More chuntering about gay marriage…

Well, isn’t the American Presidential election interesting? no just me? Obama has totally written off the Christian vote and is running perhaps the most incredibly partisan campaign, whilst relying on negative attacks on Mitt Romney to see him through.  And its probably going to work, the longer Obama shifts attention from his economic record to social politics and character attacks (i.e. nothing of substance) he wins and boy does he know it.

Mr Electable looks ever more like Mr Wooden, unable to pivot the debate back to issues where the current president has disastrously failed his country. Romney is running defense rather than offense. The questions may be about gay marriage or abortion, but his answers have to be about Obama’s dismal record on the economy and foreign policy. Romney for president can’t be spending all its time making sure that conservative Christians go out and vote, an important minority though it may be, he needs to attract votes from across every demographic. If not Obama is going to get away with gleefully campaigning in favour of abortion and making ridiculous theological nonsense arguments in favour of gay marriage. So the irony is, Romney has to ignore these rather nasty and depressing red herrings if he is to punish a monstrous democratic party for nominating Obama in the first place.

On another note apparently Saint Isidore of Seville is the patron saint of computers, and I need to grow in devotion to him because my computer is slowly dying, the hard drive, every now and again starts doing the loud clicking that is the herald of its impending final demise and an immediate blue screen crash…  and I don’t have the money for a new one… my current hard drive is in Geek speak an IDE 80GB hard drive with a paltry 2MB buffer, in lay-mans terms, its very old and rubbish indeed.

I don’t want the latest top of the line gizmo (well actually I do but man cannot live by craving a good PC alone) I just need something maybe slightly better that’s reliable. I’m not sure how long I should put this off, because losing everything on my hard drive would be very depressing indeed. Still the clicking hasn’t happened for a couple of days now…

Going back to the Gay Marriage old chestnut, there seems to be a persistent rumour going about the internet, that there was gay marriage in the early Church. More likely some batty and low credibility university professor seems to have either willfully misinterpreted something or found a rather heretical little group and mistaken its practices with that of the Church. This rumour is gradually working its way into the mainstream media, and its probably not long before we see it on a BBC documentary.   I hope someone somewhere has been doing their homework on this so it can be refuted… do we have a Dominican professor of Church history we can wheel out?

No wait! the wonders of Google! (with a little help from Wikipedia) The batty professor is John Boswell, Medieval history professor at Yale… oh dear, what is the world coming to? well day by day ever nearer to the apocalypse of course…

Respectability? I’d rather be Catholic.

How sad is this article?  I only read it because I thought it was going to make a deep and insightful point about how Catholicism is seen as subversive in England and is for repentant sinners, not for the English obsessed with appearing to be respectable. But no it was about Hilary Mantel’s rather tragic loss of faith.

It was also interesting to note how the paedophilia scandal was used as a cover for her loss of faith, the real loss of faith was due to cold priests and nuns and a lack of warmth in her childhood, the final straw of which is the contempt and cynicism shown for the doctrine of transubstantiation. Now by admission she is a workaholic writing books about Oliver Cromwell (a rather nasty piece of work who seems to escape scrutiny in England for all his crimes) What is the betting Oliver Cromwell is a hero in her books?

It can be so easy to lose faith, to become cynical and hardhearted in this world. Priests have the hardest job in the world, we expect them to be sensitive to us even when we don’t tell them why we have vulnerabilities. My parish priest keeps nagging me to go to daily mass. Something I probably should do since I have nothing better to do, but I get so depressed and agoraphobic and have a sleeping pattern of a Martian that even though I’m not working I struggle to get to daily mass and I don’t feel I can talk to my priest about why.

In fact I only get to Sunday Mass because I know my faith and my emotional survival utterly depend upon it, its an evening mass and I can get myself geared up for it emotionally. Even though its been years since I failed my Sunday obligation the devil still nags me not to bother going to Church. “Don’t bother, God doesn’t love you, God doesn’t want you, you are such a sinner there is no point” but that voice has to be batted away for the despicable liar that it is.

Faith can be a struggle and it is when things in life are at the most difficult, when we are on the brink of despair, that we need God the most. We need to understand that the devil will always attack when we are at our weakest, because he hates us, and that God is closest to the weak. Not the ones who think themselves respectable, Jesus was very clear about what he thought of that. Hypocrites!

What is wrong with Philip Hammond?

