Comments for Libertine

Comment on 2010 List of Banned Words by rubicon

rubicon — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:22:14 +0000

I think if I hear the word “tweet” one more time I’ll go batshit!! I’m so bloody sick of that word and it seems that everyone is into what I think is ridiculous. A lot of the other words are crappy too and have been way over used….

Comment on 2010 List of Banned Words by bitzky

bitzky — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:12:16 +0000

I like shovel-ready! And erm, I think it’s too late for fail, it’s already a part of mainstream language.

Comment on 2010 List of Banned Words by Deej

Deej — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:48:42 +0000

Oh sheesh, it drives me crazy when made up words become a part of the language. I loved this entry – it was interesting just to see how things are added and how we’ve slowly adopted them in society.

Comment on Four Year Old Suspended for Long Hair by lde

lde — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:27:06 +0000

I think the issue of school uniforms is debatable at best. Although, I do agree that there needs to be a dress code within limits. But hair length?? At any rate, this is clearly sexual discrimination. If boys were allowed to wear pants and girls were required to wear skirts or dresses, there would be no end to the uproar. But I guess, in certain areas of the country, there is a negative value assigned to boys with long hair. Thankfully, we have laws against discrimination in publicly funded institutions. His mother should fight this all the way.

Comment on Four Year Old Suspended for Long Hair by bitzky

bitzky — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 17:46:08 +0000

That’s just silly. We all had to wear school uniforms during communist rule of Poland but we never had any guidelines regarding hair and plenty of students had just as long hair as that little guy.

Comment on Conservatives and Anti-Intellectualism by bitzky

bitzky — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 17:37:44 +0000

It is very disheartening and appaling to see a wealthy and developed nation like U.S. willingly embrace regression and anti-intellectualism. Don’t they understand that the position and wealth of their country was built by people who dared to challenge dogmas and were willing to embrace scientific progress. From European point of view this seems like just short of madness. But I am grateful that there are still people like you, Chris and other who reminds us that we can’t generalize and that there are still plenty of thinking people over there.

Comment on Four Year Old Suspended for Long Hair by WelshPixie

WelshPixie — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 08:34:00 +0000

I completely agree with you. In Wales, at least when I grew up, school uniforms existed only so that everybody would be on an even keel; it was more difficult to identify the poor students from the rich ones and so was a form of discouraging bullying and harassment based solely on background / looks.

I find this hair debate is much like wearing a tie / suit to a job where you never leave the office or deal with any clients. Jaco, for example, works as a web dev in a large financial firm in Cape Town. He spends his day in an office with the people he works with, and yet he is required to wear a shirt and tie – what he wears has absolutely no bearing on the job he does; the fact that he’s in a shirt and tie doesn’t mean that he’s going to be more productive, going to work harder, etc. – it just means that he’s going to be more uncomfortable, which would likely have the adverse effect than that intended.

As you say, a hairstyle isn’t something you can take off at the end of the day. It’s a part of you, and by no means dictates how you live your life. I used to dye my hair frequently when I was in the equivalent of high school – purple, blue, black – and yet I was one of the top students in my year and my teachers were pushing me to Oxford and Cambridge.

Comment on The Christmas Tornado! by rubicon

rubicon — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:29:55 +0000

Well….it’s different anyway! Looks kinda big compared to that chair, I dunno….not for me.

Comment on Some Thoughts on Bigamy by blacklisted

blacklisted — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:33:01 +0000

I don’t really have a problem with bigamy as long as everyone involved knows what’s going on. Clearly in this case he was essentially leading two different and separate lives and I can understand why the first wife would be upset enough to want to see him in jail.

Comment on Three Types of Religious Skeptics by mothman

mothman — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 07:03:57 +0000

I am mostly reason #1, and also a bit of #3 I guess…. but further to that, I think a different aspect is a concern that the basis for organized religion is, in some opinion (including mine), basic control.

Take your reason #1, and throw in the ‘arbitrary rules’ of your #3, mix it up with the belief that it was all initially set up (in my opinion) as a way to keep the masses under the thumb of those with power and afraid of losing it… and it equals something I want no part of.

I don’t equate a basic religious faith with this,… but I do equate large-scale, organized, religion with it.