I am becoming quite fond of my little corner of Schiphol airport. I have put up my Christmas cards and a few bits of tinsel. I now have a boarding card for the 0800 to Manchester. This is the sixth boarding card I have had. It is very hard to understand why, time after time, they don’t know a flight is cancelled until some time after it was due to leave and all the passengers have queued at the gate for hours.
Of course, Manchester is a lot further from Ramsgate than Schiphol is, so even if the flight atually goes, this represents rather dubious progress.
Happy New Year everybody.
Remarkably, KLM delivered my lost luggage, including my laptop, at 9.30 pm on New Year’s Eve. At that time a pretty lively party was already in full swing,much improved by the presence of a great many beautiful young women, mostly from Latvia. I am not sure why; my life as ever consists of a bewildering succession of chance encounters with really nice people. I am in the fortunate position of being able to say that Nadira was the most lovely of all, without indulging in dutiful hyperbole.
It was an extremely happy Christmas. Having my mum, both my brothers and all my three chidren together was as great as it was rare.
We have been through the laptop in lost luggage discussion before. The problem is that my shoulders dislocate at the drop of a hat, and I travel without hand luggage to avoid an accident.
2011 is going to be a very important year for me. particularly the first quarter. A number of crucial events are going either to set me up financially for the rest of my life, or result in real distress and failure. At present I have reason to be very optimistic. I am also very absorbed in my life of Alexander Burnes, which I hope will help establish a serious academic reputation.
The Portuguese edition of Murder in Samarkand has sold unexpectedly well in Brazil. The translation of the Turkish edition has just been finished.
I hope to do a Wikileaks retrospective in the next couple of days. Just a quick thought on the case of the poor young gardener in Bristol. Of the Jill Dando case, long before Barry Bulsara’s succesful appeal I blogged that this appeared to be a miscarriage of justice in which the police had fitted up the local weirdo.
Despite not being enamoured of landlords in general, I fear the same dynamic is at work in Bristol, albeit Chris Jefferies is much more intellectually capable than Bulsara. My instinct is that the police have picked up on Jefferies for being camper than a boy scout jamboree and archer than Trajan.
Jefferies’ release on bail has me worried that there was nothing against him other than the “He’s a weird one, guv” instinct of some not very bright cop. The case needs to be closely watched as history shows that the powers of the police to make the evidence fit the suspect are considerable.
off to bed. night, all straight posters.
Is technicolour a homophobe?
just so you know, alan, the Pew Foundation reported that there were 164,7000 muslim people in the UK in 2009. So they were either embarassingly, shamingly wrong a year ago, or are wildly exaggerating now. As for claims as to their methodology, they list as their sources for the UK figure the 2001 census. It claims that’other sources’ were also used, but oddly for an academic report, no details of these sources are given.
Curioser and curioser, when you look at the full report Thompson links to, it says nothing about population growth but is an analysis of what it calls ‘muslim networks’. The only source for the 2,869,000 figure quoted is the press release itself. As the article from ‘British religion’ confirms, no other sources or methodologies are given.
Wouldn’t give two hoots, apart from the shoddy research, the insinuating tone, and the general air of a sad, small-minded bandwagon being jumped on.
As I’ve said before, I think all religion is mumbo-jumbo and am usually happy to laugh it off in a benign fashion – in the way you do when children talk about Santa. It’s only when it starts telling me what to do and, even worse, enforcing the rule of hypocritical high-priests that i get irritateded. There are people in Luton who’d like to kill me cos I don’t believe. Rowan Williams isn’t in that category.
Being anti-Muslim is often deliberately conflated with racism by certain interest groups these days, including in anti-racism legislation, which is particularly worrying. It doesn’t happen when you criticise Christianity or other religions except Judaism. Can anyone explain the use of the nonsense term “secular Muslims”, which I’ve seen used a lot recently?
Alan Campbell: I’m certainly in agreement with you there. But to add to your point, there are religious nutters of the Christianist persuasion who think they’re killing Muslims in the name of their own God. Our own “coalition of the willing” includes in its ranks chaplains who proselytise, perform industrial scales of baptisms, have weapons which carry biblical references and senior commanders who like to boast that “my God is bigger than their God”, and “their God is a guy called Satan” and all manner of utterly dark-ages B.S. .
There are plenty of religious leaders, teabaggers and suchlike in the US who pretend military adventurism in the Middle East is, in fact, a religious struggle in which we are bravely holding our own.
