Flying Shortbread

People who have nothing to hide, hide nothing.

Dear Ruplestilt Thank you for your attention. Most companies I have contacted have already had some form of encouragement to address this issue and send me back a note to say, ‘Already added to list of things our programmers must attend to.’ And I am pleased to report that although at the start of a new year, or after some communication on my part with the various companies, I have occasionally reverted back to Ms, I pop through an email and am returned to my no-reference-to-marital-status status, over and over and over. (I have an infinite amount of patience in this regard.) I have had ongoing communications with several companies, and you have provided the most comprehensive response to my suggestion. Thank you. Dear Fetsiboomsticks As the IT manager for CENSORED, the CENSORED call centre has forwarded your communication to me for response. Thank you for your email and address update - your records will be updated accordingly. Please be assured that your email address will ne...

The right to speak is preceded by the duty to listen.

When you feel that nobody loves you, Nobody cares for you, Everyone is ignoring you, You should really ask yourself... Am I a doos?

Epsilon, my opinion is - free speech no matter what. I believe birds of a feather stick together and we can see each others feathers better if they are loud and bright and gleam. So if the Sunday Independent or whatwhat publishes something that I find distasteful, I vote with my feet. If you don’t like the TV programme, turn the TV to another channel, or off. If you don’t like the newspaper, don’t buy it. In a way I prefer if the racist, fascist pigs should speak their minds, that way debate is stimulated, it gives children the opportunity to see their parents responses, adults another opportunity for debate. Talk, Talk, and more talk. Talk day, talk night. IT’S THE VIOLENCE THAT IS WRONG, NOT THE TALKING. Focus on where the actual problem lies. The media are the poor bastards through which we talk, and then we screech at them when they don’t say what we want to say. But for the last 3 billion years they said what we wanted to say, but today NOT. How will they guess what day is...

Someone sent me this to illustrate what the big hooha is that the Muslims are having because their prophet was depicted pictorially by Danish 'fascist' newspaper insensitive to the consequences of publishing. Discussion by various representatives on the radio is informative: 1. Defence of republishing picture in local newspapers: Editorial freedom to republish the image but to recontextualise in a more sensitive light - 'This is the image that has caused the problem, you the public can make up your own mind.' 2. Muslim response: No way, you are not Muslim, you have no right, you will not, you will be sued, your editorial rights are moot.

Comment by Karen Armstrong, a leading British commentator on religious affairs and author of Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet Each side needs to appreciate the other's point of view. I think it was criminally irresponsible to publish these cartoons. They have been an absolute gift to the extremists - it shows that the West is incurably Islamophobic. It sends a very bad message. But, more seriously, it is letting ourselves down. We trumpet abroad about what a compassionate culture we are. But these cartoons depicting Muhammad as a terrorist are utterly inaccurate, feeding into an Islamophobia that has been a noxious element in Western culture since the time of the Crusades. It can only inflame matters at this very crucial juncture of our mutual history. On the other hand, in a secular Europe, freedom of speech has developed as one of our sacred values. We fought hard for it, but we have to remember it carries responsibilities. For example, do we have a right to say whateve...

“A young widower, who loved his five year old son very much, was away on business when bandits came who burned down the whole village and took his son away. When the man returned, he saw the ruins and panicked. He took the burnt corpse of an infant to be his son and cried uncontrollably. He organised a cremation ceremony, collected the ashes and put them in a beautiful little bag which he always kept with him. Soon afterwards, his real son escaped from the bandits and found his way home. He arrived at his father’s new cottage at midnight and knocked at the door. The father, still grieving asked, ‘Who is it?’ The child answered, ‘It is me papa, open the door!’ But in his agitated state of mind, convinced his son was dead, the father thought that some young boy was making fun of him. He shouted: ‘Go away!’ and continued to cry. After some time, the child left. Father and son never saw each other again.” After this story, the Buddha said, “Sometime, somewhere, you take something to be the...

Noma was one of my grandmother’s best friends. I wish I could get to know her again now that I’m an adult, but she died years ago. I loved going to visit Noma in the summer, because her house was near a small lake, where they would take me swimming. Her house was wonderful, too. It was a glass and cedar contemporary ranch with a sunken living room and a wrap-around deck. The place was buried in thick woods and birds continuously fluttered around her feeders. Noma had short, white hair and wore funky outfits and made her own pottery. I think Noma was married, but I don’t remember ever meeting her husband. She was probably much more interesting and complex than my 10-year-old brain could fathom. Shortly before my Grandmother died she told me a story about how she and Noma first met. They were on some committee together, and my Grandmother didn’t like her at all because she thought Noma was the kind of woman who didn’t have other women as friends -- just men. Noma caught wind that my ...

