AN OUTSIDE VIEW

The main Linux desktops, KDE and Unity, seem to be getting heavier as time passes, with more and more added features. For a basic desktop or laptop, Cinnamon, LXDE and XFCE seem to be good enough, and make no demands on the hardware. My main setup is a bit more complex, as I have two screens and need to use different keyboard layouts at times. Unity and KDE handle this well enough but seem sluggish even on an i5 with 16G RAM. XFCE was troublesome and then proved difficult to remove completely. However, it worked nicely on an elderly PC with a core 2 and just 2G RAM. LXDE had issues with the keyboard layouts and wallpapers on two screens. Cinnamon seems to do the job without difficulty. It looks clean on the screen and runs fast. In future I shall probably install Cinnamon or Lubuntu (LXDE) to get a further few years' use from the old PCs that are available for nothing but are still good for a while. XFCE is a bit Mac-like and might suit people who are used to that style of sc...

I went to the choir weekend at Vadstena in 2012. There is another one this October, to which we (the choir) has been invited. After the previous weekend, I wrote this, " With a building like Vadstena Abbey Church available - though there are others too, such as Varnhem, there are great possibilities as long as the building's acoustics are respected. "The vespers could be those for the day, sung mostly in Latin from the Liber Usualis. Why Latin? Because, first, the language has simple open vowels; second, it is pretty close to what would have been sung when the building had just been completed; and third, but most importantly, it would be worth inviting a teacher or teachers to give instruction in the reading and performance of Gregorian chant, possibly a monk from Solemnes. On the Saturday evening, it would also be fitting to conclude with the sung Compline, like these French Benedictine monks, music which would be literally awesome in the Vadstena Abbey church. ...

26 May is the Feast of St Philip Neri so this is an appropriate time to ask why the Oratorian order is growing, against the general trend in the church; since 1993, when there were just the original two Oratory churches in London and Birmingham, Oratory congregations have taken over parishes in Oxford, Manchester, York, Cardiff and now Bournemouth. Following the announcement of the latter, the Catholic telephone published an interview with Dr Joseph Shaw of the Latin Mass Society about this significant development. The Oratory as an Institute is on the rise across the world from Australia to South Africa, from France to Wales, and from Kingston, Jamaica, to the United States. Why is this happening when most other religious orders are shrinking? Interview in the Catholic Herald.

4 women stabbed in London supermarket car park.  No comments allowed.

Today was Pentecost Sunday and we had all the ancient traditional music that goes with it - the Introit Spiritus Domini , the Sequence Veni Sancte Spiritus, the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus and the Alleluia, Offertory and Communion verses sung from the Graduale Romanum . Nothing was left out. In this, we were very fortunate, as it is rare to find a Catholic parish where this happens. The music normally gets replaced by Protestant hymns or translations of the Catholic texts, which are generally a clumsy fit to the music. In the bigger scheme of things, where Christians are being murdered for no other reason than that they are Christians, this is a minor matter. On the other hand, the music of the liturgy helps to tell the narrative on which Christianity is founded. When the music is replaced with something else, the message becomes blurred. It runs deeper than that. Until 1970, Catholics would have been brought up with this music and it would have been imprinted in their memorie...

Is the Munich incident an instance of Sudden Jihad Syndrome? Does reading the book and saying the prayers lead to mental instability? Trying to make sense of the Koran demands, amongst other things, the performance of mental gymnastics amounting to the complete suspension of reason. Could this be part of the explanation?

Disraeli notwithstanding, Jews in Britain have traditionally supported the Labour party since its formation at the beginning of the twentieth century. This was to be expected, as most of the first and second generations of children of Jewish immigrants were working class, or in middle-class occupations such as teachers and in the public services. Although British Jews have assimilated, in many cases to the point of disappearance, and they have moved up in the economic hierarchy, their loyalty to Labour has continued. So what is behind the current wave of antisemitism in the Labour party? In part it is due to Israel's perceived mistreatment of the Palestinians, who are now seen as the underdogs and victims of Zionist oppression. Whilst the Israeli government has often made the wrong decisions and continues to do so, there is not a government in the world which would act very differently in the same situation; even so, it should not be beyond criticism. The supporter of the underdo...