You Are (Most Probably) The End of Your Line

Contra Dawkins

Most people in the past do not have descendants.

In a known case, less than 15% of French people alive in 1789 have living descendants.

If evolution is about the winners, then I am on the side of the losers.

A Party of Royal Bastards' Descendants and Baronets

David Cameron is a descendant of King William IV (via a "natural" child"). He is a relative of the Queen.

Boris Johnson is a descendant of King George II (via a "natural" child"). He also is a relative of the Queen.

George Osborne is heir to the title 18th Baronet Osborne.

"Dave" Cameron had calls from the Palace to advance his career at Conservative Central office when he left Oxford.

Is electing this trash what modern Britain has come to?

In fact the Tories have not been this retrograde on a class basis since Macmillan.

Heath (lower middle class), Thatcher (lower middle class), Major (working class), Hague (Yorkshire middle class), Ian Duncan Smith (posh but Catholic), Michael Howard (from Jewish Romanian stock) - all of these were outside the networked top public-school elite.

Among these people Osborne is looked down on because he is "only" the heir to a baronetcy.

It's true, possibly, that these old Tories might show a noblesse oblige that the nouveau riche conservatives since Macmillan have not shown. [Macmillan built 300,000 decent (with some exceptions) council houses a year while PM].

The real problem here is the complete and utter fuck up by New Labour.

I will vote Labour, but my favoured outcome would be one in which no party got a majority, and Labour could form a small minority govt with SNP, Plaid Cymru, Irish SDLP, support, and Brown was ousted.

Alternatively, I hope for a Tory victory of around 10 MPs, which collapses quickly but gives time for real Labour to reform.

Boycotting Iain Dale's Conservative Gay Pride Event

Gay rights campaigner boycotts Tory fringe at the last minute | LabourList.org 2.0 | LabourList.org

Ben Sumerskill, the head of gay rights group Stonewall has pulled out of speaking at the Tories' first ever Pride event - due to be held on Canal Street tonight - as a result of Michal Kaminsky's appearance at Conservative conference.

Summerskill told Channel 4 News:

"There is no doubt the progress that has been made in the last couple of years has genuinely been historic. It would churlish of anyone not to welcome the apology a couple of months ago over Section 28. But the event tonight has been overshadowed by the presence, not just at conference but on the same platform as some senior members of the party, of people of such extreme and offensive views. And certainly there are people I've spoken to at the conference today, not just gay people but Jewish delegates as well, who share that viewpoint."

I'm not sure that this was an especially useful action by Ben Summerskill.

Clearly many LGBT people are going to vote Tory, and it is in the interests of everyone that the Tories' mind remains changed on LGBT issues.

It's very hard to see what more legislative action *for* lesbians and gays could be take, apart from equalising access to marriage. But it is important to be able to stop certain usual Tory laws that would affect many gay people -for instance laws on prostitution, saunas and pornography could all be tightened.

I do, as a long time gay activist, regret the Quangoisation of LGBT politics, and would not particularly object to a gradual state withdrawal from this area. Peter Tatchell is a much better model of a gay activist as far as I am concerned.

For more info see Pink News

Tory Class Warfare

The welfare policy announced at the Tory conference this week is just open class warfare by the Tories.

The problem is that, after James Purnell adopted the same pogram against the poor from the same advisor (David Freud), Labour has little to say on this issue.

I am not really interested in what the usual Tory trolls say here.

Cameronism, the policies from David Cameron, a man with inherited wealth, and who owns £1000 dining room chairs, amounts to trying to take £25 a week from people trying to live on £89 per week. Why? To deal with a fiscal deficit created by bankers?

Toryism is not stupid (like the right in the US), but constitutes a pure and evil class-based attack on the poorest.

The deficit has been caused by the bankers' depression. The most this pogram is meant to get back is £1 billion, yet the annual government spend is £600 billion. So 1/6th of 1% will not help at all. But it will make the poor poorer and terrify even those like me, where the medical evdience is, shall we say, overwhelming.

Meanwhile Tory and Labour donors avoid tax to £12-15 billion in UK run tax havens like Bermuda or the Cayman islands.

It is just sick to blame and attack the poor for the failure of capitalism.

I wish Labour could motivate the vote of welfare recipients and public employees just to save themselves from the coming onslaught. But the fact is that traitors like Purnell have made that all but impossible.

I have never felt more depressed.

