The Eternal Gaijin

These things make me laugh and despair. How is it even possible that this is what people think 999 is for?

Let's start by talking about gay marriage for a sec. Does any one really, really give a fuck? Seriously. Oh, it's going to be mandatory. That's different. Oh, you were kidding; back to my original point. Kah-lee-fohnia had a State Supreme Court ruling that opened the door to fully equal rights for same-sex marriage. In my opinion ho-and-indeed-hum. I'm married and I don't think that the ruling would affect anyone in my potential dating pool anyway, so... The usual intellectual featherweights with pretensions of being lightweights have said the usual crap about overturning the will of the people or inventing rights out of whole cloth, or activist judges. The real issue is not adding a right to gay marriage; it's ending the restriction of the right of two consenting adults to form a legally recognized pair bond. Remember, this has no bearing on the religious institution of marriage - under freedom of religion provision in pretty much every western countr...

This is what needs saying more often. Time to fight security superstition | Technology | guardian.co.uk The Met's latest poster campaign urges Londoners who spot "unusual" activity to ring the police and let them know. Examples include someone taking pictures of CCTV cameras or acting out of the ordinary. After all, these are dangerous times, and we all must be vigilant. Contrast this for a moment with an earlier dangerous time: the Blitz. Bombs rained down upon London on a near-daily basis, killing, maiming and laying waste to whole neighbourhoods (one American friend recently described a trip around east London where his hosts pointed to every car park and said, "Of course, that was bombed in the Blitz" – and came away with the impression that Hitler had dropped car parks on Hackney). Back then, the government's message to the people wasn't "Take your shoes off" or "place your liquids in this bag". Instead, King George's pri...