I'm not sure I agree that he is the same as Al Baghdadi: I don't think McCain has ever advocated stoning or the murder of homosexuals or the rape and enslavement of women.
No - in that way McCain is not a fundamentalist. But in other ways he is (and others are). The very concept of "American exceptionalism" is fundamentalist... This myopic thinking that everything the US does is good, everything that others ("perceived enemies") do is bad/ evil... Look at the US today, in Washington you have a museum dedicated to the Shoah - the genocide of the Jews in Europe - nothing wrong with that. But at the same time, there is no museum dedicated to the genocide of American Indians - much closer to home. Why? Because of the fundamentalism that is at the core of the idea of "American exceptionalism."
No museum, but look at the appalling devastation and poverty that is the Reservation system run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Two subjects Americans do not like to talk about - the slavery aspect of the Civil War and what the US did to the Indians.
It's not just the South that has dirty hands in this - the Missouri Compromise dates from 1820.
Andrew Jackson is still on the $20 dollar note despite his forced ethnic cleansing of the 5 tribes on the trail of tears:
Indian reservations are still rather desolate and degrading places.
Speaking of the Cherokees, the eastern band has avoided the dead hand of government handouts and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and has achieved success in the casino and home loan businesses.
Hard to avoid the poetic justice of this - getting revenge by taking money off the pale faces....
I have passed through a number of Indian reservations on my USA travels. Most were profoundly depressing places. The only similar places that I have seen are aboriginal settlements in Australia.
Hard to ban domestically, but to exclue cousanginous marriages from abroad should be possible. Though why arranged marriage from abroad is permitted when we have a substantial community of several million domestically eludes me.
* And for another reason that should now be clearer if you got to the end of the post: the 6s and 7s in London who you're in the same league as, also have the option to "marry up" in the old country.
I would have thought that something akin to the primary purpose rule is needed here. We are never going to integrate a Pakistani heritage community into this country if in every generation spouses are coming from a country which is so far apart from ours in terms of values/laws etc. What chance of the children being brought up as British if they are simply seen as items with a value to be married off to people in their "home" country who then come here? It is this sort of attitude which leads to grotesque crimes such as the parents who killed their British born daughter who wanted to choose her own boyfriend for being "too Western". How can someone born and brought up in this country be thought of as "too Western"?
If they're living here and born here their "home" country should be Britain not Pakistan. If they consider Pakistan to be home - even if they've lived here for generations - then that attitude is a problem, frankly. It is what led to the judge in the Rahman / Tower Hamlets case to describe a Bangladeshi community living in London where a significant proportion, despite living here for years and decades, did not speak English and were therefore easy prey to the type of corrupt politics imported from Bangladesh. That is intolerable.
My mother was Italian. She never took British citizenship. She considered herself Italian. But she chose to live here and stayed here even after she was widowed because this was now her home, however much she loved her native country, because she had been Anglicised in ways which meant that she could not and did not want to go back, because she loved this country for what it had offered her, because she had made a life here and because she had her family, both immediate and extended here.
We should not tolerate some immigrants and their descendants living here in name only. We should have more self-respect as a country.
According to the beeb, one of the notes on the talking points on hotel notepaper was "don't sound triumphant".
Presumably an instruction for the actual negotiations and not the public relations exercise I guess; I assume similarly the talking points for the other sides included "don't sound condescending and arrogant".
Hard to ban domestically, but to exclue cousanginous marriages from abroad should be possible. Though why arranged marriage from abroad is permitted when we have a substantial community of several million domestically eludes me.
* And for another reason that should now be clearer if you got to the end of the post: the 6s and 7s in London who you're in the same league as, also have the option to "marry up" in the old country.
I would have thought that something akin to the primary purpose rule is needed here. We are never going to integrate a Pakistani heritage community into this country if in every generation spouses are coming from a country which is so far apart from ours in terms of values/laws etc. What chance of the children being brought up as British if they are simply seen as items with a value to be married off to people in their "home" country who then come here? It is this sort of attitude which leads to grotesque crimes such as the parents who killed their British born daughter who wanted to choose her own boyfriend for being "too Western". How can someone born and brought up in this country be thought of as "too Western"?
If they're living here and born here their "home" country should be Britain not Pakistan. If they consider Pakistan to be home - even if they've lived here for generations - then that attitude is a problem, frankly. It is what led to the judge in the Rahman / Tower Hamlets case to describe a Bangladeshi community living in London where a significant proportion, despite living here for years and decades, did not speak English and were therefore easy prey to the type of corrupt politics imported from Bangladesh. That is intolerable.
My mother was Italian. She never took British citizenship. She considered herself Italian. But she chose to live here and stayed here even after she was widowed because this was now her home, however much she loved her native country, because she had been Anglicised in ways which meant that she could not and did not want to go back, because she loved this country for what it had offered her, because she had made a life here and because she had her family, both immediate and extended here.
We should not tolerate some immigrants and their descendants living here in name only. We should have more self-respect as a country.
[Random aside II: a Cambridge research geneticist of my acquaintance was always dating guys several decades - 20 or 30 years generally - older than herself. This was partly because she was into the whole 50 Shades dynamic in the century before it became popular, but also partly because she felt we should completely restructure our partnership lifecycle. Older guys were great for financial security, emotional maturity and she reckoned would form a good base for child-rearing. Her cunning plan was then to switch, once the family business was all sorted out, to breaking in the nice young men. Then if she found one she liked, keep him - until she was elderly and he was middle-aged. Once she popped her clogs, the cycle would complete itself when - with the advantages of experience and wealth - he would be unleashed on the young women who were 20-30 years younger than him.
Her theory was that if everybody did this, there would be none of that hassle "saving up until we can buy a house/afford a family" - women would breed in the prime of their lives (men would be a bit older but she thought that was a risk worth taking). Assuming people remained loyal to elderly partners (an assumption she made that I don't think would translate well to the real-world) it would save a fortune on OAP-care, and particularly avoid the often tragic situation of two people growing frail together, with one being struggling left to die alone once their partner succumbs. More generally she thought that younger people were wasted on younger people, when older people had so much more to teach them. Which I thought was a surprisingly cynical review, coming from a younger person - 30ish - at the time. I'm sure there must be sci-fi stories where civilisations practise this kind of social structure, but I've never heard of a real culture that does. I ought to ask an anthropologist, if I ever happen across one.]
[Random aside II: a Cambridge research geneticist of my acquaintance was always dating guys several decades - 20 or 30 years generally - older than herself. This was partly because she was into the whole 50 Shades dynamic in the century before it became popular, but also partly because she felt we should completely restructure our partnership lifecycle. Older guys were great for financial security, emotional maturity and she reckoned would form a good base for child-rearing. Her cunning plan was then to switch, once the family business was all sorted out, to breaking in the nice young men. Then if she found one she liked, keep him - until she was elderly and he was middle-aged. Once she popped her clogs, the cycle would complete itself when - with the advantages of experience and wealth - he would be unleashed on the young women who were 20-30 years younger than him.
Her theory was that if everybody did this, there would be none of that hassle "saving up until we can buy a house/afford a family" - women would breed in the prime of their lives (men would be a bit older but she thought that was a risk worth taking). Assuming people remained loyal to elderly partners (an assumption she made that I don't think would translate well to the real-world) it would save a fortune on OAP-care, and particularly avoid the often tragic situation of two people growing frail together, with one being struggling left to die alone once their partner succumbs. More generally she thought that younger people were wasted on younger people, when older people had so much more to teach them. Which I thought was a surprisingly cynical review, coming from a younger person - 30ish - at the time. I'm sure there must be sci-fi stories where civilisations practise this kind of social structure, but I've never heard of a real culture that does. I ought to ask an anthropologist, if I ever happen across one.]
