Dwelling site discovered near Stonehenge. right
Below. 5,000 year old Skara Brae, Orkney.
Believed to be from the same period.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Archaeology Anyone?
Dwelling site discovered near Stonehenge. right
Below. 5,000 year old Skara Brae, Orkney.
Believed to be from the same period.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
There May Be Trouble Ahead
There may be trouble ahead,
There may be teardrops to shed.
.
Are the wheels about to come off for Dubya's little chum?
There is talk about deleted emails from a double super secret separate computer system, that Downing Street says definitely doesn't exist.
.
Sounds reminiscent of Trickius Dickius and his non-existent tapes.
But it seems Plod isn't too happy getting the run around, "Hello hello hello, what's all this then my lad, are you trying to pervert the course of Justice?"
.
.
Labour's chief fundraiser Lord Levy has been re-arrested by police looking into cash-for-honours allegations.
He was questioned on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and later bailed.
Lord Levy, a close ally of Tony Blair, was first arrested last year in connection with claims honours had been sold in exchange for party donations.
He was questioned on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and later bailed.
Lord Levy, a close ally of Tony Blair, was first arrested last year in connection with claims honours had been sold in exchange for party donations.
Update. News clip.
.
I find it hard to shocked or surprised by this story, given that politicians are involved, who in their right mind could be?
.
I have previously written at length about this, to me a well known and accepted practice.
When Katrina highlighted just how far "Heck of a job" Browny was out of his depth, I offered that honours for favours was a far better system than "jobs for the boys," good ol' boys in the case of Brown.
.
By far a better idea to bung someone the odd the odd Knighthood or MBE than actually reward them with a job of responsibility, that is a sure fire recipe for disaster, as we are all now blatantly aware.
.
Governments might change in the UK, but very little changes with the troops on the ground, those that actually run the country, carry on running the country, and just pay lip service to whoever happens to become their new boss. (department minister)
.
Maybe it's a question subtlety, honours for favours as opposed to honours for hard cash.
Or could it be that there is someone with some clout that doesn't actually like Tony? Heaven forbid!
.
This ten minute clip gives a wonderful example of how the status quo is maintained after a change of government. From the timeless comedy "yes Minister"
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Us And Them
Us And Them.
or Get Your Rocks Off Bitch
Although the story is not about the woman, I couldn't but help watch the body language of the female interviewer throughout this twelve minute clip. Link dead, video embedded below.
The matter of fact way in which this interview was carried out, you might think they were discussing the price of herrings rather chopping off heads.
From the introduction: "There is no negotiating with him, once the head has ripened, when it's harvest time, he is most suited for the job."
"I started my work in 1412" said the executioner.
I could believe that, they were barbaric times, the fifteenth century.
"Do you cut off hands, or do you just do beheadings?"
"Yes I cut off hands; as well as a hand and a leg on alternate sides; as is written in the Koran."
My opinion, as is further writing, is entirely superfluous, this story tells its self.
But what does come to mind is this little image of Bush and his pal, and I cannot help but draw a comparison between the female interviewer in the clip and the depiction of the women in this scene taken from "The Life of Brian." "No women at the stoning."
Monday, January 22, 2007
Rude Pundit's Ribald Rudery
.
Rude Pundit's Ribald Rudery
The Inimitable Descriptions Of The Rude Pundit
Match The Person To the Description
A Quiz
.
.
1 Better than midget porn, ??? detained at Palm Beach airport.
.
Tom DeLay
Hugo Chavez
Rush Limbaugh
Osama bin Laden
.
.
2 Back in middle school, ??? was masturbating constantly, moving from fumbling random jerker to expert pecker caresser.
.
Scooter Libby
George Bush
Tucker Carlson
Kermit the frog
.
.
3 ??? is still hard though, he goes over to Rove and tries to ass fuck the Texan. "Whoa, whoa," Rove says, stepping away, "Get the fuck off me.I'm no fag." ???, embarrassed, zips himself up.
.
Ken Mehlman
Mark Foley
Joe Leiberman
Ann Coulter
.
.
4 Attended by a slithering visage of the globule of evil that forms itself into a vaguely human form every now and again that is ???
.
Karl Rove
Don Rumsfeld
Dick Cheney
Desmond Tutu
.
.
5 This was just before Juan Williams, looking on in disgust at the tumescent cock of ???, about to spray a concupiscent Chris Wallace with neocon jizz.
.
Stephen Hadley
Paul Wolfowitz
Bill Kristol
Jon Coyners
.
.
6 Yep, in ??? untrained teachers use tax dollars to "teach" Christian belief and nutzoid fundamentalist bullshit.
.
Texas
South Dakota
Kansas
Tehran
.
.
7 These actions caused ??? to remove Bush's balls from his mouth long enough to say,
Joe Leiberman
Joe Leiberman
Joe Leiberman
Jim Webb
.
.
8 So fuck ??? just another tiny-dicked fucker who abused his power and position in obeisance to a sublimated libido that Republican politics would not allow to run rampant and free.
.
Randy Cunningham
Mark Foley
Tom DeLay
Big Dog
.
.
9 Most people aren't paying attention, and when they turn on CNN or Fox, no ones telling them that ??? rapes hobo corpses after beating them to death with beagle puppies.
.
Sam Alito
Dick Cheney
Bill Frist
Steve Irwin (RIP)
.
.
10 ???, that strange, sad little man who fucks for money but refuses to call himself a "whore" Said, "Frankly I'd prefer to spend our time figuring out ways to bring this very important program of surveillance of potential terrorists here in the United States under the law.
.
Joe Leiberman
Joe Leiberman
Joe Leiberman
Nelson Mandella
.
.
11 If any Conservative mongers of cock want to try and defend ??? "Fucking liar" ??? and Fox "News" for its sneak attack on Bill Clinton.
.
Neil Cavuto
Shaun Hannity
Chris Wallace
Keith Olberman
.
.
12 Watching ??? "Behold my lipless shit-eating grin".......
.
"Cod Piece" Matthews
"Manly Man" Matthews
"Sunny Nobility" Mathews
Lou Dobbs
.
.
13 He's like an adolescent boy who just discovered that jacking off makes him feel good, so he's gonna thwack his dick as often as he can get it up.
.
George Bush
Bill O'Reilly
Bill Kristol
Hugh Hefner
.
.
14 "I'm psycho about queers" ??? craw this week is constant faggoty faggots faggoting up the place. I his letter to the super-duper prayer team.
.
Tony Perkins
James Dobson
Pat Robertson
Liberace
.
.
15 Which of course, leaves out ??? who's only purpose on earth seems to be keeping big pharma in business.
.
Bill Frist
Rick Santorum
Rush Limbaugh
Hippocrates
.
.
Answers Here. Score one for every correct answer.
.
13 to 15. You know your rude stuff, but you should really get a life.
10 to 12. Fair play to you.
7 to 9. You must have a life, but quite reasonable.
4 to 6. You definitely have a life.
0 to 3. How sad.
.
I shall call this the first quiz of two, but in truth there is enough material for a weekly column.
But the next one won't be as polite.
.
.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Let Me Introduce You
Let Me Introduce You
To a fellow atheist and countryman, and judging from his accent not too far away from myself.
Listen/watch as Nick Gisbourne quietly discusses his “Mormanisation.”
Part One. Part Two
I saw but a few minutes of “Jesus Camp” when it was first released, it’s something I must rectify, I had absolutely no idea just how extreme it actually was.
Perhaps just as well I didn’t view it during my “Angry period”
This is my second attempt at blogging, “Only In America” has been in the dustbin once, I used to end up in a frenzy of anger when writing about the Fundamentalist “Christian” head the balls, so I pulled the blog.