The Kristianists have killed millions – MILLIONS! – of people for heresy throughout the last few hundred years in Europe alone, primarily women. And the subjugation of women in the more primitive Muslim societies is not far removed from that prescribed in fundamentalist Kristianist institutions. (At least the Muslim central command isn’t known as an enabler for pedophiles, in the way the Catholic church most certainly is.)
So I think you should put it in perspective a bit more, when criticising Muslims in a back-handed manner like that. Muslims in Luton don’t want to kill you any more than Catholics in Ireland did, by dint of their religion alone.
But you’d know that, and would say so, unless you wanted to be dishonest. Good Lord, why have the people with the worst agendas always have to lie and try and deceive all the time? Give a decent answer to that, from your personal experience, if you want to do something useful around here.
Some information on Bradley Manning. For all those interested, he appears to have released statements which includes knowledge of general awareness and support:
http://www.armycourtmartialdefense.info/
As a lapsed Catholic, you certainly won’t see me defending Cardinal Ratzinger and his cohorts, but it’s a fact that I’m not threatened in the same way by conservative christianity as I am by islamist fundamentalists. I want religion to leave me (and others) alone. And I’m afraid Islam has a problem doing that. It awaits its Reformation.
i think islam is still in its Kevin the Teenager phase. Obstreporous, whiney, know it all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5J8Q_0myKQ
Alan: Are you serious? Are you genuinely afraid of Muslims? Good God, man, I suppose you were terrified of anyone who might be a “commie” before this convenient new terrible threat came along.
You do actually realise that you’re more likely to die drowning in your bathtub than at the hands of some “teeoorist”, right? Are you a scaremongering shill, or just a silly, terrified little man? How could anyone in the west, in any serious sense, claim to feel “threatened” as you do. Personally, I’m no more fearful of drowning in my bath or being hit by a bolt of lighting than being blown up by a Muslim fanatic, even though the chances of the former are vastly higher. Enlighten me – why are you so frightened, when the odds are so vanishingly small?
He said threatened, not frightened, there’s a big difference. Try explaining to the victims of religious fundamentalists that the odds of being maimed or killed were no greater than drowning in the bath and the other risks we face daily. I’m sure it would be a great consolation for losing your legs or the person you loved.
Not so much scared as irritated. And yes, one does feel threatened. Threatened by loss of liberty to have a drink, be openly homosexual, wear a short skirt, eat pork, not go to the temple or wherever. I’m constantly amazed by the liberati’s defence of the most repressive,authoritarian anti-liberal force in the world today.
“anybody” – give me a freaking break, you worthless shill. Why don’t you try explaining to the surviving relatives of a wedding party in Pakistan or Afghanistan that you – and I mean you personally – felt threatened. That’s why your government blasted them out of existence just in case they were a threat to your cosseted lifestyle, on your behalf, and you now spend your time as their apologist for their actions. Using your language, “I’m sure it would be a a great consolation”.
Alan Cambell: I wasn’t aware “they” (i.e. the dreaded M~u~s~l~i~m~s) were taking away my liberty to drink, be gay, wear short skirts, eat pork and failing to attend the temple. Amazingly enough, I’ve done all those things (except be gay, wear short skirt and eat pork) for many years now, and not once felt terrified by Muslims at my non-compliance! WTF do you live, when you go about your business feeling so threatened, you total and utter wuss?
Not yet, my friend, not yet. Give it another 20 years.
PS when i say “me” “I” I’m talking as a representative of the Enlightenment. Fortunately I’m personally 1000s of miles from Eurabia.
“At least the Muslim central command isn’t known as an enabler for pedophiles, in the way the Catholic church most certainly is.”
It may not be known for it, but nor was the Catholic Church until recently when secular powers finally overcame religious intransigence and the stories started coming out. I’ve been told by a Muslim friend that immam’s have been involved in sexual abuse at the local mosque but they have not been reported to the police because the community feels it would reflect badly on them and their faith as a whole.
“Alan Campbell: I’m certainly in agreement with you there. But to add to your point, there are religious nutters of the Christianist persuasion who think they’re killing Muslims in the name of their own God. Our own “coalition of the willing” includes in its ranks chaplains who proselytise, perform industrial scales of baptisms, have weapons which carry biblical references and senior commanders who like to boast that “my God is bigger than their God”, and “their God is a guy called Satan” and all manner of utterly dark-ages B.S. .”
