Owner: A Templar Knight - The Quest URL:http://templar.osmthu.org.uk/blog Join Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2006 17:34:20 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: The daily thoughts of a modern day Templar Knight. Read my thoughts on religion, politics, science, philosophy and social issues. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, always thought provoking. Site statistics:Click here
Big Brother 2006-10-29 16:35:09 Police chiefs in the UK are urging
the government to criminalise the burning of flags in an attempt to crack down
on what it calls extremist behaviour. The request comes on the heels of a
recent spate of burnings by Muslims protesting at the UK's involvement in the Iraq war. The
proposals go further by asking that it also be considered an offence for a
protestor to cover their face and therefore avoid police scrutiny. Is this yet
another attempt to suppress the Muslim faith or a real concern that this type of
extremist behaviour incites violence?
The thing that may surprise some of you is that these proposals were put
forward by Britain's
most senior Muslim police chief, Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur. Mr
Ghaffur stated in a recent radio broadcast that he felt Britain was being
viewed at home and abroad as 'soft' on extremist protests. While this country
has always been admired for its tolerance, he felt that this kind of 'leniency'
eroded people's belief in such tolera Read more:Brother
, Big Brother
You're a Bum! 2006-10-28 14:36:16 I was walking down the high street of my local
town looking in the windows of the shops at all of the Hallowe'en paraphernalia
and trying to decide what costume to buy for my grandson. At the same time I
was also thinking about how Christmas wasn't far away and how expensive it
would be again this year when I was confronted by the pathetic sight of a bum
begging for loose change. He was unshaven, most of his teeth were missing, his
clothes were ragged and he had a distinctly 'musty' smell. In front of him lay
his coat on top of which lay a few copper coins and he was making a ridiculous
sound with a penny whistle which could not be described as playing even in the
most extreme jazz circles.
I have to admit that although I never pass somebody like this without giving
them something; my reactions aren't always very Christian. Usually, I will toss
some coins into their receptacle and walk on without making eye contact,
however, today for some reason I decided to stop.
I wasn't sur
$250,000 Spent Restoring Brothel 2006-10-27 19:36:51 It would seem that as a species we are obsessed with sex. So much so that a 1/4 of a million dollars was spent recently restoring a 2000 year old Brothel.The brothel in question was once one of the most lavish buildings in the town of Pompeii, Italy. As I am sure you are aware the town was destroyed in AD 79 when Mount Vesuvius, near Naples erupted killing most of the inhabitants. Previous excavations and restorations have uncovered how the Roman's of that time lived and this new restoration adds a little spice to the picture. One of the main attractions of the new site are the frescos or Lupanare that have been painstakingly restored. These frescos were hung above the doorway of each room and depict various sex acts. It has been suggested that they advertise the prostitute's speciality...a bit like our thumbnail might depict what our blog is about. Having read all of this today I couldn't help but think what it would have been like if Blog Explosion were around in those days and ho
Your Most Embarrassing Moment? 2006-10-27 01:17:17
When considering what to write on this subject I find myself
with a wealth of material much to my shame. It isn't that I am accident prone
or that I am particularly stupid, however, I do find myself turning a bright
shade of scarlet on a regular basis. If someone can say or do something at
the wrong time you can bet that person will be me.
For example, there was the time I had a 'wind' problem in a yoga class. I must
have eaten some complex carbohydrates prior to the lesson and although the
instructor was very kind and assured me continually that it was perfectly
natural and that it happened all the time, after the 5th 'accident' echoed off
the walls I picked up my mat and walked out to the accompaniment of sniggers.
However, this incident pales into comparison when compared to my 'most'
embarrassing moment. Every year in Wales, in August, there is a
national festival for the arts. As a reasonably well known Welsh poet I am
invited each year to take part in a televised cere Read more:Embarrassing
, Moment
Hooters At Halloween 2006-10-30 00:00:36 I must say that as a Brit I sometimes have difficulty understanding my American cousins. I don't mean that I have trouble understaning their dialect, I mean their attitudes.For example, I was surfing merrily through blogs earlier when I came across a very concerned post. The post was a plea for help to the readers of the blog as this 'American Mom' didn't know what to do. Apparently there was going to be a family Halloween
party and somebody's son of 14 had invited his girlfriend of 16 to the party. Much to the constination of the lady in question the girlfriend had made it known that she was going to attend the party in a Hooters
costume and the poster didn't know how to deal with the dilema.In all I think there were 49 replies to this post and the comments ranged from...innapropriate...tell her Mom...to...tell her she is a whore and is not welcome. People...people...come on...why the aggression?...So what if the young girl wants to come dressed as an owl!
