Saturday, 21 July 2012
IT SEEMS STRAIGHTFORWARD TO ME
The vast majority of crimes for financial gain are committed by the poor and the rich. My guess is that if you include those actions of the rich which are just about legal but totally immoral then the rich steal far more than the poor. Those who are "comfortable" financially, who can provide for themselves and those they are responsible for and have a little bit of fun as well, are responsible for very little financial crime, if only because the opportunity and real need are not present in their lives. The answer then is simple. Take most of the money off the rich and spread it among the poor so that everybody is comfortably well off.
There is a problem with my suggestion even I could get everyone to go along with it. We would put so much spending money into the economy because of the reduction of individual and corporate crime that we would all start to become a lot richer. This would lead to some of us committing crimes to become even richer (I don't know why that should be but it seems to be what happens) and then the people they stole off would become poor and start committing crimes themselves. We would be back at square one.
What we need is someone to come along and give us some good reasons to love our neighbours as ourselves.
There is a problem with my suggestion even I could get everyone to go along with it. We would put so much spending money into the economy because of the reduction of individual and corporate crime that we would all start to become a lot richer. This would lead to some of us committing crimes to become even richer (I don't know why that should be but it seems to be what happens) and then the people they stole off would become poor and start committing crimes themselves. We would be back at square one.
What we need is someone to come along and give us some good reasons to love our neighbours as ourselves.
OUT OF YOUR COLD, LIVING HANDS
The thing is I have daydreamed about killing people; those individuals who have coldly made decisions that have ruined and wasted my life. In my daydream I am told that I only have a short time to live and so I spend that time reeking bloody revenge. What stops me from turning this dream into a reality? Reason, fear and difficulty.
A sane person would not put such a plan into action. But I have not always been sane. Fortunately (and it is only because of the roll of life's dice) I did not suffer from an illness that compelled me towards any violent action. However, it was an illness that distorted reality and employed my reason into coming to some very bizarre conclusions. Having been through that experience I can put myself into the mind of James Holmes and understand.
The insane do kill strangers in England but massacres like the Colorado shootings are extremely rare and have been rendered even more unlikely by our imposition upon ourselves of extremely stringent firearms regulations. We do have drive by shootings and guns are used in other criminal situations. But for a normally law-abiding citizen to get hold of a gun is extremely difficult. Most of us wouldn't know where to start. So "difficulty" is a major obstacle in the way of a deranged person committing a deranged act of murderous violence. It does not make such acts impossible, just very difficult and for most people, especially those who are in mental distress, that is enough.
I cry with you people of America. But what happened yesterday was very foreseeable, has happened many times before and could have been avoided if only you had the courage and selflessness to use your freedom to choose to give up those things that can so readily create human tragedies of obscene proportions. Most of you will blame the mad man. But in truth the blood of the victims is on the hands of those who put the gun into the mad man's hands. That is all of you.
A sane person would not put such a plan into action. But I have not always been sane. Fortunately (and it is only because of the roll of life's dice) I did not suffer from an illness that compelled me towards any violent action. However, it was an illness that distorted reality and employed my reason into coming to some very bizarre conclusions. Having been through that experience I can put myself into the mind of James Holmes and understand.
The insane do kill strangers in England but massacres like the Colorado shootings are extremely rare and have been rendered even more unlikely by our imposition upon ourselves of extremely stringent firearms regulations. We do have drive by shootings and guns are used in other criminal situations. But for a normally law-abiding citizen to get hold of a gun is extremely difficult. Most of us wouldn't know where to start. So "difficulty" is a major obstacle in the way of a deranged person committing a deranged act of murderous violence. It does not make such acts impossible, just very difficult and for most people, especially those who are in mental distress, that is enough.
I cry with you people of America. But what happened yesterday was very foreseeable, has happened many times before and could have been avoided if only you had the courage and selflessness to use your freedom to choose to give up those things that can so readily create human tragedies of obscene proportions. Most of you will blame the mad man. But in truth the blood of the victims is on the hands of those who put the gun into the mad man's hands. That is all of you.
Thursday, 19 July 2012
TO THE MANOR BORN
From CHRISTIAN TODAY:
The Bishop of Durham has been invited to sit on the parliamentary commission on banking standards. The Rt Rev Justin Welby has been added to the commission as a non-politically aligned member from the House of Lords. The cross-party parliamentary inquiry is to look into the banking sector in the wake of the Libor rate-rigging scandal.
On the one hand the appointment of the future archbishop of Canterbury to this Tory cover up could be seen as just another, cynical move to keep this scandal firmly controlled by the rich and powerful as Justin is definitely from a rich and powerful background. He was a bigwig for an oil company, went to the same school as the prime minister who is refusing to launch a public enquiry into the obscene corruption, both covert (fixing rates and fiddling books) and overt (rewarding bank CEOs who resign because of scandals with 2 million pund pay offs) in the banking industry, and has enjoyed a predictably meteoric rise to the top jobs of the Church of England at a record breaking speed. On the other hand, his experience of life among the rich and powerful and his knowledge of the tricks of the trade will make him an informed member of the panel, much more so than the MPs sitting on it who tend to be jacks of all trades and experts in none. Also, I have noticed that Justin takes every opportunity to speak out for the poor of his diocese. I don't know him well enough to put this down to his reading of the gospels or a guilty conscience. I do know that he will honestly believe it is the former just as he truly believes that all the decisions he makes effecting other peoples' lives are for the best possible reasons and for their own good. I'm the cynic, not him.
