You can tell that an idea has become mainstream when Valéry Giscard d'Estaing is proposing it. I've just listened to the former French president at a meeting in Parliament co-sponsored by Global Vision and The Daily Telegraph. Giscard suggested that, in the event that Britain rejected his constitution (he was the chief author) it should be offered "a special status".
Whenever I listen to Giscard, I am reminded of a line of Mallarmé: "Si extraordinairement distingué, quand je lui dis ‘bonjour', je me fais toujours l'effet de lui dire ‘merde'." The dignity of the Elysée somehow hangs about the old boy's shoulders, so that one doesn't like to criticise him. At one point, Giscard's mobile phone went off. I swear his ring-tone was a slushy number by Carla Bruni. The moment ought to have been funny. But, as the great man furrowed his brow at the crooning device, it felt more like lèse-majesté.
Opinions will differ as to what kind of "special status" Britain should enjoy. Giscard seems to envisage a set of opt-outs from future treaties rather than a derogation from past ones. His countryman Pascal Lamy has proposed something more along the lines of what Switzerland has: free trade and formalised intergovernmental collaboration, but little else. Regular readers will know that this blog inclines toward the latter view: Britain should be an independent country, trading freely with Europe and the wider world, and participating in common European endeavours on an issue-by-issue basis and only with the consent of Parliament.
The point is that, call it what we will, this new status may be upon us sooner than we expect. If Britain - or Britain and Ireland - are alone in rejecting the European Constitution Lisbon Treaty (Giscard disarmingly admitted that the two documents were the same: Lisbon, he said, was the Constitution deliberately redrafted so as to make it unreadable), the other states will almost certainly push ahead, necessitating a major renegotiation.
In nearly ten years as an MEP, I have had one sentiment expressed to me more often than any other, whether in my mail box, on the doorstep or at public meetings. "We voted to join a common market," people say, "not a European superstate." It's about time politicians gave the country what it thought it was voting for.
Here are today's Shelley's Trivia question and answer:
(Q) Which group, who won the MTV Award last night for Best Dancing In A Video, graces the cover of October's Blender Magazine?
(A) The Pussycat Dolls!
Here's a little eye candy for the fellas! The Pussycat Dolls do Blender Magazine just in time for their new "Doll Domination" cd, which comes out later this month!
Btw, congrats to the girls on winning their MTV Award last night for Best Dancing In A Video. At first I was like, Chris Brown should of won that award. But then I was like, wait a minute...why wasn't Soulja Boy even nominated for that award since he sparked a whole dance craze?! Anyway, here's PCD at the show...
The show was pretty damn boring last night! But the stars were in full effect on the red carpet. CLICK HERE to check out my VMA Red Carpet Photo album.
The tallest religious statue in the world, the 50-foot statue of the Divine Mercy is in the Philippines.
THE
Divine Mercy Foundation Mindanao (Phils.), Inc. together with the
Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro cordially invite everyone to a triple
grand celebration this September 8, 2008 at the Divine Mercy Hills in
PSB-Ulaliman, El Salvador City.
The highlights of the event
will be the solemn dedication and blessing of the 50-foot Divine Mercy
statue, the formal turnover of the statue to the Archdiocese of Cagayan
de Oro and the birthday of our Blessed Mother Mary.
The event
is the biggest celebration in the Divine Mercy Hills and could not have
been more perfectly timed for the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro is
commemorating its diamond jubillee year, too.
The Divine Mercy
statue, so far the tallest Divine Mercy statue in the world, will be
formally turned over to the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro represented
by Archbishop Antonio Ledesma.
The occassion will also welcome
the collaborating presence of the Marians of the Immaculate Concepcion
Fathers from Stockbridge, Mass. to be the administrator and custodian
of the statue and the Church of Mercy. There will be a Filipino priest
counterpart since the Polish priests are still unable to speak Cebuano
or Tagalog dialects.
Divine Mercy Hills is a project inspired
by God. His presence is mysteriously felt in the place as miracles of
healing and conversion are continuously experienced by many. Since its
discovery and development in 2003, there is a steady rise of pilgrims
from all over the country. The forthcoming event will usher in pilgrims
and visitors from foreign shores like Poland, United States, Hong Kong
and Singapore.
Preceding the celebration will be a three-day symposium which will be held at the Coco Ridgeview Chapel.
The first day of the symposium will focus on the importance of the
Eucharistic celebration, Marian topics will be discussed on the second
day and Divine Mercy essentials will be explained on the third day.
Among the topics and speakers are as follows: Divine Mercy and the Holy
Eucharist by Rev. Joe Roesch, The Eucharist and Social Justice by Rev.
