Monday, August 22, 2005

Loony Right-wing Site of the week - part 2

Just look at this one.

http://endofbritain.blog-city.com/

Its named after a book by Peter Hitchens, which is screamingly funny - but whether he is the blogger or not, I am not sure.

This is another serious site which ought to be a parody.

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Loony Right-wing Site of the week

http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/

This one has to be seen to be believed. Its one of those sites which is so ridiculous, it could well be a hoax, but I have a horrible feeling it isn't....

Friday, August 19, 2005

RIP Mo Mowlam

With the sickening stench of hypocrisy emanating from the Church, it is sad news to hear of the death of Mo Mowlam, a politician who inspired love and affection from all parts of the political spectrum.

I had the pleasure of meeting her three times, once before she was an MP when she addressed a CND meeting in Huddersfield, and then again twice after her election to Parliament. I think the reason why people liked her so much is that she was real, human, not 'spun 'and homogenised like so many of today's politicians.

Politics will be a lesser place without her. So will the Labour party. Robin Cook and now Mo Mowlam.

And this week I get a local Labour party leaflet so right wing it could have been composed by the Tories!

Sad days indeed.....

More Church nonsense

This time, its Bishopess of Europe, closet case Georgina Rowell, who has decided to admonish the Anglican chaplaincy in Riga for holding a service for Gay pride. With a baying mob, a coalition of conservative Christians and the neo-fascist far right, shreiking outside, Georgina thinks its more appropriate to moan that she hadn't been asked first whether they could hold the service (diddums) and to say not a word about the behaviour of thses Christianonazis outside.

Given that Georgina, like many of her ilk, loathes women priests - it would spoli their cosy closet boyz club - no doubt she will be far happier when she can de-CAMP to Rome.

Godd riddance to a hypocritical closet-case of the worst order.

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Sad news about Robin Cook

Its easy to knock politicians, but I was particularly sad to hear the news about the premature death of Robin Cook MP. A principled man and a sharp intellect, with a self-deprecating sense of humour. Parliament and the Labour party will be a lesser place without him

Saturday, August 06, 2005

The wonders of Montreal

Its a fantastic city. Its somewhere I had always wanted to go to, but it surpassed all expectations. Its a place of great contrasts, a North American city with a European feel, where French remains the main language used, where within half an hour one can be in the glorious wine-region countryside, or the resort area of the Laurentians, both of which we visited. Quebec's bog-standard still wine is nothing special, but they produce wonderful ice wines and ice ciders from frozen grapes and apples, and I tasted plenty of them and brought some home.

Some of the highlights.

Meeting up with Vincent and Lis again. Vincent is an old mate from University days. He's a great bloke, sceptical and principled, proud to have never voted in his life ( and has no intention of ever doing so .... I think he subscribes to the view that no matter who you vote for, the Government always gets in). He works overseas for the UN so has plenty of interesting and revealing tales. Lis is French-Canadian, a Montrealer, and they were spending some time on home leave, so it was a great opportunity to get together after some 11 years.

The Biodome. This is based in one of the old Olympic buildings (the 1976 Olympics, which Montrealers are paying for until next year - London, be warned!) - the cycle track, I think. It consists of four climatic region reconstructions under cover, including a rainforest and the Antarctic, complete with penguins. I do like penguins! The sort of place where you can be a big kid and get away with it.

C.R.A.Z.Y. I always like to see a film whilst I am away , and we were fortunate enough to find a cinema where this French language Quebecois was being shown with subtitles. Its excellent - well worth seeing. I'm not sure if it is due a British release or not.

The Biosphere. A museum about water - another big kid delight, and built on the 1967 EXPO site

Food! Montreal is a real foodie city, and we had some excellent meals. We would particularly recommend le Poisson Rouge, an informal French bistro which is a BYOW - bring your own wine - restaurant. Fish on the menu, very fresh and well cooked. On the more upmarket front, we liked le Chronique, Raza, and Brunoise. An occasion was the seafood platter at Au Pied de Cochon. To say it was large would be an understatement. Two tiers, including lobster, 2 sorts of crab, whelks, cockles, oysters, softshell crab tempura, winkles, mussels, huge clams - quite impressive to say the least. Their house special pud is a Quebec speciality 'pouding chomeur' - its the sweetest thing ever and quite divine.

Gay Pride. We visited during Gay Pride week, and attended the parade and the community fair. Both were great fun - though there seems to be something of a linguistic divide between the groups simply dependent upon what language they use in the group.

More still, but its getting late....

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Montreal...more to come

Just returned from a fantastic holiday in Montreal. Its a city which I would thoroughly recommend, a real fusion of different cultures and styles. More whan I recover properly from the jetlag....

More on the Church

The latest is instructive indeed. Gauleiter Akinola, witch-doctor superior of Nigeria, that well-known country marked by its awareness of womens equality, freedom from government corruption, and peaceful co-operation, has suggested that the Church of England should be suspended from the Anglican Communion.

Now, in itself, this is amusing indeed. The ANGLICan Comnunion is defined simply by being affiliated to Canterbury, and if your church looks towards Canterbury, then it is Anglican. If it splits from Canterbury, it isn't Anglican. Nothing much more to it that that.

This is the latest in a series of threats and promises that a significant number of provinces, probably a majority of the world's Anglicans, will be moving away from Canterbury and starting their own denomination. This time, the CofE's inadequate and cowardly response to civil partnership legislation and its application to clergy members has been swooped upon. I don't think I have met anyone on any side of the argument who sees this as anything other than a dog's dinner. Its a compromise which will please no-one.

Isn't it clear that the Anglican Communion would be better off splitting - and , indeed, the Church of England too? But there is a lot of pride involved. Perhaps if people sat down and looked honestly at the situation, some sort of agreed split might take place, but it looks as if some are planning to walk in any case.

Wahey! Looks like I've made it!

To be recognised by Gaybaiter-in-Chief Green is praise indeed. Of course - a lot of it is wrong (I'm a Dr not a Mr, I haven't been on the Police Authority for a year, and I didn't apply twice, I was approached the second time and asked if I wished to be reconsidered, and was successful....).

But still, I must be doing something right - though there are plenty of other gay-related activities which I don't have very much contact with...