In fifty years when this enquiry ends with some bland statement about banks having to behave themselves or, at the very least, not get found out with their hands dirty so often, we will find out if jesus can really change the leopard's spots.
The Bishop of Durham has been invited to sit on the parliamentary commission on banking standards. The Rt Rev Justin Welby has been added to the commission as a non-politically aligned member from the House of Lords. The cross-party parliamentary inquiry is to look into the banking sector in the wake of the Libor rate-rigging scandal.
On the one hand the appointment of the future archbishop of Canterbury to this Tory cover up could be seen as just another, cynical move to keep this scandal firmly controlled by the rich and powerful as Justin is definitely from a rich and powerful background. He was a bigwig for an oil company, went to the same school as the prime minister who is refusing to launch a public enquiry into the obscene corruption, both covert (fixing rates and fiddling books) and overt (rewarding bank CEOs who resign because of scandals with 2 million pund pay offs) in the banking industry, and has enjoyed a predictably meteoric rise to the top jobs of the Church of England at a record breaking speed. On the other hand, his experience of life among the rich and powerful and his knowledge of the tricks of the trade will make him an informed member of the panel, much more so than the MPs sitting on it who tend to be jacks of all trades and experts in none. Also, I have noticed that Justin takes every opportunity to speak out for the poor of his diocese. I don't know him well enough to put this down to his reading of the gospels or a guilty conscience. I do know that he will honestly believe it is the former just as he truly believes that all the decisions he makes effecting other peoples' lives are for the best possible reasons and for their own good. I'm the cynic, not him.
In fifty years when this enquiry ends with some bland statement about banks having to behave themselves or, at the very least, not get found out with their hands dirty so often, we will find out if jesus can really change the leopard's spots.
OH BUGGERY - MORE BEGGERY
I know, I'm always asking you for money for one thing or another, but when you live hand to mouth (live by faith for the more fervent among you) it becomes the way of things. I'm receiving quite a lot less in monthly donations than I used to and although I cover my normal living expenses, every month something unexpected comes along and puts me in a panic. To be honest, this month's crisis, being broke with two weeks of the month left to go, was expected. It is certainly my fault. Although we were extremely careful with our money on holiday, it did all go and now my only choice is eating the dogs or asking you lot that if anybody finds themselves rolling in it this month would you mind send a little of it my way.
If you do not do so already and are able to, I would really appreciate you considering a monthly pledge (no matter how small or no matter how large) to my ministry. You can use the following widget for this. Click on the arrows in the option box, choose the amount you would like to donate each month and then follow the online instructions.
Another way to help me financially, and one which costs you nothing, is to buy from Amazon via the widget under the heading MAKE MADPRIEST RICH PLEASE in the righthand sidebar. Again, I am getting a lot less through this facility than I used to so your conscious effort to use my widget when you feel the urge would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for listening. Now here is a message from an interested
party for anybody who may be wavering out there:
If you do not do so already and are able to, I would really appreciate you considering a monthly pledge (no matter how small or no matter how large) to my ministry. You can use the following widget for this. Click on the arrows in the option box, choose the amount you would like to donate each month and then follow the online instructions.
Another way to help me financially, and one which costs you nothing, is to buy from Amazon via the widget under the heading MAKE MADPRIEST RICH PLEASE in the righthand sidebar. Again, I am getting a lot less through this facility than I used to so your conscious effort to use my widget when you feel the urge would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for listening. Now here is a message from an interested
party for anybody who may be wavering out there:
IS SHE BARKING MAD?
From THE EXAMINER via Rick (thanks, Rick):
The Virgin Mary has been spotted half way up a West New York tree.The Virgin appeared along 60th Street and Bergenline Avenue yesterday afternoon and has had a constant stream of visitors praying to her since that moment.
But tragedy has struck. A passing tree hugger, unaware of the miraculous apparition, was beaten to death by the crowd for being far too forward with the virgin mother of God.
But tragedy has struck. A passing tree hugger, unaware of the miraculous apparition, was beaten to death by the crowd for being far too forward with the virgin mother of God.
BITCH FIGHT AT SAINT MARY'S
Dr. Primrose sent me A LINK to a lengthy, amusing but, ultimately, sickening article on the Reverend Christopher Kelly's attempt to steal the church he used to work for to give to rulers of a small, independent state in Europe and the subsequent unholy war that has broken out among members of the congregation. You have to read it as there is no way I could summarise the goings on other than by quoting my Facebook friend, C. Eric, who left the comment, "Oh what tangled webs..."
However, I can provide a photoshop that might just explain the truth behind the former Anglican minister's property grabbing manoeuvrings.
