……..Virtuous people find it difficult to believe that such evil exists on earth. It’s proponents, moreover, often proclaim (if they have a degree of intelligence) teachings that are designed purposefully to win others to their side: teachings like “the greatest good for the greatest number” and “each according to his need, from each according to …
A robot priest has been installed at a 400-year-old temple in Kyoto. Costing almost £800,000, the android Kannon is 6ft 5ins tall and is modelled on the Buddhist deity of mercy. “With AI, we hope it will grow in wisdom to help people overcome even the most difficult troubles,” says Tensho Goto, a priest at …
Below are some of the ideas that have been put forward to deal with gun violence: Background checks There are several major bipartisan bills drawing renewed attention in the Senate at the moment, aiming to expand background checks for gun sales. The Fix NICS Act corrects failures in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, provides …
”Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.” So exclaimed Beto O’Rourke during the recent Democratic primary debate, endorsing the idea of mandatory buy-backs of assault weapons. It has become “the newest purity test” for Democratic candidates, but have they thought about the consequences of enforcing such a policy? “There could be as …
Continue reading ‘Military-style guns – why do they need them?’ »
The Trump administration has announced it is partnering with drugmaker AstraZeneca for at least 300 million doses of a corona virus vaccine developed by the University of Oxford, and is committing up to $1.2 billion to the effort. As an alumnus of Oxford I am naturally proud that my alma mater is at the forefront of …
Norma McCorvey, who died in 2017, was the plaintiff known as Jane Roe in the 1973 landmark supreme court case Roe v Wade that led to abortion becoming legal in the United States, made, it turns out, a stunning deathbed confession. In a new FX documentary McCorvey admits that her infamous reversal on abortion rights …
Continue reading ‘Abortion: the ruthless scam connected with Roe v Wade’ »
Pastor Rich Vera, who runs a church in Florida, says he believes that faith can stop the coronavirus. He is one of a vocal minority of Christians in America who feel it’s appropriate to gather to worship despite US federal advice to stay home, and who supports protests against the restrictions in place to try …
I have a degree in Modern History, a subject weakly valued by American employers (don’t get me started!). One of my university tutors, Theodore Zeldin, was a simultaneous translator at the Nuremberg trials and a world expert on the great slump and the rise of Hitler. He spoke thirteen European languages, and personally knew and …
Continue reading ‘Is this the end of the democracy experiment?’ »
I don’t understand why prescription medicine advertisements are allowed on TV or why anyone would think of trying one of the medicines after listening to the laundry list of warnings of possible side effects. But this is definitely an exception! Do you have feelings of inadequacy? Do you suffer from shyness? Do you wish you …
The Democrat governor of New York has a plan for a “Trump-proof” reopening of the Big Apple. Andrew Cuomo has apparently hired “high-powered consultants” who will scientifically analyse the “key data points” to work out how to free up the region’s economy. And who are these brilliant consultants? McKinsey & Company, of course – a …
Continue reading ‘You should know better than this, Governor’ »
To The Sunday Times In 1960s Oxford I would see Cecil Rhodes’s statue, think how wrong he was and walk on. That is life in an open, tolerant country: bits of our history are sticking up everywhere, and we are free to admire, condemn or laugh at them. I prefer that to a country in …
Modern politics is impossible to understand unless one understands the so-called pollution paradox – the greater the risk to public health and wellbeing a company is the more it has to spend on politics, to ensure it isn’t regulated out of existence. The result is that politics is dominated by the most anti-social companies and …
Continue reading ‘Epicurus loathed politics then, and would do so today’ »
Why people need to learn grammar, spelling and syntax. Actual announcements found in Church bulletins to the congregation or announced at services: ————————– The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals. ————————– Scouts are saving aluminium cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children. ————————– The sermon this morning: ‘Jesus …
Continue reading ‘Light relief (you may have seen these gems before)’ »
The scientific evidence that has underpinned No 10’s response to Covid-19 will not be made public until the pandemic ends, the government chief science adviser has told MPs. Sir Patrick Vallance said that the minutes of meetings of the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) — the government’s most senior team of expert advisers — …
The Observer (editorial) The World Economic Forum’s annual Davos shindig “became a laughing stock a long time ago”, says The Observer newspaper. All those denunciations of global inequality by “corporate captains clinking champagne glasses” in the snow at shareholders’ expense have long seemed ridiculous. But the penny seems finally to be dropping that the game …
“We are born once and cannot be born twice, but we must be no more for all time. Not being master of tomorrow, you nonetheless delay your happiness. Life is consumed in procrastination, and each of us dies without providing leisure for himself.” (From “The Essential Epicurus”, by Eugene O’Connor, Great Books in Philosophy …
“Not the youth, but the old man who has lived life well, is deemed to be happy. The youth in his prime is made distraught and baffled by fortune: the old man has brought safely into harbour the goods he scarcely hoped for before, and has secured them with unfailing gratitude”. (From “The Essential Epicurus”, …
I was intrigued by an article in the Washington Post, which reported that most US Catholic parishes had applied for taxpayer money, namely the small business stimulation package handouts to help them through the virus epidemic. 13,000 Catholic parishes have received our money out of a total of about 17,000. In the first round 6,000 …
Tokyo Thousands of Japanese women have taken to social media to share their experiences of being discouraged from wearing spectacles at work since the practice was exposed in two recent reports. It turns out that a range of firms tell their female employees not to wear glasses, including a domestic airline that cites “safety” issues, …
The chaos of the last several weeks have put a few things into stark relief. Two of the most obvious: who actually does the work essential for our world to function and how little value the wealthy put on this work. In industries like meatpacking, the corporations that our wealthy run are forcing a mostly …
I have resurrected the following two year old news item because it has relevance for Epicureanism, the rights of women and the irrationality of outdated religious practice: “A national conversation is needed in Sweden about “where the limits of religious freedom lie”. Judging by the stunt in 2018, pulled by the conservative newspaper Göteborgs-Posten, it …
We live in a neontocracy, a world that revolves around the needs of children far beyond the basics of food and material comfort. It seems vital to maintain children’s happiness, status, self-esteem and protection, and to provide constant stimulation. Anthropologist David Lancy of Utah State University (who coined the term neontocracy), writes that modern parenting …
Continue reading ‘Welcome to a world of neontocracy. A review of “Raising Children”’ »
Arnold Donald, the CEO of the world’s largest cruise line, thinks his industry is getting a bad coronavirus rap. COVID-19 hotspots on seven of his now shut-down Carnival cruise ships have left 39 dead. But Donald has been busy insisting that “a cruise ship is not a riskier environment.” His vessels, says Donald, more resemble …
Continue reading ‘Will we see the effective end to this “ industry”?’ »
Not that long ago, but it feels like a lost age, the Big Worry used to be that there was nothing to talk about over the water cooler any more. Because we watched our own flavour of streamed television and were targeted with personalised ads on Facebook, we in the 21st century had no common …
A local opinion poll was taken in our district the other day. It asked which local facilities are you missing most, being locked in at home. The sample was modest, just under 2000 respondents, but the results were interesting: Going out to restaurants. 38% …
