My new blog is here

Arianna Huffington on blogsPermanent link to this item in the archive.

Jesus is Everybody. And fundamentalists criticise secular humanists for a lack of an objective and overriding metanarrative? Jesus is simply an empty shell for everyone's own prejudices. How about we use our own voices, rather than always using the voice of someone who can't refute it either way? Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Stupid Evil Bastard points to a bizarre religious miracle story: Boy sees image of J-C in lava lampPermanent link to this item in the archive.

If anyone says to you that theocracies can be tolerant, here's more proof that they can't: Muslim Zanzibar are banning homosexuality, threatening an extended prison sentence for convicted gays and lesbians. Permanent link to this item in the archive.

I've been reading lots of the stuff that Matt Webb has been linking to recently. I have nothing to say about them, apart from read them. First of all, the City is not a Tree and lots of discussion around it. But better than that, Jakob Nielsen on why mobile phones are annoying!

Thoughts about ZeroConf Permanent link to this item in the archive.

ZeroConf seems great, and I'm excited by the work of Porchdog Software. I think we need to have a single place that lists cool ZeroConf applications (SubEthaEdit, Spike, iStorm etc.).

The Supreme Court Debaclé Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Mad props to Lord Lamont for this little gem:

My Lords, may I thank the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor for that Answer? Is he aware that I was just trying to save him from having two monuments to his folly? But he prefers to have two follies as a monument... Given the Government's record on the Scottish Parliament building and the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor's own involvement in the Millennium Dome, how can anyone have any confidence in the costs that he has put forward as estimates for the building of the new Supreme Court? Given that he said that the costs of the building will be defrayed by charges to the users of justice, can the noble and learned Lord explain why it should be right for the users of the court to carry the risk that the costs of the court will, judging by past experience, most likely be exceeded twice, five times or even 10 times?

Now, £6 million (the most conservative figure I found) or £2 million (the hugest figure I found) times by five? By ten? That's a lorra, lorra hospitals. Not to mention the £10m that the new court will need to operate each year. The Judicial Committee as we have it now only costs £623,000. Why can we not simply reform that which we already have? Get rid of the horrible business of having the Lord Chancellor straddling the three branches and create an independent judicial appointments committee (and all the other juice) without the expense of moving?

This is yet another example of the government's "packaging" strategy, a triumph of skin-deep, barrel scraping politics. Instead of taking each problem and finding a solution, we are being fobbed off with a package. We can't pick and choose, we can only take the reform or leave it. It's Bush's "you're either with us or against us" all over again. We need reform of the House of Lords, but not in this way. We need one based on a rational and sensible approach to constitutional reform, the sort that Lord Falconer isn't giving the country.

HomeTom MorrisOpiumfield

Last modified: Saturday, November 01, 2008 at 2:25 AM.

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