Brewers' refuge from the stormy blast

I'm taking refuge in the Brewers Fayre pub/restaurant in Fort William today with gale force winds and rain, hail, snow continuing over the Western Highlands but with calmer conditions for the rest of the week.  I've met up with a 69 year old guy, Nigel from New Mills near Stockport who is also summiting Corbetts (and much else!).  He has a most comfortable motorhome while I'm content with the super efficient, large enough, Polo Blue Motion for my luxury motorhome!  We had a pleasant eve in his vehicle talking yesterday.

Nigel's company and the better weather made our climb to my finest mountain I have visited.  It turned out to be an enticing rock summit that was in view after one obstacle after another was got round or got over.  Finally, after lunch, we got to the base of the last steep climb and left our rucsacs at the foot.  An easy but careful scramble took us to the small summit and cairn with views of the highest Munros in cloud.

I came north on Mon and visited one Corbett in the eastern, rough and rocky Knoydart wilderness yesterday.  The mt bike took me along the forest roads before I had to leave it and take to two feet.  I'm back to Glen Dessarry this aft/eve.  It has a 16 mile single track road on its N side that limits you to 2nd and 3rd gear.  Yet, huge articulated timber lorries regularly use this same rough, road to take their harvest of huge logs out.

I had better weather two weeks ago when I visited 7 Corbetts and two Corbett Tops in a dry week in Moidart and a superb car camping spot that I found next to a sea loch, Loch Ailort, west of Glenfinnan and W of Fort William.  This week's cloud is good navigation training!

The Very Necessary War

For me, a very necessary war because:

1. We were the superpower of the day and, therefore, had to intervene as the policeman, judge and jury of the world.
2. In 1914, UK had seen centuries of warfare on the mainland of Europe, anyway.  More war there would not seem unusual.
3. Britain had a culture and tradition of war and, war first and foremost.  Churchill's magnanimity in victory and jaw, jaw came much later.
4. Patriotism, militarism and nationalism were also the norm.
5. Every citizen knew Britain was right and on the side of upholding civilised values throughout the world.
6. It had always been unheard of not to do your patriotic duty to King and Country.
7. Throughout every country in Europe and Russia, every subject of these monarchs believed their kaisers, czars and kings were God's representatives on earth and, therefore, knew best.  When they wanted war, war it had to be.
8. It was widely believed in the readership of the penny dreadfuls and the ever so popular 'Daily Mail' that the Germans were less than human - Gerhuns not Germans.  They were evil and had to be fought when they invaded our fellow industrialised and colonial power of Belgium.
9. We had to honour our alliance with France and Russia.  We always honoured our treaty obligations and we were always men and women of our word.  "Perfidious Albion" was a disgraceful slur on our nation.
10. Better to die gloriously as a hero with your name engraved in stone for ever, than risk being ruled by Germany.
11. Violence was the done thing; non-violence was non-existent in European thinking and absent from the English vocabulary (still to this day)

FOOTNOTE:

Ten million combatants and a further ten million non-combatants were killed in the industrial slaughter that was the 1 WW of four and a quarter years.  This was the price that Max Hastings (in the one hour long documentary on BBC2, 'The Necessary War') and everyone of his interviewees agreed was worth paying and that made this war necessary to stop German hegemony in Europe and to maintain the British Empire.  In addition, each side believed God was on their side.   The poor, deluded Empire soldiers were killing and being killed for the noble and glorious cause of God, King and Country - and to avoid any chance of coming under Berlin's control.  Why God should ever want to have anything to do with such a stupid creation does make me doubt the wisdom of such an all powerful and all knowing God of justice.

Dear Mr Weller,

Thank you for this. 

I agree with some but by no means all of your views. Ultimately, Britain fought the First World War because Germany posed a threat to its security.

