Too many people have made too many excuses for too many crimes.
I guess the £15 wireless mouse and keyboard combo I just bought was made by slaves in China. Awkward realisation. But there was no way I was going to pay £110 for the proper keyboard (which was probably also made by slaves in China, but sold at a massive mark up). Yes, I want it all cheap. Yes, I am compromised. Life in the twenty-first century.
We love to praise and celebrate people who seem to agree with us, even when they’re plainly idiots. Life in the twenty-first century.
Appeal asking you to donate by SMS? Might be better to donate online. When you donate by SMS, you get a follow up call from a “professional fundraising company” who will do everything possible to convince you to set up a standing order (because that’s how they get paid).
I understand that charities have to do whatever it takes in difficult times, but my wife said my face had turned purple by the time I’d finished on the phone with them.
My guess is that the SMS is not so much about making donations easy, as getting a foot in the door. Next time I won’t make the same mistake.
But the fundraising professionals are not alone. A lot of charities now follow up donations with a plea for more, even when you’ve given all that you can afford, in some strange belief that you’re not doing enough.
Of course I know the situation on the ground… that’s why I donated in the first place… please don’t emotionally blackmail me…
Honestly, it all leaves a very bad taste in the mouth. Today’s charities need a lesson in manners, if not ethics.
I notice people only answer the question when they see a business opportunity.
Don’t forget the aql in your naql.
Yasal Uyar?: Bu anti-kapitalist bir video 2,349 TL maliyet bir iphone yap?ld?.
Look, if I had as much money as you two Irish rockers, I probably wouldn’t release a Christmas single to raise some cash for charity right now.
How much money do you two actually need to live on? Most of us families of four get by on about £1500 a month.
Oh insanely rich superstar, I’m absolutely positive the Disasters Emergency Committee would gladly accept a nice discrete £500m donation (still leaves you £400m to tide you over for your retirement).
Oh poor hater of Mondays, surely you can spare a paltry £50m to build a few well equipped hospitals (you’ll still have £100m left over).
And maybe save the rest of us from your sneering appeals. We’re already doing what we can.
2,200 people were killed in attacks on Gaza this summer. 203 mosques and 2 churches were targeted. 73 were destroyed completely. We shrugged our shoulders.
I don’t like to get emotional about an inanimate object, but sometimes you do just have to express your wonderment at advances in technology. (more…)
What we really need is balance. If all the good people withdraw, fearing harm or evil, the voices of negativity and hatred will only be amplified and all the more pervasive. Good people need to make themselves heard, felt and known.
My dear noble friends, my humble servants, my trusty companions: alas, the time has come to part ways.
We have been through thick and thin together, through rainstorm, snow and searing heat, on hillside and lowland, on soft verge and hard road. You have served me well.
Two years ago I might have had cause to fling you in the bin, but I am a fool for comfort and fondness. Though water soaked my socks in a downpour, I could not let you go. Though I felt pavement instead of sole beneath my foot, I shunned all talk of the shoe shop. O, what comfort didst thou provide!
But alas, alas, the time has come to part ways. A new pair awaits me in the hall. But, lo, perhaps we will walk together in the garden yet.
A friend posts conspiratorial claims on the Internet. I am surprised, because he is a student of knowledge who knows all about the importance of verification in our deen. So I ask, “Are any of these claims true?” A friendly exchange follows, for we each have a different take on these matters. Perhaps we just have to agree to disagree.
But, alas, my disputations are not appreciated. Somehow I must be convinced, even if it means sharing an article from a website which is as much devoted to aliens and UFOs as to the political machinations of the State. A faked photograph showing video fakery will surely convince me that the latest conspiracy theory is absolutely watertight and true.
Convincing? No, not really. I’m a dab hand at Photoshop myself and could mockup pretty much the same image in about half an hour by raiding a Google Image Search. True, the photo was just an illustration, chosen to complement an article: but a bad start in the mission to convince.
Now, look, I’m as partial to conspiracy theories as the next man. The Running Man and Enemy of the State are two of my favourite films. I am quite happy to believe that nations whose economies rely on weapons sales and access to oil use underhand techniques to help pave the way for war. Tony Blair, George Bush, WMDs, cough. This doesn’t mean I have to accept every claim I read on Facebook, however, just because it fits with a narrative I wish to believe and hold to.
This is why I will go on challenging spurious, unverified and curious claims whenever and wherever I encounter them. Why? Because we are charged with being a people of truth, and therefore we need to be certain that every piece of information we pass on is true. If there’s doubt, I tell myself, leave it out.
Shouldn’t those six short words be our minimum starting point, every single time?
Is it really deception to keep one’s faith to oneself? I get the impression that some people I know are moderate evangelicals, but they’ve never actually said so. Generally speaking, we’re not a people who goes for show; we like a quiet, private faith. Displays of overt religiosity tend to send people running for cover. So why respond in horror, reeling at the revelations of the rumour mill? If you thought I was a decent human being before this news reached you, can you not find it in your heart to suppose that I may still be one? And if not, does that not suggest there was some wisdom in my keeping my faith to myself? If, every time it becomes known, I must fall out of favour, what choice do I have but to put up the wall of privacy? It is a self-defence mechanism, not a fifth column.
