Christianity + Democracy = my politics

Politically, I am now a Christian Democrat

That is how I identify

My world-view is Christian

And I think society should be run democratically, that the political system should be a democracy

Christianity + Democracy = my politics

More about this to come........

First party political post: Reform UK and our NHS

This is the first party political post on Madaba.info

I don't normally tend to get involved in party politics but I want to vent so here we go!

In short, I believe that Christianity demands universal health care, free at the point of use.

I think that Reform UK are against this, and to me that makes them anti-Christian. 

Read the gospels and you will see that Jesus Christ clearly has an interest in healing the ill, and did so out of compassion and concern, not for money

He healed all, asking for nothing in return

Christianity is all about being concerned for the welfare of your fellow humans and about building up a caring community

That is what Mark 12:31 is all about: "love your neighbour as yourself"

In 2012 the current leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage said:

“I think we are going to have to move to an insurance-based system of healthcare”

Which would mean abolishing the NHS as we know it

Let’s have a bit of a closer look

Who are this “we”?

It does not mean “we” the British people, that’s for sure

Abolishing the NHS would be objectively bad for us and make our lives worse

It means Nigel Farage’s chums in the Financial Class, of which he is clearly a part

The Financial Class would profit greatly from privatising the NHS, as they do in the USA where people pay through the nose for health coverage which more often than not does not pay out

Of course those people would like us to privatise our NHS, they would profit greatly from that by “providing” us with health insurance!

Also, what does he mean by “have to”?

If the meaning of life is to line the pockets of the Financial Class at the expense of the ordinary people then yes, we do have to do that – but thankfully it isn’t!

A vote for Reform UK would be a vote for national self-harm

Nigel Farage will try and distract the electorate with riots, minorities, wokeism, boat people, indolent verminous dole scum and the like – but at the end of the day, our health and our health service would not be safe in his hands

In my mind, Nigel Farage not being fully committed to the principles of the NHS means he is unfit to be our Prime Minister. I believe that his views about the NHS are counter to both the views and interests of the British people

References:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/nov/12/film-nigel-farage-insurance-based-nhs-private-companies

A Review of The Beatles third studio album, "A Hard Day's Night" (1964)

Today I have listened to The Beatles third studio album, A Hard Day’s Night, from 1964

I enjoyed this album as much as I did With The Beatles, and more than I enjoyed Please Please Me – so I’m going to give it two and a half stars out of five. It is slightly more interesting and less samey than With The Beatles, but not significantly better

I was already familiar with two songs from this album, Can’t Buy My Love and A Hard Day’s Night – and these are easily the two stand-out tracks on this album

If I Fell and And I Love Her both landed for me, I think these are good songs

I also liked Tell Me Why – I think this one is all very jangly and twee but good, jangly and twee done well, perfecting that particular sound which is present in this album and the other two that came before it

Any Time At All was good too – captivating and lush, it has a good intro and chorus, it’s very generic, but a good example of its kind, this one is also jangly and twee done well

Tracks that did not work for me:

I’ll Cry Instead

Things We Said Today – I found this one dull and tedious

When I Get Home – a bit shit really and uninspired, not very interesting

You Can’t Do That – childish, I didn’t like it

I’ll Be Back – cutesy and annoying, generic but not done well

I think this album has its ups and also its downs, but I don’t rate it massively high although I do recognise that culturally it is very significant, an important and historically significant album. So it qualifies as “great” whilst being mediocre in terms of overall quality. The good bits cancel out the bad bits but the bad bits also cancel out the good bits. So I think it’s not so bad but also not really very thrilling

But were I listening to this in the 1960s, with the same culture in me as people had in the 60s then I would be raving about this album, I would be very enthusiastic about it and probably be a Beatles fan! – but I am not of the 1960s and those days are long gone, so right now for me this album is nothing special and not particularly good, in my opinion!

But I still rate it as a creative success, it is by no means a failure. It is just not in any way outstanding in terms of how good it is.....

So yeah, two and a half stars out of five, I think that's reasonable and fair

Listening to The Beatles Albums - "Please Please Me" and "With The Beatles"

I have decided to listen to every album by The Beatles, in the order in which they were released

Yesterday I listened to their first album, Please Please Me

I think that all these songs were very very similar

I think they sounded generic, all very similar in tone and spirit

But the thing is, back in the 60s they'd have felt fresh and novel, and would have hit differently

And of course, The Beatles contributed greatly to the sound that we recognise as being 1960s-ish

In my opinion Love Me Do and Twist And Shout are the two stand-out tracks on this album

The others don't stand out and are all a bit samey

So I think this album should get some points for being historically significant but based simply on how good the tracks are as tracks I'd have to give this album two stars out of five

Today I listened to their second album, With The Beatles

This basically has the same sound, but it is done much better, and with more character and presence, the tracks on this one sound more substantial than on Please Please Me, it is a much better album as the tracks are much better, even though they are very similar to both themselves and the tracks on Please Please Me

I think they have noticeably improved since Please Please Me, this one is a much better effort

It Won't Be Long is a cracking song as is I Wanna Be Your Man

Please Mister Postman and Roll Over Beethoven also stand out, and feel very 60s-ish but I think a part of this may be because that we associate those songs with 60s pop music - I'd say that they are iconic and of their time more than they are good

Devil In Her Heart also sounds very well crafted, and I like the guitar riffs in it

But the other tracks are very much like the tracks in Please Please Me and don't really stand out and are not particularly memorable

I gave Please Please Me 2 stars out of 5. I think I will award With The Beatles 2.5 stars out of 5, as it is marginally better than Please Please Me but still very similar

It's not really The Beatles at a later stage of development, but it is clearly an improvement on Please Please Me - they are definitely a better band on their second album and I think the improvement is very noticeable

Also, the vibe of this album hits differently, it sounds like they took the whole thing more seriously than they did Please Please Me, and it is less twee and jangly and a bit more mature - they come across as young men, rather than as boys (as they did in Please Please Me)

In these two albums their tracks are I think formulaic, all their tracks sound alike even though some of them do stand out more than others, but not massively

The sound in With The Beatles is clearly from the same place as the sound carried on Please Please Me even though it is slightly more mature and sophisticated

I think that with Please Please Me and With The Beatles the tracks are all a bit hit and miss but more miss than hit I'm afraid - but at the time they'd have felt better

Hold Me Tight is definitely a miss for me, it just doesn't work for me

You Really Got A Hold On Me also isn't too good in my opinion. It most certainly didn't get a hold on me!!!!

Till There Was You is also nice I think, it is pleasant and rather chilled and sounds sweet and nice

But I do like their use of a harmonica in some of their tracks on both albums!

Also: I enjoyed With The Beatles much more than I did Please Please Me - so that's got to count for something, if it was more fun to listen to, and also more memorable too I'd say!

Tomorrow I will listen to their third album, A Hard Day's Night!

"regulates", not "controls"

Today I explained to someone what Madaba does

I told them that Madaba "regulates" the Noosphere

I think this is a much better word than "controls"

"Regulates" sounds less hands-on than "controls" and implies that Madaba's activities are more about sustaining and facilitating than guiding or superintending

Madaba does not rule or control

Madaba facilitates

I am The Madaba

I am The Madaba

And this is my blog

Solutions to some of the world's many problems coming soon.............

the concept of Madaba

I think that the concept of Madaba can be better understood by combining:

The concept of God with the concept of The Matrix

And by "God" I mean the Godhead, more than the entire Divine Substance - to be more precise, I mean what I call Upstairs - The Godhead and its agents

I think that is the way to go!