And another thing about Trump today: 457 British soldiers lost their lives in Afghanistan. And more from our NATO allies. “A little off the front lines”? Shame on him.

Trump is a dictator. His Board of Peace (don’t get me started on the business world derived name) is nothing more than a mechanism to stroke his own ego. Shame on the countries signing up. Lyse Doucet is right: he wants to destroy the post-WWII settlement. He’ll destroy NATO, and will try the UN.

Pick up the nearest book. Turn to page 42, and post the second sentence. "We keeps the place clean, sir."

de Lubac (in 1953)said the ecumenical movement, liturgical movement and sociological movement were all developing at the same time. Makes me think of St Augustine’s church,a ‘corpus permixtum’, although here not saints/sinners but varying activities. Do we atimes focus too strongly on just one? ✝️⚓️

THIS! I’ve been saying for months now, the world needs to stand up to Trump. Yes, there will be costs, but if countries were honest about their needs, non-US trading partners could be worked out. In short, Trump needs to lose…

in the Guardian: a Chinese app called something along the lines of “are you dead yet” (a play on words for an eating app they have). Basically if the user doesn’t check in for two days, it sends an alert to a designated contact. Sure, you might not be dead yet, but you might need help! Quite clever!

The US economy would collapse if California was bought by another country or went independent. Let’s make it happen.

Sounds an interesting idea. But where do you put the MAGA folk? Expel them to the rest of the USA?

Trump announces harder European tariffs over Greenland www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c1... – petulant CHILD. How to deal with this is mind-numbing. 100% retaliatory tariffs would create a trade war, but I’m still convinced you should deal with Trump the same way as Putin: complete and utter ostracism.

Trump "may put a tariff on countries if they don't go along with Greenland” www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... – the man is a bully, plain and simple. We should all declare against the US, suck up the cost. It will hurt, radically alter the world economy, but we’d finally shun this power-hungry infant.

sorry, Motzfeldt and Rasmussen just need to tell Trump to take a hike. End this charade. This happened over Ukraine. And it’s happening again over Greenland. What? Letting Trump even have a say. Enough is enough! Just tell him he is not welcome anywhere. Put the US under sanctions if need be.

moral of the story: if you needed insoles to help with plantar fasciitis, you might not need them afterwards. Guess what’s been making my feet hurt… 👣

Farage: "No parliament may bind its successor; we will not honour any clause. If Starmer signs this, it is a democratic outrage." No, but agreements have force at least until reneged upon, and that is binding in a moral and reputational way. If Farage were right we would've left the EU overnight. 🤦‍♂️

anyone know / care / have an opinion?

Oh MyFitnessPal, stop advertising your subscription to me using a splashscreen on startup. I will NEVER sign up! I think it’s illegal in Indonesia because it takes TWO clicks to cancel! 👏

Trump says US needs to 'own' Greenland to prevent Russia and China from taking it www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... -- please, please, please, how do we FIRE TRUMP?

US says it has seized tanker in Atlantic linked to Venezuelan oil www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cw... -- Venezuelan oil, ya say? For pity's sake. Trump's a despot.

US discussing options to acquire Greenland, including use of military www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... – I’m sorry; this spells out one thing: TRUMP IS 100% MORON. SO IS ANYONE WHO NOW FOLLOWS HIM. And if they tried it? It would indeed destroy NATO; who would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Denmark?

To liturgy geeks out there: Deeply attached to the Roman Breviary (pre-Vat. II), but 63 years have passed. I’m also disconnected from SEC calendar. What crazy project has more merit: 1. creating a supplement of all new canonisations since 1962, which the Vatican promised five years ago; or ✝️⚓️

There is a Priest I still miss from Twitter/X. I won't single him out, because he may be like marmite (some love, some hate), but I did appreciate his posts... meh. (I don't know if he could be convinced to defect to BlueSky.)

not sure if this will resonate or not: - was thinking of three men today that I have _truly_ loved; - none were sexual, but it was ardent, burning and wholesome; - society sometimes says gay men can’t love like that; - sometimes men demonstrate they can’t. But I am honoured to have had such loves.

Microsoft Copilot has decided I need a "clear doctrinal structure", "since that’s your preferred mode of analysis". Eeep!

