No monkeying about!

“Modern apes ... seem to have sprung out of nowhere. They have no yesterday, no fossil record. And the true origin of modern humans ... is, if we are to be honest with ourselves, an equally mysterious matter.”

Lyall Watson, - Ph.D., Evolutionist

Oh no!

Army chief Sir David Richards predicts 40 more years fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan!

I have had a great idea. Let us assume that this is indeed a worthy struggle to bail out Pakistan and stop that nation succumbing to extreme islamists. Well, then. Let us, the USA and the handful of NATO members all withdraw and force the other scores of nations who are not involved, to take up the cudgels and turn this into a truly international struggle .

What? They won't? - Well I guess that we have learned something important about 'worthiness levels', haven't we?

Sheffield Star contributor uplifts.

My God is warm, alive and kicking

Published Date: 08 August 2009
TO: The Taliban

I believe in God more than anything else in this world and beyond and beyond. I swear I would fight for my God And, if you want to know where my God is He is all around blowing free. My God is not just in towering spires and Gothic arches, He is not just in lush green quadrangles, He does not just reside in Cirencester and Wells and Canterbury where pilgrims trod, He is not just in dusty archives and in leather bound books, He is not just in touched silver bells and quiet peace, He is not just in a remote Tibetan monastery, He is not just in chock wooden beads and a begging bowl. My God is different.My God is warm and alive and kicking, My God strides like a giant atop the crisp icing snow that caps the mountain range that lies between China and Afghanistan, He is there as minarets pirouette against a blood red eastern sky, And the faithful kneel to pray. He lies down to sleep by the Ganges, He touches me with his death breath.Jesus Christ did not need a building to preach the gospel from, The blue sky with scudding white clouds was his canopy,The lush green rolling grass the carpet below His feet. Elizabeth Schofield, Conisbrough

'Harmless cannabis'.

'Four out of ten teenagers know someone with mental health problems caused by cannabis, a report shows.
More than half of youngsters questioned also believed that those smoking the drug lose motivation and do badly at school.
The survey, by the Home Officefunded drugs advice service Frank, is fresh evidence that the supposedly soft drug has harmed the health, education and careers of millions of teenagers.'

LINK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1204652/40-cent-teenagers-know-hurt-cannabis.html#ixzz0NaXLMyV5

The First Four Commandments - missed the point?

1] I am the Lord Your God.

2] You shall have no other gods before me.

3] You shall not make for yourself an idol.

4] You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord Your God.

Look at our society today and ask a simple question. How many people are even close to keeping these God-based commandments?

How many have even got a concept of God?

How many recognise that 'gods' are not just 'malevolent spiritual beings' but may refer to possessions?

How many see that idolatry may be anything whatsoever that a human puts before God?

How many use the name of God or Jesus idly or as a curse?

These are alien concepts to our nation, today. The lack of understanding that The Supreme Being and Creator of the universe is entitled to make the rules seems to have bypassed us altogether.

Most people believe in God - but as a benevolent, distant, indulgent vagueness who is expected to bow to our desires.

Some even think that God is being arrogant with these commandments!

It is like a flea trying to boss a blue whale!

Ashes debacle.

I very rarely have a sports section on this Blog but yesterday's horrors at Headingley cannot go unmentioned.
As a cricket fan for more than half a century, I have often been disappointed by England. Yesterday however, I was angry!
The display was utterly lamentable as all ten England batsmen got themselves out playing unnecessary shots at a swinging ball.
(Only Bell and Anderson deserved any sympathy at all in their dismissals.) Having been skittled for an unbelievable 102, having won the toss and elected to bat, you realised that at least the bowlers would have learnt how to get batsmen out under the conditions. BUT NO!
The England attack [?] chose to persist in bowling an entirely different length to that employed by the Aussies.
We were set up to regain The Ashes and have cast it all away in just four and a half hours!
HEADS MUST ROLL! Strauss led the way by getting out in absurd fashion after incorrectly not being given out LBW on the first ball of the day. Granted ' a life' - why did he not thank heaven and cash in?
Why did he permit all of his bowlers to bowl short?
A new captain is now a must!

Another way to undersentence criminals.

The ways found by the system, to ensure that all persistent offenders are woefully under-sentenced, are legion.
Here is another.
Take Humphrey Bloggs, for example. He has a shedload of offences for drunk and disorderly, actual bodily harm, resisting arrest, affray, domestic violence, possession of class 'A' drugs, driving whilst disqualified, serious motoring offences and one instance of grievous bodily harm for which he was jailed two years ago.
He has now been convicted of a number of break ins of greenhouses, garden sheds and garages - let us say eight - and is up for sentence.
Surely, he must be prison bound - mustn't he?

Not necessarily! His solicitor will argue that these are 'a kind of offence for which he has no previous convictions'.
The Legal Adviser [Court Clerk] will re-emphasise this point to the magistrates and will suggest that effectively, Mr Bloggs will be treated as a first offender as he has 'no previous offences of dishonesty'!

Over years, I saw countless situations as extreme as this made up example.

You really couldn't make it up!

The new Luther.

