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If you arrived here directly, then don't miss Holford Web Home of David's Mental Meanderings If you just want to find out who this strange bloke is, you'll need to go there as well. Your feedback about anything you read here is always welcome. Other blogs I enjoy reading: Doxos St. Stephen's Musings Robert's Cogitations This is Life Paradosis Natalie Solent Mere Comments Little Geneva Antioch Road The Edge of England's Sword flyingchair.net Samizdata Joshua Claybourn Between Heaven and Hell PC Watch Notes From a Hillside Farm Simeon's Hit and Miss of Filosofical Thought George Grant Lileks a conservative blog for peace You can also find me listed at Blogs4God Currently down from the bookshelf: Celtic Christianity in Early Medieval Wales: The Origins of the Welsh Spiritual Tradition by Oliver Davies Women in Purple: Rulers of Medieval Byzantium by Judith Herrin Recently finished: Give Me My Father's Body: The Life of Minik, The New York Eskimo by Kenn Harper John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, A Private Life by Paul C. Nagel Lancaster & York: The Wars of the Roses by Alison Weir Most recent acquisitions: John Major: The Autobiography Retreat from New Jerusalem: British Politics 1951-64 by Kevin Jefferys 
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Saturday, April 05, 2003
Situated about 20 miles from Hereford is the market town of Monmouth. It�s greatest claim to fame is not that my mother-in-law lives there, though this is why we visit there from time to time. It was in Monmouth Castle in 1387 that the daughter of the Earl of Hereford gave birth to her second child. He was christened Henry. Henry of Monmouth�s father was also named Henry. He was called Henry of Bolingbroke, after the castle where he was born. Henry of Bolingbroke was the son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. The younger Henry probably would have lived the life of a 15th century magnate, had Bolingbroke not seized the throne of England as Henry IV. Though a usurper, Henry IV was able to consolidate his power and pass the throne to Henry V. As a result several streets in Monmouth have been named Agincourt. In today�s political climate, Henry V should be a hero of those who support the current war effort in Iraq. This is because Henry V made a habit of kicking the collective French posterior. He didn�t go around saving the French from this invasion and that. So today I made pilgrimage to Monmouth Castle, the birthplace of Henry V, scourge of the French. The latest London protest against the present hostilities drew a crowd of about 1000. This is quite a drop from 750,000 the first time and 200,000 the second. Instead of filling the streets of the capital from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square, they marched on the US Embassy. Something tells me the Ambassador didn�t even look out the window. Now I could be mistaken, but I don�t think the protesters were there because of the hundreds of human remains found by British soldiers in southern Iraq. They all appeared to have been shot in the back of the head, most of them with signs of torture left on their teeth and bones. No, I don�t they were protesting against Saddam�s killing fields. And on a completely unrelated note� Local council workers in Edinburgh boarded up a flat after they failed to spot the body of the tenant they were sent to evict, it emerged. The tenant laid dead in his bed for nearly a fortnight after council staff sealed up his home in Scotland�s capital. I will have a lot more to say about local councils in the near future. Friday, April 04, 2003
Thursday, April 03, 2003
Today I reached the pinnacle of my two-year stint with the Open Directory Project, popularly known as DMOZ. I was promoted to Meta Editor, the highest level of privileges. This came as quite a surprise. Meta editors are in essence the management committee of the Directory, responsible for the overall direction of the Project. For those of you who do not know, the Open Directory is the largest free-source directory of the Internet. Originally developed independently, it was bought by Netscape, which is now owned by AOL/Time-Warner. It is edited entirely by volunteers and is completely non-commercial. You cannot pay to get a listing. Many commercial directories and search engines, including the all-important Google, use it as a primary source of data. If you have a bit of free time and you would like to make a tangible impact on the usability of the Internet, consider applying to become an editor. Today my dad reached his 71st birthday. As a present, we sent him the Stephen Ambrose book, Band of Brothers. We knew he would enjoy it, because we got him the DVDs of the series and he watches them over and over. On the telephone we told him about his other present, but more on that at a later date. Now a bit of a follow up on yesterdays Meandering� I mentioned that I didn�t understand the idiom of the French insult �Rosbeefs [Roast beefs] go home.� This morning, Mrs Holford explained that the French call the English �Roast beefs� because the English call the French �Frog legs,� usually shortened to �Frogs�. In reply to an insult about eating frog legs, the best the French can do is suggest that there is something unnatural about eating roast beef? The French eat lots of roast beef themselves! All of this time, I�ve thought the French were called Frogs because they are slimey and jump at the first sign of danger. Wednesday, April 02, 2003
I've had plenty to say today. Go and read my latest Meandering. Receive the Mental Meanderings in your mailbox free. Tuesday, April 01, 2003
