About International Lefthanders Day

Did you know that today was International Lefthanders Day? I've just discovered.

About International Lefthanders Day:

On 13th August 1992 the Club launched International Left-Handers Day, an annual event when left-handers everywhere can celebrate their sinistrality and increase public awareness of the advantages and disadvantages of being left-handed. This event is now celebrated worldwide, and in the U.K. alone there were over 20 regional events to mark the day in 2001- including left-v-right sports matches, a left-handed tea party, pubs using left-handed corkscrews where patrons drank and played pub games with the left hand only, and nationwide 'Lefty Zones' where left-handers creativity, adaptability and sporting prowess were celebrated, whilst right-handers were encouraged to try out everyday left-handed objects to see just how awkward it can feel using the wrong equipment!

I've done most things left-handed most of my life, and at the age of 16, when I took an interest in the subject, I started doing a few more things left-handed (like holding a knife and fork). The activity I found most disadvantageous for left handers was playing hockey. Driving trolley buses, with the power pedal on the left and the handbrake on the right, seemed to come more easily.

I've just discovered that one can get left-handed cheque books -- in Britain, anyway, but I can't imagine what conceivable advantage they would have. On the other hand, I wish they would make computer keyboards with function keys on the left where God intended they should be.

US Primaries 2008 -- a Republicrat will be elected

Here's a clear illustration of what many of us have long suspected. Nearly all the US presidential hopefuls in either of the two main parties are right-wing authoritarians. The only ones who aren't -- Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel -- don't stand a chance of being elected.

US Primaries 2008:

When examining the chart it is important to note that although most of the candidates seem quite different, in substance they occupy a relatively restricted area within the universal political spectrum. Democracies with a system of proportional representation give expression to a wider range of political views. While Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel are depicted on the extreme left in an American context, they would simply be mainstream social democrats within the wider political landscape of Europe. Similarly, Hillary Clinton is popularly perceived as a leftist in the United States while in any other western democracy her record is that of a moderate conservative.

As Jonty Driver, erstwhile president of the National Union of South African Students, said when B.J. Vorster, then Minister of Justice in South Africa, called him a "leftist", "There is no shame in being called a leftist by such a prominent rightist."