NewBluestockingism

Quick update

2009-05-14T23:13:00.003-04:00

I realized that I hadn't posted here in a long while and thought I'd give a little update.

Today is May 14, 2009. In a few days, Katie and I are going to Phoenix to bring the rest of our stuff back East. Well, technically, we'll still have one small storage unit in Phoenix, but the bulk of our stuff is coming out here as we expect to be out here for a while now.

Law schools... I decided, after much consideration, to attend Brooklyn Law School with very generous scholarships. As of today, I am also still on the admissions waitlists at both Georgetown and Fordham. Either of these schools would have been great to attend, but all along I've thought it was completely unlikely that I'd get accepted. Even now, I have to say, if one of them did accept me I'd almost undoubtedly change my plans, but I sure would miss the prospect of free tuition.

So, all else being equal, we're planning to move to NYC, probably to Brooklyn, in early August. I'm really excited for it, and for the start of school. This move date won't give us much time before classes start, but it's OK because we're poor anyhow and probably couldn't afford to capitalize well on a lot of extra time in the city. (Anyhow we got stuck with a full-summer lease when we had to move out of our little Comm Ave studio.) I'm hoping to move to Brooklyn Heights or one of the surrounding neighborhoods in order to be close as possible to school, but we'll see where we land as it's very expensive over there. Prospect Heights is a more reasonable neighborhood and still fairly close, as well as being the neighborhood where our BK friends live, so we very well might end up there.

Guess that's about it for now...

If repealing Bush's puny marginal tax cuts makes Obama a socialist...

2009-03-13T16:13:00.004-04:00

Then prepare yourselves to meet Presidents Ronald "Marx" Reagan, Richard "Trotsky" Nixon, and Dwight "Lenin" Eisenhower.

Anyone have any idea why I decided that wanted to be a lawyer?

I decided to be a lawyer because our world is full of people using language in nefarious ways, exploiting words like "socialist", "freedom", "diet", "healthy", "responsible", the list just goes on and on and on.....

I think that the law is a way for me to use precise language to advance something good, at the heart of the matter, where it counts.

Law school update

2009-03-09T17:23:00.002-04:00

So, here's the final tally for law school admissions:

ACCEPTED:
Brooklyn Law
Northeastern
American

WAITLISTED:
Fordham
Georgetown (!)

DENIED:
NYU :(
George Washington

So, I'm really trying to decide between the three schools that accepted me, and to ignore the very slim possibility that I'll get an acceptance from the schools that placed me on their waitlists. But it's complicated, and here's why...

So, I love Northeastern. It's a very liberal school, very public-interest and social justice oriented, and it's widely considered the top school for public interest lawyers to attend. It places very well in San Francisco, which is, for now, where I think I'd like to head after graduation. They are known for their one-of-a-kind co-op program, which places students in four 3-month legal internships during the last two years of school; this means that upon graduation, I'll already have a year of experience in my chosen areas. It's here in Boston, which is a city I know fairly well now and really love. There may be a good dual-degree opportunity for me there, but since I didn't apply to the other component this year, there are no guarantees. The atmosphere there is collegial and almost nurturing but still academically and intellectually challenging; learning that law schools could be like that, as opposed to the classical adversarial/competitive idea of law school, is what piqued my renewed interest in law in the first place. Finally, instead of grades they give detailed evaluations, which I think is an interesting and possibly superior means of evaluating student performance. To be honest, I have thought for a long time that this is where I might go.

But then, there's American. It's also liberal and public-interest oriented, with a bit more emphasis on international law. It's in DC, which sketches me out a bit, even though I like DC; I haven't spent much time there, and I'm just not sure how I'll like living there. I'm also not certain how American places on the West Coast and other areas outside of DC, but I aim to figure it out. It's better-known (and better-ranked) than Northeastern, though this isn't necessarily the case in public-interest legal circles. Here's the real clincher: I've also been accepted to the Master of Public Policy program there, so I could do my optimal dual degree program at a great law school and a truly excellent school of Public Affairs.

Finally, there's Brooklyn. This was the friendliest law school I visited back in '05, with great facilities and a surreal location in Brooklyn Heights. The public interest component there is definitely good enough, with plenty of clinical opportunities, courses, and connections. The truth is, whereas I really like this school, it just doesn't quite compare to the opportunity at American. (Up until last year, Brooklyn offered the dual-degree program that I want, but recently stopped offering it. I kept the school on my app list because I liked it so much.) However, I'm going to visit all these schools again in the next few weeks, and standing in the shadow of the Federal Courthouse while looking up at the main law school building sure is something... and so is New York. As they say, if I can make it there....

:/
Any thoughts? I'm not making up my mind until I do visits, but that time is drawing nigh, and I am spending most days obsessing over the choices....

Heartbreaking

2009-02-21T14:19:00.005-05:00

I don't know why, but right now I am more affected emotionally by the Prop 8 goings-on than I have been at least since the election.

There's so much anger on the other side about the possibility of an overturn, and I feel that so much of this anger comes from misinformation and ignorance... People don't understand how our political system works, people don't understand that gay people are just like everyone else, people don't understand that same-sex-headed families deserve access to the same civil protections as others.

This just breaks my heart. It is sometimes very difficult to feel happy about any little thing when there are whole segments of society operating to deny me and mine rights that they believe are fundamental and innate! By that kind of logic, yes, we are second-class citizens. I try very hard not to feel victimized by any of this nonsense, and just to live my life, but some days it's really hard, and today is one of those days.

I'm sure some people are thinking, "Hey, you're in Massachusetts now, so why not go ahead and get married?" And I do want to speak to that... We really do want to, but it's just so complicated! The only way I think it makes sense for us to do it is if we stay here in MA for school. Even so, despite the fact that there is full equal marriage here, it will be very, very complicated. We will have to file our state taxes as "Married filing separately", but our federal taxes will still be filed under "Single". For the purposes of anything administered by the state, we will be a married couple; for all federal purposes, we will have no legal standing whatsoever towards each other... Additionally, it will be our responsibility to keep track of what's what, and where.

We would also lose the opportunity to draw up the kinds of legal contracts that would protect us more generally, since those contracts are filed with localities and would be redundant to the marriage compact. However, it is the practice of most other localities and states to honor those kinds of general civil agreements, such as power of attorney or medical-decision agency, no matter which state they originate in. Many states either have laws specifically preventing the recognition of gay marriages from other states, or no specific legal obligation to uphold them. Technically speaking, standard contracts would protect us better in these cases than a proper marriage would, since there are few standing legal precedents for denying the validity of civil contracts on account of the sexuality of the people involved. Unless, of course, there are children involved, in which case lots and lots of places will deny the validity of legal same-sex civil agreements.

So as a married couple in Massachusetts, all our legal rights and obligations toward each other will dissolve every time we leave the state. For example, here in MA, our health insurance would be administered based on our status as a married couple; due to that, there's really no guarantee that it would have to be recognized as valid in other states. Just one example. Say we had kids... here in MA, our kids would belong to both of us under our marriage. Every damn time we left the state, say we wanted to take our kids to Disney World, we'd have to worry about whether the place we traveled to would recognize our shared parentage. People who are parents should consider this.... it hits home. And the opposition says that they want to protect families?

Even worse would be if we get married here and end up moving elsewhere for school. New York's public entities are under executive order to recognize gay marriages from other locales, but private entities (like some insurers, for example, but not others-it depends on how much New York state law regulates their business) are under no such obligation. That seems like a whole new can of worms. And DC has pretty strong domestic partnership law, but it's possible we'd have to dissolve our marriage (i.e. get a divorce!) in order to register as domestic partners in DC. It's also possible that we'd have to live in Maryland, where the domestic partner laws are very limited and where gay marriages from other places are expressly not recognized.

So, I'm just so disheartened about this today. Which is sad, because the opportunity to be legally married to my wife should be a thing of happiness, not sorrow.

Law school update

2009-01-28T15:57:00.003-05:00

Got another admission today, from Brooklyn Law. So far that's three admits (from my 'safer' schools), one rejection and one waitlist (these from my top 2 choices). Now I'm just waiting to hear from Fordham and George Washington, which is funny because those are the two schools for which I really have no means to make any prediction!

Gotta say, I'm on pins and needles! 'Course, I set it up to likely get at least one acceptance each in Boston, NYC, and DC, which I have done. So that specific choice hasn't been narrowed at all... gotta wait and see what GW and Fordham decide!

What is up?!?!

2009-01-27T21:40:00.004-05:00

That's about it. What's up with you all?

Naw, just kidding. I got some stuff. It's so weird, I was cranking out between 2 and 4 posts per day leading up to the election, and now... nothin'. :) I really think I got so plugged in to the news cycle that nothing seemed new or interesting enough to blog about... although that doesn't explain why I haven't been blogging since I got home. Which I suppose could be due to a whole new set of factors anyways.

Here's a thing... lately I have been reconnecting with a whole cast of random characters from my past on Facebook! There are people with whom I had nothing in common in high school, but with whom I now have tons in common. There are people with whom I was great friends in high school, and whose lives, values and interests are radically different from my own. There are people who I was sorta friends with in high school, and with whom I don't necessarily have tons in common, but who I just think (and often have always thought) are the most interesting people ever, and who make me wish I had known them better all along!

There are people who I knew from work, people I loved, people I had crushes on, people I detested, people who changed my life and people who never made one ounce of a difference, and people who I never thought would ask to be my Facebook friend. I understand that they're not really asking for my friendship, but I do think that they are asking me to take part in their lives in a way, and that makes me happy. It makes the whole "social networking" thing worthwhile despite all the annoying things about it. Importantly, these folks are generally supportive of, or indifferent toward, my sexuality. Despite having formed the thrust of much of my writing so far on this blog, it doesn't come up too often on Facebook, especially since the die-down of the Prop 8 frenzy. However, it is perfectly obvious.

On a completely unrelated note, Obama is a smart guy. That's all. He is really a smart guy. Say what you will.

I have got to get on the ball with my health and health-related goals. I gotta quit smoking, gotta lose weight. I wonder how many other blogs say the same thing, especially right now with the New Year and all. But really.

S'poseta start snowing again tonight, and we're all excited. So far I would say we're adjusting to the weather extremely well. We're well-insulated individuals.

Oh, a law school update: So far I've heard from 4. I got into the two schools I already mentioned, was rejected from NYU (no big surprise there), and got on the waitlist for Georgetown. While it's sort of nice compared to an outright rejection, being waitlisted, especially by a competitive school like that, is pretty much like being rejected. So now I'm waiting to hear back from Fordham, George Washington, and Brooklyn. I think that Brooklyn will accept me, but I'm not sure about Fordham and GW. If I get in to either of those schools, I will be not a little bit surprised!

Back in business yo

2009-01-20T01:19:00.006-05:00

Well, I just noticed my last blog post, and that's ridiculous! December 18th? My apologies to those of you who actually check this blog, I hope you will check it again sometime soon and enjoy finding new updates aplenty.

Soooo... I've heard back from two law schools so far, and each of them has admitted me! They are American in Washington DC, and Northeastern just up the road here in Boston. I have to be honest and say that I did expect to get into both of these schools... but it's nice to know for certain that I definitely will be able to attend a quality school like one of these, and it's also nice to be batting 1.000, at least for the moment!

Katie and I did the drive from Phoenix to here quite nicely... Didn't hit much weather, spent a great night in New Orleans (which we adore), saw some old friends, got to drive by the hotel that Barack Obama's been staying in, slept in some amazing hotel beds (oddly), and even hit decent traffic near rush hour in New York. Basically perfect!

So of course Katie is here with me now, and I'm just really happy. I missed her so. :) We are on the hard-core job hunt and are getting to know our (mostly) new friends who live across Comm Ave from us. I worked with one of them at Progressive in Phoenix and we happened to move to different sides of the same street in Boston! So Katie and I have been hanging out with her and her roomies & their other friends, who have proved to be delightful individuals that we get on really well with. So that's nice.

Other than that... Oh, yeah, inauguration's tomorrow! I gotta say, I'm really excited. Woulda been nice to go down there for it, but dang, there are a lot of people there right now, and apparently a lot of people making kee-raaazy money off of it. The hotels and vacation rentals were insane. And it's just a bit too far for a day trip.

I will stop here for now I suppose... But I'll be back soon!

airportairportaiport

2008-12-18T02:21:00.001-05:00

christmasmusicchristmasmusicchristmasmusic

Thank god, a Rufus Wainwright Christmas song finally came on. I mean, I gt sick of hearing it at Starbucks once upon a time, but it's been a while, and damn, his voice is good.

Checking in!

2008-12-12T18:41:00.005-05:00

Hey all,
sorry I've been neglecting my bloggerly duties. I have been doing a fair amount of private journaling and have also recently developed something approximating a social life. It was bound to happen eventually! :)

Not much going on anyways, the only things that have inspired me to want to write here have been cute things the cats have done. I mean, do you really care what happened when I played the Jingle Cats version of Silent Night on my computer? Oh, you do? Well, the cats all woke from deep sleep and started freaking out, running around the room and trying to locate the army of kittens that I'd obviously let in. Now I know what to do when they misbehave! LOL. The world of current events seems like so much ado about nothing right now to me.... I guess I have to remove myself from the 24-hour news cycle so that things can sink in.

So, I'm good. Soon I'll have KT here, and I'm so glad. I have missed just having her around so much. Hopefully we won't discover that we've liked living on our own better than moving back in! :)

Funny stuffs today

2008-12-07T03:21:00.011-05:00

Just relaying a couple of funny things that happened today:

First, earlier tonight I saw a coyote running around on my street. As I've mentioned before, I live on Comm Ave, a pretty busy street divided by T tracks. The coyote was running from a side-street, across Comm Ave toward the tracks. I saw a car coming as it crossed and got nervous, so I stepped out into the front street (Comm Ave has a main street and a front street in this neighborhood) where I saw it stopped in front of the car, trying to figure out which way to go. The car stopped to let it pass and it ran on across the neutral ground toward the main street and the tracks. As I went towards it, it spotted me, ran back through the front street, and down the side street from whence it came.

Just then a tiny gal came by, headed toward the same side street, and I warned her that there was a scared coyote down there and to be cautious. She got excited, asked me if I was positive it hadn't been a dog, and called her friend to share the news LOL! As she passed the side street she happily shouted back to me, "I can see it!" and I thought that was pretty great. By the time I got down to where she'd been standing it had scampered out of sight, back to the badly kept dumpsters across the street, no doubt.

