Consie

Re: British Muslims wearing veils... I don't mean to bring up a dead topic to which people have "agreed to disagree" but I wanted to quote from this week's Economist which has an article on the topic. While not an end-all to the argument, it provides some statistics. Excuse any typos as I'm transcribing directly from the Oct 14th-20th 2006 The Economist publication. "Relatively few women wear veils. Informed guessers reckon that between 10,000 (the more likely estimate) and 40,000 of Britain's 800,000 Muslim women wear one. That number seems to be increasing, though. An influx of people from Yemen and other parts of the Gulf where wearing the veil is the norm is one reason. BNut the practice is spreading beyond this group, to the 75% of British Muslims who are from Asian families. Many of those now covering up are British-born children of immigrants, whose mothers do not wear veils themselves. Two main reasons are commomly given for why more young Muslims women are covering up. First, it is a political statement, an in-your-face version of a "Free Palestine" T-shirt... Second, Muslim women supposedly put on veils for reasons that blend feminism with religion. Though they are often pressed by their own families not to cover up, some choose to wear a veil out of disgust at the amount of flesh on display on television or on the high street, because they dislike being ogled by men, and because a veil makes them feel safer." The article goes on do further posit that women wear veils out of choice, dependent on personality, time, and place. I'll conclude with a brief anecdote - I lived in Paris in 2004 during the whole veil-banned-in-schools controversey. The French people were absolutely united in staunch support of the law. It offended a lot of Muslims (in the Middle East, not French Muslims), and the law was clearly unfairly aimed at Muslims... but at some point that fall I watched a group of schoolgirls skip out of school cheerfully. One of them stopped, put on her veil, and they all giggled and skipped away like normal schoolgirls. It seems the law has been implemented very successfully and Muslims are willingly participating in France's long established tradition of "laic" (secular) schools.

Great thread, I'm so tempted to do the same thing but it'd be many of the same songs :P

It definitely bothered me to read previous topics on this board where numerous people claimed the Beatles were "overrated." Give me a break, they are DESERVEDLY the best pop band of last century. I'd like to say that I'm unbiased and have no sentimental attachment because I wasn't born until long after they disbanded... but even my generation grew up with the Beatles because our parents played them. And even to this day they are still a huge part of pop culture. I cannot turn on the TV without hearing one of their songs in a film, advertisement, or program. Either way, biased or unbiased, I think that all you have to do is listen to some of their songs and you'll understand why the Beatles achieved such legendary status. It's a level of popularity that no artist since has even come CLOSE to achieving.

911 2 Abba 10 Alisha's Attic 0 All Saints 6 Atomic Kitten 6 B*Witched 5 Backstreet Boys 6 Bananarama 6 Beach Boys 7 Bee Gees 7 Blue 4 Boyzone 3 Busted 4 Culture Club 7 Duran Duran 8 East 17 0 Erasure 5 Eternal 6 Eurythmics 9 Five 7 Girls Aloud 7 Hearsay -1 Human Leag 9 Liberty X 5 McFly 3 N Sync 7 Pet Shop Boys 8 S Club 7 6 Savage Garden 7 Spice Girls 7 Steps 3 Sugababes 8 Take That 5 The Bangles 9 The Beatles 10 The Go-Gos 9 The Pussycat Dolls 1 The Supremes 10 Westlife 0 Wham 8

The US military follows a legal system that continually violates both international law and US law. It's utterly deplorable. If its not impeding investigations into a friendly fire incident with the British, then it's scoffing at an Italian court and sending free a dumb**** pilot who flew his fighter jet low enough to clip an Italian gondola and send 30 people to horrific deaths. Not to mention all the illegal camps, the illegal spying, the illegal arrests, the corrupt "tribunals." What's sad is that it doesn't matter if they commit war crimes or violate the Geneva Convention. They don't CARE. And who's going to stop them?