Best wishes

Gary Sheffield

Sent from my iPhone

Dear Prof Gary

Thanks so much for reading my piece, that was partly tongue in cheek - and for having the decency to reply.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, I know but, could Britain not have waited until it was obvious that Germany was moving to invade our shores and then launched a pre-emptive attack of self defence?  Our island location should have given us a tremendous advantage in being the last to be invaded (if we ever were) by the Germany of 100 years ago.  Was not Kaiser Bill pre-occupied with conquering certain countries on the European mainland?

Thankfully, that bloodbath and this century's attacks on weak Iraq and Afghanistan have given us such a bloody nose that we have not gone in, with all guns blazing, in Syria or Crimea.

I think, as has the SNP, the UK as a whole would be wise to learn from Norway as regards both energy (North Sea oil and gas) policy and peacemaking.

Best wishes

Coercion, force, violence is ...

... hardwired, I believe into Britain and the West; into Church and State; into both society and the individual psyche.  Therefore, we have had for every single year for, at least the last one hundred years, the killing of foreigners and, in their own lands, too; and by us good, decent, heroic Brits, too!

The 20th century saw more killings by the West of our fellow human beings than in all the previous years of humanity added together.  What sheer aggression, violence and pure evil in us upright and so, oh so democratic and freedom loving peoples!

The ever so Great Britain had the greatest empire the world had ever seen in 1914.  Kitchener had led the more recent colonial wars.  Therefore, it was the normal done thing to go to war.  It was the obvious thing to do when an upstart European country was wanting to rival the Great Empire of Britain and to acquire some nations for itself.  33,000 enlisted on one day alone in September 1914 and over one million men had volunteered by Christmas.  "They volunteered out of a sense of patriotic duty", Jeremy Paxman said on 'Britain's Great War'.  "It was a massive rush to arms", before it was all over by Christmas.

The European Union came out of centuries of European nations fighting wars with each other and around the globe; wars ordered and taxed by their representatives of God on earth - the divinely appointed and approved royal monarchs.  The grand climax of the West's World War in two parts, finally shook the war mongering Europeans into economic and some political union to have, at last, permanent peace with each other, at least.

The least you and I can do is to give to the British Red Cross and the Disasters Emergency Committee.  And, of course, avoid employment in armaments and the armed forces.

Using God as a fire extinguisher

USING GOD AS A FIRE EXTINGUISHER - for emergency use only

Christianity is not an insurance policy against death and misfortune.  In fact, it’s the exact opposite, for the sun rises on the righteous and the unrighteous; the rain falls on the just and the unjust.  When Les, Christ-like, God fearing, what you see is what you get, the genuine article, Les Hardwick loses his beloved wife so prematurely, it does destroy my faith in a loving and just God.  It also shook his faith, from what he told me.  God cannot possibly be a God of love, justice and who is able to protect His own.  Les should have been the very last person whom the Lord should have allowed to lose his wife in 2000.

Therefore, as I see it, we have 
           the problem of Christians suffering.  Indicating a God who does not care, even about His own people.

           the problem of the Bible - favouritism for one tribe, only, for one set of peoples, only.  God promised that their ancestors would bless the rest of humanity but the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims, the children of Abraham, have most certainly not been a blessing to everyone else.  In fact, they have been at each others throats and the Christians have, for centuries, been somewhat domineering around the world - to put it mildly.  This, contrary to what their founder flatly rejected in one of the three temptations in the wilderness of Judea.
          the problem of human ecocide - very short-lived human species when compared with very long-lived dinosaurs.
          the problem of human intolerance of each other and their inability to live in peace one with the other.
the problem of the vast majority of the best Christians - the Bible believing, born again ones - being quite content with having employment in the arms industry, the armed forces and voting for the war parties. Coercion, force and aggression is acceptable for the most virtuous, sanctified and holy of people.
the problem of abortion and voluntary euthanasia being more evil than killing the born in time of war.
          the problem of human stupidity - especially over foreign, military, transport, economic and energy policy - not much left after than list. But, actually, we humans are homo sapiens - "wise man" - so we can't be that stupid!
          the problem of the infinite, immensities of space, of nothingness yet the existence of earth created by the human construct of ‘God’.
          the problem of how God came about, if He was not thought up by humans.

          the problem of religion being pre-scientific.  It was, quite naturally, an outcome of humans needing to keep in with Nature - the sun, wind and rain, for their very survival and comfort.  Not surprisingly, it developed and grew as humans grew in size and in dominance of all other livings things on earth.  Now, an over dominance that is likely to be our own undoing.