The Peter Arnett furore has gone fairly unnoticed over here. I saw some sort of brief mention on a new programme, but that was it. From what I�ve heard out of the States, there are those who want Peter Arnett tried for treason, for giving aid and comfort to the enemy. I�m not sure if this is because he gave the interview to Iraqi television, or because he�s now writing for the Daily Mirror. The latter, is after all, much more anti-American. All of the other newspapers have gotten behind the war effort, even if they were opposed to it before the outbreak of hostilities. The Mirror, like Robin Cook, continues to be as negative as possible, looking for ways to undermine public support. But honestly, I don�t think there is honestly a chance of prosecution. I�ve been going on about the problems with this war in international law. For all the fighting, a state of war does not exist between the United States of America and the Republic of Iraq. There is actually not an enemy, even if it would be difficult to explain this to troops in the line of fire. The United States is involved in an armed conflict pursuant to a United Nations resolution, even if the United Nations doesn�t support the US prosecution of the war. If the US and UK governments believe that Saddam is an actual threat to our countries, which is one of the reasons given by both W and Tony, then they should have the courtesy to draw up a formal declaration. This is one of the hazards of fighting politically correct, propaganda-based wars. And before I go, I should mention that veteran blogger Natalie Solent (one of the blogs I check daily) quoted from one of my Meanderings today and gave me a nice plug. Cheers, Natalie! Monday, March 31, 2003
Finishing the War in Iraq � Reason #521 I�ve said it before and I�ll say it again: now that we�ve started Gulf War II, we have to fight to win. Apparently the latest count of civilian deaths by the Iraqi regime stands at around 370. As my friend Fr Pat Reardon observed, �Even if this figure is not exaggerated, it is still the safest war in history in which to be a civilian.� I would never suggest that any civilian deaths are good. I would never suggest that any deaths are good, except for those who die in Christ. But given that there are no such things as �what ifs,� we have to live in the world as it is. If the Coalition does not achieve its objectives, there will be a lot more than 370 civilian deaths. There will be a lot more than 3700 civilian deaths, and they will be on the orders of Saddam Hussein. This is not idle conjecture. We have history to prove it. When George H.W. Bush prosecuted Gulf War I, his administration encouraged uprising among the Shiites and other disaffected groups. These groups rebelled, knowing that surely the Americans and their junior partners were going to back them up and Saddam would be gone. Rather than backing them up, HW backed out. As a result thousands were murdered. When people say W is just taking after his father by fighting with Saddam, I hope they are right. I hope he is trying to wash off some of the blood that is on HW�s hands and avenging the blood on Saddam�s head and the heads of those who have served him at the same time. As the mini-revolt erupted in Basra, Tony Blair public encouraged the uprising, saying �We won�t let you down this time.� Tony hasn�t kept any promise on domestic policy yet. I pray that he keeps this commitment. If this foreign policy ends up like his transport, health, agricultural, immigration, or crime policies, the Iraqis are screwed. Now that the Coalition has put its hand to the plough, there is no time for looking back. It seems trite, but as the US calls in reinforcements and ponders the unexpected resistance to the invasion, the words of Jesus in Luke 14 keep resonating in my head, �For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, �This man began to build and was not able to finish.� Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?" Sunday, March 30, 2003
Those outside the UK may not know that today is Mother�s Day on this side of the Atlantic. It is observed here on the Third Sunday of (Western) Lent. It is Mrs Holford�s second Mother�s Day. Aidie doesn�t realise it, but he gave his mother a pot of three hyacinths. She chose them in town yesterday. She got a pot for her mother and decided she�d like one as well. Hyacinths remind me of my second visit to St Ninian�s Cave in southern Scotland, in mid-May 1992. The walk from the car park to the cave is about � of a mile on a path along a small stream. The hyacinth was in full bloom and the scent was almost overwhelming. To this day, that particular floral fragrance brings me into remembrance of our father among the saints Ninian, apostle to the southern Picts. He was one of the first saints I came to love and venerate, even as a solidly Reformed Protestant. I would think that normally in relationship to a saint, veneration comes before pilgrimage, as the latter is an expression of the former. In my relationship with St Ninian, the opposite was the case. In 1992, I didn�t understand or appreciate the full significance of the Church in heaven. I had an interest in Church history, but that was about the extent of it. Having been there before, I thought I knew what to expect. (In 1990, when I first visited Ninian�s Cave, it was purely as a tourist. It seemed like a quirky, off-the-beaten-path sort of place to say I had been.) For some reason, I really wanted to go back. As I stood in what is barely a cleft in the rock and looked out upon waters of the Solway Firth, I caught a glimpse of St Ninian. No not an apparition. Rather a realisation of a place sanctified by the Holy Spirit through the hours of prayer offered to the Father by a man dedicated to bringing a heathen people to the saving knowledge of the Son. It didn�t all fit with my Reformed theology at the time, but I tucked it away in my heart until the fullness of time had come. Now I can appreciate holy people in alive in heaven and the holy places they left behind here on earth. Perhaps it is good that Mother�s Day falls during Lent. I�m not particularly good at Lent and I need the ascetical encouragement from St Ninian of Whithorn to help me bring my mind and body into subjection to Christ. |