This is continued (sort of) from the population thread. Grimly brought up the topic of the consequences of the fantastic economic growth in China. I won't post an article like most do (frankly there are too many), but I wrote my thesis on this topic and I'll give some quotes from my research... I will gladly provide sources for any individual fact if asked. Water Pollution: China’s Minister of Water Resources released a statement claiming that 300 million Chinese drink contaminated water, 190 million of them are sick and 30,000 die per year of diarrhea as a result . However, some sources claim that over 600 million Chinese drink contaminated water daily . The World Bank reported in 1997 that as many as 500,000 annual infant deaths were the result of poor water quality . Residents along Chinese rivers suffer “high rates of cancer, stunted growth, diminished IQs and other pollution-related maladies.†China’s Ministry of Health's Women's Health Division has found 25% increases in cancer and attributed them to the water pollution. Most of the rivers are polluted to some degree and up to 90% of urban bodies of water are highly polluted. As many as 30 million Chinese will be forced to migrate to find new sources of water in the next 15 years. Air Pollution: Chinese cities, which make up six of the world’s most polluted ten cities , are visibly smoggy and residents suffer enormous rates of bronchitis and other respiratory diseases; 300,000 die every year as a result of these diseases. Acid rain falls on up to 30% of China, further polluting clean water sources . Deforestation and Desertification: A total of over 292,000 hectares of forest destroyed annually, desertification affects 28% of China's land mass. Of course Beijing has done very little. Only 1.2% of its GDP is spent on ecological sustainability measures (experts claim it must be at least 2% to even curb the pollution, much less reduce it). If current trends continue... China will consume 2/3 the world's harvest grain in a mere TWENTY YEARS. The world's supply of forest, crude oil, and even iron will be seriously strained in only a matter of a FEW YEARS. It's tricky because you can't say China's 1.5 billion inhabitants don't DESERVE the level of development and prosperity we enjoy in the west but... the planet simply cannot HANDLE that. Of course China is saying "development is dirty, the west did it too" and we DID. The West meanwhile is saying "there are more responsible and cleaner ways to go about it" but of course we're not giving away those techniques cheap (they're almost all developed in Europe and VERY expensive) so China isn't buying it. They're burning filthy coal to supply the energy in most of the country. Meanwhile the secretive government doesn't help... they cover up the almost DAILY spills and leaks which kill tens of thousands per year. And guess what happens when the population protest over the horrendous environmental state? The military is sent in to quiet the protest and of course this reportedly leads to violence much of the time Okay so I'm rambled enough. Any thoughts?

Right, this topic deserves its own thread...

If anyone but Google bought them I'd be worried... but they seem to have a pretty infallible record as far as I'm concerned. They'll keep it free and hopefully improve interface and function. As for its two founders... wow. You establish a small-scale web site for people to share video clips and less than a year later someone pays you $1,860,000,000 for it. Not to bad a deal!!

Oh I love the Tiga mix!! The Tom Belton remix is good too.

A very mysterious nation... I've seen a couple docs and read a few articles about DPRK and it's a very disturbing situation there. Its inhabitants are utterly brainwashed. Has anyone seen footage of when Kim Il-Sung died in 1994? Thousands of people collapsing and rolling on the streets weeping uncontrollably. They absolutely worship their leader. There are two manners of going about the nuclear argument... Do they have the right to nuclear power? Of course they do and as Grimly said it's obvious why they'd want to acquire nuclear weapons and all the credibility (or fear) that comes with them. However it is also one of the poorest nations on earth in which millions of people have died of starvation in the last decade alone. Using the few resources they have to persue such technology (not to mention Jong-Il's lavish lifestyle) while the vast majority remain destitute is obviously regrettable and should be condemned.

You're talking about the stage musical, right? I saw it last year when it did its pre-Broadway opening here. It's FANTASTIC you must go see it! Also Wicked just opened in London and it's wonderful, so go see that as well :P

Of course in reality it's better to hold on another couple years and let him self-destruct. the democratic system will probably ensure that. He's been such a terrible failure that his party is about to lose control of Congress and it's looking increasingly inevitable that an anti-war liberal will be elected in 2008. Though it's hard to say "just wait it out" to the families of all those who will die as a result of his actions in the next 2 years....

I've often thought that it's really quite astonishing that he HASN'T been assassinated.

Yeah... but This is Me wasn't nearly as "sassy" which, as others have pointed out, looks a little absurd from a bunch of little white girls.

