Not Making A Difference

Oops, We Did It Again

2010-05-15T19:34:00.003+01:00

Yup.

David Cameron is my Prime Minister; George Osbourne is an even worse idiot, and he's in charge of your money. Run.

They want to repeal the hunting ban.
They're bringing in ludicrous tax breaks for married people, who are already better off.
Child trust funds! Gone!

Seriously, what were you people thinking?!

Lady Saw

2010-04-28T14:50:00.004+01:00

Oh God, love the woman.
It's anti-feminist, it's bordering on homophobic, a lot of dancehall music is not "bordering", it's full-on kill-the-gays. Guilty pleasures or what?

Rapunzel

2009-11-06T21:06:00.002Z

When I was little, I wanted really long hair. My inspiration was a fairytales video I had; I couldn't think of anyone better to grow up to be than Rapunzel, letting her hair down to be saved.

So it's fitting that this is my addict song of the moment:

I also love WingedZephyrs videos. They're soo pretty!

Onison on Meat

2009-08-07T19:24:00.009+01:00

I would never be this aggressive about it, but although I often disagree with him, that's one of the main reasons I love this guy.

Although my favourite word for meat eaters is necrovores. Which I made up, I think.

Puzzling Excuse to Talk About Linguistics

2009-06-28T23:44:00.010+01:00

I find this story from Saturday's Guardian really hard to form an opinion on.

It's about a pair of Welsh sisters who were (allegedly) thrown out of an English shop for speaking Welsh. Even the way the story's been phrased puzzles me. For example:

They have put up with countless jokes about leeks and have suffered Anne Robinson's constant description of them as irritating. But now it seems the Welsh have something to be truly angry about.

It's not immediately clear to me why a mild restriction on your use of your mother tongue (when presumably, you could easily use another language) should be more annoying than an apparently constant stream of racism.

The insult did not occur in Wales - there is no colonialism involved here. Only around a quarter of the population of Wales speaks Welsh, so being told not to speak that language should not, logically, be interpreted as an attack on Wales or Welsh people. However, it clearly has been interpreted - and apparently intended - this way.

I don't know why anybody would take particular issue with Welsh as a language. It's not particularly ugly-sounding (I've always considered it quite lyrical) and it doesn't seem to carry any obvious, internationally negative connotations. (Think, for example: English/French in relation to colonialism, or Arabic conjuring up bin Laden in the imagination, or people who insist on loudly mentioning WWII when they hear German.) So, I think we have to assume the shopkeeper had just broken up with a Welsh person or something else personal. (Certainly, when I've had an argument with the Yumboy, Polish sounds incredibly irritating and confrontational for a few hours.)

Or perhaps it's not Welsh, exactly, despite this quote from the article:

She explained: "It was unbelievable. We were just talking in Welsh about the goods in the shop and the woman behind the counter shouted at us to stop.

"There was no warning, she just launched into us. She got really angry and admitted she was discriminating against the Welsh.

Perhaps it's any language the shopkeeper doesn't speak.

The importance of language in forming personal and cultural identity can hardly be overstated. The right of Welsh speakers to speak to each other in Welsh seems obvious.

The shopkeeper's reaction seems over the top, even paranoid or racist; but the bonding qualities of a language, especially a minority or foreign one, are the very same qualities which can intimidate and alienate those who don't speak it. It gets old, especially when you know the people doing it speak a language you understand perfectly well. Especially if you're like me, and you used to get annoyed when your work colleagues would speak the local minority language (in my case, Scottish Gaelic) when non-speakers were around. I think people who've never been in that situation don't understand how vulnerable it can make you feel.

So, was she vulnerable, lonely, having a bad day and forgivable...or a racist idiot?
Nope, I still can't decide.

World of Warcraft/Milkshake

2009-06-26T14:27:00.001+01:00

I am no fan of WoW. In fact, I hate it. This video, however, is amazing. As is the song. A little bit of frivolity never hurt anybody.

The BNP's Rape Contradiction

2009-06-06T02:24:00.005+01:00

Trigger Warning

The message I'm getting here is that rape is bad, but only if Muslims do it.

