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From October to February, Stephen’s ‘Virtue’ series provided thinking people with ample thought for their weekends each Friday. Now that he’s moved onto a series on ‘Vices’, here’s a handy collection of the ‘Virtue’ series for your bookmarks. 10/27/2007 – The Virtue of Rational Self-Interest (read) 10/29/2007 – The Virtue ...

The blushing bride was radiant in her 5 metre long sari, decked in flowers. The groom made his way to the temple amidst music, dancing and fireworks. Crowds flocked from all around to see these young love birds finally cement their relationship in marriage, and lavished gifts on each of ...

Aside from the Pullman interview, I’ve been interested in the following stories today. 2008 presidential candidate Barack Obama is either neurotic on the issue of gun control and the 2nd Amendment or he’s a pathological liar who’s trying to conceal his utter contempt for the concept of individual gun rights ...

I’ve been reading an article intended for the March 2008 print edition of Reason magazine, in which Cathy Young examines Philip Pullman’s ideology in His Dark Materials, the trilogy from which the first installment, The Golden Compass, was adapted for film last year (to some controversy). Pullman is an interesting ...

It’s interesting to observe the political Left at this period in time. It isn’t just the state of fluctuating and redefining of leftist positions as they relate to 21st-century challenges, it’s also the fact that more and more liberal goals seem to be coming into conflict with each other. This ...

The 80th Academy Awards ceremony yielded its highest honours to my favourite film of 2007, the Coen Brothers’ No Country For Old Men: Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men, considered the frontrunner going into the ceremony, lived up to expectations, racking up a leading four Oscars: Best ...

I get a little nervous around vegetarians. They’re like people with Tourettes syndrome: you never quite know what nonsense they’re going to blurt at any given moment, and you can only hope it doesn’t happen in earshot of other people who might think you’re with them. I’ve had the pleasure ...

It sounds like a joke: A man walks into a betting shop, loses 2 million, and sues the bookmaker for allowing him to do so and breaching its “duty of care” towards him. But it’s happening. Graham Calvert is a greyhound trainer who became “addicted” to gambling and lost over ...

I want to make this assertion: that five women of Ipswich, England would probably still be alive today if prostitution were legal. Our American friends won’t be familiar with this story since it received virtually no press here, but every British headline is reporting that an Ipswich man, Steve Wright, ...

Jonathan Rauch writes: “The eclectic McCain is a handyman, not an architect. His skills and positions are well suited to fixing the Bush-era mistakes and getting the country to listen to Republicans again. But he is not a man of ideas like Reagan, Barry Goldwater, or Newt Gingrich. He could ...

Christian attitudes to sex are so entertaining that it’s become one of my favourite subjects. Consider Book 22, a website for Christian married couples offering a variety of sex enhancement products like oils, aids and toys. I’ll say this: the site’s founder Joy Wilson is a brave woman. In her ...

Bonjour. Je m’appelle Stephen. J’habite à Belfast. J’aime jouer au ping-pong. With the exception of the, umm, questionable phrases, “votre mère a de grands boobs,” “J’ai eu le sexe avec votre soeur,” and “votre mère suce des pénis” the above pretty much exhausts my grasp of French (a fact proven ...

Ah, how I’ve longed to write those words. After Dog the Bounty Hunter made this error of judgement, I thought he’d be down for longer. Back in November when the incident happened, I made this bold prediction: “This will be the last word from A&E on the subject for at ...

This is, singularly – patently – the best YouTube video ever. fast loan payday Now didn’t that brighten up your Tuesday?

Hey, it’s Monday. Toshiba is still considering its options on HD DVD. Ken Miller asks what they could possibly need to consider? It’s over, dammit. “There’s really nowhere to go except the exit, and there’s little reason to walk instead of run that we are aware of.” Uhuh.  (UPDATE 2/19/2008: ...

At my sister’s wedding about 8 or 9 years ago an argument broke out between friends of my mum and dad about which of my parents I was most like. From the debate I learnt: I’m too tall to be like my Dad but I have his receding hairline. I ...

For those interested in the format war between the next-generation high-definition video disc formats, Blu-Ray and HD DVD, it’s now almost inevitable. Before Christmas, I bought an HD DVD player (on sale for $99!), bought and rented a few titles from Netflix. Within the past few weeks I’d started seeing ...

Some drugs make you fly high. Other drugs make you go low. Some make you fall on your back. Others make you bounce. Even more make you run like a cheetah, swim like a sword fish, jump like a kangaroo, and throw like a, ummm, throwing machine? It is these ...

The Iowahawk blog has a hilarious new Archbishop of Canterbury Tale called “Heere Bigynneth the Tale of the Asse-Hatte“. Here’s an excerpt: 35 The Bishop sipped upon hys tea 36 And sayed, “an open mind must we 37 Keep, for know thee well the Mussel-man 38 Has hys own laws ...

In the worst shooting since Virginia Tech in 2007, 6 people are confirmed dead in a northern Illinois campus shooting at NIU yesterday: “The gunman dressed in black stormed into an oceanography class Thursday afternoon and opened fire with a shotgun and two handguns. In a matter of seconds, he ...