brendanbaber

Comment Threads

• Greg. Tingey commented on Yet another bad idea
  Please don't talk (or write) more utter tosh than you can help, okay? NO - because. Religions tend to try to exclude & persecute ( & torture & kill ) their opponents. Political parties & leaders (normal ones at any rate) do none of these things. There are other major differences, that anyone without such lazy inapplicable generalisations could note, as well....
• Trottelreiner commented on Yet another bad idea
  Religions tend to try to exclude & persecute ( & torture & kill ) their opponents. Political parties & leaders (normal ones at any rate) do none of these things. Actually, this distinction of "normal" politics is something of the "true scotsman" argument; problem is, violence is hardly confined to religions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proscription#Proscription_of_82_BC As for communism being a religion, amen to that, though it seems like this is not that uncommon for economy, err, "science"....
• ARNOLD commented on Yet another bad idea
  " Religions tend to try to exclude & persecute ( & torture & kill ) their opponents. Political parties & leaders (normal ones at any rate) do none of these things. " Really? It depends on what you mean by 'normal ones ' but hows about New Labour as the New Normal? " Zoe Williams wants us to get nostalgic about Blairism. But in her attempt to defend Tony Blair's record she badly misjudges the significance of the Iraq war. By any standards, Iraq was a catastrophe. The most recent study suggests nearly half a million people were killed as...
• El commented on Yet another bad idea
  And by the standards of a lot of those on the left IDS has done a fair number on those on benefits, particularly those with large families, those living in London, those with disabilities and the like. The right-wing of the Conservative hate "benefits scroungers" with a passion. How they define that is up for grabs of course. But under the guise of 'rational reform of the benefits system' the people worst affected are pretty easy to pick out. The latest proposal - you will have to pay for the right to appeal any decision made by the benefits office...
• peak.singularity commented on Yet another bad idea
  If you like satirical speculative fiction, and as I know you like all things Lovecraft-related, then I'm sure you'll love this other speculation about Republicans : http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-christmas-speculation.html (Yes, it's Greer again, what can I do, he's starting to become a reference to me...)...