Since then I've been reading up... I knew of the urban coyote problem in Phoenix, but, I mean, that's Phoenix; everything wild still lives there LOL! Apparently, though, there are urban coyotes everywhere. You name it, they're there! They seem to prefer suburbs and areas that have parks and such, and have even been caught roaming in Chicago, Central Park, and the concrete jungle of Boston's North End. The internets tell me that coyotes have expanded their territory to include 49 states. I assume the exceptional state is Hawaii - no gills on the coyotes. Yet. They have spread because they are highly intelligent and adaptable, and apparently they are fantastic predators as well. Who knew that moving AWAY from AZ would make me learn about coyotes? Weird. I got so used to them there, I never bothered to learn much about them. Funny.

Hal, the NYC Coyote

Also, while I smoke I tend to look around, and across the way, high up, is a woman with long dark hair who always seems to be wearing dark clothes when I spot her and floats back and forth around her apartment like a ghost. She reminds me of the ghosty-thing in The Grudge. Creepus.

UPDATE: Just went outside for the last smoke of the night, and had an amusing conversation/encounter with what had to have been about a 40-pound raccoon. He put his two little paws and sad raccoon face over the side of the short wall about 3 feet away from me and started to come up the little stairs that I stand on outside; I looked him in the eye, said, "Don't you dare," (LOL) and he turned tail. As he walked away I got a good look at the size of him, and it's good for me that he minded me, cuz he was a biggie. He went through the bushes to the sidewalk; I went to the sidewalk, saw him coming toward me, and he froze there. I said, "Are you coming this way? I'll go back up," (LOL) and he came right past me on the sidewalk, took a left just past the stairs, and waddled off into the bushes on the other side of me. Between these fellas (well, actually I think the coyote was a lady), the feral cats, and the skunks, it's like Wild Kingdom around here. Oops, dated myself!

On the Bandwagon

2008-12-05T19:48:00.003-05:00

I know, I'm a little late, but this is too good not to be immemorialized on my pages. They're all so funny, and actually, so right! Plus, I don't know what it is about Maya Rudolph, but she makes me belly-laugh!

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

What to do, then?

2008-12-03T14:21:00.004-05:00

Learn.

First, learn to forget. Forget that you were ever a master. Forget everything you have ever known. Nothing is wrong with your cherished instrument, and nothing is wrong with you. It is simply something different from what you have known before. To know it, you must forget the rest. Forget.

Now, learn it. Learn it as a child learns language, or movement. Learn from the beginning, from the places so novice that you have long since forgotten they exist. Let those places be your new home for a while. Let your prize teach you. Ask it to teach you. Learn how to ask it.

Easy, right? If not, at least it is a path of hope, superior to all other alternatives. A discovery.

More on that.

2008-12-01T17:47:00.003-05:00

So, what would you do?

Would you set the instrument down and the music aside, and give up on the art that has been your expression, one of the most important parts of your life? You already know you can't keep it and play another instrument on the side. Too depressing.

Would you throw it on the fire in frustration? Smash it to bits with your bare hands? Could you destroy the memory of it? Could you prevent it from haunting you for the rest of your days? Also, I think, too depressing.

Would you keep at it day after day, week after week, year after year? Would you grow older knowing that this instrument could ruin you? Could you stand the thought of wearing your own familiar marks into its surface, knowing that inside, where it matters, and where the music happens, there might never be any sign of you, nor any evidence of your effort?

Would you loan the instrument to another, to see if perhaps it would play for someone else? What if it did? If it would play for someone else and not for you, you could surely never believe it was meant to be yours. Could you with any good conscience ask for it back? In any case, would your heart not break?

Just this thought.

2008-12-01T01:05:00.000-05:00

Imagine you are a virtuoso of some sort, a master of the violin, or the piano. Imagine that you are presented with an incredible gift, the rarest and most valuable instrument in creation. It is priceless. It is a spectacular beauty, a craftwork beyond any comparison. You love it, you cherish it beyond description. It is yours, without any rival to lay claim to it. But you cannot make it play. You do everything that you have always done. Your hands and mind do all that they have ever known to do, and yet you can not manipulate the instrument, cannot make it bend to your will.

Sometimes when you attempt to play it, it is mute; sometimes, it plays all on its own. Most maddening of all, when your feeble attempts at creation do elicit some sound from the thing, you hear the sweetest sound imaginable, the richest timbre of voice, the wildest expression of passion and creativity and art. But you are unable to tame it. There is little relation between your efforts and the music. This inability consumes you. It dampens your confidence in your abilities. Yet you could never even dream of picking up another instrument... even if you did, just to prove that you are still a master, it would only serve to remind you of the one that you can not control. Your prize, your cherished one, the perfect vessel for your expression, the only caliber of instrument any longer worth playing, remains firmly in your hands and yet beyond your reach. You are surely ruined, unless you can make it play; then, and only then, you will be untouchable, a god. Your art may be lost to you forever, but it will burn inside you as long as the instrument remains in your care, willing enough to be handled but perhaps never to be mastered.

I'm back!

2008-11-29T18:04:00.003-05:00

But not better than ever. I'm all unfocused so I have no idea what to write about. Today's my first day home so I'm just getting re-settled. No doubt as stuff catches my eye and ear I'll be writing a lot again. Till then, hope everyone has a nice relaxing post-Thanksgiving weekend.

Happy-Making

2008-11-22T17:03:00.002-05:00

There are two planets visible above the sunset tonight... quite a sight. Tried to take pictures but they do it no justice.

Also, gas across the street is $1.99. I'm sure it hasn't been that long since I last saw that, but it sure seems like an eternity, and I take some little encouragement from it.

Dream Team: Update

2008-11-21T16:34:00.006-05:00

Some new developments:

"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton"
---As of today, the NYT reports that HRC will, in fact, accept the position of Secretary of State. Yay!

"~~Attorney General~~ Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano"
---Since the naming of Eric Holder (a fine candidate) to AG, it has been confirmed that our beloved Janet is Obama's top pick for SHS. If she can't pass the vet, well, I don't know what to tell you. What are they gonna say- she's some kind of lesbian or something? Ha ha. I'll say this one's a done deal.

Busy, busy

2008-11-19T17:44:00.007-05:00

Can't write much as I have dedicated the rest of my life to poking around in Google's archive of historical photos from LIFE magazine. Click at your own risk.

Also, despite refusing to stay the current application of Prop 8, the CA Supreme Court has agreed to hear all three suits proposing to overturn it. Good news indeed.

Thoughts on the afterlife

2008-11-17T21:35:00.004-05:00

Been chatting back and forth with one of my UCLA profs, and he commented on my post about Saavik that he holds out hope for an afterlife primarily so that he can imagine his pets are there. It's so funny how true this is for me too.

I have dealt with an inordinate amount of human loss, as many of you know, and while the concept of an afterlife is something I'd probably desperately like to believe in, it just doesn't jive with my concept of what is and what is to be. Generally, I can't cling to it for humans, and maybe part of that is because human life is so complex, the notion that our awareness continues indefinitely is not altogether pleasing.

Yet, imagine for just a moment the notion of Saavik, whose huge and free personality was trapped in a crippled and somewhat immobile little bird body, finally being freed in death and finally becoming able to spread those atrophied little wings and take to the sky. I mean, how can I resist that thought? Who cares if it stands against all of my assumptions about the nature of life and death.... it is a poetic and comforting notion despite the cognitive dissonance it creates.

I'm sure it's odd to think that someone might have an easier time believing in an afterlife for animals than for humans. But I don't believe in a lot of things, like reincarnation in the conventional sense, yet it is easier for me to imagine reincarnation for animals than for humans. For us, it sounds like an overly complicated process, given the differences among human beings. Yet for animals, it kind of makes sense. What if a bird dies, and its little bird soul enters a new hatchling? Neat and tidy.

Eh. I dunno. The point is, I obviously don't believe in all that. But when it comes to the purity and innocence of an animal, it is very hard for me to imagine that just blinking out and going nowhere. I mean, I do believe in a sort of post-mortem reuptake of energy and matter into the energy and matter that make up everything, some would consider that a limited form of reincarnation or an extremely limited form of afterlife. It doesn't seem too weird to me to think that an animal's consciousness, however limited, goes on; so why does it seem so weird that my own consciousness could also continue on?

Perhaps it is because of the difference in consciousness between animals and humans. It's not as if Saavik is analyzing her situation in the afterlife, should that in fact be where she now resides. She's probably just flying back to the jungle from whence her ancestors came, happy as a clam in mud. Now, if I were to die, and still be aware of things.... brr. Don't much care for it. I'm analytical enough now as it is. I guess I could grow to like the idea that I would enter into a euphoric state immediately upon my death, or an all-encompassing state that would have no emergent characteristics at all. But it still doesn't ring true for me.

Perhaps it is because I grew up with the notions of God and heaven and hell, and now believe that I would probably go to hell should such a thing exist and the criteria actually rest upon faith! Ha ha. Although even when I believed in the notion of heaven, and that I was headed in that direction, I rejected it. It was never reason enough for me to stay in service to my God of old once I obliterated my faith with questions, and it never could be now. I mean, I grew up with a lot of other notions too, and one was that the literal heaven and hell were probably mischaracterizations or exaggerations of afterlife states revealed by God that we humans couldn't describe or understand very well. That still makes more sense to me than the literal version.

Well, as usual, I've turned a little blurb into a dissertation. But I'm learning, and what I've learned here is that my desires, what I want life and death to mean, still shape my views on life and death more than I would care to admit. I just don't know if that is a bad thing or not... for example, I have always taken comfort in my mom's faith since her death. There is a part of me that wonders how it could not mean anything at all to believe so strongly in a loving Savior and that you'd be with him, in his arms, in the instant of your death. My mom believed that with all her heart, used to joyously sing songs about it in fact, and if there is any order to the universe it is hard to imagine that her faith amounted to nothing upon her death.

To that end, maybe the afterlife is exactly what you believe in life that it will be? That's a creepy thought too, but one that others have certainly advanced. I mean, our perception completely shapes our understanding and experience of life, so if our consciousness is perpetuated, couldn't it also shape our experience of afterlife? In that case, however, it'd be hard to advocate for an afterlife for animals as it is doubtful they spend much time cogitating on the possibility. For that matter, same thing for babies and children who leave us just as they come in to the world. Doesn't seem right to think that babies just blink out simply because they haven't been around enough to worry about their own mortality yet. Or that crazy religious zealots get to enter into bliss while perfectly decent people who tend to no faith merely disappear. Toss that idea. :)

Well... this has accomplished nothing other than making me feel uncomfortable about the influence my personal desires can have on my existential beliefs. :) I guess I still feel it's improbable that my best feathered friend is now flying free, happily munching on fresh tropical fruit and finding herself a handsome bird boyfriend in the jungle, but I like the idea too much to let go of it just yet. :)

What a crazy, wonderful, and very sad day.

2008-11-16T04:08:00.008-05:00

Today, November 15th, 2008, was:

The day I sent my first law school applications in for review.

The day I got my components back in working order.

The day I saw hundreds of thousands around the US and the world take to the streets in the hope that people like me will eventually be able to be legally married to the ones we love.

The day I saw up close all the different kinds of people engaged in that fight, and knew two things for certain - there is nothing dividing us, not race, religion, or anything else, that can't be overcome; and yes, it really is just a matter of time, and the clock, history, and now the momentum are all on our side.

Today was the day I felt so proud of Katie for marching alone in Phoenix. I mean, she didn't go by herself, she was with friends. but nobody dragged her there. She got up early and went because she wanted to go and thought it was important, and she marched from the City Hall to the Capitol and back (if you know Phoenix, that's hella far). That's my girl. :)

Today was my good friend's 30th birthday. She's accomplished so much, I hope she's proud of herself, though I know those warm fuzzies are in short supply these days. Anyways, I'm proud of her.

Today was, sadly, also the day I lost my sweet, funny little birdie. She died sometime this evening and Katie just found her a bit ago. I'm still all weepy over it and probably will be for days. If any of you all out there are thinking to yourselves, "What the heck? A bird? Who cares?" let me tell you her story. Try not to get all weepy yourself! :)

Her name was Saavik, (after the Star Trek character. Thanks, mom) and she was a beautiful blue-fronted Amazon parrot. My mom got her when I was 6 or 7 years old, and boy, was she a talker... she had quite the vocabulary in those days. I think the previous owner said she was somewhere between 3 and 5, so, let's say she was a little bit younger than me today, probably close to 30. If you don't know, those sorts of birds can live to be 60 and older if they don't have any health problems.

Unfortunately, Saavik did have health problems. When I was 10, and I'll say she was about 7 or 8, she got lead poisoning from chewing on her cage. She had seizures and was foaming at the mouth, and my mom and I rushed her to the vet, where she was diagnosed as very near death. We were told that she could probably be saved, but the treatment would be extremely expensive. My mom was beside herself and somehow talked my grandparents into coughing up many thousands of dollars for the treatment and medication that she required. She stayed at the vet for two weeks, got a little better (out of the woods anyways) and we were finally allowed to take her home.

She was never the same again, however. The poisoning had crippled her for life, and stripped her of her vocabulary. When we got her back, she was so weak. She couldn't even stand and learned to drag herself forward with her beak. For a long time, she lived in a little kennel in my mom's bedroom, because she was too weak to climb or move her wings or do any of the stuff that permits birds to get around in a cage. For months, we had to give her physical therapy: we would lay her on her little bird back and massage her twisted little feet and work her little bird legs for her. We had to hand feed her, bathe her, do everything for her. In those days, we took her everywhere. Sweet little soul. She took it all in stride.

As time passed, she improved a lot. She could never flap her wings again, but she eventually could sort of shrug them and that was really cute. Her little feet were twisted and gnarled for life from the paralysis, but eventually she stood upright just fine and could walk around on the ugly little things, in time gaining enough balance to stand on a perch. The amazing thing about her was her toughness and brightness, she just kept going, and every single thing that made her weak, she compensated for in some other way. Since her feet didn't really work, she used her beak to climb, to balance, and to steady her movements, and after a while got a nice muscular neck going, so she could do everything pretty much as well as any normal (less special) bird. :)

She never got her vocabulary back, but in time she created a whole new lexicon of sounds and would whistle a whole song for you if you gave her the chance. Her favorite was the wolf whistle, which she was just showing off for Katie's mom the other day. She loved all kinds of music, and more than anything, she loved to dance. Her favorite thing in the whole world was if you'd come up to her cage and whistle or hum, and sway back and forth from side to side. She would just dance and dance, swaying right along with you, doing this crazy thing where she turned her head back at a most improbable angle over and over again, shrugging her little shoulders. Aw hell, I miss her so much already. I'm totally crying now.

Saavik lived with my grandma for a long time after my mom died, until my grandma died in fact, and the two of them just brought each other such joy. Now that is a memory that makes me smile. My grandma loved the crap out of that bird, pretty much everyone did who spent any time around her. Just ask Katie if she was any kind of bird lover before, or would've described a bird as having any kind of bird personality, much less an incredible one. LOL! Katie remarked on how much joy and fun we all had together, and how the bird is probably now reunited with my grandma and my cousin Virginia who just passed away, squawking while they try to play cards.

