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Friday 28 September 2007

Moral Outrages just don't have the power these days

The Arch Bishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has suddenly decided that the UK is in moral decline. Not exactly a new observation, but coming from an organisation that has hardly any influence in preventing that decline, and in many cases can be seen to have encouraged it, it’s a little rich.

The Church of England (C of E) appears to have ceased to hold biblical Christianity at its core anymore. Despite a passive Christianity, which leads over fifty percent of the UK to still say that they believe in Christ and God, religious attendances are generally in decline, with a few exceptions, mainly on the Catholic and Evangelical wings and Islam of course.

I will back that statement up with a few observations:
  • Less that one hundred years ago, in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, when the C of E still had the moral and intellectual strength that Dr Williams appears to want again, the church would not have let a militant Islam murder Christians around the globe without calling for an armed response.
  • It would also not have stood by while radical Islam conquered the inner cities in the UK, and threatened to displace it as the most practised religion.
  • Now the church, in its desperation to get some ‘numbers’ will baptise children, even when one of the parents is not a professed Christian. The truth is that in many cases both of these parents have never been to a church, and no longer understand the services, but the church can’t afford to have morals or scruples over this anymore.
  • The squabble over the ordination of women is bit strange in a way, because the very early church had deaconesses, but then it removed women from the power structure. So for 1700 yrs the Church was a male domain, in the tradition of Judaism from which it stemmed.
  • So, it ill behoves the C of E to introduce another set of divisions into its relations with Rome and the other Anglican unions (such as Africa), when there was no doctrinal need to. Christianity is under attack, and division helps only those who would see it defeated. The ordination of Homosexuals, some of whom have lied about their activism in order to be ordained, was not only politically stupid, but scripturally a bit unsound.

The promise of the Episcopal Church in the US "not to bless same sex unions or make anymore homosexual Bishops" is rather hollow as the principal has already been set. Certainly the African Anglicans don't believe it.

Once something that is described as an abomination in the Bible, is now accepted as OK for a Priest or Bishop, then which part of Revelations are we in? Well that’s how the ‘conservatives’ see it. So it appears that the Church is part of the very problem that Dr Williams is complaining about. Even a Vicar appears to have problems with the Churches Approach. Rev Julie Nicholson a vicar has given up her post because after the murder of her child in the London 7/7 terrorist bombings, she can neither forgive the murdering bastards who did it, nor accept that she should 'have' to do so as a vicar.

Would an Islamist forgive? I doubt it, turning the other cheek for them means their ass cheeks, not forgiveness. It's part of the weakness of the West's moral position, that it no longer hits back when attacked, no matter how mindless the attacks. Can anyone imagine a Victorian Minister taking violence off the natives? No, I thought not.

As for moral decline in society, then we only have to look at the world of the media, especially TV to see how moral values have declined. Being on TV or a politician appears to raise you above consequences (except for paedophiles). Here are examples of ‘celebrities’ whose behaviour would probably have finished their media or political careers in the past.

Richard Bacon – A children’s TV presenter for whom allegations of cocaine usage only led to an upsurge of his career with the BBC.

Craig Charles – An actor (Red Dwarf) for whom a police caution about possession of a class “A” drug, as well as other high profile court cases have never dented his employability.

George Michael - arrested in 1998 for "engaging in a lewd act" in a public restroom in a Beverly Hills city park. Sells as many records as ever, and no doubt I will live to see the day he gets a knighthood if he doesn't die first.

Angus Deighton - A comedian fired from a quiz show after revelations of cocaine-snorting and having sex with a couple of women. Keeps making partial comebacks and sooner or later will succeed.

John Prescott - British Deputy Prime Minister, was revealed in to have had an affair with a female Civil Servant. Further allegations of harassment emerged in April 2006 – He never even hinted at resignation, and will probably end up in the house of Lords.

Peter Mandelson – British Politician. Money scandals, and passports for ‘friends’ took him out of government, but amazingly straight into a job on the European Commission. His sexuality and the ease with which his ‘partner’ got a British passport, was apparently not considered a resignation issue these days.

