It's Friday....So Patricia Neal Sood Still

Well it is Friday so I'm going to let you in on some of what I got up to this week and linked into what happened last weekend.

As Patricia Neal, who died during the week, starred in The Day the Earth Stood Still it is just cause to show you this which mentions her co-star Michael Rennie in the opening line.



As Mat Bowles who gets my hat tip says it isn't perfect in places but good none the less. But hey as it was the tenth anniversary of H2G2's Scottish Researchers Group last Saturday it is also an excuse to link to something I wrote earlier in another place.

Of course as well as H2G2 last weekend I also combined it with Neil Hannon of the Divine Comedy, of course not for the first time. His jazzed up performance of the song that merges the two doesn't have the visuals but here is the opening version of the song that goes with the immortal toast.



In my post earlier this week I did mention that the Skye Boat Song was something that Rupert Murdoch didn't own, so I was considering posting a version of it here. After all, Edinburgh's Tattoo is on at the moment, you can hardly move on the High Street and if you are trying to get around at the wrong time of the evening at the top of the Royal Mile or thereabouts forget it. But I thought of something a little more upbeat was appropriate.

The Land of the Free Neglecting the First Amendment

O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

There are estimated to be between 2.54 and 7 million Muslims living the the USA, 37% of that number are Caucasian, 24% black, 20% Asian, 4% Hispanic and the rest mixed race. That is between 0.8 and 2.3% of the total population. Currently there are just over 1,200 mosques in the country but that number is in danger of finding it very hard to grow.

The reason for such negativity on a Friday morning is the growing outrage against any mosque across the USA. All of this has recently risen out of the groundswell of openly hostile opposition to the one proposed in downtown Manhattan close to Ground Zero where one stood the twin towers of the World Trade Centre. But it is not just in New York but in Florida, California, Georgia, Connecticut and Tennessee amongst other states that opposition and blatant Islamophobia is taking form.

The First Amendment of the USA's constitution enshrines two things Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech. Indeed the Supreme Court has ruled that "government should not prefer one religion to another, or religion to irreligion" of course that doesn't stop to the people and islamophobes in their midst.

Many of the people opposed to new Islamic centres and mosques and those who defend without question the Second Amendment the right to bear arms, which surely is the one that needs revisiting as the militia of the founding fathers has now been replaced by a large and world dominating professional army. So why is the second amendment being held so precious by some yet they are ignoring the fundamentals of the first.

As the article in the Guardian points out where significant numbers of Protestants, Catholics or Jews want to congregate for worship the local towns will not raise issues of traffic, parking or whatever excuse they are using to block a new meeting place being set up indeed most often it will go through unhindered and unquestioned. With the Muslims however that is what is being used and now it is even being open 'racism' against immigrants from a nation of immigrants, even those as I pointed out many will not be differentiated from the general population.

If people in America are going to overlook their First Amendment and not allow freedom of religion to one religious group then their whole Bill of Rights is open as a fraud. What they claim to hold dear isn't worth the paper it was written on even if it is on carefully guarded display in the National Archives.

If they are saying of one group you can't congregate here they are ghettoising in a form of religious apartheid (I have used those two words for a reason based on their original usage). So much for the land of the free!

Read Also: Spiderplant's take on the wingnuts

I Pity the Fool: Ten More Things that Rupert Murdoch Doesn't Own

Following the success of yesterday's blog post about the bits of Sky that Rupert Murdoch doesn't own I thought I'd better turn attention to the name of the man himself.

• 10. Murdoch is a large, strong orange tender engine and the largest steam engine on the lsland at least in the TV adaptation of Reverend W. V. Awdry's Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends
• 9. Junior Officers in the British Army are nicknamed Rupert apparently because they epitomise the public school values as in Rupert the Bear (see below)
• 8. 9138_Murdoch an asteroid in the asteroid belt.
• 7. The paradummies used by the British in World War II were nicknamed Rupert. Looks like Murdoch isn't the first dummy associated with sky.
• 6. Rupert and Murdock are a pair of Canadian rivers the former one of the largest rivers in Quebec flowing into James Bay and the latter in the Sudbury District of central Ontario
• 5. Rupert Grint, flame haired actor who forever will be in the public memory as Ron Weasly from the Harry Potter series of films.
• 4. Iris Murdoch the late author and philosopher who was bestowed the honourary Doctorate at my own graduation.
• 3. Rupert the Bear. Created in 1920 by Mary Tourtel and appears in the Daily Express which is the flagship of Express Newspapers and not part of Murdoch's News International
• 2. Captain "Howling Mad" Murdock, if you can find him, if you're brave enough to fly with him he is one quarter of the A-Team
• 1. The at the time fictional tenth planet* in the Solar System beyond Pluto as written by Douglas Adams in Mostly Harmless. However, just by Mr Murdoch's recent activity maybe a Rupert orbiting the Sun way out there isn't that strange after all.

* Researchers on H2G2 refer to the time in limbo between Douglas's Digital Village running the site and the BBC taking it over affectionately as 'Rupert' in honour of this fictitious planet that nobody could see.

Lib Dems and Tories are Taking Action in the Rage Against Labour's Treasured Faulty Machine

There is a rather excellent article by Simon Jenkins in today's Guardian and one that the We Got Rage Against the Machine to Number One I've Voting Liberal Democrat Lib Dem voters turned doubters would do well to note.