But thanks to a dear friend who invited me to guest blog at a site where I had to curtail my emotions and language I seem to calmed down somewhat, call it an anger management course if you will.
But Nick Gisbourne does a very good job of taking the thing apart.
Whatever he was feeling, and I think it would be far from calm, he does not let his emotions interfere with his excellent analysis of what I can only describe as an absolute shocker of a situation that goes on in this camp for little jihaddists.
I could call it a more in depth piece of my “Miracles In Missouri” article for both are about the state of affairs that go on in Jesus Camp.
And as he gives his opinion in these two clips, Nick speaks entirely for me.
His analysis is truly a must see.
Part One. Part Two.
To a fellow atheist and countryman, and judging from his accent not too far away from myself.
Listen/watch as Nick Gisbourne quietly discusses his “Mormanisation.”
Part One. Part Two
I saw but a few minutes of “Jesus Camp” when it was first released, it’s something I must rectify, I had absolutely no idea just how extreme it actually was.
Perhaps just as well I didn’t view it during my “Angry period”
This is my second attempt at blogging, “Only In America” has been in the dustbin once, I used to end up in a frenzy of anger when writing about the Fundamentalist “Christian” head the balls, so I pulled the blog.
But thanks to a dear friend who invited me to guest blog at a site where I had to curtail my emotions and language I seem to calmed down somewhat, call it an anger management course if you will.
But Nick Gisbourne does a very good job of taking the thing apart.
Whatever he was feeling, and I think it would be far from calm, he does not let his emotions interfere with his excellent analysis of what I can only describe as an absolute shocker of a situation that goes on in this camp for little jihaddists.
I could call it a more in depth piece of my “Miracles In Missouri” article for both are about the state of affairs that go on in Jesus Camp.
And as he gives his opinion in these two clips, Nick speaks entirely for me.
His analysis is truly a must see.
Part One. Part Two.
Democracy! I’ll Take Anarchy Any Day
Democracy! I’ll Take Anarchy Any Day
I can only assume the proposed bill was originally intended to address the custom of female circumcision but then went on to included consensual adult female piercing.
Two to twenty years; I wouldn’t have a problem with the full twenty being handed down to any parent who subjected a daughter to such a selfish act of barbarism, in fact if religion were cited as the reason for carrying out this heinous act, I would give them forty years.
And my reasons would not be, as you might have so easily gathered, that I am anti religion, for this practice is nothing whatsoever to do with religion, it is but for the purposes of subjugating women and robbing them of their sexuality and as such, make them less likely to “stray.”
And in doing so, bolster against the overriding insecurity of the misogynist males that abound in the countries where this practice still takes place.
Having said all this I cannot get my head round that the reasons for this legalisation are enlightenment and altruism, not in, of all places, Georgia.
No, I fancy it more for the “icky” factor, ickyness being related to the goings on that occur in the region between the navel and the knee.
One only has to read the article to have my views endorsed.
If that sentence alone doesn’t have you screaming then nothing will.
“Men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other. (Qur’an 4:34)
Democracy! Give me a break.
Georgia House bans genital piercings for women.
The Associated Press - ATLANTA
“Genital piercings for women were banned by the Georgia House Wednesday as lawmakers considered a bill outlining punishments for female genital mutilation
The bill would make such mutilation punishable by two to 20 years (sic)in prison. It makes no exception for people who give consent to have the procedure performed on their daughters out of religious or cultural custom.
An amendment adopted without objection added, "piercing" to the list of things that may not be done to female genitals. Even adult women would not be allowed to get the procedure. The bill eventually passed 160-0, with no debate.
Amendment sponsor Rep. Bill Heath, R-Bremen, was slack-jawed when told after the vote that some adults seek the piercings.
"What? I've never seen such a thing," Heath said. "I, uh, I wouldn't approve of anyone doing it. I don't think that's an appropriate thing to be doing."
The ban applies only to women, not men. The bill has already been approved by the Senate but now must return to that chamber because of the piercing amendment. Both chambers of the Legislature must agree on a single version of a bill before it can go to the governor for final approval.”
I can only assume the proposed bill was originally intended to address the custom of female circumcision but then went on to included consensual adult female piercing.
Two to twenty years; I wouldn’t have a problem with the full twenty being handed down to any parent who subjected a daughter to such a selfish act of barbarism, in fact if religion were cited as the reason for carrying out this heinous act, I would give them forty years.
And my reasons would not be, as you might have so easily gathered, that I am anti religion, for this practice is nothing whatsoever to do with religion, it is but for the purposes of subjugating women and robbing them of their sexuality and as such, make them less likely to “stray.”
And in doing so, bolster against the overriding insecurity of the misogynist males that abound in the countries where this practice still takes place.
Having said all this I cannot get my head round that the reasons for this legalisation are enlightenment and altruism, not in, of all places, Georgia.
No, I fancy it more for the “icky” factor, ickyness being related to the goings on that occur in the region between the navel and the knee.
One only has to read the article to have my views endorsed.
“The bill eventually passed 160-0
With no debate.”
Bill Heath, Repub. (how could he be other than?) was slack-jawed when told after the vote that some adults seek the piercings.
"What? I've never seen such a thing," Heath said. "I, uh, I wouldn't approve of anyone doing it. I don't think that's an appropriate thing to be doing."
I, UH, I WOULDN’T APPROVE OF ANYONE DOING IT.
If that sentence alone doesn’t have you screaming then nothing will.
The ban applies only to women, not men.
“Men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other. (Qur’an 4:34)
Democracy! Give me a break.
Pain of Afghan Suicide Women
Pain of Afghan suicide women
Afghanistan
Deputy minister of women's affairs Maliha Sahak says that 197 incidents of self-immolation have been recorded since March 2006, 35 of them in Kandahar province alone. A total of 69
women lost their lives.
Britain.
Honour Killings in the UK
In the UK, murders have sometimes taken place after a family has reacted violently to their son or daughter taking on the trappings of western culture. Killings are often disguised as suicide, fire or an accident.
Overview
Afghanistan
Deputy minister of women's affairs Maliha Sahak says that 197 incidents of self-immolation have been recorded since March 2006, 35 of them in Kandahar province alone. A total of 69
women lost their lives.
Britain.
Honour Killings in the UK
In the UK, murders have sometimes taken place after a family has reacted violently to their son or daughter taking on the trappings of western culture. Killings are often disguised as suicide, fire or an accident.
Overview
Farsi Anybody?
Farsi Anybody?
Everybody must have had at least one in their lives, cringe moments that is.
You’re sat in a train/plane/waiting room and the only thing to read is a copy of one of the trashiest of tabloids that ever slithered out of the gutter, you know the one I am talking about, every town on earth boasts one, the one that is specifically aimed at brain dead white trash.
Reluctantly, for want of anything better you pick it up, no sooner than you have stuck your nose in it, in she walks, the girl of you’re dreams.
The heart skips a beat, the pulse quickens, the blood rises, and you’re instantly in love and lust. You smile, she returns it, you’re imagination has run riot in milliseconds, she glances down and sees what you’re reading, and it all comes crashing down, it’s blown, you haven’t a hope, it wouldn’t make any difference if you were a filum star (Irish) with you’re hair hung in diamonds, she has you marked, forget it.
Forget it; if only you could, as you shrink into your chair and pray to a god you don’t believe in that he open the earth and have it swallow you, anything, anything at all, just let me be gone from this moment and this place.
It’s not as bad as that, The Truth Seeker, that is, in fact It does host articles by both Robert Fisk and John Pilger, so that is reason enough to go there.