Pumpkin Templates 2006-10-30 14:24:32 I've decided to carve a pumpkin for my grandson this year....which do you think would be the best template to use? Before choosing please remember that Michaelangelo, I am not and that I will probably carve more out of my fingers than the pumpkin...thanks.If you want to visit a great site which gives a basic tutorial on how to create your own templates then go here. Read more:Pumpkin
, Templates
Habeas Corpus 2006-10-31 15:19:51 We
pride ourselves that we live in a "free' nation, a democratic nation. However,
what we believe to be democracy is the greatest lie of all.
Every
4 years, we in the UK
elect a representative to speak on our behalf in our parliament. This
parliament votes on issues that concern us, creates new laws to protect us and
effectively acts to serve us, the general public. What a load of bollocks!
The
party with the majority of elected representatives forms the government. This
government creates new legislation and seeks to have it passed before
parliament. If, however, the government holds a majority of the seats compared
to all the other parties this legislation is invariably passed without any real
opposition and becomes part of our life.
In
recent times the party that has gone on to form the government in my country did
not gain over 50% of the nations vote. In fact if you take the last general
election in the UK
only 35% of those who voted, voted for a "Labour' govern Read more:Habeas
, Corpus
, Habeas Corpus
Hallowe'en Picture 2006-10-31 22:21:00 After the seriousness of the last blog I thought I might try and lighten the tone by sharing a picture of the pumpkin I carved this hallowe'en.Not bad for a first attempt huh.... Read more:Picture
Abbey Mortgage Madness 2006-11-02 00:57:00
One of Britain's
largest mortgage lenders, 'The Abbey
', announced today that they will lend up
to 5 times your salary if you want to buy a house.
This seems a little stupid to me on the heels of a recent economic report that
stated that Britons were more in debt than any other European nation. As
Britons we have amassed an amazing $44000 of personal debt for every single
man, woman and child. As a nation we owe a total of £827 billion on mortgages,
£55 billion on credit cards and £122 billion is unsecured debt, such as
personal loans and overdrafts which totals more than £1 trillion ($2.6
trillion). The amount of personal debt is now greater than the country's annual
income and is rising by £1 million every four minutes.
The Citizen's Advice Bureau, a charity set up to give people free legal
advice said it had seen a 44 per cent increase in the number of people seeking
help for debt problems in six years. The National Consumer Council said about 6
million families were Read more:Mortgage
, Madness
Crow's Feet, Golf and IBM 2006-11-04 00:50:00 The word senescence is derived from the Latin word senex, meaning "old man" or "old age" and it sucks. The word itself doesn't 'suck', in fact I like the sound of the word, senescence...but the process of growing old does. I asked once, "Why do we grow old?" and was given a great analogy by my biology teacher who compared growing old to a photocopier. I am sure you are all aware that we are made up of billions of cells and systematically these cells reproduce themselves by a process known as mitosis. The cell effectively splits in two creating an identical copy of itself. The new cell then carries on the work of the original while the old cell dies. How does this relate to growing old and photocopiers I hear you all ask? Well, photocopiers work in a similar fashion. They scan the original document and create an identical copy. However, if you look carefully at the facsimilie you should see that there are tiny blemishes. Perhaps only one blemish will appear initially, a tiny dot mayb Read more:IBM
Sidebar Story 2006-11-04 21:14:00 I've noticed that a couple of bloggers have written a short creative story using the links they have to the blogs they read in their sidebar and thought I would give it a go. Being five years old is no picnic believe me. What with having to hold Mommy's hand every time I cross the road; take a bath and wash behind my ears every single day and having a whole host of monsters hiding beneath my bed at night: life is tough. On top of all of that I am faced with difficult decisions every single minute of the day. Do I go to the toilet now because my tummy hurts or should I carry on playing in the sand and hope that nobody notices the sand encrusted damp patch which looks like the state of Texas which will ensue? Do I eat all the chocolate cookies that Mom has left so carelessly within my reach or do I only eat only one as I need to be aware of my cholesterol levels? When my friends have been faced with similar situations I have personally recommended eating them all as you know you will g Read more:Sidebar
Modern Humanist 2006-11-05 02:00:00 I've been a little lax in introducing my new tenant this week and for that I can only apologise.To quote the site, "The ModernHumanist
is an Online Journal for Modern Humanism, Humanist Philosophy & Lifeblog". Some might question why I would advertise a blog which is at first glance promoting a philosophy of life that is directly opposed to mine. Humanist's deplores efforts to seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, and to look outside nature for salvation. In other words, they don't believe in God whereas I do. The answer to this is simple...anyone can be wrong Seriously though, you should read this blog...take your time sifting through the many posts as they are incredibly well written and researched. This isn't your typical lighthearted, pithy blog that seems to inundate the web but a serious attempt to portray a way of thinking and I can respect that even if I disagree with it.
