Loldemort

Odd one out

2010-11-16T20:08:00.003Z

Spot the odd one out: Fox News: Muslims Torch Christian Homes in Southern Egypt; theage.com.au: Muslims torch Christian homes in Egypt; news.com.au: Muslims torch Christian homes; The BBC: Homes burnt in southern Egypt Muslim-Christian violence. Congratulations, BBC, on yet another triumph of mealy-mouthed equivocation! This is what I pay my licence fee for! Somehow the BBC article

British man said to be mentally ill executed in China

2009-12-29T05:47:00.003Z

Such is the title of an article on the BBC website decrying the execution of a British national for smuggling drugs. "The execution took place despite repeated calls from his family and the British government for clemency," bleats the BBC. There follows a set of, frankly, completely unbelievable excuses apparently invented by his family, as well as the claim that he was mentally ill. Quotes

Swine Flu, Egypt, slaughter

2009-05-03T01:24:00.003+01:00

Apparently the Egyptian government have had all the pigs in the country slaughtered, some 400,000 of them (according to the Times). I wonder who owned all those pigs? It seems unlikely that the owners will be followers of Egypt's majority religion, since pig products are forbidden to them. It seems likely then that the livelihoods principally affected will belong to members of Egypt's minority

Peter Thiel - The Education of a Libertarian

2009-04-30T14:48:00.003+01:00

Just read his post. It neatly sums up several themes that have occupied my thoughts recently (by which I mean the last year or two) and it's pushed me to write my own thoughts down. That's probably going to take the better part of a day, so this post is going to start short and get longer as the day goes on...

The case of the curious graffiti

2009-01-21T20:01:00.002Z

Tonight's Channel Four news provided an amazing hate-fest against Israel. I had thought better of Channel Four, but apparently not. It was always the case of course that the TV journalists, who'd been denied access to Gaza while the Israelis were actually there, would be shepherded in [and I use the word advisedly] by photogenic Palestinians and encouraged to vent their spite. What amazed me

Lillian Ladele

2008-07-15T14:20:00.004+01:00

So the "Christian" registrar (of births, marriages and deaths) who won the right not to have to register the civil unions of homosexuals turns out to have an illegitimate son of her own? I wonder if she's claimed child support for him in the past? Accepted the resources of the state perhaps for the son born outside the wedlock she apparently believes is the sole legitimate place for sexual

Languagehat wears the dunce's cap - again

2007-12-11T16:37:00.000Z

I'm a subscriber to Languagehat and read it every day. Among its posts I've found occasionally-fascinating nuggets about individual languages, interesting thoughts on language in general, and an inside perspective on issues in linguistics. However its posters do sometimes seem to display a woeful weakness for that kind of woolly, leftist thinking that particularly inflames me — not so much for

Macaulay on Southey's Colloquies on Society

2006-11-03T15:53:00.000Z

Written in 1830, some 176 years ago, Macauley's review is sadly just as applicable today as it was in his own time. Mr. Southey brings to the task two faculties which were never, we believe, vouchsafed in measure so copious to any human being, the faculty of believing without a reason, and the faculty of hating without a provocation. Apply that to any of the religious figures who claim

If...

2006-10-19T00:17:00.000+01:00

you are a gay man, and you watch Stargate: Atlantis, and you have a heart in your body, then read Missed the Saturday Dance.

It makes you laugh #1

2006-09-19T12:18:00.000+01:00

Spain translates more books into Spanish each year than the entire Arab world has translated into Arabic since the ninth century.

