2009

I’ve been intending to write about environmental issues on my blog for some time now (in addition to the socio-political stuff I’ve already covered), but there’s just so much to write about, and so little time! Anyway, until I get around to writing a proper article on this issue, check out this clever site:

The Story of Stuff

Although there’s probably some exaggerations here and there, I certainly agree with the gist of what they’re trying to get across. I think it is especially important to examine these issues in light of the current economic crisis—many people seem to want to put the environment on the backburner until we get our finances in order, but not only can we not afford to do this, I see the destruction of the environment and the financial crisis as symptoms of the same problem: an economic model that is based on endless growth, and encourages ever increasing (over) consumption. We just cannot have limitless growth on a planet with finite resources—at some point, we need to reach an equilibrium with what our planet is capable of sustaining. Switching to renewable energy resources will help a lot, and is essential if we don’t want to face a resources crisis in the near future. Yet even then, we need to ask tough questions about population control and other difficult issues, if we are to survive.

With all the religiously based days of celebration we have, don’t you think it’s about time we had one celebrating science and reason? Well on February 12, 2009, we have exactly that: Darwin Day. It marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, and this year marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species as well. What better way to celebrate science and reason than to celebrate the theory that did more to change how we view the world than perhaps any other idea in human history—biological evolution by means of natural selection—as well as the great man behind it? Well, those of us who are enlightened enough to not be religious fundamentalists anyway.

POSTSCRIPT: I would just like to add that I think Charles Darwin is a really great example of what science is all about. He started out with the intention of being a clergyman, but when the evidence led him to doubt the literal truth of the Bible, he went with the facts, even though he knew his ideas would threaten the Victorian establishment—an establishment he was very much a part of himself.

I guess most of you know that I live in the beautiful state of Queensland in Australia. What you may not know though is that recently more than half the state has been under water! Flooding is certainly very normal at this time of year in north Queensland, however the extent and duration of the flooding this year has been extraordinary—some towns have been flooded since the beginning of the year! And while flood waters are now receding in many locations, there is apparently still more to come.

While this has been going on, southern Australia has been experiencing a record drought, which just recently produced a record heat wave. Adelaide has experienced more than a week of temperatures over 40°C (over 104°F), and Melbourne went for 11 days with temperatures over 40°C—both cities’ morgues filled up due to heat related deaths. The heat wave has now ended, but it did so with utterly disastrous results in the state of Victoria. The exceedingly dry conditions resulting from the record drought, and the strong winds that came in ahead of the cool change combined with a 46°C (115°F) day, produced the worst fire conditions on record. And they certainly delivered—untold properties have been lost to ferocious, uncontrollable fires, and the death toll is currently at 181 and counting. Read the rest of this entry »

It seems my previous What Can Be Done About Israel post was a real blockbuster—60 comments and counting, many of them quite (very!) lengthy. A lot of the comments were really enlightening as well, as is often the case with my very well informed readership. Which has led me to ponder an idea: what if some of my readers were allowed to submit guest posts for my blog? On the one hand, this is supposed to be my personal blog, which would normally mean that I should be the author of all the articles. On the other hand though, the point of a blog is to allow everyone to have their say, and to foster a community—guest posts would seem like the next logical step in this direction. So what do my readers think? Should I allow guest posts here, or should it really just be my personal soapbox?

I should mention that I won’t necessarily have to agree with absolutely everything my guest posters say. However, they will have to have what I would consider to be a well informed opinion, worthy of respect. For example, if you can make a good case for libertarianism—which I respect in principle but don’t think would actually work in the real world—then I may publish your article. However, if you try to say that George Bush was a good President, I will simply delete your submission immediately.

Although I am disappointed, I can’t say I’m surprised. Obama has sent a new peace envoy to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within a few days of entering office, which is nice I guess. But there still isn’t any sign that he will be taking any definitive action to curb Israel’s continued illegal and immoral actions in the Palestinian territories. It remains utterly astonishing to me that Israel can flagrantly kill thousands of innocent civilians in a so-called attempt to weed out terrorists, seriously injure goodness knows how many more, destroy Palestinian buildings and infrastructure (including their totally and utterly outrageous policy of bulldozing Palestinian homes), erect barriers in Palestinian territory which prevent them from traveling freely and getting to work (so destroying their economy), and of course, illegally occupy Palestinian land, leaving thousands of Palestinians as refugees in their own homeland. What is even more outrageous however is the US government not only doesn’t condemn this, it effectively condones it, by not only supplying far more financial aid to Israel than any other country, but by supplying them with far and away the most military aid as well!