Is it universal human nature to be warlike and to kill their own for the sake of domination?

The 1st World War, that the Western ‘Christian’ nations were responsible for, was the bloodiest war the world has ever seen.  It was slaughter on an industrial scale and started over Belgian neutrality. 1m British lives. alone, were wiped out.

Is it the white man’s nature to fight, to dominate and to kill any old human, especially black foreigners in other lands?  Or, would the black man be just as bad if given half the chance?  If the American Indians had discovered the vast resources that the white supplanters/settlers discovered would they have turned out exactly like the Americans - the world’s Emperor nation?  Or, is there something innate in the black man’s tribal ancestry, in his DNA, that makes him less keen to conquer nature, to dominate people, to kill and to be top dog?

The wise words from Chief Seattle indicate that certainly, originally, their view of their place on the earth was totally different from that of the 'Christian' white man. They saw their existence as part of the web of life; the Christian nations saw their place on the earth as, "Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever." (Westminster Confessional). The biblical perspective is certainly not part of Nature but a cut above Nature. The American Indians, the Maoris and the Aborigines all saw themselves belonging to the earth. The white man, with his arrival on every continent, brought the Bible and the belief that the earth belonged to them and they could do exactly what they liked, as often as they liked with never any repercussions from the earth's life support systems. After all, we are a cut above the rest of Creation; we are made a little lower than the angels; and, certainly we are not the human animal.

In addition, the Muslims or the Arabs have had decades of vast oil wealth but have not turned out like the rampaging, destructive, warlike white man of the Christian West.  Our lot killed millions of humans between 1914 and 2014 and very nearly brought about nuclear holocaust eg the Cuban Missile Crisis.  The other lot did not.  The closest were the evil Communists whose killings we like to exaggerate to make us feel better and to justify our killing of them in SE Asia.  And all this war on the godless Communists from 1945 to 1975 after they had, perhaps, ensured the defeat of Hitler with Stalin’s rearguard action, to begin with as the Communists fought to protect their homeland from the Nazis! No public and frequent acknowledgement that they, the Communists had been decisive in winning the war, in defeating Hitler. Only condemnation for not being democratic and for being so jealous to keep the eastern European nations under their sway as a buffer from the western European nations frequent wars and expansionism.

A true hero of our times - NOT the soldiers who do our killing

Deviantinc

31 August 2011 9:47am

Thank you Mr Chomsky - you are a hero of our times; speaking softly words with a razor edge. You are a voice of reason and sense and a beacon to those of us fed up with endless war.

I am not 'Deviantinc' (just deviant!) but I agree with his/her sentiments, above. Dad

Me (TW) writing: We are responsible for the atrocities and human rights abuses of our own governments whom we vote for and, not for the Arab, Russian and Chinese misbehaviour.  It is always right to look to ourselves and our own wrongs and to stop or much reduce the finger pointing at everyone else but ourselves. "Judgement begins in the House of the Lord" - and should end there, in my opinion, to leave all the finger wagging at the judgement seat of Christ. We should stop taking the law into our own hands around the world, and only do war when the UN authorises it.

Revenge is so sweet for us all, especially for Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Friday, 20 December 2013

Revenge is so sweet for us all, especially for Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Am I as evil and as much beyond the pale as Anjem Choudary, in writing the following?

