The revolutionary turmoil of 1978-79 provided racketeers with an opportunity to seize large chunks of land in Bam and use it for poorly designed and badly constructed houses and shops.

The racket was backed by a group of powerful mullahs who, in exchange for a cut in the proceeds, issued fatwas (religious opinions) that cancelled government orders that banned house-building in the city. The mullahs claimed that the Shah had wished to keep Bam empty because of a secret plan under which the city would be turned into a Zoroastrian centre. They also dismissed warnings from the National Seismological Centre in Tehran that opposed the repopulation of Bam. The mullahs claimed that the Hidden Imam would protect the new inhabitants of the city against all disasters. Thus more than 50 per cent of those who died in the recent earthquake could be regarded as victims of a racket ran by mullahs and their associates with the help of religious prejudice and superstition.

You chumps over at Dog Snot still wish to quibble with my assertion that I was just wondering why so many people died in this earthquake? Or that I was weary of the moaning & wailing in front of a camera that’s prevalent in the Middle East? In addition, please point out what part of my original post I edited. I’m still waiting for that one. As well as where I danced on the graves of those who died. Piss off…

Steve’s Piss Off List:

- Howard Dean
- Geoffrey Allen & his friend Guido

Some things that make people FAT

• Movie Popcorn & Large Sodas
One of the first booger-men

• The Suburbs
The in-animate evil-doer of all urbanist paranoid, jihadist propaganda

• Cars
Apparently, people CAN’T get in their cars to workout

• McDonalds
The Big Daddy of fast food, of course, has been the target of the litigious zaftig set lately

• High Carb Diets
High carbs=high calories

• Low Carb Diets
Low carbs=usually means yo-yo dieting

• Sugar
Ah, the crack of childhood. But SO damn sweet

• Lack of Exercise
Well duh...

• Cities
Like Detroit. Hm, that sort of cancels out the myth the suburbs are where all the fatties live. Apparently all the country folk are the fittest people in America

See the biggest problem people have a hard time pointing the finger at? Themselves. I sure as hell didn’t get fat because McDonalds shoved the food down my throat. Nor did I get fat because some forced me to live in the suburbs. I got fat because I didn’t do anything with my life. Simple.

If people like Kwame Kilpatrick had any sense, he wouldn’t blame the auto industry for his cities new found fame. Going by his conclusions, Tokyo should also be the fattest city in Japan, but I doubt that it is. It’s the people, not cars, that are responsible for his city being “proclaimed” the Fattest in the Land. If there’s blame to go around.