YouTube treats...

It must be almost twenty years since I last owned a TV set: a time when the broadcast output seemed designed to keep the population docile and distracted. And, since then, it has arguably got even worse. However, I’m still staring at screens… whether it’s the 24in iMac for editing my pix, or my laptop for writing and everything else.

YouTube has been my go-to channel, particularly for talks and debates by some of my favourite characters: Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, etc. But, during lockdown, I’ve found much else to raise a laugh, lift the sprits and perhaps even broaden the mind. Music by the Petersens: a bluegrass family band from Missouri. All Christians, they look so happy and wholesome that I - almost - gave my life to Jesus. I found a video showing what life would have been like for Bob Dylan if he’d worked at a lumber camp instead of becoming a musical megastar. Other musical treats include Irish dancing, flash mobs and young girls playing banjos.

I watch resourcerful loners living off-grid… in camper vans, log cabins, ’tiny houses’, treehouses, etc. I’ve found documentaries made by the Institute of Nomadic Architecture (who knew there was such a thing?), following nomads and their animals as they pitch tents and, a few days later, move on and pitch their tents again. Fascinating.

Used in today’s Observer: the terraced house in Mytholmroyd where poet Ted Hughes was born… 

Prestbury...

Republicans - and the polls - seem to be in agreement that Donald Trump will win the party’s nomination for the next presidential election in 2024. Their loyalty looks misplaced. Trump will be busy, for the forseeable future, fighting off one lawsuit after another. After four years of competent - if unexciting - government by Joe Biden, I doubt whether Trump could win the White House again. Everyone except Trump’s diehard supporters will have woken up from their fever dream by 2024, as they remember, with a shudder, what a Trump presidency was like.

Licenced yesterday: a street in Prestbury, Cheshire…

Morrisons...

According to a report published today by the Office for National Statistics, nearly 95% of adults are happy to get the covid jab. This number has risen since early December, when 78% of adults indicated they would be likely to accept the vaccine if offered it (the most common reasons for hesitancy: possible side-effects, concerns about long-term health impacts, and waiting to see how well the vaccines worked). Sounds like good news to me.

I’ve had an email from someone I see maybe a couple of times a year, to tell me that he won’t be getting a jab, preferring, as he put it, to go his “own sweet way”. In his refusal to change his behaviour - no social distancing - he seemed rather too pleased with himself. He indicated he would be happy to meet and “catch up”. Me? Not so much. 

People who refuse the vaccine should be transported back in time to when we were at the mercy of polio, tetanus, rubella, diptheria, hepatitis and smallpox (still the only infectious disease declared by the WHO to have been entirely eradicated). Transported back… and left there.

Licenced today: a delivery van for the family firm...

Minsmere...

Donald Trump will be the keynote speaker at the four-day Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Florida. Despite his disastrous presidency, and the part he played in the insurrection at the Capitol, he is still seen by Republicans as the leader of the party. As Tim Miller, the former political director of Republican Voters Against Trump, said, “Republicans had an opportunity to put a stake in his heart, but they didn’t take it”.

Licensed today: reedbeds at Minsmere, the famous nature reserve in Suffolk...

Black grouse...

Licensed today: the Black Grouse pub in the little Cumbrian town of Broughton...

Norber Erratics...

Licensed today: the Norber Erratics, one of the finest groups of erratic boulders in Britain, probably deposited by glacial action at the end of the last ice age, around 12,000 years ago, some of which are perched on pedestals of limestone… 

Death toll...

The US death toll from coronavirus has now reached 500,000: more than the number of combatants who died in World War 1, World War 2 and Vietnam…

Capital punishments...

The Bible - and the Levitical code in particular - offers a daunting list of capital crimes. These are just a few. Worshipping any god but Yahweh: “If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that . . . hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded; . . .Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die” (Deuteronomy 17:2-5). Blasphemers: “And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death” (Leviticus 24:16).

