Now that's done maybe I'll be able to sleep.
In case you're worrying, my insomnia isn't as bad as all that. This post and the last one published in the ASBO* hours may be on the same page but they are actually a month apart.
*wee, small, but still anti-social
posted by Natalie at 4:48 AM
Since 1993, seven clinic workers – including three doctors, two clinic employees, a clinic escort, and a security guard – have been murdered in the United States. Seventeen attempted murders have also occurred since 1991That figure comes from a document published in December 2007. So far as I know the figures have not changed since then.
In the five days since an Irish bookmaker declared the US presidential race "well and truly over" – paying out more than 1ドル million to those who had bet on Barack Obama – there has been little to suggest that Paddy Power was taking a gamble.From the Irish Times of June 13th:
Bookmaker Paddypower has admitted it made a mistake, after paying out more than 80,000ドル in bets on a Yes vote in the Lisbon Treaty referendum. As polls closed at last night, the bookmaker made a decision to pay out punters who had backed a Yes vote after unofficial exit polls indicated a late surge in support for the treaty.
The blunder means the bookmaker will be forced to pay out over 180,000ドル in referendum bets.
"French football matches will be cancelled if fans jeer the pre-kickoff national anthem, President Sarkozy has decreed, after the Marseillaise was drowned out by mocking whistles at the start of a France-Tunisia friendly at the Stade de France on Tuesday night.Imagine how this would have been reported if the booing of the National Anthem, and the President's threat to suppress it, had occured in America."The incident in Paris, which drew indignation from the political and sports worlds, was the third in which French crowds of immigrant origin have whistled and booed the home team when it played one of the country’s former North African colonies."
Sir, Sue Whiting, a "retired special educational needs co-ordinator", asserts in her letter (Oct 10) that "there are likely to be 20 per cent of children in any classroom with specific learning differences". My initial reaction on reading this was that, surely, all the children would have learning differences: that is the human condition. However, on closer analysis I deduced that what was stated was not what was actually meant. Surely Ms Whiting’s unadorned meaning was that 20 per cent of the children would, for one reason or another, have learning difficulties.Sue Whiting's original letter is the second one here. It is quite clear that by "differences" she means "difficulties" or "disabilities". This usage, along with "differently-abled", is quite common now. It always makes me think, well you won't be wanting any money then.Such euphemistic language is an increasing phenomenon in bureaucracies. Sometimes its usage seems intended merely to avoid giving offence; sometimes, there is the suspicion of deliberate confusion. In local government housing circles "affordable housing" is referred to when social sector rented accommodation is intended. Thus, when setting housing policy requiring 50 per cent of new development to be affordable, as commonly understood, is far less controversial than requiring 50 per cent of housing to be social rented.
Orwellian usage of this kind debases the language as a tool for expression. It leads, at best, to lack of clarity and, at worst, it is downright misleading and stifles legitimate debate. It needs to be rooted out.
Julian Critchlow
I would have preferred some other form of commemoration. Jim Miller's post is well worth your time, and thought.
This man jumped from one of the World Trade Center towers, rather than burn to death. From the picture we can see that he was a young black man, probably American though he might have been an immigrant, and that he worked in a kitchen.
It is, but gun control is not about to be rolled back. The political bar to that happening is high, higher than for many other issues. My comment:
Politicians fear that if they do re-legalise then within the next year there will be a Dunblane or Hungerford-style spree killing using guns and they will be blamed.Brian Micklethwait's post was partly inspired by one from Bishop Hill: Is gun control behind our loss of civil liberties?For this reason I see restoration of the position as it stood before the 1997 Firearms Act, let alone the restoration of the right to armed self defence which was effectively abolished well before that, as politically impossible. The only way I see this changing is if there is a gun massacre under the present system, which would act to discredit it. (It may or may not head off malicious mis-readings of what I have just written to state that this does not mean that I desire such a massacre.)
A change of attitude concerning self defence against normal criminality almost certainly is occuring amid the public. But even if we imagine that this change becomes the new majority view, for it to translate into a change in the law a large number of MPs would have to (a) come to agree with the public (might happen, but remember MPs are more insulated from crime and have a preference for docile subjects) and (b) overcome their rational fear of bad consequences to them if their name is on any proposed law.
While I'm here, I agree with Patrick Crozier that welfare is a bigger factor in the rise in crime over the last half century than the lack of the right to self-defence, though both are factors.
"Alas, the author seems to have neglected to mention another aspect of Comrade Guevara's revolutionary service during this period, namely his stint in 1959 as "Supreme Prosecutor" and commander of La Cabana prison. During this time he enthusiastically fulfilled his proletarian responsibility by disposing of several hundred reactionary elements by means of the traditional bullet in the head. For the BBC to present a historical view of Guevara that blandly says, 'From 1959-1961, Guevara was president of the National Bank of Cuba, and then minister of industry' is actively dishonest."
posted by Natalie at 8:02 AM
(Cross-posted to Samizdata.)