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/
Heaven forbid, it’s not as though I go to read the gossip from;
The voice in the Whitehouse.
"Here, for your amusement, is an exact copy of an in-house memo sent to me, and others of my opinions, by one of Bush's senior, and soon-to-be employed elsewhere, advisors:
'I pity the poor deluded Christians of America who think the Monkey Palace is a staunch bastion of morality and Christian Family Values. The only family values this White House knows are those of the Village People: "We are Family, all my Sisters and me...." There was much twittering and swishing of tutus around the coffee stations this last Friday, as White House aides,
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=5852
And in fact they do publish interesting stuff quite often, stuff, what a handy word, stuff that’s quite different, oft times fresh news from a fresh perspective, not as incestuous as some of the news items that do the rounds on the blogs.
President George W. Bush said the comments represented a "specific threat" to destroy Israel. In a March 2006 speech in Cleveland, Bush vowed he would resort to war to protect Israel from Iran, because,
So what did Ahmadinejad actually say? To quote his exact words in farsi: "Imam ghoft een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad."
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=5866
Everybody must have had at least one in their lives, cringe moments that is.
You’re sat in a train/plane/waiting room and the only thing to read is a copy of one of the trashiest of tabloids that ever slithered out of the gutter, you know the one I am talking about, every town on earth boasts one, the one that is specifically aimed at brain dead white trash.
Reluctantly, for want of anything better you pick it up, no sooner than you have stuck your nose in it, in she walks, the girl of you’re dreams.
The heart skips a beat, the pulse quickens, the blood rises, and you’re instantly in love and lust. You smile, she returns it, you’re imagination has run riot in milliseconds, she glances down and sees what you’re reading, and it all comes crashing down, it’s blown, you haven’t a hope, it wouldn’t make any difference if you were a filum star (Irish) with you’re hair hung in diamonds, she has you marked, forget it.
Forget it; if only you could, as you shrink into your chair and pray to a god you don’t believe in that he open the earth and have it swallow you, anything, anything at all, just let me be gone from this moment and this place.
It’s not as bad as that, The Truth Seeker, that is, in fact It does host articles by both Robert Fisk and John Pilger, so that is reason enough to go there.
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/
Heaven forbid, it’s not as though I go to read the gossip from;
The voice in the Whitehouse.
"Here, for your amusement, is an exact copy of an in-house memo sent to me, and others of my opinions, by one of Bush's senior, and soon-to-be employed elsewhere, advisors:
'I pity the poor deluded Christians of America who think the Monkey Palace is a staunch bastion of morality and Christian Family Values. The only family values this White House knows are those of the Village People: "We are Family, all my Sisters and me...." There was much twittering and swishing of tutus around the coffee stations this last Friday, as White House aides,
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=5852
And in fact they do publish interesting stuff quite often, stuff, what a handy word, stuff that’s quite different, oft times fresh news from a fresh perspective, not as incestuous as some of the news items that do the rounds on the blogs.
President George W. Bush said the comments represented a "specific threat" to destroy Israel. In a March 2006 speech in Cleveland, Bush vowed he would resort to war to protect Israel from Iran, because,
So what did Ahmadinejad actually say? To quote his exact words in farsi: "Imam ghoft een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad."
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=5866
Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings. (and fools)
Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings. (and fools)
Who speaks of whom?
"You've made terrible choices for your people. You've isolated your nation. You've taken a nation of proud and honourable people, and you've made your country the pariah of the world. You've threatened countries with nuclear weapons. You've defied international accord. And you're slowly but surely isolating yourself."
Honestly, you just can’t make this stuff up.
He then went on to say a couple of other things. (link dead) but look in the left hand sidebar at the first Bush Quote.
Who speaks of whom?
"You've made terrible choices for your people. You've isolated your nation. You've taken a nation of proud and honourable people, and you've made your country the pariah of the world. You've threatened countries with nuclear weapons. You've defied international accord. And you're slowly but surely isolating yourself."
Honestly, you just can’t make this stuff up.
He then went on to say a couple of other things. (link dead) but look in the left hand sidebar at the first Bush Quote.
Tawdry Tears and Tombstones
Tawdry Tears and Tombstones
The first description I feel best befits this image of Bush as he sheds a tear, or do I do the man a disservice and the tear is genuine? If it is, I can but only think it is not for the marine who was being honoured, but for George W Bush.
And is that marine buried at Arlington Mister Bush? You are hardly likely to know are you, not for you the funerals of those that you sent so eagerly to their needless deaths, no Mister Bush, for those who’s lives you ended so prematurely, just a cold patch of earth and a tombstone.
Tombstones Mister Bush, those tombstones that caused me to write these comments some time ago in a forum other than where I write this.
Shame and decency are not to be found.
Yet they offer the parents of the dead a free headstone if it bears the inscription "Operation Iraqi Freedom"
Shameless, and overflowing with abject hypocrisy.Bush knows all too well why the troops died, I hope the spirit of the countless thousands, the spirit of every dead man woman or child haunts the son of a bitch to the grave and beyond.
But he cannot see the irony of this “magnanimous” gesture, forever and a day will that inscription, “Operation Iraqi Freedom” etched in stone, mock the man and his presidency for what they truly are.
But the bitterest of ironies is lost on this fool, because forever and a day those words will be synonymous with:
“They died for nothing.”
How different then can two epitaphs read but achieve the same purpose?
Those that fought in this travesty, I can but call it such, for to call it a war lies uneasy with me, those that took up arms and fought and now lay in the cold earth do mock.
But there is another, probably unknown to many readers here, or if known, soon forgot.
He was a strange little man, little in stature that is.
Far from being handsome, far from being movie star, but a star he was a man of great integrity, his name was Robin Cook
What followsare two five minute clips is ten minute clip of Cook’s resignation speech as Leader of the House, given in the House of Commons.
I cannot urge you strongly enough to view them. Cook was under no illusions about the situation in Iraq and that Britain was getting dragged, with indecent haste by the United States, into a war we did not want and for which there was no justification.
As I re-watch his performance I cannot help but wonder how we did in fact end up being party to this mess.
Rhetorical I admit, my last sentence that is, for it is known to all.
I shall write on Blair’s culpability in these war crimes, but another day.
Cook’s address to the Commons, a snippet:
“That explains why any evidence that inspections may be showing progress, is greeted in Washington, not with satisfaction but with consternation because it reduces the case for war.
What has come to trouble me is the suspicion that if the ??? in Florida had gone the other way and Al Gore had been elected we would not now be about to commit British troops…”
I think then that you might care to agree that Cook was a honourable man and continued to sit on the back benches until his untimely death in August, 2005
But Cook, even in death had not finished with Blair. The commendable steps taken by his widow and two sons, steps which I am sure would have met with Cook’s full approval, resulted in…I will let the print article take it from here.
“In life Robin Cook was the most outspoken Parliamentary critic of Tony Blair’s decision to go to war in Iraq.
In death he will remain the scourge of the Prime Minister forever."
The headstone on Mr Cook’s grave carries the legend:”
“I may not have succeeded in halting the war, but I did secure the right of Parliament to decide on war.”
Tawdry. Taw-dry adjective
1. showy but without real value.
2. of finery: gaudy; showy and cheap.
3. low or mean; base: tawdry motives.
4. noun. Cheap, gaudy apparel.
The first description I feel best befits this image of Bush as he sheds a tear, or do I do the man a disservice and the tear is genuine? If it is, I can but only think it is not for the marine who was being honoured, but for George W Bush.
And is that marine buried at Arlington Mister Bush? You are hardly likely to know are you, not for you the funerals of those that you sent so eagerly to their needless deaths, no Mister Bush, for those who’s lives you ended so prematurely, just a cold patch of earth and a tombstone.
