Rejoice!

'For years we have been told that eating too much fried food is a sure-fire recipe for a heart attack.
However research from Spain, published in the British Medical Journal, found that the amount of oil consumed makes absolutely no difference to the incidence of heart disease.

The study monitored the diets and cooking methods of 40,000 people aged between 29 and 69 over an 11 year-period.
 Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2125798/You-CAN-plate-chips-Why-fried-foods-bad-you.html#ixzz1rEhAXJYI

Isaiah 53:5.

'But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.'

Nobody Can Portray Christ's Suffering But Velasquez Made A Valiant Attempt.

Nadine Dorries - Nice One Lass. Time To Lead A Move To UKIP!

A Conservative MP has claimed that people no longer recognise the values of the Conservative Party.

Nadine Dorries MP, writing for Conservative Home, claimed that voters feel disenfranchised because the Conservative Party no longer reflects the values of ordinary voters and has become out of touch.
Addressing the Government’s controversial plan to introduce same-sex marriage by 2015, Ms Dorries wrote:
“A recent ComRes poll reported that 57% of Christians are ready to abandon the Conservative Party over the issue of gay marriage alone. Actually, 70% of the total population don’t want it either and yet, the Conservative Party felt this was a good policy to push in order to keep us in power. A policy completely out of step with the belief of the majority of the British public and many members of the gay community, but certainly one relentlessly pursued by the left-wing political gay lobby.
(How The Guardian, The Beeb & Independent hate her! She induces a state of near apoplexy.)

Who Will Fight For Christians - Coz Cameron Won't!

David Cameron’s promise of a fightback against the assault on Christianity was sabotaged yesterday by his own ministers who declared that Christians have no right to wear a cross at work.

The Home Office said that any Christian who does not like it should find another job.

The ministerial line on the right of a worker to display a token of faith was laid down in a  statement to European human rights judges. It gives the Government’s opinion in a key  test case.

The document, prepared under the supervision of Lib Dem Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone and approved by Home Secretary Theresa May, says Christians must be content to keep their religion for their own time.

Labour let Christians down throughout their reign. Clegg is an avowed atheist and Christianity gets short shrift from his party.

The Greens are extremely intolerant too.

So just where does the Christian voter go? - Do remember that foolish voting for The Christian Party in the North West let the BNP's Nick Griffin into the EU Parliament in the last elections!

There really is ONLY UKIP. It is not a Christian party but it is the only major party which never attacks Christian principles. Their membership contains a great many believers.
PS. Which party does Ms Featherstone belong to?Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2125855/Betrayal-Crucifix-As-PM-urges-support-Christianity-Minister-tells-Europe-Britons-right-wear-cross-work.html#ixzz1rEYnGGmC

Cohen.

"I studied many religions - but cheerfulness kept breaking through.'' Leonard Cohen.

Two bits of advice for him and for you:

1) Always be a Christian but avoid religion like the plague.

 2) One of 'The Fruits of The Spirit' is JOY.

The Campaign For Real Christmas Cards.

The Campaign For Real Christmas Cards will continue in 2012 but the numbers of cards I shall post will be savagely reduced. If you are on my list and I have your E Mail address - please do not expect anything through the mail.
EVERY effort that I can make not to post letters/cards shall I make.

The EU-induced price rises are obscene. 



What NOT to buy!



'Subconscious Secularism?'

Academics have claimed that anti-Christian prejudice is hindering Christian groups from doing vital work in the community.
Research by Dr Sarah Johnson and Dr Adam Dinham has shown that the involvement of Christian groups in social and charity workis being hindered by “inaccurate and out-of-date assumptions”.
“It’s not outright hostility, but a misconception that faith-based groups want to evangelise or will restrict their services to people of the same faith”, says Dr Adam Dinham, head of the Faiths and Civil Society unit at Goldsmiths, University of London. “People and authorities which commission services from faith-based providers are often concerned they will have strings attached. If they can find other services to use, they will do,” he said.The research found that these assumptions often led to restrictions on Christian groups receiving financial support. “Charity funders are prone to assuming the same thing; that groups will only provide help to people of the same faith”, said Dr Dinham. He suggested that “subconscious secularism” caused this suspicion towards Christian groups. (Christian Concern.)
Subconscious???

The EU Right On An Issue? - Surely Not!

The price of sausages, burgers and pies is set to rise when an EU ban on low-quality “desinewed” meat will be introduced at the end of this month.

Good. Let us get this rubbish out of sausages and into pet food!               

Spring Harvest.

Christian Concern at Spring Harvest

Christian Concern will be exhibiting at Spring Harvest this Easter. Please come along and introduce yourself!

We will be at Spring Harvest Week 3 from 10 April to 15 April 2012.

Benefits Claimants.

It certainly appears that this government wants to cut welfare bills which is entirely laudable but is rather putting the cart before the horse.
The primary concern should never be the cuts themselves but rather to establish whether or not individual claims are valid. Society should never be milked by the unscrupulous.
As pointed out on here many times over however, is that so many tares are to be found amongst the wheat that sorting out the problem is difficult in the extreme.
What this government appears to be attempting is to put cuts before fairness which is utterly to be deplored.
Admittedly, scrutinising individual claims for honesty may take much longer but is the only just way forward.
Being motivated purely by 'cuts' and putting claim examinations into the hands of those who have been incentivised to save money is borderline immoral.
Clearly, all new claims must be examined with great care.
We want the cheats to lose benefits: we want the genuine to have no problems with their claims.
It may take longer to undo what the Blair and Major governments did to us but ultimately, there is no other path that people of integrity could or should pursue.

Ooh But This Man Creeps Me Out!

'Prime Minister David Cameron told Christian leaders this week that he wants their biblical values to guide the nation, despite his strong support for same-sex ‘marriage’.

