All change for the tagline
Oh now what?
I had thought that MSN had got it's shit sorted. I seem to be wrong. Spaces was down again last night, no better this morning, and I find myself back here. As I've already said, I don't really want to give up on Green Bamboo. That's where I get all my traffic. I expect that GB is temporarily out of action, but this is beginning to be a repeat screening of May last year when I almost completely switched to gmail because changes to Hotmail effectively killed the service.
Is the headline Voters turn their backs on Labour and Tories exactly a big surprise to anyone?
I'm with the majority on this one. Unfortunately, that means the Tories in power again. Ugh. New Labour. No, the ughness I feel for them is about the same as the ughness I feel for the Tories. No wonder
You see the problem. The two main parties are so ughy that third parties are worth considering even if, by and large, it's a protest against the similarities between New Labour and the Tories. If I were home, and gave a damn about local elections, I'd vote for the LibDems or the Greens, probably the former. It's not a protest either. I won't vote for the Tories (hating them slightly more) or New Labour (hating them only marginally less).
As for moving to the centre, that merely means heading for where the majority stand – on the right and in the authoritarian quadrant. Then again, that's exactly where NL and the Tories are.
Confidence in Spliff Boy David Cameron has been increasing, but he's new and though not exactly different, he's not, say, Gordon Brown, which seems to be working in his favour.
Meanwhile, from Beardie World we have this pleasant story about an execution in Afghanistan performed by a 12 year old boy.
Lord Winston has attacked Richard Dawkins' attitude towards faith (The God disunion: there is a place for faith in science, insists Winston), claiming that Dawkins is damaging the public's trust in science. I think Dawkins probably overdoes his attacks on religion. It's more fun, I find, to mock the inanities of belief. I'm not about to read The God Delusion because I don't need convincing.
I wouldn't say that science is the absolute truth because, if you agree with Popper, we can only approach the truth by degrees. After reading A Brief History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, I have to wonder what do know for certain. On the other hand, religion merely invents truths without worrying too much about proofs.
I had thought that MSN had got it's shit sorted. I seem to be wrong. Spaces was down again last night, no better this morning, and I find myself back here. As I've already said, I don't really want to give up on Green Bamboo. That's where I get all my traffic. I expect that GB is temporarily out of action, but this is beginning to be a repeat screening of May last year when I almost completely switched to gmail because changes to Hotmail effectively killed the service.
Is the headline Voters turn their backs on Labour and Tories exactly a big surprise to anyone?
A majority of voters, 54%, say the next general election should bring a change of government. Only 21% think Britain should stick with Labour.
I'm with the majority on this one. Unfortunately, that means the Tories in power again. Ugh. New Labour. No, the ughness I feel for them is about the same as the ughness I feel for the Tories. No wonder
[o]ne in three voters have turned their backs on Labour and the Conservatives and now back the Lib Dems or a smaller party such as the Greens or the SNP.
You see the problem. The two main parties are so ughy that third parties are worth considering even if, by and large, it's a protest against the similarities between New Labour and the Tories. If I were home, and gave a damn about local elections, I'd vote for the LibDems or the Greens, probably the former. It's not a protest either. I won't vote for the Tories (hating them slightly more) or New Labour (hating them only marginally less).
As for moving to the centre, that merely means heading for where the majority stand – on the right and in the authoritarian quadrant. Then again, that's exactly where NL and the Tories are.
Confidence in Spliff Boy David Cameron has been increasing, but he's new and though not exactly different, he's not, say, Gordon Brown, which seems to be working in his favour.
Meanwhile, from Beardie World we have this pleasant story about an execution in Afghanistan performed by a 12 year old boy.
Lord Winston has attacked Richard Dawkins' attitude towards faith (The God disunion: there is a place for faith in science, insists Winston), claiming that Dawkins is damaging the public's trust in science. I think Dawkins probably overdoes his attacks on religion. It's more fun, I find, to mock the inanities of belief. I'm not about to read The God Delusion because I don't need convincing.
"The reason I've called it the Science Delusion is because I think there is a body of scientific opinion from my scientific colleagues who seem to believe that science is the absolute truth and that religious and spiritual values are to be discounted," said Lord Winston.
I wouldn't say that science is the absolute truth because, if you agree with Popper, we can only approach the truth by degrees. After reading A Brief History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, I have to wonder what do know for certain. On the other hand, religion merely invents truths without worrying too much about proofs.
Comments
As for religion: I think it persists in the developed world because science isn't yet even close to explaining all the phenomena we experience. And then you get the likes of Dawkins who seem to have a religious faith in science (honestly, I can't see a hell of a lot of difference between "atheist fundamentalists" and the likes of Bush or ben Laden). Also, if there is no god or gods or Dao or whatever then life is utterly meaningless, and we know what Sartre said about how people react when faced with the meaninglessness of their existence. Doesn't matter that the Bible itself says life is utterly meaningless (read Ecclesiastes- great book), but then again I long since gave up expecting reason or logic from any member of our species.
Besides, I have some idea of my traffic there; Google seems to offer no similar service as far as I know.
Life isn't meaningless without some belief system, but humans like to ascribe to themselves some higher purpose when there isn't one. We're just here to propagate the species, just like every other species on the planet.