Best entry I have seen on the death of the iconic Don LaFontaine is Steve's.

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mle292 links to news of the free RATM concert that was supposed to happen outside the Republican National Convention. Land of the Free? Whoever told you that is your enemy...

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Via sylo_tode, a slightly cruel cartoon for Monopoly players:



I see the level of debate about Palin isn't going to rise any time soon, then?

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It is something I still cannot understand: why do scientists conduct research into heterosexual relationships and only study the men in those relationships? Does it not take two to make a heterosexual monogamous relationship? Warning for those who are happily non-het and/or non-monogamous: this article will make your ears steam in it's normative presumption.

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And if that doesn't make you grumpy, Peter Black has lit the blue touchpaper and is sprinting away. Ann Widdecombe. One of those people who, although she has a raft of abhorrent opinions, at least holds them honestly and with integrity, making you respect her even as you detest her. Dammit.

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To end on a cheerful note, Millennium has been to Bletchley Park, bless him. Loveliest entry of the day so far.

Honestly, what more could you want from a post?

;)

It's a wonderful thing on a Saturday morning to wake up blearily thinking that sounds like Vince... and discover that it is, indeed, Vince, being utterly awesome for a full half hour on Beyond Westminster. Vince was SO awesome that the BBC reporter lady kept calling him Doctor Vincent Cable in very reverent tones. I like it when Vince is shown due deference by the media.

The poor junior Labourite was utterly skewered on his Well of course we believe in localism because it's the buzzword of the moment, but we want to retain central control over this, and this and this and... oh, EVERYTHING! Even auntie Beeb's reporter mentioned that the Lib Dems have been talking about this since the sixties, and that the Labour position was incoherent. And it warmed the cockles of my heart to hear Oliver Letwin keep having to say Vince's party and my own in a covert admission that they were nicking our policies.

Tee Hee Hee.

And now Vince is on Money Box being awesome AGAIN! Radio Four is clearly The Vince Channel today. I am not complaining about this.

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Penny Red is having a similar thought process to me about her sexuality: feeling like you can't really call yourself bi if you've mostly has experiences with the opposite sex in a straight world is something that seems to be endemic among my gender and my age group at the moment. I think part of the reason I am reluctant is that, as Penny says Fourth-wave feminism encompasses a gender egalitarianism which rejects the notion of antagonistic binaries. I'm not BI sexual. I'm, like Penny, attracted to self-defined men, women, transsexuals and the ambi-gendered, excluding noone apart from wankers, pro-life campaigners and people I just don't fancy. Bisexual seems like such an inadequate word for all that.

And yet, I'd feel like a fraud adopting Captain Jack's omnisexual label, because, let's face it, I don't fancy poodles.

Rather similarly to the whole polyamorous/open relationship thing, I have yet to find terminology which I am happy with for the (very happy) relationship I have with My Lib Dem Boyfriend. In some ways, this isn't a huge problem, because I am happy to be labelless. I'm me, and Mat is Mat, and we are us, and as long as we're happy, what does it matter? But other people like labels, and it might be nice for them if we could just say yeah, we're Terrysexual (to pick a random word) and that would let people know...

And then, once we've done that, clitoris education for all!

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Speaking of Captain Jack related things, Mitch Benn and the LSO are doing a sci-fi musical extravaganza at Torchwood Towers Canary Wharf, with the VERY Captain Jack-friendly title of Twilight Delights.

I wonder if that'll be doable from Devon...

Most important thing first: congrats to everyone who got their A-level results today. They won't have anything like the effect on the rest of your life that you have hitherto believed, but for now, bask in the relief that they are over. Special congrats to muffin_nuffin for getting in to York, and Jaiesh for getting Four As. You did good, guys. You did good.

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Obligatory skience video of the day:



The dude in the video? Is this dude. I like him already.

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Y'all probably saw this already, but I don't think I ever got around to posting it here, and it's worth a read... Reasons why Gay Marriage Should Never Be Allowed:

1. Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

2. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behaviour. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

4. Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

5. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britney Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

6. Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

7. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

8. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

9. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

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Lovely lovely alex_wilcock (or rather alexwilcock) is being a very lazy judge-monkey asking us to do all his work for him trying to get shy and retiring Lib Dems to pick out their own best posts to make things a bit easier on the judges for the Lib Dem Voice Bloggotheyear Awards. I'm going to do mine later (although you can feel free to suggest what YOU think my best posts were if you like), but for now, here's my favourites out of the ones a couple of other Lib Dem Bloggers picked for themselves:

Jo Christie-Smith (jo_cs_fd)
Jonathan Calder (lib_eng_fd)

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Speaking of blog awards (stop groaning at the back there) there are still a couple of nomination days left for SB's Very Prestigious Blog of the Year Awards! You can nominate anyone you like by commenting on the post here. Don't forget that you can do it anonymously if you like ;) Deadline is Saturday.

