An evening at the Marriott Victoria and Albert Manchester before a flight to Belfast. A lovely hotel, though rather out of the way, converted from a warehouse of some sort, and (as so often with Marriott) getting the fundamentals absolutely right.
Spinnerdisc.com
Excellent fun flash cartoons at Spinnerdisc.com. Check out penguin calls and jokes with Einstein. Via MeFi.
Contra-Contraception
An interesting article in the NYT Magazine about the spread of the anti-abortion movement into anti-contraception.
Wikocracy
MetaFilter points to the pointless but endearing Wikocracy. Not a state run by Wiccans (a scary thought), but a Wiki (editable website) for laws. It’s main page is here, but don’t worry, they assure us:
“Nothing on this platform is legally binding.”
Phew!
Constitution of the 3rd May
Travel Notes: Norfolk
Staying in Norfolk tonight for the wedding of some friends, which took place in the pretty town of Bungay. Took a family room at the Grange Farm B&B, very off the beaten track in Mundham, south of Norwich. It was a great place, very friendly with a comfortable en-suite room and great food. The owners really went out of their way to meet our needs, and the kids even lent Anna a couple of soft toys for her cot!
A bad party in LA
Demonbaby reports, and complains about guys in bands.
Scolari meets the British press, and England lose
Well, the honour roll of the British media just got one name longer with the withdrawal of Luis Felipe Scolari from the England manager job. Reason? The British press.
It’s win-win for the Daily Mail, though – they get to chase off one of those ghastly foreigners with their unEnglish ‘skills’ and ‘talent’, and they get to beat up the new England manager when he fails to win the World Cup.
We are all doomed
The US Senate debates the rises in petrol prices there, and the
“I think what the American consumer is saying is that filling up your gas tank shouldn’t empty your wallet” I don’t doubt that that’s what the American consumer is saying to Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, but what is the environment saying? My guess? “Hey, get all these f**king American cars off me!”
Demokratische-Junge Quex
There’s an extraordinary book being advertised through a sponsored link at This Modern World just now. It’s a book called Why Mommy is a Democrat and the few sample pages available on the web site are unbearable – the sort of badly-crafted saccharine propaganda that would raise (rightly) shrieks of protest or howls of laughter if it was published by the religious right.
Do take a look at the sample pages. Apparently – and this is something of which I was previously unaware – Democrats make sure we are always safe, that children go to school, and that we all share all our toys. Unlike the nasty Republicans pictured in expensive schools, ignoring beggars, and presumably on one of the other pages eating a pauper’s child for breakfast.
It makes me both angry and sad that people want to fill their children’s minds with this dross. For God’s sake, show your kids some respect, damn it! Don’t indoctrinate your children with this ludicrous partisanship. Teach them to be kind to others and to respect democracy and fairness – then let them find their own politics.