I have a million memories of the bird that make me want to bawl right now, but that will no doubt make me laugh my head off one day. I won't bore you with all of them, but I will share just one. One night, Katie and I are making dinner, and I start singing the guitar riff from "Wipe-out" to the bird (one of her favorites). The bird loves this stuff and starts to dance like a crazy bird. I get a big kick out of this and go sing to her and dance with her at the edge of the kitchen, where her cage stands. She loves this and starts singing along, and she and I are just singin' and dancin' up a blue streak. Then our fat cat Cecil gets jealous and decides she wants in on the action, jumps up on the table next to me and starts standing on her hind legs and pawing at the air and mewling along with us. The three of us are dancing and singing our asses off, Katie and I are dying laughing, and Katie just says, "I love you guys".

That's the kind of joy she brought into our home. I will probably write more about her later (believe it or not), but for now I'm honestly just exhausted and heartbroken. She was so sweet, so personable and funny, a tough little cookie, and just a bundle of happiness for the cost of a peanut. And that's why she will forever be missed.

In honor of Saavik, who was much loved and made us so happy, here's the close of a poem Percy Shelley wrote in honor of another happy bird:

We look before and after,
And pine for what is not:
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.

Yet, if we could scorn
Hate and pride and fear,
If we were things born
Not to shed a tear,
I know not how thy joy we ever should come near.

Better than all measures
Of delightful sound,
Better than all treasures
That in books are found,
Thy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground!

Teach me half the gladness
That thy brain must know;
Such harmonious madness
From my lips would flow,
The world should listen then, as I am listening now.

Thought-Provoking (and also hilarious)

2008-11-15T17:32:00.006-05:00

I never really gave it much consideration before, but....

This is a pretty well-known picture of a crucial moment from our 2006 ceremony, which took place on the roof of our apartment building in LA due to some traffic-related technical difficulties. Just below Katie's wrist, among the cranes and buildings of West LA, is the Mormon Temple, where a lot of the hoopla's been going on out there. Isn't that a hoot? I want to email this to the Mormon Church and see what they think about it! LMAO!

Disappointed... but encouraged

2008-11-15T16:25:00.007-05:00

I seem to have broken myself this week with my writing insanity and made myself sick. I was waaaaay too low to go and protest in the cold & rain today. It feels like all my organ systems are failing LOL! However needing to stay home disappointed me a very great deal. On the bright side, some were concerned that turnout would be low due to the weather, which made me feel even worse about not going, but that wasn't the case at all....

Rep. Niki Tsongas, speaking at Boston City Hall during today's action.

Regardless.....

I am extremely encouraged by the changing face of "gay-rights" activism. It used to be that no sane straight person would walk the streets with a bunch of 'mos in ActUp t-shirts. Then, for a long time, the PFLAG wing of straightdom (i.e. my mom/son/brother is gay + the supportive straight opinion leaders) would be well-reflected in our public events. Now, it truly does seem that we've built a broader coalition than ever.... straight kids with no personal interest in our cause other than feeling it's the right thing, alongside religious leaders and adherents who believe that faith compels tolerance, alongside people of all colors and backgrounds (contrary to the suggestions of all the recent hoopla, they're out there in the streets with us too!), even grandparents and teachers and union workers, all sorts came out today to show support.

You all know that I believe this battle must be fought and won in the courts, but if THIS ain't progress, call me crazy, I don't know what progress is.

Hootie hoo!

2008-11-15T03:03:00.002-05:00

Just sent in my first law school app... to NYU, my dream school, where I'll never get in LOL!

BUT... I sent it first because of all that it represents, and also for the practical reason that every extra minute in front of the reviewers is definitely useful when applying to a top 5 school.

After a bit more work, I have three apps on deck, ready to go, and three more that I anticipate I will be done with by the end of this weekend.

Then, after long last, I'll be done! And then..... I'll have the joy of waiting around for months, to receive what will probably 3 or 4 rejection letters out of 7 schools, and then I'll get to agonize over where I should go out of the winners! :D

Point is, somethin's comin'! I feel happy, and proud, and crazy, exhausted, and weird.

Dream Team

2008-11-14T17:30:00.009-05:00

I am waaaaay deep in my law school apps right now, but a couple of things I'm hearing right now are making me so frickin' giddy, and drawing so near to my personal Dream Team, that I just have to remark:

"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton"

"Attorney General Janet Napolitano"

It's almost like I'm playing "Fantasy Presidential Administration 2008"!

PS: LOL@ Wolf Blitzer and his wrong sound bite just now!

Yet another blog post from TNC's blog on The Atlantic!

2008-11-12T22:39:00.004-05:00

I'm kinda hoping that these guys will come here and remark. I'd love to get this conversation going on a more personal level! Here are the comments that I responded to, one of which was a direct response to my earlier post:

Erika,

I guess it comes down to abolishing something so sacred to many....and just removing the word marriage all together. Of course I am sure some of you guys will still protest about that too...why now? when gays come around you want to change the system huh? Its a religious thing....not personal..

Posted by HassaN | November 12, 2008 11:40 AM

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Very, very rarely do I see anyone point out the most obvious answer to all of this nonsense...remove the word "marriage" from all civil statute/regulation/law verbiage.

Mating pairs predate religion and religion predates nation-state governments. Marriage is a religious ceremony that got absorbed into government, not the other way around.

Take the word "marriage" out of all the laws and statutes and require those that want to gain the legal benefits get both the civil and the religious if they so choose. That pretty much ends the argument in a simple, pragmatic way.

However...there's a simple problem with that. If you're going to open what we now consider as "marriage" to mean more than a man and a woman because of "seperate but legal" or "equal protection" arguments, what do you then say to the woman who wants to marry two men, or the man who wants to marry two men (etc etc)? Why should a threesome "marriage" be any less valid than a twosome? I can think of many reasons why it would be BETTER to pool the resources of three incomes and efforts than it is for two. Why should multiple-partner marriages be valid as well?

Posted by Scott | November 12, 2008 8:29 AM

@ Hassa:

I really appreciate your response. I don't take anything you said personally, I responded because a lot of people are led to think that the current statuses are equal when in fact they're just not.

A very big thing for me, is that I highly respect people's right to worship as they choose, and I don't want to take anything away from anyone or desecrate something that is sacred to someone's religious beliefs... I just want to make sure that my family is protected *by the government* in a manner that is equal to the protections afforded other families. If they want to call it something else, I don't really care what it is called, they can call it a "big fat gay wedding" or a "totally non-religious government union" or whatever they like as long as everyone has the exact same protections!

There is no way that the government can force a religious organization to perform gay marriages if they are opposed to such a thing, so nobody's altars will have to be stained with the taint of gay-ness if the church so determines. :) At the end of the day, it is enshrined in our Constitution that government doesn't force religions to do things, and it also states that religions (even majority ones) don't inform the policies of government.

I can't speak for what some or all gays would protest, I can simply say what the legal arguments are and how a separate but equal civil status would likely play out in the courts. I personally don't think I would mind too much if I truly had all of the exact same rights, but it seems likely based on legal precedent that it couldn't stay that way for long. State by state progress is definitely encouraging, but it's kind of annoying to think that if my partner and I were married here, our protections would evaporate every time we went on vacation, unless we wanted to vacation in exotic Connecticut. :)

Anyways, I appreciate your honesty. :)

@ Scott:

If civil marriage is separate from religious institutional marriage (which it currently is in most senses), then there should be no need for anyone to receive *government* benefits based on a religious ceremony (which in fact is also the case now - you obtain the legal benefits by virtue of your government marriage certificate, with or without the religious blessing). You couldn't just go into a church, get married by a religious official, and be considered legally married without following up and certifying your civil marriage with the government.

In light of this, it actually makes a great deal of sense to have two different words for the religious ceremony and the legal compact. However, my guess is that many married folk would be annoyed to have their existing marriage somehow "downgraded" to a civil union, probably even more than they are annoyed that gay civil unions might be "upgraded" to marriages. Language matters to us a great deal, doesn't it?

Quite personally, and from a civil-libertarian standpoint, I take no issue with the idea that committed polyamorous people (ha, I almost typed 'couples') should be able to designate the scope of their own families for legal purposes. However, you clearly couldn't call that a marriage! ;)

Just kidding, I was trying to make a point. Call it whatever you want. Maybe that can be a "totally non-religious government union" too. It doesn't matter what I think about other people's lives and relationships, at least not from the standpoint of what the government does or how it acts. Why should it matter what we *personally* feel distasteful about or are religiously opposed to, when what we're talking about here are agreements between individuals and the government?

--------
Either of you, or anyone else, please feel free to comment on my blog if you want to discuss further, it's certainly not my intent to hijack the page!

PS - BIG thumbs down for ANYONE blaming AAs or some other random group for this electoral outcome. I promise you that this opinion, while it may exist among the ranks of gay people and others, is NOT a representative one, for whatever that matters. Our anger at this outcome would be much better directed at the specific efforts of organized religion, and it would be much better applied as outreach and informative efforts than as hate. How totally counter-productive it is to act hateful towards those who hate us, those kind of actions solve nothing and reap no positives!!!

More of my blogwork on Prop 8

2008-11-12T03:33:00.002-05:00

The original comment on Ta-Nehisi Coates' blog that inspired my response:

TNC,

I haven't quite digested the issues involved in Gay marriages. I suspect many African Americans went into the voting boots uninformed as well. In so far as the issue is about names, meaning gays are whining about the word marriage itself rather than equal benefits and treatments then I suspect there is no real discrimination... I don't understand why Gay's would be unhappy with the word Civil Unions or any other word such as Domestic Partnership for statutes that represent them, if they have equal treatments. Its quite ludicrous to demand names....its quite silly. And please don't equate this with racism, marriage is custom practiced by heterosexuals. I assure you this is not a way to discriminate you but you are gay....its reality...You should demand equal treatments and benefits not equal names....so silly.

Posted by Hassa | November 11, 2008 8:14 PM

My response:

@Hassa:

There are three reasons why "civil unions" and "domestic partnerships" are not an acceptable alternative, although they constitute an admitted improvement over no familial protections whatsoever...

1) With few exceptions, most DPs do not provide all the same rights of marriage within the state or locality that institutes them. Most civil unions do provide an equal level of protection, on the state level only. Which leads to....

2) Even if all 50 states had full-fledged civil unions, only the marriage rights and benefits controlled by the states would be applied. NO Federal rights of any kind would apply, and there are more than 1,000 Federally-sanctioned benefits to the status of marriage. A very relevant one for many people is being able to marry (or civilly unite with) your partner who is from another country. Impossible for LGBT people without full Federal marriage. Which leads to...

3) If at some point, there exists a Federal-level civil union status that is equal to marriage in all but name, it will be subject to the "separate but equal" legal argument; this argument was successfully used in the Connecticut Supreme Court to convert civil unions into equal marriage.

The practices and "customs" of "heterosexual" marriage are far less homogenous than anyone should suppose without plenty of research. And in the end, it comes down to more than a name, it comes down to a class distinction. How would you feel if AAs couldn't get married, but could only get "blarried", with limited rights and benefits as opposed to everyone else? Sure, you'd be pleased to have some protections, but some part of you would hope that someday, the government at least, and society at best, would recognize your "blarriage" as a marriage.

Also, and I can't believe I almost forgot this, the legal status of DPs and civil unions is so complicated in most places that GLBT folk are advised to seek legal counsel before entering into one so that they'll be aware of what they're getting into. For example: I live in Boston, but I'm moving next summer to go to law school. My partner and I could get married here, and our marriage would be fully legal in the state, but not for Federal purposes. If I go to school in NY, most institutions (but not all, and who knows which ones) will recognize our marriage. If I move to DC, we can have a DP, but who knows if we have to dissolve our marriage to get a DP, or if it automatically converts. If we move to CA, well, just who knows at this point LOL. If we moved to most other places, our marriage would simply cease to exist, but still be in existence in the state of Massachusetts. It's so complicated, and there's just no need when it is a government contract we are demanding and nothing more. There's very little about it that is actually "silly". :)

Having said all that, thank you for asking the questions. :)

The sorry state of the Republican Party

2008-11-12T00:01:00.003-05:00

Heh heh....
Today all the chatter includes nuggets like these....

"Is Sarah Palin the party's last, best hope?"

"Who will lead the party now? Who can be its intellectual leader?"
----"Maybe John Boehner?"

"I think Mitt Romney would have a great chance of getting the nomination in 2012."

Oh, God. They just kill me. Here's hoping it's all true and that this sad-clown cast of characters really constitutes the best and brightest of the Repulican Party.

What's the Best Way to Interrogate a Kid? Juliet Lapidos | Slate.com

2008-11-11T19:33:00.005-05:00

Whew.... been following this case with something of a heavy heart and thinking about this article will just rock you. At least it has done so to me. WTF!

An 8-year-old Arizona boy charged with murdering his father and another man appeared in court on Monday. Police say the boy confessed to shooting the two men with a .22-caliber gun, but his defense attorneys told reporters that "there could have been improper interview techniques done." What's the "proper" way to interrogate a kid?

Read the full article here.

Giddy-Making

2008-11-10T22:18:00.003-05:00

Professor Obama
Marcia DeSanctis | HuffPost

Barack Obama is now the face of the United States - the photograph we will see when we go through customs at JFK airport, or when we go to any U.S. Embassy on earth. The impact of this image, particularly at first, will be subtle, but immeasurable and its iconographic significance is multi-layered. He might refer to himself self-deprecatingly as a "mutt," but he is in effect, Globalized Man. With parts coming from all around the earth, passing through Asia on the way back to America, our new President now seems inevitable - this is the way the world is in 2008. But perhaps of even larger importance is that the leader of the world's greatest democracy was a professor of constitutional law and above all, a teacher. The Constitution - as in, the foundation of any functioning democracy - is his area of expertise. As such, he embodies the best possible advertisement for democracy at a time when the world needs it most and our country could benefit from, as Bill Clinton put it, the "power of example" rather than the "example of power."

Read the rest of the article here.

My response to the haters among us.....

2008-11-10T18:23:00.004-05:00

Posted in response to the comments on Ta-Nehisi Coates' blog:

As a gay white activist for many different sorts of causes, all I have to say is this: if, in fact, African-Americans voted overwhelmingly to pass Prop 8, as seems to have been the case, then that choice has far, far less to do with the color of anyone's skin than with the potent influence of religion on African-American culture.

We could all sit around for an eternity debating the minutiae of the results, who turned out to vote, how they voted, etc. In the end, we as a community either have to reach out to people of faith (of *all* varieties), or hope that the courts will overturn what seems to be an unconstitutional implementation of religious principle as public policy. Maybe better, both.

