17 November 2012 (Saturday) - Dull

Whenever the topic comes up in conversation I always say that I don't mind working at weekends. However it is easy to say that. I got up this morning with a heavy heart knowing that everyone else would be up and about and up to mischief whilst I was not. And I certainly sulked whenever I got texts about what I was missing throughout the day. Mind you I had a sly smile at 2pm when the storm came over less than two minutes after I'd received a text message telling me that the picnic lunch I was missing had just started.

As I drove to work I felt vindicated when I heard the news. Regular readers of this drivel may recall how in the past few weeks I've ranted about the farcical elections for the posts of police commissioners. It came as something of a surprise for me to realise that I actually missed the vote, which took place last Thursday. Had I remembered would I have voted? Somehow I doubt it. We only had any information through on one of the candidates, and I couldn't bring myself to vote for him on principle. Knowing nothing about the other candidates meant that had I voted it would have been sheer guesswork. I suppose I might have spoiled the ballot paper as a political statement, if could I have been bothered. But I couldn't.
And nor could eighty five per cent of the electorate, according to the official figures. There's apparently going to be a formal review into why the turn-out for this election was so low; the lowest of any election in history.

The sad thing about all of this which really boils my piss is that there is to be a formal review into the bleeding obvious, whilst something which is patently wrong (someone takes office with only the support of seven per cent of the electorate) is allowed to pass
unchallenged. I would suggest that all of my loyal readers click here and have a look at this e-petition. The plan is to give the electorate the option to say "none of the above" in elections. Given the scenario
that half the voting electorate gives the standing candidates the thumbs-down, these candidates are automatically disbarred. The election (whatever it is for) would then be re-run with a new gaggle of
candidates.
This has the advantage that the electorate can say no to candidates they don't want. But it doesn't actually do anything to ensure that the electorate get better candidates. I suspect the petition hasn't got a hope as it will certainly give standing politicians something to worry about.

And here's something which made me think. A devout Christian (alarm bells ring!) has won his court battle. He got demoted from a position in a local housing trust because of his views against gay marriage. He's now shown in court that his dismissal was unfair. Something of a pyrrhic victory as the legal costs have left him all but bankrupt But he has proved his right to say what he thinks. Regardless of how wrong he might actually be.
Personally I think that gay people should be able to get married if they want to.

Let me qualify that... as a civil ceremony - yes. Not as a Christian ceremony - becuse the Christian teachings are quite firm on the point. I don't join a snooker club and insist they play darts. I don't join a political party and insist they all go pot-holing. It's the same with a religion. If you take it up, you go with what the religion teaches. You don't pick and choose what parts of the faith you want and ignore the rest. Or if you do, that's fine but you don't then apply the name of that religion to yourself.

This Christian bloke explained his position by saying "I don’t understand why people who have no faith and don’t believe in Christ would want to get hitched in church. The Bible is quite specific that marriage is for men and women. If the State wants to offer civil marriages to the same sex then that is up to the State; it shouldn’t impose its rules on places of faith and conscience." I think he might have a point there. Why would anyone want to get married in a church knowing full well that the teachings on which that church is based say that what they are doing is fundamentally wrong?

As I came home this evening I looked to the sky. Originally I wasn't expecting to be working this weekend, and so had organised for the astro club to have a bit of a telescope session tonight. If for no better reason that the Leonid meteor shower is supposed to reach its maximum tonight. As always whenever anything astronomical happens there is complete cloud cover. Astronomy really sucks sometimes..

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