Skip to main content

So Much for Mankind.


It’s hard to stay positive when so much of the news at the moment is so very grim.

This evening, I stumbled across a video of an interview Donald Trump gave in March last year in which he stated that women “should receive some form of punishment” if they were to have an abortion if they were banned in the US. I know this subject is contentious in America, but I still found the clip chilling; how anyone can be so detached from reality to believe such a thing - even if they retracted their words soon afterwards - is beyond me.



The fact he reinstated the Reagan-era policy banning foreign aid to any organization that offers counselling on abortion or discusses it as an option on his first day in office sets the tone of his Presidency for me. That this took place days after millions marched worldwide in the name of women’s rights only reiterates how little he was listening; sadly, this is probably the tip of the iceberg.

He’s not the only white middle-aged man who’s caused my bile to rise. Piers Morgan’s recent comments on Twitter regarding the women’s march (and the rise of “rabid feminists”) and on Ewan MacGregor pulling out of an interview with him because of what he said has also got my goat. Morgan strikes me as a man who will never be called to account for the distasteful things he says and does; it doesn't seem to touch the sides. It’s no wonder he's posing with Trump in his current Twitter profile picture; it's painfully appropriate.



If by a cruel twist of fate Piers Morgan ever becomes Prime Minister, I’m leaving the country (though where I’d go would be up for discussion; Madagascar perhaps?).



Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Shakerpuppetmaker.

Have Parker from Thunderbirds and Noel Gallagher ever been seen in the same room? The resemblance is uncanny. So much so, I think something’s afoot. If my suspicions are correct, I've stumbled across a secret that will blow the music and puppet industry wide apart. In the mid-60s / mid-90s at least. It doesn’t take long to see the signposts. There’s the similarity between the name of Oasis’ first single, Supersonic, and Supermarianation, Gerry Anderson’s puppetry technique. The Gallagher brothers would often wear Parkas . Live Forever was clearly a reference to Captain Scarlet and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants to the size difference between Noel and his bandmates. The more you think about it, the more brazen it gets. It’s fishier than Area 51, Paul is Dead and JFK's assassination put together. The only glitch to the theory is scale . According to Wikipedia, Anderson’s marionettes were 1’10” and Gallagher is 5’8”. How does he maintain an illusion of avera...
Read more

'...I'm Gonna Look at You 'til My Eyes Go Blind."

Over the past week or two, I’ve been on a bit of a Sheryl Crow kick, largely thanks to rediscovering her cover of one of my most-liked Bob Dylan songs. She has one of my favourite female voices, yet despite this, I only own one CD and that’s just a single (her '97 release ‘Hard to Make a Stand’); on that basis, you can only imagine how much of her back catalogue I’d own if I hated her (it would fall into minus-figures). Dylan, conversely, takes up more of my collection than anyone else, save The Beatles and Paul McCartney’s solo work. He’s one of those artists who, when you get him, you really get him - and once I’d tuned into his style as a student, I'd time and again be blown away by his lyrics; he’ll have more jaw-dropping imagery in one track than other people fit in a whole career. These days, I mostly listen to music in the morning when getting ready, and more often than not, this will consist of a suggested YouTube playlist when I’m in the bath, r...
Read more

Stevenage: A (Tiny) River Runs Through it.

If ever a river was mis-sold, it’s the Roaring Meg in Stevenage. I just walked past it on my way to the retail park that has taken its name. They’re similarly uninspiring. The river is less of a roar and more of a dribble; cystitis sufferers produce greater flow. The retail park is soulless. What was once a thriving enterprise is nearly devoid of atmosphere, save an underlying essence of emptiness and despair. With a Toys R Us. When it was first built I was excited. Back then, the thought of a bowling alley, an ice rink, a Harvester and a Blockbuster Video within a small surface area was enticing. I celebrated many birthdays on site. There was an indoor cricket pitch there for a while where I once had a joint party with a friend. Why someone with an almost pathological fear of sport would agree to such a venture is beyond me, but I did it. Now, there’s very little at the Roaring Meg of note. The river would be a metaphor for the shopping ce...
Read more