h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I don't like Kerry at all. He rubs me the wrong way, just looking at him. Plus, he's literally in bed with big money (Heinz family fortune), so all this talk about special interests is BS to me.

I'm for Dean and if he doesn't win the nomination and Kerry does, well, I don't think I'll vote at all. Kerry or Bush? Why not ask death by electrocution or injection?

Wouldn't it be nice if the election wasn't a choice between the lesser of two evils this time?

*watches the ads at moveon dot org with interest too*

You know, my main impression of the Shrub is that he's not doing that 'honest and innocent' look very well - Reagan was much better at it. Oh - hang on - Reagan *was* an actor, wasn't he?

*joins Styx, Amy and Titania*

moveon.org is a really intresting website.

I'm annoyed about the Kelly affiar I just have a nasty feeling we'll be lumbered with the conservatives again. I would vote for the Lib Dems, but it's just a wasted vote.

I'm terribly sorry about my complete inability to join in with the debate on US politics, any one but bush seems good to me...

Reagan was an actor, but not a very good one...then he became Governor of California and just over a decade later, President. Wait a minute...






President Schwartzenegger?!

Relax (to quote a certain song) he was born out side the US he can't be

I have a question for Titania, Hati, Marv, MR, and any of the salonistas who live in a location where there is actual snow on a regular basis.

Why doesn't the world fall apart every day when it snows where you live?

About half an inch of snow fell today in Birmingham and and temperature was below freezing. It's chaos, cars are driving very slowing some off them are finding it impossible to park and crashing into each other. Traffic has almost slowed to a stop on the main roads.


Even walking on a pavement is just deadly, you slip every where and fall over a lot. A and I have both cancelled our plans for the evening because of the snow.

Why doesn't this happen every winter in Moscow? or any where with snow all the time.

[ttox]

I don't know what I think about Irish County yet. He's certainly among the more politically "in" then most of the others, that's a liability in the press and a boon in all other respects. Shoes, if he had the full support of the Democratic machine, would be hard to beat simply because he could get Republicans voting for him much the way Reagan got Democrats voting for him.

And I don't support Sharpton, but for the first time in my life I admire what he is doing. He seems to have mellowed in the last couple of years from an attention-grabbing, indiscriminate muck-racker to someone who now chooses his fights carefully and intelligently. I think he will stay in the race until next week when most southern states vote, mainly to ensure that issues of civil rights remain prominent during the election campaigns.

Unfortunately by the time New Jersey holds it's primaries in June, the race for Democratic candidate will likely be essentially decided with one of the candidates having enough support already. I'll still vote my opinion, then support whoever wins. Sporky and Marv, you *have* to vote. You may be in the minority, but it is only the failure to speak up and assert itself that keeps the minority disenfranchised and unimportant.

Z, the more snow you get, the more prepared you are to deal with it. Where I live people know enough to get their snow shovels ready, buy some salt or de-icer, the local governments all prepare snow plows etc. But if we got as much snow as Marv gets in a month, we would fall to pieces simply because we did not have *enough* salt, or enough people to operate enough plows to deal with it. You prepare for what you expect to get.

Well, to be fair, it doesn't do it often in Britain. No infrastructure. And while obviously they do get warning, there's no point in pumping huge amounts of money into snow preparedness programmes when it only happens once a year for a couple of days. If that.

I mean, Canadians have this nifty thing to plug their cars into and keep them unfrozen built into their houses, yeah? And the Russians have people whose twofold job it is to constantly sweep the sidewalks free of snow and deicicle the rooves every day. Marv knows his snow plough schedule. Like a bus? And so on and so on.

I went to a life drawing class tonight. I have a splendidly swirly painting in blue and yellow. Mother's deflating comment. Oh. What's that?

Z

The only wasted vote is the one where you fail to turn up and use it.

Sol, glad you enjoyed the life drawing class. Is it an evening class you've taken up?

I appreciate that thinking about it, the only reason that it was such choas this evening rush hour was due to the fact that it had iced up during the day. For some reason the roads weren't de iced during the day - and the pavements and everything were ungritted.

Voting Labour is something so instictive to me that not doing it is really difficult. I was really hoping Blair would go so that I could vote for them again. Maybe I'll just vote Socialist Alliance, or other far left revolutionary party. I'm still feeling guilty from the time I voted Lib Dem in teh local elections thinking that it would just give labour a kick up the A** and they actually won.

Blimey - you are a gabby lot, aren't you?



Z - post 402 - "most people assume I'm gay which does bother me slightly"

... well the Stepson didn't!



Gay Marriages? - I find it profoundly offensive that gay couples cannot get the same legal recognitions, benefits and status that heterosexual couples get, and I have yet to hear any argument against gay civil marriages which was logical rather than emotional.

My opinions about religious ceremonies are less vehement because the religious ceremonies are less important to me personally. However, I do think that the civil ceremony for heterosexual couples should be de- er -coupled from the religious ceremony. Mind you, I think the concept of god objecting to the sexuality of his creations is barking mad. But then, I find the concept of a deity with a gender is, frankly, dagenham.

Just call me your friendly neighbourhood troll...



Z again - "A monogamous relationship for the rest of your life leading to endless happiness lets face it it isn't going to happen to the majority of us."

True. But that is all part of the Great Romantic Myth. Now I am a romantic and a mythologist, and I love being in love, (particularly with the man with whom I am in love), but I still say that the Great Romantic Myth is a LIE. It's nice though.



Sol - "On the other hand, common law marriages between straight people who have no impediments to marriage are not recognised."

