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Sexy moments

I'm quite glad I didn't actually tape this. I'd have been going 'oi, noooo'.

I mean, yes, Basic Instinct (#5). I loved it. I loved it so much that, when I next went to the US, I bought an ice pick.

But the next good one is at #15: Rocky Horror Picture Show. Then we're waiting for #32 Bound, #36 Trainspotting, #38 This Life (UK TV series), #43 Body Heat, #45 Last Tango In Paris, and #47 Secretary in the top 50. That's 8 out of 50.

Beyond that, apart from a couple I'll mention in a moment, there's only #51 Risky Business, #52 The Name Of The Rose (the TV version darkens the sex scene, so you can't see that Slater's willy is definitely flaccid, making it a curious example of censorship making a scene more erotic!), #65 The Avengers – Diana Rigg, yumm, #75 American Gigolo – Richard Gere yumm, and #91 The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover, curiously the only Greenaway.

So, why so low for..

#55 Don't Look Now – should have been top five for that 'realistic because it was for real' scene,

#76 The Tall Guy – should have been top ten, and not just because I think Emma Thompson is very yummy.

Fascinating to see #48 Debbie Does Dallas as the top 'porn' film, with Caligula and a Mary Millington the only others.

… but the fabulous remake of Cat People is nowhere?? Nastassja Kinski being fucked while tied to a bed? What more do you want?? Malcolm McDowell, John Heard and Annette O'Toole? Yep, all of them are in it too.

I did like the comment for # 92. Jism (2002): "Bollywood's not known for the explicit sexual content of its films, which is why the appearance of Jism on our screens is something of a surprise." Oh dear, oh dear 🙂

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Death penalty thoughts

Browsing through the House of Lords judicial decisions on their website, I was struck by something referenced in one case.

One defence against a charge of murder is that you've been sufficiently provoked *

As Lord Hoffman says, a case in 1942 established two aspects: "First, the provocation had to be such as to temporarily deprive the person provoked of the power of self-control, as a result of which he committed the unlawful act which caused death. Secondly, the provocation had to be such as would have made a reasonable man act in the same way."

But, "in Holmes v. Director of Public Prosecutions [1946] A.C. 588 it was decided that mere words could not constitute provocation, whatever their effect upon the reasonable man might have been."

In those days, you typically went from arrest to – if found guilty – dangling at the end of a rope in the matter of a couple of months.

So as a result, Leonard Holmes was hanged on 28th May 1946, in Lincoln prison.

A few years later, the law was changed so that words alone could indeed be sufficient… Without doing some rather deeper research, I've no idea if he'd have been acquitted had he been tried then.

But it's another reason for me to be against the death penalty.

* This defence has been used in somewhat dubious ways, especially the 'homosexual panic' defence – 'he made a pass at me, so I had to kill him', but that's a post for another day.

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In today's post at work

"World Aids Day – What is it for? What's expected? How do we decide what to do about it? A practical one-day workshop [..]" for people working in the health promotion field.

The date? 4th December…

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Woof, or something

The Dogs Trust – owners of the trademark 'A dog is for life, not just for Christmas' – are going after the Anne Summers sex shop chain which has been advertising a vibrator under the phrase 'A rabbit is…'

Posted on by Ian

One of the things I use a p2p network for

… is getting the various 'unofficial' mixes that are otherwise unobtainable. I think I've mentioned the fabulous intermingling of the strings from Eleanor Rigby with Kraftwerk's original Tour de France, for example.

Of course, sometimes the people who do / post them don't know who or what they're using. So today's "Freelance Hellraiser – Kraftfwerk vs Whitney Houston" turns out to be New Order's Blue Monday mixed with Kylie's 'nah nah nah' Got to Get You Out of My Head.

How to realise you're getting older #271: You've got proof that not everyone can instantly recognise Blue Monday.