Friday 30 March 2012

Four weeks are a long time...

The Guardian has a reaction to the apotheosis of Mr Galloway from one Lanre Bakare, a young columnist who hails, appropriately, from Bradford. No triumphalism here, and I can't argue with this:-
Galloway's brand of politics seeks to play on tensions which exist in this type of community and it's doubtful his presence will do much to help the city rid itself of the tag "most segregated in the UK".
But can this be the same Lanre Bakare who, when Channel 4 screened "Make Bradford British", was wheeled out to protest against the reinforcing of racial stereotypes?
Bradford does have problems and a racial divide is one of them. But there are other issues we risk not seeing until a flash point forces people to stop viewing Bradford as a single-issue city.
I fear Mr Bakare has just been outvoted - and knows it.

Wednesday 21 March 2012

Egg? What egg?

What kind of person thinks that Muslims shouldn't serve in an army that's fighting the Taliban, and that Jews shouldn't be permitted to reproduce - and makes both points with a revolver?

It's hardly a question to baffle a Clouseau, never mind a Maigret. Once it became clear that Toulouse wasn't hosting a gunmen's convention, I'd have said "neo-Nazi" was a 50-to-1 shot, and "apolitical nut job" more like 200-to-1.

Of course it's always a good idea to wait until you have some facts before rushing to judgment, otherwise you could end up looking extremely silly. Not, however, that this fate could overtake anyone delivering an ex cathedra verdict on behalf of the World's Most Righteous Newspaper: Fiachra Gibbons said Sarkozy was to blame, and you can be sure that he feels amply vindicated.

I see that last year "Turkey specialist" Gibbons offered the Guardian a piece on "10 of the best films set in Istanbul". Apparently none of them deal with the city's synagogues. Quelle surprise.

Monday 19 March 2012

Is the BBC losing its touch?

Could this "baby seal" story (©Dumb Jon) do for educational anarchy what this one did for the benefit culture?

Monday 12 March 2012

Shahbaz Bhatti, martyr

I've just watched and now  recommend watching the video here on the life and death of Shahbaz Bhatti here - melodramatic, but why shouldn't it be?

Yesterday Mass at a church in Jos, Nigeria, was interrupted by a suicide bomber. At least ten are dead.

Not killing people - it's just so twentieth century

"It's no longer acceptable for 21st Century medicine to be governed by 20th Century attitudes to death."
I don't want to get at the speaker of these words, Mrs Jane Nicklinson, whose situation is certainly not easy. But they will be echoed by lobbiests and applauded by commentators and commenters. For in post-Christian Britain this is where we are at in the matter of ethics. It's just a little unusual to see ethical progressivism summed up in such a lapidary manner.

Globally speaking, the twentieth century was not actually marked by a great aversion to killing people, but let that pass. The real point is that a morality with a sell-by date is no morality at all. This is Why I Am A Catholic in a nutshell. Ethical progressivism abounds in the Church of England, all the way up to the top. Beware particularly of those who announce that they have the support of the Holy Spirit. It has plenty of devotees in the Catholic church too, but they don't get to vote on the Magisterium - and the Pope is an impassioned enemy of relativism.

This morning the link from the BBC home page referred, give or take a word or two, to Mr Nicklinson as "a man who is so paralysed that he wants a doctor to be able to lawfully end his life". There's the measure of how far down the slippery slope we've gone. If A, then B. If you're sufficiently incapacitated, naturally you'll want your life ended. These things are never just private lifestyle choices. Once we have accepted it as a valid choice, imperceptibly we slip into the expectation that others in the same situation will make the same choice, and we become a little less interested in finding ways in which such a life can be made more bearable.

Thursday 1 March 2012

Unsung heroes

So much to blog about, so little time. Yesterday we saw "after-birth abortion" endorsed in a mainstream medical journal. Elsewhere a committee of experts told us that it's a good thing if nurses care about their patients. I'm sure we're all glad to have that point cleared up. And linking those two themes together, a Glasgow maternity hospital is leading the way in teaching compassion to its staff - by forcing then to attend abortions.

Leaving all that aside, I thought this story ought not to pass without comment. It's quite remarkable that there are any journalists in Somalia, let alone enough to form a National Union. 29 have been murdered since 2007. Tributes have deservedly been paid to Marie Colvin; may Abukar Hassan Kadaf not be forgotten.

Requiescat in pace Davy Jones

A little to my surprise, I find I can't watch this today with dry eyes.