Sex

I've read a lot of opinions on the whole boob debacle over the last few days. The absolute best one is here. It's long, but that's what makes it worth reading, because it captures the complexity of both that particular situation and real life in general.

Good News Everybody!

Del Toro confirmed to direct The Hobbitses!

(cheers to future-flatmate laserboy)

In the interests of inciting useful debate

cairmen says:
OK, devil's advocate moment here, and please, please believe I'm not advocating for discrimination against mothers or pregnant women:

Why not?

We don't have a choice about our sex, fair enough. We also don't have a choice about our mathmatical ability, but I'm allowed to explicitly discriminate on that basis - if I'm hiring someone for a position requiring mathematical knowledge, I can totally say "you just don't have the maths aptitude. Sorry. Goodbye."

I can discriminate based on social aptitude (and we don't have a lot of choice about that either). I can discriminate based on random chance ("Oh, you worked with Bob? Cool. You're hired.").

What's the key difference here?

Would anyone care to go here and _politely_, in clear language, tell him?  It's a discussion on my journal, so no flames please.
(Turning off comments here, so that you have to go there instead)

One wonders what the reaction will be.

Boris Johnson, Conservative candidate for London Mayor has just spoken out in favour of cannabis being legal for medical use.

The Conservatives are notorious for their anti-drugs stance.

Will they publically distance themselves from him right before an important vote?

Change their official stance?

Or (and my money's on this one) say "Oh, it's just Boris. You know what he's like?"

Which, I suppose, is the advantage of having one of your more zany representatives stand for Mayor...