About an alleged bank robbery

No, no, I did not rob a bank, in fact it has nothing to do with a real bank robbery and it did not happen to me. Fellow Godless heathen and former atheist celebrity Ariane Sherine told on her own blog (on WordPress now, the horror, the horror) about a time when she was 17 and a bank manager called the police because she tried to force herself into a NatWest branch after business hours to bank a cheque. But read her post yourself, it is her story after all. I thought it was very funny. The kind of story I wish I could have told. This was my comment on it: "Given all the trouble this manager and the police went through, I think you should have robbed that bank." I think it deserves to be a great unknown line. If I don't have such anecdote to tell because I was not so rebellious at 17, at least i can say something funny about it.

If nature abhors a vacuum...

My fellow blogger and atheist celebrity Ariane Sherine has started blogging again. She wrote a very serious blog post about how to deal with anxiety. It was a very grave post, but I commented on it with something absolutely atrocious. She mentioned Aristotle's alleged saying that "nature abhors a vacuum". I commented this: "If nature abhors a vacuum, don't hoover!" That was absolutely atrocious. I dare you to write a worse word play. All the same, she found it funny and I think it deserves to be a new great unknown line. I hoovered a lot yesterday, so I guess it was on my mind.

Beefing up the blogroll, at last

As I have been an avid follower of various blogs since I started blogging myself, I thought it was about time that I beefed up the blog roll to your right. I hope I did not forget any of them. I hope I did not forget anyone. I already mentioned a few of them recently, I will point out to some of the others. So you now have here:

-The Atheist Experience. I follow the blog and the show assiduously, I became one of their fans through Youtube. Pretty busy blogs as many people post on it.
-Ariane Sherine's blog, the one who started the Atheist Bus Campaign. She blogs only sporadically.
-L'Étrange cas du Baron Luisant. If you can read French and like old serials, this one is for you. It's a brilliant pastiche from an old friend of mine.
-Leigh Russell's blog. Leigh actually found this blog before I found hers. She also happens to be a published author of crime fiction novels, so I was very flattered that she comments here.
-Nuts and Reasons. Another atheist/humanist/secularist blog.
-Mozart's Girl's blog. There are never too many Mozart fans around.
-Orange and Black, mainly about Halloween.

I hope I am not forgetting anyone. Some random observations about the :

-The French content is distressingly low, only one of the new blogs is in French. Just like for my own blog (mea culpa), which is a shame as it is called Vraie Fiction. I think it is the result of me living in English for most of my life. English language has a power of attraction that I cannot avoid.
-Just like the way I blog, the way I follow blog is pretty anarchic: there are no central themes or topics to the group of blogs I follow, some are about atheism/humanism, others are about a very specific holiday or about various arts.
-I started blogging to and for my family and close friends, but it quickly extended. I sitll have a very modest readership (although I did receive some attention from time to time), yet I really feel part of the blogging world.

A long awaited new poster

I would be neglectful to forget to mention here one piece of news that touches me particularly: Ariane Sherine and the BHA have launched the last phase of the so-called "atheist bus campaign", targeting this time the faith schools. I love the new billboard campaign and I really love the nod to Pink Floyd in Ariane's latest article. Faith schools of all denomination have been pretty much a plague here. Hell, state schools are also hijacked by religion, which is enough of an aberration in itself, but the state should not fund or encourage in any way particular faiths to cut children away from a society that is still a secular one. Because this is what is at stake here. Of course, the campaign will offend the usual offended. Which is great. It shows the weakness of what they are defending. I grew up in a school system that was labelling us as Catholics before we could even understand what it meant and what ideology it was defending. I wish we had then a healthy dose of secular reflection introduced in the public space, it might have freed my mind then.

La voix des incroyants

je viens de lire la réaction un peu tardive de Mme Lysiane Gagnon à propos de la campagne des autobus athées lancée à Montréal il n'y a pas si longtemps. Elle m'a mis un peu en colère (la chronique de Lysiane Gagnon, pas la campagne). Cette dame n'y comprend tout simplement rien, pas plus sur les raisons de la campagne londonienne que sur la pertinence de la campagne montréalaise. Le militantisme athée qu'elle déplore est essentiellement une réaction à un militantisme ultra-chrétien (notamment) qui, bien que minoritaire, s'est montré particulièrement bruyant récemment. Ariane Sherine a eu l'idée de cette campagne pour répondre au prosélytisme de certains groupes chrétiens fondamentalistes qui s'affichaient et s'affichent encore dans l'espace publicitaire britannique. On a l'équivalent à Montréal, où j'ai déjà pu lire "le salaire de ton péché, c'est l'Enfer". C'est à cela que la campagne britannique a voulu répondre, c'est cette réponse qu'il fallait afficher à Montréal face à ce même militantisme. La publicité ne dit pas de manquer de solidarité, de manquer de compassion, au contraire elle dit aux gens, croyants ou incroyants, de ne pas avoir peur des menaces parfois à peines voilées des groupes religieux, tout simplement parce que ces menaces sont sans fondement. Voilà ce que la campagne dit, en substance. Louanger la décision de la ville de Vancouver de ne pas avoir accepté la publicité, c'est faire appel à la censure, d'autant plus injuste qu'elle serait sélective.

In Ottawa, really?

For the first time in a long time (maybe since the beginning of my conscious life?), I envy something from our neighbours in Ontario, and I might find the Canadian capital appealing. I never liked Ottawa, I find the place boring, bland, the beige, saccharine version of a British town. But the atheist bus will soon show up there, it seems. That means before Montreal? That's unfair, but logical. After all, the current Canadian government is now composed by many God fearing idiots, so that will send the right message to the people of the capital. I envy my brother.

Oh, and here the Christians decided to ape the original campaign and launch a counter-advert, using a barely modified slogan. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. A little debate about both position, between Ariane Sherine and David Lharlam. He seems a nice enough guy, but she makes her point much better, I think (then again, I am a fan of hers). That said, I would have asked him if he thought the only essential way to go to Heaven was not to be moral in actions, but to be God's sycophant. Here is another interesting view on the recent debate, and the central role of British intellectuals in it. And, talking about great British intellectuals, it is Darwin's birthday today.