Should Gays Be Executed?

This may have skipped your notice, the other day the BBC hosted a web discussion on the question: “Should homosexuals face execution?” in response to the bill being considered in Uganda that will sentence anyone taking part in homosexual activities, to death. After the BBC was criticised, a spokesman said: “We agree it is a stark and challenging question.”

A challenging question? Should gay people be executed? – that is a tough one!

New Features:

I just quickly wanted to walk through some new features you’ll see pop up here on WordShock: Ratings – where you would normally comment, now you’ll see, at the top of the page  you can rate what you’re reading on a scale of 1 star to 5 stars. If you didn’t already know, you can click on the title of a blog or post and it will take you to a dedicated page where (if you scroll down) you will be able to post comments. You may also notice at the end of some posts it says “Comment Here,” that’s a link that will take you to the same page.

You can also rate other reader’s comments by clicking on the thumbs up or thumbs down icons attributed to each comment.

Another feature that’s new to Wordshock – polls – simply click on an answer to take part, thanks for stopping by. Xx

Jan Moir: “It is not disrespectful…” Actually Jan, it is.

Jan Moir caused outrage last week resulting in the highest amount of complaints ever received by The PCC (Press Complaints Commission) The Daily Mail published Moir’s article in which the journalist expressed opinions regarding recently deceased pop singer Stephen Gately, opinions that many readers considered to be distasteful. Moir then continued with statements such as: “Another real sadness about Gately’s death is that it strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships.” leading to many labeling Moir and the article as homophobic.

To impose my ego into the matter, I – along with thousands of others (including Stephen Fry) – declared my offense in response to the article. Branding Moir as “vile.” However, the escalation of this matter I fear to be bordering on ridiculous, bearing in mind that a police investigation has now gone underway. And this evening, audience members on the BBC’s Question Time were asking whether the article should have been published at all. The man sitting opposite to this audience was BNP leader Nick Griffin and the audience questioned our democratic right that is freedom of speech due to a gossip columnist?!

I do not believe Jan Moir is homophobic – and my ex-boyfriend is certain (being a close friend of hers) that she is not – that as a journalist you have demands set by your publisher (and remember, we are talking about a right-wing newspaper first established by fascists.) You have little time, and a lot of stress. This does not excuse the article however, no matter what her personal beliefs really are.

In the article, Moir claims: “After a night of clubbing, Cowles…” (Gately’s partner,) “…and Gately took a young Bulgarian man back to their apartment. It is not disrespectful to assume that a game of canasta with 25-year-old Georgi Dochev was not what was on the cards.” Not disrespectful? Some may not agree with the way in which Gately was portrayed as ‘whiter than white’ after his death but to make such a presumption, to scandalize the last few hours of his life without knowing for sure what had or had not taken place, as sleazy – then go on to question civil partnerships – is a great disrespect, not only to Gately but to the entire gay community, the article then is not about slandering a recently deceased celebrity, but using generalizations involving a minority group to do so and pose a question about the stability of monogamous gay relationships because of Moir’s own presumptions about Gately.

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Woo – Some More!

 

Just a quick update – on 2nd March I posted a small story about WordShock reaching 1000 hits

Well, not even a month later, we’ve nearly reached 2000!

I have had nearly the same amount of visitors in under a month as my total since January 1st

Thanks Again For Stopping By

UPDATE - There have been some changes to WordShock, you might not have noticed them, so scroll down and check out my Twitter feed and archive at the bottom of the page

Christmas Bestseller

The Tales Of Beedle The Bard, has topped charts over christmas, selling over 160,000 copies in the week to December. The second biggest selling book was Dawn French’s autobiography ‘Dear Fatty’ which sold 95,000 copies.

Author J.k. Rowling had originally only written four copies of her charity funding, Harry Potter spin-off. However, after Amazon bought the final copy, negotiations were made to sell the book to the general public. For every copy of The Tales Of Beedle The Bard sold (at £6.99) £1.61 is given to CHLG (Children’s High Level Group). Approximately £257,600 has been raised for the charity over christmas.

Discworld Novelist ‘Flabbergasted’

Terry Pratchett, 60, the author best known for his popular fantasy novels set in Discworld (which he created in the 1970s) is to be Knighted it was announced yesterday.

“I am of course delighted and honoured and, needless to say, flabbergasted,” He had to say on the dubbing, ”There are times when phrases such as ‘totally astonished’ just don’t do the job.”

The author recently appeared in the news after it was revealed he had been diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer’s disease. However he has stated that he still has time for ”at least a few more books yet”

To date, over 55 million copies of his books have been sold worldwide.