Small Beds and Large Bears

To the editor of Cycle, the CTC magazine:
Sir,
It’s always a shame to see factions of CTC cyclists still arguing with each other over whether one “ought” to either wear, or be forced to wear, a helmet. The argument last in a recent couple of letters pages rears its head so often that the editor might [...]

I admire skepticism. Being cool-headed about empirical situations helps you make informed conclusions, and hence decisions, even as you might labour under the pressure of those situations.
Science constitutes formalized skepticism: strictly so in its theoretical, dehumanized sense; more approximately so in the way that scientists as a whole practice their craft. But science’s skepticism is [...]

Bloggerheads has recently written yet more about the scandalous behaviour and recalcitrance of Patrick Mercer MP (a blogpost from which I take my title). Mercer’s involvement with all sorts of untrustworthy characters is the gift that keeps on giving for the political blogging community. Without wishing to repeat any of Tim’s excellent ongoing investigative work [...]

One of the tasks you have to attend to (desultorily) when you move house is changing one’s address with banks, utility companies and now the DVLA. Last night I had just finished addressing envelopes for both licence and car registration, when I heard on the radio that the postal workers’ strike would begin tomorrow viz [...]

Late last night I ran out of time and, fearful of the onset of a migraine, didn’t commit this to blog publication. Political bloggers far better than I— especially septicisle—have summarized events better than I might.
Much as feminism is first and foremost about equality and not about misandry, the anger at imported labour at Lindsey [...]

Misogynist, misguided, cake-headed, fake-furred, philosophically challenged starey-eyed vegaloons PETA continue to objectify women with their advertising campaigns, also merely incidentally saying something or other about, oh, vegetarianism or whatever. Stop thinking and look at the norks, you peasants.
PETA embody everything hateful about antifeminism from the beauty myth downwards. We’ve been here before, of course, and [...]

Guantanemo Bay is scheduled for closure and aid is being distributed where it does most good rather than by the extent to which it conforms to an ideology. But let’s not forget that, although Obama is now president of the United States, the president of the United States remains president of the United States.
It’ll [...]

After a brief spell in the presence of “that most immediate media” this Christmas, I now find myself once again enjoying, well, appreciating, well, experiencing television at one or two degrees of separation.
I’ve therefore been able to miss all but the trailers for what the 6Myüsic continuity announcer refers to as “Killi’ Keuhki’ Eati’”, which [...]

I began a two-week holiday with a typically boisterous and exciting work Christmas do on Friday afternoon; by yesterday midday, my hangover was giving way to a tickly cough; today I have a full-blown cold. But oddly it hasn’t particularly displaced my (bordering on the ridiculous) Christmas spirit.
Christmas holidays, unlike summer ones, are well [...]

My dad says he never uses indicators while in a car park, because legally you don’t have to. This comment was made a few weeks after he came back to his car, parked in a branch of Carrefour, to find someone had put a dent in it. He was livid, but then perhaps the [...]