It's been three centuries since you could be prosecuted for theological opinions in Scotland

It's been three centuries since you could be prosecuted for theological opinions in Scotland but you can now and in the rest of the UK.

The police are cooperating with the Bishop of St. Andrew's and Primus (head) of the Scottish Episcopalian Church to impose good relations between Christianity and Islam.

The Guardian has the story.

A Muslim youth was invited to give a reading from the Koran at a service at Epiphany at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow. He read "a passage from the Koran relating to the Virgin birth". 

This need not necessarily have been heretical - at least Muslims believe in the Virgin Birth, unlike quite a few Anglican clergy. But the passage from the Koran that was read out contained a verse saying Jesus was not God and shouldn't be worshipped. 

This raised very strong feelings among people who consider Islam a false religion.

"A Police Scotland spokesman said: “We can confirm we are investigating reports of offensive comments made towards St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow and inquiries are ongoing. Police Scotland will not tolerate any form of hate and encourages all communities to work together to ensure no one feels threatened or marginalised.”

I am in favour of peace between world religions, if possible, but not of suppression of free speech or suppression of conservative theology by the police. 

Perhaps Donald Trump, half Scottish as he is, will in time change the zeitgeist even in his mother's native country. Who knows? 

I hope so.

People who are horrified that Donald Trump is about to become US President should understand why

People who are horrified that Donald Trump is about to become US President should understand why. 

He is a very remarkable man, a force of nature, but also a reaction to and judgement on 8 years of Barack Obama, following 8 years of George W. Bush.

The old Republican party tradition is exhausted. It's meaningless. 

The new Democrat party based on identity politics, that thought Third World immigration was guaranteeing its future, is in big trouble. 

I hope the Democrats can be rebuilt without identity politics, but I doubt it. This is sad because, unlike the Bushes, they will come back to power. 

God-Emperor Trump: comparing the Donald with figures from antiquity

I thought I used the Trump Roman Emperor analogy first:

"I increasingly feel that we may be living in a period like the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the golden age where Gibbon starts his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Come to think of it, there is something of an outlandish late Roman emperor about Donald Trump, perhaps a rich wheat importer who got his position in an auction held by the Praetorian guard. "

I used this as part of an analogy between the present age and the reign of Marcus Aurelius, where Gibbon begins the Decline and Fall.

Then Tom Holland got in on the act and compared Trump to the early emperor, Caligula.

Trump did not mock the disabled man

Pace Meryl Streep, Paul Krugman and other groupthinkers it is perfectly clear from this clip that Trump did not mock that disabled man. Though the fact checkers did not tell us this.

Nor did he destroy Libya. 

Had Hillary won it would have been US-UK intervention in Syria and 4 years of investigating her emails.


This is Hillary joking about the death of Gadaffi, who died by being sodomised with a bayonet. And people say she doesn't have a sense of humour.