It's important to note that people of faith understand the fear of persecution just as powerfully as those who are perhaps more genuinely oppressed in our times. However, they have been taught to believe that we want to take away something that God gave especially to them... That sense of privilege will be difficult to overcome.

If it turns out that the judicial system has not yet evolved enough to fully support the equal recognition of the gay community, then our "target" should be the faith community, and the application should be one of outreach and establishing common ground, not blind rage.

I don't mean to say that the effort will be won on the ground, because like all other equal protection issues, this one will have to be decided in the courts in order to find enforcement. Regardless, we *can* benefit from broader support on the ground, and however amusing it may be to laugh at Mormons' magic underwear, or however easy it may be to target statistics about the African-American vote, directing our collective anger at narrow groups of people can hardly broaden our coalition. We have to channel this passion in productive directions.

Legal notes on Prop 8 and the role of the CA Supreme Court

2008-11-09T16:54:00.005-05:00

I just want to point out a couple of things about the legal challenges to Prop 8:

-For those who say that the CA Sup Ct should have weighed in on the measure's legality before it was passed: just such a challenge was filed, and the Court declined to review it, as it has not been the practice of the Court to review initiative measures before they are approved by the electorate.

-There are lots and lots of people who feel very pessimistic about the legal challenge, and I'd like to make clear one very simple thing: based on the equal protection admonitions of the May 2008 decision that legalized same-sex marriage in the first place, Prop 8 was clearly unconstitutional at the time of its passage. This is one of many points argued in the petition, and I frankly believe it is the one that will appeal to the Court's sense of purpose.

-People have been focusing on the argument that Prop 8 constitutes a revision as opposed to an amendment. If the Court determines that it was, in fact, a revision, then it would have required a passage through 2/3 of the legislature, and would not stand. While this is a reasonable assertion, it is arguable whether the scope of Prop 8 can be interpreted to be broad enough to constitute a revision. The revision argument makes sense from an equal protection / due process / civil rights perspective, which admittedly was the original rationale of the Court's decision. However, I think it could be successfully argued that since the language of the amendment is so finite and affects only one section of the Constitution, it does not constitute a revision.

Today....

2008-11-08T18:08:00.002-05:00

I'm tired, kind of blah, and need to get out of the house, also clean the house, and definitely focus on my personal statement. I've been waiting for my last recommendation to come in and it gives me an excuse to put off finishing it.... but before I know it, that last rec will come in, and when it does, I need to be ready to send everything out ASAP. So, no more excuses. Tonight, I will take myself on a date; tomorrow, I will clean and finish my PS. Dangit.
:P

>: / Language Alert! Anger Alert! Prop 8 and GLBT Betrayal.

2008-11-08T04:10:00.010-05:00

All this talk about Prop 8 is really just making me sad and angry. Yes, there's hope, it's only a matter of time, it is an inevitability, the legal arguments are all there, eventually our cause will win even in the harsher courts of public opinion, yada yada yada. So why do I feel so fucked up? Why do I feel so damned betrayed when I hear my well-intentioned gay brethren say that we have to stop suing and make nice with the public before we can win the courts? That's just ignorant. That's mere denial. Change of this caliber never begins with the public, though it is important to note that it is eventually cemented and flourishes inside public opinion. To be frank, I don't really care if we piss people off by being litigious, because the court is where things happen! If it were up to the public at large to change things, we would all be screwed. It requires leadership for a nation of this size and diversity to change fundamentally. The herd, unfortunately, will not lead itself to the pasture.

Look... It does me no good to walk down the street and get 20 people to agree that I am a perfectly nice lesbian and a decent American who has the right to marry my partner of many years. There are another 20 (at least) waiting around the corner to try to ex-gay me, to physically assault me, to call me a fat dyke, to tell me I'm confused, to explain why their deity has compelled them to vote away my rights again and again, to shriek that I am taking something special away from them, to shield their children from my gaze, to openly express distaste, and to impose their personal beliefs on my civil life. Somewhere, my gay brethren assert, there are another ten lurking about in the shadows, another ten who are ambivalent, or on the fence, or don't really care what anybody does, or sort of think that being gay is gross but don't really mind if we want to get married, or think that marriage is kind of stupid and that it's odd we would desire it, or "have some gay friends" and are sympathetic but kind of think that marriage is a hetero thing. These ten, my comrades assert, are the prizes. Whoever wins their support will have the ever-so-treasured majority of public opinion.

Um, fuckin' ridiculous. I reject that completely. It's supposed to be my job to convince people who don't really give a shit about anything, or whose distaste for me is merely mild or generic or solely secular in nature, that I'm a whole person and an equal American citizen? Hell with that. My optimistic brethren assert that simply by living long enough among these 10 people, and even among some of the nastier 20, that American gays will win hearts and minds, like the nice and funny gays on Will and Grace did. We're harmless, we're normal, we're jolly, we sweetly and docilely wait on the sidelines for our fair shake. We would never sue you. Come see us in our natural habitats, from WeHo, the Village, and the Castro, on into the suburbs and rural America. Gosh, we're just like you!

This may sound terrible... but I don't need any of those 50 people to be OK with my sexuality, my relationships, my personal "choices", or my "lifestyle". Granted, it can be surprising, encouraging, and make a great difference in my day, or my life, when I encounter the supportive ones; however, that support neither solely nor primarily endows me with the freedom to live my life as I see fit, no matter how it alleviates my burden and lifts my spirits. Only the rule of law can guarantee that, and when it comes to minority rights, that rule is not up to the majority; thank goodness, because the majority rarely espouses the rights of the minority, particularly in the case where as pervasive an influence as the Church has convinced them that we are taking something away from them that God gave especially to them. I do not blame all believers, and I have been personally buoyed by many who gave their time, money, and understanding to our cause. In fact, I don't much tend to blame the people themselves, even the nasty ones. They are only repeating what they have been taught, on the behalf of an Authority that they believe is absolute.

Which brings me to my point... there will be plenty of people who can never be convinced that we deserve equality, just as surely as there are blatant racists in our country today, even after all of the progress that has been made. The black man sitting at the lunch counter didn't need the white patrons to feel great about him sitting there, though it surely couldn't have hurt; he needed the power of the law, the edicts of the court behind him, to make certain they knew that no matter what they felt about it, he had the right to sit there just as they did. The black girl ascending the steps into the school filled with white students didn't need the other students or their parents to be okay with her presence, although if they had been, maybe she wouldn't have needed the armed detail; she needed only for them to understand that the law was on her side, and she was acting as it was her right to do. This was her right, which many would say was "God-given"; this was her right, in fact hers by birth as an American citizen, anyone's religious beliefs notwithstanding.

Just as relevant, if perhaps less palatable to many: John Lawrence and Tyron Gardner didn't need the Texas cops who barged into the apartment to be happy about catching them entwined; they simply needed the court to make it perfectly clear that what they were doing was no crime. Remember this, if you start to feel too optimistic about our current situation; these men were arrested ten years ago, and the case was decided a touch over five years ago. Up until that point, it was still illegal to engage in homosexual activity in several states. FIVE YEARS AGO. In fact, the 2000 measure to ban gay marriage in the California civil code, with the much-touted 61%-39% result, took place when the federal legal precedent was that gay folks had no particular rights to privacy or anything else that others enjoyed. Not terribly surprising, right? What I do find surprising is that now, eight years later, gays are no longer on trial in the legal sense, even if they remain so in the sociocultural sense, and yet, in eight years, even with our personal lives decriminalized, we've only managed to convince 9% of Californians that gay marriage is OK? Even with us "living amongst them" in domestic partnerships, first the "lite" variety, then the full-blown sort established in 2005? And even including the unknown, but possibly significant, percentage of Californians who had no problem adjusting the civil code but balked at amending the Constitution?

These people, the Californians, as a whole possibly some of the most tolerant and socially moderate people in the country, are the ones I'm supposed to trust with the basic expressions of my humanity? Can I vote to only trust half of them? The other half, or just a bit more in fact, will plainly not be reliable in that regard. But I'm supposed to break 'em down and convince them, of what, that I'm cool? Not gonna prey on their daughters? My gay male friends are OK to teach their children? And.... you want me to shout louder than the preachers in their pulpits? Because no matter how long we "live next door" or "work at the same place" or "send our kids to the same school", that sound of entitlement coming from their faiths is one I can not drown out, no matter how normal and adorable I become.

Know what? Thanks to the ACLU and friends, I won't have to, because the rule of law is on my side... and that means that someday, being accepted for who I am can go back to being a simple joy, as opposed to an obnoxious and burdensome agenda.

Mutts Like Me

2008-11-08T01:41:00.002-05:00

What a cutie... Our new President's a funny lil cutie. BTW, I thought the Nancy Reagan thing was funny. I'm sure she took no offense. Think she still holds seances? That's soooo 80s.

Oh, the irony.

2008-11-07T18:32:00.003-05:00

Tom Toles at the Washington Post

Presidential Flava

2008-11-07T17:03:00.006-05:00

'November 4th, 2008' by artist Patrick Moberg. Hi-res view here.
Courtesy of Andrew Sullivan

Election Prognostications...

2008-11-07T14:02:00.001-05:00

Oh, yeah....
Did I say over 350 and 51%?
How 'bout 364 and 52%?
Woot!

The New America

2008-11-06T20:08:00.010-05:00

A Black dude... more accurately, a multi-racial dude: the product of what some might refer to as "miscegenation".

An Irish Catholic.

A Jewish guy.

Suck on that, KKK!

Technical difficulties?

2008-11-06T07:46:00.003-05:00

I dunno why, but at least for me, the sound on these two videos isn't working. You can click on the video owner's link at the bottom of the post to see the two vids on her page (they're the only ones). There the sound works fine.
:/

Update: It's a FireFox problem. I know, what's that? The sound works fine in IE.

Actual footage of the crowd I was in on election night!

2008-11-06T07:11:00.004-05:00

I managed to find some clips of the crowd I stumbled into after wandering around on election night. What an experience... what unbridled joy.

This was my posse LOL... At this point the cops were moving us out of the Park and some kind of crazy conga line had broken out. The kids in the front were singing to the tune of "This Land Is Your Land", singing "Oh yes we can, oh yes we can... Barack Obama, Barack Obama"and the people in the back couldn't hear and were mostly just singing the regular song. LOL! This reminded me of a kind of strange inverse of when I was in high school choir and if you didn't know the words, you'd just sing "watermelon"!

Heh, this is us at the Christian Science Center Park, enthusiastically butchering the national anthem. Note the poor guy trying to conduct, and I also think you may catch a glimpse of the life-sized Obama cardboard cutout that was crowd-surfing!

Thanks to YouTube user michellezwi for posting these clips of what will no doubt be one of the most memorable events of my life.

Traditional Marriage Perverts the Tradition of Marriage

2008-11-06T01:30:00.003-05:00

This was borrowed from a friend of a friend. A bit late, I suppose, and a bit long, but it neatly sums up exactly what it is that "traditional marriage" proponents are trying to protect.

Traditional Marriage Perverts the Tradition of Marriage
By Jeff Goode (Californian)

About a decade ago, as a young playwright, I was hired to write a script for the Renaissance Festival of Kansas City. It was a period piece about knights and jousts and intrigues of the court, building up to a lavish royal wedding between a prince and a princess, restoring peace to the troubled land.

This was one of my first professional writing assignments, so I was really excited about doing all the research and making sure that everything was historically accurate, especially the royal wedding which needed to follow all the traditions exactly.

Over a summer of research, I learned a lot of surprising facts about the history of marriage and weddings, but by far the most shocking discovery of all was that the tradition of marriage-as-we-know-it simply did not exist in those days. Almost everything we have come to associate with marriage and weddings - the white dress, the holy vows, the fancy cake and the birdseed - dates back a mere 50 or 100 years at the most. In many cases less.

And the handful of traditions that do go back farther than that are, frankly, horrifying. The tossing of the garter, for example, evolved from a 14th Century tradition of ripping the clothing off of the bride's body as she left the ceremony in order to "loosen her up" for the wedding night. Wedding guests fought over the choicest bits of undergarment, with the garter being the greatest prize.

Savvy brides got in the habit of carrying extra garters in their bodice to throw to the male guests in hopes of escaping the ceremony with some shred of modesty intact!

It turns out that marriage, in days of old, was a barbaric custom which was little more than a crude exchange of livestock at it's most civilized, and a little less than ritualized abduction at it's worst. That's why you'll find no reference to white weddings in the Bible, or the union of one man and one woman. Because up until fairly recently, there was nothing religious about it.

You will of course find plenty of biblical bigamy, practiced by even the most godly of heroes - Noah, Abraham, David, Solomon - because that's what marriage was in those days. Even in more enlightened New Testament times, the only wedding worth mentioning (the one at Cana) is notable only for the miraculous amount of wine consumed.

In the 21st Century, we've heard a lot about the sanctity of marriage, as if that were something that has been around forever, but in reality the phrase was invented in 2004. Google it for yourself and see if you can find a single reference to the "sanctity of marriage" before the Massachusetts Supreme Court legalized same-sex unions in that state. The proverbial Sanctity of Marriage sprang into being because opponents of gay marriage needed a logical reason to overturn an established legal precedent. And the only thing that trumps the Constitution is God himself.

Unfortunately, God is still pretty new to the whole marriage game (or he might have made an honest woman out of the Virgin Mary, am I right? Try the veal!)

The truth is that marriage has always been more a secular tradition rather than a religious one. Up until the early Renaissance, in fact, couples were traditionally married on the church's front doorstep, because wedding ceremonies were considered too vulgar to be performed inside the building: After all, there was implied sex in the vows and shameless public displays of affection. No clergyman in his right mind would have allowed such an unholy abomination on the premises.

But as times changed, ideas and attitudes about marriage also changed. So when people became religious, matrimony became holy. When people became nudists, clothing became optional. And so on throughout history.

And the wonderful thing about the institution of marriage - the reason it has remained strong and relevant through thousands of years of ever-changing times - is its unique ability to change with those times.

Marriage is, and always has been, a constantly evolving tradition that never fails to incorporate the latest shifts in culture and climate, changing social habits, fashions and even fads. (Because, seriously, that chicken dance is not in the Bible.)

Thus, in the 1800s when the sole purpose of marriage was procreation and housekeeping, marriage between an older man and a hard-working tween girl was considered perfectly normal. Today we call it pedophilia.

For thousands of years marriage was essentially a business transaction
between the parents of the bride and groom. But in the last century or so, we've finally seen the triumph of this new-fangled notion that marriage should be about a loving relationship between two consenting adults.

Followers of the Mormon faith can tell you that the traditions of their forefathers included a devout belief that polygamy was appropriate and sanctified. But modern Mormons generally don't support that vision of happiness for their daughters.

