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This has really got my goat (or pig or dog), first we had that fiasco with the stupid woman with the headscarf suing the hairdresser, and now we have THIS, in case you have not read or heard about this story here is a potted version to start with;

” RED-FACED police have apologised for using a pup in an advertising campaign - because it offended Muslims.

They have admitted an “oversight” after complaints from Islamic residents who consider dogs “ritually unclean”.

Six-month-old trainee police dog Rebel is at the centre of the row.

The German Shepherd was pictured next to a police hat and telephone on a card highlighting the Tayside force’s new non-emergency contact number.

Thousands were sent out to addresses in the Dundee area.

But Muslims were angry and their local councillor raised their concerns.

Now police chiefs are investigating the failure to spot the potential for controversy over using little Rebel - named after a contest among primary schoolchildren.

A spokesman for Tayside Police said: “Rebel has proved extremely popular with children and adults since being introduced to the public, aged six weeks, as our newest canine recruit.

“His incredible popularity - on one day, he attracted over 20,000 hits on our website - led us to believe Rebel could play a starring role in the promotion of our non-emergency number.

“We did not seek advice from the force’s diversity adviser prior to publishing and distributing the postcards. That was an oversight and we apologise for any offence caused.”

Councillor Mohammed Asif brought the matter to the attention of Chief Constable John Vine.

Asif said yesterday: “My concern was that it’s not welcomed by all communities, with the dog on the cards. It was probably a waste of resources going to these communities.

“The police should have understood.

Since then, they have explained that it was an oversight on their part and that if they’d seen it was going to cause upset, they wouldn’t have done it.”

Asif, a member of the Tayside Joint Police Board, added: “If people come to me with complaints and issues about the police, I have to raise them.

“A number of locals said it was not right to use the dog and asked if I could do something.

“I’m satisfied the matter is being investigated and a solution will be found.”

Rebel has proved a popular recruit after coming through the first Lothian and Borders Police dog-breeding programme. ”

So there you have it - forget muggings of grannies and stabbings of our kids, the most heinous crime ever (according to Councillor Mohammed Asif) is the damn puppy on the postcard!

So how much money and time was wasted by the Tayside police in their journey to grovel at the feet of Asif and the Shopkeepers for this BLASPEHEMOUS SLIGHT to the UK (or Islam 2 as it is now known).

Thing is, last time I check, this was still a CHRISTIAN country? When did we get taken over? Shooting the Koran I can understand, kicking off about a puppy on a postcard? And they wonder why we think they have a stupid religion?

Other people suffer for their religion, but in ISLAM we suffer for theirs - and no, I am not being racist or islamophobic, there are plenty of normal muslims that go about their daily lives like we do, I have muslim friends who also thought this was an April fools joke, I, in fact, have my roots in Malta and the Middle East, It does not offend me!

If Dogs and pigs offend Allah WHY did he create them in the first place?

In the current political and social climate here in the UK you would think they would have the commonsense to shut up and TRY and integrate! Seems like they are on an islamikaze mission!

For me, well, Australia seems like a nice place to live - the UK has been taken over by spineless Dhimmi politicians and their progeny!

Well, I was hoping the FIA Formula 1 2008 Bahrain grand prix was going to be a corker, sadly it was pretty boring really - the lurid details of Max Mosley’s private life was far more interesting by comparison!

I am not a fan of Mosley anyway, but I do think the UK paper, News of the World had no right to dig into his private life and what he does in HIS time - if it does not hurt anyone else then it is nothing to do with anyone else! There again, I would love to see Jacky Stewart or Michael Schumacher take over his role.

Anyway, enough for now - here is the race . . .

After twatting his car to bits in friday’s free practice I was expecting Lewis Hamilton to do better Saturday qualifying and Sunday race day - umm, yeah, not this time . . .

Saturday’s qualifying was pretty damn good - better than the race by miles! Stars of Qualifying were Robert Kubica from Krakow, Poland - pole position (Polak position)? Well done to Robert who I think will be a damn solid driver in seasons to come, also well done to BMW Sauber on their first F1 pole.

Other saturday stars were Felipe Massa who produced a great show also, Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg and Timo glock also had good qualifying! Hamilton in 3rd place was solid after his smash the previous day.

And onto race day . . . 1 red light . . 2. . 3. . 4. . 5 red lights . . . . . lights go out. . .

. . the race starts with a poor getaway for Kubica and Hamilton, Massa pops in front of Kubica at the first corner - great driving by Felipe - bad luck Kubica! Hamilton slips down all the way behind Fernando Alonso before the first corner,(which must have pleased him), then a lap later either through a momentary lapse of concentration or some weird brake ‘problem’ on Alonso’s part Hamilton wiped his cars nose on Alonso’s rear tyres - taking his nose clean off and leaving Alonso with a slightly damaged rear wing. Hamilton then had to pit for a new nose, and for the rest of the race his car behaved like a dog due to other damage they could not fix in race for him - this essentially made his great driving skills about as much use to him as a bacon sandwich in a mosque!!

And that was about it for excitement in the whole race - apart from Jenson Button trying to overtake David Coulthard in some ’space’ only Button could see - no bugger else could see it, the end result was button retiring from the race due to damage and Coulthard having his day spoilt by Buttons ‘ tender kiss’.

On the podium and well deserved for a solid if unexciting performance were Felipe Massa 1st, Kimi Raikonnen 2nd and Robert Kubica 3rd.

