Politics, Stravganza and things that make me smile
Literally then funniest facebook fanpage I have EVER SEEN Hello my names Iceland AND I JUST CHUNDERED EVERYWHERE
I read, thanks to shinyopals, JKR's single-mother's manifesto, which is truly fantastic and you should all go read. These are my favourite bits:
The Secretary of State for Wales, John Redwood, castigated single-parent families from St Mellons, Cardiff, as “one of the biggest social problems of our day”. (John Redwood has since divorced the mother of his children.)
Here are just a few of the facts that sometimes get lost on the way to an easy story, or a glib stump speech: only 13 per cent of single parents are under 25 years old, the average age being 36. (...) In spite of all the obstacles, 56.3 per cent of lone parents are in paid employment
Half a billion pounds, to send a message - would it not be more cost-effective, more personal, to send all the lower-income married people flowers?
This is why I am not voting Conservative. I get annoyed when I see people receiving far more benefits than they need (I'm sorry, but how can you justify needing them and FUNDING A HOLIDAY HOME?), but in NO way is it acceptable to marginalise single-mothers, the divorced and the widowed this way. The money will hardly make a difference anyway - yes, I think I'll marry someone I'm not too sure about or who abuses me or who wants kids when I don't, because hey, I get £150 extra! - but the idea he is pushing is frankly ridiculous. Absolutely, a stable family is a good thing, one in which children can be brought up properly (and perhaps then less would turn to crime), but this does NOT necessarily mean a nuclear one! I read a sociological survey a month or two ago, that discovered the main cause of childhood unhappiness is not divorced or single parents, but their parents/families arguing. Giving half a million to family counselling places would help a hell of a lot more.
Nick Clegg and Lib Dems on gay marriage makes me smile.
OK, refresh your mind of Gap Yah, particularly the bit about the woman with malaria, yeah? Because this clip of Cameron talking about a woman who's been burgled REMINDS ME SO HILARIOUSLY MUCH OF THAT it's not even true (watch from about 5.35 in):
I don't have much against him, really, he's a good bloke, but I did genuinely half except him to yell, 'And then I just CHUNDERED EVERYWHERE'. Oh I love that sketch.
I really enjoyed the debate (although omg 1 1/2 hrs, I was dieing by the end. I will not last that long for the economics one). I was mildly surprised at HOW much of a positive impact Clegg's performance had on the polls, and that it's still going; I kinda expected it to die down a little more after a few days but the Cleggasaurus just seems to be gathering steam. As many people pointed out, he was so much more unknown before that it would have been hard for him NOT to come out well after; he did play the whole "those two are squabbling, listen to sensible, trustworthy me" thing v.well, but how long will this last? Will he muck up in the next 2 debates? Will the furore last until the election but people just don't have the guts to vote for Lib Dems in the end? Or will historians in 20 years time refer back to the famous first Prime Minister's debate of 2010 that triggered a Lib Dem surge and victory of sorts?
The Icelandic volcano got me thinking about something I read when researching Mary Shelley. She wrote Frankenstein during 1818, the Year Without a Summer, when summer was extremely unusually cold and winter like due to a massive volcanic eruption in Indonesia the year before - a super-colossal event that ejected immense amounts of volcanic dust into the upper atmosphere. There had also been other previous eruptions in the years before and the Indonesian one occured during a period of unusually low solar activity. But will the amount of ash in our sky perhaps affect this summer, or the next one? Hmm.
I just found this gorgeous picture on we heart it
And then I searched Venice and had a bit of a spazz attack over the IMMENSE STRAVAGANZA-NESS OF THESE PICTURES:
Evil plotting and inter-family marrying all gets too much for a di Chimici princess:
Imagine everyone's in 16th century clothing and you can see one of Rodolpho's fabulous firework displays:
BLATANTLY SILVIA BELLINI:
I read, thanks to shinyopals, JKR's single-mother's manifesto, which is truly fantastic and you should all go read. These are my favourite bits:
The Secretary of State for Wales, John Redwood, castigated single-parent families from St Mellons, Cardiff, as “one of the biggest social problems of our day”. (John Redwood has since divorced the mother of his children.)
Here are just a few of the facts that sometimes get lost on the way to an easy story, or a glib stump speech: only 13 per cent of single parents are under 25 years old, the average age being 36. (...) In spite of all the obstacles, 56.3 per cent of lone parents are in paid employment
Half a billion pounds, to send a message - would it not be more cost-effective, more personal, to send all the lower-income married people flowers?
This is why I am not voting Conservative. I get annoyed when I see people receiving far more benefits than they need (I'm sorry, but how can you justify needing them and FUNDING A HOLIDAY HOME?), but in NO way is it acceptable to marginalise single-mothers, the divorced and the widowed this way. The money will hardly make a difference anyway - yes, I think I'll marry someone I'm not too sure about or who abuses me or who wants kids when I don't, because hey, I get £150 extra! - but the idea he is pushing is frankly ridiculous. Absolutely, a stable family is a good thing, one in which children can be brought up properly (and perhaps then less would turn to crime), but this does NOT necessarily mean a nuclear one! I read a sociological survey a month or two ago, that discovered the main cause of childhood unhappiness is not divorced or single parents, but their parents/families arguing. Giving half a million to family counselling places would help a hell of a lot more.
Nick Clegg and Lib Dems on gay marriage makes me smile.
OK, refresh your mind of Gap Yah, particularly the bit about the woman with malaria, yeah? Because this clip of Cameron talking about a woman who's been burgled REMINDS ME SO HILARIOUSLY MUCH OF THAT it's not even true (watch from about 5.35 in):
Click to viewI don't have much against him, really, he's a good bloke, but I did genuinely half except him to yell, 'And then I just CHUNDERED EVERYWHERE'. Oh I love that sketch.
I really enjoyed the debate (although omg 1 1/2 hrs, I was dieing by the end. I will not last that long for the economics one). I was mildly surprised at HOW much of a positive impact Clegg's performance had on the polls, and that it's still going; I kinda expected it to die down a little more after a few days but the Cleggasaurus just seems to be gathering steam. As many people pointed out, he was so much more unknown before that it would have been hard for him NOT to come out well after; he did play the whole "those two are squabbling, listen to sensible, trustworthy me" thing v.well, but how long will this last? Will he muck up in the next 2 debates? Will the furore last until the election but people just don't have the guts to vote for Lib Dems in the end? Or will historians in 20 years time refer back to the famous first Prime Minister's debate of 2010 that triggered a Lib Dem surge and victory of sorts?
The Icelandic volcano got me thinking about something I read when researching Mary Shelley. She wrote Frankenstein during 1818, the Year Without a Summer, when summer was extremely unusually cold and winter like due to a massive volcanic eruption in Indonesia the year before - a super-colossal event that ejected immense amounts of volcanic dust into the upper atmosphere. There had also been other previous eruptions in the years before and the Indonesian one occured during a period of unusually low solar activity. But will the amount of ash in our sky perhaps affect this summer, or the next one? Hmm.
I just found this gorgeous picture on we heart it
And then I searched Venice and had a bit of a spazz attack over the IMMENSE STRAVAGANZA-NESS OF THESE PICTURES:
Evil plotting and inter-family marrying all gets too much for a di Chimici princess:
Imagine everyone's in 16th century clothing and you can see one of Rodolpho's fabulous firework displays:
BLATANTLY SILVIA BELLINI: