Ex-Muslims

New J&M up today; apostasy is a bit of a "difficult" subject for "Westernized" Muslims torn between solidarity with the Islamic teaching/dogma that apostates should be killed, and earning your living in societies where killing people for their "thoughts" was outlawed a couple of centuries ago. Must be so difficult for them to figure out what the moral thing to do is in such situations... (not!) Ex-Muslims are brave people indeed, they need to be supported by freedom of conscience loving people (religious and non-religious) everywhere, whenever possible.

Trains and tribulations

I feel really sorry for regular commuters who have to travel to London by rail every day. Over the years I've had jobs where projects had to be done at client offices and so inevitably some of those gigs were in town, I used to hate the "commute" part of it. Today I had the pleasure of training it up to London for a board meeting (I usually go up 3 or 4 times a month for various reasons) and it was particularly hellish. 

As you already know, if you live in the UK, it was freezing cold this morning, and damp! My local train to Reading (where I change to the main-line) was 40 minutes late. I think I was pretty close to getting frost-bite in my toes standing on an icy-wet platform in "business shoes". The train was full so I had to stand up for the entire journey as my feet thawed out (ouch!), this wasn't so bad for the short connection to Reading (only 2 stops) but then I found the main line into London choc-a-block too. I had to stand in a packed gang-way cheek to jowl with fellow passengers all the way to Paddington, there were also problems on the line, so that leg took twice as long as it normally does. Then to cap it all the Central line was having problems so the trains were exceptionally packed (lovely) Coming home wasn't that much better although I did manage to get a seat for one of the journey legs, albeit next to some bloke who ate burger and chips the whole way, and stank the place out, delightful. 

For this privilege I paid the princely sum of £51! (and no, that's not for a week that's just one return trip) - the distance is roughly 31 miles (as the crow flies) or around 80p per mile, sometimes I do wonder what the hell we're all going to do when the oil runs out, will only loads-a-monies be able to travel anywhere?

Not giving..

I was thinking about people's seeming obsession with TV programs Strictly and I'm a Celebrity at the moment; you could say that I wasn't a great fan of either and so was going to have a rant to abrogate my frustrations. But, then I found this little (rather rude) Bayeux Tapestry clip; it sums up my feelings on these matters perfectly and makes me feel a lot better, thanks Wills.

New leader of the "little-people"

I see that Paul Nuttall has been elected leader of the UKIP party; an accolade somewhat akin to being crowned one-eyed king in the land of the blind. This "little-Englander" is a History graduate and ex-footballer and claims that climate-change is a "hoax", so much for his academic qualifications then. It's almost like the educational establishment he attended did't value "evidence" as a way of finding out what's true. Hold on, I read he attended Europe's only "ecumenical" university, i.e. a religious school, seeking evidence for your position was probably frowned upon, plucking opinions out of your arse with no basis in reality on the other hand. Nuttall is a Christian (Catholic) and seems to lean to the right of that organisation, he cares passionately that women shouldn't be allowed to terminate pregnancies, but once the child is born all bets are off, he wants the death penalty back and smoking re-introduced into pubs, that'll be nice for us all again, I was always partial to a lick of oesophageal carcinoma with my pint.

We shouldn't worry though, UKIP may well get an infeasible number of votes compared to their contribution to the average IQ of our nation but when faced with the important question of what lasts longer, a UKIP leader or a Rowntrees fruit pastille we all know the answer to that one.

Rum and croak

So Castro is dead. An icon for some a boogy man for many others, whatever is said about him he certainly split opinion. For me he wasn't much of a hero (maybe in his early days?), his country (Cuba) was essentially a failure economically and socially, it's people divided or exiled and the ways he dealt with detractors were typically Stalinist. Not to mention the fact that he wished for a preemptive nuclear strike on the USA which would have precipitated a holocaust for the entire world. There are a ton of web sites out there where you can see lists of Cubans who "disappeared" over the last 50 years, and in my book, any politician who refuses to step aside for 50  years and clings onto power is a dictator, not a strong leader.

I was interested to read the various remarks made by current day political figures, Jeremy Corbyn was glowing as was Ken Livingstone, unsurprising I suppose, but for me indicative of how far out of touch with reality the left are these days. Many of these comments have been parodied on social media, some quite amusing, for example, 

- "Mr. Stalin's greatest achievement was his eradication of obesity in the Ukraine through innovative agricultural reforms."

