Well, one thing at least about the controversy that followed Jack Straws remarks about women wearing veils can be disposed of pretty quickly: the argument that veils impede communication is entirely spurious. Of course covering ones face removes some of the cues that are used in understanding, but so what? Human communication is massively redundant, precisely so that we can continue to communicate even when elements are screened out for whatever reason. Accents and dialects, tongue studs, brightly colored clothes, terrible haircuts – all these things impede communication, and all of them are accepted as a matter of course. Read more↴
Well, not really, obviously. Nuclear bombs anywhere are hardly good news, and I’m not going to endorse North Korea as an example of good government, socialism, or anything else. Still, I’m quite scared enough that the US has nuclear weapons, and I find it difficult to be any more worried that some other states might have them. The only possible response for those of us in nuclear powers to the apparent North Korean nuclear test is to increase our opposition to the nuclear weapons nearest at hand (and there’s more thinking to be done about how anti-nuclear activism fits in with the anti-Iraq-war movement). Our slogan should be, then, “No Nukes Anywhere: Unilateral US Disarmament Now!”
(The title of this post was an attempt to imitate the inimitable sloganeering of the Sparts. As befits the true revolutionary vanguard, they’re well ahead of me: “For the unconditional military defense of the remaining deformed workers states”)
Where next for Russian space station promoters?
Moves to get official backing to send Madonna into space have been blocked.
My own answer is, I suspect, rather predictable (picture from the always-wonderful Chinese Propaganda Poster Pages, via Dwayne M.)
It’s pleasing to see that, 5 years after the event, people are still writing variations on “Why the Bombings Mean That We Must Support My Politics.” Today’s contestant is Ron Hassner who, apart from gaining bonus points for the always-popular “more in sorrow than anger” posture, manages to flawlessly pull off one of the more advanced variants, “Why 9/11 Means That We Must Put Politics Aside and Support My Politics.”
Paris Hilton has reached the attention of the Indian film industry. She has been invited to play Nobel Peace prize recipient Mother Theresa in a film partly written by Pope John Paul II. The film will include the talents of other notables of her stature such as Pandit Ravi Shankar. Pope Benedict XVI is expected to give his blessing to this film.
Actually, I’d already heard about this. Astonishingly, I’d managed to forget all about it.
Meanwhile, Ian Penman channels Julie Burchill , and is of course entirely right.