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There was a story in the news yesterday about an anti-gay senator in the US coming out as being gay. When questioned about his previous vehemently anti-gay stance, he maintained it was because he was representing his constituents and that’s the way he knew they wanted him to vote.

It’s a nice idea of a politician voting the way his constituents want him to vote, but it does sound a tad disingenuous and I don’t know whether I believe him or not. Given he’s standing down later this year there’s not much time for this to be tested.

While on the subject of discrimination, a registrar who refused to perform same-sex civil marriages has had her case for religious discrimination by the local council for censuring her thrown out of the UK courts and is threatening to take her case to the European Court of Human Rights.

She maintains that her rights are being trampled over by someone else’s rights – and that can’t be right. What she fails to recognise is that same-sex marriage is a legal right and that being homosexual is not a choice. Her belief, however, is a choice and no more than an opinion – one among many.

Mike Judge, from the Christian Institute, which backed her case, said: 'Christians are being pushed to the sidelines of public life. Our nation's highest court has effectively told them their concerns are not of general public importance.' Well, you’re right there Mike – not when they’re illogical and founded in pure bigotry.

The Christian Institute has published a document called Marginalising Christians. An extract states: “This growing sense of intolerance felt by Christians is made all the worse when they face hostility in the name of ‘equality and diversity’. Christians wonder why they are not being treated equally and why diversity does not include them.” Perhaps it’s because they themselves are one of the most discriminatory and intolerant bunch of people in society – all in the name of a God who, by any standard, seems spectacularly bigoted. What goes around comes around, as they say.

A bloke in the UK is being sent to jail for a pyramid selling scheme. Apparently he made £34m and conned thousands of people who each bought into the investment for around £4,300 each.

Now call me stupid or call me old fashioned, but didn’t all these people at least conduct a local property search through their conveyancer to check this guy owned these pyramids in the first place? It can’t be too difficult to check on ownership, after all there can’t be too many pyramids in the world. What would anyone want with a 4th Dynasty Middle Kingdom Egyptian burial mound or Mesoamerican Classical Period ceremonial temple anyway?

We were watching a Horizon TV programme last night about dark matter. Horizon has taken to long, drawn out graphics sequences, lots of ethereal music and a very slow voice-over delivery. They eke out 15 minutes worth of programming over an hour. Makes you want to shout; “Oh, just get on with it and get to the bloody point.”

Off to see Jethro Tull at Colston Hall in Bristol a week on Thursday! Can’t wait.

Here's an example of why women hate retired men with little to do.

Below is an interesting photo I purloined from this month’s Safety At Sea International magazine. Now look at the photo before you look at the caption. If I saw these buggers approaching my vessel I’d shoot first and ask questions later – mistakenly.


270,000 UK civil servants are to go on strike over what I think is an unfair reduction in their redundancy entitlement. This is before what is likely to be a large round of public sector redundancies.

The leader of these civil servants is Mark Serwotka. In the election campaign for the leadership of the PCS union, Serwotka had pledged that he would only accept an average member's wage. When told that this was not permitted by the rules of the union, he took his full wage, but donated everything above an average member's wage to the union strike fund. He has since gone back on this pledge and in 2007 received £82,094 in salary as well as £26,104 in pension contributions and a £2,245 additional housing cost allowance.

I love this cartoon. Interpret it as you wish.