Petersen Potty?
Pagan Prattle posts that the ole’ Horned One has been brought into the Scott Petersen murder case. A few odd paintings are getting a mention too. You think his lawyers are getting a tad desperate?
1 commentROPMA in Britain
Bet you didn’t know there was an Islamic Court in Britain. Better yet, it routinely lays down Fatwas on people. This is ROPMA’s way of demonstrating assimilation into the culture that is the UK.
Via: Tim Blair
I shall be posting my notes on ROPMA’s meeting at Tory Party Conference soon.
Comments are off for this postMiller on Davis
Hey, get this ... The citizenry of California held an intervention for their fiscally drunk state on Tuesday and threw blandleader Grey Davis out on his perpetually-cocked-in-the-direction-of-special-interests ear. I dont want to say Davis lacks charisma, but his vanity license plate is a random series of numbers and letters. Double-jointed specialty dancers at Polynesian resorts could not limbo under Davis approval ratings.” (10/12/03)
Via: Rational Review
Comments are off for this postHuman organs should be bought & sold
For a classic illustration of the Law of Unintended Consequences, consider the National Organ Transplant Act. Passed by Congress in 1984, the statute makes it illegal to pay any compensation to organ donors or their families. The lawmakers’ intentions were good: They were loath to allow the spectacle of human organs being bought and sold like mere commodities. And they wanted to prevent any chance that the poor would be exploited to supply body parts for the rich. Those things have indeed been prevented. But by making it a crime to offer donors any ‘valuable consideration’ for organs, Congress achieved something else, too: the unnecessary deaths of tens of thousands of Americans who could have been saved if only the organs they needed had been available.” (10/12/03)
Via: Rational Review
Comments are off for this postSalmon make Maine comeback
“It was a historic day for the Atlantic salmon. In an unprecedented move, a coalition that includes an Indian tribe, environmentalists, government, and a power company agreed Monday to open 500 miles of the Penobscot River watershed to the endangered salmon and 10 other species of migrating fish. Two old dams on the lower Penobscot River will be demolished. Another dam will be overhauled to include a fish bypass. The agreement to open and restore the Penobscot, Maine’s most important river, came after four years of talks.” (10/12/03)
Via: Rational Review
Comments are off for this postSad Story of Racism in Ulster
There aren’t many things that bring a tear to my eye, but the sad news that racism is becoming more rampant in my homeland of Northern Ireland, as reported on last night’s Newsnight, drove me to tears.
Read more 5 commentsQueer Etymology
From PC Watch:
GAV and Wazza, the gay couple from the hit TV reality show The Block, proved to be such nice people that any homophobia from middle Australia was quickly transformed into fan mail from families. But just as they mainstreamed gaydom on Channel 9, along came the linguistic backlash. In every schoolyard in Sydney, children are using the word “gay” with a new derogatory meaning. The latest Macquarie Dictionary which hit the bookstores last week, includes the new definition for the first time: ‘Colloquial (especially among children) unfashionable, unstylish: that bag is really gay; don’t be so gay!” Dictionary editor Alison Moore says the meaning has now embedded itself in everyday language, but she found citations from as early as 1991…. It’s latest negative reincarnation may be a backlash by children against political correctness, suggests Sydney University’s Gary Simes, who is compiling a dictionary of sexual language. “For all that society has become very [tolerant], I suspect it’s a reaction against the fact they have to accept homosexuals and political correctness…..”This is happening in Canada, too. I wrote about it back in January, coming to much the same conclusion.
The thing I like about the English language is its sprawling inclusiveness. It freely borrows when it needs to — caveat emptor; kindergarten — but is fiercely, democratically resistant to change imposed from above. No French Academy to dictate what the proper form of “e-mail” is. (Does anyone remember what they eventually came up with?)
I suspect that “gay” is rapidly on the way out, and my vote for the next locution electrocution would be the ghastly lengths that people go to to avoid the male generic pronoun. “S/he”? Take a hike, sister.
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