the silly season...

That's what August is often referred to owing to the lack of genuine news. Not very different this year...

So, we have had the realisation by vatican plc, UK branch, that they can do nothing about a head teacher (local to here) who has entered into a civil partnership. Quite right too, although once again the church headed by a former member of the HITLER Youth is showing its true colours. The conservative Anglican sites are still making lots of noise, and it remains anyone's guess as to how it will all pan out. One thing is sure - that gay people have far more sense than to waste their time on an organisation which can't come to terms with its openly gay priests, but allows those with the mental illness of self-oppression to become clergy. I'd love to see how much gay porn litters their computer hard disks (well hidden behind the pictures of Wifey they post on their websites!)

Enough of organisations for losers.

Everton have certainly delighted me by winning our first two matches. Having Man City and Everton at the top of the premiership is certainly something of a novelty. I think we are still after another midfielder and striker but I haven't heard anything firm as yet as to new signings. The hot topic here is what to do about the new stadium. I think the answer is quite clear.
WE NEED TO VOTE YES and move to Kirkby. All Evertonians love Goodison Park, and its atmosphere is undoubtedly a plus for Everton. But there isn't the ability to expand, and Liverpool as a city are not offering anything as good as the possibilities for Kirkby. So, I have voted 'yes'.

Over the last few days I have also written a few real letters. proper ones, not the 'e' variety. Something I used to do very regularly but have let lapse.

Another thing I am thinking about is whether I should rejoin the Labour party. The Tory party haven't changed: they are still essentially the same bunch of people, and I would not like to think of them winning power again. But I am more than aware that post-Iraq, I have sat on the sidelines, and perhaps the time has come to re-enter the fray. Any views or thoughts would be appreciated!

The delights of fundy Christian employment practice

I don't buy Domino's pizza. Two good reasons: first, the pizza is dreadful, second, the company is owned by a homophobic conservative Christian.

But it seems that this company is offering full backing to one of its franchise holders who has been exploiting migrant workers, by taking so many deductions from their wage that they actually owed the company money

Just more evidence that 'evangelical Christianity' and 'morality' are mutually exclusive concepts.

HIV in South Africa

Some years ago, I recall a writer called Jad Adams, linked, I think, to the magazine 'Living marxism' - then the Revolutionary Communist party (it was neither), now the Institute of Ideas/Spiked Online, who came up with the view that HIV had no connection with AIDS. The Sunday Times took this case up for a while but abandoned it when Andrew Neil departed - I don't think they would recall this as their finest hour.

Unfortunately, South African President Mbeki still seems to think that this sort of quackery is worth listening to. He has dismissed his deputy health minister who was pursuing sane policies based on supply of anti-retroviral drugs. No doubt the policies of the health minister, including the use of beetroot and garlic - and - lets be frank - treatment via witch doctor - will be revived. With Mbeki's likely successor being someone who thinks that you won't become HIV+ if you take a shower after sex, the future is not looking hopeful. South Africa continues to have one of the worst AIDS problems in the world.

And the limitied success of other schemes are being threatened by Bush's insistence on abstention-based sex education in order to receive money.

Blood on their hands, the lot of them

Having a little play.....

As I have some time free, I am intending to try and tart the blog up a little and include some links to sites I like, and so on

So you may see things chganging frequently until I have it the way I want it. Though I shall keep it simple and straightforward.

The Islamist

Currently reading this interesting book, written by former islamic radical Ed Husain.

Anyone else here read it? Any thoughts? The fact that the completely clinically sane Daily Mail commentator mel Phillips approves is certainly a down-point.

Ex-gay survivor video - worth watching

http://a_musing.blogspot.com/2007/08/ex-gay-survivors-in-nashville-tn.html

We need to remember that those who suffer from repression of their sexuality are themselves ill, and in requirement of therapy to help them accept the people they really are. The first aspect of that needs to be recovery from the adoption of fundamentalist forms of religion, as without adherence to this delusion, their task would become a good deal easier. indeed, there would be very little need to continue to repress.

The self-repression movement will continue to make their usual excuses, though. It is fair to say that this movement has different 'strands' within it. the more fervently fundie will suggest that actual change of orientation is likely, or even necessary to 'prove' one's christian commitment. More moderate or catholic voices will pursue a 'carry your cross' position. In the UK, they are exceptionally weak, largely because conservative religion is a minority sport, and those likely to be involved are young people who are unfortunate enough to have been born into one of these religions. Thankfully, most leave these groups, although there are some who try and pretend they have 'really changed' (yet are so sensitive that when challenged, their action is always the same - to ban those from their sites who suggest their sexuality may have simply been repressed, not changed)

There simply can't be any compromise on this one. These groups are dangerous, can damage people's lives, and need to be firmly opposed. happily, the number of young people coming out and the way that gay people are clearly rejecting the church means that their mission is certainly failing. All repression ministries and the very basis of conservative Christianity is a negative and destructive force. It should be treated inn the way we treat the beliefs of the BNP - allowed in a democratic society, but certainly not socially or publicly acceptable.

