Zombie

The history books never date ... the IT books are soon history

Marmite!!!! *jumps up and down excitedly*

For your delectation *brain now short-circuiting ... *

What would be a perfect pig-out for you? Something that's probably bad for you but makes you feel good? Something other people might sneer at but you couldn't care less as you stuff yourself full of crap? For me a pork pie, pickled onions Twiglets and wobbly blancmange would do the trick. As well as the food itself I love the words too - you just know you're gonna pay for it later :funny:

Gadzooks, Ron, now you've awakened my inner geek! *reaches for specialist magazines ...*

Bullitt From the classic 1968 Steve McQueen movie, Lalo Schifrin's iconic jazz soundtrack. Because it's movie music it was written for the screen action not as a standalone piece. But it's still worth listening to Shotgun - Jr Walker and the All Stars [1965] Some may say this is R&B ... but ... OMG that squealing raspy tenor-sax jazz riff!Junior Walker [Autry DeWalt Mixon Jr] was a Motown session musician who became a big name Motown star with this, their first hit, on which Walker sang as his vocal debut only because the session singer failed to show Lucky for you the pan piper was off sick that day Sorry, Ron, overlooked this Nothing special. Used to have turntable, tuner and analogue amp separates but all thrown out years ago. Currently looking at the best way to link Blu-Ray, PC and digital downloads but digital quality just ain't the same

Happy birthday Lacey

Happy birthday Mark - time to update your profile again!

Interesting, but lots of caveats there. Assumes, too, that the guinea dogs saw the silhouette as front-facing when it could equally be rear-facing... and we all know dogs like rear ends More importantly, though, I think we need some more cute pix of Otto and Nox

A beautifully crafted story, rustle. No question that was truly excellent writing, so much said with so few words. And so sad - made me cry. Like the others I didn't see that coming

well that was a cheery tale for a cold dark All Hallows' Eve ...

That was great fun addy!

Guess paya spared you a savaging from Westie Every country has a constitution, even rickety ole Britain. What we don't have is a codified constitution like the US - it simply evolved over the centuries. It means less business for greedy lawyers and less grief from squabbling politicians - which has to be a good thing

in the original it was a girl - your version's better

Happy Birthday Bee!

Interesting career. He was once asked about his lack of commercial success in the music business and he said "I'm not in the music business! I'm not a businessman, I'm a musician!" He was given electro-shock "treatment" when he was just 14 to "cure" his bisexuality. Jeeze - maybe it helped make him become the original artist he was. Perfect Day was a 1997 #1 hit in UK for 3 weeks - raised over £2m for charity. A one-off. R.I.P.

I fear I'm repeating myself, but the subject of this thread is "Are we as gay men and women, in order to normalize ourselves to the greater world, supposed to censor ourselves?" It is not about women as a "minority group". So, to answer clumber, when Persinette continued to develop her views I simply acknowledged the divide and suggested the reference be ignored because this was clearly straying into politics. And to answer Thorn, brink's reference to women was in respect of historic discrimination against women in the time of George Eliot. As you know politics is not allowed in the forums. That's why I am not going to discuss this any further. If you have an issue with this then you must take it up with site admin not here.

OK, there's clearly a male / female divide here which is outside the scope of this thread. You'll understand I'm unhappy about this being brought into the discussion in your previous post hence my response. So may I suggest we ignore your reference to women as a minority group, together with this post and #51 and 52, and return to the subject which is about "we as gay men and women" as the minority group?

The only point I would pick up on is women as a "minority group". Certainly they are not a minority in the general population, unlike "queers" who very clearly are. Nor in the publishing world - a brief scan of the local lending library and bookshop will confirm this. And certainly, for at least a generation, not in terms of their ability to write from a female perspective in whatever form they wish - assertive, pornographic, iconoclastic, whatever ... because there are no limits for female writers, and if they do get criticised or lambasted it is as individual writers not as "women". .

Hahahah, as Iarwain notes in another place your facility to pluck words and paint such vivid and fantastical images is remarkable. And good luck with your quest

Interesting challenges you set yourself

No man is an island http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/no-man-is-an-island/ .

No I didn't. All I said was "Subjects I'd add as important - maybe missing in the US? - are history, languages and "citizenship"" I don't know if they are missing in the US hence the question - to which you've not responded. And I only referred to the US because I - wrongly - believed AD was in the US instead of Canada - my apologies to AD I avoid labels like "humanities" because they are used pejoratively. No rational person would object to the teaching of language. Likewise history. Likewise geography. The issue, surely, is not the relevance of the subjects but what's in the syllabus and how they're taught - so maybe they don't need to know the capital of Poland but they need have a basic understanding of the planet they live on. "Citizenship" seems to me necessary to fill the knowledge gap so many kids have about the essentials of how to live in a modern society - just look at the shockingly low voting numbers of under 20s. I agree about calculus. I was taught how to do it. I was never taught what it was for. What the fuck was the point of that?? And I still don't know. So, yeah, ditch calculus except for those who want to continue maths to a higher level. But, numeracy is an essential skill. Everyone should be taught the maths they will need for the rest of their lives as a basic life skill.

Trades are necessary but they are not sufficient. Successful economies require much more. And quite frankly "respect" is irrelevant to a blog on educational failings. Social mobility is when the education system enables kids to achieve their full potential - which for some will be trades, but for others will be much more economically productive occupations - by identifying and nurturing their inherent talents and enabling them to move into areas of a country's economic activity for which they are best suited. If they want to - if they don't then at least they had the choice which is denied so many because the system never identifies and nurtures those talents and therefore fails not just the individual but also the wider society and the nation's economy. The reality of how education actually works may be - and is - quite different but that's no reason give up on the goal. There is no "British system" or "British model" of education as the facts I've already given show. Of course there'll be curriculum similarities just as there are diet similarities wherever you look - we all need protein and carbohydrate And I don't know why you're banging on about education in Britain - fascinating as that may be Avocatus diaboli is in Canada so I assume he was referencing fundamental flaws in Canada.

No this is quite wrong. There is no "British system" of education as you describe it. Never has been. Scotland has always retained a separate and distinct education system both before and after the Acts of Union - the Acts guaranteed Scotland would retain its separate and distinct system. And it has nothing to do with devolution. And the tiering - primary / middle / secondary, or primary / secondary - is not significant. Likewise it's wrong to say there is a "British system" of education in the core curriculum you mentioned. The National Curriculum only applies to England, Wales and Northern Ireland - Scotland has always had its own separate and quite distinct curriculum. In England, some schools must follow the National Curriculum [those controlled by Local Government Education Authorities] but many others can ignore it and set their own curriculum ["Academies", "free schools" and public schools are free to set their own curriculum]. The position is quite different in Wales and Northern Ireland. So, yeah, however you cut the cake the 4 countries that make up Britain are not "still really close as a system" because there ain't no "British system" But I do agree with you that "an education system needs to serve the population and the student's interest". Unlike you, however, I believe that the education system is key to "social mobility" because, unlike you, I don't define social mobility in terms of earnings. For me it's more than money - it's the ability to move into any area of the economy, not just trades. Don't get me wrong, trades are very important - there are 3 generations of plumbers in my family - but trades do not generate national wealth. For that you need a quality education system. Which, sadly - and with some exceptions - Britain does not have.