"We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others." - Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Random Playlist Song: Trevor Pinnock - The English Concert and Choir: Handel - Messiah - Lift Up Your Heads, O Ye Gates (chorus)

Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the king of glory shall come in.

Who is this king of glory? The lord strong and mighty, the lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the king of glory shall come in.

Who is this king of glory? The lord of hosts, He is the king of glory.

***

A: Although I think the word Athiest, has an anti-God conotation ring to it. I prefer to call myself a confirmed non-believer.

Me: Anyhow if Atheist has an anti-gods connotation to it, does non-white have an anti-white connotation to it? Heh.

B: Don't forget atypical (dead-set against all that is typical?), asymmetric (irrationally refusing to be symmetric?) and asymptomatic (dogmatically opposed to symptoms?). Oh, and agagooga... :-)


Heh heh.

***

A random blessing

May you have
enough happiness to make you sweet,
enough trials to make you strong,
enough sorrow to keep you human,
enough hope to make you happy and
enough money to buy me gifts.

(wander)


Wicked, simply wicked *g*

***

Someone on the putative law against "religious hatred" in the UK (which, among other things, would get the Satanic Verses censored):

"I think on reflection it would be best to support this law. Then on the day it comes into effect, go along to the appropriate authoritities and have them ban the Bible and Koran."

Rowan Atkinson: “Unfortunately, what is very arguable is the definition of the terms – the definition of a tolerant society. Is a tolerant society one in which you tolerate absurdities, iniquities and injustices simply because they are being perpetrated by or in the name of a religion and out of a desire not to rock the boat you pass no comment or criticism. So as not to cause discomfort to anyone, not to cause embarrassment. A society with a veneer of tolerance concealing a snake pit of un-aired and of course unchallenged views... A joke is essentially an exaggerated truth and the truth can hurt. Should the predictability of offence being taken mean that you have committed a crime? Is it an unacceptable joke – an illegal joke – simply because some are bound to be offended by it? Surely not. The right to offend is more important than the right not to be offended."

What I find more amusing is that somehow "incitement to religious hatred" is viewed to be worse than incitement to other forms of hatred:

"Let’s try the T-shirt test:

Which of the following T-shirt captions should we prohibit people from displaying in public on grounds of ‘incitement to hatred’?

The Bible sucks – offensive and insulting to sincere Christians
The Torah sucks – offensive and insulting to sincere Jews
The Koran sucks – offensive and insulting to sincere Muslims
‘Mein Kampf’ sucks – offensive and insulting to sincere Nazis
‘Das Kapital’ sucks – offensive and insulting to sincere Communists
‘The Origin of Species’ sucks – offensive and insulting to sincere evolutionists

If we prohibit one, why not all?

And why is 'incitement to religious hatred' any worse than 'incitement to political hatred'?"


Ah well. It's because of the same Muslim exception that results in some school canteens in the UK becoming halal to placate a minority: Dhimmi Watch: UK: Schools' halal provision debated

Some of the comments smack of neo-fascism and are downright ridiculous ("by the time
'Qar'an For Dummies' is printed Al Britain will be a Muslim state and they will be Dhimmis.Al Margarine will be running Sharia and the Queen will become Begum Al Windsor,suitably clad in a burka.Sheik Charles bin Windsor will wear flowing Arab dress with Arafat headband and there'll be a black Banner stuck over No 10 Downing Street), but others proffer worrying and disturbing anecdotes:

"Why can't they just bring their own halal lunches to school? I don't understand this need for public institutions to take on additional cost and effort to appease primitive superstitions. The total ban on pork products is unacceptable. Stupid politicians. They just don't have a clue what they're doing."

"I remember reading about these same sorts of demands from Muz immigrants in Detroit. No pork, oh no! Mohammed Jr. might goof up and eat it. So all the American kids had their food choices diminshed."

"In Canada Islamic groups have used Racism and Islamophobia to force some public schools to host teachings on Islam amd the Quran... they pre-suppose every non Muslim is a bigot and therefore must be educated about Islam.Not one Mosque has every allowed a female Christian to speak to a crowd of Muslims about Jesus and Christianty. Muslims at Concordia U. are demanding a prayer room through the human rights board,and demand a foot washing trough be put in the washrooms for use before praying. For now they use the sinks other student use to wash hands and brush their teeth,Muslims don't see the hygene worry for non-muslim users of these sinks."

"In France,gangs of young muslims have vandalized supermarkets,just because they sell pork products."

"Prince Charles is very pro-muslim. In fact, according to some sheik, he actually converted to Islam a while ago, so I hate to think what will happen if or when he ascends the throne." Okay, this one's a hoot. Allow me to look outside my window and laugh for a bit.

"My family kept kosher when I grew up. That meant that I brought my lunch to school most days instead of buying it. If the lunch on sale was vegetarian (pizza, say), then I would buy it. At my mother's request, the school administration mailed her the menu each month so she would know when to give me a sandwich and when to give me money to buy lunch. Was that an outrageous hardship? Did it ever occur to me or my parents to demand that the school sell only kosher meat? No, and no. BTW our school was maybe 60-70% Jewish, and maybe 5-10% of the students were Jews who kept kosher."

"durning swimming classes one of the Muslim students said he could not get in to the swimming pool with the unclean Infidels. Shortly ther after, the 14 muslim students and their parents ,in a school of hundreds of other non-Muslim students banded together in an attempt to pressure the school to provide seperate swimming classes for them."

***

Battlefield Earth - "The environment is in trouble and the religious right doesn't care. It's time to act as if the future depends on us – because it does."
I'm usually deeply suspicious of the articles on Alternet, but this seems one of the less wild ones.

Stupid Dino Tricks: A Visit to Kent Hovind’s Dinosaur Adventure Land - "Young-earth creationist Kent Hovind has built a dinosaur-filled theme park in the Florida panhandle and claims to prove that evolution is bunk. A visit there shows that it is definitely a fantasy land."

Save us from the politicians who have God on their side - "Bob Woodward vividly records in his book Plan of Attack an exchange with Bush, in which he asked whether the president had discussed the Iraq invasion with his father before making the decision to act. No, said Bush. He preferred to consult his "higher father"."

Why Academia Shuns Republicans - "Am I the only person who fails to understand why conservatives see this finding as vindication? After all, these studies show that some of the best-educated, most-informed people in the country overwhelmingly reject the GOP. Why is this seen as an indictment of academia, rather than as an indictment of the Republican Party?"

***

Hong Kong-vs-Singapore: Who is winning?

"Last Sunday, I walked along Hong Kong's Causeway Bay... What I saw was a carnival scene, a little organised chaos and a picture of flourishing business created from adversity... In Singapore, I quickly told myself, such scenes would not have been possible.

I'm pretty sure that Singaporeans by the hundreds would have complained to the authorities about the crowds and the noise; businessmen would want them removed for blocking their shops.

And in 10 minutes, the efficient Singapore police would have moved in and cleared everything away.

Well, that's what makes Hong Kong different. The former British colony is less regulated and a lot livelier.

Slowly, Singaporeans are learning that orderliness and tranquillity do not always spell economic opportunities.

Instead of getting the police to evict them, the Hong Kong shopkeepers did better. Instead of whining, they turned adversity into ringing cash registers and making money from the crowds... But it was not only the people who stood out. The authorities, too, were tolerant in allowing small private entrepreneurs to do their stuff.

Faced with the same situation, the Singapore government would probably be handling it in a regulatory way. Break the law and you would get fined."