Seán H ([info]ohnefuehlen) wrote,
@ 2009-04-10 12:40:00
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Current music:Seasick Steve - Chiggers

State of Sean
-I'm flat broke in London. London is generally a good place to be, but it is not a good place to be skint. Got a couple leads on jobs, though, so hopefully this state of affairs won't continue. Got an interview thing today, in fact! Only for a part-time job, but that'd be better than nothing.

-I start my MPhilStud at KCL in September, I think I mentioned already. This is cool, but I'm worried about losing my touch, philosophy-wise, in the meantime. I bought the complete works of Plato at Foyles, I'm working my way through that. Meeting up with Rory recently made me realise how lopsided my education has been - Sheffield's freeform system let me focus almost exclusively on ethics, politics and pure logic. I'm hot on that shit, but I have basically no epistemology or philosophy of mind. I've got some catching up to do there.

-I have a beard, in case any of you aren't on Facebook (I think that's actually illegal now). Suits me pretty well, I reckon.

-The police are creeping me out. Have you seen this shit? This is the actual police encouraging you to report on your neighbours, in a country that permits citizens to be held without charge for forty-two days and our cops occasionally just kill innocent people, for throwing away things without an obvious explanation and, I cannot believe this, looking at the CCTV cameras.

-In good political news from the other side of the Atlantic, Vermont's legislature recently overrode the governor's veto to equalise marriage, Iowa's Supreme Court declared that a ban on equal marriage was against the state's constitution, and DC's city council voted to recognise all marriages performed in other states, although that last one has to be approved by Congress. Awesome news. I genuinely cannot understand opposition to gay marriage. There's absolutely no good reason for it; there's no reason at all for it except homophobia. Even religious objections are unreasonable - it's not like churches are going to be forced to do anything they don't want to do. Civil marriage doesn't have anything to do with whatever religious institutions choose to recognise, so I can't see why the religious objection exists for anyone who isn't a genuine theocrat. It says a lot about prejudice that it's taking so long to do something that's so common-sense.

-Is 'Cactus' by the Pixies the sexiest song ever? You decide. Actually, wait, I'll decide. It is.


(9 comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]infinidimincorp
2009-04-10 01:12 pm UTC (link)
There needs to be a term for creating an ignorant, paranoid feedback system that escalates a power's authority to act.

We saw this with Operation Mass Appeal, when the government instructed; "Go, my secret service pretties, and circulate, promote and publicise any information that might increase public support for a second Iraq war." then a decade later: "Crikey, look at all this evidence for a second Iraq war. There's such a lot of it about, we really have no choice."

The government bought the fabric of lies that was started by previous administrations.

Now this. Neighbours, afraid, wanting to do their civic duty, will report to the police. "It's probably nothing but..." And police will have to act on anonymous tip offs, they can't just sit and ignore them. Each step escalates the severity of the situation without attempting to understand or manage it.

I'm becoming increasingly tempted by criminal protest.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]novawulfen
2009-04-10 01:43 pm UTC (link)
If you ever succumb to that temptation, let me know, and I'll do what I can to help.

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[info]captain_magpie
2009-04-10 05:10 pm UTC (link)
cannot and will not second this in ANY public forum.

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[info]rachel2205
2009-04-10 01:24 pm UTC (link)
I prefer Bowie's cover of Cactus, actually - comes across as slightly less creepy and more mmhm sexy. ;)

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[info]ohnefuehlen
2009-04-10 06:26 pm UTC (link)
I haven't heard that, actually - hardly heard any Bowie post-'75. I'll have to check it out.

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[info]ravelled_ribbon
2009-04-10 08:20 pm UTC (link)
Wow. The photography one is just....

Well if it had been around when we were teenagers I'd have probably managed to get the pair of us arrested once or twice considering the things I used to photograph (train tracks and cctv cameras covered in barbed wire are cool looking).

What has happened to the police though? Didn't they used to be one of the more reasonable police forces around?

The civil marriage thing is just puzzling yes. The thing I find confusing is when you get people who aren't even religious trying to ban it. Actual religious people I understand (don't like it but I get it) but people who claim to be Christian but don't go to church, screw around and "aren't sure about the whole Jesus thing" and then turn around and go I'm a christian and homosexuality is wrong, or atheists who don't like it because its unnatural are just baffling. Hoorah for Vermont though. New York will already recognise marriages conducted out of state as valid if they were viewed so where they were conducted so DC should be able to manage that.

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[info]starlastardust
2009-04-11 03:59 pm UTC (link)
here, i saw the police beating up people who were protesting about police violence.

i'm not saying the situation in the UK is perfect, but i've seen so much flagrent police violence and abuse of power in France, Germany and even more so here in Russia, that i would like to point out the contrast.

the UK is doing better than even some of it's closest neighbours, nevermind further afield. i mean, i hate to even think about some South American or African countries.

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[info]lux_fiat
2009-04-11 05:34 pm UTC (link)
How right! The fact that worse things happen in other places means that we should unquestioningly accept abuses of power over here! It's not as if taking a stand against police violence while it is still smaller scale than, say, Italy, will stop the UK becoming a police state, so let's just sit back and watch it happen.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]starlastardust
2009-04-11 04:00 pm UTC (link)
urgh my english sucks in that post. i blame failed polyglotism. sorry.

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