Barefoot in the wilderness
in search of understanding

Hearing from the MP

Further to my recent post about meeting my MP and talking about immigration, I’ve just had an email from his secretary saying that he is going to reply if I send my postal address. So, I’ve sent that to him. Sounds promising

pax et bonum

Exploding toads

Possibly the strangest story of the year so far – exploding toads in Germany

The World According to Google

Google seems to be anticipating World War III or something – this is its world:

I’m sure there’s more on my maps than just North America and the UK…

(Thanks to Gathering Grace for the tip!)

pax et bonum

Veteran former Labour MP defects

Brian Sedgemore (former Labour MP who castigated New Labour) has defected to the LibDems.
(Thanks to ‘mym’ for the tip.)

Script kiddy gets his just deserts

Could resist posting this. Some people are too stupid for their own good!

Immigration matters

After my post at the weekend about my MP’s apparent failure to distinguish between asylum and immigration, I thought that I would write a little about the important distinctions between these groups. Immigrants come to this country with the intention of setting up permanent residence and becoming British subjects (those who live in a republic might be citizens, but we Brits are subjects of Her Majesty the Queen). Their reasons can be many but are often financial or familial. Asylum seekers come to this country for a period (that might become permanent) to avoid persecution, torture or death in their home country. The right to seek asylum arises under international treaty and imposing quotas (numerical limits per year) on asylum is both illegal and deeply immoral (“Sorry, sir, but you can’t have asylum here – we’ve filled our quota for this year. Please go home and avoid being killed for a month or so, then try again. Have a nice day!”). There is also a crucial third group – migrant workers. This group comes to the country for a short period in order to earn money. For example, au pairs are migrant workers. Many of our politicians seem intent on blurring the differences between these groups for political ends but, if we are to have an intelligent debate on these matters, we must remember that they are quite different. Arguments that apply to one group will not apply to another.

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It wasn't me!

Ever felt that someone should make a song about the antics of Blair, Bush et al.? Well, someone has – It wasn’t me

Vote against war

If you want to know the positions of your General Election candidates (or your sitting MP) on the war in Iraq, check out Vote against war

Meeting the MP

I was slightly surprised today to bump into our MP (Andrew Lansley, Conservative) at the Farmers’ Fayre (like a Farmers’ Market but not so strict about only farmers taking part) in Great Shelford this morning. Various smartly dressed men of a range of ages – and the MP, of course – with stickers, flags and balloons so that we’ll all vote for him on May 5th. Being the person I am, I decided to take the chance to ask about one of the big election issues: immigration. I was slightly disappointed to discover that he wouldn’t be drawn on his personal opinions – although I appreciate that a member of the shadow cabinet (as he is) will follow the party line, I prefer to know something about the personal opinions, too! It lets us know what sort of debate might be going on to form that party line. I was, however, particularly concerned that he failed to distinguish between immigration and asylum (very different things), or between immigration quotas and immigration qualifications (also rather different). I have sent him an email on these issues, and I’ll let you know when (and if) he replies.

For balance, the other main candidates in our constituency are Andrew Dickson (LibDems) and Sandra Wilson (Labour). There are probably others, too And I’ll be checking issues with them, too, if I can!

pax et bonum

Four-letter word

Never one to shirk controversy, Backing Blair has started a campaign to get the word “Iraq“ in front of as many people as possible.

Filesharing more serious than manslaughter?

The Register is reporting that the US Congress and Senate have passed laws that make distributing a movie before its official release date, or recording it while it’s being shown in a cinema, punishable by 3 years in jail – more than handed down for involuntary manslaughter. Now, I don’t condone people breaking copyright, but is it really right that copying a movie is treated more seriously as a criminal offense than killing someone? Or is something askew with the US (and the UK) judicial system?

Similarly, the current crusade against sharing music files over peer-to-peer (P2P) networks on our computers. I don’t condone people downloading pop hits instead of buying them (the artist deserves the pittance of the CD price that they do get – generally around 8%) but surely using P2P as a sampling service before buying isn’t morally wrong, any more than borrowing a CD from a friend is. Or how about using it to obtain music that is simply no longer for sale? And that’s not even touching the significant arena of music that has been made available for free distribution, whether as a taster, as a way to gain recognition or simply as a way to distribute to a wider audience.