And during the Civil Rights era, when opponents of interracial marriage tried to pass laws making such couples illegal, we came to realize that they, too, were wrong in trying to redefine marriage to prevent those new-found relationships.

Always marriage has triumphed by becoming a timely celebration of our society, rather than a backlash against it. It's strange, then, to see "tradition" used as a weapon against change, when change is the source of all its greatest traditions.

Just ask the white dress:
In 1840, Queen Victoria of England married Prince Albert wearing a beautiful white lace dress - in defiance of tradition - in order to promote the sale of English lace! The image was so powerful that practically overnight the white wedding gown became de rigueur for the well-heeled bride. And then it became de rigueur for every bride.

By the dawn of the 20th Century, the white dress had also inexplicably come to symbolize chastity. (Even though blue was traditionally the color of virginity - "something borrowed, something blue...")

And the new equation of white with virginity eventually achieved such a rigid orthodoxy that older readers may remember a time when wedding guests who happened to know that the bride was not perfectly pure would have felt a moral obligation to demand that she change into something off-white before walking down the aisle.

Fortunately, as cultural norms eased during the Sexual Revolution, a sort of "don't ask, don't tell" policy took hold where all brides were required to wear white regardless of their virtue and the less said about it the better.

In recent years, as a generation of divorcees have remarried and a generation of young people have entered wedlock with some degree of "experience", the pretense of a connection between literal virginity and the bridal gown has become entirely obsolete. A colorful journey for a custom which has always seemed iron clad, even as it was evolving over time.

And not all traditions have to do with changing sexual standards. The long-time custom of pelting the newlyweds with birdseed did not exist before the 1970s when animal-lovers realized that songbirds were bloating on dried rice that they found on the ground after the former custom.

Economic times have caused families to rethink the age-old convention of the bride's father paying for the entire ceremony - a last vestige of the days of dowries when a young man had to be bribed to take a free-loading daughter off her parents' hands - that well-established custom has gradually given way to a more humane approach to sharing the financial burden.

Even religious traditions of marriage have experienced constant metamorphosis over the years. As more interfaith couples have wed, we have seen the emergence of multi-disciplinary ceremonies where couples have chosen not to follow the out-dated tradition of rejecting one or both of their faiths as a prerequisite of holy matrimony.

One of the most beautiful weddings I ever attended was between a young Jewish fellow and his Catholic fiancé, whose mother was born in France. The ceremony was performed by both a rabbi and a priest with intertwining vows in English, Latin, Hebrew and French. A perfect expression of the union of their two families, yet one which would have been unthinkable just a generation before.

But, again, marriage has such a long history of changing with the ever-changing times, that the last thing we should expect from it is to stop growing and changing. We know today that marriage is not a rote ritual handed down by God to Adam & Eve and preserved verbatim for thousands of years. It is, rather, an expression of how each community, each culture, and each faith, chooses to celebrate the joining of loved ones who have decided to make a life together.

Christians do not expect Jesus to be central to a Buddhist wedding, nor do Jews refuse to acknowledge Lutheran unions because they didn't include a reading from the Torah. Marriage is what we each make of it. And that's the way it always should be.

Perhaps the greatest irony of the traditional marriage argument is that it seeks to preserve a singular tradition that has, in fact, never existed at any point in history.

Because, honestly, which traditional definition of marriage do we want our Constitution to protect?

... The one from Book of Genesis when family values meant multiple wives and concubines?
... Or the marriages of the Middle Ages when women were traded like cattle and weddings were too bawdy for church?
... Since this is America, should we preserve marriage as it existed in 1776 when arranged marriages were still commonplace?
... Or the traditions of 1850 when California became a state and marriage was customarily between one man and one woman-or-girl of age 11 and up?
... Or are we really seeking to protect a more modern vision of traditional marriage, say from the 1950s when it was illegal for whites to wed blacks or hispanics?
... Or the traditional marriage of the late 1960s when couples were routinely excommunicated for marrying outside their faith?

No, the truth of the matter is, that we're trying to preserve traditional marriage the way it "was and always has been" during a very narrow period in the late 70s / early 80s - just before most of us found out that gays even existed: Between one man and one woman of legal age and willing consent. Regardless of race or religion (within reason). ...Plus the chicken dance and the birdseed. Those are okay.

But there's something profoundly disturbing about amending the Constitution to define anything about the 1970s as "the way God intended it".

To be in Boston on Election Night 2008...

2008-11-06T01:08:00.003-05:00

Was an unexpected and powerful blessing.
A few tastes of the vibe up here last night that mirror what I experienced (I will keep searching for footage of the actual crowds into which I got swept):

I asked a cop who was working the crowd in the park where we were what he thought about a bunch of kids spontaneously breaking into the national anthem, and he just grinned. I could tell that he was trying to stay unaffected, but he was pretty moved.

This is pretty much what it was like on the street all night, even in JP where I was. Every car was just honking like crazy and all kinds of people were running and biking around hooting and hollering, hugging each other, high-fiving, etc.

When I left JP and went into the Back Bay, I ran into some of these kids. Everyone marched around aimlessly, we congregated in a few places for a while but the cops kept sweeping us along. Bad policy if you ask me, because then we just impeded traffic as we crossed the streets. The people in the cars didn't care, they got up out of their windows and moon-roofs and chanted and whooped it up with the rest of us. What a night.

More to come. I'm sure in the next few days I'll find some footage from the Christian Science Park where I was with the group the longest and the national anthem was sung!

A mixed bag

2008-11-06T00:01:00.004-05:00

So. I'm obviously elated about Obama... and frustrated about Prop 8.

But.... I just spent a good little while poring over the petition that was filed today to prevent the enforcement of Prop 8 and, hopefully, to overturn it.

Let me tell you, it's good. It's really, really good. This single petition holds up a whole basketful of different reasons why Prop 8 should not stand. It's really... pretty dope! Not to mention, I have to believe that the Court would be frustrated by the efforts of a group of people, largely comprised of religious organizations and out-of-staters, to subvert its decision and to keep it from doing its job. The point is, even with things up in the air, there is a good deal of hope on the horizon. And it all makes me just gnash my teeth with eagerness to become a lawyer.... if only I could skip law school LOL.

Should anyone else wish to read the petition, it's available here.

Also: a really interesting non-technical legal analysis from Slate.com

I am one giant goosebump

2008-11-04T23:11:00.004-05:00

I'm sitting in a bar in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, and history has just come f'in crashing down all around me, around all of us. I'm in the street and there are strangers running by hugging me and crying. Today's the first day of the rest of it. Yes we did!
Sent wirelessly via BlackBerry from T-Mobile.

Obama Pie

2008-11-04T15:24:00.004-05:00

Courtesy of Andrew Sullivan

Prop 8 is "most expensive social issue campaign in U.S. history" | Bay Area CBS5.com

2008-11-04T15:18:00.002-05:00

Proposition 8 Spending Surpasses $73 Million

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― Spending for and against a ballot initiative that would outlaw same-sex marriage in California has surpassed $73 million, almost twice the total that was spent in the 24 states where similar measures were put to voters since 2004, campaign finance records show.

Opponents of Proposition 8 had a slight lead in contributions as of Monday, having raised $37.6 million. Supporters of the gay marriage ban had raised $35.8 million.

A little less than $33 million was spent on campaigns to pass or defeat gay marriage bans in the 24 states where they appeared on ballots in 2004, 2005 and 2006, according to the National Organization on Money in State Politics.

Full Article Here

LA Times Editorial on Prop 8 - Couldn't have said it better myself.

2008-11-04T00:42:00.005-05:00

November 2, 2008

Clever magicians practice the art of misdirection -- distracting the eyes of the audience to something attention-grabbing but irrelevant so that no one notices what the magician is really doing. Look over at that fuchsia scarf, up this sleeve, at anything besides the actual trick.

The campaign promoting Proposition 8, which proposes to amend the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriages, has masterfully misdirected its audience, California voters. Look at the first-graders in San Francisco, attending their lesbian teacher's wedding! Look at Catholic Charities, halting its adoption services in Massachusetts, where same-sex marriage is legal! Look at the church that lost its tax exemption over gay marriage! Look at anything except what Proposition 8 is actually about: a group of people who are trying to impose on the state their belief that homosexuality is immoral and that gays and lesbians are not entitled to be treated equally under the law.

That truth would never sell in tolerant, live-and-let-live California, and so it has been hidden behind a series of misleading half-truths. Once the sleight of hand is revealed, though, the campaign's illusions fall away.

Take the story of Catholic Charities. The service arm of the Roman Catholic Church closed its adoption program in Massachusetts not because of the state's gay marriage law but because of a gay anti-discrimination law passed many years earlier. In fact, the charity had voluntarily placed older foster children in gay and lesbian households -- among those most willing to take hard-to-place children -- until the church hierarchy was alerted and demanded that adoptions conform to the church's religious teaching, which was in conflict with state law. The Proposition 8 campaign, funded in large part by Mormons who were urged to do so by their church, does not mention that the Mormon church's adoption arm in Massachusetts is still operating, even though it does not place children in gay and lesbian households.

How can this be? It's a matter of public accountability, not infringement on religion. Catholic Charities acted as a state contractor, receiving state and federal money to find homes for special-needs children who were wards of the state, and it faced the loss of public funding if it did not comply with the anti-discrimination law. In contrast, LDS (for Latter-day Saints) Family Services runs a private adoption service without public funding. Its work, and its ability to follow its religious teachings, have not been altered.

That San Francisco field trip? The children who attended the wedding had their parents' signed permission, as law requires. A year ago, with the same permission, they could have traveled to their teacher's domestic-partnership ceremony. Proposition 8 does not change the rules about what children are exposed to in school. The state Education Code does not allow schools to teach comprehensive sex education -- which includes instruction about marriage -- to children whose parents object.

Another "Yes on 8" canard is that the continuation of same-sex marriage will force churches and other religious groups to perform such marriages or face losing their tax-exempt status. Proponents point to a case in New Jersey, where a Methodist-based nonprofit owned seaside land that included a boardwalk pavilion. It obtained an exemption from state property tax for the land on the grounds that it was open for public use and access. Events such as weddings -- of any religion -- could be held in the pavilion by reservation. But when a lesbian couple sought to book the pavilion for a commitment ceremony, the nonprofit balked, saying this went against its religious beliefs.

The court ruled against the nonprofit, not because gay rights trump religious rights but because public land has to be open to everyone or it's not public. The ruling does not affect churches' religious tax exemptions or their freedom to marry whom they please on their private property, just as Catholic priests do not have to perform marriages for divorced people and Orthodox synagogues can refuse to provide space for the weddings of interfaith couples. And Proposition 8 has no bearing on the issue; note that the New Jersey case wasn't about a wedding ceremony.

Much has been made about same-sex marriage changing the traditional definition of marriage. But marriage has evolved for thousands of years, from polygamous structures in which brides were so much chattel to today's idealized love matches. In seeking to add a sentence to California's Constitution that says, "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized," Proposition 8 supporters seek to enforce adherence to their own religious or personal definition. The traditional makeup of families has changed too, in ways that many religious people find immoral. Single parents raise their children; couples divorce and blend families. Yet same-sex marriage is the only departure from tradition that has been targeted for constitutional eradication.

Religions and their believers are free to define marriage as they please; they are free to consider homosexuality a sin. But they are not free to impose their definitions of morality on the state. Proposition 8 proponents know this, which is why they have misdirected the debate with highly colored illusions about homosexuals trying to take away the rights of religious Californians. Since May, when the state Supreme Court overturned a proposed ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional, more than 16,000 devoted gay and lesbian couples have celebrated the creation of stable, loving households, of equal legal stature with other households. Their happiness in no way diminishes the rights or happiness of others.

Californians must cast a clear eye on Proposition 8's real intentions. It seeks to change the state Constitution in a rare and terrible way, to impose a single moral belief on everyone and to deprive a targeted group of people of civil rights that are now guaranteed. This is something that no Californian, of any religious belief, should accept. Vote no to the bigotry of Proposition 8.

Original Article Here

Dixville Notch: results are in!

2008-11-04T00:10:00.001-05:00

Obama 71%
McCain 29%

So... Obama got 15 of 21 votes! Wooooo! LOL.

At this time I'm gonna make two predictions: Obama will win with over 350 electoral votes and 51% of the popular vote, and Prop 8 will NOT pass.

Those are my prognostications of hope, and of risk. I know Obama will win, and I know that the Prop 8 vote will be reasonably close. But I'm going out on a limb to predict that, yes, things are gonna go my way.

We'll see!

Going Home...

2008-10-28T13:09:00.004-04:00

So I may be a bit quiet for a while, with all that needs to get done while I'm there. I will be home on Election Eve and available for comment, commiseration, and comedy.
Peace,
Erika

The 6-4 Black Guy | HuffPost

2008-10-27T20:11:00.005-04:00

This story breaks my heart, because I know it to be true.

For those who think racism is dead in this country and everyone now gets the same fair shake, run your eyes over this. Feel the fear, dread, and uncertainty. Think about "loving the bogeyman", the generic man of whom everyone is afraid, and who is everyone's target.

Whirlwind!

2008-10-27T19:55:00.003-04:00

Wellll....
After staying up for 26 hours and sleeping for 5, I have to pack and clean my apartment in anticipation of my trip home. The good news is I have one of my statements completely done, I am still satisifed with it hours later so I think it will stick this time. One more to go and then the fun of attaching everything electronically and double-and triple-checking everything before it goes out will begin! The bad news is, my body seems unsure what day it is and I keep having tiny panic attacks that I've missed my flight, which is at 6pm tomorrow. :/

My poor friend is really taking it from all sides right now as a Christian and seminary student who supports the right of equal marriage. I am so grateful for his support, and the support of some of my other friends of faith who are crawling out of the woodwork to oppose the cruel CA Prop 8. I'm not so much the praying type but if you are and you read this, pray for my friend. His is obviously a minority viewpoint where he's standing and he seems to be taking a whole lot of flak for it and becoming quite the target. Which is, funnily enough, the perfect example of why majority opinion shoud not automatically be canonized as law.

Tonight

2008-10-26T18:26:00.001-04:00

I have to get back to work on my statements. They are driving me craaaaazy. I don't usually get this much time to edit and I think it is screwing me over a bit.

Back to square one. Ugh

Ashley Todd

2008-10-25T01:02:00.003-04:00

Ugh, I don't even know what to say. Racial, political, cuckoo, or just a desperate plea for attention?

UPDATE: cuckoo.

