Tolerance

DZ did not write this. It's reproduced here from a FB page, the Scottish Atheist's Group 

"Q: Why Can’t You Just Leave Religion Alone?

A: The answer is simple. Atheist activism exists because religion exists.

Religion permeates our culture, shows up on our doorsteps with literature, scriptures and threats of eternal damnation, influences our science books, contaminates our political systems, indoctrinates our children and postulates that its doctrine must be followed, lest we be destroyed in body, in soul, or both. Non-believers are simply responding to the avalanche of religious messages that bears down upon us daily.

If the religious lived in a bubble where no ripple effects negatively impacted others, there would be no problem. But religion does not exist in a bubble. It accosts us in our homes, in our places of work, in our personal and professional lives. Believers are charged with a lifelong mission to preach, teach, disciple, shout it from the mountaintops and to “go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”And when the skeptic raises a hand of protest, he is dismissed as misguided, immoral, rudderless, angry or (wait for it) “religious about his atheism.”

Is that a fair assessment? When’s the last time an atheist rang your doorbell with brochures about the Good News of Humanism? How often do you find Richard Dawkins books in the dresser drawers of your hotel rooms? When was the last atheist temple erected in your neighborhood? Have you ever attended an atheist revival? Has atheism demanded 10% of your household income? How many dedicated atheist television channels broadcast through your satellite dish? How many atheist verses were you instructed to memorize as a child? When’s the last time someone thanked a farmer (or even the cook) at the dinner table instead of God?

On a more radical front, what’s the name of the last atheist who sawed the head off of an “infidel?”Or sentenced a shrouded woman to death for displeasing an oppressive husband? Or strapped explosives to his belt in order to kill hundreds in a public square? Or publicly hung a homosexual? No, atheist activism isn’t a religion. It’s a response. Religion is a pounding drum that has gone mostly unanswered for a long, long time, and legitimate challenge to its wild and often harmful claims is long overdue."

 To illustrate the point being made, here is a copy of an (anonymous naturally) letter sent to a brewer by one of these pious oppressive "christians"

Why indeed can't the religious just leave the rest of us alone?

 

Watch this space

 

Steve Barclay

So this is our new health secretary. There isn't much to go on in his wiki entry. He's been an army officer, for all of 5 months. He doesn't seem to be one of the rich privileged upper class Eton/Harrow Bullingdon twats we've become used to from this party. Does he have any previous experience in healthcare services provision? Well no. But on the plus side it's hard to imagine he could be as useless, idiotic and ignorant as the previous incumbent. Give him time. His main problem is going to be contending with the predatory impulse of that NHS nemesis Hunt. If he can stop Hunt from financially raping our health services then I'll be impressed. We shall see.

BUGGER!!. Missed it

 

Plus ca change

 Ten years ago DZ put up these two blog posts. (1) (2)

Since then things have not improved. In fact they are far worse. Every school in England now has children attending who are quite literally starving. In one of the richest countries in the world. DZ has always tried to stay clear of politics, but he has to point out that in those ten years we have had only one party in power. A party that has allowed the gap in wealth distribution to increase to breaking point. Giving us a country where so much wealth is now sequestered by the ultra wealthy that the economy can no longer function. And only recently their approach was to offer the wealthy even more tax cuts at the expense of everyone else. We are getting to a "let them eat cake" situation.

Scotland, and soon Wales show that free school meals for all primary school children is not unaffordable, unless you are preoccupied with using vast amounts of taxpayers money to, directly and indirectly, line the pockets of your cronies and financial supporters. 

This government's priorities are so far removed from attending to the well being of it's people that you can only conclude that they don't care as long they're OK. Even the last Labour PM of the UK came to power as a down at heel politician, and is now worth £45MILLION!!! What the absolute fuck?!

And they're now bickering about who should be in power, and even talking about bringing back that overprivileged upper class twat Boris. Fuck me!

They are courting disaster. Civil dissatisfaction is coming, inevitably to the boil as everything we had is being taken away. Decent pay, reasonable house prices, free education all the way to university, affordable utilities, and a decent health service. The list goes on & on.

In 1886 the people of France gifted to the USA the Statue of Liberty. Perhaps we should be asking them to gift us something too.

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What?

 DZ is still working via agencies, so gets to see a fair few hospitals that are new to him. So he occasionally comes across stuff that makes his eyebrows go up. Like the hospital where the cleaners had put notices on the bins asking people not to shit in them. Or the hospital with a notice in the changing rooms informing staff that the CCTV cameras in the changing room had been removed!

Well today brought another surprise. At one time today I needed to use the staff toilet, and was surprised to see this on the wall in there.

The presence of the hole I'm sure  has a perfectly reasonable explanation. But what the hell is that message supposed to mean. I suspect I'd rather not know.

Royal quackery

 

So, we now have a new King. Before we get too carried away with enthusiasm let’s pause for a moment to remember some of the odd views he has in the medical field, a field he is not at all qualified to pontificate on. He has made it quite clear in the past that he is sympathetic to the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in the NHS. He has previously given his patronage to a pseudo college of pseudo medicine which eventually crashed and burned amid allegations of fraud and money laundering.

One of the excuses used by proponents of these pseudo medical disciplines is that they supposedly have no adverse effects. A shame that that’s not true.

Firstly all alternative modalities have the adverse effect that they have no beneficial effect. This, combined with the fact that many practitioners of CAM discourage their patients from resorting to normal medicine, thus allowing the patient’s condition to develop unchecked. The poor gullible patient is even encouraged to perceive doctors, or allopaths as they are referred to, as dangerous and in the pockets of “Big Pharma”

And specific practices can have specific adverse effects. Take this case for example. It would appear that the acupuncturist in this case was not aware that the lungs and pleura are right in the line of his fire, with inevitable consequences. Sticking needles in to the chest, without being familiar with what’s in there has also been reported to result in cardiac tamponade. Even anaesthetists, well familiar with the anatomy, approach intercostal block with some trepidation.

And vertebral artery tear, with subsequent stroke, as in this case, is now a well reported complication of chiropractic neck manipulation. Yet no chiropractor will warn patients of this complication and some even deny the problem.

Fortunately, in developed countries at least, CAM provision is heavily in decline and state provided health services are finally abandoning these absurd practices. Although in the USA osteopaths are considered to have the same status as medical doctors most western countries have now cut their ties with these quacks. The Homeopathic hospitals in the UK are now gone, and even in France, the home of Boiron, a water bottling company masquerading as a medicine producer, homeopathy is no longer funded by the state. Even in the USA things are looking up.

So let’s hope that Charles’ new position doesn’t result in him giving his uninformed opinion free reign. When it comes to stuff he knows nothing about he should follow his Mother’s example and keep his nonsense to himself.