Juvenile marriage to older men is quite common in some advanced parts of the world like Afghanistan.
I am watching the BBC News Channel. The newsreader (the one in Singapore) said about 2 minutes ago that President Obama had met the leader of the Japanese Communist Party. He said it about 2 or 3 times. The subsequent report revealed that it's actually the leader of the Vietnamese Communist Party. Is his pronunciation really weird, or am I getting deaf?
...Talking of which, why does the BBC News Channel do that really weird split-screen thingy with one newsreader in London and one in Singapore? I find it really weird, somewhat annoying, and convolutedly patronising.
Hard to ban domestically, but to exclue cousanginous marriages from abroad should be possible. Though why arranged marriage from abroad is permitted when we have a substantial community of several million domestically eludes me.
* And for another reason that should now be clearer if you got to the end of the post: the 6s and 7s in London who you're in the same league as, also have the option to "marry up" in the old country.
Can't we just apply Norman Tebbit's Cricket Test?
Which team someone supports in a sport whose attractions seem baffling to me is of no consequence. Nor is it of any consequence what food someone eats or whether they wear a sari or a dirndl skirt or those strange green Loden coats worn by middle aged men from Continental Europe.
But the separation into mental as well as, in some parts of the country, actual ghettos of separate communities has been and continues to be disastrous for the life chances of people within those communities and our social cohesion. And, frankly, it has provided the conditions in which extremist views and terrorism can more easily flourish.
We can either pretend it is not happening (evasion), throw up our hands and say that there is nothing we can do (not true and also evasion) or try and do something (difficult but necessary).
I love this country. I don't see why a girl the same age as my own daughter and a British citizen like my own daughter should be denied the possibilities that life as a British citizen offers just because her mother or granny or Dad was from Pakistan and she has to live her life as she were a Pakistani citizen living in Pakistan. And I refuse to accept this. Why should that girl be treated differently because of the colour of her skin and her or rather her ancestors' "culture"? Why isn't that racist? Why isn't that the racism of low expectations?
[Random aside II: a Cambridge research geneticist of my acquaintance was always dating guys several decades - 20 or 30 years generally - older than herself. This was partly because she was into the whole 50 Shades dynamic in the century before it became popular, but also partly because she felt we should completely restructure our partnership lifecycle. Older guys were great for financial security, emotional maturity and she reckoned would form a good base for child-rearing. Her cunning plan was then to switch, once the family business was all sorted out, to breaking in the nice young men. Then if she found one she liked, keep him - until she was elderly and he was middle-aged. Once she popped her clogs, the cycle would complete itself when - with the advantages of experience and wealth - he would be unleashed on the young women who were 20-30 years younger than him.
Her theory was that if everybody did this, there would be none of that hassle "saving up until we can buy a house/afford a family" - women would breed in the prime of their lives (men would be a bit older but she thought that was a risk worth taking). Assuming people remained loyal to elderly partners (an assumption she made that I don't think would translate well to the real-world) it would save a fortune on OAP-care, and particularly avoid the often tragic situation of two people growing frail together, with one being struggling left to die alone once their partner succumbs. More generally she thought that younger people were wasted on younger people, when older people had so much more to teach them. Which I thought was a surprisingly cynical review, coming from a younger person - 30ish - at the time. I'm sure there must be sci-fi stories where civilisations practise this kind of social structure, but I've never heard of a real culture that does. I ought to ask an anthropologist, if I ever happen across one.]
Juvenile marriage to older men is quite common in some advanced parts of the world like Afghanistan.
Historically marriage was a contract where a woman reared the children in exchange for the man paying a dowry for her wellbeing during old age post childhood duties. The average age between men and women before the 20 th century averaged between 10 and 20 years for the reasons mentioned above fascinating to see how the notion of marriage has altered in relatively recent history. Your aquaintance obviously fits into the historical model!
...Talking of which, why does the BBC News Channel do that really weird split-screen thingy with one newsreader in London and one in Singapore? I find it really weird, somewhat annoying, and convolutedly patronising.
It used to happen at 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning. For some reason they moved it forward to midnight a couple of weeks ago. I agree it's awful; the two newsreaders have an oddly self-congratulatory attitude towards each other.
Do my ears deceive me? ...Talking of which, why does the BBC News Channel do that really weird split-screen thingy with one newsreader in London and one in Singapore? I find it really weird, somewhat annoying, and convolutedly patronising.
I am watching the BBC News Channel. The newsreader (the one in Singapore) said about 2 minutes ago that President Obama had met the leader of the Japanese Communist Party. He said it about 2 or 3 times. The subsequent report revealed that it's actually the leader of the Vietnamese Communist Party. Is his pronunciation really weird, or am I getting deaf?
I assume you're referring to babita Sharma (sp?) and somebody Hixon (sp?).
Yes, it is somewhat odd - another thing that annoys the viewer is that other newscasters stand or sit holding sheafs of papers to which they never refer. Are they scared of teleprompter failure?
The other odd thing about it is that the opening shot shows the two of them side by side on separate screens, and two remote control TV cameras in front of them, both of which are always in lateral motion during the twofer shot, and neither of which is pointing at either screen.
...Talking of which, why does the BBC News Channel do that really weird split-screen thingy with one newsreader in London and one in Singapore? I find it really weird, somewhat annoying, and convolutedly patronising.
It used to happen at 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning. For some reason they moved it forward to midnight a couple of weeks ago. I agree it's awful; the two newsreaders have an oddly self-congratulatory attitude towards each other.
The very odd behaviour which I find most annoying is the way the BBC's correspondents have this way of nodding when asked asked a question, before commencing their reply.
...Talking of which, why does the BBC News Channel do that really weird split-screen thingy with one newsreader in London and one in Singapore? I find it really weird, somewhat annoying, and convolutedly patronising.
It used to happen at 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning. For some reason they moved it forward to midnight a couple of weeks ago. I agree it's awful; the two newsreaders have an oddly self-congratulatory attitude towards each other.
The very odd behaviour which I find most annoying is the way the BBC's correspondents have this way of nodding when asked asked a question, before commencing their reply.
I asked a local newsman I know as to why that happens - it's almost universal with satellite links.
It's feedback to the studio that he/she is receiving the question in their IFB - a visible sign that the link is working.
I would have thought that something akin to the primary purpose rule is needed here. We are never going to integrate a Pakistani heritage community into this country if in every generation spouses are coming from a country which is so far apart from ours in terms of values/laws etc. What chance of the children being brought up as British if they are simply seen as items with a value to be married off to people in their "home" country who then come here? It is this sort of attitude which leads to grotesque crimes such as the parents who killed their British born daughter who wanted to choose her own boyfriend for being "too Western". How can someone born and brought up in this country be thought of as "too Western"?
I know a lot of Muslims and I've never known any of them think of their kids as "items with a value to be married off". Apologies if I misled with the numerical values - that's something I've not seen in Pakistani culture. The numbers come straight out of western culture (have you ever heard "I never shag a girl who's less than a 6 - unless I'm drunk!" or "don't settle, only marry a 9 or above!"). They may be a damning indictment of what we feel about love post-sexual-revolution or whatever moralistic finger-wagging comes to mind, but they express a universal and age-old truth. Parents the world over want their kids to "marry well", and if possible, "marry up". Asian parents I know seem to have sharper elbows and a greater readiness to be brutally honest about prospects. ("You need to hit the gym and lose your weight or the best guys just aren't going to be interested in you"; "work hard and get in to a good university or you are going to be left with the second-rate girls."; these quotes are not verbatim but are close). There are certainly parents who are more regressive than others, but picking out an extreme case like a murder is not representative. The dynamics are more subtle.
