Went to the funeral of someone from church yesterday - absolutely packed. Eddie Ashley - whose funeral it was, had been involved in all sorts of activities that me - being a blinkered so-and-so had no awareness of, we heard of the contribution he made in all sorts of fields. A google gives me this link. Thoughts and prayers for Pauline and the rest of the family.
We were welcomed at the service with 'his friends, family and assorted rogues and miscreants' (or words to that effect!
Last night - thwap!
If it does nothing else, the McGreevey marriage highlights the chief absurdity of the arguments of those opposed to gay marriage: gay men can, in point of fact, get married - provided we marry women, duped or otherwise. The porousness of the sacred institution is remarkable: gay people are a threat to marriage, but gay people are encouraged to marry - indeed, we have married, under duress, for centuries, and the religious right would like us to continue to do so today - as long as our marriages are a sham. As long as we're willing to lie to ourselves, our wives, our communities, our children, and, for someone like McGreevey, our constituents. A closeted gay man like McGreevey can even marry twice and have both his marriages regarded as legitimate. Even as an openly gay man, McGreevey can remain married to his wife and smoke all the pole he likes on the side. There ain't no law agin' it, Senator Santorum. But how does this state of affairs protect marriage from the homos, I wonder? If an openly gay man can get married as long as his marriage makes a mockery of what is the defining characteristic of modern marriage - romantic love - or if he marries simply because he despairs of finding a same-sex partner, what harm could possibly be done by opening marriage to the gay men who don't want to make a mockery of marriage or who can find a same-sex partner?
--Dan Savage
says it all - really! Thanks to Cafe au lait for highlighting this! from the Guardian, article readable here
Last Thursday's walk was around Rudyard Lake weather threatening - what does that website mean!!, very quiet as there was a football match on that evening..sailing club very peaceful. Finished at the Knot Inn at Rushton Spencer
Thursday walk around Rainow last night.
`Ingersley Vale Mill (1809) was almost famous for having the second largest water wheel in the country with a diameter of 56 feet and buckets 10 feet and 6 inches wide' (almost famous....!)
Cold Turkey By Kurt VonnegutWe are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial, about to face cold turkey.
Hecate brought in a live bat last night. Beth deprived her of it and we released it.
Bat Conservation Trust
So far it's a pigeon and a bat...
Christian Peacemakers - in the Middle East
I think we're now live?