I get how there's sympathy for him and agree that there should be; his actions don't erase the tragedies in his past. I get how there are legitimate legal arguments involved for his side at this point; if I recall correctly, he was full-on lied to about a plea deal, which is a horrible error if true and should not…

I strongly oppose indefinite imprisonment for anything. If the law is to mean anything other than a boot in the face, it has to set clear terms and abide by them. Life in prison may well be rational, but "prison until I feel like letting you out" is not.

Seriously, I don't get how Polanski has continued to have a high-profile career in film. There's no question, in his case, that he did what he did. I don't recall, having researched it a bit a good while ago, that he ever even expressed all that much remorse about it. Somehow, film-making ability allows him to get…

I have long considered, not knowing at all how feasible it is, the possibility of going to Glasgow to study Social Work if I can finally manage my BSW. The field seems to be booming there, and something about Glasgow just appeals to me. I think it's just the general lack of pretension. (As per Frankie Boyle,…

It seems like the objections here aren't about an attempt to challenge that image, but rather about what appears to be some wild overreaching on the author's part. It's one thing to invent a narrative to explain a mystery, but it's another thing to insist on that narrative, especially when dealing with a real…

You may even get to entertain 10% of the upper-year English students at a small high school and irritate the rest for years to come! (I quite liked Byatt's Possession, but it was a byword among some of the other students for a slog.)

Is that the damage for Herman Cain's final Limit Break?

That's exactly what makes it so hard to fight. I live in the places I can afford to live. I've never asked a neighbourhood to change for me. Who would? People live, ideally, in the cheapest place that meets their needs and desires. It's an innocent and rational thing to do, but the overall effect serves to…

I really, really hope that she decides to do a full-length graphic novel (even a slim one) about the tar sands. She's the one with the experience and ability to make it.

Quite so. I was trying to figure out what point along the general timeline marks landlords realizing that they can charge more, and I figured that it was after people started moving in who could afford higher rent. It's not a process that I entirely understand yet, so I figured I'd mess it up somewhere along the way…

If I understand it correctly, it's the effect of people moving into an area that's cheaper than their means. If enough people do it to constitute a trend, local landlords start raising prices in order to take advantage of the influx of moneyed individuals. Older buildings get torn down in favour of newer ones that…

Indeed. Dickinson's already revealed the most important aspects of herself (and, arguably, the only aspects of herself she wanted to reveal) through her poetry. The rest is trivia.

I recall Achewood suggesting that the Gilligan's Island theme works quite well too.

Wow. So Rand wasn't even consistent on that point. I haven't read that one, so I didn't know that. Your philosophy is as full of holes as that guard, Ayn Rand!

I think it's just a matter of different times and different writers. The anti-gun Captain America indulged himself after his daily workout with a tall glass of milk while he handled the Avengers' paperwork. Even when he wasn't using a gun in the first Captain America movie, he was still likely inadvertently killing…

Surely you mean F4nt4stic 4444?

I recall that there was a line somewhere in the 70s or 80s where Captain America specifically states that he does not kill, has never killed, and will therefore never use a gun. Who knows whether or not that's canonical anymore?

The thing that I find so weird about it is that Rand was explicitly against the use of physical force, if I recall correctly. Coercing somebody with force was supposed to be Objectivism's greatest sin. It's why so many of her books climax with someone giving an interminable speech that convinces everybody of how…

That's the power of different affective associations for you, I suppose. I've heard tons of cheesy saxophones, but they just don't pop into my head when I think about the instrument. Instead, I think of stuff like the sax on Bowie's "Lazarus" or Dion's "Runaround Sue". If "sax" instantly makes you think of Kenny G…

Marah usually does that. I suspect that actual resistance from the interviewer would end many of these features before they had really begun. She has to do what she can to keep it rolling, and it always seems to work, so I can hardly gainsay the approach (even if it isn't nearly as interesting as the times that she…