I think most Asian girls would tell their parents to sod off if they were treated like tradable commodities. One of the reasons muslim online dating sites are so popular is that they give more choice to young people in finding a suitable partner, often in the UK so more western-oriented which can be considered a big plus by those who are searching for love, but the mechanics of the site are pretty interesting: in many ways they are just a digital re-working of the familiar match-making system. (The reason they don't tend to use "western" sites isn't just cultural aversion, but they wouldn't have the sub-options necessary to screen by degree of religious observance, precise sect, more obscure languages, salary/wealth...) Parents can still play a role in approval and negotiation.
Incidentally, I can't see how a "primary purpose" system will achieve what you want. For immigration fraud, fine - lots of African and South Asian gentlemen marrying East European brides, neither of whom speak English. But that's illegal already and it's a fraud being chased up. "Primary purpose" does not mean "to qualify, your love must be of a traditionally romantic nature and your courtship must follow western tradition". If two people want to get married, they want to get married - there may be a greater or lesser amount of family approval or arrangement or negotiation involved, but ultimately the parties have to want to marry. They want to live together, start a family together, pool their financial risks, and bring their families into a closer union. Moving to the UK might be part of the deal for one of them. But it wouldn't be the only part, unless we're back at a sham marriage situation. Moving to the UK might be such an attractive part that it lets someone marry a guy or girl otherwise "out of their league", but I can't see why that should be a barrier (you'd rather have wealthier and educated folk coming over than skint shepherds).
I actually think there is merit to the suggestion of "make people pay for their golden tickets", but this affects more than south Asian migration. (There's already a peculiar situation where some people can come to stay in the EU as the spouse of a UK citizen under freedom of movement rules, even though they can't settle in the UK itself. So loopholes abound.)
The very odd behaviour which I find most annoying is the way the BBC's correspondents have this way of nodding when asked asked a question, before commencing their reply.
I asked a local newsman I know as to why that happens - it's almost universal with satellite links.
It's feedback to the studio that he/she is receiving the question in their IFB - a visible sign that the link is working.
Pardon me for asking, but isn't that obvious? They need to indicate that they are hearing and receiving the link, in order to allow for the one-or-two-second delay in transmission times, otherwise there is an awkward gap in between question and answer. If the person on the other end is not hearing the studio person, they would have to wait for a further several seconds before realising that the link isn't working.
Speaking of Trump, whose somewhat extreme statements about Mexican illegal immigrants being all murderers and rapists have been universally vilified, then this happens....
Historically marriage was a contract where a woman reared the children in exchange for the man paying a dowry for her wellbeing during old age post childhood duties. The average age between men and women before the 20 th century averaged between 10 and 20 years for the reasons mentioned above fascinating to see how the notion of marriage has altered in relatively recent history. Your aquaintance obviously fits into the historical model!
Modern notions of marriage are indeed quite different to the historical ones... I think traditionally in England the "deal" of marriage was much more clear-cut, explicit, and put in practical, essentially financial, terms. Terms that we now find offputting, but which were rather more concrete than abstract notions of "togetherness" or "loyalty" or "love". Perhaps from a realist's point of view, rather than an idealist's, the "terms" are still there (though rather different these days because of social change) but are considered poor taste to speak about.
What was different about my acquaintance's viewpoint, compared to the traditional one, was her strong belief that everybody should have two main life-partners. So rather than a woman just relying on her financial settlement to get through old age, she would have a younger partner to keep her fed and watered and looked after. Everybody young would be paired off with someone old, everybody old would be paired with someone young, and the children would be the fruit of old men with young women.
It isn't unknown for old women to marry young men, but I don't think it has been the norm anywhere. This two-stage scheme is not one that I'm aware operating anywhere, even in cultures when a young-old divide among bride and groom is prevalent.
The very odd behaviour which I find most annoying is the way the BBC's correspondents have this way of nodding when asked asked a question, before commencing their reply.
I asked a local newsman I know as to why that happens - it's almost universal with satellite links.
It's feedback to the studio that he/she is receiving the question in their IFB - a visible sign that the link is working.
Pardon me for asking, but isn't that obvious? They need to indicate that they are hearing and receiving the link, in order to allow for the one-or-two-second delay in transmission times, otherwise there is an awkward gap in between question and answer. If the person on the other end is not hearing the studio person, they would have to wait for a further several seconds before realising that the link isn't working.
Also, its an interview technique carried out by BBC journalists (at least). Ive been interviewed by several different journalists, local radio, radio 4 and regional bbc tv. Every one of them has, when asking questions, nodded repeatedly and emphatically to every word said. Its slight disconcerting but you see why they do it (with radio interviews they can often be very very close to you as they move the mic between themselves and you).
The very odd behaviour which I find most annoying is the way the BBC's correspondents have this way of nodding when asked asked a question, before commencing their reply.
I asked a local newsman I know as to why that happens - it's almost universal with satellite links.
It's feedback to the studio that he/she is receiving the question in their IFB - a visible sign that the link is working.
Pardon me for asking, but isn't that obvious? They need to indicate that they are hearing and receiving the link, in order to allow for the one-or-two-second delay in transmission times, otherwise there is an awkward gap in between question and answer. If the person on the other end is not hearing the studio person, they would have to wait for a further several seconds before realising that the link isn't working.
As for young woman marrying an old man, then when she is old, marrying a younger one, there is a piece by Simon Jenkins that came up for discussion here recently::
Oliver the Timelord A man of my acquaintance was addressed, when a child, on the subject of Oliver Cromwell. The speaker was a lady of 91. She told him sternly never to speak ill of the great man. She went on: "My husband's first wife's first husband knew Oliver Cromwell - and liked him well." It was an admonition my friend has not forgotten.
At first hearing, the story is unbelievable. This was not a great-grandfather who knew a great-grandson. Here at the dawn of the new century is someone able to recall a single matrimonial generation linked directly with the mid-17th century*. I know of no comparable leap of history, no domestic arrangement that can gather dynasties, revolutions and empires so effortlessly in its embrace. We can wipe out civilisations in a flash, yet extend the experience of a single human imagination over a third of a millennium. What a thing is man (and in this case woman).
*The remark was made in 1923 by a lady born in 1832. At the age of 16 she had married an 80-year-old man named Henry. Sixty-four years earlier, in 1784, the young Henry had, for reasons obscure, married an 82-year-old woman. Her first marriage, in 1720, was to an 80-year-old who had served Cromwell before his death in 1658.
I remain skeptical. But not completely implausible. What adds to the fascination is that James Lee Milne who heard this story lived until 1998!
My earliest memory of the news is Sue Lawley and Nicholas Witchell presenting the BBC Six O'Clock News in the 1980s. I don't think either of them smiled during the 10 years or so that they presented the programme, which was a thoroughly commendable state of affairs in my opinion. In their capable hands the news was icy, methodical, logical, no-nonsense, etc: the complete opposite of what it is today.
Do my ears deceive me? ...Talking of which, why does the BBC News Channel do that really weird split-screen thingy with one newsreader in London and one in Singapore? I find it really weird, somewhat annoying, and convolutedly patronising.
I am watching the BBC News Channel. The newsreader (the one in Singapore) said about 2 minutes ago that President Obama had met the leader of the Japanese Communist Party. He said it about 2 or 3 times. The subsequent report revealed that it's actually the leader of the Vietnamese Communist Party. Is his pronunciation really weird, or am I getting deaf?
I assume you're referring to babita Sharma (sp?) and somebody Hixon (sp?).
"First cousin marriages in Pakistani communities leading to 'appalling' disabilities among children
Baroness Flather, a cross-bench peer, says it is 'absolutely appalling' that first cousin marriages in Pakistani communities are leading to 'so much disability among children'"
I only know one person whose parents are first cousins and both him and his brother have various disabilities. Doesn't seem fair to condemn children to a lifetime of suffering just because the parents want to embark on some weird incestuous relationship.
