'Will this do?'

I missed this in the paper yesterday (so thanks to Ryan for mentioning it today) but this article by Mary Riddell really deserves some sort of award. "Most tenuous connection between subjects for the purposes of an article", perhaps (can you get from David Blaine to George Bush vis Damien Hirst and Mel Gibson?) "Best creation of imaginary opposition to win a straw man argument" - In the mind of some commentators, he epitomises swaggering, God-fearing America. To them, Blaine is George Bush in nappies, a third-rate magus seeking world domination. The egg-slingers and breast-flashers are portrayed by some liberal commentators as hero Brits who won't be taken in by a pseudo-mystical scam. Please Mary, name one.

Or, my personal favourite - most bizarre religious metaphor: Existing on sips of water while dangling above the dun-coloured tundra of a Thames riverbank counts as fasting in the wilderness. One report on Blaine said he should start hallucinating because of lack of food in about five to seven days from now. Is Mary Riddell having sympathetic hallucinations in advance for him?