... and specifically, the last link in her post here.

Poll #1238348 Donald
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Let the wind blow high/Let the wind blow low/Through the streets in my kilt I'll go/All the lassies shout...

ETA: OH MY GOD matgb JUST ADMITTED TO OWNING THE SINGLE!!! That's it, the wedding is off!

Firstly, there are now Three Whole People who have, to my knowledge, voted for me in Iain Dale's beauty pageant. Two of these three are people that I instinctively react to as My Betters (I'm not saying which two! LOL), so this is very flattering. All three of them are people that I didn't vote for, and I can't afford to pay you guys, so you'll have to make do with my heartfelt thanks and the knowledge that my ego is now at critical, and he'll be breaking his chains before much longer...

Via Dreaming of Simplicity, a Proposal to give Northern Ireland equality in Abortion provision. Please please please give this your support, even if your MP is Nadine Dorries.

Big Brother is watching you download that song, and will be sending you a sternly worded letter.

A fly in the ointment of matgb and I having babies... Damn vegetarianism.

And... There would be more, but my Collector's Edition Doctor Who Top Trumps came this morning, and they are in a Tardis Box and they have Old Sixie and a Zygon and The Kandyman in! SQUEEE!! Expect much empty-headed squeeing a big review over at dw_academy when I come home from work...

Good news: GRATS GEORGE!!! Nobody deserves a beautiful wedding more than you, mate.

Bad News: OFFS you have GOT to be JOKING?! Have they learnt nothing whatsoever from all the recent data fiascos? Clearly not. Then again, maybe it's a late April Fool... Or maybe they announced this today in the hopes that it would be burying in all the noise about abortion...

Could be either: Moffat is taking over from Rusty on Who. On the one hand, Moffat has written all of the best episodes of new Who, so even if he takes the show in a bad direction, at least it will be a better-written bad direction... But on the other hand, we don't know what that direction will be. Still, at least we can comfort ourselves with the hope that it's unlikely to involve bloody Billie Piper. We can has TEAM Tardis, and not just DUO Tardis, Oh Grand Moff? Pretty please with a cherry on top?

The Perceptual Differences of Students - purple_pen is frustrated that students seem unable to remember she's a Doctor, when they are quite able to remember that her male colleagues are Doctors. Evidence that perceptions of what women should be are more deeply ingrained in us all than we realise?

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Road Tax for Motorbikes - I've blogged about this before, but nobody seemed able to answer whether or not it was true, so this is a "just in case" measure. I don't think it's too much to ask that we simply get the same treatment as cagers car drivers. Via uk_bikers

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The Outlawing of Extreme Porn - I can understand outlawing pictures of actual illegal things, even though I think it's counterproductive. But I can't understand outlawing pictures of people pretending to do illegal things. It smacks of I don't like it, and therefore it ought to be banned. It's at this point I'd remind everyone of John Stuart Mill: The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant. I don't like extreme porn. I don't find it titillating, and I don't want to look at it. But if other people do want to look at it, and nobody is hurt in the making of it, then I do not think it should be banned. I've heard enough tales of what goes on in the porn industry to think it ought to be better regulated to make sure that actresses and actors are consenting, and I also wish with all my heart that there was at least some porn that I didn't find dull and/or misogynistic and objectifying; but it seems to me that the solution to this is not to make porn even more shameful and restricted.

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The Realities of a Non-Monogamous Relationship - many people seem to think that if a person is in a non-monogamous relationship of some kind that they must necessarily be shagging about like billy-oh. This is not necessarily the case, as is ably detailed in this article. What does happen though, is that a lot of the pressure and stress and panic of relationships is instantly dissolved. Those of you who can't get your heads around the idea of non-monogamous relationships might find that this helps. It might not, too, like, but it might. Via minnesattva

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jw_77 alerted me to this article on (and yes, I'm sorry for linking to them) the Daily Hate Mail's website. It is, purportedly, a list of the 20 features which a man must have in order to be considered Mr Right by a woman. Of the 20, I would agree that one of them is a must-have feature (#20, likes pets), and two of them are definite deal-breakers if they apply. Any guy who drives a silver Mercedes would get a severe talking-to about his taste in cars from me. And any guy who is not /very/ young or unlucky who has had less than six sexual partners by an age I would consider him dateable either has something wrong with him, or is a blatant liar.

