Qu’ran quotation

In the week that yet another Islamist is arrested for trying to bomb an airliner, let’s have a look at why on earth someone would do such a thing.

“Poverty breeds resentment breeds violence.”

- Western liberals

Hardly. Full justification may be found, as usual, in the guidebook of the religion of peace:

“We shall cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve because they ascribe unto Allah partners, for which no warrant hath been revealed. Their habitation is the Fire, and hapless the abode of the wrong-doers.”

- The Family 3:151

David Gray: Alibi

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So much for songs which make light of rehab.

Keeping fit

It’s tempting to think that most people who play sports are not as bright as the rest of us. I say “the rest of us”, but they are probably in a majority. The temptation arises because sport has a lot in common with religion. It also arises because no physical activity requires the same intellectual ability as, say, the study of molecular biology or quantum physics. Those who are attracted to such physical activity at school are often the baser, less refined, types, who are accepting of the “sport as religion” mentality, who like cliques, are inclined towards bullying, and towards sport because, quite frankly, it is the only thing they can do: they are not as inclined towards intellectual pursuits.

Once these types begin to dominate the playing field or the gym, a vicious circle of a kind begins to develop and more cerebral individuals become disinclined to partake in these activities. They would rather stay out of the way.

In the case of competitive sports, I see this as no bad thing. I don’t like competition between people particularly, but rather competition against ideals and against oneself and one’s own best performance. But in the case of general physical fitness it is not a good thing, because physical fitness is important for two reasons:

1. Health
2. Aesthetic appeal

1) is obviously more important than 2), but 2) is certainly nice to have and undeniably has value, whether we like it or not.

In my case, I was early in my life disinclined to participate in any sports or even fitness, partly because of the reasons outlined above and also because of ill health. But now I’m catching up. It is not fair that the intellectually challenged should have a dominion on fitness. It’s worth checking all boxes. Outside of a school environment there are no cliques, you don’t know anyone in a gym apart from those who you want to know. If people misbehave they are disciplined. It’s a different ball game.

There’s a satisfying feeling of “claiming back” what should have been mine, were the environment not polluted by the less intelligent. But this brings me on to my second point: exceptions to the rule.

There are exceptions to most rules (note the “most” – there are exceptions to this one too). Two famous stars spring to mind as having been in peak physical fitness and as being of obvious high intelligence too:

• Dolph Lundgren
• Arnold Schwarzenegger

Dolph Lundgren, made famous by his role as a towering muscleman in the film Rocky IV, has a Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering, studied at MIT and speaks more than five languages.

Schwarzenegger is to a large degree an example in how to live one’s life. He is a man who has systematically set himself difficult goals throughout his life and proceeded to meet them all, Terminator style, ending up with the Governorship of California.

One little-known fact is that Schwarzenegger was a self-made millionaire through business before he even began his acting career. This, at the same time as winning Mr Olympia seven times, until he simply became bored of winning it.

An ex-girlfriend said of Schwarzenegger:

“He’s as much a self-made man as it’s possible to be – he never got encouragement from his parents, his family, his brother. He just had this huge determination to prove himself.”

This is reflected in his politics. Coming from a poor village near Graz in Austria, Schwarzenegger knew from an early age that he wanted to go to America, the “land of opportunity” and saw values he respected in Republicanism. This view, incidentally, is shared by few other actors, who are famously (or notoriously!) liberal-minded. While he was somewhat arrogant in his youth, one has to respect such a self-made man. At least, I do.

What is good, of course, about people like Schwarzenegger and Lundgren is that they are rounded. Arguably extreme bodybuilders like Schwarzenegger take things too far, but at least he did not entirely neglect other areas of his life. Becoming a millionaire by the age of 30, while training as hard as he did, is not an easy thing, and he has proved further intellectual ability by serving as a politician (it’s easy to be cynical, but that is no mean feat either).

The lesson then – one both Aristotle and Seneca taught – is to be rounded and not entirely neglect the physical or the intellectual. Indeed, Thomas Jefferson too advised:

“Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning.”

“Jocks” are stupid and coarse, but “nerds” or “geeks”, though preferable, also have failings in that they often take little care over their health or appearance, and sometimes even embrace or celebrate their pariah status and their under-achievement in the physical and aesthetic realms, as if this were some kind of achievement in itself.

If the less intellectual of society did not tend to dominate physical activity early in life, the task of achieving the required balance would be made both more attractive and more enjoyable  for the more intellectual. But it is never too late to catch up, beat these people at their own game and then have two boxes checked: the intellectual and the physical… while they can only ever have one.

Nice quotation

“Religion flourishes where ignorance abounds.”

- Graham Davis, Cambridge Secular Society

This is undoubtedly true, confirmed by empirical evidence. The most primitive societies are always devoutly religious. Graham goes on to say:

“It remains the cause of conflict and terrorism, in Palestine, Iraq, Pakistan, India and elsewhere. It is implicated in many scandals and atrocities including the sexual abuse of children and the execution of apostates – yet still we are urged to accept its moral authority.”

Gym Sheet

Since November I have been visiting a gym here in London three times a week for the spinning class, and I’ve begun weight lifting. I have various reflections to make on these topics so will open a category here called “fitness“, but for now I just want to offer my Gym Sheet for public download.

This is a sheet which can be used to monitor which machines you use, how many sets you perform and how many repetitions per set. If you’re going to the gym more than three times a week, as I am, you don’t need to take this sheet every time, but you might want to take it along and complete it once per week. Take the previous week’s sheet too, so you have something to compare against each time.

The Gym Sheet is at version 2.2 and in PDF format (requiring the free Adobe Acrobat Reader). It’s optimised for colour printing on A4 paper, with room for holes so you can gather sheets in a binder and monitor your progress.

