Nigel Gordon

This is a remarkably well told story that does not work out quite as you would expect and raises some challenging questions. I have always enjoyed Mihangel's writing but this I think is amongst his best. You can find it here: http://www.awesomedude.com/mihangel/clouds/clouds.htm

Well I have just made my daily observance to the Horned God, my Turning Ten story is off to the editor, wonder if I have time to knock up a film script before I give homage to The Lady?

I'm sure we had that back in the 1960s or was it the 70s sometime, it didn't work then.

Do you pity the poor choreographer trying to work out the routines or envy them seeing it when it goes wrong?

This is totally stupid, it is also a breach of the common law. A basic principle in common law that applies in both England and the United States is the concept of mens rea. There is a duty on any legal or quasi legal tribunal, except in those instances where an act is an absolute offense defined in statute law, to show that the act performed was not only illegal but that it was done with intent. This clearly was not done with intent.

Unfortunately, as I have found to my cost, the argument based on being able to show by scientific process that a piece of rock is over n billion years old does not work with them. The answer you get is "God made it that way as a test of our faith, so it is not evidence of the age of the earth." There are some arguments that you just can't win. That though does not mean that we should give up trying.

It is wrong to assume that religions are anti-gay de facto. That is only generally true of the monotheistic religions of the Middle East and their descendants. In many religions homosexuality is accepted and in some even seen as a sign of favor from the gods, for instance in some Native American traditions and amongst Northern European Shamans. I'm a Pagan but have studied Buddhism extensively and read Buddhist Philosophy and Buddhist Psychology as part of one of my degrees. An important concept in Buddhist teachings is moderation in all things, that means never going to the extreme. Any homophobic behavior is by definition an extreme, therefore, not in accordance with Buddhist teachings. Incidentally there have been Buddhist sects that have actively promoted homosexuality as a desirable lifestyle. The argument put forward was that if you had to indulge in sex you were better off having a homosexual relationship which would not result in another child being born and condemned to the Wheel of Life. This type of approach is found in some of the Chan Buddhist sects that arose amongst the Samurai in Japan (where Chan is known as Zen). There was also a view that sex with a woman drained a man of vitality whilst he could gain vitality having sex with another male. This view is also found in some Daoist teachings and it seems to have come into the Chan/Zen teachings from Daoism. The anti-homosexual legislation which was introduced in Japan in 1880 (repealed in 1887) was brought about very much through the influence of American Missionaries. It is interesting to note that the Catholic Church had been in Japan since the 16th century and never pushed for such laws. In most (if not all) animistic religions homosexuality is seen as a sign of some special status for the homosexual party in their relationship with the gods. There are some religious roles that can only be undertaken by homosexual men or women. There is some thought that this might have also have been the rule at one time within the European Traditons and that things like "a woman who has not known a man" as required of the vestal virgins, do not in fact refer to virgins but lesbians.

Well the story goes on, for which I am mightily glad as I was already missing Tazerski, not to mention his human companions. This new episode of their life promises to be just as good, if not better than the previous two. Please remember ( as the Dude pointed out in another topic) Tazerski is not a Chimp, the little fellow shows far to much good sense to be that closely related to humans.

I was a boy scout in England, which is where scouting started, and it definitely was not part of the tradition here during the time I was in the scout movement (1956 to 1964).

I would not say they have stopped but the intensity has fallen off, we are not getting the Atlantic storms that were coming in one after another. The problem is that the even with the reduction in rainfall there is still a massive amount of water in the system. It is likely we will have raised water levels in the river system for at least two more months.

I don't think the Christian's understand the Christian perspective on marriage. The early Christian church actually refused to marry people because it regarded marriage as a purely secular arrangement. It was only when the church fathers realised that by controlling marriage they controlled property that the church first started to sanctify marriage in order to control it. The basis of marriage, from ancient times, has always been one of being a civil contract that may or may not be sanctified by a religious dimension. This is still seen in Islamic marriage where the nature of the marriage is defined by the type of contract that the parties have entered into, the is no requirement of any religious involvement.

Well I have just read the final chapter of part II of Taz and Kodak, can't wait for part three to start, just hope the monkey stays in it.

It has been pointed out by a number of different people that if Jesus came back to Earth today and preached what he preached the fundamentalist Christians would almost certainly be the ones throwing him to whatever wild beasts they had available.

News just appearing on the BBC Red Button service, The Red Pepper an Ugandan tabloid newspaper has published a list of Uganda's top 200 homosexuals, the day after the president signed the bill against homosexuals into law. There is no a major fear that those named may be subject of a witch hunt. It is highly possible, if not probably, that many of those named will have to flee their country for their own safety, if this does happen I hope the European and US governments will be prepared to offer them asylum. Here's a link to an article from the Guardian about the issue within it is a link to a Video about the role played by US Evangelical Missionaries. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/25/ugandan-tabloid-prints-list-top-200-homosexuals

If you can access the BBC IPlayer have a look at The Bible Hunters. It is interesting they set out to prove that the Bible was the undisputed unalterable word of God and ended up showing that it was something that had been changed and added to and had parts deleted over time.

I think it has just started to backfire. A business associate and his partner have cancelled their planned trip to Phoenix. He called a hotel to book a room and was told he would have to take two singles, they would not allow men to share. One of the reasons for their trip was to look at the possibility of siting an assembly plant in Phoenix to serve the North American market. They are now going to Vancouver instead.

A good point was made at the Untold Stories reception where one of the speakers made the point that having equality was not enough what we need is acceptance, as long as issues like this come up we do not have acceptance so the fight is still on.

No one would take that bet, he's got 13 lifetimes of experience.

The Leicester LGBT History Project has been running for the last three years collecting oral history from the LGBT community in Leicester. Today the funded project officially came to an end and the results of the project made public. One aspect of this is a website on which all the non-restricted oral histories are going to be put so they can be accessed directly. Eventually there will be over a hundred histories on the site. To access these histories goto: www.lgbt-stories.org

A lot of the problems which can now be seen in parts of Africa can be laid at the door of American Missionaries, one of the outcomes of their activities is Boco Haram, one of the most militant of Islamic organizations.

I know there are quite a few readers of this site who have stories they would like to tell but are put off from having a go at writing by the task which faces them, well if they want to take a first step there is a FREE course from the Open University in the UK that they can join called Start Writing Fiction. Details of the Course can be found at: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/start-writing-fiction It might also be of interest to established writers on the site who want to look at how they can improve their skills. I've enrolled for it and probably need it.

Well if anybody wants to see an example of bravery and remarkable skating, watch Jeremy Abbott, the USA figure skater doing his short programme. He falls and is clearly injured, is on the floor for about 20 seconds, then gets up and not only completes his programme in obvious pain but manages to get all the required elements into what is left of his time on the ice.

Well I know nothing about American Football or the NFL, except for the fact that they appear to be homophobic from what I read in discussion boards. However, I do understand a good speech when I hear it and this was one of the best I have heard for many a year. It is remarkable and well worth listening to.

What have the lions done to be forced to eat Christians. The European Lion became extinct about the same time as we took to feeding Christians to them in the first place, there are so few lions left in the world I beg of you don't feed them Christians. Give the lions some decent beef, preferably alive and on the hoof, let the Christians be used to replace fishmeal for aqua-culture.

I have some friends in the Sochi area and they are rather upset with the attitude of the Western press who are there. It seems that there are some reporters who are actively going out and looking for a homophobic incident to give them a headline. My friends suspect that some of them are identifying gay meeting places to some of the homophobic groups in the area in the hope of instigating an incident which they can then report.