UPDATE: Oh dear, judging from the comments there, that was another of my jokes that sailed straight off the edge of the world. I commented later:
"The point was, and I do apologize - though not in a way that admits liability! - if my attempt at making it in a funny way was not clear to all readers, was that while I'm all for the stand David Davis is making, Shami Chakrabarti threatening to sue someone over an "innuendo" so mild that it wouldn't have looked out of place in the mouth of Bertie Wooster, is petty and trivialises the issue."
posted by Natalie at 8:14 PM
One commenter, a Mr Alexander, pointed out that Ford in Sussex already has an open prison.
My comment to the Times (削除) may never emerge (削除ここまで) has emerged from moderation. (削除) From memory (削除ここまで) this is what (削除) I think (削除ここまで) it said:
"Oh, let joy be unconfined. Gordon Brown is going to eco-bulldoze nasty, unregulated countryside in order to build a bantustan for greenies. Fair enough, one wouldn't want to let these people roam freely, but will the rest of us be allowed in to laugh at their antics? Worked for Bedlam."
posted by Natalie at 11:05 AM
My scepticism over democracy is as nothing to that of fashion designer Vivienne Westwood. She was one of the luvvies whose views the Guardian's Zoe Williams naively appended to an article telling people to Fear the Hair, apparently under the impression that these endorsements would gain Ken Livingstone votes. Ms Westwood's contribution:
Boris as mayor? Unthinkable. It just exposes democracy as a sham, especially if people don't vote for Ken - he's the best thing in politics. Unthinkable."
"The belief that everyone deserves equal respect and that anything else is discriminatory and elitist. The truth is the exact opposite: discrimination is a virtuous activity and elites are to be admired. The very few human beings who are good at anything, whether football or playing the violin or writing or painting, form an elite and deserve respect for their excellence. Other people either deserve sympathy for trying and failing, or should be ignored if they have not even tried."
No, there is no good reason for this feeling. Here is a trivial and oddly-edited paragraph from the end of an education story in the Times a few days ago:
How to soothe students? Tht reports that the University Mental Health Advisers Network wants students to get exam questions in advance as it would "significantly reduce the fear factor associated with the unknown".Thanks for that report, Tht. Now it is true that for some subjects proficiency can be meaningfully tested by an open-book exam. Outside school, when you program computers or balance the books or fit an engine part you are allowed to have the manual in front of you, so long as you know your way round it. For other subjects this wimpy proposal would simply move the fear later in time and deny the students practice in overcoming it. If you present yourself to a potential employer as a French interpreter she does rather expect you to understand and say lots of French words, you know, even ones you did not know were coming. If you wish to drive a lorry on the public roads it is considered best for you to how to emerge from a junction without having to consult page 141 of the driving test manual.
Continuing the education theme, I commented on this post of Brian Micklethwait's on the subject of whether parenting and teaching conflict.
And not continuing the education theme, there are a couple of posts by me over at Biased BBC.
posted by Natalie at 10:55 PM
The Marissa Ayala who drew the pictures that you refer to in your posting The gift of life is not the one who donated bone marrow to her sister.There is a second timeslip to this story. Mr Behrens' email was written on the 11th February.The young artist is (or was at the time) a middle-school student at the Enric Grau Fontseré primary school in Flix, Spain. It looks like these drawings were done as an assignment for her English class. At any rate, Ayala is a fairly common Spanish surname, and it's not surprising that there's more than one Marissa out there.
Marissa Eve seems to have grown up to be a happy and normal teenager, and the two sisters remain close.
Andy Behrens
Strafford, Vermont
"Superficially, the stance is wryly apologetic, but the substance is a non-apology: sorry for being so clever, I should have realized that I needed to say it in words of one syllable for the benefit of those dreadful oiks in the media."-Mr Grumpy, paraphrasing the Archbishop of Canterbury.
COMPOSICIÓN DE LA ASAMBLEA NACIONAL VI LEGISLATURA
Hombres: 390 64,04%
Mujeres: 219 35,96%
Edad Promedio: 47 años
de 18 a 40 años: 185
de 41 a 60 años: 359
de más de 60: 65
Graduados de Educación Superior: 493
Graduados de Educación Media Superior: 110
Blancos: 67,16 %
Mestizos: 11%
Negros: 21,84%
Communist education gets results because force is near to the surface. I acknowledge but do not approve. See previous post here (scroll down to "Two education stories from Poland"), quoting Brian Micklethwait, or you can get more recent Micklethwait here. A further advantage of communist education is that the wishes of the teachers are given almost as short a shrift as those of the pupils.
Force works well in education because the forcers can look at the forcees all the time they are doing the forcing. It works less well in healthcare and very badly indeed in agriculture.
posted by Natalie at 11:28 PM