- "Today we remember Adolf Hitler, whose vision for the autobahn changed the face of vehicular transportation forever"

And so the world turns...

OMFG!

Just wow, if this asinine diatribe represents the true beliefs of the second most powerful man on Earth then we are well and truly screwed my friends, well and truly. The lunatics not only have the keys to the asylum, they've broken in, blocked up the windows and locked the door from the inside. I am honestly fearful for my children's future. It's like the opposite side of the ISIS coin has it's fingers on the nuclear triggers and, don't you infidels worry your little hell-destined heads, God is on their side.

Friday smirk(s)

A couple of gags that elicited a grin recently (a rare event these days!) feel free to use them down the pub tonight (in between arguments about Brexit of course)

- My dentist has a special offer on teeth cleaning today, it's plaque Friday...

- Surprise sex is the best thing to wake up to, unless you're in prison...

- Some say feeding Helium to animals is cruel, I say whatever floats your goat...

- Robinson Crusoe never had any cash, spent it all on Friday...

Happy (black) Friday..

Blasphemy, again..

Cheadle town councillors are clearly a militant bunch; they insist that every council meeting start with a (Christian) prayer regardless of the fact that not only do they have members of mixed faiths and none they have received complaints from the people they (supposedly) represent to the effect that prayers in Council meeting makes them feel uncomfortable. Councillor Ian Whitehouse (related to Mary?) said that he "didn't agree that Britain isn't a Christian country", his pearl of wisdom was that it's "blasphemy" to say otherwise. Councillor Ron Locker said, "I'm a Christian and proud of it. I think it is a good thing, it puts us in our place. Ours is a good prayer and we do our best in respect of that prayer." (sounds like something ISIS would say) Many other's were in support of the position, basically saying "like it or lump it", i.e. if people didn't want to pray then they "could leave", i.e. these bigots want to exclude non-Christians from a portion of a PUBLIC meeting.

The arrogance and belligerence on display from these Christians is repulsive. The belief that it's their "right" to impose their religion onto people who don't want it, simply because they are (temporarily) the majority group in their particular council, rails against every sense and fibre of fairness, inclusiveness and tolerance that SHOULD be how such organisations are run. The time when all religious practices and privileges are eliminated completely from Government (local and national) is long overdue; the first political party that has the balls to campaign for a properly secular constitution will instantly get my vote!

Black (humour) Friday

If you'd like a giggle, take a look at this ($250!) "Trump" Christmas tree ornament and the reviews it garnered on the Amazon web site. 

Here are a few to tickle your fancy...

- Unfortunately not large enough to fit over my pointy white sheet..

- It's small size makes it ideal for small hands

- It just told my crucifix it prefers deities who didn't get captured by the Romans

- It keeps harassing & grabbing my pussy cat.

- It's that sad little ornament the Grinch leaves behind when he steals your presents

- Yay! I needed a new toilet.

and so on..

Anti-science = Anti-education

Trump has picked his "Education Secretary", it's someone called Betsy DeVos (pictured above), from what I read a rich and prolific donor to the Republican party. DeVos is a devout (fundamentalist) Christian who has in the past pushed for the "elimination" of the teaching of evolution from US schools, calling it a "wicked and wain philosophy", clearly she's not educated herself then. Her family is typically "US-Right-wing, Christian", the fortune comes from her husbands father who started the company Amway  ($9 billion in revenue last year) where her husband worked for a while until forming his own "investments" company; her brother (an ex-Navy seal) started (and made millions from) the "Blackwater" security firm who were banned from Iraq after killing 17 civilians. From the "squeezed" working and middle-classes they are not.

I wonder how things will now move in the USA, there seems to be an anti-education, anti-science core to the new administration and they seem to be looking backwards and not forwards. Will there be an intellectual recession (i.e. negative growth) now across the pond? or will the democratic party and the educated/scientific communities on the coasts be able to influence and steer the people back toward rationality and away from delusional self-interested, pocket-stuffing preachers and con-artists, it seems unlikely that we all won't be affected in some way.

