Far-Flung-Faith Tours

CATEGORY: Extreme Religion, Fundamentalism, Fanatacism

DIVISION: Modern Evil Products

NOTE: Ever wanted to experience the rush of extreme religious fanatacism but didn't know where to begin? Now you can take a taste of the zealous life with the Modern Evil Far-Flung-Faith Tours. How about a Wild Wahabi Weekend, a Rollicking Rapture Retreat, or the stoning-thrill of a Strict Sharia Sabbatical?! The ululating excitement of toe-dipping into a foreign worship without soiling your own beliefs is for everyone. Book Now!








Woman Buried to Neck and Stoned to Death for Adultery

From Correspondents in Mogadishu, Somalia

THOUSANDS of people gathered to witness 50 Somali men stone a woman to death after an Islamic court found her guilty of adultery, witnesses say.

Aisho Ibrahim Dhuhulow, who had been found guilty of extra-marital intercourse by a court in the southern port of Kismayo, was buried in the ground up to her neck while the men pelted her head with rocks today, the witnesses said.

"Our sister Aisho asked the Islamic Sharia court in Kismayo to be charged and punished for the crime she committed," local Islamist leader Sheikh Hayakallah told the crowd.

"She admitted in front of the court to engaging in adulterous sexual intercourse," he said.

"She was asked several times to review her confession but she stressed that she wanted Sharia law and the deserved punishment to apply."

The execution was carried out in one of the city's main squares.

The port of Kismayo was seized in August by a coalition of forces loyal to rebel leader Hassan Turki, and the Shebab, the country's main radical Islamist insurgent organisation.

The new administration began implementing a strict form of Sharia (Islamic law).

"This afternoon we are telling the people of Kismayo that we are practising a punishment that is rare in this region and was carried out in Kismayo for the first time," Sheikh Hayakallah said.

Cameras were banned from the public stoning but print and radio journalists were allowed to attend.

Legal Voodoo and Other Mumbo-Jumbo

CATEGORY: Sarkozy, Voodoo Doll

DIVISION: Modern Evil Products

COMMENT: Not that it was ever a problem before, but now even the courts have given voodoo dolls their blessing [and ruling] as being a legitimate expression of satire and religion. So its full steam ahead for the Modern Evil line of custom effigies. Remember to attach at least 2 photographic images of the person, animal or thing you want printed on your "voodoo doll" when you order. And shop early for the holidays.









Sarkozy Loses Fight to Ban Voodoo Doll

by Angelique Chrisafis

A Nicolas Sarkozy voodoo doll which became a bestselling cult classic when the president tried to have it banned, is to remain on sale, after a French court yesterday threw out the ban attempt.

A judge ruled that Nicolas Sarkozy: The Voodoo Manual, which features a doll, a set of pins and a book explaining how to put the evil eye on the president, fell within the boundaries of "free expression" and the "right to humour".

The president's lawyer had argued that, like any French person, Sarkozy owned the right to his image, which was violated by the sale of the doll.

The highly litigious president was ridiculed by his critics for launching the legal action - his sixth lawsuit since his election - and the doll instantly became a sellout.

The Socialist Ségolène Royal, who was the subject of a similar voodoo doll but did not sue, hailed the verdict as a victory for the freedom to "caricature the world's most powerful". Royal, who once filed a legal complaint against someone who hit her with a custard pie, said she did not sue over her doll because she had a sense of humour.

The lawyer for the doll's makers said he was pleased the judge had recognised the existence of a "right to humour".

It is not known whether Sarkozy will appeal.

DIEt! DIEt! DIEt!

CATEGORY: Flat Belly Diet, Self Image, Perfection

DIVISION: Modern Evil Products

EDITORIAL: The truly wonderful evil of any modern society is "the diet". The schizophrenia of gorging and purging whipsaws the rat-running populace into a never-ending frenzy of personal perfection. And we applaud it.

Coming Soon: Eat Younger - The Fountain of Youth Diet and BBQ + Beer Battles Baldness.












The Flat Belly Diet

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For women over 40, belly fat is incredibly stealth and incredibly stubborn. It's also the most deadly, contributing to a higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, and chronic illness than any other type of fat on your body. Finally, science has helped uncover a key dietary weapon in the fight against belly fat. Monounsaturated fatty acids, or MUFAs, help dieters lose more weight--in their bellies specifically--and keep it off longer.

Flat Belly Diet! will lead you step by step, day by day, meal by meal toward a flatter belly...and a longer, healthier life.

Artists and Their Skulls - A Love Affair

CATEGORY: Skulls, Art

DIVISION: Modern Evil Products

NOTE: The second everyone signs the deal, the Modern Evil Company will be offering for sale authentic, limited-edition replicas of the Art Skulls created by Steven Gregory and Damien Hirst. These one-of-a-kind collectibles will dramatically increase in value over their lifetime. They also make memorable gifts.













No Bones About It, These Skulls Are Different

by Charlotte Higgins

To those without finely tuned aesthetic judgment, the similarities between the works seem obvious; but to the artists such comparisons are lacking in imagination.

"My skulls and his are very different objects," says Steven Gregory, who has until now kept silent on the apparent congruities between the malachite, pearl or lapis lazuli skulls he has been making since 2001 and Damien Hirst's dazzling sculpture, For the Love of God, produced last year. "What Damien has done is to cast a skull in platinum and encrust it with diamonds. What I do is completely different: I follow the surface of the skull exactly, usually covering it with semi-precious stones."

Yet Hirst and Gregory seem be treading surprisingly similar paths. "About two weeks before there was a piece in the press saying that Damien was doing his skull, I was talking to De Beers [the diamond dealers] about the possibility of my using uncut diamonds on a skull," says Gregory. "It never went anywhere. They weren't interested."

He says the works tell completely different stories. "I put eyes in mine - so the skulls look back; you interact with them. Damien's is very different: with the diamonds there is so much glare coming off, it's as if you can't quite get your eyes to focus on the surface."

And there's undeniably a difference in the price tag. Hirst's skull piece was reportedly sold for £50m. A Gregory skull will cost you £25,000.

Hirst, who declined to comment for this article, is a fan and supporter of Gregory's work. In 2002 he bought some of the first embellished skulls that Gregory made and showed them in the Serpentine Gallery exhibition of his personal art collection in 2006. Hirst also contributed a foreword, and an interview with Gregory, for an exhibition catalogue in 2005.

They share a no-nonsense approach to the use of human remains as materials for their art (Gregory sources his bones from a dealer in scientific antiques, using skeletons once used as teaching aids for medical students).

In his interview with Gregory, Hirst said: "I think if people are being stupid enough to leave their skulls lying around where they can be picked up and start changing hands then it's, you know, it's their own fault, what do they expect? Anything goes." And Gregory said: "I think the taboos to do with bones and skeletons are learned in adulthood, as I've had kids in my studio spending hours playing with [...] beaded bones."

Hirst gave him an early look at For the Love of God ("I really wanted to pick it up and feel it, but Damien said it was a bit awkward because of the security.")

Does Gregory believe Hirst owes him a debt of inspiration? He indicates a postcard in his London studio of 7,000-year-old decorated skulls. "What I am doing is no different from what has been done in the past and what will no doubt be done in the future," he says.

An exhibition by Gregory includes nine skulls, a bronze love seat cast from human bones and a sculpture of an orchid made from beaded bone. He might move away from skulls, he says. "I don't want to be the guy who does the skulls. It seems there's a big fashion for them at the moment."