It is very hard for only one side to be expected to show no revenge, esp when there has been twelve years of killings, violence and aggression against that one side.  Yet this was what John Humphrys was expecting of  Anjem Choudary, the founder of Al-Muhajiroun, whom he repeatedly demanded should condemn the killing of Lee Rigby.  For centuries, both Muslims and Christians have never been noted for condemning acts of violence.  Rather, they have been at the centre of promoting aggression, killing, murder and violence.  All the children of Abraham - Jews, Christians and Muslims are still at it.  And the Christian nations and their individual adherents have been the worst.  Last century was a particularly heinous and horrendous example.

This morning’s interview was similar to so many conducted by BBC journalists of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.  I think it was the case that in all those interviews, not once did Adams or McGuinness condemn even one individual on their side for his violence that Humphrys and co were insisting that they should.  They themselves, like Anjem Choudary, were careful to take no part in violence but eventually, Adams and McGuinness argued the case for ballot, never bullet.  Consequently, it was they and not the men of violence who eventually won the day with their major contribution to the Good Friday peace agreement of 1998 that brought a huge lessening of the violence in N Ireland.

It is unreasonably for us to expect Choudary to condemn violence when our side never does, either (except for the violence of our enemies and other nations like Russia).  In fact, we are the worse offenders in doing domination, aggression and violence!  Doing it is far worse.  And of that, we are particularly adept!  To condemn violence and then to carry on doing it, is particularly reprehensible and hypocritical.

It could, in fact, be seen that the two Michaels were fulfilling the very words of Scripture, the very words of Christ, no less - “those who take the sword will die by the sword.”  They killed a killer and then wanted the police to kill them in fair return.  “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”, as one Michael said on camera to explain why he did it - and, quoting Holy Scripture.  This time, the police failed to kill their man.

We had one man of violence killing another man of violence in a war that our side brought to Muslim lands and a third man of violence is expected to condemn someone on his side who killed.  Only a man of non-violence, as I am, can honourably condemn the Woolwich killing without being accused of being a hypocrite.

We have to be very careful not to excuse our own killing because we are on the side of right, of good, on the side of God and on the side of law.  We act as though al Qaeada, the Taliban and al Shabab are most definitely not and killing them is fair game.  Our side are the heroes, the Muslim fighters are evil and must be wiped off the face of the map.  No wonder, the very occasional, maverick Muslim gets so angry at his brethren being killed that he gets his own back on their killers - like Lee Rigby.  And, with the international nature of British society, we rub shoulders with Muslims every day of the week who many not like what is being done in their name.  Hence, Lee Rigby was an easy target.

John Humphrys and Lord Carlisle were particularly aghast/offended at Choudary being opposed to democracy.  How on earth can any reasonable, sensible, sane person be against democracy?  Yet, I am no longer voting for any of the war parties for I see that as being unethical and encouraging them in their aggressive foreign policy around the globe.  Does that make me as equally reprehensible as Choudary is to them?  I have to trot along to the polling station and put an ‘X’ against, ‘Re-open nominations’ or ‘None of above’ or ‘Abstain’.

Thoughts on the day of Mike Verduyn's funeral

19 Dec 2013

At Mike’s funeral, Tony read out from Ecclesiastes about a time for killing and a time for war.  This on the very day that the two converts to Islam were convicted of the killing of ‘Help for Heroes’ T-shirt wearing, Lee Rigby outside Woolwich Barracks.  They say they only killed a British soldier because of their killings of Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.

The week before saw the death of Nelson Mandela who was feted, applauded and celebrated.  Yet, he was a man of violence who had long renounced non-violence as being ineffective.  Yet, Gandhi and then Martin Luther King Jnr had shown the power of non-violence.  Both men got what they wanted.  Mandela did too but, only after spending 27 wasted years in prison.  He should have stuck to his earlier non-violence.

