[www.toplessrobot.com]%20Fiction&blog_id=132

My mum always complains that one of the most irritating things about "pro-life" campaigners is how disingenuous they are. They think one is too many, why would they care if someone got more than one? This is about stirring up ill-feelings and hatred for abortions, people who have them and people who perform them. That…

I'm assuming it's the same in the US as it is here: the conservative politicians' interest in the free-market and family values is not now (nor has it ever been) about what is right or best for people, it's about naked self interest.

Personally I'm of the opinion that it could've been done already if the political will was there. Scientific ethics are a tricky thing...

Not everyone who uses texts is avoidant, and characterising people who are as un-masculine isn't helpful. Or adult.

Extrapolating wildly beyond the bounds of your data = ridiculous. Was this peer-reviewed? Why didn't the editor send it back saying "take this bullshit out, you can leave the rest in"?

If we think Japan's aging population is bad, wait 'til you see China in a few decades. Fuck knows what they're going to do.

I can't honestly say I disagree with anything you said there. I was being hyperbolic and rude.

The copyright hadn't expired, Tolkien's family (and specifically his son, Christopher, who's written/finished/edited some of Tolkien's surviving work) had sold the rights and assented to the production. It's a little different to a remake of Sherlock Holmes set in New York.

My complaint was a specific one regarding American remakes and reimaginings, in some cases of classic pieces of foreign cultures. I din't claim that our film or television industry is consistently brilliant.

Draws attention to the cause?

...If I ever get into power in this country (the UK), I'm going to amend the copyright laws so that copyright exists in perpetuity for Americans i.e. even if the copyright has expired in this country, Americans still can't use the intellectual property to "reimagine" or "remake" part of someone else's cultural history.

Saying that the media coverage is overblown (and a result of her socioeconomic background) in no way detracts from the tragic nature of the case, or suggests that anyone here views her as anything other than a real person.

If the media's racial bias displays itself through the amount of attention to dedicated to missing/murdered/dead white or non-white people, how can you use anything but a tragic case as an example?

...I'm sure I can come up with one, Scientology style. Maybe Satiricism. The central tenet is the adoption of ludicrous positions that contradict a generally accepted sense of decorum, then bursting into violence and tears when someone attempts to violate my religious freedom by telling me to quit being such an…

Who can refuse to reveal the nature of their tests if they're "commercially sensitive":

My religion demands that I punch people in the face if they make it their mission in life to make everyone else's time on the planet that little bit more difficult. I claim that Arizona's laws against assaulting Jan Brewer violate my religious freedom.

Interestingly (for a given definition of "interestingly", the police have actually started subcontracting work out to private companies. At the moment they claim it's just backroom stuff, although they're also privatising the forensic service (which everyone, including the inventor of DNA fingerprinting, thinks is…

The British government has been privatising everything in this country since 1979. Schools and hospital are next in line. And businesses can vote in the City of London Corporation's elections. It's not beyond belief. It's pretty much been an open aim of successive US and UK governments.