The Hall of Fire

Back ontopic- I think that a parliamentary system would be more prone structurally to run off the rails, because there is no check at all on the Tyranny of the Commons. The Government does what it likes, as long as its majority holds up. I think this can lead to ill-considered wild swings of policy*...

Primmie, I think you're yelling "the sky is falling" without basis in sober fact. Habeas Corpus was roundly reaffirmed by the Supreme Court over the Admin's objections (hardly in-their-pocket, wouldn't you say?); and anyway the original measure never purported to apply to US citizens. Pers...

teach the standard, but also teach that "standard" isn't synonymous with "best." Let's be careful here, folks, lest we become so open-minded that our brains fall out. Pro forma equality is not remotely the same thing as real equality. While under the US Constitution all men are ...

Mmmm, plainchant. When I was at Cambridge I attended Evensong at King's Chapel every night I was still in the neighbourhood- the sound of possibly the world's finest SATB male choir echoing around that incredible fan vaulting......

I wanna go back!!!!

It would seem to me that one solution would be to allow it on a national basis- each country's Council of Bishops would make the decision, depending on their own situation. I expect the rules should be the same as currently apply to the Diaconate. As Mith points out, this is already the case when th...

Poland was the first, however, and I very firmly believe the Pope's support was vital in preventing bloodshed and armed intervention. Don't think he has that sort of power? I remember at that very time recalling, with irony, Stalin's sneer, "How many divisions does the Pope have?" I hope ...

Priests are, after all, only human That's also a concern. While it's bigoted lowbrow Papist-bashing to assert "all priests are child molesters," (the chant of "Paedophile!!" is currently a favorite among pro-choice demonstrators whenever a priest is spotted), I can't help but wo...

Voronwë, this sounds disturbingly familiar to me. However, it's not really on point. As you say, your client is fully conversant in SAE. What he's facing is good ol' skincolor-based redneck racism. If anything, the tortfeasors here would be reinforced by policies like Seattle's, which would only ser...

Ax, there are strapless bras. And when a woman passes a certain threshold of 'busty', there are some fashion choices that are no longer permissible options.

Remember: spandex is a privilege, not a right.

jeans and a spaghetti-strap tank top with leopard-print kitten heels

I would hire that person instantly.

Unless she was showing bra straps under the spaghetti straps. Then I'd call the Fashion Police to come haul her away

When I'm feeling really ultratraditionalist, we have an officially-authorized Latin-mass parish here. (This is distinct from the schismatic Lefebrist kooks like Mel Gibson).

Um- the Orthodox, Armenians, Copts, Chaldeans, etc etc etc etc don't accept the Pope's leadership, and they're hardly Protestant....... There are definite theological differences between C and P, a dispute started by Luther and continued by Calvin and Zwingli. Personally I think it's mostly arcane l...

It isn't ok to judge a person solely on speech and language

I assure you, most any Hiring Partner does precisely that. Whether or not it's "OK," in the Real World that's the way it is.

There's no doubt that the Anglican Communion is absolutely Protestant. The 39 Articles make that abundantly clear. Thing is, I was a heterodox Episcopal then, just as I'm a heterodox Catholic now. (Sssh! Don't tell Pope Benedict!)

While I wouldn't necessarily declare that no Republican could win, it's a dead certainty that no Bush can win. I do wish that some one candidate, of either or any party, would come out and speak *pragmatically* about the war. We can't win (sorry GOP) and we can't make it never to have happened (sorr...

So how, then, do we select which evolved manifestations of a language to consider "proper" or "standard"? Is it simply that we allow educated people to define what "standard" for the masses will be? And shall we chalk it up to mere coincidence (okay, influenced by mass...

I'm sorry, but I automatically redflagged this whole thing as soon as it became clear that Cameron and TDC (which has also produced a lot of rubbish on the Templars and whatnot) pretty much bulldozed aside every accepted practice and standard of legitimate scholarship. "Just another bloody Rosw...

Part of the near-incomprehension I see from side to side has to do with the quite modern disjunct between people and their food source. Only a relatively short time ago, really, 90% of everybody lived on a farm- and even those who didn't often kept chickens etc. Today most folks think of meat as som...

Voronwë, although I'm sympathetic to your reaction to Ceballos , since I lost a very, very similar case in the Fourth Circuit (cop complained about illegal surveillance), I can't agree with you about Ledbetter . The unfortunate fact is that Congress, for better or worse, wrote the 6-month SoL into t...

Thanks, Tosh. It's a relief to know that the famous English common sense is still alive and well.

At least when Association Football isn't involved.