Rod Liddle continues to rant incoherently about the Hutton Inquiry that comprehensively battered the show he used to produce, Radio 4’s Today Programme. In tomorrow’s Spectator, he contributes a similarly incoherent, but stimulating, piece about the relationship between the nominally Christian West and Islam. His argument is roughly along these lines: Young Islam is radically […]

One of Claire‘s friends sent this one. It’s pretty childish I know, but anyone even vaguely familiar with the language of pornography will find it hard to stifle a snigger at this real parish Website. It reminds me of the days when the girls of Philadelphia’s Beaver College [since renamed for some reason] would visit […]

Yesterday Claire sent me a link to Christopher Hitchens’ recent piece about Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. My thanks to Claire. I’d already read this article, and the one that it in turn refers to, about whether or not the Jews killed Christ; but I reread them and thought about the questions they […]

Through some strange synchronicity, both Adam and Claire sent me links to reviews of Mel Gibson’s Passion. Both reviews mention the movie’s anti-Semitism of course, but they also warn of the mind-boggling level of gore. Here’s the one from Claire. I can’t find a URL for the source of the text Adam sent, but it […]

Why is it a big story in The Guardian when a Saudi Muslim religious leader tells Muslims not to kill Muslims and non-Muslims? Is it because no one reports routine outpourings of hateful rhetoric from Saudi Muslim religious leaders? (“Yeah, dogs bite men every day. So what?”) Is it because Saudi Muslim religious leaders are […]

Afghanistan steps out of the 1920s; Nigeria hobbles back into them. Incidentally, those of you frightened by the growing American Empire might want to read Afghanistan’s new constitution to see how the United States will turn the country into a McDonald’s-eatin’, Coke-drinkin’, Jesus-lovin’ facsimile of Texas.

They’re gen-yoo-ine Cistercian monks and they’ll sell you a printer refill. Slashdot (and just about every other online media outlet) draw(s) our attention to the LaserMonks. TwinCities.com has the best punning headline. (I’m sure Leasey and Jonathan would still give the edge to these guys in the wacky monk races.)

Following on from yesterday, more gob-smacking supidity from “Dr” Tom Wright.

If ever you are worried about a knotty moral issue, it often helps to check on what the Vatican thinks. I take this as a vote in favour of the American handling of Saddam to date.

If you listen carefully you can hear the sound of the improbably named M. Stasi dumping a French government-sponsored truckload of excrement onto the vast whirring turbine blades of a Concorde jet engine. (Don’t forget to check out the Beeb’s unfortunate misspelling of “discreet”.)

A couple of weeks back—prompted by workmates Gayle, Martin and Adam—I sent an email to everyone I knew on Campus, drawing their attention to the interesting motivations of the people sponsoring Operation Christmas Child, a charitable effort to distribute gift parcels to disadvantaged kids around the World being promoted to the staff of our vast, […]

I, for one, laughed so hard I had to leave the church. There’s no question about it: the Pope’s a comedy god.

Two religious items caught my ear on the Today Programme this morning. The first: a Muslim activist has won a case to have the crucifix removed from the Italian public (state) school his children attend. He is happy. Other Muslims are not. Neither are many Italians. The second: Thought for the Day, the programme’s “God […]

After a rant about the FBI’s comedy-cop indictment of a teenage cracker, this page includes an intriguing item about the Dalai Lama. Apparently someone tried to use his Holiness’s image to sell software and “his people” objected. The Dalai Lama has “people“? “Yeah, John Paul II’s people and the Dalai’s people got together and it […]