However, I can provide a photoshop that might just explain the truth behind the former Anglican minister's property grabbing manoeuvrings.
JUST ASKIN'
Why are posts such as bishop's chauffeur, bishop's gardener and bishop's housekeeper never advertised in the jobs section of "The Church Times?" If I was a cynical man I might conclude that they didn't want the laity who pay for these "servants" to know about it. Especially those laity who worship in parishes where the bishops say the Church can't afford to pay for a priest.
QUEER BASHERS - GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER
"Yeah, I killed him, but he did worse to me."
In 1997, a man in Queensland, Australia killed a gay man who he claimed had been flirting with him by bashing his head into a wall and then stabbing him to death. Today, "gay panic" is still a legal defense for murder in Queensland, which can result in reduced charges. In fact, just two years ago, a man was brutally killed in a Queensland churchyard, and his killer used the "gay panic" defense in court. He was subsequently acquitted of murder.
Father Paul Kelly is a priest in the parish where that man was killed, and he started a petition on Change.org demanding that Queensland abolish the gay panic defense. It looked like Father Kelly's petition was headed for victory, but now there's a new Premier in Queensland, Campbell Newman, and he won't say whether he will abolish the gay panic loophole. Father Kelly thinks it's crucial to build quick international pressure on Premier Newman, particularly from important Australian allies like the UK -- click here to add your name to Father Kelly's petition demanding that Queensland abolish the gay panic defense.
A recent study named Queensland as Australia’s most homophobic state -- 73% of gay and lesbian Queenslanders are subjected to verbal abuse or physical violence for their sexuality. Father Kelly believes that if the gay panic defense stands, Queensland's gay community will be forced to live in terror knowing that the law is on their tormentors' side.
"The support from people in Australia for my petition has been wonderful," Father Kelly says, "but we need help from our friends in the UK. We need to send Premier Newman a message that he is being watched, and we will not tolerate this despicable gay panic loophole."
Thanks for being part of this,
- Katharine and the Change.org team
|
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Going to the flicks used to be the same the world over as Chelliah Laity's beautiful, nostalgic post, THE CALL OF A BOLLYWOOD MEMORY, shows very well indeed.
Nowadays the experience is still the same the world over, but not in the same magical, something really special, way it used to be back in the day of Art Deco cinemas, plush carpets and a double feature. Nowadays we sit like battery hens in a black box, listening to the films being shown in the black boxes on either side of our black box. Heck, you can't even smoke in cinemas now and there's no Kia-Ora. And what ever happened to the grumpy old man with the torch?
Nowadays the experience is still the same the world over, but not in the same magical, something really special, way it used to be back in the day of Art Deco cinemas, plush carpets and a double feature. Nowadays we sit like battery hens in a black box, listening to the films being shown in the black boxes on either side of our black box. Heck, you can't even smoke in cinemas now and there's no Kia-Ora. And what ever happened to the grumpy old man with the torch?
SADISTIC BAPTISTS
From SLATE:
Will and Erwynn met at church and fell in love. But they had a big problem—“don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Do go read their story by clicking on the word "SLATE" above. It's painful to read some of it but it has a happy ending. As a Christian who is finding it more and more difficult to justify the existence of the Church as it appears intent on perverting the image of God and sending the world straight to hell, it was the following passage, near the beginning of the piece that pained me the most.
Will was born outside of Chicago in 1976. His mother was a teacher. His father, a marine-turned-fundamentalist-minister, spent most of the year on the road through his work with Fairhaven Baptist church in Chesterton, Ind. Will’s father was its youth pastor and vice president of the church’s small Christian college.
Fairhaven Baptist was founded by Dr. Roger Voegtlin, a firm believer in corporal punishment. Will recalls Dr. Voegtlin giving spanking demonstrations and instructions during church. Will’s parents followed Dr. Voegtlin’s example, imposing strict discipline on Will and his three siblings. Will ran away from home twice, in fifth and sixth grade, because he was so fearful of punishment from his father.
Will attended Fairhaven Baptist Academy, the K-12 extension of Fairhaven Church. Last year on Anderson Cooper 360, former students of the academy alleged that they were subjected to a host of abuses, including violent public beatings and humiliation for minor infractions at the hands of teachers and school administrators. In the CNN interview, Dr. Voegtlin admitted that public paddlings meant to humiliate children had taken place, but he denied knowledge of other incidents of abuse that the students alleged. Will describes Fairhaven as “not a place I want to remember,” and says he’d never send his own children to school there.
Thanks to KJ for forwarding this story to me.
Will and Erwynn met at church and fell in love. But they had a big problem—“don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Do go read their story by clicking on the word "SLATE" above. It's painful to read some of it but it has a happy ending. As a Christian who is finding it more and more difficult to justify the existence of the Church as it appears intent on perverting the image of God and sending the world straight to hell, it was the following passage, near the beginning of the piece that pained me the most.
