seemingly fixed coordinates of our lives abruptly give way/--when mother love fractures, a faithful husband abandons his family, a conscientious middle-class life implodes, or loyalty demands an excruciating sacrifice.
Passionate, comic, violent, and tender, these stories draw us into the center of a cultural fusion in the midst of its birth pangs, yet glowing with the energy and exuberance of a society remaking itself.
Peter Orner explores the impact of life's essential moments, those brief but far-reaching occasions that haunt his characters. The discovery of a crime, a theatrical performance in a small town, or the recollection of a cruel wartime decision are equally affecting in Orner's vivid scenarios.


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Welcome to The Pointe After
The Pointe After is your one-stop athletic, promotional and leisure apparel outfitter. We specialize in custom screen printing and embroidery, utilizing the latest state-of-the-art technology.
We also specialize in outfitting local area teams (leagues, schools, recreational, etc.) and we take great pride in our work. All customized items are produced in-house to ensure a quality product and quick turnaround.
16627 Eastland Street
Roseville, MI 48066
313.885.3460 fax
Shop Hours
Monday-Friday 10am till 4pm


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Tradewinds Resort
Pastel Cottages Covered with Jasmine.
Tradewinds Resort is located on quaint Anna Maria Island in the Gulf of Mexico off Southwest Florida's fabled Sun Coast. This charming, old-fashioned resort has pastel cottages covered with tangles of jasmine and bougainvillea that look like something seen on a postcard a century ago. The romantic cottages line both sides of a private street that ends at a large heated pool set among palm trees, and a fishing pier that juts into Sarasota Bay. Just across Gulf Drive, at our sister resort of Tortuga, is a private white sand beach beside that glorious turquoise water you're coming for - and sunset views that promise to break your heart with their beauty.
Affordable Charm with Tropical Flair. Each of the 33 one-bedroom Apartments at Tradewinds is stylishly decorated with tropical furnishings and soft colors, and has a full kitchen, bedroom and bath with tub/shower, a queen sleeper sofa in the living room, and a private front porch or verandah. There is one Studio suite with glimpses of the Gulf of Mexico across the dunes, and, in a separate Bayfront cottage, a two-bedroom/two bath Apartment and two one-bedroom Apartments fronting Sarasota Bay. A community laundry is available on the premises for our guests' use. Also, numerous charcoal BBQ grills are set beside arbors shaded with flowering vines, with picnic tables beneath for al fresco dining. In addition to its relaxed family appeal, Tradewinds is known for being a great value, offering affordable rates throughout the year. Tradewinds Resort is pet friendly!
Laid-Back Anna Maria Island. On our famously laid-back little island, you'll find surprisingly good restaurants and shops, as well as water sports facilities, boat rentals and charters – with golf and tennis not far away. Street fairs, craft shows and musical events are held frequently – take the popular free trolley that runs from one end of the island to the other. Of course, bird viewing is always a great sport: wonderful wild shorebirds like pelicans, blue herons, oystercatchers, and many others – like the bubblegum-pink roseate spoonbills – show up all over the place, as do dolphins and the occasional manatee. If you're lucky, you might even catch an enormous loggerhead turtle lumbering across the sand at night to lay her eggs – loggerheads visit the island from May through November.


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Find Our Latest Video Reviews on YouTube!
If you want to stay on top of all of our video reviews of the latest tech, be sure to check out and subscribe to the Gear Live YouTube channel, hosted by Andru Edwards! It's free!
Monday February 20, 2012 12:10 pm
Average fuel economy of new vehicles increases by 14% compared to four years ago
Posted by Andrey Malskiy Categories: Science, Transportation
With the decline of the economy, the automakers took a huge hit in the United States. One could only wonder what outcome of such events would be. Looking past the rollercoaster economy, bailouts, and scandals, consumers have benefited the most as it pertains to the automotive industry by way of increased miles per gallon. As the economy slowly picks itself outta the dump, consumers are slowly returning to the market for new vehicles.
Over the past few years, regulations have passed which mandate more MPGs per vehicle. The old average hovered around 18 miles per gallong. Today, the average hovers around 21 miles per gallon, and is expected to reach 34 miles per gallon by 2016 (this being said among light duty vehicles.) However, regulations suggest that manufactures average 54 miles per gallon by the year 2025. Interestlingly, despite these increases, there has been a small decrease in fuel economy in hybrid vehicles.
