No Clean Feed - Stop Internet Censorship in Australia

Category Archives: Popular culture

Blood Elves and Blogwars

October 1, 2009 – 10:44 pm

I hadn’t come across conservative US shock jock Glenn Beck until an anonymous prankster started up a site called glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com. Beck is now suing the originator of the site, so of course I’m interested now.
Some background first. Beck doesn’t sound like he’d be my cup of tea. An article in Time magazine in July this [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Free Speech, Intellectual property, Law, Media | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (13)

‘Don’t touch that, it’s concentrated evil!’

September 26, 2009 – 1:32 am

There’s a fascinating post (and comments) over at Pavlov’s Cat’s place on the unease she feels at an ‘exhibit’ (it is difficult, as PC acknowledges, to know exactly what to call it) organised by Médecins Sans Frontières. The exhibit (if you want to call it that) involves replicating, with a great deal of attention to [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Economics, History | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (26)

Calling history, come in history

September 21, 2009 – 1:27 am

Lawyers (and others) with professional expertise in a given field often complain when a film, television program or book makes use of their discipline for purposes of popular entertainment and then gets it wrong.
I’ve lost count of the number of times (as DEM can testify) that I’ve wanted to throw things at the telly during [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in History, Law, Philosophy | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (43)

It’s always ‘for the children’

September 7, 2009 – 7:51 am

Something about giant inflatable gorillas… and gay marriage.

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Economics, Personal liberty | Tagged | Comments (7)

Social networking technology and employers

August 18, 2009 – 3:43 pm

Deckard: Replicants are like any other machine. They’re either a benefit or a hazard. If they’re a benefit, it’s not my problem.
Bladerunner, 1982
Very much the same thing could be said about social networking technology as about replicants. The technology can have both positive and negative ramifications.
A few times over the last week, I’ve read articles [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Free Speech, Internet, Law, Media, Personal liberty, Public Policy, Society | Tagged , , , , | Comments (34)

‘Your taste is in your arse!’

August 5, 2009 – 8:30 am

Finally, I’ve found a piece that pins the tail on the one donkey that hasn’t been properly skewered in the whole Vile and Tacky episode that Legal Eagle’s already covered. Over at The Punch (a blog I haven’t encountered before), a young chap (judging by his picture) called Chris Deal makes this point:
But there’s one [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Economics, Feminism, Law, Media, Privacy | Tagged , , , , | Comments (41)

Video killed the radio star

July 30, 2009 – 8:10 am

I don’t listen to radio very much. When I do, I avoid commercial stations like the plague. I can’t stand the ads, the cheesy voice overs, the annoying comperes and the gimmicks. Some of the things they talk about are really not suitable for small children, and I almost always have my kids in the [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Media, Music, Personal | Tagged , , , , | Comments (136)

What kind of a woman am I?

July 27, 2009 – 5:29 pm

There’s this stereotype about marriages that the husband comes home cheerfully, to find his wife stony-faced. After some time of receiving the cold shoulder, he tentatively inquires as to what the matter is, and finds out that he’s forgotten that it is his wedding anniversary.
With whom do my sympathies lie? With the husband, all the [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Personal | Tagged , | Comments (19)

He’s NOT the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy!

July 2, 2009 – 11:21 pm

Councillors in Glasgow have lifted an unofficial 30-year-old ban on the Monty Python film The Life of Brian. The council’s licensing and regulatory committee approved a request on Tuesday from Glasgow Film Theatre to show the biblical satire under a 15 certificate.
Glasgow was one of 39 local authorities in the UK that refused to [...]

By DeusExMacintosh | Also posted in Free Speech, Funnies, Politics, Religion | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)

Don’t blame it on the Blankie

June 29, 2009 – 9:41 pm

When I was a little girl (say 2 or 3 years old), my Dad used to sing Don’t Blame it on the Boogie to me, but he refashioned it as “Don’t Blame it on the Blankie“. My security blanket had the very imaginative name of “Blankie”. Apparently I would wail and say, “No-o-o-o-o-o! Don’t blame [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Media | Tagged | Comments (29)