I've been following Richard Dawkins since the release of his recent book 'The God Delusion'.  I find him an amazing clear thinker and someone who is able to articulate what others are thinking.

 

People are scared of the religious establishment.  They are scared to say no.  They are brainwashed - especially children.  The occasional people who see reason, are angry at being forced to waste time on this nonsense.

 

I don't believe in man-made religion. 

I might believe in 'God' or there being 'something else' but i'm still thinking about it.

 

 

Watch this and, if you have time, part 1 too.

 

 

Big news story about Al Qaeda plot today - what a coincidence that this story is so big today, on the day of the mid-term elections.

 

 

I despair.

Read this.

 

 

Twice.

Went to see Paul Simon on Friday at the SECC in Glasgow with my pal Rob.  I'm grateful to him for persuading me to go to it - it was great to have a night out doing something special for a change... they've been a bit thin on the ground recently.

 

I *love* Paul Simon's music and listen to it often... i'm listening to it as i type this in fact.

 

I'm not a musical expert, I don't really know whats happening, what they're doing or who they are.  I just like the tunes.  I suspect the same was true for about 90% of the audience.

 

So it was a bit of a disappointment when he changed most of his classic tunes, sometimes beyond recognition.  It made it impossible at times even to hum along.  How can you change the *notes* of a song and still call it the same song?  A few times I thought "oh THATS what he's playing.".  It sounded to me like he'd brought the wrong band with him by mistake.  The end result was the audience didn't get "into it" until really far into the 2 hour concert.  The fact that I couldn't see Paul Simon or most of the stage at all and didnt have enough room to stand up properly, and that the acoustics in the SECC were terrible didn't help!

 

I think if you knew about music, musicians and composition and stuff you'd have been bowled over. As it was, I had to wait for bridge over troubled water, when he mostly did without his fancy band,  to get a shiver up my spine and conclude that ithad been worth the money for that one song alone.

 

http://nynerd.com/the-aeroscraft-airship/