Notes, journal, diary, blog, arguments, beliefs, cogitations, comments, considerations, contemplations, criticisms, daydreams, deliberations, engrossments, musings, opinions, phlogs, poems, points, rantings (occasional), reflections, ruminations, satire, wit, and pensiveness of a thinking man.
Posted in Art, Creativity, Education, Humanity, Language, Literature, Poems, Society on Nov 27th, 2008
Poetry, like prostitution, has been around for thousands of year (though I’d be willing to bet that prostitution was probably there first). And both will continue for thousands more, despite the best efforts of zealots to promote it (as in the case of poetry) or stop it (as in the case of prostitution). However, whereas the [...]
Posted in Humanity, Morality, Society, Television on Nov 24th, 2008
I hate bullying and hypocrisy.
Now that the furore is dying down, I feel compelled to vent my feelings about the John Sergeant debacle that has dominated the UK press in the past week.
[YouTube=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HP_DXrr4cWA]
For those of you who don’t know, John Sergeant started life as a comedian when an undergraduate at Oxford, and grew into a [...]
Posted in Government, Human Rights, Isolation, Morality, Religion, Society on Nov 14th, 2008
Just two sour footnotes after the genuine joy and sense of hope that many of us liberals felt after America had the sense to vote in a Democrat for President (especially a black one).
The first sour note comes from a South Carolina Roman Catholic priest who has told his parishioners that they should refrain from [...]
Posted in Government, Health, Human Rights, Humanity, Law, Mortality, Politics, Religion, Society on Oct 30th, 2008
If she were a horse and not a human being, someone would show compassion. However, because Debbie Purdy is a human being, she is being made to suffer unnecessarily. A minority of people (largely informed by religious belief) are imposing their views on the majority in preventing a change in UK law. But the case [...]
Posted in Human Rights, Politics, Religion, Society on Oct 27th, 2008
I have just set up a new Facebook Group to register support for the separation of Church and State in the UK. The group’s position is as follows:
People are free to believe whatever they want (however strange).
The state should no longer be involved in formally supporting any particular religion.
Religious people should not have access to [...]
Posted in Humanity, Morality, Relationships, Society on Oct 20th, 2008
Ok, ‘hunter’ is not the word I really want, but it will have to do for now, and you will have to understand that I don’t want it to carry some of the connotations that it probably does have. ’Hunter’ implies a power imbalance and a victim that I don’t want it to have in [...]
Posted in Censorship, Human Rights, Law, Religion, Society on Oct 13th, 2008
I was concerned to read recently in the New Scotsman that there are discussions taking place about the possible introduction of Sharia courts in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Qamar Bhatti, director of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal (MAT), which runs the courts, admitted discussions were taking place with lawyers and Muslim community groups.
If this happens, the Scottish [...]
Posted in Education, Religion, Science, Society on Sep 12th, 2008
Are you spooked by the appearance of black cats? Do you court disaster by walking under ladders of on cracks in the pavements?
There was a fascinating piece of research reported in the New Scientist recently which attempts to give an evolutionary explanation for the existence of superstitions. Natural selection might explain why people sometimes believe [...]
Posted in Education, Humanity, Relationships, Society on Sep 2nd, 2008
As schools across most of the UK are about to start their Autumn terms, spare a brief thought for the teachers. Although a few of them may have been swanning around for the past couple of months doing nothing but gardening, a few have been using the time to recover from the traumas of the [...]
Posted in Human Rights, Humanity, Morality, Society on Aug 16th, 2008
At the risk of being considered a pervert or a sexual deviant, I need to write about knickers (or panties, as my American cousins would apparently call them).
Sue Relf, from Broadstairs, Kent, went into the local Asda store and bought some underwear for her seven year old granddaughter. When she got the garments home home [...]
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