He has it right, in part, and for a Guardian columnist that’s quite a feat. Neil Clark believes the smoking ban implemented in the United Kingdom is wrong, because (1) it’s having a negative effect on the economy, and (2) it’s having a negative effect on social life across the country. I agree, […]

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Well, last night’s CNN/YouTube Presidential Debate was… interesting, for libertarian candidate Ron Paul. As News Long Island reports, mentioning Ron Paul’s spat with John McCain over Iraq:
“Although this was a camera filled exchange for Paul, it clearly seemed that questions were steered away from Paul during the entire debate and that both video questions […]

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The Golden Compass (IMDB) is the film version of the first novel in Philip Pullman’s acclaimed trilogy, His Dark Materials. It’s a family fantasy starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig and is set to be released a week from Friday across the United States. But there’s a controversy. Some people don’t want you […]

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Today I take issue with my old friend William Crawley, who uses the opportunity of the Oxford Union free speech debate to raise another issue of free speech:
“Into the mix of questions about what limits we should place on public speech, let’s add this: ‘Hang chi chi gal wid a long piece of rope’. That’s […]

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I’ll be off to a cabin in the mountains tonight, and not back home until Sunday. Whether or not I get the chance to blog over the holiday remains to be seen; in the meantime, I’d like to say that I think this is an important holiday.
To those who live in America, Happy Thanksgiving. […]

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Yes, blasphemy is illegal in the United Kingdom, under common law formed in the 17th century. Yet Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights guarantees the right to free speech, whether sacred, profane, secular, or whatever. Is anybody still in any doubt that the UK needs a complete legal overhaul? […]

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This outfit was considered too sexy for SouthWest Airlines: last July, 23 year old Kyla Ebbert boarded a flight from San Diego, California to her doctor’s office in Tuscon, Arizona, wearing the outfit she’s pictured in here. She was called from her seat and lectured by a customer service representative in front of dozens […]

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This is brilliant. The Manifesto Club is holding an event in London which celebrates Thanksgiving by provoking debate on America:
“We have invited a range of cultural commentators, journalists, politicos and Manifesto Club members to take part in a ‘balloon debate’. America, we say, is a great balloon that is slowly sinking to the earth. […]

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Good morning and happy Monday! We’re now three days from Thanksgiving in the United States, one of my favourite holidays. The great commute begins now: families getting together all over America at a time which is historically busiest for air travel and road travel. Yet it seems to me that, if you […]

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Sorry to be so late on this: thanks to Liam for first raising the issue on this blog here, and Crawley’s made a comment here. For a summary of the debate so far, the BBC has a piece here.
For those who haven’t read the story, cleaners at a hostel unlocked and opened the door […]

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For a guy in retirement, Garth Brooks has been phenomenally busy for the past few months, culminating in a sold-out show in Kansas City last night, a concert which was simulcast to digital theatres throughout the world. I went to the Cinemark theatre in Mesa, Arizona to see the show, and wasn’t disappointed.
Brooks is […]

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Today is UNESCO World Philosophy Day 2007. Who knew?
And what is knowledge?

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Remember this (Morford, ‘Christian virgins are overrated’)? Now a study makes a surprising conclusion: not only does teenage sex not contribute to delinquency, but the exact opposite may be true:
Perhaps most surprising, the Virginia study found that adolescents who had sex at younger ages were less likely to end up delinquent than those who […]

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Dear Tim Dowling,
Perhaps you feel that the views of an America-bashing American will be more palatable for the snobby British liberal readers of the Guardian to read than the views of an America-bashing Brit. In this, sir, you have sold out - not because you lack the right to criticise - but because you […]

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So. Atheist Sue Blackmore is to debate theist Alister McGrath tonight at Bristol University on the motion that that “belief in God is a dangerous delusion”. Interesting!
As a theist myself, I hope McGrath does a better job tonight than he did while being interviewed by his colleague Richard Dawkins several months ago. […]

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David Weigel reports from the ground on the massive Philadelphia rally for Ron Paul on Saturday:
“Here was the best example—better even than the churning, cheering rally of at least 4000 people— [US News says 5000] of how the Paul movement has grown. No one crashes Dennis Kucinich or Duncan Hunter events handing out ‘fact sheets.’”
“Things […]

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We’ve recently mentioned cellulosic ethanol, fuel created from a good two-thirds of what we’re currently throwing away, and what many believe will be the future of energy. In fact the more time one spends thinking about it, the more inevitable it seems that we’ll eventually be mining our own landfills, for cellulose, for plastics […]

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I’m not normally a terribly emotional person (except when it comes to anger), but I felt myself welling up with sadness during a feature run by the BBC for Remembrance Day. The BBC is telling the stories of “The Final Few” veterans of the Great War almost 100 years ago. One of these old soldiers […]

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A Belfast sex shop - Misbehavin’ - has been involved in a long running legal battle with Belfast City Council to be allowed a licence to trade in Belfast. Sex shops are permissible in law but they require a licence from the local government authority. The Court of Appeal decided in favour of Misbehavin’ but […]

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I’ve always known this to be a despicable sentiment. But never moreso than when I read Atlas Shrugged for the first time and came upon Francisco d’Anconia’s money speech, which is reprinted with permission from the Estate of Ayn Rand in the current edition of Capitalism Magazine. Everyone could benefit by reading it.
“So […]

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