Automated Attack Monkeys, Scalpel Mines, & Acid

So am I a small scale blogger, then?

2013-04-12T15:12:28Z

I've been chatting to Martin Robbins recently and I share his incredulity that the blogosphere isn't aflame with outrage over the plans to include blogs, either by conspiracy or cock-up, depending on who you believe, in the Leveson Royal Charter.

Here are four blogs posting about it:

http://blog.indexoncensorship.org/2013/04/12/blog-regulation-not-waving-but-drowning/
http://liberalconspiracy.org/2013/04/12/what-happened-when-the-dcms-met-some-bloggers/
http://www.mjrobbins.net/?p=518
http://talkaboutlocal.org.uk/leveson-implementation-consultation-meetings-on-smaller-bloggers/

Frankly I am unsurprised that Sunny Hundal is putting his faith in the DCMS to 1, do what it told him it would and 2, not cock up the implementation. Sunny, bless him, has always had a touching faith in people that drove me mental even in the days when I used to post at LC. What excuse does everybody else (other than Martin and Index on Censorship) have, though?

I admit, I have been internet-shy the last few days because of the furore over That Woman, but I would have thought I'd have at least heard a squeak from the Lib Dem blogosphere. Were any of you invited to these meetings? Or are we just waiting for the other shoe to drop before we build up a proper head of outrage here? I'm genuinely perplexed.

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On Jimmy Savile, and judgementalism.

2012-10-04T12:23:55Z

So, the reason the CPS didn't prosecute him wasn't for lack of evidence. In which case, what was it? I think this blog post probably has it spot on. But, with regard to the way a lot of people are talking about this, there is one thing that's leaving me very disturbed, and that's the number of people who are othering Savile.

You can tell he was a paedo, look at him! goes the refrain. Well, if you could tell he was a paedo, why didn't you do something about it? The answer, of course, is that you couldn't. You couldn't and you can't tell what someone's criminal proclivities are by looking at them. You can't say that someone is a theif because they wear a stripy jumper and have a "mum" tattoo, you can't say someone is a serial killer because they have greasy hair, and you can't say someone is a paedo because they like the bling.

Of course, the reason people reach for this crap is because if you can Other Savile, you don't have to admit that there might be others like him, perhaps people that you know. Uncle Bob isn't like that, look at him he's normal; Auntie Joan is just friendly, there's nothing weird about it... And this is why people who report don't get believed, and the rape culture continues.

I know this is a big ask, but can we not just treat individual cases as individuals? And look at the evidence for each case instead of making stupid assumptions of guilt or innocence based on stereotypes? And let people be tried under due process rather than in the court of public opinion?

Yeah, I know, too big an ask... :(

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The Blood is The Life 29-03-2012

2012-03-29T16:00:09Z

libdemchild, aged 11: £20 for the Tory Party
Maelo is fab, isn't she? :)
(tags: libdemmery )
andrewducker | I shall keep whining about the awful way that ebooks are sold until they fix it*.
*And by "fix it" I include "They all go bust/copyright ceases to exist/aliens destroy mankind", in increasing order of likelihood.
(tags: books funny )
Is it OK for a job interviewer to ask for your Facebook login? - The Globe and Mail
(tags: )
The Best Birth Control In The World Is For Men | Techcitement*
(tags: )
The next time there is a funding scandal under this system we should force the leader to resign
(tags: )
Hacking IT systems to become a criminal offence
It already IS in the UK. And I see they have added a version of "going equipped" - i.e. owning a computer - to this, which means the rozers can feel free to exercise all their dirty little prejudices with immunity, just like they do or all other going equipped offences.
(tags: law )
BBC News - Charities leaving Work Programme claim payments too low
Chris Grayling clearly only understands contract negotiations from the side of the more powerful party :/
(tags: workfare )

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The Blood is The Life 07-02-2012

