beliefs, current affairs, ramblings

Marriage

There’s recently been a lot of brouhaha over the UK government’s suggestion of making marriage available to (male and female) homosexual couples.

The Christian churches are up in arms because they see it as devaluing (or worse) the sacrament of marriage.

Put plainly, this is bollox.

Neither the church, nor any other religion, owns marriage. Arguably it may have done once, in the days before developed civil government, but no longer. In almost every civilised country there is a civil marriage option available as well as a religious one. The churches may have a ceremony which they call marriage. This does not mean they own the concept or the sole rights, although it does give them the right to choose who to allow to partake in their ceremony.

A heterosexual couple can have a civil marriage, so why can’t a homosexual couple? No-one is suggesting that the churches have to be a part of this if they wish not to. They are not to be obliged to marry homosexual couples and indeed they may choose (as they do now) who can marry under their aegis. Many heterosexual couples are denied a religious marriage for a whole variety of reasons.

And of course no couple has to marry or enter into any officially sanctioned partnership arrangement. And quite right too. So a coach and horses has already been driven through marraige as originally conceived by the churches.

I fail to see a problem.

There are couples who will choose a civil marriage and couples who will choose a religious marriage. Civil marriage will be available to all; religious marriage will only be available to those who can jump some arbitrary set of church defined hurdles. Just as now.

And come couples will choose to ignore the whole idea of marriage (by whatever name) and just live together. Horses for courses, and all that.

No change, really, except that the civil marriage net is being widened.

Although there is the suggestion of an anomaly with civil partnerships. As gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has pointed out the current proposals now discriminate against heterosexuals by allowing same-sex couples the option of marriage or civil partnerships but only marriage for heterosexual couples. Which is ludicrous!

I see no purpose in continuing with the civil partnership sham. Let’s drop it altogether and have just civil marriages. Either that or we have to keep both civil partnerships and civil marriages for all.

Or of course we could just ban marriage altogether — for everyone.

For other sane views you might like to read Betty Herbert’s blog, John Bingham in the Daily Telegraph and Marie Jackson on BBC News.

photography

The Gallery : Colour

The Gallery had a week off last week, hence there was no posting. This week we’re back to normal and the theme is Colour

Hmmm … there’s so much to choose from in my Flickr photostream. So maybe we’ll play it easy and pick a recent (like last week) photo:

Red Pimula
Click the image for larger versions

This red primula was growing in the municipal flower beds about a couple of miles from home. The whole bed was a lovely splash of colour in the Spring sunshine made up of lots of shades of winter pansies and primulas — everything from pale lemons through to deep purples and bright reds.

history, words

Today's Word : Halberd

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Halberd
A military weapon, especially in use during the 15th and 16th centuries. A kind of combination of spear and battle-axe, consisting of a sharp-edged blade ending in a point, and a spear-head, mounted on a handle five to seven feet long.
By transference, a soldier armed with a halberd; a halberdier. [Below left]
Halberds are still currently carried by the Papal Swiss Guard.

Compare with …

Pike
A weapon consisting of a wooden shaft, typically 14 to 15 feet long, with a pointed head of iron or steel; formerly the chief weapon of a large part of the infantry; superseded in 18th century by the bayonet.
A soldier armed with a pike is generally a pikeman. [Below right]
Possibly the best way in the UK to see pikes and pikemen is either at a Civil war re-enactment or at London’s Lord Mayor’s Show on the second Saturday in November.

And of course there is then …

Spontoon
A species of half-pike or halberd carried by infantry officers in the 18th century (from about 1740); generally 6 to 7 feet in length.  

personal

Listography : I'm a What?

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This week’s Listography is a pretty open-ended “challenge” as we’re invited to complete the sentence “five reasons I know I’m a …”. So how to finish that statement? I know, with the word “intellectual”.

That sounds conceited but it isn’t. We all have different skills. Mine happen to involve brain power. But I’m absolutely crap at anything manual: I have 10 left thumbs. I cannot even saw a piece of wood straight!

