politics

Religious discrimination in a secular culture

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The recession in the UK (are we allowed to call it that) has motivated the powers that be to seriously consider finding god. Well not quite, what they are doing is starting to look upon religious groups as potential service providers. The most obvious example is of course education. Many non-believers are eager for their offspring to enroll within Church schools simply because they have better exam results, and perhaps also with the thought that they will be instilled with good moral guidance. I need not point out the reality, but what the heck, I’ll do so anyway:

The deal we dare not turn down

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Sometimes it is simply appropriate to, coffee shop style, slap an article down and announce, “You must read this”. Well, this is one of those occasions, because Johann Hari says it far better than I ever could …

Sometimes, there are hinge-points in human history -moments when we have to choose between an exuberant descent into lunacy, and a still, sober voice offering us a sane way out. Usually, we can only see them when we look back from a distance. In 1793, the great democrat Thomas Paine said the French Revolution shouldn’t betray its principles by killing the King, because it would trigger an orgy of blood-letting that would eventually drown them all. They threw him in jail. In 1919, the great economist John Maynard Keynes said the European powers shouldn’t humiliate Germany, because it would catalyze extreme nationalism and produce another world war. They ignored him. In 1953, a handful of US President Dwight Eisenhower’s advisors urged him not to destroy Iranian democracy and kidnap its Prime Minister, because it would have a reactionary ripple-effect that lasted decades. They refused to listen.

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#SuperInjunction

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Now that the concept of super injunctions is falling apart in the UK, I can  reveal that I am not having an affair with Jeremy Clarkson. Also, it has now been disclosed that Clark Kent is Superman.

(OK, tongue placed firmly in cheek, but stick with me here, I have a skeptical point coming up later on)

Folks not in the UK might be wondering what this is about, so as a quick aside I better explain. In the UK if the press catch you doing something you should not have been doing (think shenanigans one night with a supermodel), you can take out a legal injunction to prevent publication. However, what can then happen is that the press can be a bit sneaky and report that there is an injunction in place that prevents them reporting something and so they name names without actually saying what happened. To prevent this, there is the concept of what is now known as a super-injunction to prevent them reporting on the very existence of  the injunction. To do that costs about £50K.

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Death of a Madman

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I need not name him, the subject line says it all. Normally the loss of any human life is a tragedy, but in this specific instance we find an exception to that rule. An individual such as this who was relentlessly driven on a self-appointed celestial mission to inflict a delusional belief-system upon innocents by force made him exceedingly dangerous, not just in theory, but in practise, for he inspired many to spill blood on an industrial scale.

There is much I’d be tempted to write, but others have already done a far better job than I could ever muster, so I’ll simply draw your attention to the words of two such writers.

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Reflections on Political Violence – Christopher Hitchens

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The latest article in Slate last Monday by Christopher Hitchens is (as indicated by the title) a reflection on political violence. Oh so very appropriate and apt given recent events in the US, but more specifically in Pakistan where we have seen the pointless slaughter of an honourable man and a great human being, Salman … Read more

Is the tragedy being politicized?

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Sarah Palin is currently playing the victim at the moment and claims that depraved liberals are blaming her for mass murder. As I’m sure you know, she had the poster with the names of leading Democrat politicians who supported health care reform, including tragically, Gabrielle Giffords, with a sniper target over them. If that was … Read more

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