Robs PlaceRobs PlaceRobs Place is a blog about how to live ethically for people who don’t really consider themselves to “activists”? You really don’t have to live in a tree or go to demonstrations to be an activist - the small choices we make every single day can and do Articles
Bush should save the USA from choice
2007-08-30 03:52:00 Economic libertarians are wedded to choice believing that people should be given free rein to make bad choices as well as good - by smoking, for example, or failing to take out a pension plan. Once they have had time to rationally calibrate the costs and benefits, ... More About: Bush , Choice , Save , The U
UK - the most spied-on democracy in the world
2007-08-29 09:45:00 History will remember this Government for its assault on freedom. The brakes that usually restrain the State from expanding its powers over individuals - narrow majorities, robust backbenchers, strong opposition - have been absent for a decade. And the genuine, though irrational fear of terrorism has encouraged officialdom’s worst instincts. We’re becoming the most ... More About: World , Democracy , The World
Why are Italians so easily blackmailed?
2007-08-28 21:29:00 No other country besides Italy gives in so easily to blackmail. It readily stumps up huge sums in ransoms or insists that terrorists be handed over to get hostages released. Recently, for example, after Repubblica reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo was kidnapped by the Taliban, it immediately put pressure ... More About: Lack , Italians
End this cheap flight madness!
2007-08-28 03:29:00 In a century from now people will reflect and realise that the cheap flights we now enjoy were economic madness. The newspapers have been raving recently about the favourable exchange rate and the delights of Christmas shopping in New York thereby ignoring the warnings about global warming ... More About: Cheap , Flight , Madness
Living with and Newly Infected by HIV (swivel)
2007-08-27 09:26:00 Sources: UNaids (http://data.unaids.org/pub/…) / Swivel According to U.S. President Bush?s top advisor on HIV/AIDS, the world is having a hard time shaking the AIDS virus. Dr. Anthony Fauci recently spoke to a conference in Sydney, addressing them on the progress of the epidemic and the ... More About: Living , Infected
A lunatic extremist fringe
2007-08-26 21:36:00 Fanatics have a habit of undermining their own cause: just look at animal liberationists, and how their gruesome antics diverted attention from worthwhile campaigns aimed at factory farming. A lunatic fringe now threatens to sabotage the global warming debate in the same way. In the US, the think-tank ... More About: Extremist , Fringe , Trem , Remi
RIP Pac Man ;(
2007-08-26 03:25:00 One of the heros of my youth has died, PAC-MAN - awaccka, waccka [link]. This is how I like to remember him: Share This
Humanitarians: Victims of Violence (swivel)
2007-08-25 09:15:00 Sources: Center on International Cooperation (http://www.nyu.edu/pages/ci…) / Swivel Photo Credit: flickr Viol ence and terror have become daily occurrences ... More About: Anita , Victims , Victim
Republicans say: global warming is crap
2007-08-24 21:15:00 Much has changed since then, both in terms of the public profile of climate change and the growing certainty of mainstream scientists that humans are to blame. So the magazine recently repeated the poll. The result? Just 13% of the respondents said yes. (link). So as the evidence ... More About: Global Warming , Republicans , Global , Crap , Ming
Atheism: A Very Short Introduction
2007-08-24 03:07:00 Atheism: A Very Short Introduction by Julian Baggini Atheism is often considered to be a negative, dark, and pessimistic belief which is characterized by a rejection of values and purpose and a fierce opposition to religion. “Atheism: A Very Short Introduction” sets out to dispel the myths ... More About: Atheism
Putting Health in the Hands of Patients (swivel)
2007-08-23 09:05:00 Sources: The Harris Poll (http://www.harrisinteractiv…) / Swivel Photo Credit: The Polstar* As more people are going online for ... More About: Health , Hands , Patients , Putting , Patient
Private equity is dirty capitalism
2007-08-22 21:31:00 Damon Buffini is the most important man you’ve probably never heard of (here’s some more “rogues” link). The managing partner of Permira, Europe’s biggest private equity outfit, he is the public face of an investment revolution that has changed the lives of millions. Put simply, private equity ... More About: Private Equity , Dirty , Capitalism , Private , Riva
Don?t fall for the airline propaganda
2007-08-22 02:57:00 For all its green rhetoric, Labour has a blind spot about air travel. The recent Climate Change Bill, for instance, doesn’t include aviation in its carbon reduction targets. The Treasury has also dismissed Tory calls for domestic flights to pay tax on fuel, saying that would be ... More About: Propaganda , Airline , Fall , Prop
Got H2O: Worldwide Water Access (swivel)
2007-08-21 08:53:00 Sources: World Health Organization (http://www.who.int/whosis/i…) / Swivel Photo Credit: ducrest_marc Access to clean, affordable drinking water and sanitation ... More About: Water , Worldwide
26 climate-change myths
2007-08-20 21:15:00 Here is a great article from the New Scientist which lists details on the twenty-six most common climate myths and misconceptions link. These are: Human CO2 emissions are too tiny to matter We can’t do anything about climate change The ‘hockey stick’ graph has been proven wrong Chaotic systems are not ... More About: Climate Change , Climate , Change , Myths , Myth
What not to ask presidential candidates
2007-08-20 03:04:00 What is your plan for Iraq? At every press conference, interview and fund-raising event, the presidential candidates are all asked this same pointless question. And it’s pointless because next to nothing can be done to salvage Iraq. A planned withdrawal from Iraq should start now. To say longer ... More About: Presidential , Candidates , Resident , Candidate , Presidential Candidate
Browns Kafkaesque approach to human rights
2007-08-19 08:58:00 Gordon Brown has gone out of his way to seek a cross-party consensus relating to the detention of suspected terrorists and is offering crucial safeguards such as the need for a Parliamentary debate that is why he is a far greater threat to our civil liberties than his predecessor. He seems so conscientious, so reasonable: ... More About: Human , Rights , Human Rights , Browns
A bloodbath to finally dent Americas love affair with guns?
