Britblog Roundup #219

Britblog Roundup #219. Here.

Scottish Political Roundup

Scottish Political Roundup is here.

Murray on Darling

Craig Murray has posted a detailed response to Alistair Darling’s prediction that the economy will grow by 1.25% in 2010. I’m quoting it in full:

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!

If that happens I’ll give £1,000 to New Labour and a further £1,000 to Derek Draper for his website.

Scottish Political Roundup

Scottish Politcal Roundup. Here.

Britblog Roundup #218

Britblog Roundup. Edition 218. Here.

Superstition schools don’t offer better education

Faith superstition schools don’t increase educational standards:

Academics at the London School of Economics and the Institute of Education, both part of the University of London, found no proof that providing parents with the choice of a religious secondary school either raised results or helped drive up standards in other local schools.

The research suggests that government policies to promote a market in education – by promising parents a choice of school in the belief that the competition for children will improve standards – only create a more socially fragmented system.

(via Pagan Prattle)

Kissing Hank’s Arse

This morning there was a knock at my door. When I answered the door I found a well groomed, nicely dressed couple. The man spoke first:

John: Hi! I’m John, and this is Mary.

Mary: Hi! We’re here to invite you to come kiss Hank’s ass with us.

Me: Pardon me?! What are you talking about? Who’s Hank, and why would I want to kiss His ass?

John: If you kiss Hank’s ass, He’ll give you a million dollars; and if you don’t, He’ll kick the shit out of you.

Me: What? Is this some sort of bizarre mob shake-down?

John: Hank is a billionaire philanthropist. Hank built this town. Hank owns this town. He can do whatever He wants, and what He wants is to give you a million dollars, but He can’t until you kiss His ass.

Me: That doesn’t make any sense. Why…

Mary: Who are you to question Hank’s gift? Don’t you want a million dollars? Isn’t it worth a little kiss on the ass?

Me: Well maybe, if it’s legit, but…

John: Then come kiss Hank’s ass with us.

Me: Do you kiss Hank’s ass often?

Mary: Oh yes, all the time…

Me: And has He given you a million dollars?

John: Well no. You don’t actually get the money until you leave town.

Me: So why don’t you just leave town now?

Mary: You can’t leave until Hank tells you to, or you don’t get the money, and He kicks the shit out of you.

Me: Do you know anyone who kissed Hank’s ass, left town, and got the million dollars?

John: My mother kissed Hank’s ass for years. She left town last year, and I’m sure she got the money.

Me: Haven’t you talked to her since then?

John: Of course not, Hank doesn’t allow it.

(By James Huber; read the rest)

New libertarian-left blog

The Digger has started a new blog Postings from the Libertarian Left. According to the about page:

The simple aim is to counter the common, false dichotomy between libertarian right and statist left.

We reject the slavish devotion to capitalism, corporate greed, the support of the modern opiate of consumerism and the maintenance of the modern empire of the global free market. We also reject that the only alternative to this is an equally oppressive statist culture that denies the essential liberty of the individual, of families and of communities.

We embrace the principles of liberty, common ownership, the right of every person to hold their means of production and keeping everything (education, housing, health, politics) at the most local level possible.

I welcome this, and hope it suceeds, because I’m of the libertarian left myself.

British and Scottish Roundups

Britblog Roundup #217 is up at Philobiblon.

And Scottish Non-political Roundup is up at the usual site.

Blair’s Faith Foundation is full of shit

Our ex Prime Minister, ever on the lookout for “eye catching opportunities” to show off how wonderful he is, has set up the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. Its mission statement says:

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation aims to promote respect and understanding about the world’s major religions and show how faith is a powerful force for good in the modern world.

Faith is vitally important to hundreds of millions of people. It underpins systems of thought and of behaviour. It underpins many of the world’s great movements for change or reform, including many charities. And the values of respect, justice and compassion that our great religions share have never been more relevant or important to bring people together to build a better world.

So Blair wants us all to respect other religions, of “faiths” to use the namby-pamby ecumenical mot du jour. But hang on, isn’t Tony Blair a Roman Catholic? And don’t Catholics believe that if you’re not a Catholic (or at any rate not a Christian) you’ll be tortured for eternity in Hell after you die? That being the case, surely Catholics shouldn’t “respect” other religions at all, but should regard them as deadly serious errors?

For example, if Blair saw a friend about to drink weedkiller, mistakenly believing it was blackcurrent juice, he would say “No! Stop! Don’t do that!” And so it should be with religion, if Blair is truely a believer in the Catholic faith: if he notices that one of his friends is a Jew or a Muslim or a Hindu, and he really cares about his friend, he should say “Stop, friend! Don’t do that! You’re risking being tortured for eternity!”

That would be the logical thing to do. But religion isn’t about logic or truth, it’s about believing things because you want them to be true. Or pretending to yourself that you believe them. As I’ve pointed out above, if Blair really believed Catholic doctrine, he’d want to warn all his non-Catholic friends of the terrible danger that they’re in.  But he doesn’t do this. Why not? Probably because it would be socially embarrassing, which wouldn’t make Blair feel good.

The TBFF aspires to do good work, such as preventing people from dying from malaria. This is creditable, but it’s a shame they have to wrap it up in irrational superstitious nonsense.