On having nothing to say

For the first time in a long time, I find myself with nothing to say. I am not suggesting that there is nothing blogworthy going on. All I am saying is that I cannot think of anything remotely interesting to say about anything.

Lest you start wondering whether my listlessness portends deep depression, let me assure you that I am not listless in the least. If you're thinking that I don't have anything to say because I am so jaded and cynical that nothing surprises me any more, I can assure you that's not true.

I can manage a fair bit of outrage at the antics of the Republican Congressman Mark Foley with young male Congressional pages. In fact I can even manage some surprise, when there should be none, that a Catholic priest has acknowledged that he cavorted in the nude with a young Mark Foley in 1967, when the latter was a choir boy. Wouldn't surprise at the news of a Catholic priest having abused a young boy, be akin to expressing surprise that bears occasionaly use the woods as a bathroom? But despite feeling this surprise, I cannot find anything interesting to say about it.

I am baffled by the latest wave of political correctness to have overtaken Britain, where common sense has been overtaken by a craven desire to appear unbiased. British Airways ground staff are allowed to wear turbans, veils and headscarves, but a Christian employee was sent home for wearing small crucifix around her neck. Even the British Home Office has got in on the act, allowing Muslim women to wear head-scarves in passport photographs. You could even say I am dismayed by this obvious and blatant double standard. But I can't find anything remotely interesting to say about it.

If all these happenings cause such surprise, anger and outrage, why then am I not able to find anything pithy and memorable to say about it? Not for me apparently, the well-turned phrase that lampoons the creators of these situations. Just a general air of incomprehension and befuddlement.

The world seems to be providing us all with such surreal opportunities to witness a system of order gone so completely awry, that I am left quite speechless.

I am just going to lie down until the feeling passes. Perhaps then I'll have something to say.

Mark Foley
Headscarves
Islam