Probably

The government is planning sex and relationship education for children possibly as young as five. It's a complete waste of time of course. Responsibility for such things should remain with the parents, not the schools. What the hell is "relationship" education anyway? The aim, apparently, is to reduce teen pregnancy and STDs, not usually considered big problems for five-year-olds. Lesley Thomas in the Telegraph has hit the nail on the head when she says, "If you want to teach children that it might be better for them to wait until they are grown-ups before having babies, it would make more sense to give them lessons on how hard it is to be a parent, not how easy it is to get pregnant."

I mentioned a few days ago about a move by the Humanist Association that would see large, friendly atheist adverts appearing on the side of London buses.



It seems that the campaign has raised so much cash, even before the adverts have appeared, that the plan has now been extended to cover possibly the whole country. There was a lot of discussion about why the word "probably" appears in the advert. Apparently it's to do with both advertising restrictions and being philosophically true to the atheist position. The Richard Dawkins view is that stating, "There is no God", is a position of faith because it can't be proven, and atheist don't do faith. Anyway, read more here.

The most positive thing about this campaign so far is that it's upset Stephen Green, the nutter who fronts Christian Voice.

The above was written on Friday morning, but never posted because I had to rush home from work and pick up the boy because the Dragon spent the afternoon working as a translator at the hospital for a friend with a sick child. Long story, child is now recovering slowly I'm pleased to say.

It's now Monday, the stock market is in freefall. Gordon Brown is on the defensive about borrowing huge amounts of money, and the clocks have gone back. I so hate when the clocks change! I woke up totally confused yesterday morning because my watch syncs itself up with the national time signal every night and thus automatically adjusted itself to the new time. All the other clocks in the house didn't.

Everyone should read Charlie Brooker in the Guardian on Mondays. The guy just keeps getting it right.

This weekend I made a steak and kidney pie with flaky pastry top. It was pretty damn awesome. I didn't get it exactly right. I rolled the pastry too thin, but it was flaky, just not thick enough. I'll know next time.