What's Walter done wrong...

... that he has to enter by a different door?

Nice burger lunch with Messrs Steviefish, Monochrome and Boabfoto at the Cambridge Bar, if slightly confusing. The Camembert Burger looked good to me, and with the vegetarian 'V' beside it suggested it was a round of camembert (actually, the text suggested that to when it said 'camembert round') with cranberries. I was in a cheesy mood. Slightly surprising, therefore, to find slices of camembert sitting atop a very definitely meaty burger. Just as well I'm not actually a veggie...

Anyway, Wayne Rooney to John Lennon as promised (and not using Liverpool as the link).

I see England managed to win last night. Okay, I'm a sports fan and an England fan, I actually watched some of the game, and was happy with the result. What's odd is the reporting about the game the day after. Wayne Rooney, everyone is agreed, managed to 'forget about his personal troubles' and played very well. His penance has been served, it would seem. The Rooney story has entered through a sort of osmosis that I have tried to resist, but still the basic facts are there. If you're a top sportsman you can be slightly morally bankrupt, but as long as you put in a performance on the pitch... Well... We can forgive you and move on. A goal per prostitute? It would be a strange (but probably successful) form of encouragement. Forget the fact he has committed a criminal act and in the process cheated on his wife and probably wind up leaving his child without an always-there father. He scored. On the pitch. Hurrah!

It's a consequence of treating football stars like some sort of group of deities. Like the Greek gods staring down on earth , except less entertaining, more violent, childish and petulant, and who we pay to remain there. Such deification would likely annoy Pastor Terry Jones in the States. In case you haven't heard, Pastor Jones' grand idea to commemorate the 9th anniversary of the 9/11 attackes on the World Trade Centre is a ritual burning of the Koran/Qur'an. You're going to have to forgive me the slipping out of a slightly rude word here: Pastor Jones, you are a fucking moron.

This morning on the telly he was going on about the fact we 'give in' to Islam, asking when we're going to stop doing so. A stance against religious fundamentalism is to be lauded, but doing so by, ironically, committing an act of religious fundamentalism seems slightly skewed. Or as the Daily Mash put it, US Church to commemorate 9-11 by causing another one. It's most interesting to me as I've started getting into the Qur'an proper (after a lot of explanatory notes) after buying a copy of the main religious texts of Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Do you know, for example, the meaning of 'Muslim'? It's basically someone who commits their life wholly to the one true God. And very very specifically includes Jews and Christians. The Qur'an actually backs up a lot of the old texts, but manages to be a bit more concise, and remarkably conciliatory.

Anyway, I think that we should embrace Pastor Terry Jones' idea. Actually, it's not a new idea, the Nazis liked burning religious texts as well (ooh, ooh, Godwin's Law!). On December 8th 1980 Mark Chapman murdered John Lennon. Now Lennon was a musician on the slide really, but even his collaborations with Yoko Ono didn't probably mean he deserved to be gunned down. Chapman, it has later been claimed, was angry about a comment from Lennon that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus (this was in '66, that's a long time to bear the grudge), stating that, "... there should be nobody more popular than Jesus Christ." Therefore, I suggest, on 8th December 2010, the 30th anniversary of the murder, we take to the streets and burn bibles! It's what Pastor Jones would want.

Cockwomble fuckwit.