First he wants to disband historic battalion names. Now he’s been watching GoldenEye one too many times. An EMP attack? has this guy been drinking out of lead cups?   The only way to protect against an EMP attack would be to shield every computer in the land and the entire national grid. Erm that is something that nobody can afford, Mr Hammond weren’t you the one going on about budget responsibility only last week? using it to justify merging two history battalions despite the fact that people join a regiment because of its history and ethos, that regimental pride is one of the reasons why we have some of the best soldiers in the world.

Never mind that as far as I know the only way to create an EMP of any significant size is to have a nuclear bomb.  I put it to you Mr Hammond, that any terrorist group with a nuclear bomb will not detonate it a hundred miles above us in low orbit but on the streets of London, where EMP will be the least of our worries. Since, thank God, terrorists have yet to pull that off, the only people who have nuclear weapons are states, and any EMP attack would be an act of nuclear war, and again EMP would be the least of our problems.

So what is this about? using a completely impractical fear factor to distract from the regimental names PR disaster and hopefully its subsequent U-turn? or from the embarrassing mix up over the carrier variant of the F-35 not being able to land on carriers??? take your pick.  Sadly since Mr Hammond was brought in to replace another embarrassingly calamitous Minister of defense, we are stuck with him.  Why is it that at the moment the government can’t find their ass with both hands and a map?

Economics, WWJD?

I know that a lot of Catholics are left wing, or at least a lot in the north are, and the north is very left wing. So that might explain it. Except I know Catholics down south who are left wing too.  So I’m not sure if this post will interest any of its potential readers in the slightest. Never mind, here goes…

I just read an article which discussed the recent absent mindedness of the Conservative led government, principally concerned with its leadership. As I’m certain any reader can work out, I am relatively right wing. That article by the phenomenally intelligent Janet Daley cuts to the bone of the problems that afflict the political party that I most associate with. Yet I don’t think it really does it for me. I’m not satisfied with its analysis. There is something more, something that angers me about the current government that isn’t touched upon.

The article talks about how David Cameron is holding himself back, how he is not arguing effectively about what I assume and hope are his core values. In fact he doesn’t seem to be effectively arguing about issues that he himself states are the key issues of his government. David Cameron and to a certain extent Nick Clegg (I’m not sure the LibDems have any kind of concrete ethos to stand behind so I can’t be sure) are basing their political efficacy upon their ability to bring the budget deficit under control.

Except they aren’t doing that. They are failing to do so in a massive way. The budget deficit is still huge. They are making a lot of hot air about cuts that aren’t really occurring. Left wing activist are therefore reacting, battling wholeheartedly, against budget cuts that never get anywhere near to the root of the problem in the first place. The argument is being lost before it is even begun. If this government was operating in a budget surplus then perhaps it would be valid to argue that slowing the rate of public spending cuts might be a valid way to encourage economic growth in this country.

This is why the government cannot effectively oppose anything that Ed Milliband pronounces, because the government is itself failing to achieve its own objectives and misleading the country about how it is governing the country. It preaches austerity, yet practices champagne and caviar (albeit cut price versions). There are plenty of cuts that can be made, yet aren’t. Perhaps because David Cameron isn’t strong enough as a leader to go through with the measures that are best for this country.

If this government created a budget surplus and got rid of our national debt we could double the education budget! We could do all sorts of fantastic things to improve this country if we weren’t saddled with so much national debt from Labour government profligacy. This is the argument that the conservative party should be making. We could also seriously cut taxes, and make this country the business capital of the world, bringing wealth and yes even more tax revenues since that is all economists seem to think of these days. Yes it is possible to cut taxes and increase tax revenues. What this country needs, and indeed what all of Europe needs, is real economic growth, this will not be done by racking up massive debts. Paying off the every day interest charges on huge debts takes a huge chunk of our GDP that could be better spent on literally anything.

Europe isn’t interested in this message. France has just elected a party that thinks itself socialist, we’ll see how France copes with the reality of what it’s government has (or has not) power to do and how it lives up to its promises to rob the rich to give to the poor.

Greece on the other hand has voted to be in the Euro but not consent to single currency budgetary rules.  A spectacular exercise in doublethink. Greece needs to either leave the Euro or conform its economy to that of Germany. For all the madness of the Greek position, we will be in a similar place in only a few years. Now is the time for our government to put us in a sound economic position because after Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy and maybe even France will go down the whirlpool of economic denial. Maybe Britain will be the silly little group of islands that everyone swims to to in their life jackets.