Mike had a rear car window sticker that said, ‘Respect for British armed forces’.  Respect them as heroes, as 450 making the ultimate sacrifice and, all the soldiers serving, so nobly their Queen and Country.

God is on OUR side. So there!

We always like to call Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, Castro, Mugabe, al Qaeda and the Taliban as mass murderers but, oh no, never ourselves.  We are always angels and have God on our side, so what we do is just fine!

Colonialism and subjugation, imperialism and domination of others, of strangers, of foreigners.  And, this carry on went on for centuries, all over the world; and was official government policy and was widely accepted as very proper, civilised behaviour.  Even accepted by the Church and virtually all individual Christians and who went in on the coat tails of the explorers, traders and the armed forces to make Christians of the heathen natives.  This behaviour of domination and empire building all too soon led to the pernicious and murderous slave trade - again, with the Church fully implicated in this crime against humanity.  Astonishing!

Corruption is the greater evil than killing Commies and Muslims

Dear all

What some sons of Abraham get up to!

For what its worth, this is how I see things, after reading Simon’s blog about the Central African Republic (CAR).

ONE VERSION:

What a horrendous time for the people of the CAR.  I cannot possibly understand how the situation developed to such a frightening scenario of sectarian violence.  All I do know that the killings by Muslims must not make us even more anti-Islam or prejudiced, in anyway against Muslims we might meet.  It certainly must not make us even more determined to get our own back or, to extend the War of Terrorism in Afghanistan beyond the end of 2014.

As regards political correctness, I think that being correct in every way is the only correct thing to be!  We could do with being religiously correct, too but then that means being loyal to the faith you were brought up in when we should be able to think things out for ourselves and to come to our own conclusions.

Being correct in every way means, I think, acknowledging that the Muslims have a better track record than the Christians when it comes to who does the least violence.

Being correct in every way means, I think, accepting that the Koran has no violence but the Bible has much.

Being correct means understanding that the Arab slave trade was much less extensive,  and brutal than the slave trade by the ‘Christian’ nations.

It seems to me that the Muslim countries look as though they are less avaricious, materialistic and less dominated by the ‘consume ever more’ mentality of the now very rich ‘Christian’ nations.

It is definitely the Western world, with those nation’s wars over their various empires, over the last two hundred years, at least, that has the worst record for man’s inhumanity to man.  The Western, ‘Christian’ world that includes America, is responsible for

• the killings of Africans that included Muslims during the vicious slave trade.
• decades of oppression and deaths of black people by the supposedly ‘Christian’ and advanced nations of the USA and South Africa.

• the persecution and killing of Jews,
• then, Communists in the countries of SE Asia as we fought for “our vital strategic interests”, capitalism and democracy against godless, evil Communism; and, now
• the latest horrors are perpetrated against Islam and the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.  Both direct and indirect killings in, so far, twelve years of the war of terrorism in leaving a wasteland, mayhem and intermittent civil war in Iraq.
• Yet, Bush and Blair sincerely believed they were doing what God wanted in launching the War of Terrorism.  Just like the two Muslims who killed the soldier outside his barracks in Woolwich in 2013.  Except Bush and Blair have much more blood on their hands than the two Muslims, of course.  Abraham and his God and Allah have much to answer for.
• for years the West has threatened to attack Iran for wanting nuclear weapons to balance or match Israel’s arsenal and so deter an attack from them.
• this year, the Western powers nearly attacked Syria as punishment for a chemical attack in July.  Putin saved the day.  And, what an excellent article of his in the ‘New York Times’, too!

Yet, we get into such a state of indignation over the very much lower killings in the countries of eastern Europe that came under Stalin’s control in the wake of his help in defeating Nazism.  We honestly think USSR communism killed “millions of millions” of their own (Daily Mail Dep Editor, Jon Staefel, ‘Newsnight’ 2013) but we conveniently forget our own millions whose premature deaths we are responsible for! However, since we kill blacks and foreigners, perhaps that does not matter.

