Boofykatz

Update

2010-12-24T14:07:00.002Z

We are still values of a bound variable. Merry Christmas to all.

Catching Up

2009-11-04T16:44:00.002Z

Hello Dear Reader,
Just to let you know that life has turfed me out of West Yorkshire to the balmy environs of Stoke Prior. Max and the Boofies are here, too. I think I have found a boyfriend for boofykatz Blue Bianca, and not before time. The little nosebiting gremlin, Bianca that is, has occasioned me actual bodily harm.

Burmese People

2008-03-25T21:22:00.004Z

I feel something of a fraud for blogging so little about our beloved Burmese, so I'll try to remedy that now. Yesterday we enjoyed the hospitality of Burmese breeders in North Yorkshire. We would like to thank Margaret Andrews and Olive Holt (and Paul and Ian) for their openness, kindness and tolerance in showing us their wonderful cats. I am loathe to use the word 'cattery', with all its commercial implications, because these excellent people don't 'breed' Burmese.. they 'live' Burmese - or, in Olive and Ian's case, Burmese with alternative colours.
We are carefully considering our breeding programme for the next few years. It is enormously difficult to choose between so many gorgeous lines. We are, as yet, undecided. What is certain is that we will attempt to fuse the refined elegance of Rossikhan with the fine old bloodlines of Isajen and Chathera and, of course, the grand old man of Burmese boys - Admewbu Blue Beauno.

Great Sportsmen

2008-01-22T20:39:00.000Z

What do the greatest sportsmen/women have in common? Don Bradman, Roger Federer, Tiger Woods, Paula Radcliffe, Sebastien Chabal, Ellen MacArthur? They all say that they are calm when they compete. I think this must be so, and I can see how driving all one's emotion into perfecting one's own performance would give one a huge advantage over an opponent who wastes emotional energy in ranting against cruel fate. There is an important lesson here.

Protagoras

2007-12-21T02:05:00.001Z

This is an early morning revelation, and probably requires further thought given that I was struggling to differentiate Protagoras and Procopius(!), but it seems to me that the solipsistic utterance 'man is the measure of all things' is more meaningful with the caveat 'that man claims to apprehend'. It suddenly struck me that Heidegger must have been talking about something, no matter how obscurely, and I think thatwas the distinction between what is (concreta) and what is, or can be, perceived and manipulated within our cognitive frame (abstracta). It seems to me that the whole thrust of ordinary language philosophy and it's 'evil twin', semantic holism, is that we need to be careful to distinguish between the two. There is what is, or 'the facts' as Wittgenstein put it, and how we interpret what is through our fallible interface. Perhaps this is what Heidegger was trying to examine. Something for me to consider more closely. I know that my personality inclines me to construct complete models of a reality to which I can be no more than a biased observer. I wonder if is the totality of Heidegger's realisation?

The Myth of the "a priori"

2007-11-26T20:56:00.000Z

After some not inconsiderable pondering, I conclude that Quine was correct and Kant was ... errr... mistaken. Quine's argument based upon the incoherence of synonymy may well be valid, but it is unnecessary. We need simply ask of what is an a priori truth 'a priori'? The usual answer would be that an a priori truth is independent of contingent facts. 1 + 1 = 2. My point is that an a priori truth cannot be a priori of the language in which it is expressed, and languages, including mathematics, are contingent upon the existence of a language community. No people = no language with abstract concepts (such as number); people are a contingent fact; ergo abstract concepts are contingent and therefore not 'a priori'. I am not sure Quine's argument against the analytic/synthetic dogma works quite so well. It seems to me that once a language exists and abstract ideas such as kind or number appear, prompted by survival optimising heuristics, then any argument defined purely in terms of abstract ideas is analytic. I guess I am suggesting that first order abstractions are a posteriori and synthetic, and that subsequent levels of abstraction are a posteriori and analytic. Shoot holes in that..

Sex - Advice from The Onion

2007-10-25T01:21:00.000+01:00

Oh how I wish I had read this when I was young. Think of all those fleeting regrets I might have avoided. I can barely live with my remorse.

Ginger Burmese

2007-06-21T20:26:00.000+01:00

Ptolly is GINGER. Fact. He has pink ears and a very wuffty life plan. But he can fight for (insert feline polity) and grow whiskers for the (insert GCCF show). The real reason we love Burmese cats is because they are AUTHENTIC. In fact, they have no option. Authenticity is not something a cat enjoys, it is an inescapable condition of catness.

Politics

2007-05-29T00:34:00.000+01:00

Anthony Bailey , a name uncannily similar to Anthony Blair, looks set to become the Geoffrey Archer of Nu-Labour. Why do we let such detestable creeps infest our government? Rush Limbaugh for President, Jade Goody for PM.

Commenting

2007-05-24T00:50:00.000+01:00

I am a mouthy sort of chap, in a bloggy fashion, and I am inclined to post my comments all over the interwebnettube. It vexes me that comments are becoming so dependent on having 'logged on' to some particular provider that we can no longer just 'drop in' and make a point. Comments on our blog, Boofykatz, are open, and we will edit them after the event. The trivial fact that nobody can be arsed to say anything is neither here nor somewhere else. Why do my interwebbotubophytes have to hedge their comment sections so tightly that it would take me several hours just to join the appropriate service provider, establish my bona fides and remember my 27 passwords in order to say 'that is logically invalid'.?
The internet is being strangled from the inside. No government can quiet our voice, but service providers can build their hedges so high that most of us just cannot be bothered to jump through all the registration and identification hoops. My prediction? This is a co-ordinated attempt by entrenched cabals to dampen participative democracy, and it will succeed.. because they are greedy self-obsessed sociopaths and the rest of us are not.

Huddersfield Chess Congress

2007-05-01T19:27:00.000+01:00

PG and I spend the weekend playing chess at the Huddersfield Chess Congress. It was an interesting and chastening experience. I won my first game and in a haze of optimism failed to win another. PG scored 2 from 5 in his accustomed combative style. Would we do it again? I think so. Soon? Errr.. Holmfirth Festival of Folk soon, isn't it?

Emotion

2007-04-15T20:57:00.001+01:00

I like to think that I am fairly reserved most of the time, but this makes me cry every time I hear it. I don't know what bio-aesthetic mechanism it hangs on, but Eva Cassidy's voice just switches on the tear ducts.. awesome!

F.H.Bradley

2007-03-20T21:49:00.000Z

Today I read a little of Bradley's biography and something of his metaphysics. It seems to me that the former sheds an interesting light on the latter. A man who "liked guns and disliked cats and combined the two passions in the most economical fashion" was obviously both mentally and morally deficient, as evidenced in his philosophy.

Ireland v France

2007-02-11T17:21:00.000Z

I have just watched the game. My impressions? Ireland cheated abominably at the breakdown and the referee let them get away with murder. France kept their heads and won a deserved victory. Ireland, like their godforsaken polity, are a team in both decline and denial. France play beautiful and civilized rugby. Now let me see, where would I like to go for my Summer holiday? The beautiful west coast of Ireland, where the neanderthal natives still whisper against all foreigners in the dank corners of their small world bars, or the heights of civilisation and good manners to be found almost anywhere in France. Hmmm, tough choice.

Boofykatz

2007-02-02T20:54:00.000Z

Boofykatz
Sorry to my reader that this space has been so long vacant. I have been a little under the weather for a while. All is now well. The Woodle boy has been recovered, at a cost, and our furry family seeems to thrive. More posts shortly!

Grief

2006-11-10T23:46:00.000Z

Ptolemy went missing on Saturday afternoon. Both Max and I blame ourselves for letting him out. Oh my, do we love that cat. There really are no words to explain our grief, and yet if you read this it is likely that you will empathise. Sometimes we should just say 'I'm unhappy'; and not devalue reality with cliches. How can I paint tears in words?

Metaphysics and Epistemology

2006-11-03T22:40:00.000Z

So which comes first? The study of the assumptions underpinning our understanding of our existence, or the study of our understanding of the assumptions underpinning our existence? I started to think about these things from the viewpoint of philosophy of science, through Neurath and Carnap, Ayer and Popper, Kuhn and Feyerabend. After much, though probably not enough, consideration, I thought that I should put the horse before the cart and consider metaphysics. After all, whether personal revelation is properly based evidence for belief is a metaphysical proposition, is it not? So I read what I could find about metaphysics. And it left me with the belief that metaphysics is no more than the selection of axioms. Personally I have the Humean passion to make my metaphysical axioms coherent, to know that reality is one jigsaw, even if I cannot sort all of the pieces. So I sift and sort my beliefs and try to make them all coherent, and , by and large, I succeed. I look at the ideas of Melanie Phillips and Michael Gove and laugh, because they cannot see the absurdity of their exclusionary rules in the context of their professed humanitarianism. But I always come up against the final hurdle of the metaphysical materialist - determinism and free will. Let there be no pretense, if there is any good argument for dualism then the dualist can see us off, and if there is no such argument we are left with the quandary. Personally I am happy with a determinism so complex that we should regard it as a mystery, and a metaphysics so nebulous that we should regard it as a luxury.

