Is It Possible You're Overthinking This..?

Have superhero comics outgrown a pre-adolescent fear of women? Not in the slightest, argues critic Abhay Khosla. In fact, he argues, Marvel Comics' last few linewide storylines have been all about why women are terrifying and need to be destroyed.

Wha..?

Opines Khosla:

"The first major "Event" Civil War began when Captain America was asked to submit to the authority of a woman named Maria Hill.

Captain America then initiates an all-out superhero civil war rather than take orders from a woman. At the conclusion of the comic, Iron Man has won that contest; however, the comic goes bizarrely out of its way to assure the reader that the patriarchal order has been restored: the comic's celebratory final three pages feature Iron Man forcing Maria Hill to get him coffee."

I had to double-check to make sure this wasn't a female critic. It appears to be male.

And if he thinks this is a good way to pick up chicks, well...

Hard Cases = Bad Law

Veronica Lynch, mother of Kelly Lynch who was mauled to death by two Rottweilers in Scotland, has been hauled out by the 'Daily Express' in a bid to wrest away the crown of 'Most Opportunistic Chip Wrapping' in the UK:

Everytime a child dies like this I feel sick to the pit of my stomach. It is as if it is happening to Kelly again. I will be writing to Gordon Brown asking what his plans are because he cannot ignore this problem any longer. His Government has just not done enough.

These deaths can be prevented but not until the Government wakes up and changes the law. Dogs and their owners should be strictly regulated by the authorities.

Oh, you can see what's coming, can't you?

All owners and their dogs should be put on a national register so they would have to go through a licensing process and not everyone would be granted a licence if they were unsuitable to keep one of these animals.

Then they would be subjected to annual checks to see if their circumstances are changed, if there had been any incidents or if there was any breeding going on.

I even believe there should be a limit to how many dogs one person can keep. It must be extremely difficult to keep control of one powerful dog, let alone two.

All dogs? Mrs Doyle's chihuahua is to be registered along with Wayne 'Stabby' McChav's pedigree Pit Bull/Alligator cross? In what world does that make any sense?

And how are we supposed to pay for this, given that Gordoom has bankrupted the country? It isn't just the register itself, it's the salary and IT and accommodation for the thousands of civil servants needed to check on the estimated 22% of the population that own a dog...

The Government managed to introduce the smoking ban, which no one thought would work but look at how easily that was put into place.

/headdesk

I know a national register would upset a lot of dog owners but it’s the only way. Besides, responsible owners have nothing to fear.

Ah, heard that one before...

I’m not anti-dog, I’ve owned dogs all my life but there are certain breeds that are too unpredictable and too powerful to be allowed without tight regulation. If it is done right then powerful dogs would never end up in the wrong hands.

Yup. The gun laws after Dunblane made sure that handguns never ended up in the wro...

Ah. Right.

I spent a lot of my life campaigning to get the laws changed after Kelly’s awful death. The Dangerous Dogs Act came about on the back of this but it was so disappointing because it didn’t include breeds like Staffordshire Bull terriers.

Staffordshires are billed as being good with children but if that is true why are there so many that attack youngsters and end up maiming or killing them?

I know, it's a complete mystery, isn't it?

I mean, it's like the way BMW boast of their car's amazing road-holding capability, yet stiil each year, some of them leave the road and hit trees and brick walls! What's up with that?

Could it be there are other factors at work, and that they are the problem?

All we need now to complete this mishmash of control freakery, mawkish 'Do it for the chilldreeen!' sentimentality and selfishness is a nice conspiracy theory.

And right on cue:

Campaigning was cathartic but it was also extremely difficult on a personal level. Nothing could bring Kelly back. There is a powerful dog lobby: it’s a big-money business and they will defend their breeds extremely robustly.

Well, it could have been the Jews behind it, I suppose. That's the usual 'shadowy powerhungry group' of desperation...

People need to be constantly reminded that we have a duty to protect our children and it is a duty in which we are failing.

No. People do not, and people are not. Individuals may well be.

How about we approach the problem by focussing on them, for a change?

But no. With the parlous straits the Labour Party now find themselves in, I can see some clown tabling a bill before long, in the desperate hope of winning the votes of the 'out of their minds with grief' voting bloc...

WWF Lodges Objection, Claims Remarks Are 'Damaging To Vultures'...