Tombstones Mister Bush, those tombstones that caused me to write these comments some time ago in a forum other than where I write this.
Shame and decency are not to be found.
Yet they offer the parents of the dead a free headstone if it bears the inscription "Operation Iraqi Freedom"
Shameless, and overflowing with abject hypocrisy.Bush knows all too well why the troops died, I hope the spirit of the countless thousands, the spirit of every dead man woman or child haunts the son of a bitch to the grave and beyond.
But he cannot see the irony of this “magnanimous” gesture, forever and a day will that inscription, “Operation Iraqi Freedom” etched in stone, mock the man and his presidency for what they truly are.
But the bitterest of ironies is lost on this fool, because forever and a day those words will be synonymous with:
“They died for nothing.”
How different then can two epitaphs read but achieve the same purpose?
Those that fought in this travesty, I can but call it such, for to call it a war lies uneasy with me, those that took up arms and fought and now lay in the cold earth do mock.
But there is another, probably unknown to many readers here, or if known, soon forgot.
He was a strange little man, little in stature that is.
Far from being handsome, far from being movie star, but a star he was a man of great integrity, his name was Robin Cook
What follows
I cannot urge you strongly enough to view them. Cook was under no illusions about the situation in Iraq and that Britain was getting dragged, with indecent haste by the United States, into a war we did not want and for which there was no justification.
As I re-watch his performance I cannot help but wonder how we did in fact end up being party to this mess.
Rhetorical I admit, my last sentence that is, for it is known to all.
I shall write on Blair’s culpability in these war crimes, but another day.
Cook’s address to the Commons, a snippet:
“That explains why any evidence that inspections may be showing progress, is greeted in Washington, not with satisfaction but with consternation because it reduces the case for war.
What has come to trouble me is the suspicion that if the ??? in Florida had gone the other way and Al Gore had been elected we would not now be about to commit British troops…”
I think then that you might care to agree that Cook was a honourable man and continued to sit on the back benches until his untimely death in August, 2005
But Cook, even in death had not finished with Blair. The commendable steps taken by his widow and two sons, steps which I am sure would have met with Cook’s full approval, resulted in…I will let the print article take it from here.
“In life Robin Cook was the most outspoken Parliamentary critic of Tony Blair’s decision to go to war in Iraq.
In death he will remain the scourge of the Prime Minister forever."
The headstone on Mr Cook’s grave carries the legend:”
“I may not have succeeded in halting the war, but I did secure the right of Parliament to decide on war.”
The Time Has Come
The Time Has Come
"The time has come," the Walrus said,"To talk of many things:Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax—And cabbages—and kings—And why the sea is boiling hot—And whether pigs have wings."
It isn’t too hard to differentiate between these two pieces of fantasy,
After all, one author is clearly quite insane, and the other; well he does have a certain eloquence about him.
One of them had a penchant for photographing little girls; the other for being photographed.
“I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude, and I believe most Iraqis express that. I mean, the people understand that we've endured great sacrifice to help them. That's the problem here in America. They wonder whether or not there is a gratitude level that's significant enough in Iraq.”
Bush interview 60 Minutes 1/14/07
The man is insane; he needs to be removed from office.
"The time has come," the Walrus said,"To talk of many things:Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax—And cabbages—and kings—And why the sea is boiling hot—And whether pigs have wings."
It isn’t too hard to differentiate between these two pieces of fantasy,
After all, one author is clearly quite insane, and the other; well he does have a certain eloquence about him.
One of them had a penchant for photographing little girls; the other for being photographed.
“I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude, and I believe most Iraqis express that. I mean, the people understand that we've endured great sacrifice to help them. That's the problem here in America. They wonder whether or not there is a gratitude level that's significant enough in Iraq.”
Bush interview 60 Minutes 1/14/07
The man is insane; he needs to be removed from office.
We Learn From History That We Learn Nothing From History
We Learn From History That We Learn Nothing From History.
A more contemporary rendition: George W. Told The Nation By Tom Paxton.
H/T Maren
Pete Seeger sings a song written by the then twenty three year old Tom Paxton.
BUSH: Let’s let the historians work it out. But there's not enough troops on the ground right now to provide security for Iraq, and that's why I made the decision I made.
Tom Paxton 1965: Lyndon Johnson told the nation,"Have no fear of escalation.I am trying everyone to please.Though it isn't really war,We're sending fifty thousand more,To help save Vietnam from Vietnamese.
A more contemporary rendition: George W. Told The Nation By Tom Paxton.
H/T Maren
Pete Seeger sings a song written by the then twenty three year old Tom Paxton.
Miracles In Missouri
Miracles In Missouri
A story with borders.
No more queues at the airport, no more long flights, and no more mingling with those left wing pacifist pinko French.
If you had a visit planned to Lourdes that is.
No more changing dollars for those queer looking Euros, and given the confidence in Dubya’s Dollars, just as well I guess.
No; stop at home, because if you’re looking for miracles, they be right here on your doorstep; its all happening in Missouri.
It’s all happening if we are to believe this latest example of brain washing and child abuse.
Perhaps you may wish to view this little clip, (link dead, but it was another end of the world scenario, because Dover PA school board rejected ID) hosted by the bastion of reason and light, this fine upstanding example of the Christian right, going about his daily business of conning dollars from little old ladies and other misguided souls, the very same fellow that not only talks to God, but actually has a two way conversation.
Yes it is he, Pastor Pat Robertson, who might I add seems to have a selective memory of the scriptures, never more so than when recalling, eyes of needles, camels, rich men and the Kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew 19:24)
But I digress, for this article is not about Robertson, no indeed, it is about brainwashing masquerading as miracles.
Let us examine a few things from the transcript.
Not even a hint of subtlety in that one pastor; “pray for those in authority”
Pray for those in authority indeed, never question “Authority.” Never question that “Authority” might come in a guise of a President that boasts an IQ of a lentil, just do as he wishes.
Just pick up your musket, go over the top without question and come home in a flag draped box.
Oh and whilst you’re at it, don’t question what’s written in this book, after all there is no greater authority than the Big Fellow.
Ah yes, the bogey man again.
Sorry Pat, it seems you don’t have the monopoly on a direct line.
Yes of course, miracles in Missouri.
Now we are getting into really dangerous territory.
Was that before she fell over? sorry wrong show, that was Benny Hinn I think. Still, don't knock a miracle when you see one.
The last time I heard an agenda like that it involved blue-eyed blond haired kids singing..... might as well go for it seeing as I'm updating.
If you watch the the first, you must watch the second. The other are optional, but they do depict what happens to people when they stop thinking for themselves and choose to worship false gods. That's all of them by the way, supernatural or terrestrial.
Of course, the thousand year Reich.
Why am I not surprised?
I don’t think there is need for me to comment further, perhaps other than to echo Keith Olbermann. Good night and good luck.
On the subject of totalitarianism: Child 44, by Tom Rob Smith, is a novel set in USSR. Starting out with, but only covering briefly, the privations of the peasant farmers during the "Great Collective Experiment" the setting moves to the period between the Great Patriotic War and the time of Stalin's death in 1953.
For a début novel, Smith demonstrates remarkable ability in plunging the reader into the hopeless misery and the abject terror that pervaded Soviet society under Stalin. A society where the slightest little thing, a wrong look, a wrong word, could end up in a one way trip to the Lubyanka. Guilt by association always resulted in the Gulag or death; one family member guilty, all guilty. I recommend it highly, and will report in due course on Smith's sequel, The Secret Speech, which I have just started reading. Guardian review
A story with borders.