Burmese Learning Curve

2006-10-24T21:24:00.000+01:00

Well I suppose it was arrogant to think that they couldn't surprise us. I thought I had seen every conceivable variety of strange Burmese behaviour, but over the last few days it has become obvious that there is an infinite range of strange boofyness before us. Give Rastaban a chicken leg-bone and he turns into a Rottweiler, snarling at anyone who looks like they might want to take it away. Bianca has decided that she doesn't give a curse about her figure or cardiac disease, she just wants as much bacon and eggs as she can get - and buttered baked potato is very nice too - thank you very much. As for the matriarch, Topaz has obviously realised that the serious business of raising kittens is done now, so she can return to the traditional Burmese activity of moving around small but important objects and helping Sir Isaac Newton demonstrate that the law of gravity still operates... SMASHHHH!

La Vie Douce

2006-10-14T14:22:00.000+01:00

Just in case you were wondering, this is me. At the time of the photograph we were on holiday in France, staying in a wonderful house called Chapeau on the edge of the village of Badefols D'Ans in the north of the Perigord region. The weather was glorious, the food and wine superb, the scenery was stunning and the towns and villages we visited were all spotlessly clean with wonderful floral displays and carefully conserved architecture. The people were warm and courteous and our party of eleven had a marvellous time. After two weeks of fishing, table tennis, daily runs in the beautiful countryside and endless other fun pursuits, the daily grind seems thoroughly repellant. I can understand perfectly why so many Brits retire to the Dordogne.

Trouserquandary

2006-10-12T21:57:00.000+01:00

Now flippin listen here, der Heir Profezzorrr Hadley ist vlippen loozink der pashenz viz yooz, keine? Rauss und besschinken, bitte sehr? And read carefully...

A Brief Visit.

'Now then, now then. Settle down at the back. Remember, it is your time, not mine, you are wasting. Right, are we all settled down, now. Good.'

'Deferens…! Vas Deferens! Put it away boy. She doesn't want to play with it now.'

'No, she doesn't.'

'No, you don't, Verruca…. Because I said so! You ought to, at least, go and wash your hands, now.'

'Because, Verruca, you don't know where it has been, that's why.'

'Oh… well, maybe you do know where it has been. But I'm quite sure the rest of us need to know… at least in not quite such graphic detail, anyway.'

'Come on, now. All of you... settle down. You have your Sexual Perversions and Deviations exams in a few weeks, and it is about time you all did at least some revision.'

God is...

2006-10-04T19:55:00.000+01:00

Having been inspired by a Guardian piece about Richard Dawkins new polemic, The God Delusion, I was impelled by a rare bout of insomnia to reconsider my atheism. What would it take for me to 'believe in God'?
Q.1 What is God? - any coherent answer more specific than 'everything'.
Q.2 Where is God? - any coherent answer other than 'everywhere' or 'in the mind of the believer'.
Q.3 Why is God? - any remotely likely answer other than 'because we invented God'.
Why is the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Because of the antigravity meatballs entrapped in its immortal coils!!!

Boofleboy

2006-09-28T22:25:00.000+01:00

We are impaled upon the pointy horns of a dilemna. Rastaban has grown to be the most beautiful Brown Burmese. The little lad is like a model of the breed standard. But we cannot keep him as a stud, because we do not have the space or resource to house him as a stud cat. I confidently predict that he will win his class at the North West CC Show on Saturday, so what are we to do? The idea of neutering the lad appalls me. I have not seen a brown Burmese boy so good in all the shows I have attended. I think, if he wins his class, we shall have to consult the oracle.

Politics and Reason

2006-09-26T22:59:00.000+01:00

I have largely avoided political proselytisation on this Blog, because I feel that we can all find something in cats and philosophy and chess, or some combination thereof; but today Mr Blair achieved a degree of publicised hippocracy whih I found quite breathtaking. In his Labour party conference speech he ridiculed David Cameron for assigning the drafting of a bill of rights to a team of lawyers. Yes, Tiny, ha bloody ha, and what professional qualification do you have... erm.. ohhh.. a barrister? .. and letterbox face?... another lawyer?... and Harriet Harman... let me guess..? Do you begin to get the picture?

Back to Reality

2006-09-22T23:42:00.000+01:00

Two weeks of civilization in the Perigord, and back to the norm. I cannot believe how rude is the society in which I must struggle to survive, nor how easily satisfied are my peers. The problem is not that there are no answers.. nobody is even asking the questions.

Officially Boofy

2006-08-13T15:25:00.000+01:00

We took our two remaining kittens, Rastaban and Bianca, to Chester for the Chester and North Wales Cat Club show. Why? Because we want to know if we made the right choice of stud to start our breeding programme, because we might want to enter them for the Supreme Cat Show if they are very good, and because of all the lovely cats and people we meet at cat shows. To qualify for the Supreme Cat Show they would have to win their open class, as we have no other opportunities to qualify them before entries close. This was a lot to ask, particularly for Rastaban who is small for his age, because the boofybabies are only just over four months old and they would be competing against kittens up to nine months old.

Sometimes one gets lucky at a cat show and finds that there are no other entries in the class, in which case any cat or kitten with no obvious faults will win their open class. This is a mixed blessing of course because with no competition one really doesn't find out that much about one's kitten. We have pondered whether some of the less common colour variants are bred purely with this in mind... aren't we naughty? Needless to say, we were not gifted a free pass to the Supreme Cat Show. Both Rastaban and Bianca were up against two other kittens of impeccable breeding.

Rastaban had to compete with a slightly older fairly close cousin, Advibu Gorgeous George, and a much older and more distant relative called Molynmeux Thaisun.

In Bianca's open class were Advibu Blue Angelina (sister to Gorgeous George!) and Fernylaugh Miss Bluebell - a slightly older distant relative out of Janet Wilshaw's beautiful Rossikahn Sonovzar.

The first result to come up was the strongly contested (eight entries) AC Burmese kitten side class. The winner was.... Advibu Gorgeous George. Second was George's litter mate Advibu Serensir Bradley. Third was Boofykatz Blue Bianca. Poor little Rastaban did not feature. I was obviously pleased for the winners and especially for our Binky, but very worried about poor little Rastaban. Not much chance of him winning his open class if Gorgeous George had won best AC Burmese kitten. Still, the open classes were under a different Judge so there was still hope.

Off I trekked to the results board for the second time fearing no good news. And there was no good news - it seemed that the well contested Burmese kitten classes would be amongst the last to be resolved. I sat and waited. As soon as I saw the result tapes being pinned up I rushed... well ambled nonchalantly actually.. to the board. First Bianca's open class: WOOT she has come first and Best of Breed too!!! Then the Rastaban result: WOOT WOOT he has come first too! We have the only two results that really matter. Now they can go to the Supreme Cat Show. Obviously some disagreement amongst the Judges here.

Time to check the other side classes, again under different judges. The C&NWCC AC Burmese kitten class (seven entries) was won by Boofykatz Blue Bianca, second was Janet Wilshaw's Rossikahn Boyzard (!!) and third was Boofykatz Brown Rastaban. Obviously a very discerning judge for this one! The last class contested by the baby Boofies was AC Burmese Debutante Kitten (nine entries). First was Christine Stalker's beautiful chocolate girl out of Gr Ch Artro Chocolate Carysma, Vintarn Whisper A Wish. Second was WOOT Boofykatz Brown Rastaban and third was WOOT WOOT Boofykatz Blue Bianca.

What a day. The kittens were almost cuddled to death all afternoon. As you can probaby imagine we are very pleased. And a final thought. All this we owe largely to the late June Tompkinson.

Theosophy

2006-08-03T00:46:00.000+01:00

So, Leslie Francis is a professor of practical theology. He is able to draw a clear distinction between theology and superstition, and tell you how to get the drains unblocked by the power of dynoprayer. I am in awe of this chappie. His faith must be truly awesome if he gets out of bed each morning knowng that his plans for the day may be interrupted by some capricious otherworldly miracle.

The Legend

2006-08-03T00:33:00.000+01:00

I note with sadness the death of David Gemmell
His books are the best kind of popular fiction, engaging with gritty morality from an imaginative perspective. I owe him many hours of thoughtful reading. Ave atque vale.

Metaphysics, Ethics or Epistemology?

2006-07-23T18:56:00.000+01:00

H.E.Baber has a very interesting post here about the Murcan distaste for atheism. As usual she makes some very good points. I don't know if she would approve of the label but there is much of the 'ordinary language' philosopher about Dr.Baber. I have suggested that one possible objection an atheist might have to religion is the dubious epistemology required for a belief in god, pace Alvin Platinga. I did not comment on the point H.E made about the apparent human need for a metaphysical grounding for ethics - so I'll make that point here.
Ethics and aesthetics are part social construct and part subjective construct. They have no meaning apart from their social or subjective context. Plato was horribly wrong about essences and forms, and generations of clerics have seized upon his conceit to justify their dualism. We need more writers like H.E.Baber. She wears her head on her sleeve.

