Why try and save the world when you can blog. Internet campaigning war; as we enter humanities last century, let's fiddle while the earth burns, anyone seen the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse yet? Political Rapture! End days?
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Nothing to kill or die for, And no religion too
Imagine there's no heaven It's easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people Living for today...
Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace...
You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man Imagine all the people Sharing all the world...
You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will live as one
[Religion] is a factor in most modern wars and, in many, religious fundamentalism and intolerance exacerbate rather than diminish the ferocity of conflict. I know of no religion that has successfully entrenched the maxim to love one's neighbour as oneself to political effect. (Simon Jenkins, former editor of The Times) Redeeming Religion in the Public Square -Jul 24, 2006 http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/article_060724redeeming.shtml
Charles should have interfaith coronation?
The UK is mostly secular. Thank God for the demise of 'Christendom'! “Gott ist tot(God is dead) declaimed Friedrich Nietzsche many a long year ago yet now people aresaying should Prince Charles become the Defender of the Christian faith at his Coronation, and there is an article and debate at the Sunday Times asking whether it time to take 'God out of the state'? http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2415625,00.html
Defender of Faith - not Defender of the Faith
“The coronation of the Prince of Wales must be an “interfaith” event, the former Archbishop of Canterbury has controversially claimed. Lord Carey believes that the next coronation needs “very significant changes” so that it is “inclusive” of other religions that have spread across Britain.
The prince, who will become Supreme Governor of the Church of England when he becomes king, has already said that he wants to be Defender of Faith - not Defender of the Faith - when he accedes to the throne.”
“A senior Anglican bishop, Bishop Nazir-Ali, has questioned the Prince of Wales's intention to be seen as the defender of all faiths, rather than just Christianity. He said that the differences between the faiths made it impossible to defend all of them. And he pointed out that Prince Charles would be obliged to take an oath to defend the Christian church if he succeeded to the throne.”
We owe the notion of separation of church and state to the founding fathers of the United States of America. “The phrase separation of church and state is a common interpretation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which reads, ”Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof … .” The phrase itself does not appear in any founding American document, but it has been quoted in opinions by the United States Supreme Court. (The first such mention was in Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145 in 1878.)” says wikipeadia:
“In 1773, Isaac Backus, a prominent Baptist minister in New England, observed that when “church and state are separate, the effects are happy, and they do not at all interfere with each other: but where they have been confounded together, no tongue nor pen can fully describe the mischiefs that have ensued.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_church_and_state_in_the_United_States
Guido Fawkes aka Paul Staines Censors Me On his Blog
Guido Fawkes, libertarian, right-wing hippy (oxymoron?) Censors Me On his Blog this morning: Whats the prawn behind the noodle?
Well I must confess that I am shocked that Blogger Bad Boy, libertarian, defender of free speech Guido Fawkes deleted several of my comments on his blog this morning. Obviously got out the wrong side of bed, hangover?
It is a storm in a teacup, I wasn't being abusive just pointing out his identity and his biography, so it would seem he wants to keep his past quiet! I can't remember exactly what I posted some snippets from this and
Paul Staines aka Guido Fawkes: From http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Paul_Staines
Paul Staines was the creator of Popular Propaganda, a libertarian marketing enterprise which produced T-shirts and posters aimed at the student market. It was moderately successful and earned him a degree of notoriety in the mid-80s in student politics.
'In the Grip of the Sandinistas', his critical study of a decade of Marxist rule in Nicaragua, was published in 1989. He was a foreign policy analyst with the Committee for a Free Britain before becoming director of the Freedom to Party Campaign and later UK secretary-general of the International Society for Human Rights and editor of 'Human Rights Briefing.' [1] (http://serendipity.nofadz.com/wod/staines.html)
Paul Staines is a former member of the Committee for a Free Britain a shadowy organisation which was funded by Sir James Goldsmith, Rupert Murdoch and David Hart. His self described role with the organisation was as "a foreign policy analyst".
Paul Staines went on to become one of the people behind the Acid House craze of the early 90s and was involved with the "Sunrise" and "Back to the Future" M25 orbital raves that led the police on a merry dance. He features in the best selling "Altered State : The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House written by Matthew Collin, ex-editor of trend bible ID magazine.
"Generation Ecstasy : Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture by Simon Reynolds describes him as "a Libertarian Conservative whose day job was as assistant to rabid freemarket ideologue David Hart, one of Thatcher's favorite advisors." David Hart (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2003/09/27/bthart.xml) masterminded the breaking of the miner's strike and was a favourite courtier of Thatcher. She would ask multi-millionaire Hart to make suggestions for her speeches. Staines as aides-de-camp was reputed to come up with the jokes. Hart and Staines shared a right-wing hippy libertarian outlook.
Staines wrote a seminal chapter in Nicholas Saunder's classic "E for Ecstasy (http://www.moravek.net/ovisnosti/pdf/E.pdf)" where he admits to enjoying deliberately mixing politics, dance music and drugs.