The Pogram Against Gay Men in Iraq

How a Few New Yorkers Are Trying to Save the Hunted Gay Men of Iraq -- New York Magazine

From Baghdad—frightening reports of gay pogroms, where homosexual men are targeted, tortured, slayed.

More than disturbing.

The New Staffordhshire Anglo-Saxon Hoard

BBC Report

It's a pretty fantastic day to be a medievalist here (70 years after Sutton Hoo). Byzantinists may be interested because this hoard included Byzantine objects. 5 kilograms of the objects were in gold.

Me and my dad discuss all sorts of things all the time, and he listend to me talking about medieval and Byzantine topics all the time, but today we spent 30 minutes
on the law of treasure trove, why there might be Byzantine gold work with Ceylonese jewels found a hundred miles from us (here in south Lancashire), and all because it was in the news.

This is wow wow wow.

See the Official Site

See FlickrPhotos

The Daily Mash - ANGER AT EU BAN ON WANKY SHIT PUDDING

The Daily Mash - ANGER AT EU BAN ON WANKY SHIT PUDDING

THERE was anger last night as European bureaucrats threatened to outlaw classic British puddings such as freckled ball bag and boiled arseholes.

Wanky shit pudding with a strawberry bell-end
A new Brussels directive will seek to end the UK's exemption from dirty cake name laws, leaving establishments advertising old-fashioned favourites, including wanky shit pudding, open to prosecution.

Cafe owner Eve Evans said: 'It's political correctness gone mad. I raised my kids on things like wanky shit pudding, chocolate hard-ons and fuck-me-tarts, they're great British treats.'

She added: 'At the end of the day, a wanky shit pudding is basically a chocolate brownie with a blob of double cream on it. What do you think that looks like? Exactly - a shit that someone's done a wank on. It's plain common sense.'

Puff the Magic Dragon (live)

This was my favourite song as a kid. Mary Travers died to day. May her soul Rest in Peace.

British Politics Now - Mid September 2009

We clearly are living with the embers of a dying regime.

The best we on the left can hope for is to limit Tory advances, perhaps even produce a lame Tory-Lib Dem coalition, and a short Tory interlude.

Labour's efforts should be all on a) making the poorest safe, b) ring fencing the NHS, c) explaining to public sector and the manufacturing/construction sector (still a big section of the economy) that Labour is best for them, d) repelling all claims that a public sector worker is not an economic contributor while a private sector work is, e) getting benefit recipients out to vote.

Above all, it's important to get the Lisbon treaty approved as this will do more to help the poor than anything else.

The Irish will vote for it this time. And it will go through.

Then Gordon Brown should be made to resign, and whoever is best to deal with opposition should take over for the necessary election.

My heart goes to Cruddas and Harman. Sense tells me Alan Johnson would be the best caretaker.

The Easy Way to Solve Fiscal Deficits

For the UK and the US. The best solution to both fiscal deficits is to raise income tax, progressively, to the levels required to cover problems.

Perhaps also we should have a 1/20th take on all fixed wealth over the median+20% of house prices. [The ...US could also do with a national VAT and gas/petrol tax.]

The basic rule is this. 2-3% of the population own 90% of the wealth.

TAX THE RICH UNTIL THE PIPS SQUEAK.

[The picture is of the great Labour politician who used this phrase in an election *that Labour won* in 1973].

Modesty and Islam

In response to Ruth Gledhill's post

Are Muslim men modest? Is all that preening, showing off of arses just nothing? Are tight jeans Islamic?

I happen to find "Mediterranean" men attractive - from Spain to Bangladesh. I think suits are sexy, but I really like a guy with dark hair, dusky complexion, and mournful eyes - dressed in a leather jacket and tight jeans.

And there are a lot of men like me.

And people like me have a lot of fun in countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Turkey, Pakistan etc. The code phrase they ask is "are you married?"

But they won't kiss.

In other words, if modesty is an issue, cute Muslim guys need to cover up. Perhaps the men could wear a veil or a Burkha?

Sex segregation, alone with the burkha, niqab, and hijab - all those Muslim sartorial signs that say a woman is "modest" only if she is covered up - amount to a direct claim that women who do not wear them are immodest. There is a similar chain of thought in ultra-orthodox Jewish insistence on married women wearing wigs or other hair covering, and covering all limbs.

Such practices amount to saying western women are sluts. And that is a big problem.

Manchester Pride does Lily Allen - F**K You

Just great. Play it at work.

LOUD.