Boofykat

2006-07-16T09:47:00.000+01:00

I have a nagging guilt that there might be visitors to this blog (?) expecting to see examples of boofytude - so here is one.

Italy - World Cup Mediocrity and Cheating

2006-07-09T23:31:00.000+01:00

Well, I've listened to the moronic pundits dissing Zidane, and not one has twigged that such a distinguished player would not act as he did without good reason; and we have some evidence as to what that reason might have been, evidence not inconsistent with the culture of shirt pulling, elbowing, holding and play acting that has been the hallmark of an otherwise less than ordinary team in this world cup - ask any Australian. The best team won... the team best at cheating, that is.

Don't Worry About Living in a Police State..

2006-07-05T00:07:00.000+01:00

It's already here.
I'm still not sure that I believe this. I am tempted to call this an abuse of the Public Order act, but it is becoming increasingly obvious that the act is itself an abuse of human rights. Where is Cherie 'bollocks to' Blair when we need her? Presumably waiting for someone to pay her a fat fee. How can we criticise Bush and his fundy chums when our Murcan friends would rightly revolt over such a patent abuse of fundamental rights?

Reconciling Quine and Empiricism

2006-06-26T21:43:00.000+01:00

I haven't blogged much recently because kittens keep one busy, and I've had some interesting work to do at work. Just to show I haven't forsaken my reader, I am posting a link to this excellent piece on Butterflies and Wheels - I hope OB won't mind. I found that it really illuminated my thoughts about epistemological rationalism and relativism, and also explained that Hume quote about a rational man believing in a creator. I still think there is something to be said for the a priori and a posteriori distinction, I think there is a flaw in Quines argument - and if I could articulate it I would probably be a philosopher rather than an apparatchik.

Interesting Times

2006-06-15T20:30:00.000+01:00

Peter Collin said that we would have an interesting time with the kittens. I suspect he was thinking of the Chinese curse! I have a suspicion that relativity was 'revealed' to Einstein when he saw four kittens proceed on different vectors. We are in a sort of 'kittenshock'; we thought we could confine the little darlings but we find that most of the time we haven't the slightest notion where they are lurking and can only retrieve them with the lure of cordon bleu cuisine. I own that Rastaban must have consumed more steak tartare in his 9 weeks than have I in a lifetime.

Kitten on a Keyboard

2006-05-31T01:06:00.000+01:00

The destructive power of the kitten has been vastly underestimated, except by the Goodies. Buster, pictured here, has just eliminated a whole evening's deathless prose, and also designed a new, improved MP3 player. A six week old kitten and an antediluvian keyboard do not make a good combination!

Big Brother and Normative Ethics

2006-05-29T22:07:00.000+01:00

I have always found this 'personality' particularly repellant. Much is made of her motherhood, caring for babies, yet she makes her 'living' (no apologies for scare quotes) mocking the afflicted. This may be a reflection on the moraliy of my parents, brought up in the war years, or even upon my grandmother who lived through the aftermath of the great war, but as a small boy I was always told 'Do not mock the afflicted.' I was never told 'they have enough trouble anyway', but it was taken as read. To profit from the social ineptitude of one's fellow beings is either some kind of Nietschean triumph, or a piece of manipulative malpractice of the most loathsome kind. I leave you to decide.

In Praise of... Sir Peter Medawar and Reason

2006-05-24T21:48:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I came upon this critique of Pere Teilhard de Chardin's The Phenomenon of Man, via a commenter at Butterflies and Wheels. I think it is a marvellous piece of clear thinking and debunking of obfuscatory hyperbole. For those of you who cannot be bothered to read the whole thing, I recommend this wonderful paragraph - it is particularly relevant to these days when 50% must go into tertiary education.
"How have people come to be taken in by The Phenomenon of Man? We must not underestimate the size of the market for works of this kind, for philosophy-fiction. Just as compulsory primary education created a market catered for by cheap dailies and weeklies, so the spread of secondary and latterly tertiary education has created a large population of people, often with well-developed literary and scholarly tastes, who have been educated far beyond their capacity to undertake analytical thought."
Elitist? Possibly, but elitism is such a slippery word. We all applaud excellence and abhor giving unfair social advantage to the already advantaged. Perhaps secondary and tertiary educational institutions should make greater efforts to inculcate the capacity for analytical thought. It is sadly lacking in many graduates, and one PhD of my acquaintance.

Boofykitz

2006-05-22T23:02:00.000+01:00

The boys have been practising their ring skills, not with Buster of course, 'cos she can whup any two of them. I'm finally getting some good pictures, because I have figured out how to get the flash to work on the digicam. The one in the foreground is Oberon. We suspect that he is the most showable, but Bianca (Buster) is the most outgoing, Polaris has the most endearing face and Rastaban, as is perhaps typical of browns, has a coat quality that seems to us just what a Burmese coat should be - dense, short and very fine and shiny. Had to de-flea our entire feline population today. Topaz does not take kindly to being sprayed, and I have the scars to prove it!

Comings and Goings

2006-05-16T01:02:00.000+01:00

Sparky died. We are very disappointed. Four kittens are doing well. We are very pleased. We have chosen suitably pretentious names for our babies - Boofykatz Blue Bianca for the biggest fluffiest monster in the litter. Polaris and Oberon for the two boys who seem to regard life as a personal sleep-over cum playfight. And for our Brown boy, the most pretentious of them all - Boofykatz Brown Rastaban.

Sparky - and the Argument from Evil

2006-05-11T22:41:00.000+01:00

She is fading fast now. It is difficult to know how much of one's tristesse is self indulgent, how much is culturally induced, and how much is 'authentic'. Perhaps, as with all subjective judgements, there is no definitive answer. I wonder how the theists can argue that the suffering and premature death of a small and beloved creature can in any way glorify their wretched vision of an intemperate and childish deity? This is the second time I have had to watch a kitten die. I can cope and comprehend if the world is the way I believe it to be, but if I believed there was a god, what a foul and corrupt being that god would have to be.

Burmese Boofykatz - 3 Weeks

2006-05-09T22:09:00.000+01:00

If ever the capricious mix of joy and trouble we find in our lives needed illustration, here it is. Four frolicsome boofykitz and one poor little Sparky plagued by FCKS (flat chested kitten syndrome). We now doubt that she will grow to adulthood, despite our efforts at handfeeding. It is perhaps indicative of the human condition that one tragedy can completely overshadow the four joyous bundles we have also been gifted.

John Reid - Blair's Death Knell

2006-05-07T14:33:00.000+01:00

So, this mad axeman has been appointed Home Secretary. The man who believes that the poor should be permitted to self-euthanise on nicotine. The man who never answers a question but always gets the point across that he is a complete tosser. Well done Tony. The best thing you have ever done for the country. I used to dread hearing Reid on the Today programme, because for all his bluster he was just an apparatchik. Now he has a substantual task, and I cannot wait to see the arrogant celtic git (yes, the West Lothian question does rankle)fall flat on his extremely unattractive face.

Mixed News

2006-05-03T00:03:00.000+01:00

A bitter sweet day. The now smallest boofykit is not doing well. We fear she may die, and Max and I find this very hard to stomach. She is such a sweet and determined little life. I have decided, for some vague atavistic and all too human reason, that her spark will not disappear nameless - so, leading in to our other piece of news - she is Boofykatz Blue Sparky. As I write this I have tears streaming down my face, and I am not remotely apologetic for my emotional transparency. I hope that fate will smile kindly upon her.
I am, as any of you who have read this blog more than once will know, a fairly confident atheist; so perhaps you will humour me and picture a small grey scrap of flesh, claws and hair, eyes barely open and desperate to taste life, and ponder for just a moment what kind of pathetic deity would see her fade hopelessly into oblivion.
The good news, though somewhat overshadowed, is that today our GCCF prefix was confirmed. Boofykatz is now a dynasty, and Topaz is our founding queen.

A Short Treatise on the Dietary Preferences of Boofykatz

2006-04-29T09:38:00.000+01:00

Ptolemy (our neuter cream Burmese boy) has always been very discriminating in his diet, but in the oddest way. He would eat nothing but cat food. The choicest delicacies, such as lean minced beef or lightly cooked chicken or tuna, would be ignored; which was good news for Topaz, who never evinced such scruples. Now things have changed. During Topaz's pregnancy, and now she is feeding her kittens, she needed a high protein diet. In addition to the delicacies mentioned above we replaced her normal cat food rations with kitten food. Guess what? Ptolemy really likes kitten food. So much so, in fact, that he has taken to stealing the foil sachets from the box, savaging them and putting the contents in a safe place - his tummy.

Is this, we wonder, the feline equivalent of that human craving for 'nursery food'?

Boofybabe

2006-04-22T14:38:00.000+01:00

First close up of one of Topaz's kittens. Nice rounded head and a good nose break, with the ears set well to the side. Is this gorgeous or is it?

