The system stinks!

I am, as yet, unable to comment on the sentences handed out to nine schoolboy rapists who have now been found guilty of a vicious attack on a 14 year old girl. The reason for the delay is that the Judge, Wendy Joseph QC, has been obliged to send out for pre sentence reports. Whenever imprisonment is considered - and for disposals of a much lesser nature - these are required.
She also declared that she wanted to know what these youths had in their backgrounds.
For the sake of all pity - WHY?
When you have been part of a street gang which has brutalised a girl over a lengthy period inducing the worst terrors imaginable and undoubtedly making her fear for her life, what does their background have to do with sentencing?
They must be sentenced for the crime purely and simply and any youth receiving a sentence of less than eight years must be considered to have 'got away with it' entirely. I would hand out even greater penalties of 10 years plus. If they had been older, I do not see how 15 years could have sufficed for anything this heinous and I would have thought 20 years to be entirely appropriate.

LINK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1084469/Nine-schoolboy-rapists-facing-jail-punishment-attack-14-year-old-insulted-gang-leaders-girlfriend.html

David Bellamy.

I miss David Bellamy on TV. But as he has gone against [un?]official BBC policy; as he has spoken his mind; as he has not been sufficiently PC, he has been cast into the Beeb's version of outer darkness.

What are the heinous sins committed? - Well. He had the temerity to point out that wind farms are ineffective and dared to comment on the stats which have shown accretions of Arctic ice and lower world temperatures in the last decade or so.

The bounder! [Please contrast with treatment of Jonathan Ross.]

Pacifism.

Vera Brittain, authoress of 'Testament of Youth' but perhaps better known as the Buxton born mother of former politician Shirley Williams, was featured on BBC 1 on Remembrance Sunday.
If anybody had the right to become the raving pacifist that she did, it was most certainly her. Her much loved brother Edward, her fiance and two extremely close friends died in World War One and she saw first hand as a nurse the horrors of the wounds so tragically inflicted upon a generation of idealistic young men.
The phrase 'the futility of war' has been much heard over the last week in the approach to our remembering the fallen and it was certainly not absent in this programme.
There can be futility in war - indeed futility in many wars and aspects of wars - but the term itself cannot be used as an objective fact in isolation or as a generality as that can never be more than an unsubstantiated opinion or value judgement.
Terrible as war is, and essential that it be that we should try our utmost to avoid it, it is not always the simplistic fact of being a matter of our own choice as postulated by the pacifist. To oppose particular wars will often be legitimate, of course.
Pacifism is in itself an extremely simplistic philosophy and consequently one which I have great difficulties in respecting.
Where the pacifist offers to work in the danger area helping the wounded and the victims of war, I am prepared to revise that judgement on them as individuals.
I have prepared many students for RS exams and this is a topic which has been much debated in a Christian context.
The usual examination question is "Was Christ a pacifist." After considering the whole of Scipture rather than carefully selected chunks, I would venture to suggest that He was not.

Curved cucumbers making a comeback.

Food wastage having reached absurd levels in the European Union, with often 20% of perfect produce having to be thrown away because it does not fit that organisation's aesthetic criteria, decisions have had to be taken to allow this produce to be sold once again.

Having seen the levels of ugliness of most EU Commissioners, we must ask the question as to whether the figure would have been as low as 20% if they had been required to pass a 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder' test.



So that I may avoid legal action, I shall publish no photos of such worthy people but shall restrict myself to what has previously been an unworthy cucumber.



LINK: http://euobserver.com/9/27069/?rk=1

John Maynard Keynes.

Regrettably, I have never taken the time to study properly the theories of John Maynard Keynes and as a result, my views of the man have tended to be in error.

Dominic Sandford's article is a must for anyone who wants to gain an overview of this important but largedly misguided figure in a mere 10 minutes.

LINK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1083998/The-great-Keynes-Labour-s-plans-spend-way-recession-argument-built-lies-says-historian.html

A step in the right direction.Thinking allowed!

'Thirty-one per cent of teachers believe creationism should be given the same status as evolution in the classroom, a survey suggests. A poll of 1,200 teachers also found that 30 per cent already consider creationism or intelligent design, to some extent, during science lessons. And 87.9 per cent of those interviewed for the Teachers TV poll think that they should be allowed to discuss the subject in science if pupils raise the question.' Daily Mail.

Many people think that I am anti-evolution because I am a Christian. Not so.
I am against the hypothesis because it falls down badly in so many disciplines.
Incidentally, I became a Christian in spite of believing the evolutionary tosh I had been taught at school.
It was only after I became a Christian that I even discovered that there was an excellent scientific basis for challenging evolution.
[In all honesty - the whole concept had always seemed rather far-fetched.]

Smacking.

I have never been somebody who thinks that a first response to the bad behaviour of children is to give them a smack as there are many tactics which can be used to moderate naughtiness and besides, smacking for all misdemeanours means that it loses the 'fear factor'.

