Fulfilling the old yarn that "if you give 'em an inch, they'll take a mile," Blair's Labor Party voted a complete ban on fox hunting in England and Wales, in the face of Blair's wish for a more limited ban. Squishy soft Laborites have been led by their sentimentalities rather than their brains (or is this akin to asking a fish to walk and talk?), buying wholesale Oscar Wilde's silly line that fox hunting was "the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable." First, anyone taking their political-social advice from Wilde has their own issues to work through. Second, it is eminently "speakable" with a fascinating and storied history going back to eighteenth century England. Third, according to Roger Scruton, the fox is also edible, although I haven't tried it myself -- cook it like rabbit, he advises. Scruton's book "On Hunting" is a must read, for both the issue of fox hunting and as an autobiography of England's pre-eminent conservative philosopher.

Bishop George Langberg of the Anglican Church in America predicts that if Gene Robinson (the openly gay Anglican priest recently elected Bishop of New Hampshire) is ratified as NH bishop, conservative Anglicans will leave their parishes for more traditional venues. Langberg reminded NH parishioners on a recent visit that "the church is not the Kiwanis Club — it’s not man-made." Good line and amen to that. Considering how mainline Protestatism is bleeding away, you would think the Robinsonites would see the impracticality of this election (beyond the Scriptural and moral problems, but that is asking too much). Churches that stand for everything soon stand for nothing, and preach to no one. Interesting too, that Bishop Langberg's traditionalist ACA has 7 parishes in NH, more than any other state, and 17 in all of New England -- in comparison to 7 total in NY, NJ, and PA and 12 total in CA, OR, and WA.

On a related note, the venerable University of New Hampshire is bundling classes together across several disciplines to offer "certification" in "Queer Studies," certainly a first step toward a major and department of the same name. Let me get this straight (no pun intended): students can't spell, name more than 5 presidents, tell me when the Civil War began, or speak a sentence without using "like," and UNH finds it necessary to begin a "Queer Studies" track? Might I suggest that our priorities are out of whack?