In Praise of What's Under the Bushell

2006-04-18T21:23:00.000+01:00

I am bombarded with corporate literature about values, successes and initiatives; only to find that my annual bonus is nil pounds because the business is performing like a lead duck. This article in today's Times strikes a chord. One of the reasons I am so enamoured of living flesh, be it lover, daughter, kitten or friend, is that I can direct my senses to discovering the veracity of my ideas about these entities. As for the corporate entities upon which I, and my beloveds, depend for our sustenance - it is appalling that we are compelled to wallow in a mire of corporate incompetence, self interest, bad spelling, syntax and grammar, and general narcissistic indulgence; but I suppose it has always been thus. I think that the pull of communism was a recognition of this tribal sickness, a pricipaled action by a middle class elite with no better ideology in view. I have some sympathy with Philby, Blunt, Burgess and McClean - perhaps they saw a free market 1984 and thought genuine totalitarianism more honest?

Boofyness

2006-04-16T16:38:00.000+01:00

That, in case you cannot make out the rather dodgy image, is Topaz's milk bar and the baby boofies. They are absolutely gorgeous and she is being a really great mum. Well done Artro Blue Topaz; we are, to use the vernacular, made up!

Free Will

2006-04-15T21:31:00.000+01:00

OK, so whats going on here then? Dickhead promises his G O D something P A I N F U L L. Dickhead gets lots of spondulix. Dickhead bottles out at last minute. I, as an atheist, am somewhat less inclined to attribute moral fortitude to G O D botherers.

So which newspaper shall I read today..

2006-04-06T19:27:00.000+01:00

On a day when the Times seemed obsessed by avian flue (dead swan in Scotland) and pensions (politicians pay lip service to expensive 'independent' report), I was mightily impressed by two pieces in the Guardian. Were it not for Polly Toynbee's kneejerk Labourism; not socialism because Tony Blair has long forsaken that ideal; I would certainly become a Guardian afficianado. The articles I so heartily recommend are this fantastic piece by Jenni Russell on how New Labour are eroding, even demolishing, our political checks and balances and this article by a well known and respected Clinton advisor on how the celebrated ethnic musician and Republican apologist Condominium Rights is sending her public servants into battle with no body armour. This is good stuff people. Read and, if you can be arsed, comment.

There's a bloke..

2006-04-04T19:19:00.000+01:00

..works down our chipshop swears he's Elvis, but he's a liar and I'm not sure about you. Give Andy Gregory and the delightful Carol a huge mwaaagh!

Expecting Happiness

2006-04-03T22:26:00.000+01:00

Imagine a rugby ball. Now give it a soft blue/grey pelt. Stick a pipe cleaner on each corner and add a tail and a gremlin face. Topaz has doubled in girth over the past seven weeks. We are all at once excited and fearful. Will the births be normal? How many kittens? What colours will they be? Will she be a good mother? Interesting times.

Realism

2006-03-30T19:29:00.000+01:00

I am a confused realist. I think that there are concreta, material things which exist independent of our minds, and abstracta, ideas which are purely subjective. I think that properties, colour or texture or tone or taste, are subjective to the extent that they are mediated by the emergent 'thing' that is consciousness, and therefore abstracta. But I have some huge conceptual problems. Is consciousness itself abstract? And what about number? Obviously to the realist number is a property of concreta, but it is also a property of abstracta. One can imagine 'three different imaginary items'. It seems to me that number is both a simple property of concreta and a metaproperty of abstracta. But perhaps this is a category error. Perhaps number is a simple property of abstracta. Perhaps number is the only Platonic form. Any elucidation of these ramblings would be much appreciated.

Madeleine 'Birdbrain' Bunting

2006-03-27T21:04:00.000+01:00

I was going to relentlessly expose the flaky theism that forms the backdrop for Madeleine Bunting's articles as the Guardian's Religious Affairs Editor. I was going to take her arguments and show how implicit in them is her commitment to a deity, and to dualism. I was going to show how her ill-informed criticisms of Dennett and Dawkins stem from her epistemological poverty and why she feels the need to cuddle up in bed with the halfbaked Michael Ruse. I even considered throwing her to the pack of atheist wolves at Pharyngula.I was going to whitter on about how this makes her about as interesting as a hatstand in programmes such as the Moral Maze, a programme I find increasingly childish. "Well, go on then.. " I hear you expostulate.

No, I shall not. If you have got this far then you know exactly what I mean and I need explain no further. I would be delighted to hear why one should take seriously anything arising from a mind able to accommodate such a hopelessly incoherent philosophy.

Existential Rollercoaster

2006-03-23T00:01:00.000Z

This morning I heard an interview with Shabina Begum on the Today programme. I heard this smug young woman pontificate on how her 'religious' convictions ought to trump the social norm of a Luton school in which more than 50% of pupils were her co-religionists - holier than thou or what? Cherie Blair, the slack minded tree hugger, acted for this middle class tart - ad hominems I know but tell me why they are not thoroughly deserved by those prepared to suck at the public teat whilst stabbing all but their special interest clients in the heart?
Later in the day I read in the Times that the lords had overturned the appeal court ruling in favour of miss Begum. Wunderbar! Magnifique! How enlightened are their Lordships?

Later still, in the Guardian, I come across this..
"Lord Bingham said any sincere religious belief such as that held by Shabina must command respect, particularly when derived from an ancient and respected religion."

Why? Why should a sincere belief in Odin command respect? Must the believer be permitted to carry a pet Raven on their shoulder as part of the 'school uniform'? What is wrong with these people? Why can't they see the consequences of permitting 'sincerity' to trump objective evidence? My head hurts.

Laughter

2006-03-18T06:06:00.000Z

I don't know whether my sense of humour is at all unusual, but why is the world not hammering on this person's door? I haven't been so amused since reading about the Sacred Kumquats of Miriam on H2G2; and that was long away and far ago.

Great Questions

2006-03-16T19:26:00.000Z

"Why" I hear you cry "oh, why have you neglected us so?" Well, my desultory reader, it is because we have been living the high, err.. slightly higher.. life in wintery Wales.
I climbed Cader Idris for the second time, in good company, and avoided my agoraphobic terror courtesy of 100% cloud cover on the summit. It was very much like this.. We stayed at a wonderful house called Ty Mawr and I hope to post our own bamboozled images of the weekend quite soon.
And on the subject of large, if not great questions, I made the error of mentally tuning in to this on the today programme. How Giles Fraser is permitted to lecture in Philosophy is a mystery to me. I suspect it is a mystery to him too; although he seems to be having some trouble in separating the supernatural and the natural. In fact, unless my understanding of my native tongue has been totally subverted, he seemed this morning to be suggesting that christianity (his interpretation) should insist that there is no distinction. God, in the form of Jesus, acted on Earth. There is a huge metaphysical problem here - or there is for Giles Fraser. How can the physical and the non-physical interact? What is the mechanism? What predictions can one make? If one permits divine intervention then none of us have free will, of any kind. Is the Rev Fraser a Calvinist?

Earth Shaking Poetic Confession..

2006-03-09T00:21:00.000Z

I have felt, since my late teens, some affinity with poets; and have written some execrable poetry. That is no reason why you should be spared and, anyway, this is probbly the best poem what I 'ave wrote for years. Go easy on the plaudits - I might have a Withnail heart...

Integrity

Drink your wine son, drink it down
You’ll never need to chance
Your insulated self-obsessed
Persona at the disco

Dance your life son, dance along
You’ll never need to stop
To think, to doubt, to introspect
What gets you to the

Top your truth son, cut it down
All ideas are one
Shit’s as good as beans on toast
When love for truth has gone.

MacCavity, MacCavity..

2006-03-07T21:13:00.000Z

The dentist filled my cavity.. well, four of them actually - root canal cavities. We are now £200 lighter, but I have to say that it is money well spent. At least I will be able to enjoy the cuisine and fine wines which beckon us to Wales this coming weekend, isn't it? This will be the first elevensome holiday, Andy and Carol Greggs being new victims in our ever expanding middle-aged self-abuse society. Both are more than capable of playing silly games into the wee small hours and soaking up stupendous quantities of disguised ethanol. Oh my aching liver.
For some odd reason my lap is this evening occupied by the Zagglepuss, small fluffy stray whom we kid ourselves is not really part of the family, just a frequent diner and non-paying lodger. She evidently thinks otherwise. The Boofies are curled up on a duvet next to the radiator. The small grey Boofy has been practicing for the England Olympic Feline Gourmande event, three suppers so far this evening. I am very hopeful that she may be eating for two, or three, or four, or five....
There, that silly title eventually got around to W.H.Auden's poem.

Pet Loves - and Hates

2006-03-06T22:34:00.000Z

I had every intention of refraining from bloggage (Fr. blogging) this evening, but for many reasons my determination is rendered dentally lacking. Firstly, I have been subjected to two bottles of genuinely decent SA plonk; or perhaps one mediocre and one decent, but this second, a Nederburg Shiraz Pinotage, is sublime. Secondly, .. oh bless me, I've forgotten.

Ten minutes later..