It seems we have a contender already for the 'Scumbag of the Year' title so newly claimed by Hayley Price a few days ago:

A woman lawyer conned a dying millionaire out of well over £90,000 and put his blind wife in a nursing home while she lived in luxury on their money.

Still, she spent wisely:

She paid private school fees for her two children, settled debts of £60,000 and bought a £37,000 Audi Avant A4 car, a £6,000 Chihuahua dog and a pedigree cat.

The day after her arrest she spent more than £5,000 on breast reduction surgery.

Breast reduction surgery..?



I dunno, would you look at that face in the mirror and think, 'Hmm, yes, breast reduction surgery! That's what I need above all!'..?

She can't even claim to have 'inner beauty', can she?

Mark Nicholls, defending, said Hyland had run up debts while training to become a solicitor.

He added: 'She has been painted as being a vulture but she is extremely remorseful and has referred to this as being a day of relief'.

A vulture? Hardly. They serve a useful purpose...

Of course, the Victimhood Poker card was played at her hearing:

She appeared in court in a wheelchair yesterday and is understood to have been claiming disability benefits.

She was jailed until 2012. So she'll be out in time for the Paralympics, if she gets in enough practice while behind bars...

"Yeah, that Saddam? I 'ad 'im in the back o' the cab once, yer know..."

Gossip from an Iraqi taxi driver was a key source for Tony Blair's 'dodgy dossier'.

Comment is superfluous...

Making A Laughing Stock Of British Justice...

Stuart Hunt, 46, was charged for allegedly laughing at the teenage daughter of the couple he has had a dispute with for six years.

He claims that the 15-year-old was dancing in the street as he drove past after dropping his two children at school.

Mr Hunt insists that all he did was smile, shake his head and laugh, but that may be enough to land him in court, accused of breaching one of the most unusual Asbos imposed in Scotland.

And for 'unusual', read 'plain barking mad':

The interim court order, granted in 2007, imposed a series of restrictions on Mr Hunt, whose dispute with his neighbours Stuart and Shirley Latham dates from a row over speed bumps he placed on the access road they share.

The order prevents him from laughing at people, staring at anyone or slowly clapping his hands at the actions of others.

He is also banned from waving objects at people and adopting a menacing stance.

Isn't it time people grew up? And isn't it time the police and courts stopped acting like primary school teachers?

Ho Hum, Yet Another One...

Dalby had a three-month affair with a man she met through a telephone dating service, the court heard.

On 15 August, she had consensual sex with her lover at home in Grimsby before texting Mr Dalby to tell him she had been raped by a stranger.

David Cammies, prosecuting, said she later pretended to police that a man had followed her home, pushed her inside and attacked her in a bedroom.

Officers no doubt smelled a rat when they realised that in order to push this land-whale, the opportunistic 'rapist' would have needed to bring along a fork-lift...

Of course, the justice system treated her like a victim:

But despite wasting £3,800 of public money and showing little regard for two men arrested, she was given a ten-month suspended jail sentence after admitting perverting the course of justice.

*hollow laugh*

Police expressed surprise at the sentence...

They really ought to be used to it by now, surely..?

It’s Just A Hunch, But..

…could alcohol have played a part here?

A woman who disappeared on a night out in Colchester woke up hours later in a strange flat – but has no recollection of how she got there.

Really? Wow, that’s extraordinary!

Detectives from Colchester are trying to work out how the woman got to the flat and whether she was alone.

They have not ruled out her drink may have been spiked, but are investigating all possibilities.

Is it wicked of me that the investigating officer’s name raised a wry chuckle?

Anyone who saw her between midnight on Monday and the early hours of Tuesday should call Det Sgt Merry on 0300 3334444.

I think she must have been a little bit more than simply merry…

Gordoom Applies Kiss Of Death...

..to 'man made global warming' by providing an article in favour of Copenhagen to CiF.

Commenters fall all over themselves to rip him a new one. How long before the mods step in to spoil the fun, I wonder?

Three Years Off For Good Behaviour..?

Not quite:

A killer who cut the head off a student when she was still alive and dumped her body in the Thames has had his sentence slashed on appeal today (Dec 3).

