ISIS are not terrorists

Think about it for a second. ISIS, IS, Taliban, Daesh are not your traditional terrorist organization. I'm against the bombing of Syria for this reason. I'll explain in a second, my rationale, so let me throw some background.

A terrorist is someone who uses fear, guerilla tactics and bombs directly to accomplish a goal in a situation that often includes civil war. Activities are normally limited to one country or a region, since the terrorist accomplishes little by travelling far from home. And there is the key, the ISIS goals are not to resolve civil war, but rather - to create it. Starting with the Arab spring as the source of civil unrest, the IS militants just drop in to further destabilize. A bit like mercenaries, who pop up wherever regular forces are not making progress at the time. It's a low cost operation with lots of bang for your buck (literally) and that's the other key - funding.

IS funding is a completely separate blog post I think, I'll continue instead. So when we rush in and bomb IS in order to stop them killing off more groups like the Yazidis, we just give them a platform. They are a lot more organised than we think and although we stop them from killing innocents through a bombing campaign, we don't really fix the problem. It's laudable to stop the killing of innicents, do not get me wrong. But terrorists are normally not lawfull. Two rights do not make a wrong in their books.

Bombings cut supply lines, sure, but they also cause people, civilians to leave the area. We call them refugees, IS cell members are able to secretly mingle with these refugees and travel more freely than normally as a result. Where do they go? Oh, I'm sure they know, and David Cameron knows where they want to go, or does he? Well there you have it, bombing just pisses people off, it might save lives, but it plays into their hands... something we keep on doing it seems.

Christmas time reminder note

In case I forget, here is a handy note . Dates to calendar.

Schedule information about services and events that are taking place in the run up to Christmas at CBC, please put these dates in your diary and take opportunities to invite friends and family to join us as we look to celebrate together.

Christmas Service

Sunday 29th November -  Advent Creative Service (A good opportunity to invite friends and family to join us for stories, songs, craft, quizzes and a time of reflection)  If you are able to bring cakes or  biscuits to share over coffee after the service please do.

Sunday 6th December -  Family Service Led by GenR8 (Another great opportunity to invite friends and family as GenR8 lead this Christmas Service for us)  We will also be decorating our church for  Christmas after this service.

Sunday 13th December -  Morning Service to include a wedding blessing for Miranda and John Bonner, please join us as we celebrate with them

Evening Carol Service (Where an offering will be taken for Cottenham Cares to help refugees in Syrian camps)  Starting at5.30pm with soup and a roll.  Please bring along  mince pies if you can, so that we have plenty to share with people, along with mulled wine, after the service

Sunday 20th December - Christmas Communion Service

Friday 25th December - Christmas Day Family Service with Music from Music Mash

Sunday 27th December - Breakfast Service. (A relaxed service with a light breakfast for those who are able to gather after Christmas)

This year at Church we are also providing a Christmas Card board where people can place a Christmas Card for everyone in the Church.  This saves on writing lots of cards and also allows us to send Christmas greeting to everyone in our church family, with one card.  The board will be up in the church from Sunday 6th December.

Missing in the list is Supernovas Party 11th (Friday) December, sometime in the afternoon, 4:30 pm. I'm helping so I'll be there from about 2:30 anyway.

Quick Shout-out

So, not everyone is actually artistic, some people write stuff like blogs as a way of recording their knowledge for later recall. But sometimes you record and share on youtube, and if you are like me you are a you-tuber not for shares,likes or fame, but to record for later recall. But mostly for me youtube is about learning how to work with video, I love the editing of sound, static images and special effects. Who never dreamed of directing a movie? Well, to make this really happen, you need to learn, the best way is the youtube creator academy. It's a google plus group, join and start browsing about, do all the lessons in the lesson plans that appeal to you. Then get depressed due to your budget being zero!

So what? Who cares, just carry on trying to get by with less. But sometimes you will grow - like this week I even got a shout-out from a lady who calls herself T- LIN.
Roll the video https://youtu.be/m8rAKbEX1A0?t=455

Recommended to try out Cyberlink Power Director http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdirector-ultra/features_en_GB.html
... which has a 30 day demo mode.

Romans study

As part of Livewires, we are studying Romans - I decided to find some podcasts to listen too during the preparation workings, and well anytime I can. Podcasts are not my thing at all, so I don't expect to listen to much. But it might just stick.

Brain Caffiene

Check out coffitivity , it's an app that plays you some background sound that will help you defocus. Some people have playlists, some people use white-noise generators, and others have... Well a Spotify playlist even.

https://coffitivity.com/

I can see other kinds of applications for this background noise. OK, so.... Have you ever tried to concentrate in a completely silent room, if like me the circus comes out and your mind runs riot, this app might be just the ticket.