Gender Benders. – The Anna Raccoon Archives

by Anna Raccoon on April 24, 2016

“We recognise that not all children and young people identify with the gender they were assigned at birth or may identify as a gender other than male or female, however the current systems (set nationally) only record gender as male or female.

“Please support your child to choose the gender they most identify with or if they have another gender identity please leave this blank and discuss this with your child’s school.”

Brighton’s Labour-run Council’s School Registration form.

Sheesh! Make your mind up at four-years-old and be stuck with the decision throughout your school days! Imagine having to stick to your four-year-old decision to be a fireman on a steam train?

The House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee, at first sight composed of nine women and two token men, but Hell, I’m only going by the feminine names imposed on them at birth by their parents, who knows what the composition of that committee might really be had they made their choice at four years old? Eleven women if they knew what was good for them…

Anyhow, the committee has decreed that there are 650,000 transgendered persons in the UK and they are most upset that those of them who got married to a person of the opposite sex before these enlightened days, should require the permission of their spouse before they turn from Fred into Doris. It’s not fair, they cry.

T’committee is also of the opinion that the NHS is letting transgendered people down, though they are not specific in saying precisely how – are there a shortage of penis’ for transplant? This whack over the head for the poor old NHS does explain one or two things which have been puzzling me though.

The report was published in December 2015. That would explain the sudden appearances of drawings of a toilet that had been laminated and stuck neatly over every ‘ladies’ and ‘gents’ sign in our local hospital. I thought it was for the benefit of those who didn’t speak English – now I know that it was a ham fisted attempt to turn us all into transgender individuals who were happy to use ‘unisex’ toilets.

This might have worked in London, or whichever metropolis the moron who dreamed up the idea came from – but in rural Norfolk with its agricultural community very much in tune with the birds and the bees and the natural order of things, it resulted in a mob of disorientated elderly people hopping from foot to foot with the aid of their crutches, desperately searching for nurses who could tell them which was the ‘ladies’ and which the ‘gents’ from last week…..within a month the signs had been moved to below the name plate, and now removed all together.

Equally, since January, I have been asked to fill in a form telling the hospital which variety of person, gay, transgendered, one legged, hirsute etc, I would find sexually attractive were my mind on such mundane matters and not distracted by the fact that I was there for a scan to tell me what was happening with my cancer. There will be no scan for Ms Raccoon until she divulges the subject matter of her sexual fantasies…

Everyone that I am on grumbling terms with in the queue for the scans tells me that they routinely describe themselves as Black Caribbean, Polish speaking and Transgendered, so I confidently expect the next report before the committee to reflect that at least three quarters of the female population of Norfolk requires a black prącie to reflect their Jamaican ancestry – and that the NHS cannot possibly meet this demand without a ring-fenced £50 million or so, and a supply of willing Caribbean donors.

Despite the fact that our 65,000,000 population contains 650,000 transgendered persons, only 38 of them were apparently previously married to someone of the opposite sex, judging by government statistics, and they all had their spouses consent. The government have yet to come across a situation where both spouses in a marriage wish to change sex – that’ll exercise their brains. If Fred and Fred both wish to become Doris and Doris, why shouldn’t their same sex marriage continue as before?

NHS England has established a Transgender and non-binary network with over 150 members. Five workshops have been held with the network since June 2013 with the next one planned for December 2015.

NHS England has worked closely with the three providers of genital reconstruction surgery to model the capacity requirements to begin to reduce waiting times for surgery to below 18 weeks. In 2015/16 NHS England has invested an additional £4.4m in genital reconstruction services.

Campaigners are shocked that they have ‘even heard of an individual with possible cervical cancer being referred for further psychiatric assessment before being sent to an oncologist’. I can quite see why – if you have spent years telling everyone you are Fred, it would be a monumental blow to find you had a distinctly Doris-like ailment – and the support of the gender identity clinic would be essential.

‘we ask a great deal of GPs and realistically we cannot expect every GP to be an expert on everything, particularly on things that they will statistically see far less often’.

Er, look folks, the average family doctor has 2367 patients on, so according to you he/she should have at least 236 and a .7 of a transgendered patient on his books, and you already told us that ‘Trans people experience worse health (both physical and mental) than the general population’ so by my reckoning, your average GP should be seeing at least one transgendered person every one and a half days…

Still an 18 week wait for surgery is not the end of the world – people wait far longer to get a new hip. I’ve just been quoted seven weeks to get an appointment with the GP. But then I’m only on the ‘Gold Standard for End of Life care. No rush.

‘Tis a mad world.

{ 166 comments… read them below or add one }

Moor Larkin April 24, 2016 at 10:53 pm

NHS at the forefront of “proving” that Jimmy Savile was the worst sexual deviant in the history of the UK. Join the dots.

Anon April 24, 2016 at 11:05 pm

If your kid was born intersex then this is wise advice. If they weren’t you should be able to tell what ‘gender’ they are by looking….

Bandini April 24, 2016 at 11:21 pm

“…2367 patients on, so according to you he/she should have at least 236 and a .7…”
No doubt they’ll get there in the end but shouldn’t this be 23.67?

john malpas April 25, 2016 at 12:16 am

It is time that the most discriminated group in the world gets attention.
The left handed – every door in the world, every greeter, every army , every orchestra, scissor maker , every bank teller ( their biro is tethered for right handers) – it goes on and on.
Shame on you all.

The Blocked Dwarf April 25, 2016 at 12:50 am

John, you have indeed reminded us all of the one group more discriminated against than even the Smoking Community. Infact, my dad is ‘kack handed’ as his own ‘Ma’ would have put it in her subtle “mine’s a pigs, mista” way and so I know what a terrible affliction it is. Mockery aside, back when i was a kid, he did take the trouble to explain why he had to get me/me mom/passing random strangers to open tins for him a la Mr Burns and i recall being shocked that manufacturers ignore the needs of a sizeable chunk of the population.

I don’t know how true it is but I also recall he, my Ol’Man , telling me that a lot of the Left Handed products that there were -and there weren’t many- were over priced and 9 times outta 10 actually harder to use than the standard right-hand ones.

Apparently we can put men on the moon, but curing the common cold and coming up with a reasonably priced left handed tin opener are beyond our ken.

Moor Larkin April 25, 2016 at 9:04 am

Dory Previn did a plaintive little song about being left-handed and the refusal of Society to accept her as she was. As a fellow sufferer of the same sort of body-shaming and all it’s terrible consequences, it struck a chord with me as long ago as those terrible 1970’s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1_YMNEaCII

Ted Treen April 27, 2016 at 4:11 pm: I was a ‘natural’ southpaw when I started school, back in the dark ages (1954 to be exact). I endured much mockery and derision – that was just from the staff – and had my deviance beaten out of me with the thin edge of a ruler whenever I picked up a pencil or spoon with ‘the wrong hand’. For a while I was ambidextrous but compliance (bred from fear of bruised knuckles/fingers) led me to eventually persist with my right hand. The end result being that at 66, I still have handwriting of which the average GP would be proud.

Reply

Mudplugger April 25, 2016 at 8:48 am

What about the under-supported colour-blind community ? Almost every bit of kit these days seems to come with unlabelled red or green lights and buttons, leaving this invisibly-disabled community to take gambles with many facets of life every day – press the wrong button or respond to the wrong light and you’re dead-meat. And when you die, it’s put down to stupidity, not an incurable genetic disability.

Fancy a job as a pilot ? Sorry mate, can’t so that, can’t see the colours on the dash-board or the airport flares. Fancy a go at motor-racing ? Sorry mate, can’t see the colours of the flags, so you can’t do that either. Train-driver, doctor, electrician, chemist, painter, the list is almost endless of careers completely closed to this disregarded group of sad unfortunates. And don’t even think of telling the DVLA that you’re colour-blind or the license will fly itself back to Swansea in a breath. And as for early self-diagnosis of cancer by spotting signs of blood in your various bodily excretions – nope, can’t do that either, so you just die instead.
On that scale, the left-handers have it easy.

Anon April 25, 2016 at 9:44 am: Mudplugger,

Re: Colour blindness.

True….

Reply

Stewart Cowan April 25, 2016 at 2:22 am

For the past year or two, we seem to have been bombarded with ‘trans’ propaganda. From the Guardian 12 years ago, before the social engineers really got stuck into this area of mass social degeneration:

“How many transsexuals are there?
A report from the Interdepartmental Working Group on Transsexual People in 2000 estimated that there were 1,300-2,000 male-to-female and 250-400 female-to-male transsexuals in the UK. However the transgender lobby group, Press for Change, puts the numbers far higher. It estimates there are 5,000 post-operative transsexuals in this country.”

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2004/aug/04/mentalhealth.health

Or 1 in 12,000 people. But this doesn’t matter; a mountain can be made from a molehill by creating gender dysphoria in the young: “There are lots of children and young people who feel that their gender identity (their sense of themselves as a boy or girl) is not a complete match with the sex they were assigned at birth. So, a person who was assigned male may identify as a girl, or towards the feminine end of the spectrum – a trans girl; or a person assigned female at birth may identify as a boy, or towards the masculine end of the spectrum – a trans boy.” (BBC)

Bill Sticker April 25, 2016 at 3:29 am

Yes, I’ve met several real life pre surgical ‘transgenders’. They taught me this; surgical gender reassignment is an expensive cosmetic procedure and should not be available on any publicly funded health care system.

If they want to change sex, they should fund the procedure themselves. Perhaps all their vociferous supporters might want to chip in? What is that deafening silence I hear?

Anna Raccoon April 25, 2016 at 6:37 am

Can you explain why a Doctor would be horrified at the idea of prescribing liposuction to an anorexic who ‘thought they were in the wrong body’ yet the NHS is quite comfortable with ‘extreme circumcision’?

Peter Raite April 25, 2016 at 12:29 pm

Presumably you’re banking on the known significantly higher suicide rate amongst pre-op transgendered persons as the “Final Solution” to the problem, then?

Moor Larkin April 25, 2016 at 12:42 pm

Surely the final solution is more attention
http://www.oddee.com/item_99220.aspx

Peter Raite April 25, 2016 at 1:41 pm

There’s always going to be exceptions.

Peter Raite April 25, 2016 at 1:42 pm

I’d also add that only allowing those who can pay for reassignment surgery is more likely to result in this sort of thing than a properly gatekeepered NHS-funded process.

Moor Larkin April 25, 2016 at 3:10 pm

any idea why in the NHS it appears to be 90% male going female?
from that 2004 Guardian Link:
“Around 5,000 people in Britain have had a sex change, formally known as gender reassignment surgery, of whom about 4,500 are male to female (MTF) transsexuals. Between 300 and 400 operations are performed annually, around half on the NHS. Demand for the operation is rising. The number of referrals for surgery at the UK’s main gender identity clinic (GIC), where Mr Bellringer works with a team of psychiatrists, has doubled to 1,000 over the past four years.”

The Blocked Dwarf April 25, 2016 at 4:09 pm

any idea why in the NHS it appears to be 90% male going female?

One suspects it has to do with the general feminization of men in our scoiety but I recall my Tranny-In-A -Tartan-Miniskirt friend explaining that there is a chromosomal reason to it. Apparently, so my gender bent buddy who was a ‘True Believer’ and up on the science, the moment a fetus comes anywhere in the vicinity of a Y chromosome then it will be mutilated by growing a penis, no matter if all the other gender markers are female. Bit like passive smoking, there is no safe level of Y chromosomes.

