Isn't this fun? The Serious Fraud Office politely drop their enquiry into corruption in the arms trade between the UK and Saudi Arabia because of blackmail from the Saudis. The High Court now tells them that ending the enquiry was illegal, and it has to reopen, now. (In a rare moment of win, the US government said the same thing a few months back). So have they got the spine? Is Gordy going to get over his reliance on the arms industry and grow a pair of bollocks over this one? He bloody well better do.
Paula. Oh, Paula paula Radcliffe, who has this to say about the torch relay:
A peaceful protest on the sidelines - fine. But don't try to stop the torch, because the torch is about more than the Beijing Olympics. It's about the Olympic spirit and the importance of the Olympics in teaching youth, and teaching the world, what sport can do - how sport can bring people together, how it can overcome suffering, how it has overcome even wars in the past.
It's a very powerful thing, and trying to stop the torch was trying to stop that message, so that was wrong.
Everything I could possibly say about this turned up on political_macros.Is she even hearing what she's saying? That this thing is important and powerful and can overcome? If that's true, why the fuck is she trying to stop that process by taking part when she knows damn well what the case against is? This is the powerful moment, and she's picked the side of the spineless.
Michael Chertoff, a charming chappie from Homeland Security, is worried that his internets might not be safe:
He told the world's biggest IT security conference that serious threats to cyberspace are on "a par this country tragically experienced on 9/11".
Such attacks can hit financial bodies and a government's powers, he said.
"We take threats to the cyber world as seriously as we take threats to the material world," Mr Chertoff added.
...So, yeah, he's stood up and said it. 9/11 wasn't tragic because of the loss of thousands of lives, or because of the threat it represented to democracy, freedom and peace - it was tragic because it threatened financial bodies and a government's powers.
In other internets news, the EU has decided, by a narrow vote, that civil liberties really are more important than stopping music/film piracy. Also: I turn my back for two months and you look what happens. (Though I feel that the Beeb has failed to get to grips with this whole phenomenon).
There have been many great threads at FSF lately. See this one on rape in s-f/f, which I derailed by talking about r&r and h/c themes in slash; a cool thread about how crazy Allecto inspired some non-crazy talk about Firefly...in which Allecto shows up [@ April 2nd, 6.01am] and asks the internets to apologise for calling her names, exactly as if she isn't dehumanising and full of contempt for all women who don't do as she'd like them to, Kai Cole included; and Laura Q on the religious indoctrination of children, about voluntary withdrawal from the world and about things SFnal - I didn't comment there, not so much because I thought she crossed a line as because I think a line exists in a place where she's not seeing it.
And yes, this. Not smart, Ms Self-Appointed Expert On All People Everywhere. Not big, not clever, and, sadly, not even original. [if we're doing citations, I totally stole that link from Holly at Feministe].
The break did me good - I sifted through old notebooks, played videogames and thought. It's kinda good to have so much backlog of stuff to type; feels so bountiful that throwing out the rotten bits doesn't hurt. I've tentatively decided to put fiction first until the 8th of every month from now on, at least if there's something I want to work on. But now I'm back to other things - taking walks; making clothes and shit; and, that thing I keep not mentioning - my tarot blog. I hope the usual Living Room Theory of Internets (it's my space, and if it's not your kind of space I can throw you out whenever I like) can be presumed; so if you want to see the family shrine, do not be Ellie. (Do Not Be Ellie isn't a bad rule in general...)
3 comments:
Who is Ellie?
Ellie is a character in the stuff the red one writes and a few other people round here read. She's that kind of atheist who 'doesn't so much disbelieve in God as regard him as a personal enemy' (as someone in Private Eye said about Dawkins many years ago). She is bad-tempered around the family shrine, and tries to forget that her husband and brothers go to church at all. So, no being Ellie :O
OMG! I didn't know you had a tarot blog! I am all about the tarot.
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