This is what a member of the BNP said about rape:

"Rape is simply sex. Women enjoy sex, so rape cannot be such a terrible physical ordeal... [it] is like suggesting force-feeding a woman chocolate cake is a heinous offence."

Well, actually, since we're on the topic, I think force-feeding is a vile inexcusable thing to do to someone, and perhaps even a form of rape. That's another topic.

So I assumed the BNP were just misogynists.

But here is Nick Griffin talking about how dreadful the rape of teenage girls by people of Asian origin is. So...the BNP position would appear to be (and to be fair, Eriksen was "disciplined"), rape is acceptable unless it's done by a person of colour. How pukeworthy is that?

Sense About Science

2009-06-05T23:51:00.001+01:00

Check it out.

Cute HTML buttons always get my vote.

John Smeaton Also Thinks Murder is Bad

2009-06-04T16:06:00.003+01:00

The gun did it.

John Smeaton, national director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, who has condemned the killing of Dr Tiller, said: "I think it is more to do with the levels of gun crime in the US.

"Guns are more readily available so by the law of averages people providing abortions are going to be caught up.

"What is important to remember is that these acts of violence are not carried out by organisations but by lone individuals.

"I know many of the leaders of these organisations in the US and I know they share the same values as we do in the UK.

"Killings go against everything we stand for - the right to life."

It is true that SPUC is less militant than many groups in the US appear to be. (I've attended their meetings, and my mother gets their newsletter.) However, I do not think pinning Dr Tillers murder on mathematics (the law of averages? Come on.) is very fair. I think Mr Smeaton shoulod grow up and own his stupid ideology, actually.

Ophelia Benson Hits the Nail Very Hard on the Head

2009-06-04T15:30:00.002+01:00

Yay!

Writing about this BBC article on Butterflies and Wheels, the wonderful OB says:

So - what would this 'sense of virtue' be? Especially this 'sense of virtue' offered by Christianity? Think hard now. Hmmm. Is it anything like the virtue of the religious congregations in Ireland? No, probably not. What then? Oh...humility, turning the other cheek, loving your enemy, that kind of thing. Unless you're in charge of an industrial school, of course, in which case humility and turning the other cheek and loving your enemy is quite the wrong kind of thing. So that must not be what's meant by a sense of virtue then? So what is? Hmmm. Not getting hitched to someone of the same sex? Yes, perfect! But then - that's just a rule, right?

It's currently the second post of Notes and Comment. And, as so often, she is right.

She was also in the Observer on Sunday.

BNP Exposed

2009-06-04T14:25:00.004+01:00

The BNP are the political equivalent of the boyfriend who hooks up online and doesn't even think to clear his history. Which is to say, cruel and stupid. Fortunately for the BNP, its partner - great swathes of the electorate - will probably forgive them and throw in a blowjob later, desperate for confirmation that they are in fact better than the Polish. Or the Somalians. Or the whoever they've decided to other.

The cheating partner will still want his girlfriend to have bigger something/smaller something/an irrepressible desire to screw in public. The BNP will still want to chuck out the gay or Jewish best friend of people who voted for them because they were mad at Labour or thought they'd prefer their doctor to be English.

Never mind the fact that in political discourse, British is a weird concept no-one can quite articulate, so no-one can be loyal to any but their own interpretation. This is why politicians can say "British means tolerance, respect, dildoes and cabbage" and BNP members can say "NO! It means might and right are always white, and f*cking radishes! Radishes!" and neither will ever be wrong.

Ignore that the huge numbers of the "White British" they so prize are descended from immigrants, and bloody conquering murdering ones at that.

In fact, the British National Party, being a Nazi-glorifying, Hitler-sucking, Anglo-Saxon (do they do blood tests?) non-gentleman's' club, may as well be re-christened the Anything Remotely Germanic is Yay :D Party. And please, please, please, can we pay Bavaria to take them do you think?

Hell, yes, I hate the BNP. Quite apart from the stupidity of their tribalism, my personal life is their worst nightmare. My very favourite suckable yumboy is not only everything I ever thought physically attractive in the male of the species, civilised, engaging and smart, he is also Polish. As are a majority of the people I regularly spend time with in Liverpool. My closest female friend in the city is Latvian, I work with several Australians and a disabled Dutch guy, and live with a Jamaican. My grandfather got medals fighting the bloody Nazis, actually, so NO, I'm not going to contribute my vote to their cause.

