The Tolpuddle Martyrs Are Dead

There are various things you can take from the results of Alice Miles' binging on sodium penthol, but the main thing that hit me was this: yes, liberals are as gutless as we always thought. Senior Labour MPs would have opposed Brown, but his people might have briefed against them and they couldn't stand nasty things to be said about them, so they stood aside and let the country be handed over to Hamish McQueeg. Of course!

Liberals: Always The Weak Horse

Atheists are enraged! - as only they can be - by the news that the NHS spends up to £40 million pa on hospital chaplains. They think that if people want to spew nonsense at the seriously ill, they should go and become proper psychiatrists.

And no, that isn't just me going for a cheap shot. Key point:

The researchers accept many people believe the drugs do work for them, but argue that could be a placebo effect - people feel better simply because they are taking a medication which they think will help them.

Hmmm.... do you think this 'placebo effect' could apply anywhere else?

More to the point, in so far as the placebo effect is a well-known phenomenon, in what sense of the word is the NSS's crusade against religion in hospitals based on actual science?

Still, while the NSS campaigns for the comforting of the sick and dying to be carried out only where said comforting can be demonstrated to show observable improvements in the degree of comfortage, I can't help feeling they're missing a lot else.

When most people think of faith-based lunacy, they're probably not thinking of some Priest performing the last rites. Nope, they're probably thinking something like this.

I don't have the objective data to back this up, but I'm pretty sure these people are nuts. So where is the NSS? Nope - they're tied up staking out some OAPs bed, investigating a case of Class A Communion With Intent.

Liberal Heroism: Like A Man Throwing Himself On A Live Grenadine

Oooooh, get her!

The Judge told them: 'It would be very easy for me, and there are many that would congratulate me, if I locked you up for as long as I could.'

See, that: boldly standing up in the face of the lynch mob. Truly, he's the Atticus Finch of Teeside.

But wait... who exactly are these people he's defying? Anyone - anyone at all -in his social circle? Or able to influence his life in any way?

Nada. The only thing that guy's risking is developing a bruise on the back from all his fellow hipster trash congratulating him on his courage in standing up to the vulgar Daily Mail-reading masses and their horribly unnuanced views on crime and punishment (i.e. that one should follow the other).

Liberalism is bad enough on first principles without having to listen to members of our incestuous elite hailing their own heroism in standing up to the guy in the street.

Still Waiting For The Ramadam Rebuttal

I've got to admit I've always had a certain admiration for Channel 4's 'alternative Christmas message'. Something about the way it effortlessly combines a raging desire to stick two fingers up to everybody else with an utter lack of any actual message, it seems like the perfect distillation of modern liberalism.

Of course, back in the day Channel 4's wadical webelliousness mainly took the form of stupid puns, so we had Quintin Crisp presenting an 'Alternative Queen's Message' (geddit?), or we had a 'Black Christmas'. Unfortunately, as with much else in modern liberalism, it looks like they've lost the ability to distinguish bugging the squares from actual evil.

I'm guessing Mugabe was rejected for being just too cosy with the Establishment, maaaaaan. On the other hand... it is the season of peace and goodwill, and he's definitely the alternative to that. I just wish we didn't have to listen to these idiots congratulating themselves on their own transgressiveness when you know hell will freeze over before anyone on the right gets ten minutes to talk unchallenged about their views.

(And a tip of the hat to TDK for this one)

Quote Of The Day

A commentor at B-BBC hits the nail on the head:

BBC's HYS is asking should comedians challenge our "social mores". I replied "yes" they should, and then I typed out my favourite Bernard Manning joke. So far it hasn't been allowed through. But lets keep pushing those boundaries kids!

I'm Still Waiting For The Guy Who Hammers A Nail Into His Own Testicles

Hmmm... if waterboarding is torture, how come we can't stop liberals queueing up to get 'tortured'? You never get them filming each other applying 240 volts to each other's genitals.

Well, not while working anyway.