2012-02-07T09:00:01Z

Sixteen Good Things The Lib Dems Have Achieved
"this is why, despite the fact that I don’t support the government, I *do* support the Lib Dems in the government... Because we haven’t made the world perfect in only eighteen months with only nine percent of the MPs in parliament – but we’ve made it better. And that’s more than I can say about the actions of any other government party of my lifetime."
(tags: libdemmery )
G. I. Joe and Sleeping Beauty
"I don’t have terribly high standards for movies trying to cash in on my 80s nostalgia. I don’t expect five-star dining at McDonald’s, and I don’t expect brilliant cinema from G. I. Joe. But this was like ordering a Happy Meal and finding out that the “boy’s toy” is an action figure while the “girl’s toy” is a punch in the face."
(tags: Feminism )
Warhorse [sevenhelz]
This is a film review that gets to the heart of what I would want to know before seeing a film: is there anything in it that would seriously piss me off? (answer in this case appears to be HELL YES)
(tags: film )
Demos | Blogs
"the Constitution Unit at UCL have mooted another option. They point out that the Welfare Reform Bill is not just about cutting expenditure, but covers a wide range of reforms: changes to assessment processes, creating new benefits, and so on. As such, the Lords might reject the Common’s claim of financial privilege. They could, in fact, reject the bill in its entirety, which would delay it for a year." - I suspect this is too much to hope for.
(tags: government )
How 'workfare' affects you
Again: how in cthulhu's name have we let this happen? Why are my taxes subsidising Tescos to "employ" people at less than minimum wage?
(tags: )
Charlie Brooker: When the Daily Mail calls rightwingers stupid, the result is dumbogeddon | Comment is free | The Guardian
Charlie Brooker on the Daily Fail article I linked to the other day
(tags: )
lanning points out that Mark Gatiss is something of a pot referring to kettles
This is NSFW but very very funny. You'll never be able to watch Spearhead From Space without giggling again. And really, I love Mark Gatiss to bits (as I'm sure most of you are aware) but this is a very valid point
(tags: gatiss )
Government rejects pardon request for Alan Turing
They have to do something EVERY DAY to piss me off now, don't they? Bloody government.
(tags: law )

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The Blood is The Life 18-01-2012

2012-01-18T09:00:01Z

I built a TARDIS - YouTube Vid
This lady tardis constructor is very cool indeed.
(tags: doctorwho )
Flog secondhand MP3s at your peril
This all seemed self-evident to me, but then I did do IP law in my degree...
(tags: law )
Falling for REICHENBACH (or, The Birth of a New Fannish Obsession)
With regard to New BBC Sherlock: I agree with this post. Moriarty is not my cup of tea at all, and although Martin \Freeman's performance WAS astounding, I loved the respect for Molly.
(tags: sherlock )
Smoking is good for you
Also eating salty fatty food and watching lots of telly. YAY!
(tags: health )
The Tragedy of the Smurfs
Determinism is a bitch.
(tags: soul=rending terrors )
andrewducker | Hoist by their own petard - why the unions are locked in to Labour
It's a bit of a bugger for those of us who could really do with being unionised but don't want to fund the bloody Labour party, though.
(tags: labour unions )
The top 10 portrayals of Sherlock Holmes - Den of Geek
I'm not in total agreement with this list, but I'm totally in agreement with their choice for #1
(tags: sherlock )

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People who do not understand our constitution should not pontificate on it. WARNING: contains rant

2011-05-23T23:34:30Z

Do you know what really annoys me about this privacy argument? The number of people complaining about "unelected judges making up law".

Firstly, to talk in generalities, the three arms of any legitimate government are the legislature, the executive and THE JUDICIARY. Judges are MEANT to interpret the laws they are given by the legislature, and they are MEANT to fill in the gaps when people have a dispute and the legislature hasn't legislated for that particular dispute. Just because we have a ~~fucked up~~ slightly unbalanced system in this country where the executive effectively controls the legislature and has carte blanche to do what it likes does not mean the system would be made better by having the executive control the judiciary as well.

Secondly, to speak to this specific matter, when I did my initial degree in the mid nineties, we discussed how the forthcoming Freedom of Information Act meant that we would need a corresponding privacy act, or there would be all sorts of problems, especially given the vagueness of the provisions of the forthcoming Human Rights Act. If, FIFTEEN SODDING YEARS LATER we still haven't got a privacy act, that is NOT the fault of the judges. Judges have to adjudicate on the case before them whether there is statute or not. If there IS statute then they are bound to use it, but if there ISN'T... If parliament doesn't want "unelected judges making up law" they should pull their bloody fingers out and enact something.

Of course they won't, because it's too much of a hot potato, and it's far easier to do nothing, and when a flare-up happens sit back on your comfy green/red benches and whine about "unelected judges making up law" because most of the mainstream media, and therefore the public, are so ill-informed in legal and constitutional matters that they'll just swallow it and parrot it back to each other.

In summary: anyone who whines about "unelected judges making up law" can safely be dismissed as talking total bollocks, probably to score political points.

And that's not just the wine talking (please excuse any drunken typos).

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First John Redwood and now Ken Clarke: on the Classification of Rape

2011-05-19T09:41:48Z

Some people will find this entire entry triggery. I apologise for that in advance, but I think what I am putting here needs saying. I've put the worst bits behind a cut.