Evolutionary Psychology: Am I Nuts or Is It Nuts?

Men and women? Both from Earth | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk


I have been reading quite a bit about Evolutionary Psychology lately, Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate and Ian McEwan's Enduring Love in the past week for example.

Like other psychological theories (Freudianism, Behaviourism) is seems to offer some interesting insights.

But its overall tone, as noted elsewhere, is a series of Just so stories that confirm current prejudices. [For Steven Pinker the thoughts and ideals of a Harvard psychology professor in the Late Clinton era represent "Human Nature"...].

More than that, it shares with Freudianism the typical bully stance of "everything you say proves my point." (Pinker specifically approves of Freudianism on this point.)

In fact it is another "scientific theory" built on far too little data and far too much assumption of Divine authority by its writers.

I look forward to its rapid deconstruction.

What are the books doing this now?

What Our Soldiers Are Dying For

Iain Dale's Diary: Is This What Our Soldiers Are Dying For?

I just read on Andrew Nutt's blog the following about a new law which has come into force in Afghanistan...

A new law was recently passed that an Afghan husband is allowed to starve his wife if she refuses to have sex with him. A woman must have also her husband’s permission to work. An earlier bill asked Shia women to have sex with their husbands every four days at a minimum. It also removed the need for consent to sex within marriage, effectively condoning rape. This amended version has been published in the official gazette and become law.

Surely this can't be true, I thought. Is this what our armed forces are fighting for? But yes, it is true. HERE's the report from MSNBC.

And there was me thinking we were there to bring freedom and democracy to the people of Aghanistan. How naive."

Our soldiers (my nephew Nick is in the Royal Marines) are fighting so that we can control a cauldron of extremism in the far-middle east.

Most of the people there (male and female) are not in any essential way reachable by any military or diplomatic methods.

The terrorism is fueled by by our dependence on oil, and the power that gives religious elites, both Shia and Sunni, and if not them, thugs like Saddam. We rightly support Israel's right to exist, but its position as a western cipher in the region makes everything else worse.

We need to keep the military lid on the region; decrease our need for oil from the region; and de-toxify the presence of Israel (which is now home to many religious extremists just as gross as the Taliban).

What else can we do?

I mean, seriously this is not even a party issue in the UK.

Barney Frank Confronts Woman At Townhall Comparing Obama To Hitler

Capping private wealth would be an admission of defeat - Really?

Tom Harris writes:

Capping private wealth would be an admission of defeat | And another thing...:

"This proposal has “securing our core vote” written all over it. Except it wouldn’t, because once you’ve addressed the understandable anger at certain individuals’ exorbitant salaries, pensions and bonuses, you’re left with the principle that a Labour government is setting a ceiling on individuals’ wealth. And that’s not what governments should be doing, because once you’ve established that principle, once you’ve raised a few cheers by ostentatiously depriving some bankers of their bonuses, where do you go next? What do you do when the media get round to identifying the next figures of public hatred? Target them too? How far down the scale do you go? After all, multi-millionaires may not be able to justify their bonuses to the general public, but neither can civil servants earning six figures or MPs earning five justify their incomes to some of those living off benefits."

The working class (or even nowadays the “underclass”as the elite call them) has never really been good at class warfare. Indeed many working class people don’t really think in class terms.

But that insouciance stops once you get to the middle class, and even more the upper middle class (i.e. those with private schools, Oxbridge, daddies who “know someone who can help you”.)

It’s that middle class that wages a ceaseless class warfare to keep its own privilege.

These super high salaries were in no way deserved. They were the salaries of people who had found a way to commit moral fraud and/or engage in asset-stripping.

Tom needs to rethink this.

My New Dog - Chalky

More pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=134976&id=697126564&l=1592f7aabe

Chalky is 3 years old, half beagle/half schnauzer, but pretty much all terrier. He is committed to appearing committed, likes to toss his food bowl, chase cats, but does not pull too hard on his leash. With any luck he will force me to loose 25lbs.

His birthday from now on is 17 August.

UK vs. US Healthcare

I was born in the UK in 1960. I lived in the US from 1987-2007 - and always had good insurance. I paid taxes, etc, in both countries. And I NOW LIVE WITH AIDS, as I have since 1990. So I know what good healthcare means.

Even if, as I did, you have the best possible US insurance plans, you still face massive co-payments for meds (max. required in the UK is £102/$172 per year, for anyone, on any income). But for any procedure in the US you got co-payment bills from 2-3-4-5 participants. If any single thing was mistaken, you faced weeks of paperwork.

