Posts by Steve Parks
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Nancy Jew and The Jihadi Boys
Awesome.
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I haven't read through the comments yet, but Russell's post reminded me of reading this a little while back...
Pop quiz: Which European country has the most liberal drug laws? (Hint: It's not the Netherlands.)
Although its capital is notorious among stoners and college kids for marijuana haze–filled "coffee shops," Holland has never actually legalized cannabis — the Dutch simply don't enforce their laws against the shops. The correct answer is Portugal, which in 2001 became the first European country to officially abolish all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.
...Compared to the European Union and the U.S., Portugal's drug use numbers are impressive. Following decriminalization, Portugal had the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana use in people over 15 in the E.U.: 10%. The most comparable figure in America is in people over 12: 39.8%. Proportionally, more Americans have used cocaine than Portuguese have used marijuana.
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Steven Crawford
I stopped reading the linked article when I reached this bit.
Secondly, it's very rare that I have any sympathy or find much agreement with right-wing blogger Whaleoil (Cameron Slater)
Whilst I don't agree than name suppression was appropriate in the case of the musician up the alleyway, I absolutely don't agree that publishing sex offenders names is always in societies best interest. Especially when other people, (not just the principle victim) could be adversely effected by stigma.
Neither do I. Later in that paragraph I point out I am only addressing the musician case. I was not supporting Cameron’s actions in regards the other case.
Stephen Clover,
I do know that the musician was wasted enough to do that, admitted he did it because he was wasted and didn't remember it the next day.
Do you actually KNOW all that, or do you just think you know?
Well, the musician’s lawyer seems to pretty much back chris up: “Mr Mansfield said the man had been drinking and had no recollection of what happened the next day.” From here.
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name suppression has been ordered at the request of the victim,
...In the case of the prominent entertainer, that's not what was reported, on the contrary, the victim expressed anger at being muzzled from outing the defendant.
You may have some interest in my views on that issue, chris.
However, I must say I think overall you are conflating separate issues with the justice system in a way that I'm not sure is helpful.
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I gave up on Campbell Live a long while back.
Would it have been around the time the lead story on the show was about how a bug got in someone's takeaway?
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It would have helped the prosecution if she had made the online activity known to them in that 6 months before the trial, but she didn't. She lied (by omission) to the prosecution in a case in which her success was entirely dependent them proving her to be credible beyond any reasonable doubt. What else could the prosecution have done?
It depends exactly what it was she said online. If all she did was discuss her group sex fantasy, then why should she disclose that to the prosecution? It should be irrelevant.
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It is the quality of the writing and the concern for the human condition which matters, not the genre.
What happened to the "hierarchy of genres"?
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I've never got around to watching Breaking Bad, even though I've heard good things about it. I've since noticed its creator and show runner is Vince Gilligan, one of the few X Files writers to have consistently written good episodes. I'd like to give it a try - might have to get the first season out on dvd from Aro Video.
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There aren't many sentences better than that last one.
If there are any, they may well be from earlier in the same book. A perhaps impossible task would be to choose the best line from The Great Gatsby.
It's a small book that contains a huge amount and I think that's why we keep going back to it. Somehow there's always more in it. It's the Tardis.
Yeah. I'm with Matthew and Philip on Gatsby. Brilliant book.