Ahhh yes, the vino is one of my pet loves. So what, you cry eagerly, is your tin of walnuts? No, no, no; what is your pet hate, you eagerly cry. Well, since you ask, 'tis this. Transcendence
In my booze befuddled state I read this essay by Vaclav Havel - a poet, so I have heard - and the more I read, and reread, the more I realised that my existing distrust of that most weaselish word, transcendence, is thoroughly justified. It boils down to this, Dear Heart; that which transcends human reason is... errr... unreasonable.

Boofymum

2006-03-02T19:25:00.000Z

At this very moment I have Topaz (Artro Blue Topaz - Showday name) on my lap. She has just been rather inconsiderately handled because we desperately want to know if she is with kittens. Or rather - we want some evidence to inform our decisions as to her care over the next few weeks. The whole process of encouraging reproduction in Topaz is epistemologically enlightening. We are novice cat breeders. Those parts of our conceptual web(s) concerned with cat breeding would at first pass seem to be almost completely formed from arguments from testament; to whit "Janet is reputedly a very successful breeder and says ...". Taking a Quinean view in its broadest sense helps me to see things in what I personally consider the most useful way, but only if I subscribe to a materialistic view that accepts the premise that memories are physical, or energetic, representations of real events; and perhaps consequently that dreams are distorted or synthesised views of real events. It seems to me that Russell's argument about a universe created a moment ago must be set aside as axiomatically useless. I am all for skepticism, but only to the point where it renders decision making difficult rather than impossible. To come back to Earth - it seems to Max and I that Topaz has more prominent nipples now than she had a week ago. We remember both testamentary and sensory evidence that she has had a romantic dalliance and that such doings often lead to pregnancy, and that Janet told us that prominent nipples in a female moggie are a sign of pregnancy. Are we warranted in thinking she is probably with kittens?

Free Will

2006-02-27T20:50:00.000Z

I had considered posting about Dylan Evans' egregious article in Today's Guardian, but then a more immediate concern took precedence. Yep, our old friend Mytle Grove, the Merlot this time. £2.99 a bottle in Morrisson's, reduced from £4.99, and a stunning mouthful of plummy purple juice with a stonking 14.5 percent ethanol. This is a truly rumbustious wine. Not subtle, but no rough edges and no nasty aftertaste. Rush out and get some if you can.
Now, on to something altogether less palatable...

"If I were to tell you that there are a bunch of people who want to turn you into a machine, you'd probably think I was crazy. But if you don't believe me, read the report published this month by Demos and the Wellcome Trust, ominously titled Better Humans?. The authors of this collection of essays wax lyrical about the imminent arrival of a range of technologies that they claim will change human nature itself, and for the better. Memory-enhancing drugs, genetic selection of children, neural implants and dramatic increases in life expectancy are not only genuine possibilities, they argue, but possibilities we should pursue and embrace."

Dylan my boy, you are crazy. I'll lay you a pound to a lick o' cane toad that not one of those articles say 'We want to turn you into a machine.' They may well advocate something along the lines of Ian.M.Banks Culture novels, but well read readers will know that Mr.Banks' enhanced beings are all too organic when compared to the minds of the sentient machine communities they inhabit.

"So how can we preserve freedom of choice? Bioconservatives and technophiles are united in their distaste for the future society imagined by Aldous Huxley in Brace New World, but they both ignore the one redeeming feature of that nightmare vision - the savage reservations. Here, in the remote wilderness, an ancient society has been allowed to live according to its own rules. Freed from the oppressive technologies that regulate life in the World State, the inhabitants develop individuality, independent thinking and initiative."

Where to begin? Do you suppose for one moment that Demos and the Wellcome trust are actually advocating Huxley's 'Brave New World'? And freed from oppressive technologies? Like those that provide us with antibiotics and anaesthetics? Oh my missing appendix! Dylan Evans, ano perfectus est.

Depravity

2006-02-26T21:52:00.000Z

Depravity - well, what would that be? I have been a participant in a weekend that some might think thoroughly depraved. Middle aged boozaholics getting thoroughly spliffy in Stalybridge. Leaving our teenage babe in the clutches of a self-advertised Lothario. Planning a multi-partner weekend in a commune in Wales - no, not Nevern. Am I apologetic about any of this? Not a jot of it. We are all thoroughly decent, well, reasonably decent, people pulling the PC chain for all it's worth. Not one of us would do the nekkid walk from Land's End to John O'Groats. I am very nearly ashamed to admit that we are all so tedious. Our livers may not appreciate this, but we are actors in the predetermined drama that is Homo sapiens. Anyway, tug your dictionarial bellrope, let some logical interlocks tumble and turn, when all is said and done (which it never is) we get on with each other -or not.

Religious Relativism

2006-02-23T19:38:00.000Z

I find the idea of a particular religion explaining the ideas of a different religion in an objective fashion quite bizarre. 'I'm a muslim and Gabriel spoke to Mohammed, and Mohammed said that Jesus was a man who was a prophet, but Southern Baptists think that Jesus was an incarnation of God, but he wasn't, but anyway, my cousin Mary was down the Rec with Willy Finn doing her dirty business behind the greenkeeper's hut, and anyway...' It is all so Vicky Pollard.
Listen to me, Beloved, the story of the Elephant's child is just that, a story. The Bible is a bit more than that, it is a legend. There was probably some very dark skinned chap called Jesus, or someone similar, who went around spouting prophecies and claimimg to be descended from King David of the Jews, and he probably set quite a good example - although that might have been embroidered a bit - and he certainly inspired a group of people who didn't fancy heavy work to set themselves up as authorities on the supernatural. (For anybody with a brain who might be reading this, stop now and consider the implications of 'supernatural')
One of my colleagues quoted his vicar today. A very profound thought - 'We are all climbing the same mountain, but we get to the summit by different routes'. I take it he/she/it (strike out as appropriate) meant that 'we' are all deists and that our creeds are all just textual interpretations. Well, I for one am not a deist; but that is not really interesting. What is interesting is that not all religious people are so postmodern. Lots of them think that the text is literally true. The Earth was created in six days. Homosexuals must be stoned to death. Women must be modest -but men need not bother. Faith is necessary to salvation, good works are incidental. I could go on, but, to be frank, I am bored. If you don't see the incongruity by now you are either mentally defective or a paid up member of the Richard Rorty fan club.

Boofy Aesthetics

2006-02-21T19:06:00.000Z

As a relatively recent ailurophile I probably should be (narrowly avoided split infinitive there) reticent about commenting on the relative attraction of the various cat breeds. Some barbarians have even suggested that our boofykatz, pictured here, are not the epitome of feline pulchritude.
Well, I'm still more or less with A.J.Ayer on aesthetics and ethics, but these, with all due respect to their devotees, seem to me downright perverse. If there is an argument against genetic engineering, it is this.

Threat to Democracy

2006-02-21T18:53:00.000Z

Usually posts or articles with this kind of title are reactionary drivel, but I think this shows that there is a bill going through parliament that really demands some public interrogation. The idea of ministers such as Charles Clarke, David (Blunket/Milliband), or - Zeus forfend - Tony Blair being able to change laws with no restraint from our vaunted bicameral system is truly chilling. A few voices in the Times and Guardian are tolling the warning bell. It is time to light some bonfires. It is time to mobilise against tyranny.

Delirious Joy

2006-02-16T20:15:00.000Z

It would appear that the Small Grey Boofy has fallen in love with Molynmeux Hooray Henry (a bit Chavish?) and will have to be dragged kicking and screaming back to Almondbury. We have missed her and we are so pleased that Janet and John Wilshaw have been so thoughtful in helping us to understand what is going on. Across humanity there is a variety of hellpfullness. In this instance we have found really good people (and beautiful cats) and I have no compunction in recommending you go here if you are looking for a genuine, kind and considerate stud for your Burmese queen.

A Great Loss

2006-02-15T18:49:00.000Z

Sir Peter Strawson has died. It seems to me that ordinary language philosophy is now recovering from Ernest Gellner's effective but largely ad hominem attacks in 'Words and Things'. Sir Peter Strawson was in any case too good an all round philosopher to suffer overmuch from fashion. Read the link.

Holism and Reductionism

2006-02-13T22:29:00.000Z

Susan Blackmore and Mary Midgely talked about memes on the Today programme this morning. Susan Blackmore was putting the memetic view of religion, a reductionist account of why that particular set of ideas is so successful. Mary Midgely, as is her wont, insisted that the very idea of memes is reductionist rubbish, a useless oversimplification of the way that people really live. Susan Blackmore laughed graciously. She was far too polite to say "Of course I recognise that ideas cannot exist without people, neither can human genetic information. The point is that understanding culture as a product of people, environment and memes is better than not understanding culture at all; just as understanding evolution as a product of organisms, environment and genes is better than not understanding evolution at all. The reductive paradigm is explanatory. Holism, where it is not a rigorous synthesis of reductive explanations, is a tautology."

Little Gorgieboofy

2006-02-09T20:10:00.000Z

Hopefully our dream begins tomorrow. The little Grey Boofy has resumed her song of lust and Janet Wilshaw has agreed to accomodate her prediliction. I really like this Catlet when she is calling, her affection index increases by several orders. Tomorrow we are off to Staffordshire to introduce our feisty little tribble to her arranged marriage - but enough of Dani, we have also sorted something out for Topaz.

