The Hall of Fire

Ethel , I did not equate homosexual behavior with pedophilia. I said that this case (the Dutch party) was not the first time people have been worried that pedophilia would be considered "normal" as a next step. [ Lord Morningstar used the words "next step" in his opening post.] ...

I'm really uncomfortable about this because surely the sexual abuse of children is the vilest crime possible, but I have to agree with yov. It's the First Amendment of the US Constitution, you see, which I revere. Freedom of speech includes freedom of vile speech as well as any other kind, or it mea...

I look forward to the Giant Bug scene.

Miss Bingley was dressed like a married woman, not a Miss. Except, as a married woman she would have had something on her head. Yes, married women wore caps. Something about the allure of female tresses. Unmarried girls wore their hair long, down their backs. Once married, one put one's hair up, an...

I didn't quite hate the new P&P. I found myself tolerably entertained, watching it, when I could suppress my "that's not right!" urges. I watched it with a friend who had never read P&P, and she quite enjoyed it, apart from me being so tiresome. It's not that hard to get the period...

What I've heard from non-native English speakers is that... it's easy to learn, easy to speak, and impossible to spell.

Don't you people ever go to work? Yes, of course we do. But we have internet access from our desktops. Work has been ever so much more congenial since that has become the standard. Some people waste time by pretending to work. Some people waste time talking to their colleagues. Others waste time on...

Sorry I missed this thread. (I assure you'd I'd have recognized baby tuckoo immediately if I had seen it.) I hope it's okay if I go back to the bad language theme. It's really a question of respecting people's sensibilities, isn't it? I do not swear around people who are offended by it because I don...

Prim, we're going to have to have a mini-sci-fi-fest in SF. I know you're a fan of Lois McMaster Bujold, and now it turns out you're a fan of Babylon 5 and Firefly as well!

And I just got the first season of Battlestar Gallactica on dvd...

I don't know that I agree entirely, since I am skeptical that there is such a coherent policy on anyone's part. I think the US has done too much of the ad hoc variety. I actually agree with this. I have read Jn's analysis with great interest, and I don't think she's wrong... but I think we kind of ...

Just as well to leave Bleak House for another time. Oh, why? It's my favorite Dickens. But... I seem to have odd tastes. My favorite Faulkner is Absalom, Absalom. I have never yet met another human being who agrees with me on this. I'll go read the first 10 chapters of Great Expectations and come b...

I've not read all the replies - I'll go back and do that. But I will say this: child abuse is nothing new. And it was always worse than it is now. I believe this with all my heart. Time was, children were chattel. They were valued because they could help out on the farm. Girls were no good - you'd h...

I think Bleak House is my favorite Dickens, but I'd be up for Great Expectations as well. I'll have to buy a copy, I think.

As far as I know, the only country that is doing interrogations at our behest is Pakistan. It might be that the Syrian guy was tortured by the Syrians for having left Syrian ... I just don't know. But if he were really a member of al-Qeyda the Syrians are more likely to have bought him a nice dinne...

The transcript does have the hijackers talking about the passengers trying to get into the cockpit. They even talk about cutting off the cabin oxygen to stop them. You can read it here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,191520,00.html Relatives of some of those killed were allowed to listen to the...

accept it's not my job to forgive. I can certainly try, but ultimately my forgiveness doesn't do someone any good. I suppose the acceptance I talked about included forgiveness. I disagree with this a little bit. I do think it's your job to forgive people who have wronged you personally, as fully an...

I have heard it said that homosexuals are the only minority that, if you killed every last one of them, a generation later there would be about the same number. There have always been gay people, and evidently there always will be. Did you God create these people to be outcasts?

but why then is my awareness of color and taste and light part of this chain of chemical reactions? Because an accidental miscopying of the then-current set of DNA gave it an edge over the competition, thus it successfully propagated and dominated the old version. I agree with this answer, and yet ...

Whistler wrote:Sorry for the osgiliation, but I felt predestined to post it.

I have a friend who did her dissertation on chaos in stock prices and I told her when she started that she would not find it, and she didn't. (Reasons why are a bit complicated to explain here.) It would be a heck of a thing if we could eventually predict price changes ... but then we have another ...