Simon Barnes on Blatter
Simon Barnes is one of my favourite columnists and he said this in The Times today.
Dear reader, if you have ambitions of achieving power without responsibility, give up all thought of standing for local council or joining the civil service, or becoming head of state of a small African country. Go into sports administration instead.
You can be as mad, as foolish, as ridiculous and offensive as you please, but so long as you keep the sport a-coming, you will be safe as President-For-Life. All of which explains Sepp Blatter, President of Fifa. Blatter is a man who genuinely believes that he has a sort of King Midas Touch but the President Sepp Touch doesn’t turn dross in to gold.
I suspect Simon has just got himself struck off Sepp Blatter’s Christmas card list. Especially, after the last paragraph.
Blatter has offended women, the gay community, every non-white person on the planet, anyone with any feeling for football, and everyone who approves of such things as honesty, financial transparency and straightforward common sense but he’s just been re-elected. Precisely as you would expect.
I do hope that the British public make Sepp Blatter really welcome at the Olympics.
Heroic Lesbians
A friend pointed me to this story entitled Heroic Lesbians; wherefore the silence, on a Luxembourg web site.
It describes how a married lesbian couple, got in their boat and rescued dozens of teenagers, who were swimming away from the guns of Anders Behring Breivik on the island of Utoya.
The article questions why the story has not been picked up by mainstream media.
My view is that it wasn’t because of their sexuality, as suggested in the story, but because the rescue was carried out by two women and that just doesn’t fit with those that run the average newspaper. One heroic woman is front page news, but two show up men in a bad light!
The Amazing Story of Rudolf Brazda
I’d never heard of Rudolf Brazda, until I saw his obituary today, but it gives deep insight into how the Nazis just didn’t persecute Jews, but a lot of others as well. Brazda was gay and somehow kept himself alive amongst the horrors of Buchenwald.
John Galliano
John Galliano may be a great fashion designer, but his comments lately in Paris are disgraceful and he was rightly fired by Dior.
Remember that Hitler was also anti-homosexual and not just anti-Jewish, so in some ways his comments are even more ignorant than they appear in the first place.
But knowing the fashion industry, he’ll be back, as money talks louder than morals.
I for one, hope he doeasn’t make a comeback. Or at least until he’s seen the multiple errors of his ways.
The World’s Most Stupid Hotel Owners
The ruling against hotel owners in Cornwall reported here on the BBC, probably says that some people shouldn’t open certain businesses for their own financial health. I’ve listened to what they have said and they would like to ban any unmarried couples from sharing a room in their hotel. So it’s not just gays, but from what they have said, they wouldn’t allow me, as a widow to share a bed with one of either sex.
Surely, in times of austerity, you want all of the business you can get.
Now here’s an idea! There are a lot of widows out there living as couples. Why not book a night in the hotel? When they say you can’t sleep together, you can supplement your earnings with a little bit of legal chicanery. There are also plenty of lawyers out there who would do it on a no-win no-fee basis.
US May Re-Instate “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” Policy for Gay Servicemen
I have never understood the US’s policy on gay servicemen. My view has always been that if you’re up to the job you can do it and if you’re not you shouldn’t. Whether you’re gay or not is irrelevant.
As the British and other forces have gay recruits and some of these are probably fighting alongside the US forces in Afghanistan, I just wonder if the subject ever comes up. I suspect that professionalism will out!
I just think though that the US should bring its policies up to what is acceptable in the modern world. Let’s start with proper attitudes to gays, women, minorities, religion and the death penalty.
Ray Gosling
I’ve liked Ray Gosling and his quirky documentaries for many years.
It was probably a surprise that he admitted last night to mercy killing a gay lover who was dying from AIDS. Perhaps, it was more of a surprise, that I hadn’t realised that Ray was gay. But then that doesn’t matter. What does matter is that one is a decent human being. Ray appears very much to be that sort of person.
So was Ray right, to kill a man who had no hope of life and for whom the doctors could do no more, I think, yes. I only think as I don’t think I could have done it myself. In fact, when my wife was desperately ill in great pain at the end of her life, I couldn’t have done it. So perhaps for Ray, he saw no hope and did the deed that many will condemn.
I will not.
Gay Soldiers
I was heartened by this article in The Times about a soldier who is openly gay. Surely the only qualification for a job like that is to be good at it. And brave! I couldn’t have done it!
From the article, I get the impression that no-one is bothered at all. Let’s hope it stays that way!
Good! Very good!
Amelie Mauresmo
I thought she was just a good tennis player. But now I read in The Independent that she is gay.
Does it matter? Not one jot!
I suspect too, her fellow professionals, the sports writers and tennis fans didn’t bother either, as she is quoted as saying “I lived 10 magical and unbelievable years.”
Usain Bolt
I’ve never seen anything like him. I should think bets are off as to whether he finally beats a time of 9.4 seconds. Good luck to him too, as he seems to be a nice bloke too.
I do feel sorry for Tyson Gay though. He’s obviously a great athlete too, and in most generations he would be some distance ahead of the others, but for Usain.
He also has to deal with the problems of some say in his name. When I was growing up, gay was a word that was often paired with happy and girls were often called Gaynor, Gai and Gay. Now like many other words, it’s usage has changed and I don’t think too many people bother. I don’t.
But America’s Christian Right do and automatically change his name on their web sites.
I thought religion was all about loving your neighbour and not hating them for their sexuality. What happened to the parable of the Good Samaritan?
The Anonymous Widower 