Interesting Links for 23-12-2011

[andrewducker]

• Is The Hobbit just a ripoff of Lord Of The Rings?
  (tags: TheHobbit lotr funny )
• Girl Scouts' inclusion of transgendered girl causes mass panic in the streets, world to end.
  (tags: lgbt transgender usa scouts )
• The Irish Times are censoring their own story about a woman who committed suicide.
  (tags: suicide ireland media )
• What really matters to British MPs
  (tags: uk politics )
• Real-life dragon discovered. No, really.
  (tags: dragon photo )
• For Christmas, The US Government Will Explain Why It's Legal to Kill You
  (tags: murder usa law government )
• Guardian now banning comments which point out that it violates its own comments policy
  (tags: guardian )

Comments

[purpletigron]

I think it's perfectly fair to say that there's a huge intermingling of The Hobbit into The Lord of The Rings ... just like the radio series is a rip-off of the Hitch-hikers Guide to the Universe TV series, really :-)

[purpletigron]

Interesting - my half-awake sub-conscious criticising Douglas Adams for the paucity of his vision. HHGTT-Galaxy, of course.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

"If a child is living as a girl..."

WTF does that even mean?

[lizw.livejournal.com]

Presumably the same thing it means when an adult is described as "living as a man" or "living as a woman". It's a common phrase used by medical professionals who work with transgender people to describe a stage of transition where a trans person is dressing and generally presenting as their preferred gender, but either has not yet begun medical or surgical treatments, or does not intend to do so.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

What I mean is that I have a 2-year-old, and I've no idea if she is 'living as a girl' or not.

[lizw.livejournal.com]

Yeah, their sense of gender becomes more obvious as they get older.

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

I say kudos to the Girl Scouts of Colorado. Their official position as quoted in the media ("If a child identifies as a girl and the child's family presents her as a girl, Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomes her as a Girl Scout" and "If a child is living as a girl, that's good enough for us. We don't require any proof of gender.") is about as cool as you can get for a gender-exclusive organisation.

[lizw.livejournal.com]

Indeed!

[andrewducker]

I couldn't believe it either.

[laplor.livejournal.com]

My spouse and I both howled. I wonder if they will think it's also a rip off of a lot of Led Zepplin's songs.