Guess who's back?

My brother, being the lovely nerd that he is, was looking through his boarding cards of flights he has been on, and saw that eight years ago yesterday, the 22nd of October 2002, we flew on Concorde. We sped over the Atlantic, getting to New York in three or so hours.

Unfortunately, because of the lack of space in said aeroplane, it was a lot like being in Economy for a flight to Spain. Aside, of course, for the caviar. And the big board up the front telling quite how high we were, how fast we went, and how long we were going for. Which, when you're going faster than the speed of sound, are extraordinarily large numbers, and not very helpful.

So, thanks to my Dad for arranging it, thanks for my brother for chaperoning me, and thanks to British Airways for flying a loss-making aeroplane for the sake of going really, really fast.

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Apparently, I'm now allowed to use this little image on my blog, which is nice. Can't decide whether I would be subscribing to The Man in doing it though. Oh, heck, why not? Any ideas as to where I would put it?

Also, if anyone else wants to add images to my blog for free advertising, y'know, I'm clearly not a principled man.

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Just spied an email from Eden.co.uk, a Christian book/music/tat supplier, which seems to specialise in middle-of-the-road media. I often peruse said emails to see what they're foisting upon Christians, often sadly shaking my head when it comes to the CDs. Anyway, this morning turned up a new feeling: The C.S. Lewis Bible. The idea is a nice one: the NRSV Bible, juxtaposed with some of Lewis' writings, endeavouring to see where his theology is taken from. However, something in me is disquieted by the idea of a C.S. Lewis Bible. Your thoughts?

...you Mosque be joking?!

There is an Islamic centre wanting to be built in New York. Nothing too amiss there. There are lots of Muslims in New York, and a lot of them want to worship. The problem arises when you realise that the Muslims wanting to build it are planning a site two and a half blocks from Ground Zero.

The majority of Republicans - as I understand it, and I understand little - are up in arms. Sarah Palin waded in a few weeks ago with a tweet (because THAT would have made sense 3 years ago...):

"Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand, Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts. Pls reject it in interest of healing,"

Which is an interesting stance to take. In some ways, and this rarely happens, I agree with Mrs. Palin. Within 140 characters, she has managed to avoid racist/religious slurs and state why exactly she opposes it. However, what seems to be missing is a certain subjectivity. What I feel would have carried the message better is:

"Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand, Ground Zero mosque [feels/seems/looks like] UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts. Pls reject it in interest of healing,"

I cannot imagine that Muslims planning this Islamic centre are gleefully rubbing their hands together, thinking of all the offense they can cause with this building - they are merely building an Islamic centre, which, as a small part of it, contains a mosque.

So things die down a little, but come the beginning of Ramadan, President Obama gets involved. He claims that America's commitment to religious freedom must be "unshakeable":

"That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community centre on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances,"

But now we are being introduced to the idea of rights, not ethics, which is a whole new ball game. If we are contending the right of this Islamic centre to be built, we have no leg to stand on. A FOX News poll (and that sentence can always end badly) found that 61% of participants said yes, the Muslims do have a right to build this centre.

However, the question asked previously in the poll was whether the mosque was appropriate: 64% said it was not.

A fascinating window into the American psyche - rights are inalienable, as long as they don't offend someone else. And in saying that, I think I almost agree with them.

Pitch in; get involved.