"My Brother is dead... and I helped kill him."

Giving Iraq some human context. The whole talk of staying the course makes me sick when thinking about all-too-common cases such as this. Our presence their is a harm to the people of Iraq, not a help, no matter what any politician tells you.

I'm linking to Gorilla's Guides now as well.

Thanks to Feministe for the link.

JK Rowling reveals she considered suicide, student journalist breaks story

Like, many I was moved by JK Rowling's admission that she considered suicide as a poor single mom. It makes her rags to riches story all the more inspiring. Granted, not all suicidal stories end as happily, but it's definitely a lesson in the value of suicide prevention.

My personal favorite detail of the story however: it was broken by a student journalist! Way to go Adeel Amini of Edinburgh University! I've been trying to find the name of the publication he writes for but the big news sources don't seem to consider that an important detail. Oh well, congrats Adeel!

I'm really torn about the court battle between JK Rowling and Steve Vander Ark of the Harry Potter Lexicon. Vander Ark's website is a popular fan encyclopedia for those not in the know. It's very complete and has been used by makers of the HP films to check facts and even Rowling herself when the latter books were being written. Vander Ark now wants to turn the website into a published book. Rowling is contesting that a free website is ok but a book would infringe on her rights, and her own planned encyclopedia.

I've seen fan encyclopedias before, they're relatively common. It may not be fair to Rowling, but is it illegal? At the same time, I feel like the last call should belong to Jo.

Blog Genesis

Hi, my name is Hilary. I like to write, I like to blog, I like to think and discuss and maybe argue a little bit. I've been meaning to start this blog for a long time and I'm excited if a little nervous to finally be doing it. My previous attempts at serious blogging have failed but I have a good feeling this one so here we go.

I'm currently a History major at the University of Toronto and I'm going into journalism so I need all the writing practice I can get. In this blog, I hope to write about politics, social issues, feminism, journalism, and my experiences in it. Please feel free to comment and offer constructive criticism. Add a link to your blog or a blog you like, I want to soak up good blogging as much as possible. :)