I heard something on Radio 4 recently and it does seem that gender goes all the way down to the metaphysical/cat0inna-box level -beyond DNA even. Microcellular or something. Again which is something my friend with the penis-peeled-like-a-banana friend used to contend when she wasn’t trying to teach me the Zen of Growing Hash Plants, Aikido and Machine Code (along with too much Y , the Lord had seen fit to give her Uber Mensa IQ).

BTW, and just to lower the tone, I challenge any connoisseur of vulvas to tell the difference between a ‘real’ one and a ‘fake’ one. Vaginoplasty surgery has gotten really really good.

Bandini April 25, 2016 at 4:16 pm

From Moor’s Guardian-link further down the page:
Mr Bellringer creates “a neo-vagina with skin taken from the penis, the scrotum or, more rarely, the bowel – a process known as vaginoplasty. The tip of the penis is used to make an artificial clitoris…”

A neo-vagina, an artificial clitoris, but a REAL woman!

P.S. I can think of a whole group of connoisseurs who’d know the difference – 50% of the population. Women.

David April 25, 2016 at 4:21 pm

There is no definition of a ‘ ‘real woman’, unless you are thinking of the’ Jane Austin’ test, which is centuries old.

Bandini April 25, 2016 at 4:47 pm: Imagine two dogs coupling. The dog on the top is the ‘man’. The dog on the bottom is the ‘woman’.
Keep yer eyes peeled in that cemetery in which you loiter & you’ll soon get the grasp of a biological concept so stunningly simple that your beloved Sherlock Holmes would be reaching for his syringe in boredom. Only Inspector Clouseau would suggest that a ‘man’ dog preferring a pink collar was actually a ‘woman’ dog…

P.S. I’ve just had a brainwave: that the penis-tips of the transitioners are collected up, packed in ice & whizzed by motorcycle courier to be stitched on to those girls/women butchered by ‘female circumcision’, thereby reacquainting them with the pleasures of a sorely missed clitoris.

The Blocked Dwarf April 25, 2016 at 4:47 pm

I can think of a whole group of connoisseurs who’d know the difference – 50% of the population. Women.

Not according to the lesbians I know. If it looks like , feels like, tastes like,and farts like …then it probably is….

Apparently only the lubrication thing can be a give away…

Bandini April 25, 2016 at 5:06 pm: A farting vagina, perhaps made of a bit of bowel… thanks for this image, TBD!
But I was referring to the ‘owner’ of said orifice (unless the lesbians you referred to were actually male-to-female gay ‘theys’). I find it hard to believe that a ‘real woman’ upon waking to find her vagina had been replaced with one made from a bit of dick & a flap of sack wouldn’t twig.
(Perhaps a female-to-male – who then went back again to female – would be the best ‘they’ to ask. But even here… ah, who cares?)
The Blocked Dwarf April 25, 2016 at 6:20 pm: Ahhh right, sorry my bad. I thought you were talking about people who enjoyed rather than owned.

Interesting question you raise (in his best Yoda-English cos the kaspressknödel digestion is sapping at my brain power atm) about a ‘real’ woman waking to find she’d had some unnecessary surgical upgrade. Of course it is impossible to tell but as the clitoris etc is made from exactly same things as the penis maybe the difference might not be as big as one imagines? Nerves and skin are nerves and skin (think about other transplants) when all said and done…maybe the sugar, spice , slugs and snails are as much imaginary as real?
Bandini April 26, 2016 at 12:39 pm: Actually, TBD, you may have a point and that article may have been a bit out of date as regards advancements in (re)constructive surgery.
I had a bit of a gander and was surprised to read of nerves being connected and suchlike – I wasn’t aware that such things were yet possible. A brave new world indeed…

One last thought: I was pondering the claims of some to ‘be’ what physical reality adamantly states they never truly can be, and wondered why we never hear much from another minority group who might equally find harsh facts a little discomforting – the adopted & the adopter.

Although a child could be born into the arms of someone and raised lovingly from that moment forth (as a son, daughter or perhaps even as a ‘they’!) unless the physical reality of BEING that child’s genetic parent is present then the law & language will never allow the opposite to be honestly stated.

The child may treat the parent as if he/she were genetically linked, the parent likewise cherishing the child as its own offspring… but at some point – a legal quibble, an obituary announcement, whatever – it will be made clear that that that can never be, never really was.

The ‘adoptive’ parent, the cruel-sounding ‘step’… but the truth can be cruel.
Where one decides to draw the line as to what is ‘as good as’ for the purposes of day-to-day living is a question of opinion and, perhaps, taste: it’d be a cold-hearted bastard who insisted on referring to ‘the step-father’ when speaking of a man who had been present during the whole of a child’s life, but in the case of that bloke who’s just moved in with ‘that woman’ and her brood (and will likely go the way of all those preceeding him)?

Similarly, those drawing the line as to what ‘is’ a woman might baulk at, say, the gold-medal winning athlete, father of six children by three wives who feels no sexual attraction towards men & is still in possession of his tackle – tackle carefully tucked away in the photos of Annie Leibovitz.
Bandini May 5, 2016 at 5:01 pm: The father of six has now generously shared a video of a trip made to the ladies’ lav:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36169097
Hope ‘she’ didn’t piddle all over the seat!

David April 25, 2016 at 4:16 pm

‘The general feminization of men in our society’. After middle age, unless men take astaxanithin, combined with saw palmetto, there male hormones (testosterone) decrease, allowing their female hormones (estrogen), to take over.
Older men end up becoming their mothers, in looks, mannerisms, and temperament.

Moor Larkin April 25, 2016 at 5:31 pm

The doctors need to work out a way for the men to donate their excess oestrogen to the ageing women and thus stop them becoming their mothers as well… Not to mention keeping their female bones from snapping in a strong wind.

David April 25, 2016 at 5:42 pm: For men, and women, to stop calcification clogging up your arteries, and keep bone density, you need to take vitamin K2 tablets, so nothing to do with estrogen.

The Blocked Dwarf April 25, 2016 at 6:26 pm

unless men take astaxanithin, combined with saw palmetto,

David, I am confused. Since starting to take Astaxwhatis and having experienced it’s , frankly, amazing benefits (i now longer live of ‘Daddy’s Candy’ aka ibuprofen nor require drugs to sleep) I have of course done quite some reading about it. As far as I am aware, and correct me please if I’m wrong, astaxanthin is strongly suspected of hindering the body’s ability to produce testosterone and is proven to lower blood pressure (that which makes up UP). Saw Palmetto is also suspected of negatively affecting men’s ability to perform I believe? WHich is why, to be horribly perosnal and TMI, I am taking my Astaxanthin with DHEA.

David April 25, 2016 at 7:18 pm: Astaxanthin does all sorts of things, including destroying cancer cells, which is why i would recommend it to Anna. In men it does increase testosterone, which is converted into DHT, free testosterone, which is not so good. DHEA is OK, but it would be better for you to take saw- palmetto with astaxanthin.

I recommend ‘natures aid’ saw palmetto 500mg 90 tablets, (three months supply), because it is a good dose, and cheap. That will bring your testosterone to the level of a young man.

Mudplugger April 25, 2016 at 4:23 pm

I bow in awe of your superior knowledge and experience of the respective qualities of ‘real’ and ‘fake’ receptacles – for some of us, the experience of a range of the real ones is rapidly becoming a stress-test on fading memory.

Stewart Cowan April 25, 2016 at 5:11 pm

I think TBD has the reason for the much higher ratio of men-to-shemale trannies – “One suspects it has to do with the general feminization of men…”.

Through the media and schools “boys are treated like defective girls” (on video). The gender-bender chemicals in plastic containers probably contribute.

I insist that it is a social phenomenon, not a physical/chemical one. Growing up, I don’t remember any boys expressing a wish that they had been born as girls and to my knowledge, not one has engaged in ‘trans’ activities. We had a far more structured society and one which was not so accommodating to people’s whims. Not that I underestimate the angst people go through who feel they are in ‘the wrong body’ but I think mental health treatment is required, or better still, getting our normal society back.

I know a man in his 60s who likes to wear a bra under his clothes and wishes he had breasts, but he doesn’t have homosexual tendencies to my knowledge and he is a particularly odd person anyway; perhaps borderline insane.

https://youtu.be/OFpYj0E-yb4

David April 25, 2016 at 5:21 pm: “boys are treated like defective girls”, “We had a far more structured society”, ” I think mental health treatment is required, or better still, getting our normal society back”.

Boys are not treated like ‘defective girls, you did not have a more ‘structured society’, you had a highly prejudiced, ‘homophobic society’, where boys were terrified to say anything real at all.

You know a man who ‘wears a bra’, and you think he is ‘insane’. I think you are the one who perhaps should seek help.
Moor Larkin April 25, 2016 at 5:27 pm: if he was sexually liberated, he would have burned the bra back in the 1970’s….
Stewart Cowan April 25, 2016 at 5:50 pm: @David – “you had a highly prejudiced, ‘homophobic society’, where boys were terrified to say anything real at all.”

I like to think of the 70s as being, perhaps, the last time where men and boys were allowed to be men and boys and where women and girls were glad of it. Not that we were into sleeping around – not in my middle class-aspiring area, anyway – we were too busy being normal children, playing football and studying and doing things with our families – structured society – no ‘free’ johnnies and sessions with a school doctor behind parents’ backs.

As for ‘homophobia’, give me a break. I was there – I don’t fall for the brainwashing. I once saw a camp boy being harassed briefly. That was it. There was no ‘homophobia’ to speak of because things were far more normal and believe it or not, people were far more tolerant of others before the divide and conquer social engineers got into top gear.

“You know a man who ‘wears a bra’, and you think he is ‘insane’. I think you are the one who perhaps should seek help.”

I wrote that he is ‘perhaps borderline insane’, i.e. regardless of whether he wears a bra – and I’m sure you’d agree if you met him. Stop inventing things that I never wrote, please.
The Blocked Dwarf April 25, 2016 at 6:34 pm: I don’t remember any boys expressing a wish that they had been born as girls

I went to school with my Tranny-In-A-Tartan-Miniskirt friend and while she (or he back then) always ‘knew’ he was in the wrong body, he would have never dreamed of expressing it…even , or especially, to his mates. Infact he was more preoccupied with Over Compensating by being the roughest, toughest, macho he could. Age 14 or so he was lifting out engine blocks by himself with a bit of seat belt around his shoulders, raging internally against all the anti-aggression drugs the doctors pumped him full of, knocking out grown experienced street fighters & generally working on life in the Scrubs on the installment plan.
David April 25, 2016 at 6:51 pm: So you think things were far more ‘normal’, and people were far more ‘tolerant’ of others. I suggest that you were wearing rose colored spectacles in the 1970s. There is no such thing as ‘normal’.
Stewart Cowan April 25, 2016 at 11:46 pm: @TBD – Your ‘Tranny-In-A-Tartan-Miniskirt’ friend’s feeling of being in the ‘wrong body’ sounds like some mental imbalance. It sounds almost like he was afraid of being a man and over-compensated by being even more macho before hiding behind make-up. I mean, we don’t know what’s really going on inside an unstable person’s head.

