On bodily fluids

I was in very pleasant company today, and circumstances were solicitous to me telling this story. I'm glad to have revisited it actually: I love the expression on people's faces when I tell them about someone asking me "what's your favourite piss?" - sheer, initial incomprehension, followed later by curiosity, then the acceptance of what was a very odd situation. Finally, said company being able if not downright eager to supply me with their own answers to the same question...the beauty being the narrative arc which ensues.

No, that won't make any sense whatsoever unless you read the story I've linked to. Sorry. For what it's worth, I think it's one of the better pieces of writing that I've done, and one of the reasons I started blogging in the first place was because I wanted to recount this tale.

In anger

I cannot believe what the government of this country are doing, and for which they have no mandate. If, as is often said, you can judge a society on how they treat the most vulnerable, then our society is currently failing very, very badly. 

It's not just the government, in fact - sections of the media are essentially acting, as one might expect, as the government's propagandists. Yet when a right-wing, normally pro-(conservative) government paper like the Daily Mail publishes articles like this, it shows just how far - and rapidly - we've travelled in a very worrying direction.

I know I don't often speak out on here about political issues, but increasingly over recent weeks and months I've had a growing sense of unease, which is now developing into rage and despair. We ignore issues like this at our peril. Legislation like this doesn't affect me, you might say, since I don't have a disability. No I'm not disabled, but it's hardly a stretch of the imagination to consider that I might be at some point in the future. I hope not, of course, but if I were I would hope to be treated with a basic level of decency and understanding. At the moment, that appears to be too much to ask.

Combined with the ever-more-punitive treatment of anyone unfortunate enough to find themselves out of work (thankfully, some of which is starting to get the response it deserves), it appears that there is a concerted attempt to change attitudes. It would be wrong-headed to say that because someone has a disability, they have a problem - however what's even worse is reaching a state of affairs in which if someone has a disability, they are seen to be a problem.

How did we get here, and how is this even considered to be acceptable?

Misreading the signs

Shitting blood when you brush your teeth?

They must be making toothbrushes much sturdier these days, if that's the case.