Will was born outside of Chicago in 1976. His mother was a teacher. His father, a marine-turned-fundamentalist-minister, spent most of the year on the road through his work with Fairhaven Baptist church in Chesterton, Ind. Will’s father was its youth pastor and vice president of the church’s small Christian college.
Fairhaven Baptist was founded by Dr. Roger Voegtlin, a firm believer in corporal punishment. Will recalls Dr. Voegtlin giving spanking demonstrations and instructions during church. Will’s parents followed Dr. Voegtlin’s example, imposing strict discipline on Will and his three siblings. Will ran away from home twice, in fifth and sixth grade, because he was so fearful of punishment from his father.
Will attended Fairhaven Baptist Academy, the K-12 extension of Fairhaven Church. Last year on Anderson Cooper 360, former students of the academy alleged that they were subjected to a host of abuses, including violent public beatings and humiliation for minor infractions at the hands of teachers and school administrators. In the CNN interview, Dr. Voegtlin admitted that public paddlings meant to humiliate children had taken place, but he denied knowledge of other incidents of abuse that the students alleged. Will describes Fairhaven as “not a place I want to remember,” and says he’d never send his own children to school there.
Thanks to KJ for forwarding this story to me.
THE ARROGANCE OF THE DYING
The Church throws itself from the pinnacle of the Temple believing that the angels of God will hold it up. But the angels are long gone. They are in the wilderness with God and the holy lepers of God.
From CW2 COLORADO:
The Pope handpicked him almost two months ago. On Wednesday, Denver’s Catholic community officially welcome Samuel Aquila as its new archbishop. When first introduced to Denver in late May, Aquila promised he wouldn’t back down on the big issues.
“As Catholics and as Christians, while being respectful, we must also keep the place of God in the public square,” Aquila said.
Aquila vows to uphold Catholic values on social issues – like opposing civil unions here in Colorado. Back in 2009, he didn’t back away from controversy, making headlines for being one of the bishops who opposed Notre Dame’s decision to let Barack Obama deliver a commencement speech there because of the President’s pro-choice stance.
“It did not seem proper or the proper venue for that kind of invitation,” Aquila said.
From CW2 COLORADO:
The Pope handpicked him almost two months ago. On Wednesday, Denver’s Catholic community officially welcome Samuel Aquila as its new archbishop. When first introduced to Denver in late May, Aquila promised he wouldn’t back down on the big issues.
“As Catholics and as Christians, while being respectful, we must also keep the place of God in the public square,” Aquila said.
Aquila vows to uphold Catholic values on social issues – like opposing civil unions here in Colorado. Back in 2009, he didn’t back away from controversy, making headlines for being one of the bishops who opposed Notre Dame’s decision to let Barack Obama deliver a commencement speech there because of the President’s pro-choice stance.
“It did not seem proper or the proper venue for that kind of invitation,” Aquila said.
THE NEW SCORPION BAND
Whilst doing some research on YouTube yesterday for TIM CHESTERTON'S folk song a day project I cam across this full length video of a 2010 concert by one of the MadCouple's favourite folk bands, The New Scorpion Band. We have all their albums and have seen them perform every time they have journeyed up our way from their native Dorset. They are not the most well known English folk band. To be honest I think they are somewhat excluded from the scene by its movers and shakers because they don't quite fit the snobbishly rigid qualifications for membership that those with influence within the tradition impose. They can read music, they do not disdain the parlour folk and music hall traditions, they sing military songs and religious hymns and often turn up with classical musicians on records and in concert. But, I think they are far more authentic than all the middle class guardians of the tradition pretending to be Northumbrian shepherds or factory workers.
The video and the sound is a bit crappy
but the performance is anything but.
Check out their website by clicking HERE.
The video and the sound is a bit crappy
but the performance is anything but.
Check out their website by clicking HERE.
THE MADNESS OF THE KINGS OF THE CHURCH
Ruby Wax was on "The One Show" yesterday evening plugging her new documentary on the stigma attached to mental illness in the workplace and the commonplace sacking of anybody found to be suffering from mental health problems. Here is a short clip from the programme:
I'm pleased that due to the campaigning of people such as Ruby and the backing of organisations such as the BBC, there is now a gradual change of perception happening at least within the more enlightened businesses and institutions of my country, and that mental illness does not now automatically result in the sufferer being discarded onto the waste tip of permanent unemployment and poverty. What a shame though that the Church of England, on the whole, does not subscribe to this new thinking but continues to use its exemptions from human rights legislation and its culture of secrecy to routinely sack its clergy who succumb to bouts of mental illness and sideline any member of the laity who dares to "act a little strange" at times. It is a terrible thing, as Ruby points out, that secular businesses and institutions are still capable of such bigotry but for the powerful within the Church of God to treat their own with less charity and understanding than they used to dole to out to lepers in the Middle Ages, is an obscenity. That bishops and archdeacons will justify their acts of betrayal and ignorance with excuses about protecting the Church and having to balance the diocesan accounts rather than facing up to their inner fears concerning the subject of mental illness is a scandal which I know for a fact from what I've learnt from seven years of blogging is driving many good people away from institutional religion and keeping them away.