Therefore, not man’s inhumanity to man but ‘Christian’, Western inhumanity to the Muslims of this century.  How very ironic, how very thoughtless and hypocritical of us, how very unkind of us, how very reprehensible of us!

ANOTHER VERSION:

1. I do suspect (but there is no way of proving this) that down through the centuries, the adherents of the three dominant and influential Abrahamic faiths have been more responsible for killing their own than all the other faiths put together.

2. Muslims in my former workplace (I have now retired) tend to view their home of Britain as being founded and still based on the Judeo/Christian view of the world eg for many centuries the practices of Parliament on the centrality of the Bible and Christian belief and, especially, in the Coronation ceremony of our once all powerful, unelected and dictatorial and, too often, very badly behaved monarchs.  In other words, since we label all Arabs as Muslims, some Muslims do like to label all people in the West as Christians.  That is understandable.

3. The latest upsurge of violence between two largest branches of Abraham's family started with what the 'Christian' West called a declaration of war on the USA - 9/11.  The 11 September 2001.  Indeed, that Bible believing Christian who was saved from alcoholism by the Lord, President GW Bush called his launch of the War of Terrorism, a crusade.  For Muslims, the word, 'crusade' has the horrifying connotations of the first named Christian crusades against the Muslims some centuries ago.

4. That far wiser man of God, Bishop Desmond Tutu, commented on 9/11 as being an act of terrorism and not an act of war.  The implication being that the White House administration of the time, rather than seeing the attack on the twin towers as an opportunity to launch their 'New American Century Project' of violence and domination in the Middle East, should have used the courts of law to bring Osama bin Laden and the other surviving plotters to justice under American law in the USA and not to lock suspects up for years in Guantanamo Bay outside American law, in a state of limbo.  Many seem to be suspects picked up on a whim, provided they were Muslims.  Some remain in Guantanamo Bay without evidence against them and without trial.  No wonder we have many Muslim insurgents or terrorists fighting our brave, upstanding, heroic soldiers.

5. Rather than keeping within the law, we have seen both the very military powerful Jewish state of Israel and its financial backer and supporter, the 'Christian' state of the USA, both indulging in extra judicial assassinations of their enemies who are classed by both democratic states as 'terrorists'.  Exactly the same name was used to describe Nelson Mandela who narrowly escaped hanging for his crime against the state of South Africa.

6. Using the term ‘terrorist’ does help them to assuage their consciences in circumventing the far lengthier but inconvenient route of going down the legal avenues of using American law on US territory.  Or, in the case of Israel, Israeli law.

7. What is worse, the men of violence in both the Knesset and in the White House feel quite unable to even abide by the resolutions and mandates of the United Nations.  The UN, like the law, is another inconvenience that both the Western states, with sometimes Russia and China, simply ignore when it suits them!

8. No wonder we have constant war and mayhem in some parts of Africa, along with Iraq and Afghanistan.  Iraq and Afghanistan that we have liberated to enjoy the rich blessings of Western democracy, religion, culture and schooling for girls.

9. In addition, all these men of violence, some the sons of Abraham in the prosperous 'Christian' West (and not so prosperous 'Christian' Africa) or the 'Muslim' Middle East and Africa, make the very weapons that fuel these never-ending wars.

10. The Bible has much violence in the Old Testament (see NOTE, below); the Koran has none.  I have read every single word (practically) more than once in the Bible and literally every word in the Koran, once.

11. The Bible even has rules for waging holy war (Deut 20 v 1-20); the Koran has none.  The Koran allows self-defence but not pre-emptive attacks of so called ‘self-defence’ as the Israelis have done many times since their state was founded.  Founded, too out of many acts of terrorism in 1946 and 1947 to force the hand of the authorities to give them, and only them, the land.  The most unholy Holy Land, ever.

