[conscience] what will it allow you to do

Andrew Walker wrote an excellent piece on Friday, April 14th, 2006 for BBC News and I'd like to present a severely abridged version of it now:

On 9 April 1945, only weeks before the end of the war in Europe, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed on the direct orders of Adolf Hitler, already hiding in his bunker. The liberators arrived just 11 days later.

His crime? He helped a group of Jews to escape from Nazi Germany to Switzerland but much worse, in Hitler's eyes, he was also implicated in the July 1944 plot to kill the Nazi leader.

Coming from a well-heeled family in Breslau, Poland, Bonhoeffer was ordained a pastor in 1931 and was controversial from the start, seeking to convert Jews to Christianity. On the coming to power of the Nazis in 1933, the Pretestant Church split and Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemöller created the Confessing Church.

Bonhoeffer gave a radio talk which focused on the difference between a leader ("Führer") and a mis-leader ("Verführer") and was was cut-off in mid-sentence. Clearly, he was now a marked man and the Confessing Church was outlawed in 1937 although he himself became an officer in military intelligence, the Abwehr.

He also became a courier and diplomat to the British government on behalf of the resistance and lived for a time at Ettal, a Benedictine monastery outside Munich, where he worked on his book, Ethics, from 1940 until his arrest in 1943. In Ethics, he wrestles with the essential problem: how can a Christian, essentially a pacifist, justify murder?

His argument can be summarised thus: The demand for responsible action is one that no Christian can ignore. Christians are, therefore, faced with a dilemma: when assaulted by evil, they must oppose it through direct action. They have no other option. Any failure to act is simply to condone evil.

Today Bonhoeffer is honoured at Westminster Abbey in London as one of ten 20th Century martyrs, including Martin Luther King Jr and the murdered Archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero, whose statues now grace the West Front of the famous abbey.

The problem for Bonhoeffer's legacy is that his example is used by everyone from rabid feminists to animal action to justify violence. How do you see the man and his legacy?

[wednesday evening quiz] ten questions about the arts

Who is she?

1 In Botticelli's 'The Birth of Venus', what is Venus standing on?

2 With which other painter would you associate painter Françoise Gilot?

3 Emanuel Radinsky was born in Philadelphia in 1890 and died in Paris in 1976. He was a surrealist painter and photographer. By which name is he better known?

4 In the film "Summer Holiday" with Cliff Richards, where do they drive their bus to?

5 Which Bob Dylan song was written for the film 'Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid'?

6 Which film began with the following narration? "I never knew the old Vienna before the war, with its Strauss music, its glamour and easy charm... Constantinople suited me better."

7 Which of the performing Marx brothers never appeared in any of the films?

8 Who had a 1993 album called 'Diva'?

9 Who composed 'La Mer'?

10 Who holds a trumpet on the Sgt. Pepper album?

Answers here.

[strange day] something in the air perhaps

Very strange day which got better later. From the very first client this morning it was clear the day would be difficult - cold, bitter - a sort of madness creeping into the people's minds. sometimes they'd just cross the road without looking, brains sort of dull.

Visitors to this site were few and I had the feeling it was a similar situation over in Britain. It was a day of impulsive actions and interestingly, the secretary at the ministry had picked up on it and put it down to the magnetic atmosphere outide.

People were very direct, short with one another, if not rude, demanding that this be done, that be done. Then it seemed to ease an hour ago, which is London's 4 p.m. To hell with it, let's have a drink was the decision.

Now - it feels better. I suspect it will pick up later and we'll relax and enjoy the evening but I further suspect that might be the cognac talking.

[house issue] 20,000th unique just now

At 09:22, London time, someone from Lambeth became my 20,000th unique visitor. Leaving aside the fact that someone like Iain Dale gets seven times this number in a month, I'm still very happy to have passed this milestone.

[china coughs] the world catches cold

Chinese youth - quite a few, aren't there?

Are you in the least concerned about this or is it just some boring old financial biz, nothing to do with you and besides, you hardly understand it?

Stock markets around the world plummeted Tuesday in a wave of selling set off by a plunge in China that was reinforced by worries of weakening economies. The falling prices continued in early Asian trading today. Though Shanghai's benchmark index was the first market to tumble, it was not clear what set it off.

But once the selling began, it spread first to other Asian countries, then to Europe and the United States. "It was sort of one of those days where somebody snaps their fingers, and the market's hypnotic trance is over," said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist of PNC Financial.

Does this worry you any? This power of China in the market economy, not to mention Stuart Hoffman's appalling grammar? I mean - what the hell's going on here? Would the former have happened twelve years ago?

[domestic mystery] where did those glasses go

Tell me if this has ever happened to you:

After reading as document, I took my reading glasses off and put them down near the computer, then went and did this and that in the other rooms. Came back to the computer to continue work and they weren't there.

Searched everywhere, in every room, even trying to retrace the steps taken to get to the various rooms. Nothing. Went to the little room to think it out. Came back and same again. Went over by the window and there they were, on top of some books.

Twenty years ago, I went to buy a fish tank and parked the car near the shop. The Honda hatchback had a large rear area and I put my wallet and credit card down in there, cleared space, picked up the wallet but not the credit card and headed for the shop. The hatch was closed.

Panic in the shop, back to the car, everything taken out, including the spare wheel. Nothing. Then I saw the card - sitting on the window tray area near the front passenger seat. On any other occasion I might have accepted that, except this time I knew absolutely I hadn't taken the wallet out, nor the card, until I'd gone to the hatch.

Have you had similar?