[berntb]

Hi again,

I have no clue how posting stories works. (I have a suspicion that a of extra accounts are often(?) used to vote most stories up, so they get to the front page.) Most of the times when I get (or lose!) karma is when I write something in a very new story.

Interesting point about laws re homosexuality, I didn't know they were that old. Hmm, maybe there is some reason why it is so visible right now. Maybe not only the Chinese state can set the media's agenda...?

Good luck yourself! Still writing tests and I'll go drink at a wedding this weekend. :-( :-)

I'm aiming for beginning of next week.

[pipy]

I'd like to correct myself: I've said that the policy was implemented couple of years before, this is not correct. The first country-wide law ‘against propaganda of homosexuality to minors’ was really passed on 11-th of June, 2013. But we had multiple similar laws that were passed on regional levels long before, starting in 2006 when the law was passed in Ryazan Oblast, and culminating in 2011 when it was passed in many other regions and Saint Petersburg among them. And the media was talking about the need for such laws probably for five or six years.

Here is a good summary of the situation: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=...

I should have checked the facts earlier. The media was babbling about the need of the law for so long, that it seems that I've lost touch. The ruling party has introduced the bill in March of 2012. They government is doing so many blatantly absurd things, that it's hard to track of all of them. The current issues that I'm interested in are the dissolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences; extending of blatant religious propaganda to small children in schools; possible two-fold or three-fold increase of the utility payments; introduction of the ‘non-state’ center for fighting ‘atheist extremism’ by the church which is so integrated into the ruling regime, impudent and crooky that it alienates not-insignificant part of it's own congregation; the legislation for prohibiting the Tor network and the growing list of banned websites; dismantling of free education. And the disturbing fact that anything that doesn't go along with government's plans is becoming ‘extremism’. Even small local protests against non-political issues are being videotaped by the FSB, in the regions some people literally go to jail for protesting against minor stuff, etc., etc.

Have a good time! Since I haven't been invited to any wedding party, I have no choice but to resort to drinking alone. Ha ha, just kidding. In the coming days I would probably do some work. )))

[berntb]

Oh my Cthulhu, thanks for a depression :-( :-)

I had forgotten about the Tor network and most of the other craziness.

So, the last dictators kept the church down and the coming one one hugs it closely? Re religion...

As a hard line atheist, I have to admit the Orthodox churches I saw in a short St Petersburg visit long ago impressed me.

You know Scandinavian "taste"? One extra line in a design is a bit... brave. Two lines is, well, avantgarde. Three -- beyond tacky. The churches there made my eyes bleed from the sheer amount of details, while they blew me away with sheer beauty. Cool feeling.

I exaggerated the drinking. I was outsourced to Romania a couple of years back and am still here. People here are nice but just don't drink for fun. (In the small villages they are said to drink like sponges, I'll avoid moving there. :-) )