My parents are second-cousins. The problem that you refer to is not just one isolated first-cousin marriage, but a long line of them for several generations, compounding the problem cumulatively.
Hard to ban domestically, but to exclue cousanginous marriages from abroad should be possible. Though why arranged marriage from abroad is permitted when we have a substantial community of several million domestically eludes me.
* And for another reason that should now be clearer if you got to the end of the post: the 6s and 7s in London who you're in the same league as, also have the option to "marry up" in the old country.
I would have thought that something akin to the primary purpose rule is needed here. We are never going to integrate a Pakistani heritage community into this country if in every generation spouses are coming from a country which is so far apart from ours in terms of values/laws etc. What chance of the children being brought up as British if they are simply seen as items with a value to be married off to people in their "home" country who then come here? It is this sort of attitude which leads to grotesque crimes such as the parents who killed their British born daughter who wanted to choose her own boyfriend for being "too Western". How can someone born and brought up in this country be thought of as "too Western"?
If they're living here and born here their "home" country should be Britain not Pakistan. If they consider Pakistan to be home - even if they've lived here for generations - then that attitude is a problem, frankly. It is what led to the judge in the Rahman / Tower Hamlets case to describe a Bangladeshi community living in London where a significant proportion, despite living here for years and decades, did not speak English and were therefore easy prey to the type of corrupt politics imported from Bangladesh. That is intolerable.
My mother was Italian. She never took British citizenship. She considered herself Italian. But she chose to live here and stayed here even after she was widowed because this was now her home, however much she loved her native country, because she had been Anglicised in ways which meant that she could not and did not want to go back, because she loved this country for what it had offered her, because she had made a life here and because she had her family, both immediate and extended here.
We should not tolerate some immigrants and their descendants living here in name only. We should have more self-respect as a country.
Do my ears deceive me? ...Talking of which, why does the BBC News Channel do that really weird split-screen thingy with one newsreader in London and one in Singapore? I find it really weird, somewhat annoying, and convolutedly patronising.
I am watching the BBC News Channel. The newsreader (the one in Singapore) said about 2 minutes ago that President Obama had met the leader of the Japanese Communist Party. He said it about 2 or 3 times. The subsequent report revealed that it's actually the leader of the Vietnamese Communist Party. Is his pronunciation really weird, or am I getting deaf?
I assume you're referring to babita Sharma (sp?) and somebody Hixon (sp?).
Babita Sharma and Rico Hizon.
Now (nod) you have to admit, (nod) that's a pretty good on-the-fly guess!!!!!! (nod furiously)
Looks like all that chatter that the referendum would give Greek a 'strong hand' in negotiations, was a load of rubbish, then. It looks like they'll either need to produce a plan more radical than previously offered - that may include pension reform - or it's a Grexit. That you have the likes of Juncker and co. talking of a Grexit as a serious possible, IMHO is indicative of how far the situation has escalated.
Interesting conversation on here, meanwhile. I think the lady who suggests dating older men, may perhaps underestimate that most women my age don't really fancy dating someone in their 40s/50s. Not in the least because we're at a different stage in life, and also because well not many twenty-somethings are attracted to men 30 years older than themselves. 10 years, maybe, but 20, 30 - that's pushing it a bit!
Parents may well want their kids to marry 'up', but ultimately as far as I can see among my own social group, parents have very limited power in choosing what exactly qualifies as what the 'best' for their children actually is. I certainly wouldn't want my mother interfering in my relationships - I'm certainly glad she has pressured me to be a certain weight to attract men. I diet and exercise because it's healthy for me, first and foremost. Everyone may want a '9', but given most people are average looking, it's unlikely that many are going to get with gorgeous blokes, or stunning girls.
Do my ears deceive me? ...Talking of which, why does the BBC News Channel do that really weird split-screen thingy with one newsreader in London and one in Singapore? I find it really weird, somewhat annoying, and convolutedly patronising.
I am watching the BBC News Channel. The newsreader (the one in Singapore) said about 2 minutes ago that President Obama had met the leader of the Japanese Communist Party. He said it about 2 or 3 times. The subsequent report revealed that it's actually the leader of the Vietnamese Communist Party. Is his pronunciation really weird, or am I getting deaf?
I assume you're referring to babita Sharma (sp?) and somebody Hixon (sp?).
Babita Sharma and Rico Hizon.
I quite like Rico Hizon as a reporter. He appears to know his onions about business reporting, at least more so than many business reporters. But the split screen is weird and the time delay makes uneasy viewing (and listening). It would be better to present the whole show from London, or from Singapore, or just split it into two chunks one from each!
On the subject of subcontinental marriage, well, it's been almost 4 months since my sister-in-law scarpered off back to India without telling me or my parents. She was in the UK for only two months.
Do my ears deceive me? ...Talking of which, why does the BBC News Channel do that really weird split-screen thingy with one newsreader in London and one in Singapore? I find it really weird, somewhat annoying, and convolutedly patronising.
I am watching the BBC News Channel. The newsreader (the one in Singapore) said about 2 minutes ago that President Obama had met the leader of the Japanese Communist Party. He said it about 2 or 3 times. The subsequent report revealed that it's actually the leader of the Vietnamese Communist Party. Is his pronunciation really weird, or am I getting deaf?
I assume you're referring to babita Sharma (sp?) and somebody Hixon (sp?).
Babita Sharma and Rico Hizon.
I quite like Rico Hizon as a reporter. He appears to know his onions about business reporting, at least more so than many business reporters. But the split screen is weird and the time delay makes uneasy viewing (and listening). It would be better to present the whole show from London, or from Singapore, or just split it into two chunks one from each!
I see this show on BBC World News - what channel is it on in the UK?
On the subject of subcontinental marriage, well, it's been almost 4 months since my sister-in-law scarpered off back to India without telling me or my parents. She was in the UK for only two months.
Looks like all that chatter that the referendum would give Greek a 'strong hand' in negotiations, was a load of rubbish, then. It looks like they'll either need to produce a plan more radical than previously offered - that may include pension reform - or it's a Grexit. That you have the likes of Juncker and co. talking of a Grexit as a serious possible, IMHO is indicative of how far the situation has escalated.
Interesting conversation on here, meanwhile. I think the lady who suggests dating older men, may perhaps underestimate that most women my age don't really fancy dating someone in their 40s/50s. Not in the least because we're at a different stage in life, and also because well not many twenty-somethings are attracted to men 30 years older than themselves. 10 years, maybe, but 20, 30 - that's pushing it a bit!
Parents may well want their kids to marry 'up', but ultimately as far as I can see among my own social group, parents have very limited power in choosing what exactly qualifies as what the 'best' for their children actually is. I certainly wouldn't want my mother interfering in my relationships - I'm certainly glad she hasn't pressured me to be a certain weight to attract men. I diet and exercise because it's healthy for me, first and foremost. Everyone may want a '9', but given most people are average looking, it's unlikely that many are going to get with gorgeous blokes, or stunning girls.
*hasn't*
I wish the editing feature on this would last for more than six minutes.
Do my ears deceive me? ...Talking of which, why does the BBC News Channel do that really weird split-screen thingy with one newsreader in London and one in Singapore? I find it really weird, somewhat annoying, and convolutedly patronising.
I am watching the BBC News Channel. The newsreader (the one in Singapore) said about 2 minutes ago that President Obama had met the leader of the Japanese Communist Party. He said it about 2 or 3 times. The subsequent report revealed that it's actually the leader of the Vietnamese Communist Party. Is his pronunciation really weird, or am I getting deaf?
