Discount Formal Wear

If you want to get value for money Tuxedos you need look no further than Discount Formal Wear. Not only do they sell high quality formal men's wear but they do it on a stylish and easy to use website.

And as an extra bonus they offer free shipping on orders above $100 PLUS there's a free helpline with experienced customer care givers who can answer any questions you may have.

There is a vast selection of products and styles to choose from. Included among their range are such high quality brand names as Geoffrey Beene, Andrew Fezza and Ralph Lauren, and there's many more on their site, so go check them out!

God Bless The Mayor Of San Diego

Marriage

Even since John and Vixie's wedding I've been getting the urge to get hitched. And it's quite annoyed that I can't get married.

Really the only reasons I want to get married are that 1) I want to ensure Jim and I get the same protection as heterosexuals and 2) because I want a great big official party thrown all for Jim and I.

However, in this country, we only have "civil partnerships", a "seperate but equal" arrangement. I find it quite disturbing that lots of gay guys were happy to settle for this token from the "benevolent" heterosexual community. Personally I think that the very idea of supporting such a sexual apartheid is disgusting.

So... I need to start writing letters. Lots of letters. I want to be married in a registry office on the same terms as straights. And I won't settle for less.

Honestly

You know sometimes I think people are stupid and shouldn't be allowed to vote. Other times I think they should be killed.

Will They Never Learn???

Idiots

I wish they just learn! Rushing your bank will only cause it to be less stable. The police should just shoot those in the queue to protect the accounts of the people who actually don't want to destroy their lives, and those of others.

Stupid people read this.

Lib Dems Have Good Idea Shocker!

Woo... finally they come up with something I can fully support... the idea of charging rude and abusive patients for their hospital treatment.

Brilliant. I hate rude people and would like nothing more than to see those who abuse NHS employees forced to pay for their treatment up front.

That'll piss them off.

What Is It With Minorities?

Maybe the Unabomber was right... minorities really must have a sense of inferiority. No sooner do they get more equality than members from the minorities begin to turn on others. Be it the rivalry between black and Asian youths or the deep homophobia in most ethnic minorities; it seems to be a constant part of the human condition.

You would have thought that have suffered prejudice and discrimination we'd all be a lot more tolerant of each other. But I've meet many gay men (Tories!) who were very racist indeed and I've met plenty of black people who are decidely dodgy about queers.

Just look at this news story. Here's a black, Labour councillor who fought a dirty campaign (whether she is found innocent or guilty she has admitted lying) against a gay man of 56 who had a 39 year old boyfriend (Gosh... practically a paedophile!). She should be deeply ashamed of herself and she should resign. I find it so disgusting, all this constant prejudice. Sometimes I think no human deserves true freedom... we all just screw it up and cause more harm than good.

Then you have Sayeeda Warsi, a Tory candidate in 2005 and soon to be working peer and Shadow Cabinet member for Community Cohesion. Her campaign at the time suggested the following:

"Labour reduced the age of consent for homosexuality from 18 to 16, allowing schoolchildren to be propositioned for homosexual relationships."

How can someone so blithely equate homosexuality with paedophilia? Schoolchildren certainly don't have the equipment I'm after. I can't believe David Cameron asked her to be in charge of Community Cohesion. Another reason I hope the Tories never win. And her excuse in hindsight?

'God - why did I phrase it like that? What was I on?" adding "There was a whole team that was involved in my election leaflets.. Looking back on it, maybe I could have used much better language than that", while adding her belief that sex education should be "out of the school system, initially."

This is a woman who was at the time 34 and running to be an MP. I would have thought she'd have known to "phrase" her homophobic beliefs better at the time.

We live in a country where magazines print topless pictures of 14 year old girls and just get a light slap on the wrist (arrests? HA! It's only a topless girl...) but the mere thought of allowing 16 year old males to have sex with men consentially seems to still upset people.

And moving away from my main point... Where is the The Sun's campaign to print the addresses of members of the FHM staff? Oh wait I suppose that'd be hypocritical as it wasn't so long ago The Sun was printing topless pictures of 16 year old girls. Makes me sick...

Tories Worst On Environment Out Of Big Three

Oh the Tories, my least favourite people, jumped quickly on the environmental bandwagon with their "Vote blue, go green" campaign. But as always... they're phonies! Well we knew that but now others agree with us!

To be perfectly honest I'm sick to death of these holier than now "new environmentalists". No offense but we've all be told to recycle for years but only since it's cool has everyone jumped on board. Now the damage is done they get all "You DON'T recycle? How can you sleep at night?".

Anyway... ha ha at the Tories. Yet another thing they can't get right...

