I write to offer you my condolences for the hurt inflicted on you and your family by the disclosure of your private life. I must admit I was one of those who broke the injunction and I would like to explain why.
Firstly I have no truck with sectarian factionalism rife in sports and I disclosed your identity not because I disliked your club or liked another. I also care very little for your status in are national life, I have no normative view if this is a positive or negative thing, Indeed, it is your unimportant status that has worried me the most.
You see Mr. Giggs I actually believe you have the perfect right to privacy, I see very little public interest in your personal life, however, I do believe the best judge of this is the market (if it sells newspapers) and not the courts. I also care very little about the life of the lady in question but I care a great deal about her freedom to speak and the functioning of law.
You see, Mr. Giggs your little injunction made the freedom of speech and the freedom of press secondary to the freedom of privacy (not from the state) but from the populace. You and you alone reduced the freedom of people to think, write and speak as they would otherwise choose. You chose to do this via a method used by corporations and who knows else to protect themselves from the proper function of a free media and the free judgment of people.
We were rapidly approaching a situation where people where going to charge and possible imprisoned in secrete and for breaking an injunction they could not know about on about an unknown person. This would mean people would be disappeared for breach of secrete laws and I am sorry Mr. Giggs your privacy is not worth that! Indeed I am sure if you weighed the harm this revelation has had upon your children against the harm a state empowered with such a system could inflict upon them I am sure you would have leaked your own name.
Saturday, 28 May 2011
Sunday, 22 May 2011
Why I believe:
I am a 23 stone virgin, with the social skills of a drunkard. I am innumerate and severely dyslexic and dyspraxic. I have been bullied and mocked most of my overly long life and sometime because of my faith but yet I still believe. I believe in the full Christian doctrine; not only in some vague distant God but in a personal saviour who loves me and shed his mortal life for my salvation so you may ask why?
Well I want you to remember a film; the 1950 version of “war of the worlds”. In this the female lead explains to her eventual hero that when she is scared she runs into a church, indeed her uncle a minister tries to make peaceful contact with the alien and dies at the very start of the film. When she is separated by a crazed crowed from her protector and he goes in search of her, she is found in a church. Other church’s full of the injured and faithful are destroyed but theirs is just spared as germs kill off the Martian threat.
The point of this forgotten moment is that the church is a place of safety if not for the physical from then for the more important spiritual aspect of it. It asks and answers a key question. If you were dying or some disaster was befalling you and those around you where would you go? If you could no longer run away where would you make your stand?
I know where I would run to, I would run to Caversham Heights Methodist church and I pray my beloved minister would be there and I know what I’d choose to be doing, singing the old hymns and looking after the scared, faithless and injured. In these day of utter darkness I would shine at my brightness and the light of the Lord would shine from every church in the land as a beacon of hope maybe not for the salvation of the mortal world but salvation in the best world, God world.
Oh brothers and sisters I would die just as you will but I will die in faith and joy not hiding or zoned out on drugs, sex or booze. My death will be no less painful or horrific but then reward of a life spent in God’s service and the protecting hand of God will make it all the better when I go onto the choir immortal whilst others in the fear and desperation sell their souls cheap for the illusion of physical security and survival.
It may not be the best reason for faith in God but it was my first step along the path of salvation and redemption. The knowledge of the eternal church is a great joy to me, it is my faith in time of trouble and in the end we must all have somewhere and I can think of no better place than a temple to the Lord of love and mercy. I can think no brighter place to confront the darkness then in the house of the Lord.
Well I want you to remember a film; the 1950 version of “war of the worlds”. In this the female lead explains to her eventual hero that when she is scared she runs into a church, indeed her uncle a minister tries to make peaceful contact with the alien and dies at the very start of the film. When she is separated by a crazed crowed from her protector and he goes in search of her, she is found in a church. Other church’s full of the injured and faithful are destroyed but theirs is just spared as germs kill off the Martian threat.
The point of this forgotten moment is that the church is a place of safety if not for the physical from then for the more important spiritual aspect of it. It asks and answers a key question. If you were dying or some disaster was befalling you and those around you where would you go? If you could no longer run away where would you make your stand?