Examples from the less recent past where careers were ended because of ‘moral outrage’.

Frank Bough - A BBC reporter, reported in 1993 to have had sex with prostitutes while using cocaine and dressed in female underwear – see Angus Deighton.

John Leslie - TV Presenter, 2002 rape scandal, despite being cleared due to lack of evidence, his career never recovered only for it to end with a further sex scandal which killed his career off as a result – See Craig Charles.

Leslie Grantham - (British Actor) Posed for suggestive videos on the internet in 2004.

Cecil Parkinson - British Politician resigned from the government cabinet after it was revealed he had fathered a child with his Secretary, and reneged on a promise to marry her. The revelation destroyed Parkinson's political career (See Prescott for the new morality on ministers and civil servants).

The 1963 Profumo Affair - British Secretary of State for War John Profumo attempted to cover up his use of a call-girl.

Lord Lambton - A minister in the UK government of Edward Heath, was forced to resign in disgrace in 1973 after it was revealed he had used prostitutes and marijuana.

Michael Barrymore - A UK comedian who at the hight of his TV popularity came out from behind his beard, and declared himself to be ‘gay’. This initially didn’t damage his career, but he then appeared in a series of high profile incidents, allegedly involving drinks or drugs, culminating in a ‘party’ at his house in which a young man was violently sexually assaulted and killed. The murderer is still at large.

I suspect that the new morality is set by media and politicians themselves …. ‘Luvvies’ can get away with anything, non luvvies go down, and stay down. You can decide yourself why some stay of the above have failed to make a comeback, while others are given work again.

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This post is from the site No PC Views. if you are viewing it elsewhere, then it has been scraped or stolen. You may wish to view the post in its original context by visiting No PC Views (http://no-pc.blogspot.co.uk/)

Tuesday 25 September 2007

Why is positive discrimination not discrimination?

The PC world still has one card it has to play against the white male …“Positive Discrimination” … yep we have already had “All Women” lists, and now we are to have “All Black” lists.

So why is that, if a white male said he wanted to do something that banned any female or non white male, he would go to jail, but women can insist on all women lists, and now blacks can insist on black only lists, but that’s not racist, somehow?

Interestingly if a white woman tried for some constituencies under these proposals, unless she was black she would be refused. However, maybe as a double jeopardy, black females would have twice the chance on an all black shortlist…. So twice the chance of another Dianne Abbott or Dawn Butler or Oona King … thrilling.

Interestingly, for most of the 19th century, Jews and Catholics were actively banned from certain occupations, including standing for parliament (a situation which has never applied to black people), but the only ‘positive’ discrimination they needed was the removal of the ban. They then made it on their own merits.

Blacks (and some women it seems), appear to need to be given protected jobs in order to get on …. Or maybe it’s just that they are not prepared to do the work that a white male generally has to (political advisers excepted), in order to get selected as a candidate MP e.g. 10 yrs as a councillor and maybe 20 yrs as a party activist?

Now, as discussed on this site, the whole non white population of the UK is only 8% according to the latest survey (2001), the ethnic mix in the UK is White 92.1% (English 83.6%, Scottish 8.6%, Welsh 4.9%, Northern Irish 2.9%) Black 2%, Indian 1.8%, Pakistani 1.3%, Mixed 1.2%, Other 1.6%

As there are a total of 646 MP's, then 8% of them is 51 cross party (not 51 labour only, as the story implies), so are we going to apply a ceiling on the number of non white MPs, restricting it to 51? What then, should Afro Caribbean’s be allowed to only have 13 MP's and 12 Indians and 11 Pakistani’s etc etc until everyone is happy?

Where does it end, proportional representation by list to ensure that every group got its chance, but what about sexual preference, 2.5% of the population is gay, are they part of lists or are they a separate ‘racial’ group?

Obviously the next logical step is to insist on lesbian only or homosexual only short lists for constituencies.

