There are issues over which libertarians disagree: abortion, capital punishment, roads, and children being amongst the things that can set brother against brother in a fight of biblical proportions. And sometimes it might look like libertarian ideals clash.
Libertarians believe in religious freedom. This is simply an extension of the right to freedom of thought and […]

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It’s the nightmare of many men: being pregnant and giving birth. According to some commentators that very fear was played on by the series of Alien films, in which people would get infected and have baby aliens bursting from their bodies. Seemingly some men have maternal instincts. But I guess it helps if the man […]

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Tom and Stephanie sat on the grass in the Minneapolis sunshine, gazing lovingly into each others eyes. They were always glad of the short time they could spend together away from their spouses and kids. Tom regarded his family life as being “in a life I don’t want to be in” and dreamed of being […]

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We all have our own “nightmare” scenarios: places we never want to be or things we hope never happen to us. A few of them might be:
1. Being caught masturbating by your mum
2. Dying and then finding out that Muslims were right after all and you’re now going to spend eternity burning while drinking boiling […]

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Stephen King once said that sometimes there is absolutely no difference at all between salvation and damnation. I’ve only ever really appreciated the truth of those words since I had my son 17 months ago. I wouldn’t be without him and he can be really great fun, but some of the worst moments of my […]

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There is so much that is wrong about rights; more specifically the way people speak and think about them. The topic is becoming pretty hot here in Northern Ireland at present with a Bill of Rights creeping ever closer. At its most basic a Bill of Rights will be a contract obliging the government to […]

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The blushing bride was radiant in her 5 metre long sari, decked in flowers. The groom made his way to the temple amidst music, dancing and fireworks. Crowds flocked from all around to see these young love birds finally cement their relationship in marriage, and lavished gifts on each of them: including a gold necklace […]

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I get a little nervous around vegetarians. They’re like people with Tourettes syndrome: you never quite know what nonsense they’re going to blurt at any given moment, and you can only hope it doesn’t happen in earshot of other people who might think you’re with them. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing a number of […]

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Some drugs make you fly high. Other drugs make you go low. Some make you fall on your back. Others make you bounce. Even more make you run like a cheetah, swim like a sword fish, jump like a kangaroo, and throw like a, ummm, throwing machine? It is these latter types that athletes have […]

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In my short but colourful life I have almost died on one occasion (nearly drowned) and seriously considered killing myself on another (hadn’t chosen a particular method). I’m glad I didn’t in both cases. But there may come a time when death would be preferable to life and debate still rages as to whether or […]

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Northern Ireland is full of the buggers: Born Again Paramilitaries, or “BAPS” as I prefer to call them. They swan around regenerated, forgiven, no longer the bad guys who terrorised people. They’ve found Jesus. And holy Hell do they know how to moralise. Often you can detect a rather horrible aura of self-righteousness, mixed with […]

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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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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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Andrew Tyler has a piece in today’s Guardian which suggests that veganism is the new vegetarianism. It seems that being a vegetarian in modern Western society has become so common that the moral case against eating animals must fall exclusively to the vegans.
I’m with them on this, actually. I’ve long thought that being […]

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Black men can generally run faster than white men. Black men are also generally better boxers. Asians are generally more intelligent than whites. But white men are generally more intelligent than blacks.
How many readers glazed over the first three claims only to find themselves jarred by the fourth? The fourth claim tends to stop people […]

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In moral terms I describe myself as egoist, one who acts in accordance with one’s own rational self-interest. Opponents tend to label it “selfishness”; and in fact some proponents of rational self-interest - such as Ayn Rand - take that label themselves. I agree with much of what Rand argued, but I think her acceptance […]

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Believe it or not, there are still some people around who regard a certain category of words to be evil or immoral in some way. It’s known as ’swearing’. I’ve found this a curious concept since I was a teenager, since not much about it made any sense to me. It’s all […]

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Crawley reports on a case that has people debating the ethics of raising a disabled child:
Disability charities are extremely worried by the legal precedent that could be set by the case of the 15-year-old Katie Thorpe. Katie’s mother, Alison Thorpe, has asked doctors to give her daughter, who has cerebral palsy, a hysterectomy to prevent […]

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