I know where I would run to, I would run to Caversham Heights Methodist church and I pray my beloved minister would be there and I know what I’d choose to be doing, singing the old hymns and looking after the scared, faithless and injured. In these day of utter darkness I would shine at my brightness and the light of the Lord would shine from every church in the land as a beacon of hope maybe not for the salvation of the mortal world but salvation in the best world, God world.
Oh brothers and sisters I would die just as you will but I will die in faith and joy not hiding or zoned out on drugs, sex or booze. My death will be no less painful or horrific but then reward of a life spent in God’s service and the protecting hand of God will make it all the better when I go onto the choir immortal whilst others in the fear and desperation sell their souls cheap for the illusion of physical security and survival.
It may not be the best reason for faith in God but it was my first step along the path of salvation and redemption. The knowledge of the eternal church is a great joy to me, it is my faith in time of trouble and in the end we must all have somewhere and I can think of no better place than a temple to the Lord of love and mercy. I can think no brighter place to confront the darkness then in the house of the Lord.
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
A noble sprite
A noble sprit embiggens the smallest man:
If you know which town hold this as there motto then you can probably already answer the following question?
What longest running show has a female character who is the mother of three children, one of whom shot a man and another of whom was imprisoned in juvenile detention for fraud. She herself has a gambling addition, has a conviction for theft and DUI and even has had a mental break down and a semi dalliance with a bowling instructor whilst married. Still confused, well if I were to tell you she has a tall blue plume of blue hair and her surname is Simpson you may guess what this piece is about: “The Simpsons” (please add in signature theme tune).
There is one program I hold above all: “The Simpsons”. I have every episode of DVD, I own every book explaining every episode of every series and I have written a blog and every episode of every series of “The Simpsons”. To me the Simpsons is not just a show it is a real family, they really are a part of my life.
So why do I love the Simpsons so? First they are a Christian family; they have a minister and go to church weekly, just like me. Secondly they have a less than perfect life, in a less than perfect world rather like the world we live in and of course I adore the surreal adventures and snide comments on a world that has lost its direction.
What make the Simpsons the Simpsons and what it has lost a little in its latter years, is the side jokes; which are often funnier and more biting then any which are part of the main story arc and yes all Simpsons have a proper story arc, the characters are believable and endearing and they are also just as flawed and debased as we all Are. Indeed Reverent lovejoys flexible faith and rocky marriage, reminds me of several ministers I have known and Ned Flanders clearly studier and more devoted faith is another aspect of church life I have experienced. Indeed it is often true that the congregation is more orthodox then the minister.
Yes, I know what you’re thinking, jeeze this is only a show; well it maybe to you but to me it’s a whole world of people all of whom I know everything about . I have watched faithfully since it began and I will remain loyal until the bitter end because in the end who of us can see hurricane Neddy episode of the Simpson and not reflect on our place in the world and are views on faith and God and how many shows can say they achieve this?
If you know which town hold this as there motto then you can probably already answer the following question?
What longest running show has a female character who is the mother of three children, one of whom shot a man and another of whom was imprisoned in juvenile detention for fraud. She herself has a gambling addition, has a conviction for theft and DUI and even has had a mental break down and a semi dalliance with a bowling instructor whilst married. Still confused, well if I were to tell you she has a tall blue plume of blue hair and her surname is Simpson you may guess what this piece is about: “The Simpsons” (please add in signature theme tune).
There is one program I hold above all: “The Simpsons”. I have every episode of DVD, I own every book explaining every episode of every series and I have written a blog and every episode of every series of “The Simpsons”. To me the Simpsons is not just a show it is a real family, they really are a part of my life.
So why do I love the Simpsons so? First they are a Christian family; they have a minister and go to church weekly, just like me. Secondly they have a less than perfect life, in a less than perfect world rather like the world we live in and of course I adore the surreal adventures and snide comments on a world that has lost its direction.
What make the Simpsons the Simpsons and what it has lost a little in its latter years, is the side jokes; which are often funnier and more biting then any which are part of the main story arc and yes all Simpsons have a proper story arc, the characters are believable and endearing and they are also just as flawed and debased as we all Are. Indeed Reverent lovejoys flexible faith and rocky marriage, reminds me of several ministers I have known and Ned Flanders clearly studier and more devoted faith is another aspect of church life I have experienced. Indeed it is often true that the congregation is more orthodox then the minister.
