So I’ve got a haunch of venison in my freezer.
It’s about 4lb frozen.
What should I do with it?
I’ve also got a large amount of Wicklow lamb.
I’m open to ideas, you see there are only 2 of us and the bambino and once we thaw it we have to cook it before we can refreeze it (we can refreeze it after it’s cooked, right?)
We’ve considered mincing it with some of the lamb and make meat loaf and/or pies.
Does anyone with any chef type proclivities have any ideas?
Ban Ki Moon has provoked a certain amount of anger from some commentators by saying that “Freedom of speech has limits”.
“All of this freedom of expression should not be abused by individuals. … Some people abuse this freedom. This effort to provoke, to humiliate others by using (religious) beliefs cannot be protected in such a way.”
Basically, some people use freedom of speech as a sort of virtual armour to go around winding people up for religious and other reasons.
Next, the people who were the intended victims of this winding up get angry. We all know by now that if you insult Islamic people some people in the Islamic world will use this as motivation to stir people up further and get a bit of violence going.
When that violence kicks off who does it hit? Does it hit the initial instigators? No. Does it hit the people who stir up the other Muslims? No.
It hits other people. The two stirring groups are unaffected.
Then the commentators ‘doze in with the “Oh well, people should be able to say what they want without there being violence, it’s not their fault.”
I disagree, it is bloody their fault, and it’s their fault without their responsibility and now you’re defending them.
Look. If you want to defend freedom of speech go right ahead but don’t defend people who go and deliberately being arseholes in order to cause dissent. Such people do not merit or care about your sympathies.
If you want to defend someone, defend Ahmed the Egyptian Grocer who was quietly going about his business before a mob stormed down his street incited by an idiot on the internet who knew he’d never have to suffer the repercussions of his actions.
At the end of the day if people use freedom of speech to offend then leaders will instigate limits. Those limits won’t make a great deal of difference to people dicking about online, but they will make a difference to ordinary people who have to take responsibility for their words and actions.
Have you ever risen before dawn, gone down to the shore and cast your line into the sea, contemplating in the silence the majesty of creation and the wonder God has wrought and perhaps wondered what the atheist would contemplate at such a time, for he is the mighty empirical atheist, what does he see where we see such profound and spiritual wonder?
No, me neither.
If I’m up before dawn it’s insomnia, so I’ll read a little before going back to sleep, or it’s a trip to the airport, so I’ll go and make a pot of tea before waking my wife.
But obviously this blog isn’t going to be about atheists going fishing, that would be a little too bizarre and random even for me and I like bizarre and random, there’s a lot to be said for it.
You see I make assumptions about people. I assume (against all the evidence) that individually people are of at least moderate intelligence, understands self referential humour, can cope with context, have a basic understanding and appreciation of servers and databases and read around just a little before opining.
As I hope you can appreciate such assumptions can lead to all sorts of hilarious shenanigans.
[I have somewhat more unpleasant and darkly cynical opinions about people en masse, if you take people en masse then at least one of them reads the Daily Mail and doesn't take the contents with a hefty pinch of salt, least said.] I also have a tendency to return to things from a day or even a week previously and as long as things follow a logical sense in my mind I’ll do or say them and willingly relate the thinking behind it if questioned (and if I can be bothered, obviously, and if my interlocutor isn’t rude, you really don’t need to swear and generally be abusive on the internet, unless you’re trying to make some sort rhetorical point or you want to demonstrate the paucity of your argument.)
On reading around a subject the news that Catholic priests in Ireland may be forced by law to violate the secrecy of the confessional led me to discover that in 2011 the law changed in Ireland such that if anyone is aware of any act of theft or fraud, in planning or having taken place, they are required by law to report it to the Garda. That hasn’t been very well publicised. Think on it, any act of theft. What if you’ve paid no VAT for cash, is that an act of theft? Should you grass up your builder? Yourself? Would you? Massive barrel of snakes.
And I may occasionally go off at tangents, as you may have gathered by this point.