Pope 'sorry' for offence to Islam

2006-09-16T21:31:00.000+01:00

As the BBC notes: In the West Bank city of Nablus, two churches were firebombed on Saturday in attacks claimed by a group which said it was protesting against the Pope's remarks. They are protesting against a link between Islam and violence by firebombing churches? The standard western reaction to that is: What mad perversion of reason made them think that was logical? But this, I think,

Weird BBC

2006-08-10T11:59:00.000+01:00

'Airlines terror plot' disrupted Today's major article is currently (the BBC apparently has a habit of quietly rewriting them without telling anybody) a masterpiece of mealy-mouthedness: "21 people" are in custody. Do we know anything about these 21 people? Well: Police had spoken to a "good number of community leaders to make them aware that a major operation was under way." Which

Gays flee Iraq as Shia death squads find a new target

2006-08-07T01:19:00.000+01:00

The gist of the article is, Shia Muslim deaths squads in Iraq, acting on pretended authority from their "god", and with the connivance of the supposedly secular government that we are supposed to be supporting, are executing innocent gay people. Once again, absolute faith leads to absolute corruption.

Dear Colin

2005-05-08T13:36:00.000+01:00

I commiserate you on your recent lack of success with the 70 year-old ladies. While congratulating you on your open-mindedness, I feel emboldened to point out the considerably greater likelihood of success that your amatory advances would have with 47 year-old gay men (such as, incidentally, myself). In fact, I can confirm on behalf of 47 year-old gay men just about everywhere that should you

Cocteau's beautiful description of a man's body

2005-05-06T23:36:00.000+01:00

In Le livre blanc Cocteau writes of: a perfect body, rigged out with muscles like a ship with ropes, its limbs appearing to open out like a star around that fleece where there rises, in contrast to woman, who is built for concealment, the only thing about a man which cannot lie. I must read the French, but the English is very good. The trouble is, you can pick several holes in it: from its

Gay histories — more personal notes

2005-04-24T11:48:00.000+01:00

While reading The Light Of Reason I found this posting. Arthur's story is one that every gay man over a certain age, and many younger ones, can identify with. It starts with the horrified realisation, when you are nine, ten, eleven or so, that you are somehow — you're not quite sure how — different from everybody else, and that things are going to be very bad for you from now on. It

Irreligious quotes

2005-04-24T01:21:00.000+01:00

To my way of thinking, they are more against religion than against 'god'. Given the amazing weirdness of the universe as it is revealed to us by the sciences, I am not sure that god is that much more improbable. But the real fire of these is turned against human foolishness. “The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.”—Benjamin Franklin. “We are all atheists about most of the gods

At last my plan...

2005-04-23T19:46:00.000+01:00

At last my plan for the great gay escape from planet Earth, and our subsequent domination of the cosmos, can be carried out! Once the techniques of human hibernation have been perfected and we have learned to reproduce homosexually, we shall build our spaceships and travel to the stars! There we will found an empire of peace, having left the last vestiges of heterosexual aggressiveness behind!

Vampirism at the heart of the Christian religion?

2005-04-08T11:24:00.000+01:00

Jean Roche in his Les aventures du Diable 2003 relates the following regarding Tertullian: Tertullien (v 155-v 220) découvrit un jour que la phrase "Qui ne mange pas mon corps et ne boit pas mon sang", avant d'être attribuée à Jésus par l'Evangile, figurait depuis des siècles dans la liturgie de Mithra. Il en conclut que c'était le Diable qui avait cherché ainsi à affaiblir par avance la

Blogger made me do this

2005-04-06T21:24:00.000+01:00

So that I could comment on (the very wonderful) uadmin's blog.

Plato and Homosexuality

2005-03-30T10:54:00.000+01:00

During a leisurely troll around Wikipedia I came across the following, fabulous, Plato quote: Wherever it has been established that it is shameful to be involved with sexual relationships with men, that is due to evil on the part of the rulers, and to cowardice on the part of the governed.

The essence of religion is the desire NOT to understand

2005-03-21T10:29:00.000Z

Over on MSNBC, Keith Olbermann has an amusing post on right-wing reaction to attempts to present homosexuals as human beings rather than as . The thing that most struck a chord was one of the letters from outraged (or perhaps I should use one of their favourite mealy-mouthed euphemisms: 'concerned') gay-haters. It's so good, I'll quote the email and his comment: