Weekend Wound-up 5 Feb 2010

It's been a fairly crazy two weeks. This is partly because I've written some long blogs, but also because someone very close to me was admitted to hospital for 4 days, the whole PodDelusion / Bruce Hood / 1023 was great but took up significant chunks of time, and, on the side, I also have a proper job.

It was never quite my intention to start a skeptical blog, although I knew I'd write some posts on skeptical topics.


However, that's what I've written most often and I'm really gratified with the reception so far. I'm going to stick with it, write more frequently and see where it takes me. There will continue to be entries about various cultural stuff I want to talk about, but they will be more occasional.


I've decided to resurrect the Weekend Wound-up which I tried twice in the early days. It was a way of letting off steam about issues which I didn't have time to write about in full, in the vague hope I wouldn't then gnash my teeth about them at the weekend. This week I would draw your attention to:

• Cherie Booth/Blair whose decided to suspend the sentence of a man in her court, and then made the following statement: "You are a religious man and you know this is not acceptable behaviour." There has been a complaint from the National Secular Society which is now being investigated. Legal bloggers Lucifee and JackofKent (more on them later) have pointed out that this is perfectly reasonable comment for a judge and that there is no evidence of discrimination against atheists here. Fair comment, but it remains the case that, had she indicated any of the man's other attributes in that sentence, it would have been very weird (ie remove 'religious' and substitute in 'asian', 'short', 'chubby', etc) and people would have wondered quite what she meant. Quite why religious belief should be seen as better evidence of good character than these other attributes remains a valid question, and I support the NSS in asking it, especially given the prominence the Blairs attach to their faith in the public arena. 
• The relative silence on what happens next with 10:23, but this is my lack of patience rather than the fault of the campaign. I completely understand that the organisers put their all into last week and that they have proper jobs, but it was a monstrous success and I was hungry for more. However, I suspect Martin Robbins in the Guardian tomorrow and the Select Committee report next week may spark further news.
• And finally, this news from the Valleys, which I am only cross about because it should have attracted more coverage. Imagine people having to use torches. The scandal.

That's all except some teasers for blog entries I'm planning:

• Homeopathy on the NHS - How does it work?
• Evidence, Policy & Law - where @Lucifee and @JackofKent are wrong (albeit only in a narrow and very specific sense)
• The Locksbottom Clinic - For alternative medicine and child psychology
• Lost - The Final Season
• Robert Wyatt's lovely song about Humanism

And whatever else pops into my fragile little mind. I hope you stay tuned, and enjoy your weekends.