Gun Crime Survey Proves That This Country Is Rubbish

I love Britain. Sadly Britain seems to only exist in my head... here in the real world, in this quasi-state called "England" (God I hate that word) we live in a country which is shite.

This story suggests 20% of the people in this country are openly allowing criminal gun sales to occur (i.e. they know where to get illegal guns but don't report this info to police). Doesn't that just say a lot about the human race? God... I hate human beings!

And the EU has given up on a metric Britain. Probably realised the Brits are too damn stubborn and reluctant to change. This is a damn shame for me personally as I have no understanding of Imperial measurements beyond miles and pints. (Mmm... pints...). I can understand how tall I am in metres but 6'8" to me is just a bunch of numbers with no real meaning. When I reading about animals and I'm told it's "15 foot" long my mind cannot comprehend it... now say it was 5 metres long and I'd go "Wow... that's big!".

Each to their own I suppose.

Chrisitans.... Nuff Said

Check out this news story. Not only does this "Christian" organisation steal work from others, but they then sell the set of posters to churches for £25. I think if Jesus had a grave he'd be turning in it.

Honestly, Christianity would be a perfectly good religion if Christians just stuck to the words of Jesus and followed the spirit of what he did. He certainly wasn't for "Christian Business".

Hypocrites as always.

Tories Trying To Be "Cool"

I'm sure the Tory spin doctors used the words "down with the kids" when they pitched the latest Tory advert plan to Tory Central Command. Wow! A purely online ad campaign? What a step forward. What next? The wheel???

Here's two examples of their ads that speak volumes to me about the Tories plans...

We need to fix our society, not just the economy.
It's time to support married couples in the tax system and to give all parents the right to ask for flexible working.

Going green shouldn't have to cost the earth.
It's time to cut taxes on families and increase taxes on pollution.

Favouritism to certain lifestyles over others. Married couples, parents... yadda yadda. Why talk about humanity when you can fall back on your tried and tested cultural values which appeal to our concept of a non existent past of happy families and perfect marriages.

God, the Tories never change.

And "Going green shouldn't have to cost the earth", how cliched is that? I'm sure that was a headline on BBC Breakfast about 10 years ago.

Could I Back Boris?

So Boris Johnson has launched his campaign to be London mayor. As I'm sure you, Dear Attentive Reader, have noticed I'm not a big fan of Tories. In fact I'd probably be quite happy to see the Tories lose every election from here onwards.

However, Ken Livingstone is not someone I like as mayor. His support of Yusuf al-Qaradawi is quite disgusting. His deal with Caracas (President Chavez) for cheaper fuel in exchange for London expertise in certain fields is bloody wrong... I may have once thought Chavez was alright but please... his Government is supporting illiberal regimes and censoring the press. That is unacceptable. And finally... why on Earth is he cosying up to these foreigners. He's the mayor of London for Christs sake. He needs to use London talent to solve our problems.

Anyway... the Lib Dems, the party I am still a member of, are no where to be seen since Kennedy left so Boris doesn't seem that bad an alternative... one of the things he said really struck a cord with me...

"If you hurry on by when you see some minor infraction then you are more likely to hurry on by when you see something bigger taking place, the thugs know it and they exploit that lack of collective resolve"

That's what I've been saying for months. So... I tentatively, pending further investigation, place my support behind... a Tory.

Oh I feel really dirty now.

Sunday Funny

Funny... 'nuff said.

Iowa's Gay Marriage Case

So the ban on gay marriage in Iowa has been ruled unconstitutional. All well and good. However this step forward is almost certainly temporary as the terrifying, fascist-esqe, social conservatives step up their campaigns.

I just hope the decent people in Iowa can stand up for freedom and justice amd defend the right for equal treatment for all rather than promotion of one lifestyle (hetrosexuality) over another.

First, and probably only, gay Iowan couple married.

Even The Police Don't Trust The Tories

David Cameron... this is your lowest point yet!

Christians.... LIE!

Christ must be quite angry right now as he must have seen this news story. People who pretend to worship him, using false info to spread their vile religion.

"American males who are homosexually active have a life span that is three decades shorter than the norm," Bill Atwood told the Associated Press news agency on Wednesday.

"How can a church say, 'You are precious, we care about you, we love you, we want the best for you and now we want to bless behaviours that cause you to die three decades early'?"

I can tell you where they got this idea, because I reported on this in April... see here

Not only do I do a quick discrediting of the report but others do an even better job.. a five year old could see the flaws in their argument.

Move along, only a church crashing to obilivion to see here!

Tories Hate Free Speech

I didn't spot this in that article I posted yesterday.

Mr Cerf's comments come after the UK's Conservative Party floated ideas to curb the access young people have to sites such as YouTube which let them see videos showing extreme or callous violence.

Yeah because YouTube is making our kids misbehave. God, the Tories are bloody dumb sometimes, and criminally illiberal.

Tories.... Who'd Have 'Em?

I saw a news story in which the first paragraph described how the Tories saw tackling crime as a process of "long-term generational change". Wow, I thought, the Tories actually saying something I agree with?? Sadly it was not to be.

Policies to curb violent video games, encourage responsible parenting, and improve schooling could be considered by the Tories, David Cameron said.

Violent video games?? As always the Tories confuse something they don't understand (gaming developments post Pong) with something evil causing the corruption of society.

The problems with our country right now are not caused by video games or stuff on the telly. They are caused by a complete breakdown of good manners and general common sense which have occurred since the Thatcherite eighties "Greed is good" culture first took effect. This culture was promoted from the top down. The Tories only have themselves to blame.

It will take a long time to fix, and solutions will be difficult (and I don't for a second suggest I have the answers) but banning computer games and promoting marriage? Jesus Christ these are the same things the Tories have been bleating on about for years ineffectually.

They need to change the record, which broke many years ago.

My only useful suggestion is we get back to having neighbours look upon parents of unruly children with disdain. Nothing like a bit of keeping up with the Joneses to promote better values (just look at the recycling/"carbon footprint reduction" fad that is storming the country...).

I did my part yesterday when an old, respectfully dressed lady pushed in front of me in a supermarket queue. I asked her politely to move as myself, and several other people, were ahead of her and when she refused to (a simple "Oh well" in fact) I ranted and raved about her having absolutely no manners (and a terrible mother etc etc) and she decided to leave the store. Needless to say others in the queue were quite happy with that outcome. Don't let the rude, arrogant people get away with their selfish acts any longer. Confront them. Publicly shame them.

Why I Hate Princess Diana

I don't actually hate Diana herself. I'm kind of neutral on her, not having met her before. And also speeking ill of the dead is not exactly a decent thing to do. What I hate is the cult of Princess Diana.

When Diana died I was 14. Even then I realised that the hysteria that gripped this country was nothing more than a faux emotion. I found it incredibly disrespectful and quite disgusting that people could exhibit such public grief for someone very few of them knew. I was even more disgusted that those who did know her played off of this fake grief, her so called "friends".

I've always believed it is disrespectful to grieve too publicly and too much over someone you don't know. If my Mum died and someone came to the funeral who she didn't know and started sobbing their heart out I'd probably have to hurt them. It's just not right to pretend to feel the same emotion as those who she loved the most, her sons.

Also crying in public is something I quite disagree with unless you have a very good excuse (a grieving parent for instance).

At the time it almost felt as if everyone was trying to outdo each other on who could cry the most crocodile tears for the poor Princess. The very newspapers that had bugged her throughout her life suddenly began to whip up anti-monarchistic feelings because the Royal Family tried to grieve in private (heaven forbid!). The hypocrisy of it all drove me insane.

Let us get this straight... it is only human to feel sadness at anothers death. I felt the same, thinking about how William and Harry must have felt. What I am saying is that candle lite vigils for someone you never knew are probably a step too far.

Now ten years later it's still the same. The cult of Princess Diana remains strong, as if she was some demi saint rather than a playgirl Princess with a big heart. Can't she rest in peace??? AH!

God I should have gone away for the next few days as it's going to be wall to wall Diana coverage. I can feel the vomit in my throat already.

Gang Crime Due To "Absent Fathers", Says Straw

Jack Straw has decided that gang crime is not the cause of badly brought up children or economic hardships. No... it's, that normally Tory catchall phrase, absent fathers. Oh please!

I've never known my father. He has had no influence over me at all. And I grew up ok! The only "problem" is I HATE football, which in this country is practically a crime!

As a child of a teenage single mother I always find attacks upon single mums and their kids to be deeply disgusting. These families are blamed for all of society's evils when the real evil is that most of society doesn't care about anyone else in this country and allows those who need assistance (be it financial or moral guidance or just good old fashioned discipline) to be left to do what they like.

Nobody speaks up when young people play up in public by playing their music loudly or verbally harassing someone. Talk to anyone and they weakly, cowardly say "Well you never know if they are carrying a knife or not". Now that statement is to me the weakest get out clause ever... it sends a message that says "Just carry a weapon" then you'll be left to rule the streets as you wish.

That's the real problem, not the bloody parents who the children pretend to be all sweet and innocent to back home.

It is everyones responsibility to ensure bad behaviour in public is faced down and ensure the perpetrators are ostracised until they behave in a civilised way.

