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News today of Ann Dunwoody, who has become a four-star US general, the first four-star female general in the US military.^[1]

Sparrow Chat is a champion of equality between all human beings of either sex, and all points in between, but I found the story of Ann Dunwoody vaguely disturbing.

It’s not the first time I’ve experienced that feeling while living in America.

If sexual equality means women doing men’s work, then America is way ahead of Europe. I still experience qualms whenever I approach roadworks to find a heavily clad, hard-hatted, and often quite pretty young woman holding the “STOP/GO” pole and directing traffic. I’m not sure why I find it disturbing, just that I do. I’d probably feel the same way if I walked into a corporate office and discovered the CEO’s secretary was a boy.

When I took up driving a school bus to do my bit for society, I could never quite come to terms with the mechanic who tore out half the engine to repair a serious oil leak. Her name was Cindy.

I’m not suggesting there are no female road workers in Europe, or lady bus mechanics. It’s just that if there are, they’re very rare. I have never seen any.

To me, equality has nothing to do with women doing men’s work, or vice versa. To allow a woman to work on the roads, or in a bus service depot, is presumably acceptable provided they’re paid the same wages and benefits as a man.

Personally, it’s not something I would encourage. Having had the youthful experience of working on the roads with a group of somewhat crass, foul-mouthed, illiterate males, it would be a career I’d strongly dissuade my own daughter from considering.

While many jobs are suited to either sex, there are a few that of their nature should preclude both sexes from applying. In my opinion, the military is one such career. While there are some woman who seem to consider equality as the right to turn themselves into males in all but the physical attributes, the idea of women soldiers shouldering guns and engaging the enemy is anathema to me. It’s a personal viewpoint, but one I strongly adhere to.

Why do I feel this way?

For millenia, the male of the species has fought and butchered and slaughtered, and been slaughtered in return. As we gradually became more ‘civilized’ the grossness of warfare had to be made more acceptable, so we created honor, and heroism, and eventually video games. It was all achieved by males for the purpose of glorifying and legitimizing war.

Generally, the female of the species remained subservient to the males’ demand for blood, but the expectation was always that one day the subservience would disappear, women would demand an end to this barbaric male pastime, and the world would become a place of peace, if not ruled by women then certainly influenced strongly by them.

Today, on behalf of women everywhere, four-star general Ann Dunwoody, shattered that expectation.

^{[1] “Woman reaches US army’s top rank” BBC, November 14th 2008}

Filed under: Female warriors

This week three planets were photographed in another solar system approximately 300 light years away from Earth –

– and Sarah Palin said she “hopes God will show her the way”^[1] in any future bid for the White House.

Isn’t it time we stopped listening to such drivel, and treated those who spout it with the derision they deserve? The image above shows objects so far away we cannot even begin to comprehend the distance. Science has revealed to us the very boundaries of the Universe, yet it has failed miserably to detect any indication of a “God”.

One hesitates to even pen the thought, for fear of the horror unleashed by the faithful and godly, but isn’t it just possible Sarah Palin’s ‘God’ doesn’t exist at all?

In fact, the truth is it “isn’t just possible” Sarah Palin’s ‘God’ doesn’t exist, it’s absolutely completely and utterly impossible for ‘It’ to exist.

Here’s why:

On present day estimates, our Universe is considered to contain approximately 200 billion galaxies. While they vary in size, our own galaxy – the Milky Way – is about average. It contains roughly 100 billion suns, the vast majority (it is conjectured) having planets revolving around them.

Given those figures, if you own a large enough calculator it’s possible to multiply 200 billion by 100 billion and come up with the number of suns in the known Universe. Of course, it won’t be a perfectly accurate figure, but for our needs it will serve well enough.

To most of us the figure arrived at will be meaningless – just as the figure of 300 light years (the distance to that other solar system) is equally meaningless. We cannot conceive of the speed of light, even though we can write it as a figure.

Because it utilizes the number ‘300’, it doesn’t initially appear so big, does it? Pah! It’s only three hundred light years away, just around the corner really. Well, in terms of the size of the Universe, it is.

Let’s consider those numbers more closely. In one year, light will travel through the Universe a total of 5.88×10¹² miles. In 300 years it will travel 300 times that distance. Perplexed? The distance in recognizable terms is actually 1,763 Trillion miles. And no, I didn’t work it out, WikiAnswers did, but I’ll believe them if you will.

Again, on initial observation that figure doesn’t appear all that large. Why? Because we are using ‘miles’ as the measurement, and we all know roughly how long a mile is. For a moment, forget the ‘miles’ and just dwell on the number ‘1,763 Trillion’.