Florencio Salvador, Role of Mary in the Works of Divine Mercy (Mother
of Mercy) by Roesch, Mary, True Model of Discipleship by Msgr. Rey
Monsanto, Church's Guidelines on Marian Devotions by Salvador, The Life
and Virtues of St. Faustina Kowalska by Rev. Seraphim Michalenko, The
Essence and Urgency of the Divine Mercy Message by Michalenko and a
personal testimony by Rev. Donald Callaway.
In between, there
will be various musical presentations in honor of the Divine Mercy and
the Blessed Virgin Mary by the five Divine Mercy ecclessiastical
provinces of Mindanao.
The main celebrant of the September 8
mass will be Ledesma with Archbishop Emeritus Jesus Tuquib as
con-celebrant. The homilist will be Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo.
After the communion prayer, the turnover rite will begin.
Following the blessing will be the decree of establishment as diocesan
shrine, shower of petals and confetti, release of balloons, street
dancing and floral offering.
Feast of Divine Mercy at El Salvador (Cagayan De Oro)
I have remarked before that David's 'Art' is so reminiscent of the 'Art' portrayed by the superb, late Tony Hancock in the film 'The Rebel'. But Hancock's sculpture of Aphrodite at the Water Hole is the spitting image of our lovely Jayne. To David: PLEASE watch the film. I will try and copy my copy and send it to you if you like. It might help to cure your terrible affliction and addiction to 'Art'
Monday, September 8, 2008, 12:26 PM GMT [Television]
The Paralympics are on at the moment in Beijing but the BBC decided that they would not show the games live on TV.
So many times I wish that the BBC would step back from their PC loaded schedule and give us a real taste of our cultural heritage. The day we stopped laughing at ourselves was a sad day indeed.
Knowing that there will be Paralympics in London in four years time and that means a lot of preparation and special facilites to be constructed for visitors and participants ,I would have imagined that the BBC, out of public interest ,would be making a big thing of this aspect of the games.
So, as a sporting spectacle the BBC have decided that there is a very limited public appeal and I happen to think they are right, but also that there is no interest to see for ourselves the transition of Beijing to accomodate the disabled athletes. This just doesn't sound like the BBC.
How does Vickie get away with all the stuff she's been doing? Any other person would have been sacked a long time ago. As for Big Show, how can he help Vickie out after she left him out of the Scramble Match? The both of them will have Hell to pay from Undertaker.
Someone's rocking a MASSIVE 18-carat wedding ring!!! Find out who in my brand new Weekly Web Photo Album! You can also check out my fashion reviews from Fashion Rocks, The VMA's and more!
DURING THE SCRAMBLE MATCHES WE HAD CURRENT CHAMPIONS WHERE DECLARED WITHOUT SEEMING STUPID DOES THIS MEAN FOR EXAMPLE BECAUSE TRIPLE H MADE THREE PIN FALLS IS HE ACKNOWLEDGED FOR ALL THREE WINS TO MAKE HIM LETS SAY FIFTEEN TIME CHAMPION OR THE FACT HE FINISHED WITH THE TITLE MEANS HE ACTUALLY NEVER LOST IT BUT SIMPLY RETAINED IT.
The proverbial visiting Martian, as well as all those born after about 1980, could be forgiven for wondering why the TUC meeting in Brighton gets such attention. The gathering has opened with the now traditional threat of an "[insert name of season here] of discontent", a threat which surely even the most militant must admit is wearing a bit thin through over-use.
Trades Union Congress: what is all the fuss about?
But just how worried should anyone be by the massed ranks of unionists crying war and letting slip the dogs of industrial action? Just how large are those ranks?
The TUC's own website coyly says only that its member-unions represent "six and a half million people." Oddly, the page that's supposed to show previous years' membership is blank...
For perspective, we have to turn to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, whose bean-counters also keep an eye on the brothers in an annual report.
The report shows that amongst all those in employment in the UK, "union density" was 25.3 per cent in 2007.
So only one in four workers are union members. And it gets really interesting when you look at the public-private split: only 16.1 per cent of people who work for someone other than the state are union members, a figure that has been falling steadily. But in the public sector, union membership is rising, up from 58.7 per cent in 2006 to 59 per cent last year.
This is perhaps the most important, but most often overlooked, fact of the modern trade union movement. It now exists largely to represent the public sector workforce, a group that has swollen substantially under Labour since 1997, up by more than half a million.
Mass action by the TUC's members isn't going to make a lot of difference to the businesses that make up UK plc. It would cause varying levels of inconvenience and distress for public service users. But economically, the unions are a busted flush. (Incidentally, I wonder if the indebted Treasury has worked out how much money it would save in unpaid wages if the unions really do call a mass strike by public sector staff?)
And that means this Government, any Government, is going to feel increasingly comfortable ignoring the unions, even if they're daft enough to go on giving the Labour Party millions.
