But Luis Ignacio Planas is the Crazy One

Okie dokie.  But then there's Venezuela's far-left coalition pirate president.  Bask in the crazy.

Capitalism may be to blame for the lack of life on the planet Mars, Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday.

Perhaps a little bird told him.

Sean Penn could not be reached for comment.

U.K. Immigration Inquiry Demanded by Opposition

A few months ago, private government memoranda surfaced in the U.K. that seemed to indicate that the governing Labour party had deliberately accelerated the pace of immigration for the purposes of social engineering, with the intention of expanding Labour's voting base and marginalizing the Conservative party.

Now the Conservatives are demanding a formal inquiry into the matter, just months before the government of Gordon Brown must call a general election.

The Government has always denied that social engineering played a part in its migration policy.

However, the paper, which was written in 2000 at a time when immigration began to increase dramatically, said controls were contrary to its policy objectives and could lead to “social exclusion”.

Last night, the Conservatives demanded an independent inquiry into the issue. It was alleged that the document showed that Labour had overseen a deliberate open-door policy on immigration to boost multi-culturalism.

Voting trends indicate that migrants and their descendants are much more likely to vote Labour.

The irony is that if Labour were using mass immigration to cement a new and loyal voting base, the governing party seems to have all but alienated its traditional white working class voters. In some districts, this has created fertile ground for the emergence of the BNP. Politics, like nature, abhors a vacuum.

Farrah Fawcett, 1947-2009 -- Rest in Peace

In the mid-1970s, Farrah Fawcett was the unrivalled princess of teenaged boyhood fantasy. Her iconic cheesecake image -- toothy grin and flip perm -- adorned many an adolescent bedroom, as her magazine shoots graced many a high school locker. Her famous poster broke all sales records, and was as ubiquitous in the suburbs as Frampton Comes Alive. And for just one season, thanks to Farrah, Charlie's Angels became "must see" TV.

Who would have known then (indeed, who would have cared?) that Farrah Fawcett was far more than just another pretty face, much more than just "this year's blonde"?

It was probably her sympathetic and chilling portrayal of a battered woman who murders her abusive husband in The Burning Bed that finally put the cheesecake image to rest. This role also earned Farrah her first Emmy nomination. She would accumulate a string of award nominations over her career (2 more Emmy nominations, and several Golden Globe nods); although -- call it the Susan Lucci Syndrome -- she never did hear her name called from the podium on awards night (unless it was to introduce her as a presenter).

Off screen, Farrah Fawcett was married to the action-TV star Lee Majors, of The Six Million Dollar Man fame. Their marriage lasted from 1973 until their divorce in 1982. Thereafter, Farrah and Ryan O'Neal became a romantic item -- this time for keeps, although they never actually got around to getting married. In addition to Ryan's own two children, he and Farrah had one son together.

In 2006, Farrah Fawcett was diagnosed with anal cancer. She battled the disease, enduring both surgery and chemotherapy. She lost that battle yesterday. Farrah Fawcett was 62.

Paul Newman, 1925-2008

Los Angeles Times Obituary

Photo Credit: Universal Studios