I survived!

Well, my four month homeopathy overdose is done, and I survived. If you're any where near Cheltenham, you may wish to come to my talk for Skeptics in the Pub.

Relatedly, I saw this post on the Refractive Index blog via David Allen Green (aka Jack of Kent), which is a good little summary of the ways twitter can be used.

Previously, I'd been aware that James Delingpole is a climate change denier, but didn't know about his thoughts on homeopathy. Without a trace of irony, he criticised skeptics for "grotesque, self-aggrandising aura of smugness". This from a man who describes himself as "I'm lovely and right about everything", and who, in the same article, goes on to assert:

Furthermore, to attempt such an argument constitutes the most sublime hypocrisy. AGW is the most expensive unproven hypothesis in the history of science. Wiser heads – such as the new intake at the US House of Representatives, a majority of whom have voted to withdraw funding from the IPCC because it is so heavily politicised and devoid of scientific credibility – are increasingly cognizant of this uncomfortable truth. Not a shred of convincing empirical evidence has yet been produced to show that human CO2 emissions pose any kind of serious threat to the health of the planet.

Let's get this clear, James Delingpole is wrong, AGW is something to worry about, and, all the arguments I have heard from climate change deniers thus far are nicely countered here (this includes those in Delingpole's piece).

Unfortunately, some people aren't as amenable to reason as others, and as the Refractive Index blog shows, when David Allen Green asks, quite reasonably:

And gets this in reply:

We can see just where the issue with tone is (amongst many other things).

I hearby defame Nadine Dorries

Nadine Dorries MP and her blog first came to my attention when Jack of Kent David Allen Green (new legal correspondant for New Statesman - well done!) re-tweeted this blog post from @Gaijinsan21:
Nadine Dorries is a Liar and Unfit to Hold Public Office

David Allen Green further explained in this blog post how Nadine Dorries is using her blog to mislead her constituents, citing the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards report as evidence.

He also said:

For example, she recently resorted to a blog post to raise implicit allegations of impropriety against a constituent who had been engaging with her on Twitter; and then, only last week, she made direct allegations of criminal activity against a critical blogger.

Today, Nadine Dorries has replied. Without linking to the New Statesman piece, she says:

For example, David Allen Green wrote a blog in last week’s New Statesman which was verbally aggressive and accused me personally of attacking a constituent via my own blog. He failed to mention that in an email from Kerry McCarthy MP, to Glen Owen, at the Mail on Sunday, said constituent was described as 'the local Labour party organiser' by Kerry and that on the local Labour party web site, she was also described as having been selected as a candidate. On the same web site (which the local Labour party have now removed, but we have the screen shot) she described herself as the web organiser for the Labour party in Bedfordshire.
Not quite the same thing as attacking a constituent is it?

Two things come to mind:

1) Firslty, she says nothing about the deceit in her blog. But then she can't, as she has admitted to it herself:

My blog is 70 per cent fiction and 30 per cent fact. It is written as a tool to enable my constituents to know me better and to reassure them of my commitment to Mid Bedfordshire. I rely heavily on poetic licence and frequently replace one place name/event/fact with another.

(Paragraph 81 of the report).

2) Does it really matter if someone is in a different political party? That's not grounds to make false allegations against someone, and, on top of this, I was under the impression the MP was there to represent their entire constituency, even those that voted against them.

She then finishes with a massive helping of irony:

And so to Katherine's blog, I would like to add another uniting, unique attribute on the left. They lie.

David Allen Green won a blogging award last year. For deliberately making such misleading statements on his blog, maybe he should consider handing it back?

To which, I have to echo David Allen Green's sentiments:
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Nadine Dorries - you are a liar, and unfit to hold public office. You're also comedy gold.

Gateshead disgrace

Well, Jack of Kent predicted that if any of the Terry Jones nonsense hit the UK, arrests would be made. He was right.

This is a disgrace. Burning books may be (in my opinion) a very silly thing to do, but, if you own a book, and wish to burn it, that is your right. Further more, posting a video on You Tube of the incident is not inciting racial hatred, as, from what I've seen reported, it was just a video of them burning the books.

Had they had a running commentry in which they were instructing people to go and cause violence and harm to Muslims, then that's another story.

Any Muslim reaction to a Koran being burnt is the fault of the Muslim. The correct kind of reaction would be to explain in a video of your own, a letter, a book, why such an act has upset. A video would be best - if people could see the genuine upset it has caused you, for it is very offensive to you, then people may think twice. Indeed, the very reason I have this blog, and don't use my name, is to avoid religious friends of mine reading it, and me losing them as friends. I value them too much to fall out over their silly superstitions. Here, I can express myself freely. You should try it.

Going out and being violent will not help your cause.

If I had a Koran now, I would burn it and post the video here in protest at the infringement of free speech. But I do not. You will have to, instead, make do with Philip Pullman explaining that no one has the right to go through life without getting offended: