Verbal Diarleah (The Diary of Leah)

Sad news that former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated. She was an icon of what women can do, especially Muslim women. RIP also then Pakistani democracy.

We will no longer have the problem of inequality. Remember the case a few weeks ago about the woman in Saudi Arabia sentenced to 200 lashes for being with a man to whom she was not related? I wrote about my disgust for this and for Saudi Arabia in general. I’ve just read an excellent opinion from the Washington Post on women’s rights, in particular those of women in the Middle East. She argues that we should, among other things, sanction Saudi Arabia and treat it much like we did apartheid-era South Africa in the ’80s. Unfortunately we don’t tend to see women’s rights as a big deal compared with racism. Because Saudi Arabia claims religious reasoning for its inequality, it is deemed untouchable. I agree completely with the author that this must change. We must encourage a feminist movement similar to that of the 19th century.

Give us another hundred thousand years or so and woman will be ruler and supreme being of the world. Hoo ha!

Bryan Sykes, professor of human genetics at Oxford University and author of the book Adam’s Curse, is convinced that men will die out as the Y chromosome withers. He has calculated that, at the current rate of decline, heterosexual reproduction may only last around 125,000 years.

I’ve just discovered, thanks to a colleague familiar with Catalan/Spanish culture, that during the festive season Spanish families put an additional character into their nativity scenes: the pooper! If you don’t believe me, see the Wikipedia article here. There’s also a picture below. In addition to this, the other picture below is of a caga tio, which translates to Shit Log. It’s another version of a caganer. For anyone familiar with South Park’s Mr Hanky the Christmas poo, perhaps it was actually an homage to Catalan traditions. I find this absolutely hysterical. I know, tolerance, blah, blah, but come on! A nativity pooper and a shit log?! You can’t get any funnier than that during the Christmas season.

Following from today’s first post, a well-timed cartoon

There are a couple of things plaguing me at the moment about two potential Republican nominees: Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney.

As loyal readers will know I detest Mike Huckabee for several reasons, number one being his cutting of higher education funding for high school students in Arkansas. Number two on my list of Huck pet peeves is the fact that he’s a Baptist minister turned politician for reasons set out in this article in the Washington Post today. Robinson says it better than I could but number one on this list is the potential for Huck to take away a woman’s right to choose reproductive options. No way, no how, uh uh.

Mitt Romney, on the other hand, has crept onto my shit list this week for similar reasons: religion. I know I’m way late on this but I’m talking about his recent faith speech in which he said, “Freedom requires religion, just as religion requires freedom.” What a load of bollocks. If anything religion and freedom mix like oil and water. Most religions–in this case Romney is probably referring to Christianity–are very prescriptive on what you can and cannot do. Take the example of Huckabee potentially taking away a woman’s right to choose: I’d say that’s pretty un-free. Islam too, as we’ve all seen, can be very freedom hindering.

On the flip side, religion can have some free will. One usually chooses to follow a religion. Christianity, for example, teaches that God gave humans free will with which to choose to follow its teachings. The problem, though, is that I just don’t see religion requiring freedom. You can have freedom to express yourself through a religion as the first amendment in American guarantees but apart from that, they are not reliant upon one another as Romney implies. It is simply rhetoric to get him more votes. This article on Washington Post sums it all up very well.

So, apologies for the touchy subject today and for being away for so long. At least I’ve announced my return with a bang!

I am afraid, my dear readers, that I am slightly out of the loop at the moment or, perhaps, slightly bored with current affairs as I have nothing to say of late. I was home all last week recovering from an operation and, yet, found no time to write anything on my blog.

The only interesting tidbit I have is that I am now addicted to Sudoku. My dear husband bought me a Nintendo DS Lite last weekend to keep me busy during my convalescence and it came with the Brain Training game that is so popular now. I have already finished the basic level and have moved on to the intermediate level. It is quite difficult and does challenge my brain. I’m also happy to report that at last check my brain age was a fit 22, with 20 being the best score. My brain, on Sunday at least, was four years younger than I am. I’m sure today it’s slightly older though, as I am exhausted.

I am sorry I don’t have anything wittier, more insightful, more intelligent or in any way, shape or form more fun for today but hope this will keep you satisfied until I am back seething and moaning about something just a few days from now.