In the news

in fact lots of news media peugeot 106's whipping around the countryside, it's reminiscent of trying to find that post club warehouse rave back in the early 90's

I think one of the things that's become very clear in this discussion is that a) Brits don't really get French humour (which can be laced with layers and layers of self-referencing irony) and b) the French have a better idea of why the freedom of speech is valuable than we do.

Both of which make me sad. Yeah, I'm a hack so I'm biased, but journalists should be free to say things that other people don't like - because if we're doing our jobs right, we're going to say a lot of things that someone somewhere won't like.

Having a particular class of thing that you can't say because 'culture' is one of the things that Charlie Hebdo was fighting against.

i expect the gendarmes to be chasing those terrorists through a many roomed hotel before the weekend is up.

zoot allorz!

lets hope they don't have a bum - peter sellers

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30735673

Thank you for articulating what I couldn't through my rage. The comments on that piece are pretty interesting though.

BBC not showing the cartoons? Have they explained reasoning for this?

lol

Head of MI5 seeks to cash in on Paris murders:

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/08/mi5-chief-charlie-hebdo-attack-paris-andrew-parker

fucking #rep

BBC Reporter:

"You have family in the village?"

French person:

"No"

Reporter:

"Friends? So they must be in danger now?"

topical: re muslims/free speech

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/raif-badawi-saudi-arabia-urged-to-halt-flogging-of-liberal-blogger-sentenced-to-1000-lashes-9967008.html

i think i'd rather be shot...

The irony of Islam in Saudi being that it is fuck all to do with religion, and everything to do with despotic and dictatorial control.

#notascholarofmiddleeastaffairs

"fuck all to do with religion" - really? Come on.

"despotic and dictatorial control" seems to go hand in hand with religions quite well.

"lets hope they don't have a bum - peter sellers"

Or, heaven forfend, a dirty bomb.

yeah - i was, sorry. i saw the email and decided to go lone wolf.

.

Shooting + hostage taken at kosher supermarche in Paris.

.

Fucking crazy...

Crucifixion? Could be worse...

This.

Theory: religion nice
Practice: really, really helps the wingnuts/powermad, worsens (though not causes) ethnic conflicts, segregates people (faith schools, Northern Ireland esp).

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-releases-abhorrent-sex-slaves-pamphlet-with-27-tips-for-militants-on-taking-punishing-and-raping-female-captives-9915913.html

Do you think that like priests and kiddy fiddling, religious/social conventions making it hard for men to find wives through conventional means feed into this strangely prominent and recurring theme? I mean, a cynic might think it had nothing to do with religious purity, moral correctness or geopolitics and more to do with having a license to rape and enslave young women...

This is where Jeez's contribution would have been very uh, if not welcome, extensive. I wonder where that crazy estate agent is now. What a character.

Theory: religion nice

Christopher Hitchens would disagree. The theory of being overseen for the whole of your life by a judgemental god who is indifferent to your earthly suffering and then cast into hell or raised up to heaven in order to to praise him for all eternity isn't really "nice".

That's kind of my point - It's a great tool for the ruling classes to wield. Nothing says "do what I say" like the threat of eternal damnation.

Far less so the "do what I do" - obviously. Sharia being great for the masses, but a bit of a ballache if you're rocking a personal 747.