Last night JT and I went to Carl’s geek party!  It was hilarious, the pics say it all really….

Geek Nai, JT, Dan, Jo, Keith & Anna

Jo (fave pic of the night!), us, Carl & Jon, Tom & Emily

My last article about the Echo got me thinking.  It seemed sad to me that when, for once, the Echo were trying to report some good news, hundreds of people had to come back with doubt, negativity and slander.  It is not just church articles that get this kind of treatment, charity workers doing a project get called ‘do-gooders who are really pleased with themselves’, someone disabled who achieves something gets called ‘no better than the rest of us’ etc.  Then a paedophile gets convicted and everyone jumps onboard and says that he’s really actually a very nice bloke and that the kid could have defended his or herself!!  What is wrong with the attitudes of our country? We all do it, because we are so untrusting.  Complete the catchphrases:

FREE OFFER = What’s the catch?
CAN I HELP YOU? = No I’ll be fine (I’m not a charity)
SOMEONE ACHIEVED SOMETHING = How much did they pay for that?
SOMEONE STOPPED BEING A CRIMINAL = Oh I wonder how long that will last

It makes me realise why people have no interest in the “good news” of Jesus.  We can’t accept it because it is good!!  Perhaps we should preach the bad news about religion and then people might get on board and decide that Jesus really is quite a nice chap after all.New sermon:  All your worst fears about Christianity are probably correct.  You will probably fall asleep during this sermon.  People can be hypocritical - they are not God.  We get stuff wrong sometimes.  Do an Alpha Course.

http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/news/Mother-son-face-new-life-thanks-Alpha-Course/article-351817-detail/article.html

Here is an article with the story of our friend Chilli.  I think it is great and cannot BELIEVE the attitudes of some commenters in this town.  No offence, but get over yourselves.  If you want to comment then at least have the decency to think your comment through and write something truthful.  In the meantime, I really hope poor Chilli doesn’t have to read the comments.

After posting what I thought was a good rant by Archbishop Sentamu of York, I was disappointed when, the very next day, the Church of England was accused of short selling also.  I felt quite angry actually.  Now I am not sure if Sentamu even knew about this, but it did make the whole plank and speck of dust argument jerk sharply into focus!!!  See Hitchmo’s blog for details…

Er… I’ll just take one then!!

…How do they know??!

Dr. John Sentamu is the Anglican Archbishop of York. He said this recently on the recent economic crisis and subsequent bank bailout plan:

“To a bystander like me, those who made £190million deliberately underselling the shares of HBOS, in spite of its very strong capital base, and drove it into the bosom of Lloyds TSB Bank, are clearly bank robbers and asset strippers…”

“Tomorrow morning I will attend a meeting to launch a campaign of ‘Education for All’ as part of the global effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, including the eradication of global poverty by 2015. Of course for such a target to be achieved there needs to be stable financial systems.  Without a solid global economic base to work from, the eradication of world poverty would be an even greater task. But as one columnist recently noted, ‘the President of the United States recently announced $700 billion bailout plans for banks and financial institutions.’ One of the ironies about this financial crisis is that it makes action on poverty look utterly achievable. It would cost $5 billion to save six million children’s lives. World leaders could find 140 times that amount for the banking system in a week. How can they now tell us that action for the poorest on the planet is too expensive?”

The news is absolutely full of recession this, recession that, Wall Street, the stock exchange, ups, downs, mortgages, banks, bail outs, fuel costs….  The list goes on.  When I was younger, my Mum taught me to call credit cards ‘debt cards’, which is a much more apt descriptor.  It is “credit” that is causing so many of the problems in society that we are now having to try to solve.  For example, the more credit card debt you incur, the more they increase your credit limit.  I consider this to be irresponsible.

The most vile offender, morally, is bankruptcey.  I was not aware until recently, that it now only takes ONE YEAR to wipe a bankruptcey (does that have an ‘e’ in it?!) record.   ONE YEAR!!  So students are not only borrowing the ridiculous 20K that they now have to borrow over three years just to pay fees and rent, but they are taking out huge credit cards and spending thousands upon thousands.  At the end of three years they don’t have much to lose in life, so they are just declaring themselves bankrupt. Why wouldn’t they?  Apart from the fact that it is morally wrong, I can almost see their point in making a mockery of the economic system, except that it has stuffed it up for everyone else (it is not just students doing this of course).

Mortgages are another joker.  Not long ago, JT and I were offered a 110% mortgage (from Northern Rock - haha), which we absolutely refused.  Good job really or we’d be having serious equity issues now!!

So oddly enough, this system of handing out cash irresponsibly has gone a bit wrong.  The thing is, the money hasn’t disappeared, it still exists.  The question is, where is it and how do we get it back into the correct channels?  Those who have none should stop bailing out those who have less.  Now I know I am no economic expert and I do not study the financial times, I am merely making a few observations and no doubt glossing over the major issues at stake.  Bear with me.

Whilst I do not agree with his theories of transcendency, I did like this quote:

Don’t waste your life in doubts and fears: spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour’s duties will be the best preparation for the hours or ages that follow it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today was a better day - it is our third wedding anniversary, which is great for starters.  We started the day with a trip to Uni where I managed to survive a whole tutorial without legging it.  I managed to by a pen from the art shop and a coffee for JT from the café without legging it also. We then went to Birdland and saw penguins and flamingos!  I managed a few more shops in Bourton too.  We had an ASK takeaway for tea so all in all it has been a nice day.