Spondoolix - Web Log
Saturday 27 August 2005
Thursday 25 August 2005
Tolerance. (Letter - Daily Telegraph)
Sir - Wide use of the term "toleration" came in the 17th century. The circumstances of John Locke's famous tract, Letter Concerning Toleration, was religious repression following the bitter Civil War. The context was specific to religious differences, but all Christian.
Locke would not have meant "anything goes", in manners and morals - the tendency in using the word today.
Toleration in today's Britain means, in practice, turning away from difficulty, reluctance to confront a problem, refusal to think out implication, contentment with ignorance, silence before conspicuous fact.
It is mass immigration/asylum-seeking rather than sporadic, though vicious, violence, that is the long-term threat to the nation.
John Gillman, Bristol
Wednesday 24 August 2005
Another Word Test
Another Word Test.
I’M sorry to be testing “Word” again. My previous Blog, (a rant actually,) did not print out in the designated script. I am trying this script, so that if I have to write anything objectionable, nobody will be able to read it.
Tuesday 23 August 2005
"Tolerant" society?
In Britain we are fond of saving that we are a tolerant society. We are only tolerant because we are, in many cases, too spineless to make hard choices for the good of our people. We make laws, but do not enforce them effectively. As a result we see a breakdown of our social infrastructure and a lack of respect for the rule of law.
Past Singapore leader Lee Kuan Yew observed, that it is all right to be soft hearted, but not to be soft headed. We have much to learn and even more to do, before we can reverse the trend.
Saturday 20 August 2005
Blogging in Word
Blogging in Word.
As we are now offered a chance to use Microsoft Word to write and record these trivial jottings, a test message is obviously necessary.
Here it is.
Long Dead Mulberry.
A magnificent Mulberry tree lived a quiet life in our garden for over 150 years. Three summers ago, it keeled over and crashed to the ground. It's passing left an actual and a spiritual hole in the garden. This week we ate the last of the jam made from the berries of that sorely missed tree. It would be interesting to know who planted the tree all those years ago. We have planted another Mulberry tree. After three years it is still but a twig. Given the pressure to build houses in gardens, I would not bet on the tree seeing it's 150th planting day.