The doctors and nurses are fine in the US - they are not all profit-driven nuts. But the paperwork you deal with is incredible.

Here in the UK, I get healthcare which is just as good, or in some respects better. And face no paperwork at all.

Who was paying for all that paperwork in the US? Who was wasting time processing it? Here in the UK we save money simply by treating people as needed.

When is it OK for Americans to Support Terrorism?

Answer: When it targets British soldiers.

See this recent nostalgic "anecdote" by Victor Navsky about IZL(Irgun)-funder Sidney Zion in Tablet: A New Read on Jewish Life:

Sidney, who kept track of these things, reminded me that after A Flag is Born closed, Hecht had used his own proceeds from the play to take out an ad in The New York Herald Tribune congratulating the Irgun on blowing up British trains, robbing British banks, killing British Tommies.

It's not like British soldiers had anything to do with fighting Germany, eh?


[BTW: This idea works for *some* Irish-Americans as well as *some* Jewish Americans.]

On Harry Patch' Funeral: Baez and Dietrich

A chorister today sang Where Have All the Flowers Gone? at Harry Patch' funeral (the last Uk survivor of the Western Front). I have been listening/watching the song on YouTube.

I present two versions. One by Joan Baez (to me the person whose music has meant more to me than any other) and then by Marlene Dietrich. Marlene sang the song in both English and German, but I give the German version. A salute to Harry Patch who hated all war.

JOAN BAEZ - Where have all the Flowers Gone?




MARLENE DIETRICH - Sag mir wo die Blumen sind? {It was written by Pete Seeger, but made a worldwide hit by Marlene)




DEUTSCH/GERMAN

Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind,
wo sind sie geblieben?
Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind,
was ist geschehn?
Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind,
Mädchen pflückten sie geschwind.

Wann wird man je verstehn,
wann wird man je verstehn?

Sag mir, wo die Mädchen sind
Männer nahmen sie geschwind.

Sag mir, wo die Männer sind
Zogen fort, der Krieg beginnt.

Sag, wo die Soldaten sind
Über Gräbern weht der Wind.

Sag mir, wo die Gräber sind
Blumen blühen im Sommerwind.

Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind
Mädchen pflückten sie geschwind.

ENGLISH

Tell me where the flowers are
where have they lived on?
Tell me where the flowers are
what has been done?
Tell me where the flowers are
Tell me where the flowers are
what has been done?
Tell me where the flowers are
Young girls plucked them hastily.

When will they ever see,
when will they ever see?

Tell me where the young girls are ...
Men they took them hastily.

Tell me where the men all are ...
Moved away, the war begins.

Tell me where the soldiers are ...
Over gravestones wafts the wind.

Tell me where the graves all are ...
Flowers bloom in summer wind.

Tell me where the flowers are ...
Young girls plucked them hastily.

Kseniya Simonova - Sand Animation

This "Sand Animation" won Ukraine's Got Talent. It's completely unexpected - I have never seen anything remotely like it - and completely wonderful.

The experience is like watching Picasso paint Guernica.




Update: from WOSU, an American Public Radio Station:

"This incredible “sand animation” is performed by the 2009 winner of the Ukraine “Got Talent” television series, Kseniya Simonova. Apparently, it is telling the story of life during WWII, which would explain the emotional reactions of some of the audience. The text at the end where they’re staring at the sailor’s ghost says: “You are always nearby”.The 24-yr-old atist’s prize was 1,000,000 Ukrainian hryvnia (April 2009, approximately US $125,000)

"What she depicts is love and war, set amidst the turmoil of The Great Patriotic War, or as we call it in America, WWII. Ukraine was probably the area most devastated in the war, even more than Germany. It was a conflict that saw nearly one in four Ukrainians killed. Ukraine represented almost 20 percent of all the causalities suffered during WWII. The scene ends in 1945, with the death of Hitler and the end of a long war.

Update II

From Random Thoughts blog

"This was a part of the competition Ukraine's Got Talent, and the girl did win the First Place. Her name is Kseniya Simonova, and she is Russian living in Ukraine. The composition she is "performing" is called a "Sand Requiem", and it is a short version of World War II on the territory of Ukraine, or Western Russia, or possibly Bielorussia. You will see that she really strikes a cord with her audience which weeps through a portion of the show. The most emotional place is accompanied by a song "Cranes" which goes something like this: "Sometimes I dream that our soldiers who did not return from the bloody fields, did not lie down into our earth, but turned into white cranes. Since those bygone days until now they have been flying over us and sending us their calls. Could that be the reason why we often get quiet and look up into the sky with sadness?" Her medium is very fine black volcanic sand. Kseniya is married, and has a young son.