Anyway, yesterday Henry tweeted about apocalyptic hailstones.
So this was probably somewhere in my mind after I nipped into the garden this morning to close the shed door (it opens randomly in the wind no matter how you fasten it, I have actually bought a lock for it, about 2 years ago and should probably fit it this weekend, if it stops raining long enough, I’m not wandering around with power tools in the rain that’s asking for trouble) and I got soaked. It’s only a few yards. So I was thinking apocalyptic rain. So I tweeted about the apocalyptic rain:
Then, as it does, my mind wandered on, if this is some sort of Apocalypse what can we expect? Fire from heaven? Well it’d dry things out at least. And who would it be directed at? Well the atheists presumably, that’d teach ‘em. So I tweeted to that effect:
Now I know that if you mention atheists in any tweet then some atheists are going to see it. They look for tweets mentioning themselves. Why? Insecurity? A basic thirst to be offended? God alone knows.
I know that this goes on. But it was early and I was soaked and I didn’t think on it all that much. Anyway, as I tweeted shortly after the rain stopped. Apocalypse averted. Michael was kind enough to respond with a little light humour:
So I left it and went off about my day.
Later I discovered that I had left it too soon, some angry atheists had found my tweet, had decided to be offended and had decided to throw a slew of abuse in my general direction:
If they’d taken a moment to read other tweets in my timeline, and consider possible context or read around on the subject, even on my own blog, their ire might have been saved.
Now considering my previous experiences with tweets containing the word “atheist” I should know better, and I probably shouldn’t do it again, but then I am allowing others to dictate my behaviour by their ire. I don’t think I should do that so periodically I may, even intentionally, go fishing for atheists. Don’t get caught.
But before I go a little note to those Proselytizing Atheists who felt an overwhelming need to over react to my tweet. Next time you see something like that go and read the other tweets of that person, read their blog, get a feel for them, ask, don’t go off half cocked. I know some of you feel a compunction to tell anyone who is being a bit religious or a bit non atheistic that they are wrong (I know this because I’ve been told by some people like you that do feel that need), but really you don’t have to. Religion may be wrong for you, but it’s not wrong for everyone. I don’t pretend that religion answers all the questions that everyone has in life, the questions vary by person, the answers vary as well and so do the routes to those answers, and as such atheism cannot answer all the questions of life either. We are all different. Please learn to appreciate that diversity whether you believe it is wrought by the fractal complexity of nature or by the ineffable plan of an all knowing and all loving deity.
So there’s a massive shortage of housing in the UK, particularly in terms of social housing let by the government, and at the same time there’s a housing surplus in Ireland, particularly owned by NAMA the government’s bad bank.
Oh, this seems rather obvious. Could not some sort of deal be made? Ireland owes the UK a great deal of money. Could some of that debt be written down or off by permitting long term unemployed communities to resettle in Irish Ghost Estates and continue to draw their benefit from the UK? This money will help boost the Irish economy, thus helping Ireland grow and ultimately pay back the remaining debt while alleviating the housing market in the UK and allowing for growth there.
Sure it might be a bit trickier to sort out than just that, but it’s a starting point. What are the hurdles to overcome?
They’re calling it “Cam Dine With Me”, “Cash For Cameron”, “donorlunchgate” and “Dinner Plate Gate” and a variety of other stupid names (stop sticking -gate at the end of things, it’s not “new”, “witty” or “clever”) but they’re missing the real scandal. The massive rate of inflation.
Only a decade ago a donation of a mere £125K could get you a Prime Minister who would intercede with a foreign power to help you swing a £0.3 billion business deal for your non British company, the same Prime Minister would then misinform the Commons about the matter and pretend the company was British.
Now twice that amount gets you a meal … possibly.
By contrast if you donate large amounts to the Labour Party the guarantee is that you then don’t have to meet their leader.
