Rum Doings Episode 150: Move Over Mr Darwin, You’ve Got Competition!
by John Walker on Jan.09, 2014, under Rum Doings
In our 150th ever Rum Doings, our topic is our very special guest star Mr Stephen Fry! So we discuss a leaflet John found somewhere for Reverse Theory. An amazing new book that will change science. We go on to argue about Sherlock, the death of a dog in the Archers, and the holiday potentials of Pangaea.
We mull the lack of boobies on British TV, and then we explain how much we approve of the government and all their excellent decisions. And then things get a little bit political ladies and gentlemen, as we grumble.
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[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/150_rumdoings.mp3]
January 9th, 2014 on 16:44
To correct John’s massive misunderstanding of the Mark Duggan decision, the jurors, though they agreed that he had disposed of the gun before he was shot, concluded that none of the officers involved had seen him dispose of the gun, and so believed he was an armed and dangerous criminal, which is what made the killing lawful. And let’s also not pretend that Duggan was the innocent ‘anyone’ bystander John makes him out to be- he was being monitored by the police for some time before the shooting in connection with criminal activities.
January 9th, 2014 on 18:11
You know you say that we haven’t gotten the American style of homelessness but I can see that it will happen eventually. The news of the benefit caps, bedroom taxes and apparently the insurers are not going to insure rents if the people are on benefits are having an affect because landlords are evicting people or wanting to evict people and where are those people going to go since there is no housing for them.
I actually ranted at the screen when I heard the news that the pensions were going up.
I would agree with Nick but kind of agree with John in this. Yes people are vile and there nastiness about the poor and the immigrants is real(oh my god I have to hear about this when going to my girlfriends family) but it has been a constant lie throughout the media that I think has spread that vileness and it just kept on going so it kept on going greater and we can’t stop it even if you had the most truthful statistics because they would just say lies I know what’s happening outside my front door.
This stuff is kind of depressing and I really don’t know how to change it and I really really want to change it.
January 9th, 2014 on 18:25
I agree with what you say, Xercies, but not wrt the “Bedroom Tax”. I feel it quite reasonable that families who are struggling to find accommodation should not be let down by singletons who “hoard” their additional empty bedrooms.
January 10th, 2014 on 08:40
Hmm but they dont really build much social housing or even regular housing for single people so I don’t think it is genrally their fault that they are hoarding.
January 10th, 2014 on 10:58
There are quite a few council one-bedroom flats in my area. I don’t think it’s unfair to ask someone who’s rattling around alone in a family home to move into one so that a family can be relocated (or to pay the privilege if he refuses). In fact, the request is utterly socialist: “to each according to his need” indeed!
January 10th, 2014 on 13:48
I agree with the principle of it but the core problem of not enough housing is still there really yes it works in areas where there is surplus and you need to move people around but a lot of areas dont have that.
January 11th, 2014 on 02:52
I think the problem with liberals in the US is that neoliberalism has been drilled in so thoroughly that it’s become an unquestioned aspect of daily life. You have progressive people who are worried about urban sprawl and sustainable living who’ll protest a low-income housing development, somehow forgetting that gentrification is pushing everyone below them out.
January 17th, 2014 on 19:44
Zorganist: John is not incorrect with respect to the Duggan case and the trite analysis “he was a criminal ergo he had it coming to him” is utterly wearisome. The police force and more generally the state should not have the power to murder its own citizens and as they are given the right to the unilateral use of force have an obligation to use that force in completely defensible circumstances (think Locke on spiderman). If he were such a well known gangster and criminal and had such police attention then it is a wonder that he had not been arrested long before as he was no doubt commiting heinous crimes in these capacities. In any case such claims should be decided by the criminal justice system and not a rampant, bloodthirsty, racist press after the fact of his murder. It is unimaginable to me that armed police officers cannot ascertain before killing someone whether indeed they pose any threat whatsoever as was the case here.
Now John was certainly wrong, or more accurately lazy, elsewhere in the episode when he delivered his analysis of the current Sherlock. I don’t think this season has been plagued too much by the mischaracterisation of Sherlock (I am two episodes in mind you and he could well be referring to things that happen in the last episode). Instead the worst aspects are those that have been written about elsewhere: the tedious, self serving, utterly indulgent fan service. The first two episodes thusfar might just as well have been pulled from a not so well written fanfic sans the inevitable threesome on wedding night.
January 20th, 2014 on 09:38
To be fair to Moffat he is probably drawing from books after the death which according to some come across fan-ficy so maybe he is just being meta.
Though I dont get the charge that its turnwd into fan-fiction wxcept for a few jokes which are kind of clearly marked as jokes with the way they go about it. I had problems with the plot o this series in that there wasnt any and I did feel the writers were to relying on the fact that these characters are entertaining which while true still makes it feel like a waste.
January 23rd, 2014 on 21:01
I don’t know what Doyle’s Holmes is like, having never read the books, but in Sherlock he’s clearly written to have autistic traits. They even refer to him having Asperger’s in Hounds of Baskerville.
That said, I still didn’t like the season 3 episodes as much as the earlier ones. I’m bad at telling why I like/dislike things, but I think I disliked season 3 for somehow being less clever and more about the characters. Episode 3 was better, but the final “aha got you” of the enemy was too obvious in advance and the solution too blunt.