Update III

From The Guardian

"Here, she recounts Germany conquering Ukraine in the second world war. She brings calm, then conflict. A couple on a bench become a woman's face; a peaceful walkway becomes a conflagration; a weeping widow morphs into an obelisk for an unknown soldier. Simonova looks like some vengeful Old Testament deity as she destroys then recreates her scenes - with deft strokes, sprinkles and sweeps she keeps the narrative going. She moves the judges to tears as she subtitles the final scene "you are always near."

A Simple Question

Why is there so much advertising for car insurance in Britain?

My Letter to My MP on the Purdy Decision

Dear Mr. Lewis,

Although I will vote for you as my Labour candidate, whatever your position on this issue, I want you to know with what joy I heard the decision on the House of Lords on Debbie Purdy's case.

This is a de facto change in the law.

As someone who has lived with knowledge that I am HIV+ since 1990, and a Person with Aids since 2005 (and still healthy) and as someone who has fought and fights to stay alive and healthy, I am delighted with this decision. I will fight for life as long as I can, but now I see that, as a country, we are moving to accept a death with dignity approach.

I don't believe those who are mentally unable, such as those with *advanced* Alzheimers, should be euthanised, but I do believe that those who sign off on taking Nembutal should be able to.

To me this decision means I might avoid supurrating to death like my friend David Bowen, who (to my shame) I avoided helping to die in 1993.

We need a law here, which does not just allow the rich to go to Switzerland, and which protects pressurization of elderly people, but which allows us to know we will not die in distraction.

I respect your views, and that you must vote according to your conscience. I just need to convey that as a person who may face this issue, I feel joy and relief today.

And I still hope to outlive you!

Twenty Five Years of the HIV Test

25 years ago today, on 23rd April 1984, the US Health Secretary, Margaret Heckler, announced the ground breaking discovery that HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.

Ms Heckler also announced on that same day that a blood test had been developed that would prevent infected individuals unwittingly passing on the virus through blood transfusions.

Pink News 30 July 2009

What is wrong in the UK is the amount of stigma directed at HIV+ people by other gay people, and even by other people with HIV.

Well I am HIV+, my family knows, all my friends know, and so do most of my neighbours (and I live on a [very nice] council estate in Radcliffe, Greater Manchester).

I don't think scaring people will work. People just don't died of HIV in a few years. I can tell people, though, that even with a zero viral load, the meds can wear you down, and after many years you just feel so damned tired. (And let's not even mention the bowel problems).

But as long as this stigma remains people will refuse to get tested because they don't want to be a member of a stigmatised group. When such people do get tested, they often seem to hate themselves, and either refuse to tell partners or go into a kind of "shock" and withdraw from the world.

We need a balanced approach. HIV is not the immediate death sentence it once seemed, but it's still something you don't want to have. Until we limit stigma, there is no campaign that will be successful.

I, at least, hope to contribute, by being quite open about it.

David Tennant and John Barrowman Kiss!

Fourth Plinth - Naked for HIV

A Man dresses up as Angel of the North, then gets naked (around 47th minute) on the Fourth Plinth to bring attention to HIV issues. Bravo!

See the whole hour at SkyArts: LilacBonzai

Medieval Exhibitions in London (British Museum and Henry VIII/British Library)

Back from London, where I took things slowly.

While there I look for the first time at the new medieval rooms at
British Museum - and to be frank I was not too impressed. I also saw the British Library Henry VIII exhibition.

The new medieval room has some good items, but considering how many interesting medieval buildings there are in England (and the UK generally) this new room at the British Museum does not measure up.

Certainly compared to say the Cloisters in New York or the Musee de Cluny in Paris it is fairly sparse. More than that, I doubt general visitors to the British Museum, with its stunning ancient Greek, Assyrian, Roman, and Egyptian antiquities will be especially impressed by the medieval exhibits.

But it's also the case that items are not presented very well. The BM cannot compete with the architectural possibilities of the Cloisters or Musee de Cluny, but surely it can do more than shove various collections of treasure trove into one case, with few contextual explanations. [Even the Sutton Hoo trove, which is not part of the new room, just sits there dully in a glass case.]