On the Unpredictability of Small Grey Boofys

2006-02-08T23:59:00.000Z

On Saturday I was deprived of my planned badminton and table tennis games because Max thought that Topaz was calling. "At last!" thought we, and I rushed from my Saturday morn duties to take Topaz for her FLV test - a sort of "I don't have AIDS certificate" for cats. It cost me £53 .. and the little wotzit promptly became silent. If she doesn't resume her song of love in the next few days you may well see me out and about in a new hat - silky grey and clasped beneath the chin with interlocking claws.

On Islam, Wine and Poetry

2006-02-06T21:29:00.000Z

Though often has he played the infidel,
And robbed me of my robe of honour, well
I often wonder what the vintner buys
That's half so precious as the stuff he sells.

A bastard offspring of Sir Richard Burton (no, not the actor) and the son of a tent maker. Coincidentally one Omar Khayyam - jolly good mathematician too.

In those days, when Jalal ed Din was struggling against the Mongol horde and Baghdad was the greatest centre of learning in the world, there was an enquiring outward looking strain of Islam. As they said to George Best as he was caught in flagrante with Miss World - where did it all go wrong?

Are Many Muslims This Unreasonable?

2006-02-03T17:56:00.000Z

I have a problem with my neighbour. She has posted on a nearby lamppost a rather unflattering cartoon of my mother and a very male donkey. I suppose that many of you would not blame me if I found this offensive. What would you say, however, if I suggested that my neighbour should be killed for doing this? What if she were Portuguese, and such was my umbrage that I and my friends went and threw a hand grenade into the Portuguese embassy in London? What if we sent letters to our local press and made statements on radio saying that all Portuguese should be killed unless their prime minister make a full public apology for my neighbour's action? What if her action 'crossed a sacred boundary'?

Just a little consideration of this piece in today's Times shows what is wrong with religious fanaticism, Islamic, Christian, Jewish or otherwise.

"Even moderate Muslims would regard cartoons as sacrilege, say scholars saddened by the breach of sacred boundary"

Not a problem, they are perfectly entitled to consider anything they wish as sacrilege.

"A LEADING Muslim scholar said that repeated publication of the cartoons would inevitably lead to more terrorist attacks in the West."

And he is perfectly entitled to so opine - time will show if he is correct.

Mufti Abdul Barkatullah, senior imam at North Finchley Mosque in North London, said that editors who published the cartoons were “giving more fuel to al-Qaeda”.

He said that one of Islam’s sacred boundaries had been crossed and even moderate Muslims would regard the cartoons as sacrilege. He cited verses of the Koran that rail against slander and mockery of Islam and prayer.

Chapter 9 verse 12 urges all Muslims to “fight” any who “revile” Islam. Chapter 104 warns those who slander and defame that they will be hurled into “crushing disaster”.

Like al-Qaeda need fuel? I would have thought page 3 of the Sun sufficient. But what does the mufti think is meant by 'fight' here?

Mufti Barkatullah, a member of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “In other religions, the sacred boundaries have been deleted. Not so in Islam. This is a no-go area at any cost. It will spur on suicide bombers.

“However moderate one is, there can be no compromise on the person of the Prophet. The Prophet is held above everything in the Universe, over one’s own person, family, parents, the whole world. It is less offensive to condemn and vilify God.”

Ahhh, 'Not so in Islam'. So we have to 'respect' Islam more than other religions? Well, there's a thing. But what about the proportionality argument? Where is the condemnation of "an eye for a verbal slight, a tooth for daring to suggest that my sky daddy is tougher than your sky daddy"?

A spokesman for the Muslim Council said that it was not necessarily offensive to publish the cartoons per se. It all depended on context. A television programme broadcast them two days ago in Britain to explain why they were controversial. He said that Muslims would not find their use insulting in that context. It was the provocative publication with the intention of stirring controversy that was offensive, he said.

Muslims worldwide obey the Islamic injunction not to display pictures of any animal or human, anything with a “soul”, in their homes and mosques, never mind pictures of the prophet. This element of Sharia, or Islamic law, has become a hallmark of their faith, even though it does not appear in the Koran.

It is in the Hadith — the collection of sayings of the Prophet — that pictures of living creatures are forbidden. The Arab word used for pictures is surah, which can mean anything from a two-dimensional drawing to a three-dimensional figure or statue.

Hadith-Bukhari 5:338 has Abu Talha, a companion of the Prophet, quoting him as saying: “Angels do not enter a house in which there is a dog or a picture.” The scripture records that he meant the images of creatures that have souls.

Imam Ibrahim Mogra, a leading Islamic scholar and senior member of the Muslim Council, said: “To depict the Prophet is unacceptable. To depict him as a terrorist is even more painful. It is extremely sad that they have not yet realised this.

More weasel words. Painful? Painful as in being stoned to death or having one's hand amputated? Or intellectually painful? What would be an appropriate response to intellectual pain, and what should be the consequences of 'unacceptable'? A sharp diplomatic exchange or a hand grenade?

“They should have realised from the response to what the Danish paper did that this was not the right thing to do . . . I do not see how the idea of freedom of speech and freedom of expression gives people the licence to cause this kind of hurt to more than a billion people around the world. "

You don't? You really don't? Has it not occurred to this imbecile that 'this kind of hurt' is no kind of hurt at all? That any opinion worth the time taken for due consideration is immune to hurt?

“Muhammad is a very, very special person. To us he is more than our parents are. We can imagine, if someone was to make a mockery of our parents in this manner, how hurt we would be. Imagine that hurt, multiplied a million times.”

Multiply my mum and the donkey (sorry mum) a million times and you are still far short of any justification for inflicting physical harm on anybody. "Sticks and stones" my Nan used to say - possibly the most profound of our Anglo-saxon aphorisms. There are two more paragraphs but they are non sequiturs. I wonder why we give space to these childish tantrums? Could it be that we need their oil?

On the Speed of Small Grey Boofys

2006-02-03T17:47:00.000Z

For the second time in as many days my arrival home from work has seen a small grey streak of lightning whizz out through the door as I enter, despite my best blocking tactics. She is due to start calling very soon. I am a worried man. I understand now how mediaeval lords felt about their daughters. I must confess that I am less concerned about the mating habits of daughters than those of cats. The daughters, I think, can be relied upon to be at least moderately discerning.

Virtue Ethics

2006-01-31T19:12:00.000Z

I keep on reading about the resurgence of virtue ethics, about Aristotle and social norms. I do not understand how normative ethics can be divorced from metaethics? Why are so many people so keen to distance the choices we make from any kind of reasonable justification? It baffles me that many people who make this move are atheists; they are not clearing the ground for religion, they seem to think that "It feels good to most of us so it must be 'good'". Is this sociobiology gone mad?
This evening the BBC's PM programme was a litany of muslims whingeing about how their belief system deserves respect. Time and again we heard how a social group defined by its idiot reliance on the dodgy record of the sayings of a self-serving tribal chief takes umbrage when others suggest that their reliance on dogma for their normative ethics is deluded and dangerous. They regard faith as a virtue. Is it unreasonable to ask why? Is it any more unreasonable to ask for a metaethical justification for 'virtue' before allowing it free rein?

Literary Stuff

2006-01-26T19:47:00.000Z

My friend Carol leant me Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart". I read it on the journey from Manchester to Amsterdam and finished it in a wonderful Sardinian restaurant in Amsterdam. Dining alone is a pleasure when one has a great book and great food. The book describes the trials and tribulations of a 'noble savage', Okonkwo - very much a la Rouseaux. I felt that it was 'A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch' meets Evelyn Waugh's 'Decline and Fall'. Hearing 'The Other' is almost a postmodern cliche; but for WASPS everywhere I recommend this book as an aid to understanding many intertwining themes- relationships, power, motivation, celebrity and, in the end, nobility. For what it's worth, I felt that Okonkwo hung himself (assuming that he did) for the right reasons. Which of us would be so noble?

Gay Muslims

2006-01-23T21:35:00.000Z

I have just sat through a TV programme that tests all my hopes for human reason. Islam - a mythology that in its dogma repudiates homosexuality. Homosexuality - an inherent sexual proclivity. Half a dozen people protesting that there is no conflict between Islam and homosexuality. Meh? Saying 'I am a gay muslim' is like saying 'I am a vegan blood sports enthusiast'. Cognitive dissonance. I have my own cognitive dissonance, I am a determinist who bothers to choose, but I humbly submit that my existential crisis pales into insignificance beside the gay muslim.. or, indeed, the reasonable Buddhist.

Theology 101

2006-01-17T21:02:00.000Z

I am intrigued. What does a theologian study? Surely comparative religion is sociological, the existence of supernatural beings is philosophical metaphysics (or ontology?) and the development of religion(s) is history? What does a theologian study? How many angels can dance on the head of an imam? Is christian theology like the chemistry of nucleotides? Just a sub-set of the wider study of bio-theology? Have you got it yet? Can you see the absurdity?