Meaning

I was talking to one of my kid's teachers the other day while waiting around for a missing piece of sports clothing to be repatriated (as I do a lot) and the subject of religion came up. He said he was a religious man (Catholic) and we chatted for a bit on the subject. At the end of the chat I asked him what he found most appealing about having a "religion", he thought for a moment and said "it gives me purpose and meaning in my life". I thought this was a rather banal answer given that his (Christian) religion is so open to "interpretation" it's possible to extract any old kind of meaning and purpose you like (positive and negative) from such a broad corpus. For atheists of course "meaning and purpose" comes from within, personally, I find it makes whatever that turns out to be all the more precious i.e. it's something you've created for yourself and is of this world and not some imaginary one after you die. However, when you examine what people say their "meaning and purposes" actually are in aggregate, I find huge commonality between us evolved primates, kids, hobbies, career, good-works, sports etc. all feature heavily. Spooky that (not!).

L'enfer, c'est les autres.

New J&M today, true as ever, it's always those "others" that are the problem.

Computer says no..

Being an "engineer" (software) this is often how I feel when confronted with convoluted manual processes and inefficient computer systems, hiring a car seems to be especially bad. I had UX (user experience) like the one in the cartoon last year when I arrived in Geneva an hour early and went to get a (pre-booked) hire-car, unfortunately they didn't have one ready that was clean. That's OK I said I'm only here for the day so I don't care about that (I'd rather have left immediately and beaten the rush-hour). "Oh no sir, that's not allowed, our process says that all cars must be cleaned and we can't deviate from our process, however we do have a more expensive model available if you're really in a hurry". I ended up sitting in their silly little office staring at the wall for about 45 minutes waiting for a car to be cleaned. I haven't used this company again, probably never will (Thrifty in case you're wondering), the hire car business seems ripe for some technological disruption IMO (Uber?).

Feel his presents..

I wonder what Donald Trump will get for Christmas? I wonder if it'll be all that "control" that we got back from Europe in the Summer? We weren't using it much anyway..

If you want to feel the chill wind of of dubious right-wing politics fusing with unfalsifiable religious dogma take a look at Steve Bannon (the soon-to-be White House chief strategist and UKIP fan-boy) talking about what he thinks are "problems" in this world, and (reading between the lines), non-Christians, secularists and atheists would seem to be on his "list".

Stupid is as stupid does

Wanna see something dumb? Take a look at this baptism in Eastern Europe. I have to ask, are these people really trying to pass their genes on or not, perhaps it's a concerted effort to win a Darwin award? In any case, it looks shocking.

Of course many will say this is a part of their "religion" and so it's off limits to criticize it. Sorry but if this is a condition of their religion then I think their religion is stupid. Others might say it's highly "symbolic", if that's what it is then just pretend, like they do here in the CofE (a little sprinkle on the forehead will do just fine!) 

In reality we all to often know the story here, religions make their adherents do stupid things, things that normal (sane) people simply wouldn't do (probably wouldn't even think of) You only have to watch the news tonight (most nights actually) to see yet another story about an otherwise normal lad doing something insane in the name of his religion. Rasheed Benyahia, an engineering apprentice from Birmingham left his family to join ISIS in Syria, he was killed in 2015 but his Mother kept it a secret for over a year. She has finally opened up about her experiences and is trying to gather some momentum around an awareness campaign aimed at preventing others having to endure the same fate. The ironic thing about this particular case is that the family isn't originally from an Islamic country, the mother converted in her youth and indoctrinated her Son (as is the religious way), I wonder if she feels that was still a good idea now or not?

Dank

Don't normally drink on a school night but tonight I've got the house to myself and need something to quaff with a re-run of the excellent "Planet Earth II" episode from Sunday. I made this one (in the picture above) "this is just a simulation" a few weeks ago and today being "world philosophy day" I thought it was doubly appropriate. When I made this beer I dumped a ton of Simcoe hops into it, Simcoe gives the beer a really nice fruity/piney/resinous/dank flavour. I think "dank" is a new word in the world of tastes, you hear it mostly in America; years ago it used to be a negative word, meaning (to me at least) damp, dark and cold but these days when applied to beer, specifically IPA style beer, it seems to mean "funky" or "pungent" but in a good way. That's what I love about the English language, it's so flexible, the only language where phrases like "slim chance" and "fat chance" can mean exactly the same thing!