I assume you're referring to babita Sharma (sp?) and somebody Hixon (sp?).
Babita Sharma and Rico Hizon.
Now (nod) you have to admit, (nod) that's a pretty good on-the-fly guess!!!!!! (nod furiously)
Sorry, Tim, I didn't get that! Apologies to our viewers for the quality of that transmission
Do my ears deceive me? ...Talking of which, why does the BBC News Channel do that really weird split-screen thingy with one newsreader in London and one in Singapore? I find it really weird, somewhat annoying, and convolutedly patronising.
I am watching the BBC News Channel. The newsreader (the one in Singapore) said about 2 minutes ago that President Obama had met the leader of the Japanese Communist Party. He said it about 2 or 3 times. The subsequent report revealed that it's actually the leader of the Vietnamese Communist Party. Is his pronunciation really weird, or am I getting deaf?
I assume you're referring to babita Sharma (sp?) and somebody Hixon (sp?).
Babita Sharma and Rico Hizon.
I quite like Rico Hizon as a reporter. He appears to know his onions about business reporting, at least more so than many business reporters. But the split screen is weird and the time delay makes uneasy viewing (and listening). It would be better to present the whole show from London, or from Singapore, or just split it into two chunks one from each!
I see this show on BBC World News - what channel is it on in the UK?
Interesting conversation on here, meanwhile. I think the lady who suggests dating older men, may perhaps underestimate that most women my age don't really fancy dating someone in their 40s/50s. Not in the least because we're at a different stage in life, and also because well not many twenty-somethings are attracted to men 30 years older than themselves. 10 years, maybe, but 20, 30 - that's pushing it a bit!
She had pretty weird tastes and assumed the rest of society would just accept them on grounds of their efficiency and practicality - judging from the current state of the TV schedules, I am kicking myself for failing to pitch a sit-com about the impractical ideas about love, life and relationships that are possessed by otherwise perfectly intelligent early-career scientists ... that would have put an couple of extra O's on my bank balance.
Actually I reckoned the fatal flaw in her idea, was that it assumed a woman in her 40s/50s would be so devoted to her increasingly incontinent/dementia-suffering partner that she would care for him until death, even though a woman of that age was also assumed to be irresistibly attractive to 20 year old hunks. To be fair, she wasn't a great believer in monogamy, but she was making some big assumptions there. More worryingly, she assumed the 40/50 year old men would be utterly devoted to their incontinent and dementia-wracked 80 year old wives, enough that they wouldn't run off with the hypothesised older-man-adoring twenty-something lasses. Which suggests that her already substantial depth of cynicism about the human race had yet to catch up to levels consistent with social reality.
Good for you re diet and exercise by the way. I think you are just trying to guilt out the rest of us
Do my ears deceive me? ...Talking of which, why does the BBC News Channel do that really weird split-screen thingy with one newsreader in London and one in Singapore? I find it really weird, somewhat annoying, and convolutedly patronising.
I am watching the BBC News Channel. The newsreader (the one in Singapore) said about 2 minutes ago that President Obama had met the leader of the Japanese Communist Party. He said it about 2 or 3 times. The subsequent report revealed that it's actually the leader of the Vietnamese Communist Party. Is his pronunciation really weird, or am I getting deaf?
I assume you're referring to babita Sharma (sp?) and somebody Hixon (sp?).
Babita Sharma and Rico Hizon.
Now (nod) you have to admit, (nod) that's a pretty good on-the-fly guess!!!!!! (nod furiously)
Sorry, Tim, I didn't get that! Apologies to our viewers for the quality of that transmission
Do my ears deceive me? ...Talking of which, why does the BBC News Channel do that really weird split-screen thingy with one newsreader in London and one in Singapore? I find it really weird, somewhat annoying, and convolutedly patronising.
I am watching the BBC News Channel. The newsreader (the one in Singapore) said about 2 minutes ago that President Obama had met the leader of the Japanese Communist Party. He said it about 2 or 3 times. The subsequent report revealed that it's actually the leader of the Vietnamese Communist Party. Is his pronunciation really weird, or am I getting deaf?
I assume you're referring to babita Sharma (sp?) and somebody Hixon (sp?).
Babita Sharma and Rico Hizon.
I quite like Rico Hizon as a reporter. He appears to know his onions about business reporting, at least more so than many business reporters. But the split screen is weird and the time delay makes uneasy viewing (and listening). It would be better to present the whole show from London, or from Singapore, or just split it into two chunks one from each!
I see this show on BBC World News - what channel is it on in the UK?
It's shown on BBC One and BBC News 24.
It's odd - the Katty Kay hosted BBC News program from Washington DC is produced for PBS yet also airs on BBC World News.
On the subject of subcontinental marriage, well, it's been almost 4 months since my sister-in-law scarpered off back to India without telling me or my parents. She was in the UK for only two months.
Interesting conversation on here, meanwhile. I think the lady who suggests dating older men, may perhaps underestimate that most women my age don't really fancy dating someone in their 40s/50s. Not in the least because we're at a different stage in life, and also because well not many twenty-somethings are attracted to men 30 years older than themselves. 10 years, maybe, but 20, 30 - that's pushing it a bit!
She had pretty weird tastes and assumed the rest of society would just accept them on grounds of their efficiency and practicality - judging from the current state of the TV schedules, I am kicking myself for failing to pitch a sit-com about the impractical ideas about love, life and relationships that are possessed by otherwise perfectly intelligent early-career scientists ... that would have put an couple of extra O's on my bank balance.
Actually I reckoned the fatal flaw in her idea, was that it assumed a woman in her 40s/50s would be so devoted to her increasingly incontinent/dementia-suffering partner that she would care for him until death, even though a woman of that age was also assumed to be irresistibly attractive to 20 year old hunks. To be fair, she wasn't a great believer in monogamy, but she was making some big assumptions there. More worryingly, she assumed the 40/50 year old men would be utterly devoted to their incontinent and dementia-wracked 80 year old wives, enough that they wouldn't run off with the hypothesised older-man-adoring twenty-something lasses. Which suggests that her already substantial depth of cynicism about the human race had yet to catch up to levels consistent with social reality.
Good for you re diet and exercise by the way. I think you are just trying to guilt out the rest of us
Last weekend, Billy Joel married his long term (pregnant) girlfriend, who is over 30 years younger than he is, and exactly half his age.
On the subject of subcontinental marriage, well, it's been almost 4 months since my sister-in-law scarpered off back to India without telling me or my parents. She was in the UK for only two months.
Couldn't stand the weather?
Once Sunil heard there was a train on her wedding dress he became obsessed
On the subject of subcontinental marriage, well, it's been almost 4 months since my sister-in-law scarpered off back to India without telling me or my parents. She was in the UK for only two months.
Couldn't stand the weather?
Don't think so. She took eight months to arrive here in late January - she and my brother got married in May 2014. How long does it normally take for a UK spouse's Visa?
Very nice. Now, give him the choice between that (definitely at least a 9!) and sticking around looking after a 95-year-old arthritic lady who can't remember what day it is...
She had pretty weird tastes and assumed the rest of society would just accept them on grounds of their efficiency and practicality - judging from the current state of the TV schedules, I am kicking myself for failing to pitch a sit-com about the impractical ideas about love, life and relationships that are possessed by otherwise perfectly intelligent early-career scientists ... that would have put an couple of extra O's on my bank balance.
I think she's incredibly naive to think most 40-50 year old women will want to be carers for potentially 10-20 years of their lives, and well 'misguided' to be polite - that 40-50 year old men will want to be in relationships with 80 year old women! In any case, from what I've read a large amount of these age-gap relationships don't tend to last long, anyway. There are significant risks in marrying someone only ten years your senior, let alone marrying someone 20-30 years older. You already see people growing a part in relationships were the ages are close - let alone in these kinds of marriages.
I also think although she may not be a great believer in monogamy, most people do tend to still believe it. Personally, I believe in monogamy, but if you're going to reject it then monogamy needs to be rejected for partners, as opposed to just one. I can understand being cynical about humans, but a lot of our choices tend to be restricted by our circumstances, anyway. Not only will most people date within their peer-group, but these days households need two, and not just one income. With that in mind, it's unlikely most will be able to have a situation where mother stays at home, while older man earns the money. I also think that a lot of women in general like having their own money, and not always having to ask someone else for some cash!:D
On my diet and exercise, well part of it is keeping my spirits up, too. I struggle with anxiety and depression, and so the endorphins gained from it make me feel good mentally, too. I'm not perfect on dieting, but do generally try to eat healthily, and limit take-outs to once a month or so.
Interesting conversation on here, meanwhile. I think the lady who suggests dating older men, may perhaps underestimate that most women my age don't really fancy dating someone in their 40s/50s. Not in the least because we're at a different stage in life, and also because well not many twenty-somethings are attracted to men 30 years older than themselves. 10 years, maybe, but 20, 30 - that's pushing it a bit!
She had pretty weird tastes and assumed the rest of society would just accept them on grounds of their efficiency and practicality - judging from the current state of the TV schedules, I am kicking myself for failing to pitch a sit-com about the impractical ideas about love, life and relationships that are possessed by otherwise perfectly intelligent early-career scientists ... that would have put an couple of extra O's on my bank balance.
Actually I reckoned the fatal flaw in her idea, was that it assumed a woman in her 40s/50s would be so devoted to her increasingly incontinent/dementia-suffering partner that she would care for him until death, even though a woman of that age was also assumed to be irresistibly attractive to 20 year old hunks. To be fair, she wasn't a great believer in monogamy, but she was making some big assumptions there. More worryingly, she assumed the 40/50 year old men would be utterly devoted to their incontinent and dementia-wracked 80 year old wives, enough that they wouldn't run off with the hypothesised older-man-adoring twenty-something lasses. Which suggests that her already substantial depth of cynicism about the human race had yet to catch up to levels consistent with social reality.
Good for you re diet and exercise by the way. I think you are just trying to guilt out the rest of us
Last weekend, Billy Joel married his long term (pregnant) girlfriend, who is over 30 years younger than he is, and exactly half his age.
My earliest memory of the news is Sue Lawley and Nicholas Witchell presenting the BBC Six O'Clock News in the 1980s. I don't think either of them smiled during the 10 years or so that they presented the programme, which was a thoroughly commendable state of affairs in my opinion. In their capable hands the news was icy, methodical, logical, no-nonsense, etc: the complete opposite of what it is today.
In the 1970s we grew up on John Craven's Newsround. The earliest news item which I remember directly and to which I can put a date was the meeting, in space, of American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts, when their spacecrafts docked together, in June 1975. My favourite fact about that meeting was that it happened 140 miles above Bognor Regis.
On the subject of subcontinental marriage, well, it's been almost 4 months since my sister-in-law scarpered off back to India without telling me or my parents. She was in the UK for only two months.
Couldn't stand the weather?
Don't think so. She took eight months to arrive here in late January - she and my brother got married in May 2014. How long does it normally take for a UK spouse's Visa?
A month or three, I think. But not my area of expertise. One thing I am aware of is the income requirement - someone on a low income basically can't bring their spouse over, which in some circumstances can be a bit harsh. (As I mentioned downthread, there are some weird loopholes about EU freedom of movement sometimes making it easier to get a spouse into another EU country as "spouse of EU citizen of a different country" than it is into the UK.)
Your mum not had any luck marrying you off yet Sunil? I'd have thought the "PhD from Global Top Three University" would have been a seller.
On the subject of subcontinental marriage, well, it's been almost 4 months since my sister-in-law scarpered off back to India without telling me or my parents. She was in the UK for only two months.
Couldn't stand the weather?
Don't think so. She took eight months to arrive here in late January - she and my brother got married in May 2014. How long does it normally take for a UK spouse's Visa?
A month or three, I think. But not my area of expertise. One thing I am aware of is the income requirement - someone on a low income basically can't bring their spouse over, which in some circumstances can be a bit harsh. (As I mentioned downthread, there are some weird loopholes about EU freedom of movement sometimes making it easier to get a spouse into another EU country as "spouse of EU citizen of a different country" than it is into the UK.)
Your mum not had any luck marrying you off yet Sunil? I'd have thought the "PhD from Global Top Three University" would have been a seller.
Unfortunately, my Tebbit Chip precludes me from believing in Asian "marrying off" culture
And I'm gonna turn 40 in a few months, which I fear pegs me down a few notches on the PB's Most Eligible Bachelor List
More great BBC News coverage - some BBC folks went to see a demo of Microsoft's Hololens. Cameras weren't allowed in, so the two guys talked about what they'd seen in a hot tub.
She had pretty weird tastes and assumed the rest of society would just accept them on grounds of their efficiency and practicality - judging from the current state of the TV schedules, I am kicking myself for failing to pitch a sit-com about the impractical ideas about love, life and relationships that are possessed by otherwise perfectly intelligent early-career scientists ... that would have put an couple of extra O's on my bank balance.
I think she's incredibly naive to think most 40-50 year old women will want to be carers for potentially 10-20 years of their lives, and well 'misguided' to be polite - that 40-50 year old men will want to be in relationships with 80 year old women! In any case, from what I've read a large amount of these age-gap relationships don't tend to last long, anyway. There are significant risks in marrying someone only ten years your senior, let alone marrying someone 20-30 years older. You already see people growing a part in relationships were the ages are close - let alone in these kinds of marriages.
I also think although she may not be a great believer in monogamy, most people do tend to still believe it. Personally, I believe in monogamy, but if you're going to reject it then monogamy needs to be rejected for partners, as opposed to just one. I can understand being cynical about humans, but a lot of our choices tend to be restricted by our circumstances, anyway. Not only will most people date within their peer-group, but these days households need two, and not just one income. With that in mind, it's unlikely most will be able to have a situation where mother stays at home, while older man earns the money. I also think that a lot of women in general like having their own money, and not always having to ask someone else for some cash!:D
On my diet and exercise, well part of it is keeping my spirits up, too. I struggle with anxiety and depression, and so the endorphins gained from it make me feel good mentally, too. I'm not perfect on dieting, but do generally try to eat healthily, and limit take-outs to once a month or so.
To be fair this was back around 2000ish. She'd be in early middle age herself now, since she was about 30 then, so perhaps she's got into her toyboy-seeking mode... and no doubt the level of cynicism has risen. Been a while since I talked to her though, but a couple of years ago she was still after the "right" older man!
Best of luck with the health. Since I don't eat out at all, I find this marks me out as something of a social outcast. If you're going to cook for yourself all the time, at least cook well... rather wish I'd paid more attention in culinary lessons.
On the subject of subcontinental marriage, well, it's been almost 4 months since my sister-in-law scarpered off back to India without telling me or my parents. She was in the UK for only two months.
Couldn't stand the weather?
Don't think so. She took eight months to arrive here in late January - she and my brother got married in May 2014. How long does it normally take for a UK spouse's Visa?
A month or three, I think. But not my area of expertise. One thing I am aware of is the income requirement - someone on a low income basically can't bring their spouse over, which in some circumstances can be a bit harsh. (As I mentioned downthread, there are some weird loopholes about EU freedom of movement sometimes making it easier to get a spouse into another EU country as "spouse of EU citizen of a different country" than it is into the UK.)
