Happy New Year!

Welcome to the new year, same as the old year (apologies to The Who).

Actually, I hope it'll be significantly better than the old year - as you may have noticed, I've been away for a couple of weeks. We've had a tough couple of weeks as a family, coping with a wrenching bereavement.

Things like this really put into perspective the utter mindlessness of much of today's culture, with people obsessing over every Britney move while ignoring the bigger issues. I haven't been able to even pick up a People (or similar) magazine since. It all seems so shallow. I'll be blogging more on this in the future.

With that said, this year this blog will refocus on what's really important to the world - moving the human race forward (not back into the dark ages of religious intolerance) and where rational thought and discussion win the day.

Happy New Year!