Fragile

Nice little xkcd cartoon today; I often feel like this, not because I have a computer science degree particularly but because I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time "fixing" other people's IT problems (especially parents and kids!) Most of the time issues quickly descend into a flaming pit of despair as one problem demands some download or other, that then needs another and so on, like dominoes crashing down. Often, hours later (long after the owner of the particular device has got bored and wandered off) I finally sort it all out and get back to my own business. I find Apple gear is by far the worst culprit, most things are "proprietary" and impenetrable; all it takes is one little thing to go wrong during an install or upgrade and the whole thing falls apart. Pretty soon you are up to your ears in consoles, navigating antiquated Unix folder systems, and desperately trying to remember the syntax of "grep" commands that should have been forgotten in the 80s, if only people knew how fragile it all was.

Is it cuz I'z black?

Some love it some hate it, black beer, or stout as it's known is famously one of those Marmite kind of things. I decided to brew up some for Christmas and here it is boiling away, looks like a pint of Guinness already! This one is going to be rich and flavorsome (hopefully!), it has all manner of roasted barley and oats in it and a grab-handful of American hops, plus a smidgen of honey, brown sugar and lactose for sweetness and body. The downside is that it won't be ready for 6 weeks. 

Demands the patience of a Monk this brewing lark. :(

Crying..

New J&M; Don't laugh though, this is the new US biology curriculum now that the anti-science brigade is in charge..

Liberal moods..

Many US liberals seem to be in "melt-down" over Trump at the moment. It's broadly the same mood that prevails among liberals in the UK over Brexit, it's something that has a real potential to divide communities, families and even groups of friends. Unfortunately its seems that many people aren't used to "debate" as a means of helping to settle differences of opinion and find common ground, this is a problem, because evidence based debate and conversation is the ONLY way of settling disputes satisfactorily; it appears to be a lost art.

I see this intransigent mood on many of the social media platforms, even between close friends. Rather than engage with the words (or simply ignore them if they're not interested) many just throw up the barricades and attempt to shut down conversations with personal attacks and unfriending ultimatums, at best this is a childish reaction but at worst a destructive and unhealthy way to proceed that can only end acrimoniously.

To me, to you...

Seriously? these two look like naughty schoolboys who have just found the key to the tuck-shop.

2016 A Scientific horror story

The (black, pun intended) comedy continues with the potential appointment of Ben Carson (he's on a short list of two) by Trump to the position of "Secretary of Education". To clarify, despite being a famous surgeon, Carson is a religious nut-job who believes that evolution is "satanic" and that the big bang theory is a "fairy tale", see for yourself below.

It just goes to show that humans are capable of incredible feats of cognitive dissonance, Carson made his fortune from a platform that rests upon facts that he doesn't actually believe are true. It looks like science and reason are entering at least a four year winter in the USA, which is a shame because, unlike the mythical creatures Carson believes in, our pursuit of knowledge via the scientific method is the only thing that's going to help us in our real future struggles against the extinction-class events in our species near horizon. Things like climate-change, antibiotic resistance, nuclear proliferation, over-population and all that those things imply for large swathes of human population.

Friday Smirk

NASA have discovered the coldest place in the Universe..

Cash for the rich

So having said I'd like to see more demographic data about the US election, I almost immediately stumbled across some. 

People that voted Trump,

53% of White Women,

78% of Conservative Women

81% of white evangelical Christians

Source: NBC Exit poll

I also saw tonight that Trump has put a crack-pot climate-change denier in charge of his environmental policy team. Myron Ebell is someone who is at odds with over 99% of scientists internationally and thinks that climate change is "a liberal conspiracy", the undoing of all the hard work done trying to reduce carbon emissions over the last 10 years is likely to start in January. The Americans that voted for Trump will likely relish the thought of spending all that cash they would have spent helping to save our ecosystems on even bigger gas burning penis substitutes, and of course, more guns to kill each other with. The joke of course is that they'll never see a penny of it, it's already been spent by the Koch brothers.

Thanks Evangelical Christians, looks like our descendants will find out that your bullshit is a lie a lot quicker now.

Over-fly zone

Interesting county by county analysis of the US election result; it's basically showing that almost everyone who voted Democrat (i.e. the blue dots) lives in a major city (i.e. that has a university) and all the bits that business people tend to fly-over in order to get stuff done in the United States, voted for Trump. I would love to see an analysis by some other societal attributes, i.e. religious or non-religious, median income etc. I bet there's a correlation between church attendance and voting Trump (also due to his choice of a creationist, born-again VP), which is ironic if you think about it. Trump is the most obviously Atheistic president there has ever been.

