Pink Sauce

Probably my last picture for 2009

We learn today that two Argentinian gay men, Alejandro Freyre and Jose Maria Di Bello, had to literally go to the end of the world for the opportunity to get married (BBC News, includes video). Becoming the first gay couple in south America to get hitched, they had tried to tie the knot once already but had been denied by some "militant jusge" no doubt! But they have finally made it and all my congratulations and best wishes go to them. Once again, however, religious people are meddling with things that don't really concern them and as is so often the case, are talking through their hat in another desperate effort to keep their so-called moral ascendant. How exactly would that marriage be "an attack against the survival of the human species", as Bishop Juan Carlos of Rio Gallegos worded it, I would truly like to know. Those two men are gay, they are not going to reproduce whether they get married together or not. Furthermore their marriage is not stopping anyon...

A series of pictures of various London landmarks without cars or people, taken on Christmas day between 9.30 and 10.30am, can be found on my flickr account here . A selection of these pictures appeared in Londonist here .

When you enter a cinema showing what is reportedly the most expensive movie ever made, you have a right to expect something outstanding. And in many ways Avatar , James Cameron's latest offering is quite outstanding. Set in the future, on a fictional small earth-like planet inhabited by the na'vi people, called Pandora, the film tells the sotry of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a disabled former marine, sent to the planet to take over his dead twin brother's avatar, a man-made human/na'vi hybrid body used to make contact with the indigenous people. The humans have discovered mineral resources on the planet that they intend to plunder but the na'vi people, who are highly in tune with their ecosystem, are in the way. Sully finds himself stranded with a na'vi tribe and gets to learn their ways and finally becomes one of them. Soon he has to choose between humanity and his adoptive people. The plot is to a large extent fairly conventional: the hero finds his true sel...

After reading some of the despicable comments left on the edition of the BBC's Have Your Say asking "Should homosexuals face execution?" (see previous post on this here and my complaint to the BBC here ). This "brilliant" piece of investigative journalism comes in the context of the debate around Uganda's proposed bill that would have enshrined death penalty for homosexual acts in law and also encourage people to snitch on others for fear of being prosecuted themselves. Although it seems that the people involved are now backing down and will remove the death penalty element from the bill in favour of "a more refined set of punishments". Without going into what is wrong with the very fact that the BBC should feel it appropriate to ask such question - Should blacks face execution?, Should Jews face execution? - I would like to answer one of the recurrent arguments I have seen (not just on the BBC's site) in that debate in response to the inter...

More seriously though , here is the text of my complaint to the BBC: How utterly heartless, disrespectful and depressing that you should think it appropriate to ask your reader if homosexual should face execution. The BBC is supposed to be a bastion of quality and I am afraid in this case the urge to give in to sensationalism has been the stronger. I trust you would never dare publish a similar request for "debate" about Jews and balck so why did you judge it legitimate to be asked about gay people? You too can complain here .

I would like to publicly congratulate the BBC News Online team for being so daring and forward thinking in setting up the edition of Have Your Say asking people if homosexuals should face execution . By doing this, the team shows how at the cutting edge of true journalism it really is, valiantly flying in the face of any moral or ethical consideration (and the fact that death penalty will probably be removed from the Ugandian bill the tabling of which started the whole story) and going straight(!) for subjects that really matter. In the same spirit I would like to suggest to you a couple of other subjects for future editions of the page which will no doubt help further and enhance your reputation as fearless seekers of the Truth. How about: "should blacks face execution?" and then I would follow up with the always popular "should Jews face execution?". I trust the team will embrace those subjects too and I am very much looking forward to reading all the enlightened...