December 30, 2011 – 11:19 am
It does, you know. Really. That we have to be reminded of this now — in (almost) 2012 — is a sad testament to the failure of not only science education but something rather more old fashioned: the public health campaign. Remember those? Newsreels of children lining up for their needles, posters enjoining people to [...]
By skepticlawyer
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Posted in Law, Public Policy, Science, Skeptics
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Tagged #StopAVN, #woodford, Alan Marshall, Australian Skeptics, Chrys Stevenson, Clementine Ford, F. A. Hayek, Graham Young, kylie sturgess, life expectancy, meryl dorey, Phil Plait, Professor Andreas Suhrbier, public health, steven pinker, Stop the AVN, token skeptic, vaccination, Woodford Folk Festival
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December 29, 2011 – 9:48 am
… the little children died in the streets. It is generally a good idea to laugh at dictators. It helps that they are often funny, with their monstrous pretensions, awful taste in clothes and bad hair. Laughter is a way of puncturing their pomposity and self-regard: I have long thought that David Low’s hilarious send [...]
By skepticlawyer
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Posted in Free Speech, History, Human/Civil rights, Media, Personal liberty, Politics
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Tagged brainwashing, jim hoare, kathleen taylor, Kim Jong-Il, Nando's, north korea, Robert Mugabe, The Dear Leader, theodore dalrymple, Tom G. Palmer, totalitarianism, W. H. Auden
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December 28, 2011 – 10:36 pm
As a nation mourns (and the Internet boggles) we pause to offer our sincere condolences to the people of North Korea on the occasion of their Dear Leader’s funeral…. We also offer some fan service to our male readers – hotpants and swords, that’s all I’m going to say. Ain’t no party like a Pyongyang [...]
December 28, 2011 – 2:47 am
A CWMCARN man faces having his incapacity benefit stopped after being declared fit to work despite being registered blind and suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. Tony Harris, 51, of Tribute Avenue, was called for a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) reassessment in November due to him claiming £199 every fortnight in incapacity benefit. Mr [...]
By DeusExMacintosh
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Posted in Britain, Economics, Fark!, Funnies, Personal, Politics, Public Policy, Wales, Welfare
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Tagged ATOS, Department for Work and Pensions, employment and support allowance, guide dogs for the blind, Iain Duncan Smith, incapacity benefit, UK coalition government, welfare reform, work capability assessment
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December 27, 2011 – 6:07 am
As I’ve written previously, Christmas is an ancient pagan rite, its relationship to the baby in the feedbox tenuous at best. However, it is a rite, and with rites come repetition (indeed, that is the point). Research bears out the common hunch that the important bits of religion are in its rituals, not theology: this [...]
By skepticlawyer
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Posted in Animals, Britain, Environment
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Tagged Boxing Day Hunt, Countryside Alliance, foxhunting, Hunting Act, hunting with hounds, Jim Paice, League Against Cruel Sports, Richard Benyon, The Adam Smith Club
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December 24, 2011 – 11:55 pm
I imagine that £10 is less than even the most desperate British street-walker would accept for being screwed in this economic climate. It is however the generous “Christmas Bonus” I’ve received as a benefits claimant just days before the DWP sent me a lovely additional present in the form of a distinctive brown envelope [...]
By DeusExMacintosh
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Posted in Britain, Economics, Politics, Popular culture, Society, Welfare
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Tagged ATOS, Department for Work and Pensions, employment and support allowance, ESA appeals, Iain Duncan Smith, incapacity benefits, UK coalition government, welfare reform, welfare tribunals
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December 24, 2011 – 12:54 pm
Wishing all of you — co-bloggers, commenters, readers, lurkers — a very merry Christmas and a fantastic new year.
December 20, 2011 – 7:16 am
Appearing on the 98.9 Queensland radio station – an Indigenous, government funded radio station – Meryl Dorey is now advising the listeners in rural and remote areas on vaccinations. Here’s some of the transcript that I’ve made: ———————- Tiga Bayles: Today I have an interesting guest with an interesting topic; we’re talking about freedom of [...]
By DeusExMacintosh
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Posted in Australia, Drugs, Education, Free Speech, Funnies, Media, Politics, Popular culture, Racism, Skeptics, Society
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Tagged anti-vaxxers, AVR, dopey dorey, kylie sturgess, meryl dorey, tiga bayles, token skeptic, vaccination
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December 18, 2011 – 4:39 pm
In June this year, SL wrote a post in which she noted: Month on month, the most popular search string for this blog is a variant on ‘getting out of jury service in nsw’, ‘excuses to get out of jury service’, ‘jury service nsw’, ‘avoiding jury service nsw.’ No other state or jurisdiction gets a [...]
By Legal Eagle
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Posted in Law, Media, Society
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Tagged 2UE, common law, criminal justice, criminal law, getting out of jury duty, importance of juries, jury, jury duty, New South Wales, Peter McClellen, radio
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December 18, 2011 – 3:27 am
London tourists got something of a surprise on Friday – Boris Johnson delightedly gurning from the open rear platform of the capital’s new double-decker bus. The mayor’s manifesto pledge to erase the practical yet unloved bendy bus and restore the alleged freedom of the Routemaster’s open entrance has – in part – finally been delivered. [...]
