Dear flisties (including, hello!, all the new ones ( Read more... )

Oh, JB, noMore on that in a minute. Because, in the mean time, I woke up yesterday to a government proposal to amend the Constitution. What, pray tell, is so dire that we need to change it again? We want to add Dutch as the national language. Now, my education may be a bit more America-oriented than that of my fellow countrypeople, but not so much ( Read more... )

Drive by post on Roman Polanski:I wrote my graduate thesis on extradition law, and I can assure you there's plenty of room for him to contest the extradition. And, you know, since he neither disputes the charges nor the actual fact that it was rape, the list of celebrities who think it's okay to use their privilege to try and create more privilege ( Read more... )

A while ago I read a newspaper article about standards on UK television, and the article quoted conservative campaigner John Beyer. Now I knew who Beyer was, having run into him in a Panorama broadcast about swearing on tv once, but for those of you who don't, he's the head of an organisation that wants more decency on UK television. In short, less ( Read more... )

Everyone, and I do mean everyone, has an inherent humanity. To most people, this is a rational fact. They know this, they don't think about it much, but they accept it when you tell them, nod and carry on. Few of us, including yours truly, stop to think what it means.

I have a request for fiction authors: think about what it meansYou know what it ( Read more... )

The following is a repeat of a post I did flocked not too long ago. But first, go take a look at this, saying it far more eloquently than I can, and showing a clip that tells you exactly how far from the debate we've strayed, and how insidious the opposition is.

The only good thing I can think of, is, Jeez, they are grasping at straws. The scary ( Read more... )

First things first: I love Torchwood. I don't dislike the show. But I do think about the food I feed my brain. {/end disclaimer}

So, lefaym did a fascinating post on feminism in slash, and while I read and commented, I'm nowhere near having organised and articulated my thoughts on that subject. But it got me thinking about something that has bothered me ( Read more... )