My vicar has just preached on the difference between wisdom and intelligence. This is Christmas wisdom from The Rt Rev Dr Michael Nazir-Ali in the Sunday Telegraph. Read it all.
By any reckoning, Britons have had an uncomfortable and anxious year. . . And attacks on the traditional family continued, with claims by ministers and "experts" that no one form of the family was to be preferred to any other.
It has been tough for everyone, but Christians in particular have found themselves under pressure. Nurses have been told not to pray with their patients; registrars ordered to conduct civil partnership ceremonies in spite of conscientious objections; evangelists forbidden to spread the word in "Muslim" areas; and permission for Good Friday processions refused on the grounds that they are a "minority" interest and do not warrant police time. (but not where I live thankfully)
The broader problem is that there has been the loss of a common narrative, a story which underpins our national life. In the past, this was provided by the Judaeo-Christian tradition, derived from the Bible. This narrative has been at the root of those values which we regard as particularly British, whether to do with the dignity of the human person, with fundamental freedoms of belief, speech and assembly, or with equality – which is not about "sameness", but a recognition of the image of God in others.
This tradition has also provided us with the virtues for which we have looked in vain in our economic and political leaders. The best of British business and politics has been characterised by a sense – largely derived from the Bible's teachings – of responsibility, of trust, justice, fairness and truth-telling. In recent years, these virtues have been jettisoned, so that we can be more "competitive" in a cut-throat world, or engage in a more adversarial form of politics. We, and the generations to follow, will have to live with the consequences of this dissolution of a moral and spiritual framework for our common life.
But while the task of reconstruction must begin immediately, it cannot be just about tinkering with the expenses system at Westminster, or the regulation of the City. It has to be about moral and spiritual education in our schools and universities. Future leaders must be taught that the public have the right to expect selflessness rather than greed, service rather than arrogance, and even sacrifice for the greater good of the organisation, or the nation.
Finally, there is Afghanistan, where 2010 is bound to bring further loss of life and limb.
The two British soldiers killed this month while protecting Afghan children and others from suicide bombers sacrificed themselves not for kith and kin, or for the nation, but for complete strangers – just as Jesus died not only for his friends, but for his enemies as well, so that all might be free to live as God's children. Our aim in this war should be not only to protect Britain from terrorism, but to ensure that the Afghan people are kept free from tyranny.
Like 2009, 2010 will undoubtedly have its own challenges. We will be better able to face them if we can recover the narrative that made this nation, and gave its people and institutions their character. We need not only to identify our values, and to live by them, but also to acknowledge the basis for them. Above all, in this election year, we need leaders who possess those fundamental virtues, and show themselves to be worthy, once again, of public trust.

I fume every time I have to take my shoes off at the airport. Mark Steyn agrees.

Well, the authorities have reacted to the Pantybomber in the usual way:

Passengers getting off both U.S. domestic flights and those arriving from overseas reported being told that they couldn’t get out of their seat for the last hour of their flight. Air Canada also said that during the last hour passengers won’t be allowed access to carry-on baggage or to have any items on their laps.

That's great news, isn't it?

This was a failed terror plot. But with failures like this who needs victories? If that Air Canada rule becomes generally applicable, that last hour will be a big time-waster for some of us. But no doubt some enterprising jihadist will attempt to self-detonate in mid-flight or shortly after take-off, and pretty soon we'll have to sit in isolation for the full seven or eight hours. Another couple of attempted takedowns and they might as well ship us freight.

A couple of years back in NR, in a column I wrote in flight (though not on Air Canada), I related my ill-fated attempt to bring home a souvenir snow globe from Auckland, New Zealand for my daughter:

The Kiwi sales clerk swiped my credit card, wrapped it up, and then said, "Oh, wait. Are you flying to America?" I should have known. She consulted her list of prohibited items and informed me that... the twinkly fluid inside the snow globe had been deemed to count as a liquid. In theory, I could smash the incredibly thick glass, replace the sparkly stuff with something more incendiary, re-glaze it in the airport men's room with help from co-conspirators among the shadowy networks of antipodean jihadist glaziers, and board the plane to explosive effect...

The jihad may never achieve global domination but it has already achieved snow global domination... Next time round, they'll foil some entirely different scheme - explosive suppositories, dirty-nuke hip replacements - and another avalanche of pitiful constraints will fall upon the hapless traveller.

And so it's proved. If only we had a National Snow Globe Association to point out that snow globes don't kill people, people kill people. What will they do after, say, a burka-clad woman boards the flight with breast impants packed with plastic explosives? Playing the game this way lets the terrorists set the rules and forces us to react defensively to every innovation. What difference does it make whether the plot succeeds? After all, long after Richard Reid has died of old age in prison, we'll still be removing our footwear in eternal homage to the thwarted shoebomber.

The arithmetic is very simple: Can we regulate for all faster than they can adapt for some? And remember, whatever new rules they pass about not using the bathroom in the last three hours of the flight, when you're sitting in seat 7B and the guy in 7C starts doing something goofy, the Federal Government won't be up there with you.

The Birmingham Mail doesn't sound desperately impressed that the notorious Green Lane Mosque went ahead with this.
RADICAL Islamic preachers have given speeches at a Midland mosque.
The Middle Eastern clerics, who have been ideologically linked to Al Qaida, spoke to Muslims at Birmingham’s Green Lane Mosque.
Sheikh Faisal al-Jassim and Sheikh Abdul Aziz As-Sadhan, were invited to lecture crowds on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, despite preaching hatred against Jews and calling for holy war.
In an online recording, Kuwaiti al-Jassim refers to Jews as “the arch enemies of this great religion,” and asks listeners to “prepare all the weapons we can”.
As-Sadhan describes “the band of Jews” as having “amassed despicable qualities and vile characteristics” and claims they have “defaced mankind.”

I saw three ships came sailing by. Thus killing two carols with one pub sign.
Fear not gentle readers, I doubt I can keep this up for another 9 days, although I will try.
This is the Three Mariners at Trimley St Mary, Suffolk.

Listen here.