Children should however, be in awe of a smacking and feel threatened by the possibility. Furthermore, no child should ever be smacked because of the temper or frustration of a parent.

There are some children who may possibly never need to be smacked at all but I believe this to be rare.

You only have to see how some youngsters who control their parents and teachers with tantrums are being brought up incredibly badly.

The secret of basic child rearing is that there must always be fairness from the parent and the child must never win any battle.

The first time a toddler wins a battle - a line has been crossed. The child now recognises that there is always the possibility of future victories and the parents have heaped up massive future problems for themselves.

Boundaries must be set in stone. Ultimately, the main provocation for physical chastisement should be outright defiance of the parental authority.

Pity the poor infant teachers who now have considerably fewer powers to control renegades than ever before.

Thousands of children aged between two and five were thrown out of school last year for violent attacks on classmates and teachers, official figures show.
Overall, there were 46,000 expulsions and suspensions of primary school children aged 11 and under for a range of offences including drunkenness, drug-taking, sexual misconduct, racism and bullying.
Just over 4,000 cases involved children aged five and under. It means 240 pupils were excluded from primary school on average each day.

LINK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1083582/Thousands-fives-suspended-school-attacking-pupils-teachers.html

Judge not lest ....

'The new Lord Chief Justice yesterday called for tougher sentences to punish criminals and deter crime.
Lord Judge, the most senior member of the judiciary in England and Wales, said the guilty should be ' frightened' by the prospect of being brought before a court.'


Well. I am nearly speechless.

Go get 'em boy!

Racism in presidential election?

It had occurred to me when I published the piece about Obama voters in Harlem being happier with McCain's policies that the election could be a racist victory - and now I believe that that may well have been the case.
White voters have happily voted for either candidate.
Non-whites have voted Obama en bloc.
Hmm.

LINK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1083335/Breakdown-demographics-reveals-black-voters-swept-Obama-White-House.html

Sorry. Charisma ain't enough.

When I first came across this man, I found him promising. The more I have found out about him, the more convinced I have become that his election may turn out to be the worst mistake in democracy since Hitler took power via the ballot box.
It appears that he is the most unrepentant liberal leftie ever to appear on a major stage in the whole of modern history.
I cannot believe that I would have actually preferred Hillary to have won!

TV licences must go!

Sometimes we just get used to something and therefore accept it as being quite normal, whether it makes any sense or not.

Take the TV licence. Precisely what is it for?

- Er - it funds the BBC.

Correct. I shall not enter the debate as to whether or not the Beeb should be self-funding but shall just consider the bureaucratic nightmare which is the present system.

What is the point of a licence at all when virtually every household has TV? - Whether that is black & white or colour is actually irrelevant.

You have a complex system to collect a mere percentage of what should be collected. When that fails, you have to have TV detector vans, prosecution cases being made, courts time wasted, fines which have to be enforced etc.

Why not simply fund the national broadcaster from general taxation?

Let's see how it all breaks, shall we?

Hasanali Khoja, who is a devout muslim chef, is accusing Scotland Yard of making him cook pork.

Naturally, he is suing for telephone number compensation, after all, his employers are making him do something which apparently goes against his religion.

Meanwhile, as portrayed on this Blog a day or two ago, a Christian, Gary McFarlane is to be booted out of RELATE for not telling homosexual couples how to have sex properly!

Let us sit back and compare the ultimate treatments of these two men. If I were a gambling man I would have perhaps been prepared to have a large wager that one will be treated abominably and the other as the ultimate victim. Maybe readers can guess which way my bet would have been placed?

You cant't even debate with people this hidebound!

Prescott argues public schools are unfair because they breed confidence.

The fount of much wisdom.

The argument that only immigrants will do jobs that indigenous Brits won't touch has it precisely backwards. It is because the state pays indigenous Brits to live on welfare that immigrants have to be brought in to do the jobs the Government funds its own citizens not to do.

Melanie Phillips.

Euro about to seize up and die?

It is not in my nature to wish failure on projects very often as I do not care for negativism - in this case however, I must make a giant exception.

There are more than hints, in a wide variety of places, that the euro may struggle to survive the present crisis. The Telegraph, The Wall Street Journal and The Economist have all pondered the possibility, even probability, of its failure.

As best as I understand this, the differences between bond yields from the stronger and weaker nation economies are critical. The fact that one-size-fits-all cannot possibly work is seeing its chickens finally come home to roost!

EU- realists have long argued that you cannot hide completely different financial systems all under the same fiscal umbrella.

But let us remember that many high officials - Eddie George just one of many - have informed us that the euro was always a political rather than an economic tool.

It has been the cement to try to hold the EU, shabby brickwork together.

If it fails - the European Union is quite possibly going to follow - at least in its present, imperialistic form.

The UK NOT being in the euro has annoyed europhiles for many years - even they may soon have to give thanks that even Brown was not so stupid as to join.

Indeed, history may look back at this era and declare this to be Brown's single redeeming feature.

Even so, I wish I could share the optimism of the Blogster in the link below!