I’ve heard about Christian groups opposing any budget cuts in this country, would Jesus want us to live totally beyond our means as a country? Of course God centered morality should inform how the government goes about making efficient budget cuts (aaaah if wishing made it so), but to say there should be no cuts, I think not to do so would be to viciously betray future generations.

Of course as an unemployed person I have to remind you I’m actually a communist

Hmmmm right…

Computer game liturgy? in Church? oh dear.

Though I think having Church in a computer game might have more merit. There are 11 million subscribers to World of Warcraft…  I wonder if the Catholic Church could buy a virtual plot of land and build a virtual church? you could have virtual liturgy with Latin and Lace… and Gregorian chant and everything.  I guess you’d have to state quite clearly that a virtual mass is not the same as the Mass but hey. It’d be a good way to evangelise, let young(ish) people know that the Church is always there for them, that God loves them.

If you think this is so far fetched it was the depiction of confession in a computer game that convinced me of the sacraments beauty and necessity back before I was Catholic.

Double standards

It seems ridiculous to be going on about gay marriage all the time, really it’ll only be a big problem for the Anglican Church as Anglican priests will have to choose where they stand on the issue.   This is civil marriage we are talking about and the difference between that and the Catholic ideal of marriage is already gargantuan.

Having said that have a look at this.  This is one of the most worrying pieces of news I’ve seen in a while, not just because what it is but the president that it sets.  Also the massive double standards involved that are becoming entrenched in our country where liberal elites are allowed to dictate a radical social policy to the country but if anyone disagrees with them and wants to tell their children why then doing so is… illegal? Well actually by the very words of the quote of the Education act of 96 given by Mr Welsh Minister, the 96 act bans partisan campaigning.  Marriage is not a partisan issue, it is the foundation of society, its especially non-partisan since all the political parties are pretty much against the original meaning of marriage these days…

The amount of liberal political indoctrination I was subjected to at school was astounding, only most of it was done through the national curriculum via “Personal and social education” which basically meant being told right from wrong in a massively lefty way, then again I did spend most of my secondary school life in Catholic education…

Has Barack Obama done something silly? well something else thats silly anyway.

Barack Obama has come out, if you’ll excuse the pun, for gay marriage. Has America suddenly become incredibly liberal and nobody but the President has noticed.  Wasn’t being for gay marriage considered the definition of being a lose lose political issue? He’s not going to attract any voters that weren’t already going to vote for him, but he’s done the equivalent of put a landmine in the breakfast bowl of every Bible belt believer, clearly he thinks he shouldn’t even bother courting the votes of middle of the road religious conservatives.  If that is the thinking of the president of the USA, and he wins the next election, the world is in for a rocky time of it indeed where anything can be presidential policy just so long as 50% of people are in favour of it.

Has Barack Obama just handed the election to Mitt Romney? time will tell.

Misanthropy: a force for good? really? No.

It can be hard to love humanity sometimes, God only knows how hard.

We can be close to the Angels at times, yet we seem to slump into idiocy with alarming frequency. It always amazed me that charities that look after animals get so much more money than ones that look after us smelly Homo-sapiens. The small but significant step from that state of affairs to unabashed misanthropy seems to be being taken ever more frequently by environmental groups and I’m not just talking about the global warming scam.

I got into a small debate on Facebook over the weekend when someone deplored the fact that shark was on a list of 100 things to eat before you die.  At first I didn’t really know why, but I’m all in favour of eating shark. I think its because I was raised by watching David Attenborough films as a child, you learn that nature, while beautiful, is also deadly. Spider monkies may be cute but Chimpanzees still eat their faces… We are creatures of this world and just like chimps and sharks we rely on being at the top of the food chain.

There is a better reason to eat shark though, we already catch it anyway. Our fishing boats catch lots of stuff that is probably very tasty but which gets thrown back. Why? because people are obsessed with Cod and Haddock, possibly the blandest fish.  We should eat what nature provides, not just toss it back (usually its already dead or dying) food is food, if we eat more of what we catch we won’t need to fish as much, thus sustaining fish stocks which is good for both us and those lovable cuddly sharks.

When I mentioned this an environmentalist said we should just stop fishing with nets entirely. I’m sorry? what? some of us like being able to afford food… No according to this wayward crusader we should all sacrifice in order to save the little fishies. Putting Jaws above the little kiddies is a new one.  I didn’t want to go into a rant on Facebook, but did Mr Environment man realise just how misanthropic his idea was?