There are some people working for change in my church; the Bishop of Saint Albans raised the subject at synod a couple of years back and a group of Christians campaigned fervently for change at a general synod last year (they even managed to shame the Archbishop of Canterbury into signing a declaration that the church would work towards a more enlightened understanding of the mentally ill). But it was just play acting, nothing has changed as far as I can see. The Bishop of Newcastle who, over ten years ago now, asked me to resign just as I was starting to recover from a severe bout of a depressive illness and finally managed to give me the boot because of it a couple of years ago (to balance the books, of course), will be retiring on a full pension (enhanced because he is more important than mere priests) in the next year or so. He won't have any financial worries and will, no doubt, be content with the fact that he was able to pursue his vocation so successfully during his working life. Me, I have nothing to look forward to except a retirement of deprivation that will just be an extension of my life as it is now.
What saddens and angers me more than anything else is the refusal of Bishop Wharton and his colleagues in crime to accept their abusive actions in the past and redeem themselves by making things well again now. A member of the inner circle of Durham Diocese told me some months ago that the hierarchy of the Church of England, neither collegially or individually, would ever apologise for what they have done to me. A week ago I got an email from the same person containing phrases like "a genuine way for you to move forward" which, with his original comments about "no apologies" indicates that they believe it is entirely up to me to eat humble pie, jump through their hoops and prove myself if I want to be accepted back into their midst. Not once in the last fifteen years has a member of the church made any attempt to make an unconditional move towards me. To do so, of course, they would see as an acceptance of their guilt and it's far easier to believe the fabricated justifications of their colleagues and continue to believe that those of us who suffer, or have suffered from, mental illness are possessed by demons and should be thrown off the top of a cliff rather than welcomed, accommodated, employed and healed within the Church.
Ruby Wax stated that mental illness was the last taboo and that it was being broken. Not in the Church of England where there are still many taboos which are clung on to with self-righteous bigotry that would embarrass the Ku Klux Klan. Jesus continues weeping; the bishops of the Church of England continue to ignore him.
I'm pleased that due to the campaigning of people such as Ruby and the backing of organisations such as the BBC, there is now a gradual change of perception happening at least within the more enlightened businesses and institutions of my country, and that mental illness does not now automatically result in the sufferer being discarded onto the waste tip of permanent unemployment and poverty. What a shame though that the Church of England, on the whole, does not subscribe to this new thinking but continues to use its exemptions from human rights legislation and its culture of secrecy to routinely sack its clergy who succumb to bouts of mental illness and sideline any member of the laity who dares to "act a little strange" at times. It is a terrible thing, as Ruby points out, that secular businesses and institutions are still capable of such bigotry but for the powerful within the Church of God to treat their own with less charity and understanding than they used to dole to out to lepers in the Middle Ages, is an obscenity. That bishops and archdeacons will justify their acts of betrayal and ignorance with excuses about protecting the Church and having to balance the diocesan accounts rather than facing up to their inner fears concerning the subject of mental illness is a scandal which I know for a fact from what I've learnt from seven years of blogging is driving many good people away from institutional religion and keeping them away.
There are some people working for change in my church; the Bishop of Saint Albans raised the subject at synod a couple of years back and a group of Christians campaigned fervently for change at a general synod last year (they even managed to shame the Archbishop of Canterbury into signing a declaration that the church would work towards a more enlightened understanding of the mentally ill). But it was just play acting, nothing has changed as far as I can see. The Bishop of Newcastle who, over ten years ago now, asked me to resign just as I was starting to recover from a severe bout of a depressive illness and finally managed to give me the boot because of it a couple of years ago (to balance the books, of course), will be retiring on a full pension (enhanced because he is more important than mere priests) in the next year or so. He won't have any financial worries and will, no doubt, be content with the fact that he was able to pursue his vocation so successfully during his working life. Me, I have nothing to look forward to except a retirement of deprivation that will just be an extension of my life as it is now.
What saddens and angers me more than anything else is the refusal of Bishop Wharton and his colleagues in crime to accept their abusive actions in the past and redeem themselves by making things well again now. A member of the inner circle of Durham Diocese told me some months ago that the hierarchy of the Church of England, neither collegially or individually, would ever apologise for what they have done to me. A week ago I got an email from the same person containing phrases like "a genuine way for you to move forward" which, with his original comments about "no apologies" indicates that they believe it is entirely up to me to eat humble pie, jump through their hoops and prove myself if I want to be accepted back into their midst. Not once in the last fifteen years has a member of the church made any attempt to make an unconditional move towards me. To do so, of course, they would see as an acceptance of their guilt and it's far easier to believe the fabricated justifications of their colleagues and continue to believe that those of us who suffer, or have suffered from, mental illness are possessed by demons and should be thrown off the top of a cliff rather than welcomed, accommodated, employed and healed within the Church.
Ruby Wax stated that mental illness was the last taboo and that it was being broken. Not in the Church of England where there are still many taboos which are clung on to with self-righteous bigotry that would embarrass the Ku Klux Klan. Jesus continues weeping; the bishops of the Church of England continue to ignore him.
