Natalie Solent |
|
|
Politics, news, libertarianism, Science Fiction, religion, sewing.
You got a problem, bud? I like sewing.
E-mail: nataliesolent-at-aol-dot-com (I assume it's OK to quote senders by name.) Back to main blog RSS thingy 
Jane's Blogosphere: blogtrack for Natalie Solent. 
Links ( 'Nother Solent is this blog's good twin. Same words, searchable archives, RSS feed. Provided by a benefactor, to whom thanks. I also sometimes write for Samizdata and Biased BBC.) The Old Comrades:
Archives
November 2001
December 2001
January 2002
February 2002
March 2002
April 2002
May 2002
June 2002
July 2002
August 2002
September 2002
October 2002
November 2002
December 2002
January 2003
February 2003
March 2003
April 2003
May 2003
June 2003
July 2003
August 2003
September 2003
October 2003
November 2003
December 2003
January 2004
February 2004
March 2004
April 2004
May 2004
June 2004
July 2004
August 2004
September 2004
October 2004
November 2004
December 2004
January 2005
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
August 2007
October 2007
February 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
March 2009
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009
August 2009
October 2009
January 2010
March 2010
May 2010
June 2010
July 2010
August 2010
September 2010
October 2010
November 2010
December 2010
January 2011
February 2011
April 2011
June 2011
August 2011
September 2011
October 2011
November 2011
January 2012
February 2012
March 2012
April 2012
May 2012
June 2012
July 2012
August 2012
September 2012
October 2012
November 2012
December 2012
January 2013
February 2013
March 2013
April 2013
May 2013
June 2013
July 2013
August 2013
September 2013
October 2013
November 2013
|
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
It's not the croquet I object to, it's the lawn it was being played on. JEM says of Mr Prescott, While we're quoting from the Sermon on the Mount, here's one for John Prescott, old salt as he was, to contemplate when he next plays croquet...I must get out the old croquet set again. Splendid game. Personally, I have no objection to him playing it. Surely nothing so superficial could dilute the uncrushable proletarian might of John Prescott's class identity - after all, being deputy ruler of the country and living in a grace-and-favour mansion didn't. Ah, I see the mansion has been relinquished. Never mind, he can always come round my place for a game, properly chaperoned. And he still has his other grace-and-favour home and his ministerial salary. Of course "salary" isn't quite the right word at the moment. "Unearned income" might describe it better. Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Haditha - like you care. Several US marines are being investigated by the Naval Criminal Investigation Service and are likely to be charged with a massacre of 24 people, including women and children, in the Iraqi town of Haditha. If these allegations are correct then the guilty men should be punished, and not with the disgracefully lenient punishment meted out to Lt Calley, the officer who led those guily of the massacre of Vietnamese villagers at My Lai. Personally I don't lose any sleep when child-murderers are executed. As it happens I found the particular Washington Post article linked to above on one of my occasional visits to the website of the Stop the War Coalition. They profess to be horrified by the slaughter of civilians, they who said: "The StWC reaffirms its call for an end to the occupation, the return of all British troops in Iraq to this country and recognises once more the legitimacy of the struggle of Iraqis, by whatever means they find necessary, to secure such ends." I wouldn't have thought it of Johann Hari. I would have thought it of the Independent though. Hari slagged off Bjorn Lomborg in its pages - fair enough, that's what freedom of speech is for. In the course of his slagging off, though, he made several clear errors of fact. Lomborg himself and Scott Burgess drew these errors to the attention of the paper. Result? Nothing. No response. All that high-toned stuff about the Readers' Editor doesn't seem to be for anything. One is sometimes curious to discover what people one knows by email look like in the flesh. I had never really thought of discovering what they taste like in the flesh. Iain Murray, however... Saturday, May 27, 2006
