Search Results for “feed” – Page 22

Move out of the way children I’ve been waiting 11 years to see Toy Story 3…

Mike Yesterday's nut January 1, 2012

Couple things for everyone:

Check it out, Lego Freddie Mercury!

Have you been defriended on Facebook? Shatner is here to help:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUpwmDQ0NQY

Apparently, walking through doors makes people forgetful. Strange.

Diary of a Part Time Monk, and awesome blog I read last year during Lent is being made into a book. Pretty awesome!

Here are 15 songs you never knew the name of. You’re welcome.

This is a cool reversal, a biracial performance artist uses whiteface to combat racism.

And finally, this amazing trailer. Looks awesome, and again, I had no idea this was being made:

Wherein I take part in an apology

Mike The King of Spades December 31, 2011

Written: 12/31/2011

Well, it finally happened. Me being selfish and trying to have equal rights destroyed the marriage of a MN state senator who was pushing for marriage equality ban. How could I ever be so selfish?!

Here is the apology letter sent to her. Even though I don’t live in MN, I’m sure somehow, from PA I affected her. So please add my name to the undersigned and accept my mea culpa.

An Open Apology to Amy Koch on Behalf of All Gay and Lesbian Minnesotans

Dear Ms. Koch,

On behalf of all gays and lesbians living in Minnesota, I would like to wholeheartedly apologize for our community’s successful efforts to threaten your traditional marriage. We are ashamed of ourselves for causing you to have what the media refers to as an “illicit affair” with your staffer, and we also extend our deepest apologies to him and to his wife. These recent events have made it quite clear that our gay and lesbian tactics have gone too far, affecting even the most respectful of our society.

We apologize that our selfish requests to marry those we love has cheapened and degraded traditional marriage so much that we caused you to stray from your own holy union for something more cheap and tawdry. And we are doubly remorseful in knowing that many will see this as a form of sexual harassment of a subordinate.

It is now clear to us that if we were not so self-focused and myopic, we would have been able to see that the time you wasted diligently writing legislation that would forever seal the definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman, could have been more usefully spent reshaping the legal definition of “adultery.”

Forgive us. As you know, we are not church-going people, so we are unable to fully appreciate that “gay marriage” is incompatible with Christian values, despite the fact that those values carry a biblical tradition of adultery such as yours. We applaud you for keeping that tradition going.

And finally, shame on us for thinking that marriage is a private affair, and that our marriage would have little impact on anyone’s family. We now see that marriage is more than that. It is an agreement with society. We should listen to the Minnesota Family Council when it tells us that marriage is about being public, which explains why marriages are public ceremonies. Never did we realize that it is exactly because of this societal agreement that the entire world is looking at you in shame and disappointment instead of minding its own business.

From the bottom of our hearts, we ask that you please accept our apology.

Thank you.
John Medeiros
Minneapolis MN

Wherein I talk about civil rights

Mike The King of Spades

Written: 12/31/2011

A few years ago I was meeting with a friend for a project and I remember the subject of marriage equality came up.

He had the culturally safe opinion that it should be legal, but with a different name than marriage. After pointing out the differences between marriage (civil) and matrimony (religious), I asserted that LGBT rights are the defining civil rights battle of our generation, and that we will be judged based on those rights.

He seemed to agree, we had work to do and it was a nice break before we dove back into the tedious paperwork. So this article at AMERICAblog interested me, here’s a great quote:

Ask Matthew Shepard how trivial the comparison is. Ask Alan Turing, who pretty much was forced to kill himself after being chemically castrated for being gay. Or ask all those gays who were forcibly lobotomized and actually castrated during the last century how trivial their suffering was.

Like the article so wonderfully puts it, no minority has the copyright on mistreatment, suffering and pain:

The entire discussion is offensive. It’s part of a twisted “my pain is greater than your pain” debate that some feel the need to have over and over again. It’s also reflective of the paranoid fear some in the gay civil rights movement have of “offending” anyone. In the end, I’m not even sure what the “debate” is about.

Give the whole things a read here.

All my best,

The King of Spades

Wherein I talk about a comparison

Mike The King of Spades

Written: 12/31/2011

Last week, the Catholic Cardinal of Chicago (hey, he could be the CCC!), compared gays to the KKK.

You don’t want the gay liberation movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism.” he said on FOX Chicago Sunday.

Afterwards, the Cardinal defended his comparison:

When the pastor’s request for reconsideration of the plans was ignored, the organizers invited an obvious comparison to other groups who have historically attempted to stifle the religious freedom of the Catholic Church. One such organization is the Ku Klux Klan which, well into the 1940’s, paraded through American cities not only to interfere with Catholic worship but also to demonstrate that Catholics stand outside of the American consensus.

After enough outcry, he backtracked with this quote:

Obviously, it’s absurd to say the gay and lesbian community are the Ku Klux Klan, but if you organize a parade that looks like parades that we’ve had in our past because it stops us from worshipping God, well then that’s the comparison, but it’s not with people and people – it’s parade-parade

Needless to say, I’m sure the parade will continue, and the Cardinal will remain.

The Chicago Tribune picks up the story:

George is defending what he calls “an obvious comparison.”

Over the course of four decades, the Chicago Pride Parade has marched past hundreds of churches without stifling anyone’s religious beliefs. Come June, it will do so again.

But it’s always something to be compared to white supremacists. And as one commenter said…the gays aren’t the ones wearing white robes.