So here are five reasons I know I’m an intellectual:

1. I have a science doctorate (on the boundaries of physics and chemistry) but I also run a literary society. Although I have a broad understanding of science, medicine, history, language etc. I’m not a polymath: for a start I’m useless at foreign languages!

2. I see three sides of every argument before you even tell me one. And I see through management and marketing bullshit like a knife through butter.

3. I can sit in a health education session and realise my brain is bigger than the sum of all the others in the room, including the trainer. Not necessarily an advantage as it means I struggle to suffer people who don’t use what they’ve got, especially when they then also don’t believe what you tell them. I’m useless at manual things, but I do have to try sometimes. I expect other people to do the same with their brains.

4. I don’t need mental crutches like religion. I can think, and read, and argue. I can do morality without having it imposed from outside. I know there is no such beast as “natural justice” and that life isn’t fair. I can deal with it.

5. My hypnotherapist struggles to get stuff into, or out of, my subconscious. My conscious brain is so fast and so analytical that whatever he does it goes “Oh, he’s doing X. That’s interesting. I wonder if he’ll do Y now? Or does it mean Z? And I wonder how that fits with A?” rather than just going “La-la-la, isn’t that pretty”!

Which doesn’t make for an easy ride; in fact it can be downright depressing and demoralising. But then who said it was supposed to be easy?

current affairs, links, ramblings

So You Missed … ?

More links to things you may have missed. Let’s start with some important items I should write whole blog posts about but just can’t stomach today.

Like I commented on Facebook, this first isn’t just wrong, or bizarre, or cruel, it’s obscene (and that’s not a word I use lightly or often). Georgia Rep Wants To Force Women To Carry Stillborn Fetuses … Like Cows Do. Maybe these loonies should be made to wear a stinking albatross round their necks. As has been said elsewhere if men had to endure half the things they impose on women better ways would soon be found, or minds changed. What price Christian charity? Again! Seethe!

Next, here’s an interesting alternative take on the validity (or not) of modern Christian claims of persecution. As it’s from the National Secular Society it’s probably as biased in the opposite direction! Caveat emptor!

Both of which remind me of this cartoon …

And while we’re on the church, let’s have an interesting sideways look from Friday’s FT, which shows just how bizarre is the Cathodic church’s attitude to gay marriage.

And here’s a worrying judgement handed down by the European Court of Human Rights, supporting the UK courts’ decisions, which appears to give the police carte blanche to do almost anything they like on the streets to restrict liberty, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association. Very, very worrying.

And a final rant for today … this confirms what I maintained the other day that water companies are losing vast amounts of their water through leaks — possibly as much as 25%!

So now for an interesting piece of science. Apparently your soul is in your eyeballs. Yes really. Well actually it does make sense and does seem to agree with one’s intuitive experience.

So how do we think about nothing? This gives two totally different approaches.

And finally something rather splendid: an old church converted into a modern bookstore.

It takes the Dutch to find some good in Christianity. 🙂

personal

Reasons to be Grateful: 18

Experiment, week 18. This week’s five things which have made me happy or for which I’m grateful.

  1. Long-Tailed Tits. I’m seeing these delightful little birds — one of the smallest in the UK — more and more in our garden. They seem to especially like the Silver Birch tree (below). Until a couple of years ago I would see a small group maybe a handful of times a year. This winter they’ve been regular visitors and have got on the bird watch list almost every week. And now I am seeing a pair most days. Hopefully they’re going to nest somewhere nearby.

    2. Spring Dawn with Tree

  2. Smoked Chicken. This has become a staple in our house. Waitrose do individual smoked chicken breasts which are less expensive than buying carved cooked chicken and much tastier. So we now keep a couple in the fridge as a stand-by. They make a great salad.
  3. Daffodils. Yes, I have to say daffodils again. I think they’re my favourite flowers and I love being able to have inexpensive bunches of daffs in the house.
  4. Robins Singing. It is definitely Spring. The robin is singing almost continually. I woke up at 4.30 this morning and got up because I was uncomfortable. It was still dark, but the robin was singing away in the trees in our garden.

