(no subject)

There's this meme going about. I have forgotten the exact wording, but the gist is that you challenge your flist to ask you to talk about things you don't usually.

So, please ask away. Although I add the caveat that sometimes people don't talk about things because they neither know nor care about them, so hypothetically the answer might be "Haven't the foggiest." (As it doubtless would be in the unlikely event that you asked me to talk about, say, Russian death metal, should such a genre even exist...)

(no subject)

I don't want this to turn into a massive argument about abortion, but whether you're pro- or anti-choice, I think Slacktivist's post on the history of anti-abortion campaings in Evangelical America is an interesting read; it certainly surprised me quite a lot.

I suppose the best way to articulate my position on abortion is that it's a bit like Just War*: it's never a good thing, but there are circumstances where it's the least evil choice, and sometimes by a very clear margin, and it certainly isn't for the government to make that choice for women (and men) in what can be agonisingly difficult situations - as late-term abortions are, almost by definition. (This is probably a position that people on both sides of the argument will find wrong-headed, but there you go...)

I hope I don't need to say that murdering a doctor in cold blood in church is never, ever OK.

* And I might add that I tend to agree with the Anglo-Saxon penitentials, which required soldiers to perform some act of penance after battle, even in a good cause, because killing leaves its marks on you, even if you were, to pick the favourite military tribunal question, trying to stop a Viking from raping your sister.