20 years ago, today, a great event in history transpired. Events like this are few - the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and 9/11 - and when they come, they send shock waves around the world that echo on for generations. This event, of course, was the fall of the Berlin Wall.

With it, the Cold War began to thaw, permanently. A year of great change is wrapped up in this one event, this great punctuation mark in history, whose impact is still with us today. Before then, our lives were governed by a permanent fear that, at any time, we could wipe out the entire planet several times over in a nuclear armageddon. 

Today, therefore, should be a happy day. We should take this day to remember how emancipated the end of the Cold War made all of us - not just those living behind the Iron Curtain, but all of us in the world. And to remember that things that seem permanent can collapse without warning, virtually overnight.

 Today, on the BNP row. And how we all share the blame.

Click Me!

Comments on the blog, please!

Schwiped from londonwolf

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to 15 people you like and include me. You can't use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think! Repost as "my life according to (band name)"


Pick your Artist:
Motion City Soundtrack

Are you a male or female:
Hangman

Describe yourself:
Broken Heart

How do you feel:
The Future Freaks Me Out

Describe where you currently live:
Indoor Living

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
Where I Belong

Your favourite form of transportation:
Hello Helicopter

Your best friend is:
It Had To Be You

You and your best friends are:
Boombox Generation

What's the weather like:
Feel Like Rain

Favourite time of day:
Last Night

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
Everything is Alright

What is life to you:
Let's Get Fucked Up And Die (L. G. FUAD)

 After the sudden and untimely death of Stephen Gately, there was a rush, as ever, of celebrity journalists to their laptops to run out articles of ebullient praise for him. Among the many pieces penned in the aftermath, was this sparkling little gem by a writer for the Daily Mail:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1220756/A-strange-lonely-troubling-death--.html

Behold, oh ye of little faith, why the Daily Mail is a bastion of all that is so very, very wrong with journalism. I can't do, however, nearly as good as job as Charlie Brooker did: "It has been 20 minutes since I've read her now-notorious column, and I'm still struggling to absorb the sheer scope of its hateful idiocy. It's like gazing through a horrid little window into an awesome universe of pure blockheaded spite. Spiralling galaxies of ignorance roll majestically against a backdrop of what looks like dark prejudice, dotted hither and thither with winking stars of snide innuendo."

Go on, treat yourself: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/16/stephen-gately-jan-moir

Now, as 'celebrity news' goes, I'm never a fan. But this, this one incident, has made my blood boil. If you want to do something, go and complain to the PCC, as Mr Brooker suggests.

 Truth be told, I've been too busy for much of an e-life, only dipping in and out when I can and trying not to spend all my time online.

This year is going to be a very busy one. As many of you know, I'm gunning for a First Class degree, which would mean that it would be much easier for me to get onto an MA course here at Hull. This would not only enable me to get further qualifications, but would also allow me to keep studying the subject I've come to love (the MA I'm looking at is in International Politics) and keep me out of the frankly shocking UK graduate job market another year, until they economy (hopefully) looks more rosy.

Now, this year is very important - it counts as 60% of my final mark. The modules - two each semester - are weighted 60% essay, 40% exam, which is good for me, as I tend to do better on the essays than the exams. In one module this semester, though, I have no exam, 'only' a 6,000 word essay. Coupled with a 3,000 word essay for my other module and the 3,000 word proposal I have to write for my dissertation, I'm already grinding my nose into fine powder to try and keep on top of it. Then, in the second semester, I have two more 3,000 word essays to complete, as well as the dissertation of a mere 12,000 words, followed by two exams. 

Needless to say, this is going to be a hard year, but I'm determined to plough through and get this First. But, in the meantime, I am going to be probably extremely stressed, extremely busy and extremely unavailable a lot of the time. I mean none of you any harm - unless I make it clear to your face that I do, and even then be aware that I'm probably tired, poor and stressing out :P I just ask that you all bear with me in this year, which I feel will be like pregnancy - months of horrid moods swings, bad sleeping patterns, money down the pan, hormones everywhere and all the rest of it to finally, in one hideous final act, get what I've been brewing up for - a First. He says.

I'm sure you'll all be supportive, in your own ways, and patient and tolerant of my foibles and failings this year, as you are. I'll be grateful, and probably relieved as well, but don't worry if I don't always say thanks, or pay you back right away. I will get around to it, but you'll have to wait while I get my socks pulled up.

So, that's what's happening this year, academically. Fun times, eh?

This entry looks at the need for fiscal sense among British politicians.

As ever, comments on the blog, please :)

 http://armouredcentrist.blogspot.com/2009/09/poundland-politics.html

Today, on drugs policies, and why we may have the short end of the stick with the 'War on Drugs'.

All comments on the blog, plz :3

 http://armouredcentrist.blogspot.com/2009/09/high-on-love.html

 #welovetheNHS

I say no more :3

 http://armouredcentrist.blogspot.com/2009/08/alan-duncan-is-right.html

Today, on the 'controversy' surrounding Alan Duncan's secretly filmed remarks.

Today, on religion and tolerance:

http://armouredcentrist.blogspot.com/2009/08/religious-tolerance.html

From now on, all thoughts on Politics, Economics, the Railways, International Affairs and the like will be going here:

http://armouredcentrist.blogspot.com/


Every time a new post goes up there, though, I'll try and put up a quick link here for you all. Going to pare down my LJ to personal things =3

Aremay~ <3

"There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal. While the first is the condition of a free society, the second means as De Tocqueville describes it, 'a new form of servitude.'"

- Friedrich Hayek, Individualism and Economic Order

Inspired byavon_deer 's LJ on the service commemorating 25 years since a major fire at York Minster.

( Their place today... )

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8141396.stm

Lord Norton of Louth? Yeah, he's my former head of department, I see him walking around Hull in his t-shirt and khaki trousers on weekends. It's nice to know he's trying to help and prevent rushed reforms - to give Parliament time to think. Much of what is in the Standards Bill is good, but it would be better to give it more time for debate and consolation.

But yeah, good to know he's working hard :D

Where do I stand?

( Right here! )

 The growing row of the state of the public expenses in the coming years has begun to consume the political debate in Britain. Today, we had the Community Secretary on Radio 4, and was asked where the cuts would fall. He talked about "restructuring" and "reshaping" budgets, about "changing priorities" but he wouldn't admit what we all know - cuts are now virtually inevitable, barring unforeseen and dramatic foreseen dramatic improvements in the economy in the future.

There are going to be cuts - likely across the board - to a wide range of services. 10% cuts in some sectors are very likely, I would say, despite attempts by the Tories to play down that mention on the radio by a member of the Shadow Cabinet. NHS, Education, Social Security, Transport and every other form of government spending is more than likely to shrink. What we need to clear direction and admittance from both major parties that this is what is going to happen, and that it is going to be very painful.

Public sector pay will probably be frozen, and workers laid off - Labour are more likely to choose to reduce payrolls through non-replacement of retiring staff and earlier retirement ages, whilst the Tories - who do not depend on the unions for a steady cash flow - will probably put a harder axe down. Each approach has its' own benefits, though with the state of public finances, the latter option may well be the one that ultimately keeps the UK solvent. Services may very well be cut as well - expect to see wards closed, waiting lists growing, class sizes going up and so on. What we need is honesty about these cuts now, so we can brace for them when they occur.

Hey guys

A quick note - my parents' wireless router is dying very slowly, so my home internet is appalingly weak at the moment. Don't expect much until Thursday night :3

Hope you're all groovy <3

Aremay

So, got an Amazon package today. In it were:

• A Very Short Introduction to: British Politics
• A Very Short Introduction to: International Relations
• A Very Short Introduction to: Law
• A Very Short Introduction to: The United Nations
• The Declaration of Independence (And Other Great Documents of American History 1775-1865)
• The Economist World in Figures 2009
• Europe: A History - Norman Davies
• Why I Am So Wise - F. Nietzsche

See under the cut for musings~

( Literary nonsense... )