Make Smoking Cool Again! Especially with a Large Glass of Wine. | #shorts

The New Puritans are scraping fun from our lives! Katie Hopkins thinks these prudes should naff off (Katie’s vocabulary is rather more colourful!)
WARNING! Very strong language is used by Katie in this short!

Beer And Tobacco Are Kinda Good For You

By now, I’m sure we all know what the negative side effects of drinking and smoking are. Are there any positive ones?

The Time When Americans Drank All Day Long

BBC AMERICA: A new exhibit looks at the history of drinking in America.

The Puritans get a bad rap in America - especially when it comes to alcohol. They are generally blamed for putting the dampeners on any form of fun, and many people assume that it was the nation's puritanical roots coming to the surface when Prohibition was introduced in 1917.

But while they weren't exactly party animals, a new exhibition at the US National Archives reveals that the Puritans actually approved of drink.

"One of the things we understand now is that the initial ship that came over from England to Massachusetts Bay actually carried more beer than water," says Bruce Bustard, senior curator of Spirited Republic: Alcohol in American History.

In fact Increase Mather, a prominent Puritan minister of the period, delivered a sermon in which he described alcohol as being "a good creature of God" - although the drunkard was "of the devil."

Early Americans even took a healthful dram for breakfast, whiskey was a typical lunchtime tipple, ale accompanied supper and the day ended with a nightcap. Continuous imbibing clearly built up a tolerance as most Americans in 1790 consumed an average 5.8 gallons of pure alcohol a year. » | Jane O’Brien | BBC News, Washington | Sunday, March 08, 2015

Drunk in Tehran: The Islamic State’s Secret Party Scene

THE INDEPENDENT: Alcohol is banned in Iran, but that doesn’t stop the wealthy partaking

“Have a shot of tequila first, cheer up!” Shahriyar tells guests gathered at his luxury apartment in Tehran.

His girlfriend, Shima, said they party every weekend. “Shahriyar has one rule: bring your booze! We drink until morning,” she said on a FaceTime call, as lights flashed to rap music in the background.

Despite the ban on alcohol and frequent police raids, drinking in Iran is widespread, especially among the wealthy. Because the Shia-dominated Muslim state has no nightclubs, it all takes place at home, behind closed doors.

Some of the alcohol is smuggled in, but many resourceful Iranians make their own. » | Parisa Hafezi | Reuters | Wednesday, March 26, 2014

After Being Attacked, Dutch Woman in Dubai Charged with Insulting Islam
BIKYA NEWS: DUBAI: A Dutch woman living in Dubai pleaded not guilty in a court on Monday after being charged with insulting Islam and insulting the police after she had called them to report a personal attack. She said that while she had been drinking, she did not insult religion or the police officers.

“I’m not guilty for insulting the policemen and religion, but yes I consumed alcohol,” the 28-year-old Dutch woman told the court.

It is the latest in a string of “crimes” against woman after they had initially called the police.

She could face up to one-year in prison or deportation. » | Sharifa Ghanem | BN | Thursday, April 04, 2013

Drying Out: Islam and the Rise of Prohibition Culture
THE INDEPENDENT: In the Middle Ages Islam had no problem with alcohol, now - from Sharia Patrols in the UK to flat out bans in Egypt - the crackdown is gathering strength

In the last few weeks, Al Jazeera has been posting videos on its global web site of Islamic vigilantes “patrolling”, as it puts it, the streets of Whitechapel ensuring that the various British citizens inhabiting its pavements are doing their best to conform to shar’ia law. A notorious instance involved an unfortunate, and wholly innocent, gay man who was told that he was “dirty” and should get out of the neighborhood immediately. “Yes,” he was forced to say, presumably under the threat of a boot in the groin, “I am dirty.”

The British mosques duly condemned the patrols, and the Metropolitan Police made its usual ineffectual vows. But the videos themselves, as far as I could see by watching them in Dubai that week, evoked very little disgust in readers sharing the Faith. It struck me immediately that there was very little reason that such patrols should not progress from the rarified joys of beating up homosexuals to demanding that people stop drinking in public in the same neighborhoods. Lo and behold, other videos show drinkers being forced to pour the contents of their cans on to the streets.[.]

It would be easy to dismiss these patrols as outliers. But then again, who twenty years ago would have foreseen them ever happening in the first place? The Islamic revival, for want of a better word, which is changing the face of two civilizations at once – ours and Islam’s – has not been flexible on the question of alcohol, any more than it has on the question of gay love.