Sexual Equality? 2006-11-05 22:42:49 My conundrum is this: Is it possible for men and women to
ever be treated equally and should we even try?
A good friend of our family was complaining the other day about how unfair the
world is towards women. She found out that a man she works alongside, who does
an identical job to her, was being paid more than she was. When she confronted
her bosses their reply to her was because the man took less time off work than
she did. This statement was indeed true to some extent as whenever her children
were ill, the school called her to come and collect them. Being a salaried
employee she claimed that this was discriminatory as it wasn't her fault that
her children's school called her when they were ill, whereas the male
employee's school didn't call him when his children were ill. Is it
discriminatory or are the employers valid for paying her less considering she
works fewer hours?
I believe the argument about the schools is void as the male employee has no
control either...it is just Read more:Sexual
, Equality
Judging A Book By Its Cover 2006-11-06 20:12:21 Take a look at the cover of the book 'Thunderstruck' by Erik Larson. For those of you who have not read this book I recommend it, however, that is not what this post is about. What first impressions do you get from the cover? We see a ship, we see lightning and perhaps this is a novel about a shipwreck? Not so at all. It is actually about the race to perfect radio technology and how it was used for the first time to catch the infamous British murderer, Dr. Crippen.We've all heard of the saying, "To judge a
book by its cover." Basically, it refers to making a snap judgement about
somebody from their appearance or from an initial conversation. Perhaps the
person is adorned in tattoos, perhaps they are overweight or perhaps they have
a different religion to one self.
We usually associate the above saying with viewing somebody negatively to begin
with because of our prejudices. Perhaps you associate tattoos with violence, obesity
with laziness and religion with closed-mindedness. Becau Read more:Judging
, Cover
Apparently I'm A Racist 2006-11-07 22:17:00 I must admit that it came as a heck of a shock to me to find
out that I am a racist. Let me qualify that by stating that I never considered
myself to be racist, however, according to some I am. I'm sure by now that you
want to know how this all came about...let me explain.
I live in an area of the UK
where the majority of people speak Welsh as a first language. To begin with I
am sure that a number of you will shocked by that statement...natives of the UK speak a
language which isn't English? Well, to be honest, not only do we speak Welsh
every day, we actually think in Welsh too! Contrary to popular belief we do not speak English to each other and change to speaking Welsh when an English person approaches. Be sensible here...when have you been to any other country where people talk to each other in their second language only to change to their mother tongue just to be rude?
A couple of weeks ago there was an article in an English language local
newspaper about a car parking atten Read more:Racist
Willis Haviland Carrier and Terrorism 2006-11-08 19:20:28 If you want to know what is causing the
purported decay of modern society, increased street crime and heck, why not,
the increase in fundamentalist terrorism, look no further than the humble
air-conditioner.
Let me take you back in time to an age without air conditioning...what's
that?...one hundred years with regards to the U.S.A thanks to Willis
Haviland
Carrier, the Cornell University graduate in Engineering from Brooklyn and... Last
year in the UK
thanks to Curry's (hey what can I say we take time adjusting to new things).
Back then, as the days grew shorter and colder within autumn's gnarly grip,
families had no option but to all sit together in one room. Each family member
jostled within the pecking order for the closest position to the fire and that
is where they would remain until the thaw. To wander off to another room as
children do today, was unheard of and required certain arctic survival skills.
