A quote from Cranmer on his weblog, 24 October 2006

Hearings in the Glasgow High Court […] were adjourned yesterday – because of Eid. […] The High Court case involved terror charges. […] While one of Scotland’s leading advocates said it was unacceptable that justice should grind to a halt over religious objections, Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, said: “This is like asking a Catholic to come in on Christmas Day.”

Does Mr Saeed not know? Has he not heard? In Islamic countries, Christians have to attend their courts not only on Christmas Day, but also Whitsun, Easter, throughout Lent, and indeed whenever their courts instruct them to do so. Shari’a justice does not grind to a halt out of respect for any religious observance, save that of Islam, and any suggestion that it should would probably be met with a death sentence.

As we move inexorably toward defeat in Iraq – and let’s call it what it is, “withdrawal” or no – we must remember one thing above all else: the defeat was chosen, not imposed, and as such it brings with it vastly more dishonor than a loss by force of arms. The cardinal virtue of President Bush hitherto has been his refusal to lose – but it is a dubious virtue in the absence of a will to win. (These half-virtues are a curious feature of his presidency: see, for example, his tax-cutting zeal, coupled with his utter disinterest in spending cuts.)

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

The Daily Telegraph’s Christopher Booker recently reported, rather breathlessly, that “An extraordinary row, involving major European and US industries, is blowing up over the European Commission’s determination to make it illegal, in three years’ time, for any products made in or imported into the EU to carry any reference to non-metric measures.”

A quote from The Democracy Movement, 17 October 2006

With the news today that a Polish student has won the competition to design a logo for the EU's 50th anniversary next year with the slogan 'Together since 1957', the DM proposes a more appropriate alternative.

A quote from webpronews.com, 20 October 2006

Microsoft and Google have agreed to remove content managed by Copiepresse of Belgium from their indexes, with Google further being requested to pay nearly $43 million in fines.

Instead of battling with Copiepresse on its home turf in Belgium’s Court of First Instance, Microsoft chose to comply with the firm’s requests to remove German and French language articles managed by Copiepresse from its websites. [...] Despite the compliance, Microsoft does not necessarily believe Copiepresse is in the right on this issue. But considering how poorly Google fared in court against Copiepresse, Microsoft may be taking the easy road out of this mess.

A (translated) quote from Michel Vuijlsteke on his weblog, 22 October 2006

Is this really the best that graphical design in Europe can produce for the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome?  (...)  A kidnapper who demands a ransom and is too cowardly to use his own handwriting? For shame.

It's hard to avoid the suspicion that the two events are linked. One day, Günter Verheugen, the Commission Vice-President, attacks the cost of Euro-bureaucracy. The next, photographs appear of the Commissioner strolling hand in hand with a female aide while on a visit to Lithuania. Mr Verheugen denies any impropriety and, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, it would be churlish not to believe him. It just seems odd that photographs taken two months previously should suddenly appear in the press at the very moment that the Commissioner is making himself awkward.

A quote from French Conservative presidential frontrunner Nicolas Sarkozy on RTL radio, 22 September 2006

I would like to say one thing, in what is my conception of the Republic, security is the responsibility of the State, I am against militias, I am against the private ownership of firearms, and I’m trying to make you think about that. If you are assaulted by an armed burglar, he’ll use his weapon more effectively than you anyway so you’re risking your life. If the criminal is not armed and you are and you shoot, your life will be ruined, because killing someone over a theft is not in line with the republican values that are mine. The private ownership of firearms is dangerous. I understand your exasperation for having been burglarized two times, I understand the fear that your wife and daughter may have but the answer is in the efficiency of the police and the efficiency of the judiciary process, the answer is not in having guns at home.

A quote from the late Ralph Harris in The Guardian, 20 October 2006

I am very critical of democracy. Politics has meant unlimited democracy and unlimited claims on the national income.