I have been very happy with many of the actions Obama has taken since entering office, particularly by so swiftly ordering the closure of Guantanamo Bay and a pull out of Iraq. Yet while it is true that he made no specific promises regarding Israel, I was desperately hoping to see a dramatic change of US government policy on this issue. Once again though, this was only a hope, not an expectation—the power the Jewish lobby wield in Washington remains as strong as ever, and Obama still has to deal with congress. It is amazing how powerful they are actually, given what a small percentage of the US population they are. I guess it shows that dollars mean a lot more than votes in America. Read the rest of this entry »

The day so many of us have been waiting for has finally arrived! And here’s how I celebrated the end of the Bush administration—we originally tried to follow Loverboy’s idea of using balloons, but they kept exploding whenever we tried to do anything with them! So we decided to shoot me tearing up images of Rice, Cheney and Bush instead, which fortunately worked pretty well I think. As promised, we’ve also posted an extended, extra naughty version for my web site members, and I blow a kiss to everyone who entered my win a kiss from me for Christmas competition. I received emails from a few people who said they were trying to think of a winning entry, but didn’t end up posting any! So I guess a lot of people were so intent on winning that they didn’t enter at all if they didn’t think they could. But as I ended up blowing a kiss to every entrant, I would have given you a kiss anyway. (As with all of our videos, it is in MPEG4 format, so you’ll need either QuickTime or 3ivx to view it.)

On a more serious note, I would sincerely like to wish President Obama all the best for his term in the White House—let’s hope he is able to achieve at least some of the things he has set out to do.

Well I think it’s high time we had some good news, and if you’re an atheist like me, this certainly is that. The atheist bus campaign I wrote about last year has now been officially launched, after raising over £135,000—breaking the original target by over 2400%! This means that instead of having only 30 atheist buses as originally planned, there will now be 800 of them rolling across the UK! There will also be 1000 tube cards running on the London Underground featuring four famous atheist quotations from Douglas Adams, Albert Einstein, Emily Dickinson and Katharine Hepburn. They are now even seeking suggestions for the slogan for a second wave of atheist buses in April.

Even better, the campaign has now gone global! Spain, Italy and France will be launching buses with their own translations of the original slogan “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life”, and even buses in Washington DC have been carrying the slogan “Why believe in a God? Just be good for goodness’ sake” for well over a month now. Canada and Ireland will be running the campaign as well. However, I must now reveal what is for me some very sad and shameful news: The Atheist Foundation of Australia‘s attempts to run the slogan “Atheism—celebrate reason!” on buses here in Australia have been refused by the company responsible for public metropolitan transport advertising across most of Australia (APN Outdoors). However, they are taking their case to the Tasmanian Anti-discrimination Commissioner, as their bus advertising company (Metro Tasmania) is state owned. This is truly a shameful situation for a country as free and progressive as Australia.

I’m still feeling outraged by the situation in Gaza, so rather than posting an angry diatribe, I thought I’d post this clever, lighthearted video instead. The whole thing is very true, but the bit about why we decide to start killing eachother has particular relevance to the insanity going on over there I think.

It is with mixed feelings that I wish all my readers and fans a happy new year. On the one hand, we have much to look forward to in 2009, not the least of which being the end of what really has been one of the worst disasters to hit the US (and indeed the entire world), the Bush administration. Still, I just can’t help feeling outraged right now at the unrestrained carnage being undertaken by Israel in Gaza. I just cannot comprehend how the US government has been able to continuously use its veto power to prevent the UN from taking action to stop Israel’s aggression in Palestine. I can only hope the Obama administration will join the rest of the world in condemning Israel’s actions, and making them comply with international law—it is critical not only for the Palestinians, but for the peace and security of the entire world. Indeed, I suspect Israel may be doing this now because they believe they won’t be able to get away with it after January 20—we can only hope that is indeed the case.