Linksplat – 29/02/12

– Yes, mandatory work activity schemes are mandatory, and no, they aren’t fair. The nonsense of “fairness” is shown up for what it is in this article, too. If fairness means making others suffer so that those who are already suffering feel better about not suffering alone, then no thanks. – Plenty of extremist maniacs [...]

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The right to pray

There’s an assumption that Christians doing Jesusy things is never any kind of obstruction to anyone. That you should just get out of their way if they want to Jesus it up at any point. That explicit Jesusification should be expected as the standard, even in official state affairs, and it’s up to you to [...]

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Linksplat – 28/02/12

– Good news, everyone! All the crime in America has been solved. At least, that’s the only plausible reason why undercover cops in Florida are artificially creating more crime by tricking teenagers into buying drugs. I cannot fathom how much desperate rationalisation must be going on in some people’s heads to convince themselves that they’re [...]

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From the mouths of frothy mixtures

Don’t you miss the good old days, back when abortions in the USA happened about as often as they do nowadays, but thousands of women died every year? No? Well, Rick Santorum does. This is just another example of the dangers of letting religious ideology motivate your moral principles. Some Christians say atheists can’t be [...]

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Linksplat – 27/02/12

– It’s not about politics or culture for Rick Santorum. He’s fighting an entirely religious fight. Not nearly enough Americans are terrified by that. – According to a truly bizarre population chart from the BBC, Adam and Eve lived 50,000 years ago. – Some interesting ethical quandaries about Kickstarter. – Ten responses to the phrase [...]

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Don’t kill me, bro

Do you know how many people have died after being shocked with tasers? It’s up to five hundred, at least. Most of them weren’t armed. Most of them weren’t a serious threat. Victims include a deaf cyclist who didn’t hear an instruction to pull over, and died after being shot with a stun gun. The [...]

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Linksplat – 26/02/12

– “Different ideas are CONFUSING! I’m going to go have Satan’s abortion!“ – Lying about the political process is a fundamental right that some brave lobbyists are fighting to protect. (h/t Broadsnark) – More dehumanising Republican logic in action. If a woman was willing to let someone’s penis inside them, it’s hypocritical for her to [...]

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Bonus

RBS is handing out half a billion dollars in bonuses this year, on top of all its employees’ regular salaries. This despite the fact that they failed to achieve the lending targets that were agreed to, and so aren’t actually providing as much of a public good as it’s been decided they ought to, even [...]

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Dawkins in non-ideologue shocker

Richard Dawkins and the Archbishop of Canterbury recently entered the Thunderdome of Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre, and had a rather nice chat. I livetweeted most of it, and there was pleasantly little to get agitated about. There was nothing particularly groundbreaking in it either, and it reminded me that I do like Rowan Williams a good [...]

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Linksplat – 25/02/12

– America’s spending nearly a trillion dollars on Defence this year. And next year. And the next year. And the next… – If the Bible is so full of divine knowledge, provided by an omnipotent God who knew many things of which his desert nomad scribes couldn’t possibly have been aware, why doesn’t it contain [...]

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