gmh

So, much as we expected a week ago, Jan Moir has published a clarification of sorts; how sorry she was to cause distress to those near and dear to Stephen Gately; how shocked, nay horrified she was to have people misinterpret her words; how sinister and unnamed groups were engaged in a campaign to silence any brave journalist who dared to voice a dissenting or contrary view.

Right. And I am, as the saying goes, a monkey's uncle...

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If you are genuinely sorry for causing offence to people (whether family, friends, or the general public); then a simple and unqualified apology will do nicely. It doesn't have to be long, it doesn't have to be ornate; a simple 'Sorry' will do.

The response you have given to date is grudgingly reminiscent of a schoolchild told to apologise for feuding with their peers - whatever may be said, the tone is one of resentment and persecution.

It fails to convince the audience of any contrition.

If you're genuinely sorry, don't quibble over it. Apologise unreservedly, learn from your mistakes and move on.

If you're not, don't bother trying; just learn to live with the fact that people will regard you as a two-faced bigot with a prurient interest in the private lives of others.

Just a quick one, but it's something that bugs me slightly about the great and good getting publicly outraged en masse by Jan Moir's nasty little drivelling.

Yes, it's nasty. Yes, it's laughably absurd - or would be if people didn't get killed for being GLBT. Yes, she's pretty obviously a bigoted and thoroughly unpleasant little moron.

Last I heard, that wasn't so unusual.

Throw half a brick without aiming and you could probably hit one.

(Throw half a brick without aiming and you quite possibly are one, but that's by-the-by.)

However, her position is not worth dignifying with outrage. She writes for a newspaper that engages in frequent deliberate provocation of what it sees as the wooly liberals.

Generating a massive chorus of outrage going is likely to achieve nothing more than making Moir and her ilk feel courageous and validated, for speaking out against public opinion and challenging the liberal establishment.

There is absolutely no useful comparison to be made between this affair and the Carter-Ruck/Trafigura injunction - which was an attempt to set a dangerous legal precedent and in so doing, threaten the freedom of all speech.

So: laugh at her. Satirise her with venom and mockery.

Make the absurdity of her views absolutely clear to all and sundry.

But don't abrogate her right to make a fool of herself and her employers.

If what she said is so wrong and disgusting (which it is), then she's not likely to win over anyone who doesn't already support her - but if her critics can be portrayed as trying to stifle her, then she and her supporters can invoke the Trafigura comparison as evidence of her critics' hypocrisy; which would be all the victory she wants.

I am quite astonishingly relieved to notice that the brouhaha of the last few days has been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of all parties.

No con needs negative publicity, considering how hard it is to run the dratted things in the first place; and it is truly heartening to see possibly damaging situations resolved well.

Thanks to both parties for being big enough to compromise, and especial thanks to James Bacon for his role in resolving this.

I hope this year's Octocon goes swingingly and builds up well to next year's big one!

Have been reading clanwilliam's copy of Geoffrey Robertson's The Tyrannicide Brief - a book aimed (at least in part) at setting the record straight on John Cooke, the prosecuting counsel in the trial of Charles I, as well as giving a rounded picture of the moral and political background to the trial.

( blurb herewithin )

There are days, long hot sunny summer days and the light is sharp and brilliant, when the best thing you can do is wander around with no set purpose; no goals, no clocks - just letting yourself go walkabout.

I am now feeling quite astoundingly relaxed.

You are (as always) fiendish, terrifying and horrible.

( proof behind the cut )

I love you very much.

G.

Following the weekend's celebrations, I now have about 600 photos to process.

Of those, I'd say about 200 are actually not bad (a surprisingly high strike rate for me, and something I'm quite chuffed by). The rest of you will probably get to see edited highlights after the bride and groom have been consulted (so not until well after the honeymoon!) and I've had a sit-down with rhythmaning.

However, there is a shot that I hope they will forgive me for airing early ; it is pretty much as it came out of the camera, and is I think one of my favourite shots of the day.

( image behind the cut, to spare the bandwidth )

It was, quite simply, a day I will always remember with pleasure; and a hell of a good party to boot!

(Aa-aa...)

So, last week, I decided to buy myself an external flash unit; I'd been half-meaning-to for ages and as it happens I have a wedding to go to next weekend, so I took advantage of the excuse to buy a shiny new toy.

The last few days have involved meeting various people in various pubs; I confess, I have taken the new toy out and waved it at people.

(Specifically including clanwilliam, liadnan, oursin, legionseagle, pashazade, coughingbear, hano, frankie_ecap, rhythmaning, dorcas_gustine, fluffcthulhu, autopope, feorag, major_clanger, rozk and various others. I hope I wasn't irritating anyone too much.)

I now have some quite promising shots of people to work on; I'll clean them up and post them to my gallery at some point this evening (probably!).

If you can make it outside this lunchtime, do so.

To call it a lovely day is a gross understatement.

From major_clanger, a link to a superbly-written article about the flip side of Dubai's economic miracle.

Caution: it is not easy reading in any way; and if you're anything like me, you will very probably be quietly seething at the end of it.

Nonetheless, this is real news; the sort of stuff that needs to be spread around the airwaves for all to read.