One down, six to go....

From PINK NEWS : ENGLAND: Catholic Care will end its 100-year-old adoption service, which places 20 children with new families every year, because it does not want to help same-sex couples adopt. The Sexual Orientation Regulations, passed earlier this year, protect gay, lesbian and bisexual people from discrimination when accessing goods and services. Now all adoption agencies have to accept same-sex couples as possible parents.The charity is one of seven Catholic leader Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor threatened to close because of the laws. They receive a total of £10 million a year from local councils.Ben Summerskill, who as head of gay equality organisation Stonewall spearheaded oppoosition to an exemption for Roman Catholic-run adoption agencies, told Pink News:"Our clear view is that if you run a public service then you have to abide by the health and safety legislation, and equality legislation too. That applies to adoption agencies just as it does to anyone else.""It is not entirely clear that this is the only reason that Catholic adoption agencies are considering closing. Because of the way that social services are now contracted out, a number of smaller agencies have been closing in recent years. It would be utterly reprehensible if the Catholic Church were to use closures that were going to take place anyway as an excuse for alarmist claims about important new legislation that supports equality."

So, while I was away....

Foot and mouth appears once again. I don't want to appear overly cynical, but there aren't many votes for Labour in Surrey or Somerset.

The fallout from the Hereford church homophobia case drifts on, with all but one somewhat risible commentator recognising that it wasn't a good outcome for the church. It is truly abhorrent to watch them all try to find ways to discriminate based on their supposed 'principles', and truly pathetic to watch the closeted and the oppressed and deluded at the front of that argument. The reality of the church becoming the bolthole for the bigoted is ever more true.

I am also wondering if the hounding of Morat with regard to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann is another case of picking on the 'weirdo'. There have been a whole string of suspects in all sorts of cases who have actually been proved not to be guilty but have fitted a particular pattern. Sadly, the public campaign came to nothing, and perhaps a repeat will not be on the cards. I hope not.

Late, but I hope worth waiting for

We have been enjoying a trip to Europe - hence the lack of blogging. We started out at Hull, took the ferry to Zeebrugge, and then spent time in Luxembourg and a week in Alsace, in eastern France.

Alsace produces the best wine in the world, and that was one of the reasons for going - many wines do not get exported to the UK and that includes some of the best ( and after the killjoys have slapped tax on it the price of the best stuff is astronomical in any case )

First stop was Luxembourg. We opted to stay just outside the city, in a small spa town called Mondorf-les-Bains, and found a very good value 'gourmet break' in the Hotel du Grand Chef, which is highly recommended. No air-con though...fortunately it wasn't too hot. The food was good, nothing very adventurous, classic French, but no problem there....one of the waiters looked exactly like Mr. Dead, from the Harry Enfield TV prog.
Time in Luxembourg was spend divided between culture and wine. Luxembourgeois wine is good stuff, though largely unknown, and the Moselle valley is attractive and well set up for wine tourists. The city itself is modern and has a new contemporary art museum, opened last year, which we thought was excellent - at the moment they have an exhibition which focuses on the links between art and science fiction, which is more than worth seeing.

We thern drove down to Alsace, to our gite in the village of Bergheim. Alsace is a strange place. Its French, yet it isn't. All the place names are Germanic, the food is certainly more akin to German than French (unfortunately...) and at one time many people spoke Alsatian, a High German dialect, but we heard only the owners of the gite (both over 70) use it. Its also both very pro-Europe, and right-wing. It was the most pro-Sarkozy region, and has a very strong National Front vote. There are a couple of interesting academic papers on this phenomenon - http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/21st/workingpapers/boswell.pdf and http://mondediplo.com/1998/05/07bihr.
We seem to have majored on Right-Wing Holiday Destinations this year! On the Sunday, the village had its local fete which highlighted the excellent gewurztraminer wine produced in the area, and they had a parade which was on the theme of famous Alsatians in history. One of them simply wouldn't be considered acceptable in the UK. The participants were 'blacked up' and one was dressed as a gorilla. We were almost expecting the free bananas.
But we enjoyed the trip. Lots of wine tasting and purchasing, a fair bit of culture - the Unterlinden museum in Colmar being a particular highlight - and some good food too. Much Alsatian food doesn't appeal - pardticularly choucroute - but we did find plenty of good places to eat. The culinary highlight was Le Table de Gourmets, in Riquewihr. http://www.jlbrendel.com/main.php?set_lng=en is the website.

