I'd Prefer Stonewall Over A Gay Council Of Britain

An elected council to represent gay interests is suggested by the well meaning Stephen over at Pink News. I agree with him on how the media seem to use activists and undemocratic polls to define debates without consultation of the majority of people. But splitting this country into self defining groups of people based on sexuality, religion or race is just one of the things I, as a unionist, feel undermines the very existence of our country, and basic equal rights, before we even consider how on Earth one would select the electorate of such a group.

It's a nice idea but unworkable and an antithesis to community cohesion. When are we going to start being human first before we are what we wish to define ourselves as? We are all human and it is in all our interests that we all work towards a world where we treat each other as equals. We are in the 21st century, and it's time we got over our tribal nature.

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Who Are Antifa?

On my train journey home today I spotted a sticker on the window. Usually when I see such stickers they are for some fascist, semi-Nazi crazy group, I often think "What frigging twat decided that the best way of advertising their scummy, rubbish organisation was by DEFACING a train?". Well I was in for a surprise today, as the organisation defacing other's property this time was "Antifa", an anti-fascist group.

I hate the BNP, the BNP Lite parties (hello to the English Democrats favourite friends, the EFP) and even some of the weirdo fascist policies of the more mainstream parties. But I believe, despite my extensive experience of dealing with the stupidity of both myself and so many, many other people, that the best way to deal with these people is through the democratic process, by winning moral arguments, by being better people than those who spew this rubbish.

Sadly Antifa are a "direct action" group. They encourage, if not idolise, physical confrontation and do not discourage violence. God, I wish my morals would allow me to cheer them on, but they don't. In my opinion direct action is fine when it aims for a result: i.e. the Second World War to defeat fascism, or breaking out political prisoners, or defending individuals from direct attack. There the action is warranted. But direct action, where it means attacking people in their homes or public spaces because they hold views different to you own, where it means attacking people who are demonstrating, where it means throwing things at an elected politician, then surely it cannot be anything but wrong.

Oh well... not much one can do about these sort of things... there will always be people willing to take things to this sort of low level on all sides of any debate. Jesus, if the anti-fascists are being this backward there is not much hope for humanity.

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Another Hero Goes On To The Hereafter

Harry Patch, was the last surviving British imperial soldier from the First World War. Today he passed away, leaving just one former able seaman as our sole representative of the fighting forces of that era.

Our world, both the good and the bad aspects of it and on a personal and international level, is still shaped by the events of that war. WW1 was the start of the "modern" era, and we have a long way to go before we have completely sorted out all the issues arising from that period of time. It is sobering to think that these brave men took part (even a small part) in events that momentous. And it is sad that we have to lose them and their unique perspective on a moment in history.

May he rest in peace.

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Photographer Detained In Kent... For Taking Photos Of Kentish Streets

Alright, so Kentish Streets makes it sound quaint when in fact it was Chatham (pronounced in the local vernacular "Chat'em") High Street which is anything but quaint. But regardless of my very Kentish prejudice against the town of my mother's birth, this story is pretty nasty.

One man was, for some bizarre reason, photographing the delights of Chatham when he found himself stopped, interrogated and arrested. Why? Because he'd been stopped so many times before, and decided this once he was not going to give his ID.

What irks me even more is the suggestion that part of the reason he was handcuffed for this "crime" was because the WPC found his size (no offense to him but a rather underwealming 1.81m) rather intimidating. As a vertically unchallenged person I find that offensive! If someone is acting intimidating, then I can understand. But if you are being intimidated by someone who is acting perfectly reasonably, just because they are tall, perhaps you need to find a new job outside of the police force.

Foolishly, our photographer decided that he wanted to pursue his dangerous hobby and returned to Chatham High Street where he was again confronted by the police but gave in much more easily this time (and you can't blame him, even if he shouldn't of needed to in the first place).

How can we live in a country where such abuse of our freedoms is allowed to flourish? How can the police think this is productive? They often talk about "community relations" but this is their way of saying "Don't offend the minorities". Maybe they should start really relating to their communities and stop harassing innocent members of the public for doing something so obviously peaceable. Did they have any evidence to suggest he was taking pictures of something security sensitive? Did they have any evidence to suspect him of doing anything untoward?

You get a report of a gang of kids causing trouble, so it is reasonable that should you come across a gang of kids you will stop them and ask them for details. So what report of trouble did they receive that caused them to stop this man? Was there someone matching his description causing trouble in the area? Probably not, this was just officious, fascistic stupidity at it's worst.