Hybrids, naturally known for their great fuel economy, have seen an average of 3 miles per gallong decrease since their introduction into the market. However, we suspect that part of the reason for this is due to the larger hybrids that have been introduced into the market, such as the Volkswagen Touareg Hybrid.
Click through to read the full press release, which includes a bunch of interesting figures.
Fuel economy of new vehicles continues to rise
ANN ARBOR, Mich.-The average fuel economy of current model year vehicles is 14 percent higher than just four years ago, say researchers at the University of Michigan.
For all 2012 light-duty vehicles (cars, pickup trucks, minivans, vans and SUVs) offered for sale, average mpg is 21.5, compared to 18.9 mpg for model year 2008 vehicles. The averages were 21.2 for 2011, 20.7 for 2010 and 19 for 2009.
For new vehicles actually purchased, average fuel economy is typically one-to-two miles per gallon higher-22.5 mpg for model year 2011 (the last full year of sales), 22.1 for 2010, 21.3 for 2009 and 20.8 for 2008.
"This implies that consumers tend to choose vehicle models with better fuel economy than the average of all vehicles available," said Brandon Schoettle of the U-M Transportation Research Institute. "The recent economic downturn, coupled with rising gas prices, has led to an increased interest in purchasing more fuel-efficient vehicles."
Using data from the EPA, Schoettle and UMTRI colleague Michael Sivak also examined fuel economy changes by vehicle characteristics: cars vs. light trucks, vehicle class size, transmission type, number of engine cylinders, drive type, fuel type and hybrid vs. conventional vehicles.
They found that average fuel economy:
- Improved 2.8 mpg for cars (including station wagons) and 1.6 mpg for light trucks (pickups, minivans, vans and SUVs) from model year 2008 to model year 2012. Average fuel economy is currently 23.4 mpg for cars and 18.6 mpg for light trucks.
- Increased for all 12 vehicle-size classes between the 2008 and 2012 model years. The largest increases were 4.1 mpg for station wagons, which had the highest average 2012 rating of 26 mpg, and 3.8 mpg for compact cars, which had the second-highest average of 25.6 mpg. The smallest increases were 0.2 mpg for full-size vans, which had the lowest average 2012 rating of 13.4 mpg, and 0.4 mpg for small pickup trucks, which had the third-lowest average of 18.6 mpg.
- Increased 2.5 mpg for vehicles with automatic transmissions and 2.8 mpg for vehicles with manual transmissions; 2.3 mpg for four-cylinder engines and 1.4 mpg for six-cylinder engines; and 3.4 mpg for front-wheel drive vehicles and 2 mpg for four- or all-wheel drive vehicles from model year 2008 to model year 2012.
- Improved 9.8 mpg for diesel engines and 2.6 mpg for conventional gasoline engines, but dropped 3 mpg for hybrids, which are still more fuel-efficient overall than internal-combustion-only vehicles.
Read More | The Detroit Bureau
- Related Tags:
- cars, fuel economy, hybrid cars, mpg, touareg, volkswagen, volkswagen touareg hybrid
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Just yesterday, I pointed you to Roger L. Simon's post arguing that conservatives are making a terrible mistake when they bail on the movie industry. Our intensely media-driven age, means that increasingly hard-left Hollywood is a superb propagandist that often provides the only information people get on a subject. The beauty of Hollywood propaganda (if you're a Leftist) is that it's so subtle. Hollywood doesn't do clunky Soviet-era posters; instead, as Ben Smith ably demonstrated, it wraps core Leftist messages in rip-roaring good humor, gauzy tear-jerkers, or uplifting homilies. Polemics put people off; entertainment sucks them in.
We've gotten used to the Leftist tilt in entertainment over the years. We whine about it to each other (as I have here, here, here, and here), but that's about all that we do. We accept it as not a necessary evil but an inevitable evil. That attitude encourages a certain passivity.
Sometimes, though, it's worth making a loud noise, and that's the case with Hollywood's newest action flick, Non-Stop. The film has a high-profile star (Liam Neeson), lots of interesting cameos and co-stars, a big budget, and a clever plot about a well-disguised terrorist on a plane who is killing a new victim every twenty-minutes. (Thinking about it, for all it's flash and newness, the plot is simply a re-hash of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None.)
