Say Something…

Which I will do shortly. But in the meantime here’s a picture demonstrating an effective way of keeping people off your land.

The Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator…

I found this on the Politsk Blog.

Sarah Palin has picked out an All-American set of names for her children. There’s Track, Trig, Bristol, Willow, and Piper.

Ever wonder, What would your name would be if Sarah Palin was your mother? Well now you can find out!

CLICK HERE!

The Appliance Of Science…

“Creationism should be discussed in school science lessons, rather than excluded, says the director of education at the Royal Society.”

Professor Michael Reiss is or was the director of education at the royal society. He is also a biologist and Church of England minister. I was going to write about this today, but events changed somewhat by the fact that Prof Reiss quit the post today following the controversy over his recent comments on creationism.

Part of these comments were that Creationism should be discussed in Science classes along side Evolution. Prof Reiss said:

“When young people ask questions about creationism in science classes, teachers need to be able to explain to them why evolution and the Big Bang are scientific theories but they should also take the time to explain how science works and why creationism has no scientific basis.”

“I have referred to science teachers discussing creationism as a worldview’; this is not the same as lending it any scientific credibility.”

A number of Scientists have supported Prof Reiss stating that there was an opportunity for  a reasoned debate, but simply put creationism has no place in the science class; it is completely unsupportable as a theory, and the only reason to even mention creationism in schools science lessons is to enable teachers to demonstrate why the idea has no basis in evidence.

In fact the Royal Society reiterated that its position was that creationism had no scientific basis and should not be part of the science curriculum. “However, if a young person raises creationism in a science class, teachers should be in a position to explain why evolution is a sound scientific theory and why creationism is not, in any way, scientific.” It stated.

This is an interesting statement as it seems to support what Professor Reiss had said. But I would suspect that comments coming from a Church of England minister muddied the waters a little bit.

Supporters of Prof Reiss have also said that the Royal society has been diminished by Prof Reiss stepping down, but my view is that the Royal society was diminished the day they let him take up the post.

Creationism must only be taught only within the context of religion rather than science. As for creationism’s lovechild “Intelligent design”, that load of nonsense should never be taught  at anytime, or anyplace, ever.

Bailout.

As you probably know, Lehman Brothers have filed for Bankruptcy. It would appear that this time the US Government decided not to bail this particular investment bank out.

The federal reserve up until last week was prepared to assist the various financial institutions: In March of this year Bear Sterns had applied for emergency funding, it was then acquired by JP Morgan but not before a sweetener deal to the tune of $30Bn was made available by the federal reserve.

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were taken over by the US Government, which between them guarantee about $5.3 trillion (£3 trillion) of mortgages.

So why not the same for Lehman Brothers?

It would seem that the US Government have finally (after Criticism) let the free market take its course.

Members of Congress were among those who objected to the Bear Stearns bail-out, said that by limiting the damage caused by failure, the government was encouraging banks to take greater risks in the future. Last week, after the bail-out of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, traders were rushing to the market to take more risks.

It hopes by letting Lehman brothers fail, it is hoped that it will send a message to those involved that there is a price for failure.

In the UK, the Government took over Northern Rock. I objected to this. You may be thinking that I believe in free market economics. I do not. Its the free market that has led us into this crisis.

What I object to is a bank that got so unbelievably greedy, bankrupted itself and then Public money being used to bail it out. The message that the financial sector is saying is:

1. we want less regulation

2. we don’t want any Government interference

3. we have self regulation

4. Oh by the way, can the Government who we don’t want to be regulated by, suspend the principles of free market economics and bail us out when we fuck up, thus we can take greater risks in the future with no “price to pay” and allow those who created this problem to walk away Scot free? With sugar on top?

As long as any Government continues to assist these financial institutions out, then the personnel who operate in them will continue to take these sort of risks, knowing the price of failure is a Government bailout, because ultimately there is no risk to themselves or the organisation they represent.

Let them crash and burn. What we must make absolutely sure of in the future is that the Financial sector is no longer self regulated, but tightly regulated and Governments can exercise control over it when necessary, because its abundantly clear that when it comes to the un-remitting greed that this sector has demonstrated recently, it clearly cannot control itself.

The World Will End on Wednesday Part Deux.

We’re still here. Fancy that.

Seriously, I think I may be wired differently to the various personnel who commented that WE WERE ALL GOING TO DIE on the first posting regarding this subject(incidently, I chose not to publish those comments), but the only thing that would worry me is not some magnetic ring in Europe, but the other doomsday device we created in 1945: Nuclear weapons. More nations have them than in the cold war…more unstable nations that is.

If one of them decides to release its stockpile of “instant sunshine” on us, I only hope I’m not around to see the aftermath.

Attention: Lunatic Atheists…

While I’m at it, here’s picture that is once again borrowed from Impolite Conversation.

I could say some witty remark about how retarded this sign is and the use of Religion, but I think I shall leave it by saying when the good Rev speaks of Lunatics, he truly is the pot calling the kettle black. in more ways than one.