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Search found 160 matches
- November 22nd, 2008, 11:05 pm
- Forum: Miscellaneous Discussions...
- Topic: Evil witch - or just poor inexperienced teacher?
- Replies: 10
- Views: 2493
Re: Evil witch - or just poor inexperienced teacher?
Alan C yes, I needed correction on some material facts. I made the mistake of repeating my impressions gained from the generality of the style of media reporting on this case – rather than do some careful checking. A mistake that does annoy me given the low regard I hold British media in. A mistake ...
- November 22nd, 2008, 3:20 pm
- Forum: Miscellaneous Discussions...
- Topic: Evil witch - or just poor inexperienced teacher?
- Replies: 10
- Views: 2493
Evil witch - or just poor inexperienced teacher?
Am I the only one to be disturbed and disgusted at the current, near-hysterical, media witch hunt over the young Scottish teacher who seems likely to be the first to be dismissed for incompetency? I wasn’t even aware of the case until I kept seeing her being covered in and out of her hearing by vari...
- November 22nd, 2008, 3:05 pm
- Forum: Culture Club
- Topic: Theatre
- Replies: 3
- Views: 1449
Re: Theatre
Thanks for the tip Beki. It's a real shame that the the public and media seem to generally so neglect theatre in Scotland - all the more so since Scottish drama writing has been going through something of a mini golden age over the past decade or so. I can recall going to the premiere of The Nationa...
- November 18th, 2008, 11:25 am
- Forum: Miscellaneous Discussions...
- Topic: How secure are your passwords?
- Replies: 5
- Views: 1263
Re: How secure are your passwords?
Doh! Alan H - I wish you had advised me about that before I started my regular oral logging in, in the middle of busy Mitchell Library
- November 14th, 2008, 5:19 pm
- Forum: Humanist Ethics & Morality
- Topic: Adults hitting children
- Replies: 72
- Views: 15009
Re: Adults hitting children
On a point of accuracy, the law that you seek succour from is in fact English law, and that differs from Scottish law on this matter – at least in nuance and duty placed on the parent. From my observations I would describe English law as one of the most reactionary and unenlightened among advanced W...
- November 9th, 2008, 9:25 pm
- Forum: Culture Club
- Topic: Result! Russell Brand resigns from Radio 2
- Replies: 16
- Views: 2488
Re: Result! Russell Brand resigns from Radio 2
I can see that some people will see this affair as something of a frenzy or overblown. But that is only if you see it as something about no more than the immature and irresponsible behaviour of a couple of a certain type of English men. I see it as neither overblown or a frenzy –rather I see it as e...
- October 27th, 2008, 10:46 pm
- Forum: Humanist Ethics & Morality
- Topic: Adults hitting children
- Replies: 72
- Views: 15009
Re: Adults hitting children
Different people respond differently to different learning styles. One size does not fit all. I think that physical punishment is inappropriate to most people in most situations, however, for some people under some (extreme) circumstances I think it can be appropriate. As with any punishment, it sh...
- October 20th, 2008, 12:32 pm
- Forum: Humanist Ethics & Morality
- Topic: Question Regarding Animal Experimentation
- Replies: 21
- Views: 4848
Re: Question Regarding Animal Experimentation
I have to go back to the start of this thread as I'm still very troubled by the statement: Some humans who are profoundly handicapped as well as infants may be less sentient, less aware of the self and suffering than adult chimpanzees. Is there a difference between experimenting on one rather than t...
- October 19th, 2008, 2:26 pm
- Forum: Culture Club
- Topic: Free Cinema BBC Radio documentary
- Replies: 1
- Views: 1046
Free Cinema BBC Radio documentary
I’ve just enjoyed another wee BBC Radio4 gem – ‘Free Cinema’. It’s a documentary about a series of six short films made in 1956-59. The films were aimed of bringing new life and perspectives to British film-making that, it was asserted, was at that time pretty, dreary upper-middle class stuff (Brief...
- October 13th, 2008, 11:05 am
- Forum: Miscellaneous Discussions...
- Topic: Crisis? What Crisis?
- Replies: 18
- Views: 4093
Re: Crisis? What Crisis?
Well I’m intrigued by what’s going on in the columns of the so-called financial journalists just now in the business sections of the UK papers (you know, the ones that virtually without exception failed to advise their readers of the impending crisis). Some say it’s a bear market and you should keep...
