David Davis Continued

Lot's of posts... can you tell I'm bored at work. I'm going to Kent for the weekend which should give you a break.

I don't like David Davis and I hate the Tory party. Just take a look at this post to see multiple reasons to not like David Davis.

But despite this, even despite his homophobia and support for 28 day detention, I am a firm supporter of David Davis's campaign against the 42 day detention. He is drawing a line in the sand and saying "No more". Even those of us who have drawn the line way off to the left of him and way back a couple of years are still behind him and opposed to the authoritarian state... and can support his attempt to stop a worsening of the situation.

If he wins then he gets back into Parliament and the actual make up of Parliament stays the same. If he loses then we progressives, liberals and libertarians may as well abandon hope for liberty.

It's a clear choice, and I've decided to put my hopes in Mr Davis igniting a flame in the hearts of the majority who support the 42 day detention and change their opinions during what shall be a well publicised campaign.

On a related note one of the most stupid arguments, and intellectually redundant ones, in favour of 42 day detention that I've seen goes along the following lines.

"The police want 42 day detention. We should trust the police. So we should give them this power."

Now to me this is fairly obviously stupid. The police are around for a very good reason; the maintenance of peace and order. They are not there to make laws, they are there to enforce them. Just like any organisation, even Parliament, we cannot put 100% faith in their actions and desires. Police, for quite obvious reasons, would love to have as much power as possible. Not because they are evil, but because to them it would be the most efficient way to do their job. That is why we have the CPS, and the Justice Department, to help ensure some prospective is given to their desires. They are not wrong, but someone needs to ensure they don't get too over enthusiastic with their desire to protect us from even the possibility of harm.

There's another good post at the same blog as above regarding how the police like to do things. The police are only human beings, subject to the same stupidity as the rest of the population (including myself!), and thus we should ensure their power over others is limited to only that which is absolutely necessary.

And finally... I hate people who discriminate against atheists. Those of us who follow the theory of evolution (which is not all atheists before a fundie arrives!) are often tarnished with the criticism "well evolution led to Eugenics, thus you are a Nazi". Now this blog posts an article entitled "Atheism as a cover for racism".

The article itself mentions the BNP, who "defend Christian Britain". This is taken, quite rightly, to be an underhand racist reference against Asians (and others!). Exactly what on Earth does this have to do with atheism? No actual quotes are given to support the "atheism as racism" argument. Grr... and worse still when I think of believers, I sure as hell don't think of Asians or Africans. I think of white Brits and Americans. Sure I'm happy to occasionally be more ethniccaly diverse and rally against foreign Muslim fundamentalists or the homophobic Anglicans of Africa. But in doing so I am not referring to their race, I referring to their stupidity. This does not infer all Muslims, Asians, Africans nor even Pacific Islanders are stupid (just as the fact I think of white fundamentalists when I think of fundies mean I infer all white people are stupid). It infers that those who subscribe blindly to hate should be opposed whether they exist in this country or pedal their disturbing wares abroad.

OK all of the above is a bit of a lie. I think everyone is stupid. But that's specieist not racist. But you get my point.