Notes on my Friday... regarding CA Prop 8 and AZ Prop 102

2008-10-24T18:39:00.004-04:00

This all started because a friend of mine wrote that an organization in which her dad's involved was a big supporter of CA Prop 8, aiming to constitutionally ban gay marriage and take away the marriages that have already been performed there. It's an interesting series of points about how fairly minute differences in state civics can make huge differences in how rights are protected in different states... in particular, the differences between states with "direct-democratic" principles like initiative, referendum, and recall, and states that adhere to the original representative frameworks. I've put it in temporal order for legibility's sake.

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: Erika
Date: Oct 24, 2008 1:00 PM

Well, yeah, KofC is a Catholic organization. So... most of the big opponents are affiliated with religion in some way. Nothing helps a community like keeping non-traditional families weak, you know! It's gross. I spent a whole day the other day looking at all the people and organizations who've donated directly. You can look at it here:
http://www. latimes. com/news/local/la-moneymap,0,2198220. htmlstory
The good news is that in the last few weeks we've pulled even with them money-wise. The bad news is that a higher percentage of our support comes from outside CA, though that may not necessarily translate to fewer votes, it may be just weaker organization within CA. I fear that come election day I'll have a mixed bag and be so happy about President Obama and be so sad about this. It could still get shot down though... I really hope it does.

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: (my friend)
Date: Oct 24, 2008 5:40 PM

i guess i don't totally understand prop 8. i mean, isn't gay marriage legal in ca now? are they trying to reverse that? it's just crazy. i keep thinking about the non-traditional thing too... i want to propose a ban on gay marriage and add "and inter-racial "marriage," because the bible preaches slavery" to the bottom of it... then we can see how many people check their "values"

but anyway - it's good to see that the contributions are neck and neck even though there's all those corporate supporters. easy answer: stop recognizing marriage as a legal bond and they can keep marriage. i would rather have it legal though.

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: Erika
Date: Oct 24, 2008 6:38 PM

Yeah, with Prop 8 the CA courts ruled the gay marriage ban in the CA civil codes unconstitutional... that ban was placed in the civil code by popular vote in 2000. So the tactic of Prop 8 is to constitutionalize the ban, therefore overruling the court's decision and the basis upon which it rests. It's a very tricky legal tactic and honestly, I believe it won't stand for long even if it does pass this year. My primary concern is for those people who have already been married and are on the verge of having their rights taken away again. Frankly, it's cruel. The courts know that you can never win minority rights by popular vote, especially when the majority has so successfully been convinced that they will somehow lose something if their rights are shared by "undeserving" minorities. It's a basic danger of democracy that was addressed by the Framers hundreds of years ago. But most Western states and a few others east of the Mississippi instituted direct democracy laws within the last hundred years. These can place the will of the majority equal to, and in some cases above, the legislature and the courts. Originally the constitutions of states could never be changed by popular vote, only by the legislators... the Founders thought it was crazy and dangerous to put the rights of the whole in the hands of the majority and always moved against it. So that's your civics lesson for today lol. Any other confusions? I believe that Prop 8 may squeak by and it may not. Some people who don't necessarily support gay marriage agree on principle that it's heartless to take away what rights someone has already won. Prop 102 in AZ, I will be very surprised if that does not pass. Direct Democracy at work.

Voted.

2008-10-23T17:15:00.001-04:00

Sent in my absentee ballot!
Napping.
Later.

Weird Morning

2008-10-22T08:33:00.008-04:00

Well...

First of all, I had made up my mind last night that I was going to go "into town" (as the locals say) today and visit the Public Gardens and the Common. This is probably my favorite spot in the city and the leaves are turning so I thought it'd be a nice little diversion. However it is a dreary day and it has been "raining" all night. I put raining in quotes because it's more like a constant dribbling mist. If it were a tiny bit colder I guess it'd be sleet. But anyways, I think the Gardens are out today, as it's cold, wet, and windy too. Maybe I'll do a museum or something instead.

Secondly... they are doing some kind of construction on my block the last few weeks and there's now a porta-potty parked in the neutral ground directly in front of my building. When I go out to smoke I have the dubious pleasure of watching the workers go in and out. This actually amuses me to no end but I wonder if it makes them uncomfortable that some random person is standing 30 feet away while they do their business. Heh. Made me think of this:

It's a working public toilet and also an art installation, part of an installation amusingly titled "Don't Miss a Sec". Like, even if you have to make a pit stop, you can still see what's going on around you. It's enclosed in one-way glass like they use in the viewing rooms at police stations. So you can do your thang and still feel connected to the outside world, which of course provokes the question of who exactly wants to have that experience. Gooooood stuff.

Finally, there has been a flock of seagulls (actual birds, not the 80s band) all around the neighborhood lately and today they are hopping around outside the building. I wonder if this has anything to do with the workers, like if they're leaving trash, etc. Whatevs.

Oh, yeah. For posterity, I'm gonna start importing all my old blogwork from MySpace and LiveJournal. Keep it all nice and orderly. There's a lot, especially from LJ, so it'll be an ongoing project. It'll all be dated with original dates so none will show up on top, but it'll make for some good digging one day when I'm bored or you're curious.

Getting a bit of activity on my fundraising page, which makes me feel really good. If you still haven't given, please drop by and do so! http://www.actblue.com/page/erikaseven

Happy-Making and Angry-Making, all at once.

2008-10-21T14:28:00.012-04:00

Rep. Bachmann's Seat in Jeopardy Following McCarthy-ite Allegations The Nation
I, personally, HATE this woman.
I hate her as no good humanist should ever hate another human being.

It's not just that she stands in direct opposition to EVERY thing that I stand for. That, I'm okay with.

It is that she is a foul, putrescent, spewing, hateful, soulless example of a human being, who proudly calls herself a Christian. If the God I once believed in really does exist, she will rot in the lowest of hells.

I mean, ugh, just try watching her on the cable news shows. Give her a chance to make you hate her too. Flippin' Larry King has her on all the time. Seeing them side by side is horrifying: one side of the screen is the most horrifying vision to every part of me which is shallow, and the other side of the screen is the most horrifying vision to every single part of me that isn't.

And now...

She done gone 'n done it.
She was flapping her jaw like usual, probably thought nobody was paying attention, and basically accused all Congressional liberals of being involved in "anti-American" activities and had the gall to suggest that there should be an investigation.

Dumbass. What a throwback to the 50s!

Now she's also started lying about it and claiming she never said such s thing. Hi, there's tape. And some of us losers were watching live as it happened on MSNBC. Sputter, sputter, all you like. The upshot is... her Congressional opponent in MN, a relatively unknown Dem by the name of Elwyn Tinklenberg (you'll remember him now) has received close to a million dollars in new campaign donations since she went on her tirade! Go ahead, Bachmann, get kee-razy. Then you can leave the "secular" public service, and continue giving sermons about being HOT FOR JESUS, fo real do. Can I get an amen?

What I want to know is this.... which part of our national history leads these mental giants to believe that it is conformity that is American and democratic? Or that it is dissent and plurality which are dangerous and anti-American?

Morons. These are our LEADERS!!!!!!!!! Argh!

UPDATE: Even if you want to take my advice and give the estimable Rep. Bachmann an opportunity to make you despise her crazy behind by watching her night after night on cable news, you'll have a bit of difficulty these days. She has quite suddenly lost her prodigious love of appearing before the cameras every dang day and is now in hiding, issuing fevered statements about how she did not say those horrible things that they have video record of her saying live to Americans on the national news... Grand!

I am really asking for your help.

2008-10-21T13:39:00.003-04:00

I'm gonna be bothersome until I get some action... that sounds wrong. What I mean is that I know times are hard, but next time I see you I will personally buy you a beer or a magazine or a value meal or whatever your lousy five bucks would have gone to, if you'll just go to my fundraising page and donate it instead. It ain't about the benjamins, it's about the involvement. It will do you good. If you wanna donate more than five bucks that's good too.

http://www.actblue.com/page/erikaseven

This is a really big deal, you guys.... CA voters are on the fence and following the money. We can't outspend the opposition but we can get some airtime and use it where it makes the most difference. It is so important to show the world that equal marriage doesn't break down traditional families, it just protects the rights of non-traditional ones.

http://www.actblue.com/page/erikaseven

There are couples in CA who've been married three times now.... once "just for themselves", at a time when they thought they'd never be able to marry legally; once in 2004 when Gavin Newsom first legalized gay marriage in SF; and once this year, after the historic court decision that came from Mayor Newsom's act of courage. We have to make sure that these families finally retain this basic right, their own pursuit of happiness.

http://www.actblue.com/page/erikaseven

One such couple was Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin. A committed, loving couple since Valentine's Day 1953, Phyllis and Del were groundbreakers who dedicated their lives to each other and to activism. Mayor Newsom married them 51 years after they moved in together; they were first of the 2004 equal marriages. When the courts took that marriage away while the cases were tried, Phyllis said, "Del is 83 years old and I am 79. After being together for more than 50 years, it is a terrible blow to have the rights and protections of marriage taken away from us. At our age, we do not have the luxury of time."

http://www.actblue.com/page/erikaseven

When the California Supreme Court finalized its decision, Mayor Newsom asked these ladies to once again be the first to receive the endowments of legal marriage under the law. Graciously, though now 87 and 83, they accepted again and made their way to City Hall. They were married on June 16, 2008, under the eyes of God and man. Sadly, Del passed away on August 27, 2008, from complications of a fracture. Phyllis, her wife, was at her side, as she had been throughout their 55 years together.

http://www.actblue.com/page/erikaseven

We should be so happy for them that, when Phyllis lost her partner, they were married under and protected by the law. We should be so horrified for them that a group of people claiming the mantle of God's authority would work so very hard, and spend so much money, to take that away from them. We should be driven to make sure that equal protection under the law is not taken away again. These are people's lives and families, this is for real. We have to help.

http://www.actblue.com/page/erikaseven

Snap

2008-10-21T02:01:00.002-04:00

I'm trying it out, I like it on other sites. If it's too annoying, you can disable it when a box comes up by hovering on the top right of the box and clicking when it says disable. Also, let me know. If it annoys too many people (both of my readers LOL) I'll get rid of it.

Uh-huh..... The truth is out there.

2008-10-20T18:53:00.004-04:00

Palin Supports Federal Marriage Amendment | HRC

No big surprise, right? I guess the only way this could come as a surprise would be if you'd bought what she was so selectively selling at the VP debate.

Thanks, General Powell. You still rule. (the evidence)

2008-10-20T04:07:00.001-04:00

Thanks, General Powell. You still rule.

2008-10-19T18:06:00.008-04:00

Ah... 7 minutes so well spent. This nicely frames my thoughts about the importance of the choice we will make on November 4th.
Powell said: "I think we need a transformational figure. I think we need a president who is a generational change and that's why I'm supporting Barack Obama, not out of any lack of respect or admiration for Sen. John McCain."

Ah..... transformation.

There's this wishful part of me clinging to the notion of the McCain I used to know and love, and that part of me secretly wonders if Good McCain realized that Evil McCain has been tearing this country apart the last couple of weeks (Mickey Mouse's name on voter reg cards threatens the fabric of democracy? Puh-leez), and sent General Powell to fix everything. It's a silly notion, I know, but it has its roots in the nice "family-man, citizen" remarks made by McCain. I think that if the guy I used to know is still in there somewhere, he knows two things:
-He AIN'T gonna win this here thang
-A House divided against itself cannot stand.
Based on that, who knows? Maybe he is trying to fix things, I do believe he loves this country, and if he can kiss Bush's behind after SC in 2000, he'll work with President Obama (ee!). Not to take anything away from General Powell, who in all probability made this decision on his own. I know it's just my brain trying to level the wild waves of cognitive dissonance created by Evil McCain. Something in me still hearts the old guy.

Been a busy weekend, sorry no posts. Not that anyone's reading lol! Sorry, myself, I didn't post anything for you to read. :) Working hard to win NH for Obama, though I personally feel the matter's closed up there. You wouldn't know it from calling around though. It's amazing how people who can't commit to the choice of a President can commit to being uncommitted, like bulldogs commit to raw steak. LOL

Checking in...

2008-10-17T15:02:00.001-04:00

I'm focusing on my law school apps like a crazy person, so I'm taking today off. Click on the blogs I'm following instead, 99% of blog material is somehow redundant anyway.
:)

I'll hit it up tomorrow night.

PS - Michael Reagan is kind of a douche.

Thoughts on the "born gay" debate

2008-10-16T19:45:00.004-04:00

My posted response on another blog from earlier today:

As a student of biochemistry and neurophysiology, I feel compelled to comment on the "born gay" controversy. Some people say that homosexuals were simply born that way. Others contend that it is a matter of environment only. Both of these views are inaccurate, incomplete. Genetic heritability is much more complex than people realize, and what is accurate is to say that, like most other biological traits, an INTERACTION of genetic expression and environmental influence is the source of our orientation. For example, you may have the genetic material of a tall person, but environmental factors can lead to you being short. You may be genetically predisposed to being fair-skinned, but if you remain in the sun long enough, you may get dark. On the contrary, if you are fair, and your parents notice this, they may teach you to wear sunblock. Or, if you are genetically predisposed to be tall, and nothing stands in the way, your genes will be fully expressed, and you will be tall.

In my personal experience, the influence of one aspect over the other also varies from person to person, just like any other biological trait... Many feel they were born that way, that they can remember these inclinations and a sense of feeling different since very early childhood. Others are empowered by the sense that their genetics may have triggered their orientation, but that their identities, experiences, and choices are their own. Homosexuals do sometimes have a history of being victims of abuse, but then so do heterosexuals, and much more frequently, so this doesn't prove much. Regardless, if one believes that the touch of an all-powerful Creator resides in our DNA, then it makes perfect sense to believe that we are as God intended us. I accept that logic, and, for the record, I am gay.

Incidentally, it is worth noting that no admonishment of homosexuality ever crossed the lips of the Savior. The Old Covenant was washed away with the blood of Christ; that's why Jews are kosher and Christians aren't, folks. In the New Testament, all admonishments against homosexuality are either in the writings of Paul or the writings of his followers, and many scholars who are not literalists agree that Paul's time in Greece may have infused his philosophy with a "cultural conservatism" never intended by Christ. For example, Christ never suggests that women should go unadorned and be silent in church, but, uh, Paul goes there.
All right, let me have it. I asked for it. :)

Prognostication

2008-10-16T18:21:00.003-04:00

Well, I'm happy to have been wrong, at least as far as the end result. There's still too much variation in each day of trading for the market to be healthy, and I think it's going to stay this way for a while. Anyways, I'm retiring from my new hobby. It's too damned depressing, and it's not as if it does any good.

I'm out for a while, I'll be back to talk about the debate.

Stocks, shmocks

2008-10-15T18:19:00.004-04:00

Ah, the markets are back down again. I forgot to prognosticate last night, and it would have been down again, but not this far. So much for my missed calling.