No wonder Gordon Brown and his Cabinet think their time is better spent on a photo-opp in Birmingham today than bothering with Brighton.
I like many I assume didn't know what to expect with three championship scramble matches for ECW, RAW & SMACKDOWN TITLES, I'm glad Matt Hardy won he deserves it after so much toil he has gone through, Triple H & Jeff Hardy special mention terrific efforts IN THE SMACKDOWN SCRAMBLE I still belive Shelton Benjanim has PROVEN again why I rate him highly regardless of his antics. The divas imparticularly Michelle McCool whom carried her challenger in the title match proved to me that she isn't only a barbie doll look a like that looks hot in all white but she can actually wrestle & I was impressed with her hitting her moves regularly. CM Punk shouldn't have been taken out the way he was because it cheapens an already shocking run with the RAW WWE title although I have no problem with Jericho winning as his feud with HBK missed a title to make it even more juicey, BY THE WAY why wasn't HBK given the 5th slot after all he did destroy Y2J whom was saved by the referee. I've stated this before in my blogs I really believe Orton will & should join forces with tag champions all generation wrestlers whom could develop into a new Evalution. The tag team of Rhodes & especially Dibiase show alot of potential.
The Big Show should have had a match against Undertaker or at best been involved with him in the SCRAMBLE MATCH as it was a waste of two top class wrestlers whom should have got the nod & made it harder for Triple H then The Brian Kendrick. Lets be honest the pay per view apart from the back stage interference, Big Show's attack on Undertaker & at the end Y2J'S win meant there will be talking points rather then reflections upon a good wrestling pay per view matches which once again HBK lifted to another level by his efforts yet again, but most of the other stuff lets be honest again was so-so. But seriously the way CM Punk lost his title is more reason why the story writers are struggling badly. Now CM Punk is made to look like he wouldn't have lost the title had it been for Orton's interference. BY THE WAY WWE WHY MAKE VICKI SPIT ON THE FACE OF UNDERTAKER WHAT HAS SHE DONE IN WRESTLING TO HAVE THE OPPORUNITY OF SPITTING ON AN ICON AFTRE ALL HE HAS GIVEN & BEEN HE IS TREATED LIKE **** JUST SO SHE IS SHOVED DOWN OUR THROATS EVEN MORE.
He answered, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate." (Matthew 19:4-6, ESV)
Once again, the Pharisees come to Jesus with a controversial question. It leads to a long discussion on marriage, divorce, Moses and the Law, the sin-hardened hearts of people, and whether or not singleness is a better deal.
It's a complex question, but did you notice Jesus' first response to the Pharisees? He said, "Haven't you read the Scriptures?" He always goes back to God's Word, to the original design and instruction God gives. And that's where we need to start when we have questions about marriage, divorce or any number of issues.
You see, God created marriage as an amazing union of a man and woman. And they become one.
One--a union, even a mystery. Two people, involved and connected with each other in a way that's practically indescribable. No, they don't "lose their identity," but they no longer have the right to operate as fully separate individuals, doing their own thing for their own reasons and their own pleasures. There's now someone else to consider, needs to meet, joys to share, choices to make.
So to put it another way, we're to set aside our own rights and pleasures in order to give or serve or love another...and we don't do that very well. Sadly, we're selfish, sinful people. That's the hard-heartedness Jesus refers to. The real tragedy of divorce begins when we allow certain things to break that connection: unfaithfulness, moral failure, adultery, etc.
Marriage is meant to be a living illustration of Jesus' unique relationship with the Church, the Body of Believers. It's meant to provide comfort and strength for the journey of life; to share the joys and multiply our service and worship to God. It's to be a good thing for our lives, not a disaster waiting to happen.
No where does God endorse, bless or encourage divorce. But He does recognize the sad fact of our sinful, adulterous, faithless hearts. After all, look how faithless we've been to Him! And while He may have allowed a provision, it's not His preferred plan.
I couldn't pull up covenspace for days!! Finally got it back and am just catching up :) It's actually been relatively quiet here - as always, I have several projects I am working on, including one inspired by a favorite witchy, one inspired by a ball of exquisite yarn and one inspired by my wee monster :) I have been doing some pretty intensive work with my patron god and loving it, as always. I am taking next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off of covenspace/myspace and forums and Tuesday off of the computer completely since it will be my son's birthday and I have my own rituals for that and the desire for quiet contemplation. So if you don't hear from me then, that's why : ) After that, I have about a million posts to make and my loved ones will be completely sick of me! Much love, as always!
I hope you are rejuvenated by your holiday, as although you are younger than me you are becoming a very cynical old man. I can only suggest that you and your friend Jones need to sup a few more pints of Adnam's to mellow in your view of respected traditions, such as poor old St Walstan. In your penultimate paragraph you then go into appeasement to try to keep both sides of the 17th Century shenanigans happy but I will not take sides myself: I would just ask whether you can recommend an ointment for my warts. Vado means I hasten: not to wish you ill but Cromwell's reputed last words were My design is to make what haste I can.