No more queues at the airport, no more long flights, and no more mingling with those left wing pacifist pinko French.
If you had a visit planned to Lourdes that is.
No more changing dollars for those queer looking Euros, and given the confidence in Dubya’s Dollars, just as well I guess.
No; stop at home, because if you’re looking for miracles, they be right here on your doorstep; its all happening in Missouri.
It’s all happening if we are to believe this latest example of brain washing and child abuse.
Perhaps you may wish to view this little clip, (link dead, but it was another end of the world scenario, because Dover PA school board rejected ID) hosted by the bastion of reason and light, this fine upstanding example of the Christian right, going about his daily business of conning dollars from little old ladies and other misguided souls, the very same fellow that not only talks to God, but actually has a two way conversation.
Yes it is he, Pastor Pat Robertson, who might I add seems to have a selective memory of the scriptures, never more so than when recalling, eyes of needles, camels, rich men and the Kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew 19:24)
But I digress, for this article is not about Robertson, no indeed, it is about brainwashing masquerading as miracles.
Let us examine a few things from the transcript.
Pastor Carol Koch's church kids played a prominent role in the documentary, and she points out they weren't worshipping Bush, but praying for him, as they would for any American president.
"It's all about honoring that Scripture that tells them to pray for those who are in authority," said Pastor Koch, who believes we should be equipping this generation to pray.
Not even a hint of subtlety in that one pastor; “pray for those in authority”
Pray for those in authority indeed, never question “Authority.” Never question that “Authority” might come in a guise of a President that boasts an IQ of a lentil, just do as he wishes.
Just pick up your musket, go over the top without question and come home in a flag draped box.
Oh and whilst you’re at it, don’t question what’s written in this book, after all there is no greater authority than the Big Fellow.
And the founder of Jesus Camp, Becky Fischer, says she was teaching the
kids to do spiritual warfare against Satan and his demons, not against flesh and blood enemies.
Ah yes, the bogey man again.
But what both women think believers will see through the cloud of controversy is that God wants to, and is, moving in a radical new way among children -- that He's expecting churches to stop treating kids like second-class Christians -- that they can hear from God and do great deeds for Him just like older believers.
Sorry Pat, it seems you don’t have the monopoly on a direct line.
Lenny said, "We now have children who are being moved by God in such a way in healing the sick, and hearing His voice and praying for their nations and praying for their cities."
Yes of course, miracles in Missouri.
By now, the children have seen enough answered prayers, miracles, and healings to already have a steady faith that God is listening to them and working through them.
Now we are getting into really dangerous territory.
"I've seen people who've been scrunched over and then they've been prayed for, and they just stand up and they're like, 'Hey, I can stand straight!'" said Trevor Burge.
"They had a tumor. We prayed for them. They went home and went to the doctor, and the tumor was totally gone," said Samuel Jackson Hood.
Donna Edwards is the choir teacher of the IHOP kids, but post-polio syndrome forced her to walk on crutches for several years until the kids prayed over her for 45 minutes one night.
Edwards said, "I was able to totally lay down my crutches."
"Thirty kids were marching around her, praying," Caleb Thill said. "We didn't want Donna to suffer," added Jerrod Demers.
Was that before she fell over? sorry wrong show, that was Benny Hinn I think. Still, don't knock a miracle when you see one.
Dalton Burge of Christ Triumphant Church went up to pray for two visitors suffering with abscessed teeth, who thought it was kind of cute, but "then they started feeling their mouths, and both of them had gotten healed," Koch said.
CBN News visited families involved in an extremely active children's program at New Life Centre just outside St. Louis, and they've seen wonders, too. A few weeks ago, a kitchen accident seriously burned Shelley Hunt's finger and caused painful blistering. Her kids prayed for her.
"Instantly, the redness went away, the pain went away, and it was just like the skin had never, ever been burned - in front of my kids' eyes," she said.
Eric Hunt said, "I grew up in a Pentecostal home and always knew that God was real and that God did great things, but now I'm seeing them in my own family." Fischer says children are yearning for this kind of active relationship with the Lord. She said, "They're looking for extreme encounters with God."
Koch believes if just 10 churches in every state activate programs like these that get children so close to the Lord; it'll set off a major renewal across the land.
"In 10 years or less, we will have a generation of children which will be the key that's going to change our nation," Koch said.
The last time I heard an agenda like that it involved blue-eyed blond haired kids singing..... might as well go for it seeing as I'm updating.
If you watch the the first, you must watch the second. The other are optional, but they do depict what happens to people when they stop thinking for themselves and choose to worship false gods. That's all of them by the way, supernatural or terrestrial.
But Fischer warns without this turn to a radical walk with Jesus, the future could well be lost.
Of course, the thousand year Reich.
"Seventy percent of the kids who are raised in Christian churches vacate the church when they become teenagers and young adults, and they never set foot in church again." Fischer explained.
Why am I not surprised?
~
I don’t think there is need for me to comment further, perhaps other than to echo Keith Olbermann. Good night and good luck.
On the subject of totalitarianism: Child 44, by Tom Rob Smith, is a novel set in USSR. Starting out with, but only covering briefly, the privations of the peasant farmers during the "Great Collective Experiment" the setting moves to the period between the Great Patriotic War and the time of Stalin's death in 1953.
For a début novel, Smith demonstrates remarkable ability in plunging the reader into the hopeless misery and the abject terror that pervaded Soviet society under Stalin. A society where the slightest little thing, a wrong look, a wrong word, could end up in a one way trip to the Lubyanka. Guilt by association always resulted in the Gulag or death; one family member guilty, all guilty. I recommend it highly, and will report in due course on Smith's sequel, The Secret Speech, which I have just started reading. Guardian review
Inside Iran
Inside Iran
A one-stop shop from the BBC
A host of information conveniently assembled on one page.
There is a thirty-minute audio clip ,among others, from John Simpson, an old hand on world affairs. He describes accompanying that old charmer the Ayatollah Khomeini from his exile in Paris to giving his take on present day Iran.
Missed opportunities
"And just a few weeks after Iran and the US had worked so closely over Afghanistan, Iran was described by President George W Bush
as part of an "axis of evil" in his 2002 State of the Union address."
"We were all shocked by the fact that the US had such a short memory and was so ungrateful about what had happened just a month ago," he said. (Javad Zarif, now Iran's ambassador to the United Nations,)
In the same article, US foreign policy Dubya style.
"We don't speak to evil".
My own non-political views on the Iranians, “The cruellest race of people on the face of the earth.” So said a strong intelligent woman I am acquainted with, she once being married to an Iranian and had lived in Tehran for many years. Given all I have read and researched I have no problem with her statement.
A one-stop shop from the BBC
A host of information conveniently assembled on one page.
There is a thirty-minute audio clip ,among others, from John Simpson, an old hand on world affairs. He describes accompanying that old charmer the Ayatollah Khomeini from his exile in Paris to giving his take on present day Iran.
Missed opportunities
"And just a few weeks after Iran and the US had worked so closely over Afghanistan, Iran was described by President George W Bush
as part of an "axis of evil" in his 2002 State of the Union address."
"We were all shocked by the fact that the US had such a short memory and was so ungrateful about what had happened just a month ago," he said. (Javad Zarif, now Iran's ambassador to the United Nations,)
In the same article, US foreign policy Dubya style.
"We don't speak to evil".
My own non-political views on the Iranians, “The cruellest race of people on the face of the earth.” So said a strong intelligent woman I am acquainted with, she once being married to an Iranian and had lived in Tehran for many years. Given all I have read and researched I have no problem with her statement.
Driving Lessons, Child Abuse, And A Nation Obsessed.
Driving Lessons, Child Abuse, And A Nation Obsessed.
A story without borders. (In part)
Analogies, I have no great love of them, but for want of something better I fear I must employ one.
For those of us that no longer enjoy that sublime feeling of youth, a feeling I suspect more given to our children than the majority that read this forum, it is then I address you as a mature readership if not as parents.
And as such, being parents that is, has it not befallen us on occasion the pleasure of teaching our kids to drive?
I say pleasure for that it what it is, or should be for those among us that without delusion know themselves to qualified and adept safe drivers.
Not only a pleasure but parental duty to pass on to our offspring the benefits of the years of our safe driving experience.
We embrace this charge of tutorage for it is our lot as parents.
And for those among us that recognise our shortcomings as drivers we take the obvious course of action and employ a professional instructor.
What then would we think of the parent or parents of a child who from an early teach their children in a manner that we would consider foolish but totally irresponsible if not downright dangerous.
We wouldn’t for instance consider it wise or good parenting if said parents made a habit of running red lights with their children in the car.
It is not uncommon for drivers in Arab countries to adopt such practises,
Putting their faith in Allah that he will see them safely through the intersection irrespective of the colour of the traffic signal.
No we would not consider it good parenting to teach one’s children that faith would ensure a safe passage through the junction.
In fact as rational thinkers we would say “Sooner or later they, the children, will be involved in an accident and if they are not killed outright they will at least be badly hurt and no doubt require medical attention, oft times lifesaving medical attention.”
For has not experience taught us that the roads constitute a very dangerous environment as does life itself.
So much so that it is the more fortunate and the minority among us that travel life’s path and never have to seek medical aid of such a nature.
If you will keep this in mind I shall move on.
At this point a question arises, might I ask you to ask of yourself,
“Do I believe in Limbo?
The same Limbo that should a child die unbaptised it shall be doomed to spend eternity doing whatever one is supposed to do in Limbo.
I would like to think the answer is no, for even the Catholic Church is about to consign Limbo to it’s rightful place, the theological trashcan.
“In 1984, when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and the head of the Vatican's doctrinal department, he called limbo "a theological hypothesis". "It is linked to the cause of original sin.
Now I know Catholics barely qualify as Christians in some circles, but it is well to remember that were it not for my BFF Henry V111 wanting a divorce, Catholicism would still be the "One true faith."
It would be rather nice at this juncture if they were to send the “Other Place” to same said trashcan. Can we, as rational thinkers in the twenty first century really believe that this place called Hell exists. And before we move on can we consign two other items to our theoretical trashcan? or failing consignment let us redefine them.
“Sin” and “Evil” are not stand alone entities that should be assigned their own tangible slot in the scheme of things, both are titles we, or more accurately our ancestors, misguidedly gave, to what are only concepts.
There is no such thing as Sin; sin is a concept of morality dreamt up by Bronze Age people as they scribbled away in their respective caves as they looked for new ways to cower and intimidate the lower orders.
And just as there is no sin as a separate entity, the exact same must apply to Evil.
Evil isn’t going to creep into your bedroom and give you a “Gotcha” as you hide your head under the covers.
Hopefully it will be your partner playing silly buggers, or worst case scenarios, a real bad dude that we misguidedly call evil, or worst still the cops bursting in with a “No Knock Warrant”
So let us return to hell, or more precisely the subject of hell.
There are those among us that, without hell, existing as a separate entity, would be for want of a more descriptive term, “In Shtuck” for what then would this abuser, for he is but that,
employ to frighten the living daylights out of these kids?
Perhaps he would do that which Adolf Hitler had no need as I paraphrase, “Had the Jew not existed, I would have had to invent him.”
The shorter being; Jew, hell or some other bogeyman is required to frighten whichever chosen group the abuser uses to further his own religious/political agenda.
It is a road I shall not go down in this post, but we have the perfect contemporary example of the use of the “Bogeyman”
albeit under another name.
But some few seconds into this clip we have a perfect example
an abuser going about his agenda.
“We want to leave an indelible impression that hell is a place where they absolutely don’t want to go.”
How any parent could subject their children to this is totally beyond my comprehension.
I leave you to draw your own conclusions.
The virus of faith. Dawkins. Part 3
I ask you then to watch this second clip as the good professor Dawkins shares his views with us on children and child abuse, this from the five to seven minute marker followed by an interesting conversation with Jill Mitten.
“A child is genetically pre programmed to accumulate knowledge from figures of authority.
A child brain, for very good Darwinian reasons has to be set up in such a way that it believes what it is told, for there just isn’t time for the child to experiment with warnings like “Don’t go too near the cliff’s edge, or don’t swim in the river there are crocodiles.”
Any child who applied a scientific sceptical questioning attitude to that would be dead.”
No matter what you may think of Dawkins, I think his logic is unarguable.
He then goes on:
“No wonder the Jesuit said, “Give me the child for the first seven years and I will give you the man.”
“The child brain will automatically believe what it is told even if what it is told is nonsense, and when the child grows up it will tend to pass on that same nonsense to it’s children, so religion goes from generation to generation.
For many people part of growing up is killing off the virus of faith with a good strong dose of rational thinking, but if an individual doesn’t succeed in shaking it off, his mind is stuck in a permanent state of infancy, and there is real danger he will infect the next generation."
The virus of faith. Part 2
Hopefully by now my direction is becoming apparent even if I have taken a circuitous route, and for those among you unfamiliar with Richard Dawkins I at least hope he has given food for thought.
This article started with an analogy of motorcars so befittingly we shall bring it to its conclusion in the same manner.
Our irresponsible parents are but a mile from home, and isn’t always the case, so close and yet so far, the cop in his cruiser in full “music and lights mode” has pulled the parents over and is castigating them for being totally irresponsible for driving around with their child in the front seat sans seat belt.
But when the cop gets a result on the check he has just run on the couple he finds that this is not an isolated incident but one of many, a pattern of incidents in fact.
Now the cop, having scraped numerous bodies up off the highway, justifiably is a tad upset and thinks these parents have no right to bring their kid up in this way, sooner or later the kid will end up dead.
And as it happened the kid did end up dead, not by the parent’s automobile, but by something equally as deadly, the parent’s “Faith.”
"Out of all of the sects in the world, we notice an uncanny coincidence: the overwhelming majority just happen to choose the one that their parents belong to. Not the sect that has the best evidence in its favour, the best miracles, the best moral code, the best cathedral, the best stained glass, the best music: when it comes to choosing from the smorgasbord of available religions, their potential virtues seem to count for nothing, compared to the matter of heredity. This is an unmistakable fact; nobody could seriously deny it. Yet people with full knowledge of the arbitrary nature of this heredity, somehow manage to go on believing in their religion, often with such fanaticism that they are prepared to murder people who follow a different one."
Richard Dawkins.
A story without borders. (In part)
Analogies, I have no great love of them, but for want of something better I fear I must employ one.
For those of us that no longer enjoy that sublime feeling of youth, a feeling I suspect more given to our children than the majority that read this forum, it is then I address you as a mature readership if not as parents.
And as such, being parents that is, has it not befallen us on occasion the pleasure of teaching our kids to drive?
I say pleasure for that it what it is, or should be for those among us that without delusion know themselves to qualified and adept safe drivers.
Not only a pleasure but parental duty to pass on to our offspring the benefits of the years of our safe driving experience.
We embrace this charge of tutorage for it is our lot as parents.
And for those among us that recognise our shortcomings as drivers we take the obvious course of action and employ a professional instructor.
What then would we think of the parent or parents of a child who from an early teach their children in a manner that we would consider foolish but totally irresponsible if not downright dangerous.
We wouldn’t for instance consider it wise or good parenting if said parents made a habit of running red lights with their children in the car.
It is not uncommon for drivers in Arab countries to adopt such practises,
Putting their faith in Allah that he will see them safely through the intersection irrespective of the colour of the traffic signal.
No we would not consider it good parenting to teach one’s children that faith would ensure a safe passage through the junction.
In fact as rational thinkers we would say “Sooner or later they, the children, will be involved in an accident and if they are not killed outright they will at least be badly hurt and no doubt require medical attention, oft times lifesaving medical attention.”
For has not experience taught us that the roads constitute a very dangerous environment as does life itself.
So much so that it is the more fortunate and the minority among us that travel life’s path and never have to seek medical aid of such a nature.
If you will keep this in mind I shall move on.
At this point a question arises, might I ask you to ask of yourself,
“Do I believe in Limbo?
The same Limbo that should a child die unbaptised it shall be doomed to spend eternity doing whatever one is supposed to do in Limbo.
I would like to think the answer is no, for even the Catholic Church is about to consign Limbo to it’s rightful place, the theological trashcan.
“In 1984, when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and the head of the Vatican's doctrinal department, he called limbo "a theological hypothesis". "It is linked to the cause of original sin.
Now I know Catholics barely qualify as Christians in some circles, but it is well to remember that were it not for my BFF Henry V111 wanting a divorce, Catholicism would still be the "One true faith."
It would be rather nice at this juncture if they were to send the “Other Place” to same said trashcan. Can we, as rational thinkers in the twenty first century really believe that this place called Hell exists. And before we move on can we consign two other items to our theoretical trashcan? or failing consignment let us redefine them.
“Sin” and “Evil” are not stand alone entities that should be assigned their own tangible slot in the scheme of things, both are titles we, or more accurately our ancestors, misguidedly gave, to what are only concepts.
There is no such thing as Sin; sin is a concept of morality dreamt up by Bronze Age people as they scribbled away in their respective caves as they looked for new ways to cower and intimidate the lower orders.
And just as there is no sin as a separate entity, the exact same must apply to Evil.
Evil isn’t going to creep into your bedroom and give you a “Gotcha” as you hide your head under the covers.
Hopefully it will be your partner playing silly buggers, or worst case scenarios, a real bad dude that we misguidedly call evil, or worst still the cops bursting in with a “No Knock Warrant”
So let us return to hell, or more precisely the subject of hell.
There are those among us that, without hell, existing as a separate entity, would be for want of a more descriptive term, “In Shtuck” for what then would this abuser, for he is but that,
employ to frighten the living daylights out of these kids?
Perhaps he would do that which Adolf Hitler had no need as I paraphrase, “Had the Jew not existed, I would have had to invent him.”
The shorter being; Jew, hell or some other bogeyman is required to frighten whichever chosen group the abuser uses to further his own religious/political agenda.
It is a road I shall not go down in this post, but we have the perfect contemporary example of the use of the “Bogeyman”
albeit under another name.
But some few seconds into this clip we have a perfect example
an abuser going about his agenda.
“We want to leave an indelible impression that hell is a place where they absolutely don’t want to go.”
How any parent could subject their children to this is totally beyond my comprehension.
I leave you to draw your own conclusions.
The virus of faith. Dawkins. Part 3
I ask you then to watch this second clip as the good professor Dawkins shares his views with us on children and child abuse, this from the five to seven minute marker followed by an interesting conversation with Jill Mitten.
“A child is genetically pre programmed to accumulate knowledge from figures of authority.
A child brain, for very good Darwinian reasons has to be set up in such a way that it believes what it is told, for there just isn’t time for the child to experiment with warnings like “Don’t go too near the cliff’s edge, or don’t swim in the river there are crocodiles.”
Any child who applied a scientific sceptical questioning attitude to that would be dead.”
No matter what you may think of Dawkins, I think his logic is unarguable.
He then goes on:
“No wonder the Jesuit said, “Give me the child for the first seven years and I will give you the man.”
“The child brain will automatically believe what it is told even if what it is told is nonsense, and when the child grows up it will tend to pass on that same nonsense to it’s children, so religion goes from generation to generation.
For many people part of growing up is killing off the virus of faith with a good strong dose of rational thinking, but if an individual doesn’t succeed in shaking it off, his mind is stuck in a permanent state of infancy, and there is real danger he will infect the next generation."
The virus of faith. Part 2
Hopefully by now my direction is becoming apparent even if I have taken a circuitous route, and for those among you unfamiliar with Richard Dawkins I at least hope he has given food for thought.
This article started with an analogy of motorcars so befittingly we shall bring it to its conclusion in the same manner.
Our irresponsible parents are but a mile from home, and isn’t always the case, so close and yet so far, the cop in his cruiser in full “music and lights mode” has pulled the parents over and is castigating them for being totally irresponsible for driving around with their child in the front seat sans seat belt.
But when the cop gets a result on the check he has just run on the couple he finds that this is not an isolated incident but one of many, a pattern of incidents in fact.
Now the cop, having scraped numerous bodies up off the highway, justifiably is a tad upset and thinks these parents have no right to bring their kid up in this way, sooner or later the kid will end up dead.
And as it happened the kid did end up dead, not by the parent’s automobile, but by something equally as deadly, the parent’s “Faith.”
"Out of all of the sects in the world, we notice an uncanny coincidence: the overwhelming majority just happen to choose the one that their parents belong to. Not the sect that has the best evidence in its favour, the best miracles, the best moral code, the best cathedral, the best stained glass, the best music: when it comes to choosing from the smorgasbord of available religions, their potential virtues seem to count for nothing, compared to the matter of heredity. This is an unmistakable fact; nobody could seriously deny it. Yet people with full knowledge of the arbitrary nature of this heredity, somehow manage to go on believing in their religion, often with such fanaticism that they are prepared to murder people who follow a different one."
Richard Dawkins.
Update on “No knock search.”
Ignore. For link purposes only
Lord Bell was provided with details last Friday
morning of the above.
He responded yesterday via his lawyers, Carter Ruck,
attacking the Bureau. Lord Bell said:
"The conduct of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism
does not remotely constitute responsible journalism.
It is an attempt by unethical, deception to
manufacture a story where none exists."
Even if DCI Wall should surprise everyone on both sides
of the McCann fence, with a valid conclusion, built towards
via the seemingly unending dismissal of ‘likely ones’,
the question will remain as to why, given the Yard’s emphasis
on expediency, the truth was not arrived at until several years
had elapsed and more millions been spent.
In any event the Metropolitan Police will be happy to pursue
their inquiry all the while the special grants keep rolling in.
In reality, cessation is no more than the closure of a cheque book away.
It would only take one swingeing budget cut on behalf of this or
the next government to see to that.
Martin Roberts.
You can run cleaner as many times a day as you wish. But I ALWAYS run it before shut down.
Any Qs, let me know.
My ticked boxes.
Do the Reg once a week or so. If it asks if you want to back up? No
Note
Smiling wanly, Mrs McCann looked down at the pyjamas in her lap and added:
"These are virtually identical, but these are little bit smaller because they are Amelie's."
05 June 2007
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-459927/Madeleine-Exhausted-McCanns-Crimewatch-TV-appeal.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
But what I do see in that photo is that Amelie is wearing a peach-coloured smock top, not Madeleine as Kate McCann stated in her account of the truth.
Amelie and Madeleine, same clothing size? (Eeyore pyjamas spring to mind)
From "Madeleine" by Kate McCann, page 65/66
Some images are etched for all time on my brain. Madeleine that lunchtime is one of them. She was wearing an outfit I’d bought especially for her holiday: a peach-coloured smock top from Gap and some white broderie-anglaise shorts from Monsoon – a small extravagance, perhaps, but I’d pictured how lovely she would look in them and I’d been right.