12. The centuries of the most shocking violence indulged in by the supposedly Christian Western European nations - and the United States of Aggression with its offshoot, Israel - all, in this century, set a very bad example to the warring factions in the Central African Republic.  Or, is it just human nature the world over, regardless of religious belief?

The time is well overdue for us good Christian men and women, the righteous of the Lord, to actually begin living up to the, admittedly, extremely difficult teachings of Jesus Christ in the Gospels.  Or, if we cannot even attempt to do the non-aggression of being peacemakers instead of warmongers, how about abiding by UN mandates, international law or, just the law of our own lands?

​​

Or, if even that is beyond us, how about keeping to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights?  This time, only thirty paragraphs of sound, common decency for us to attempt!

NOTE

The Bible is a contrast of ‘Thou shalt not kill’, yet also ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth’, to genocide as God told Israel to wipe the inhabitants of the Promised Land off the face of the map. From that to a loving God and His people are to love neighbour and to love enemies.  Perhaps, all that explains why atheist, agnostic and devout Christian believers all take part in warfare, and look up to our soldiers as heroes, as making the ultimate sacrifice, as noble service and, who so respect our soldier heroes (as my father in law did).  Nearly all vote for the three main political parties who are this century’s war parties.  For it is they who order the years of aggression, invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, without any authorisation from the UN.

Pointing the finger but ...

… three are pointing back at ourselves!

The problem, as I see it, as that we always see ourselves as so virtuous, so very angelic, so very right. We always see ourselves as God’s gift to humanity, as our way of life as being so good and our political system so perfect it must be forced on the pagans in their darkness and unbelief.

Our culture, based for many centuries on the Bible and Judeo/Christian values must prevail throughout the world.  It alone is true and every other faith and way of doing things is plain false or, at least, less than the best.

And, then, when the Lord says go into all the world to make disciples of every nation, this gives us further reason to get every other tribe and nation to renounce/repent of their false faith and their incorrect way of doing things and to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ and democracy and education for girls.

Knowing this, it is hardly surprising that the Christians see Islam as another false faith and regard godless Communism as also evil - both to be defeated by a belief that the ends justify the means.  Therefore, as that born again believer, GW Bush said when President in 2001, in the wake of 9/11, the righteous West must conduct "a crusade" against the forces of darkness that is all things Muslim and Islamic.

First, it was thoroughly nasty Nazism that came out of a democratic and Christian nation; then Communism that came out of a totalitarian and oppressive loving nation; now, it is vicious Islam that speaks of violence and of killing as many unbelievers as they have time for (or, so we mistakenly think!).

Yet, what is our track record like when it comes to being ever onward Christian soldiers marching as to war and, far too often, actually to war?  Absolutely abysmal … !

Humanity is such a disgrace on the face of this poor planet that the sooner the ecocide madness we are indulging in is concluded the better!  The planet will go merrily on its way without the burden of 7 billion people all fighting each other for supremacy and domination of the other, for the remaining resources, water and fertile land.

Walsall - THE rail hub of the West Midlands

“Britain's railway is busier now than anytime since 1920.

Britain has the fastest growing railway in Europe.” (from Network Rail’s home website)

£50 bn is easily and quickly found for duplicating long distance, inter-city lines that work so well already.  The real capacity issue is in the seven hours of rush hour every day from Mon to Fri, made worse by our two class trains that have spare capacity in first class.  Rush hour congestion can be relieved by re-opening the 38 miles of existing unused and underused urban rail lines that have some miles alongside commuter congested roads.  These 38 miles of double track are the Camp Hill line, the Dudley line and the Sutton line.  Certainly, the Camp Hill line would make a big profit if a chord was built (a curved new section of line) to bring it into Moor St Sta instead of the over congested New Street.  The unused Dudley line has Merry Hill shopping centre, the Waterfront, Black Country World and Dudley Castle on or near it.  This is financially viable, too if properly promoted for these attractions and as a commuter route instead of car use.  Even if it makes a loss, a new regime of profitable lines subsidising the ecologically and socially responsible lines that may not be so financially profitable, must be brought in.  As long as this does not detract from marketing and strict controls on one to a car commuting when that car is not need for work purposes.

