well, sort of…

Another day, another airport lounge. I just passed through the airport security at Edinburgh whihc, given the terrorist attack at the weekend is understandably some of the toughest I have seen.

I still have a pretty nasty reaction to seeing UK police with guns – and not your dinky little side arms either – big, honking MP5s and body armour on. Still, in this instance, if it gets it through t the latest idiot contemplating an attack that they are more likely to get shot for their troubles, long before they get to blow anyone up, so much the better.

What I resent, though, is the attitude of the Security staff in the airport. You can see in the smug little faces that each of them believes in his heart of hearts that by being completely anally retentive, by not allowing an eighty year old woman to take a bottle of tablets onto the plane (because clearly that bottle might be able to hold more than 100ml of liquid, if it wasn’t pull of pills), that they are personally fighting off the terrorists. sigh.

We can see the first grumblings of anti-islam setiment in Scotland as well – or at least that’s what it’s being billed as. Personally, I think people just don’t like Mohammed Sarwar… which has more to do with his gangster loving, corrupt as hell, money laundering son, currently enjoying a spell at her majesty’s pleasure.

It reminds me of a discussion I had recently, about the problems with fundamentalist religion. Whilst the muslims undeniably have the edge in over the top displays of religion inspired carnage, the christians use the same overblown rhetoric of hatred and medevialism.

I got to hear a recording of a sermon from an evangelical church here in scotland at the weekend. I think the recording was a few months old, as it was mentioning the upcoming election, but the venom would take your breath away.

If you step into the horrible little world occupied by these people, you find an elaborate conspiracy of atheists, homosexuals, “liberals” (which I assume has been imported as a hate term from the US, as the Lib Dems have never really been that provocative a force!) and now of course, the environmentalists, to construct an evil empire. bwaa haa haa.

Not to mention, of course, that we are all (apparently) involved in satanic ritual, masonic symbology and all drink blood, or something.

I have to say, I’m somewhat disappointed. I should probably get a t-shirt printed up that says something like “I joined the evil atheist conspiracy… now where’s the satanic demonic fuelled orgy?”

or perhaps, I should stop my delirious reamblings and go get another coffee. My flight’s about to board.

I fly through the airports in Scotland almost every week, so it’s quite a shock when these things hit close to home. At the moment, there’s no guarantee that this was a terrorist attack.

It might just have been two Asian guys who had an accident in their car, swerved and drove through the main entrance whilst on fire, then got out and doused themselves and the car with the petrol they were carrying on the front seat…

uh-huh.

Thankfully, no injuries, apart from the PoS that drove the car – and who cares about him. It’s going to be an interesting few days as this one unfolds.

Vladimir Putin is one of the sharpest world leaders by a long way. Compare and contrast with the idiot man child running the world’s last superpower, and he’s positively stellar.

The posturing between the United States and Russia over the US’s “Son of Star Wars” program is more than a little disturbing. It’s also something of an affront to a democratic nation to be turned into a target without gaining any benefit.

The Missile defence system would use Radar at RAF Flyindales – despite the fact that we would be outside the coverage of the Interceptor missiles. We get to have a big red target on us, but are, unfortunately, unprotected.

That to one side, the real concern is that the Idiot Man Child in Chief is intent on starting a new Cold War (with the hint of that old time “End of the World” Armageddon stuff that my Secret Fundie Informant loves so much).

It was interesting then to see Putin call America’s bluff by offering the joint use of a facility in Azerbaijan. It’s a stroke of genius.

If America is being honest, and the missile defence system is intended to guard against rogue states (in other words, Iran), then a radar station in Azerbaijan is an incredible boon – it would allow detection of missile launches a good four or five minutes earlier than the Czech station, and a good nine minutes earlier than RAF Flyindales.

If, of course, America is lying through it’s teeth, and this really is just an attempt to crank up that ole Cold War spirit again – then their bluff has been well and truly called.

interesting times we live in.

James Randerson asks Is Religion Dying? over at the guardian blogs, considering AC Grayling’s comments on the subject.

It’s fairly clear that church attendance is in freefall – every count shows that less and less people are attending church (and the number of churches being converted into pubs/clubs/flats is another clear indicator).

There is, of course, one exception – Evangelicals. some of those churches are growing in number (although, not anywhere near as fast as the rose tinted specs of my Secret Fundie Informant would suggest).

My own view is that this is like a pot of salty water boiling away – as the heat cranks up, the water reduces, but the concentration of the remainder gets higher.

We can expect the christian churches to become ever more venomous as they struggle for survival.