Your mum not had any luck marrying you off yet Sunil? I'd have thought the "PhD from Global Top Three University" would have been a seller.
Unfortunately, my Tebbit Chip precludes me from believing in Asian "marrying off" culture
And I'm gonna turn 40 in a few months, which I fear pegs me down a few notches on the PB's Most Eligible Bachelor List
You just need to find a girl with an Ian Allen trainspotting book!
On the subject of subcontinental marriage, well, it's been almost 4 months since my sister-in-law scarpered off back to India without telling me or my parents. She was in the UK for only two months.
Couldn't stand the weather?
Don't think so. She took eight months to arrive here in late January - she and my brother got married in May 2014. How long does it normally take for a UK spouse's Visa?
A month or three, I think. But not my area of expertise. One thing I am aware of is the income requirement - someone on a low income basically can't bring their spouse over, which in some circumstances can be a bit harsh. (As I mentioned downthread, there are some weird loopholes about EU freedom of movement sometimes making it easier to get a spouse into another EU country as "spouse of EU citizen of a different country" than it is into the UK.)
Your mum not had any luck marrying you off yet Sunil? I'd have thought the "PhD from Global Top Three University" would have been a seller.
Unfortunately, my Tebbit Chip precludes me from believing in Asian "marrying off" culture
And I'm gonna turn 40 in a few months, which I fear pegs me down a few notches on the PB's Most Eligible Bachelor List
You should claim that you were part of the manual labour team responsible for winning Redbridge In Bloom. Gardening always impresses the ladies, or at least that subsection of ladies who like gardening. Probably you ought to big up the part of gardening that involves flowers. Women like flowers. That'll do the trick.
Yep, this seems pretty common in Hollywood. I think the $ signs are the reason why though.
I reckon it probably has more to do with fame, or simply charisma. I base this on the premise that dollars help - top businessmen seem to do pretty well for themselves - but isn't enough. Even big businessmen don't seem to do quite as well as sports/music/film stars who are several orders of magnitudes worse off than them, but it's a close-run thing.
The bigger difference is at the lower levels: it seems to me that rather run-of-the-mill musicians and actors, not just the megastars, do pretty well for themselves despite the threat of penury, whereas comfortably wealthy actuaries and accountants merely do "okay". And at the very bottom of the pile, lots of lads at university like to be "in a band" because even at that amateurish standard they know the gigs will get them laid a little more often; the chaps doing the investment banking internships do not attain quite the same aura.
I think it's fine not to eat out - everyone is different afterall. I do think there is too much of a pressure to 'conform' in our society! On cooking: the recipes in many cooking books, are fairly straight-forward...so maybe you could start there...:)
On Hollywood men, I think you may be on to something, actually. Especially when you think about politicians: looking at their affairs, many of the women (e.g Prescott, Huhne) aren't objectively, the most stunning women out there. In many cases, it's actually the opposite, something which I've been rather puzzled by, if you go by the rich men = gorgeous women idea of the way things work. So I do think the fame, status, and charisma of movie stars probably does allow them to date the most beautiful women. Your average businessmen, by contrast is unlikely to have the same status (in terms of fame and popularity) and the same charisma. Indeed many CEOs, don't seem to have the most pleasant personalities, either. I guess if you're a young, up-coming actress or model it makes far more sense to hook-up with a famous Hollywood guy (e.g Johnny Depp's fiancee Amber Heard) than a businessmen who Hollywood hasn't heard of, as well.
Comments
They pay nearly £2k in total tax, half of which is NI.
Hard to avoid the poetic justice of this - getting revenge by taking money off the pale faces....
I have passed through a number of Indian reservations on my USA travels. Most were profoundly depressing places. The only similar places that I have seen are aboriginal settlements in Australia.
If they're living here and born here their "home" country should be Britain not Pakistan. If they consider Pakistan to be home - even if they've lived here for generations - then that attitude is a problem, frankly. It is what led to the judge in the Rahman / Tower Hamlets case to describe a Bangladeshi community living in London where a significant proportion, despite living here for years and decades, did not speak English and were therefore easy prey to the type of corrupt politics imported from Bangladesh. That is intolerable.
My mother was Italian. She never took British citizenship. She considered herself Italian. But she chose to live here and stayed here even after she was widowed because this was now her home, however much she loved her native country, because she had been Anglicised in ways which meant that she could not and did not want to go back, because she loved this country for what it had offered her, because she had made a life here and because she had her family, both immediate and extended here.
We should not tolerate some immigrants and their descendants living here in name only. We should have more self-respect as a country.
Her theory was that if everybody did this, there would be none of that hassle "saving up until we can buy a house/afford a family" - women would breed in the prime of their lives (men would be a bit older but she thought that was a risk worth taking). Assuming people remained loyal to elderly partners (an assumption she made that I don't think would translate well to the real-world) it would save a fortune on OAP-care, and particularly avoid the often tragic situation of two people growing frail together, with one being struggling left to die alone once their partner succumbs. More generally she thought that younger people were wasted on younger people, when older people had so much more to teach them. Which I thought was a surprisingly cynical review, coming from a younger person - 30ish - at the time. I'm sure there must be sci-fi stories where civilisations practise this kind of social structure, but I've never heard of a real culture that does. I ought to ask an anthropologist, if I ever happen across one.]
I am watching the BBC News Channel. The newsreader (the one in Singapore) said about 2 minutes ago that President Obama had met the leader of the Japanese Communist Party. He said it about 2 or 3 times. The subsequent report revealed that it's actually the leader of the Vietnamese Communist Party. Is his pronunciation really weird, or am I getting deaf?
But the separation into mental as well as, in some parts of the country, actual ghettos of separate communities has been and continues to be disastrous for the life chances of people within those communities and our social cohesion. And, frankly, it has provided the conditions in which extremist views and terrorism can more easily flourish.
We can either pretend it is not happening (evasion), throw up our hands and say that there is nothing we can do (not true and also evasion) or try and do something (difficult but necessary).
I love this country. I don't see why a girl the same age as my own daughter and a British citizen like my own daughter should be denied the possibilities that life as a British citizen offers just because her mother or granny or Dad was from Pakistan and she has to live her life as she were a Pakistani citizen living in Pakistan. And I refuse to accept this. Why should that girl be treated differently because of the colour of her skin and her or rather her ancestors' "culture"? Why isn't that racist? Why isn't that the racism of low expectations?
Yes, it is somewhat odd - another thing that annoys the viewer is that other newscasters stand or sit holding sheafs of papers to which they never refer. Are they scared of teleprompter failure?
The other odd thing about it is that the opening shot shows the two of them side by side on separate screens, and two remote control TV cameras in front of them, both of which are always in lateral motion during the twofer shot, and neither of which is pointing at either screen.
It's feedback to the studio that he/she is receiving the question in their IFB - a visible sign that the link is working.
I think most Asian girls would tell their parents to sod off if they were treated like tradable commodities. One of the reasons muslim online dating sites are so popular is that they give more choice to young people in finding a suitable partner, often in the UK so more western-oriented which can be considered a big plus by those who are searching for love, but the mechanics of the site are pretty interesting: in many ways they are just a digital re-working of the familiar match-making system. (The reason they don't tend to use "western" sites isn't just cultural aversion, but they wouldn't have the sub-options necessary to screen by degree of religious observance, precise sect, more obscure languages, salary/wealth...) Parents can still play a role in approval and negotiation.
I actually think there is merit to the suggestion of "make people pay for their golden tickets", but this affects more than south Asian migration. (There's already a peculiar situation where some people can come to stay in the EU as the spouse of a UK citizen under freedom of movement rules, even though they can't settle in the UK itself. So loopholes abound.)
