March 25, 2004
capitalisation nazis must die
read yoz's entry on BBC server admins obsession with making life more difficult that it already has to be. go yoz!
March 24, 2004
handmaids tales
robert j howe is no margaret attwood but reading Miscarriage of justice next to Coercive Medicine (on the current criminalisation of choices made in pregnancy) and the ongoing attempts by the US justice department to have released to them medical records from abortion procedures to argue for further limitations on access to abortion, makes an indifferent piece of fantasy as chilling as the handmaids tale.
the oregon solution
Benton County Oregon, the second county to issues wedding licences to gay couples have suspended the issuing of ALL licences pending a decision on who exactly they can offer licences to. this is partly because of the splendid definition of marriage under oregon law: males over 17 and females over 17 can be married, it just doesn't anywhere saw that they must marry each other.
March 20, 2004
burma blacklist 2
bush campaign gear contravenes thier own legislation banning the import of burmese products.
"Human rights watcher Charles Kernaghan, director of the National Labor Committee, said the slip-up showed a lack of conviction on the administration's part. "Given the debate about outsourcing, it's amazing that the campaign would be selling stuff made in the most brutal country on earth, known for things like child labor and sexual slavery," he said. "It shows a crude indifference to this issue.""
from newsday.
the burma campaign UK makes the case for targetted EU sanctions.
March 19, 2004
appeasement
stolen from Dr. Seuss Went to War. todays steve bell is also a masterclass.
short memory these neocons.
March 18, 2004
unions go to court over anti-gay discrimination
the TUC is taking the government to court over thier allowance of religious based groups to opt out of legislation from the EU assuring equality of treatment for gay employees.
'What is essentially a good law has been made less effective than Europe intended it to be. It’s not unreasonable for lesbian and gay workers to expect true equality with their heterosexual colleagues, but if this is to happen the Government must back down and agree to a change in the law.'
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber
when the governments allies include the evangelical alliance its in the wrong camp. at least in this blairs government is standing shoulder to shoulder with america where gay federal employees have had thier protection removed by the office of the special council.
further strange bedfellows being the The Vatican and the 56 member nations of the Islamic Conference who are opposing the introduction of benefits for gay staff and thier partners, a move that the american government may yet join.
March 15, 2004
save pollocks toy museum
pollocks toy museum and shop is hidden somewhere in soho. it purports to be on scala street but i defy anyone to find it in the same place twice. it is one of the original magical shops of england, never found when looked for and always a suprise. its a trove of bengal matches and cut out things requireing copydex and fortune telling fish, a whole shop of stockingfillers and strange tin toys.
i had one of thier paper theatres once, it took half a lifetime - or so it seemed - to glue the thing together but had a complete set of scenery raised and lowered by bits of string. the bengal matches were however always my favourite thing, and sometimes on the rare days that pollocks deigns to allow me to find it i buy them. they come in fives, wrapped in blue tissue paper in a matchbox with a tiger on the front; either red or green, and the few seconds they burn emitting plumes of gunpowder smoke and coloured fire is heaven itself.
pollocks is also threatened with closure, the lease on their 18th century building is up, and unless they can buy the freehold it will be lost. help save pollocks.
e'gads! a crime wave!
there is apparently a rise in sword related violence in australia, it reads rather like a moral scare sent into the future from the seventeenth century.
"The vast majority of the community would say, 'Look, there's no place for people just being able to go out there and buy these things and carry them around the street'."
stop these brawling musketeers!. police now able to stop and search anyone with a goatee beard. cudgels to be outlawed soon.
March 12, 2004
long time no see
unintended holiday from flambingo over, so catching up.......the california supreme court has halted the issuing of licences to same sex couples, presumably the pro-theocracy movement will attempt to ban shellfish and divorce next. theres a lovely comment on the previous entry from someone who received a bouquet while standing while waiting to be legally married.
katherine gun's legal move to get the government to release the legal basis for war fails to travel, but it seems less and less likely that the 'no precedent for release' will hold up in the long run. combined with the intended legal challenges from the released guantanamo detainees and the distinct possiblity of serious defeat in the council and european elections comming up theres still no respite for the government.
the men released from guantanamo have been talking of thier treatment, camp x ray seems to be an experiement in interrogation and low level torture tecniques, and rather sweetly thier desire for shortbread ("We were all obsessed with Scottish Highland Shortbread - we wanted some so much").
on a more personal note i'm off to the invicta fencing competition to see if i can wield an epee and reading the manuscript found in saragossa a kind of 1001 nights with bandits, cabbalists, vampires that unfolds like a puzzle box delivering back to where you started before another fabulous digression. wonderful, funny and extemely wierd.
it's a life of total glamour. and thanks to mr shaw for the gentle nagging.