How have we come to a place where crimes against profit are treated more seriously than crimes against people? When did the principle of justice become protecting the right of the rich to earn even more money? Should we not attempt to return to a place where justice is about protecting the rights of everyone – including protecting the poor against the rich?

pax et bonum

Who should you vote for?

Who should I vote for?

Your expected outcome: Liberal Democrat
Your actual outcome:

Labour -16
Conservative -29
	Liberal Democrat 44
	UK Independence Party 3
	Green 44

You should vote: Liberal Democrat
The LibDems take a strong stand against tax cuts and a strong one in favour of public services: they would make long-term residential care for the elderly free across the UK, and scrap university tuition fees. They are in favour of a ban on smoking in public places, but would relax laws on cannabis. They propose to change vehicle taxation to be based on usage rather than ownership.

You should vote: Green
The Green Party, which is of course strong on environmental issues, takes a strong position on welfare issues, but was firmly against the war in Iraq. Other key concerns are cannabis, where the party takes a liberal line, and foxhunting, which unsurprisingly the Greens are firmly against.

Take the test at Who Should You Vote For

Interesting, I thought, especially given that I came out higher for UKIP than Labour! Probably because I marked the EU questions as neutral rather than positive, because I don’t have a strong opinion on EU issues (not pressing issues and I don’t have the information yet); that would probably reduce my UKIP score if they took account of it!

pax et bonum

McLibel

Last night, we watched Storyville on BBC4, which was about the McLibel case. In case you weren’t aware, in 1990, McDonald’s restaurants sued several environmental campaigners for libel after they distributed leaflets condemning McDonald’s for a range of things including poor treatment of employees, deceptive advertising, exploiting children, animal cruelty and health concerns; McDonald’s were at the time often in the habit of using libel threats to get the mainstream media to retract damaging statements about them. However, in this case, they had picked the wrong people to attack.

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What a tangled web we weave...

The UK Government’s flagship “terrorism“ case has crashed and burned, with only one of the nine people arrested for allegendly conspiring to produce the poison ricin being convicted of any connection to terrorism, reports The Register. The article then tears apart not only the case for a huge terrorist plot but the political capital that has been made out of it, including the recent declaration by Home Secretary Charles Clarke that having ID cards and biometrics would have helped (not likely, given that the one man who was convicted (Kamel Bourgass) made an application for asylum and so already had biometric data on file, but was arrested entirely by accident!). Even better, Clarke announced that the failed cases against the other men showed that the government needs these new control powers it has given itself if it is to meet this threat that the judiciary is unable to deal with. As The Register asks, “what is it about people who definitely weren’t part of a ricin terror conspiracy that means you have to watch them?”

pax et bonum

More free food

Last night saw another culinary experiment. Anne had been digging the vegetable plot and found some roots that resembled parsnips. “These look edible”, she thought. Fortunately, she recognised them as evening primrose and, after checking on the net, decided to try eating them. According to our sources, evening primrose is edible – all parts of the plant can be eaten (you might have come across the seed oil being sold in health-food shops) and was apparently even a staple crop for North American natives.

Having cleaned, peeled and boiled the roots, we tried them but they were a disappointment. The texture is slightly gritty, with a faint aromatic/peppery/earthy flavour, and they’re a bit fibrous, too. Not our greatest success with free food. Nettles were much better – we tried them again the other day as a simple vegetable (boiled for a few minutes like spinach) but they weren’t as nice as they were in the risotto.

pax et bonum

The Zoomquilt

Here’s a nifty Flash thing – The Zoomquilt. Beware, though – it’s over 1600K!

Back from holidays!