Unfortunate phrasing…

Allowing Gian's appeal against his 22-year minimum jail term, however, Lord Moses cut it to 19 years, saying he got too long compared to Yussof, who received a 15-year minimum term.

I suppose increasing her sentence, thereby sentencing them to exactly the same length of time, was never on the cards?

Blogging: Maybe Not A Threat To Life As We Know It After All…

An interesting and encouraging article in the ‘Indy’:

According to all the data, Daniel Moseley and Rahil Thobhani ought to hate writing.

Educational research shows that many British schoolchildren are struggling with this basic skill, and that secondary school boys from poorer city areas are among those who flounder most.

But these two 11-year-olds sit in their school library talking passionately about letting their imaginations run riot, and how you can use suspense and dialogue to craft a good story.

Which, considering this is Thamesmead we are talking about, is quite remarkable.

Is it down to great teaching?

No. You can thank a surprising quarter: the school librarian:

So what's the big secret of turning boys on to writing?

"Technology," says Bev Humphrey, their innovative and sparky school librarian. "The boys here have more technology in their mobile phones than we could ever afford to buy for them in school. They don't see technology as separate from life: they see it as part of everything they do, so we can't just take all that away and sit them down with a pencil and a piece of paper and say 'write something'."

So instead, she’s using her head, and using their own technological bent.

Her approach is endorsed by research from the National Literacy Trust, published today, which has found that although nearly half of all UK schoolchildren claim writing is "boring", blogging and social networking greatly improve their attitudes and make them much more confident about their writing skills.

So long as this translates to a desire to write more than 140 character Twitter posts in the future, and an understanding of when and how to communicate for differing audiences, I can't see this as anything other that a positive step.

The research, which examined the attitudes of 3,000 children in England and Scotland towards writing, found that 61 per cent of those who keep a blog and 56 per cent of those who are on social network sites feel they are good or very good at writing, compared with only 47 per cent of those who don't engage with text online.

I’ve a few reservations about the use of the word ‘feel’ there, though (is there any objective assessment of whether they are actually any good?).

Technology is also a very social activity, she points out, even though it is often seen as insular. She has used Facebook and Twitter to persuade children's authors such as Theresa Breslin, Alan Gibbons, and Robert Muchamore to take part in the Write Path, and as a result has been able to take a group of boys to central London to meet writers – something that was, Rahil says solemnly, "a once in a lifetime's experience".

Let’s hope that the ISA sees sense and the threatened writer’s rebellion over the need to be registered doesn’t kill this initiative…

But doesn't writing online simply encourage children to ignore spelling and grammar?

"The thing about boys is that they are not good at transferring their skills," says Bev Humphrey. "They are always texting or on their computers at home but these aren't things they see as relevant to school. They think that school is work, and that they can't do it. So doing things online frees them up to have fun and enjoy writing, and if we can build up their confidence and get them writing, the paragraphs and spelling will come later. After all, they are taught these things in class."

Well, we hope they are…

In addition, Bev Humphrey devises electronic library quizzes, uses small eReaders to encourage boys to read, and constantly mines her own digital networks for ideas and inspiration. "Twitter is the best professional development I've ever had, far better than any course I've been on!" she says. "If I have a problem I can tweet about it and get help within a minute."

This is a really encouraging report – she seems to be doing all the right things, and she’s certainly getting results.

Her school is Woolwich Polytechnic, a boys' school in Thamesmead, south-east London, where results are improving but are still well below the national average. Pupils' ambitions tend to be modest and their horizons low. Many may never leave their relatively isolated Thames-side suburb.

But as an avowed tech-head, she is successfully harnessing cutting-edge technology to get them writing – and expanding their worldview in the process. For the past two years she has run an online writing project, The Write Path, which links pupils around the world and enables them to write stories together.

Let’s hope someone in the Department of Education takes a long hard look at this, and encourages it in other areas.

If they don’t, perhaps other librarians will take it onboard?

As for Daniel and Rahil, they can't see what the fuss is about. "Boys like technology," says Daniel, "so we like using it. But at the same time we're writing. So this is just like sneaking the learning in while we're doing it."

"And it's the way modern authors write," points out Rahil. "On the computer. That's how they do it."

Let’s welcome two potential bloggers for the future!

Here’s to Rahil and Daniel, and above all, to Bev Humphrey, for going the extra distance for these kids…