First against the wall

I wonder what the Hitch would have had to say about recent events. Shame he's not around to comment and offer up the occasional (intellectual) "Hitchslap". Although, right or wrong, I suspect that Hitch would have been the kind of person that the Brexit and Trump mobs would have placed "first against the wall". I find it amazing that so many people have ended up voting against their interests; how Women and ethnic minorities in the USA could have voted for someone like Trump beggars belief. Many people are saying that these two political upsets were precipitated by a general desire by the oppressed underclasses to "stick it to the man" and to hell with the consequences. I suppose this may have a grain of truth to it but I'm not entirely convinced. The more I listen to people who hold these positions the more I think the real problem is a lack of critical thinking ability, or perhaps the lack of an ability to weigh evidence or even an understanding of what actual evidence for something is. Couple this with a general (media-stoked) distaste for "the expert" and encouragement of "the unconsidered life" then you have a dramatically volatile mix, a landscape full of people ripe for exploitation and incapable of seeing beyond their own short-term emotional gratification. 

This societal Balkanisation that seems to be ever more in-vogue these days is a very worrying trend, I sense it happening everywhere, at the national level in the sentiments behind Brexit down to seemingly local matters such as faith schools wanting to discriminate against "the other" (and the Government supporting them!) Paste this blatant narcissism onto a cultural backdrop which informs our children that to acquire the most important job in the world you don't need to be qualified in any way, you just need to have a successful reality TV show, hate women, hate foreigners and lie, lie, lie for all you are worth, with sufficient confidence and what could possibly go wrong?

To soon for Godwin?

I wouldn't want to invoke Godwin's law too soon, but, it's spooky that tonight is the exact 78th anniversary of Kristallnacht, jus sayin..

It's going dark again..

I never much liked Clinton if I'm honest, but compared to Trump I would have been OK with her taking the helm for 4 years (no more), at the very least it would have inspired women and girls to aim higher. But, boy, do I feel bad for her today, she has spent more or less her entire life, certainly her entire career, in public service of one kind or another and probably felt like it was all leading to this monumental climax, only to get beaten by a thieving, lying, cheating, scum-bag of an orange game-show host. She's probably had better days, let's hope the rest of the world doesn't end up feeling like Hillary does today.

3 Amigos

Experimented with some different beer styles last night, had some friends round to celebrate failed terrorist attacks. On offer were three home made concoctions, made specifically for the event, that showcased three very different types of ale.

From left to right, first was a stout (Guinness-like) that I've had aging in bottles for a couple of months, it was black and viscous like engine oil, creamy, smooth and malty with a fluffy tan coloured head and spruced up a bit via the addition of some flavorsome American hops (UK stouts tend not to have much in the way of hop additions). Next (middle) was an American style wheat beer, light and airy almost lager like with a fluffy head and good carbonation, good, but my least favourite. Last was a New England style IPA (India Pale Ale), brewed with Vermont yeast and a ton of fruity hops. This last beer was perhaps the least common of the three, made in an unusual way with lots of flaked oats and flaked wheat (to make it hazy with a really creamy white head) and by adding fresh hops during active fermentation (normally done after fermentation has completed) The result is a really fruity flavour, peaches, orange, grapefruit and a nice bubble-gum background with hardly any bitterness at all; an interesting and fairly new way to do IPA's also enhanced by the addition of some golden syrup and treacle at the start of the boil.

The verdict was generally good, no one spat anything out (always a good sign) and of the three styles the stout won the day (probably the most familiar). The wheat beer went down well with the lager drinkers and my East Coast IPA was generally greeted with an "interesting" response which is kind of what I would expect since it's a very distinct (in your face) type of beer. All in all a successful evening, all the brews were around the 5% mark and by the end there were none left! People went home with a warming Autumnal "glow" about them..

We have assumed control...

It's somewhat ironic that one of the main pillars of the Brexit campaign was the notion that we (UK) would regain control of our own legal system and law-making ability. It looks like we've done exactly that today, and the result of this clarification of our UK law is that the Government cannot trigger article 50 of the Lisbon treaty (in order to expedite exit from the EU) solely on it's own; consultation with Parliament will be required, i.e. the precise terms and process of Brexit will need to be agreed by our elected representatives before this current Government can agree or do anything with our European partners. This is great news; and hopefully will allow time for the country to understand the epic economic and cultural mistake that this decision represents and engineer a softer more sensible position within Europe for all of us.

