In the news: Gordon Brown, boiled Islamofanatic and Shambo the bull

■ Prime Minister Gordon Brown is wasting no time in undoing many Blair-era policies. Brown intends to reclassify cannabis as a Class B drug, ruled out the construction of a supercasino in Manchester, promises to review 24-hour drinking laws with the possible intent of overturning them, and pledges to tighten border control and kick out 4,000 foreign criminals. So far, so very good. But we can only hope that action, not mere words, will be Brown's biggest policy. We had plenty of words under Blair and his Labour cohorts, but never much action.
■ Recently, Al-Qaeda mastermind Dhiren Barot was attacked by other inmates with boiling water in Frankland Prison, in the northeast of England. The result? He spent five days recuperating in hospital and received round-the-clock police protection while there. Isn't that heartwarming? We allow terrorists constant police protection while hard-working people living in rough areas receive none. If this country had any fortitude at all, we'd have thrown Barot into solitary confinement for five days and let him recuperate there—and if he died, he died. But no, we waste money and medical resources on this vile piece of crap. No wonder Al-Qaeda sees the West as weak and vulnerable to attack. I'd never thought I'd have reson to say something like this but kudos to the prisoners of Frankland Prison and jeers to the police and the Government. It's slightly worrying that jailbirds have a better idea how to deal with terrorists than the people in power.
■ What a difference a year makes: This time last year, we were having temperatures way up into the 90s (F) and groundwater, aquifer and reservoir levels were so depleted that Thames Water instituted water restrictions. People were actually doing rain dances. Now there's not a single person in Britain who wouldn't give their left arm in order to ensure that it didn't rain a single drop again for the rest of the year. I certainly wouldn't mind if I never saw slick pavement or a puddle again for the rest of my life. Apparently, our pathetic summer is being caused by an unusually low trough in the jet stream. Whereas it normally levels out across northern Scandanavia during the summer, this year it has dipped all the way across Britain and into the English Channel. Hence, our horribly cool and wet summer. In other words, this is the mother of all low pressure systems.
■ I was wrong about Shambo, the sacred bull cow of the Skanda Vale Temple in Wales. Although a High Court judge originally granted a reprieve to Shambo, another judge overturned the decision and the slaughter notice was re-instated. The judge who re-instated the decision to kill the bull said it was justified even though Shambo's slaughter would be considered by the community as a sacrilegious act and "a very grave and serious interference with their religious rights." After all, Shambo was so wildly contagious that, as the Temple notes on its website, "[n]one of the officials took any meaningful biosecurity measures. No gloves were worn, no disinfectant was used when entering or leaving the pen and a trail of straw was left littering the ground outside Shambo's pen." The real loser, of course, is not Shambo, but the Temple and the Hindu Community which worships there. The Temple also wrote on their page: "The Welsh Assembly Government have committed the most violent and ignorant act of sacrilege against our Religion and desecration of our Temple in destroying an innocent and sacred life. What a sad day to see our government behaving with such gross ignorance." While some British police concerned themselves with the fate of boiled jihadic madman, others dragged away Hindu worshippers forming a human chain around Shambo's pen. What a country!
■ It's no wonder that pitcher Curt Schilling commands such respect given his work ethic. But if his blood-soaked socks from the 2004 playoffs and World Series aren't testament enough to that, his condemnation of drug-abusing cheaters is. Schilling spoke out against Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Raphael Palmeiro and other cheaters, saying their refusals to address accusations of steroids equalled guilt. "If someone wrote that stuff about me and I didn't sue their [butt] off, am I not admitting that there's some legitimacy to it?" Schilling rhetorically asked sportscaster Bob Costas. Schilling also said that nothing Canseco or Palmeiro did during their playing career should count. This needed to be said and Schilling was the right man to say it. You can also count on Curt Schilling to hold everyone's feet to the fire. The man is the soul of baseball.