don't they teach history in San Francisco anymore

spotted at a Free-Tibet demo when the torch was passing through...

Stuff of life

Who's Irresponsible now?

The Union Unite (disclaimer: I used to belong to this union in of its earlier guises...) is threatening a 48hr strike at the Grangemouth refineries over pensions... The owners Ineos, claim that they will have to shut the plant down for safety reasons and that this will put it out of action for a month. Now I've heard two "experts" give differing views about this proposal, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and accept the stoppage is necessary for safety.

What I won't accept is Ineos claiming that this "risks petrol shortages" and claims that the union would be responsible.

The same "experts" claim that the UK has a 70 day reserve...

So the talk about shortages is just Ineos spouting rubbish in an attempt to portray the union in a bad light...

The thing is, if they aren't lying, and they didn't know about the reserves, then they really shouldn't be in business and the unions claims sound much more believable...

Fair Share?

This story is rather telling.

The Swedish town of Södertälje (population 84,00) has taken in more Iraqi refugees than has the whole USA. This despite the fact that Sweden had nothing to do with the invasion of Iraq and its "reconstruction". What happened to the old signs in shops,"all breakages must be paid for?"

This New York Times piece has more about the USA's scandalous behaviour when it comes to Iraqi refugees.

Law & Faith

Here's a video of an interview with N. T. (Tom) Wright, Bishop of Durham, talking about law, faith, democracy, secularism and fundamentalism, politics and religion. (I know I promised myself not to prop up the Times religious correspondent, but on the plus side, she only asks the questions...)

Poor Old Rowan...

I feel sorry for the Archbishop of Canterbury. ++Williams always puts a lot of thought into what he says and his words are well chosen and nuanced...

Sadly that doesn't make for good sound bites.

So it’s not surprising that his latest comments about Sharia law are causing controversy.

If you actually looked at what he said, he was saying that it should be introduced in only certain areas- notably family law and some financial cases.

The funny thing is this... despite all the claims that the courts should not be based on religion, or that the laws shouldn't be varied, etc, etc, what the commentators are forgetting is that in the UK we already have faith based courts which routinely rule on these matters and which are binding in English law. They are called the Beth Din and they serve the UK's orthodox Jewish communities.

If it works for one (smaller) religious community in this country, why not with Sharia? And if the politicians, community leaders and journalists really have a problem with the principle of religious based jurisprudence, surely it’s hypocritical for them not to call for its abolition- or are they just Islamophobic (or worse)?

Another Wrongful Execution?

A story in todays Guardian argues that Dr Crippenmight not have been guilty of the murder he was charged with. It appears that recent DNA tests show the body which was found was not his wife’s...

Former Chief of Defence's & Defence Civl Servent's take on the "Just War"

Max Hastings has a good column in todays Guardian about Lord Charles Guthrie and Sir Michael Quinlan' book on the Christian Just War principle

Although not entirely happy with the theory (I side more the non-violent civil disobedience/pacifist view... most of the time- I'm complex, aren't we all?), It was one I used in sermons in the run up to the Gulf war as it had a history and was understood by members. As this column mentions, even on these criteria the current Gulf folly failed to find merit.