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.
Liverpool on the Brink
Of what I’m not sure! But it looks like now that the Texas Legal System has got involved, that things will get more uncertain for the club.
I can’t see what a Texas Court has got to do with a deal done in the UK involving a British Bank, two individuals and an English football club. On the other hand I can understand why RBS don’t want to go against the US Courts, as there have been some rather one-sided results in the past, like the NatWest Three.
The Welsh Call-Up Their Secret Weapon
I thought they were pushing it to hold the Ryder Cup in early October, after this cold summer in the UK, but to hold it in Wales was taking real chances.
So off course the Welsh called out their secret weapon to soak the Americans and ruin their game. It seems to be working as Europe was marginally ahead when play was suspended today.
To make things worse for the Americans, their waterproofs don’t work!
Reputedly, the Americans have been heard asking, if there is a Welsh manufacturer of waterproofs!
Apparently, they ended up buying the gear from ProQuip, who would appear to be a Scottish company. But then they know about rain up there!
Justice – Virginia Style
We have all protested about the proposed stoning of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani in Iran, but why is it the European governments are absolutely silent and not protesting about the execution of Teresa Lewis in Virginia, especially as she is just a point on the IQ scale above the legal minimum for execution in the United States.
The least we should do is to suspend fast track extradition to the United States. By not protesting we are actually condoning the horrific sentence.
But then the United States doesn’t believe in justice but vengeance!
My Last Visit to Waterloo
Waterloo Station is not a place that I’ve visited much. Admittedly in the first few years after I started as a freelance programmer, I did use it quite a bit for short journeys to places like Epsom, Cobham and Guildford, but once we moved to Suffolk, I rarely needed to use the station. C and I did go to Paris on Eurostar, but even then we parked in the car park undearneath and sneaked in.
My last visit was in 2001, when I took a thousand Al Stewart CD’s from Bury St. Edmunds to his manager, who’d taken the train up from somewhere like Basingstoke. I was to collect a Banker’s Draft in return after our meeting at around twelve.
I had visited a client in Borough High Street and afterwards I was to see another in London’s Chinatown, just north of Leicester Square. I had actually driven, as there was no Congestion Charge and parking was no problem in any of the areas I was to visit, if you stayed less than an hour on a meter.
I was a little early for my meeting at Waterloo, so I parked the car on an empty meter and decided to fill the time by making a few phone calls. For some reason, the radio in the car had been switched off and as the phone was not hands-free, I couldn’t put it on anyway and use the phone. I needed to phone C about something, but try as I might, I couldn’t remember her mobile number. Even now, after the stroke, I can still remember, every phone number, I’ve ever used regularly. I tried other numbers and even they were blank. I just thought I was having some sort of brain problem, but as all my other functions were correct, I felt it was just a function of getting old.
On time, I arrived at the station and swapped the CD’s dor the draft. Al’s manager had to get back, so quickly and surprisingly for me in a silent car, I set off across the river for my next meeting. I parked in the underground car park in Chinatown and walked to the office to have my meeting.
Only then, when I entered the office and saw everyone clustered in earnest fashion around the television sets did I realise that the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York had happened.
You can argue what you like about this, but once I knew of the ghastly attacks, all of the numbers returned to by mind. Rupert Sheldrake and others have argued that a knowledge field exists. Perhaps, it does!
Saturday, when I ook the train to Portsmouth and like that fateful day in 2001, it was September 11th. Nothing happened in the station, but I did read Robert Fisk’s excellent article in The Independent about our woeful, vile and vengeful reaction to the attack. When someone or something hurts you, you have to fight back in a constructive manner, so that it doesn’t happen again. Loose your rag and be vindictive and you loose your one weapon, your sense of thought, reason and intelligence. As an example,my biggest protection against another stroke, is to change things, so that I reduce the risks and also to question everything I do, to make sure it is right.
Blair and Bush failed to do that! This was profoundly stupid, as they had the sympathy of the whole world after the attacks. But what did they do, they attacked Saddam Husein, who a few years before had been their friend.
And what did a crazy American pastor want to do on Saturday? Burn the Koran! As I’ve said many times, you don’t burn books, you read them! And when you’ve read them as many times as you can, you pass them on to someone who might enjoy them or learn something! Failing that, you may recycle them to make more things to read!
The Elusive Boss of Transocean
The phrase isn’t mine, but it was said on the Radio 5, Wake up to Money program this morning. It has always puzzled me, why BP’s drilling company in the Gulf, didn’t take some of the flak over the Gulf Oil Spill. I can’t even remember seeing him on the News either.
It will be interesting to see who foots the bill in the end, after the lawyers get their teeth into the problem.
Another Gulf Oil Rig Blows Up
This time it does not appear to have been as large or tragic, than the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon, but it did blow thirteen workers into the water.
There doesn’t appear to be any leaks as yet and the risk should be lower, as the well is in shallower water and supposely wasn’t producing any oil or gas.
But it does illustrate the problems of offshore drilling.
How To Make Money As A Zombie
Apparently, some people arrested because they were dressed as zombies have received substatial compensation in Minneapolis.
What a simple way to earn money by being silly!
The Anonymous Widower 