If you find this sheet useful do let me know. I will post updates as I amend it.

Gym Sheet (PDF, 65.27 KB) — Downloaded 29 times

Thought for the Day Wikipedia article

The Wikipedia is democratic, democracy essentially means majority rule, and since majorities are not always right, the Wikipedia is not always right. The Wikipedia is not always edited by experts, but by those with opinions, who just want to edit it. The peer review of other unqualified people, or people who are not reasoning properly, who share common ulterior motives or biases, is no real peer review at all. So the Wikipedia is open to error, as also noted by this article, which discusses political correctness in the Wikipedia regarding racial issues.

I first came up against the problems described above when I edited the Wikipedia’s article on prayer. You can view the discussion page.

When I looked at the Wikipedia’s article on Thought for the Day, I found not much had been written, so in an attempt to ensure that truth prevails, I have contributed several hundred words to the Criticism section. I have tried to report recent events fairly, and if the BBC look silly, that is their own fault. Take a look soon, because as soon as a religious person sees this entry it may be “edited” out of existence – especially if they are joined by like-minded (faith minded) people.

BNP another step closer to election

That’s the way it’s going to go while we keep seeing appalling, almost unbelievable, stories like this. Political correctness and ludicrous laws from the EU have us living an Alice in Wonderland existence in the UK now. We’re neutered, helpless, hopeless.

Ironically, it would not surprise me if it is now more dangerous for this individual to be anywhere in the UK rather than in Iraq, where he should be…

Article on political correctness

There is an interesting article on the dangers of political correctness to be found at The Gates of Vienna site, including an excellent quotation from Theodore Dalrymple and this insightful line:

“Much of the political Left is simply engaged in outing their opponents as evil, instead of rationally arguing against their ideas.”

Letter to Sadiq Khan MP

“Dear Mr Khan,

Thank you for your letter, a circular, received yesterday.

I was surprised to receive it, however, and to see you inviting comment from me, when I have still not received any reply to the letter I sent you on 14^th August.

Here is a link to that letter and the report I enclosed: http://tinyurl.com/prestunning

I hope you will take the time to explain your position on this matter, as requested in the letter. I realise that as a Muslim this may be difficult, but we should all surely answer to scientific findings, and you to your constituents. Public interest in this issue is certainly picking up (as is evidenced by this Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11046310427).

Many thanks.

Best regards,

Gavin Orland”

Eudaimonia: Political Correctness is Killing Us All

This time last year I made a song capturing the zeitgeist of political correctness in the UK. Here it is.

What the Qur’an says

“Lo! those who disbelieve in Allah and His messengers, and seek to make distinction between Allah and His messengers, and say: We believe in some and disbelieve in others, and seek to choose a way in between;

For disbelievers We prepare a shameful doom. You must believe everything Allah and his messengers tell you. Those who don’t are disbelievers and will face a shameful doom.

Such are disbelievers in truth; and for disbelievers We prepare a shameful doom.”

- Qur’an 4:150-151

Halal meat used “as standard” by mainstream caterer

I bring you today a real life case of dhimmitude at the highest levels:

De Vere is a hospitality company which has the current contract to provide catering and accommodation for the National School of Government in the UK, among other large clients.

The National School of Government is a government department whose aim is to help people and organisations operating in the whole of the public service system. They provide courses and advice for civil servants. More than 30,000 customers pass through their doors each year and they have a think-tank of 50 top academics, called the Sunningdale Institute. This is the kind of place, then, that should be listening to scientific research and should be firmly against slaughter without pre-stunning.

I have received information, further to my report, that De Vere uses halal meat “as standard” for all customers, so as not to offend Muslims. All of their customers have to eat halal meat, whether they like it or not (unless they’re vegetarians, of course). This doesn’t usually cause any problem for De Vere, because they never officially announced the policy and until recently staff had no idea they were eating meat of animals that had had their throats slit and been bled to death while fully conscious.

Recently, however, the truth came to light and the staff were understandably very angry about the situation. So presumably the management apologised? Not in the UK. I have been told that they treated the objection as a non-issue and stated that:

“Information should not be provided to students to inform them in advance of the status of the meat in the canteen.”

I am told that De Vere claim that provision of  exclusively halal meat is now standard practice in the catering industry in the UK – it’s just that no-one knows about it. I expect they are right about this. Since the government are such utter dhimmis it is hardly surprising this disgraceful practice is first coming to light in the public sector (albeit via a PFI) but it is thought by the FAWC that much halal meat finds its way into “alternative markets” (that’s us). The calculation has clearly been made that:

1. It’s less costly to just get one kind of meat from one provider.
2. While people who care about humane slaughter might get a bit annoyed, we don’t have to tell them.
3. Muslims/Jews who only have the option of eating non-halal meat are likely to get far more annoyed. They might even take us to court for “discrimination”.

So never mind doing the right thing, then. Do what will make the most money and cause the least fuss. Well there’s one factor in there they haven’t counted on, and that is that when people do care about humane slaughter do get to hear about this, they’re going to be extremely angry, and they’re not going to stand for it. They’re going to write articles like this one, they’re going to expose companies like De Vere and they are, hopefully, going to boycott them.

It is worth asking whether the meat you are eating is halal or not. If it is halal and that is the only option, you should object. Believe it or not there is no legal obligation for halal or kosher meat to be labelled as such. We don’t have the legal right to know. So write to your MP to object about this too.

It is getting to the point whereby people who object to things like this are risking their jobs, and even their lives, in the UK. This is totally unacceptable. It needs stamping out right now. Assert your values now, while they are still the majority view. In other words, while you still can.

Inteligence Squared Debate

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Containing the great line, at about 58 mins through:

“For too long religion has taken the moral high ground.”

- Richard Harries, Gresham Professor of Divinity