Writing about Cairo recently, I made so bold as to mildly observe that the number of “baladi” bars in that once bibulous city has noticeably diminished. A few grizzled ex-pats chose to deny it, but most Cairenes are all too ready to lament the gradual erosion of their once free-ranging alcoholic night-life (the sale of alcohol has recently been bannedaltogether from settlements around the capital). The world of Om Khaltoum and Mafouz and Youssel Chahin was saturated in drink, but the Cairo of 2013 is headed in a very different direction. One might even claim that a link exists between the diminishment of overflowing bars and the increase in covered female heads. It is far from preposterous. » | Lawrence Osborne | Monday, February 18, 2013

Buddhist Monks Caught Playing Poker, Drinking, Smoking in South Korea
It's the oldest and most respected major religion in South Korea. And now it's been spectacularly brought into ill-repute after senior monks from the largest Buddhist order in the country were caught red-handed setting a bad example by indulging in a cheeky little poker game.

Gambling in the country is illegal everywhere except for inside just one casino that's in the north east of the country. So it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that these monks - who are from the Jogye Order - seen here smoking, drinking and flipping playing cards on the floor of a luxury hotel room are flouting the law.

As soon as the footage was aired on national TV yesterday, 6 of the 8 monks in the room offered to resign. Leader Master Jinjea, a high-ranker from the order -- who wasn't even there at the time - said on local TV 'Those monks committed a foolish act and I confess my sin for their wrongdoings'

It was a fellow monk who secretly shot the footage and then tipped off the police and the media. Do you reckon he's taken himself off for a long holiday right now?

I'm Marverine Cole. That's all from me for now but for more news check out our website: ibtimes.co.uk

Drunk Driving: 243 Licenses Seized This Year
ARAB NEWS: JEDDAH: Since the beginning of the current Hijri year, 243 drivers in Jeddah have had their driving licenses withdrawn after they were caught drunk-driving or operating vehicles when under the influence of drugs, traffic police announced on Thursday. They were each sentenced to 80 lashes and fined SR500.

The police said the Jeddah summary court, which the violators were sent to, issued the verdicts. They added that under the law, the drivers would also be sentenced to various jail terms.

“The DUI drivers are a real threat to other road users and sober car drivers. They are a main cause of traffic congestion as they are not focused,” said Brig. Muhammad Al-Qahtani, director of traffic in Jeddah. » | Muhammad Humaidan | ARAB NEWS | Friday, June 03, 2011

Drink Drive Limit to Be Lowered Under New Plans
THE TELEGRAPH: The drink-drive limit could be lowered so that one drink is enough to put motorists over the limit, under plans to be considered by the new Transport Secretary.

Among the other controversial measures that could be introduced are giving the police more power to randomly stop drivers, an even lower limit for learner drivers and lifetime bans for repeat offenders and those considered “high risk.”

The report, drawn up by Sir Peter North and commissioned by the former Labour government, recommends that the limit for drink-driving falls from 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood to 50mg. That would bring Britain into line with most other European countries.

Philip Hammond, the Transport Secretary, will publish the report today and will study its findings. If he goes ahead and backs the new lower drink drive limit it will be controversial, as the Conservatives had opposed such a move in opposition.

Sir Peter, who is the former Principal of Jesus College, Oxford, is likely to urge a tightening of other aspects of the procedures that surround drink-drive arrests. >>> Andrew Porter, Political Editor | Wednesday, June 16, 2010

All the pleasures of life are either bad for you, sinful in the eyes of God (if you believe in Him), or increasingly illegal. Cigarettes went out of the window a long time ago. Booze is being clamped down on at an alarming rate. Sex gets you into trouble if you aren’t careful; or in any case can be controversial these days, to say the least. Eating makes you fat. Sugar causes diabetes. Salt causes hypertension. Soon there’ll be little else to do but turn to Mekkah and pray to Allah. At least that way, all being well, you should eventually get 72 virgins, unlimited wine (which is forbidden to the faithful on this earth), and dark-eyed houris more beautiful than one can possibly imagine! Furthermore, as an added bonus, they tell me that there aren’t any politicians up in Heaven – no politicians whatsoever, of any hue. Now that’s got to be a good thing! – © Mark

British Woman 'Arrested in Dubai after Being Raped'
THE TELEGRAPH: A 23-year-old British woman on holiday in Dubai told police she had been raped, only to be arrested herself for having illegal sexual intercourse.

The woman, a Muslim of Pakistani descent, was celebrating her engagement to her 44-year-old boyfriend, and was allegedly attacked when she passed out in a hotel lavatory.

Despite approaching police about the attack, she was arrested after admitting to "illegal drinking" outside licensed premises as well as having sexual intercourse outside marriage. Her fiancé was also charged with the same offences.

The couple from London are now reportedly on bail and understood to be awaiting trial after having their passports confiscated. Should they be found guilty, they could face up to six years in jail.

The woman, who is said to have accepted her boyfriend's marriage proposal during a three-day break, admitted drinking too much alcohol as they celebrated at Dubai Marina's Address Hotel. The waiter, believed to be Syrian, is then said to have followed her into the toilets and raped her while she was in a state of semi-consciousness.

After her fiancé found out about the attack, they contacted police, but they were questioned about breaking the country's strict rules, which contain elements of Sharia law. >>> Chris Irvine | Friday, January 08, 2010