Author ArchivesJohn

I confess: I’m a diehard Stern fan. My mornings wouldn’t be the same without Howard, Robin, Fred, Artie, Gary and the rest of the show’s extensive universe, live and uncensored on Sirius Satellite Radio. And this coming week features what’s being billed as one of the most ambitious radio projects ...

This is some of the most impressive marketing I’ve seen in a while. Burger King’s new ad campaign features a hidden-camera prank at one of their own stores where customers on a certain day were told that the Whopper had been discontinued. People were surprised and some upset by the ...

It’s been a while since I sat down specifically to listen to some music. Today I had a break from everything for a couple of hours and was able to enjoy some time in front of my home theater setup. The quality of the system is great, so it demands ...

“Children believe in Santa Claus. Creationists believe in creationism. But children grow up and discard Santa. So why not creationists?” That’s the question by Steve Tomkins of the Christian ezine Ship of Fools, a question sure to outrage creationists of both young and old earth varieties. But, as you’ll guess ...

Which is more rare: natural blondes, or dimples? Have a good weekend.

Today I was having a discussion with a British acquaintance on the subject of the death penalty, and it quickly became clear to me that he was making a fundamental mistake in his thinking on America. When Europeans talk about America, I’ve noticed that they tend to misconstruct matters of ...

Alan Miller thinks that fake mugshots showing members of the Bush administration are not worthy of controversy and merely represent a “cynical conformism.” Leander Kahney reports that Steve Jobs wore a suit and tie to the Nobel Prize ceremony. He hasn’t been photographed wearing a suit for a decade, which ...

Birth by Government: Part I I apologise for my hiatus during the past few days; I’ve been struggling with an ongoing gut complaint which, inevitably, has me pondering the issue of healthcare. In the UK, where I’m from, healthcare is paid for in taxes and is thereafter free at the ...

On Tuesday last week, I wrote a piece disagreeing with Crawley’s suggestion that it should be illegal for record stores to sell music containing lyrics which call for violence against gay people. The idea that this constitutes clear, direct incitement to violence is, as far as I can see, unsubstantiated. ...

Being a libertarian can be a wearisome thing, because I rarely agree with anyone. Usually I’m up to the challenge of disagreeing with everyone I meet, but in the past few days I’ve just been exhausted by it. Either they’re a religious zealot or they’re an atheist; I’m neither. Either ...

I wrote the following response to Declan Allison’s article on sustainability here. Declan is a campaigner with Friends of the Earth. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a “want-based” culture. Pursuit of happiness, and all that. It’s a certain ideologically-motivated foolishness that ascribes taxes and bans and restrictions to human activities ...

I get several forwards every day in my inbox. A ‘forward’ is of course one of those emails which has been sent to thousands of other people before you, and whose central purpose is to get you to pass it along to everyone on your own email list. They exist ...

Billy Joel is ‘retired’, but – as we learned recently from Garth Brooks – that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s given up music. For the first time since 1993, Joel has written a song which is being released as a single starting with iTunes tomorrow, called Christmas in Fallujah. But Billy ...

Well, campers, thanks for checking back here for another week. Quote of the week: “Starbucks is a multibillion-dollar corporation. So I guess that must mean we’re bad.” —Starbucks attorney Daniel Nash in his opening statement to the National Labor Relations Board on allegations of union busting.

He has it right, in part, and for a Guardian columnist that’s quite a feat. Neil Clark believes the smoking ban implemented in the United Kingdom is wrong, because (1) it’s having a negative effect on the economy, and (2) it’s having a negative effect on social life across the ...

Well, last night’s CNN/YouTube Presidential Debate was… interesting, for libertarian candidate Ron Paul. As News Long Island reports, mentioning Ron Paul’s spat with John McCain over Iraq: “Although this was a camera filled exchange for Paul, it clearly seemed that questions were steered away from Paul during the entire debate ...

The Golden Compass (IMDB) is the film version of the first novel in Philip Pullman’s acclaimed trilogy, His Dark Materials. It’s a family fantasy starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig and is set to be released a week from Friday across the United States. But there’s a controversy. Some people ...

Today I take issue with my old friend William Crawley, who uses the opportunity of the Oxford Union free speech debate to raise another issue of free speech: “Into the mix of questions about what limits we should place on public speech, let’s add this: ‘Hang chi chi gal wid ...

I’ll be off to a cabin in the mountains tonight, and not back home until Sunday. Whether or not I get the chance to blog over the holiday remains to be seen; in the meantime, I’d like to say that I think this is an important holiday. http://alittlegreenlie.com/bad-credit-finance To those ...

Yes, blasphemy is illegal in the United Kingdom, under common law formed in the 17th century. Yet Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights guarantees the right to free speech, whether sacred, profane, secular, or whatever. Is anybody still in any doubt that the UK needs a complete ...