Turned off, wars and a challenge

1 February

For the first time in maybe a couple of weeks I actually closed down my lappy properly last night. I normally just close the programs and then the lid. This morning I did the start and it took ages for it to open up properly. Mind. I did give a bit extra work by inserting Wings Band on the Run to listen to while the kids play on the Wii.

Have you ever heard of Heron Books? They were a book club thingy that was around in the 80s and I bought a number of books from them. Basically it was so many free and then a monthly book at £££. BUT ... and here's the difference from so many other similar book clubs, the books on offer were in author sets. One set I bought was H G Wells. However, I never actually read any of them even though I was really fascinated with World of the Worlds after watching the first film version that was made. And I am still fascinated by it. Anyway ...

I found the book as a free Kindle file on Amazon and have downloaded it. Not only that but at last I am actually reading it! The one thing I would really to get my hands on is a copy of the radio broadcast that caused mass panic in the States years ago. Oh how I was wish I could write like Wells ... ... ...

Kile is with us as I said yesterday and we told him that when the weather was good we would take him birding again. The forecast last night was for wall to wall rain today, so we didn't make any plans for going out. And right now we have wall to wall sun and blue skies. Instead I shall be making my way into town to get some shopping done now.

Today's anniversary then looks back to North America in 1865. It was today in that year the abolition of slavery was signed after four years of war that saw 600,000 dead and Lord knows how many maimed. That of course was just the start. Slavery might have been abolished in 1865 but even now there are places in the States where black people are still treated as second class citizens. This of course raises the issue of legislating for equality. Laws may say one thing and charges might be brought, but no law can ban a person from holding their own beliefs and prejudices. With this in mind then, I offer not so much a funny but perhaps a challenge from the Sage ...

If a Conservative supporter doesn't like guns, he doesn't buy one.
If a Labour/Green doesn't like guns, they want all guns outlawed.
If a Conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn't eat meat.
If a Labour/Green is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned
for everyone.
If a Conservative is gay, he quietly leads his life.
If a Labour/Green is gay, he demands legislated respect.
 If a Conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his
situation.
A Labour/Green wonders who is going to take care of him.
 If a Conservative doesn't like a talk show host, he switches
channels.
Labour/Greens demand that those they don't like should be banned.
 If a Conservative is a non-believer, he doesn't go to church.
A Labour/Green non-believer wants any mention of God and religion
silenced. (Unless it's a foreign religion, of course!)
If a Conservative reads this, he'll forward it so his friends can have
a good laugh.
A Labour/Green will delete it because he's "offended."

And today's photo ... 

Skaters in London last year.