Yeah, but only a little, right?  As you can guess by now, this is gonna make sod-all sense... anyway ( Read more... )

Philosophy

Some very easy question here but one more difficult one of a nature I can only hope to have accurately apprehended and grasped - I fear however that this is somewhat unlikely, as my approach was a little interpretative.  In the end nothing I can do about it now but hope, and do a resit next time if I screwed it up badly - I find this ( Read more... )

Two words which, having once had an innocent and simple meaning, have gained, when together, a dreadful significance; "the closet" is effectively a tool of repression, self-enforced so that society does not enforce its own repressions.  We are, of course, talking about homosexuals being "in the closet" and "coming out" thereof.  Simple, innocent- ( Read more... )

I'm writing a short - and I mean short, nay, very short - essay on coming out (and being outed) in terms of homosexuality; so if you've got any comments on the matter, or any personal experiences to share, please do - and say, if you mind me referencing them in the essay, which is for net publication (anyone who does give me something I use and ( Read more... )

Ω ξειν’, αγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ότι τηιδεκείμεθα, τοίς κείνων ρήμασι πειθόμενοι.For those of you with my background in Greek, Classical Civilisation, and classical esoterica, this roughly translates to...
Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,
that here, obedient to their laws, we lie

And for those of you who didn't guess, I had the Class Civ ( Read more... )

Do you know how many confusing, difficult, and downright odd questions life can throw at one sometimes?  And in some cases all at once?  Ranging from intensely personal ones, to general and philosophical ones, with no easy answers?  And when the same questions were already roiling in one's own mind it becomes doubly difficult to formulate a ( Read more... )

Remember my polemic about the school's actions as regards the libraries and the books therein?  I've just been reading the Independent Schools' Inspectorate report on my school from 2002.  The first recommendation reads:
"Increase the use of the library facilities by implementing published plans and introducing more planned use of the library into ( Read more... )

Home Secretary John Reid has called for human rights laws to be rewritten to protect people against terrorism.
In a speech in Venice to ministers of the six largest EU nations, he said the current situation was unacceptable.

Citizens were not being protected by politicians who followed case law "to the letter", Mr Reid said.

But Shami ( Read more... )

Yeah... some major political news has gone thus far uncovered herein; so I shall endeavour to cover the three main stories.

First, the Ministry of Justice which opened for business as it were this week:

The move is idiocy.  The concept is good, I must admit that.  The practice is not.  Lets see... Its constitutionally ill conceived (does it have a ( Read more... )

Thom Yorke's Harrowdown Hill, from The Eraser

Don't walk the plank like I did
You will be dispensed with
When you've become inconvenient
In the Harrowdown Hill
Where you went to school
That's where I am
That's where I'm lying down

Did I fall or was I pushed?
Did I fall or was I pushed?
And where's the blood?
And where's the blood?

I'm coming home
( Read more... )