2007-08-19 03:12:00 Will the recent Virginia Tech bloodbath finally dent America’s love affair with guns? Unlikely: as the culture is simply too entrenched. America is a country, after all, where the thoroughly liberal presidential candidate John Kerry felt the need to be photographed on a duck shoot in the ... More About: Love , Guns , Americas , Finally , Affair
Iraq isn?t like Vietnam - it?s much worse
2007-08-18 08:54:00 Forget all the talk about Iraq being as bad as the Viet nam War because its far worse. The US was able to walk away from Vietnam with relative impunity because Vietnam was essentially a peripheral country. Iraq, by contrast, is a key factor, in global oil supplies, so an American withdrawal would be a devastating ...
Smile - you?re already on camera!
2007-08-18 02:49:00 When historians look back on New Labour they may conclude that its worst sin was not mendacity or incompetence, but the way it destroyed privacy in this country. We are the most spied-upon society in Europe, with more CCTV cameras (an estimated 4.2 million ) than ... More About: Camera , Smile , Ready
Ex-presidents are as bad as Bush
2007-08-17 08:47:00 To listen to the experts moaning on about America’s mistakes in Iraq you’d think their previous record in the Middle East had been a triumph. What short memories people have: Jimmy Carter, for instance, now writes books condemning Americas foreign policies, yet he was the president who bungled the Iranian hostage crisis and started arming ... More About: Bush , Presidents , Resident
Bush is still wearing his running shoes
2007-08-17 04:25:00 Politicians are never judged in isolation as their popularity always depends on how well the other guy is doing. For example, Ronald Reagan had a favourite joke to illustrate the point. Two men are walking in the forest when a bear comes rushing towards them Seeing the first man bend down to put on ... More About: Bush , Running , Shoes , Running shoes
Let Hitler speak
2007-08-16 10:21:00 Are some words so dangerous they must be locked away? The question is currently an issue of fierce debate in Germany where a leading historian has called for Adolf Hitler ’s anti-Semitic screed Mein Kampf (”My Struggle”) to be published openly for the first time since 1945. It is available for sale in Britain and the ... More About: Speak , Peak
Are fatties lepers who cause global warming?
2007-08-16 04:19:00 We all know that drinking alcohol is both big and clever but it does sometime provoke a wee bit of violence, which doesn’t matter as long as you can fight, but it ultimately leads to weight problems. Think darts player. Fat people can’t catch a break these ... More About: Global Warming , Global , Ming , Armin
Politics, corruption, accountability & stability
2007-08-15 10:15:00 This graph compares the average worldwide governance scores for nine regions spread across the globe. The scores range from -2.5 (lowest) to 2.5 (highest); here, OECD countries have the highest average, while the Former Soviet Union average ranks in the lower regions. Other regions evaluated include: ... More About: Politics , Corruption , Accountability , Poli , Stability
In the Doomsday scenario, the UK pulls through
2007-08-15 04:07:00 Billions of people could be wiped out over the next century as a result of global warming - but those lucky enough to be on the British Isles have a pretty good chance of survival. So says the Gaia scientist Professor James Lovelock in his book The ... More About: Scenario , The U , The D , Cena , Pull
Cheney is still ?on the dark side?
2007-08-14 10:07:00 “We have to work the dark side, if you will. We’ve got to spend time in the shadows.” So declared Dick Cheney five days after the 9/11 attacks. And the vice-president was as good as his word. Within months, Guantanamo was full of hooded prisoners, secret jails were popping up in former Soviet Bloc countries ... More About: Dark , The Dark , Side , The D
China - a repressive polluted regime
2007-08-14 04:00:00 How the world’s priorities have changed over China : not so long ago the US Congress was earnestly debating China’s human-rights record. Today all anyone cares about is that China’s economic wheels keep turning, so it goes on filling its shelves with our goods. Far from worrying about China’s repressive regime, foreign politicians are mainly ...
Even killjoys must be free to protest
2007-08-13 09:59:00 It looks set to be the most miserable demonstration for years. From 14 to 21 August, a group of environmental campaigners plans to set up a protest camp inside Heathrow to promote the message that flying is immoral. Travellers heading for a hard-earned holiday will be left in no doubt that they are committing a ... More About: Free , Protest , Prot
Why can?t the USA put their faith in an atheist?
More articles from this author:2007-08-12 21:56:00 Pete Stark has broken the ultimate political taboo, as he’s come out of the closet, the veteran San Francisco Democrat recently became the first member of Congress to openly declare himself to be… an atheist!! By admitting he is not religious, Stark has, if nothing else, proven he has no ambitions for the presidency. In ... More About: Faith , Atheist , The U , Theist 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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