@David – “There is no such thing as ‘normal’.” Try telling that to dictionary compilers. If there is no ‘normal’ then Peter Tatchell must be wrong to use the word “queers”. There can be no such thing.

If someone streaks at a football match, he is being abnormal, because nobody else is – they are being normal watching the match.

The normal use of a willy is for urinating and procreation. It is abnormal to use it to try to impregnate a man via his back passage.
windsock April 26, 2016 at 7:44 am: Stewart, all your arguments are made from your viewpoint of what you think the world should be.

However, they do not align with the world as it is, and the lived experience of millions of people. These are not just western phenomena – they are both cultural and physical for people globally. I find it so frustrating to read you dismissing their real lives, experiences, distresses and eventual joys. Who cares if a man wears a bra under his jumper? How does it affect your life? Who cares if two men enjoy each other’s penises and arses – how does it affect your life? Who cares if a woman believes she should have been born a man? How does it affect your life? And give me a break… I was there too. I know what it’s like to be the boy who would rather play with the girls and the dolls and dressing up rather than the football and gets bullied. I know what it’s like when you tell your best friend at school you think you might be gay and he never speaks to you again. I know what it’s like to have your front teeth punched out because you’re a “fucking queer.” Maybe you should get back to your Wittgenstein.

You are like a teenage communist imagining a pure utopia that has not, can not and will never exist.
The Blocked Dwarf April 26, 2016 at 7:59 am: If someone streaks at a football match, he is being abnormal, because nobody else is – they are being normal watching the match.

There is nothing ‘normal’ about watching football.
Bandini April 26, 2016 at 11:48 am: Stewart, surely your argument falls down when you state that the “normal use of a willy is for urinating and procreation”.
Without wishing to pry – you may be one of the handful of men who’ve limited themselves to such restrictive use – a willy is frequently employed ‘n’ enjoyed by heterosexual couples for non-procreational sexual activities (precisely because it is pleasurable).

Is this also to be considered ‘abnormal’?
Stewart Cowan April 26, 2016 at 6:34 pm: @Windsock – We all have a “viewpoint”. Mine is based on sound moral and biological foundations and backed up by thousands of years of history. What is yours based upon?

Society MUST be structured properly and immoral behaviour discouraged or society will collapse – as we are seeing right now.

“Who cares if a man wears a bra under his jumper?”

His wife, for one. You might think it’s OK within your worldview, but it is unsettling to normal folk who know the difference between appropriate and inappropriate behaviour.

Communism is about as far away from my political idealism as you can get. I want a return to normality. Of course things weren’t perfect 20-40 years ago, but sanity prevailed and life seemed better for most people I know.

BTW, Do you think that shoving ‘gay rights’ down people’s throats all day long will lead to more or less physical and verbal abuse of people who are currently identifying with an LGBT condition?
Stewart Cowan April 26, 2016 at 6:35 pm: @TBD – “There is nothing ‘normal’ about watching football.”

Well, nobody’s perfect…
Stewart Cowan April 26, 2016 at 6:40 pm: @Bandini – I understand that some heterosexual people do obtain a certain level of momentary pleasure from such activity, but the actual anatomy of human bodies distinctly points to our ‘parts’ being specially designed for the purpose of procreation (as well as urination, of course), but not for sticking it in any old where, if you know what I mean.

Misuse of said parts can cause all manner of disease, which kind of proves my point too.
windsock April 26, 2016 at 6:55 pm: Stewart: You think homosexuality is a modern invention? Not practised for thousands of years that it needed biblical prohibition? You think it moral to tell people what to do with their bodies?

My moral standpoint comes down to The Golden Rule and the knowledge I can’t have the experience of being in someone else’s head or body so therefore I do not presume to know what is really best for them, nor would I restrict their freedom to follow whatever path they think is right for them, as long as it brings no harm to anyone else Society being structured is part of the problem – everyone has to know their place because some else has told them that’s where they belong? No. Whatever happened to self-determination?

“BTW, Do you think that shoving ‘gay rights’ down people’s throats all day long will lead to more or less physical and verbal abuse of people who are currently identifying with an LGBT condition?”

I AM SO BLOODY SICK OF THAT SHOVING GAY RIGHTS DOWN PEOPLE’S THROATS (FNAR FNAR). meme. You’re the one doing the shoving in this case, and let me tell you, it’s not consensual. And no, being gay is not “a condition”, with that connotation of medical dysfunction. It’s a state of being, a bit like being tall, or thin.

We will never agree on this, I know you have your views, and mine are fairly predictable and I was trying to stay out of this debate because of that predictability. But I won’t ever, ever allow anyone to deny homophobia ever existed and to whitewash the contempt that gay men had to endure for many years.
The Blocked Dwarf April 26, 2016 at 7:09 pm: shoving ‘gay rights’ down people’s throats all day long

SC, that was a bit unfair. Windsock doesn’t do much of that kind of thing (about as much as I do for TransGender rights) and, unlike so many of the StoneWail, he keeps that wicked sense of self irony and humour that only those gay men ,who were homosexual until they got told that they were gay, tend to have.
windsock April 26, 2016 at 7:11 pm: Stewart – on a lighter, more conciliatory note:

“I want a return to normality. Of course things weren’t perfect 20-40 years ago,”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLt9sjwXMSA
windsock April 26, 2016 at 7:15 pm: TBD: Thank you.
Stewart Cowan April 26, 2016 at 11:14 pm: @Windsock – My point is not that homosexuality is a modern invention, but that its acceptance and promotion and even threats to one’s liberty for opposing it are modern ideas – created to SUBVERT OUR CULTURE.

Watch Yuri Bezvenov’s video about subversion of Western culture over and over until the penny drops.

“You think it moral to tell people what to do with their bodies?”

I think people who *advise* that homosexual behaviour is a grievous sin are doing the world a service.

Do you, on the other hand, think that forcing a baker to bake a ‘gay wedding’ cake against his conscience is ‘moral’?

“…as long as it brings no harm to anyone else.”

It does, though. The native fertility rate has become dangerously low due to social engineering (not just by promoting LGBT stuff), the subversion of our country is causing its collapse, families are becoming smaller and fragmented and people denied grandchildren, nephews, etc. Great harm is being caused, not least the loss of freedom of speech, property rights, etc.

“It’s a state of being, a bit like being tall, or thin.”

No. People can’t help being tall or thin, outside the realms of Frankensteinian surgery, but homosexuals, like adulterers, or robbers or rapists, for that matter, do not have to act on their impulses. You’ve compared apples with oranges.

“We will never agree on this…”

I’ll always have hope for you.
Stewart Cowan April 26, 2016 at 11:20 pm: TBD – I wasn’t accusing Windsock of shoving ‘gay rights’ down people’s throats all day long, but the militant lot and their loony liberal friends who have been conditioned to defend ‘gay rights’ by REFLEX (the exact word used in the ‘blueprint’ to subvert America with ‘gay rights’: “The Overhauling of Straight America”.

By reflex = mind control.
windsock April 27, 2016 at 7:46 am: Well there I was, turning on my computer this morning and hoping this discussion had come to a mutual acceptance of each other’s immutable stance.

But no. You have to go compare my behaviour as a gay man to that of a rapist.

I no longer see any need to be polite to you, you judgemental sub-human twat. Go fuck yourself.
Stewart Cowan April 27, 2016 at 8:31 pm: There you have it, ladies and gentlemen: the attitude of the person who defends homosexuality. This condition – which is not a fixed trait – was considered to be a mental issue until the 1970s, when pressure from militant homosexuals changed the truth into a lie.

They demand acceptance and agreement at all times, but it’s a one-way thing, as you can plainly see.

They think that their arguments hold merit, but their carnal desires seem to override reason.

They might argue that they were ‘born that way’. Well, I was born an alcoholic, with alcoholism in various family members. With God’s help, I overcame this mental condition – this disease. I no longer have to satisfy my carnal desire to drink.

You can be a slave to your genetics or to your past or let the truth set you free instead.

IlovetheBBC April 26, 2016 at 1:04 pm

According to something I half-heard on radio t’other day, recent years have seen a complete change in the profile of those looking to change gender. There are now more women who want to become men than the other way round. Still looking for recent stats; I was struck by the discussion’s focus on why and what it all ‘means’.

David April 26, 2016 at 1:17 pm

Gender should be chosen. Perhaps, with genetic engineering, future generations can be born as hermaphrodites, making later operations less invasive.

Stewart Cowan April 26, 2016 at 6:43 pm

“Gender should be chosen. ”

Have fun removing all those trillions of Y-chromosomes from your body.

Why can’t people just accept certain things and get on with life?

windsock April 26, 2016 at 6:56 pm: Oh, the irony.
David April 26, 2016 at 7:58 pm: Stewart Cowan, You obviously do not have ‘don Juan Syndrome’, (sleeping with as many women as possible to try to prove you are heterosexual). In fact it sounds as if you have a very low sex drive. And combined with you quest for ‘normality’, it very much sounds like a typical Freudian syndrome of hating in others, that which you are repressing in yourself.

There is no such thing as ‘normal’, it is not ‘normal’ for humans, (primates), to dress up in clothes, travel around in metal tubes, most primates do not. 1970’s England was a glitch, as was 1950’s England, try to move on.
Stewart Cowan April 26, 2016 at 11:28 pm: ‘Primates?’ I’m a human being, not an ape.

I would like to sleep with a lot of women, but I don’t because I have morals and I believe in monogamy and have self-control in that area.

“…try to move on.”

To what? Becoming a totally dysfunctional ‘primate’ with no self-control and no morals? Who do you expect will pick up the pieces of the broken society we have ‘move[d] on’ to?
Longrider April 28, 2016 at 5:59 pm: ‘Primates?’ I’m a human being, not an ape.

Er… Yes, you are. We all are.

FoS April 25, 2016 at 6:13 am

Just updated my piece on the NHS with your last paragraphs:

http://figures-of-speech.com/2016/03/bedsheet-spreadsheet.htm

I had wanted to look at the NHS in terms of cost transparency for patients, comparing it to the Swiss health system, but the anecdotal evidence such as yours that comes out of the ‘soup kitchen’ overwhelms all rationality. Don’t you ever lose your temper?

Arcotiri April 25, 2016 at 9:27 am

Here in Spain you often come across name similar to “JosepMaria” Gonzalez. Seems they have it pretty well taped here or are to shy to check at birth.

Ps. Good read as usual. Many thanks.

The Blocked Dwarf April 25, 2016 at 10:41 am: According to the Catholic calendars of Europe, everyday of the year has a saint attached. Of course, and how could it not be, there is much disagreement about which saint should get what day..but I digress. In many parts of Catholic Christendom it was once common for babies to be baptised with a 2nd name of whichever saint was attached to their birthdate. Some parents also choose to ignore the properly appointed saint of the day and simply show their adoration of The Blessed Mother: So you end up with boys names like ‘Ernst Maria’ Remarque (although in his particular case he was born a ‘Paul’ and took the Mary to honoured his mom).

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Anon April 25, 2016 at 9:32 am

Re “Er, look folks, the average family doctor has 2367 patients on, so according to you he/she should have at least 236 and a .7 of transgendered patients on his books, and you already told us that ‘Trans people experience worse health (both physical and mental) than the general population’ so by my reckoning, your average GP should be seeing at least one transgendered person every one and a half days…”

That’s probably just their target figures. Our GP only saw one in a population of 1000.