    5. Spring Dawn with Moon

  5. Dawn. One of the nice things about getting up early is seeing the dawn, which is so often just as lovely as sunset. And one of the few pleasures of winter is that you can get up at a sensible time and still see dawn. This morning dawn was beginning to break about 5.30 with some very subtle lemony hues, grey clouds and a crescent moon in the east. Having taken a few photos (both of the above) through the study window, I retired back to bed for a few more hours sleep.
amusements

What? More?

So our other local auction house has a sale coming up this week. It contains the usual eclectic and eccentric mix of le bon dieu c’est quoi. Here are some of the “highlights”.

A cartoon by Rudolk Pick, signed and dated 98, showing an African gentleman in smart attire and smoking a pipe, riding a zebra alongside a muzzled lion cub, watercolour, framed

A carved bone erotic couple, an erotic bone bottle and a four section bone erotic inro

A paperweight in the form of a flag pole with the Swastika at full mast

A small carton of plated items including a cheese dish with goat finial

An American sterling centrepiece bowl on tall loaded foot, a Greek 925 bowl, and a pair of loaded 925 dwarf candlesticks
[Loaded with 12-bore cartridges, presumably?]

A stuffed snowy owl in a glazed case, and a stuffed grouse
[I never cease to be surprised at the amount of taxidermy that’s around]

Six flying ducks wall plaques and two seagulls, a quantity of character salt and peppers including chickens, mice, farmer, postman, etc., sauce pots …

A pair of impressive decorative ewers, the bowls supported by two cherub figurines, and garlands of flowers

A splendid large Victorian glass dome enclosing a display of stuffed jay and parakeet, with outstretched wings, in grass surroundings

A large Chinese tilework guardian lion with paw on brocade ball

A mixed lot incl. an old Shell petrol can, miniature straw boater, silver banded walking stick …

An unusual mannequin decorated with vintage fabrics, flowers, beads and glitter fairy wings

An attractive French clock garniture in gilt-metal and bronze, of Louis XVI design, the bell-striking movement by Vincenti, with painted enamel dial, in drum case on gazebo support, with two-light candelabra side pieces … c.1900

A bronze figure of Christ crucified by Rossini
[Have we been being mis-sold all these years, or has Herod had a name-change?]

A taxidermy specimen of a red squirrel, with grasses, in glazed case, c.1900
[Yes, and there’s more!]

Two decorative halberds.

The ultimate in ironing boards by Lauraster, the frame combining a constant steam action with integrated iron, including two covers.
[Which sound more like an instrument of torture!]

A carton of good reference books incl. cokkery [sic], gardening …

A rare 1950s orange-painted basketwork globular linen basket, probably by Lloyd Loom, on a metal stand
[Another instrument of torture? Or is it a cat basket?]

And finally …
… an Imari chamber pot …

I think we’re just going to have to go and have a look at this collection!

current affairs, ramblings

Crossings Out

So the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Dr Rowan Williams, is standing down in nine months time. Appropriate timing? Is he being transmogrified into the Virgin Mary?

Meanwhile he has plenty of time to come out with a few more inanities.

Today, the day that he announced his pregnancy capitulation, he has said that wearing the cross does not offend non-Christians.

How can he possibly know? He isn’t a non-Christian.

Oh! Maybe he is! After all he’s Archbishop of Canterbury. It’s well known that Archbishops of Canterbury can believe six impossible things before breakfast. Recall too that memorable line from the Eric Idle version of the “List Song” in the ENO production of The Mikado:

Bishops who don’t believe in God
Chief Constables who do.

Full lyric here (complete with a couple of errors) and a video on YouTube (the list Song starts about 4m15s in).