Off To Cornwall!

I know... I'm a very bad blogger! Read FagBug while I'm away and talk among yourselves.

Be back Sunday/Monday.

Hmm...

This article just makes me think of that Simpsons episode where Lisa creates a small world in a bowl, whose inhabitants end up worshipping her.

It's all very interesting but not very likely... life just isn't ever that interesting...

The Partition Of The United Kingdom

With the the 60th Anniversary of the partition of India being "celebrated" (how they can celebrate an event marred by such tribal violence and near genocide I don't know... hey let's celebrate the Holocaust!) we in Britain get the beginnings of our partition as planned by the SNP in Scotland.

Nationalism is one of the great evils of the 20th Century, the breakdown of the empires into nationstates was the beginning of the waves of genocide that have torn this world apart. They started with the Russian pogroms against the Jews and the Turkish killings of Armenians and Greeks during and just after the First World War and still haven't ended nearly a century later (Hey Darfur! Let's have a Sudan nationstate for the Sudanese and get rid of anyone different!).

We must not allow the feelings of ill will between the "English" and the "Scottish" to lead to a break up of our country. Why? Because history has shown that said ill will only increases with a partition and can take decades to heal. Just look at India and Pakistan, the Balkans etc. etc.

Let us try to live together in our multinational country filled with vibrance and cultural diversity rather than pidgeonhole ourselves into bland, national units in a biege nationstate.

Tax Cuts For Businesses? You Mean Businesses Pay Tax???

Oh our beloved Tories. Always thinking about what is best for the country... They want to cut regulations (health and safety and data protection laws) saving businesses in the UK billions. That's all well and good.

But I don't suppose the Tory party thought to wonder about the missing billions from this country stolen by tax avoiding fat cats. Maggie Thatcher deregulated our financial markets to make us more attractive to financial organisations. This lead to the new rise of the City and reestablished London as the business capital of the world. All well and good.

However we have allowed some British citizens to get away with paying very little tax for too long. How can it be fair that those who earn less pay taxes while the very rich can afford accountants who play their income just right to avoid any tax at all?

I want the Tories to come out and say "We offering tax breaks to good, honest British businesses but will also clamp down hard on those who use loopholes in the law to avoid contributing their fair share to the greater good". Is that too much to ask?

With the Tories it probably is. Sadly they are too involved in business themselves (just check out their registered interests!) to want to rock the boat and enforce tax laws fairly.

Better that the poor shoulder the burden and the corrupt prosper. Wait... do I hear the words "trickle down effect" waiting to be spoken? I give it 2 hours before a Tory MP uses that phrase.

Comment Is Vile

I have just read one of the most vile blog posts I've ever seen on the Guardian's "Comment Is Free" site. Wanna read it?

Basically Neil Clark thinks some Iraqi interpreters for the British Armed Forces should be left in Iraq to face a higher than average chance of death (which in Iraq is thus pretty much certain death!), because they foolishly agreed to assist the British Army by interpreting for them (for the princely sum of 16 quid a day).

I suggest we send Neil to Iraq to report on events there and pay him 16 quid a day (he says it's a decent wage over there). Oh and don't provide him any security, after all I'm sure he thinks that is too much to ask for doing an honest days work for this country.

I'm against the occupation of Iraq. But I don't think you can equate our troops in Iraq to the Nazis so I don't think you can equate the Iraqi interpreters to Quisling. They have worked for us and as such deserve our protection and thanks. It's called human decency. Whatever the crimes committed by Bush and Blair we cannot abandon a small group of people who we at least have the chance to save.

Bring them here and give them a chance to live.

P.S. I think I might stop buying the Guardian while Neil Clark writes for them. What a nasty man he is.

The British Decline

Something has gone deeply wrong in our country. I've spent a few days in France this month and drove (ok, was driven!) over 1500 miles while there. I encountered a completely different way of life and completely different country. Over the next few weeks I'm going to be focusing on my ever increasing belief that our country is doing something wrong (or many things!), something which is bringing our quality of life down and only seems to be getting worse.

Just look at this story. A lady works on a flower bed for six years, something of benefit to the whole community and which certainly increase the quality of life in an area. How does the council worker who spots her doing it (and I believe she was working on behalf of a parish council so she wasn't some random!) deal with her? By reporting to his council that she wasn't wearing safety equipment nor had a lookout? Look at the picture in the article... does that look like somewhere you need a lookout?

A 9 year old with correct road safety knowledge could cross the road safely unhelped and there's a bloody path there to walk on! Maybe all us pedestrians need safety gear???

If I was her I would probably have just left it at that and allowed the flower bed to die. But she seems to what to persevere (good on her for that!)... the council should be ashamed!

Health and safety rules need to be sensible otherwise no one will take them seriously!! And then there'll be even more unnecessary deaths. The Government should keep it's nose out of peoples lives!

Queen Victoria Was Never Queen Of England!

Good God. Maybe I'm the only person left who cares in this country but the question "Who was England's greatest monarch?" cannot have the choice to answer Queen Victoria. She was never the Queen of England. The last Queen of England was Queen Anne. She was also the first Queen of Great Britain (thanks to the Acts of Union of 1707) . After the Act of Union of 1801 our monarchs became known as King/Queen of the United Kingdom.

I hate English revisionism of British history. It's as bad as the bloody Americans referring to this island as "England" and the Queen as the "Queen of England". I don't bloody call all Americans Californians and I don't say Bush is President of Texas so I don't see why the Americans can't finally start referring to our country as the UK and the Queen as the Queen of the UK or Britain (for brevities sake).

I know this sounds petty but if the BRITISH Broadcasting Corporation can't get it right then we really do have problems.

Jae Kay Is Away

I'll be back August 8th. Have a good week!



I wish I had my time to write about this. Loyal readers can probably guess how I feel!

Happy Gay Anniversary!

Homosexuality was legalised 40 years ago today! Thanks to one Rt. Hon. Leo Abse.

The Tories: Homophobic Shadow Cabinet Shocker!

It's hardly unexpected news to hear that the Lib Dems did a survey and found 80% of the Tory Shadow Cabinet to have voted anti gay.

I agree with their statement:

David Cameron's 21st Century rhetoric can't hide his party's 19th Century principles.

The Tories are an old fashioned party lost and disenchanted in a new and scary world.

And the Tory response?

The Liberal Democrats have got their facts wrong. David Cameron abstained in the vote on section 28, he supports gay adoption and he has said civil partnerships should be recognised in the tax system.

The Conservative Party has campaigned for equal treatment for the gay community and on the 40th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality we should be celebrating what has been achieved since, not playing petty politics with this issue.

The Conservative Party has campaigned for equal treatment for the gay community? Since when? 2005??? Big whoop! It makes me sick to read bloody preposterous statements like that from the party that did so much harm to the gay community in the eighties.

And the facts? David Cameron DID vote against part of the Section 28 repeal and abstain one other vote later that evening (probably had to catch a train home!). Hardly a ringing endorsement. And his votes in support of gay adoption? NON EXISTENT!

Check out his gay rights record at They Work For You. I know... I was hoping too much expecting truth from Tories. Imagine that!

And then, on a more personal note, we have the tale of the gay dad sentenced to jail for coming out to his nine year old son and "exposing" him to his long term partner.

I am that partner (no not the exact partner, you know what I mean!). Jim has 4 children and his 8 year old son is aware of our relationship (as far as an 8 year old can be!). I couldn't imagine a time that lying to your child is better than honesty. What a messed up divorce case (no wonder they divorced if his ex wife is that crazy). See his campaign myspace page for more.

Oh Happy Days! But for how much longer?

Every time I see the Tories doing badly in the polls a smile crosses my face. I just can't help it. To be honest I've got to the point that the Tories could propose introducing gay marriage (rather than the seperate but equal civil partnerships), renationalising the railways and a Bill of Rights and I'd still hate them.

The Tories have spent so many years preaching hatred and NIMBYism that I can't see my current attitude towards them ever changing. They need to dissolve the party and see what springs up to take it's place.

Anyway... I think Gordon Brown needs to be careful. With the current flooding in the country and the water crisis caused by it he needs to be seen to be acting decisively and mustn't give the tabloids a chance to show him as not doing enough to assist.

It'd only take one major scandal right now and David Cameron would be back in the race. And that man makes Tony Blair look honest. Yuck.

USA Crazy Way To Treat Tourists

For all this talk of secure borders we all need to remember one thing... handled correctly tourism can be a big help to an economy. I'm not saying tourism is perfect but you know what I mean.

So the way the US Government is treating travellers at the moment is scandalous.

The USA already has a fairly robust treaty with the EU whereby it receives a lot of info on people entering its borders. A new agreement has been signed which

adds 19 possible new categories, including information on ethnic origin, political and philosophical opinions, credit card numbers, trade union membership, sex life and details of the passengers' health.

The information will be provided by passengers when making bookings.

I can see the booking form now:

Do you require a vegetarian meal option?

Are you an Arab?

Do support the Coalition of the Willing?

Do you think George W. Bush is the greatest President ever?

Have you ever been affiliated with a trade union (example: are you a Communist?)?

Do you top or bottom? (Please select I'm not a homosexual for neither).

