Friends,
Thanks for checking back even as we take an unscheduled blogging hiatus for a few days. Sometimes life gets busy, news gets slow, our interest is occupied elsewhere; it seems so far this week we’ve been on blog vacation (which fits, given Memorial Day weekend and the holiday chaos it brings stateside).
In the meantime, I’ve been debating Brian McClinton (of the Humanist Association of NI) on the issue of American military power and the war in Iraq, over at our good friend William Crawley’s BBC blog Will & Testament. See Brian’s comment 7, to which I responded with my own comment 9 (follow the conversation from there on that page for more).
I’ve been arranging my guest schedule on the show, which is looking good, and been helping the radio station test a live web stream of the show (if and when that becomes permanent, we’ll provide a permanent link to it here).
And I’ve also been finishing house-building, dealing with our kitchen and its granite countertops, which aren’t very common back in the UK. Granite is pulled from the earth, sorted according to country of origin, colour, clarity etc., cut into slabs by diamond blade, polished and set under our toaster, coffeemaker and kitchen knives (I was showing my dad a granite sample on a videochat the other day when he wondered aloud, “How do they put all those nice blue and green chips in there and make them sparkle like that?” I explained to him that it came out of the ground that way - God did it during creation, or, geological processes over billions of years formed it from magma - it’s natural, and wonderful. The greatest advantage of a granite countertop: walking into the kitchen and slapping your hands down on some cold, hard stone. Fantastic. The greatest disadvantage: when little kids walk into your kitchen and slap their heads into the cold, hard stone. Ouch).
Well, we’ll be back with more shortly. Meantime, check the Index for your favourite articles by title, browse by category on the right, search your own keywords on the left, or subscribe here so you don’t miss anything coming up.
Have a great week!
John
Hi John,
Hope you are enjoying your break?
Been off myself for a few days, just turned PC and see that I have had about 12 posts pulled, some dating from way back! most are inoffensive in the extreme! bloody hell and I see that you have a couple of posts pulled too! suppose you wouldn’t know what is going on? Personally I think PB had something to do with it…as he had a whole slew of posts pulled then went on a rampage or complained loudly so much so that the mods went in with a sledge hammer. Even Will Crawley had a post pulled!?!? as I said bloody hell!
Anyway enjoy your break and hope to speak soon
Harvey
I love granite counter tops, we couldn’t spring for it but went the silestone route with quartz and whatever, chipped up and stuck together as a composite, gives the feel of stone but isn’t as stunning to look at. Well, I saved a couple of thousand $ so I’m happy. Have a good break
DD- Hi! Yes, I said ‘fuck’ during the conversation. Some people are offended by the sound a word makes when it exits the lips. I don’t know what you did to piss them off!
Frank- Silestone is fantastic too … we were considering it before a friend offered us granite at cost… an offer we couldn’t refuse!
Hi John,
‘Fucking’ hell! It was all posts related to PB but they were all inoffensive in the extreme! I think he thought that we complained about his posts(something I make a point of never doing-so he went through a shit load of my posts and others and got them pulled)some people take all this Message Boarding awfully seriously-dreadful bores!
Anyway I wonder what Will said to get a post pulled!?
Happy Blogging!
DD- Where is the comment of William’s that got pulled?
Hi John,
It’s in the ‘In the beginning’ thread-post 41. I believe it was the post in which Will talked about his meeting with Ken Ham and his views on the AIG meet in Belfast and Ham’s salary etc. Odd that it got pulled, I remember reading it and read nothing objectionable-Will is very careful in what he writes. Wonder who flagged it?
In any case granite is great!
Hi John, enjoyed reading the debate with you and the Humanist guy on Will and Testament. I suppose I am split between you. I agree that the armchair liberal position that America= evil is a load of bullshit. But then again they have done a lot of shitty things globally that were done solely out of self interest (no point in giving examples, we all know what they are, both good and bad). However one thing nobody mentioned (though I think you alluded to it in reference to America’s decreasing power in the future) is China. I have been increasingly worried about the influence of their growth globally. In my opinion, the Chinese government is devoid of moral impulse and I am genuinely worried when they are the ones left to be the ‘worlds police’.
Joe- Thanks for that; I wish there was no world police, and certainly that it wasn’t the US. Every 2 weeks, the US military receives money out of my paycheck that it uses to enforce order in many past or current trouble-spots around the world. I didn’t consent to my money being used in that way; it just is. That’s what’s wrong. Now, if it’s being used for my protection, then that’s justified: the war in Afghanistan was justified on that basis. The war in Iraq, ultimately, turned out not to be.
I’d like to see a time in which the United States could announce withdrawal from most of the places in which it remains. And it would be done with this caveat: when we leave, we’re not coming back just because you don’t have your shit together. We’re not going to bail you out of future troubles; that’s up to you.
In other words, I’d like to see Brian McClinton’s wish come true; and to gloat when it works out in exactly the opposite way he wishes.