Now Chris Grayling Attacks the Foundations of Democracy!

 Reblogged from johnnyvoid

 

There are few ways for the people to claw back some degree of power in this sham democracy. The right to peaceful protest and the ability to boycott companies and institutions we object to, for now, remain inside the law. And whilst the state attempts to cover up it’s gravest secrets, we still have some right to know what those in power are actually doing via the Freedom of Information act. But the recent actions of employment minister Chris Grayling reveal even these small freedoms are held in contempt by this toff Government.

 

Read more of this excellent, but shocking, article: Click here. 

Here Be Monsters!

There are still dinosaurs alive today. They are called birds. Birds evolved from a branch of theropods, and are an excellent example of evolution.

Of course, creationists don’t agree, simply because they don’t want to, and no amount of evidence will change their minds.

They do agree, though, that dinosaurs still live, and they insist that this proves that evolution is false. Not for them the carefully accumulated evidence gathered over centuries, however. No, far more compelling for them are myths and legends  which, if you think about it, are where they derive their entire world view.

The particular loonies who are, astonishingly, promoting this idea are the Florida based Accelerated Christian Education (ACE). One particular myth that they’ve latched on to, and teach as fact, is that of the Loch Ness Monster

The legend of Nessie is no longer taken very seriously by even the most gullible Briton and, despite hordes of “Nessie hunters” over many years descending on the shores of Loch Ness, no evidence has been put forward. The occasional photo that is supposed to be Nessie is invariably grainy, dark and indistinct. Yet ACE are teaching it as fact.

The temptation is to regard this as an American problem, since ACE is basedin America, but they have their claws embedded in the UK too, with around fifty schools teaching the ACE curriculum. I’ve met some pupils from one such school, and I shudder to remember the encounter. They were polite enough; in fact, they were polite to the point of insolence. If you’ve ever read  The Midwich Cuckoos (or seen either of the films based on it), you’ll know what I mean.

Just because ignorance has a smiling face, don’t think it won’t stab you in the guts the first chance it gets.

And if all that’s not enough, the ACE curriculum enthusiastically supports all manner of bigotry, including racism and homophobia.*

* Edited, see comments for details

Related articles

• Loch Ness monster cited by US schools as evidence that evolution is myth (scotsman.com)
• Loch Ness Monster Disproves Evolution (jonathanturley.org)
• The Loch Ness Monster Is Real; The KKK Is Good: The Shocking Content of Publicly Paid for Christian School Textbooks (alternet.org)
• How American fundamentalist schools are using Nessie to disprove evolution – Rachel Loxton – Herald Scotland (richarddawkins.net)
• Top 5 Lies Taught By Accelerated Christian Education (leavingfundamentalism.wordpress.com)
• Accelerated Christian Education Validated by UK Government Agency (leavingfundamentalism.wordpress.com)
• This should be kinda embarrassing (cbv.typepad.com)

Pro-Life “Science” Failure

In today’s Catholic Herald, Francis Phillips reasserts a supposed link between abortion and breast cancer. Now, as an atheist I am bound to be sceptical of a religious-based source. It doesn’t take much effort, however, to discover the truth, that there is no such link.

Phillips cites a paper by Angela Lanfranchi, M.D., F.A.C.S., as if a medical doctor’s opinion should automatically be accepted as true. This is a tactic also used by creationists in their desperate fight to “disprove” evolution (Look! Look! a SCIENTIST agrees with us!) but, in both cases, the opinions of the overwhelming majority of their opponents, backed up with actual, up-to-date, evidence are conveniently hand-waved away, and bogus “evidence” repeated ad nauseam. In fact, though Lanfranchi is genuinely a medical doctor, she is also a “pro-life” advocate, eager to seize upon any propaganda that helps the cause.

This bogus “evidence” is usually derived from small scale and flawed studies, decades old, which have been superseded by more rigorous experiments, taking into account complete medical records of large numbers of a large cross-section of women, whether or not they have had an abortion or developed breast cancer.

There are many sources that show that a link between abortion and breast cancer has not been demonstrated. I present here just one, from the American Cancer Society.

To insist that the link exists without evidence, and in the face of contradictory evidence, is not only dishonest, it is a cruel deception.

But then, deception is what I’ve come to expect from the “pro-life” lobby.

Eric Pickles – “Everything Is Everyone Else’s Fault!

There was already a shortage of jobs, yet our myopic government is pushing for more and more people to be put on compulsory (though confusingly termed voluntary) placements for no money bar their meagre welfare benefits, and for more convicted criminals to do underpaid work in prison, undercutting workers on the outside, and putting their jobs at risk.

Yet Eric Pickles thinks troubled families, that is families who meet five of the seven following criteria should be treated harshly, and even stigmatised:

• having a low income
• no one in the family who is working
• poor housing
• parents who have no qualifications
• where the mother has a mental health problem
• one parent has a long-standing illness or disability
• where the family is unable to afford basics, including food and clothes.

I’ve long been of the opinion that the Tory party, with a few honourable exceptions, are a bunch of selfish, vicious bastards, but they seem less and less bothered about covering that up with every day, and more and more contemptuous of anyone who isn’t as well off as them.

And if they don’t like people shifting the blame onto others, why are they so ready to do so themselves?

Related articles

• Eric Pickles: The man who wants to bring back blame (independent.co.uk)
• There may be trouble ahead (poverty.ac.uk)

Queen Put at Risk by Workfare Provider

Reblogged from eddiegillard:

At 2300 Saturday 2nd of June 2012, a coachload of Tired, untrained and ill equipped people left Bristol by coach for London and the Queens Jubilee.

At around 0240 they were dropped off by the side of a road with their Baggage and Tents and left stood for more than an hour along with 80 other people.

Having Had no sleep at 0415 these people were told that at 0500 they would be starting a 16 hour shift.

Read more… 2,804 more words

The Corporate Olympics

I’ve never been much of a sports fan, but I’ve always taken at least a passing interest in the Olympic Games. I’m already sick and tired of the upcoming London Olympics, however. Whether it’s a story of LOCOG pettiness, such as making a butcher remove a display of sausages arranged in the form of the Olympic rings, or the sponsorship of the Paralympics by the scourge of disabled people, Atos, these games seem to be all about corporate interests, and no business of the hoi polloi, in sharp contrast to the first Olympic games I remember seeing, Mexico ’68.

Stories are even emerging of people being evicted from their rented homes, to make way for visitors who will pay exorbitant rents. While this isn’t the fault of LOCOG, it fits well with what appears to be the New Olympic Ethos – cash in wherever you can.

I expect I’ll be watching a lot of DVDs this summer, possibly while eating Burger King burgers, washed down with Pepsi cola.

Related articles

• Twitter suspends account for using London 2012 Olympics logo (guardian.co.uk)
• Space Hijackers create Official Protesters programme for the London 2012 Olympics (boingboing.net)
• Twitter suspends Olympics protestors’ account (telegraph.co.uk)
• Olympic protesters suspended from Twitter over trademark violation (wired.co.uk)
• Behold the London Olympics’ Creepy ‘Brand Exclusion Zone’ [Olympics] (gawker.com)
• Olympic organisers shut down “Space hijackers” protest Twitter account (indexoncensorship.org)
• Hotel prices remain high for the Olympics, despite LOCOG’s release of 120,000 hotel rooms (onefinestay.com)

 

(The following picture will probably confuse most people, unless you’re in a certain age range!)