Friday 21 December 2007

...now Lorraine has gone...

Just a couple of links:

Nick Clegg answers 'no' to 'do you believe in God?'. - I would have said this might have dealt his chances of becoming Prime Minister a blow, if he hadn't already ruined them by being leader of the Lib Dems. Glad to see a non-religious party leader, though - possibly the first one this country has had (can anyone confirm or deny that?). In any case, there was no indication whether his religious views would have any effect on his policies, and in reality it's just good to see that outright belief is not required to achieve (potential, if not likely) political power.

Anyone else find the overuse of quotation marks on the BBC website annoying? In the title of that article, 'does not believe in God' is in quotes for, as far as I can see, no good reason. It is not a direct quote, so why has the BBC decided to highlight it like this?

Radio 1 backs down over Pogues censorship - Reminded me of Bambi's post from earlier this month. My general anti-censorship attitude makes me glad of the eventual outcome, although I was confused by the quote from Andy Parfitt: "In the context of this song, I do not feel that there is any negative intent behind the use of the words". This seems odd, because, as far as I can tell, the words are absolutely being used with negative intent within the context of the song. I certainly can't imaging that Kirsty MacColl's character is referring to Shane MacGowan as a bundle of sticks when she calls him a 'faggot'. She is using an insulting and negative term, and the real question is whether people listening to the song are able to distinguish between terms used in a song-based argument by fictional alcoholics and words that are reasonable to use in a public context. I would like to think that this is the case, but who knows.

Lastly, I have finally got around to getting some glasses (technically a Christmas present from my parents), so my driving and cinema-watching experiences should hopefully now improve markedly, although I am hugely self-conscious about wearing them. :s

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm mildly scared that you where driving without glasses when you needed them, well depends on how blind you actually are.

With respect to being self conscious, just get over it (trying not to be too blunt there), I find that I ruin chances because I am a little too self conscious when I should really just embrace whatever it is bothering me and just do it anyway. The stupidest thing is when I try something new and wonder what the multitudes of people who don't know me think of my new look, which obviously isn't in anyway new to them as they didn't see me before hand and generally friends will be nice. You'll probably look spiffy in your new glasses and you may even get paid some nice compliments.

Unknown said...

Another point, How can Nick Clegg say he's bringing his children up as catholics if he doesn't believe in God, that's no faith I ever heard of that's religion at it's very worst. Simply holding to traditions.

That kind of apathy towards faith and stuff like that annoys me somewhat, what's the point if you miss the point?

TheTelf said...

Well, I was unable to read the licence plate at the required distance, but never had any actual problems driving. Should find it easier at night and with road signs and stuff, now, though.

As for nice compliments, I'm not holding my breath...

TheTelf said...

Don't get me started on bringing up children in a particular religion. I start using nasty words like brainwashing, and it all gets a bit out of hand... :P

Unknown said...

hahaha, fair enough.
although, taking my family for example, my brother decided not to be a christian, but I did, both raised as "Christians" but both chose different directions.