At the Toddler Club near the Tapas restaurant Fiona collected Lily and headed back to her flat. Madeleine and I met up with Sean, Amelie and Gerry and returned to ours for lunch. As the children were getting quite restless in the apartment we decided to get them out in the fresh air before the afternoon’s activities. We went to the play area, which was such a hit with our three that they never seemed to get fed up with it. We then sat round the toddler pool for a while, dipping our feet in, and I took what has turned out to be my last photograph to date of Madeleine. Heartbreaking as it is to look at it for me now, it encapsulates the essence of Madeleine: so beautiful and so happy.
Madeleine: so beautiful and so happy, but not wearing her peach-coloured smock top (from Gap).
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Lars dear boy.
Having just watched an unrelated program by architectural historian, Dan Cruickshank, reminded me of a little misunderstanding when I previously mentioned Cruickshanks's The Fairytale Castles of King Ludwig II
That misunderstanding was entirely my fault due to omission. What I failed to make clear, was not your knowledge of the castles, but rather your assessment, as a German, of an Englishman's, (Cruickshank) view of the history surrounding Ludwig 11.
Please don't feel obliged to watch it, but it may be of interest at your leisure.
Regards Ted
Ludwig II of Bavaria, more commonly known by his nicknames the Swan King or the Dream King, is a legendary figure - the handsome boy-king, loved by his people, betrayed by his cabinet and found dead in tragic and mysterious circumstances. He spent his life in pursuit of the ideal of beauty, an ideal that found expression in three of the most extraordinary, ornate architectural schemes imaginable - the castle of Neuschwanstein and the palaces of Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee. Today, these three buildings are among Germany's biggest tourist attractions.
In this documentary Dan Cruickshank explores the rich aesthetic of Ludwig II - from the mock-medievalism of Neuschwanstein the iconic fairytale castle, which became the inspiration for Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle, to the rich Baroque splendour of Herrenchiemsee, Ludwig's answer to Versailles. Dan argues that Ludwig's castles are more than flamboyant kitsch and are, in fact, the key to unravelling the eternal enigma of Ludwig II
From TV show with the much respected English survivalist Ray Mears
Cletis, It was the shingle roof on the tent that inspired me to take the screenshots, I had never seen that before. Took a couple more while I was at it. All relative to settling Appalachia.
If you have a proxy for Britain, you should be able to view, otherwise . . . .
How the Wild West Was Won with Ray Mears - 1. Mountains
Ray Mears looks at how the landscapes of America's three great mountain ranges - the Appalachians, the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada - challenged the westward push of the early pioneers.
As Ray travels through each landscape he discovers how their awe-inspiring geography, extreme weather, wild animals and ecology presented both great opportunities and great challenges for the native Indians, mountain men, fur traders, wagon trains and gold miners of the Wild West.
Ray begins his westward journey in the Appalachians where he explores how their timbered slopes fuelled the lumber industry and provided the fuel and building material for the emerging nation. Native Appalachian Barbara Woodall and lumberjack Joe Currie share their family history with him, and he gets to grips with the rare 'hellbender' salamander.
Further west, in the high jagged peaks of the Rocky Mountains, Ray goes mule trekking with modern-day mountain man Stu Sorenson and he has close encounters with beaver, elk and black bear.
Finally, in the desert mountains of the Sierra Nevada, he explores the tragic story of the Donner Party wagon train whose members allegedly turned to cannibalism to survive. His journey ends as he pans for gold with modern day gold prospector John Gurney, and explores the boom and bust story of ghost town, Bodie.
Saved for posterity.
Ditched by Their Pope
By Anna Smith
Sunday Mirror
September 16, 2007
http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/columnists/annasmith/2007/09/16/ditched-by-their-pope-98487-19799045/
IF anything is to shake the McCanns' unswerving Catholic faith, it must be the Pope ditching them from the Vatican website.
In their dark hours, it was faith that kept them going. They had nowhere else to go.
They took their torment to the very seat of their faith - to the Vatican, where the Pope held their hands and told them he would pray for them. They seemed to gain great strength from that.
But now, in their hour of need, like Pontius Pilate, he has washed his hands of them. A whiff of guilt, and the Catholic hierarchy distance themselves. And this from an organisation built on guilt and hypocrisy.
This, from an organisation that for generations swept sexual abuse under the carpet, and gave shelter to paedophile priests who ruined hundreds of lives, from Glasgow to Boston to Donegal.
Shame on them.
Of course, the Vatican will say they constantly update their website on world events. Rubbish.
This extraordinary drama will be one of the most significant events in recent history.
But, like the Vatican, as much as the world seemed united in sorrow and support for Gerry and Kate, now the worm is turning.
And there is a condemnation mindset creeping in that is sickening to watch.
I was never comfortable with the media circus that has surrounded this tragedy. I think they were ill-advised by dubious media and PR people. I always had a feeling their highprofile campaign would come back to haunt them.
I remain convinced that they are innocent. To consider any other notion would be to abandon my faith in the human race.
But from early on, you could see the slick campaign didn't strike the same supportive chord with everyone.
But is it not enough to live with the knowledge, as they will for the rest of their lives, that they failed their daughter by not being there when the abductor struck? Is that not punishment enough?
And now we have the cynical media turning and hedging its bets. The hours have yet to get darker for the McCanns. I firmly believe there is a witch-hunt going on. Of course, none of us can prove that the McCanns were not involved in their daughter's disappearance. But what happened to innocent until proved guilty?
If Madeleine WAS killed accidentally, then where did the parents hide the body? A corpse would go off in the heat in a matter of days, never mind weeks.
So, are we to believe the McCanns stored their daughter's body in the freezer of their holiday apartment, then stole out in the dead of night, away from the media glare, and moved it?
It's ridiculous.
And, as for any DNA the Portuguese cops come up with, as far as I am concerned, all of their evidence is tainted.
Portuguese police have never found the body of an eight-year-old girl who disappeared nearby in similar circumstances in 2004. Her uncle and mother were jailed for the murder, but five police officers have now been accused of forcing a confession out of them.
Most of our hearts are bleeding for this couple. Their lives are ruined, no matter what the outcome. You would have thought the one lifeline they could have depended on to the bitter end would be the Catholic Church.
Presumably someone has been in touch with the authorities. It wouldn't do for the Catholic Church to lose its absolute grip on a country so slavishly devout as Portugal.
Rather than turn our backs on this desperate couple, it's time we all got behind them. Our politicians should step in and ask questions.
I don't want to hear guarded comments from Home Secretary Jacqui Smith saying she hopes the Portuguese investigation will find Madeleine. I want her to express disgust at how the cops are drip-feeding the Portuguese media with lurid titbits for their front pages.
And I hope, if charges should come, that before she allows this couple to be extradited, she makes sure they are not being stitched up so that Portugal can escape this unsavoury spotlight that history will remember them for.
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2007/09_10/2007_09_16_Smith_DitchedBy.htm
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "God Gaol and Kate McCann":
http://www.mirror.co.uk/opinion/2007/09/16/ditched-by-their-pope-98487-19799045/
Mirror can’t find the page, but we can:
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2007/09_10/2007_09_16_Smith_DitchedBy.htm
September 16, 2007
IF anything is to shake the McCanns' unswerving Catholic faith, it must be the Pope ditching them from the Vatican website.
A whiff of guilt, and the Catholic hierarchy distance themselves. And this from an organisation built on guilt and hypocrisy.
Oh, the irony.
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