madonna gets her baby...

a court ruled madonna could have a little girl from malawi.

madonna wasn't in the courtroom.

she hasn't complied with residency laws.

the child has family, but no money.

madonna brought this kid, fair and square.

i hope she is happy with her purchase.

(in other news, my grandad pointed out that by the time he was my age, he had 3 children, and i am childless. my grandad tells it like it is! perhaps i should go buy a child...)

Babies

How babies are made (vid)

emo march / the black parade?

ok so i found this on perezz hilton, i can't help it, that site is like looking at something you *know is wrong* but you kinda need to look.

*shrugs*

"On May 31st, fans of super Emo group My Chemical Romance are planning to march across London to protest what they consider to be the unfair depiction of the band in the British media.

The march will start at Hyde Park's West Pond and end outside the offices of The Daily Mail, who organizers call the 'worst' offender in the media.

The newspaper recently anointed My Chemical Romance a 'suicide cult' band in its reports covering the suicide of a 13-year old British girl named Hannah Bond.

Three hundred fans are reportedly confirmed to march."

Go emos!! Nice to know that the kids stand up for themselves!

abort

so MPs are having a free vote on abortion this evening.

lets get a few stats in.

unless something changes in our biology:

520 of the total 645 MPs in the house of commons, will never become pregnant.

What is the average age of an MP?
Following the general election of 2005, the average age of an MP was 50.6

so, also, considering this:

"The menopause is the name given to the end of menstruation (periods). It is also sometimes referred to as 'the change of life'. In the UK, the average age for a woman to reach the menopause is 52."

it might be a safe bet to suggest that it is unlikely any MP is going to fall pregnant anytime soon, or ever. (edit: i have been reminded, quite rightly, that these older lady MPs may have had abortions in the past)

also, with an annual salary of £61,820 (as of 1 November 2007), the financial hardship of child bearing may be more difficult to comprehend. financial independence is a luxurious position from which to make moral decisions on behalf of others.

I sincerely hope that i am being judgmental here, and that these factors which might give MPs a safe distance from the realities of this issue (which are not the same for every person) do not prevent MPs voting in line with what their constituents deserve.

Luckily, at time of writing, nearly 400 MPs have voted against lowering the abortion limit to 12 weeks. frighteningly, 71 had voted for it.

I will write more on this another day, but the beeb comentator suggested that MPs are leaning towards the more liberal ideas. am i now so liberal that i see what others describe as 'liberal' as 'the very baseline of reasonable' ??

sorry, we can't help you, or your daughter.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=566044&in_page_id=1879

Story is sad but hilarious, teenage rebellion, young love, exploitation, overbearing mothers, DEATH BY CANNABIS, TEEN PREGNANCY...

"It was then that we started hearing all sorts of rumours about Jack, that he'd given her cannabis. I was distraught, half expecting a call saying Victoria had been found dead."

Oh and the cracking line about her mum discovering a packet of contraceptive pills and assumed that this meant her daughter was sexually active.

The story is kinda saddening, half to me because the hate mail thinks it's fine to invade this girls privacy for a story. To publish details about her sex life/lack of. My sister passed tis story on to me, she has known this girl at school since the age of 5. Apparently the girl now thinks she is a celebrity, and holds her hand out and says 'NO COMMENT' to people. I despair, and sulk.

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

A story.


Worth a read. It's quite short, about people who live in a beautiful city with a dark secret

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" (Variations on a theme by William James) is a short story by Ursula K. Le Guin, included in her short story collection The Wind's Twelve Quarters; it won the Hugo Award for short stories in 1974. It has no plot, no characters, no dialogue; merely a setting, the city Omelas. It is often used in discussing the nature and adequacy of utilitarian theories of justice.

In the story, Omelas is a utopian city of happiness and delight, whose inhabitants are smart and cultured. Everything about Omelas is pleasing, except for the secret of the city: the good fortune of Omelas requires that an unfortunate child be kept in filth, darkness and misery, and that all her citizens know of this on coming of age.

Some of them walk away; the story ends "The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas."

muslim baby

the beeb the other week was talking about the diana inquest, and said secveral timesthat one of the conspiracy theories was that diana was killed in a plot because she was carrying a 'Muslim baby'. But here is how it works:

Once a child is born and is welcomed into the world by its parents/family

(here is how: The Muslim call to prayer or adhaan ("God is great, there is no God but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. Come to prayer.") are the first words a newborn Muslim baby should hear. They are whispered into the right ear of the child by his or her father.

The baby's first taste should be something sweet, so parents may chew a piece of date and rub the juice along the baby's gums. It was a practice carried out by the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) and is believed to help tiny digestive systems to kick in. Other things happen at 7 days and you can read up here if you like...and if you trust the bbc)

so anyway, this got me on to thinking, at what point in your life are you assigned a religious status? can you be a Muslim, Christian or whatever you want to be in gestation? if so, at which point are you religious? at 24 weeks, when you can feel pain? or perhaps at birth? or maybe many years later when you possess reasoning enough to confirm your faith and happiness being part of an organised religion? perhaps it is the point at which the baby is acknowledged by the religious institution, and a key figure within the following.

to me, a person who follows an organised religion is one who follows the teachings of said religion. not a baby that is still learning to walk, talk and feed! but then, religion is all encompassing like that, and affects the way you are taught to walk talk and feed by your parents if they are religious. if your parents run your life, they pick your religion.

But then, here comes my second wondering, what makes a muslim baby? do they adopt the religion of the father? is this not the desicion of both parents in an equal relationship? am i being really naive here? (it wouldn't be the first time)

Dodi Al Fayed may be a muslim, but i had no idea Diana was. I had no idea she followed any religion (googles - nope, can't find it, though i believe her mother was a catholic..) but why would she give birth to a muslim baby? (she wasn't even pregnant, it's almost really stupid i am discussing this)

the whole thing makes my head spin!!

washing up

is rubbish.

i'm fed up of this free houseness now :( it's the weekend and i'm doing weekend stuff. it's a bit boring rly. 4 hours to waste, i think. watch this space tho. some silly people in amsterdam r giving d free beer and wine. i hope he gets his flight. :-/ heh...

am listening to kanye wests 'homecoming' - chris martin of coldplay is singing in it, and i can't help wondering how his kid is doing, growing up named after the people that brought us the ipod and all its related annoyances. i shouldn't know this, as a normal person with a life, but 'apple' has been raised as a vegan organic baby. each to their own i suppose...