He is reputed to have made his later fortune in Asia from investing in technology companies via Bahamas based hedge fund, Mondial Global Investors LLC (http://profiles.yahoo.com/mondialglobalinvestors) and the Tokyo based MGI Nihon Seicho Kabushiki Fund. Mondial Global Investors is now defunct.
His current overt public political activity appears to be restricted to working with the Global Growth Organisation (http://www.global-growth.org/),an NGO he founded in 2004. GGO focuses on international trade and development issues advocating "enterprise based solutions to poverty". It campaigns against protectionism and advocates free trade for Africa and the opening up of Western economies to developing world exports unilaterally. GGO has held fund raisers at the Cobden Club in Notting Hill.
A controversial Thunderer column with the headline "You want policy? In cash?" (http://www.spinwatch.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2064) under his byline appeared in The Times (December 20, 2005) attacking think tanks as "wonk whores" for taking covert corporate funding.
Paul Staines has neither denied or confirmed that he is the author of Guido Fawkes' Blog (http://www.order-order.com). The popular political gossip site won the 2005 Guardian Political Commentary Blog of the Year Award and has a large following in media and political circles. "Guido Fawkes" co-edited with Iain Dale the bestselling Little Red Book of New Labour Sleaze
Mum is Iranian, what Iran needs now is a more modern leader ~ a mullah lite ~ dad is Irish which meant as a kid we spent most of our family holidays in customs actually! Really! Suss laws, remember them? How Irish people love Muslims now; they have taken a lot of heat off of us. Before, we were “the terrorists” but now, we’re “the Riverdance people”. I was surprised how Muslims reacted to the Danish cartoons. I thought: “How can you get this worked up about a cartoon?” But then I remembered how angry I was when they gave Scooby Doo a cousin. Let me tell you what blasphemy is. It’s the idea there’s a superior being who can make the mountains, the oceans and the skies, but who still gets upset about something I said. She’s an all-powerful being, but she’s just got self-esteem issues.
___________________________________________ Straw walks into race row over Muslim women's veil Scotsman, United Kingdom - 43 minutes ago JACK Straw, the former foreign secretary, waded into a race and sexism row last night ... he asks female Muslim constituents who visit him to remove their veils. ... Straw leads where the Met fears to follow Telegraph.co.uk Straw hijab remarks divide Muslim community ITV.com Take off the veil, says Straw - to immediate anger from Muslims Guardian Unlimited
Jesus Camp : Kids Worshipping to a George Bush Picture (ABC News)
Fischer said. “Because, excuse me, we have the truth.”!!!!
Jesus Camp : ”how to take back America for Christ.” Pastor Becky Fischer's Bible camp at 'Devil's Lake' in North Dakota. “The children are heard speaking in tongues, praying for an end to abortion, crying over plastic foetuses and saying a Christian alternative pledge of allegiance to a cardboard likeness of George Bush. Some Evangelical Christians however are now frantically trying to distance themselves the ones portrayed in the film.” ekklesia
“Mike Papantonio, a Methodist and Air America Radio “Ring of Fire” radio talk show host, takes on the evangelicals at several points in the documentary: he says the religious right is destroying youth and American democracy. “They’re training Christian soldiers for the Republican Party,” Papantonio says in “Jesus Camp”. Albrecht Dürer - Pestilence, War, Famine, Death Four horsemen of the …
Then Channel 4 News: “Jesus Camp” is a documentary about an evangelical retreat that teaches children they should prepare to die for God. A remarkable glimpse into how Christian fundamentalists have been co-opted by the Republican right - in the country that refined the notion of separation of church and state.”
_________________________________________________________ Donkey Monkey Question Time : anthropomorphic puppets interviewing politicians. Tony Blair famously talked about political cross dressing, as reported by the BBC in July 2006:
“Cross dressing” between different parties over policy has replaced the era of “tribal” politics, Tony Blair has told Rupert Murdoch's media chiefs. Mr Blair told News Corporation's annual conference in California that most policy prescriptions now crossed “traditional left/right lines”.
As much as Tony Blair admiring Thatcher, so Cameron admires Blair and is much better than Gordon Brown at being Tony Blair. This was exploited ruthlessly by Armando Iannucci (he writes a very funny column on the back page of the Observer) in his recent BBC2 comedy mockumentary , Time Trumpet, “…,and features hilarious footage of Cameron speaking, intercut with snippets of speeches by the prime minister, Tony Blair, in which he uses exactly the same phrases.”
The Guardian reports now that David Cameron's videocast hit by cybersquatters for UK Independence party who are directing users to a spoof Armando Iannucci video set to David Bowie's Changes: webcameron.info , if you are looking for webcameron youll find a link through to a YouTube page . (YouTube have now disabled the embedding, the Tories must have been on their case)
Also I loved “David Cameron on Donkey Monkey Question Time (Time Trumpet)” A very cheeky donkey, but then thats anthropomorphic puppets for you, Paxman anyone?
Left of centre, non-aligned, Brighton blogger, taking a anarchic, polemical, intelligent, decentred approach moving around the political compass for a more integral approach.