Now I don’t like ice cream, that’ll shock quite a lot of people. It tends to, I don’t know why. Some people just don’t like things. I’d have it if it wasn’t iced but melted down and drinkable but then it’d be cream and probably a bit sickly and frankly on a hot day I’d rather have a beer. But it turns out that Benny & Jerry, purveyors of ice cream, have brought gay activism into ice cream by bringing a gay marriage friendly flavour to the UK. Will Heaven reports on it in his blog, unfortunately for him Delingpole outscooped him on that one by two and a half years. Outscooped, you see what I did there? [That rather awful joke was the main motivation for this blog.]
So, socio-poltical activism in food? Activism in food is generally kept confined to people bleating about GM crops on one side and the rising cost of grain due to “green” fuels on the other. For my part; GM crops, I don’t really care, and if the rising cost of grain affects the price of beer, I do care. But this is a different breed, it’s using food to advertise socio-politics instead of using socio-politics to complain about food. Good thing? Bad thing? Don’t know, don’t eat ice cream (incidentally we’re getting new freezer which my wife informs me will be filled with ice cream. This seems to me to be a waste, especially since I’ve learnt we can buy a whole prepped lamb from the local estate. Yes, a WHOLE LAMB. Sweet. As.)
Why do Ben & Jerry’s stop there? Why not cover the whole gamut of marital partnership? “Male” flavours and “female” flavours packed with a small containers of mixed flavours to denote kids, single large tubs with small tubs to denote one parent families, small tubs on their own for orphaned children that can’t get adopted due to draconian government legislation? Embrace the concept Ben & Jerry, if you’re going political with your ice cream go the whole hog (a chocolate tub packed with a vanilla tub could really piss off the BNP). How about a couple of out of date tubs for those old couple who meet and marry in retirement homes?
Speaking of which … Our Catholic friends have been extolling the virtues of marriage for the raising of children. Does this now mean that older couples will not be permitted to marry? That fertility tests will be required before marriage? That the church will annul marriages that result in no progeny before the couple is unable to bear children (unless some serious science is employed)? No. Of course it won’t, because marriage is about love between two people who want to spend the rest of their lives together and declare that love to the world. Love. Because Jesus is about love. He’s not about the hatred and melodrama and ice cream that’s being touted now.
Imagine Tom Chivers sitting in the pub with his friends. One of them makes a passing joke, a quip if you will. Tom turns his imperious gaze on the perpetrator.
“That’s not funny.”, he intones.
“It’s slightly funny.”, says his friend, “It’s not a belly buster, but there’s humour in it.”
“Is this banter?” asks Tom, his voice dripping with disgust.
“Well, I suppo…”
“Begone!” Commands Tom, “Never join my table again!”
Imagine Tom Chivers sitting alone in the pub … ah that’s a bit more like it.
Society functions on compromise, always has, always will, you get two groups vying for attention (like 3 year olds) or for their point of view and the wrangle can go on forever until the two groups eventually stratify and go their separate ways (like the Church of England) or someone, somewhere, gives a little ground, and then someone of the other side gives a little ground and then eventually saner minds prevail and compromise is achieved, or so you’d hope in a sane society.
[I know I may have just suggested that the Church of England isn't a part of sane society but no analogy is perfect or maybe it is, no short answer on that one.]
And on the subject of Gay Marriage we’ve had the shouting, we’ve had the wrangling, we’ve had the morons suggesting that any marriage that doesn’t produce kids isn’t real, how about the compromise?
Gays, Catholic officialdom will never recognise your civil unions as marriage, never, ever, ever. Never, not at all. Not ever. Never, Ain’t going to happen. You know that, I know that, the Church knows that, everyone knows that. Never.
Catholics, you aren’t going to recognise civil unions as marriage, we know that. If anyone tries to take you to court over that then they have de facto taken the law of man over the law of God and excommunicated themselves, you can already refuse to officiate declarations of union between non Christians. If any court tried it on over that one then most of Europe would erupt.
So let it go. They can have their civil unions and call it marriage, they can call it pogo sticks if they want, you won’t be recognising it. They can think “Oh yeah, sticking it to the man”, and you can think “You think we actually care?”
Compromise achieved.
Happy to help.
