From the category archives:
iHuh?
by John Baw on July 25, 2009
by John Baw on July 18, 2009
by John Baw on July 11, 2009
by John Baw on July 4, 2009
by John Baw on June 27, 2009
by John Baw on June 20, 2009
by John Baw on June 13, 2009
by John Baw on June 6, 2009
by John Baw on May 20, 2009
I wrote the following letter to the Gibraltar Chronicle after they published a story that a man who was caught in Gibraltar distributing thousands of the most extreme images of child pronography was sentenced to only 18 months in prison, due to a “glaring gap in Gibraltar law” (!) :
Dear Sir,
NOTHING SHORT OF OUTRAGEOUS
It is nothing short of outrageous that in a society like ours a man convicted of a gross crime against the weakest of all should be sentenced to only 18 months in prison.
I am not well read in the intricacies of law, but common sense surely dictates that aiding and abetting a crime must carry the same degree of guilt as the crime itself. So for example, if I purchase and supply the gun that is subsequently used to commit murder, I must be as guilty as the person who pressed the trigger.
Most readers will agree that this man has been an accomplice to the kidnapping, prostitution, physical and sexual abuse of minors, and the human trafficking otherwise known as the sex slave trade. He must be as guilty as the perpetrators of these crimes. For this catalogue of offences, Mr. Klinkiewicz will spend 18 months behind bars.
In sentencing, Mr. Justice Dudley said that “unfortunately” it was not an offence to process these images in Gibraltar. I would not call this unfortunate, I would call it scandalous. That our judges do not already have the tools in place to deal decisively with these heinous crimes constitutes negligence at best. At worst it sends a signal that we are soft on a perversion of the darkest genre, and we send out an open invitation for the breeding, cultivation and perpetuation of this deviant exploitation of minors. Somebody, it seems, has been asleep at the switch. The legislation in question must be fast-tracked into law now.
I also propose, that after this man has enjoyed the comfort of Her Majesty’s hospitality for 18 months Government buy him a one-way ticket to a dubious destination far away from our shores.
Yours faithfully,
John K. Baw.
by John Baw on January 30, 2009
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by John Baw on September 6, 2008
I am no expert on politics in the US. Don’t get me wrong, I watch CNN, I read up on the candidates, and I am well aware that as America goes, so follows the world, in many areas of life. Lately I have been following both candidates via the miracle of CNN and satellite TV, and I am quite amused about the whole elections “show”, and how the McCain/Palin ticket has stolen the thunder of the Democrats (Obama who?).
In Europe politics tends to be much darker than in the US – there seems to be a general pessimism here among the people that no matter who is elected, all politicians want to do is line their own pockets, or revel in the sense of power that the job gives them. There may be a sense of truth in that but I think Europe needs to discover the sense of public service, patriotism and pride in serving your country that the US has.
I read somewhere that every Presidential election since Roosevelt’s win over Hoover has gone to the candidate who strikes people as the sort of guy they’d rather meet for a cup of coffee or just to hang-out with.
I do not know if this has been scientifically proven but It would certainly seem to be the case in recent elections:
Clinton v. Bush (Snr)
Clinton v. Dole
GWB v Gore
GWB v Kerry
So, let’s apply this test to the current US candidates shall we? I shall ONLY be considering this test, and NOT the candidate’s strengths, weaknesses, positions and aptitude for the coveted CEO of the world job.
- Barrack Obama has got the sexy factor, man. I mean the dude is REALLY charismatic. That goes a long way in the “cup of coffee test”. The guy connects with the average Joe sitting in front of the TV screen. I mean, he is Bill Clinton, in chocolate, less the sax.
- John McCain is not so charismatic – He looks like a grandfather figure – but man, the guy is a war hero! C’mon! In terms of connecting with the average Joe, he cannot beat Obama on the screen, but he performs really well in debates and town hall meetings.
- McCain would probably entertain me for hours with war stories and all of his experiences
- Obama strikes me (a total outsider) as the guy who would research me in order to know my likes and dislikes and then just talk about all the things he thinks I would want to talk about just because that would put him in my good books.
- McCain looks as if he is the real deal – what you see is what you get, he has gone through hell, has come back to tell the story, and he is not going to put up with your bull excrement.
I think that all in all I would probably want to have coffee with McCain in any event, if only for the quality and wealth of conversation to be had with him. There you have it then folks – my predictions come November is that McCain will win the elction, only because I would prefer him in my house, over Obama, in order to have a coffee and a chat with.
by John Baw on August 6, 2008
by John Baw on August 1, 2008
That sinking feeling…..
You can tell what a server thinks of you. All you have to do is look at the context-generated ads that Google surrounds you with in a social networking site like BeenUp2.com – a site that I was really digging……until today.
