The Times They Are A’Changed

Less than 80 short years ago, the King of England, Emperor of India, head of the greatest empire the world had ever seen, was forced to abdicate his throne because he wanted to marry — not have an affair with, or live in sin with, or have the occasional dirty weekend with, but to formally marry — a divorceé.

The other night I watched a long news piece about how Prince William and Kate Middleton will be living in the very rural Anglesey area of north Wales, where William is a search-and-rescue pilot, after their marriage next month. (Most common advice from locals — learn Welsh).  What was clear from the item was that the Prince and his girlfriend have already moved into the house they will share; and not a single word was mentioned, either negatively or positively, about this pre-marital domestic arrangement.  It was a non-issue.

We have come a long way in a very short time, thank goodness!

Reason #200 For Not Using Facebook

One in five divorces now include Facebook as a component of the breakdown, according to a new survey by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers:

“It used to be the tell-tale lipstick on the collar. Then there were the give-away texts that spelled the death knell for many marriages. But now one in five divorces involve the social networking site Facebook … A staggering 80 per cent of divorce lawyers have also reported a spike in the number of cases that use social media for evidence of cheating …

‘Desperate Housewives’ star Eva Longoria recently split from her basketball player husband Tony Parker after alleging that he strayed with a woman he kept in touch with on Facebook. An American minister also made the headlines recently when he called Facebook a ‘portal to infidelity’ and insisted that his congregation delete their accounts after revealing that 20 couples attending his New Jersey church had been led astray through the site.”

To speed the process, perhaps Facebook could institute a new status:  zipper up or down.

 

[earlier reasons here]

Would The Founders Approve?

Just how screwed up the US system of government is was startlingly displayed today when the Democrats had a majority of 56 to 43 in the Senate to push through the Military Appropriations bill (with amendments) and yet the legislation stalls because they need 60 votes to stop the Republicans from filibustering.  What a joke against democracy!

My wife’s immediate reaction was that all the soldiers should immediately come home from both Iraq and Afghanistan because, while supposedly fighting and dying for “democracy” overseas, they don’t have it back home.  It is hard to disagree.

It is equally hard to imagine that the Founding Fathers would have countenanced such a situation.  If they didn’t want simple majority rule, surely they would have said so.  The hypocrisy of the strict constructionists is vivid.

But this also shows yet again the failure of the leadership of the Democrats themselves.  They should use their majority to change the rules or, a least, they should have allowed the filibuster to happen; perhaps some of the older Republicans would simply drop dead in their seats as they tried to keep debate going (we can but hope, eh?)

So, because of the obstructionist Republicans and the wishy-washy Democrats — and a mealy-mouthed President on this issue — good gay soldiers will continue to be cashiered and removed from their positions.  I doubt we can expect the Republicans and their Mad Hatter twins to finally admit publicly that the fight against homosexuality is more important than the fight against terrorism.

Odds and Sods #2

An occasional series of interesting material I don’t have time to comment on.

• Archaeologists in China have discovered the oldest extant stash of marijuana cultivated for its psychoactive properties.  About 26 ounces of dried dope were found in the tomb of a shaman dated to 2,700 years ago.
• FT has an interview — and lunch — with one of my old heroes, Tom Peters.
• A new survey suggests that Britain is the most sexually liberal among western industrial nations.  There seems to be some surprise about this result.