It seems to me that, unless a kid is born intersex, is it not the parents job to tell a 4 year old what makes a person male and what makes a person female, as they need taught everything else (they can tell them about intersex people too if they want), how is asking them how they *feel* really helpful? And how, without a basis for comparison, can anyone really *know* what the opposite sex feels like?

A girl who likes playing football is still a girl and a boy who likes wearing make up is still a boy.

It used to be fashionable in the 18th century for men to wear make up, and in different periods of history it’s been fashionable for men to have long hair or wear jewellery, but they still considered themselves men.

Fashions change, liking a few superficial things that are associated with a particular ‘gender’ doesn’t mean a person is that gender imo. It seems like we’re being asked to accept pseudo science as fact and if we say anything to criticise we get labeled ‘ignorant’. It’s the same with the drive to legalise cannabis, a lot is being spread about what an amazing wonder drug it is, it cures all sorts of illnesses apparently, and if you query any of it you get called ‘ignorant’ (even though a lot of the sensational claims aren’t really true). I think a lot of this comes from America….

David April 25, 2016 at 9:38 am

People who are labelled at birth are treated according to that label. Had they been given a different label, they would have been treated differently. It would be far better if society treated everyone in the same way, but, alas, we are not yet that sophisticated. At least, at a young age now, someone might ask, ‘do you like the way people treat you’? ‘Would you prefer them to treat you differently’ ?

windsock April 25, 2016 at 9:58 am

I agree.

Bandini April 25, 2016 at 11:04 am

What could possibly go wrong with this idea?!?

‘Good morning, Little Person. Time to get out of bed and get ready for school!’
‘No! Don’t wanna go!’
‘That’s okay – you’re the boss. Now, what would you like for breakfast – healthy wholegrain cereals with fresh milk?’
‘No! Pizza & a burger, chips and a milk-shake. Coke ‘n’ Space Raiders for afters.’
‘Your word is my command. I’ll have to drive into town, though – will you be alright while I’m gone, Little Person?’
‘Don’t call me that! I’m a superhero with the power of flight! Open the window & I’ll come.’
‘Why of course! Let’s go!’
[Descends stairs to a dull thud followed by screams from the neighbours; opens front-door to find body of child on roof of car parked in driveway.]

And speaking of dead children, David, could this be your blog by any chance? – “With the fictional detectives, which I was brought up on, Sherlock Holmes, Poirot, Miss Marple, and recently, Commissario Salvo Montalbano, there is a theme…” Morrison the Murderer, eh? ‘Tis a ripping yarn!

Anon April 25, 2016 at 11:23 am

I think I identify more as a cat, I like sleeping all day, can we maybe get them to do this school thing a night for people like me instead, and make sure that hunting is part of the curriculum?

Bandini April 25, 2016 at 11:28 am

“Since coming out as “born in the wrong species,” Nano hisses at dogs she walks past, meows at strangers, hates water, and claims to be able to see in the dark. She also walks around on all fours and sleeps on windowsills.”

Who would dare question her innate right to ‘be’ whatever she wants? If she meows loud enough she’ll get moved to the front of the vet’s waiting-list.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/meet-the-20-year-old-norwegian-woman-who-identifies-as-a-cat/

Anon April 25, 2016 at 11:35 am

Well, if preferring to play with toys traditionally meant for girls actually makes you a girl regardless of the fact your body is male then preferring to behave like a cat must make you a cat too right?

Bandini April 25, 2016 at 11:38 am

Woof!

Anon April 25, 2016 at 11:42 am: Lol.

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windsock April 25, 2016 at 12:18 pm

There is, of course, a complete difference between acknowledging a child’s feelings and indulging their every whim, which is almost analogous to the difference between good and poor parenting.

David April 25, 2016 at 1:57 pm

Being treated as an equal person, does not include being spoilt, but it does include respect for desires. That is my blog, shining a light on areas that have been avoided in the past. No more ‘unsolved’, ‘Jack the Ripper’ crimes that drag on for centuries without solution, when, with a little logical thought they could be solved now.

English Pensioner April 25, 2016 at 10:35 am

When my grandson was about four, he declared that he was an alien, that is when he wasn’t a dinosaur. By the time he was six he was spiderman, but last time I saw him he was going to see Star Wars, so I’m not sure what he is at the moment! Children have a strong imagination and asking them what sex they feel they are is totally pointless although I suppose I could have asked him whether he was a boy alien or a girl alien!

Peter Raite April 25, 2016 at 12:21 pm

650,000 is 1% or the population, so for the average GP list of 2,367 patients, it’s just under 24 who may be transgender. Patients, of course, are not all average, so most GPs will never see a large number of those on their list in any given year, if at all, and many they do see will be infrequent. It goes without saying that someone looking to transition will have to engage with their GP throughout the process, but afterwards not so much.

Moor Larkin April 25, 2016 at 12:44 pm

Is it too late to blame Shania Twain?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJL4UGSbeFg

windsock April 25, 2016 at 12:55 pm: It’s never too late to blame Shania Twain.

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Moor Larkin April 25, 2016 at 1:06 pm

Seems to have been a one-man industry after 1999 when NHS rules were changed to make this a “right”. Gotta love the name of the surgeon who transformed the contry and it’s expectations. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2004/aug/02/socialcare.mentalhealth

Fat Steve April 25, 2016 at 1:54 pm

Please support your child to choose the gender they most identify with or if they have another gender identity please leave this blank and discuss this with your child’s school.” Brighton’s Labour-run Council’s School Registration form
A useful addendum might be
‘A special box has been created to tick for those parents who think we should stick to providing an education and not interfere in matters that are beyond our remit and competence and believe that should we attempt to so do we may cause greater damage by causing potential confusion .This answer will be treated with no less respect and no less sympathy than any other answer and we are aware that sensitivity in a child, to their identity or in any other respect, is just that and need not be classified in terms of gender or any other politics.
Sure there are bad parents but equally there are bad teachers…..both bad parents and bad teachers have personal axes to grind ….its just that as a starting point parents have (should have?) rather greater investment in the individual child and that child’s happiness than any teacher.

David April 25, 2016 at 2:04 pm: ‘A special box has been created to tick for those parents who think we should stick to providing an education and not interfere in matters that are beyond our remit and competence and believe that should we attempt to so do we may cause greater damage by causing ‘potential confusion’.
By ‘potential confusion’, you mean children having to think about something, rather than just learning, by rote, ‘parrot fashion’, (as the Americans do in school), without having to face ‘confusion’ ? Teaching is about getting children to think about things, not just learning ‘facts’.

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Anon April 25, 2016 at 3:12 pm: Fat Steve,

Re: “A useful addendum might be
‘A special box has been created to tick for those parents who think we should stick to providing an education and not interfere in matters that are beyond our remit and competence and believe that should we attempt to so do we may cause greater damage by causing potential confusion .This answer will be treated with no less respect and no less sympathy than any other answer and we are aware that sensitivity in a child, to their identity or in any other respect, is just that and need not be classified in terms of gender or any other politics’ ”

Totally agree.

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The Blocked Dwarf April 25, 2016 at 6:49 pm: I have often felt that every new teacher should be given a enough latin on their way into the wonderful world of Teaching so that they might know that ‘loco’ refers to ‘in the place of’ and not ‘Bat Shit crazy’.

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Fat Steve April 25, 2016 at 5:45 pm

@David By ‘potential confusion’, you mean children having to think about something, rather than just learning, by rote, ‘parrot fashion’, (as the Americans do in school), without having to face ‘confusion’ ?
No David that is not what I meant

thimbling April 27, 2016 at 12:56 pm

Stewart Cowan’s rantings seem to be those of three or four generations ago.I seemto remember stories of a Welsh Baptist minister who preached on Sundays extolling the virtues of family life and the sanctity of marriage but spent his Saturday nights worshipping at a different alter in the cottages of Cardiff. I wonder if he and Stewart were acquainted,or even related?

Stewart Cowan April 27, 2016 at 8:33 pm: What a stupid comment.

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Fat Steve April 27, 2016 at 1:22 pm

@Stephen Cowan A word of advice from one of the longer standing bores in this particular boozer to someone whose tenacity and intransigence I admire but it would be wrong to encourage (the same goes for windsock by the way who I have invited to the pub carpark for a brawl before now on much the same sort of banter you have had with him ) . Beneath that furry coat of the landlady lies an iron will and limited patience …..Raccoons are like that I have discovered ….unsurprising really since they are a cleverer and nicer species than homo sapiens (most species are) . Really a more appropriate image than the ink splattered blue stcking raccoon at the header of this page should be a sleek more feline version of a raccoon, whiskers bristling with one paw on a lever marked despatch to Room 101 …usually its some hapless politician or some NHS apparatchik sitting on the box that opens up and swallows him/her as we read her blog (the great era for that was the era of the Labour party in opposition to the coalition givernment …unsurprising because so many politicians were high profile pompous politically correct hypocrites) but from experience its unwise to venture too near the box lest one falls into it once the lever has been pulled.
Pace Windsock (and I really like, but don’t often agree with your distinctive take on things save your zest for life) but you do manage to bring out the polar opposite view to your own. Dare I venture long may that be the case?

The Blocked Dwarf April 27, 2016 at 2:12 pm

I have invited to the pub carpark for a brawl before

and a dark day for the Arms that was.

Fat Steve April 27, 2016 at 2:51 pm

@Blocked Dwarf and a dark day for the Arms that was.
Sometimes boozers become a little too gentile and middle class to drink in …..time for a member of the Bullingdon Club or the local skinheads to recce to joint out …..or a member of the gay community …..or even a member of the Christian Real Ale Society ……and see if there is sport to be had. Can’t all be gin and tonics and tutting about the way the world is going to pot

Fat Steve April 27, 2016 at 5:26 pm

Sorry Genteel rather than not from the middle East

The Blocked Dwarf April 27, 2016 at 6:12 pm

Oy Weh, I was about to blast you for ‘reverse racism’…already.

Stewart Cowan April 27, 2016 at 8:49 pm: @Steve – Where is this car park?! Actually, Windsock said that he had had his teeth punched in because he thinks he is ‘gay’. Perhaps it was because of his attitude and dirty language. If he spoke like that to someone in a pub in certain areas – ‘sexuality’ aside – he’d probably end up flat on his back. Not by me, you understand. I don’t go to pubs anymore and I don’t hit people, although I expect he could push Gandhi into having a nuclear war.

I am here at the landlord’s discretion, of course, but I am not the one using inappropriate language in the company of a lady.

Sometimes it is a blessing to be banned from a blog. I was banned from Richard Dawkins’ blog and that saved me hours every week. Windsock would feel at home there – I was used to being dissed by people with nothing to say outside the realm of expletives and very bad reasoning.

Can I have a lemonade please, landlady?

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windsock April 27, 2016 at 4:23 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAagY0bxQyI&sns=em

Ted Treen April 27, 2016 at 4:41 pm

I’m really not particularly interested in anyone else’s sexual preferences, providing it doesn’t involve children or animals. If someone is gay and makes a pass at me, I expect them to take being turned down in much the same way I, in my younger days, accepted rejection from a young lady – I became quite experienced and philosophical about rejection.

What I didn’t do was to don the shroud of victimhood and demand special treatment for myself and condemnation for those girls who were less than obliging.

When I met someone new either socially or in business, their sexual preferences never even entered my mind:- what was important was their character, their honesty and empathy. Their choice of bed-partner being not my business and I failed to see (and still fail to see) why I should even be aware of it.

There are those – as with every minority – who will immediately ram their position down my throat and demand special treatment – veneration, even – because of their difference. These people are insufferably annoying. Can’t they restrict themselves to what is important and/or relevant?

Moor Larkin April 27, 2016 at 4:45 pm

animals? Other than some physical damage with inappropriate sizing, the animals couldn’t give a fuck…

Mneme April 29, 2016 at 6:38 pm: @ Moor Larkin – You’re a bit of a twit in your way, aren’t you Moor?

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windsock April 27, 2016 at 6:53 pm

Replying to Stewart Cowan was relevant. It was he who raised the issue, not me.

The Blocked Dwarf April 27, 2016 at 9:57 pm

Why am I being chastised and not Windsock?

Because you compared his behaviour to that of a rapist- or at least your comment read that way and that is offensive to pretty much everyone here (him calling you a rude name falls under the ‘sticks and stones’ clause).

Stewart Cowan April 28, 2016 at 11:04 am: @TBD – I compared many things with the *impulses* of rapists, including adulterers and later my former love affair with booze. What I was saying is that we are not compelled to give in to our base instincts; we should be aware of right and wrong. I was wrong to get bevvied up every day when I should have applied more self-control early on.

“him calling you a rude name falls under the ‘sticks and stones’ clause”

No; calling someone sub-human is an egregious insult.

Like a one-armed butler, Windock can dish it out, but he can’t take it.

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windsock April 28, 2016 at 7:15 am

“Why am I being chastised and not Windsock?” The plaintive cry of the bullv everywhere, throughout time.

I have had a run in with Stewart in the past. I was determined not to participate in another one until this time he wrote: “As for ‘homophobia’, give me a break. I was there – I don’t fall for the brainwashing. I once saw a camp boy being harassed briefly. That was it.”

I intervened then because he was lying. I know this from my own experience (broken teeth), and that of friends (new jaw, remodelled eye socket) the stories in the press, even the murders of individuals. and I wanted to show that what was at most an inconvenient truth for Steweart could be life changing (ending) for others. As for my own experience, he later tries to dismiss and trivialise it and perhaps suggests it was my own fault. That’s it Stewart – always blame the victim, always punch down. Another sign of the bully.

You expect an apology from me. You will not get one. I had already tried to de-escalate our discussion (“We will never agree…”) and even posted a humorous video (by Sparks) gently mocking both of us about attitudes towards living in the past. Your response was escalation by comparing my gay sexual behaviour to that of rape. I’ve been on the wrong end of a rape – believe me, it’s nothing like the same.

You once wrote to me that I didn’t realise how offensive I can be. I wanted to reply, but didn’t, but you even surpass how offensive I WANT, but refuse, to be Stewart.

You call yourself Christian – I see no love for your neighbour, no turning the other cheek, plenty of casting of the first stone, plenty of judgement, not caring that you are judged, you’d walk on by if you saw someone gay being attacked – in short, you exhibit none of the hallmarks of what I was brought up to believe characterised a good Christian. And that is Love – which is why I posted the Buzzcocls video. It would seem for you Stewart, “there is no love in this world anymore”.

Instead you moralise, point the finger, judge. Your moral compass must be whizzing so fast it makes you sick with dizziness. Maybe your experience with alcoholism means you need a stern and harsh God to keep you in line. Whenever I meet any God, I will be able to look him in the face and say I tried to live the good life and tried to live by Chrisitan principles even though, sorry, I don’t believe in JC or that he is the only access point to God.

It also occurs to me you may be severely lacking in empathy to realise the your self-righteous pompous tirades don’t really add to discussion. You are unwilling ever to concede a point and exchanges with you become exercises in who shouts loudest.

I don’t wish you harm. I don’t ever wish to encounter you in your current manifestation. I will not kiss and make up. If Anna believes I have gone beyond the pale here, I shall leave with no feeling of ill-will and would wish those who have shown me welcome and comradeship – Bandini. Blocked Dwarf, David, Fat Steve, Ho Hum, Mr Pooter, Misa, Mudplugger and I think Peter Raite – plus Anna herself and others – good luck and long lives. As a better, wiser and funnier man than myself once said, may your Gods go with you.

Anna Raccoon April 28, 2016 at 8:59 am

Windsock – I did recognise that you had NOT thrown the first punch, hence my obliquely humorous response that the two of you ‘kiss and make up’.
I have no wish to see you disappear, your contributions are valued.
As I have no wish to see Stewart disappear.
Debate thrives on opposing arguments. Without such differing opinions all you are left with is (usually!) some ill judged piece of nonsense by me, followed by one or two comments that happen to agree with me and a yard of spam.
Differing opinions are the very life blood of this site. They are the very reason I get up in the morning and try to string together some nonsense. I love it when people disagree with me – for that is when I learn something. I learn nothing from those whose only response is ‘+1’, even though such validation is good for the ego.
I have, for seven years now, been intensely grateful to the thoughtful commentators who support this site – and for the five since I have been ill, I cannot begin to tell you how much it means to me to step outside the role of ‘patient’ – how are you, how are you doing? – for a couple of hours each day of being ‘Anna’, to whom no quarter is given when she gets it wrong, yet again, or put the apostrophe in the wrong place. It has been the saviour of what is left of my sanity!
So please don’t spoil it all by EITHER of you stomping off. Just agree that you will never agree, and that that is the beauty of this site – the ability to express a contrarian view on just about any subject. It is up to the thousands of people who read here every day – which of you they agree with.

windsock April 28, 2016 at 9:28 am

Thank your for your reply, Anna. I shall not be hissy-fitting and flouncing away, and I have already made the move you have suggested of saying “We will never agree on this.” That was rebuffed, in a truly repulsive and offensive way. I shall continue to engage with you, but do my best to avoid the lying, malicious and disgusting Stewart Cowan. Probably better for the blood pressure of us both.

Stewart Cowan April 28, 2016 at 11:50 am: Anna – Windsock left a five-paragraph supposed finale, which I considered needed replying to. Now I am being accused by him of being a liar. I really have not seen ‘homophobic hate’ apart from the incident I described. Maybe I don’t get out enough, or maybe Windsock’s talent for creating discord has something to do with his experiences, but I don’t want to go off on another tangent on that one.

He also needs to understand what a Christian is. Does a true believer watch someone commit sin and do nothing and see that person spiritually falling away? That is not what ‘turning the other cheek’ is about – that is what I do when called ‘sub-human,’ for example.

Windsock wrote, “you’d walk on by if you saw someone gay being attacked,” as a matter of fact.

Where did this notion come from? Pure fantasy. For a start, would I start questioning the poor fellow being attacked about his ‘sexuality’ before deciding whether to intervene? Maybe he’s an adulterer or a paedo or a wife-beater or a drunk or a junkie or a commie, eh? Maybe I should help beat him up in case he deserves it for whatever reason?

Not a good argument, Windsock, and not nice to make false accusations either. But I forgive you; I’m turning the other cheek again.

Life isn’t a practice run; this is the big enchilada.

That’s why I care. That’s why I prayed for both of you.

Anna – about that typo in your last comment…

Not really. Seriously, though, it would be nice if people would read what I write and not jump to conclusions. That would help.

Instead of agreeing to disagree on certain matters, we could disagree to agree.

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Fat Steve April 28, 2016 at 11:23 am

@windsock I had already tried to de-escalate our discussion (“We will never agree…”) and even posted a humorous video (by Sparks) gently mocking both of us about attitudes towards living in the past.
I noticed the same generosity of spirit in our exchange which as you know I admire …..I pray in aid of my behaviour a certain wilful mischieviousness rather than malice or judgmentalism that was given opportunity by a remark by Engineer …..perhaps my attempt at mischief was as misplaced as Stewarts claim to correct moral absolutism..
One thing is for sure save one has been at the sharp end of someon’s hate (nothing more than someone angered by their misplaced sense of importance of their personal reality being challenged) one doesn’t understand the injustice and the physical /emotional violence that accompanies it ……its scarring perhaps because it destroys not just the fabric of the person and their subjective reality but also of what is most probably a benevolent objective reality.
So windsock whilst i may not be with you on your cause (actually my mischief was limited to saying your caise was not part of my universe and you might be wrong in insisting it should be) I am with you on the infliction of physical/emotional violence on others to make them ‘comply’ with someone elses notions of reality…….that is firmly part of my universe

Fat Steve April 28, 2016 at 11:37 am

‘that is firmly part of my universe’
and incidentally that is why I am drawn to this blog for it challenges notions that the personal reality of the powerful has a greater legitimacy than the objective

Stewart Cowan April 28, 2016 at 12:00 pm

@Steve – there is moral absolutism – it’s just that the majority of people no longer ‘get it’. Moral relativism – people doing what seems right in their own eyes – is bringing us down and was prophesied for our age.

its scarring perhaps because it destroys not just the fabric of the person and their subjective reality but also of what is most probably a benevolent objective reality.

That’s what I experienced on Dawkins’ blog – day after day – except there wasn’t much benevolence coming from the vast majority of Dawkins’ piranha. The key word is subjective. If one rejects absolutes then everything is subjective, which means not everyone is right and many who believe themselves to be right are wrong, but cannot see it for they are doing what seems right in their own eyes.

Fat Steve April 28, 2016 at 12:40 pm

@Stuart Cowan there is moral absolutism
I don’t disagree with that provisional (adopting notions that absent full understanding all contentions cannot be other than provisional) Philosophical contention on a personal basis but contend we ( individually and collectively) are an aweful long way from knowing that moral absolute if we 9individually) ever will……the best we can hope is to work towards it or perhaps away from that which is otherwise ….I think you may believe otherwise…..may even on a subjective basis ‘know’ (such an interesting word) otherwise.
One of my favorite fables from the Middle East is that the Devil and one of his Acolytes were walking in the street one day and they saw a man picking something up . The Acolyte saw the Devil laughing and asked the Devil why he was laughing …..because the Devil replied the man is picking up a piece of the truth . The acolyte replied but why do you laugh? …… you are the Devil who lives on deceit and falsehood ….to which the Devil replied because I will soon convince the man he has picked up the whole truth.

Stewart Cowan April 29, 2016 at 8:37 am

@Steve – We have (had) moral absolutism because we believed in holy scripture which told us what was right and wrong. The relative morality brought about by belief in evolution theory has brought confusion and havoc on society. The Devil is laughing now as many people grapple for one piece of truth.