Yes, I know what you’re thinking, jeeze this is only a show; well it maybe to you but to me it’s a whole world of people all of whom I know everything about . I have watched faithfully since it began and I will remain loyal until the bitter end because in the end who of us can see hurricane Neddy episode of the Simpson and not reflect on our place in the world and are views on faith and God and how many shows can say they achieve this?
Sunday, 8 May 2011
Save the UK
With the march of the Nationalist in Scotland and the growing regionalist sentiment running rampant in this country, as embodied by the EDL and the English democrats; it is time for those of us who love the union, to do anything we can to defend it and hopefully strengthen it .
The first and the most important thing is that devolution has failed, all it has managed to do is exacerbate existing nationalist movements in Scotland and Wales and empower those voice in England obsessed more with tax revenue then national unity. Added to this the main parties have been eradicated in Scotland, which is exacerbating the West Lothian question and our political elite has no answer to this question apart from appeasement, slowing down but not ending the slow drifting apart of our beloved nation and union, So what is the solution?.
Solution one, national federalisation: The subtler nationalist voices our asking for a federation of nations, now there was only one country in recent history with such a set up and that was Yugoslavia. Indeed all nations where the federal structure mirrors large almost national divides (Switzerland, Belgium) either act as disparate nations or are themselves in danger of drifting apart. Federation at the national level for the UK is not a solution to the problems, a federation based on national boundaries is doomed, especially when one nation is so much larger and so much more powerful both electorally and economically then the three smaller nations.
Solution two: appeasement and greater and greater devolution. This solution is the current solution and I say solution out of sheer politeness. As we have seen, as our political elites (and I mean the Tory party and the labour party) have either retreated to their safe places or ignored Scotland. Scotland has turned to its own nationalist party and our nation is increasingly divided between its regions, with the political elite unable to claim to truly represent that nation anymore. This is not a solution, it is surrender, and it is an end of our nation as a meaningful concept and the end of the union.
The true solution: We and I mean hear the Tory party and the political elites and also the nation as a whole, we must adopt a radicle view, in the name of saving our nation and union. First we need to create a political system removed from the national boundaries. We need a system which empowers are historic, sub national regions. We need to push power to the people, empowering g the parish level and the community. The full detail of my personal plan is found hear: http://piemandmu.blogspot.com/2010/10/yorkshire-as-federal-state.html but the point here is not to adopt my ideas but to put those of us whom wish to save the union into thinking mode. We need a solution which empowers people and a new solution for our regions, which threats them with respect and entrust them with powers.
The first and the most important thing is that devolution has failed, all it has managed to do is exacerbate existing nationalist movements in Scotland and Wales and empower those voice in England obsessed more with tax revenue then national unity. Added to this the main parties have been eradicated in Scotland, which is exacerbating the West Lothian question and our political elite has no answer to this question apart from appeasement, slowing down but not ending the slow drifting apart of our beloved nation and union, So what is the solution?.
Solution one, national federalisation: The subtler nationalist voices our asking for a federation of nations, now there was only one country in recent history with such a set up and that was Yugoslavia. Indeed all nations where the federal structure mirrors large almost national divides (Switzerland, Belgium) either act as disparate nations or are themselves in danger of drifting apart. Federation at the national level for the UK is not a solution to the problems, a federation based on national boundaries is doomed, especially when one nation is so much larger and so much more powerful both electorally and economically then the three smaller nations.
Solution two: appeasement and greater and greater devolution. This solution is the current solution and I say solution out of sheer politeness. As we have seen, as our political elites (and I mean the Tory party and the labour party) have either retreated to their safe places or ignored Scotland. Scotland has turned to its own nationalist party and our nation is increasingly divided between its regions, with the political elite unable to claim to truly represent that nation anymore. This is not a solution, it is surrender, and it is an end of our nation as a meaningful concept and the end of the union.
The true solution: We and I mean hear the Tory party and the political elites and also the nation as a whole, we must adopt a radicle view, in the name of saving our nation and union. First we need to create a political system removed from the national boundaries. We need a system which empowers are historic, sub national regions. We need to push power to the people, empowering g the parish level and the community. The full detail of my personal plan is found hear: http://piemandmu.blogspot.com/2010/10/yorkshire-as-federal-state.html but the point here is not to adopt my ideas but to put those of us whom wish to save the union into thinking mode. We need a solution which empowers people and a new solution for our regions, which threats them with respect and entrust them with powers.
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