Make love not war. Discuss.

I understand that countries should know about those entering their borders. I've got records from some of my ancestors who upon entering the United States had their hair colour, height and general complexion noted for eternity. But your philosophical beliefs???

Now we all know about the famous questionnaire which some people get upon entering the country which has such questions as: Have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? But that's a direct question (and served a purpose for its time). It's not about your philosophical beliefs or your sex life which to be perfectly blunt are no one's business but your own.

America: Land of the (Control) Free-ak.

Sunday Funnyish

This blog isn't always going to be totally serious and it's not always going to be about gay politics (but it will feature more heavily than on straight blogs obviously). So Sundays will be for "And Finally" type stories...

I love Bill O'Reilly. I mean obviously he is some kind of parody of Stephen Colbert... surely he can't be serious?



Yoinked from TGA

Over 100 lesbian gangs in the D.C. area alone? Wow! Sales of overalls must be going through the roof!

Honest to God... I watched this and thought I had left Planet Earth and arrived in some bizarro mirror universe.

I haven't laughed so hard in ages...

The opposing view from Olbermann

New Statesman And The Self Proclaimed Psychotherapist

I am all for freedom of speech, but I am also for clear indications of vested interests and careful wording of job descriptions to ensure full disclosure.

I think the article that is in the New Statesman must have been hurridly sort from Mr Richard Cohen as a way of balancing out the pro gay statements in some of the other articles in the magazine. I'm all for balance. However I have one major problem... his job description...

About the writer

Psychotherapist Richard Cohen is a leading expert in the field of sexual reorientation and the author of Coming Out Straight and Gay Children, Straight Parents. He is the director of the International Healing Foundation, located in the Washington, DC area.

Psychotherapist? So he must have some sort of qualification then?

Cohen is not a licensed therapist. We were told by the licensing agencies in Maryland that the term “psychotherapist” was essentially meaningless. According to them, one can hang a sign out in that state claiming to do psychotherapy and be completely within the law as long as one does not diagnose and treat from the DSM. As noted above, however, Cohen is spreading his odd techniques via others by training them, presumably for a fee.

Source: Ex-Gay Watch

In fact he has been permanently banned from the American Counseling Association. The word psychotherapist is misleading (in my opinion, anyway). Expert? Well I'll let you decide on that one... here's one of his articles..

And here he is on my favourite TV show... The Daily Show at Crooks and Liars.

I was going to discredit Richard Cohen here but I feel the links on this page do that perfectly well. It's the editors at New Statesman who need to be discredited. How can they publish a description of him without doing even a tiny bit of research on who he is and the debacles he has had when dealing with the media such as on The Daily Show and CNN.

Check out Wikipedia for more info.

Doomed To Repeat It

I know I hold gay people to higher standards than heterosexuals but one article in GT this month has really upset me.

As it's now the 40th anniversary of the legalisation of homosexuality, GT is running several articles to celebrate the occasion. One of the articles involved a panel of young and mature gay guys (Terry Sanderson, yay! His columns are awesome) who were born before and after this historic event.

I'll quote the opening remarks from two of the younger people....

Terry Bryan (born 1980): I only found out a few days ago that it used to be illegal for people like us to be what we wanted to be. From what I gather, the law changed in 1967 and homosexuality was legalised.

Julian Gregory (born 1984): I didn't realise it was so recent.

I felt ill at that point and kept having to stop reading out of sheer disbelief.

The younger guys then blame the education system for their lack of knowledge (I'm going to be polite and not use words that might offend, much as I want to) and the mature guys back them up. Turns out the Government is to blame for these guys not knowing their own history.

I was born in 1983. I've known I was gay all my life but I finally accepted it in 1998. At which point I went out of my way to find out every fascinating fact about homosexuality from its sociology to its history to its current legal status. I followed with interest gay news stories, and read newspapers such as the Guardian to keep informed. Why? Because if I was going to be something, going to accept that I was a gay man, then I wanted to know everything there was to know about it. By the age of 16 I was acutely aware of the unequal age of consent and Section 28 plus the history of the Stonewall Riots and 1967. And here's the thing: I'm not some bloody genius child. I did badly at school. Yet I still know about this.

It wasn't hard to find this stuff. I didn't need to go to the library or search the net. Just reading a daily newspaper and watching the daily news taught me most of the easy stuff. GT informed about the missing bits. By the time of the internet I just needed to get everything into a sensible order.

We even had textbooks at school (even though it was a far from tolerant boys school) which mentioned the law change in 1967 and it's ethical and moral ramifications (including my favourite ever speech by Archbishop Tutu).

So I don't think it's the Government's fault. In fact I think these people are just uninterested in their past and that scares me.