Wednesday, 18 July 2012
REGGAEREGGAEREGGAE
Bat Man - Lynn Taitt And The Jets (above)
Real Born African - Jah Stitch
African Roots Dub - The Aggrovators
One Time Girlfriend - Super Black
No More Slavery - Glen Brown (below)
Natty Dread In A Greenwich Farm - Cornell Campbell
Natty Dread Loves Dub - King Tubby
Kaya - Ronnie Davis
Crucial Boy Version - Prince Junior
Pure Rankin - Horace Andy
You Hurt My Soul - Joe Higgs
When I Release Version - Puddy Roots
Road Block - Johnny Osbourne
Jam Down Posse Version - Red Dragon
Real Gone Sweet - The Tartans
Psalms - Trinity
Caroline - Clint Eastwood
Drum Dub - Tubbys
Bang Bang Rock Steady - Tomorrow's Children
DON'T BLAME MADPRIEST, BLAME MAD DAD
I was a very happy man. My wonderful girlfriend and I had been dating for over a year. so we decided to get married. There was only one little thing bothering me.It was her beautiful younger sister, Sofia. She was twenty-two, wore very tight mini skirts and was drop dead gorgeous.
One day she called me and asked me to come over. To check her sister's wedding invitations, she said.
She was alone when I arrived. She whispered to me that she had feelings and desires for me she couldn't overcome them anymore. She told me that she wanted me just once before I got married. I was in total shock, and I couldn't say a word.
She said, "I'm going upstairs to my bedroom. If you want one last, wild fling, just come up and have me".
I was stunned and frozen in shock as I watched her go up the stairs.
I stood there for a moment. Then I turned and made a bee-line straight to the front door. I opened the door, and headed straight towards my car.
Lo and behold, the entire future family was standing outside, all clapping! With tears in his eyes, my future father-in-law hugged me.
He said, 'Sergio, we are very happy that you have passed our little test. We couldn't ask for a better man for our daughter. Welcome to the family my son.'
And the moral of this story is always keep your condoms in your car.
One day she called me and asked me to come over. To check her sister's wedding invitations, she said.
She was alone when I arrived. She whispered to me that she had feelings and desires for me she couldn't overcome them anymore. She told me that she wanted me just once before I got married. I was in total shock, and I couldn't say a word.
She said, "I'm going upstairs to my bedroom. If you want one last, wild fling, just come up and have me".
I was stunned and frozen in shock as I watched her go up the stairs.
I stood there for a moment. Then I turned and made a bee-line straight to the front door. I opened the door, and headed straight towards my car.
Lo and behold, the entire future family was standing outside, all clapping! With tears in his eyes, my future father-in-law hugged me.
He said, 'Sergio, we are very happy that you have passed our little test. We couldn't ask for a better man for our daughter. Welcome to the family my son.'
And the moral of this story is always keep your condoms in your car.
HEADLINE OF THE DAY
I find this very hard to believe. From my experience and that of most readers of my blog, the Church is very good at getting people used to suffering, especially if you happen to be gay or a woman or somebody with a disability or if you are not the "right sort" and don't fit in with its view of itself.
Tuesday, 17 July 2012
THE RAIN IT RAINETH EVERYDAY
(EXCEPT YESTERDAY)
So here it is. Our last full day in South Ayrshire. It's a day of showers but it's certainly a lot drier then when we arrived two weeks ago.
We had been very frugal, only eating out once and visiting only places where it was free to get in. So we actually had some cash left at the end of the holiday (which is unknown of for us even when I am in paid employment). So we decided to blow it on a visit to the local national trust property, the admission price to which I complained about in an earlier post. However, we didn't pay the full £15.00 which would have given us admission to the interior of the house. To be honest, the stinking rich have always filled their homes with pretty much the same sort of (look how wealthy I am) stuff and once you've seen an imposing, oil painting of an ancestral, puffed up, chinless wonder you've seen them all (it's the inbreeding - our aristocracy have more conformity of looks than most Kennel Club registered breeds of dogs). So we just paid £9.50 each to nose around the estate and gardens. I'm glad we did because they are well kept and extensive, so the dogs had an excellent, long walk in the woodlands and us two humans had plenty to look at.
Culzean Castle (pronounced "kul-layn" castle for some toffee-nosed reason) is a castle near Maybole, Carrick, on the Ayrshire coast of Scotland. It is the former home of the Marquess of Ailsa, the chief of Clan Kennedy, but is now owned by the National Trust for Scotland. The clifftop castle lies within the Culzean Castle Country Park and is opened to the public. Since 1987, an illustration of the castle has featured on the reverse side of five pound notes issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Culzean Castle was constructed as an L-plan castle by order of the 10th Earl of Cassilis. He instructed the architect Robert Adam to rebuild a previous, but more basic, structure into a fine country house to be the seat of his earldom. The castle was built in stages between 1777 and 1792. It incorporates a large drum tower with a circular saloon inside (which overlooks the sea), a grand oval staircase and a suite of well-appointed apartments.
