Written: 10/15/2011
What the fuck is a “partnership agreement“?
Romney is gracious enough to allow people who love each other to have hospital visitation rights (even though that’s now a right that the LGBT community fought to achieve). But he can’t allow people who love each other to marry, or even form domestic partnerships. He wants to create something new, something even more insulting.
All my best,
The King of Spades
Written: 10/15/2011
A horrible story from Tennessee:
Sigler wore a homemade T-shirt to school last Tuesday that said “GSA: We’ve Got Your Back.” A teacher ordered Sigler to cover up the shirt in the future. Sigler, knowing he had a right to wear the shirt, wore it again Friday, and resisted an order to remove the shirt. Sigler says that Moser then ordered all students out of the classroom, except for Sigler’s sister Jessica, who refused to leave. According to both students, Moser then grabbed Sigler’s arm, shoved him, and chest-bumped him repeatedly while asking “Who’s the big man now?” Sigler’s mother reported that when she arrived at the school, she saw her son seated in a desk with Moser leaning over him and shouting in Sigler’s face. The Siglers filed a report about the incident that afternoon with the Madisonville Police Department.
Written: 10/15/2011
So, the GOP, and Speaker Boener (is there an h in there somewhere?) specifically, have decided that they should waste money defending DOMA.
And now, they have to triple that budget, since they already ran out of money.
Sacramento Republican Rep. Dan Lungren has signed off on a change order to the contract with outside counsel Paul Clement, who is handling the defense of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. It allows Clement’s fees to triple to $1.5 million.
Now, in the grand scheme of things, it’s not really that much money. But still. A giant waste.
Update: Here are the ‘arguments’ they are trying to use. All of them fall apart under scrutiny. Not that there is a legal team out there that could show proper reason for DOMA, but the legal team hired seems particularly inept.
All my best,
The King of Spades
Written: 10/15/2011
The Onion, as always, hits it out of the park with this hilarious article:
Mom, Dad, there’s something we have to talk about. I’ve been wanting to tell you this for some time, and I want you to know that while I’m fully aware this might be difficult for you to hear, remember, I am still your son, and I love you very much: Mom, Dad, I’m gay, and so help me God, I am stronger than the both of you, and I won’t hesitate to beat you back to the Stone Age if you give me any shit about this.
…
Bottom line: I was born this way. It wasn’t a choice. It was, however, a choice to develop huge biceps like this, so take a good long look at them before you think of uttering a hurtful or bigoted remark.
Go read the whole thing, it’s fantastic.
All my best,
The King of Spades
Written: 10/15/2011
Fayette County is a magical place. In so many ways. There is a lot of beauty there: Nemacolin, Fallingwater, Ohiopyle, Connellsville, even Heritage (the camp I’ve worked at). But it tends, and shamefully, sometimes rightfully so, of being a bit backwards, racists and a dangerous place.
A new favorite blog, Musings from FayetteNam, covered some hate graffiti she spotted while she was rafting including this fantastic sentence:
Regardless of Dylan’s sexual orientation, stop acting like being gay is a bad thing. It’s not. Being straight doesn’t make you better than anyone. Get over yourself.
Go read the whole thing, and subscribe to the blog, she’s funny, witty, and has her finger on the pulse of Fayette County, so it’s a great source for local news.
All my best,
The King of Spades
Once again, JoHo reminds me of something that is easy to forget, but a basic truth:
The Internet is not a medium. We are the medium
JoHo points me to this article, touting the death of web 2.0 next October. And truth be told, it’s hard to take the date seriously (more in a moment), it’s really a measure of the mentions of the phrase “web 2.0.” And while that may be true, I think we’re here to stay, at least for a while longer.
Although, just to add, it’s hard to take the article seriously, since it seems to seriously consider Orkut a big-time social network.
Anyway, I tend to agree with JoHo on this, just because this period of the Internet is more focused on user-driven and user-created content, does not mean we’re going to leave that. The Internet is a conversation, and this period is a time when those previously consuming are now engaged, for good or for ill, and actively participating in the conversation.
Will the conversation ebb back to the other side? We’ll have to wait and see, although I’m thinking we’re going to see a mix, and something new, in the future. I do like how the ending of the article was phrased:
The big question, of course, is what will Web 3.0 be like? And the answer, I suppose, is that if we knew that then we wouldn’t be here.
Quick update for everyone, check it out:
I know this is being used at Occupy Seattle, not my cup of tea (I’m not a fan of the type of sleeping bag), but it’s pretty cool:
This might be the best tip ever:
io0 has a picture tour of the seed vault: humanity’s only hope if we lose agriculture
Not much to add to this, it’s the trailer for The Avengers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89_zqLk7k5A
Mikey Welsh apparently predicted his own death, with striking accuracy.
A filmmaker pits Siri against his real life assistant.
Iran is calling Occupy Wall Street (and the Occupy movement) the “American Spring.” And so many people agree, including (the cows of) Ben and Jerry:
And finally…what if Dr. Seuss….had written a book on Sex Ed?
Couple new items for you today:
Check out this awesome parody:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_0i5WqiIcc
Wonder why Campbell’s changed their labels? Wonder no more.
This was a really fun read, check out what happens when a 33-year-old goes back to High School.
And don’t forget, Ignore Stephen Baldwin:
Alright, here we go again:
Couple newspaper updates. First, McSweeney declares that the newspaper is the best e-Reader, bendable paper-thin screens have been invented and the Chicago Tribune tries their hand at a special, long-form intensive edition for Sundays. Kind of like the early news websites.
Celebrities talk with IGN about their favorite Star Wars characters.
Click here to watch 35 movies in 2 minutes, pretty awesome.
Check out the second part of the strangest sights in Google Earth. I’m surprised more companies haven’t followed the lead of number six.
I can’t add anything to this:
And, there’s a twin site to Stonehenge.
