Musings of a free mind...: Legal

So I'm just about to go to bed and I read a story on Yahoo (UK) news about a government official who is due to be charged after losing top secret files allegedly relating to al Qaeda, and also a report on the Iraqi armed forces.

The files were found in an envelope on a train and apparently this anonymous government figure will be charged under the Official Secrets Act.

Unfortunately the article didn't specify what exactly the person is going to be charged with. This is important to me as I wonder to how inhumane we've become when we start filing criminal charges against a person who has made a mistake.

That's all it is, a mistake. There has never been even an allegation that this person mislaid the files deliberately or had any ulterior motives for losing the files.

This is a mistake. People are human. Humans make mistakes.

How you can punish someone so severely for a genuine mistake is beyond me.

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I'm going to take the opportunity of the first paragraph to apologise for the lack of posts in the last 4/5 days. I'm in the process of moving permanently to London and I have limited internet access. All shall be back to normal soon. Thanks to all my readers who have kept coming back, and thanks to all those who have visited, pushing this site into the good side of the top 1million Alexa ranked websites.

Now, the problem with marriage.

This area of thought has spawned due to conversations with my sister recently. She can't understand why I don't want to get married. Equally, I don't understand why she would wish to marry at all. I mean, what's the point?

I could understand if marriage was a symbol of love, but is it really? Don't get me wrong here, I know it CAN be, but surely there are greater, more powerful symbols of one person's love for another. Also, of course, there's the issue of whether human beings are cut-out for 'mating for life'. It's a rare sight!

The main, traditional reasons for marraige are, to me, superficial at best. Religion and financial gain. People marry because their religious beliefs dictate they must do so, especially before they have sex. And, let's face it, sex is a pretty important thing for most people in a relationship (pretty much all people, with the exception of asexuals) and so religion denying this pleasure forces marriage upon you. It's entirely irrational. I don't understand at which point the major religions decided that sex was a bad thing. It's another sign that illustrates how stuck in the Dark Ages they are, but I digress...

The other reason marriage has survived as an insitution is for financial gain. It was a way to ensure property and capital was passed on to the 'correct' family. This is much less neccessary in the modern world.

Marriage is an outdated institution and barely shows any correlation with love. If two people love each other, surely that would be enough for them to be together forever? Or maybe you could have a child together to symbolise your undying love for each other? 'Cos no-one's parents get divorced, right?

As for marriage, well, a friend of mine once said: "'Cos it's all about the romance. And there's nothing more romantic than a legally binding contract."

How about we all experience REAL love for a change?

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