Men who Lie With Men: “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them” (Leviticus 20:13). Premarital Sex (girls only): “If, however, this charge is true, that evidence of the young woman’s virginity was not found, then they shall bring the young woman out to the entrance of her father’s house and the men of her town shall stone her to death” (Deuteronomy 22:20). Disobedience (boys only): “If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and mother, who does not heed them when they discipline him, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the gate of that place. They shall say to the elders of his town, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” Then all the men of the town shall stone him to death” (Deuteronomy 21:18).

Cursing parents: “For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him” (Leviticus 20:9). Working on the Sabbath: “Whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death” (Exodus 31:15). No exception was made for an old man who was gathering firewood on the Sabbath. God said to Moses, “The man shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” (Numbers 15: 32-36). The congregation were happy to oblige…

Kilnsey...

Licenced today: Kilnsey Park fish farm in Wharfedale…

Bowness Bay...

Licenced today… This mansion overlooking Bowness Bay - now the Belsfield Hotel - was the home of Henry William Schneider, chairman of the Barrow Shipworks. He began every working day by strolling down to the lake, followed - at a respectful distance - by his butler carrying his breakfast on a tray. Schneider boarded his steam yacht, the Esperance, and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast afloat, as his crew delivered him to Lakeside, at the southern end of the lake. He transferred to a private carriage on the Furness Railway – of which he was a director -  for the scenic route along the coast to his office in Barrow-in-Furness…

Apostasy...

The BBC is “under fire” for broadcasting a “strikingly hostile” interview, on Woman’s Hour, with Zara Mohammed, the first woman to lead the Muslim Council of Britain. Though I haven’t heard the interview, I am familiar with the automatic assumption that even the mildest criticism of Islam is ‘Islamophobic’. This is what happens when the Koran is considered to be the “perfect” book, and Mohammed - who married a 6-year-old girl and consummated the marriage three years later - is considered to be the “perfect” man. How is it possible to criticise perfection?

I doubt if many non-Muslims have read the Koran (spoiler alert: it’s both horrifying and dull… a bad combination). But even before we open the book, Islam has a case or two to answer. For example, the penalty for leaving Islam is death. In the Hadith, the sayings of the prophet, Mohammed said “Whoever changes his religion, kill him” (Sahih Al-Bukhari, 9:57). There’s nothing metaphorical about that demand, nor does it represent an extreme position. According to a report by the Pew Research Center, 88% of Muslims in Egypt, and 62% of Muslims in Pakistan, favor the death penalty for people who leave Islam. Figures are lower, but still significant, in other Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East and South Asia.

While this doesn’t mean that all apostates are executed, of course, it’s nevertheless a chilling reminder that religious freedom, in many Islamic countries, just means the ‘freedom’ to worship Allah. We have to ask whether compulsory belief can ever be compatible with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. According to article 18, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance”…

Northallerton...

Licenced today: the broad main street of Northallerton... 

Cricket...

Having won the first test match in Chennai by the healthy margin of 227 runs, England have subsided to defeat, by 317 runs, in the second match. That’s quite a reversal, and sets up the next two games, in Ahmedabad, starting next week. England were well beaten in all aspects of the game. Nevertheless, when England’s last wicket fell, Joe Root and the rest of the team walked onto the pitch and shook the hand of every member of the Indian team. That’s classy. Donald Trump could learn a few lessons about losing gracefully (and that coming second, in a fair contest, doesn’t make you “a loser”)…

Licenced today: Saltend chemical works, near Paull, East Yorkshire… 

Barra...

In one of the least surprising verdicts in legal history, Donald Trump has been found not guilty, in his second impeachment, of inciting his followers to attack the Capitol. Republicans had the perfect opportunity to distance themselves from the disastrous Trump presidency… and blew it.

Licenced last week: Castlebay - and hill, Heaval - on Barra, in the Western Isles…

Delivery...