Fat Steve April 29, 2016 at 11:12 am

@Stewart Cowan We have (had) moral absolutism because we believed in holy scripture which told us what was right and wrong.
I do not disagree with your contention that we have had moral absolutism though whether the (correct?) one is another matter
The issues (inter alia) are
a) What is the basis or justification of accepting biblical authority on morality? (you use the words we are told)
b) If one can justify biblical authority (a by no means easy case to make out and you will have to do better than simply we are told) on morality then issues of interpretation arise. You will be aware that that has become very much a moveable feast.
c)The point I made was about giving undue precedence to one biblical (or for that matter scripture of any faith or indeed secular) injunction to the exclusion of another. One might usefully seek a greater truth (should one believe in scriptural or other authority) by reconciation of the two seemingly conflicting principles
I rather think you confabulate the difference between A moral absolute and THE moral absolute (should that exist) and two (of a number) of different methods of seeking to achieve it namely deontology or consequentialism.
I personally (for the little my opinion may be worth) don’t doubt you are right to be sceptical of ‘The Modern World’ but you might also usefully be as sceptical as to the past……and you know it is unargueable given the existence of free will that each is master of their own soul (should we have one).In the argument you advance you might accept/concede that indisputable fact and accord it rather greater respect generally and with it rather greater individual respect to others including windsock. Dare I suggest for no other reason ( leaving aside issues of dignity inherent in notions of freewill which seem for the moment to escape you) simply because you might advance your cause more effectively? You might see the point (if not by introspection) by looking at how thimblings dismissive comments detract from windsock’s arguement

Stewart Cowan April 29, 2016 at 1:51 pm

Former KGB subversion officer, Yuri Bezmenov, talks about a chap (whose name escapes me) who discovered from history that once a nation loses its religion, it is doomed to destruction. Now, I am not going to defend other religions, but a common belief in a set of rules and a structured society with clear dos and donts leads to stability.

OK, many religions stifle the people and there is an elite privileged priesthood class, but in secular society it is much the same, where the bankers, CEOs, etc. are the high priests and we’re paying our ‘tithes’ (far more than a tenth) in taxes, plus we see how the absence of firm rules in society has led to its breakdown.

It’s all stage-managed, of course, by the likes of the Fabians, whose agenda has been to destroy society through destroying the family in order to recreate the world in their own socialist image (see the Fabian Window in the LSE) and the Freemasons, who admittedly (by Albert Pike) have been destroying Christianity (in particular) to usher in their Luciferian religion.

I respect Windsock as a person, but respecting someone isn’t the same as respecting what he does. According to my beliefs and those of the vast majority on this planet, homosexual acts are a danger to the ‘tribe’ and that’s why ‘gay marriage’ has never been legalised anywhere in the world at any time in history, prior to the past few years of ‘PC gone mad’ – by design.

Fat Steve April 29, 2016 at 3:35 pm

All very interesting Stuart but you don’t establish the basis of the case you wish to argue which appears to be based on biblical authority and if you could establish that authority, what is the appropriate way to interpret that authority.
Without so doing you leave your arguement without adequate underpinnings (you will have to do better than we are told) and its hasn’t been difficult for windsock to question it ….I am not saying windsock is right only that the grounds on which you claim him to be wrong haven’t been established .
The methodology (which one might charachterise as simplistic moral absolutism overshadowed by biblical authority) conservative elements addressed the issue of gay rights might be seen as doomed to failure from the outset and the gay lobby have driven a coach and horses through it.
It doesn’t necessarily make the gay rights lobby right but it has made them successful.
The more you hammer on with a basis of argument that has been shown as ineffective because it appears fundamentally flawed, the easier it is (and indeed has been) for the gay lobby to push forward ever further……so far that I worry more for them than I do for what you term the ‘tribe’.
You might usefully examine consequentialism before moral absolutism since outcomes tend to indicate the respect the rules command.

Stewart Cowan April 30, 2016 at 11:08 pm

@Steve – the LGBT agenda has been successful because the politicians and media have been largely behind it for many years.

You don’t even need a Bible to tell you that homosexual behaviour is filthy, wrong and damaging. People have been so brainwashed that they just can’t see it.

In 2000 there was a private referendum in Scotland paid for by Stagecoach founder, Brian Soutar, to gauge the reaction to the proposed repeal of Section 28.

Nearly 7 out of 8 who returned the postcard – over a million people – voted to keep the Clause which protected children from having homosexuality promoted to them.

If that were held today, 16 years of brainwashing later, it would probably be the other way round.

People have been brainwashed into accepting the LGBT agenda. It was a KGB subversion technique to do this kind of thing to destroy our society so that our enemies could take over.

That’s why it’s happening.

Fat Steve May 1, 2016 at 1:25 pm: @Stewart Cowan It was a KGB subversion technique to do this kind of thing to destroy our society so that our enemies could take over.
Just who Stewart are our enemies? both as to a) who is us ? b) who are the enemies?
Also I detect a non sequitur in your conspiracy theory. Its not that Governments don’t wage cultural warfare , one only has to look at the history of ‘pirate’ radio (actually a really interesting exercise for anyone from my generation because it was so influential) but are you seriously contending the KGB won the cultural cold war ? The liberalism about which you appear to complain originates from post war USA and although a little difficult to prove empirically it has been claimed the Beatles were more effective in bringing down the Eastern Communist block than military might which merely contained it. Certainly it is (popular and in my opinion facile) ‘Western’ culture that has triumphed ….Putin (an ex KGB man ) rails against homosexuality as does Soutar…..and Western Culture as did Osama Bin Laden. Where Putin is effective is the basis upon which he attacks Western Culture…..for its lack of customary restraint, its triumphalism and lack of humility as well as its lack of substance. Look to Brave New World as the blueprint for ‘The Modern World’ not ‘1984’
No doubt the Bible is a valuable guide in life but I (for the little my opinion is worth) rather think literalist interpretation of it rather limits such transcendant majesty that it contains …if one likes limitation of the ‘universe’ (for want of a better word) rather than a a guide to what appears to some to be a broader, more vibrant. more plural and more benevolent universe that is there to be explored and appreciated. The message of the New Testament is surely don’t be hide bound by rules (which of themselves are bound to be inadequate) but be inspired by a vision beyond the rules. I don’t dispute when exploring one takes wrong turns and for me personally (for the little that matters to others) homosexuality is not a direction that I consider fruitful. On the basis that there is a God (I make no claim either way in this respect but acknowledge your view) and we are all individuals (an essential vision of the New Testament rather than the Tribalism of the Old) and not some sort of super organism like a colony of ants then you might consider the Sufi saying that there are as many paths to God as there are souls that seek him. Each journey is unique,….some take the longer way round coz they (as we all do) lack perfect judgement
I don’t doubt that should a moral absolute exist it is simple and clear but it unlikely to be made up of simplistic interpretation of rules or law….its likely to be cleverer than that …..read my post about April Ashley above to see just how hopeless reliance on the phenomenal alone to measure an issue adequately in a satisfactory way can be …..I suggest using the phenomenal alone its like trying to weigh something using a ruler (the abject failure and misery caused by the limiting vision of the Marxist Material Dialect is proof thereof). Similarly trying to measure the phenomenal using only noumenal means of measurement such as the Bible appears much the same.
You do your cause few favours Stuart in the way you argue it …..thats a shame in my eyes because in chossing the arguments you do you emphasis the weaknesses of it rather than playing to its strengths.
Here endeth the lesson and i gotta dash coz today is the Serbian Orthodox Easter and although not a denomination to which i belong someone close to me is of it…..The person breaks 40 days of a regime more strict than a Muslim during Ramadan….their choice ……and opportunity and excuse to explore the universe with others with the help of a couple of bottles of the bubbles (to me an indicator of benevolence to be found if one looks for it) which I need to buy in Lidl ….I know you have explored alcohol without much joy Stuart ….perhaps that was part of your journey …..a wrong turn over unmanageable terrain for you…..I admire you for seeing that ….but because we are individuals making our own journey in terrain of our choosing and with our own abilities it might just be the right one for me …..you might introspect whether you are apponted to tell me otherwise.
Stewart Cowan May 1, 2016 at 6:09 pm: @Steve – President Theodore Roosevelt wrote, “Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government, owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.”

Of course, we didn’t get those statesmen, or if we did, they were soon replaced with more puppets to bring forth the so-called ‘New World Order’.

I have posted the Yuri Bezmenov video. He explains it better than I could.

Did you know that the term ‘conspiracy theorist’ was invented to try to discredit those who believed that the JFK assassination was an inside job? JFK wanted to be one of those ‘statesmen’ Roosevelt wrote about and that couldn’t be allowed.

Only 3 in 10 Americans believe that Oswald was the lone gunman in the murder.

“Just who Stewart are our enemies?”

The shadow government Theodore Roosevelt wrote about – the world’s elites who call us ‘cattle’ and tax and control; us to the hilt; who make war to make money; who keep us in debt; who dumb down and sexualise our children; who brought in multiculturalism and ‘equality’ and ‘human rights’ (we have none, as I have proved before) – in order to destroy nations to create a one world Beast system and matching one world religion.

“…are you seriously contending the KGB won the cultural cold war ?”

The KGB were only doing what our Fabians, Freemasons, ‘charities’ and foundations have been doing, so yes, the KGB subversion techniques have been an incredible success, but it was mainly our own crazies who share their ideology who achieved it.

The sudden and fairly clean, and in my view deliberate, destruction of the USSR was part of the agenda to create a one world government. Many of the laws of almost every country are now made at the UN.

“The liberalism about which you appear to complain originates from post war USA…”

That liberalism – as in erasing moral boundaries rather than creating liberty (they are opposites) – has been ongoing for generations, for example the mad Marie Stopes, who doted on Hitler because they shared the same hatred of ‘undesirable’ people, opened her first ‘family planning’ clinics in the 1920s.

The Fabians were founded in 1884 and one of their major agendas was to destroy the family.

Going back further to 1871, Albert Pike wrote in ‘Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry’ about how the Masons would destroy religions so that their Luciferian system would reign.

“No doubt the Bible is a valuable guide in life”

Thomas Jefferson wrote the ‘Jefferson Bible’. He was not a Christian and unfortunately for him, rejected the supernatural content, but he said, “There will be found remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.”

Yet man now thinks he can do better than the best. Pride cometh before destruction!

Where do morals come from? They cannot come from a humanist/atheist worldview. There was nothing sublime about Mao’s or Stalin’s regimes and the West today, in rejecting Christianity, is about to repeat history and I’m sure it will be far worse next time.

“You do your cause few favours Stuart in the way you argue it ”

I tell it as I see it. If people don’t like it, that’s not my problem. Scripture is pretty blunt, e.g. “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”

‘Easter’ is a Pagan ritual, but so much of Churchianity has been Paganised. That goes back a very long way too – Ishtar = goddess of fertility, worshipped by Christians in the spring.

Nearly everyone seems lost in the deceit of those shadowy figures who seek to destroy us.

Yuri: https://youtu.be/5gnpCqsXE8g

thimbling April 28, 2016 at 12:36 pm

What is the point though in arguing with a homophobic creationist bigot? You might as well try to reason with a member of the Flat Earth Society or someone who believes that the moon is made of cheese.

windsock April 28, 2016 at 12:49 pm

My initial engagement was to point out his “homophobia did not happen” and was brainwashing is a lie. It has descended to this from there.

Of course he did not witness it so much… He’s not gay, probably has no gay friends and would not read about gay victims in the press – it would make him heave.

And now any gay bashing I may experienced must be due to the dischord I create. Blaming the victim again. I have come to agree with you. There is no point in engaging with this snide, dissembling gargoyle.

