Category: Society

Today it’s our 7th wedding anniversary (although we’ve been together for 21 years). Time flies, I can’t believe that it was seven years ago that we were standing together in the Trouwzaal (Wedding Hall) of the Stadhuis (Townhall) in Gouda, saying "Yes!"

Majikthise posts a disturbing entry on her blog about Zack. He is a 16 year old living in Tennessee who recently came out to his parents as gay. Their reaction has not been one of support, but to send him to a place called Refuge, a Christian programme centre that promises to turn gay children straight.

Zack’s own blog entries are pretty heart-rending, the one lifeline that he has had is his blog and the messages of support that he has been getting via the blogsphere. But against that is the physical fact of his parents and his current incarceration (I can think of no other term for it) in a brainwashing centre. The rules of Refuge make sad, sick reading.

I’ve said before that I feel fortunate to be living where and when I do. It is still disturbing to realise that the "where" is just as important as the "when". This may be the 21st Century, but some people in the USA are still living in the mindset of the 1690s – the days of the Salem witchtrials.

A combination of H. P. Lovecraft, Samuel Delany and David Bowie (Changes), this is amazing. Brings it all back to me, the nights on Hampstead Heath in the early 1970s…

OK, I know I shouldn’t expect rational thinking. So when the Pope says that "The spread of AIDS in Africa ahould be tackled by abstinence rather than condoms", I suppose I should not be surprised.

But then he goes on to say that "The traditional teaching of the church has proven to be the only failsafe way of preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS".

Er, no it hasn’t, you stupid, stupid man.

I’m reminded of the old joke:

Q: What do you call people who practice the rhythm method of contraception?

A: Parents.

I did not expect anything other from this pope. He will continue to bask in the luxury of the Vatican while tens of thousands of his followers will go to their early deaths through ignorance and superstition. It’s at times like these when I almost wish there was a god to strike down meretricious buggers such as Benedict. 

It’s a pity that it’s been patented. I can think of a number of people who should be wearing this and forced to use it.

Sometimes I find it difficult to love my fellow human beings when they are like these particular examples. This is a US-centric list – doubtless we should be thinking about one for citizens of the world at large… Any suggestions?

This is a phone. According to the sales blurb: "Customers can also choose from optional costume covers in unique forms such as Bull, Tire, Cheese, Lawn and Sucker to change handset appearances with ease and a sense of fun".

Alright, I know I’m obviously out of touch with today’s modern world, but all I would like is a simple phone, OK?

What is it about people in marketing? Why is it I look at many of them and think: "The wheel’s spinning, but the hamster’s dead"? And then combine the world of Fashion with Marketing, and you’ve got a foolproof case of why they should be first up against the wall, come the revolution. Here’s a case in point: a news story on the birth of Hybrid Man.

All the usual suspects are there:

• A study carried out by French marketing and style consultants (always a bad sign).
• The study was "unveiled" to Fashion Group International (the fashion industry – usually barking mad)
• The occasion was during a seminar to find "the future strategy for Fashion in Europe" (er, shouldn’t the strategy be to sell more frocks to people who know no better? What else is there to your strategy? No need for a seminar, then).

The managing director, Pierre Francois Le Louet, said: "We are watching the birth of a hybrid man. … Why not put on a pink-flowered shirt and try out a partner-swapping club?".  

Beg pardon? What was that you said?

"He is looking for a more radical affirmation of who he is, and wants to test out all the barbarity of modern life" including in the sexual domain, said Le Louet, adding that Reebok with its "I am what I am" campaign had perfectly tapped into this current trend.

How times change; in my day, "I am what I am" was a torch song belted out by a drag queen – now it’s a slogan for overpriced footwear. Sorry, Monsieur Le Louet, I think I’ll pass on your invitation to become a hybrid man – I don’t think my comfy slippers quite fit the image your campaign is pushing.

Sepia Mutiny has two interesting data points around the beliefs and practices of Homeland Security in the US.

Data point one: two high school girls in New York whom the FBI and Homeland Security jailed on suspicion of being aspiring suicide bombers.

Data point two: a bug-eyed, swastika-festooned white murderer with an assault record who shows up at the U.S. border with a bloody chainsaw, slashing weapons and body armor is let in after being served coffee at the border post.

Hello?

The BBC news site is carrying a story at the moment about an online gamer who has been sentenced to life for killing a fellow gamer. The motive for the killing? The dead gamer "sold" a virtual sword belonging to the killer. So alongside the Virtual Economy now arrives Real-life Crime. This may be the first, but it won’t be the last.

Today I came across Gabriel Rosenberg’s blog that, in his own words, is "A mathematician’s thoughts on same-sex marriage, and little else of late". While obviously a lot of the discussion revolves around the culture and mores of Americans, I noticed that one of the entries referred to an article by Stanley Kurtz that was called "Lessons of the same-sex marriage debate in the Netherlands". Intrigued, I went and read the piece, which turned out to be arguing that same-sex marriage signifies the demotion or abolition of marriage as the socially preferred setting for parenthood.

The article leads off with a graph that strikes me as being a very questionable piece of statistical cooking. It is a graph from the Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics showing "Out-of-Wedlock births" for the years 1970 – 2003. That in itself is fine – the questionable bit comes in having certain years marked with the milestones in the moves to introduce same-sex marriage in the Netherlands, and the suggestion that the conjunction between the introduction of same-sex marriage and the rise in out-of-wedlock births "is no coincidence". There are of course plenty of other factors that play out in Dutch society that might influence the figures, but those are ignored by Kurtz.

