I'll publish yours if ...

Occasionally BP encourages an open debate between editorial and creative members of the cooperative. The usual parenthetical delimiters  and the employment of ellipses is dispensed  with to encourage a full and frank discussion much like the old catechistic method of inculcating doctrinal certainties.

Has there been a bit of a ruck about the old BeeB and the payment of the workers?

There has, indeed. 

Have some of the troops been what can only be described as peeved?

Deeply, I suspect.

Emily, Jane and the women, have been up in arms about it, have they not?

Monstrously so, I fear. 

Could we suggest some names are quite notable by their absence?

A very taxing arrangement, I would judge.

I hope you are not implying, given the alacrity of m'learned friends to seek redress, any malfeasance.

I would not wish to evade the issue but, allegedly, it is wholly avoidable.

Amen

Out of the mouths..

Nice wee film from the Grauniad/Th'Observer, and not because they are two nice wee lassies!

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/dec/14/across-divide-northern-ireland-film

Not quite as simple as that but I look forward to the follow up...

Already, a group from Derry plans to challenge Palestinian and Israeli children to do the equivalent – swap a hijab for a skullcap – at an international schools encounter in Genoa.

Short Supply

John Julius Norwich caught my ear recently reading from his book The Popes. I can't claim to have read it and I'm sure the extract on Radio 4 did not do it justice. Nevertheless, a claim from John Paul 1 touched my funny bone. On page 445 he is quoted (without source) speaking of the Vatican:-

Also , I have noticed two things that appear to be in very short supply: honesty and a good cup of coffee.

Always difficult that- a good cup of coffee!

The End Times!

I've just finished reading Irrationality by Stuart Sutherland.
Counsels of perfection, of course, but we would all like to think there was room for improvement.

Then I saw this in Bong Bong.

Do these guys have the inside skinny on something?

I find myself glancing skyward more frequently now, nervously scanning for PCOs
(Porcine Flying Objects since you may not be a regular reader)

Sluts and gonifs

I have to confess that I did not know what a gonif was. Susan McCarthy helpfully, provides a link in her blog commenting on the moral failings, allegedly, of dinosaurs.

Well no one is perfect. I have been known to indulge in Vin Santo myself and give voice but sluts, gonifs and divine retribution?

Is the Pope a Catholic?

Even though I handed in my papers many years ago I still enjoy seeing a lump or two knocked out of the old theocracy.

Steven Fry makes a very good case for disbanding the old firm and sending it out there to do something worthwhile. It will have a hard time making up for all that evil!

Thanks to John Naughton and his contributors for the link in his blog.

Benny and Rowan.

So Benny and Rowan finally got it together.

Benny:- Good to meet you Rowan.

Rowan:- Listen you nazi mudderfucker you are dead. No more nicey, nicey. Take youra bloodsoaked hands offa my people. They are good, god fearin folk, and dey dona want your papist crap!

Benny:- Rowan, remember Isiah, let us reason a little!

Rowan:- Look you creep. You wanna kill saucepans, you wanna make the world a better place go f**k yourself. I gorra tradition, I gorra principles, I gorra theology! Yeah, what you got punk?

The egregious idiot

I suppose it was that word egregious.
Andrew Brown has an article about Ratzo Ratzinger on the Cement is Free website. Old Ratzo has been bothering himself about a number of things including trees and homosexuality. Thank god he has not been hugging them or talking to them. The trees, that is, well to the best of my knowledge.

Let me say at the outset that I have nothing against popes. Some of my best friends believe they are god's representatives on earth. Other male acquaintances that I have a great deal of affection for accoutre themselves in ankle length dresses and burqas. However, I have to say that I would not let my son marry one! A man in a burqa can have no style at all!

One of the minor sadnesses in my life, though I admit in some religions and countries it can be vicious and deadly, is that some deluded gobshite, usually in the name of his god, wants to stick his nose into sex and pronounce. There is little enough love, comfort and union between consenting adults in this world. We don't need yet another deluded man, who converses regularly with an invisible being, telling us what we may feel and do.

There. I feel a bit better now. Not egregious in the least.

The Oak and the Ash and the Bonny Rowan Tree.

Ohh dear!
Rowan me old mucker. I think that you have bollixed this one right good and proper mate.

I’ve just met a girl named sharia!

Nuff said, us beardies 'ave to stick together in a manner of speakin.

Not that you want it, but a word to the wise man. When you are in a whole lot of shit stop digging.

Well timed though. Did anyone notice if old whatisponce dropped his interest doobies?