Holland, animal rights versus religious freedom.

Here is an interesting article in the Daily Telegraph article where the Dutch have banned the ritual slaughter of animals. I suspect this has not really been done for the sake of cattle or other animals but is merely part of a backlash against Islam. Unfortunately Hollands 40,000 Jews have been impacted by the same law so now the charges of anti semitism and the accusations of Nazi tendencies have been brought forth.
So we have the start of the culture war fight back and this on top of Geert Wilders being found not guilty does this mean the West has finally woken up to a growing threat in it’s midst or are we all bigots?
Personally I have mixed feelings about the new law as my own natural sympathies are to allow religious freedom however I hate to see animals suffer unnecessarily. As I mentioned I think the Dutch motives were far from honourable in this instance.

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Best SciFi Authors and did any of them come close to being right?

Since everyone is on a big kick on LOTR deconstruction at Ozboy’s I will move to a slightly different genre, SciFi, having been a big fan of SciFi for as long as I learned to read last week, I have read it’s elders masters Verne and Wells, it’s pulp masters such as Burroughs and then onto to it’s Golden age, Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke. Followed by a radical rethink in the 60’s and 70’s with Farmer, Silverberg, Dick and many others. Thankfully that passed and we had a new silver age of Niven, Dean, Cherryh, Herbert.
I know a lot of these people overlapped and dabbled in the different styles of the moment and there are many more missing from the above list.
However I would like for people to consider were any of them any good at predicting the future?
Heinlein was interesting not for the technology he espoused that was always secondary but for his examination of society and people in it he even rehashed the New Testament in Stranger in a Strange Land, some serious gender bending in I will Fear No Evil but his best two works are the Moon is a Harsh Mistress a retelling of the revolutionary war and Revolt in 2100 where I came across a concept called psyops at the age of 11.
I personally think none of them has come close to being correct although that was never their intent, some wish to entertain, some wish explore human nature or what it means to e human and that is always the best scifi. Some are hardcore techno geeks exploring dystopia’s caused by technology gone amok.
Some just like to write Opera on a bigger grander scale than a mere stage and sometimes one Universe is never enough.
Of course Scifi has spilled over onto the TV and Movies which can turn what was a good book into Garbage like Dune the movie with Sting in it.

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Climate change to be removed from the UK school curriculum.

Read it for yourself, another nail in the coffin.
Climate change.

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Patriotic songs what is your favourite?

Well as usual I’m up late listening to patriotic songs specifically from the last night of the proms and my favourite year 2009.

Now I wonder what your favourites are it does not have to be from your own country or even an anthem it could even be from lost but misguided cause. To be honest I still think the best music comes from the UK we seem to have the patriotic song down to an art whether it is bagpipes from Scotland or a full blown orchestra at the proms in London, the USA I’m sad to say doesn’t quite get it because they stole an 18th century British drinking song for their national anthem.
However it could be worse and I also want to hear some of the worst patriotic music out there as well.
I’m not sure the Australian’s didgeridoo music or the Kiwi’s Haka have the same impact as national anthems. Which explains our overwhelming success at cricket and rugby.

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The Dinosaur Paraducks?

Dinosaurs were damn big buggers and we have no idea why, personally I think it was down to all the fresh air lots of exercise and roughage and they went to church regularly. Anyways my favourite is Deinonychus.

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