You see, my gripe is this, when I log-on to some of my “friends” profiles at BUP2, you can see how google throws some impressive ads their way. For example…..as at 2:00pm today:
- Bill Johnson
- “Sermons to Bring Revival” – Spirit Filled Sermon Outlines Preach Your Church Toward Revival
- “God is love” – See a 60 second video on God’s love for you
- Danny Silk
- “Free online sermons” – Find Hope and Peace in God’s Word Receive Healing from Sexual Abuse
- Chris Overstreet
- “Patricia King” – Prophetic online television teachings, seminars, resource
All very spiritual, very spiritual indeed. Now here’s my problem:
- John Baw – “10 Rules of Flat Stomachs” – Remove 9 lbs of Stomach Fat every 11 Days by Keeping these 10 Rules
BeenUp2 is no longer my friend. As for Google, I might even start using Cuil.
by John Baw on July 2, 2008
by John Baw on June 4, 2008
by John Baw on May 28, 2008
What a little email can do for your ego! Check out what I found this morning in my inbox:
—–
Hi, John_Baw.
Mark Driscoll (PastorMark) is now following your updates on Twitter.
Check out Mark Driscoll’s profile here:
http://twitter.com/PastorMark
Best,
Twitter
—–
Technorati Tags: Twitter
by John Baw on May 21, 2008
Just for fun….
by John Baw on February 25, 2008
My iPod is a great source of teaching for me. Nowadays you can get anything from great sermons, to the Bible, to even learning a new language, or indeed earning a free university degree brought to your eardrums through this wonderful gadget.
I keep my iPod fairly loaded with Podcasts that I tend to listen to when I am either helping out on chores at home, or waiting in a traffic jam, or even just waiting in the dentist’s waiting room before my appointment. I tend to find that some of the podcasts are feed my mind, others feed my soul. Without further ado I present to you the uber-spectacular list of Podcasts currently on my iPod:
English:
- Bethel Church’s "Sermon of the Week" – This podcast is my defacto spiritual lifeline! I feel plugged-in to what’s happening in and through my spiritual tribe, and much of what I teach and share is what is distilled in my heart from these messages.
- Pastor Steve Doerter of Grace Community Church in South Carolina – One of my mentors and a brother that is like a father to me – OK Not a podcast per se (In the automatically-updated-via-iTunes-sense) but I do download his messages regularly and listen to them on my iPod – does that count?
- Bethel Church’s "Video Announcements" – Simply hilarious, and on a more serious note, a wonderful example of how creativity and humour (Sorry about the "U" in humour, I cannot help my proper Brutishness oozing out on these pages) can be brought to an area as notoriously boring as giving announcements at church and end up giving life! Must be a sign of the Kingdom.
- The Julia Loren Podcast – Enlightening Interviews, Powerful Teachings, and Featured Articles of what God is up to
- Fresh Fire Ministries – Supernatural Living Messages – Todd Bentley is well, what can I say, a complete radical that I have been admiring for years. He first got me into "soaking" when I had not even heard that word mentioned in the context of church before.
- Life Centre – Charles Stock – Good messages
- Onething Video Podcast – Straight out of the IHOP tribe – good video interviews.
- River Church in Maidenhead, Slough, UK - Just downloaded and am checking these guys out.
French:
(Note: I learnt French in school and got to be quite fluent at age-19 – I am slowly trying to brush-up on it)
- Audiobible – Hey who says you cannot combine spiritual nourishment with learning a foreign language?
- Chemins De Vie – Simply the Bible, every day.
- French Podcast – World Languages Podcasting provides a podcast series in various languages for the intermediate to advanced language student to help improve language skills and knowledge of Australian culture. Each conversation is complimented with a full transcript and a page of language exercises that may be downloaded from the website www.worldlanguagespodcasting.com.
- Le monde de Narnia – A podcast covering all things Narnia and C. S. Lewis.
So there you have it, my iPod food. So let’s hear from some of you now. What’s on your iPod? What are the cannot-do-without podcasts that you feed on? Respond in the comments please.
Tags: Ipod, Podcasts, Spiritual nurturing
by John Baw on January 27, 2008
From the "is-this-for-real?" department: Farmer conceals a castle behind bales of hay:
"We moved into the house on Harry’s first birthday, so for the first few years of his life he grew up looking at straw out of the windows.
"We thought it would be a boring view, but, in fact, many birds nested in the straw and feasted on the worms.We had several families of robins and even a duck made a nest and hatched 13 ducklings on top of the bales.
"What we had anticipated being a very uninteresting view out of our windows turned out to be a fascinating garden with all sorts of natural visitors."
WOW, if this guy succeeds in having his castle declared legal, think about the implications. Planning inspectors are going to be looking into every straw bale in the country. What’s next? Dung-covered churches? Then again, we are searching for premises for our church!
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by John Baw on January 27, 2008
The Telegraph is reporting a new phenomenon in crime:
Gangs are said to sneak the dwarves into the luggage hold, hidden inside baggage……….Then, once the journey has begun, the stowaways are free to rifle through the bags of other passengers without fear of being apprehended.
Link to article.
This is just plain bizzare. It certainly gives a new meaning to, "Hi ho, Hi ho, its off to work we go." Let me now alone please, I am laughing so hard I think I just cracked rib!
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