Pave the Rain Forest. A truly inspirational video clip. What interests me about this and similar stunts is that nobody could act the part of a non-actor that well until reality TV came along. UPDATE: ¡No Pasaran! linked to the same video. One of their commenters, "owl", was outraged: As a Canadian, I don't find this in the least bit funny. Building a Starbucks in the rainforest would be HORRIBLE for the people of Brazil! They deserve the best: a Tim Hortons. That Starbucks junk tastes like melted brown crayons. Not one jot. In Saturday's Times Victoria Hislop writes about her experiences meeting lepers in India. Heartwarming stuff. That leprosy is not, contrary to popular belief, particularly infectious and is curable is a message well worth repeating. It would be hard to disagree with passages like this: I met many who were less “lucky”; for example, the case of someone who had ignored early signs and in whom the disease had taken hold. He was 20 and had several large, numb skin patches and when I held his arm I felt the tell-tale rope-textured thickening of the nerve down his forearm. I suspected that his delay in seeing a doctor was the result not merely of lack of education but also of denial. His first thoughts on diagnosis had been: “How will my family react? Will my neighbours shun me?” In this patient, I saw how dangerous stigma can be, almost as destructive as the disease itself.But then came this: In the Bible, Leviticus xiii and xiv detail how someone with leprosy should be treated, that he should cry: “Unclean, unclean” and live alone outside his community. Leprosy was believed to be a punishment from God but, even though we know that it is just great misfortune, the stigma remains, even today. I’d like to see those pages removed from every copy of the Bible.Er, why? What good does she think this somewhat drastic step might do? I grant you, the passages concerned are not quite in accord with modern clinical practice but is there a special problem with Christians excluding lepers these days? Rather the contrary, I would have thought. She says herself that 70% of sufferers live in India, a mainly Hindu country. I do not seek to claim that this fact is an example of cause and effect, merely that it is a fact, and that ministry and assistance to lepers has been if anything a Christian speciality. As it ought to be, given Jesus's own actions. Has Ms H really considered the practical difficulties involved in her proposals? As the Soviets found out, the trouble with excising bits of reference books is that it leaves embarrassing gaps that have to be filled somehow. When Beria fell purchasers of the Soviet Encyclopedia were sent an article about the Bering Straits with strict instructions to paste it in; when Krushchev fell in turn his monument was an article about the krushchev, a beetle. In order to achieve a complete obliteration of the offending Biblical sentiments Ms Hislop would have to extend the blue pencil to numerous other mentions of how the LORD smote the king, so that he was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house. And why stop with lepers? (Come to think of it, why stop with several houses, as John Prescott might say? Sorry. No self discipline. Couldn't resist.) As many reformers have observed the Good Book is chock-full of stonings and sexism and stuff: get rid of all that and the Bible would be so much nicer. The only problem is that it would not, unfortunately, be the Bible. Look, when Waitrose sends round a Faulty Product Notice announcing that traces of nuts have been uncovered in batch #1234-Z of its strawberry-flavoured caviare and offering a replacement or a refund, 99% of customers ignore it. I really don't think you are going to get a better response rate when half the customers regard the product as the unalterable Word of God. It won't just be the Christians refusing to put their scripture in the pre-paid envelope provided, either. The first five books of the Christian Old Testament are also the Jewish Torah, and the Jews have a bit of a reputation for being stubborn about these things. Deuteronomy 4:2: Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you. Despite all this, you know, leper colonies are not found in modern Israel. I guess the Jews, like the Christians, have found ways of reconciling Leviticus with a world in which there are drugs for leprosy - did you know that thalidomide of all things works wonders? - even without a scissors being taken to anyone's holy book. If Ms Hislop is by any chance a Christian, perhaps she ought to be advised that her proposed censorship would not have met with Jesus's approval. And that disapproval was recorded in a section that it would be particularly difficult to edit down without anyone noticing: the Sermon on the Mount. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Monday, May 22, 2006
Spleeyiiiich-glockglock-glockle-PLOINK. That, I hope, is the noise of Blogger's Block unblocking. Man, you know how it is. First you're going to start blogging again when Task X is over. Then along comes Problem Y, surely as deserving of your time as X, which in any case took longer to sort out than expected. Then X and Y are out of the way, or as out as they'll ever be, but now you've got an intimidating pile of unread emails and you've just plain lost the plot. And, oh look, here comes the super-urgent, important and not entirely unwelcome Obligation Z ... I may not yet quite have hit rock bottom. True, I did on certain occasions avoid blogging by deliberate acts of work but I haven't yet descended to tidying the house. |