Today In Tiresome & Trivial

Oh you awful stupid people, fer hevvin's sake, you have me standing up for a celebrity cook* now.

Nonetheless, it's bullshit on parade. Celeb Lawson has never been charged, let alone convicted, so just LEAVE NIGELLA ALONE!!

• Agence France-Presse in Wellington
• theguardian.com, Saturday 19 April 2014 22.31 EDT

New Zealand officials have granted a special visa to Nigella Lawson, who has admitted using cocaine, in an apparent confirmation that she has been blocked from entering the United States, it was reported on Sunday

US authorities declined to specify why Lawson was stopped from flying from London to Los Angeles late last month. However, in a statement to the Herald on Sunday newspaper, Immigration New Zealand said the celebrity cook was not allowed to enter the US, which meant she required special permission to work in New Zealand.

“As Ms Lawson has been excluded from another country, namely the United States, she was ineligible to be granted a visa to enter New Zealand unless given a special direction,” Immigration New Zealand said. “A special direction was considered and granted, and subsequently her visa application was approved.”

Lawson, 54, admitted, in a court case last year, that she had used cocaine and cannabis. British newspapers have speculated that she was prevented from flying to the US, where she stars in a cooking talent show The Taste, because of her admission of drug use.

A US embassy spokeswoman in London confirmed Lawson was denied permission to fly to Los Angeles but declined to say why, citing privacy reasons. Lawson is in New Zealand to film an advertisement.

What's w/ the Kiwis here? They won't let the United Snakes bring nukes w/ them when they visit, but they'll follow the lead of the small-minded pricks at ICE?

Sod the "English-speaking peoples," & the Frogs too. What, AFP, Lawson can't be a bleeding "chef?"

Comments are enjoyable. It's nice to be one w/ the world in despising America:

Perhaps only in the world's capital of double-standards, the USA, which reportedly registers among the world's highest cocaine and marijuana use, whose jails are overflowing with recreational drug users, would entry be denied for admitting to occasional recreational drug use.

And:

I live in Calgary, but I find the experience at US Homeland Security at the Calgary International Airport so unpleasant that I have no intention of visiting the US again. There you go, I've said it. Now I expect to be placed on a US 'no fly' list.

Funny all this, because almost invariably the American people are very pleasant and friendly. [Aw, shucks. — M.B.] Maybe they should ask their government not to visit the consequences of its paranoia on friendly innocents.

Or maybe we should smash the state.

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*Celebrity cooks: Generally classified between incurable lepers & curable lepers.