Thursday 19 May 2011

book challenge numbers one to twenty three

So I kind of forgot about the book challenge thing for a bit :/
anyway here's a list of books I've read so far and yes I would recommend them to you all

  • Whales for The Wizard - Malcom Archibald 
  • The Passion of New Eve - Angela Carter
  • The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories - Angela Carter 
  • James and The Giant Peach - Roald Dahl 
  • The Old Man and Me - Elaine Dundy 
  • The Provincial Daughter - R.M Dashwood 
  • Breathing in Colour - Clare Jay 
  • The Camomile - Catherine Carswell 
  • There Once Lived A Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbour's Baby - Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
  • The Printer's Devil - Paul Bajoria 
  • God of Mischief - Paul Bajoria 
  • Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling 
  • The Magic Toyshop - Angela Carter 
  • The Sadeain Woman and The Ideology of Pornography - Angela Carter
  • The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side - Agatha Christie 
  •  the merlin conspiracy - dianna wynn jones 
  •  good behaviour - molly keane 
  •  the man witrh the dancing eyes - sophie dahl 
  •  number 10 - sue townsend 
  • family money - nina bawden
  • the savage garden - mark mills
  • blood child - tim bowler 
  • burning mountain - L.J. Adlington 

Monday 16 May 2011

why I am pro choice

The abortion debate could be so much nicer than it is. There is no way to compromise because either abortion is legal or it is not, but the debate could go a lot more smoothly.
While there isn’t a nice middle ground where everybody can be happy, there are some tings that we could both agree on. Lowering the rate of unintended pregnancy, for one. We can do this by giving everyone extensive comprehensive sex education and access to reliable, affordable contraception. Another one might be making it easier to raise a child. Less stigma against certain mothers, better healthcare, more affordable childcare. Those would be really nice things to see happen. The pro-life side would get less abortions and the pro-choice side would get people better able to live their lives as they see fit. Win-win, right?
Not for pro-lifers, it’s not. Not only do they oppose abortion, a great deal of them oppose birth control, sex education, and making it easier to raise children. So many of the posts on this blog are examples of pro-life people taking giant leaps backward in progress. It’s become blatantly obvious to me that they really and truly do not care about fetuses. They care about controlling and punishing sexuality. They don’t want us to know about our bodies, to be able to prevent pregnancy, or to be able to raise healthy, happy children. They don’t want us to be able to have sex and get away with it. That’s really what it all boils down to.
Am I wrong, lifers? Do I misunderstand you? Well, go ahead and prove it. You might support pregnancy prevention, but your leaders don’t. Look at what pro-life politicians are doing right now. Look at what pro-life groups are doing right now. I have yet to see a single mainstream pro-life leader who openly supports comprehensive sex education and birth control. Many of them openly oppose both, and the others remain silent so as not to step on any toes. If you think this is wrong, start talking to your leaders. Start making some changes to your movement.
Right now, the only people I see supporting comprehensive sex ed and contraception are the pro-choicers. Cry about how we’re evil and pushing abortion so we can make a profit all you want but we are the ones actually preventing abortions. We’re in clinics teaching girls how to not get pregnant, you’re outside screaming at the ones who already are.
Bolded for emphasis. Your move, pro-lifers.

Sunday 15 May 2011

Go Placidly ...

is probably one of the only texts with a religious reference that doesn't annoy me,
and that's only because you can't tell until the line Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be; 
the whole text from the very first letter to the last full stop pretty much resonates with me... It's the guideline I follow for living my life
I grew up with a framed version of it hanging on the landing outside my bedroom and when I moved from my Home down to Greenock for college it was the first thing that I packed to take with me. I decided a long time ago that where ever I end up in life whether its on the other side of the world from my family or back home in Shetland that piece of framed text will always come with me no matter what, it holds my childhood in a few simple lines of text. Every word is loaded with meaning for me and whenever I read it it's like coming home at the end of a long day, its the smell of baking, salt spray in the air, of sheep and haymaking in the summer, its all the hugs from my dad, my mum's hands running through my hair, it's nights curled up in my armchair by the fire with a good book on a cold winter evening, its rock climbing barefooted and not caring about scraped shins, its my brother and I spending all our time together and speaking in our own made up language, it's the sound of a grandfather clock ticking and the soft murmur of voices as I sleep, its the call of a seagull and the swish and suck of an ocean tide on shingle, its being five years old again and falling asleep on my dad's lap to the feel of his heartbeat and the rhythm of his breathing, its being taught how to cook and burnt fingers on sticky jam, using beetroot juice as war paint, building mini bonfires and playing Cowboys and Indians. It's my brother and I setting fire to our bunk bed cause we wanted to practice making campfires, its long summer days and walking down to the village myself at the age of 7. The first time I got drunk and the first time I smoked a spliff.
To put it as simply as possible it is My Home in text form and the fact that it mentions God once in the whole thing honestly doesn't matter to me.