Respect?

Jesus and Mo. nails it again. I would hope that in this country, where free-speech is a hard-won pillar of our culture, everyone (including religious people) should feel free to mock ideas that they believe deserve to be mocked. Far too many people have become sheep, they follow the PC brigade for fear of standing out of the crowd! Show some back-bone and stand up for what you believe, but be prepared to be mocked if your ideas don't cut the mustard and also be prepared to change your mind if it turns out you are demonstrably wrong; what could possibly go wrong?

Blasphemy... again

I see that British Gymnastics is cracking on with implementing Islamic blasphemy rules in the UK, regardless of our existing freedom of speech laws that render their recent decision to punish Louis Smith for mocking Islam risible. Smith (Olympic medallist) has been suspended for a silly phone video that shows him laughing at one of his (drunk) mates making fun with an ornamental rug in a hotel lobby that looked like an Islamic prayer mat. I posted about this a while ago when it first hit the news and honestly feel that whether you agree with the decision or not, this is pure censorship and cultural capitulation born out of fear of violence; Winston Churchill will be turning in his grave; if you believe in ghosts, as apparently many do, read on...

One wonders what comes next; are we to be told that we're not allowed to point and laugh at superstition? Only today on radio 4 I listened to a serious, deferential interview with a Muslim "spiritual healer". In the 15 minute program Ishaq from Rotherham said that she "absolutely" believed in Jinn (supernatural creatures akin to ghosts), as do most Muslims, because they are mentioned so much in the Koran. Death-Eaters are mentioned a lot in the Harry Potter books too, I offer this only as a comparison. Yesterday on the same channel we had an interview with Canon Paul Greenwell who carries out "home blessings" for people who have seen ghosts or spirits (one wonders how they can tell the difference?) 

This is a slippery slope argument, religious people expect, and get access to express their cranky ideas (like ghosts and spirits) on mainstream media outlets like radio 4 all the time ("thought for the day" for instance); these ideas make a mockery of many of the rational ideas held by secular, non-religious people; this is a plain fact. No one is attempting to silence anyone, but what happened to the right of detractors to retort and point out what they sincerely believe to be the flaws and dangers in such view points, in whatever tone of voice seems most appropriate to them? All Religions contain ideas that beg to be mocked, they always have, the Christian magic book even warns it's followers to expect it, so, in a free society what's the justification for punishing those who do so?

Obvious mistakes

Sometimes you see a set of circumstances evolve that you just know will end in tears, invariably these things involve the same set of attributes. First you have some kind of minority, then some dubious cultural or societal reason for treating the minority differently, pretty soon you have two societies and two sets of rules and someone always loses out. I fear this is already happening in our society right now around the concept of Sharia councils. Many Muslims (claim) to want to have Islamic arbitration for domestic and other family oriented disputes, independent from the normal UK justice system. Whilst this may seem a very "progressive" and politically correct thing to allow, recent investigations into such councils are uncovering a large number of complaints. Particularly Women seem to be protesting in large numbers that the councils (run by men) discriminate against them. This is particularly problematic when Women are trying to escape abusive relationships.

Personally I find the concept of "Islamic justice" as alien and illogical as "Islamic Chemistry". As the photograph above shows, I believe that true justice is blind. Faith, ethnicity, wealth or cultural background should have no bearing on when and how justice is sought or received. Clearly, no justice system is perfect, but if useful measures of any system are attributes like fairness, proportionality, balance and accessibility then I can confidently assert that the UK justice system scores much higher than any "Islamic" kangaroo-court; based as it has to be on a subjective and unfalsifiable set of irrational premises. Basing a legal or Governmental system on any single religion or sect is a flawed (long-debunked) idea, how can something as complex as justice in the 21st century be something that's exclusively "interpreted" by so called "scholars" who've only read one (ancient) book and have no more skill or experience in law, sociology or any relevant discipline than a 12 year old child?

It's time we knocked these so called councils on the head, they're clearly harmful to many people (especially vulnerable Women) now and can only serve to provide a useful purchase point for those seeking to divide our society even further in the future.