Apart from individual items, the overall labelling is old fashioned and uninteresting. For a visitor to the BM "Anglo-Saxons" simply replaced "Celts" and no explanation is given that DNA evidence simply does not a) support a connection of Insular "Celts" with the middle European La Tene culture, nor that b) "Anglo-Saxons" simply replaced the post-Roman inhabitants. Even if these issues may not be major issues for the waves of non-UK visitors to the BM, surely subjects such as this ("where the modern English came from") should be capable of forming interesting exhibits for the many UK visitors.

Meanwhile, the labels say that England in the middle ages was "feudal." Oy.

As to Henry VIII - he is of course part of the problem: so much English medieval art was destroyed by the monster and his successors that there is so much less to show than in France or Italy. David Starkey, the curator of the British Library exhibition, is desperate to show that the documents and objects he presents ( which are indeed interesting) show a way "into the mind of the King".

The problem is that one ends up with the same impression as before: Henry was an obsessive maniac, whose efforts to have a male heir did nothing other than destroy damn near the totality (OK, 95%) of medieval art in England, all for nought as his male heir was useless, his doubtfully legitimate daughter turned into a great queen, and it was the heirs of his sister Margaret who came to power in the end in any case.

He is quite the nastiest king in English history.

Sorry for not Blogging - My Computer Died

Sorry for not blogging. My laptop just died last week - complete circuit board failure. I will be back as soon as the next one arrives.

Fortunately, all my files were backed up!

Commie Pope

Pope Benedict puts God at the heart of globalisation - Catholic Herald Online

Yet the Pope absolutely rejects the notion that 'the market' can be relied upon to correct injustice or fulfil human potential. The problem, as he sharply observes (characteristically eschewing 'inclusive language'), is that 'as society becomes ever more globalised, it makes us neighbours but does not make us brothers'. Catholic social teaching has not changed its conviction that mankind must correct the malfunctions of the market.

Quite.

4th July

Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) Embraced by New York Tranny Community

Daniel Radcliffe celebrates Harry Potter graduation by becoming art collector | Film | guardian.co.uk

I've been really good friends with Jim and his best mate, Tim, a photographer. And they are two gay guys, artists, in New York, and they introduced me to these amazing, crazy, mad, weird, extraordinary people. I was immediately embraced by the New York tranny community.'

Ain't that nice!

Something to Make You Happy - Guards Doing Thriller.

Watch royal military band play Thriller to stunned tourists - video exclusive | The Sun |News

MICHAEL Jackson's mega hit Thriller has been given this hilarious revamp by the army's world-famous Band of the Coldstream Guards - just a stones throw from Buckingham Palace.

Hordes of tourists were left open-mouthed as they were treated to the spectacular show on Wednesday by the top military band.

Forty drummers, trumpeters, clarinet and trombone players belted out the song.

I never really liked Michael Jackson's music, and I don't like military band music. Nevertheless, this article in The Sun (with video I cannot embed), is fun.

The Liberation of Indian Gay People

Another Huge Step Toward Liberation: The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

India legalizes gay sex. I think that liberates more gay men and women in one fell swoop than ever before in human history. It's not equality, of course. And homophobia is still rife. But it's a big, big deal if you care about human rights and human dignity.

It's worth reading the online versions of the Times of India, and the Pakistani English daily Dawn, and reading the comments, to realise that this legal change may be challenged by legislators.

Confirmed: God is slightly gay

Confirmed: God is slightly gay / Just ask the animals. As soon as they stop having all that homosexual sex

New research is revealing so many creatures and species that exhibit homosexual/bisexual behavior of some kind, scientists are now saying there are actually very few, if any, species in existence that don't exhibit it in some way. It's everywhere: Bison. Giraffes. Ducks. Hyenas. Lions and lambs, lizards and dragonflies, polecats and elephants. Hetero sex. Anal sex. Partner swapping. The works.

Let's flip that around. Here's the shocking new truism: In the wilds of nature, to not have some level of homosexual/bisexual behavior in a given species is turning out to be the exception, not the rule. Would you like to read that statement again? Aloud? Through a megaphone? To the Mormon and Catholic churches? And the rest of them, as well? Repeatedly?

Mollie Sugden RIP

Mollie Sugden (Mrs. Slocumbe in "Are You Being Served") died today. Over my lifetime she provided a lot more entertainment than MJ ever did. RIP.

In the early 1990s Mollie Sugden found herself acquiring "cult" status across the Atlantic – particularly on the San Francisco gay scene – after American television started running repeats of Are You Being Served?. In 1993 she appeared on the San Francisco operatic stage as the Duchess of Krakenthorp, a speaking role ("I'm no Pavarotti") in Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment.
...
Mollie Sugden and her husband had identical twin sons, born when she was 41.She confessed that when they were very young she had to keep them labelled so that she could tell them apart and that "more than once I bathed the same one twice".

-From The Daily Telegraph's obituary.

The Daily Mail, as usual, has the best pictures.

Guido Fawkes - Homophobe

Brown to do Gay Pride March - Guy Fawkes' blog

Last night Cameron spoke at a Gay Pride fundraiser, though he won’t be on the march itself. Sarah Brown will be marching, though apparently her husband won’t be mincing along.

Forty Years after Stonewall...Pigs still Oink

Forty Years After Stonewall: The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

Fort Worth cops raid a gay bar and put one customer in intensive care. Seven men were arrested. The police chief says that the violence of the cops was because - wait for it - the cops were hit on.

Dan Savage has a lot more on this.

One View of America

Building an Asian century | Jamie F Metzl | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

America's legacy of global leadership over the past six decades, warts and all, is unprecedented in its relative benevolence and positive impact. America played the lead in creating the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, and international humanitarian and human rights law. It resuscitated its second world war enemies, fostered economic development in countries around the world and established a security umbrella that helped Europe and Asia focus more on diplomacy and economic growth than on military competition. It opened its markets and laid the foundations for globalisation and the information revolution, kept sea lanes open for international trade and catalysed the green revolution. The list goes on.

Free Bernie Madoff

Bernie Madoff goes down in silence - Telegraph

There are at least 13,500 reasons why Bernie Madoff is staring at a 150-year jail sentence when he appears at Manhattan's federal courthouse later today. That is the estimated number of victims (no one knows for sure) of the 71-year-old fraudster who operated the world's biggest ever Ponzi scheme and who came to personify the crooked face of the credit crunch. Many of his victims lost their entire life savings, placed into Madoff's clutches at the promise of 10 to 12 per cent returns.

I have little sympathy for the "victims". They scrambled to get into a special "club" that promised massive returns on their money for doing nothing. Where was that money coming from? Ultimately is was coming from exploiting the labour of people who were actually working.

Something to Make You Happy - Sniff, Swig, Puff

SNIFF SWIG PUFF - BEA ARTHUR & ROCK HUDSON

"GO GIRLZ 4 DECADES! GAY ICONS SINGING AN ODE TO RECREATIONAL AND HABITUAL FOR THAT MATTER DRUG USE. SNIFF SWIG PUFF AND YOUR CARES ARE GONE. TABOO, NEVER. AMERICAN TV IN THE 1970'S. PEACE."

Polly Toynbee and the British Conservative Wingnuts

The bile of anti-politics is corroding the zeal for change | Polly Toynbee | The Guardian

Polly Toynbee has posted a reasonable article about the poll-based observation that the vast majority of the people in the UK are happy with their lives as British citizens. She then notes the equally polled observation that few Britons seem to give any credit to the politicians who have actually brought about fairly effective public services. This would include both the Labour government AND the largely Tory controlled local county councils.

In the first 50 comments online (CIF) almost no-one saw even minimal value in what she had written.

The reason is that the Guardian's CIF (Comment is Free) website is now dominated by Libertarian and Tory wingnuts. The kind of people who would watch FOX news in the US.

We in Briton are in fact living in one of the freest, wealthiest, kindest, most artistically productive, technologically innovative countries and periods in history.

Britain in 2009 is a much better place than it was in 1999, 1989, 1979, 1969, 1959 and 1949.

And before the Labour government of that period working people starved, and had no health-care. Kids died of easily treatable diseases.

I'm no fan of new Labour, but we need to address the prominence of wingnuts in Guardian/CIF. Not by banning them in any way, but by posting and supporting comments that come from the progressive political majority in this country.

The Problem of the Magisterium

Catholic Culture : Commentary : Articles : The One and Only Theological Impasse

This is a typically US-centric article, but none the less interesting.

The problem people like Jeff Mirrus face with the "Magisterium" when you train up intelligent people is the same problem Biblical Literalists face whey they try to train up Biblical scholars. I.e. That a massive, probably, majority part of those so intellectually trained will *to be intellectually consistent in their own minds and consciences* reject the proposed "orthodoxy".

