h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/38/20110118/tsc-scientists-warn-of-superstorm-headin-98fda55.html Scientists have warned politicians to take preventative action as a superstorm, dubbed the 'Big One', is expected to hit California.

Norti >>The ECHR decides the rights of criminals are more important than that of law abiding citzens cross . Thankfully we still have politicians with the courage to say they are wrong <<

The convicted not everyone that is in their was a criminal.
A democracy has nothing to fear from allowing the convicted to vote.

10 years ago, when I was a younger angrier man, I might have felt thought that denial of voting rights was a reasonable punishment aspect of a jail sentence, at some point it dawned on me that punitive element only effects those that happen to be in jail at the time a PM chooses to call an election and give flying duck about election anyway.
And that as far I'm concerned the primary point of prisons is to keep the dangerous and despicable away from the rest of us. Not to punish them, but to protect us. And the denial of freedom that protecting us requires is sufficient punishment.
I rather those in the gaol that are redeemable be redeemed just a little, by participating in wider society at the vote, than get upset that some BNP or AFU thug gets to vote.

That aside. What's on the table is half-measure. There will not likely ever be a Right Honourable, The MP for HM Wandsworth.

I accidently hit unsub instead of latest postings.

~j~

I suppose we'll be seeing a lot of that over the next couple of weeks...

'Covicted criminals rights'. Stimulated discussion, success in itself . Worthy of a seperate thread, or merely deemed flaming

Caught my attention yesterday:

Academician and author Jean Dutourd dies



I can provide links in French, German or Spanish. Didn't find in English

The way someone is defined as a criminal and the subject to incarceration, depends upon the Laws passed by the elected representatives.

Should we also take away their right to influence who becomes our elected representatives? I say no. In the big scheme of things I think its healthy for a society to allow all of sound mind to vote.

It shows confidence in what we have built.

Tax authorities decide Uderzo is not a co-author of the adventures of Astérix, but only an illustrator. The practical upshot being, he has to pay back about 200,000 euros to taxes.

http://www.lefigaro.fr/impots/2011/01/18/05003-20110118ARTFIG00774-le-fisc-tombe-sur-la-tete-d-uderzo.php [fr]

That's scandalous!

And also slightly ridiculous. I don't really think that the decision will be kept though.

Malicious people claim that the idea came to tax inspectors having read the albums Uderzo wrote by himself

French MPs to change anti-smoking law after Jacques Tati pipe row

http://www.english.rfi.fr/visiting-france/20110119-france-owns-coffee-and-cigarette-culture

"Last year posters for a retrospective of the work of French film-maker Jacques Tati showed the late actor with his pipe replaced by a yellow toy windmill. The ad was blasted by critics who said it was an overdose of political correctness."



I also have a distant recollection of Liberation airbrushing away a cigarette in a picture of Jean-Paul Sartre, but omitting to remove the smoke

>omitting to remove the smoke<



What about?

http://plaidnet.greenwichacademy.org/arthistoryslides/slideidgal/MODERNISM/MODERNISM-Images/modern31.jpg

Oh no, I want to smoke now!

A Magritte!?
And today is Cezanne's birthday!
Oh, the horror. Quelle disrespect!

~jwf~

*can't seem to isolate the google doodle of Cezanne for today - as
they so often do, it isn't available everywhere...*

..arriving fashionably late

Re: an actor "blacking up" to play Othello, what about Ben Kingsley's use of make-up to play Gandhi?

'what about Ben Kingsley's use of make-up to play Gandhi? '

By 'Ben Kingsley' I assume you mean Krishna Pandit Bhanji: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Kingsley

Well blow me! Don't I look daft then

We're all sitting here thinking, "Phew, it could have been me that posted that"

Actually, I made a similar slip yesterday on another thread while discussing the Othello question. Here in Canada a version of the Tragedy of the Moor is going to be broadcast soon. This production is being directed by a prominent Canadian actor who happens to be Muslim, and stars as Othello another prominent Canadian actor who presently plays a Muslim in a comedy series and also has had many rolls on U.S. television playing nasty terrorist sorts who, since it is U.S. television, are necessarily Arab.

My initial post on the subject was that it could be very interesting to have a production in which an actual 'Moor' played Othello. This could be very topical, moving from the old Othello is Black thing to Othello is Muslim.

To my embarrassment, it turns out that the actor in question is neither Muslim nor Arab -- he's a British born Canadian of Italian parentage.

I think he looks good: http://www.cbc.ca/littlemosque/images/othello.jpg