Update: Well is seems that the Cardinal offered up an “apology.” It’s not really an apology, he’s just upset that people paid attention to this story. Here’s the reaction:

A few hours ago Cardinal George issued what has been termed by others as an “apology” on the Archdiocese website, even though the statement does not use that term. He said that while he was “sorry” that he hurt Lesbians and Gays, that his statement comparing gays to the KKK was “motivated by fear for the church’s liberty.”

This is completely disingenuous. No one was challenging the church’s “liberty.” Even though George himself has done everything he can to prevent legal equality for LGBTs, we have never in turn insisted that the church be forced to perform same-sex marriages, for example, any more than others have insisted that it be forced to perform marriages for divorcees.

Furthermore, apologies, in order to be real, need to be issued directly to those wronged. A web posting is about as passive a delivery of an apology as you can get. Cardinal George could have picked up the phone and called an LGBT journalist and had a genuine dialog about the issues. Moreover, his original slam against “the Gay Liberation Movement” sounded like it was directed at the Gay Liberation Network, which has led demonstrations against his support of discrimination on several occasions, and he could have delivered an apology to GLN.

After making his original comparison of gays to the KKK, he defended that statement on at least two subsequent occasions. George’s statement tonight indicates he erred in making it sound like he felt that “all gays” were like the KKK — the implication is that he apparently still thinks many gays are fascists.

Finally, George’s statement misses the genesis of how he got into this mess in the first place — the church leadership’s long-standing and aggressive opposition to all equal rights legislation for LGBT people. When the church leadership ceases doing everything it can to oppose our equal participation in society, then we might believe that George truly cares about our feelings.

Sigh. I guess I should be used to being discriminated against and hated. But it is still tiring.

All my best,

The King of Spades

Wherein a mayor gets called out on her bigotry

Mike The King of Spades

Written: 12/31/2011

While not directly related, I wanted to pass along this story. The Mayor of Troy, MI posted this message on Facebook:

I think I am going to throw away my I Love New York carrying bag now that queers can get married there.

And rightfully so, the town, city council and the rest of the country called her out on it. It’s certainly okay to make those kind of remarks, you’re entitled to your opinion, much like how I am disinclined to ever go to Troy. However (and I haven’t seen clarification if this was on her personal page, and if it was, she needs better privacy settings, or on some sort of official ‘Mayor’ page, which in that case, makes it public, and worth the shaming), if your’re going to utilize your free speech, be prepared for everyone else to use the same right.

At the next city council meeting, 80 people lined up to speak out against her, as well as many members of city council.

As far as I know, she has not resigned.

Update: Well, never mind, now she’s saying even more bat-shit crazy and offensive things:

While discussing plans for a forum on bullying and suicide, Daniels told students she wanted to invite “a panel of psychologists who would testify that homosexuality is a mental disease,”

It’s nice to see people being called out on their bigotry, makes me smile a little bit.

All my best,

The King of Spades

I’ve got to understand that it’s all for a reason. If I don’t understand why then one day I’ll be told.

Mike Yesterday's nut December 30, 2011

More things for you (and then probably just one or two more big posts like this this weekend):

Cool Russian PSA for reading:

I thought I posted about this before, but maybe I didn’t, how awesome are these pools:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7mXLqIJXHs

Now you can use a typewriter to make a painting. Pretty awesome, but I think it would take too long and turn out being a bit pixelated (although it would be a cool style)

From Copyranter, we’ve finally found Snooki’s doppleganger:

File this under irony. And asshatery. Music used in an anti-piracy ad was pirated.

Also from Copyranger, this Billboard popped up here in Pa. And I love it:

There are a lot of Nintendo characters. Check out a mural of a ton of them here.

There is some really awesome art around the Occupy Movement. Check it out here. I’m a fan of this one:

Because it has to do with typesetting, I loved this issue of Gutters, go check it out.

That’s it for now, back in a bit!

Wherein once again I talk about Catholic Charities

Mike The King of Spades

Written: 12/30/2011

The Illinois Catholic Charities have thrown a hissy fit. As is the trend with Catholic charities across the country, because they can’t discriminate, they are deciding to not help anyone.

But now most of the Catholic Charities affiliates in Illinois are closing down rather than comply with a new requirement that says they can no longer receive state money if they turn away same-sex couples as potential foster care and adoptive parents.

Because if you have to treat people fairly, that’s religious discrimination. Here’s the rub though, do a quick “find and replace” and see what happens:

Now let’s pretend that our charity refused to place children in the homes of Jews—or Muslims or Hindus or atheists or Lutherans or members of Mars Hill Church—because, according to our sincerely held religious beliefs, Jews and Muslims and Hindus and atheists and Lutherans and members of Mars Hill Church go to hell.

These charities receive close to 3 billion a year in public money. And public money should not be used to pay for bigotry. Use private funds and set up all kinds of regulations that fit your bigoted world-view. But not with tax money that comes from everyone: Jews, Muslims, atheists, and even gays.

AMERICAblog has this to add:

Sorry, but if you’re going to suck at the federal teat to the tune of nearly $3 billion a year, there are going to be some strings attached, especially civil rights strings. You simply are not permitted to take taxpayer money and say “I’m a Klansman, and my view of religion is that blacks are inferior.” That isn’t going to fly. Nor can you take taxpayer money and deny services to Jews or Muslims because you think they’re going to hell. Sure, that’s your religious view all right, but if you want to express it, don’t use taxpayer funds to do it.

All my best,

The King of Spades

This is awesome

Mike The Great and Secret Show

An art installation “sees” you walking down the street, scans your face, and pulls up what may be your Facebook and Twitter feeds, photos and even talks to you in what it thinks your voice will sound like. All of this from information we freely put online.

Check out the Slog piece here.