It talks about the contrast between the Tory/Lib Dem coalition realising the public expenditure system is faulty and the Labour machine failing to ignore that there is anything wrong as that this is the way we promised things in 1945 and that is the way they should be.

He lists examples such as "Andrew Lansley's bid to dismantle tottering NHS bureaucracy. He wants to do it not by slicing budgets, which seldom works, but by removing layers, which might." David Cameron's question of the "static poor" who soak up particularly larger housing stock for life when their own needs change over time.

Instead of just railing against the benefits cheats, waste, fraudulent spending, the concept of entitlement and the individuals relationship with the state, the current Government appears set to do something about it. The must radical shake up since the 1940s when the post-war Labour Government set much of the machinery in motion. Sadly as the machinery is either broken, or out of date but anyway is largely no longer fit for purpose and needs a radical overhaul.

Looking at what the Lib Dems promised in our manifesto it was a radical overview and reappraisal of the Government machine. We promised to overhaul of taxation, benefits and so many other Government departments. We promised to cut out a lot of the red tape and make the wheels of Government run smoothly again. Basically in the terms of the machine metaphor giving it an oil change is only part of the requirement, checking if any efficiency can be made with new parts is also a part of the thorough service.

In conclusion Jenkins says:

"To do Nick Clegg and his Lib Dems justice, they have at least engaged. Through the happenstance of the electoral system, they are joined in the most vigorous debate British politics has seen in half a century. Labour knew last year that some suchcrisis was in the offing; there were signs of Alistair Darling and others steeling themselves for the fray. Now the left has removed itself to doze on planet 1945. One day it must return."

So if the rage against the machinists are a little upset with some of what the Lib Dems are doing in Government look at what they are considering doing to the machine. A full overhaul, with the Lib Dems in there to uphold the values we hold unto so that Cameron isn't to ride totally roughshod over those in need. Labour are just opening their mouths in protest without a real alternative, indeed with a real grip on the reality of today.

Ten Things that Rupert Murdoch Doesn't Own

Following the news (EXCLUSIVE TO SKY) that Rupert Murdoch claims he owns the Sky© in Skype here are ten things he doesn't own.

10. The Skye Bridge lyrics written by Sir Harold Boulton, Bart. (1859 - 1935)
9. The Skyways Hotel, London or in any other location
8. The Sky at Night still screened on BBC
7. Himmelbjerget also known as the Sky Mountain in Denmark
6. Skypark in Glasgow
5. The Skye Boat song
4. Sky Blue Way, owned by the people of Coventry in honour of their football team.
3. The Minneapolis Skyway System
2. He is not one third of the MPs for Ross, Skye and Lochaber that is our own Charles Kennedy.
1. Last I checked the sky itself was still public property

I would add the movie Vanilla Sky, but would you want to and Sky Movies© probably already own rights to show it.

Former Tory Candidate Teacher Keeps Job After Homophobic Comment

Back in April, when it was too late to replace him, the Conservative candidate for North Ayrshire and Arran, Philip Lardner was deselected by the party for anti-gay comment made on his campaign website. As you may recall I was rather busy at the time fighting that election so didn't blog about it, but I refer you to Andrew Reeves for the story.

At the same time the Primary School teacher at Rashielea Primary School in Renfrewshire was also suspended from work pending a disciplinary hearing. That hearing has been held this week with the result that a teacher who thinks homosexuality is "not normal" or to be "encouraged" in children is to keep his job.

One has to wonder what he would do it a child came to him because of homosexual bullying at school? Or what he would do if I child who was gay objected to his assertions in a classroom? It is not a matter of encouraging but a matter of supporting those who are vulnerable. You cannot encourage someone to be gay, however you can ensure them that there is nothing wrong with it and support them when others feel that there is.

Homophobic bullying does go on at Primary level so you have to wonder how Mr Lardner would handle it in his classroom. As a supporter of Section 28 he fails to acknowledge the amount of harm that was done to homosexual young people by the exclusion of giving them sexual health advise that was relevant to them. He clearly needs some education on the issue himself if he thinks that the aim is encouraging people to be gay rather than simply to be themselves.

Quote of the Day: Cardinal Keith O'Brien

I'll wait while regular readers are picking their jaws up off their keyboards as have in fact just awarded the irregularly presented Quote of the Day on this blog to the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. For this:

"In many states - more than half - they kill the perpetrators of horrible crimes, by lethal injection or even firing squad - I say that is a culture of vengeance.

"An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth - that is not our culture in Scotland and I would like to think that the US government, and these states that do still have capital punishment, would learn something from us."

It is in response to the USA attitude to the release of the Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi. It is quite a courageous stance for a Church leader to remind the nation that has "In God We Trust" on its currency to remember the teaching of the Sermon of the Mount and pull them out of the Old Testament vengeful tendency. So his is to applauded for his stance and his backing of the stance not to sent Parliamentarians from the UK or Scotland to stand before a US committee he added:

"The Scottish government has made the decision and the Scottish government is answerable to the Scottish people - not the US government or US citizens.

"Everyone acted according to Scots law in releasing Megrahi on compassionate grounds, having taken medical advice.

"I still think they did the right thing, although the man is still alive.

"We shouldn't be crawling out to America, or having them come here and questioning us on our own territory."