It seems there's some kind of amplification going on, a smaller version of which is the normal case with the markets; people see activity and they replicate it. But really, it's gotten to an outrageous level. We get a bad retail report and everything tanks? What a bunch of sissies. Everyone's so afraid of losing the value they just gained back so they cash out, which makes others cash out, and so on, until all the recently regained value disappears. It's just silly. If those first people would just refrain from cashing out, the markets would rationalize and things could get going again, a little dip here, a little jump there. Not these exaggerated swings. The market needs some BuSpar. :)

Mind you, we're still up from the weekend. And some individual stocks are performing pretty well, all things considered. If the freakouts would stop, I feel pretty confident that things would get back to normal, even a recessed normal. And frankly, I'm solidly in the group of people whose financial future is being shaped by these market happenings, so yeah, I have a stake in these matters.

I'm trying to focus on apps until the debate, I'll be back later no doubt.
PS: Tomorrow's market, I'm afraid, is going to be worse, if that is possible. Early-week gains may get wiped. Just sayin.

Equality for ALL in California

2008-10-14T20:44:00.005-04:00

If you support the right of ALL loving couples to marry, please consider visiting my fundraising page for the group Equality for All. Any small donation will help this group buy ads to inform the public about the importance of voting NO ON PROP 8- the supporters of Prop 8 are currently outspending us many times over and it seems this has turned public opinion in their favor. Please help, any small contribution could make a huge difference!

Erika's fundraising page: Equality for all CA

Today

2008-10-14T18:18:00.001-04:00

I'm wah-wah. Meow-meow. Just a little.

Maybe I'll be back once I've had a little evening caffeine.

ACORN, what's the dealio? Part 2

2008-10-13T16:18:00.011-04:00

Gotta say, I'm kind of sick of the alarmist reaction circulating over the ACORN issue. Admittedly, my own reaction was alarmist, albeit for two reasons: One, I've been heavily involved with ACORN over the years, and have a lot of sweat invested in that affiliation, both literally and figuratively. Two, I hadn't really done any research yet, just reacted to the story without digging deeper. Not like me to do that, but again, it hit me emotionally. Turns out, this concern arises pretty much every election cycle, and ACORN is required by law to turn in all forms they receive, even those that are obviously fakies.

The truth is, falsified voter registrations, icky though they may be, and whether or not they were flagged as bad forms by ACORN, as the evidence now suggests they were, just don't add up to voter fraud at the polls on November 4th.

Here's why:

Mickey Mouse, Ronald Reagan, and Troy Aikman just can't show up and vote a hundred times. Or even once, without ID and positive address verification. Even John Smith can't do that. Duh, people. The only possible political gain for a group like ACORN would be creating the appearance of an advantage in terms of Democratic registrations, and that would be assuming that the nice people at the recorder's office didn't bother to do their jobs and keep false reg's off the rolls. Basically, you don't get political mo from submitting more Dem reg's, you get it from having more Dems ON THE ROLLS.

"Hey, I'm Troy Aikman, and she's Ronald Reagan, and we're here to cast our ballots, please."

(Since you asked, Philipsburg, St. Maarten)

Uh-huh.....

2008-10-13T16:01:00.011-04:00

What'd I say?

That's right, baby, the Dow about doubled its best day ever in terms of point gain.
Nasdaq and S&P both increased about 10%.

Guess I missed my calling as a financial analyst.
My prediction: a slight decrease tomorrow. Nothing to worry about... Market elasticity. Hang in there. And if you still want in, plenty of cheapies.

Just before I wander off to sleep...

2008-10-13T05:53:00.002-04:00

I'm calling it a good day for the stock indexes today. If you wanna get back in, today's the day.

Don't say I didn't warn ya!

AND....
Happy 50th Birthday, Paddington Bear.

This is weird and I'm sorry....

2008-10-12T20:36:00.012-04:00

I don't know why...

but I find John McCain's mother, Roberta, to be a very beautiful woman.

Not like I wanna hook up with her, you scoundrels! You rapscallions! She's 96, and anyways, I am spoken for. I just... find her beautiful!

It occurs to me that I also happen to find this gentleman, an actor named Hans Howes, very handsome. You may recognize him from There Will Be Blood or some commercials he's done. I dunno, he has nice eyes and good bone structure. However, he's only a spry 65, and an Aquarius to boot. Sue me.

All right, bring it on. I pretty much asked for it.

UPDATE: I know some of you will laugh and point, but it turns out that both of these fine-lookin' old folks are Aquarians. Call it a coincidence if you want, but many of you know I have an Aquarius problem! Aquarians just have a, uh, joie-de-vivre that sets them apart. Perhaps that's what applies here? Eh. I dunno.

Sunday Musings

2008-10-12T18:07:00.006-04:00

I decided to write because my cat is talking in her sleep, and I can't get over that. Someday I'll have to record it so I can save it for posterity. Too good.

The last few days I've been thinking about friendships and expectations and all kindsa other stuff along those lines. It's funny how easy it is for me to share my political beliefs or my thoughts on current affairs, but not my feelings about my life and what's going on with me. At least, not here. Who knows who'll read this thing? I've already gotten a couple of comments (outrageous and therefore deleted) from anonymous nutjobs who obviously searched the Blogger site and found my humble blog somehow. But I don't want to clamp down, I want this site to be open and easy to read and respond to. I guess I'll keep it moderately distant so that I don't have to feel all violated by the prying eyes of random strangers!

So, I'm thinking about disappointments.... the times that I've disappointed others, and the times they've disappointed me. Through it all I know I have something so good, someone that I trust so much, who trusts me so much, and that gives me more hope than I would have ever expected to know. However, it also makes it hard to accept the failings of others, and of my self toward others. It's spoiled me a bit, and the part of me that remains blithe and naive doesn't understand why everything can't be like that, why anyone wants to screw anyone else over. But I get it, or at least the part of me that hasn't been protected all these years gets it. Too many things get in the way, even when we want to do right by others. In the end, we're lucky if we have anyone at all to whom we do not feel we have been a grave disappointment.

Meow, meow, meow... Debbie Downer. Just thinking "aloud". It's never as bad as it sounds.

UPDATE: I just went outside to smoke, and every single person who passed had some kind of douchey look on their face, as if to confirm all of my low thoughts about the state of human interactions. BTW, I live on a pretty busy street. Heh.

One man's propaganda is another's really cool dorm-wall art.

2008-10-11T21:41:00.019-04:00

The WorldNet Daily site is using this poster image in their article about Louis Farrakhan essentially claiming that Obama is the Messiah. Now, I don't really care about WorldNet Daily OR Louis Farrakhan, except that they represent extremist viewpoints, with which an informed position compels me to familiarize myself.

Having said that, I REALLY LIKE this poster! If it evokes a sense of propaganda, perhaps it is just a bit ironic... it twists those existing notions to present something new in a familiar way. That's, um, art! Actually, that's also how I feel about this other popularized image of Obama, which was meant to evoke the dramatic old propaganda posters, and has accordingly had EVERY possible kind of message Photoshopped beneath it, from the optimistic to the obvious to the upsetting. I personally like this version, one of the two originals by Shepard Fairey of Obey. (Don't know yet who did the first poster but I will find out.)

If you ask me, which you didn't, these are two of the most beautiful political art posters I can remember. Food for thought: even if one evokes messianism or (GASP!) Africanism, and the other evokes revolutionary socialism, isn't the characterization truly in the eye of the beholder? And... what candidate in our lifetimes has inspired the myriad forms of creativity that Senator Obama has? Just chewin'.

NOW I'm taking the night off. :) Heh heh.

UPDATE: The Dream poster is by artist Ray Noland. Found this info originally on the blog of Steven Seidman at the Ithaca College Department of Strategic Communication. It also appears in a few different versions; in one, the same depiction of Obama appears surrounded by megaphones instead of rays, in another before a blue background (which, funnily enough, still kinda has rays). Interesting! The posters can be seen at http://gotellmama.org/, a Chicago-based organization on the stump for Obama.

Hee

2008-10-11T21:30:00.006-04:00

┏┫　　｜　｜　　┣┓　　┏┓　
┗┫ ━━　┃　━━┣┛　　┣┫　
　┃　 ━━━━━ 　┃　┏┳┫┣┳┓
　 ┗━━┳━┳━━┛　┃　　　　┃ 　
━━━━┃　┃　　　　┗━┳┳━┛

Posted by jabarri12stacks in response to a YouTube viewer who called Obama a "monkey"

I'm taking the day off...

2008-10-11T21:20:00.000-04:00

Gonna take myself on a date. Dinner and a movie.
I'll be back later.

Happier-Making

2008-10-10T22:44:00.004-04:00

I just...
love this.

Barack Obama - Dream

Yeah, I'm one of THOSE Obama people. He just gets it. I heart him AND his magical unicorn.
I feel pretty good right now, all warm and fuzzy. Revisiting that convention speech is kind of intoxicating. It's so funny, I always used to say (when I was supporting the powerfully pragmatic HRC) that the only thing I didn't really like about Obama was his goofy-headed supporters. Now, many months, lots of pragmatism, and both of his books later, I'm all goofy-headed. Bring out the unicorn!

Hey Sarah Palin

2008-10-10T19:56:00.000-04:00

If you haven't seen this.... well, you should. It made me laugh and laugh.
Thanks Kristen!

Ye Olde Tymes

2008-10-10T19:42:00.003-04:00

just a quick trip down memory lane....

8 years and 4 months ago:

Sorry about the bad quality of the shot, just snapped a quickie w/my camera phone of the original in the frame.

Thank you, Senator McCain

2008-10-10T19:10:00.011-04:00

Sen. McCain gets booed for defending the citizenship and basic decency of his opponent!

I guess he heard the many calls last night for him to stop these mobs of simpletons from getting too rowdy (and sometimes murderous!)....

The video of this is actually quite powerful, particularly the longer scenes with the remarks and responses from the crowd. I'm looking for it and will post it here when I find it. Gotta say, I'm proud of McCain for putting himself out there this way. Whether it's political or not, it is the decent thing to do when the rabble keeps literally calling for Obama's head! Ew, people freak me out.

UPDATE: Still can't find the video I want. Having considered it further, I think it's probable McCain realizes that it's not gonna go his way, and has decided he wants to go out like a man of honor instead of a desperate old creeper. BTW, as I write they're releasing the report that Palin abused her power in firing Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, but DID NOT break any laws in doing so. Whatevs. Not terribly surprising at this point, right?

UPDATE:
Here we go! Clip from CNN on YouTube.
Creepus maximus.

Don't know whether to laugh or cry....

2008-10-10T18:39:00.005-04:00

NY absentee ballot mix-up: 'Barack Osama' on the ballot

Zoicks!

For the moment

2008-10-10T15:30:00.003-04:00

Markets are back up to level 1/2 hour before the closing bell!
I'm crossing my fingers that we've hit the bottom. When I saw that quick dip below 8000 earlier today I definitely got nervous... Although that would make me surer than ever that bottom is here or near.

Love the way the markets tumble everytime Bush opens his mouth. Do us all a favor and just stay home for a month or two, Georgie.

News of the Day: Separate but equal edition

2008-10-10T15:19:00.004-04:00

CT Supreme Court rules in favor of marriage equality | HRC
All content courtesy of HRC, more info and live links at the original story above.

BREAKING: The Connecticut Supreme Court announced this morning at 11:30 a.m. EST that it had ruled, in the case of Kerrigan et al. v. Commissioner of Public Health et al., that civil unions place gay and lesbian couples in an "inferior status," clearing the way for gay and lesbian couples to marry.

Here's the important part from the official court ruling:

We conclude that, in light of the history of pernicious discrimination faced by gay men and lesbians, and because the institution of marriage carries with it a status and significance that the newly created classification of civil unions does not embody, the segregation of heterosexual and homosexual couples into separate institutions constitutes a cognizable harm.

This is just gross, dude...

2008-10-10T00:59:00.003-04:00

Michigan GOP Using Foreclosures To Block Black Voters | HuffPost

Because, you know, they were foreclosed on, so their addresses of record aren't good anymore.

Update: ACORN, what's the dealio?

2008-10-10T00:49:00.006-04:00

A discussion of the ACORN problem, thanks to RBC & Prof. Mark Kleiman

Acorn Defends Itself | RBC

Thanks, man. I feel better.

Happy-Making

2008-10-09T19:47:00.004-04:00

Barack-O'Lantern | RBC

Angry-Making, Part II

2008-10-09T19:13:00.009-04:00

Just gotta say, this is getting to be a kee-razy election in these last few weeks....

People are PO'd all over the place. Did you see these clips of the Repubs' rally today in Wisconsin, where the odds are now in Obama's favor?

Video selections from the rally DailyKos

Jeez, man, you'd think that the political ascent of a liberal was the end of the world. Oh, wait, I used to belong to the group that thought that was true, and that was over fifteen years ago. Looks like the rhetoric hasn't changed. Whatever.

I'm just a tad freaked out over the tone this all has taken on... fear and anger over the economy are gonna hike up the stakes for everyone on both sides, and open up opportunities to twist the hearts of the voter in either direction. Gross. Nobody wins when things are this keyed-up.

Speaking of being PO'd: Dammit, ACORN, WTF? I hope that it turns out that these apparent commissions of fraud are the work of rogue activists, and not something that the organization or the local offices condoned. Quite frankly, the allegations and investigations are becoming kind of widespread to be nothing more than isolated chicanery, but that could be panic or political backlash, or so I'd like to believe. Anyway the name of the organization may have been irreparably tarnished... I've been so proud of my long work with ACORN in new voter registration and rebuilding in New Orleans. Now what? Do I take those credentials off of my law school applications? Thanks for making the rest of us look like a bunch of dirty cheaters, whomever you may be, you schmucks.

Angry-Making

2008-10-09T17:32:00.008-04:00

It's driving me nuts that everyone can suddenly see just far enough to blame the sub-prime mortgage crisis for the current financial situation, but not any farther to the factors of greedy inflation and lack of regulation that truly created the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the first place. They point the finger at the lenders and buyers and governmental mandates and "good intentions" involved in purchases of less-than-affordable housing by less-than-affluent buyers, but NOT all the way back to the simple importance of housing, and to the house-flippers and other investors who, let me make this very clear, artificially drove up home prices in the first place.

News flash - housing is just not meant to be an easy short-term investment for people who never intend to occupy. It is meant to be a good long-term investment for people who take shelter there, for people who call the place home. One could even say that the tendency to look at housing as anything more than shelter is the immediate cause of most housing-related problems in America today. I mean, I get it. If you're rich, you deserve access to cooler housing than us po'folk. Right on. But should that mean that if you're poor, you deserve no access to any kind of housing? Or, worse yet, if you are solidly middle class, you should not be able to afford to buy a home for yourself & your family merely because others (most of whom already own their family homes) were "smart" (greedy) enough to buy second, third and fourth "investment homes" when they were affordable for normal folks?