Here’s a good video from Intelligence Squared where Douglas Murray dispenses with the silly idea that “fundamentalist Christianism” is no better than “fundamentalist Islam”.
He says that if the question was “Is Christianity a religion of Peace?” Then most of the liberal-minded audience in the room would be eagerly pointing out the Crusades of all those many years ago or “some clever clogs” would be pointing to the crazy pastor in Florida who wants to burn a Qu’oran but when the question of “Is Islam a religion of peace?” the same people bolt for the door despite the untold atrocities going on not particularly against the West but far more within Muslim majority coutnriess themselves where different sects of Islam are ex-communicated and viciously attacked by other sects of Islam. Look at Pakistan, Sudan, Darfur, Iraq and Afghanistan for where different sects of Islam are killing each other in thousands, hundreds of thousands.
Look also to Bangladesh and to Turkey. In Thailand and the Phillipines, self-professd Muslim warriors are at war with the non-Muslim governments there.
Now, we could wonder what these things have in common, or I know, lets talk about “The Kristianists”. Much better. Much more warm and cosy and smug.
“The Kristianists have killed millions – MILLIONS! – of people for heresy throughout the last few hundred years in Europe alone, primarily women.”
I don’t think this is true.
video:
http://www.intelligencesquared.com/events/islam-is-a-religion-of-peace
And as for paedophilia, how old was Muhammed’s wife? The Taliban also have a penchant for raping little boys/girls.
glenn’s lack of reason has led to resorting to insults and the muddled assumption that someone opposed to the violence perpetrated by religious fundamentalists must be a supporter of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and/or imperialist policies, past or present. There’s no point in attempting to debate with people like that, those who are religious in the sense that their arguments are not anchored by rational thought but by their own emotional responses and can’t see the obvious ridiculousness of their views.
“If religious people were open to reason, there would be no religious people.”
How low is this kind of thing?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/25/suicide-bomb-pakistan-scores-dead
Blowing people up at a food distribution point. Don’t worry, Glenn is going to lecture us about the Pope’s supidity on condoms. That’ll make it go away.
Glenn: “But to add to your point, there are religious nutters of the Christianist persuasion who think they’re killing Muslims in the name of their own God.”
Nope.
Heh Glenn – if multiple bombs go off in the Tube tomorrow, are you going to be looking for Quakers to blame?
glenn seems convinced that anyone who finds fault with his personal idiosyncratic world view is a “shill”, implying that they are sponsored by some nebulous government department specifically to counter his emotional outbursts. No doubt he hopes that the comments section will become, (or should that be, remain), a cosy little like-minded family, incestuously reflecting his own preconceived and sometimes paranoid beliefs. Congratulations for actually making Fox News look “fair and balanced” in comparison.
Alan at 29/12, 02:46: You ain’t no friend of mine, and since you’re thousands of miles away, you’ve even less reason to feel threatened, you frightened, silly little man.
“Anybody” at 29/12/, 02:47: The Catholic church is an institution for pedophiles and their hideous abuse, you miserable apologist, and always has been. And are you so cowardly that you can’t even call yourself “Larry” anymore? Gad, you people turn my stomach.
“Larry” – you are such a stinking, miserable coward, I’ll have to thoroughly wash my hands after simply typing this reply to you, the keyboard feels that infected, by dint of our having communication through it. If this is all you can do for your living, I would truly, seriously feel sorry for you. The one blessing available is your ready availability of guns, and you should make immediate use of it, by discharging a round through your worthless skull. Go on, “Larry”, you know it’s for the best.
Yadda yadda yadda….. There’s no hope for you glenn unless perhaps you’re drunk and can sober up and reflect on what you’ve written tomorrow.
Sure thing, “:” above at 29/12 03:51 – and you’ve got such strength of your convictions, you’re afraid to even sign your own posts. That sort of courage really rattles the regular posters.
Why bother? You’ve convinced yourself that anyone who doesn’t agree with you is Larry, anyway. And the tag “glenn” somehow identifies you and makes you brave does it?
Larry, or “:” as you prefer, you’ve lost every argument. Suck it up.
a)Glenn, is Islam a religion of peace?
b) Is Christianity a religion of peace?
My answers are (a) definitely not and (b) not as its practiced by most, but generally not bad.
Now, are they both the same, Glenn?