Superficially, it sounds like a fun movie for those who, like me, enjoy a well-produced, fast-paced thriller/whodunnit. Indeed, John Boot, writing at the conservative PJ Media, says that it's a fun movie, and enjoys the way the ending is unexpected. (He also noticed the Agatha Christie parallel.) It's that surprise ending, though, that has stirred outrage across the conservative blogosphere. You see, it's not merely a surprise, it's a "jump the shark" kind of surprise.
(For the uninitiated, the phrase "jump the shark" originated with the last season of Happy Days, when the show had gotten irrevocably stale. In an effort to jazz things up, they put the Fonz on water skies and had him jump over a blatantly mechanical shark. If a show has to stoop so low, it should already have been put out to pasture. Since then, the phrase is used not only to describe shows that should long-since have been shark chum, but also to describe plot turns that are too stupid to exist even in the magical entertainment universe.)
Judging by the movie's review at Breitbart, John Boot is correct that Non-Stop's creators managed to avoid having a predictable ending. They did so, however, only by pushing a hard-Left world view that is going to be swallowed whole by every uninformed adolescent and young person who sees the movie. That is, while one can appreciate that the ending makes for a good movie, it is so unreal — such a high jump over a such a hideous, faked shark — that it should be soundly castigated, rejected, and ruined.
As I mentioned above, the plot device is Agatha Christie on steroids: people trapped in an enclosed space with a hidden killer bumping them off. Today's headlines say it ought to have been a Muslim, since they're the ones using terrorism against the rest of the world. If you're a filmmaker who wants to add a good twist to reality, you make sure your terrorist is a well-disguised Muslim, along the lines of the British, Christian-born Black Widow who headed the grotesquely violent attack against a Kenyan shopping mall.
Having that kind of ending, however, would have failed to advance the movie's real purpose: propaganda. Breitbart explains precisely what agenda the movie is pushing (and this is your last warning that there are spoilers ahead that will make watching the movie forever unnecessary):
Counting pilots and crew, there are around 150 souls on board. Marks has 20 minutes to figure out which one is the bad guy. Red herrings abound. Is it one of the many actors whose faces we recognize but names we can't remember? People start to die. Marks is fingered as the hijacker. Who's doing this? Why are they doing this? What is their motive?
Here's the answer:
It turns out that the villain is not a hijacker but a terrorist — someone who wants to murder everyone on the plane to further a political goal.
You ready…?
The terrorist is a 9/11 family member. Yes, you read that right; the terrorist is a 9/11 family-member who lost a loved-one in the World Trade Center on that terrible September morning.
It gets worse…
After 9/11, this 9/11 family member-turned-terrorist then joined the military but found himself disillusioned by the pointless wars.
And now…
The 9/11 family member-turned-terrorist is upset because America hasn't done enough to ensure there will never be another 9/11. And so he figures that if he can get an air marshal blamed for a terrorist attack, America will wake up and anally probe us before we're allowed on a plane, or something.
It gets worse…
The villain's sidekick is a member of the American military willing to murder 150 innocent people for a payday.
It gets worse…
The one passenger on the plane who is forever helpful, kind, reasonable, noble, and never under suspicion is a Muslim doctor dressed in traditional Muslim garb including a full beard.
Screw you, Hollywood.
Non-Stop didn't stop at just jumping the shark. Instead, it embraced it and then made mad, passionate love to it. The filmmakers weren't going for an element of surprise; they were sending a message to those credulous, uninformed Americans churned out by America's public school system: Americans are bad; Muslims are good. Ignore the headlines telling you otherwise.* Hollywood knows better.
So what can you do? Well, I don't recommend giving out spoilers unless people ask for them. Otherwise, you will be deservedly hated. However, to the extent that word-of-mouth is the most powerful advertising any Hollywood movie has, start mouthing off. If someone you know, in real conversation or on social media, expresses an interest in it, you can honestly state something along the lines of "I heard it was stupid" or "It's supposed to be really bad. I'd never pay $14 to see a really bad movie."
As a sort of tag, given that the movie stars Liam Neeson, I can't help but remember that in January 2012, Neeson expressed a serious interesting in converting to Islam. Maybe he's done it already and this movie marks his coming out.
*The usual disclaimer: Not all Muslims are bad. Most Muslims aren't bad, but to the extent that almost none of them take a stand against the terrorists in their midst, the silent majority are complicit in the Muslim-inspired terrorism taking place in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Australia, Eurasia, the Middle East, and Asia.