Author Archives: Charles Lambert

DICO SI… with reservations

Finally an acronym that has a sense to it. DICO (short for dichiarazione di convivenza, or ‘declaration of cohabitation’) looks set to replace PACS as the shorthand for civil unions in Italy. The word’s particularly appropriate because it means ‘I … Continue reading

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"And the Day After That"

Carolyn Steele Agosta has posted the first chapter of her novel “And the Day After That” here. It’s entered in an American Idol style competition for fiction. If you’d like any more information about how it works, visit her site. … Continue reading

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Shades of Alan Turing (2)

Well, he has replied, and I’m flattered. Mr. Lambert, Yes, the story is on the web site. As part of my computer security class, I teach different methods of encryption. My current programming assignment asks students to build a program … Continue reading

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Shades of Alan Turing

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery but unacknowledged plagiarism can leave a slightly bitter taste in the first begetter’s mouth. In mine, at least. A story I wrote some years ago, called SOAP, has popped up in a … Continue reading

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Fasten your seatbelts…

Well, it’s better than nothing. The proposed new bill to regulate civil unions isn’t perfect, but compromise isn’t intended to produce perfection – what compromise is intended to produce is the illusion of perfectibility. The only people whose noses are … Continue reading

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Blair yes, Zapatero no

It’s odd that whenever people want to attack the idea of ‘gay marriage’ the stick they use to beat it with bears the smiling Bambi head of Zapatero. The fact that civil partnerships have also been introduced to England under … Continue reading

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Big foot, big mouth…

Berlusconi does it again. Not content with upsetting his long-suffering wife, he’s managed to alienate a fair slice of the Forza Italia vote by announcing that all gays vote left. If only this were true.

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Towards the watershed…

The latest news is that a Cabinet meeting this afternoon may reach a decision on the civil union bill. Let’s hope it isn’t in Latin.

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God’s ferret strikes again

Cardinal Ruini appears to have made use of L’Avvenire, the Vatican newspaper, in his latest offensive against civil unions. An unsigned editorial (but undoubtedly the ferret’s work) threatens that the kind of legal recognition of unmarried couples likely to be … Continue reading

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Women in wartime

If you happen to be in Amsterdam in March, don’t miss this exhibition of photographs by Patrizia Casamirra. They’re powerful, necessary works, moving yet unrhetorical. They deserve a wider audience.

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