Hahaha, thanks so much for raising the tone... I've done some great poos at festivals. I think it's because you always expect them to be difficult and traumatic, so when you find a nice clean odour-free loo it can be quite a revelation. Nice consistency, no complications... ahh, wonderful! The worst has to be being caught with diarrhoea when out and about. Once many years ago I was on a long National Express coach journey and became quite ill ... couldn't hold off ... had to dash to the little cubicle at the back. To this day I feel a great sense of shame and guilt for the sake of the other passengers on that coach
I don't often have dreams I remember. Maybe a couple in a week. If it's a particularly good one I will try to go over it in detail when I wake up so that it'll stick in my mind. I had a bit of a corker last night. I was playing squash with Woody Allen. What's that all about?
Yeah I usually play squash once a week but haven't for a few weeks since the new term began. I've been a keen cyclist for years but have really started to take my cycling seriously this year. I usually do at least 15 miles a day off road and on, or sometimes as much as 31 miles like today As for sports, that's it *wonders whether anyone but peace-phoenix will ever ask me any questions*
I thought I'd hit y back with the question you hit me with... Who is your current favourite band? Any favourite albums of 2006?
I've got shockingly few new albums this year I did enjoy the Flaming Lips "at war with the mystics" and Graham Coxon's "love travels at illegal speeds". Also The Crimea's album "tragedy rocks" and Jeffrey Lewis' "city and eastern songs" which I think both came out at the end of last year but which I didn't buy until this year so I think they still count Favourite band of the moment ... I'll say The Datsuns 'cos that's who's on my CD player right now
The Datsun's what a fantastic choice!!! 'Like a motherfucker from hell' an amazing song - very punk too. Man I haven't listened to that album in ages!!! We still haven't unpacked from when we move in so I think I shall have a rumage for that CD" Ooo a question.. it would be rude to go without asking one... Errrmmmm... If you were doing an autobiographical film who would play you?
I would love to say Edward Norton but I fear I may only be a Steve Buscemi! (Two actors I greatly admire) It'd be a very dull film
And I'll hit you with your question to Do you see yourself having children, and if so how many and why?
To turn your question back to you, do you think there is ever an acceptable circumstance to take someone's life? Is animal life as important as human life? I remember some vegetarians and vegans have argued for moral consistency. PETA have placed images of slaughter houses next to images of Auschwitz and people have said if you denounce one, you must denounce the other just as strongly. But can they really be compared, or is it simplistic and facile to do so at that level?
I don't really see myself having any children, no. I suppose that might change if I met someone I wanted to spend the rest of my life with and have children with. But raising kids is not something I particularly want to do at this point or in the foreseeable future...
Spiders. I hate the things. Not the little ones or daddy long legs, I can cope with those. It's big bastard black ones that scuttle at high speed. They look evil. I know it's irrational and that they can't harm me, but I jump up onto furniture and my heart starts to race when I see one I quite often get vertigo as well.
Well the idealist in me would say no there's never an acceptable circumstance. But I would be a fool if I didn't realise that in some circumstances taking a life is the least bad option available. Only ever as a last resort when all other options have been exhausted should physical violence be used. Violence very often begets violence, so those who think they are solving problems and making things better by violent means generally cause more problems than they solve, add to a cycle of violence and retribution and end up making things worse. Yes. In philosophical terms an animal life is just as important/unimportant as a human life. There's nothing intrinsically better or more worthy or more worth saving about a human than any other animal. In practical terms I don't really believe that we should protest the killing of ants as strenuously as the killing of humans. I think I believe this for good reasons, based on what I know about the nature of experience and suffering. Mammals, and higher primates in particular have extremely advanced central nervous systems (CNS) and to different degrees, consciousness and self-consciousness. The amount of suffering you would cause by harming or killing an animal with a not very advanced CNS is objectively less than the amount you will cause by harming an animal with a more advanced one, and less again than the amount caused by killing an animal with a highly advanced CNS and a brain capable of self-awareness. It's a very difficult area to make these kinds of practical judgements though, because we know so little about the experience other animals have. It's safe to assume I think that gnats and spiders aren't all that aware of suffering if you hurt them. But many mammals probably have experiences which really aren't all that different from our own. For this reason we should probably err on the side of caution in judging what other animals may be capable of experiencing. The higher primates - apes, like us - have an experience of the world which is almost indistinguishable from our own. I'd say there's a moral equivalence between harming most apes and monkeys and harming a human. To a lesser degree there's a moral equivalence in causing harm to other mammals and to a lesser degree still, non-mammals. In answer to the point about PETA, I don't think it makes much sense to compare Auschwitz to slaughterhouses if only because it's such a subtle, nuanced and difficult area that that kind of propaganda just doesn't get even a fraction of the point across and makes them look like idiots. Thanks for the interesting question
