fides quaerens intellectum
Dec 16 2009
This is an interesting political development:
Israel on Tuesday warned of a chill in its ties with the United Kingdom – a relationship with significant historic and strategic weight – after a British court issued an arrest warrant for former foreign minister Tzipi Livni for her role in alleged war crimes during Israel’s offensive in Gaza that began almost a year ago.
Continue reading “Israel rejects UK war crimes warrant for Livni”
Nov 18 2009
It’s one thing for the British government to eradicate every vestige of Christianity on the Scepter’d Isle. It’s another for it to demand that its territories do so as well.
Continue reading “O Britannia! – What happened to the Defender of the Faith?”
Oct 13 2009
In his blog post on the visit of the relics of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux to the UK this month, Andrew Brown said that “Thérèse’s cult, though stimulated by her family and convent, grew among ordinary Catholics first” Continue reading
Jul 13 2009
Freedom of Speech is important to me, and attacks on the use of that freedom in cyberspace startle me. Roger Pearse points us to a story about two men recently convicted in the United Kingdom for inciting racial hatred using websites based in the United States.
First, let me state that humanity’s ability to use good things, fruitful things, civilization changing things, for evil and wretched acts disgusts me. I do not believe that freedom of speech should be abused, used to spread hate and fear – nor do I believe that it should be threatened with jail time.
From the BBC:
Simon Sheppard, 51, of Selby in North Yorkshire, received four years and 10 months, and Stephen Whittle, 42, of Preston, two years and four months.
The men printed leaflets and controlled US websites featuring racist material.
They fled to the US after being convicted at Leeds Crown Court last year, but failed in an asylum bid.
Sheppard, of Brook Street, Selby, was found guilty of 11 offences and Whittle, of Avenham Lane, Preston, was found guilty of five offences at a trial in July last year.
Sheppard was convicted of a further five charges in January 2009.
However, before the jury in the first trial could return verdicts, both men fled to Los Angeles International airport and attempted to claim political asylum.
Their bid was thrown out by a US immigration judge.
The men were charged with publishing and distributing racially inflammatory material, and possessing racially inflammatory material with a view to distribution.
…snip….
That, said Adil Khan, head of diversity and community cohesion at Humberside Police, makes their conviction a first.
“This case is groundbreaking,” he said.
“The fact is now that we’ve been able to demonstrate that you’ve got nowhere to hide; people have been hiding on [sic] the fact that this server was in the US.
“Inciting racial hatred is a crime and one which seems to occur too regularly. This kind of material will not be tolerated as this lengthy investigation shows.”
I find the inciting of racial hatred disgusting, but when does it become a crime? Further, at what point does a dearly held freedom here in the States give way to fear? Do we make it a crime when people say things that others do not like? The BBC did not give details on the website, but there is a far cry between being racist and stupid and urging genocide.
There is a short line, however, concerning civil liberities when it comes to fear.
What do you think? Do you think it will stop here, or do you see it progressing to a point where the internet will be tightly controlled?
Mar 14 2009
A prominent Christian musician and a team of college-age missionaries were recently deported from the United Kingdom under new immigration rules that require religious workers to be sponsored by a licensed organization and obtain visas to enter the country.
In early March, Colorado-based singer Don Francisco was denied entrance into London and a Master’s Commission team from Arkansas was deported from Scotland because immigration officials said they needed work visas under new regulations introduced in November.
Continue reading “The United Kingdom bans the Apostles – Christians not welcome”
Dec 27 2008
As Roger said, this is a threat to all bloggers so I hope he doesn’t mind me (re)posting it(his). I would support something along the lines of giving bloggers the same freedom that the Press in the United States enjoys – everywhere. (Not that I want to participate in nation building.) This too is the Media – blogging is the 19th century version of the independent newspaper. We are all John Peter Zenger.
From time to time I comment on free speech online issues. This is not because I want to, but because of the threats to all bloggers which of course includes me. The best way to resist this is to highlight it.