Fuck the British National Party. I am British. I am as British as they sodding come, born and bred and with British parents and barely having been outside this country and lived here all my life and they do NOT represent me, or anyone remotely like me, and their policies are downright harmful to democracy, and to people I love much more than I love the abstract concept of Britishness.

/rant.

What got me thinking about the BNP (I generally try to avoid the topic) was last Sunday's Observer article. Here, direct quotes from party members didn't so much reveal their true colours as tip over the paint pots and take photographs for posterity.

Much of the BNP's recent success has been down to its ability to shake off the patina of far-right extremism that has alienated most voters since its inception. But this month the veneer slipped when it emerged that a Salford-based BNP candidate in the European elections had set his Facebook status to read "Wogs go home". Eddy O'Sullivan, 49, wrote: "They are nice people - oh yeah - but can they not be nice people in the fucking Congo or... bongo land or whatever?" O'Sullivan, who also joined an internet group called "Fuck Islam", denied that the comments were racist and insisted they were made in private conversations between individuals. "I also may have had a drink at the time," he added.

Well, for a start, which Congo? The Democratic Republic of the Congo has a raging war on. They quite possibly can't be nice people there because they'd be raped or killed.

The "bongo land" bit seems to be chucked in to prove his racist credentials. Read: he is trying to appear more stupid than he actually is. For some reason, Mr O'Sullivan considers it politically advantageous to pretend to not know the name of more than one African country; to be geographically illiterate. Now, I consider myself geographically illiterate. I had to look for Mali on the map last week, and I haven't formally studied the subject since the age of 13. I would consider that embarrassing if running for national office.

He attempts to justify this pseudo-ignorance by claiming that he might have been drunk. In other words, that he may have engaged in racist and ignorant commentary while blasted, and considers this inability to retain control of himself to be a neutral enough quality to be used in defence of racism.

This is the logical conclusion of all that appealing to the common man, Joe-the-plumber bullcrap rhetoric. Why do our politicians have to pretend to be stupid, or actually be stupid? Whichever he is, why is he considered a serious candidate to represent us?

Racism aside, for a moment. That alone would be enough to stop me voting for them, but consider:

• Jeffrey Marshall, senior organiser for the BNP's London European election campaign. Following the death of David Cameron's disabled son Ivan, Marshall claimed in an internet forum discussion: "We live in a country today which is unhealthily dominated by an excess of sentimentality towards the weak and unproductive. No good will come of it."

Later, in response to comments made by others on the site, Marshall is alleged to have written: "There is not a great deal of point in keeping these people alive after all." He said the comments were private and some had been paraphrased and taken out of context. He admitted making the former comment, but said he could not recall making the latter one in an email to the forum, a copy of which is in the Observer's possession.

So that counts out your disabled friends and family too. It probably counts me out, as a chronic depressive. Who wants to give me the lethal injection, huh?

How this half-assed eugenics meshes with the anti-choice position I always assumed the BNP held, since one of them handed me a vile leaflet when I was about 12, I have no idea.

Just, please don't vote for them. Not if you think women have a right to bodily integrity, not if you think black people born in Britain should be allowed to self-identify as British, not if you believe in your right to love who you want, not if you think disabled people shouldn't be victimised.

Sarah Palin Thinks Murder is Anti-Life

2009-06-04T12:22:00.009+01:00

Um, well done?

Seriously though, I think this is the first time anything I even vaguely agreed with has left her mouth.

"I feel sorrow for the Tiller family. I respect the sanctity of life and the tragedy that took place today in Kansas clearly violates respect for life. This murder also damages the positive message of life, for the unborn, and for those living. Ask yourself, 'What will those who have not yet decided personally where they stand on this issue take away from today's event in Kansas?'

Regardless of my strong objection to Dr. Tiller's abortion practices, violence is never an answer in advancing the pro-life message."

Governor Sarah Palin

Edward Current

2009-05-31T12:26:00.002+01:00

I have found a hilarious satirist on Youtube. His name is Edward Current, and he does these "Christian" videos. The funniest parts are the comments from those crazy evangelicals who hang about Youtube, who don't realise he's not being serious til he tells them.

