Whatsthatsmell?

Hallowe'en Rant: The Church Party

Okay, so they organised an "alternative" Hallowe'en party at the church because some parents are "concerned" about the pagan and satanic implications of Hallowe'en.  Okay, I'm just going to keep my mouth shut, as my daughter would enjoy a party, and despite me (an ex-pagan) going into a rant about how many pagans actually get offended by turning it into a children's holiday where their beliefs get mocked.

But what did they replace it with?  A Star Wars party.  And they tried to sell Star Wars to the kids as "Judaeo-Christian" thing rather than as a Taoist-Buddhist-Joseph Campbell hodge-podge of beliefs that are shared across many world religions...

Talk about false idols.  I am really disturbed by this.  The closest thing in Christianity that the theology of Star Wars comes to is Manichaeism, a Gnostic belief system that was deemed a heresy as early as the 4th Century.  Star Wars may have a story where Good ultimately triumphs over Evil, but there is an inherent dualism between the Dark and the Light Sides of the Force, an impersonal pantheistic force that penetrates everything.  Definitely not the G-d of the Torah nor Our Saviour of the New Testament.

I am really torn.  Do I inform the person who was selling this that she was misinforming the kids?  Or do I let it slide?  Is it really worth it?

Of Men and Giants

I just started reading Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton.

Just two sentences in, his prose elicits an appreciative grin.  What a pure pleasure.

One gets the feeling one is in the presence of a giant among men. 

I'm really looking forward to the rest of it...

I Should Avoid "Thought for the Day"

on the Today programme on Radio 4.  Some C of E clergyman today began with the idea of how biofuels are an easy target as the scapegoat for the world's food problems, but that it is difficult to balance hunger against our need to tackle "climate change" and our energy needs.

It's not bloody difficult, matey...

You and your ilk made us take on these "climate change" policies on the basis that people could find themselves starving and there will be world anarchy in fifty years if we don't do something, anything!

Well, guess what, bucko?  It's happening now...

Because of your climate change policies.

Heck, even our lefty Chancellor sees there's a problem with biofuels...But no, because the EU will not give way, we must go with them.  (Did someone hear the word sovereignty in there?)

Who cares, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, can you?

Even More Solzhenitsyn

There’s plenty to blog about, but I don’t really have the discipline to do that on top of schoolwork, paid work, and life...So, here you go, a third helping of Solzhenitsyn from The Gulag Archipelago. And if you ever get a chance, I recommend you read it yourself.

A must read for anyone interested in morality and freedom.

More Solzhenitsyn

In no exact order:

Quoting the head of the Cheka, Martin Latsis from the newspaper Red Terror, in 1918:

"We are not fighting against single individuals.  We are exterminating the bourgeoisie as a class.  It is not necessary during an interrogation to look for evidence proving that the accused opposed the Soviets by word or action.  The first question which you should ask him is what class does he belong to, what is his origin, his education and his profession.  These are the questions which will determine the fate of the accused.  Such is the sense and the essence of the red terror."

And I wonder how far away we are from this:

My How Times Change

Did you see Newsnight last night?  Wow...

About 14 minutes in, Jeremy Paxman begins a debate between Douglas Murray (noted British Neoconservative and all-round good egg in the intellectual debate over the Islamisation of European society) one one side, and, on the other side, the extremely PC Bishop of Hulme (who likes using the word Islamophobia a lot) and the world's most dangerous Islamist, Tariq Ramadan. 

Ramadan is so bad that even the French and the Canadians won't give him a visa.  Of course, why get a French or Canadian visa when you can get a professorship at Oxford, eh?

Ramadan talks a good, peaceful game as an urbane modern intellectual, and constantly speaks of modernising Islam.  A few people have stated, however, that Ramadan does not fall into the camp that wants to modernise Islam, but that he wants to Islamise modernity.

I had made some observations about the welcome Ramadan was given by Paxman almost exactly two years ago on Newsnight.  It appears from the debate last night that Paxman has been doing a little bit of research.

This is one of those times where one can honestly see Paxman taking sides.  And he helps Murray to pwn both Hulme and Ramadan.

One of the things you can say about Paxman, despite his working for a problematic organisation like the BBC and perhaps some of his supposed positions, he is intensely patriotic.  For proof, I highly recommend his extremely readable The English.  That patriotism came to the fore last night.  (I would be interested to read his memoirs when he finally does retire to see what he really thinks of the bias of the organisation he works for.)