I mentioned Rosslyn Park in my letter to which yours responds so I am far more likely to have thought of your Wyatt Earp. I am far more interested in Battles of Roehampton than Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. The American guy was really quite a dull fellow. The story goes that in his time Wyatt Earp was a farmer, saloon keeper, pimp, brothel keeper, gambler, wagon driver, horse thief, buffalo hunter, policeman, Marshall of Dodge City (apocryphal), miner, boxing referee and killer of Johnny Ringo. I think in his spare time he wrote letters about old churches. Does he resemble your acquaintance?
On my way back from Costessy the other day I was struck by the impressiveness of St. Andrew Church at Honingham but I found that it was closed. On looking at Knott I found he had not been able to get in so I did not try further. I only mention this to commend you most strongly to read Knott on this church as I thought his review, including consideration of what a Martian might think of it, is absolutely brilliant and with a humour that we share. Having failed there I came home via All Saints Church at Weston Longville which feels a friendly village church. It has a foliate Green Man figure and a crude but colourful rood screen but to me the best feature was the 14th Century Jesse tree wall painting in very good nick. For all that the church's biggest claim to fame is that the inexhaustible famed diarist the Rev James Woodforde was the parson there at the end of the 18th Century. He was not a remarkable man save for having followed his clergyman father's direction to keep a diary which he did avidly for 45 years giving details of daily expenditure, meals, weather and, more importantly, village life ignoring trivia like the French Revolution and the War of Independence: his diaries are regarded as the best possible insight into village life in those times. Parson Woodforde was born in Somerset in 1740 and was ordained in 1763. For some years he acted as his father's curate but he failed to secure that living when his father died in 1771. At that time he also loved and lost Betsy White and remained a bachelor for the rest of his life with his niece Nancy acting as housekeeper.
His father's insistence that he should always record monies I will reflect in an extract from his 1761 diary
Nofegays for Peckham & myfelf pd - 0..0..1
For two Rolls of Pomatum of my barber pd - 0..1..0
For the Barber to Drink gave 0..1..0
N:B: It is always when one has a new Wigg
For Fruit pd - 0..0..5
................
At Bragg in the BCR, with Oglander, Ridley,
Cafwall, Ballard, Peckham, & Mafter - won 0..1..0
He always detailed meals, which led many, mistakenly, to think he was a glutton. In 1767 when he had just visited a dying parishioner he finished his entry for the day
I dined, fupped and fpent the Evening at Parfonage
In 1773 he was presented to the living at Weston Longville where he served until his death. When I went to this church I was returning from the dentist so empathised with his 1776 entry
My tooth pained me all night, got up a little after 5 this morning and fent for one Reeves a man who draws Teeth in this Parifh and about 7 he came and drew my tooth but shockingly bad indeed, he broke away a great Piece of my Gum & broke one of the Fangs of the Tooth it gave me exquifite Pain all the Day after and my Face was fwelled prodigiously in the Evening & much Pain. Very bad in much Pain the whole Day long - Gave the old Man who drew it however - 0: 2: 6 He is too old I think to draw teeth, can't fee very well.
The church link I gave above tells the tale of Hannah Snell who was a parish woman who joined the army and served for some years without the secret of her sex becoming known. I enjoyed a quote from 1787 showing his distaste at having to marry a pregnant lady to the felonious father
Rode to Ringland this Morning and married one Robert Aftick and Elizabeth Howlett by Licence, ......... the Man being in Cuftody, the Woman being with Child by him - The Man was a long time before he could be prevailed on to marry her when in the Church Yard; and at the Altar behaved very unbecoming - It is a cruel thing that any Perfon fhould be compelled by Law to marry - I received from the Officers for marrying them - 0: 10: 6 It is very disagreeable to me to marry fuch Perfons.
At that time smuggling was rife in Norfolk, the sails of mills being used to warn of customs men: if they were in a diagonal cross the wherrymen would temporarily sink their booty. Although Woodforde was an upright fellow he was not averse to receiving smuggled tea writing in 1777 (modernised)
Andrews the smuggler brought me this night about 11 0'clock a bag of Hyson Tea 6 Pd weight. He frightened us a little by whistling under the parlour window just as we were going to bed. I gave him some Geneva and paid for the tea at 10/6 a Pd.
Woodforde was much loved in his parish and was popular with other local clergy. Sadly I must close when there is so much still to be said but the Parson Woodforde Society thrives in Norfolk and Somerset, its AGM each year being described as a Frolic.
Where else could I retire for refreshment but the village local, no prizes for guessing it is called the Parson Woodforde. It is very