P.S. On an unrelated note, why do people think a man being 1.81m is tall? Average height for a man in this country is 1.75m for the population as a whole and 1.78m for those between 16 and 24. 5cm above average is hardly "tall". I know, I'm prejudiced, being 2.03m tall but still really. 1.9m is tall. 1.81m is just above average, nothing spectacular.

This blogger works for nothing but the joy of writing but always appreciates things bought from his wishlist

The World Of Exotic Pets

As some of you may know my other half recently acquired a new pet, Gibbs the Bearded Dragon, who has taken up residence in our front room. And as some of you may know I have some history with "exotic" pets: 2 Horsfield's Tortoises, an American bullfrog and some Carausius morosus ("Indian Stick Insects") (plus of course all the other pets my Mum owned, just imagine a petting zoo. In a council house. With extra goats.)

This recent addition to our family has spurred my interest in all things "pet" and so I've been hanging around exotic pet forums. There are a lot of brilliant people on them, with some amazing pets. But I'm really truly shocked by the sort of people sometimes buying these animals.

When Jim wanted to buy a Bearded Dragon (following a casual visit to Pets At Home), he did his research. He read up on them, he bought the vivarium in advance and even when he was purchasing Gibbs (not from Pets At Home, in case you were getting worried!) he asked as many questions as he could of the helpful chaps in our local reptile specialist store. So when I see someone on the forums saying they've owned their Bearded Dragon for two years and want to know why it sometimes puffs up it's chin, I start to worry. These question

It gets worse: people finding common lizards and thinking their exotics (if you live in the south of this country and have never encountered a common lizard, I feel very sorry for you), people catching a rainbow trout and taking them home as pets (WITHOUT OWNING AN AQUARIUM, let alone one big enough and let alone the morality of wild caught pets), and simple and sensible questions like "Can I take my lizard on the Eurostar?" being answered with a bunch of speculation when a five second Google search can reveal the answer.

Thankfully there are sane people in the community but I never even considered the idea that someone over the age of 18 could purchase a pet without properly researching it. Do these people have no sense of responsibility? I shouldn't be surprised. I know, I know. But it's depressing. So very depressing. No wonder we need organisations like the RSPCA and the SSPCA.

Anyway, back to poking Gibbs with a big stick in the hopes he'll beard up again (joke people... joke... except this guy used a snake to get his Frilled Dragon to frill! SICK! These people are out there, God save their poor pets)

This blogger works for nothing but the joy of writing but always appreciates things bought from his wishlist

Favourite Fundie Quote EVER

Atheists, how did leap year occur? While computing the days of rotation of earth around sun, one extra day..?
..was found which could not be adjusted since it wasn't a full day. So, the extra day was called a leap day which was added to every consecutive fourth year. Now, how did this occur? Where did this extra day come from?

In Bible, it says in the book of Joshua that God stopped Sun in the sky which did not move until Israelites won a war. It means, the rotation of the earth was stopped for sometime, which caused extra time requirement for the earth to finish its regular rotation around the sun, thus causing extra time added to the whole period of 365 days.

You see, everything is true in Bible when scientifically explore each of its incidents. Source: FSTDT

Brilliant stuff, and if you do not understand why this is amusing, this might help.

Simple answer: Units of time were created by man. And we created them wrongly. Hence the necessary correction.

This blogger works for nothing but the joy of writing but always appreciates things bought from his wishlist

Save OUR World

A lot of the opposition to environmentalism seems to fall around climate change, Government policy and sometimes weirdo religious beliefs (thankfully that last one is a tiny minority but you know how I spend too much time reading up on fundies, it skews my way of looking at things).

It's really rather frustrating. Whilst us well to do Westerners debate over the merits of being a little more environmentally friendly, and usually involve that debate with other "culture" conflicts, people are dying. Not from climate change. Not from rising sea levels or weird weather. But from loggers KILLING them to ensure no one interferes in their unscrupulous activities. The uncontacted tribes of South America are at risk of not just losing their way of life, but of being literally killed off because of greedy people who have no idea about the irrepairable damage they are doing to our world and to the world of those few tribes who continue to live their lives in the Amazon.

Thankfully some Governments take things seriously such as here in Peru. I just wish that people on both sides of the environmentalist debate would just stop arguing over climate change and what the Government should be doing. Screw the Governments of the Western world. The population of our countries will never let them do what needs to be done even if they wanted to. It's time we just pull our fingers out and give money to charities and organisations who can help make a difference now. I will, hopefully, return to giving 5% of my wages to charity by the end of the year. If we all did that we could do so much good.

This blogger works for nothing but the joy of writing but always appreciates things bought from his wishlist