I remember Pride 2003 and I was with Ben and we saw something about Section 28 and he asked me "What's that?". I'd never even contemplated the idea that a gay guy wouldn't know what Section 28 was. I just felt scared a little bit at that moment. But I quickly decided he was just a one off.

And now 4 years later I realise he isn't just a one off. Most young gay guys don't know their history because they don't want to know. And that bloody terrifies me, because history has shown us great steps forward (such as under the Weimar Republic) can be brutely and swiftly crushed. We must be ever vigilant, ever careful to defend our freedoms, ever watchful of the current political climate.

And, basically, to forget what those who went before us suffered in our name is disrespectful. We have a duty to remember the bad times so that we can enjoy these good times even more.

The English Fallacy

As long term readers know I'm a Unionist. I believe that the concept of Englishness is false and the break up the Union would be a slap in the face to hundreds of years of history. My feelings were reaffirmed today in a strange roundabout way...

I went to Nottingham. Nottingham is about as different from London and Kent as is Scotland or Wales. They speak with a funny accent and have strange shops and listen to weird radio stations (Trent FM???). This whole obsession some people have with being English just seems so misplaced to me... what on Earth do I have in common with the people of Nottingham? Not much...

That's what I love about the UK... it's bloody diverse and only thing that holds us together is the fact we all live on the same group of islands. We work well together, even if we don't always get along.

The concept of England going it alone is based on the idea that there is such a thing as an "English" person, and that the "English" share a culture. But I say there is isn't. I'm Kentish. The people from Yorkshire are proud to be from Yorkshire. The people from Cornwall are Cornish. We all have different cultures, different ways of speaking and different outlooks on life.

So if England ever did gain it's independence from the Union, I'd be the first person calling for Kent to secede. Because if we are going to base our country on the concept of a "shared culture" rather than on a geographical reality (us all living on the same group of islands) then I want to be in a country with all the Kentish Men and Men of Kent not in "England" a place with too many cultures to count.

STUPID!

Back in April my mate Russell from TVW sent me an email regarding the £100m Mosque in London. It took me two seconds on www.snopes.com to uncover the lie and I sent a rude email back to him suggesting he check his facts before forwarding emails. I will mention I hate getting forwarded emails...

Then over 3 months later and suddenly there is a petition on the 10 Downing Street site against the plan (and as far as I can tell it's one individual organisations plan with no Government backing nor planning permission).

The petition is framed with the statement:

"We the Christian population of this great country England would like the proposed plan to build a Mega Mosque in East London Scrapped. This will only cause terrible violence and suffering and more money should go into the NHS."

I am not even going to start on their use of the word "England". Dear Constant Readers will know how much that word annoys me.

I think the 268,840 people who signed the petition should be ashamed of themselves. Why? Because they are the kind of dumb arses who haven't even researched a subject that they supposedly feel so strongly about.

Here's Ken Livingstone's response.

Here's a part of the message I sent Russell which I stole from somewhere and can't remember where so sorry to the source!

Quote from LCGB forum in response to similar thread. Make of it what you will

“I've seen similar stories over the past year.

It's only right to point out that Ken Livingstone is NOT planning to use tax/ratepayers' money for such a mosque. And he has nothing to do with it either way.

Although no formal planning application has yet been made (and it may never be made), any decision would be taken by the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation, a body formed on the basis of laws passed in 1980 under the previous Tory administration and used back then to set up the London Docklands DC.

IF it were ever approved in its talked-about form by the LTGDC, a big if, the organisers are planning to build it using private donations.

The mosque is planned to hold 10,000 worshippers, not 70,000 as has been mentioned, although up to 70,000 might fit in the grounds.

Slightly smaller numbers of up to 50,000 people can fit in the grounds of the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in north west London, the largest Hindu temple in the West, so something of this size is not unknown. I lived in the area both when it was built and for a couple of years afterwards and it never bothered the people of NW London in any way.

Moreover, this is an old story, which has become embellished over time by some people who, for their own reasons, don't have much time for Ken Livingstone.

Here is a link to the story, which first appeared in 2005: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article597161.ece

Sometimes I wonder if democracy is a good idea...

Can We Trust Boris?

Can Boris Take Ken?

Sure Ken puts his feet in his mouth more often than not (we all remember the Jewish Nazi Guard incident...) but Boris is in a whole different league when it comes to balls ups...

The Liverpool comments will live in infamy for some time to come...

Anyone know what the difference between lover and partner is? Is lover only used to sensationalise a story? Hmmm....

Unethical Doctor

I've always had my reservations regarding the whole anti MMR jab paranoia. It always seemed a bit like a bunch of uneducated parents terrified by overblown research.