People think that the mortality rate among children of that era was so Read more:Terrorism
Is The Fame Worth It? 2006-11-09 20:15:00 I have often wondered what it must be like to be really
famous. I don't mean the local fame you might receive from little old ladies
for rescuing 'Tiddles', Mrs. Icoughfurballs' cat from a tree or even the
slight notoriety I have received on occasion from other Welsh speakers in my
small country. I mean, real fame; the kind that Madonna or Britney Spears might
'enjoy'.The initial attraction of being recognised and having people come up to you in
the street and tell you how much they admire your work is of course an ego
boost. We all seek recognition or praise for the things we do in some form or
other and being 'known' obviously feeds that desire. Can you really tire of
sycophantic fans coming up to you and telling you how much of a genius you are?
I doubt it.
There is also the attraction of wealth and privilege that invariably
accompanies being famous. All of a sudden restaurants, theatres and sports
arenas miraculously have spaces which were strangely unavailable before they Read more:Worth
is there a doctor in the house? 2008-01-06 13:47:04 Record numbers of British junior doctors this year are facing unemployment after a recent high court hearing where they now have to compete for jobs on equal terms with foreign medics. Last year an average of two junior doctors were chasing each individual available post in the NHS, this year it is more likely to be three. this means that thousands of British medics are going to be forced to work abroad, without this further training they cannot become fully qualified.....so they cannot even become that most basic and sneered at of doctors, the humble GP. Last year the number of training posts in the UK was cut from 15,000 to 9,000 and now this new ruling means that the 16,000 international trainee doctors that would normally go home to complete their studies, are also now compe
santa in pre-christmas diet shocker!!!!! 2007-11-11 15:44:26 Santa has been told to loose weight in a pre christmas diet
shocker
....the obese saint has been told he is setting a bad example to
children...by 2050, 50% of brits, it is estimated will be obese. So
blue water shopping centre has set up a santa boot camp, where the same
loveable, jolly man will now be fitter and healthier, Santa- the lean,
mean fighting machine!Delivering
presents all over the world on christmas night means santa shifts about
600 calories an hour ( that is the equivalent to me doing 3 hours on a
treadmill or swimming for 2 hours....owwww)although it seams
that santa has a similar problem to the rest of us...its not the
excersize....its the mince pies..If he ate every mince pie left by
children he would gain an incredible 721,000 lbs. That makes the eyes
water...not to men
friday the 13th.........oooohhhh.......eck! 2007-10-06 03:19:54 A significant day approaches next week for templars worldwide, the 700th anniversary of the day over 4000 templars were arrested, tried and executed......Friday 13th 1307. As a child I was always under the impression that Friday the 13th was considered unlucky because of this very event.....yet it appears that only in the 20th century that the two terms have united. This day leaves some people so paralysed with fear that they will not even get out of bed. It is thought that some $900 million is lost world wide with people refusing/ postponing carrying out business transactions and failing to do what they usually do. triskadekaphobia ( the fear of Friday the 13th) is more common in people who generally consider themselves to be unlucky and as fear raises anxiety levels, consequent
who'd be a nun........ 2007-10-03 15:36:26 I had this joke sent to me recently and as it raised a chuckle from me I thought i would share it with you.........by the way....if I ever found myself in this scenario, this is the kind of thing that would happen to me........along with hiring the worlds most ineffective hitman, siting on gum, getting bitten by the dog.....you get the picture.....Three Italian nuns die and go to heaven. At the Pearly Gates, they are met by St. Peter. He says,"Sisters, you all
led such exemplary lives that the Lord is granting you six months to go back to earth and be anyone you wish to be.The first nun says, "I want to be Sophia Loren;"
And *poof* she's gone.The second says, "I want to be Madonna and *poof* she's gone.
The third says, "I want to be Sara Pipalini.."St. Peter looks per
the uncommon cold..... 2007-09-19 14:52:12 Does anybody have a cure for the common cold?......You would think with all the advances in science and medicine over recent years someone would have stumbled on something that fought that tricky little retrovirus that causes all that snot and mucus......School is back in these parts after the holidays and my household is now suffering from its traditional september cold..since time immemorial, september has always seen me with a snotty nose and now my offspring seems to be continuing the trend, as the most recent encounter is a gift from her and her classmates.The "spud monster" with the indomitable spirit known to most 6 year olds doesn't let it get in her way...for that matter she doesn't let the use of a tissue get in her way either.......she can only be approached with all the c Read more:uncommon
Recommend Site To A Friend