What a farce, its no wonder that active democracy is all but dead, when the majority who do not support these political laws, are ignored to favour a political elite who no longer care what the majority want.

How can I prove this well just look at law and order, prison, hanging, immigration, and state benefits, and then look at how the MP’s vote against the public's wishes.

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This post is from the site No PC Views. if you are viewing it elsewhere, then it has been scraped or stolen. You may wish to view the post in its original context by visiting No PC Views (http://no-pc.blogspot.co.uk/)

Monday 17 September 2007

The Babel Fish

When the late Douglas Adams came up with the idea of the BABEL FISH as a universal translator, he would never have guessed that this would ever really happen.

But now, in the US, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the US is working on such a device. Seeing as these are the same guys who came up with GPS Sat Nav, and the Internet, then we should take this seriously.

The Babel Fish

What a difference such a device would make to the world. No more need for travel language Tapes; CD’s etc … just a plug and play ear device, and you can understand what anyone says…. Or so they hope.

Anyone who has tried any of the online translation devices, will know that context is all, as their literal translations are usually completely idiotic. Therefore I suspect that the US team may have a ways to go before they can unleash this device on the world.

They also are working on a device that can see humans through walls, read their heart rate and decide if they are hostile or hiding. One of their guys said “And 10 years from now, the technology will be much smarter. We'll scan a person with one of these things and tell what they're actually thinking."

"Yeah, I know," he said. "It sounds very Star Trekkish, but that's what's ahead."

So there you are world …. You have been warned.

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This post is from the site No PC Views. if you are viewing it elsewhere, then it has been scraped or stolen. You may wish to view the post in its original context by visiting No PC Views (http://no-pc.blogspot.co.uk/)

Tuesday 11 September 2007

Some lighter news stories

EU gives up on 'metric Britain'

Britain say's 'Non' to Napoleon.

At last a good news story from the EU. Over 30 yrs of attempts to convert us to the weights and measures of Napoleon have ended. "I want to bring to an end a bitter, bitter battle that has lasted for decades, and which in my view is completely pointless. We're bringing this battle to an end." said Industry Commissioner Gunter Verheugen, as he announced that UK traders can display prices in both Imperial and metric weights, and that the UK will retain 'Pints' and have road distances in Miles, not Kilometers.

Sadly the original Metric Martyr Steve Thorburn didn’t see his victory, as he died unexpectedly some years ago.

Just as sadly, our PC schools will continue to only teach in metric (and on calculators), so eventually there will be no one who can use Pints, Pounds and Ounces or Miles but I for one expect to see a few more years and welcome the news. Mind you without calculators, more than half our kids can't perform simple calculations in their heads, or on paper.

Ocktoberfest’ Palestinian style.

The Christian village of Taybeh in the west bank, has a mini brewery which produces beer to Bavarian standards of purity (which allows only four ingredients: malt, hops, pure water and yeast), which it supplies local Christian villages with.

And in celebration of this fact, they hold an annual ‘Ocktoberfest’, held in September so as not to offend Muslims (ah well, that’s always the case everywhere these days). It’s highly attended and popular with Christians and some Muslims, and if not for the travel problems caused by the Israeli army defending a couple of illegal Jewish settlements would be even more successful.

Let’s hope that this festival grows and grows as it appears to be the one jolly thing that happens in that permanently blighted part of the world.

Electric debate between young and old

In the Taiwanese village known locally as the ‘Dark Village’, the older and younger members of the Amis tribe (a local aboriginal group) are debating the merits of having electricity or not. The village is only occupied in the summer months (they have electricity in the other winter village), and has never had electricity, but that may change after a court action by the tribe to regain full control of the land surrounding the village. Tourism has meant that power pylons are now in range of the 'dark' village.

The older villagers want electricity because of the convenience it allows, but some of the younger villagers want to keep the summer village ‘dark’ because of the social spirit the lack of electricity engenders in the evenings.

Oddly this is a reversal of the normal tendency of the old not to want changes.

