Dawn

Dawn

Monday, December 14, 2015

RE; Humanism; The EU & The UK; Washing machines mayhem; & Bloody Facebook.

RELIGION: There's a debate taking place in the UK as to the state of the teaching of religious education (RE) there. Apparently, the theists are unhappy about its decline or, worse, disappearance from some schools. Though not the Faith schools now permitted under English law. (Satanism, anyone?). There's naturally discussion about whether the title RE is still appropriate, given than much of it amounts to lessons on comparative religion, rather than on the tenets of any one of them. I favour Belief Systems, as something which would permit education on the secular, non-theist moral framework of humanism.

HUMANISM: If your interest has been aroused by the last paragraph, here's the link for the British Humanist Association, whose president is the lovely Iranian comedienne, Shappi Khorsandi. There's also a magazine, The New Humanist, from the Rationalist Society which I like the look of and to which I've taken out a trial subscription. Oh, and a blog.

THE EU & THE UK: No one seems to have any real idea of what game David Cameron is playing, though there's no shortage of people with theories. Most of the commentators are badly informed but one or two are very knowledgable. One of the latter has also insisted Cameron has no chance of achieving 'treaty change' or even of getting any real concessions before his 'stupidly self-imposed' deadline of 2017. I tend to agree with his comment yesterday that what he's doing is: Trying to pretend that he is in control and setting up the "British model" to disguise associate membership and to enable him to pretend that it was his idea. And keeping everyone in the dark on the date of the referendum. "Anybody who wants to assert that Mr Cameron doesn't have a strategy, or a 'master plan'", he asserts, "isn't reading the runes and is in danger of helping the Prime Minister sell his own agenda". Further: As always, the Prime Minister will face resistance from some EU leaders. But the reality is that behind the scenes, hidden by what officials are calling "chaff", fundamental changes to the EU are being considered. These will be dressed up to give the impression the EU is doing us a great favour. Don't be fooled. They are intended only to make the EU work better for the core eurozone countries. They do not address ANY of the fundamental issues that make British membership intolerable. More here and here.

FINALLY . . . WASHING MACHINES: Everyone knows these eat hosiery. I have 12 'orphan' socks. But whole tea-towels? I've lost one of these and, unless one of my curry-pupils nicked it last week, the only explanation can be a ravenous washing machine. Anyone else had a similar experience. With a machine, I mean. Not with a curry-pupil.


Note: FACE(LESS)BOOK: I continue to get this text when I try to put a blog post on my Home page: This message contains content that has been blocked by our security systems. This is easily solved, I discovered by accident, merely by adding a foto to the text. God knows why. I have, of course, accepted FB's invitation to tell me why I disagree with their practice, to no avail whatsoever. I assume it's a computer with which I'm 'dialoguing'. And it doesn't recgonise or like my Anglo-Saxon terms.

Today's, topical, foto:




No comments: