Hate Crime/Hate Law

On Nov. 2, Ohio will vote on Issue 1, a state constitutional amendment that purports to simply ban same-sex marriage but actually goes much further. It essentially removes rights that one would think are human. If you thought Section 28 in the UK was bad then you should read all about the new laws sweeping the states. In Ohio it will mean that possibly legal rights of co-parents will be removed or nullified.
It smacks of bigotory and makes a mockery of a country that claims to stand for freedom.
Is it any wonder then that some savvy Australians have decided they have had enough of bigotory and hatred and decided to set up their own country?
Maybe the Americans should follow suit. Utah has long been the reserve of the Mormons. Maybe all gay people in the US should move to one state. Reform all the hateful laws and live in peace.
Oh but wait. President (and lets hope not for long) Bush will probably prevent local laws from allowing such abhorrent behaviour. Imagine living with someone you love and sharing the same legal rights as the moral majority.

amish in the city

So reality TV has hit a new low. Or has it?
Amish in the city is a show from UPN which is going to take five young amish and put them in a house with five other youngsters.
Sounds mad. It probably is mad. The US news are going crazy about it. People are up in arms about it.
Can I just mention that no one forced these people to apply or appear on TV.
Amish tradition means they test their faith and devotion to their lifestyle by leaving it, returning better people no doubt. If these five young people can cope with the reality TV fest and then return to a low tech simple life then they are sure to be better people for it.
On a side note is Randy – the one in the middle – cute or am I blinded by the blonde hair and cute smile?

notetoself: don’t believe the hype

So Allan and I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11.
Ordinarily I hate films which have been hyped as much as this. I went anyway (partly to see what the fuss was all about and partly to see if it was going to be as bad as I thought).
I was suprised. It was biased yes. It was a shameless attack on bush and the US government. However it was also truly shocking. despite knowing it must have been edited to be far worse than it was the fact that he had so much footage to edit down was bad in itself.
Bush needed no help in looking foolhardy or stupid. The US government needed no help looking corrupt to the core.
I’d heartily recommend this film to anyone. I’d caution though that you will come out wondering how on earth we let people like this run the western world and make decisions on our behalf.
You will no doubt be as shocked as everyone in our audience by the news that most bills passed inthe US are not read by the politicians emplyed to do so.

Hubba Hubba

Gazza has a new obsession – only he stupidly broadcast it and now has competition. Now I’m not normally one to obsess (oh wait who am I kidding)…
lewis7.jpg

HELLO Steve :o) He stars in Latter Days – and I was trying to get to see it while I was in the US but Northern Virginia being very conservative and all…
There has been much hulabaloo around the film in the US, Utah particularly.
Looking forward to the DVD release so that we can use the freeze frame :o)

Dullest

Okay well again lots has been happening and I’ve been too busy having a life to document it 😉

The end of last week I was asked to go to the US with work and I flew on Sunday. So here I am in hot and humid Dulles Virginia learning more than anyone would ever want to about registers, widgets and debugging.

I’ve also managed to fit in a quick shopping trip to Tysons Corner where I purchased a sparkly new iPod (yes I know I had an iPod already but it was last seasons darling). The staff had bright orange shirts on with the Apple logo and the word ‘CAMP’ underneath. Now either ‘camp’ has a different meaning in the US like ‘pants’ or …

Prior to that I’ve been looking at flats in Balham and Tooting. Yes I already have one of those too but it’s in Streatham 😉

weekend sans hyperlinks

It started early Friday evening with a trip down the dogs. Yes I ended up in South Wimbledon at the Greyhound Track for a friends 30th celebrations. Lots of fun it was too. Sarah and I spent a lot of time checking out the guys to see if there was any scally straight boy totty to be had. She threatened to fight me for one of them. I didn’t need to though as we had both been beaten to him by some blonde girl with very little visible sign of taste.
So then a few more beers later and ?15 down on the evening we headed back to Jacs and Helen’s to carry on the party.
By this time a bunch of drunken thirtysomethings decided to relive the eighties in music. So everything from Ultravox and Depeche Mode through to The Wonder Stuff and Japan was played very loud until the early hours.

Saturday I headed into Tooting to meet Matt as we were going house hunting. After a bit of research on the net we ventured into an estate agents and then met Mike before heading off to look at some potential areas. It started to rain around 4pm so we took cover in the Trafalgar. Not a good move to start drinking that early. Still it set us up for the night ahead. We headed into Clapham and had another drink before meeting the rest of the gang at the Admiral Duncan. The lovely Lee then joined us as we strolled to the Duke of Wellington for yet more alcohol and we were joined by some of the outintheuk crew including the ever chirpy Scally. (I’m so not wearing A&F there anymore).

To round off the evening we went to London Bridge and ended up in a car park the boys assured me was a club. It turned out to be a very nice club too. XXL to be exact. Luckily I was not the only one to have never been before so I kept close to the group 😉 Way too many sweets later (I love flying saucers and fruit salads)

A few hours later (well actually more) and Matt, Mike and I arrived back in Tooting to catch a few zeds.

Mike took his life in his hands waking Matt and I before midday. He did however offer cups of tea by way of apology. Neither Matt nor I are what you might call morning people! After catching up with Andy Roo we ventured down to the flat below to see the carnage that happens when you gut your flat completely. We’d worked up an appetite by this time and we headed back to the Trafalgar for Sunday Lunch – quite possibly the largest portions outside the US! The girls from Friday night had joined us and we had a laugh and a few beers before Matt and I decided we really should resume house hunting. We bade farewell to Mike and Andy Roo before wandering aimlessly around South London. Well not so aimlessly we passed every estate agent window in our travels and tooks some details of flats we want to see. Finally a coffee and catch up with the lovely PR Paulli before heading home for an early night.

How did I manage to cram so much in this weekend? It’s becoming a bit of a habit since Jack has been staying with Nigel. I should really be saving more since I am buying somewhere new.

Guns in Streatham

Walking back from Streatham Odeon having watched SwimFan we walked past a guy standing on the corner outside the police station. I notice he is wearing a US police top and a badge around his neck. Dave notices he has a gun. We walk on and occaisionally look back. I try to stay out of his line of fire.
SwimFan was a really good trailer followed by a really bad film. The trailer was one of those that has the entire story and all the good bits in it. Essentially it’s like a kids remake of Fatal Attraction in the same way Cruel Intentions was a remake of Dangerous Liaisons.
Bonus for the fact that a lot of the action happened in the pool 😉 Lots of semi naked Clayne Crawford and Jesse Bradford.

Flags

I always thought it was strange that it didn’t matter where you went in the US you where constantly bombarded with the stars and stripes. Every little town had a flag, every other house had a flag, every other building had a flag, every other person was wearing some sort of star spangled banner clothing.
Over the last few days I realised it was just because we seemed scared to show our own flag. The Union Flag was always associated with neo-nazis and the National Front.
Seeing The Mall decked out in Union Flags and the front of Buckingham Palace bathed in projections of St Georges cross, Union Flags and other such emblems made me realise patriotism isn;t strange at all. In fact maybe we are strange for not showing a pride in our country.

I wonder how many St George Flags will still be flying if the team get kicked out of the world cup? It seems a shame that it takes the Queen’s Golden Jubilee and the World Cup before we show any semblance of national pride.