top tips for Tuesday

Revd Bosco Peters from the Church of New Zealand, part of the Anglican Communion, reflects on a classic 1970s paper on social networking to look at the strengths and weaknesses of Sola Scriptura, the Reformation doctrine that everything one needs for a Christian life is contained in the Christian Bible.

Naomi Litvin, author of Holocaust memoir and love story We Never Lost Hope, investigates the John Birch Society, which was instrumental in keeping Jews out of country clubs but disappeared up its own paranoia, and finds a sinister wall of silence. Be sure to check out Part Two of this intriguing search by clicking the link at the bottom of the post.

Nick Hillman, PPC (Prospective Parliamentary Candidate) for the city of Cambridge, gives a diary providing a fascinating insight into a week in the immediate run-up to the general election campaign. I felt tired after reading this.

Government members got an answer to Stalin's question as to the whereabouts of the Pope's divisions recently when Pope Benedict XVI made a dramatic intervention reminding Britain that equality is not an end in itself while Harriet Harman's (Minister of Equality) Equality Bill was going through Parliament. The result: the clause in the Bill, which would have forced all the Christian denominations in the country to admit gay people, transexuals and atheists to the priesthood, regardless of their views on these matters, was dropped without recourse to the Parliament Act - which was used to ensure hunting with hounds was banned - to force it through. Here Fr Tim of The Hermeneutic of Continuity provides a link to a petition in support of His Holiness' visit to Britain. He has shown himself capable of walking in his predecessor's shoes, and I recommend you sign it.

The Big Picture (News Stories in Pictures) reminds us that dogs and sleds have been prominently figured in the news recently, and provides 30 beautiful pics of dogs, snow and sleds. Depending on the speed of your modem, may take a while to load.

The media noise about a banker being caught in flagrante cyberdelictus ogling a naked model while his colleague was being interview appeared to have drowned out Vodafone's embarrassment over an obscene Tweet coming from one of its employees during working time, but the latter case seems to have sent more bloggers rushing to their keyboards. In the light of the Vodafone kerfuffle, Fresh Networks presents managers whose employees may have to use social media with a guide to getting them used to the new communications media.

It's neither Exodus nor Deuteronomy, but this list of The 10 Commandments of Political Blogging from The Conservative Blog is an essential guide from an experienced blogger.

David Blackburn of the Spectator Arts Blog regrets that J.D. Salinger may have taken his autobiographical secrets with him.

Artist Edward Rawson is the son of Ian Rawson, Managing Director of the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti. Rawson filius writes a guest blog on his time helping in the earthquake-stricken country.

And finally - Lukas is the latest addition to Cambridge Constabulary's class of trainee police dogs. His handler named him after Lukas Dryml, a Czech speedway rider who used to ride for the Peterborough Panthers. In a charming first post written in Lukas' own paw, rad all about the puppy's first Christmas.

it begins

I hadn't intended to blog right now, as this is the time of the month I'm editing a local magazine; I'd included everybody's articles and been seen generally as a good egg, only to find that I'd used the wrong template, and will have to cut several pages. Boy, am I going to be popular...

Then I heard, from the American Life League, that the International Planned Parenthood Foundation (IPPF), descended from the organisation founded by egregious racist Margaret Sanger in 1916, is rising to the crisis. At a time when medical charities are appealing for antiobiotics, painkillers, antiseptics, dressings, cast-material, clean injecting equipment and vitamins, IPPF is appealing for money for condoms.

As if to add insult to injury, the IPPF shows its hand in a 2007 article stating that a key HIV strain came from Haiti. Had they done any research, they would have found that HIV-1 did not come from Haiti but passed through it: as in so many other areas, the island was more sinned against than sinning.

There is a spectrum of views upon the part condoms - and other genuine means of contraception (ie not abortifacients) - can play in relationships, and views on all points thereof are carefully and cerebrally defended. However, what the IPPF is saying with its appeal has no place on that spectrum. It is saying that, to put it bluntly, victims of the Haitian earthquake are too many, too poor and too black. If the IPPF or any analogous organisation is allowed a foothold on the island, doctors and nurses who need vaccines, painkillers, clean injecting equipment etc will find the same that too many workers have found in Africa: that the cupboards are full of virtually nothing but condoms. Please do not donate to this racist organisation and its fellow-travellers.

On the plus side, Pam from Texas has kindly given me details of two organisations in addition to the many which are genuinely trying to help Haiti. Firstly, there's Catholic Relief Services, and also Mercy Corps, which for the present has an anonymous donor matching other donations up to $250,000. So who's that? God knows.

top tips for Tuesday

This is a general link to the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer blog in Port au Prince, Haiti, where managing director Ian Raswon is keeping the world posted of the sometimes grim progress and where you can donate to the effort.

At Media Backspin, we hear that Venezualan president Hugo Chavez is accusing the US of using the quake as a pretext to occupy Haiti - a charge that French Cooperation Minister Alain Joyandet is repeating. So, we're asked, what is the role of the media in this and can media offering a partisan perspective be said to be neutral observers?

Elsewhere, the Catholic News Service announces that the Vatican is now offering the Bible online in Chinese...

...while in the country itself, Telegraph blogger Josephine McDermott - Chelsea Girl in China - wonders how the stand-off between Google and China will play out.

In the context of news that the British Government - unlike that of France and Germany - isn't warning its citizens off Internet Explorer after serious security weaknesses were uncovered, Richard Hollis reports on the breaching of 32 million accounts on the social networking site RockYou, exposed by the hacker responsible after the site issued denials.

Fr Tim Finigan posts on Pope Benedict's visit to the Rome Synagogue and, tellingly, quotes Mordechai Lewy, Israel's Ambassador to the Holy See, as saying taht there was a certain disappointment in some parts of the press when a crisis failed to emerge.

Beth Kanter, who blogs on using social media for non-profit, is based in the US, but many of her ideas could be applicable anywhere. Here she looks at some ways to help Haiti.

Last November, Conservative leader David Cameron launched AmericaInTheWorld.com, the online presence of the London Centre for the Study of Anti-Americanism. Here, Paul Goodman meditates on how, when it comes to major disasters, the US is damned if it does and damned if it doesn't.

Things to come? Richard Taylor on the first trial without a jury in modern times on British soil.

And finally, Catholic Herald editor Luke Coppen on how many science journalists are passive consumers of scientific stories - for example during the passage of the egregious Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill - and have forgotten how to investigate.

help Haiti

When I sat down to try to write something about Haiti, I realised with a sinking heart as further news about social breakdown came through the radio that this is not the time to say anything but: help them. Thank God, the Israel Defense Force Field Hospital has been set up in Poat-au-Prince (click for map), hopefully other countries' will follow soon. For those of us unable to be among the brave souls helping in person, here's some links.