marramgrass

Afternoon, Radio 4 news, there’s more than one way to do it, post mortem, Benedict XVI, a very long way, a very short way, beta radiator, chunka-chunka.

Gordon Brown.

What will the difference be? I couldn’t begin to guess. Not my area of expertise, shall we say.

As prime minister I suppose Blair wasn’t all bad. Wasn’t all good, either. Brown strikes me as a harder man. Since I’m a bit of a wuss, and fairly mild in most things, that worries me a little.

Time will tell.

For now, here we are in the middle of this democracy thing. Part of that is our ‘right’, even responsibility if you look at it that way, to criticize the government. Certainly we’re all pretty good at it. Comes natural, like.

What would you do? PM for a year — how would you go about it? ‘Ruler’ of a fairly powerful country, with influence, what would you say, where would you go?

What would the consequences be?

It’s not a job I would want for anything. But if it was you, what would you do?

Comments are open…

I don’t know how much you’ve heard about the current mix-up (I say ‘mix-up’ – I’ve heard the words ‘chaos’, and especially ‘debacle’, so many times now they’ve lost their meaning to me) with recruitment for junior doctor posts in the NHS. It’s close to us because my wife is right in the middle of all the uncertainty, but I’ve only really seen a few brief references in the news, mostly short on the detail.

But last night Channel 4 News got full-on with the Secretary of State for Health, Patricia Hewitt. I don’t know how long they keep the article on their website for, but I think the video is only there for a week. If, after that, you want to see it, drop me an email and I may know how to get it in front of you… ;-)

UPDATE:  An enterprising individual has stuck the interview up on YouTube.

The Lord has come.

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

In the interest of domestic harmony, I mention World Toilet Day, today.

Click the link at your peril.

Actually, worthwhile cause and all that, but… Turdlywinks?!

From the Enchanted Evenings last weekend. Talk about ‘available darkness’ photography. It was fun.

(By the way, please don’t forget this – voting until the 11th.)

From the BBC, yesterday:

Mr Jarrar’s black cotton T-shirt bore the slogan ['We will not be silent.'] in both Arabic and English.

He said he had cleared security at John F Kennedy airport for a flight back to his home in California when he was approached by two men who wanted to check his ID and boarding pass.

Mr Jarrar said he was told a number of passengers had complained about his T-shirt – apparently concerned at what the Arabic phrase meant – and asked him to remove it.

…

After a difficult exchange with airline staff, Mr Jarrar was persuaded to wear another T-shirt bought for him at the airport shop.

(HT: RELEVANT‘s Daily Slices, 31/8/06)

So according to the BBC the problem was that passengers didn’t know what the Arabic text said, and were concerned it was something ‘bad’. It would be disingenuous of me to ask if they would have been concerned if the text was in Greek, or Cyrillic characters, but this does leave me not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

Si Johnston reflects on the usual goings-on in NI in July.

He writes it at an interesting time for us. We are just about to return to make a home and a life again on that side of the Irish Sea. Recently we were visiting the town where we will be spending a fair portion of our time, and the bunting was up and everywhere was decked out all ready for the festivities of the season. It got me thinking.

(more…)

Brodie is writing up the experiences of a small team from his church just returned from mucking in with the ongoing relief work in new Orleans many months after the hurricane.

This will be worth keeping an eye on, I feel. Much respect for people putting their money and their selves into action in such a way.

The phishing scammers are getting cocky.

I just received a PayPal phish, and their fake pages were hosted on a domain called loginabuseweb.

Naturally it has been passed to PayPal. I normally just delete them, but in this case arrogance deserves to be rewarded…

I left the following comment on this post of Brodie’s:

You’ve kind of snuck in in front of a post that’s been coalescing in my head for a couple of days:

I’ve been thinking about a lot of the politicking that’s going on, from politicals of every persuasion. To a lot of people it seems like a great opportunity to get some more digs in at George W, even on this side of the Atlantic. And there’s been this kind of incredulous response to the US asking for aid.

But it seems to me that, especially since the weekend, there seems to be a lot more vocal concern over the failings or otherwise of the US government than there has been over the fact that actually, there are still people in danger and/or suffering in that part of the world, don’t you know.

And just because much of the world of the world feels that America can (should?) look after herself, doesn’t mean we should leave them to do so, does it?

Let me expand a little.

This is not a time for politics. I have been known to engage in a little criticism of the current US government and it’s policies. Rather more than a little, actually. And I could make plenty of comment after the last week and a half. But I don’t want to.

The USA might be the last country you expect to appeal for aid. But that appeal has been made, and answered. Many will argue that they shouldn’t need to ask. That may be.

Many will argue that as one of the richest countries in the world, they could easily look after their own. I’ve had converstaions where people have been asking (pointedly) which recent expenditures have left them unable to meet their own need.

Maybe they could sort it out themselves. Does that mean we need to let them?

How about an incredibly mundane and simplistic example: you’ve got a friend who’s just moved into a new flat. They ask you for a hand painting the living room. Sure, they could do it themselves, but why do you need to let them?

No, I’m not comparing disaster relief for a devastated city with interior decoration, but could you really do one and not the other?

Grace will give help where it’s needed, and not get side-tracked by political mudslinging and faulty notions of ‘justice’.

Just a thought…