The BBC is reporting that the advertising banner that is appearing on some buses in England, paid for by the British Humanist Association, is still upsetting a lot of people and the latest is that a bus driver has walked out and refused to drive a bus with it on the side .

The man, Ron Heather, says that he “felt that I could not drive that bus, I told my managers and they said they haven’t got another one and I thought I better go home, so I did.  I think it was the starkness of this advert which implied there was no God…”

No pun intended but Jesus Christ, man! For a start the banner reads There Probably Is No God. Now Stop Worrying And Enjoy Your Life.  Did you notice that, Mr Heather?  Probably.  

Are the religious amongst us so sensitive that they can’t even handle the suggestion that there might not be a God?  The BHA could have easily made it read There IS No God but they were open-minded enough to go with Probably so what is the big deal exactly?

The problem is when you base your belief system on something that comes from “elsewhere” (ie not determined by your own moral and ethical compass) you are in an incredibly fragile position should anything come along to question any aspect of it.  Because you haven’t arrived at the conclusionsyourself you lack the full capability of defending those conclusions and this is a fine example of it.

To the BHA I say don’t be so accommodating  next time and to Richard Dawkins I say keep up the good work …

Happy New Year to everyone out there – hope that 2008 has been a good one for you and hope that 2009 will be an even better one.

New Year’s Resolutions?  Well mine are the same as usual but with a renewed vigour after the turbulent first year with Freya Rose ad the most important one is write, write, write! 

This means sorting out set nights/times for me to do writing every week with an aim of writing 5,000 words per week, probably split between short stories (to keep my profile up) and the n*vel length stuff.

So what about you lot?

It doesn’t always sit comfortably with me but one of the main driving forces behind my writing (both what I write and why I write it) is a distaste for other writers and writing.

I don’t mean this neccessarily in the straightforward “I could do better than that” way, though that is there – but it’s more like “You fucking dick, that’s shit!”  which perhaps tips me a little more into the psychotic side of things but hey-ho, it seems to work for me.

I’ve listened to several podcasts on-and-off for a while now and I think they’ll remain nameless just now since I do go back and forth on them but it’s decidedly common for me to listen to them and be filled with a rage that can only be sated by making sure I get more writing done and out there.  I say I go back and forth because, like a guilty pleasure just partaken, I’ll often feel bad for feeling that way, particularly for small press writers.  It’s like punching someone who is really annoying you in the face then immediately feeling sorry for them for having done so – yeah they’re annoying but they weren’t annoying you on purpose.  Their patter just pissed you off.

On the other hand I don’t think I’d like to lose that annoyance, that anger.  It’s what spurs me on a lot of the time, it’s what keeps me going or gets me going – and I know that somewhere there will be people who will read my stuff and think “you fucking dick, that’s shit!” then go off and do their own thing.

And that makes me happy …