Fat Steve April 28, 2016 at 1:38 pm

@thimbling homophobic creationist bigot
Wow thimbling …Gosh you must be clever clever clever to have sufficient knowledge and understanding of the universe to make such assertions so confidently ……and so dismissively

Stewart Cowan April 28, 2016 at 8:01 pm

@Steve – Let’s examine @thimbling’s comment:

A more classically Pavlovian response would be hard to find.

@Thimbling – you have been programmed to be a dismissive and ignorant person.

Read my website and open your mind: http://www.truth.org.uk

thimbling April 30, 2016 at 7:15 am: Doesn’t Stewart’s response illustrate my point perfectly? I don’t need to say any more.

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Bandini April 28, 2016 at 1:29 pm

“How she dresses depends on her mood that day, and she usually feels like being Penny a couple of days a week.”

‘She’ is actually a ‘he’. It’s a bloke. In a dress. Yet the BBC insist on referring to him repeatedly as a woman. Perhaps this is why some people feel they are having something rammed down their throat – an ‘invitation’ to join in another person’s madness & wave goodbye to objective truth. (And if you refuse that invitation you’ll soon find yourself banished.)
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35970272

The Blocked Dwarf April 28, 2016 at 2:44 pm: ‘She’ is actually a ‘he’. It’s a bloke.

Oh LOOK Children! See funny Bandini! Look Jane LOOK! Silly Bandini though this was about Transgenderism and has posted an ON TOPIC comment. Laugh Dick LAUGH at the silly Bandini. He really ought to have realised that this is no place for Naughty Spott nor on topic comments.

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windsock April 30, 2016 at 8:11 am

Back to the original posting. I found this from the London Review of Books in my inbox today. Apposite!

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n09/jacqueline-rose/who-do-you-think-you-are?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=3809&utm_content=ukrw_nonsubs&hq_e=el&hq_m=4253134&hq_l=8&hq_v=db7e8ec7bf

The Blocked Dwarf April 30, 2016 at 8:19 am

Thanks, a very interesting read but I feel the very last paragraph is perhaps the most telling : “[*] I use ‘he/she’, ‘his/her,’ to reflect the post-transition identity, rather than ze, sie, hir as advocated by some transsexual writers, and as approved for example by Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences for use by students in September last year. I have also used the more familiar term ‘transsexuality’ rather than ‘transsexualism’, and ‘sex or gender reassignment surgery’ rather than ‘gender confirmation surgery’. Unless quoting, I have avoided ‘sex change’ which today is considered denigrating”

Fat Steve April 30, 2016 at 11:58 am

@windsock The London Review of Books
One of the longer pieces I have seen in the London Review of Books and I will need to read it a couple of times to get the full value out of it. Why am I interested in that the subject matter does not form part of my universe ? I am not sure but transsexualism (is that the right word?) seems to be a hot topic in the media and just as Savile per se was not part of my universe examining the debate that ensued after his death has been one of the more instructive enquiries I have carried out as to how Society (mal?) functions and I sense the debate will be of value though I am pretty sure it will all turn on the use of public toilets just as the start of Savile was (or was not) about Duncroft
But a couple of personal anecdotes about the April Ashley case for what they are worth. When in practice one of my outdoor clerks (a pretty genuine salt of the earth plain speaking and uncomplicated ex military man ) had been an usher at the Royal Opera House had shown April Ashley to her seat and in his words ‘She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen’ so little doubt in his eyes how he percieved him/her.
The other from my Undergraduate days at LSE in the Law Department in the early 1970s…..the cutting edge if one likes of ‘progressive liberalism’ and a certain arrogance present within it that their grasp of reality and values was profound (little has changed with Lord Desai supervising and recommendinfg Saif Ghaddafi for his Doctorate) …..Germaine Greer was the sort of person who was an icon. The April Ashley case came up for discussion and (chuckle) the praise of Ormrod’s judgement in it (now considered cruel and retrograde in the article) was effusive and considered unimpeaceable particularly because Ormrod was medically and legally qualified. What might one learn from it? Possibly not much save that lawyers generally and those in the Law Department at LSE in particular don’t ‘hold the tablets’ as they seem to think they do…..and that the ‘liberal left’s’ morality (such as one might term it) might just be subjective and situational..
For some true understanding of the issues involved i think one needs rather better minds than the Progressive Left’ or the Christian Right (Pace Stewart Cowan) to reach an understanding of it.

windsock April 30, 2016 at 12:24 pm

Regarding gender identity, it’s never been a issue with which I have had to deal with regard to myself, only in people I know and like many subjects, there are as many reasons/approaches/values etc as there are people. It’s one of those subjective issues where there can not be absolutism and fairness. As such, I found this a really good article – a good read in itself, compassionate without being proselytising and willing to look at positives and negatives equally.

On a separate issue, thank you for your even-handed approach to my position through the previous debate. Much appreciated.

Fat Steve April 30, 2016 at 2:30 pm

No need for thanks windsock (as much as it is appreciated) when one does what one should do …..just condemnation due if one doesn’t.

Stewart Cowan May 1, 2016 at 6:11 pm

@Steve – you think that ‘true understanding’ can come from where, exactly?

As for me being ‘Christian Right’ – it used to be called ‘normal’!

Stuart Fat Steve May 1, 2016 at 9:26 pm

@Stuart Cowan
You are convinced of your position ……I see no good reason to try to dissuade you from it …..good fortune on your chosen path but try not to shout too loud at other Pilgrims ……the walk is as hard as it is pleasurable and best enjoyed without too much interference from those who shout advice without knowledge of the ground actually under ones feet.

Fat Steve May 1, 2016 at 10:13 pm: Sorry my typo not a joint comment !!!!

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The Blocked Dwarf May 2, 2016 at 1:47 pm

As for me being ‘Christian Right’

Actually in theological terms ‘Right’ is Catholic/Orthodox. You are , I assume, somewhere between old-mainstream and the loony left wing of the Reformation.

Fat Steve May 2, 2016 at 6:17 pm

@Blocked Dwarf Actually in theological terms ‘Right’ is Catholic/Orthodox.
But for issues of faith I am often most at ease with the American Catholic Anarchist (yes such a school of thought exists) ‘take’ on things ……in Philosophical/ Theological terms that must make me the equivalent in gender politics of something like a Cross Dressing Male Hells Angel who listens to Gregorian Chant for relaxation …..which come to think of it raises the issue as to whether classification of thought and what is ‘normal’ might be as difficult as defining ‘nornal’ sexuality or binary sexual identity.

The Blocked Dwarf May 2, 2016 at 7:04 pm

American Catholic Anarchist (yes such a school of thought exists)

My only theological problem with Xian Anarchy- of whatever flavour- is that it tends to be pacifist. Hard to be a pacifist when your prophet told you to carry a shiv ‘ even if buying one means you can’t afford a Big Mac, like’ . Of course, Jesus having legal claim to the throne also makes the whole state-hate thing a little difficult but nothing a halfway decent theologian couldn’t work around.

And who doesn’t like Gregorian to relax? Hell the Orange Order probably listen to it to relax. I know for a fact that even “POPE = ANTICHRIST” pietists, for whom Rome is that city on 7 hills, enjoy the odd CD of it

Stewart Cowan May 3, 2016 at 12:53 pm: Are we still on this page?

@Steve – you didn’t answer my question about where that ‘true understanding’ can come from, exactly.

Yes, I am sure of my convictions, that Christ died for my sins.

As for @TBD, I’m more in favour of right vs wrong arguments than right vs left. I’m not a Catholic or a Proddy or a Baptist or a Methodist. I think all the main churches are probably corrupt, so I don’t go to any of them anymore.

Is Pope Francis the Antichrist? Time will tell. I don’t think there’s much time for y’all to come to a knowledge of the truth – this is why I might seem to be a bit pushy compared to a few years ago.
Fat Steve May 3, 2016 at 2:08 pm: Actually Stuart I think you are the only one stuck on this page both physically and metaphorically and but for the fact whilst working I incessantly click one or other of my favorites like clicking a biro before we had mice and keyboards I would have missed your post.
where that ‘true understanding’ can come from
Try ‘knowledge of the objective universe and therein oneself’ for size.
Essay of no more than 500 words in neat handwtiting please which i will mark when i have time
Stewart Cowan May 4, 2016 at 11:08 am: @Steve – No; I gave it a wide berth for a day or two, came back and there were several more comments mentioning me. I take it from the dismissive tone of your last email that you may not actually not interested in objective (true) truth. That’s the problem with this country and why we’re in such a mess and why few will be redeemed. It’s a shame people think more of this transient existence than of eternity.

I get the feeling that you like trying to be clever in a philosophical way, but you seem to end up tying yourself in knots with it.

I hope you search for the true meaning of life, which is available to all via scripture.
Fat Steve May 4, 2016 at 1:47 pm: @Stuart Cowan take it from the dismissive tone of your last email that you may not actually not interested in objective (true) truth.
I am sorry if I offended you but I think you may have mistaken what I had hoped was politeness and my poor attempt at jocularity as interest in your version of the truth.
Like you I seek truth and save those who think they have perfect vision we all use a lens of some sort …..yours is scripture, mine such Philosophy as I know though i suspect my mastery of the principles is less good than my employment of its terms.Philosophy like any discipline uses its own vernacular as does Scripture (as does law medicine even football) and its crass not to adopt it in so far as one is able
Our differences may not be as profound as you imagine but our approach is. You believe you have adequate faith I know I have inadequate knowledge . I find interest in this site because the landlady and others on it give me cause for thought …..usually for adjustment of my lens so to speak. I know you have your own web site and i have visited it You provide both question and the only answer you believe exists . I am not interested in your answers that may suit you but I suugest that I (as we all must) search for our own answers and with respect you might heed the scripture ‘Seek and Ye shall find’ . The exhortation is in the personal
Fat Steve May 4, 2016 at 1:55 pm: Philosophy like any discipline uses its own vernacular as does Scripture
i suggest Stewart we might both bear in mind that whilst we may know what a football looks like we are both a long way from being able to kick it cleanly into the goal
Fat Steve May 4, 2016 at 2:00 pm: The exhortation is in the personal
Both as to the seeking and to the finding
Stewart Cowan May 5, 2016 at 12:17 am: I was trying not to be rude; I do try. I have studied philosophy – it’s people from all sorts of life, who have had all sorts of experience and have all sorts of differing opinions. Which ones to believe? When you have scripture inspired by an all-knowing Creator, you have a basis for truth, but when you have mere mortals dreaming up their own ideas then that leads to confusion, in my book.
Fat Steve May 5, 2016 at 5:41 pm: No need to apologise Stewart ….I was not accusing you of rudeness I was accusing you of confusion as to my intent in entering into (actually trying to exit with a modicum of good grace and humour) debate.
You seem to rather miss the point that not all (almost certainly a minority of) Philosophers come from a purely secular background and you should take heart that most purely secular based Philosophy has not endured for any length of time.
One can crudely classify Philosophy up to 1800 as based on Revelation and post 1800 as based on Reason . On the basis you accept an absolute morality surely it should reconcile with both faith and reason ?
But I urge you to consider consequentialism rather than simple Deontology as a measure and take in virtue ethics as well …..you might find a more satisfactory (not to say benevolent) interpretation of Scripture than the one you presently pursue.
Try this link (just one of many no doubt
http://jesuswordsonly.com/books/hownottosudythebible/268-ch-4-how-not-to-study-the-bible.html
Stewart Cowan May 5, 2016 at 11:42 pm: The idea that the ‘Enlightenment’ (or ‘Endarkenment’ as some people call it) brought *reason* to the world is a great error. It changed people’s outlook, for sure; even many Christians, who were fooled by evolution theory as soon as they read the now discredited “The Origin of Species” and made up silly excuses like the ‘Day-Age Theory’ and ‘Gap Theory’ to explain away the millions of years, when they didn’t have to.

