Hurrah! - A victory for freedom of expression
Our friends on the other side of the channel have thrown out the lawsuit against satirical paper Charlie Hebdo for publishing some of the Mohammed cartoons. The court found that they were not an offence against French Muslims. More at Le Figaro.
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the Hitch would like to see a law introduced making it compulsory to offend muslims
I definitely second that and could be ready to sling mud and offensive comments 30 seconds after such a law was passed.
O/T - but regarding this new viewing walk that is twice as high as the Sears Tower over the Grand Canyon,it strikes me that there must be some practical uses for this - other than viewing the Grand Canyon. For example, if Tony Blair could be persuaded it would be a fabulous photo op and would get into all the world's press, someone could blunder forward and accidentally knock him over the edge. I wonder how long it would take him to hit the bottom. Any mathematicists or physicists out there?
It would be nice if it were a joint photo op between Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and Dave. I guess Gordon would splat down first, being the heaviest.
As an aside, I find it amazing that they haven't made the glass wall higher, because it is known than people who suffer from vertigo sometimes feel impelled to jump off very high structures, even if they had no intention of committing suicide.
The French recognised this in that vast new sky bridge they built down into the Languedoc. They made the walls higher than cars so drivers wouldn't become disoriented.
Verity, I seem to recall from my O level physics (many moons ago!) that a dropping body (ie anything with mass, rather than a human!)accelerates at 32 feet per second/per second eventually reaching something like 120 mph. That would give them all quite a bump at the bottom of the canyon; but they are all so thick-skinned they would probably just get up and walk away!
You're right, Nomad. Oh, well. Back to the drawing board.
Victory for freedom of expression won against the French government. See, A quote from Philippe Val, the publisher and editor of Charlie Hebdo:
"Before publication, I was pressured not to go ahead and summoned to the Hôtel Matignon [the residence of the French Prime Minister] to see the prime minister's chief of staff; I refused to go. The next day, summary proceedings were initiated by the Grand Mosque of Paris and the Union of Islamic Organizations of France to stop this issue of Charlie Hebdo from hitting newsstands. The government encouraged them, but their suit was dismissed.
After the cartoons appeared, the Muslim groups attacked me by filing suit against me on racism charges. President Jacques Chirac, who campaigned for this just-completed trial, offered them the services of his own personal lawyer, Francis Szpiner."
Chirac really is a slimy shit, isn't he? I'm surprised he didn't call Cherie tho, and ask her to send someone over from Matrix Chambers to take over the case.
V - I suppose if it was Prescott first, they could all count on a soft landing.
Colin - Good spot. Thanks.
Croydonian, and if we included Mark Oaten, at least they would all have a coffee table to land on.
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