Singing Horses

2006-01-09T23:13:00.000Z

Courtesy of Merkin, this is very good...

Root of all Evil

2006-01-09T21:21:00.000Z

I've just watched episode 1 of 'The Root of All Evil'. If Richard Dawkins is arrogant, and in my opinion he is almost too humble, then the religionists are frothingly rabid. I think it is time for a new crusade, it is time for a crusade of reason, and we must go armed with money and influence and we must fight for the minds of the young. And, you are not going to like this my enlightened friends, we must be prepared to use violence to defend ourselves from those who threaten us. Dead people make poor arguments. Martyrs only get sainted if there is a church to beatify them.

Secret Evidence

2005-12-09T20:28:00.000Z

I saw the phrase 'secret evidence' in one of the newspapers this week. I wondered how something secret could possibly be evidence. The question revolves around the value of testimony as evidence. If somebody I trust tells me that flamingos are pink birds, is that evidence? If somebody else, who overhears the conversation, says "Yes, flamingos are pink birds", is that more evidence? If somebody tells me "I have evidence that this is a flamingo, but it is secret", is that evidence for me?
As I see it, the first kind of testimony is evidence, but evidence of very limited value. It is evidence because it has the possibility of confirmation, because I can increase or decrease the strength of my belief in the assertion by adding further evidence, such as going to Lesbos and seeing if I can actually look at pink birds which people call flamingos. The second kind of testimony, simple agreement, seems to me to have no evidential value whatsoever; it brings nothing more to the argument. The third kind of testimony is more like the second than the first. It leaves no possibility of strengthening my belief by gaining further evidence, because the evidence is 'secret'.
I can see no reason why we should permit the state to act on 'secret' evidence; especially when that state could use such an epistemological nightmare to deprive us of our liberty.

SUDS

2005-12-01T20:11:00.000Z

OK, admit it; you have no idea what that acronym means do you? If you are picturing some nubile in a bath, on the centrefold of next week's ZOO, you are quite wrong.. How sad am I that I find this amusing? Do the words 'village pond' ring a church bell? I was intrigued to find that oodles of government (esp. Scottish parliament) money is being spent to promote SUDS - sustainable urban drainage schemes; google it if you do not believe me. After decades of focused academic endeavour, civil engineers and environmental activists have discovered (and I hope the god of irony will forgive me here) that the pond at the bottom of the village, which is where the water goes when it rains heavily and where the spilled effluvia from the stables fertilises the reedbed, is a jolly good idea. Revelation. Sorry, not trying hard enough. REVELATION!!!!

Intellectual Ginnels

2005-11-29T19:08:00.001Z

I have never charted my journeys of enquiry, which may be why I am unable to recall much of what I discover. In a determined effort to bore my remaining reader into submission I am setting out the strange paths traversed by my attention today.

Here is part of the spiel about a UK government funded research project, read in an online journal which I use as an information source at work. This phrase piqued my interest. “Action research is the methodology chosen for the project. Action research aims to integrate action and reflection so that the knowledge developed in the inquiry process is directly relevant to practitioners addressing the issues being studied.”
My sceptical antennae always quiver when I see the words ‘methodology’ and ‘strong theory’.

“A new £800,000 research project is bringing
together some of the UK’s leading academics
and industrialists to help reduce the amount of
climate-changing carbon dioxide released by
the food industry……

The research is headed by Peter Reason,
Professor of Action Research at the University
of Bath School of Management and Director of
the internationally renowned Centre for Action
Research in Professional Practice (CARPP). It
includes leading experts drawn from both
industry and academia….

Action research is the methodology chosen for
the project. Action research aims to integrate
action and reflection so that the knowledge
developed in the inquiry process is directly
relevant to practitioners addressing the issues
being studied. Action research is particularly
useful in identifying cultural, organisational and
subjective factors at play in a situation and at
turning strong theory into effective action.

So how does “Action Research” differ from the basic principles of managing any activity? Have a look at the Deming Cycle . W.Edwards Deming and Walter.A.Shewhart codified this bit of common sense back in the fifties. It was an early example of cybernetics , a discipline usually considered to have been founded by Norbert Wiener in 1948. Kurt Lewin, who was working in social psychology in the USA during WWII, coined the term 'action research' a few years before Deming and Shewhart put their ideas together in industry. Could it be that cybernetics and quality assurance have their intellectual roots in political philosophy and social psychology? Thinking about this led me ponder how justified beliefs are propagated. Why did the systematization of several different areas of science and engineering occur simultaneously in the USA in the late 1940s and early 1950s?

The study of the development of human beliefs has been embraced by different academic circles. Historians, philosophers and sociologists have all set out their various programmes, perhaps most controversially the Strong program associated with David Bloor and his Edinburgh group. More recently Biologists have got in on the act, with Dawkin’s theory of memetics strongly supported by the philosopher Daniel Dennett. Personally I doubt that any general theory can do justice to the complexity of the evolution of beliefs and ideologies. It seems to me that the careful historian is most likely to see the causes and connections between events.

So here I am, thinking about sociology and ideology, and I google The Theory of Ideology: Bringing the Mind Back In. I had not encountered the work of Trevor Pateman, and I was impressed. There is much more on his website , some that I find agreeable and enlightening, some that is more controversial but still well written and thought provoking, and this very amusing children's story .

Here, for the moment, the journey ends. I was aware of some of this material before and today’s peregrination will help fix a little of it more firmly in my memory and, hopefully, enable me to bring it to mind more readily. Trevor Pateman’s website and papers were a real gold nugget. There are hours of pleasure and contemplation to be had there. Oh happy day!

Testing Times

2005-11-29T19:01:00.000Z

So we have had nine years of Mr.Blair’s “Education, Education, Education”; and what have we got? Dumb Britain

Rationality, Reason and Logic

2005-11-29T01:17:00.000Z

These words form a web of confusion. Personally, I have no desire to be rational. Rationality is a Cartesian idea, in which all knowledge is based upon some kind of analytic schema, pace Quine.
Reason I can deal with - it is logic designed to convince; argument that is both valid and persuasive. Logic alone is not persuasive. An example - 1.crows are black. 2. crows are birds. Thus 3. birds are black. A valid argument; the premises are true. Sadly the conclusion is somewhat wide of the mark. So much for rationalism.

Sad Days

2005-11-21T20:13:00.000Z

Terrible news today. We find that our friend, and mentor on all things Burmese Cat related, has died. For the short time we new her June Tomkinson was helpful, friendly and straightforward. We will remember her kindness.

Fallibilism

2005-11-15T18:32:00.000Z

Have you ever heard or seen something odd, and shortly thereafter doubted whether it could have happened at all?
Heard on the BBC Radio4 programme PM, about an hour ago...
Eddie Mayer "We go now to Willie Notcutt, a surgeon at the Central Lancashire (it was actually Great Yarmouth - I was very fallible!) Hospital", followed by perfectly sensible interview about NHS funding.
Lancashire; Willie Notcutt? It couldn't be that somebody is tweaking Auntie Beeb's nose could it?
I remember from my days as a Med Lab Scientist getting a sample of tissue from a breast reduction, purportedly from a patient called Norma Stitz. I think that sort of thing is still going on.

Post script: Yes, there really is an anaesthetist called Willie Notcutt. He's quite famous through his association with a cannabis substitute called Sativa. It would have been so much more fun had he been a surgeon.

Archetypal Colonic Material of Taurine Provenance

2005-11-04T18:11:00.000Z

I confess it; I am obscenely jealous of Butterflies and Wheels
The comments and articles are so..... good. The dissection of absurdity is so clinical. I often think of commenting on some current affair only to find that Benson and Stangroom have already done it.
Well, this is one they may have missed. Not current affairs, I will own, but a piece of prose so mind-numbingly self-conscious that the sense of the piece is quite obscured. A taste, for those unwilling to scramble their synapses...
"From a retrospective vantage point, modern anthropocentric historicism can be seen as one of the first archeological projects of individual moral consciousness, realized, inter alia, by the reduction of personal accountability and freedom to the anonymous structures of historical conjunctures understood as manifestations of the absolute spirit; the collective consciousness of class, nation, civilization or epoch; evolutionary tendencies of matter; or monadic structures of culture. In that, romantic historiosophy stands in direct opposition to the critical character of Kantian transcendental rationalism."
What makes this so truly awful is that the critique of historicism is well deserved and the article is very well researched; so why spoil it with the high flown PoMo style?

Blunkett Deblunked

2005-11-02T22:43:00.000Z

I doubt that David Blunkett really deserved to lose his ministerial post over a spot of bureaucratic trivia alone, but then it isn't alone, is it? I dimly remembered the terrible reputation of Sheffield City Council in the 70s, so I thought a little digging might be in order - and what a nugget I found by this staunchly labour commentator. No, you did not misread - staunchly labour commentator.
Now if only we could get rid of psychotic bully John Reid, the poisonously dissembling Alan Milburn and the pathetically irrational Charles Clarke we might get a shot at the biggest charlatan of them all.