- October 12th, 2008, 10:09 pm
- Forum: Culture Club
- Topic: The original book thread
- Replies: 406
- Views: 67651
Re: The original book thread
Oooh! Isn’t it a bind when you are really, really impressed by a book that is from an author you really dislike? I have waded through Niall Ferguson’s ‘War of the World’. I find him to be a poseur of a particular type of celeb academic, far too much in adulation of the USA for a supposedly serious h...
- October 12th, 2008, 9:55 pm
- Forum: Miscellaneous Discussions...
- Topic: Crisis? What Crisis?
- Replies: 18
- Views: 4093
Re: Crisis? What Crisis?
I don't think that there can be much doubt that the 'credit crisis' is generating new and significant dangers in the international order. One reason is that, as I asserted in my earlier posting, the crisis has shown up the paucity and debasement of our politicians and our political institutions in t...
- October 9th, 2008, 11:53 am
- Forum: Humanist Ethics & Morality
- Topic: Adults hitting children
- Replies: 72
- Views: 15009
Re: Adults hitting children
Paulo you said If a child does something to deserve a smack it should be smacked. I would stand my ground to deny that and say no child ever did deserve a smack. In the hyperlink you offer the point should be that this child needs help, not hitting. I appreciate that you went on to qualify things by...
- October 9th, 2008, 11:35 am
- Forum: Miscellaneous Discussions...
- Topic: It's still the economy stupid - not religion
- Replies: 1
- Views: 843
It's still the economy stupid - not religion
I found this recent article in the Finacial Times remains thought-provoking. The writer says we are wrong to misconstrue 'creationism' in the USA as really about religion -it's actually about economic inequality and class (something I mostly agree with). But then he worries me that maybe humanists/a...
- October 6th, 2008, 8:55 pm
- Forum: Miscellaneous Discussions...
- Topic: Crisis? What Crisis?
- Replies: 18
- Views: 4093
Re: Crisis? What Crisis?
My apologies to those who may find this lengthy track too political (and too lengthy!), but the truth is that the whole so-called 'crisis' affair is as much political as financial. The context of the present changes in the national and international financial systems is about great, historical devel...
- October 1st, 2008, 9:07 pm
- Forum: Miscellaneous Discussions...
- Topic: Santa
- Replies: 7
- Views: 1477
Re: Santa
I was surprised on reading this thread about how it revealed a still sensitive spot for me at least a couple of years after a seemingly incidental event. I was going home after attending a meeting in a really deprived part of Glasgow’s East End. As I walked by a common closeway a little girl, maybe ...
- September 24th, 2008, 8:57 pm
- Forum: Humanism, secularism, freethought...
- Topic: Alzheimer’s leads atheist Terry Pratchett to appreciate God
- Replies: 5
- Views: 6254
Re: Alzheimer’s leads atheist Terry Pratchett to appreciate God
Seems to me that despite what the Times so-called journalist wrote, Pratchett did not ‘find’ God, or 'appreciate' God. Pratchett did say that the notion that there is a God is “totally useless”… ‘But it fills a hole’. Then in the follow-up he says that after his recent health travails, “I don't thin...
- September 3rd, 2008, 12:28 pm
- Forum: Humanism, secularism, freethought...
- Topic: Humanism and Nationalism
- Replies: 22
- Views: 10264
Re: Humanism and Nationalism
It is to the credit of all the contributors here that this thread has not quickly deteriorated into a screaming diatribe that so often afflicts any attempts at discussing nationalism in British/Scottish/English contexts. I have been increasingly interested in the way that what was a pretty dreary an...
- September 1st, 2008, 2:39 pm
- Forum: Humanism, secularism, freethought...
- Topic: A post concerning both religion and secularism
- Replies: 14
- Views: 3207
Re: A post concerning both religion and secularism
Seems my posting ability is still as poor and irritating. I above should have said:
To first read Dawkins, Hitchens et al was for me a burst of positive energy
Sorry readers and I promise to try harder
To first read Dawkins, Hitchens et al was for me a burst of positive energy
Sorry readers and I promise to try harder
- September 1st, 2008, 2:34 pm
- Forum: Humanism, secularism, freethought...
- Topic: A post concerning both religion and secularism
- Replies: 14
- Views: 3207
Re: A post concerning both religion and secularism
Evangelhumanist congratulations on a thought provoking post. I sympathise with the wish that we could all just get along with moving humanity forward. But my long experience in trying to ‘touch base’ with many religionists over matters of common concern is that the (Dawkins?) mantra that “belief wil...