Mirrus himself was notable in the early days of the internet for ludicrous efforts in which he took it on himself to list other Catholic as "orthodox" or "heretics." Doubtless he would have been a witch-hunter in the past.

Conservative notions of the "Magisterium" are to educated Catholics what "Biblical Literalism" is to educated Evangelicals - the place where you have to decide between truth and obscurantism.

Something to Make Your Happy - Bear Pole Dance

The Gay Generation Gap, Forty Years After Stonewall

Summer Guide 2009 - The Gay Generation Gap, Forty Years After Stonewall -- New York Magazine

"There’s nothing duller than a young gay man whose curiosity about the world doesn’t appear to extend past his iPod. "

The HIV services group in Manchester - GHT - tried to propose a pride float in which HIV+ people (only those who wanted to) were to ride on top of an open topped bus. This was to be an open challenge to the massive stigma HIV+ men have among other gay people here in the UK. But the "guys" would not do it!

Be Blatent not Latent

Gay exorcism: 'Loose your grip, Lucifer!'

Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG: Gay exorcism: 'Loose your grip, Lucifer!'

"Gay exorcism: 'Loose your grip, Lucifer!'"



I know a Roman Catholic priest, Fr. Benedict Groeschal of New York who attempted this on a friend of mine.

Fortunately my friend later met a nice German boy, and has lived with his husband for years.

Tories and Class War

In response to a comment on Iain Dale's blog about my previous post.

I am old enough to have lived through and remember two periods of Tory rule - under Heath and under Thatcher/Major. Although Heath was, in retrospect, more moderate than Thatcher, the whole attitude of Tory governments is to oppose organized power among the working class (i.e Trade Unions) while to support organized power among elites (e.g. Public and Private companies).

While I think some respects Blair and Brown did do some good things - raise NHS spending, actively conciliate in Northern Ireland, enact partial legal equality for gay people (none of which would have been done under the Tories) - I also think New Labour loved business and markets far to much. This has lead to the refusal to renationalize rail, an obsession with false "internal" markets, and a completely catastrophic growth in unjustified administrative bodies devoted to naff business jargon ("stakeholders"/"evidence based"/"branding") and non-transparent "public consultations".

I detest New Labour.

But even New Labour's command and control administrative centralism has had a basically beneficent view of the poor and dispossessed, even if its solutions ("aspiration") are nonsense.

Tories will just attack, because it is they, much more than the modern Labour Party which wages class warfare.

The basic thing about class war is that the working class have never been very good at it. The financial elite have proved repeatedly they are very good at in indeed.

The Coming Tory Cuts Are Not Necessary

Blogger: Iain Dale's Diary - Post a Comment

On last night's Newsnight I was amused to see Jeremy Paxman's fake shock at the Guardian front page lead story about the Conservative plans to hold a two day Cabinet session to decide how best to cut public spending. From Paxman's reaction, you would have thought it was akin to King Herod wanting to cull the first born.

While I abhor the idea of a Tory government, Paxman was off the wall last night. With a substantial poll lead it would be a massive failure if the Tories were not doing advance planning.

Clearly the government deficit needs to be addressed. But ALL Tory governments tend to do this is ways that hurt the already poor and minimally help the upper middle class, and give away wealth to the financial elite.

There is no reason for Labour not to campaign on this issue. And point out that the deficit can be contained by a combination of some cuts (Trident, ID Cards, ending PFI), actively using public ownership of the banks to frustrate the greed of the rich, and, yes, by raising income taxes.

The Tories, as it is, want to punish the poor for the crisis caused by the rich and upper middle class.

Fifty Years After Stonewall - Inside Higher Ed

Views: Fifty Years After Stonewall - Inside Higher Ed

“By the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, what do you think (or hope) might have changed in scholarship on LGBT issues? Please construe this as broadly as you wish. Is there an incipient trend now that will come to fruition over the next few years? Do you see the exhaustion of some topic, or approach, or set of familiar questions? Or is it a matter of a change in the degree of institutional acceptance or normalization of research?”

A really interesting discussion of gay history. I don't agree with all the view expressed, but they are serious positions. Doug Ireland is, as usual, on the money.

Iran

I don't really have a lot to add to the online commentary about Iran. I think the Huffington Post, Andrew Sullivan and The Guardian are excellent sources.

However, I have changed the colour of the blog to Green to support those fighting theocracy in Iran.



Via Andrew Sullivan