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Judge Rejects “Necessity Defense” a Second Time, but Manslaughter Ruling Now Possible

‘Roeder has confessed to the crime saying he committed the murder in order to save

» Posted By abby4ever On January 8, 2010 @ 8:48 pm

Do Platypuses Dream of Eccentric Sheep?

KQ: I just left you something on the Time Out For OT thread, about the Father Ted thing…

» Posted By abby4ever On January 8, 2010 @ 1:37 am

We watch Father Ted whenever it’s on, usually with friends and some popcorn and lager.

» Posted By abby4ever On January 8, 2010 @ 1:07 am

Part 2? You need to do a series! Ask admin if you can.

:]

» Posted By abby4ever On January 8, 2010 @ 12:29 am

Thanks, I am about to click….

» Posted By abby4ever On January 8, 2010 @ 12:17 am

Bowerbirds! I know why you love them, WTS. We saw a BBC special about two months ago on these wonderful creatures. The nests! They are huge and the males spend weeks and weeks building them and then decorating them. To attract a female.

What camera work!

Well, this one male bowerbird had put the usual stuff on his nest: berries, twigs, leaves, dead flowers, the occasional candy wrapper left by some hiker. He was just finishing up when he spotted one of those tiny Coke cans that you see in shops, they hold about 3 oz of Coke, and he got it in his beak and then dragged it over and put it right on top of the huge nest he had spent weeks building.

Kind of like a baker putting the bride and groom on top of a ten-layer wedding cake.

And when you see the females fly in, to inspect the nests… yikes their fussy!!!… and they reject one, you feel so sorry for that male bowerbird who went to all that work all for nothing, that you could just break down and cry.

» Posted By abby4ever On January 8, 2010 @ 12:06 am

KQ: It didn’t fail, if I laughed. And I did!

I’m still a little gun-shy about being misunderstood in posts. One of the first things I learned about blogging is how easily a person can be misunderstood in a post. It’s because, obviously, we can’t see each other’s faces, eyes, body language. All of which, when you can see it, helps others to know the meaning (and intention) of your words. E.g. sometimes our words are taken for sarcasm, when they are not meant that way, other times when we mean them that way, no one gets it …because they didn’t see us roll our eyes when we said it. Ha!

A while ago I was going to do a little article (not for Planet) on all this and use the term ‘blogophobia’ and define it this way: ‘the tendency of bloggers to read too much into the content of someone’s post, a kind of paranoia peculiar to the blogging world, that is to some extent unavoidable…’ and then add stuff about how our not being physically present so that people can see us when we speak, is what makes it unavoidable.

Anyway, you know all this, you are experienced. Me, I am just learning.

abby

» Posted By abby4ever On January 7, 2010 @ 11:43 pm

to what’s: I’ve got your article in its own window now, I am reading it again. It is amazing, the research you did; but also the way you present it. As I say in my bio, I am passionate about ‘all creatures great and small’. I am no expert on them, hardly, and I didn’t know any of this about their sleeping habits.

I am passionate about animals and things, in part because of their innocence. It is that last that gets to my heart…and makes me crazy with anger when people mistreat them. It’s why I left that Tozer quote in my bio: ‘The abuse of a harmless thing is the essence of sin.’

What would the world be like, what’s, given the awful things that go on it, especially nowadays, if we didn’t have these lovely creatures, that have no arrogance or dark motivations or any self-serving agendas? That last is what I mean by ‘innocent’.

They simply exist and are unpretentious about it. Of the physically beautiful ones, they have no idea of their own beauty…and this explains, in part, their innocence. Sure, some have some concept of what natural beauty is, bowerbirds seem to know, but I mean they haven’t got any idea of the effect of their beauty upon human beings. Therefore they don’t try to use it, like some human beings do, to advance themselves.

I have run amok. That the world would not be bearable without them, is what I’m really saying here.

Anyway, I just love your article.

» Posted By abby4ever On January 7, 2010 @ 11:03 pm

I didn’t know and of course didn’t mean to laugh at something that serious. It was the sentence itself (the way it was worded) plus I thought you were making a little joke.

» Posted By abby4ever On January 7, 2010 @ 10:40 pm

“Of course then the argument becomes when were you dead but obviously it

» Posted By abby4ever On January 7, 2010 @ 10:11 pm

To what’sthatsound: you finally published it! And it was worth waiting for, for the research you did that so informs us about these creatures, and for the humor too.

Well done, what’s.

» Posted By abby4ever On January 7, 2010 @ 10:10 pm

Huff and Puff and Fluff

I call them her Miss Piggy moments, I refer to a post I did, not here but at hp!, saying I was sick and tired of seeing her on all these big talk shows, playing the political analyst and tossing her hair like Miss Piggy.

I meant it, too. How it got past the mawds over there, i.e. why they let it through, I will never know.