Fastest lap though goes to ‘fast as f**kkety f**k’ (got bored with saying flying finn) Finn Heiki Kovalainen - 1:33.193 on lap 49 - well done.

And that, my friends, in a nutshell, was the 2008 Bahrain Grand Prix - pretty boring, I do hope the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona will be more like Melbourne than this race was.

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‘ Don’t call me Sir, I work for a living.’

That, uttered from the mouth of no nonsense ‘Johno’, one of the main characters of the story, sums up the whole book;

Without giving the plot away at all, I will try and do a short review of the book.

The premise of the story (and all books following I surmise) is based around K2, a swiss ’secret’ agency, it also involves MI5, MI6, SAS, Mossad and the CIA (in fact all that is missing seems to be GSG-9) in the plot and sub plots.

Sir Morris Beesely has ‘inherited’ K2 and all the trappings, he sets about trying to right some wrongs and do a bit of good in the world ( in very unusual ways), the action really hots up when they get to Switzerland - of which I will say nothing as it would spoil the plot.

I am going to focus more on the writing style and my thoughts on the book as opposed to slipping up and spoiling the plot for you.

First impressions were of the ‘commando’ style comics we all loved as children - but with no pictures, for some reason I always thought of Biggles when reading the book too! The writing style of the Author is uncomplicated and thankfully lacking all the fluff we come to expect from some other authors (we really do not need three paragraphs of them climbing a ladder or making a sandwich - thank your deity of choice that Mr Wolak feels the same way), this is essentially a grown up boys own story - good reading, do not get me wrong, if you want the Da Vinci code then go grab a copy and read it, however if you want a rip roaring story with elements of humour, horror and very clever plots then this is the book for you, the characters are slowly built up in your mind and even though you do not want to at the start, by the end of the book you will like Johno (who suffers from PTSD as well) a hell of a lot, as you will Sir Morris - the quintessential english gentleman (with an edge).

So, if you are a ‘bloke, man, fella, hard nut, psycho, real man’, whatever you want to call yourself then you will enjoy this tale, I for one am looking forward to reading book 2 (in fact have just ordered it)!

Direct link for K2 novels

So there you have it - a book review without giving away ANY plot details - knew I would get it right one day.

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My ramblings a bit late this week as bloody server lost the database for a few days!

Got up at 6.30 UK time to watch the 2008 Malaysian Grand Prix and on the whole it was worth it.

No big smashes or crashes this time and at least more than 6 finished!

Poor old Sebastian Bourdais going off on first lap - I wonder if he is going for Mark Webber’s crown of ‘ unluckiest driver in F1′?

Nico Rosberg and Timo glock had a bit of a kiss out on track which ended up breaking Glock’s suspension and gave Rosberg a bloody nose.

Felipe Massa put on a great perfomance right until he had a bit of an ‘airhead’ moment and dived into the kitty litter!

Raikonnen did well all race barely putting a wheel wrong throughout - as did Robert Kubica - GREAT result for the Polish driver, Jenson button did well this race also, he actually finished which is always a plus lately!

Poor relations this week were McLaren boys Heikki Kovaleinen and Lewis Hamilton, they got a spanking for holding up drivers on hot laps in qualifying as they did their ‘fuel saving’ manouver on the racing line -not a great idea! Due to that performance they were demoted 5 places each to 8th and 9th respectively, racewise they had a very poor outing and were lucky to finish where they did - no big shakes on the McLaren car this race - thought they had swapped with Super Aguri for a while!

On a side note - this ‘fuel saving, end of last qualifying session’ crap is a bit dangerous - this needs looking at by the FIA guys!

Teams on the up this season are Red Bull, Toyota and Honda - seems like we are going to get some great middle team challenges this year, I really hope Force India and Super Aguri get more competitive to spice up the season even more.

Well done to the three podium ’sitters’ this race - Kimi Raikonnen 1st, Robert Kubica 2nd and Heikki Kovalainen 3rd.

To sum it all up, not a spectacular race - I was expecting another Melbourne type race so was a bit disappointed, however, the Sepang race circuit is a lovely piece of work, there were some solid performaces and some silly mistakes, still an enjoyable race - B+

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Wow!

That’s it - one word.

No, change that to BLOODY WOW!

If the rest of the 2008 FIA Formula one season is going to be like the opening grand prix race in Melbourne then we are in for a BLINDING F1 season!

It had to have been one of the best races I have seen in about 10 years!

I won’t go in depth about it as you can get all that stuff from all the news sites - suffice to say that I loved it - hopefully Max Mosely and Bernie Ecclestone will not mess about with it and stuff it all up now - it is top stuff!

Overtaking galore, cockups and crashes by the bucketful - WONDERFUL STUFF!

Out of 22 cars there were only 7 finishers, tough race but so entertaining - 3 safety cars too - Bourdais must have thought he was back in the states!

Well done to all the drivers (whether they finished or not) - you gave us all a great race!

Ferrari’s Massa and Raikonnen had a torrid day in the sun though, as did poor Button and Coulthard!

Lewis, another sterling performance, Heidfeld was solid, Rosberg - well done too!

A lot of the new boys did good as well - so hats off to them all!

The two guys I felt really bad for were Seb Bourdais (so unlucky right at the end) and poor old Timo Glock, he certainly had a James Bond moment upon landing - Shaken, not stirred! Seriously though - should that ‘launch ramp’ have been there for him to get hangtime on?

I am now looking forward to the next race in Sepang, Malaysia on the 26th March with bated breath - please lord make it as good if not better than todays race!

What did you all think of it?

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