Sometimes a person fails through lack of empathy; this is not their fault, necessarily, although it can be if they do it wilfully. But mostly, it's just that they haven't really thought about what it would be like to be another person. There has been a lot of vilification of Ken Clarke today for comments he has made about rape, and I find the revulsion that he has triggered in many people entirely understandable. But then, I have been raped. I suspect Ken Clarke hasn't. And I further suspect that most of the people who think the way that he seems to on the matter of rape have not been raped either. It seems to me that most of the people who think that way have only considered the physical ramifications of a rape: if you are forced to have sex against your will by someone you have never met, there is much more likely to be the use of a weapon and much more likely to be serious physical injury, therefore that is worse than so-called "date rape".

This takes no consideration of the psychological effects of rape whatsoever.

I'd like to put forward four scenarios for your consideration, dear reader, and then there will be a poll. I'd like you to answer for yourself in the poll because obviously, none of us can know how another person will react. As always, if you don't have a Dreamwidth account you can log in with openID (any google, blogger, yahoo, myspace, wordpress, flickr, or lots of other accounts can function as an openID) here.

( cut for triggeryness )

View Poll: #7016

( my answers )

I can understand what people are saying when they say that you can't classify rapes; that each rape must be considered on a case by case basis, and that ranking types of rape is wrong. I can understand it, but I don't fully share that view. I do rank types of rape. I classify them and I rank them. The problem is that I give far more importance to the psychological damage caused by rape, and therefore my rankings are radically different from the rankings of those who only consider the physical damage caused by rape.

For me, I can conceive of cases of date rape that would be less awful than some forms of stranger rape, for example if if a stranger rape happens in a place where you previously felt safe, like your home. But if all other elements of the crime are equal (level of force applied, etc.) date rape is a lot worse than stranger rape. Where I do agree with those who say you can't categorise rape is that each case should be considered on its own facts, and no case of rape should automatically fall into one sentencing bracket or another.

But then, I think that about ALL crimes.

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The Labelling of Ken Clarke - why should we care if he's a "Liberal Tory"?

2010-10-05T14:11:51Z

Ken Clarke is a long-time political operator, and as such has attracted many labels. The one currently doing the rounds is Liberal Tory, and this is the one being chucked about in the press as a reason why Lib Dems are/ought to be supporting him in his role as Justice Minister, and his proposed reforms to the justice system.

With all due respect to our journalistic cousins, I submit that this is the wrong reason to be supporting him. The reason we ought to be supporting him is not his political convictions and background. The reason we ought to be supporting him is that, alongside his many other experiences and qualifications, he is a QC. He knows the justice system, knows how it works (and doesn't), and has contacts in the profession from whom he can gain current insights.

If you're a Lib Dem, you should be a supporter of evidence-based policy making (as opposed to policy and ideology based evidence selection). Ken Clarke might be a Tory - and my belief is that if you're going to call him a Liberal Tory, he's a Liberal Tory, rather than a Liberal Whig who is in the Tory party - but he is a person who is well-qualified and experienced to make evidence-based judgements in the field of the justice system.

The fact that a lot of the judgements he is making are in accord with the sort of stuff I have believed since I did my law degree only make this easier for me.

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The Blood is the Life!

2009-06-20T10:48:46Z

Fresh Squeezings from the veins of the internet:

One of my current favourite blogs is Crust of the Grouch (crust_of_the_grouch_feed). Grouch is a non-aligned political commenter. The text of her comments tends towards the pithy, so she won't overwhelm your f-list with essays like some. But the best bit is that she's an artist, and therefore each post has a satirical illustration of some kind. The one that jumped out to me today is here.

Count Packula, Prince of Markness documents what happens when the twitterverse applies itself to a Daily Fail poll. Basically, hilarity ensues.

The European Court of Human rights has SENSE shock! Via Feminist Law Professors (feministlawprofessor_feed) comes the news that the European Court of Human Rights has unanimously found that a state violated the human rights of the applicant and her mother in failing to protect them against domestic violence. Hurrah!

Of all the fallout from my resignation from Liberal Conspiracy, this is the bit that makes me saddest. Aaron was the person who convinced my to write for LC in the first place, and although he might not have the purity of liberalism some of my fellow Lib Dems would like to see, he's a good man, and his heart's in the right place, even when his typing fingers aren't. Hope the sanity break does the trick, sweetie.

Today's Lib Demmery: Mr Quist is one of many commenting on the Michael Brown thing today. Honestly, other parties have SHITLOADS of dodgy donors. We have ONE and nobody will ever let us forget it... And Lib Dem Voice has a post illustrating the importance of literacy. Nob = posh person. Knob = cock. Spelling is important!

And now for today's meme:

If your comment to this post includes the words Peter Cushing lives in Whitstable I will ask you five questions. You must then answer those questions and make a similar offer on your own blog.

sideshow_meg asked me the following five questions:

If you could buy anything, what would it be?
What did you want to be when you were little?
What is your favourite tv show?
What is your favourite alcoholic drink?
Where would you like to travel if money was no object?

and the answers are ( under the cut )

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