So, I’m back from a week in sunny (and, admittedly, rainy ) Yorkshire. It was a lovely week – catching up with Anne’s relatives, showing Ruth off to those who’d not seen her before, visiting nice places, seeing newborn lambs at the farm we were staying on, and having other people do our washing up More details below, if you’re interested…

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Holidays

There won’t be any new posts here for a week or so because I’m away on holiday (lovely Harrogate!). So don’t nobody worry

pax et bonum

Farewell to PoMoMusings

Sometimes it’s hard to say goodbye… Adam Cleave has annnounced that he’s going to stop blogging and get on with real life. I’ll miss his insights but – all the best!

Unless it’s an April Fool, of course, in which case…Oooh, you naughty man

pax et bonum

New Doctor Who already

Christopher Eccleston has quit his Doctor Who role after just one series. Apparently, although he enjoyed the role and is obviously pleased with the huge positive reaction (with viewing figures of 10 million for the first episode broadcast last weekend), he is concerned with being typecast and found the experience of making the series gruelling. It’s a great shame – I thought he did a good job and should make a great Doctor. Still, we have to move on :)

pax et bonum

Facing our dark side

Further to my post on Original Sin earlier today, Father Jake has some thoughts about how we face the real sin and darkness in our own lives, and the fact that it isn’t simply removable.

pax et bonum

Original Sin

I’ve long believed that we Protestants in general, and evangelicals in particular (in which camp I lived for many years), have lost a great deal by denying, ignoring or simply being ignorant about the idea of Original Sin. It is this idea that talks about why every human being is in need of salvation, even babies; it is this idea that blocks any idea that we can achieve righteousness by ourselves, in our own strength; it is this idea that undergirds any attempt to understand the atonement. However, the old ways of framing the idea have led many to reject it as implausible, offensive or outright immoral. So, what is Original Sin, how has it been understood and how can we better understand it today?

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TabletPCs in the Bible

Who’d have thought it – computers in the bible!

Faith and its defence

Sven has been talking about his favourite books, including The Crucified God by Jurgen Moltmann. One passage that he quoted resonated with me, especially in light of the debates currently going on in the Anglican Communion, in the attitudes of some people towards the need to “defend” their faith.

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Background to new pope

If you’re interested in the new Pope, Benedict XVI, Beliefnet.com has an article on his attitudes towards church government.

Holy Smoke

So, we have a new pope – Benedict XVI.

Joseph Ratzinger won the vote today and has been elected pope of the Roman Catholic Church. To me, this isn’t the best news – Ratzinger is unlikely to make significant changes in the Church other than to address the positive changes already made, and will continue John Paul II’s conservative legacy (probably increasing it).

But let’s hope and pray that this is the right choice for the church.

Update
I’ve added a link to the BBC News site about Ratzinger. Oh, and here’s another (can’t get much more official than this – the Vatican website’s front page!).

Sad to say, I suspect that he won’t be able to unite the RC Church in the way that John Paul II managed. And even sadder that the Church passed up the opportunity to appoint a pope from Africa or South America, where it’s by far the strongest! And saddest of all that it’s totally avoided engaging with the real issues facing the church at this time (such as social justice and engaging with society) in favour of a staunch conservative and authoritarian.

pax et bonum

Human genome decoded!

I first saw this a while ago, but thought I'd post it here.

It has been revealed that scientists have decoded the "junk" portion of the human genome. As is well reported, much of our DNA (over 90%) doesn't contain gene but is apparently nonsense. However, by taking a pointer from computer programmers, biologists have finally worked out what it's for. Comments. Yes, that's right – most of the human genome is actually commented by our Creator, indicating what's what. And I have the privilege of including here the first part of this code.

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Civilised church meeting shock!

It was our church’s Annual Parochial Church Meeting yesterday. For non-CofE types, this is when we elect the Parochial Church Council (which essentially deals with the business side of being a church – the vicar deals with the spiritual/pastoral matters) and sundry other people, and hear reports on the past year. Sadly, for the past few years these have been a horror of the highest order; hearing grown men and women act, quite literally, like 5-year-olds is not fun. Whispering loudly while someone is talking, mock gasps when they say something you disagree with (wooOOOoooh). I mean, we’d have told Adam off for behaving like some of these people were, and he’s only 3!