» Posted By abby4ever On January 7, 2010 @ 9:49 pm

This article is extraordinary, Vitup, it is that well-written, contains that many truths about not just hp but ourselves too, and it’s honest, e.g. you spare yourself nothing.

I enjoyed reading it and agree with it.

» Posted By abby4ever On January 7, 2010 @ 9:40 pm

N.J. Senate Denies Marriage Equality

I had been wondering if you’d fallen off a cliff somewhere, but as long as you are ok, I am ok. It’s not as if there’s a law stating that people can’t take a break from blogging to spend time with people they love.

:]

» Posted By abby4ever On January 7, 2010 @ 10:29 pm

Well, you’ve done it again, Scher. Another article on this topic, and report on how the issue is faring legislation-wise, that is written with objectivity and not even a hint of resentment toward those who can’t seem to climb out of the Dark Ages.

Kudos.

» Posted By abby4ever On January 7, 2010 @ 10:26 pm

Hi Chernyn. I was confused about that as well, your thoughts on it, with regard to what is actually being said, were my thoughts too…I mean your questions. I think it’s because marriage touches both sides of the line, civil and religious, that things get difficult.

» Posted By abby4ever On January 7, 2010 @ 10:22 pm

California was Dreaming

Patsyt: a really good article, but sad. How is that he keeps getting re-elected?

» Posted By abby4ever On January 7, 2010 @ 3:12 am

Senate seats in play

to BigDogMom:

I just now saw your post to me about Blumenthal, thank you very much for taking the time to write it.

He sounds like my kind of candidate. A politician who can seem to remember that ‘I serve’ is what’s it’s all about.

No wonder he’s popular; they are such a rarity.

Thanks again!

abby

» Posted By abby4ever On January 7, 2010 @ 7:52 am

Why not? I mean: why not even one …in Oklahoma?

» Posted By abby4ever On January 6, 2010 @ 11:19 pm

KQ: forgive the abrupt question but who is this Blumenthal everyone keeps saying might replace Dodd? I mean: is he well-thought of and competent…and not a Blue Dog…etc.?

:]

» Posted By abby4ever On January 6, 2010 @ 11:14 pm

‘Morning, Khirad, I am happy to see you, you always brighten up the day.

» Posted By abby4ever On January 6, 2010 @ 11:11 pm

These kinds of articles are very helpful to me…and to my husband and our American friends over here too. Naturally, being across the pond, we miss out on a lot of the goings on in Congress, the White House, the Hill in general and and all things related to all three. Sure, we read American newspapers online and read British newspapers both on and off line. But, as with all newspapers and especially when one country’s newspapers get to writing about another country’s current politics and upcoming elections, etc., you never know if they are getting even the rough story quite right, let alone the details.

This one is well put together and informs us of many things we didn’t know. I will save it to file, for reference.

Thanks for doing it.

» Posted By abby4ever On January 6, 2010 @ 10:39 pm

Oh Say Scan You See?

Adlib: wherever you are, you have mail, I just sent you some. Did I ever.

» Posted By abby4ever On January 8, 2010 @ 5:29 am

You have mail.

» Posted By abby4ever On January 8, 2010 @ 5:27 am

reply to Khirad: the general feeling is that Gordon Brown is going to wait to the last possible moment to call the General Election. For example…I just pick this next out of hat and to make a point, don’t think of it as the actual date and time…if he were to have only until May 19 2010 at noon to call the election, most think he’d call it at 11:59 am on May 19 of 2010.

Ha!

As for your words about my not taking my country’s laws with me if and when I emigrate, I understand. It’s a good point. I happen to be both American and British, though…hey, maybe that’s the problem!

I have dual citizenship. My husband is British.

I was aware that there are different schools of shariah law, and I don’t know much about ‘the good school’. But then as I have said before on other matters, sometimes you don’t need a comparison between two things to know that one of them is bad. Other times you do. Here I don’t think I do.

(I don’t need to know how peaceful things were on the A69 this morning at 8 o’ clock, traffic-wise, to know how unpeaceful things were on the same motorway, at 9 o’ clock. That is, I don’t need a working comparison between smooth-moving traffic and a lorry pile-up to know that the second is bad. Along this line, I don’t have to know what color the house next door should be, to know that the color it is now, is ghastly. I can see that it’s ghastly.)

The kind practiced here is very repressive with regard to family matters most particularly marriage and divorce; and the Muslim women I know and spoke of in my other post do not want their marriages and divorces… or anything inbetween, like separation… settled under shariah law. Nor do they want to be told they must wear a burka and which kind. The enjoy the freedom they have here in the UK; if they wanted repression they could go back to their countries of birth.

You make very good points, Khirad, but then you usually do. I love both my countries but, like so many other Brits, I can see what is happening to mine; almost weekly there is some new manifestation of New Labour cowing, behind the scenes, to certain elements in the Muslim community. The latest being that he gave taxpayer money to a particular madrassa without even bothering to first find out what they are teaching there…and believe me, some of them teach some pretty awful things. E.g. killing Brits in a jihad is ok. He was called for this and did not deny it because it was true.

