Now Winter Nights Enlarge [no more]

“Now winter nights enlarge
The number of their hours,
And clouds their storms discharge
Upon the airy towers.
Let now the chimneys blaze,
And cups o’erflow with wine;
Let well-tuned words amaze
With harmony divine.
Now yellow waxen lights
Shall wait on honey love,
While youthful revels, masques, and courtly sights
Sleep’s leaden spells remove.

This time doth well dispense
With lovers’ long discourse;
Much speech hath some defence,
Though beauty no remorse.
All do not all things well;
Some measures comely tread,
Some knotted riddles tell,
Some poems smoothly read.
The summer hath his joys
And winter his delights;
Though love and all his pleasures are but toys,
They shorten tedious nights.”

by Thomas Campion

That women were first allowed to vote in this country ?

[url]http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/mhsnaueyojcw/rss2/[/url]

90th anniversary of women’s first vote marked
10:09:14
Today marks the 90th anniversary of the day Irish women took to the polls for the first time.

Female senators and TDs both past and present were at the Dáil this week for celebrations held in to mark the occasion.

Women here were allowed to vote in the general election after winning the right to universal suffrage in 1918.

90 years ago today, Christmas shopping took a back seat as Irish women braved the electoral booths for the first time.

But their trip to the polls came with certain conditions – they had to be over thirty years of age and land owners, a restriction that wasn’t lifted until ten years later in 1928.

This year is also the anniversary of the election of Ireland’s first female member of parliament – Countess Markiewicz.

But since then, Irish women have been largely under represented in Irish politics.

Countess Markievicz was without a successor for 60 years, until the election of Maire Geoghegan Quinn in 1979.

Irish women have filled just under seven per cent of seats in the Dáil and Seanad since their first general election and Ireland is currently ranked 87th in the world for its female representation in Government.

There is a really nice display in the Collins barracks musem on this topic
was in there with my lil sis a while back. They have badges, fliers, posters and other historical documents about the campaign and the times.

http://www.bettiepage.com/obit/obit.html

Press Release: Bettie Page Obituary

Los Angeles, December 11, 2008 – Bettie Page, sweet-smiling legendary 1950s pin-up queen with the killer curves and coal-black bangs, died today of pneumonia at a Los Angeles area hospital. She was 85 years old. She suffered a heart attack one week ago and never regained consciousness. Her popularity as an underground, guilty pleasures phenomenon has continued to soar despite the fact that the reclusive Page disappeared almost a half century ago, leading many to believe that one of the most photographed individuals of the 20th century was already dead.

We’ve got the fever of all of the night
We’ve got the pain of the dark side of love
We’ve got the fire that burns and more
We’ve got the beast in us all

We’ve got the storm rising high in the sky
We’ve got the lightning and the hurricane
We’ve got the thunder and the devil’s own rain
We’ve got the beast in us all

We’ve got the power that we can’t control
It’s in our genes, body, and soul
Nations rise and nations fall
We’ve got the beast in us all

We’ve got the kiss of the holy divine
They gave us brains and they gave us the wine
Made us special so that we might shine
We’ve got the beast in us all

We’ve got desires that fill us with shame
Everyone of us a mark of pain
We”re never free from our animal chains
We’ve got the beast in us all

We’ve got the future but it’s lost in our past
We’ve got culture but it’s lost in the dance
We’ve got lust and we call it romance
We’ve got the beast in us all

We’ve got our vision but we don’t see the truth
We want wisdom but we won’t give up you
We’ve got the beast in all of us
We’ve got the beast in us all (until fade)

/stretches

ohhh pleasant and happy aches. Nothing like the soreness from using your body in a way which you had not in a while and to feel the aftermath the next day and maybe a few days after which make you smile and remember the joy as echos of it still remain in your body.

/stretch
/ouch
/smile

xkcd does it again, there are people who do this, it’s worse when it’s an ex.

WHAT IS THE 16 DAY CAMPAIGN?
The 16 Days Campaign is an international campaign started in 1991 by the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership in New Jersey. Since then, over 2,000 organisations in 154 countries have taken part. In Ireland, the 16 Days Campaign continues to gather momentum since the first Women’s Aid public action outside Dáil Éireann in November 1996.

DATES
The dates, 25th November (International Day Opposing Violence Against Women) and 10th December (International Human Rights Day) symbolically link violence against women and human rights to show that such violence is a violation of a woman’s human rights.

http://ireland16days.blogspot.com

THE ‘HOME TRUTHS’ ABOUT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN IRELAND
– 1 in 5 Irish women have experienced domestic violence.
– In 2007, the Women’s Aid National Helpline responded to almost 12,000 calls. There were 8,012 incidents of emotional abuse, 2,457 incidents of physical abuse and 1,408 incidents of economic abuse disclosed. In the same year, 593 incidents of sexual abuse were disclosed to Helpline support workers including 248 rapes.
– Since 1996, 146 women have been murdered in Ireland. 92(63%) of these women were murdered in their own homes. Of all of the resolved cases 50% were murdered by a partner or ex-partner.
– 1 in 4 perpetrators of sexual violence against adult women are partners or former partners.
– 1 in 8 women surveyed in a Dublin maternity hospital had experienced domestic violence while they were pregnant.

For more statistics sign up to the Women’s Aid ’16 Facts for 16 Days’ Email Campaign which runs each day from 25th November to 10th December. Email comms@womensaid.ie

Strength and Courage

(Copyright David L. Griffith 1998)

It takes strength to be certain,
It takes courage to have doubts.

It takes strength to fit in,
It takes courage to stand out.

It takes strength to share a friend’s pain,
It takes courage to feel your own pain.

It takes strength to hide your own pain,
It takes courage to show it and deal with it.

It takes strength to stand guard,
It takes courage to let down your guard.

It takes strength to conquer,
It takes courage to surrender.

It takes strength to endure abuses,
It takes courage to stop them.

It takes strength to stand alone,
It takes courage to lean on a friend.

It takes strength to love,
It takes courage to be loved.

It takes strength to survive,
It takes courage to live.