And another thing....

This is probably gonna come out as an unorganised mess as although I well versed in the art of being opinionated I am not so good at getting things down in writing.

I thought I'd start with a little bit of everything - but If I get the hang of this and start churning things out I'll break everything down into smaller categories.

Stop procrastinating you say and get to the good stuff.

The Blasphemy laws (sub topic hate crime)

There are motions in place currently to overturn the law that makes blasphemy illegal.
This I think is a good thing. We live in a country that likes to pride itself on its freedoms - which includes the freedom of speech. Obviously, freedoms like rights come with responsibilities and with the freedom of speech comes the responsibility to not to say anything that incites crime, defames character or is racist,sexist,homophobic etc. But should we worry about offending peoples beliefs or questioning their opinions? What is it about religion that requires special treatment in this way? Religion is, when all is said and done, someone's opinion on how the world got here and how we should live our lives. There is no law that says people cannot criticise my scientific understanding of where the universe came from, or my morals built on my political opinions and upbringing. If someone were to disagree with me on any of these things I would debate with them, explain why I thought what I thought and show them the evidence that backs me up, but I would ask the law to tell them to stop questioning me. I guess that is because I am able to back up these things where as religion cannot. The fear of criticism and questions led them way back when to ask for a law that outlawed it. Because fear of wrong doing and absolute obedience are a good thing to have in the population when you are a dictator, the law was passed. Now that we are living in a good attempt at a democracy this law must go.

Does the Evening Standard understand the irony of using up paper to campaign for restaurants to offer tap water due to the environmental damage causes by packaging and transporting bottled water. Tap water has always and will always been on offer in restaurants. Making people aware of this and showing them that consumer power is the way to influence what is available may be a worthy cause. Restaurateurs have even been jumping on the band wagon - Surely they must have been able to work out all along that bottled water is bad for the environment and that if they put profit motive to one side they would have been promoting tap water at their tables for a while and offering only UK produced bottled water for the die hard fans. They have not been pushing the eco alternative because until 2 weeks ago and a horizon show which quite frankly stated the obvious there was profit in bottled water. There is only profit in a product that people want to buy.
This is the same for everything available in a free market - If you don't want it don't buy it! If something is produced unethically do not campaign for it to be banned - don't buy it.

Breaking news!!! I heard today on the news that plastic bags are not as bad to turtles as we thought and that the pictures of them choking on bags are greatly exaggerated. This may or may not be the case. It does not change that fact that plastic bags are bad for the environment. They are made from plastic which comes from oil. There is not much oil left. It takes energy to make them. Energy comes from oil. There is not much oil left. Burning oil to make plastic bags releases carbon dioxide. Running lorries to carry plastic bags release carbon dioxide. There is too much Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere. Free plastic bags at the counter encourage us to use them once and through them away - this is bad, it equals less oil and more carbon dioxide. It is this simple. It is the same with all types of consume goods. If an item takes energy to make, package and transport and is disposable it is bad for the environment. If there is not alternative item then this may be justifiable, if you do not care about the environment - this is justifiable, if you think its not up to you its up to big business and china to end climate change then this may be justifiable. But do think about what I said above - If there is a profit in it then someone will sell it.
Lets make it less profitable to over package and over travel things. Reuse carrier bags - you may not save the turtles but you will be helping climate change.