Bartholomew's Notes

From an article reposted at Christian Zionist Jim Hutchens’s Jerusalem Connection (and distributed via his email newsletter), entitled “Obama, McCain and Israel”:

…According to Obama, the US needs to adopt the worldview of the Department of State bureaucracy (Israel’s staunchest critic in Washington,) pacify the knee-jerk-anti-Israel-UN, move closer to the Peace-at-any-Price-Western Europe and appease the Third World, which blames the West and Israel for the predicament of the Third World and the Arabs. On the other hand, McCain contends that the US should persist in defiance of global odds – in being the Free World’s Pillar of Fire, ideologically and militarily…

The Jerusalem Connection is a 501 (c)-(3) non-profit organization, so the above should be seen simply as “Nonpartisan Voter Education“.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Centre Right reports from the UK Conservative Party conference in Birmingham:

On to the launch meeting of the Conservative Humanist Association […] I made my way to a remote upper corner of the ICC [International Convention Centre], the air among the gathering throng a mixture of apprehension and excitement. I made the mistake of telling the organiser that the atmosphere reminded me of the old Tory Homosexual Equality meetings, that used to take place at conference 20 years ago … you would slip into some unlit meeting room, grateful to be among friends, not quite sure if you were allowed to meet like that or not. Then Steve Norris would burst into the room and shout at you, berating you to stop being so quiet and to make some noise. Richard Dawkins did something similar last night [29 Sept]. It’s probably pointless to rehearse his argument: you either believe or you don’t, and we’ve debated these issues here often enough. But I was surprised at the number of Tories who’ve made a similar journey, from belief to atheism…

Tory Diary, meanwhile, gives us this pic:

The Conservative Humanist Association has a website here; it says the meeting was “electric” and promises a “fuller account later in the week”, which so far hasn’t arrived. In the meantime one audience member – none other than Mike Keith-Smith – gives his brief account on this (unsavoury) web forum:

…Best fringe meeting was the Conservative Humanist Society’s event with Richard Dawkins speaking.

I told Dawkins (and the meeting) that I liked going to church because I fancied the (female) vicar and it got me off to a flying start every Sunday morning, but as I am an agnostic did he really think I should say The Creed. Everybody roared with laughter.I then said if the Tory Party was not to be called the Stupid Party could it really be seen to support Mc Cain and his ghastly far-right running mate who thinks the world was created in 7 days and wants to declare nuclear war on Russia.

Keith-Smith is of course misinformed on one point: Creationists believe that the world was created in six days, not seven.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »