A woman is abused and physically beaten for sitting in the “wrong” section of the bus – no not a tale from history, but a tale from the now and the here – in what is alleged to be an advanced, Western-style democracy – Israel.
Once again, religion has a great deal to answer for in failing to give women the most basic respect and freedom.
Entirely unoriginal, copied straight from my email (thanks Peter!). I’d be happy to provide a credit if anyone knows an “original” source, but rather good fun. (Who says Greens don’t have a sense of humour, and can’t make fun of the stereotypes about them?)
1. Long white beard
2. Funny looking hat
3. Uses very low emission (but not zero emission!) transport
4. Animal lover
5. Only flies once a year
6. Bad fashion sense
7. Slightly overweight man
8. Good hearted
9. Has appropriate 1 day / 364 days work-life balance
10. His other outfit is Green
11. Concerned about global warming as his house is at risk
12. Prefers biofuel heating systems to central heating
From the latest Guardian political poll:
The poll also shows that the Green party, and not rightwing groups such as the UK Independence party, poses the biggest threat to the main three parties.
Despite recent publicity about Conservative defections to Ukip, and fears inside the party that Mr Cameron’s remodelling of Conservative policy could alienate traditional support on the right, only 14% of Tory supporters say they might back Ukip instead.
Asked to name one or more other parties that they might support, Conservatives are much more likely to choose the Liberal Democrats or the Greens: 32% of Tories say they might vote Lib Dem and 19% say Green.
The result appears to strengthen Mr Cameron’s hand in arguing the Conservatives must embrace a radical environmental and social justice agenda.
Labour supporters are also more likely to switch to the Lib Dems (30%) or Greens (16%) than Ukip (9%).
Nationally, Green support stands at 3% this month, against Ukip on 1%.
Now all we’ve got to do is turn those positive feelings into votes…
… slam the “dole-bludgers” as though these – the poorest and most disadvantaged people in society – were the cause of its problems. I’ve a piece now over on Comment is Free about the latest disgraceful Blairite comments. And yes they might have been written late at night when I was feeling rather sarcastic…
UPDATE: In the early hours of Wednesday morning there were some lovely comments – both suppporting my argument and telling some powerful tales: I’d recommend starting to read the comments at the bottom.
Wives are outnumbered by single and divorced women for the first time.
So of course they find themselves a tame expert, who says: “A lot of women in their forties and fifties will be living alone, perhaps having had a relationship or two but never having been married, with all sorts of emotional and financial implications.”
Um, yeah – they’ll be happier and richer.
Something the Hanrahans of this world never seem to notice – over the past century the human race has been getting smarter, at least smarter at the sort of abstract reasoning that IQ tests measure. But interestingly in the most “advanced” human societies we have – the Scandinavian ones – this progress has stopped.
So says the researcher who found this:
If we are to make any further progress, we will have to start exercising different parts of our brain, particularly the parts controlling language acquisition and empathy, according to Professor Flynn, an emeritus professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand….
The challenge for humanity now is to enhance our ability to debate moral and social questions intelligently. One way to do this might be to concentrate on reading great works of literature which expand our vocabulary, critical acumen and emotional maturity.
But the fact that, as a society, we are unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary to preserve the environment, suggests we still have a long way to go on this front, Professor Flynn said.
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