The other day while I was trying to put together this blog I came across something really interesting. Some of you know that I give this word ("interesting") many different meanings... in this case it means "I did not expect that someone would have actually thought of that"
And here is what happened. In my list of books I have noted down in this site I have added the world famous Party Policy Preferences... of the one and only Ian Budge (“Have you ever been to Southwold?”) which happens to be the BIBLE of Party Manifestos (you should not call your self a government student in Essex if you do not know this!). And of course on the description of the book I wanted to write exactly that... "The bible of Party Manifesto's"
Only MSN did not particularly like my choice. So when the information was up loaded the word bible was missing. I though that was strange, so I tried again. If you are wondering what happened... just have a look on my list. The word bible did not appear no matter how hard I tried.
Apart from the fact that this is a disgrace to Ian Budge and his mates as they really wrote the bible of party manifestos, I was astonished to realize that I am actually not allowed to express myself as I want in my own blog because Mr. Gates is a believer.
This incident raises two issues; one of course is connected to freedom of speech, the other is coming from a linguistic background. Is actually the word “bible” a property of the Christian religion?
The obvious answer that comes to my Christian mind is no. As a Christian myself, although far from being a zealot, I would not feel offended if someone used the word “bible” to describe a book that contains everything there is to know about a subject or a book that initiated a whole school of thought or trend on a subject. The actual word “bible” comes from the greek word “βιβλίο” (please refrain from any association with “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”) which means book. The Bible is THE book but I do not remember any church or religion having paied for the copy write of the word. Over the years this word has developed and is used in common language to describe important books as said above. So since it is not illegal, what is the motivation of Microsoft when it makes it impossible for one to write such a thing?
One can only assume that Microsoft has taken its leading role in the world’s software market far too seriously and tries to “educate” people putting hot pepper in their mouth when they use bad words. So, “In-God-We-Trust” Microsoft will show you the way to the light and will force you to heaven. Just blog it…