I thought that I would visit the Central Bureau of Statistics web site to see what they might have to say about the matter. I found a paper by Jan Latten on Trends in samenwonen en trouwen (Trends in cohabitation and marriage) published in Q4 2004. It’s in Dutch (unfortunate – if you don’t read the language) and it illustrates some of the complex interactions. Latten himself warns against simplistic interpretations using the traditional categories of marriages, divorces, etc., but I can’t resist pointing to the very first graph in the paper, showing the numbers of marriages registered during the years from 1960 to 2003. What that shows is that the rate of marriages rose during the swinging sixties to a peak in 1970, and then fell very rapidly thereafter to a low point in 1983, whereupon it picked up again and oscillated at around 85,000 per year up to today. These facts clearly didn’t suit Kurtz’s argument. Also, at first sight, graph 8 is startling, showing that in 2003, nearly 40% of the firstborn were born out-of-wedlock. However, as Latten points out, many parents now marry after their first child is born – and graph 8 also shows the effect of this.

What all this boils down to is that ideas of marriage are indeed changing, but that simplistic, Chicken Little-like cries of "The Sky is falling" are not the answer, particularly if the "blame" is placed at the door of same-sex marriage.

As an aside, reading some of the comments on Gabriel’s blog gives me a strong impression that their writers are particularly unpleasant people. Phrases such as "same-sex impersonation of marriage" and how homosexuality "crushes responsible procreation". I think I need to go and have a wash. 

That was one of the essential ingredients in building an infinite improbability drive in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Alas, as Neil Gaiman discovers, it’s rarer than it should be in the real world.

Saw this on Towelroad. It takes me back almost 30 years to the atmosphere of the early marches I went on in the UK. Read the comments following the post, in particular the one from Eddie Martin. This sort of thing makes me realise how lucky I am to be living where, and when, I do.

Another of the "it’s like shooting fish in a barrel" posts… This week’s New Scientist has a story on the monetary worth of the pet industry (Billions, apparently). The full article is only available to subscribers, but the abstract sounds rather juicy:

BARRY seems pleased with his new super-enhanced testicles that Jane got him as a treat from the silicon implant catalogue. She is already planning the wedding, and Barry looks so smart with his new haircut and Gucci jacket. But he does seem to be getting a little chubby. Ooh, and she must remember to get that life vest for him – she doesn’t want him falling overboard on their sailing holiday. She is always worrying about him dying. He’s not as young as he was. In fact he’s 12, which is quite old…for a dog, that is.

Dog’s bollocks as silicone implants? Must be a joke, I thought. Nope, it turns out they really exist, and over 100,000 pet owners have bought them (presumably for their darling pets).

The web site for Neuticles (what a wonderfully toe-curling name, BTW) contains some real gems:

Neuticles – allowing your pet to retain his natural look, self esteem and aids in the trauma associated with neutering. (aids in the trauma associated with neutering?)

With Neuticles– It’s like nothing ever changed! (apart from the fact that your dog’s lost his real testicles and now has a couple of lumps of silicone). The FAQ expands on this:

We feel the removal of a God given body part – leaving a male pet looking unwhole after the traditional form of neutering is not only unethical but unnatural. With Neuticles it’s like nothing ever changed.

I swear, I couldn’t make this up if I tried. The rest of the FAQ reaches dizzying heights of bizarreness – it’s worth reading. But I did learn one interesting fact – it’s not just dog’s bollocks they’ve got covered:

Neuticles are now available for any-sized canine, feline, equine, bull or any neutered pet. Refer to sizing chart for additional information and 3D sizing chart. Custom sizing is available.

I love that "custom sizing" bit.

Words fail me.

Echidne, over on her blog, posts a powerful essay, and asks some thought-provoking questions about the long term impact of the abuse of power.

Along the lines of Store Wars, which I pointed to the other day, I found another piece of advocacy that uses humour and popular culture to put across its message. This time it’s The Meatrix – a spoof on The Matrix – to put the case against factory farming methods.

I’ve just noticed that I missed what looks to have been an interesting programme on BBC Radio 4 last Monday night: The Gay Divide. From the BBC’s web page:

Throughout the Moslem world homosexuality is a taboo, punishable in several countries by death. On the West Bank and Gaza women or men who have sex with people of the same sex face imprisonment and torture. They are also rejected by their families and the rest of society. Several hundred Palestinian gays and lesbians have fled to Israel.

Because they’re Palestinian, they’re illegal and cannot readily obtain asylum in Israel. But having tried in Israel, it is virtually impossible to obtain asylum in another country, as you can only apply for asylum once.

Fortunately, the BBC allows for the re-hearing of many of its programmes via the Internet now, and there’s a link on the web page to the audio file. I’m off to listen to it – I suggest that you do the same.

Update: Here’s a link to the story on the Radio Netherlands web. It also has a link to the audio story.

Also on the Mind Hacks Blog is reference to a report that whould seem to indicate that the Internet is increasingly figuring in psychotic delusions.

In the Middle Ages we had demons and devils, from the 1950s on we had UFOs and alien abductions, now it’s the Internet whose tentacles reach into our minds.

Give it another decade or two, and I predict that the emphasis will shift to biotech… 

But apparently not in this household. And the mother even has the audacity to blame the schools: "I don’t care what people say about me. I blame the schools – sex education for young girls should be better".

I despair. It’s the sort of thing that gives eugenics a good name. And one of the babies is called T-Jay? That’s a name? I feel a depressing attack of the Victor Meldrews coming on…