Christians are persecuted in many nations

'Another Christian prisoner of faith has died in an Eritrean prison after his guards refused him medicine – the third Christian to have died in the same jail this year.
Yemane Kahasay Andom, who was 43, died at the Mitire Military Confinement Centre in north-east Eritrea on July 23 and was secretly buried inside the camp, it has emerged. He had been tortured brutally and continuously in an attempt to make him deny Christ, according to religious rights charity Open Doors. Yemane refused.'

Information from Release International.

Spiteful, petty-minded, leftwing evil! - Just what you'd expect!

'A teenager who scored A grades in six A-levels has been turned away by every university she approached.
Philippa Scott was rejected even though teachers at her feepaying school were confident she would get top grades.
Her experience will fuel concern that universities are actively discriminating against privately educated applicants.'

LINK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1208192/Too-clever-half-Private-school-student-SIX-grade-As-A-levels-turned-away-university-applied-for.html#ixzz0OtITcXSH

Let's hear it for Will!

William Grimshaw of Haworth in Yorkshire, born 14 September 1708, was regarded as one of the three greatest men of the eighteenth century Evangelical Revival; the other two being John Wesley and George Whitefield. And yet he is little known today. Pity!

I have warned about misplaced idealism many times.

'All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.'

Thomas E. Lawrence

Useful idiots.

In political jargon, the term 'useful idiot' was used to describe Soviet sympathizers in Western countries and the attitude of the Soviet government towards them. The implication was that though the person in question naïvely thought themselves an ally of the Soviets or other communists, they were actually held in contempt by them, and being cynically used.

The term is commonly attributed to Lenin, sometimes in the form 'useful idiots of the West'.

Wikipedia.

THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST IN MINIATURE

LINK: http://www.christianvoice.org.uk/mini.html

SKY.

Considering how superbly well Sky TV cover cricket and that I now watch more Sky than I do terrestrial TV, you may be surprised to learn how much I detest them!

I now pay a whopping £37 per month for the service - quite an advance from the £5-99 when I first started!

As a boxing fan, I am horrified by their appalling coverage of boxing. Whole weeks go by without any coverage of British pro bills and amateur coverage is close to zero.

Whenever a big fight comes up, they have the gall to charge £14-99 to watch it ON TOP OF the monthly payments. This is scandalous!

As for football - it seems that my team is one of the handful which rarely gets coverage.

I am away for 3 weeks in Spring. I shall happily cancel SKY for a month; mess them around and insist on a good intro deal as a 'new' customer when I get back.

New migrant workers.

New migrant workers here in 2008 reached 733,090?
Yet, the broad left tell us constantly that these astonishing numbers are not displacing native workers onto the dole.

They really do think that we are total idiots, susceptible to slogans and soundbites!

LINK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1208002/Revealed-The-areas-Britain-migrants-chasing-jobs-locals.html

So - we are not an evolutionary accident.

“That a mindless, purposeless, chance process such as natural selection, acting on the sequels of recombinant DNA or random mutation, most of which are injurious or fatal, could fabricate such complexity and organization as the vertebrate eye, where each component part must carry out its own distinctive task in a harmoniously functioning optical unit, is inconceivable. The absence of transitional forms between the invertebrate retina and that of the vertebrates poses another difficulty. Here there is a great gulf fixed which remains inviolate with no seeming likelihood of ever being bridged. The total picture speaks of intelligent creative design of an infinitely high order.”

H. S. Hamilton, - (MD) The Retina of The Eye - An Evolutionary Road Block.

'A' Levels almost worthless now?

Yet AGAIN, 'A' Levels have created records. Yet again, top grades have increased.

Note too how anybody completing the exam is virtually guaranteed a pass whether idle or incapable. Note that you get extra chances to scrape higher grades.

For many years the cut-off point in the career market has been 'two passes at 'A' Level'. That is now approaching worthless. The pair of grade 'E's which had long been a sign of genuine achievement and which set you head and shoulders above the also rans who only had GCSEs, is no more.