Series winner:
Australia 1.45
England 5.2
Draw 8
https://www.betfair.com/exchange/plus/#/cricket/market/1.113071675
First Test, Cardiff:
Australia 2
England 4.3
Draw 3.65
https://www.betfair.com/exchange/cricket/event?nodeId=MENU:27458861&id=27458861
New Gravis national poll has a Bush-Trump race, certainly Trump is making an impact but also muddying the waters for the rest of Bush's opponents
Bush – 22%
Trump – 15%
Carson – 10%
Huckabee – 10%
Rubio – 8%
WALKER– 8%
Christie – 5%
Cruz – 5%
Paul – 4%
Perry – 4%
—————
Fiorina – 3%
Graham – 2%
Jindal – 2%
Pataki – 1%
Santorum – 1%
Undecided – 0%
http://www.oann.com/poll/
http://news.yahoo.com/deported-man-charged-murder-san-francisco-shooting-003632460.html
What was different about my acquaintance's viewpoint, compared to the traditional one, was her strong belief that everybody should have two main life-partners. So rather than a woman just relying on her financial settlement to get through old age, she would have a younger partner to keep her fed and watered and looked after. Everybody young would be paired off with someone old, everybody old would be paired with someone young, and the children would be the fruit of old men with young women.
It isn't unknown for old women to marry young men, but I don't think it has been the norm anywhere. This two-stage scheme is not one that I'm aware operating anywhere, even in cultures when a young-old divide among bride and groom is prevalent.
OK I'll pardon you this time
Oliver the Timelord
A man of my acquaintance was addressed, when a child, on the subject of Oliver Cromwell. The speaker was a lady of 91. She told him sternly never to speak ill of the great man. She went on: "My husband's first wife's first husband knew Oliver Cromwell - and liked him well." It was an admonition my friend has not forgotten.
At first hearing, the story is unbelievable. This was not a great-grandfather who knew a great-grandson. Here at the dawn of the new century is someone able to recall a single matrimonial generation linked directly with the mid-17th century*. I know of no comparable leap of history, no domestic arrangement that can gather dynasties, revolutions and empires so effortlessly in its embrace. We can wipe out civilisations in a flash, yet extend the experience of a single human imagination over a third of a millennium. What a thing is man (and in this case woman).
*The remark was made in 1923 by a lady born in 1832. At the age of 16 she had married an 80-year-old man named Henry. Sixty-four years earlier, in 1784, the young Henry had, for reasons obscure, married an 82-year-old woman. Her first marriage, in 1720, was to an 80-year-old who had served Cromwell before his death in 1658.
I remain skeptical. But not completely implausible. What adds to the fascination is that James Lee Milne who heard this story lived until 1998!
A rather more traditional "how many handshakes into the past" game was played out on Crooked Timber a few years back.
http://www.renewables-map.co.uk/windfarm.asp
Come on, Australi... er, I mean England
Interesting conversation on here, meanwhile. I think the lady who suggests dating older men, may perhaps underestimate that most women my age don't really fancy dating someone in their 40s/50s. Not in the least because we're at a different stage in life, and also because well not many twenty-somethings are attracted to men 30 years older than themselves. 10 years, maybe, but 20, 30 - that's pushing it a bit!
Parents may well want their kids to marry 'up', but ultimately as far as I can see among my own social group, parents have very limited power in choosing what exactly qualifies as what the 'best' for their children actually is. I certainly wouldn't want my mother interfering in my relationships - I'm certainly glad she has pressured me to be a certain weight to attract men. I diet and exercise because it's healthy for me, first and foremost. Everyone may want a '9', but given most people are average looking, it's unlikely that many are going to get with gorgeous blokes, or stunning girls.
I wish the editing feature on this would last for more than six minutes.
Actually I reckoned the fatal flaw in her idea, was that it assumed a woman in her 40s/50s would be so devoted to her increasingly incontinent/dementia-suffering partner that she would care for him until death, even though a woman of that age was also assumed to be irresistibly attractive to 20 year old hunks. To be fair, she wasn't a great believer in monogamy, but she was making some big assumptions there. More worryingly, she assumed the 40/50 year old men would be utterly devoted to their incontinent and dementia-wracked 80 year old wives, enough that they wouldn't run off with the hypothesised older-man-adoring twenty-something lasses. Which suggests that her already substantial depth of cynicism about the human race had yet to catch up to levels consistent with social reality.
Good for you re diet and exercise by the way. I think you are just trying to guilt out the rest of us
http://www.people.com/article/billy-joel-married-alexis-roderick
Why don't you ask him if he's going away?
Why don't you tell me what's going on?
Why don't you tell me who's on the phone?
Why don't you ask him what's going on?
Why don't you ask him who's the latest on his throne?
Don't say that you love me!
Just tell me that you want me!
Tusk! Tusk! Tusk! Tusk!
Tusk! Tusk! Tusk! Tusk!
Tusk! Tusk! Tusk! Tusk!
Tusk! Tusk! Tusk! Tusk!
Tusk!
Very nice. Now, give him the choice between that (definitely at least a 9!) and sticking around looking after a 95-year-old arthritic lady who can't remember what day it is...
I also think although she may not be a great believer in monogamy, most people do tend to still believe it. Personally, I believe in monogamy, but if you're going to reject it then monogamy needs to be rejected for partners, as opposed to just one. I can understand being cynical about humans, but a lot of our choices tend to be restricted by our circumstances, anyway. Not only will most people date within their peer-group, but these days households need two, and not just one income. With that in mind, it's unlikely most will be able to have a situation where mother stays at home, while older man earns the money. I also think that a lot of women in general like having their own money, and not always having to ask someone else for some cash!:D
On my diet and exercise, well part of it is keeping my spirits up, too. I struggle with anxiety and depression, and so the endorphins gained from it make me feel good mentally, too. I'm not perfect on dieting, but do generally try to eat healthily, and limit take-outs to once a month or so.
Your mum not had any luck marrying you off yet Sunil? I'd have thought the "PhD from Global Top Three University" would have been a seller.
And I'm gonna turn 40 in a few months, which I fear pegs me down a few notches on the PB's Most Eligible Bachelor List
Best of luck with the health. Since I don't eat out at all, I find this marks me out as something of a social outcast. If you're going to cook for yourself all the time, at least cook well... rather wish I'd paid more attention in culinary lessons.
The bigger difference is at the lower levels: it seems to me that rather run-of-the-mill musicians and actors, not just the megastars, do pretty well for themselves despite the threat of penury, whereas comfortably wealthy actuaries and accountants merely do "okay". And at the very bottom of the pile, lots of lads at university like to be "in a band" because even at that amateurish standard they know the gigs will get them laid a little more often; the chaps doing the investment banking internships do not attain quite the same aura.
I think it's fine not to eat out - everyone is different afterall. I do think there is too much of a pressure to 'conform' in our society! On cooking: the recipes in many cooking books, are fairly straight-forward...so maybe you could start there...:)
On Hollywood men, I think you may be on to something, actually. Especially when you think about politicians: looking at their affairs, many of the women (e.g Prescott, Huhne) aren't objectively, the most stunning women out there. In many cases, it's actually the opposite, something which I've been rather puzzled by, if you go by the rich men = gorgeous women idea of the way things work. So I do think the fame, status, and charisma of movie stars probably does allow them to date the most beautiful women. Your average businessmen, by contrast is unlikely to have the same status (in terms of fame and popularity) and the same charisma. Indeed many CEOs, don't seem to have the most pleasant personalities, either. I guess if you're a young, up-coming actress or model it makes far more sense to hook-up with a famous Hollywood guy (e.g Johnny Depp's fiancee Amber Heard) than a businessmen who Hollywood hasn't heard of, as well.
Ian ALLAN with an A!
http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-deaths-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-peoples-deaths.php