May I therefore be the annoying swot at the front who puts his hand up to point out to the class that Jack Straw was not sacked, he was demoted to Leader of the House. You may. Simpl[isticl]y speaking he was 'sacked' as her Brittanic Majesty's Principal Secretar
I kind of understood, but never fully understood the power of the PM. That's not surprising. The US is a nation founded on a rational basis with a constitution that was discussed, written down, debated and voted on, while the UK's constitutional arrangements are the result of a 'mysterious evolution' - rathe
On reflection I think the main concern was not to be too 'tied down' either way. When your Foreign Secretary is categorically ruling out options that you might want to consider, you have a problem. The odd thing about the British prime minister is that, although officially a humble minister of the Crown ('First Lord of the Treasury'), in practice he has more power and room for manoeuvre within his own country than the President of the United States. Th
This video has got to be one of the silliest 'arguments' for the existance of God that I've ever seen True. What is interesting though is the need to make an argument at all. I would imagine that, prior to the dawn of our modern scientific worldview, people happily 'understood' their world through a mixture
Last month British Foreign secretary Jack Straw said that it was "inconceivable" that there will be a military strike on Iran and dismissed as "nuts" a a report that George Bush was 'keeping on the table' the option of using tactical nuclear weapons against Iran's nuclear plants. Tony Blair, in a recent cabinet reshuffle, has just fired Jack Straw. Make of that what y
Suddenly popping into my head, a jingle from an ad on British TV - probably decades ago: "It's amazin' what raisins can do Full of goodness, and it's all for you..." Ah, just found it on-line: Link
Excellent counterpoint in anticipation of boinking celestial virgins. I've written elsewhere of an interesting and controversial bit of scholarship that says the Quran was originally composed in a Syro-Aramaic dialect, and predates classical Arabic. Ac
The bloodlust was a big negative for me. I have mixed feelings on the issue of bloodiness in movies. I remember for example, before modern films like Saving Private Ryan etc, those old war films in which people got shot with barely a discernible hole in them, and the 'dead' looked like they had just r
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As far as I'm concerned, the religion angle is a wash. I agree with this about 95%. However, it's still worth pointing out that there are things in the Christian scriptures which could be used to give rise to Phelp's brand of nonsense. It's still worth thinking about why Jains, <a href="http://
I read this carefully and with interest and it is a moving and personal explanation of where you are coming from. I think in making my original point I should have been a little less 'personal'. Of course you are right to say that followers of any faith should not be expected right from the very beginning of their spiritual journey to be the 'finished article'. It could even be argued that if a person has a spiritual view of life that they can easily live up to, they aren't being ambitiou
Well, we may be talking about two different 'target audiences'. I think you can probably write off the already 'committed' - perhaps as you say they would interpret the sentence as 'weakness'. But their 'cause' has no future without the young and wavering...
The reason I don't agree with the sentence is, in his culture it showed us to be weak. We were completely willing to execute an American terrorist, but we feared what would happen if we executed an Arab terrorist. That is how the Arab culture will look at this... Well, maybe. Or maybe Unintended Silver Lining #2378/b: someone in the middle east now b
Just trying to give you another puzzle piece. Does it fit? Well, at this stage we've gone quite a few rounds in the ring together and I have to say, while disagreeing with much that you say (and I'm unlikely to change my mind on that anytime soon) I must say that I like your style. <img src="http://images.stardock.com/JU/smiles/Smile.gif" border=0 ALI
I agree with you about the obvious historical mistakes in his book. He really didn't seem to go too deep in his research. Yes, that's the point. I've read books in which the authors were already experts in their subject and used that knowledge to create the basis for a work of fiction (Umberto Eco comes immediately to mind). It's so obvious tha
KFC And it's no good saying that that is old covenant justice, because Christ himself said "For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished." [Matthew 5:18] He also said "It is finished" on the cross. You don't have all your puzzle p
Sorry, that is not correct. Religion may be comprised on myths, based on myths, or believe in myths. but religion is not a myth. It is man's attempt to understand that which cannot be quantified or qualified, and is therefore real. Not a myth. You can believe in a myth. but your belief is not a myth. An
So if Christ is the Messiah of prophecy of the OT, then Him being being married for instance does not fit with the prophecy. This is really interesting. Could you please tell me where it is prophesied that the Messiah will be unmarried. It seems very unusual from a Jewish (OT) perspective.
Someone opined that the reason for low voter turnout is due to the comfort of the population. The more comfortable, the less likely they are going to take the time to vote. I think that this is certainly part of the answer. The low turn out in 2005 in the UK was put down to a belief that Tony Blair was 'd
I read the book. For a work that claimed such a high level of scholarship the number of irritating (to me) errors of fact was phenomenally high and I'm not a scholar of religious history by any means. His quaint stereotypes (particularly the British ones) were (unintentionally) laughable also... ... still the whole thing was couched as an adventure yarn and I did read it through to the end.
That subsequent comment really has nothing to do with this thread. Kind of begging the question what it's doing here...
I'm not sure what happens in England, but I'm assuming it is the same as here in Australia. No, it's not. Voting is not compulsory in the UK and I am happy with that. The Australian view is that voting is a civic duty: even if you don't want to vote for any of the candidates, you still have to turn up and you can then spoil your vote if you want to.
what's wrong with that? I can see by what this person is saying that he must have a very sad life. There is no joy. OK, a subsequent comment shows you may have a point here! Your mission in life is to give, not to rece
From other things that Major has written here it seems that he comes from India. Living in Asia I am used to Asians getting American-style fundamentalist religion and going into an overdrive of 'shame' about the more 'backward' religious traditions of their own culture. They really do think that they've traded in their ox-cart for a cadillac. It's sad to see, but sadder still when so clearly splenetic, mendacious and lacking in charity and wisdom. Howe
When Judgement comes, I hope to be taken away. You will not be. You will be left here to suffer. It will suck to be you. Very much so. I can hear the eyes rolling now. Oh well.....when you see that we're right and you're wrong, we won't seem so stupid then. Thank you! This is a wonderfully forthright and hon
Frankly, you can't really even prove to me that they considered those texts inerrant until much later. Bingo! The very heart of the matter! Our modern notion of 'inerrancy' seems to date no earlier than the religious revivals of the nineteenth century, when traditional beliefs appeared to come under fire from new discoveries of science. The rational s