LINK: http://the-tap.blogspot.com/2008/11/euro-is-disintegrating.html

Yorks Post - again.

From: Michael Booth, The Birches, Bramhope, Leeds.

WELL said, Dorothy Cope (Yorkshire Post, October 27). I believe it was Karl Marx who stated how easy it was for a government to reduce the unemployment figures. It merely had to create a large number of jobs in the Civil Service to be filled by a lot of people who for the rest of their working life spent their time making work for others and thus justifying their own existence. In our world, the Health and Safety Executive and the NHS administration spring to mind.

Well, we have always known where leftist governments get their idiotic ideas from, haven't we?

Unbelievable.

'A Christian relationships counsellor says he was sacked by Relate for admitting to a crisis of conscience over giving sex advice to gay couples. According to the Daily Telegraph, he has accused the Bristol branch of the counselling service of ‘bigotry’, claiming a Muslim would not have suffered the same discrimination. Gary McFarlane, 47, is going to an employment tribunal to contend that he was unfairly dismissed due to religious discrimination.'

Do I need to comment?

LINK:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/3264491/Christian-relationship-counsellor-sacked-after-refusing-to-give-sex-advice-to-gay-couples.html

Letter in Yorks Post.

From: Barbara Stark, Ridgestone Avenue, Bilton, Hull.

I DON'T pretend to fully understand the eloquent ramblings of Richard Corbett MEP Labour, (Yorkshire Post, October 15).

The gist was that we are better able to weather the credit crunch and the resulting financial turmoil by being in the Common Market. Can he tell the Yorkshire Post readers, therefore, how it is that Norway and Switzerland, who have had the good sense to stay out of the European Union, seem to have survived the turmoil better than us?

By the way, Norway and Switzerland are the richest countries in Europe

Masturbation.

As somebody who teaches sex education in school, the issue of masturbation is sometimes brought up and I always try to answer the questions put to me - indeed, I do not think I have ever shied away from giving a Christian/practical response to anything asked.
This is perhaps a matter of sublimation and there is a need for avoidance of the mental stimuli around which lust is based.
It is extremely difficult to claim that the Bible forbids masturbation.
As a release mechanism, I believe it to be inevitable - research has consistently concluded that all healthy males indulge at various points in their lifetimes, particularly when younger, and most females too.
It is a difficult and sensitive issue and an area which has, I believe - through dogmatic teaching - caused much damage to Christians.
The problem is not the act itself. The difficulty is what accompanies the act. If fantasies are part of the process, are they legitimate?
Where another person is involved in the mind, is that not "Committing adultery in the heart?"
Christianity is based on what is 'in the heart' and so illicit thoughts are sinful.
It is a thin line which Christians need to follow carefully.

Health fascism.

Don't you get totally fed up with the endless, gloomy reports which tell you that if you look interestedly at a chip, you will die horrifically of a variety of terrrifying diseases?
Consider how many of these panics are later invalidated by further research.
Consider also how for years, pregnant women have been subject to warnings which state that 'half a glass of wine twice a week will result in them having a baby with two heads and a life expectancy of zero.'
So now consider this report in the link which suggests that small amounts of alcohol for the gravid are actually beneficial!
Think on. How much do we get fed all this pap by pseudo-scientists and then we speak of it in hushed, reverential tones as if it is some form of holy writ! We must learn to be LESS respectful to hypothetical, tabloid science.
One of the problems is that it always seems to inspire busybodies, nanny state adherents and the terminally simple.

LINK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1081913/Pregnant-women-drink-lightly-brighter-better-behaved-babies.html

Innocent deaths are unimportant.

If ever proof were needed that the lives of the innocent do not matter to the average, do-gooding-leftie politician all you have to do is to ponder these facts:

Criminals on probation commit a murder every week, official figures show.
In the past two years, offenders under supervision have been convicted of 121 murders.
Meanwhile, 44 have been convicted of manslaughter, 103 of rape and 80 of kidnapping.

Now contrast these figures with the fruitless, desperate - and frequently dishonest - efforts made by abolitionists to find a single executed martyr in the two decades after World War Two.

One or two dodgy executions? Perhaps. Maybe. Deeply unlikely - and then only if you stretch the imagination to its very limits.

THE FIGURES ABOVE ARE REAL NOT THE PRODUCT OF LIBERAL IMAGINATIONS!

LINK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1081841/Criminals-probation-committed-120-murders-years.html

Redbridge

Regular readers may be a tad surprised by my reaction here to Redbridge Council's ban on smokers fostering children.
In this instance it is too easy to make claims of 'health fascism' - particularly as this is expected rapidly to become national policy.
BUT, my support for smokers' rights is a quite separate issue. Smokers have no rights to inflict their smoke onto others, least of all onto vulnerable children.
If the would-be foster parent is seriously interested in taking on disadvantaged children, then stopping smoking is a price they reasonably must pay.
However, it is when these politically correct zealots start pursuing those who have the occasional smoke outside the confines of the family home where we will best be able to tell their true attitudes.