Archives: May
Wednesday, May 28th
Criminalising the Nation
I was prompted by reading a Register article about the Criminal Justice Act 2008 into doing a bit of dinnertime reading into this and other things our government has been up to lately, and it's thrown up some interesting (or disturbing) info - in particular the discrepancy where it may become illegal to possess photos of an entirely legal activity.
Of course taking any photos of anything is apparently grounds for suspicion of anything from terrorism to paedophilia. A friend of mine has been stopped and searched several times for daring to hang around London landmarks at night with a camera. The Metropolitan Police seem to be keen to of anyone with a camera - although I did come across this rather entertaining response a while back.
Another revelation from the Reg article is that during the consultation for the CJA, Kent police sought to include written material in the 'extreme porn' definition, as well as images. A quick google search for 'thoughtcrime' dished up the recent case of the 'lyrical terrorist' Samina Malik, which provides some food for thought, as she has apparently been prosecuted because of something she's written rather than something she's done - on the hypothesis that she might be dangerous at some point in the future. A whole variety of better writers than I have pointed out a whole range of established literary texts and popular music lyrics which would appear just as likely to glorify or incite violence, and have reached a far larger audience than Ms Malik's writings. As a personal example, I have in front of me a pamphlet entitled "Generation Terrorists", which urges me to "fuck Queen and country". This document, written by a group of self-proclaimed 'Preachers' has been purchased by hundreds of thousands of people, mostly impressionable youths. I could continue through my CD rack (I was listening to the Clash earlier for a start) and find any number of similar examples.
On the subject of music Mac recently gave me a reminder of the Daily Mail's recurring campaign against the 'Sinister Cult of Emo'. Leaving aside the twin tragedies of a young girl's suicide and the fact that people actually believe articles like this without question, there are moments of pure comedy in there. It does however beg the question of how long before the government decides to ban My Chemical Romance, or the Manics (who were of course scapegoats for adolescent self-harm/suicide long before anyone had ever coined the term 'emo).
When they kick at your front door, how you gonna come?
posted by David @ 09:38 PM [link]No Comments
Thursday, May 15th
Picnic in the park
Sarah in the park near our house last Sunday. Taken with my Nikon D40, cliched post-processing courtesy of The GIMP.
posted by David @ 10:06 PM [link]No Comments