Did we miss out on doing a blog roundup last week? I see we did, so it’s a good time to do one now.
Not from the blogs, but interesting nonetheless: UDA supremo Jackie McDonald says the Orange Order should forget about marching down the Garvaghy Road. Given the *ahem* supportive role that the men in dark glasses have previously played to the men in bowler hats, this has some significance. Unsurprisingly, the Orange think Hard Bap is being unhelpful.
Liam is unimpressed by the Norn Iron health authorities producing glossy leaflets instructing the monoglot Ulster-Scots speaker in how to wash his hands. Bobballs has some thoughts on TV’s Mike Nesbitt going up as the Official Unionist candidate in Strangford – has unionism found its own George Lee? And Jude weighs in on the Willie O’Dea saga.
Over at Liberal Conspiracy, there’s been an entertaining barney going on whereby Laurie Penny opinionates on destructive behaviour on the left, while that nice wee man Mr L Tombs responds with a defence of the SWP. Neither piece is unproblematic if you really want to pick at the problem, but if you take it in general terms, I think both of them have a good point.
On the ongoing matter of Amnesty, Moazzam Begg and Gita Sahgal, I have to mention the sterling work being done by Sunny and Harpy, but a special shout out to Flying Rodent, who’s just done a definitive summary. Meanwhile, Jamie has a thought experiment on how a Chinese embassy staffer would view this.
In the world of music, Madam Miaow has been to see Beck and Clapton at the O2, and further laments the pending sale of Abbey Road studios. Liam takes a dusty view of famous human rights campaigner Sting’s trip to Uzbekistan. And the sometimes deeply weird L’Osservatore Romano gives a list of the Vatican’s top 10 albums for a desert island, including Revolver and Thriller (fair enough), but then going straight to the bottom of the barrel with U2 and Oasis. Father Z is not impressed.
On matters of speech and legality, which we have had some reason to think about lately, Third Estate argues against Peter Tatchell’s case for statutory press regulation; Jack of Kent has a preview of Simon Singh’s appearance at the Court of Appeal; and Lucifee concludes her brilliant series on libel law.
Clare is running for election; Unknown Conscience has an impressively chunky reflection on New Labour and education; Salma Yaqoob has an article on British Muslim women; and Stumbling Chris deplores the cult of youth in politics. Update: I’d unaccountably missed this excellent coverage of the Edinburgh SDL march. (Thanks, Dave.)
On boingboing, so you’ve probably already seen it, but this study of the sexual practices of MIT students caught my eye. In particular, the concept of “floorcest”, which seems to be a taboo against getting your leg over with someone on the same floor of your dorm building. That’s one for the anthropologists.
Finally, an appeal. Have you seen this wee man?
Splintered Sunrise 
weserei said,
February 21, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Re Laurie Penny, she sounds like she’s taking sides in the SWP-LP split, a move which would seem to be in some tension with the call to overcome sectarianism.
In other news, floorcest (actually “dormcest” at my school, due to the unusually small average dorm size) was officially discouraged at my college, the reasoning being that one doesn’t want to run into a past hook-up partner, let alone a full-blown ex, every day. It didn’t do much good. By junior year, literally everyone I knew in my year, with the exception of a few people who either didn’t date at all or had long-term relationships with outsiders, was within three or four degrees of separation of each other.
harpymarx said,
February 21, 2010 at 9:10 pm
Many thanks for the link Splinty!! And the Flying Rodent piece was brilliant!!
Dave Semple said,
February 21, 2010 at 11:15 pm
Can’t believe you missed the excellent scoop about the Edinburgh SDL march over at my place! Where’s my rud eile damn you?!
splinteredsunrise said,
February 21, 2010 at 11:26 pm
…slaps forehead…
Dr. X said,
February 22, 2010 at 2:13 pm
Another vote of thanks for the Flying Rodent piece here. Them Decent bastards, eh?