Name Dropping

2005-10-30T21:39:00.000Z

The internet is mega-powerful. I am having a spat with one of my lifelong heroines, the delicious Polly Toynbee. She is juicily reasonable, and yet cannot see that Tony Blair is some way to the 'right' of David Cameron. Attitude 'set' I suspect. I am amazed that she can be arsed to reply to my rather truculent e-mails. On other fronts, the PC is now functioning again - a bonny argument for realism should one be needed - and I am not at the quiz tonight. If I should have been there give me a metaphorical slap - no, not an 'H' metaphorical throttling - 'H's metaphors are, allegedly, rather painfullistic.

Boofy Confession

2005-10-13T19:04:00.000+01:00

When we came back from holiday we took the small blue boofy to our vet, Mr Cooke, for her FLV booster. Mr Cooke, his wife and staff have been very supportive and none of what follows is any any way their fault, in fact without them our little boofy might not still be with us. Two days after the booster Topaz was obviously having significant breathing difficulties. She seemed to waste away before our eyes and had so little energy she could not climb the stairs to invade our bed. Needless to say Max and I were worried sick, especially Max. After several visits to Mr Cooke and various antibiotic and steroid jabs the little boofy is getting back to her sassy self, and is snoozing on my lap at this moment. Why am I typing this? Well this is not the first instance I have heard of quite serious signs of illness after a FLV booster, and although the small boofy has always been a bit wheezy I doubt that her sudden crisis was just, or perhaps at all, an asthma attack. Anyway, suffice it to say that we are mightily relieved to have her back to her Ptolemy pouncing hand scratching sassy walking self.

At Last - Good News

2005-10-13T18:34:00.000+01:00

I seldom get a warm feeling when I read opinion pieces in the Times. Sometimes I find them intellectually satisfying, or challenging, or infuriating; but hardly ever pleasing. Well this
is an exception. It seems there is yet hope for our religion addled society. My apologies if any Murcan reader (Yes, I should be so lucky.) feels jealous. It seems that one of the best ways to encourage secularism is for the state to adopt a religion against which we can rebel!

Death with Dignity

2005-10-10T21:08:00.000+01:00

I will do you the courtesy of assuming that you are up-to-date with current affaits. (Gross neologism?). Lord Joffe's bill to allow doctors to prescribe medicines enabling patients with terminal illnesses, in great pain, to end their lives will be debated in the Lords today. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and Dr Jonathan Sachs, a prominent Jewish religious representative, have both felt it necessary to display emetic opinions to the effect that we humans should be grateful to die in agony because to do so spares our relatives the onus of making any decision, or even to concur with our decision, to mitigate pain and misery. The argument seems to go ... ' It is deeply unfair to suggest that we healthy relatives should take any responsibility for the continued suffering, or otherwise, of our relative, because we are too squeamish to grant our relative surcease from agony. We want our government to insist that only god - whoever or whatever that metaphysical entity happens to be - has the credentials to deliver us from dreadful and hopeless agony. Yes, look very hard at that last bit... one day this will be you.
Incidentally, Jonathan Sachs' suggestion that assisted suicide is bad because of the guilt it might leave with relatives is so risible that I want to cry. Ironic, isn't it?

Mythical Stuff

2005-10-05T21:39:00.000+01:00

It is sometimes so tempting to write of one's day as a non-event. What have I done, seen, thought, communicated? Today I have helped to enlighten two, or maybe three, people. That would be good if it were not that I have thoroughly annoyed the person who means most to me. Is there some kind of mathematics to calculate if my trade off is morally worthy? Does anybody give a woodlouse's daydream?
I read in the Times that the Roman Catholic comic has warned it's readers to expect small sections of hyperbole in the bible. At the same time our beloved Shrub has nominated an evangelical christian to the Supreme Court. OB and PZ seem to have taken this in their democratic stride. I am rather worried that the US Democratic Catholics are stepping back from the fundy pitching line. Incidentally, I am looking for a good put-me-up; any offers?
Another rather introspective point. Nobody reads this outpouring. Why do I bother? Feel free to anticipate the demise of this deeply unfashionable blog. It is a doppelganger of David Davis.

Sacred Sex, or 'God I'm Coming'

2005-10-03T23:55:00.000+01:00

I do not believe this. I have read a great deal of religious rubbish, but the absolute ignorance of human psychology, physiology and biochemistry displayed in this drivel is breathtaking by any standard. To expose any young man to such appalling ignorance is abuse. How can such dross be permitted to pollute the blogosphere?

What I've Learned From George

2005-09-28T20:47:00.000+01:00

At the Labour party conference this afternoon it was shown that New Labour have learned more than one trick from their Rethuglican counterparts. Following their mastery of 'how to invade other countries if you don't like their government', Tony and Co. demonstrated their understanding of 'how to organise rallies and conferences so that nobody can make you look less than perfect'.
The treatment of two labour party members who had the temerity to mildly heckle Jack Straw was one of the most shameful events in recent British politics. Hopefully this will wake up the electorate to the fact that Blair and his cronies are control freaks with no respect for personal liberty. Magnus Linklater's article in today's Times was prescient.

Bliss

2005-09-26T21:42:00.000+01:00

On offer at the local supermarket, 2001 Myrtle Grove Aussie Shiraz - guess what I am drinking now? This stuff is nectar. My chess games are going reasonably and the little grey boofy is calling - ohhh is she calling; ..... but c'est bon, n'est ce pas, parce que quand elle crie encore une fois elle renconteras son amour!

Pseudo-philosophy in the Grauniad

2005-09-23T20:20:00.000+01:00

Giles Fraser is the vicar of Putney and a lecturer in philosophy at Wadham College, Oxford. It is apparent that this particular philosopher also fancies himself an expert on the novel and its social import. More of an expert, indeed, than Salman Rushdie. Clearly Giles Fraser does not specialise in that branch of philosophy known as logic, unless there is now a school of post-modern logic.

“But this won't do either. Certainly Enlightenment thought offers a challenge to the moral poison that often oozes from superstition. Even so, secular rationality is no fail-safe prophylactic against murderous ideology. The 20th century offered up enough genocidal "isms" to make that point. Hatred has the capacity to nestle within the most enlightened breast. So far, so obvious. But what's apparently not so obvious to Rushdie is that the most effective answer to bad religion is under his very nose: the novel itself.”

Let us examine that argument more closely:

Enlightenment thought offers a challenge to moral poison that often oozes from superstition.
Secular rationality is no fail-safe prophylactic against murderous ideology.
There is a more effective challenge to bad religion (the novel itself)

Whilst to me the premises seem fairly safe, the conclusion is not entailed.

“The novel is a sacred space where all voices need to be heard. Which is why he (Rushdie) proposed that even "the most secular of authors ought to be capable of presenting a sympathetic portrait of a devout believer". This is something Rushdie now seems increasingly incapable of achieving. He has become a true believer himself.”

The above amounts to no more than unsupported assertion. Why should the novel be a ‘sacred space’? What a monster it would be if it were to encompass ‘all voices’. Particularly irritating is the rhetorical fog of the final pair of sentences in that paragraph. No evidence is given that the insight of Salman Rushdie’s novels is in any way impaired by his polemics, and there is a sinuous inference that to be a true believer in enlightenment principles is equivalent to being a devout believer in religion. Giles Fraser seems to be espousing relativism of a most obfuscatory stripe.

Back From Holiday

2005-09-19T13:50:00.000+01:00

Fantastic holiday. Thanks to PG and Uncle Philth and H and the Malcoholic and Kazzer and Carol and, of course, Max, for making life so much fun. A full... well almost full... record of our activities will appear on our website as soon as I can persuade Philippa to help me post it. Suffice it to say herein that we did perform a Molly dance. wHOOT!

Vacances/Vacation/Escape

2005-08-31T22:03:00.000+01:00

Our trip to Correzes, pres de Lubersac, nears. I have a serious case of Gaol fever. Went to see the Grimble and Dawn before tootling off - Alex too busy with GF - my daughter is absolutely stunningly gorgeous; I am going to have to get a shotgun. Found a good website on Boofies today. Check this out if you love Burmese..

Bloggage

2005-08-30T19:56:00.000+01:00

Why is it that some blogs get loads of comments and some, like mine, get very few? Could it be that the ones that get few are just RUBBISH. Errr.... no. Because this don't get a lot of comments, but it is consistently lucid and one of my top five. Go visit people, you could do a lot worse.

Scripture

2005-08-24T20:14:00.000+01:00

A weasel word if ever there was one. Literally 'writing', this greek derived term is used to suggest that some document or other is the word of 'god'. The problem is, peeps, that there are many scriptures and they are often downright contradictory. The Torah suggests that the Jews are the chosen people, the Quran somewhat excludes Jews and Christians, written accounts of native American oral traditions give a fig, or should that be a blueberry?, for neither and the Norse sagas would have us giving due regard to Odin, Loki, Thor and co. What evidence is there, other than frail human assertion, that any of these is other than the work of men? If my neighbour posts a note through my letterbox saying that John Prescott is God's chosen, should I rush out to make offerings at the nearest school for the dyslexic?