Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…
Data point (a): Chile lesbian loses child appeal. "The Chilean court said her children’s development was at risk because she was living in a lesbian relationship".
Data point (b): Joe Valentine’s parents. Joe Valentine is a successful baseball player who happens to have been raised by two lesbians.
When will people realise it’s the quality of parenting that matters to a child’s development, and not the sexual orientation of the parents?
…They do things differently there.
Yes, I know that the original quote (L. P. Hartley, the Go-Between, 1953) had "Past" in place of "Young"), but it seemed absolutely aposite for the experience I’ve just had. I was idly perusing the statistics to see if anyone out there actually looked at my blog, and I came across a link that showed that a 14 year old girl in the East Midlands, England, had dropped in. I followed the link back, and found this:
Hiyaz today was funny at skul lata on but begginin was bad !
kirsty told every1 bout me n chris lol n now every1 nos
but in english me n kirst were playin catch wid ma pen n kirstys rubber lmao which den got tuk offf us by chelsea cuz i hit her wid it lmao
but den we managed to get anotha one loln den in science we had to do an experiment n i was washin dese goggles unda da tap lmao n i flicked water at kirsty n miss caught me lol n den we was messin bout wid da acid n stuf n we all had to sit down n get a lesson on how to behave in a lab lmao
n trust me ! i dun sumut rly dangerous acordin to miss lmaoso now im very bored on msn talkin to chris bout stuf
i dno wot to say god help me lol ! ! !
amy tried to help but i cant do it man seriously !anywayz im gonna go now laters
xxxx bye xxxx
Hello? Does one need any more evidence that evolution exists? This is clearly not a strain of English that I was brought up on. I remember in primary school sitting in a class, and another boy came in to ask the teacher something. He said something along the lines of "The headmaster wants to know if any of the kids saw [an incident in the playground] this morning".
The teacher drew herself up to her full height and said: "Child, ‘kids’ are the offspring of goats – there are children in my classroom".
Deckchairs on the Titanic, anyone?
I hold onto just one thought – the person who makes these photographs may be heading down the road trod by Louis Wain.
Seeing that Boing Boing posted a sighting of a vending machine for iPods got me thinking.
Last week, in the Barcelona Metro, I saw a vending machine selling paperback books. Not understanding Spanish, I could not judge whether the books represented literature (haut cuisine) or Jeffrey Archer (fast food trash). I would like to believe the former.
And I remember a few years ago in the neighbourhood was a vending machine selling bunches of flowers (only in Holland?). Alas, long since gone the way of me-tooism – the beige-coloured global culture that I sometimes think I’m drowning in.
Intolerance is on the rise again in The Netherlands. This incident is not the first, and I’m sure won’t be the last. The commentary on it by Bruce Bawer, reproduced by Andrew Sullivan in his blog, makes disturbing reading. That, coupled with the fact that I’ve just finished reading The End of Faith, by Sam Harris, has not put me in a sunny and relaxed mood.
One bit of good news is that Microsoft has reversed its decision to take a neutral stand on the anti-discrimination bill that failed by just one vote in Washington state and will now actively support it again. Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer explained:
After looking at the question from all sides, I’ve concluded that diversity in the workplace is such an important issue for our business that it should be included in our legislative agenda. Since our beginning nearly 30 years ago, Microsoft has had a strong business interest in recruiting and retaining the best and brightest and most diverse workforce possible. I’m proud of Microsoft’s commitment to non-discrimination in our internal policies and benefits, but our policies can’t cover the range of housing, education, financial and similar services that our people and their partners and families need. Therefore, it’s appropriate for the company to support legislation that will promote and protect diversity in the workplace.
Accordingly, Microsoft will continue to join other leading companies in supporting federal legislation that would prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation — adding sexual orientation to the existing law that already covers race, sex, national origin, religion, age and disability. Given the importance of diversity to our business, it is appropriate for the company to endorse legislation that prohibits employment discrimination on all of these grounds. Obviously, the Washington State legislative session has concluded for this year, but if legislation similar to HB 1515 is introduced in future sessions, we will support it.
Glad to see that Microsoft has done the right thing.
The WEEE Man is made from the amount of waste electrical and electronic products that an average UK citizen will throw away in a lifetime, if he or she carries on disposing of products at the current rate.
At the risk of being flippant, the multiplication factor for Americans is probably 2.65.
…the concentration camp at Dachau was liberated by US troops. This post from Orac should be read, lest we forget.
That deathless tagline from Private Eye seems aposite for this crap.
Call me naive, but I had this idea that the London Review of Books was a deeply serious magazine, with a readership of fearsomely intellectual, and probably terminally boring, people. So, I am very grateful to Boing Boing for correcting this misconception by pointing me towards the LRB’s column of Personal Ads.
… if this picture is anything to go by.
I can’t believe I’ve just blogged this. Yes, it’s politically incorrect, but come on – lighten up already…
…It’s going to be a bumpy ride: Ratzinger’s got the job.
There clearly is no god. "Billions of voices, making all the wrong choices…"
My old employer, Shell, was, and is, very keen to encourage employee networks. While I was with Shell, I was a member of the GLBTN-NL (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Network for Shell in the Netherlands). I am very pleased to hear that the Network is organising this year to participate in the Amsterdam Gay Pride Canal Parade on 6 August 2005.
The organising committee writes:
Shell Nederland has agreed with enthusiasm to sponsor our participation (not the parade as such) – this agreement is the result of a number of years of lobbying with Shell Nederland management for visible recognition and celebration of who we are and what we do in Shell, regardless of sexual orientation.