And lastly Kenya's bus stop cartoonist


Humphrey Barasa a resident of Nairobi in Kenya has taken to drawing cartoons on a bus shelter near his home. These cartoons which reflect on life and politics in Kenya, and Africa, have proved popular with regular users of the stop.


In this cartoon, Humphrey illustrates Kenyan churches, civil society and the media, along with the US and the international community, urging President Mwai Kibaki not to sign a proposed media bill. Critics said it would suppress media freedom. President Kibaki refused to assent to the bill.

This unusual take on bus stop graffiti has attracted much attention to Mr Barasa's talents, and he hopes to be offered a full time cartoonists gig with one of the national newspapers.
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This post is from the site No PC Views. if you are viewing it elsewhere, then it has been scraped or stolen. You may wish to view the post in its original context by visiting No PC Views (http://no-pc.blogspot.co.uk/)

Monday 10 September 2007

Becoming a Cause Célèbre

Causes Célèbres are those issues or incidents arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning and/or heated public debate. Often there is a long running legal battle attached. These can also be classed as scandals.

In modern times few incidents can have so easily met these criteria as the case of Madeline (‘Maddy’) McCann. A quick reminder of the circumstances of this case is that this little girl ‘disappeared’ from her bedroom whilst on holiday with her family in Portugal. The possibilities have quickly narrowed to

  • Abduction by person or persons unknown, for reasons unknown.
  • Accidental death or Murder caused by a member of the family.
Her parents Kate and Gerry have run a very high profile campaign to publicise this disappearance, but recently attention has turned back to them, with both being ‘formally named as suspects’ by the Portuguese police. This is a legal device in Portugal, and despite the fevered press attention, is not necessarily indicative of guilt, as it merely allows the police to ask certain questions under caution and gives legal protection to the suspect.

This is a very middle class family with great resources, and for some reason this has attracted antipathy of a class hatred kind in some quarters of the popular press and internet, and this, along with the publicity campaign run by the family, has kept the case in the headlines.

Becoming a cause célèbre is a two sided sword. On one hand you get vast amounts of publicity, but on the flip side, the press often start looking for a victim to end the saga with, as they don’t want an unresolved story after investing so much time on the matter.
The Lindbergh baby case in the US is similar in its worldwide press coverage, with a missing child and suspicion turning from one person to another. In the end there is great controversy about the Lindbergh investigation with many people hounded (including to suicide, in the case of a maid) by the press and police, and no real certainty that they ever found all the true suspects.
In particular although some of the ransom money turned up with the man who was executed for the crime, Bruno 'Richard' Hauptman, there is still considerable doubt that he was either involved, or if involved, the only one. For more information on the Lindbergh case go to the FBI site.

The circus of press coverage has returned to the UK with the McCann’s, and in reality this has now changed from the search for ‘Maddy’, to the ‘will they won’t they be charged’ developments in Portugal and the UK. The press are beginning to sense blood in the water and are circling looking for someone to corner.

Sadly, no matter what the initial circumstances, the little girl remains unfound, and despite her parent’s apparent fervent wishes, it would appear that she is more likely to be found dead or not at all, rather than alive. I say that simply based upon the police estimate of “72” hrs for missing people being found alive, and after that period the chances diminish quickly in abduction cases (especially for missing children, where the timescales can be as small as 24 or 12 hrs). It should be pointed out that the police find most missing adult people safe and well within the 72 hour timescales.

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This post is from the site No PC Views. if you are viewing it elsewhere, then it has been scraped or stolen. You may wish to view the post in its original context by visiting No PC Views (http://no-pc.blogspot.co.uk/)

Wednesday 5 September 2007

Converts Are The Most Dangerous Of People

So why are converts to Islam (and sometime to Christianity) always the most radical and dangerous of people?
 
Richard Reid - Shoe Bomber
Richard Reid - Islamic Convert

 
Well the answer has to be, simply because they chose out of conviction to become Muslims (or Christians or Buddhists or whatever), and so the light of the true believer shines through their eyes.

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