I think I heard someone say there might be an election soon, although you'd never know it.

And apparently some Tory bloke got chucked out for telling the truth while racist joke teller Anne Winterton is going to be a candidate.

I will think long and hard in the ten minutes before the polls close as to where to put my cross. Of course, the none of the above option is always a contender for a bloke who was described by SWP friends (actually International Socialist friends) as an existential nihilist, whatever that meant back in the seventies. Tactical voting against Labour would mean a vote for the Lib Dems, which, although I've done it before, always seems such a waste. And besides, I'm not really sure if I want to vote against Labour.

Fuck it, I can see no other option than to actually follow the campaign. (And to actually split infinitives as well.) What a bore.

And I was Trying to be Normal, for Fuck's Sake

Hat tip to the Prof. His link's on the sidebar.

You gotta love this pie.

Segregation, Segregation, Segregation

It's been said elsewhere, but I'm going to weigh in anyway, if only 'cos I thought it as soon as I heard the story yesterday and I'm not going to let terminal laziness stop me from making my point.

It's about those Afro-Carribbean boys who Trevor Phillips thinks should be taught away from their peers.

Now let me get this straight. The problem is: the attitude that learning is uncool is particularly strong among Afro-Carribbean boys and is harming their educational achievements. Well, I can go along with that, if the people who know say so. So, to combat this phenomenon, according to Trevor Phillips we must take all these boys out of the various classes they find themselves in, where there is a mix of attitudes to learning, and hothouse them together where peer pressure can really get to work.

Yep, that'll fix it.

Sundry Religious Stuff

Harry talks sense (yes, you read it right) on the muslim student in Luton, while another young muslim woman opines.

It seems a little odd that Turkey can manage to get their kids to wear appropriate school clothes on the grounds that they are a secular state and we can't. And that ain't about to change, with laws flowing in the opposite direction like it's 1399. And there's a nice political touch with dear Cherie handling the case. There, there, men in beards, goes the subtext, never mind that we're going to stop and search you 'til the cows come home, never mind that we're gonna keep some of you under house arrest for as long as we deem necessary without trial or even without telling you what we think you're up to. Never mind all that, your daughters' pretty little heads are safe with us.

Elsewhere, A Cyber Tour of Christian Right Wingnuttery is an entertaining read and the third Skeptics Circle gives the intellectually curious some sustenenance. I have been following, in a half arsed sort of way, the intelligent design debate raging over the other side of the pond. I can see why the atheist scientists get so angry, if only because of the dishonesty of the opposition, but at the same time a little humility wouldn't go amiss. It's those three little words that mean so much, but are so rarely uttered, that can make all the difference. Come on guys, take a deep breath, then say it: I don't know.

Because that is exactly the problem. They could qualify it afterwards, of course: I don't know, but we're working on it, but without the admission of the incompleteness of knowledge as it stands as of now, their arguments sound just as bombastic and empty as the barmiest fundie alive. But you've got to be on the side of rationality, or at least the side closest to it. And those Creationists really are quite a scary bunch.

Proud to be a Moonbat

Unlike Wingnuts, we Moonbats have a handle to be proud of, and now a nice man has done us a lovely piccy. Get your own here