1) Alcohol education starts at home, and yet we have outlawed the act of learning in the average home (most people move out long before they turn 21 and therefore, under the law, parents have no chance to permit legal responsible drinking in the home). 2) When people learn from their peers rather than older [...]
Health care systems good at different things
I’ve experienced life with both kinds of health care system. Living in the United Kingdom, I grew up with the ‘universal’ model: government health care, paid for by taxes and free at the point of use. And, for the past five years, I’ve been in the United States with its ‘insurance’ model, paid for by [...]
Something to scare the crap out of you
Frightened yet?
Coma guy is NOT communicating!
Yes, it was a great Thanksgiving story: a Belgium man, thought to be in a vegetative state for 23 years, discovered to be fully conscious and communicating via keyboard. Except for the fact that the finger he’s using to type he’s not actually using at all: it’s being moved around by a caregiver in a [...]
NEW MOON: I don’t inhale
I have taken, but not inhaled. This is not a movie review. I am not qualified to write a review on New Moon, which I saw at the stroke of midnight in one of two packed screens at my local quadplex. The reason I say I’m not qualified is that I haven’t read any of [...]
Greatest Show On Earth
I’ve been reading Richard Dawkins’ new book The Greatest Show On Earth: The Evidence For Evolution. In the United States, a surprising number of people still don’t accept that evolution explains the origin of complex life. Dawkins wrote this book as a way of bringing science to laypeople who haven’t perhaps heard it before. I’d [...]
A wine tasting
Listen here as I taste another fine wine for your enjoyment, and describe in vivid detail – perhaps too vivid – what it tastes like. Three and a half minutes.
Sex-for-seats is illegal. Why?
Susan Finkelstein, 43, was arrested this week for allegedly offering sex acts in exchange for tickets to the World Series. She says she is innocent, having been misunderstood by the undercover cop who busted her. But if she really was offering ‘sex for seats’, is that really something that should land her in trouble with [...]
Summary of Question Time with Nick Griffin
Last night’s controversial Question Time with BNP leader Nick Griffin went something like this: Dimbleby: “Good evening. I’d like to welcome our panel tonight. Well, all of them bar one of course” [audience laughs nervously] Griffin: “I ..” [audience boos, ecstatically] Dimblebore: “That’s really quite enough from you, Mr Griffin” [enthusiastic applause. Cries of 'quite [...]
Bandwagon #3497: The Jan Moir Column
So a gay boy band member dies after he and his partner bring a stranger back to their hotel room and, without knowing the precise details of the incident, a columnist for the Daily Mail comments. In her piece she implies that the singer’s lifestyle, involving what she implies is promiscuous homosexuality, is responsible for [...]
People choose to go to hell?
In response to the evangelical Christian suggestion that people choose to reject God’s offer of love and thus have made a choice to go to hell: This belief is held as though the Christian God has made the truth of his existence and his character easily and readily available, extending an obvious hand to everyone, [...]
Response to Jean Kilbourne: women in advertising
This is my response to a lecture by Jean Kilbourne, made into a video documentary called ‘Killing Us Softly 3′ on the subject of women in advertising. She’s since produced another called ‘Generation M: Misogyny in Media and Culture’ and is a regular speaker at universities on these issues. The lecture she gave focuses on [...]
Response to Fake Republic on sexism
This is a reply to Shane Magee of Fake Republic, who wrote a post about continuing sexism in the world, the pay gap between men and women in the workplace, and his baby daughter growing up in such a world. In response to some who wondered how to tackle such an overwhelming problem, he writes: [...]
The False Dichotomy of Stupidity
On HBO’s Real Time this week, Bill Maher mentioned a little brouhaha he created on CNN by declaring that America is a stupid country, a sentiment Bill O’Reilly takes great offense at on his show (which may be an effort in proving Maher’s point). I’m not too concerned with the question of where the United [...]
The Family: Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power
Meet the most powerful religious organization you’ve never heard of. The Family are a secret group of influential, affluent and powerful people in America, comprising senators, congressmen, businessmen. They help to run the country, and want to run the world. They compare themselves to a Christian Mafia, and base their leadership cadre on a covenant [...]
Burlesque protest
Burlesque performers protest in London at being forced to have an ‘adult entertainer’ licence, placing them in the same category as strippers. I don’t think either a burlesque performer or a stripper should need a licence. (3 mins)
The man who lives without money?
Daniel Suelo lives on “zero money”, according to his website, blog, and some of the news articles which have covered his story. And he’s done so for the past 8 years, living in a cave in Utah, without farming or trading in any way, or accepting government handouts. See any red flags yet? Listen here [...]
Take us to the moon or we’ll put you in jail!
Is that a fair assessment of how the space program works? After all, the space program is paid for by taxes, and taxes are collected at gunpoint under threat of jail if necessary. Even so, I think the space program is pretty cool. But wouldn’t a private sector space program work too? Listen here as [...]
