James Gandolfini died suddenly after a suspected heart attack while on holiday in Rome. He was 51. A year younger than me.  Sopranos was a good show.

Overweight, balding, rough around the edges with a thick New Jersey accent, Gandolfini was the opposite of a marquee leading man, destined to be a character actor, and yet he proved through his masterful acting that he could make Tony Soprano sexy and smart. Gandolfini’s breakthrough screen role came with his portrayal of Virgil, the philosophizing hit man, in Tony Scott’s True Romance. (a great movie)

Let me take you back in time to 1983. The Democrat congressmen faced off against the Republican congressmen in the annual ” friendly ” baseball game.

And who was the star of the show, but power-hitting gynecologist / centerfielder Ron Paul of Texas!
He crushes a double, hits a single, tries a sneak bunt. The evil Democrat pitcher hits him with a pitch at 7:17 and the camera suspiciously goes on the fritz at that moment. Coincidence?

You can’t play this well without loving the game. And here, Ron Paul is a lean mean hitting machine having a good old time. Good for him! Even in that garish old Houston Astros uniform!

We probably remember this one. TWA Flight 800 exploded over the Atlantic near Long Island on 17th July 1996. All 230 people on board were killed. Despite scores of eye-witnesses testifying that they saw a bright streak of light ascending towards where an explosion happened, the investigation concluded that faulty wiring caused a fuel tank explosion.

Now six (retired) investigators have come forward in a documentary to claim that this is wrong and that their findings were falsified-

According to CNN, they were barred from talking before retiring. It’s pretty clear from the video that we might just get informed comment from experienced and senior men at the heart of the investigation. If they’re really onto something, they might want to be sure they don’t have any unfortunate accidents. The documentary goes out on 17th July.

So bad that even the watchers need watching ..

It’s not only that this week’s scandal has the police investigating the deaths of mothers and babies at Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, and it’s not also that the NHS watchdog failed to investigate, and it’s not also the failure of the NHS watchdog possibly cost the lives of mothers and babies, but also that the watchdog covered up all of this corruption.

Any bureaucracy exists for its own sake. Therefore it will operate always to enhance and protect itself.

The great and the good were all agreed that Something Must Be Done on Libya. Cameron, Obama, Sarkozy, H.Clinton, Hague; they knew that “we” couldn’t stand aside, so they didn’t, and Gaddafi was toppled. Two of the triumvirs were so pleased with themselves they even toured the scene of their triumph after Gadaffi was buggered, literally and metaphically, by NATO’s Libyan chums.

But what of Libya today? Professor Yehoudit Ronen, a Libya expert at Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv, recently said that: “The post-Gaddafi Libya is a chaotic and violent state without political stabilization, without internal security for its people, without security on its borders.”

Asked who controls Libya, she said: “I would say…the armed militia. They have the last word, and the ruling institutions are helpless.

On the economic state of Libya, she said Libya “desperately needs foreign capital…to recover and rehabilitate its ruined systems.”

Wow, great job you did there, “leaders of the free world”. Yet another country reduced to chaos and catastrophe. How’s about another photo-op in Tripoli or Benghazi? No?

Well then, on to Syria!

A committed trade unionist of more than 30 years standing, Dave has always been in at the sharp end, defending his members against attacks on their pay and conditions.

His sense of fair play, compassion, and his strong work ethic, were honed in the streets of Leeds where he was born and brought up.

Prentis speaks softly, rarely expresses an opinion that is not strictly related to his job, and his slight physical stature is testimony to the fact that he eats sparingly.

His total salary and benefits in 2010 came to just over £101,000, plus £32,818 paid into his pension pot.

So this frugally-living Union boss is well placed, having such a sense of fair play and compassion, to apologise for aiming a sneer at a young Lady who cannot answer back for herself.

For a few days it’s been slower than a scouser going to a job interview.

Anyone else having any problems with it?

To deepest Norfolk today for a prison visit, and a reminder of how wondrous are capitalism and free markets. My (“ehem”) acquaintance was transferred to HMP Turnip a couple of weeks ago, so I was curious about the regime.

Me: What’s the food like?

Him: Absolute sh*t. Lunch today was two slices of bread and a bit of spam.

Me: Not even butter?

Him: Haven’t seen any since I got here.

Me: Can you buy extra food?

Him: You can make a grocery order, but I’m only allowed to spend 15 quid a week, so if I buy food I can’t make any phone calls. I did order a tin of sardines last week though when I got too hungry.

Me: It must have felt like a feast.

Him: Dunno, it’s not here yet. I was told it might be here on Friday.

That’s government provision. Even when free markets provide all the tins of sardines we can handle, it still takes almost two weeks for the state to deliver. Well that’s also how the NHS operates. Twenty minutes after driving away from the nick I passed a Sainsburys. I could have had dozens of tins of sardines in a minute, but that’s the market in operation.

Instead of allowing such markets to flourish in health care, and thus provide us with a cornucopia of afforable treatments, we stick to being fed crappy health care by prison guards in white coats … eventually.

Outrageous statement… not really.  Julian Assange should have been killed because he is a spy and an enemy provocateur. The fruits of his attack on the U.S. has been the death of numerous assets that he revealed the names, villages, relatives’ and even precise GPS locations of Afghans co-operating with Nato forces that were accessed easily from files released by Assange, and have been killed as a result.  Besides the blood that is on his hands, letting him live set a precedent.

Julian Assange is not an American citizen and he has no constitutional rights. So, there’s no reason that the CIA can’t kill him. Moreover, ask yourself this question, If Julian Assange is killed tomorrow what message do you think that would send about releasing sensitive American data?

We witness the results of the precedent set by Assange with Snowden.  Snowden has quoted Assange several times in his interviews. Also defending Assange as a hero. He espouses the same beliefs that not only should the U. S. not be spying on it’s people but also the U.S. should not be spying on the other 95% of the world.

Then there is both these wackos cry of justification.  “The public has a right to know. Information wants to be free. The more you know the better.” There is some truth to that, but for the most part, it’s complete crap. If you don’t believe that, post the password to your email account and all your credit card info on the Internet. No why not? There should be no secrets, right?

Snowden had the ability to take his concerns to the Congress. There are myriads of avenues to Whistleblow.  Instead just as Assange did he ran and hid. He is releasing secrets piecemeal just like Assange, in a manner that does nothing to stop what he objects too, but does do damage to U.S. security.

If Assange had been dealt with properly, Snowden would have acted within the law. After all he is a man of conscience, isn’t he?

Look at it this way, If we knew an Iranian spy had acquired the same information that Assange did and he intended to hand it over to Iran, the CIA wouldn’t hesitate to kill him. While we might prefer to arrest him, few Americans would protest if the CIA killed that spy before he could hand the data to Iran.

Assange did that one better. He didn’t just give sensitive information to one unfriendly regime. He gave the information to every hostile government in the world. Julian Assange may not be a terrorist nor is he using the same methods, but he has the same goal, to do as much damage to the United States as possible. He has now inspired a copycat with Snowden. Assange is the enemy of the American people and we will be safer when he’s dead.

That is why Assaange should have been killed.

These views are mine Patrick Van Roy “The Troll” they do not represent or reflect the opinions of anyone else associated with this site.

Now mind you if FBI Director Mueller did not pick the head investigator, as the head of the FBI he had to sign off on who is heading the Investigation.

Is he lying or incompetent, it’s one or the other.