I frequently read Guido Fawkes UK political blog for its alternative and somewhat subversive picture of what is really happening in UK politics. Today I read that a leading libel lawyer has tried to silence discussion online (and presumably succeeded in some cases) concerning one of his clients. See here for Guido’s comments. A court order threatening people with prison for revealing that there is a court order?!?
I recall that during the 80’s UK television acted as mouth-pieces for Irish terrorists. When the then government tried to prevent them, the BBC spitefully announced that “this report has been compiled in accordance with government reporting restrictions” whenever it had an relevant news, which was most nights for a couple of years. But that wasn’t censored in this way. I recall how the New Statesman in the 1960’s used to publish official D-notices, which indicated matters of vital security interest which should not be published, thereby violating them comprehensively, endangering us all, and insulting the system which was trying to protect them. They too went free. But then, they weren’t writing a blog.
UK. Free Speech. Now.
As a postscript, today I was reading a BBC piece about a new Chinese crackdown on dissent in Tibet. Apparently the Tibetan nationalists were being arrested for “trying to stir up racial hatred”; weasel words for “resisting the Chinese occupation.” Goebbels would be proud of whoever invented this phrase, I think.
Nov 27 2008
That’s right – we are the termination capital of the world. Say it again – The-Term-i-nation-Cap-it-al-of-the-World.
The number of women having an abortion in England and Wales exceeded 200,000 for the first time last year.
There has been an increased figure almost every year since the legalisation of abortion in 1967 – and the indications are this year’s figure will be even higher.
Britain’s termination rate is already the highest in Western Europe, and if trends continue it will bypass the U.S. within a decade as the place where the greatest proportion of births are terminated.
‘Pro-life’: Conservative MP Nadine Dorries has hit out at abortions which she believes are ‘becoming a form of contraception’
The shocking figures came just months after MPs rejected moves to restrict abortion to under 20 weeks only, in a bid to call a halt to the year-on-year rises.
The limit for social abortions stayed at 24 weeks.
Pro-life MPs say the figures prove that abortion has become so commonplace that hundreds of women are using it as a form of contraception.
Nadine Dorries, Tory MP for Mid Bedfordshire, said: ‘Abortion is wrongly seen as an easy and trouble-free way of ending a pregnancy. It has moved from a resource that women turn to in an emergency and a point of crisis to becoming a form of contraception.
‘This has been brought about as a result of an ill-conceived notion that it is just a minor procedure with no side or lasting effects, but this is not the case.’
The Office for National Statistics revealed yesterday that there were 205,600 abortions last year, with 198,500 carried out on Britons and the rest on women who had travelled from other countries.
There were more than 200,000 abortions in Britain in 2007 – but there could be even more in 2008
Most abortions – 57,000 – were carried out on the 20 to 24 age group. However, there were 4,400 on the under-16s and 700 on those aged more than 45. Some 62.7 per cent of abortions were performed within nine weeks.
In the first six months of 2008, there were 105,000 abortions, slightly more than half last year’s figure, indicating the annual total is likely to exceed that of 2007.
Pro-life campaigners are also becoming increasingly concerned with the number of repeat abortions.
The most recent figures for this from 2006 show that nearly 4,000 women have had four or more abortions – and dozens have had eight or more. There were 82 teenagers on their third abortion.
Overall, the number of women having repeat abortions has reached record levels.
In 2006, 59,687 abortions were performed in England on women who had already had one.
A third of terminations are now repeats, and the number has gone up by 5 per cent in two years.
Sep 06 2008
First:
Faiths and schools | Religious rights and wrongs | Economist.com.
Continue reading “Faiths and schools – Religious rights and wrongs”
Sep 02 2008
Prayers prompt religious row | EuropeNews.
Read the last quote…honestly, but what is Islam? Is it a faith? There is but one Faith. Yes, it a tradition, but the wrong Tradition.
Sep 01 2008
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