This is a social disaster overseen by recent governments for cheap, short term, political gain.

But as Abe said, "You can fool some of the people .... " - and they do!

The tories? - This is what you'd get!

[ No pretensions for the appalling Alan Duncan!]

A children's prayer.

"Gentle Jesus, meek and mild ....."

Wanna bet?

[To children - yes!]

Hide the negatives!

What do The Independent, The Guardian, the BBC and to a lesser extent, all the remaining 'posh papers' have in common?

They all filter news on the EU and conveniently forget to include the bad bits!

For you perusal and far beyond my intellectual capacity!

Some Dawkins "arguments" easily refuted.

Part of the problem is that some of Dawk's arguments are so bad than no-one has yet bothered to publish refutations. So even obvious logical points get deleted cos they are "Original Research". For example the 747 Gambit is obvious rubbish the moment you think about conditional probabilities.
Dawkins does not explain what he means by statistically improbable. The standard probabilistic form of the argument from design is to take some feature of the universe (X) and to argue that p(XGod) >> p(XNo_God). Obviously p(GodNo_God)=0 <> "Richard Dawkins is probably among the finest evolutionary biologists of our time [hmm..????] but ... that does not preserve him from making some remarkably bad - indeed, in some cases embarrassingly bad - arguments when he steps outside the domain of his own area of expertise. To notice the badness of his arguments, however, is not the same thing as to be fully immune from their effects."

LINK: http://starcourse.blogspot.com/2006/11/some-dawkins-arguments-easily-refuted.html

Good news for once.

The rare Duke of Burgundy butterfly has produced an even rarer, second brood in Gloucestershire.
Bravo!

Oh dear, Caroline.

Former Labour Minister Caroline Flint said on the BBC recently that the NHS is “the perfect model” for healthcare.

Just when did socialist standards fall so low?

Sacking scandal!

'A nurse sacked from a leading public school after smacking her son in her home has lost her appeal for unfair dismissal.
Susan Pope, 46, furiously condemned the political correctness which she blamed for the decision.'

The situation was simple. The 11 year old had sworn at her! She was sacked for having standards.

It gets worse. Because the sacking had been done for politically correct reasons, an Industrial Tribunal in Birmingham upheld the decision even though she had acted fully legally. [When do Employment Tribunals ever support employers, under normal circumstances?]

What a truly sick society we inhabit!

LINK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1207468/Sacked-accused-abuse--I-smacked-son-home-Nurse-lost-appeal-unfair-dismissal.html

Corruption means ...

If there is a 'bent copper' - we do not say "Let's do without a Police Force."
If a surgeon makes a mistake in an operation and a patient dies - we do not say "Let us forget about operations, they are clearly a very bad thing."
If a pop star becomes a raving druggie - we do not say "It's time to abandon music."
If a politician dips his greedy hand into our taxes - we do not say "Politics must go." [ If only!]
Such examples are countless.

Yet wrongdoing by Christians means that seeking God must be abandoned. Odd!

Admitted at last- but nothing to be done!

Planning laws are deliberately biased in favour of gipsies and travellers, a Government minister has finally admitted.
After years of official denials on the issue, Communities Secretary Shahid Malik confessed that travelling families are treated differently from 'the settled community'.

LINK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1207238/Planning-laws-DO-favour-gipsies-travellers-says-minister.html#ixzz0OVwgRpVv

Are they allowed?

Shop sign in Scarborough!

Please note.

The Episcopal Church [Anglicanism in the USA] at its General Convention has officially authorised liturgies for the blessing of those in same sex unions and the ordination of those in such partnerships.


Incidentally, and a propos of nothing in particular, the picture is a representation of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Reaching out.

Our need for faith in The Lord Jesus Christ has never been greater in a world which is surely plummeting into self-destruction and alienation from God.

It is good to remember that Jesus is only a small stretch away.

The woman who was healed simply by 'touching His garment' exemplifies the simple faith we should all be demonstrating.