I'm still out of voice today. My daughter has contracted an aggressive form of stomach flu, and kept us both awake and busy all night and part of the day. So I'm scavenging from my favourite blogs (with full attribution, which is required nettiquette).

On the menu today:

- On the proper way to beat your wife;

- On morally shrinking intellectuals in face of Islamist intimidation;

- On one author's relapse from her chronic disorder of extreme moral relativism and the event that triggered that absolute reproof:

Andrew Sullivan (The Daily Dish), links to this informative guide for husbands . Too bad the law does not provide for some much needed reciprocity and balance in the proposed "regulation". I was very impressed by the cleric's insistence that the wife is not her husband's "merchandise". A woman is not a merchandise, I was relieved to hear. She can be bodily abused but not so as to mark her as less valuable, or something.

I'm sure there are many people who don't want to know about these things. I mean, it's very important to maintain ignorance of what is actually being taught in the name of Islam, isn't it, if one defines oneself as a progressive thinker who wishes to believe and to persuade, that Islam is a religion of Peace?

If you don't know what I'm talking about, try this here by way of explanation.

About the absurdity of moral relativism, a subject dear to my heart, here is Scott Burgess. It's somewhat connected to the first two items on the menu but I'm too tired to point it out:

In flatly stating that "the only absolute moral value I have is that the death penalty is wrong", Ms. Byatt tacitly admits to the view that morally valid arguments can be made for such things as (for example): slavery based on racist ideology, genocidal extermination of minority groups, and severe corporal punishment (e.g., the lashes dictated by sharia) for homosexuals ("I just can't make up my mind - sometimes race-based slavery might be OK").

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And a-propo of teaching virtue by personal example:

The Lesson / Roger McGough

Chaos ruled OK in the classroom
as bravely the teacher walked in
the nooligans ignored him
hid voice was lost in the din

"The theme for today is violence
and homework will be set
I'm going to teach you a lesson
one that you'll never forget"

He picked on a boy who was shouting
and throttled him then and there
then garrotted the girl behind him
(the one with grotty hair)

Then sword in hand he hacked his way
between the chattering rows"
First come, first severed" he declared"
fingers, feet or toes"

He threw the sword at a lateco
merit struck with deadly aim
then pulling out a shotgun
he continued with his game

The first blast cleared the backrow
(where those who skive hang out)
they collapsed like rubber dinghies
when the plug's pulled out"

Please may I leave the room sir?"
a trembling vandal enquired"
Of course you may" said teacher
put the gun to his temple and fired

The Head popped a head round the doorway
to see why a din was being made
nodded understandingly
then tossed in a grenade

And when the ammo was well spent
with blood on every chair
Silence shuffled forward
with its hands up in the air

The teacher surveyed the carnage
the dying and the dead
He waggled a finger severely"
Now let that be a lesson" he said