Last licence of the week...

Public transport...

Licenced today: another mundane shot...

Skipton...

Licenced today: the Castle Inn, Skipton...

My first jab...

I’ve finally become a Covid-19 statistic… in a good way. This morning I drove to the Askham Bar park & ride facility, on the outskirts of York, to join the line of oldsters queuing up for what a sign announced would be my 'vaccination journey'. “Join the blue queue”, a woman with a clipboard said, “not the red queue. That’s for voluntary euthenasia”…

Women in the Church

Breaking with tradition, Pope Francis has appointed Frenchwoman Nathalie Becquart as an undersecretary of the synod of bishops, the first woman to hold the post and have voting rights. According to Cardinal Mario Grech, the secretary general of the synod, “With the nomination of Sister Nathalie Becquart… a door has opened”. A door has opened? That’s a rather disingenuous comment, since the Catholic Church has, for centuries, kept this particular door shut, locked, bolted, barred and barricaded… and women firmly in their place…

Intensive care...

There’s a powerful article, in today’s Guardian, about the conditions inside an intensive care unit, written by a doctor, Rachel Clarke, who works there. It’s chastening to read about the human dramas behind the daily-updated statistics. As if the workload of these frontline medics wasn’t onerous enough already, they now have new adversaries: people who not only believe that Covid is a hoax, but are prepared to turn up at hospitals - with their banners and slogans and conspiracy theories - and harangue the staff. 

As Dr Clarke notes, “For the crime of asserting on social media that Covid is real and deadly, I earn daily abuse from a vitriolic minority. I’ve been called Hitler, Shipman, Satan and Mengele for insisting on Twitter that our hospitals aren’t empty”. And yet, when covid-deniers and anti-vaxxers get sick, they’ll receive the same treatment and care from the staff at our NHS hospitals. 

I finally have a couple of dates for my 2021 year planner, getting my first jab on Monday and my second on April 27. Hooray!

Licenced yesterday: St Mary's Church in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire…

Wetwang again...

I've done well with my small portfolio of Wetwang images. We never seem to tire of funny place names, as my friends in Penistone and Scunthorpe can confirm (in a sane world, these two northern towns would be twinned). This shot was licenced today...

Malignant Narcissism...

Psychologists have been concerned for years about Donald Trump’s fitness to govern. However, within the profession, it is considered unethical to give diagnoses without having met and assessed an individual, which is why Trump has been allowed - even encouraged - to create mayhem throughout his disastrous four-year presidency.

Malignant Narcissism is a combination of three mental illnesses - Anti-social Personality Disorder, Paranoid Personality Disorder and Narcissistic Personality Disorder - plus the enjoyment of inflicting pain. More akin to delusional schizophrenia, Malignant Narcissism represents - according to the doctor, Erich Fromm, who coined the term - “the most severe pathology and the root of the most vicious destructiveness”. Having escaped from Nazi Germany during the war, Fromm used the term to describe Adolf Hitler.

Though there’s nothing ‘official’ about diagnosing a man’s mental disorders from a distance, it’s chilling to see how many boxes Trump ticks (and it could be argued that he ticks them all)…

 

Beamish...

Licensed today: visitors at Beamish Museum, 'the living museum of the North'... 

Impeachment 2.0

The second impeachment of Donald J Trump starts today, with the House impeachment managers filing a brief outlining their arguments for his conviction. “The nation will indeed remember January 6, 2021 - and President Trump’s singular responsibility for that tragedy. It is impossible to imagine the events of January 6 occurring without President Trump creating a powder keg, striking a match, and then seeking personal advantage from the ensuing havoc”.

The storming of the Capitol was watched live on TV by millions of people around the world. Not that this will sway Senate Republicans. According to Princeton University historian, Julian Zelizer, “Most already have their answer. Trump could offer no defense or he could go on the floor to read lines from the Joker movie; they would still vote to acquit”…