Mohammed speaks

The official website of the prophet Muhammed, and his responses to the Mo-toons can be seenhere.

Sign a faith schools petition.

According to an ICM poll last year, 64% of the population thinks that the government should not be funding faith schools of any kind.

The government disagree, and have decided that the best way to negate the relgious segragation our society is heading towards is to more and more seperate kids at school by the religous beliefs of their parents.

To put it another way, the government thinks that segregating kids on the basis of religion is a good way to encourage religous integration. Eh? If a politician came out and said that kids should be separated on the grounds of race to encourage racial intergration, their party would sack them without a moment’s thought.

So, if like me and the majority of the population, you want to see an end to this tax-funded religious propaganda, sign the petition here

Homophobia in Australia

The BBC reports that the Australian government is going to block any attempt to legalise same-sex civil unions, after legeslation was introduced in the parliament of the Australian Capital Territory.

In an interview with ABC radio, John Stamhope, the head of the ACT government said that the reaction showed homophobia in the John Howard administration, saying:

One has to pose the question of whether or not the real reason (for Mr Ruddock’s stance) is that there is no place in John Howard’s Australia for homosexuals

John Howard has also condemned gay adoption in the past, so it looks like the accusation of homophobia is well justified.

Scary stuff in Surrey

The BBC reports that a head-teacher of a Catholic girls school in Surrey has been sent threatening e-mails from anti-abortion protestors due to her decision to teach the kids about contraception.

Firstly, these anti-abortion protesters need to go to school themselves, as there is a BIG difference between abortion and contraception.

Secondly, I hope that this sort of sick US style protest isn’t going to become the norm in the UK.

The Shabina Begum case

It’s not often I find myself agreeing with a Tory MP, but Boris Johnson has got it exaxtly right in this article from the Telegraph about the Shabina Begum fiasco.

This paragraph gets to the heart of the matter:

This case wasn’t even about religion, or conscience, or the dictates of faith. At least it wasn’t primarily about those things. It was about power. It was about who really runs the schools in this country, and about how far militant Islam could go in bullying the poor, cowed, gelatinous and mentally spongiform apparatus of the British state.

One only hopes that she loses again if it goes to the European courts.

Third make nude telephone calls

According to this report on Digital Spy, a third of people make telephone calls in the nude. I wonder if this will change when video phones become common place?

Beer on tap in the home

The BBCreports that a Norwegian woman got Beer through her kitchen taps, after a plumbing mistake.

Pity the poor beer drinkers in the pub though, who got water instead of a nice cold beer.

Faith schools ‘are not divisive’ says archbishop

From the Beeb, who report that the Archbishop of Canterbury thinks that schools that seperate kids according to the religious beliefs of their parents are not divisive.

And I suppose that schools that seperate kids according to their race aren’t divisive either?

Being a Christian evidently means that the Archbishop lives outside of reality, but does religion really make people that stupid?

Thankfully, we have the National Secular Society to stand up for rationality. Executive Director Keith Porteous Wood said the following:

“The concept of faith schools is self-evidently divisive.”

He added: “The whole point of faith schools is for them to bring youngsters to the one true denomination or faith.

“Implicitly, if not explicitly, those who do not follow the faith are regarded as inferior. Some preach that non-followers will face eternal damnation, torment and burning in hell. Nothing could be more divisive.”

He added: “The one and only chance to teach integration is to children at schools which reflect the diversity of the whole community.

“We should make all state schools open equally to children of all faiths and none.”

Here here. And we also have a sensible politician, which is a rare thing indeed:

But Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris accused faith schools of selecting children on the grounds of their parents’ religion – a practice he said was wrong in today’s society.

The MP, who is a member of the National Secular Society, said: “There’s not a shred of evidence that being a faith school in and of itself improves results.”

What the bloody hell are they doing?

The BBC reports that an Australian tourist advert has been banned from broadcast on TV for featuring a swear word.

Here is a still of the offensive part of the ad:-

That’s right, bloody hell is considered too offensive for TV. It’s not as if they said “So where the fuck are you?” is it?

You can watch the advert here.

Canada beat USA in Baseball World Cup

I said a while ago that it would be funny if the USA didn’t succeed in the World Baseball Classic.

And I’m laughing as a USA team full of major leaguers fell 5-6 to a Canadian team with no current major leaguers.

Canada only just scraped past amateurs South Africa too, so I can’t wait for the South Africa v USA game!