About Me

Kindness. Humanism.Secular. Sceptic. History, Pre-Raphaelites, Reading, Life-Long Learning. 'Sanity Is Not Statistical'.'Fill the unforgiving minute...'.

Thursday 17 May 2012

The European Farce

Here, then, is the twist in my tale of national character. For two generations, the Germans really did want to take over Europe—by force. But today, when they could do so peacefully, they can’t be bothered.


http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/05/13/niall-ferguson-will-europe-act-to-avoid-an-economic-cataclysm.html

Friday 11 May 2012

Ask Me Anything

I've got nothing to say
I've got nothing to say
I've got nothing to say
I've got nothing to say
I've got nothing to give
Got no reason to live
But I will fight to survive
I've got nothing to hide
Wish I wasn't so shy - The Strokes

Thursday 10 May 2012

Sendak quotes?

Various Sendak comments: "My gods are Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, Mozart. I believe in them with all my heart... And I have a little tiny Emily Dickinson so big that I carry in my pocket everywhere. And you just read three poems of Emily. She is so brave. She is so strong. She is such a passionate little woman. I feel better."

"When Mozart is playing in my room, I am in conjunction with something I can't explain... I don't need to. I know that if there's a purpose for life, it was for me to hear Mozart."

Maurice Sendak

So let me simply say: I think of all the gay kids out there who now know they have their president on their side. I think of Maurice Sendak, who just died, whose decades-long relationship was never given the respect it deserved. I think of the centuries and decades in which gay people found it impossible to believe that marriage and inclusion in their own families was possible for them, so crushed were they by the weight of social and religious pressure. I think of all those in the plague years shut out of hospital rooms, thrown out of apartments, written out of wills, treated like human garbage because they loved another human being. I think of Frank Kameny. I think of the gay parents who now feel their president is behind their sacrifices and their love for their children. - http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/05/obama-lets-go-of-fear.html

Wednesday 9 May 2012

Boys and Girls

Girls and Boys - Blur
Boys and Girls and Marsupials - Thw Wombats
Boys and Girls - Pixie Lott