No blogging for a few days...

But expect a mega-blog this weekend...

Banned!

Mad fool that I am, I have ended up becoming a regular contributor to blog discussions which are diasmetrically opposed to everything I believe. The effect has been odd. Most notably in terms of religion. The last three years or so has seen me shift from being a fairly comfortable liberal catholic Anglican, to a position which is sort of post-Christian humanist. Participating in those blogs has undoubtedly had some influence on that shift, simply because of the sort of responses I get there.
Latest development has been a banning from one of those sites. It seems its because my presence shifted the discussions on to me! But that was hardly my doing, but those who always ended up making the discussions 'personal'. It does rather display my own feeling that there isn't very much space for dialogue on either side.
Contributing to a specialist blog like that is a bit strange too, in that all I ever talked about was religion. Correction. Nearly every discussion wound its way round to gay matters, even if it initially had no input from that direction from me. Its as if thats the only part of one's personality and as if one has no other interests or concerns...
Having said that, spending time elsewhere has meant that this blog has itself been sorely neglected, and I think its about time I started taking it a bit more seriously and gave the world the benefits of my musings rather more often (oh, the pomposity of this whole thing.....but I hope those of you who do visit and read enjoy what I have to say, even if you don't always agree!)

On the whole, those who ban tend not to like mavericks, and thats what I am, I shall never fit cosily into a round hole. All power to square pegs everywhere....

Floods....

We had our own mini-flood last night. Our house is old (Victorian) and has a cellar - which I realised, on a visit there had started to amass water. It turned out to be a blockage in the drain outside.
Its all cleared now but it wasn't a pleasant thought, that the house could have been flooded, even if it was only the cellar
More broadly, it looks as if we are going to have to get our act together with regard to the erratic climate. I've never been totally sure about the whole global warming
/climate change thing, either way - but there does appear to be something going on.

Trophy wives

I've been doing a bit of research into the whole so-called 'ex-gay' phenomenon - self-hating or self-oppressed is probably a more accurate description, but still.....one thing I have noticed is that they like to festoon their blogs with pictures of Wifey, if indeed, their self-deception has reached those remarkable levels. I suppose its a way of convincing themselves and creating the necessarily heterosexual image! One of them even wrote 'isn't heterosexuality great' as a blog entry. he must really need to convince himself.

On one level I find these sort of people very dangerous. They can severely mess up people's lives, and having seen the effect they can have, I certainly think they need constant monitoring.

But, much more positively:
1. In the UK at least, there are very few of them. Even the largest of the groups, which takes a reasonably moderate position (carry your cross, not God will turn you straight) has a remarkably small number of members. And the throughput appears considerable given those who leave and then find partners, leaving that world far behind
2. It appears to me that with gay people now finding it easier to come out, most of those attracted to this sort of group are likely to be those who have been brought up within evangelical Christianity. The church has displayed so much homophobia over the past few years that it certainly hasn't gone unnoticed, and i think few young gay people are in the least interested in the institutional church
3. Their stance is ever more an anachronism. Gay people have become so much part of the mainstream these days: you realise this when you work with students who simply can't conceive that anyone would find being gay any sort of problem. They have gay friends and thats just one factor about them. I think thats good and demonstrates still further just how irrelevant the church has become

Of course, many in the church love this sort of martyrdom. it also fits into their theology of being 'counter-cultural' (in Christian speak - the real meaning is 'outdated and fearful of anything in contemporary society') and being a small, fringe group standing firm against the wicked, fallen world.

Looks like they will have plenty of chance to carry on practising!

Cash for peerages....and those by-elections

So, after a drawn out enquiry, dawn raids and the like, no charges are to be laid.
Talk about a sledgehammer to crack a nut. The fact is that all the large parties have been doing this sort of thing for years, and with the huge upsurge in spending at election time, the pressure has increased to make it more not less likely

What we need is a downsizing of political campaigning so that there are very clear limits on expenditure. But will the main parties agree to this? I doubt it somehow.

And what about those by-elections? The Tories did extremely badly. How can anyone say otherwise? If the main opposition party is falling from 2nd to 3rd in a safe Labour seat, and does noticeably badly in the sort of seat they have to up their game in (Southall) after a very high-profile campaign, then they are surely not about to win the next election?

