Posts by Keir Leslie

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  • Busytown: Holiday reading lust,

    I say, well done sir. Well done.

    Since Jul 2008 • 1452 posts Report

  • Hard News: We still died at each other's…,

    So a correlation (if there is one) does actually suggest something noteworthy is going on.

    Not necessarily. Ben, meet Mexican lemons. Also, pirates prevent global warming.

    But both of those are arguably noteworthy: Mexican lemon transport improves at the same time that transport in general in the US improves, and piracy decreases with rising global prosperity, while carbon emissions increase. Just because A doesn't cause B doesn't mean that A & B aren't noteworthily linked, possibly by cause C, or possibly the arrow runs the other way.

    But it all gets metaphysical very quickly, and things with names like Bayesian and frequentist appear.

    Since Jul 2008 • 1452 posts Report

  • Up Front: All Together Now,

    "We" who, dude? I think raising children is way more "important" than sex, and ditto caring for the elderly. Should they be "protected" too? And honestly, in practical terms I've got no idea what you mean by that.

    I mean that while nobody likes sitting around in an office all day in order to keep food on the table, it generally isn't thought of as being as bad as having sex you don't necessarily want in order to keep food on the table.

    And you might disagree and all, but it seems a reasonably broad and true description of the way people act and think.

    I think the actual "prostitute" who's naive enough to think she "consented" knows the difference between having sex s/he wouldn't have had without the financial reward, and being raped.

    But that's the difficulty: you are asserting that prostitutes consent, while the counter-argument is that the consent is given under duress and not particularly meaningful. You can't settle it by referring back to the consent unless you want to chuck out duress* altogether.

    (There's also arguments which make a distinction between rape and immoral use of power imbalances and so-on, and you could trot those out.)

    * again not quite the right word but.

    Since Jul 2008 • 1452 posts Report

  • Up Front: All Together Now,

    Even if the prosecutor wasn't convinced it is surely his job to represent the victim to the best of his ability.

    Nope. The prosecutor acts for the Crown*, not the victim. They are not the victim's lawyer.

    * or the People, or the State, or whatever.

    Keir, your argument would seem to apply to any employment. I certainly only turn up at the office because I'm paid to. Does that make my employer a kidnapper?

    No. But there's definite coercion*. We apply higher standards to sex than mere presence, or typing, or whatever, because we ascribe more importance to free will about sex. So that's not really a problem; all we establish there is that sex is different from data-entry.

    Also most people in sex work have fewer options etc, so.

    * not the right word, because I dare say coercion means something in employment law.

    Since Jul 2008 • 1452 posts Report

  • Up Front: All Together Now,

    So whether or not a particular prostitute consented to a particular act with a particular client becomes irrelevant.

    But that's a reasonable argument --- generally speaking, no prostitute would, without the inducement of money, have sex with the clients. And the reason people need money is that without it bad things happen to them. Which, as far as the `prostitution is rape' argument goes, amounts to coercion. So while the prostitute may have `consented' to a particular act, that consent is only granted based on coercion. The yes or no has been degraded by the fact that no isn't really an option.

    Take a masseur. A massuer may have the right to say no to any given client, but in general they have to massage or starve. It would still be wrong for any client to force a massage* (roughly like in the prostitution case). But we we think that sex, given the importance of the act, ought be protected from the category of `work or starve'.

    That argument suffers from empirical difficulties regarding the importance of coercion in work, but I rather think they can be remedied by a consideration of the actual conditions of sex-work vs other work.

    * this isn't quite right & rather crudely put, but near enough.

    Since Jul 2008 • 1452 posts Report

  • Radiation: Big bang theory,

    The one character on BBT that really irritates he is Howard Wolowitz. As one of my favourite tele-bloggers, Alan Seppinwall, puts it: Howard is the one character you always end up laughing at rather than with. His relentless sleaziness and scary Jewish Momma also, to my taste, never seems to get on the right side of the line between comically cringe-inducing and outright creepy.

    Well, yeah. He's also probably the most realistic character on that show, & it's quite nice to see the stupid sexist side of nerdery get a sound thrashing every now and again.

    Since Jul 2008 • 1452 posts Report

  • Hard News: Holiday Musings,

    Ummmm it is possible to make a movie about a game, that uses movie techniques to address game themes. And vice versa.

    Well, yes, and also no. One could no doubt make a film about Pong that was very accurate at being about Pong, but that wouldn't make it a good film. And one could make a film that was very accurate at being about Pong, and was also a good film.

    Also, being about a videogame doesn't mean being CGI & looking like a videogame; the video for Love Etc. quotes sidescrollers like nobody's business, but it just isn't very video-gamey. (The formal qualities of videogames lie in the play, not in the graphics.)

    Since Jul 2008 • 1452 posts Report

  • Hard News: Holiday Musings,

    But Avatar isn't a videogame, it's a film. If Cameron wanted to make a really kewl videogame, he should have made a damn videogame.

    Since Jul 2008 • 1452 posts Report

  • Hard News: Space for Ol Dat I See,

    Amen to what Ross Mason said. There is any amount of research showing that accident rates are highest where footpaths, roads, and cycle routes cross at 90deg, particularly where the party crossing has to look both ways. A cycle route that is constantly crossing a well-used road is a major FAIL.

    But isn't the recommended solution generally to treat bicyclists like first class road users, not funky semi-pedestrians?

    Though I guess that's for utility cycling, but for some recreational stuff you want to stay away from roads so that's not so much of a goer.

    Since Jul 2008 • 1452 posts Report

  • Busytown: Holiday reading lust,

    Since Jul 2008 • 1452 posts Report

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