Boat Horns

I don't write my blog to change people's minds. I write because in the quiet of the day, that's what I've always done. Now with the free Blogger software, I can publish what I write in the ether where it lives forever, God help me, rather than piling up in the corner of the living room.

There is also a bit of "I told you so" about the whole thing. In 50 years time, the little kids running under my feet at parties can whisper to each other "there's mad aunt Carol, she thought sharia law was a bad idea" or whatever they'll be allowed to say without getting their hearts cut out.

Wherever these blogs end up stored, there will be Mark Steyn and Ben Stein and Theodore Dalrymple. Writers whose work dwarfs my own. Writers who try to explode facts underneath the chairs of the inert and clueless. I like the differences in their writing styles, a spectrum of world weariness.

When I was little, we'd sail on the lake, then sail into our neighbourhood marina, blasting a boat horn ahead of time to raise the bridges between points of land.

Sometimes I hear that sound in my sleep. Gabriel blowing his horn? Car crash in the high street?

Here's Mark Steyn on the latest BP ad:

".....I notice that in its commercials the oil company BP – that’s to say, British Petroleum – now says that BP stands for “Beyond Petroleum”: the ads are all about how it’s developing environmentally-friendly ways to conserve energy; in other words, it’s ashamed of the business it’s in. "

He ends his article with this quote:

"Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in 1870, “Nature has made up her mind that what cannot defend itself shall not be defended.” "