Robert Bollard, over at Ilya’s, commenting on the philistine remark by 300‘s director, Zack Snyder that you should “Thank Thermopylae for your Starbucks”:
Simonides might have phrased my last comment more elegantly:
“Tell them in Lakedaimon,
Passer by,
For the sake of Starbucks
Here we lie.”
Concerns online civility and comes from Sifu Tweety in response to another comment on his own post on lawyer Jil of Feministe’s law school and online harassment by rightwing fuckwits:
Sifu Tweety Says:
March 7th, 2007 at 10:58 pm[…]
What makes me nervous, and why I mentioned it, what makes me nervous anytime anybody of any gender implies it, is the theory that we should somehow “do something” that stops these people from being able to act like assholes in the first place. Because we cannot. There is no way. The internet completely breaks that (already broken) paradigm, and to forcefully reassert that kind of paradigm on the internet breaks the internet. Period.
And the more people don’t understand this, the more people think about the internet as the “real world,” the more likely it is that somebody will actually find a way to break the internet legislatively – again, this is not a partisan thing, although it should be, stupid dems – and then all of the world-changing things we love about this medium, the thing we have in common, will become more broken promises, just like TV, just like cable, just like movies, just like the fucking printing press as most of the world concieves it, as the traditional powers retake control, and all this citizen powered malarkey becomes a memory.
So, yeah, those guys are unbelievable shitheads, but all of us must fight for their ability to do at least some of the things they do. It’s to us that they’ve hitched their wagon, to our tools.
It’s unfortunate sometimes, but freedom means freedom for everyone, even the shitheads, and we just have to accept it. Damn you, personal liberty, why must you be so bloody double-edged all the time?
RIP John Inman, who died last night aged 71: Inman played Mr. Humphries in Are You Being Served and is one of the gay actors who, like Frankie Howerd and Kenneth Williams, brought camp comedy into the UK entertainment mainstream.
However you feel about the use of stereotypical ‘nancy boy’ behaviour as entertainment, entertain it does and thee’s no denying that the public presence of camp comics like Inman made it much more acceptable to be an out gay man.
Here’s some video of Inman in full flight:
When I was a kid I used to laugh just at the pure silliness of Mr Humphries, but it’s only as an adult watching him that you get the sly subversiveness behind the slapstick.
Digby neatly disposes of the Pecksniffs of the rightwing blogosphere:
[…]
Dear me.
I’ll try to curb my brawny, robust language around these prudish little fellows if I find myself at one of their tea parties, but I can’t promise to do so on the blog. As far as I’m concerned, that chart shows that I have not been nearly salty enough. The state of our politics calls for big, bold angry rhetoric to express the level of outrage appropriate to the situation. Those with delicate rightwing sensibilities best cover their tender little ears.
Quite. Or should I say, abso-fucking-lutely.
By the way, I think I may have found those ‘prudish little fellows” spiritual home.
I’m not the world’s greatest Tim Ireland fan, but I see no reasoj why he’d make up this story. So I’d better get rid of that plastique red nose I’d been saving if it is true…
Via the The Parliamentary Protest Blog Ireland says that if you wear a red nose anywhere near the Houses of Parliament you’re risking arrest:
Tim Ireland from Bloggerheads warns about Red Nose Day on Friday 16th March 2007:
This is the first Red Nose Day to take place since the introduction of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005.
It is now illegal for you to wear a red nose or promote Red Nose Day in any way within the designated area surrounding Parliament if you do not first seek permission from the Metropolitan Police Commissioner.
Simply wearing a red nose could result in a fine of £1,000.
Organising a Red Nose Day event that takes place within the designated area could result in a fine of £2,500 and/or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 51 weeks.
No, I am not pulling your leg.
This ‘war on terror’ is getting silly, getting really very silly indeed.