Stay with me here - this kind of activity reduces supply AND drives up demand. It creates, from thin air, a housing bubble. And it drives regular people out of the housing marketplace, which is then filled with vacant houses for sale at inflated prices. Regular people wait this kind of market out if they can; if they can't, because (duh) housing is something that some people actually need, they get themselves into mortgages where they will be upside-down in a heartbeat once the bubble bursts. They do this because, they are told, housing is always a good investment. They believe that the value can only go up. But like so many other investments, this is only incontrovertibly true in the long term. And who in their right mind would want to hang on to a house for 10 or 20 years? Maybe only a family who'd want to live there.

Those folks, the ones who deserve access to reasonably-priced housing and happened into the market at the wrong time, are the ones who are getting thoroughly screwed at this point. They bought into the system way too high and their lives are getting yanked out from under them. I don't feel too sorry for people who had their homes before all this mess and are seeing the value fall; the value should fall. The market is just correcting itself after the hideous, artificially-produced bubble. Very few, if any, of this group should see their home values fall below what they were prior to this wicked boom, unless they live on a foreclosure-riddled block. Too, I may feel bad for them on account of other crappy economic factors, but I think they're gonna be okay when it comes to home values.

So all these conservative pundits today are smugly deriding the "good intentions" of "liberal" lawmakers who wanted affordable housing options for sub-prime buyers. It goes something like this....

Those liberal bastards! They wanted people to have shelter, and to gain some equity on that shelter! Those bleeding-heart rats! Didn't they know that all the good real-estate was snatched up early by those smart house-flipping investors? Maybe we did go ahead and sell some of our $100k houses to those po'folk for $200k, and the $200k houses to the regular folk for $350k. But we made a tidy profit! That's our right in the free market! And we stand by as those homeowners continue to get thrown out on the street, en masse, across the country, blowing their brains out, weeping, and praying, telling their children it'll be OK. When the market collapses as a result, we adapt quickly, learn to ignore our cherished free-market principles, and cry foul. Not on behalf of those regular folks, or those formerly and newly poor folks, who have lost everything; on behalf of our wallets, bruised as a result of their vital losses. After all, who could have predicted that the bubble would burst? Who could have predicted that mortgage-backed securities would someday reflect so little value? There's no way we would have undertaken that kind of risk. Never mind that the market is all about risk, that we love risk when it profits us; we despise it when it bankrupts us. That's when the government should step in, to save us from economic crisis once it's already too late, not to regulate the nature of the profits and prevent the crisis in the first place!

I have never seen such an infestation of red-tie, free-market suits crawling to the teat of socialist government controls. John McCain wants to nationalize mortgages and subsidize the ridiculously inflated principal amounts that caused this mess???? Are you fucking kidding me? That is the most socialist thing I've ever heard, you pinko commie. How about if you had simply allowed the regulations that would have prevented outrageous home value inflation and thereby steered us clear of this bullshit in the first place? You hypocrite. You want to swipe up that suggestion of the "most liberal" Senators you constantly deride, who would have been perfectly happy to regulate the housing market when it was needed, and claim it as your own "new idea" because you think it will sound good to the voters, even though it stands in grave opposition to every goddamn thing you stand for? You swine. How very "bi-partisan" it is of you to lay claim to the ideas of your opposition, you bloated, arrogant, bloviating shell of the man you once were.

So. I'm mad. I'm just a dumb kid, really, and I saw this coming. Just like the fucking war... No one in their right mind believed that Saddam had crafted WMD from thin air in the decade following the first Gulf War. How is it our ennobled leaders can't see this crap coming when regular folks who simply pay attention can? And when, oh when, will we stop this madness of letting the profiteers get away with murder when the markets are bouncing and then breaking the fall once their safely-banked profits have vampirically drained the value from everything? Will the enormity of this situation finally teach Americans the lesson that there is so much more value in regulating long-term stability than in permitting the short-term opportunity for the rich to get richer? Can we use this golden opportunity to make it clear, at last, that the chance for some to own the whole damned pie is not more important than the need for everyone to get, and hang onto, their own little crumbs of the crust?

Oh, God.
I think I know the answer.

Ode to Sean Hannity - by John Cleese

2008-10-09T16:45:00.004-04:00

Aping urbanity
Oozing with vanity
Plump as a manatee
Faking humanity
Journalistic calamity
Intellectual inanity
Fox Noise insanity
You’re a profanity
Hannity

this is going viral and pretty funny so I thought I'd throw it in here.
Courtesy of Andrew Sullivan

The Herd

2008-10-08T14:34:00.005-04:00

Aw, it hurts so bad.....

And that's just watching the Palin/McCain rally! Heh heh heh....

I am so wretchedly sore today. I look around my little home and see all the things I should have used my arms and shoulders to do before 5pm yesterday, like put away my laundry, or vacuum the cat hair off of my futon. I don't know how long it will be before I can safely or easily do these things again, but I have a guest tomorrow night so I suppose they will be done whether I like it or not. I have let Greg the trainer do things to me that I have never allowed anyone to do to me before, which sounds funny but is very, very true. I'm hoping that once I break all these muscle groups in, feeling this sore will be a thing of the past. Lord knows I've worked out plenty before, but I have never felt like this. Maybe I'm just getting flippin' old.

So, back to the rally, which is the real reason I dragged my arms onto the desk to post.

There are few things that make me more physically uncomfortable than when the cameras at a political rally focus on the glassy eyes and queer faces of a crowd chanting some punny political slogan. Just now it was "No-Bama!" and there were three kinds of faces in the crowd: those who were loving it, feeling all victorious; those who clearly felt awkward and lame about it but chanted it anyway; and, most frightening, those who appeared not to even be cognizant of where they were, just chanting away. For that group, it seems as if you could replace the "No-Bama" with "Heil! Heil! Heil!" and they would just be chanting along, all flat affect and lifeless eyes.

Brrr!

Now, I want to be clear, especially now that I've replaced a Republican chant with a Nazi one, that I'm not only talking about Republican rallies here. I attended an Obama rally, and I love the man, but I'm just not a chanter; when the "Yes, we can!"s begin, I think, "Ugh, no, I can't". I'm one of those people who feels wrong clapping along at concerts, mostly because I know that eventually everyone will get off beat and just screw everything up for the artist or the portion of the audience who does not believe that their participation in the performance is required. I guess the difference is, I'll clap at concerts when the performers encourage it (and start it off so that everyone in the rhythmically-challenged audience doesnt wander too far off the beat!), but no chanting for me, please. I don't think I'm too cool, I'm not ironic about these things, and I don't get easily embarrassed by shows of patriotism, political solidarity, idealism, etc. I just..... don't want to chant. Don't make me. And don't look at me like *I* am weird or some kind of loser for not wanting to do it. I don't know who really wants to do it anyways, people just do, it's like social clapping. Who goes to a rally thinking to themselves, "I hope we chant a lot tonight! I love that part!" People just do it, they need no motivation. And, ugh, cameramen- don't focus on those queer faces when the audiences are doing it. Brrr! Bleagh!

Debate Deflate

2008-10-07T23:09:00.004-04:00

I sorta feel unqualified to comment on the debates these days. Mind you, not because I'm not engaged, but almost because I'm too engaged. I spend so much time researching the candidates and campaigns, and listening to their blurbs on TV and the internet, and the debates are on message to the point of being repetitive. I mean, I could probably create a word-for-word replication of this debate using only old video clips from before tonight. That is, of course, excluding the pissy moments displayed in the debate on the parts of both candidates.

I also tend to see the debates, between McCain and Obama at least, as draws, because I don't perceive either of them as the most skilled of debaters. However, there's a lot more to public perception than a scorecard, and on that count, I feel pretty certain that public sentiment has been swung our way, if only a minute amount, after all three debates. Kudos to Obama for working the room like he did when it was all over, even the undecideds (and probably plenty of the Republicans) can't resist that charisma of his. Funnily, the truth is that Joe Biden beat them all down with his performance, especially on the front of connecting with the electorate in a way that seemed unaffected and apolitical. If either of the principals could do that in the third debate, it could change the game for sure. It's sorta weird to me how Biden's presence has emerged over the last couple of months, despite the fact that he was never a serious contender for the presidency. He was *such* a smart pick on Obama's part, not a flashy one, but such a very smart one. That is to be contrasted with McCain's choice of Governor Palin, which I feel borders on irresponsible, and it seems that an increasing number of the electorate agrees.

I'd be super interested to hear what others think, especially if they are still undecided. I laugh as I wonder if there's anyone left who might ever read this blog who is still undecided. Seems like most everyone I know comes down pretty strongly on one side or the other, and, admittedly just like me, after a formula that is pretty predictable. I'll tell you, I wish that this was a contest between McCain from days of yore and Obama. Not because it would make it more likely for my guy to win (no doubt it wouldn't), but because I would feel certain that, either way, our nation would be on the verge of electing a President who possesses a powerful mix of principle and pragmatism. Over the last eight years, Senator McCain has disappointed me repeatedly on both counts, and I know I'm not alone. And the truth is, it's personally disappointing for me as well, because Senator McCain was once a bonafide hero of mine, not to mention a man who was a friend of my family and for whom my family campaigned. Even as my politics continued to diverge from his, he was someone for whom I long maintained a healthy dose of admiration. I can still admire McCain the man, for his service and determination, but my last shred of reverence for McCain the politician was obliterated a while ago.

Anyway, I'm so over boring-ish debates. I'm pretty much a wonk and these debates bore me, so I'm guessing that most people, for whom this ain't exactly their bread and butter, aren't moved by hearing the same crap over and over. That's especially true when all anyone wants today are solid answers on the economy, and it is becomng more and more evident that our economy has grown into a juggernaut so complex that it even eludes the grasp of our leaders. Someday I will figure out how to get Americans interested in politics and civics; I will figure out how to make the direct connection in the American psyche between our daily lives and our choice of leaders. We're headed that way, I think, but there's some trick that remains undiscovered. Some smart political analyst, maybe with a background in psychology, will do it eventually, and why shouldn't it be me? And when I do I will rule the world! Muahahaha. Just kidding, I'll never make a good candidate myself. Too many, uh, background issues. But I can Rove it up through others! LOLOL!

Ugh, I'm tired.

We're gonna bring you the power!

2008-10-07T21:00:00.007-04:00

All right, so I'm in pain, but I gotta share...

First of all, my power bill for 32 days was $29.27. My heating is included in my rent. Suck on that, Phoenix! (Not people from Phoenix, just the city itself. I commiserate with the people.) Just to be clear, I lived here the entire time.

Secondly, they have two publicly available green options (and another for people with solar panels - in MA!). You can opt to have either 50 or 100% of your power come from wind sources. I was all about this but I thought, oh, it's gonna be so pricey.

I switched to the 100% plan for what will average out to be an extra $2/mo. And my power comes from a wind farm in Maine! Uh, cute!

I also checked the calculator to get examples of how much conventionally-generated energy will be saved monthly in the process...

This was a happy-making evening!

Want to blog... can't type....

2008-10-07T19:07:00.008-04:00

Just got back from the gym and my arms are all John McCainy, by which I mean I can't lift them above a 90-degree angle.

Now, I'm not trying to be mean here. But really, every time McCain does this thumbs up thing, you can tell he kinda struggles. You can see it in the strained smile. I would never bag on someone's disability, but I would draw the simile to express my own. Having said that...

I also feel kinda shaky.

And a little nauseous.

But I'm excited for the debate! You may break me down, Greg the trainer, but you can't steal my love of politics!
No doubt I will recover some of my typing ability after the debate and be back. It seriously took me like 1/2 an hour to do this!

News of the Day: W....T....F Edition

2008-10-07T02:13:00.004-04:00

These are all stories I read today.

Los Angeles man kills family, then self, despondent over financial difficulties

Ohio woman, 90, attempts suicide after foreclosure

Eastern Mass. woman shoots self as mortgage company forecloses on house

And, just for good measure...
Lehman sought millions for execs while seeking aid

Heart of Darkness

2008-10-06T17:02:00.006-04:00

Andrew Sullivan just posted a bit about Conservapedia's hideous entry on Obama....

And the site is now unavailable. I was looking at it a moment ago, and it either crashed due to traffic or was pulled for revision.

Way to go, Andrew, you crazy wanker!

Hee

2008-10-06T14:56:00.009-04:00

Credit to kdoug on DKos

More about law school applications...

2008-10-06T01:40:00.004-04:00

I just want to say...

This is really exciting! I've been zeroing in on this very moment for years and now it's all coming together. I'm *almost* looking forward to the insanity of waiting for responses once all these durned things go out. Isn't that kee-razy?

I'ma be juuust like this guy! With the fists of victory and all!

Hee

2008-10-05T16:07:00.003-04:00

Obama refers to McCain/Palin attacks as "hoodwink", "bamboozle", "okey-doke"
Taking a page from the Folksiness Playbook?

News of the day

2008-10-05T15:38:00.003-04:00

Haiti Pleads for Help
Really, they are in a very bad way down there....

Europe Scrambles to Rescue Banks
Will even socialist economies refuse to bite the bullet that America just swallowed?

Palin's words may backfire on McCain
She's being careless again. Surprise, surprise.

And last, but not least...
Developed countries push back vs. pirates
Yes, pirates.

Revisiting our textbooks

2008-10-05T14:54:00.005-04:00

Why are so many Americans clueless about American history and civics?

Casual efforts to administer to regular citizens the exact same exam questions that a naturalized citizen must take yield dismal results. Lots and lots of people, even people who vote in every election, don't realize that the President is not elected by popular vote. Most of these people can not name who would ascend to the Presidency if both the Pres and VP died, and some of those who can name the position are unsure who currently fills it. From all I can tell, a majority of Americans do not know how many Justices make up the Supreme Court.

These are just the civic issues... the historical issues may be even worse. Do you know who was President during World War I? The naturalized citizen up the street, who gave up their life in another place because they believed in the promise of America, does. Ask an American to list the Presidents in order and many will fall off after #1. Most will quit or be dead wrong after 2, 3, or 4. Better yet, ask them to give the Presidents in reverse order, starting with George W. Bush. An occasional American does not know the name of the current President, and many do not know the name of the current VP. Again, the further along you get, the quicker they start dropping. Here's a fun one: who did America fight in the war for our independence? IF you'd answered France, you'd be so very wrong, or funny, but you'd also be very far from alone.

Why is it we as Americans do not feel compelled to understand these basic things about our own country? When we say that America is the greatest nation on earth, is it just because we were lucky enough to be born here, or do we stand for something more, for our own common ideals? To claim the exceptionalism of America without understanding what makes our country great is bald nationalism, which has a long history of turning great countries to piles of rubble. Let's not do that, hmmm?