And neither they should be. Either you want to have your relationship legally recognised or you don't. You can't have your kyack and heat it. Oh, I like the renewable five year contract idea too.



Garius: One measure of the committment a couple has to a marriage is whether they still have separate bank accounts.

Whoah! If I had maintained my fincances entirely separately from my ex's, I would still be married to him. It was the mixed finances that muddied the waters.

It also has to be said that one of the reasons that we were able to have such an equitable, fair and constructive divorce is that our personal finances were separate. What was his was his and he kept it, and what was mine was mine and I kept that. There were only two things we disagreed about - one was a gift from his mother to me, and the other was a gift from him to me. He kept her gift and I kept his. And that - my dears - was the sum total of our disagreements about material things.




Oh and family stories? What do you want? The gold-smuggling (and probably arms-trading and drug-smuggling) folks on my mother's side of the family? Or the grandmother who woke up on her way to her own funeral? Or my own brief history as an international arms-dealer? Or my father's ability to stun gin-soaked middle-English parties into horrified silence with the phrase "when I was in jail..."? Or the lover who escaped his country 72 hours ahead of the "assisting terrorist" charges? Against this exotic background is it any wonder that I had a brief and unsuccessful career as an International Cheese Smuggler?



Z - "I have a question for ... any of the salonistas who live in a location where there is actual snow on a regular basis".

Well, I dunno about B'rum but what we got was a mix of rain, sleet and snow followed by clear skies and a sudden drop in temperature. The rain and sleet washed the salt and grit off the roads, and created an icy underlayer for the snow to fall on and then freeze. Not normal in Sweden, so far as I know. And to be honest, not normal for the UK, given that I am old enough to actually remember snow.

It was a fun drive home tonight....

(For any given value of 'fun'....)



Ben

*rushes over to Ben with a large shiny silver cup*

Look what I found in the store cupboard, It's got your name on it,

Reads
"Awarded to Ben for reading so much backlog, adn getting home"

I have been busy haven't I? Should I tell the salon about that part of Saturday night? I think I can remember it..

I'd like all of those family stories please..

And yes that was an accurate description of the weather that we had, thankfully the Hutton report stopped it being headline news.

It's only a few weeks ago most of you could read my opinion about gay marriage on OTD - that I'm 100% for registered partnership, but haven't made my mind up about homosexual church marriages. What I didn't make clear was that with registered partnership I meant the Danish model where homosexuals since 1989 have had rights to legal recognitions, benefits and status in exactly the same way as heterosexual couples have with - at the moment - a few exceptions about adoption and custody.
That's just the way it is, there isn't actually any debate about it!

The debate in Denmark is only about whether the church can/should be involved or not. I guess the situation hasn't changed much since this report from 1997 was written.
http://www.folkekirken.dk/udvalg/partnerskab/biskop.htm
http://www.folkekirken.dk/udvalg/partnerskab/translat.htm

Hesitating, but not negative, I would say.

And (as posted on OTD) the quite new and most positive story I've ever seen about the Danish PM: http://nyhederne.tv2.dk/news/article.php?id=377342

I must admit that I haven't any idea about the situation here in Switzerland.

[Hyp]

Politics? Well, if you'll remember my thoughts from four years ago, my sole basis for voting is from my interpretations about what every individual candidate would do for late-night television. For instance, I was fed up with just a month of Leno and Letterman referring to Gore as a "robot" or "puppet" or "political pokerface," ergo I was hoping that I wouldn't have to deal with it for four years (or beyond....I'm *STILL* hearing Clinton jokes on some of those shows).

I honestly don't know which Democratic candidate I'd like to see oppose Bush. Letterman's jokes about Bush were nice, though Leno's left me a bit tired. I'm not sure which Democratic candidate would make for the better late-night comedy. It might be fun to have frequent listings of states followed by "YEAGH" for a while, but I don't know if they could make it last for four years....his most recent "Late Show Unfair Edit" wasn't even that great, whereas Bush's are generally nice.

I'll keep watching the political scene to see if any of them seem more comically-inclined. Can't go to a voting booth uninformed, after all.

Family stories? Yeah, they exist. But one side of my family has lots of "we worked hard to get through the depression, etc." stories, and the other has a bunch of "these are the timless practical jokes that we pulled during the depression, here's how you can apply them today," stories. The first wouldn't make for good story telling in this context, and the second are family secrets so I can't blab.

And I must say that after almost a week now of horrid snowy weather in my little corner of the midwest, I can officially say that no one really *knows* how everything manages to not grind to a halt, but it always just seems to work out that way.

Solnushka said "Canadians have this nifty thing to plug their cars into and keep them unfrozen built into their houses, yeah? And the Russians have people whose twofold job it is to constantly sweep the sidewalks free of snow and deicicle the rooves every day. Marv knows his snow plough schedule. Like a bus? And so on and so on."

those things Canadians have built into their houses are called garages.....no seriously, there is nothing built into the house, its the cars. They often come with a small electrical coil heater that is installed into a port in the engine block (hence the term block heater) that just plugs via an extention cord into a standard household socket. Useful for keeping your radiator and oil from getting too thick on those minus 30 degree Celcius mornings
I grew up in Sault Ste. Marie Ontario, where all the great lakes converge in Canada. Very cold snowy winters, but I never minded much. The coldest winters I've spent have been where I live now in Tokyo where it rarely gets down to the freezing point, but the houses and apartments are not centrally heated or insulated at all, so it is just as cold inside as outside.