1. Pat Condell: Anthology DVD available now!

Comment #173632 by Ramases on May 1, 2008 at 2:23 am

Allan, I have to say if Condell is thoughtful I'm the Dalai Lama.

Condell's rantings remind me more than anything of a fundamentalist preacher, and they grate on me in a similar manner. I can see him swanning across a stage, micophone in hand, exorting his flock to follow him and conform. He does not like people from cultures or with beliefs different to his own "invading" his White Britain. He makes the rest of us look bad.

My objection to Condell is similar to George Orwell's criticims of other people on the left - it was because he DID agree with the aims of a progressive left that he so disliked bad arguments on his side, making a rational position seem irrational, and a tolerant one intolerant.

Even when I agree with him, (which happens) there are so many others who have said it so much better than him

We can surely find better representatives than this tedioius loud mouthed simplistic bigot.

2. Pat Condell: Anthology DVD available now!

Comment #172958 by Ramases on April 30, 2008 at 7:53 am

I am surprised that so many people are fawning on the ravings of someone who appears to me to be little more than an ignorant xenophobic bigot and a perpetuator of hate speech.

I say this as an atheist who thinks it is great to have a strong intelligent and rational anti-religious movement. But there is a very big jump between arguing against religion and hijacking the atheist movement to encourage hatred towards a relatively powerless group of mostly immigrant people.

Listen to what the guy actually says - he talks of the "demographic profile" of muslims and the risk they will overwhelm us because of their breeding patterns. (Would he have the courage to say this about Jews or Christians?)

Well guess what Pat? Religions don't have demographic breeding profiles - religion is about belief, no matter what ethnic group someone comes from. Talking about a demographic profile, and the risk they will overwhelm the rest of us is crossing a very important line, into the region of xenophobic and bigotry.

Condel not only on distinction between moderate and extreme muslims, but also none between people who come from a muslim background and extreme muslims. I have some experience in this - I worked as a volunteer with refugees, many from muslim backgrounds for a number of years and won a human rights award for my efforts.

I know the discrimination immigrants from muslim nations face, regardless of their personal beliefs. It is no longer a cool it once was to be alertly racist, so people pretend to be "anti-muslim". In practice it works out the same.

A friend of mine is a refugee from Iran. He was in prison in Iran for two years for opposing the government, and he regards himself as an atheist. Yet he stills gets abuse from the anti-immigrant right, who slag him off as a "bloody muslim".

Condel makes no distinction between extreme muslims and people who come from what is clearly an ethnic group not to his liking. He clearly represents the extreme anti immigrant right, and I am surprised the Richard Dawkins Foundation has anything to do with this kind of xenophobia.

3. EXPELLED!

Comment #147616 by Ramases on March 21, 2008 at 1:48 am

It seems biology is not the only thing the film's supporters are deluded about.

Amongst the rest of the silly comments by Stuart Blessman is this...

"...the second question was asked by a surprise member of the audience: Richard Dawkins, author of "The God Delusion," and arguably the biggest name in the movie other than Mr. Ben Stein himself."

http://lookingcloser.wordpress.com/2008/03/20/richard-dawkins-crashes-the-party-at-a-screening-of-expelled/


Does this guy seriously think an idiot like Ben Stein is comparable to an eminent scientist like Richard Dawkins?

4. Jesus saves

Comment #147276 by Ramases on March 20, 2008 at 5:22 am

For those of you who don't know the newspaper this article was published in (The Australian), I should explain it a Rupert Murdoch owned sensationalist pile of garbage.

The reliability of what is printed in it is hardly greater than that of a fundamentalist christian discusssing biology.

It would be interesting to find a more reliable source concening this study and what it aims to do.

5. Ayaan Hirsi Ali to get EU protection

Comment #136342 by Ramases on February 29, 2008 at 11:02 pm

This is good news, although it could have come earlier.

What I find difficult to understand is why the Dutch have copped the stick in this instead of the Americans. The Dutch were after all prepared to protect her in Holland and on reasonable trips abroard, just not forever when she was living in a different country.

Protection from fanatics, like protection from any other crime, should be the responsibility of the authorities of whatever country you are in, and it should be considered a human right when you are threatened to get such protection.

As far as I can see, it should be up to the US to protect her when she lives there. Pity they have not yet come to the party and agreed to do this.