Threat to Marriage?

The Law Commission in the UK is proposing that non married couples get the same legal rights as those couples who are married. Predictably this has led to Conservative fury that this threatens the very basis of marriage - it does no such thing. Marriage is a venerable instituion that has been around for many hundreds of years and I see nothing in these proposals that threaten it. I think Stuart Jeffries in the Guardian is bang on the money regarding this. Just because couple X now have rights it doesn't mean my marriage to my wife is any less special nor does it mean that it has less status in society. I don't know what Rightwing types think my reaction should be? Should I look at couple X and think 'Fuck, now that their relationship is now recognised by law I wish I'd never got bloody married. All that money. The family dramas. The bad music at the wedding reception. All in bloody vain. What was the point!' I suggest that if I did feel that then I probably shouldn't have got married in the first place.

Who are these people anyway who marry for legal reasons? I married my wife because I am deeply in love with her and wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. Other people may not choose to get married but have the same feelings towards their partners. People express themselves in different ways. Viewing marriage in a purely legalistic, technocratic, moralistic manner distorts the picture in my opinion. The potential legal rights we could enjoy as a married couple did not enter my head when I, very romantically, proposed to my wife in Pizza Express. Marriage is a wonderful thing but so is a defacto relationship that has lasted the distance. If you view marriage purely as a means to an end to gain rights in society, then yes the marriage rate may fall. However, I am not sure that many people get married for that reason. It's pretty impossible to explain why people marry, maybe it's because it's the 'done thing' but more importantly it's a deeply emotional decision and one that isn't going to be effected by John and Simone down the road, in a defacto relationship, being given legal recognition.

More fuckwits.

When fundamentalists collide the world suffers...The Christian Right in the US bangs on about the war on terror but they actually share many of the opinions that Islamic fundies hold - anti gay, anti sex, anti pornography, anti non believers etc. They are two sides of the same coin. The difference is that one side has the leader of the mightiest, most deadly country in the world by the short and curlies and the other side doesn't.

Gretel V Michael

Car crash TV at it's finest...



Although I have to say that Michael does have a point. When Big Brother showed the clip of him and David for the first time, it was edited so that it looked as if they were kissing each other.

Crouch does the robot dance

No doubt during the World Cup we'll be laughing in horror as Peter Crouch falls over, shins shots woefully wide and generally embarrasses us all. But for now, it appears he's the man of the moment. He scored a great goal against Hungary on Tuesday night and celebrated in a highly original way! See him move below and then read what The Guardian has to say about it...

Prudish Paris

Paris, who became uberfamous due to a film of her sucking cock and swallowing love muck, is getting all prudish about her new film! Bless.

Give him a job!

This is a brilliant website.

Go visit!

Go Julia!

Ha ha - doubt it will do her chances of getting the leadership of the ALP any good, but I admire Gillard's sentiment in the insult she threw Tony Abbot's way in parliament. I particuarly like the way she refused to apologise, stating:

"If I have offended grubs I withdraw unconditionally."

Not big, not clever. But at least someone isn't afraid to let Father Abbott what an utter cunt he is. Bravo Julia!

Michael spits the dummy

Michael from Big Brother is spitting the dummy about his on air spat with host, Gretel Kileen on last night's show. As usual he attacks everyone around him rather than looks at the real source of the problem, himself. What a cunt he is. Was great television though - car crash TV at it's best!

Blair gets it wrong - Again

Tim Blair shouts his mouth off again about what he thinks progressive people may or may not think. Believe me Tim, I am as furious about this as I would be if it concerned a Christian school. True progressive people are against all forms of fundamentalism, Islamic, Christian or otherwise. And all progressives should be against faith schools...

Starburst Ad

Saw this ad last night for the first time. Brilliant!

Give them Crack

Rachel Campbell Johnson in The Times suggests that the best way to deal with hard drug use (although she does lump all drugs together in her article) is to give free crack and heroin away to addicts. The reason for this?

'.... to supply the addict with drugs is to force the endgame. You can'’t maunder on for decades with heroin or crack cocaine. You go down fast. You either die of an overdose. or you are brought to your knees. And it is only from your knees that you can beg for help.'

It's an interesting theory. Is someone dying due to obesity? Give them free cream cakes and Big Macs. You've got liver disease from decades of alcoholism? Well here's a bottle of vodka for niche! Enjoy. That'll sort you out. Have you got a smoker's cough? Well here's a years supply of Gitanes, hopefully you'll have cancer in no time!

Her bonkers plan seems to be to make people so ill that they are then forced to seek help from the state to kick their addiction. Ever heard of the phrase 'Prevention is better than cure' Rachel?

Look, I am an advocate of drug legalisation but I don't think that actually giving drugs away free willy nilly will actually help things. The thing with hard drugs like Heroin and Crack Cocaine is that the users usually do not know when to stop so I'd be guessing there would be far more overdoses than cries for help and I'm not sure that having a cull of drug users is either wise or ethical!

Carbon Dioxide is cool!

The Competitive Enterprise Institute in the US, getting a bit worried that too many people are starting to believe in global warming, have started broadcasting ads on US TV which try and salvage the reputation of Carbon Dioxide.

The tagline? ‘Carbon Dioxide: some call it pollution, we call it life.’

You couldn’t make this up!

Guess who funds the CEI? Exxon Mobil.

Watch the ads here

Ecstacy causes violent crime!

The Observer, usually a voice of sanity in this wild world of ours, had a very large report in it this Sunday about the shocking rise in violent crime in the UK and the equally shocking conviction rate. So what's the reason for this upsurge in violence on Britain's streets? Ecstacy. Obviously! Quote:

'a female judge at one of the country's busiest crown courts blamed changing social mores and alcohol. 'In the Eighties, the pubs shut at 11pm and the clubs by 1am or 2am. There were no alcopops, and women didn't start the evening by knocking back a series of double-measure shorts. Now, with dance music, ecstasy, and much harder drinking, young people are accustomed to staying out all night. The behaviour of women has changed especially: they're much more sexually aggressive and aggressive generally; some are armed. We see people accused of committing serious violence that we never saw 20 years ago, and some of them are women. At the same time, they are being exposed to much greater risks.'

So this is all happening, in part, to people staying up all night listening to doof doof music and taking happiness enhancing chemicals! Of course. The first thing you want to do whilst high on Ecstacy is not hug the person next to you and reach for the lasers, but get out your Stanley Knife and stab the person throwing shapes on the podium.

If more people spent more time listening to repetitive beats inside clubs whilst high on MDMA and less time sinking pint after pint in Yates Wine Lodge there'd be far less violent crime. The reason why so many people like clubbing is because it is a world away from the Saturday night crime fest that infects so many of the Britain's high streets. Clubbing is the antithesis to this 'scene' not a cause of it's problems.

Tory Party - Party of the employee?

Labour Humanist's expose the hollowness of David Cameron's latest 'Work/Life balance' crusade. Fact is that if the Tories get into power again they will do nothing to improve working conditions for people. They never do. Cameron has actually voted against every Labour measure on parental leave and flexible work. Cameron may be inspiring hype at the moment but it's clear to me that this is all he consists of.