Of the rest, some of them would be nice, but are not deal-breakers either way (for instance, BA degree is no guarantee of being smart enough for me, and equally, there are lots of boys with no education at all who are smart enough for me), and some I'm not bothered about at all (short dark brown hair is ok, but ranks much lower than waist-length curly locks in my list of attractive features). Most ofr them are completely irrelevant.

But really, the number one attractive feature, which doesn't even get mentioned on that list? Honesty. Honesty is worth more than a £30,000 a year job or a £300,000 home in the Home Counties.

Anyway, my ideal man (five foot nine and a half, definitely not short hair) is currently sat watching DangerMouse with my four year old, plotting screen grabs to make icons out of (Be alert! England needs lerts!). This is a far more attractive thing than any of those superficial things about what Mr. Right supposedly looks like.

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Oh look, it's another one of those "Life was so much better in the fifties!" articles! Does anyone else feel like they've slipped into the Four Yorkshiremen sketch when they read these?

- Who'd have thought thirty year ago we'd all be sittin' here drinking Château de Chasselas, eh?
- In them days we was glad to have the price of a cup o' tea.
- A cup o' cold tea.
- Without milk or sugar.
- Or tea.
- In a cracked cup, an' all.
- Oh, we never had a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper.
- The best we could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth.
- But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor.
- Because we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, "Money doesn't buy you happiness, son".
- Aye, 'e was right.
- Aye, 'e was.
- I was happier then and I had nothin'...

etc. etc. etc.

It's not that nobody got depressed in the fifties; lots of people did. Lots of people killed themselves, and other people. The difference between then and now is that people don't feel ashamed to admit that they are ill and get help. How can this be a bad thing?

In the same vein, I celebrate the fact that the divorce rate has skyrocketed in the last few decades, because this means that less people are putting up with shitty marriages due to societal pressure. That can only be a good thing.

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Still, there is light at the end of the tunnel. People do keep debunking these Christianophobia scare stories, don't they? And of this, I am very glad.

... I got tagged by James Graham for my Eight for 08. I have been rather lax about reading my f-list recently, James, for which I apologise, but at least I've noticed now ;)

Eight things I can realistically hope for in '08?

1, That my wedding goes off without a hitch, and that I remain as blissfully and vomit-inducingly happy with my wonderful matgb as I am now.

2, That everyone I love is alive and healthy by the end of the year, or at least in no worse state than they are right now at the beginning.

3, That America doesn't have Huckabee for a president in the near future. Because, as burkesworks so eloquently put it the other day, when America farts, the rest of us are stood¹ downwind.

4, That politicians of all stripes start to learn the value of having a decent website, and, more importantly, what a decent website is².

5, That the Labour party's popularity freefall doesn't lead to a Tory government³

6, That I learn to stop procrastinating things which would take no more than thirty seconds (answering emails, a bit of tidying, making sure I eat properly, even going to the loo) in favour of answering memes on t'intarwebz. Yeah, these hopes are getting more forlorn as I go along, aren't they?

7, That I get a nice Trial of a Timelord box set. OK, so I'll admit that the script is (mostly) crap - *shakes fist in the direction of Pip'n'Jane* - but, oh the Sixie goodness. Also on my wishlist of Who DVDs: The Time Monster, Arc of Infinity⁴, Terror of the Autons, The Daemons, Attack of the Cybermen, The Happiness Patrol, and Battlefield.

8, That I get more than 2/4 from what I always say when people ask me what I want: world peace, a large bag of fifty pound notes, a bottle of brandy, and a shag

Dammit, no room for the repeal of SOCPA or the death of the ID-card-and-attached-database project. I have too many hopes all waiting to be dashed...

And now I must tag five people:

Blah. I hate putting people under obligations. Also, I would doubtless tag someone who has already done it, due to the afore-mentioned lax reading over recent days. Therefore, if you want to do this consider yourself tagged. Knock yourselves out.

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¹ stood is a perfectly valid Yorkshire dialect particple of the verb to stand. I would like to see it adopted countrywide over the much more unwieldy standing, but a bit of a forlorn hope.