WALSALL HAS MANY LINES RADIATING FROM ITS CENTRE - from my OS Explorer map the main ones are: -

Walsall to B'ham - 2 lines - one, the Sutton line, is underused, for freight only, that goes via Aldridge in commuter land, then through Sutton Park; the other line to Birmingham takes trains to New St .

Walsall to Rugeley Trent Valley on the WCML (West Coast Main Line) has two tracks.  This line might be able to take future inter-city trains that bypass congested New St Sta via the Dudley line, below.  It would certainly be able to take London Midland trains from the newly opened Dudley line.

Walsall to Lichfield remains closed and is now used by NCR 5 at its southern end.

Walsall to Wolverhampton was re-opened for a short time and then closed, again for lack of passengers.  This is hardly surprising, so why was it ever attempted?  But, unfortunately, it may have led to a case of a once bitten, twice shy mentality as regards any future rail reopenings like the urgently needed Camp Hill and Dudley lines.  For me, all these mistakes and decades of delay indicate incompetence and negligence by our supposed transport ‘experts’.

Walsall to Dudley and Stourbridge Jct remains largely unused but is available for freight trains and, for the last thirty years, for Metro trams only.  Yet, trams have still not put in an appearance.  Astonishing!  Altogether, this important 13.5 miles double track rail line has remained a wasted asset for over forty years as road traffic congestion has worsened alongside it or, in its vicinity.  This is a scandal.  It is sheer stupidity as resource depletion, that also enhances the greenhouse effect, both take off big time.  Fifty billions for the unnecessary, extravagant, flash, High Prestige 2 rail line but not a fraction of that cost for a southern or Black Country extension of the Walsall to Rugeley commuter line and, possible inter-city line.  Nothing, too, for the commuter congestion busting Camp Hill line to go into Moor Street Sta instead of New Street.  This is truly scandalous.

My rail advisor has written,

" ... History is behind us and a train could run from Cheltenham or from Oxford through Worcester to Dudley and then to Walsall. From Walsall a train could continue to Rugeley and then up the main electrified route to Stafford and Crewe."

In addition:

“A visitor to the West Midlands really would like to have a local rail network and stations reopened in places such as Kings Heath, Moseley and Dudley.”

Tim Weller 0791 380 4363 timweller1@gmail.com 0121 550 9446

So different; yet, so very similar!

Our soldiers are heroes, nobly sacrificing their lives to become the glorious dead.   They fight for truth, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Their soldiers are terrorists.  They are war criminals and Muslim extremists.

For both sides, revenge is sweet.

Our side, as they see it, is from the decadent, permissive, anything goes, Christian West,

We see them as Muslim fanatics out to kill for the sake of killing, in the name of Allah.

We see our heroes as killing only reluctantly and with much distaste.

Our occupation of foreign lands, far from our shore, is in the best interests of the foreigners, for we know best.
We are the good guys; they are the evil monsters without a shred of conscience.

We have the Bible with its rules for waging holy war in Deuteronomy 20 v 1-20 that gives us the legitimacy to wage war to bring regime change, democracy, freedom and education for girls.

They have the Koran - goodness knows what that says, we think but, it must tell the Muslims to wage holy war against the wicked unbelievers and to kill as many as possible - us!

Our good Christian men and women see the Muslims and not them as the true unbelievers with their false faith.

The Jews and Christians have in their Scriptures, "Love God and love your neighbour", in that order. They don't even have 'love your enemies', as the real children of Abraham have in the Gospels.

"Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war ... "  Ours is a Christian crusade; something truly virtuous and is commendable killing, of course and, is allowed under commandment six: "Thou shalt not murder" - but you can kill when you think, your God, tells you to kill.