Actually... apparently It's All Coming Back to Me Now was written for Meatloaf back in 1986. But he allegedly went with I'd Do Anything For Love and decided to "save" it for his 3rd album. Then Steinman went ahead and gave it to his girl group Pandora's Box and then eventually to Celine who made it a commercial success in 1996. I bet Meatloaf was pissed about that...

Okay so I had to read up on this because it's confusing... Apparently Meatloaf is releasing this album with no support from Jim Steinman, the guy who wrote all his songs on the previous albums. However, 7 of the songs on the album were written by Steinmen for previous albums or other artists. Steinman owns the trademark to "Bat Out of Hell" so Meatloaf sued for it and got permission to use the title for his album. Apparently relations between the two are not good. This all sounds like a cheap imitation of a true Meatloaf album so I'm not expecting much. Of course Steinman wrote "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" for Celine back in the mid-90's... I'm not sure why Meatloaf covered it or why he's using it as a lead single....

Their second single "This is Me" was even better - check it out!

For the record, I'm not against Catholic people... and thankfully many churches are trying their best to reform. The church I grew up attending had a very liberal priest who for years welcomed everyone to his church, led tremendous charitable endeavors, and taught tolerance and reason. And what does he get? Fired, because some hardline bishop comes in and doesn't agree. No, not fired... as Grimly said... he was "moved" to some tiny little congregation in the middle of nowhere where he could do no "harm." And then they WONDERED why people stopped going to church!! MADDENING.

And the worst part is... the paedophilia issue is just the most recent challenge to the church's moral authority. It is something the Catholic church has claimed since the middle ages and educated people are FINALLY beginning to question it. Suddenly catholics are saying "Wow, the bishop continued to allow sexual molestation... and wow, that new Dan Brown book says the Vatican threw out a bunch of gospels and might be lying to protect its own power... and wow, etc. etc. etc." And instead of reforming, instead of bringing the church back to the people... instead of facing the world's real problems of poverty and disease... they'll go on rambling about the evils gay marriage and stem cell research until the entire west just dismisses them and they run to Africa for the next century.

The Catholic church is in HUGE trouble in the western world right now. Over the past two thousand years, they've had a steady supply of gay males to be priests, but now that these people are able to live their own lives openly in society, there are literally NO priests to go around. Something like half the Catholic churches in the US will have to close in the next 10 years because the number of priests is falling rapidly as they all die and there are no people left in seminaries to fill their place. And oh yes, the paedophile coverup. Pathetic and disturbing. Now churches left and right here are being sued and they are all going backrupt on top of freefalling membership and zero priests to go around. They had such an opportunity in choosing a new pope to make some changes, to reform. They really ****ed it up. Electing a hard-line wacko to continue screaming like a maniac as the church continues down the path to irrelevancy.

But the building was in New York and was called "World Trade Center." Is it proper to change the spelling of a name? Personally I loathe Nick Cage and hate even more manipulative films such as this. I would NEVER see it... Although for the record, Oliver has recently made public his disagreement (putting it lightly) of the Bush admin and the way they manipulated 9/11 grief. So perhaps that makes this film more genuine.

The JoJo situation is bizarre - iTunes had her single "Too Little/Too Late" go on sale on September 13th but last week at some point, it became only available for sale as an "album" that includes Too Little, Too Late as well as a 2:00 second track that is basically a preview of 3 other songs. This "album" is still the price of a regular song ($.99). I think this little experiment has confused people because the song has tumbled down the iTunes top ten inexplicably even as it gains popularity. Also perhaps this format is against Billboard rules and it appears at #7 only on airplay? I'm not sure. I love how downloads are now included in Billboard but there are definitely still some kinks to work out in the system...

The best song of 2000 also happens to be my all-time favorite song on the planet. Filter - Take a Picture

Right, I'm actually going to see Battle of Algiers in october for a screening at a humanities festival... I really want to just netflix it and watch it tomorrow but I paid for the tickets already :lol: I'll be sure to check out Cache afterward...

I will definitely check it out. A taxi driver in Paris told me 2 years ago that "every French man over the age of 40 hates Arabs" and ever since I have been fascinated by the Algerian war. Thanks for the suggestion!