² In terms of the party I bang on about most, this will mean either them dumping Prater Raines as a preferred option for all their websites, or Prater Raines upping their game massively. I haven't seen a website by them which isn't crap in terms of both design and usability. But especially design. I mean, just look at that homepage! I could do better than that with five minutes in Dreamweaver. With my eyes shut! [/bitchyness] Seriously, people who think website design doesn't matter are like people who think SPaG don't matter, or that you only need to optimise websites for IE because only a minority use other browsers. It's true that good website design doesn't matter to lots of people, but to those for whom it does matter, it matters massively; whereas it doesn't offend the don't-cares if you get it right. Thus, getting it wrong really does matter, because if you get it wrong you offend a small-but-significant minority, but if you get it right you offend not one person. To me, this makes it worth the effort. There will probably be a more detailed post on this in the future... That's FOUR SB's Guide to... posts I need to make now *headdesk*

³ Yeah, that's a bit of a forlorn hope too, isn't it? If it doesn't happen in '08, it'll happen whenever Gordon calls the next election. But if I believed in any Gods my prayers would include please let the next election lead to a hung parliament, and thereafter STV for all! every single night

⁴ How do I love thee, Maxil? Let me count the tights ways.

So, apparently some of the colonials are celebrating something called Thanksgiving today. susanne_est_moi posted a list of things that she is thankful for, and (to cheer me up because matgb is travelling away from me as I type, soon to arrive in the Land of the Wombles) I thought I would follow suit:

I am Thankful for:

- matgb, without whom... Well, without whom Life would be a lot less interesting and less fun. I love him so much I'm going to marry him. Who could have predicted that a year ago?
- shrublette, for similar reasons (well, apart from the marriage bit). Also, shrublette's dad. Although we are not together anymore, he's still her dad, and if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have her.
- Liberty. OK, I'm not free to do everything I want to, due to constraints of finances and travel and stuff, but I am free to think what I want, wear what I want, read what I want, talk to who I want to, believe what I want... It's more freedom than many have in this world, and I'm grateful for it.
- Having a roof over my head and food to eat and beer to drink. Which is, again, more than a lot of people have.
- Byron, and Pugsley, and Ceara.
- My friends and family. A more wonderful, selfless, caring bunch I could not have dreamt of.
- Tim Berners-Lee, for inventing t'intarwebz, which allows me to write this blog, email and keep in touch with all of you lot, shop cheaply without having to get dressed, etc., etc..
- John Stuart Mill, Shami Chakrabarti, and all the other great Liberals I admire.
- Radio Four.
- Books. Being able to read them, and smell them, and how they feel in your hand and the knowledge they impart. Books are awesome.
- Science Fiction, and all the great writers thereof (ILU Isaac Asimov!); also HP Lovecraft and Dorothy L Sayers and John Mortimer and PD James and Edgar Allen Poe and Agatha Christie and MR James and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Ruth Rendell and HG Wells and all the other fabulous authors of fiction who have made my world a better place.
- The NHS. Yeah, so it's got it's flaws. But I'm grateful for it none the less.
- Stephen Fry.
- My education.
- Vincent Price. And Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. And Roger Corman.
- The many and varied wonderful kinds of food and drink which I am able to enjoy thanks to being (just about) financially solvent and living in a place where I can obtain them fairly easily (tee hee amusing pictures of my friend John on that link).
- Yorkshire. From the innermost inner city of Bradford to the wild desolation of Saddleworth Moor; from the top of Snake Pass to the shores of the North Sea; from the tops of the treetops in the woods to the bottom of the deepest coal mine. I love every square inch of my home county. I love the landscape, I love the architecture, I love the people. I love going out into the woods and feeling my roots stretching back for generations; I also love that I can meet people from practically every country on earth here. Best of all possible worlds.

I could go on forever here, but I think that's a long enough list, isn't it?

ETA: nearly forgot, but the day was saved thanks to gominokouhai: Happy Birthday Doctor Who!. Now there's something to be grateful for ;)

Also, I found another petition that's nearly expired (expires midnight tonight). It would be great if we can all give this one a final push. Because it will mean that Mat and I won't have to bother having two wedding ceremonies.

Make humanist weddings legal in England and Wales as they are in Scotland.

NB: any links which may have been in the original entry are no longer there. Sorry.

( Originally posted 5th December 2005 )