Quiet Riot

The weekend has been spent painting and furnishing the bedroom that is now Ben's. He's a happy camper, Laurence is a happy camper (well, if you can imagine Eeyore being a happy camper).
And I have lists.
And although I make it sound as though Ben and I have been busy all weekend, Kev has fixed all the electronics, put up the bed, filled the holes in the walls, cleaned the travel cot for Ellie and generally done all the things that you don't notice unless they don't get done.

Tuesday, I get Alex, and Thursday I get Austen, Sue, Holly, Teddy and Ellie.

So, in my blissed-out mummy state, I haven't really been concentrating on the state of the great outside world.
But it has been coming to me.

The woman who sold me Ben's bed, said she and her wife used to live in Alberta - where they don't seem to even know that Canada was the fourth country to legalise same-sex marriage. They would ask her,
'Is that legal?'
In some ways, not altogether surprising, since it has been legal in Ontario and then BC since 2003, closely followed by Québec in 2004, but Alberta had to wait until federal legislation in 2005.
Bizarrely, only a few weeks ago, a friend - of mixed race - told me that she had a conversation with people in Alberta in which they complained about black people, referring to M as 'people like us' (ie white folks).

Kevin sent me an article from The Register about a police raid on a barbecue in Devon.
Four police cars, a riot van and a helicopter were despatched to shut it down. I know Devon is a generally quiet county, but that is ridiculous. There must have been almost as many police officers as guests - of whom there were fifteen. I think the message here is - don't advertise your birthday party on Facebook.

But clearly the police are carefully monitoring Facebook, and responding in an efficient manner.
This is what your taxes are being spent on folks.