In praise of: Shiny Happy People

Click to see video (Youtube) 
Michael Stipe has sometimes been rather apologetic about his 1991 pop pastiche, Shiny Happy People.  I’m not an R.E.M. fan but I admire the few works I’ve heard, so until comparatively recently, when I spoke to my sister who is a great fan of theirs, I didn’t even realise there was [...]

Obama, McCain and the “shy conservatives”

The comfortable leads for Obama/Biden recorded by every national poll in the 2008 election in the past month could be giving a misleading view of the intentions of the voters, for a variety of reasons.

Worldwide trend towards liberalization of abortion laws

The September issue of the journal International Family Planning Perspectives carries an encouraging summary of worldwide trends in abortion legislation (here, and see news article on Medical News Today.)  This is a regular report, compiled once a decade.
The news is almost universally good. 
Since 1998, 20 countries have made substantial changes in their abortion laws… Sixteen countries [...]

The atheist bus campaign

I love the atheist bus campaign.
i have, however, issued the following official statement:

Fucking hell it’s the second day that they’ve got more than £77,000.
At this rate you won’t be able to move in central London for exhortations to enjoy yourself.
Oh wait…

Okay, but I will say this

I never understood the “hockey mom” thing. Was that supposed to be a claim that she wasn’t spending lots of money on her looks?  Because if she hadn’t, I’d say she was even dumber than she sounded.  But if there are people who are surprised that the Republican Party spent a lot of money making [...]

A rest

Perhaps like much of the rest of the world, I’m holding my breath until November 5, 2008.  During the past three weeks my thoughts have not strayed far from the subject of the elections in the United States.  But I am British, not American.  For this reason I do not have much to say on [...]

Popular support for Connecticut ruling allowing same-sex weddings.

Newsday reports that the University of Connecticut surveyed 502 adults over the weekend for the Hartford Courant on the subject of the Connecticut Supreme Court ruling that people are entitled to marry someone of the same sex.  The poll shows 53% in favor of the rulingand 42% against.  Republican voters tend to oppose it and [...]

Catholics tackle the abortion issue

Roman Catholics form a large proportion of voters in the United States, around 25 per cent.  They’ve seldom been considered a particularly monolithic voting block, however.  A report in the Washington Post on October 8, 2008, highlights a new poll that examines the attitudes of older and younger Catholics to traditional Catholic hot buttons associated [...]

The economic trough

An amusing little satire by AC Grayling in today’s Guardian.  It should be pretty obvious what his target is.
“It is a truly pitiable spectacle to see so many frightened flatulent hogs dashing fruitlessly about, begging for the keepers to come and clean out their feeding troughs and to administer medications to solve their digestive crisis.”

Connecticut becomes third US state to recognize same-sex marriage

Mirabile dictu!
Reuters reports, October 10, 2008, that the Supreme Court of Connecticut has struck down a state law banning same-sex marriage.  This makes Connecticut the third of three states of the USA that permit couples to marry if they are of the same sex.  The court overturned the rulings of lower courts and recognized that [...]