“It is easy enough to make up stories, of how one form gave rise to another, and to find reasons why the stages should be favoured by natural selection. But such stories are not part of science, for there is no way of putting them to the test.”

Luther D. Sutherland, - Darwin’s Enigma, Master Books 1988, p89

Reports when not needed?

In our criminal courts the protocols for magistrates and judiciary are simple.
'If custody is inevitable, a pre-sentence report is not needed.'
How do I know? Well, in my days as a Sheffield JP, I approached The Chief Clerk to The Justices, David White, who told me this in those precise words.
However, never once in Sheffield Courts did I ever see anybody jailed without the said reports.

The function of such reports is surely to give magistrates extra insights to help them get it right - but only if needed. But just what is the point of having them for their own sake? Why build in a three week delay into the system? Isn't justice delayed, justice denied?

Remember too the inbuilt, pro-defendant bias in all reports which greatly limits their usefulness.

PROBATION OFFICERS ARE NOT PERMITTED TO RECOMMEND CUSTODY!

Love.

'Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.'

Song of Songs.

Glaciers - global cooling?

Global Cooling? The opposite of what we've been told? - Surely, not!
My suspicions are always raised when we are told that 'we must believe' matters from people I wouldn't usually trust as far as I could throw them!
Two links for evidence. [Thanks, Edd!]

LINKS: http://www.iceagenow.com/
http://iceagenow.com/Open_letter_to_Senator_Mark_Begich.htm

One of the great scientists said ...

“Overwhelming strong proofs of intelligent and benevolent design lie around us ... The atheistic idea is so nonsensical that I cannot put it into words.”

Lord Kelvin.

El desempleo.

Hmm. So unemployment is rife throughout the European Union. Strange that when it has been lauded as the panacea for all ills!

LINK: http://euobserver.com/9/28514/?rk=1

Korean déjà vu.

Events of the last 48 hours with Bill Clinton 'rescuing' the two journalists from the clutches of the horrendous, N. Korean hierarchy reminds of 'the happy days of the cold war' when so many situations of a similar nature were engineered by the soviets and their acolytes.

The N. Koreans truly believe that the world will be impressed by their magnanimity and will not have noticed the vicious 12 year imprisonment with hard labour which had been imposed on these hapless young women for the most trivial of reasons.

It is a familiar scenario to those over the age of about 45.

One of my favourite Bible verses.

Proverbs 15:1.

'A soft answer turneth away wrath.'

A maxim to live by. [Just wish I always did!]

Poor logic.

Those rather strange people who have failed to notice that England has become the eighth most crowded place in the world, coupled with those sinister individuals who want to destroy the nature and structure of our society entirely, do not often use logic.

They are quick to refer to British expats, particularly in Spain for some reason, as if these may be compared to immigrants, both legal and illegal. This is not comparing like with like.

The majority of our expats are taking vast amounts of money into the Spanish economy.

They are happy to congregate together but do not require special treatment and insist that their hosts must change.

Spain is far from being overcrowded.

All of these Brits are are fully legal.

Even the younger expats are usually in work, often serving the British community. Many own businesses and pay taxes to Spain.

The UK loses through its immigration policy - Spain gains from its own version.

Am I alone?

With the appalling and indeed, truly sinister, Harriet Harperson making sexist remarks about men - yet again - I now consider that she should be promoted to the list of all time top harridans.

She can happily rub shoulders across the political divide with Cherie Blair, Edwina Currie and Hillary Clinton.

[I am not quite sure that I want to waste a LoonyTunesWatch coconut on her.]

Europol.

One reason to quit the EU - if there were no others at all - is the existence of Europol.

Praised as an anti-organised crime, across borders, simple, police force - [we have to ask what is so wrong with Interpol?]

Why is the organisation so shady and below the radar?

The answers are straightforward. This body has greater powers than the Gestapo. Its members are neither criminally nor civilly liable for ANYTHING they do.

They are in place as the next step towards absolutism from Brussels.

Never recipients of publicity, one might wonder why this group is never attacked by the civil libertarians of the soft left.

Perspectives.

"Attending church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car."

Stephen Booth.

Drugs in jails.

I have visited three jails and could cut drugs usage massively and INSTANTLY.
All that needs to be done is to forbid contact between prisoner and visitors. Most drugs come in via those visiting inmates.
A fine mesh should divide them.
If you want to kiss loved ones or cuddle your babies - then stay out of prison! The choice is yours!

Lincs limestone.

I have just had the dubious delight of watching a Lincolnshire geologist on TV try to argue away what he exaggeratedly called ' the trillions of fossils' to be found in a particular limestone quarry.

He insisted that these were deposited over a 160 million years.

It never occurred to a closed mind that these could not possibly have fossilised gradually over time.

And why not? - Because animal forms ROT away very rapidly. The evidence for a single, catastrophic act here is virtually unchallengeable.

Health & what?

After the start of the inquest yesterday in which a man lost his life in 18 inches of water, with rescue workers refusing to assist, surely all H & S must now be reviewed and common sense MUST overcome.
I accept that you ensure your own safety first - it is a good starting point.
I accept the need for H & S in countless situations, [funny it hasn't made its merry way across to Spain where we have seen all sorts of potential for disaster] but this has been one tragedy too far.