William Crawley posts about a fascinating piece of research which has garnered it an Ig Nobel award:

“This year’s Ig Nobel Peace Prize goes to the US Air Force Wright Laboratory ‘for instigating research and development on a chemical weapon that would provoke widespread homosexual behaviour among enemy troops’. I kid you not — the US Air Force has been spending tax dollars trying to create a chemical bomb that turns the enemy gay.” 

Not a bad idea! Not unlike the idea of a fairy-tale ‘love potion’ whereby various aims can be realised by making people fall in love with each other. Having the enemy find each other attractive would be a great method for distracting them. Not only that: the Islamic world hates homosexuality (witness Ahmadinejad’s claim that there are no homosexuals in Iran). Make Al Qaeda gay and they’re piranha bait. That’s not to mention the inevitable cloud of self-loathing that would accompany such an outbreak of queerism: more than enough to cause them to become benign theatres attendees and aficionados of art museums.