Some of his cabinet ministers went on tv the night he was charged with it, frantic to justify it, but there is no justification. That’s why they were frantic. They knew what the public would make of it when it hit the papers. The same thing happened with the 85 shariah law courts and the 2000 madrassas. New Labour never announced their existence and never would have. Someone leaked it to the papers about 18 months ago…their existence, that is.)

Have you lived in the UK in the last 2 or 3 years, Khirad? I don’t mean to pry, just curious…

» Posted By abby4ever On January 8, 2010 @ 4:37 am

Khirad: thanks for commenting on the little sub-debate on Islam, Shariah Law, etc.

Yes, politcal correctness has gone mad in the UK but I think in the past couple of years it has gotten even more serious than that. There seems to be this constant push, push, push, some of it by the Muslim Council of Britain, for more and more changes. At first they said if we would just change our foreign policy, Blair did modify it a bit, and then suddenly it was our domestic policy that was the problem.

I do think it is appeasement, more than mere political correctness, that has gone mad. As for that new law they passed about inciting religious hatred, well, wasn’t that clever of them. First get the law passed and then start pushing; that way if anyone complains too loudly about the pushing, you can charge them with breaking that law.

Peaceful Islam I’ve no quarrel with. I don’t believe a word of the religion any more than my friend believes a word of Chritianity, but I’ve no quarrel with it. But radical, aggressive groups like Islam4UK? The ones Gordon Brown is too cowardly to ban? No thanks.

Hopefully and as you suggest, things are better over in America. Over here things are insidious. When I said ‘You fight, don’t be like the UK and wimp out’ in that post of mine, I was in my mind thinking of how insidious it all is. When something is insidious it can, and eventually will, this by definition, come right up your back before you know it.

» Posted By abby4ever On January 8, 2010 @ 2:51 am

To choicelady: Spare me the lecture, or what seems to be a lecture, please. You seem to be assuming an ignorance of Islam on my part that I don’t have. You had only to ask and you could have saved yourself most of a post.

I don’t know what kind of Shariah Law you are talking about, but as you describe it, it is unrecognizeable from the kind I am talking about that is now practiced over here.

As for Muslim women, I have university friends who are women and Muslims, one prof who’s the same, and my huband and I are friends with a Muslim couple, we spend lots of time with them. My husband and I are not as ignorant of Islam as your post, at least the tone of it, suggests.*

In any case, we seem to have very different experiences of the effects of allowing Shariah Law to be be practiced in a Western democracy, over here it has done nothing but wreak havoc. (The Muslim women I mentioned above…all well-educated, by the way… want nothing to do with it, as it is practiced over here, and with good reason. ) But that’s only the beginning, there are the Madrassas, there is the ‘inciting religious hatred’ law, which favors radicals and muzzles ordinary citizens, there is plenty. All of it negative and Brits are getting fed up.

*I’ve just read down the thread a bit and seen more of your input. I should mention that I’ve also done plenty of reading on Islam, primarily because of a ‘deal’ I made with one half of the Muslim couple I mentioned above. The wife, and a dear friend of mine. We agreed to read up on each other’s religion, I on Islam and she on Christianity. I’ve also taken two classes on Islam at university that included some very rigorous debate in study groups we had.

Don’t worry about me; you just worry about that element of Islam that isn’t peacful and doesn’t want to coexist with other cultures and religions, peacefully. (As for ‘white supremacists’ and ‘homies’, worry about them too, I know I do.)

» Posted By abby4ever On January 8, 2010 @ 1:57 am

I am happy to hear this, KQ.

Shame about the nihilism, though.

:]

» Posted By abby4ever On January 6, 2010 @ 8:04 pm

LOL !!! Well put, Chernyn. But don’t underestimate them…them or any radical sect or group. We must not overestimate them but we must not understimate them either, the latter is dangerous. They have some strange notions about conversion to Islam or even radical Islam. They aren’t above forcing people to convert (this has been true historically… upon occasion).

Not that that is all that different…in principle, anyway… from the West trying to convert people in the Middle East to Western-type democracy, at gunpoint, as it is sometimes put. If these jihadists ever got control of a country, they would force their version of Islam, both religious and political, on that country. It’s why Obama doesn’t want Pakistan to fall to them or extremists like them.

You know all this, I just recap.

» Posted By abby4ever On January 6, 2010 @ 8:02 pm

Agreed, and I know how we reacted, in the end anyway, to it over here in the UK. See the other post I just did that begins with ‘Bear with me…’.

Their strategy for the UK doesn’t bear thinking about but we have to because we are seeing fresh manifestations of it every day. I won’t say any more than that, not tonight, anyway…I harp about it over at hp sometimes.

» Posted By abby4ever On January 6, 2010 @ 7:57 pm