In 1945, the Kennedy family gave the castle and its grounds to the National Trust for Scotland (thus avoiding inheritance tax). In doing so, they stipulated that the apartment at the top of the castle be given to General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower in recognition of his role as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during the Second World War. The General first visited Culzean Castle in 1946 and stayed there four times, including once while President of the United States. An Eisenhower exhibition occupies one of the rooms, with mementoes of his lifetime.
The castle re-opened in April 2011 after a refurbishment funded by a gift from an American millionaire. William Lindsay, who had never visited Scotland, requested that a significant portion of his $4 million go towards Culzean. Lindsay was reportedly interested in Eisenhower's holidays at the castle.
Culzean Castle is used as the castle of Lord Summersisle (played by Christopher Lee) in the 1973 cult film The Wicker Man. The scenes here were filmed in February 1972.
The Castle is reputed to be home to at least seven ghosts including a piper and a servant girl.
CLICK ON PHOTOS TO MAKE THEM BIGGER
The views from the cliffs on which the castle perches are stunning. There's that island again!
The Swan House near the Swan Pond (which is convenient)
The common cormorant or shag
Lays eggs inside a paper bag
The reason you will see no doubt
It is to keep the lightning out
But what these unobservant birds
Have never noticed is that herds
Of wandering bears may come with buns
And steal the bags to hold the crumbs.
(Christopher Isherwood)
The Culzean pagoda was completed in April 1814 and was designed to house exotic birds and animals. From the upper floor the Kennedy family enjoyed captured views of the Castle, and Goatfell on Arran. Surviving pagodas are rare, making this one unique in Scotland. There are only three in Britain and this is the only one built from stone. The original architect is unknown.
The structure became derilict and roofless in the 1930s and was reconstructed in 1997 in the spirit of its contemporaries and the main vista, from the Swan Pond, re-established.
The monkey's tails in the balustrade and the monkey shaped weather-vane are a subtle allusion to the fact that the Kennedy family at one time kept monkeys in the Pagoda, which local people called the 'Monkey House'. (At least that's what the Kennedys claimed. My guess is that it was probably the castle, itself, that the locals called the Monkey House)
One annoying thing happened. The website for the castle advertises the existence of a secondhand bookshop on the estate. Knowing my love of such places, Mrs MP enticed me into going for a long walk round the estate with the promise that I could then visit the bookshop (a rare treat for me as, for some unknown reason, wives can spend hours dragging their husbands round clothes shops but if a husband stays longer than five minutes in a secondhand bookshop or record shop the sighs and glares begin, followed by the unannounced exit from the shop by the wife in that way that says "If you don't follow me out the rest of the day is going to be hell for you!"). However, when we finally arrived at the shop after our lengthy walk we found that it closed at 3 o'clock, even though the castle and grounds didn't close till 5 o'clock. It was five to three. I threw a real paddy over that, I can tell you.
So I waited whilst Mrs MP looked for Christmas presents in the gift shop (without me tutting or glaring I would point out), and then we went to the walled garden, a very peaceful and beautiful oasis away from the families with kids, as kids don't like the sort of thing you find in formal gardens. The following photographs are really just me showing off what I can do with my trusty little camera. It's just an instamatic type camera from the early days of digital cameras. The number of pixels it boasts would be laughed at nowadays even by the most Luddite of photographers. But over the years we have got to know each other well. I have terribly shaky hands. If I have to carry a cup on a saucer you can here it rattling from a mile away. When I first started taking photos with this camera you could see my affliction very clearly in all the photos I took. But the camera must have some good technology in it as it now appears to correct the shuddering. And I've learnt how to compose a reasonable photo over the years. So together we make quite a good team and I'm pleased with most of the results of our joint endeavour. Of coure, I never show anybody the cock-ups or what I prefer to call my experimental shots.
So there you have it. The MadGangs first holiday for two years and a bloody good one at that. I hope you have enjoyed my reports along with all the photographs. Thanks for popping in each day to check them out. And an especially big thank you to all of you who made it possible through your generosity and all of you who would have been just as generous if you weren't as badly off, or worse, than I am. My reward was checking out my stats occasionally and discovering that an unemployed, unwanted priest can still produce something of worth to other people.
We had been very frugal, only eating out once and visiting only places where it was free to get in. So we actually had some cash left at the end of the holiday (which is unknown of for us even when I am in paid employment). So we decided to blow it on a visit to the local national trust property, the admission price to which I complained about in an earlier post. However, we didn't pay the full £15.00 which would have given us admission to the interior of the house. To be honest, the stinking rich have always filled their homes with pretty much the same sort of (look how wealthy I am) stuff and once you've seen an imposing, oil painting of an ancestral, puffed up, chinless wonder you've seen them all (it's the inbreeding - our aristocracy have more conformity of looks than most Kennel Club registered breeds of dogs). So we just paid £9.50 each to nose around the estate and gardens. I'm glad we did because they are well kept and extensive, so the dogs had an excellent, long walk in the woodlands and us two humans had plenty to look at.