At an Easter reception in Downing Street on 3 April, the Prime Minister affirmed his belief that the nation needed Christian values, claiming that:

“The greatest need we have in our country is to have strong values and to teach our children and to bring people up with strong values. The values of the Bible, the values of Christianity are the values that we need – values of compassion, of respect, of responsibility, of tolerance.”

He also spoke about the encroachment of secularism.' (Christian Concern.)
DOUBLE DEALER!

Surviving Global Warming - OR The Coming Ice Age?

Which 'Newspaper' Is The Worst In The UK? - My Assessment.

Much as it grieves me to do so, as the Daily Star has been so beautifully anti-EU in the past, surely there is nothing purporting to be a newspaper worse than this rag. News is notable mainly by its absence.

The real race is for second bottom. As The Sun actually tends to contain more of yer actual news, it stands well above the Daily Mirror.

Here Is Love ...

On the mount of crucifixion,
Fountains opened deep and wide;
Through the floodgates of God’s mercy
Flowed a vast and gracious tide.
Grace and love, like mighty rivers,
Poured incessant from above,
And Heav’n’s peace and perfect justice
Kissed a guilty world in love.
My favourite verse from any hymn.

Older Congregations?

Persecution In Egypt.

Mar 27 2012

A pastor forced to rebuild his church after it was destroyed by a mob has been sentenced to six months in jail – because his new church was deemed 2.5m too tall. No one has been prosecuted for attacking the church.
Rev Makarios Boulos from Aswan was sentenced on March 4 after a court ruled that he had violated Egyptian building regulations by constructing his church slightly taller than shown on the approved drawings. The court fined him 300 Egyptian pounds (about £30).

A 3,000-strong mob set fire to St George's Church in El Marinab on September 30 – following false rumours that the church did not have planning permission for renovation work. The case prompted Christians to hold demonstrations in Cairo on October 9, which were violently disrupted with the loss of 27 lives (Prayer Alert, October 10, 2011). Release International.

Judge Carol Hagen Earns ...

A prolific burglar who was spared prison by a lenient judge went on to commit 22 more raids in just nine months.

Jason Reed, 39, was given a suspended jail term last June by Judge Carol Hagen despite admitting 12 burglaries at the time.

The offender went on to commit 22 more break-ins, stealing cash, jewellery and prized family possessions.

He even stole war medals from the house of a Army doctor and made two children fear for their lives while smashing his way into their home.

The same judge finally jailed Reed for six years on Tuesday after he admitted more than 50 burglaries.

Astonishingly, she still praised him for showing ‘remorse’ after he wrote her a letter of apology.

In three years he will be out and burgling again! He should have had 15 years+ as a starting point! Do please remember the amounts of misery and fear a burglary causes. This judge didn't!

To this desperately poor, wretchedly gullible judge, this Blog awards a LoonyTunesWatch coconut! 
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2125395/Judge-spared-serial-burglar-jail--carried-22-raids.html#ixzz1r8n40nqs

Oh. You've Had Snow!

None of that stuff here on The Costa Blanca!

The ATL Seems To 'Get It'.

Parents are raising a  generation of ‘little Buddhas’ who never lift a finger around the house, a teachers’ leader declared yesterday.
Children are growing up constantly demanding their own way because they are ‘waited  on hand and foot’ by over- indulgent parents, said Dr  Mary Bousted.
They arrive at school with an ‘I’m important’ attitude and struggle to abide by rules and timetables.
And they lash out at classmates because they fail to understand they have responsibilities towards others.
Dr Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said schools are forced to deal with the consequences of parents’ failure to lay down clear boundaries.
 Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2125059/Waited-hand-foot-Children-treated-like-little-Buddhas-parents-says-teaching-expert.html#ixzz1r8jSH4E8

The ATL On Why School Discipline Is Left In A Shambles.

The scrapping of the cane has led to a deterioration in children’s behaviour at school, according to teachers.
Sanctions available to schools since corporal punishment was abolished 25 years ago are ‘totally inadequate’ at reasserting authority in the classroom and lack the same deterrent effect, they said yesterday.
While rejecting a return to the cane [non sequitur) members of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers condemned existing sanctions such as detention and suspension.

Figure of fear: The forbidding use of canes is alleged to be behind the sharp decline in children's discipline

‘Novel’ punishments are needed to allow teachers to reassert their authority in the classroom, they said.

Delegates at the association’s annual conference voted unanimously for research into ‘effective’ disciplinary methods.

‘When corporal punishment was abolished nothing was put in its place that had equivalent deterrent powers,’ said Julian Perfect, a teacher from London.

How utterly astonishing - the liberal left were wrong! How can that be? It's not as if they've ever been wrong before - .... OH! ... Er... Well.....

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2125336/Ban-cane-schools-led-discipline-childrens-behaviour.html#ixzz1r8hU3yTP
Note: Ironically, The Guardian also reports this - even though it led the liberal left to their anti-democratic victory on this issue. I add a personal note on the matter. When caning finished in the apprehensive in which I was teaching, it had happened as a diktat from the Rotherham LEA well before actually required by law. This was kept secret from pupils and we had a two year hiatus before the problems really kicked in!

The Wolfson Economics Prize.

Wolfson Economics Prize for euro break-up plan announces shortlist of finalists.The Wolfson Economics Prize, in which economists were asked to prepare a contingency plan for a break-up of the eurozone, today unveiled a shortlist of five finalists. In the FT, Gideon Rachman argues, “Spanish ministers – like their British counterparts – have been told that a euro break-up would lead to disaster. If the entrants to Lord Wolfson’s prize can show otherwise, they will have done the whole of Europe a service.”Wolfson Economics Prize FT: Rachman