Many people both inside and outside our network have helped make our case, for which we are very thankful. We are now working hard to have a great day for all in August, again with the help of many people across Shell in the Netherlands.
We encourage you all to come and watch on Saturday August 6 along the Prinsengracht, with friends and family!
I’ll certainly be there to cheer them on. Well done to them!
#4 in an occasional series.
Dilbert today sums it up pretty well. Not that all my managers were bad – far from it, most were excellent, but there were a few around that I thought fit this particular glove…
Vincent Creelan over on his Eclectic Tardis Blog has a contemplative post describing a walk through a local landscape and his life.
Quote
Yesterday was a marvellous day, bright sunshine, fresh breeze, a real sense of spring …and summer to come. The Cherry blossums are already fading and the Elder flower and Hawthorne blooms are showing. I went for a long…ish walk with my partner and his sister Claire around Scrabo Country Park at the top of the Ards peninsular. This is an area that has been inhabited for thousands of years, on the hill where Scrabo tower now stands, iron age mounds can be seen scattered around (what is now a golf course) and when they dug the foundations for the tower they found a hoard of coins from the Roman times. Also from that vantage point you can see right down the lough and could imagine the times when the Viking long boats appeared when they sacked the Abbeys along the coast from Portaferry right up to Greyabbey 12 centuries ago. The tower itself..a folly..was erected in 1856 in memory of a local titled Aristocrat who met an untimely death, built in his memory by friends and faithfull tennants…well nearly, lol, those were poor times(potato famine etc) and the grand design had to be somewhat tailored to meet the budget. Nonetheless it is an imposing structure which sits high on a hill visible for many miles, from its tower you can see to Belfast on one side, the Mourne Mountains on another and across to Scotland too.
…
End Quote
His description of the landscape reminded me very much of walking on the Isle of Man – all the echoes of previous societies and lives being etched in the lie of the land. And it might very well have been that the Viking long boats that he mentions came from the Isle of Man. It was in a strategic position in the middle of the Irish Sea. From there, the Vikings were very well-positioned to carry out rape and pillage on Ireland, Scotland Wales and England.
He goes on to reflect on the choices we make in life. He wonders what it would be like if he were able to go back and make different choices – the choices that he would make with the benefit of hindsight.
Well, I wonder – I have a very strong feeling that if I were able to do that, the "me" that is here now would not be the same "me" if I had made those different choices. While on one level I have the sense that I am still the person I was when I was 20 – just older and greyer – I wonder if that is really true. We are surely shaped by the decisions and experiences that we undergo all the time – and the individual that has resulted in me would be very different had I taken a different path through life. It’s like identical twins – they may start out as genetically identical specimens, but they end up as two distinct individuals as a result of their life experiences.
That title from an old Fats Waller song seemed appropriate for this site that determines just how big your ecological footprint is.
I’ll wager that you’re living beyond the planet’s means to sustain you (just like me).
An item from the Human Rights Watch organisation is a salutary reminder that millions of gay men and women are unfortunate enough to be born in countries where the mere fact of being gay brings the threat of punishment, prison or even death.
Sometimes I forget how lucky some of us are to be living in countries where a more enlightened attitude is enshrined in the law. As Harvey Fierstein said at the opening of the Gay Games in Amsterdam back in 1998:
"The journeys that we made by train, boat and plane to get to Amsterdam were short in comparison with the journeys in our souls to reach this place. We were carried here on the backs of the millions of gays and lesbians that went before us… some of whom paid for the struggle against prejudice with their very lifeblood."
And millions continue today in that struggle.
…Long live the Pope?
I do not feel any personal sadness whatsoever at the passing of this Pope. I’m afraid I never had much time for Karol Wojtyla. Yes, charisma he had in spades – his training as an actor clearly paid off. And he has had a major impact on reshaping the Catholic church. But alongside the scale in which is put such elements as his championship of the poor is the scale in which he refused to permit the use of condoms, thus ensuring the painful death of many thousands through AIDS.
As Terry Eagleton writes in the Guardian today: "The Pope goes to his eternal reward with those deaths on his hands. He was one of the greatest disasters for the Christian church since Charles Darwin."
In his address of the 10th January to the Diplomatic Corps of the Vatican, Pope Paul II stated that “the family is also threatened by legislation which at times directly challenge its natural structure, which is and must necessarily be that of a union between a man and a woman founded on marriage. The family […] must never be undermined by laws based on a narrow and unnatural vision of man". Sometimes I wonder just who had the narrow vision around here…
And yes, I am base enough to feel personally offended by him characterising my marriage as part of the "Ideology of Evil" that is threatening society (in the pages of his last book Memory and Identity). Little old moi? Part of the ideology of evil? Threatening society?
He built an extraordinary power base in his years as Pope; gathering around him, and appointing, cardinals who shared the same world view. Cardinals such as Joseph Ratzinger. I don’t happen to believe in any gods, but God help the Catholic church, and by osmosis, the rest of us, if Ratzinger becomes the next Pope.
Someone is threatening to eat his pet rabbit unless he receives $50,000 in donations by 30th June.
Amazingly, he (it’s bound to be a he – a woman would be much more subtle!) has already received nearly $20,000 in donations from complete suckers, er strangers, over the net.
I am torn between admiration for the bare-faced effrontery of the scheme and despair that there are people out there who are foolish enough to have sent him money – nearly $20,000 worth.
Update, April 4: I see he’s now got over $20,000. Sheesh!
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