Culzean Castle (pronounced "kul-layn" castle for some toffee-nosed reason) is a castle near Maybole, Carrick, on the Ayrshire coast of Scotland. It is the former home of the Marquess of Ailsa, the chief of Clan Kennedy, but is now owned by the National Trust for Scotland. The clifftop castle lies within the Culzean Castle Country Park and is opened to the public. Since 1987, an illustration of the castle has featured on the reverse side of five pound notes issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Culzean Castle was constructed as an L-plan castle by order of the 10th Earl of Cassilis. He instructed the architect Robert Adam to rebuild a previous, but more basic, structure into a fine country house to be the seat of his earldom. The castle was built in stages between 1777 and 1792. It incorporates a large drum tower with a circular saloon inside (which overlooks the sea), a grand oval staircase and a suite of well-appointed apartments.
In 1945, the Kennedy family gave the castle and its grounds to the National Trust for Scotland (thus avoiding inheritance tax). In doing so, they stipulated that the apartment at the top of the castle be given to General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower in recognition of his role as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during the Second World War. The General first visited Culzean Castle in 1946 and stayed there four times, including once while President of the United States. An Eisenhower exhibition occupies one of the rooms, with mementoes of his lifetime.
The castle re-opened in April 2011 after a refurbishment funded by a gift from an American millionaire. William Lindsay, who had never visited Scotland, requested that a significant portion of his $4 million go towards Culzean. Lindsay was reportedly interested in Eisenhower's holidays at the castle.
Culzean Castle is used as the castle of Lord Summersisle (played by Christopher Lee) in the 1973 cult film The Wicker Man. The scenes here were filmed in February 1972.
The Castle is reputed to be home to at least seven ghosts including a piper and a servant girl.
CLICK ON PHOTOS TO MAKE THEM BIGGER
The views from the cliffs on which the castle perches are stunning. There's that island again!
The Swan House near the Swan Pond (which is convenient)
The common cormorant or shag
Lays eggs inside a paper bag
The reason you will see no doubt
It is to keep the lightning out
But what these unobservant birds
Have never noticed is that herds
Of wandering bears may come with buns
And steal the bags to hold the crumbs.
(Christopher Isherwood)
The Culzean pagoda was completed in April 1814 and was designed to house exotic birds and animals. From the upper floor the Kennedy family enjoyed captured views of the Castle, and Goatfell on Arran. Surviving pagodas are rare, making this one unique in Scotland. There are only three in Britain and this is the only one built from stone. The original architect is unknown.
The structure became derilict and roofless in the 1930s and was reconstructed in 1997 in the spirit of its contemporaries and the main vista, from the Swan Pond, re-established.
The monkey's tails in the balustrade and the monkey shaped weather-vane are a subtle allusion to the fact that the Kennedy family at one time kept monkeys in the Pagoda, which local people called the 'Monkey House'. (At least that's what the Kennedys claimed. My guess is that it was probably the castle, itself, that the locals called the Monkey House)
One annoying thing happened. The website for the castle advertises the existence of a secondhand bookshop on the estate. Knowing my love of such places, Mrs MP enticed me into going for a long walk round the estate with the promise that I could then visit the bookshop (a rare treat for me as, for some unknown reason, wives can spend hours dragging their husbands round clothes shops but if a husband stays longer than five minutes in a secondhand bookshop or record shop the sighs and glares begin, followed by the unannounced exit from the shop by the wife in that way that says "If you don't follow me out the rest of the day is going to be hell for you!"). However, when we finally arrived at the shop after our lengthy walk we found that it closed at 3 o'clock, even though the castle and grounds didn't close till 5 o'clock. It was five to three. I threw a real paddy over that, I can tell you.
So I waited whilst Mrs MP looked for Christmas presents in the gift shop (without me tutting or glaring I would point out), and then we went to the walled garden, a very peaceful and beautiful oasis away from the families with kids, as kids don't like the sort of thing you find in formal gardens. The following photographs are really just me showing off what I can do with my trusty little camera. It's just an instamatic type camera from the early days of digital cameras. The number of pixels it boasts would be laughed at nowadays even by the most Luddite of photographers. But over the years we have got to know each other well. I have terribly shaky hands. If I have to carry a cup on a saucer you can here it rattling from a mile away. When I first started taking photos with this camera you could see my affliction very clearly in all the photos I took. But the camera must have some good technology in it as it now appears to correct the shuddering. And I've learnt how to compose a reasonable photo over the years. So together we make quite a good team and I'm pleased with most of the results of our joint endeavour. Of coure, I never show anybody the cock-ups or what I prefer to call my experimental shots.
So there you have it. The MadGangs first holiday for two years and a bloody good one at that. I hope you have enjoyed my reports along with all the photographs. Thanks for popping in each day to check them out. And an especially big thank you to all of you who made it possible through your generosity and all of you who would have been just as generous if you weren't as badly off, or worse, than I am. My reward was checking out my stats occasionally and discovering that an unemployed, unwanted priest can still produce something of worth to other people.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)