Nimavenl - Nicole's Random Ramblings

As social media seems to explode about the Supreme Court of the United States of America's (SCOTUS) decision to legalise gay marriage in the US and Twitter can't seem to stop talking about how great the world is, I have to admit that there's this voice in the back of my mind that wants to tell Americans "Welcome to the club! Glad that you finally made it..." For a country that prides itself on its inclusiveness and democratic values, why did it have to take so long to legalise marriage for all people? The U.S. is now among nearly two dozen countries that allow same-sex marriage nationwide: http://t.co/GDlydLBCWW pic.twitter.com/awVwTfyHXi — PewResearch Religion (@PewReligion) June 26, 2015 As the above map shows, there are many other countries where marriage is legal for all couples, regardless of their gender. In fact, both of my countries - The Netherlands and New Zealand - have already legalised gay marriage. According to the data on the website, The...

Today, the news is full of violence, death and destruction. At a Shiite mosque in Kuwait, at a factory in France , a coastal resort in Tunisia. In Israel, in Kobani in Kurdistan. People are dead or dying, people are wounded, people are crying, people are hurting. And why? Because some believe that they are more right than others? Because some believe that their truths are more valid than others? Because some believe their interpretation of religion or God's laws are more correct than another's? Because some believe that it is up to them to terrorise, kill and destroy? At least 27 28 are dead and 36 wounded in Tunisia . In Kobani in Kurdistan , 150 or more dead and many wounded. In Kuwait , last death toll I read mentioned 5 24 dead and 15 wounded. In Israel too, people have been attacked, people die. Not by the dozens usually, so the news doesn't speak about it. Or perhaps the news simply doesn't care as much about innocent Israelis as about innocent British or F...

In America, nine people were brutally murdered yesterday in a church in Charleston, North Carolina. Horrible, unbelievable. My Twitter feed hasn't stopped telling me about it, newspapers are writing about it, people are blogging about it. Nine people who were not fighting or making war or killing or maiming or hurting others. Nine people, present in a house of worship. Non-combatants. Just people. Like you and me. Now dead because one man wanted to kill them. Perhaps he believed he should, perhaps he thought it was his right, perhaps he was mentally unstable, perhaps he was a very disturbed SOB. I don't know. I do know that nine innocent people are dead because someone chose to kill them. Nine black people are dead, because one white man chose to kill them. It makes me so sad yet so angry to live in a world where people do this to each other. We are all human, all one huge and extremely diverse family, all one people. And yesterday one human being chose to kill nine of his fami...

Mind Body Green shared thirteen inspirational JFK quotes in honour of John F. Kennedy's birthday. The 35th President of the United States would have been 98 today, the article states. "Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly." "...we can have faith in the future only if we have faith in ourselves."   "Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."  "If more politicians knew poetry, and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a little better place in which to live." "The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were and ask 'why not?'." Happy Birthday, JFK! 13 Of His Greatest Quotes To Inspire You Today | Mind Body Green

One really cool and unexpected "side effect" of reading Patricia Briggs ' Mercy Thompson books is learning lots of new and interesting things. One of the things I'm learning about is Washington State. I'm currently reading the sixth book in the series, River Marked, and wanted to get a better idea of the area Mercy and Adam went to. Now sure I could take the "short-cut" way of learning more and get my information from the Forum on the website , however doing a Google search tends to come up with lots of interesting info as well. I knew the Twilight books by Stephenie Meyer were set somewhere in the US. I'd looked Forks up on a map once, just to get a general idea of what it looked like. What I didn't know was where it was in relation to other places. Such as Canada, state lines, and such. Reading Mercy Thompson meant doing more research into Washington State, and this book, being set mostly away from the Tri-Cities, meant checking out more ma...

Jennifer Aniston is destructive to society? Oh come ON! Seriously?! Apparently she is, according to Fox News Commentator Bill O'Reilly. I've never heard of the guy, however reading this article about what he said on iVillage.com , I'm curious to see what else he comes up with! According to the article, Mr O'Reilly had a problem with remarks Aniston made while promoting her new comedy The Switch, in which she plays a single mother who gets pregnant through artificial insemination. What Jennifer said? Here goes... Earlier this week at an L.A. press conference, Aniston, 41, reportedly said, "Women are realizing it more and more, knowing that they don't have to settle with a man just to have that child....Times have changed....What is amazing is that we do have so many options these days, as opposed to our parents' days when you can't have children because you have waited too long." The Emmy-winning actress added, "The point of the movie ...

I'm currently reading Linda Fairstein's latest book called Legal Legacy. She is one of my favourite authors, and I look forward to reading her books each and every time. For the author's website, check my links on the right. For a description of the book and the characters in it, go there too. In a nutshell, Ms Fairstein writes fiction based loosely on her own experiences as Assistant District Attorney for Manhattan's Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit in New York City. The main character of all her books, Alexandra Cooper, holds the same job. In this book, Alex investigates the death of a woman with connections to the New York Public Library, and the readers get taken inside the amazingly intricate world of the library system, book collectors and antique maps.

"Most of US troops to leave Iraq by August 31st of this year" Saw this on the late news tonight and my first thought was  WOW, seriously?! It's about bloody time !!!  I didn't think it was a good idea when America 'invaded' Iraq in 2003, and while the US army's presence there has no doubt done a lot of good, I also wonder if the situation might not have been resolved better without intervention from the USA.

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama My rating: 5 of 5 stars Reading this book, there was one thought that kept spinning through my head: "I like this guy!" Seeing Mr Obama on TV and reading about him in different newspapers in the time before his election to President, he amazed me. The way he talked  drew me in and his charisma and vision fascinated me. But, I wondered, did he have the experience to know what he was talking about? How well would his words translate into action? Reading about Mr Obama's life and experiences in Hawaii, Indonesia, Chicago and Kenya was extremely interesting. To have access to diverse environments such as these is one thing, but to be an insider there (instead of a visitor or a tourist) is something else entirely. It gives one unique insights that aren't available to others, and I feel that this is definitely true in his case. I wanted to read this book as I wanted to find out more about Mr O...