“Love is blind, people like to say. But if you ask me, love sees clearest of all; it is the least interested in personal gain, and the most true to itself. What’s blind is hatred.“ —Hu Anyan, “I Deliver Parcels In Beijing”

“We invited a man into our home at Christmas and he stayed with us for 45 years” www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... – very touching. Where grace comes, grace abounds. ♾️

Well, I got one of those Shashibo cubes for Christmas -- shashibocube.com It sure is fun to see what shapes I can turn it into, but see when I want to put it away (and my autie self says it must be back in the cube form) I experience quite a bit of anxiety seeing if I can indeed do it! ♾️

Merry Christmas one and all. But as the New Year hurtles towards us amidst the cheer and mirth of the season, also spare a thought for those for whom this season is sore, with sad or bad memories. Pray for the lost, the mourning, the bewildered. ❤️‍🩹

FB's 'Activity Log', whilst surely complying with legal obligations to let us delete data, is woefully inadequate in its user interface. Some things can only be deleted one-by-one, and even when bulk delete is offered it's only 25 or 50, and often breaks. Will it change? Is there an alternative? 😡

thanks a bunch Facebook. I saw three new notifications, and in that split second I knew I would like to read them, then they disappeared! Why is that platform so bad? Is this an issue of scale: too many users for the programming?

1974 all over again, but hear hear! Bring it back. 😅

Why does JI Packer quote Charles Hodge and assert that the use of images to represent the triune God or any person of the Trinity is idolatry? (Knowing God, p. 48) What do we say then about ancient frescoes of Christ as Pantokrator and similar things? (ignore the BVM and the Saints pro tem) ✝️⚓️

if you’re playing music on an iPhone, I truly wish it would temporarily disable the autolock

What will they want next? Access to your emails? Activity Log is your friend folks. Although FB needs to simplify theirs (too many options, and year-by-year? Sheesh 🙄), and other platforms need to introduce it. (Do other countries anywhere require the same?)

A little birdie tells me we will be singing this as the processional at my parish on Sunday. I wonder if the choir might gives some descants bits like this… have a listen, it’s glorious: youtu.be/ZY-bfoGQ3Io?...

You just died. The sixth photo in your phone gallery is what killed you. I don’t know whether to be proud or ashamed… Unfortunately the meme relates to a lie.

every so often I use FB's 'Activity Log' for some housekeeping. Delete old Likes, Posts and Comments (even if it destroys old discussions). It's amazing though to notice 'blasts from the past', people who you've drifted away from. Does make me wish I knew more folks from here on Groups there tho'.

I often bewail people talking before services, but every time I go to Church I settle down, close my eyes and (not least as a means to concentrate) silently pray the Our Father very slowly, line by line. Images/feelings often accompany this in my mind. Should I write them up as a talking point? ✝️⚓️

These Gorn things in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds are a bit like the eponymous Aliens of the franchise, eh? Couldn’t they be more original honestly?

But then, I do agree with McCartney on this: www.politico.eu/article/paul... Everyone knows what a "veggie burger" is. The EU, of which I am generally a fan, has bigger fish to fry!

"Abolish EU", Musk says. www.msn.com/en-gb/news/w... Oh yeah? Sounds like a snivelling, whining brat to me. If you really meant it you would've said that in 1995, 2007 etc. -- i.e. when the Treaties allowing the EU to fine your ass were signed.

hear me out: what if you took t' Temporal and Sanctoral of an Anglican church (using Collects etc provided but not the lectionary) and squished it (using appropriate Commons, or suitable propers in target) onto the Roman Breviary of 1962 (excluding Matins)? I would like it very much... Teehee. ✝️⚓

if you ever needed a gay passport?

the Government’s still effectively halving the cash ISA limit from 2027. Where do they think they got the right? I’ve said it before, but this Labour government is the worst for ruling by fiat.

Scrap this, scrap that, do this, do that. A hard act for the Chancellor www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... – Steve doesn't mind EVs paying tax. Nor do I. But I hate to disabuse him of the notion of paying to "upkeep the roads". I'm sure both Veh. Excise and Fuel Duty just go to the General Exchequer.

Sick of reading about unfair, regressive policy ideas from politicians. Instead link it to real justice, suum cuique. Would break the economy, but are there ways to make this work: 1. Set UC and State Pension to minimum wage; 2. Link both, and pub. sector wages and inc. tax bands to inflation.

Trump says Ukraine ungrateful as officials meet to convince Kyiv to accept peace proposals www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c3... -- funny, that... In my book it's Trump that is always the ungrateful cur.

If they stick to this map its clear what butchering a country look like.

Death of the Rt Rev Dr Gregor Duncan, former Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway www.glasgow.anglican.org/death-of-the... – sad news. I have fond memories of Bishop Gregor from my short time in Glasgow. May he Rest in Peace. And Rise in Glory. ✝️⚓

I Deliver Parcels in Beijing, by Hu Anyan www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o... – I had my eye on this book after the Guardian's review. I've just settled down to start it: it will be a tale of the precariat, something I'm sure China might claim doesn't exist. Let's see how it goes.

you can install all the nice voices you like in Windows, and set one you like (CereVoice Stuart - Scotland) as default. ...but Microsoft Edge only lets you use a bunch of other voices and ignores your default. ...even worse, MS Word only has two mysterious defaults: 'male' and 'female'. Urgh!

Okay, so there was a white paper about it. But they were very quiet about it.