Thanks to MadPriest for this...

Following the story that by all accounts Priddis has congratulated a church organist on his forthcoming civil partnership (the celebratory party will be held in the church)
I do think there seems to be a little ...errr...confusion here

The fallout continues. The Church is clearly not happy, still spinning away, helped by its trusty band of conservative bloggers who hope that the issue of civil partnerships can be returned to, and what appears to be a misreading of the decision. I haven't read it, but if the conservatives are right, then Priddis would have won the case. The thing they appear to have overlooked is that its o nly because this case was deemed a probable lay post exempt from the regulations that all the other issues were taken into account at all. And they still lost - and the judgment stated that it would have been the case on indirect as well as direct discrimination

It really is about time they woke up and realised that their position is more akin to that of the racist - tolerated, even allowed in the private sphere, but certainly not approved of. Poor dears. Must be a terrible shock to them to realise that their brand of bigotry no longer holds sway

Dope

No, not another post about church conservatives!

Its dope. Today, seven Ministers in the government have said they have smoked dope. No surprise there given their age group.

Personally, I don't do drugs. Other than coffee. And alcohol. So, I don't have an axe to grind here.

My views on the topic are:
1. Classification itself is meaningless. Change it back to a class B, but don't waste police time tracking down users.
2. Its undoubtedly stronger than it used to be. ultimately, though, prohibition doesn't work, and the links between drugs are more down to the dealer contact than anything else
3. Once the drugs are on the streets control is an impossibility
4. 'Wars on drugs' don't work, and simply end up glamourising it more
5. Most drug users grow out of it.
6. Some cannabis users will be badly affected, just like some smokers die and some alcoholics suffer those consequences. I don't think thats enough on its own to prohibit. There's only so much you can do to save people from themselves.

Of the above, 5 is the most relevant - lets stop panicking.
And if we are serious about the question, then its the big boys who need catching and sorting.

Yet more church homophobia

And it is amusing to see people try and spin what is an embarassing defeat in an Industrial tribunal into some sort of victory.
So, wooden spoon to Chief Homophobe Anthony Priddis, Bishop of Hereford. Nasty bit of work, like most of the slimeballs
I can't imagine me ever wanting to return to church now. The longer you remain outside the institution, the more you come to see that it is essentially damaged to the core. For me, its gone further. Christianity itself and its bible are equaally problematic.

The time has come, I think, that gay people should no mlonger accept this sort of homophobia. if they don't speak out against it, and remain in a homophobic institution, I find it hard to have respect for them.
All priests should leave all denominations which do not fully accept their ministry. Otherwise, they are acting as their own oppressors and allowing themselves to be treated as second class citizens
All lay members of the church should refuse to fund the institution and refuse to take on any role of responsibility. if they feel they must, turn up on Sunday and leave it at that. Best of all, stop going. Its really rather liberating to be free of such a dead and stifling institution!

The good thing about this is that gay people are already clearing out of the churches. Young gay men don't need the gin-and-lace anglo-catholic closet any longer. This sort of publicity will only make it clearer that there is no place for us in the church and it will become, ever more, a laager for the bigoted who wish things were like they used to be.....whilst the rest of us get on with our lives, protected in the civil law, leaving them to wallow in their own sad, deluded nostalgic fantasy.

Fractured rib

Painful, though the painkillers work quite well.

So, the Blair era draws to a close, and Brown plans his takeover. I am awaiting to see what happens with interest. I think Brown is more of a party man than Blair, and he will be more concerned to feel that the party are being brought on board. He has shown little interest in foreign policy and his closest links are with East Coast American Democrats, but I doubt whether there will be overly hurried changes in the Iraq situation.

The attempted bringing-in of Ashdown was intriguing, but I think much of the negative publicity was actually created by the LibDems, who are desperate to see the back of him. The main problem I have with the LibDems is that so many of them, despite their 'nice' image, are exactly the opposite in reality. How can you really trust a party whose specialism is to produce lots of lies and claim credit for things they haven't done, who seem to have good progressive principles at national level, but locally are often on the populist Right, and who support PR but when it comes to its obvious outcome - coalition - don't want to get their hands dirty?

But Labour still don't inspire. Patricia Hewitt and Ruth Kelly really have got to go - with so many good women MP's, why are these two in the cabinet? Actually, why is Ruth 'Opus Dei' Kelly in the Labour party at all? And I'd be hard pushed to say exactly what I think the core of the Brown agenda is going to be.

I await with interest.

or perhaps this one?

My view on the London Olympics