Evolution has specifically selected me for extinction.
Another day, another attack on the presumption of innocence by No-Trousers Charlie: Clarke presses for EU fingerprint plan:
I thought we'd already got rid of one bearded extremist as home secretary, but it seems that as the weeks pass we've gained another one. Charles Clarke was at first supposed to be a moderate, not a firebrand like Blunkett, who attacked judges who dared to disagree with his decrees. Clarke was meant to be a skeptic of ID cards, fast becoming Labour's poll tax. Instead he's argued for more clampdowns, especially now that he can take advantage of last Thursday's events.
As more and more fallout starts to appear from the aftermath of these bombings, we seem to have fallen into a state of apathy already. I seriously expect that rolling over and playing dead is going to be the order of the day in parliament for at least a few weeks. The third reading of the bill on the "incitement to religious hatred" went through with very few people even noticing. Even without suicide bombings, which should never be connected to any serious religious message, there are plenty of examples of how religion itself incites hatred among those who are non-believers. As minorities become immune from the slightest criticism for believing in bullshit of the highest order, freedom collapses around us. We're not challenging religion any more. We're giving in to it. The freedom to believe in lies is obviously more important than the freedom to challenge those lies.
The home secretary, Charles Clarke, is to press today's emergency European counter-terrorism summit to adopt a plan to compulsorily fingerprint all EU citizens who already carry identity cards.
I thought we'd already got rid of one bearded extremist as home secretary, but it seems that as the weeks pass we've gained another one. Charles Clarke was at first supposed to be a moderate, not a firebrand like Blunkett, who attacked judges who dared to disagree with his decrees. Clarke was meant to be a skeptic of ID cards, fast becoming Labour's poll tax. Instead he's argued for more clampdowns, especially now that he can take advantage of last Thursday's events.
As more and more fallout starts to appear from the aftermath of these bombings, we seem to have fallen into a state of apathy already. I seriously expect that rolling over and playing dead is going to be the order of the day in parliament for at least a few weeks. The third reading of the bill on the "incitement to religious hatred" went through with very few people even noticing. Even without suicide bombings, which should never be connected to any serious religious message, there are plenty of examples of how religion itself incites hatred among those who are non-believers. As minorities become immune from the slightest criticism for believing in bullshit of the highest order, freedom collapses around us. We're not challenging religion any more. We're giving in to it. The freedom to believe in lies is obviously more important than the freedom to challenge those lies.