This is a gem: An Atheist Meets God

Bill Donohue Being Vile

2009-05-31T04:15:00.003+01:00

This is another one from PZ Myers.

It's an interview with Bill Donohue, where as far as I can tell, he defends the child abusers in Ireland on the basis that...not all of them were rapists? Not all of them were priests? What?

He wrote an article in a similar vein a while ago which I haven't had the strength to go over properly yet...but it's bookmarked. I will tear it to shreds later, promise.

Nicaragua: Votes for Lives

2009-05-31T03:47:00.004+01:00

Did you know Nicaragua has a total ban on induced abortion? As in, total. Not if you've been raped, not if the foetus is completely non-viable, not in case of ectopic pregnancy. Not if, like me, you have a fear of pregnancy (actually, I'll go look up the word for that in a minute) and would rather kill yourself than have to have something growing inside you screwing with your insides for 9 months. Not if you have cancer and need immediate chemotherapy. And so on.

For the record, I'm completely pro-choice. I don't think a woman should have to justify her termination at all, let alone be dying of pregnancy before she gets one.

That said, even even people I know who are generally anti-choice almost always make exceptions in case of risk to the life of the mother, or a foetus which cannot live outside the womb.

A few other countries have total bans too - the Dominican Republic passed one just last month. The only reason I focus on Nicaragua is that it was the first one I knew of. Also, the main reason the ban exists there is apparently a deal with Catholic church made to get extra votes and return an administration which had been on its way out to power.

What value system is this, that values even a two or three week embryo over the life of a woman? Any woman - she may already have children, or other dependents; she probably has a family and/or a partner who love her; she may well bow to the God of the celibate priests as well as they do. That regardless of these factors is a whole live real human being whose life is threatened and could be saved?

What politics picks votes over the lives of half the population? Over their rights, their choices, their self-determination?

The UN recently called the Nicaraguan ban torture. It is. State-sanctioned, humanity-violating torture.

It makes me want to cry.

Stranger Rape

2009-05-31T03:04:00.003+01:00

Possible Trigger Warning

I don't know if there have been more rape cases in Merseyside of late, or I'm just reading the local paper more. This one, about an 18-year-old attacked in Southport is from Saturday's Liverpool Echo.

Detective Inspector Dave Rooney said: “I would like to reassure local people that this kind of assault is thankfully quite rare and we are determined to bring the offender to justice as soon as possible.

Well, I should bloody hope it's rare. Having a chat with a stranger who turns out to be a rapist had better be rare, if we're claiming to be a civil society.

I take it that what DI Rooney means is that stranger rape is quite rare. As a proportion of rape cases, it is - the vast majority of victims are attacked by someone they know.

Only, it's not that rare, is it? It happened in Norris Green a couple of weeks ago. Two occasions in a fortnight, with four attackers in the first, which surely counts as four rapes, strikes me as not nearly rare enough.

The DI went on:

“However, I would like to remind women to take care when they go out at night and to avoid walking through isolated or unlit areas on their own. Always walk home in pairs or in a group and avoid being on your own at night.”

Which I suppose is sound advice in context, especially since the haven't caught the attacker in the Southport case yet.

But shit, am I the only one who wishes he'd also said "I advise men to not rape women, or other men, or anybody, thank-you-very-sodding-much."?

Maybe next time.

Irish Abuse Victim Speaks

2009-05-31T00:11:00.004+01:00

This video was on PZ Myers's blog, Pharyngula, the other day. It deserves highlight, although I have hardly established a readership!

Of course, it's a heartbreaking topic, but a very important one. A thousand words of mine, or anyone else uninvolved, would be much less effective in getting the unnecessary extra trauma caused to victims by the self-regarding congregations in refusing to admit the truth of events across than this statement.

Potential Trigger Warning

Also, I am aware of the incoherence of my last sentence. I am in a rush and overcaffeinated. Sorry!

Fiona

2009-05-27T16:04:00.004+01:00

"I went crazy again today/looking for a strand to climb/looking for a little hope."

Fiona Apple, Paper Bag

Just easing myself into this blogging business with my favourite song!