But the revelations that the Doctor behind the accusation that MMR and autism was linked acted inappropriately are pretty disgusting. He basically abused children. Sticking a needle into a child for 5 quid is quite similar to offering the kid a tenner for a few dirty pictures. It's child abuse.

The reason there are procedures to follow when researching illnesses is to protect the patients (and volunteers). Offering the kids a fiver for blood samples is not likely to be an acceptable form of informed consent on their behalf nor their parents.

Dr Andrew Wakefield. Shame on him!

BBC Apologises To The Queen

I don't know if you caught the story on BBC News before they apologised but it was entitled something like "Queen storms out of portrait sitting". This was based on a new documentary about the Queen where the BBC had privileged access to the Royal Household.

A couple of hours later we get an apology from the BBC regarding a trailer for the same programme which suggested the Queen had stormed off just like the previous story which has disappeared.

So this leads me to believe 1 of 2 situations. 1) The Queen has pressured the BBC into apologising in which case the BBC needs to grow some balls! or, more likely, 2) The BBC lied about what happened in order to get more viewers and then reported it as news. In that case I think someone at the BBC needs to be fired, like yesterday.

The Queen has never struck me as someone who'd get overly emotional in front of television cameras...

The Love That Dares Speak Its Name

30 years ago today an editor of a now defunct gay magazine was found guilty of blasphemous libel. His real crime to publish a poem about the love of a Roman centurion for Jesus.

And what is shocking is that in 2007 it is still illegal to publish the poem. Who was behind the law suit? Everyone's favourite nasty person; Mary Whitehouse. Glad she was a good old patriot believing in freedom of speech... oh wait... no... she was a Nazi in disguise. Traitor.

Anyway... if you want to check out the poem click here.

Tories Ponder Social Engineering

Now I've always thought that if you have to give people incentives or disincentives to encourage or discourage behaviour then those people probably aren't worth the effort. Good things (such as being courteous or not killing people) are so self evidently good that to not do them suggests a corrupt or idiotic mind beyond redemption.

The Tories disagree. They suggest we incentivize people to follow paths which they think are good (for example "marriage") and use punitive taxes to disuade people from such things as binge drinking.

Now... I don't cause members of the public trouble when I'm drunk and I've got private medical insurance so my drinking will not be a burden on the NHS so why on Earth should I have to pay higher taxes for my vices??? It's not like I go and buy drugs off some dodgy fellow who probably uses his ill gotten gains to cause further social problems (on a completely unrelated note, doesn't David Cameron strike you as a good, honest person who would never take illegal substances?)

The Tories speak of a broken Britain, well they are the ones who broke it. Now bugger off and leave the rest of us to muddle through clearing up your mess.

Oh and the marriage thing... all that giving married people a tax break will do is force the poor to marry just to save some money. That's what the incentive will do and said marraiges will be hellish and brutal in a hell of a lot of cases. Maybe Government should keep it's noses out of peoples private life.

Terrorism? Amatuerism more like!

As Britain is attacked once again I have to say one thing... these terrorists are pretty darn amatuerish.

So you attempt a terrorist attack with the expectation that you are going to die... so you don't bother to destroy your phone records, nor hide any evidence. Instead you expect it all to be destroyed when your car explodes. Is that not the most foolish thing you've ever heard?

These guys have destroyed their entire terror cell because they didn't even consider that they might fail and be captured. Which makes me feel a whole lot safer... terrorists are, by their very nature, stupid. There doesn't appear to be any master criminal behind this particular cell.

As I often do I switched on Fox News for a laugh... and sheesh they provided it. The presenters expressed shock when talking with their British correspondent that no one was in a panic. A panic? Because two car attacks didn't even get off the ground and one spectacularly failed? Are they mad?

Britain has been under terrorist attack for many years. We had a break but now it's business as usual. No one is going to panic over a few Muslim extremists. Previously we had to deal with armed insurrectionists (partially funded by the Americans!)... we'll be fine dealing with this rag tag band of amatuers.

A New Cabinet

Gordon Brown has selected his new cabinet and you know what? I think it looks pretty good!

Ruth Kelly has been moved away from the Community portfolio which means we can all stop worrying about conflicts of interest between her religion and her equality duties. I think she'll do well at transport.

There are lots of fresh faces and I'm really hopeful that we are going to see some changes in the way the Government works over the next few weeks.

A Beginning

I've been posting over on come back to what you know for 6 years. I have opinions but sometimes I don't think that that blog is the right place to air them. I want to focus more on fun, frivolous posts over there and will use this blog as my place to rant about the world, news, politics and all the rest.