Politics these days is not just a matter of Left v right but also authoritarian v Libertarian. I suspect this could be further mapped ie pro-business or anti-business etc.
The Political Compass is a website that asks you 6 pages (not long pages) of questions to establish where you fit in. The chart also makes clear that, despite popular perceptions, the opposite of fascism is not communism but anarchism (ie liberal socialism), and that the opposite of communism ( i.e. an entirely state-planned economy) is neo-liberalism (i.e. extreme deregulated economy). Mine shows me as being marginally to the right of centre but definitely more pro libertarianism than authoritarian.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Sneaky this, grabbing the domain for creationsim.co.uk to use as an anti-creationism website! My own belief is live and let live, but I regard Creationism and Intelligent Design as just bunkum ideas and not even close to being theories or hypothesise as say Evolution is.
This website though is concerned with the forced spread of creationism in schools- they say “Creationism is of particular concern, as their main tactic is to target schoolchildren & the schools in which they are taught. They then attempt to undermine a child’s understanding of the principles governing modern science especially that relating to the concept of biological evolution. They also attempt to indoctrinate the children with extreme religious views & antipathy to modern society; views (such as those vilifying homosexuals) which are completely at odds with the values of modern western society.”
After a Christian “Enlightenment” which costs many lives and hundreds of years to get science recognised, it would be just plain awful to have it undermined by those who want to force their religious ideologies down people’s throats. When it replaces or attempts to suppress scientific ideas, through ignorance then it’s time to say stop and that is what creationism.co.uk is trying to achieve.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Since 9/11 the US police have increased their use of paramilitary raids. Instead of approaching a house and asking politely they assume that the inhabitants are armed and go in very heavily handed as this tale recounts.
The Cato Institute is a non-profit public policy research foundation headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Institute is named for Cato’s Letters, a series of libertarian pamphlets that helped lay the philosophical foundation for the American Revolution. They have catalogued and now used Google Maps to highlight the increased number of botched paramilitary raids.
Understandably against real armed baddies, of which there are no doubts many in the USA, the old approach would be ineffective. But the number of botched raids does suggest a degree of sloppiness. In the tale listed, they only realised their mistake when they cleared the second floor “But the target has only got one!”…
Popularity: 17% [?]
It has never really been easy to show just how devastating a nuclear weapon is, in film. The TV series Heroes in episode three uses the approaching clouds of dust (also used in Battlestar Galactica), a popular method I think, since footage of the Twin Towers collapse on 9/11. Understandably, there are few survivors to the close up of a real nuke blast!
The Nuclear Weapon Archive is a very detailed look at Nuclear Weapons with statistics, list of arsenals, articles with photos and comment. I didn’t appreciate for instance that 130,000 weapons have been built since 1945. No technical specifications of weapon designs are found on this site. All information is from public sources, or based on reasonable inference or speculation from public information.
A google search of the site reveals 331 pages. My only complaint about the site is the poor navigation. Like many sites that are labours of love, it has evolved and is in my opinion, in need of a good redesign! But the content can not be flawed. Excellent stuff.
Popularity: 6% [?]
A modern day problem in the UK is political correctness. There are a number of unelected officials who are scared of offending anyone, particularly minorities and thus impose stupid thoughtless restrictions which upset many because of fear of offending some unspecified “They”.
You see examples of this around Christmas where some councils call it Winterval or some equally ridiculous name. Never mind that it upsets many non Christians, so long as it doesn’t offend the unspecified “they”.
Many local Government organisations are particularly rife with this as are UK institutions such as the NHS, Police , Job centres etc. I can’t think of anything more insulting to anyone black or coloured that they might be deemed upset by someone calling a blackboard a blackboard.
The Campaign Against Political Correctness (CAPC) seeks to expose examples of this, refute and ridicule them and shine some common sense in. The founders John and Laura Midgley are not afraid to confront PC in the media, whenever and wherever it occurs.
My only gripe- I think the site is badly in need of a revamp with a fresher look and better site organisation! But the message should go out loud and clear!
Popularity: 8% [?]