The gay people of America seem to want this simply inexcusable level of boundless, unchecked normalcy. It’s true. For some reason, they believe the utterly disgusting idea that they should be able to live their lives in peace and trust and health, with full support and assistance from their schools and hospitals and government, just like everyone else. I know. Shudder. It is, in fact, remarkably similar to what heteros want. And women. And black people. And immigrants. And dwarves. That is, to be able to fall in love and maybe even get married (or at least have the option) and have decreasing amounts of sex and raise a family and hold down a good job and pay their taxes and argue with their lovers over who the hell spent 200 bucks on long distance to their mother, all while not having to worry about getting the living crap beaten out of them with tire chains by Arkansas and Alabama and most of Texas, or secretly loathed by small-minded pseudo-Christians who wouldn’t know Jesus’ true ...

Are what teenage shut-ins are called in Japan. Typically male and between 15 and 30 years old they stay in their rooms playing video games and surfing, rarely eating and never speaking. They avoid contact with their pressure-inducing families and shun their pressure-inducing social roles. Afraid that they cannot achieve what is expected of them, they hide. When I read this article in New York Times ( Shutting Themselves In ) I realised that there is a hair's breath sometimes between pitching daily, or staying at home.

In response to some man who first quotes his myriad 'qualifications' for being allowed to have a stupid opinion - then says that Mary Daly advocates gendercide. The difference between advocated gendercide against women by men and advocated gendercide against men by women is that women are doing nothing wrong and men are murdering, raping and warmongering, AND are BUSY COMMITTING gendercide against women and nature just as an exercise in power. Men are doing something wrong. Anyway, the use of the word 'gendercide' to describe what Mary Daly advocates is inflammatory. Mary Daly advocates A REDUCTION in the amount of men, not by murder and rape and war, but by 'mister-ectomy' - the act of getting rid of the men in your life that coerce you into being the conduit through which they plant their sperm, they then abandon the resultant child to a woman to nurse through infancy into adulthood on her own dime. This REDUCTION in the amount of men removes murderers, rapi...

How do you know when you have to do the washing and the dishes? Well, you look in your pants, and if you see a penis in there, you don't have to do anything.

My homosexuality on the other hand, is NOT A CHOICE. I didn't pick it. I wouldn't change it if I could, any more than any black person would deliberately go out and change the color of their skin. It's a part of me. But I certainly didn't choose it, any more than the color of my hair, my height, or any other part of me. I've written this a billion times, and I'm writing it again. What makes me gay isn't my behavior, it's my feelings. Homosexuality isn't about behavior, it's about who you fall in love with and are attracted to. Choice has nothing to do with it. Of course I could choose to marry a man and have a monogamous relationship with him for the rest of my life. But that wouldn't make me heterosexual. That would make me a gay woman in a relationship with a man. A miserable relationship that I hated, he hated, and any children we had hated. It would be a destructive mess to everyone concerned. Want proof of that? If you're heteros...

I pay good money for that smut and expect it to remain on my television, thank you. I won't be the unwilling babysitter of other people's kids. Steph Mineart

If you see a sign that says, "Say no to Crack.' and it reminds you to pull your pants up - you may be a redneck.

A man phones to 702 who thinks it's totally unfair that when you hire a woman, you, in effect, hire her family. Why must he provide after-school care or a creche? Why must he put up with her taking days off to care for sick children, or sick relatives? It's not his problem. He hired her to do the work and if she doesn't do the work why can't he fire her. What amazes me is that women don't say, "Fuck this for a loop." and stop having children, stop taking the children after a divorce, why don't they let the men have the children, sterilize themselves and see how the fuckers like that.

Jenny made such a good point. Amy Biehl was an Aid worker who was murdered here in South Africa. Her parents forgave the killers and even went to a wedding of one of the relatives of the killers. So, Amy will never be forgotten, the courageous act of forgiveness that her parents did will make Amy unforgettable.

Nobody cares how much you know unless they know how much you care.

Every six hours a woman is killed by an intimate partner in South Africa.