Category: Society

Charles Wheeler has died. Journalism takes another punch to the vitals.

Earlier this year, Christopher Hitchens agreed to undergo waterboarding in order to answer for himself the question of whether the process constitutes torture or not. His answer, in this month’s Vanity Fair is non-equivocal: Believe me, it’s torture.

 

Even more harrowing was watching the video of him getting waterboarded, despite the strains of Enigma playing in the background. What astounded me was seeing for myself how little time is required before the victim believes himself or herself to be simultaneously smothered and drowning. Tellingly, Hitchens says that since the experience, he’s had nightmares about it.

It’s not often that I feel sympathy for Inayat Bunglawala, but I do in this exchange he has had with Harun Yahya. The latter is a typically depressing denialist of the fact of evolution. It’s enough to make the brain cells shrivel reading his utter bollocks.

So I read Anne Atkin’s apologia about Gafcon, and, I’m sorry, but I think it is perverse. Yes, I’m sure that she thinks she is right, but, sorry, I think she is deluded.

Erm, reality to Anne, there ain’t nothing beyond your death. Do good in your life, it’s all you have – and on this evidence, you’ve got a lot of catching up to do. Your Gafcon crowd are simply causing misery. That I consider immoral.

For my vicarious pleasure, I often peruse the Not Always Right web site, where the more depressing side of humanity is often on display during a customer/vendor transaction. While most of them make me despair for the future of humanity, some (thankfully) make me realise that we are all simply susceptible to human foibles. Long may it continue. 

And just to illustrate how little UK society seems to have moved on since Section 28, here comes the news that a Heinz advert has been pulled because it features two men sharing a peck on the cheek. I don’t know who is the more stupid – the arses who complained or Heinz for having less spine than an E-coli bacterium.

 

Update: it appears as though the American Family Association  are the men behind the curtain. Personally, I wish that Toto would chew their bollocks off. They deserve nothing less. And, as has already been said by others: shame on Heinz.

Johann Hari has a very good article on a piece of UK legislation that has now been consigned to the rubbish bin of history, but whose toxic impact is still felt within UK society. Go and read about it.

It begins to seem as though the insane have indeed taken over the running of the asylum. Ophelia has the story. I find this ominous. The UN Human Rights Council seems to be concerned with nothing of the sort. Perhaps it should be renamed as the UN Religious Police Council for clarity. As Ophelia says, it would seem that it is now little more than an alliance of thugs.

I see that the conservative faction of the Church of England is getting its knickers in a twist over the fact that two men (both members of the clergy) dared to hold their civil partnership union in a church. Very sad, but I confess that I laughed out loud when I read the sublimely unwitting comment from the Reverend who led the service:

Well, yes, considering that the loving couple were both male, I suppose one could say that, self-evidently, the ceremony had rather more knobs on than most. Fifty percent more, in fact. Mind you, I can’t help feeling that the biggest knobs in the whole affair are the conservative Christians with their self-righteous anger.

Today is our tenth wedding anniversary. Last Sunday, our friends and neighbours sprang a surprise party on us to celebrate the fact. They turned up completely unexpectedly with food and drinks in the afternoon. As it was hot in the sun, we moved tables and chairs into the shade of our little wood and celebrated. Thank you to all of them for the thought.

 

 

 

Oh, the poster behind us was done by the six-year old granddaughter of one of our neighbours. A nice touch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last April, Rand Abdel-Qader was killed by her father. Now, her mother has been killed, quite possibly for daring to speak out against him and a society where "honour" killings are considered just.

At last, after the worries, some good news for a change.

J. Carter Wood, over at Obscene Desserts, introduces us to a couple of examples from the scary wing of the Haunted House built by religion. Depressing stuff. As he says: my brain kind of seizes up, since I can’t see how that works, how people can actually think that way. Me neither.

Greta Christina has a good piece on the uses of irrationality and how it bears on the God question. Worth reading.

I see that this year it’s Iceland that has come top in the Global Peace Index. Somewhat worryingly, the Netherlands has dropped two places since 2007, it’s now at number 22 in the rankings. However, it scores better than the UK (at 49).

Jon Ronson has a talent for poking about in the haunted wing of society and coming up with Tales of the Unexpected. In today’s Guardian he writes about the Reverend George Exoo, who has assisted the suicide of over 100 people. While I reserve the right to want to choose euthanasia should the circumstances arise, I don’t know that I would want the Reverend Exoo on hand. He strikes me as too much of a loose can(n)on.

We’ve been having glorious weather for over a week now – 10 degrees Celsius warmer than is normal for this time of year. I decided yesterday to go out exploring cycle routes on my bike. I struck off in the general direction of Winterswijk, a town near the Dutch/German border. When I reached Winterswijk, I celebrated with an ice cream at Talamini’s Gelateria – the best Ice Cream Parlour in the region.

 

On my way back, I was pedalling gently through the outer part of Winterswijk, when a car pulled up alongside, and the passenger asked me a question in German. Looking over, I saw that the car was filled with German youth – boys in the front and girls in the back. I apologised, in English, that I couldn’t speak German. After a moment’s nonplussing, the boy then asked, in English, "can we buy things here in this town?". Odd question, thought I, and replied that they needed to turn around and head back to the centre, where the cafes, pubs and restaurants were open in and around the town square. More puzzlement from the boy, who then said, "er, thank you", accompanied by much giggling from the girls. They drove off.

 

It was a second or two later that I realised what they were after: drugs. And then I thought, what a bunch of idiots. They hadn’t thought to Google for Winterswijk’s one and only coffeeshop before setting off. Mad, impetuous, empty-headed youth. When I was that age, I think I had more sense than these youngsters seemed to have.

I watched Women in Black – Londoner Amaini Zain’s visit to her family home in Yemen. I never fail to be amazed at the degree of self-deception that people engage in.

It’s a deep question. And I agree with Le Canard Noir – I miss paternosters.

Jared Diamond has a story about Daniel Wemp, an employee of ChevronTexaco and avenger of his Uncle Soll, who was killed in a battle with a rival clan. Extraordinary. Go and read it.