Fish and Faith

Joy. My pair of Laetacara curviceps are herding a cloud of fry. Other than this family there are only a couple of small loricarids and one female A.macmasterii in the tank. Hopefully the curviceps will be able to raise at least a few of the fry. They are absolutely dedicated parents at the moment.

On the subject of fish, from today's Times:

From Mr Samuel Blanning
Sir, While Amir Taheri makes a good argument on some very controversial points, I fear that few Muslims will be enticed to “compete in the global market place of faiths”, which conjures up images of imams competing with priests and rabbis to offer more milk and honey than their competitors, better deals for converts and lower tithes.
Religion is, of course, the ultimate brand, but I imagine that many Muslims see faith as a higher calling than selling fish.
SAMUEL BLANNINGOcean Village, Southampton

A good point Mr Blanning, but you might have added that anyone with half an ounce of critical faculty sees selling fish as a higher calling than peddling the rantings of a seventh century bandit.

Molly Dancing

We (well not all of the gang, but we won't go there) spent the weekend at Saddleworth folk festival and the Railway Inn at Greenhead. The weather was fantastic, the music was fantastic (thanks especially to John and Paula at the Railway) and... you're not going to believe I'm saying this... the dancing was amazing. We'd never seen Molly dancing before, and I doubt all exponents are as good as Pig Dyke Molly, but the combination of costume, energy, humour and sheer creativity was inspiring. Check out the website http://www.pigdyke.co.uk/portraits.htm
Max has started to create her next costume!!!
We were priveleged to see two great guitarists in action at the Railway. Claude Bourbon on Friday evening played the best accoustic blues I have ever heard, apart from Big Bill Broonzy's guitar shuffle, and on Saturday we were entertained by the incomparable Gordon Giltrap. If I'm still alive in July of next year I'll be at the Saddleworth folk festival and the Railway Inn - and I may well be taking a crazy costume and a guitar.

Islam

OK, lets jettison the bollocks and examine some of the issues. Islam is a religion. It's doxasticity is based upon old books. Mohammed, as far as most historians can discern, was a wily politician and ruthless autocrat. The qur'an is a collection of Mohammed's bad dreams. So.. we are expected to believe that a community who invest absolute authority in this trash can provide useful ethical guidance to their disaffected youth? If ever an argument was needed to show why the tawdry philosophy of theism is inadequate, the London tube bombings stand as a proud example.

Ordaining Women

Harummmmph. Disgusting. Women Bishops? Whatever next? This is outrageous. In this day and age we should not be encouraging women to promulgate fairy stories. Godless atheism is the natural state of womankind and we should all be grateful that this is so.

Dissing Bertrand

No, not some rant about the 2012 Olympics and Francoxeny; everybody south of Watford is doing that. It struck me today that not all of Bertrand Russell's sayings were so wonderful. "Science is what we know, and Philosophy is what we don't know" he said. This is plainly not the case. Science is what we justifiably believe, and Philosophy is why we are justified in believing it.