Sensitivity

Oddly enough, the wiping out of 1.5 million people has ongoing consequences. The Armenian genocide is not simply a matter for dusty old tomes, but is part and parcel of the official definition of Turkish identity based on suppression of minority identities and free speech. Yesterday, two journalists were convicted for “insulting Turkishness” by calling the Armenian genocide “genocide.” One of those journalist’s father was being prosecuted for the same thing when he was murdered in January. I dunno, I’m just not that receptive to arguments in favor of respecting the Turks’ sensitivity about the mere mention of the skeletons in their rather capacious closet.

Speaking of sensitive souls, Charles Law, an Englishman convicted of kicking a 13-year old boy in the leg for making fun of his mustache, has decided to shave off the mustache in amends.


(Update: Law has been in fights over the mustache before. And, in a non-facial-hair-related-incident that didn’t make it into most of the articles I looked at, was convicted of manslaughter in 2000 for stabbing his brother to death. So maybe not so funny, especially since he scared off the group of teenagers bothering him by pretending to have a knife.)

Kallyfornia’s Governor Terminator vetoed a bill preventing school districts giving work permits to 13- to 17-year olds maintaining less than a C average.