Is it becoming a bit more mind-boggling now?

Compare that to the number of suns in the Universe. 200 billion galaxies multiplied by 100 billion suns in the Milky Way, produces the figure of 2.0 × 10²² suns, of which our own sun is just ‘1’. WikiAnswers refused to redefine that total as a sum with a host of zeros after it, because the page wasn’t big enough to fit them all on, so we can safely assume it’s a humongously large figure.

What, though, you may ask does this have to do with the existence of Sarah Palin’s ‘God’?

Before going further, let me clarify that I’m not attempting to prove the non-existence of any ‘Divine Being’, or ‘Beings’. I well accept the possibility that some Universal Grand Intelligence may have had a hand, or a foot, or even a flipper, in the design and construction of everything Universal.

Let’s take a moment to once again regard the staggeringly huge numbers we observed above, and then compare them to Sarah Palin, who, even in seven inch heels, will struggle to make six feet.

Given these facts, what are the odds of any ‘Divine Being’ having an awareness of Sarah Palin’s existence, let alone giving a toss as to whether she becomes president of a cosmically microscopic speck of dust?

To further confirm my opinions, George W Bush also had hallucinations he was called on by his ‘God’ to be president, and look what a God-Almighty mess he made of it.

It’s a sad fact that the majority of the human species can’t face up to being the equivalent of a worthless bevy of bacteria. They long to be something more glorious, much bigger, and more valuable. They go to enormous lengths to self deceive, inventing non-existent super-wraiths who’ll grant them immortality if they just bend the knee in supplication, then slaughter a few thousand of the super-wraith’s enemies, who just happen to live on the same tiny, insignificant, planet……..

Do you know how many tiny, insignificant, planets are floating about in the Universe?

No, neither do I, and I’m not even going to try to work it out, but it would prove to be a vastly larger number than any other integer quoted in this article.

^{[1] “Palin looks to God over 2012 bid”, BBC, November 11th 2008}

Filed under: Palin and the Stars

We’ve just suffered through another interminably dull and boring series of hypocritical antics involving pious prayers, poppies, and pomposity, from the so-called politicals and pundits, pontificating ever more profoundly and perversely than is their usual pleasure.

Yes, it was Remembrance Day, or Veteran’s Day, depending on whether you’re buried to the east or west of the pond, and it’s always good to put on a show for the dead.

In Britain, at the Cenotaph, parliament assembled as it does every year, all draped in the same black raincoat, with the same bedraggled nylon poppy propped into the buttonhole with safety pins and the odd spot of old chewing gum.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown led the prayer of remembrance, solemnly swearing to sheath the sacrificial knives, before repairing to his office and a quick check of how many British soldiers in Afghanistan had been killed or maimed that day. After all, the figures effect his ratings, and the election’s not that far away.

In America, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, a similar group of pathetic butchers perform the same grotesque ceremony. They offer similarly hollow pledges to the relatives and friends of those whose only remaining link to life is a name carved in a wall – along with a few million other fellow’s names – before slipping away for a quick Scotch and soda, or two, before luncheon.

I suppose we must thank God for their pomposity. After all, without it how could they live with themselves? The pomposity makes them feel useful, strong, capable of playing their war games, of condemning men and women to die for their whims, for their fancies. Without the pomposity, they could never find the audacity.

“Veteran’s Day” is a somewhat silly name, but then, it was chosen by politicians. After all, November 11th is the anniversary of the armistice that ended the First World War. They’re all dead. There’s no WW1 veterans left to have a “day” for.

“Remembrance Day” is much better, except that we’re expected to remember the wrong things. It’s a day to remember those who fell in the two great wars, is what we’re told. What on earth for? I’m sixty-two years old and knew nobody who fell in Flanders Fields, so what chance those much younger than I?

Here’s what I’d tell the young of today, both in Europe and America: the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month is a time to remember. It’s a day to recollect just how fucking stupid the human race has been, how cold-blooded, uncaring, murderous, and so unfeeling of our fellow beings that time and time again we’ve sunk to the greatest depths of depravity it’s possible for living creatures to attain. And we’ve done it because some low-life, petty, pompous, peer or president or politician decreed it.

If the young of today take the time to remember exactly that, every 11th of November, maybe, just maybe, when the politicians of tomorrow sound the fanfare to pack up the kitbags and shoulder the rifles, they’ll be told:

“Piss off and do your own dirty work.”

Filed under: Poppy Days