Perhaps because so many of the great scientists were bible believers, people associated scientific endeavour with honesty, without realising that there was a new breed of scientist doing whatever they could to further their materialistic worldview and that no other ‘reason’ was as important to them.

150 years later, we can see how this quack ‘science’ has proliferated, where people are terrified by a puff of cigarette smoke as they gaily inhale cubic miles of exhaust fumes. Skeletons, like those of Homo erectus, are found which have a skull which is a bit different to ‘modern humans’ but they are classed as ‘being on their way’ to being fully human when they clearly were human. Same with Neanderthal Man, although they are seen as an evolutionary blind alley.

Beings who made fire and stone tools, buried their dead and created art were human beings in my book. It was this evolutionary ‘reason’ which led to Australian Aborigines being shot for display in museums as ‘missing links’.

But can evolution produce reason in the first place?

This article is currently the main one on creation.com:

“Many leading evolutionists themselves recognize that natural selection isn’t aimed at truth, admitting that “our brains were shaped for fitness, not for truth”6 and that “an interest in truth is not needed for survival or reproduction. … Truth has no systematic evolutionary advantage over error.”7 In fact, the problem is worse. If our minds evolved, false beliefs would tend to predominate because, as Christian philosopher Angus Menuge points out, “for any given topic, it can be shown that there are vastly more systems of false beliefs than systems of true beliefs that produce the same behavior.”8 Even atheistic philosopher Thomas Nagel admits that without “an independent basis for confidence in reason, the evolutionary hypothesis is threatening rather than reassuring.”9

http://creation.com/monkey-minds
Fat Steve May 6, 2016 at 10:03 am: Stewart
I am going to close our discussion from my perspective with a suggestion that you review the method by which you protheletise (spelling ?) the cause in which you believe or wish to believe. If I feel the need or have the wish to engage further then I will post on your site but I kinda feel its starting to get (has become) like really disrespectful to our landlady and the drinkers to carry on a discussion in this hostelry which is better suited to Sunday School at the Methodist Chapel. No disrespect to you just respect for Madame Raccoon and those who drink in her establishment.
If you look at the header its the uber Raccoon that clutches the megaphone and its rude think either you or I should seek to snatch it. You have your own via your blog and I don’t really like such things
Stewart Cowan May 6, 2016 at 7:49 pm: @Steve – My blog passed away several months ago, though I still have a final goodbye post to get out. I still get the odd comment on old posts, mainly about fluoride in toothpaste, but if you post anywhere else, I’ll see it. First comment is moderated to cut down on spam.

My method of debate seems to evolve – not in a Darwinian sense – but this is my current method of trying to get my message across. I hope that no raccoons or anyone were harmed in the making of this discussion; the opposite is my aim: enlightenment over ignorance. Many people put up resistance to new = old ideas.

I have no cause to be in a methodist church on the first day of the week (Constantine’s ‘venerable’ day of the sun) other than perhaps to deliver some flags.

If you want to comment on my blog, you could just use the first post about Wales, then anyone else who is interested can come along, pull up a chair and have a drink. Nothing stronger than tea at my blog (other than my beliefs and arguments)…

David April 30, 2016 at 10:42 am

Why are religions so judgemental? Ask evolution The rise of moralising religions like Christianity can be explained by evolution – and so can their eventual downfall, says evolutionary psychologist Nicolas Baumard. https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23030710-800-why-are-religions-so-judgemental-ask-evolution/?utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=SOC&utm_campaign=hoot&cmpid=SOC%7CNSNS%7C2016-GLOBAL-hoot

The Blocked Dwarf April 30, 2016 at 3:09 pm

Being judgemental isn’t the sole preserve of Religions -although they do do a nice line in it- just listen to any ‘public health’ ‘expert’ wibble on the MSM , just the sight of SINNERS sinning is enough to condemn innocent little lambs to a life time of nicotine ADDICTION or Diabetes or whatever the ‘new tobacco’ is today.

…and don’t get me started on Vegans, cyclists or Homeopaths , all of whom have tendencies that make Pastor Phelps look easy going.

windsock April 30, 2016 at 3:20 pm

… me either, with the cyclists, and then there’s the entitled mother with the baby buggy and the Textwalkers (who are a species that could have come out of Game of Thrones)…

The Blocked Dwarf April 30, 2016 at 3:42 pm: *is re-reading that TG article atm as it happens- only had chance to speed read it this morning* and you should hear my Crippled Son on the subject of ‘entitled buggy pushers’, probably in part explains why he has been paying for fire-arms instruction …”CULLING! CoooOOMing Through!”

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Cascadian April 30, 2016 at 8:46 pm

Hmmm, rather raucous in here tonight, can we get move to the real important issues…….where is Engineer?

Anna Raccoon April 30, 2016 at 8:58 pm: I don’t know is the answer – we haven’t heard from him since last November. If anyone has heard from him I would be glad to hear – but I fear the worst.

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thimbling May 5, 2016 at 8:15 am

Goodness me! Elmer Gantry couldn’t do better than Stewart/Tony.

Bandini May 6, 2016 at 11:46 am

I’ve just read an article about the UK considering a unilateral ban on plastic ‘microbeads’ in toiletries (if the EU doesn’t prohibit their use).
Adding tiny pieces of plastic to products whose only destination is the plug-hole (and then on to the rivers & seas as they pass straight through water-filters) would seem to be an act of such stupidity that I’m just shaking my head in disbelief.

“Microbeads which are harmful to human health accumulate in all kinds of fish and shellfish such as mussels, tuna, oysters, salmon and anchovies… …When plastics break down, more toxic substances which are harmful to humans and which cause hormonal imbalances or neurological diseases are released than previously thought.”

There is plenty of evidence to suggest plastics of one sort or another play havoc with the normal development of the foetus/child – including those aspects relating to gender – but industry had the bright idea to help things along by pouring the rubbish straight down the drain & into the food-chain.
In Spain the ‘niñas con pene y niños con vulva’ campaign is hotting up, and having just watched a TV-interview with a couple of ‘intersex’ people who’ve had to face life with mangled organs & innards I’m wondering why no one seems to be bothered about the possible causes, preferring to ‘normalise’ the effects rather than search for the cause.

Perhaps the plastics industry (or whoever) have infiltrated the LGBT+-/~ movement, fearing the most enormous class-action on behalf of the 130-million people we are told are neither fish nor fowl…

Anna Raccoon April 27, 2016 at 8:19 am

Well there I was, turning on my computer this morning and hoping this discussion had come to a mutual acceptance of each other’s immutable stance.

You and me both, Windsock…..

There is really no need to be so offensive, Stewart; a simple ‘I disagree’ is quite sufficient.

I suppose it’s too much to ask that you kiss and make up?

The Blocked Dwarf April 27, 2016 at 8:46 am

I suppose it’s too much to ask that you kiss and make up?

Mudplugger April 27, 2016 at 8:57 am

If they do, can we all watch it on YouTube ?

Stewart Cowan April 27, 2016 at 8:58 pm

Just noticed this is all out of synch now.

Why am I being chastised and not Windsock? I realise he probably has a barstool with his name on it. The language and attitude which followed that quote was what was unacceptable. I just tell it as it is without recourse to such jejune language. Is that a crime?

I don’t make a habit of kissing men, but I am willing to accept Windsock’s apology.

windsock April 27, 2016 at 9:01 am

Cameras will not work in a freezing cold Hell.

The Blocked Dwarf April 27, 2016 at 2:03 pm

you (SC) judgemental sub-human twat

Or, more technically correct, simply a ‘Christian’…and SC, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, is very much a christian’s christian…no where near ‘westboro’ but with definite hankerings towards them. That said, he does have a problem with ‘equating’ things, he doesn’t always (ok almost ever) get the tone right. It’s not so long ago he got into awful difficulty on another blog for exactly the same sort of thing. I’m not saying you should kiss and make up but bear in mind please that he, as do most of us, probably wish there was an ‘edit’ function for comments (and yes Anna, I know why you imprisoned Ed ).

Stewart Cowan April 27, 2016 at 9:11 pm

TBD – thank you for trying to explain the fundamentals of the situation to Windsock, although if I was anywhere near to Westboro levels, he would know it and probably spontaneously combust!

Actually, I don’t wish there was an edit button, save for correcting those pesky typos. That other blog issue you mentioned is far more interesting than you think and I have extremely good reason to believe that a certain individual isn’t what you think he is.

My ‘truth radar’ just might be finely tuned to detect things that you and others missed – same here. Homosexual acts are an abomination. That is my belief and no amount of brainwashing or censorship will ever change that. This doesn’t mean that I hate anyone. I don’t hate Windsock, even if he hates me, as would seem the unfortunate case.

What we have certainly learned is that the divide-and-conquer subversion techniques used in promoting the LGBT agenda has been astoundingly successful.

David April 28, 2016 at 8:23 am

Stewart Cowan- Religion is the last refuge of those who are trying to suppress their true sexuality.

Stewart Cowan April 28, 2016 at 10:57 am

@David – “Religion is the last refuge of those who are trying to suppress their true sexuality.”

Desperate.

Fat Steve April 27, 2016 at 9:13 pm

@Stewart Cowan Why am I being chastised and not Windsock?
Generosity of spirit is a fine trait and windsock exhibited that trait in the exchanges I had with him. Cut him a little slack Stewart …..its the mark of the better man …..objective reality exists independently of argument and objective reality determines outcomes …..the future will be the judge of both of you not this forum

Stewart Cowan April 28, 2016 at 12:04 pm

I have cut him a little slack, Steve, but I’m not getting much back to work off of. As inferred above, there is no sense of objective reality for people who do not believe in moral absolutes.

David April 29, 2016 at 7:53 am

Stwart Cowan, So you are a ‘flag & bunting’ salesman !

David April 30, 2016 at 9:20 am

Sex will be made unnecessary by ‘designer babies’, professor says http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/sex-unnecessary-designer-babies-stanford-professor-says-a6957636.html

David May 4, 2016 at 6:21 pm

Stewart Cowan, People like yourself, who are trying to ‘buy’ redemption, in a ‘greedy way’, by following a set of ‘rules’, are unlikely to succeed. Trying to buy redemption, while not showing any good qualities, like not throwing the first stone, is not Christian.

The ‘sinners’ you condemn, are more likely to receive redemption, because they have humility, and, unlike you, do not ‘expect’ redemption.

You will not be fast tracked, and your presumption, indeed, audacity, in expecting it, may well see you ending up, ( in the words of a President), ‘at the end of the queue’.

Stewart Cowan May 5, 2016 at 12:22 am

Everything you wrote is a lie. I suspect out of ignorance rather than trying to offend. You don’t know what scripture teaches or you don’t care, because you approve of sinful, carnal lusts, which lead to Hell.

Sort out your own house before trying to lecture me, because I know I’m a sinner – you embrace sin like you would a poisonous serpent.