I also got to thinking, why is it that environmentalists seem to care so much about top end predators? is it because for some reason they remind us of ourselves? They are beautiful, they are fast, they are vicious… oh wait they do want to protect giant rats from nasty despicable farmers too, who should of course be killed.

Oh well, on a more cheery note, here’s a cute story in the name of balance, Hollywood film material surely. Maybe there is hope for us homo-sapiens after all.

Talking of which, wasn’t the second reading interesting on Sunday? I mean isn’t the Bible so fantastically heretical sometimes? No? its inerrant scripture you say? Shucks. Well I guess we’ll just have to kick into touch a big chunk of all that “Catholic” guilt people seem to lug around then. I was chatting to one of my lapsed Catholic friends and it really is the basics that he struggles with, that God loves him, that Heaven will not just be some robotic cult with all the spontaneity of a North Korean political rally. God created us to be free at such great cost, yet because of a warped view of freedom espoused by the world and the devil people don’t believe that God really loves us as sons and daughters and just like any loving father will enjoy seeing his children play, because humanity is innately good, created in the image of God.

Election day.

Well election days have happened across Europe.

Greece has a rather complicated proportional representation system and the far right and far left who are both anti-austerity have scuppered their parliaments ability to form a government. France has a new left wing president, though I’m not sure he’s going to be able to talk Angela Merkel off her austerity high horse… methinks the lady’s not for turning. Hollande is enacting a 75% top rate of tax, so the rich will be leaving the country like rats from a sinking ship taking all their money with them. So markets are beginning to to take a hit already… oh and Putin was sworn in as president in Russia, again, not that you can really call Russia a democracy these days, you do tend to win if you ban opposition parties.

Ed Miliband is cooing like a pigeon over the result in Europe like its going to show the world that a nation can borrow its way out of a recession… Never mind that the mid term results in this country weren’t anywhere as near as crushing a victory as they would have been if he had more charisma than a pistachio-nut. Talking of which I didn’t even bother voting this time round for the first time since I was legally entitled to vote, my local ward was won by Labour with 60% of the vote last year and the conservatives were beaten by UKIP… (what a UKIP candidate is going to do in local politics is beyond me…) so I didn’t think that my vote would be worth too much and the local Labour councilor isn’t bad enough for me to cast a vote against out of spite.

Good old Boris won in London though, who’d bet against him being leader of the Conservative party leader in the next ten years?

Oh and Cardinal Sean Brady needs to resign as soon as possible since it emerged he was far more complicit in protecting a child rapist paedophile priest than was previously thought.  The man clearly has no clue as to ‘what would Jesus do?’ Jesus would have put the protection of children above toeing any party line. The Cardinal cannot do the right thing, that moment passed him by decades ago, but he can at least admit his total inadequacy to be a prince of the Church. But I doubt a moment of lucidity will occur now, he’s been living with his head in the sand for so long…

And in a comedy of errors the Olympic chaplaincy team logo is a globe with the word faith under it…  they couldn’t have separate logos for their respective faiths? oh no, that might offend someone.

So fun fun fun.

Armageddon, or not.

Hah! Horizon, that ridiculous pseudo-science show has finally embraced its doom mongering nature and done a show on Armageddon.

Nuclear war I hope is no longer on the international agenda and as long as we don’t get hit by a planet killer asteroid or someone with the ebola virus doesn’t get on a plane to Heathrow we’ll be fine…

Ok when you put it like that its not as crazy as you might think, but still I think the Apocalypse is a way away. I wonder what the next theoretical threat to the world is going to be now that global warming is gradually losing all credibility.

I’m watching it as I type, interesting that missionaries were vital in eradicating smallpox by guiding health officials to outbreaks. So one up for organised religion.

Ha haaaah, like clockwork we have come to global warming right at the end of the show, pull the other one its got bells on. Lol and a little not so subtle bash on capitalism too, gotta love it. Will they turn round and poo-poo the theory before the end of the show??? I wouldn’t bet a penny on it.

Right at the end there is a whopper of a lie “life on earth has been wiped out in the past, so it could happen again” erm when has all life on earth been wiped out? and where is the proof for that statement? Nothing like the BBC to trawl its archives and embrace stories that are rapidly losing all relevance and credibility.