Greetings, reader or three! Apologies for my absence, but this week I’ve been fighting on two fronts: churning through the vast enormity of books on the Dutch Revolt and feeling the sniffling onset of what could be described as a cold. But with my 6th essay now complete, barring minor adjustments tomorrow, and a stack of scary-looking ‘Immune Heath’ tablets from Boots (which I was given by a kindly checkout person ages ago – what, do I look that bad?) keeping me just-about-well, I am deterred from blogging no longer. (Oh dear, I think I’ve forgotten how to write. Never mind.)
I received an e-mail to join last.fm today, I think from Fliss. (Hi Fliss! Do you ever read this?) However, I continue to reject the friendly advances of this particular site, mainly because it promises to “show off your taste”. A very dangerous thing to do, I feel. Whilst others (tips hat to Nic) might get through writing essays with the help of Pingu’s super-mega-amazing-trance-set-thingy, tonight my equivalent has consisted almost exclusively of: tracks from Timbaland Presents: Shock Value (not bad, you might think), some of Pingu’s recent mashups (OK, a little niche), Ottawan’s much neglected classic Hands Up (dicolicious?) and finally the complete bouquet of MIDI files from SimCity 2000. Oh… dear? In my defence, they do evoke happy and\or frustrated memories from years ago, trying to construct a perfect world and then invariably giving up and unleashing a swarm of tornadoes. I distinctly remember trying to avoid building a city dependent on cars, too, only to realise that this wasn’t going to go my way no matter how many bus shelters or tube stations I plonked down on the expensively levelled land.
Without bothering to link my paragraphs in the slightest, I’ll now disjointedly move on to quietly announce my marriage (last night) to Sophie, who has now won her mandated mention of the week. (For the literalists amongst you, that’s marriage in terms of becoming college parents for next year’s freshers. And yes, before you ask, civil partnerships are allowed. Single parents possibly frowned upon though.) I proposed by rapping a mildly amended and thankfully majorly abridged rendition of Uptown Girl, which rather captures the relationship quite nicely.
Keep on truckin’, or whatever else it is that you do.
“WOW saoirse this is my new favourite blog (sorry dominic)-
I’ve just read the last two pages non stop! your writing is amazing and really readable”
– Amber
Well. Well well well. In that case, I shall make the effort to become more readable! I bring you this week:
This week, in comic form
Take that! 
Edit – Sophie, have a mention too!
In the interests of a nice random post to celebrate the completion of another weekly essay cycle, here’s a selection of some of my favourite song lyrics (at the moment, for various reasons) for you to go “ooh, I know that!” or “nah, not a clue” at…
People are just people,
They shouldn’t make you nervous
…
And if you kiss somebody,
Then both of you’ll get practice
– Regina Spektor, The Ghost of Corporate Future
Why? You won’t find many better philosophies for life than this.
Why would you lie about how much coal you have?
Why would you lie about something dumb like that?
– Vampire Weekend, Oxford Comma
Why? Makes me giggle and think about economics lectures.
I never thought it would happen
With me and the girl from Clapham
– Squeeze, Up The Junction
Why? I shiver as the song begins, knowing how it all ends.
In Birmingham, in London – what we need now is love
Not hate and fear, blood and tears – what we need now is love
– Hard-Fi, We Need Love
Why? Should be obvious 
(Hey!) Us kids know
(Hey!) No cars go
– Arcade Fire, No Cars Go
Why? Less a song lyric, more a statement of public transportation policy.
So if you are a racist
Our friendship has got to end
And if your friends are racists don’t pretend to be my friend
– The Specials, Racist Friend
Why? Amusingly direct.
Run along with Captain Jack
Badidado, Badidado, Badidadidadidado
Badadadideidoooo
– Captain Jack, Captain Jack
Why? Because it’s (unintentionally) all about Torchwood 
(Which btw I’m rather enjoying!)
And do share some of yours too!
I don’t think Rowan Williams should resign as Archbishop of Canterbury. He is certainly a thoughtful, intelligent man who is a far better Christian leader than many we could imagine. I don’t even think he should apologise, because why force someone to apologise for opening a debate? Having said all that, I do think people should feel justifiably angry with what he’s done.
Let’s start with what he actually meant: that civil Sharia law courts (notwithstanding the complexity about what ‘Sharia’ actually means) should receive some sort of official recognition within the British legal system. Naturally, this doesn’t mean a lot of the nonsense which has been talked about in the juvenile press. But it is still fundamentally and absolutely unacceptable. The law must apply to everyone, equally, end of. To the extent that people can unofficially and voluntarily agree to be bound by separate codes, as long as it doesn’t involve a breach of the law, this is already the case. If two Muslims who are divorcing wish to abide by Islamic custom, they already can. To suggest that this needs to be integrated into the national law is just utterly wrong. Not surprisingly, the majority of British Muslims agree.
The real problem, of course, is that through wilful misinterpretation Rowan Williams has now unleashed a tremendous backlash against Islam which will be felt hardest by the British Muslims he was attempting to help. That may not be his fault, but it’s breathtaking that he doesn’t even seem to have considered the possibility.
But the underlying cause of all this nonsense is that the Archbishop – for all his intelligence – is simply incapable of understanding what a secular state means in the 21st century. He doesn’t get that religion does not belong as an arm of government, or the legal system, or anything else that isn’t entirely a private, voluntary association, with no special favours from the law. I suggest the following remedy to help him learn: strip the Archbishop of his legacy role within the secular state, kick his bishops out from the Lords and put the Church of England on an equal footing with everyone else.
The Internet was down yesterday, and so I was forced to turn to more inventive methods of time-wasting. These are very rough and ready, but I’m not a graphics person by any stretch of the imagination, so allow it:
Fight, fight, fight!
Inner turmoil?
Linda Moffitt on Colombia: “Such a sweet memory of the four of you meeting up in Colombia!” Dec 2, 07:42