However, this year, it all went off very well – almost normally, in fact. There were a few little moments but nothing out of the ordinary. It was like a breath of fresh air! I really hope that this is a good sign that people are starting to work together for a change, but I have a nasty suspicion that it’s got something to do with the fact that the bishop‘s looking into the whole problem at the moment and we are expecting his report soon. So, perhaps, they were just behaving “for the cameras”, as it were. But I hope not.

pax et bonum

Fishing

Tom at Bigbulkyanglican has a nice story about fishing that illustrates nicely the fishing picture that is commonly used to illustrate how we should “do” evangelism but that comes across as very authoritarian and discouraging. Instead of a “good” fisherman reeling in fish after fish,

most fish don’t come up to bait and take one big bite and get caught, they visit repeatedly and nibble until such time as the bait is small and irresistible and only then does the fisher’man’ (and perhaps not the one that originally set the bait) get his/her catch … [similarly] only a small minority of people come to faith in a sudden single bite of the bait – most nibble at the edges of the Christian faith – and only make a leap of commitment after many contacts.

pax et bonum

Truth

The only sense in which homosexuality can rightly be said to be a “defining issue” for the Church today is that it crucially tests the ability of Christians to eschew fundamentalist fanaticism and to hold the divine Word of truth in humility.
Roy Clements

This is one (good) answer to the question I’ve been wondering about for a long time now – how did it come to be that our attitude towards homosexuality became the defining issue that establishes someone’s orthodoxy? There is nothing in the Bible to justify elevating this one part of sexual ethics above everything else, so it obviously comes from elsewhere. And the interesting point Roy Clements is making here is that it illustrates the progression from “I believe this to be true” to “I know the Truth” to “therefore I must be obeyed”. This is a very dangerous series of steps, and if the fall of Modernism has taught us nothing else, it must surely teach that claims to absolute truth must never be taken at face value. We need not treat truth as entirely relative to learn the lesson that knowledge and wisdom are always partial and biased.

pax et bonum

All nighter

Make Poverty History have organised an all-night event for this week called Wake Up to Trade Justice. It starts at 10pm at Westminster Abbey and then goes to Parliament for an all-night vigil, complete with music, comedy and other entertainment. So, if you’re in London and can make it, give it a go!

pax et bonum

Writers and faith

Ever wondered about the religious faith of favourite authors? Adherents.com has a list of SF authors and their known religious affiliations.

Lots of links

So, having been away for a week, I found myself with over 250 blog entries to catch up on! That took a while, even skipping over lots of them. However, some blogs and other sites have caught my interest, so I thought I’d lump them all together!

Father Jake has been worrying about the possibility of the USA becoming a far-right theocracy and the degree to which this is already happening. On a slightly lighter note, he also passes on some good advice from Roy Clements about how to conduct ourselves when involved in emotional debates such as those about sexuality. As an aside, I’m glad to hear from Roy – I was in Cambridge when he had to leave his position as leader of a local evangelical baptist church because he was “outed” as gay, and it always seemed a shame (although not a surprise) this his church couldn’t cope.

Meanwhile, Adam Cleave of PoMoMusings (who, fortunately, isn’t leaving blogging after all ) is turning 25 (youngster!) and having an interesting-looking party to celebrate!

Reports from No2ID and The Register indicate that, despite shelving the ID cards legislation because of the UK General Election on May 5th, the Labour Party is planning to bring in a national fingerprint database by stealth. They claim to be able to do this by piggybacking on passports – because these are issued by Royal prerogative, they claim that there is no need for legislation to force people to give biometric data, nor is it required for them to store this in a national database (which would have fewer legal boundaries than the proposed national ID database).

Finally, on a lighter note, have you heard of the Unitarian Jihad? Jon Carroll is reporting that he’s received a commniqué from them, targeting the “Imprisoned Citizens of the United States”. So, just call me Brother Cattle Prod of Courteous Debate.

pax et bonum

Doctored photos

Sadly, a parliamentary candidate has been found to have faked photographs to fit in with his party’s political stance on immigration.