Anyway, we were happy to watch it.  I think the link I put up is good through Monday.

As one leader (Romney) shows his heart...

another leader shows his ass...

I have an e-mail out to my church's treasurer asking him if anything I donate makes its way to supporting the Archbishop of Canterbury.  If it does, I think I'm going to have to find another home for that money.

UPDATE: Money given at the parish level does not filter up to the bishops and archbishops, they are paid from Church investment income.  A bit relieved...I am beginning to think that the Archbishop is an atheist or Muslim convert.  (At the very least, he's so open-minded, his brain's fallen out.)

And another funny thing happened to me...

Today...

One of the people who is affiliated with the project management organisation for which I am the PMO Manager (but not the ultimate guy in charge) sent me an instant message asking me if there was anywhere she could pray a couple of times a day.

Faster than you could shake a stick, I replied...Don't think so...Ask the building manager.

There are times where I am truly grateful that I am not responsible for making some decisions.

I showed it to my boss and told him I was glad that that wasn't my call...He said: "yeah, I know what you'd say!"

It would have to be a conflicted decision if I had to make it, that's for sure.  I often see things like this happening elsewhere and tut-tut over the outcomes of whatever controversy gets raised.  But I'm not sure how I would react if it really was up to me.

Lost in the Cosmos...

I recently finished reading Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book by Walker Percy.  Although I finished it about a week ago, its effects are still lingering with me.

Don't be fooled by the title, it is not a self-help book in the traditional sense.

It's a book filled with philosophical assertions and conundrums and discourses on semiotics, followed up with short mini-quizzes, which culminate in a question as to which sort of world would one want to live in (after several hypotheticals).  And I suppose it is within these short Q & As that one "discovers" oneself, or is forced to confront the fundamental inconsistencies within one's belief system. 

Unlike with comparable works which I have read - by the likes of Robert Anton Wilson, for instance - one is left a bit more hopeful and less agnostic than from the point whence one begins.

He also hits upon a few issues that have been in the forefront of my navel-gazing of late:

This Morning's "Thought for the Day" on...

Radio 4 really wound me up.  I am assuming, by the way the bloke was talking (I didn't catch who it was), that he was C of E clergyman of some sort.

He was twittering on about how the Christians in Bethlehem are deserting Bethlehem because the mean nasty Jews Israelis have built the wall which restricts the free movement of goods, so they can't do business anymore.  Although there may be a kernel of truth to the point that the wall does restrict trade, it completely ignores the Muslim elephant sitting in the middle of the room.

A two-second Google gives me the Palestine Authority's own census figures for the years 2004 to 2006.  Which shows that during that time, Bethlehem's population rose by 11,000 people.  But if Christians were once 90% of the population and are now estimated at between 15% and 30%, it must be because the Jews Israelis are persecuting them, not because of any other significant issue. 

I am sick to death of Leftism masquerading as Religion in the Church.  I can excuse the average Joe on the street who goes no further than glimpses at the television news for his ignorance about what happens to Christians throughout the Middle East.  But the stance of members of the British clergy, who should know more than the average layman, indicates one of two things (or a mixture of both) to me:

 

1.  They are complete dupes of anyone sporting brown skin, an AK47, reflective sunglasses, and paramilitary fatigues.

or

2.  They know the truth but are lying through their teeth for ideological reasons.



So what is it that most Middle Eastern countries have in common that would lead to the widespread persecution and murder of Christians?  It certainly isn't Jews.   The events of 1948 pretty much made that a moot point.

I wonder what it could be.  Hmmm...

By the way, here's an article in the Jerusalem Post written earlier this year about the real reasons Christians are deserting Bethlehem.  But if I were you, I wouldn't believe it because the author is a Jew ...wait a minute...Is Khaled abu Toameh a Jewish name?  You never know with these tricky Jews Israelis.

Now, if this C of E clergyman I heard on the radio is right, then there is one salient question he isn't answering:

Why would Muslims move to or stay some place where they are being persecuted so much by the Jews Israelis?

Are they stupid in some way in which Christians aren't?  Or is Jewish persecution aimed squarely at Christians?

But I doubt the Clergy Leftards would go there, because an affirmative answer to either of these questions would lead to some major cognitive dissonance (as if that ever bothered a Lefty):  Answer yes to the first one and you are implying that Christianity is (gasp!) superior to Islam.  Answer yes to the second question, then what the hell have you Leftards been prattling on about since 1967, as only 2.4% of Palestinians are Christians?