Today's Mighty Oak


Alright, big update today, let’s see what we have.

So in outrageously offending news, the defense in the PA marriage equality trial are seeking the complete sexual history of those challenging the ban.  So no matter how bad your day has been, at least the state isn’t asking for all the details of your sex life to continue denying you your rights.  Sigh.

Awesome photo of a polar bear and a full moon.

A radio host, who is very popular in GOP circles, thinks that only property owners should be able to vote.  He stopped himself from adding ‘white male’ is my guess.

Want to see what it’s like to go ski jumping?  Of course you do:

The divorce rate of evangelicals is higher than the general population.  But even if you’re not and evangelical, if you live in a heavily-populated area, you have a bigger risk of getting divorced.

The rumor was that AHS was going to be subtitled “Circus” next season, but maybe not?

Remember the 14th Amendment?  The one that says we all should have equal rights?  Well, the OK attorney general says that it doesn’t apply to gay people.

If you haven’t seen the new Duracell commercial, you should:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2HD57z4F8E

As a reminder, when you operate a business, you can’t discriminate against a population.  If you set out a sign saying you would not serve African Americans, it’s the same as saying you won’t serve gays.  Not a hard concept (except when legal loopholes get involved). Or you can Arizona which is trying to make it legal to discriminate against the LGBT community because of religion.

I love the Muppets, even if they did get snubbed at the Golden Globes:

A great clip from Louisiana where a trans woman dared a bigoted city council member to put his money where his mouth was and stone her to death.  He recalled his bill moments later.

The Great Agency Adventure follows a copywriter working at 14 agencies in 14 months.  Sounds fun!

That’s it for now, have a great one everybody!



Alright, let’s see what I have going on today.  First up, before the Windsor and Perry rulings by SCOTUS, the Voting Rights Act was gutted.  Justice Ginsberg summed it up well:

A 4,000 year old Egyptian statue started rotating in its case in a British museum.  Creepy.

Also in the news, was Wendy Davis, who, with the help of other Democrats and the citizens of Texas, filibustered an anti-choice bill in Texas.  And while I think that so many of the “three strikes” used to stop her filibuster were Republicans stretching the rules, they still (generally) played by the rules, except for not voting on the third and then trying to change the congressional record to show they voted before midnight.  But my favorite moment of the night was the fifteen minutes of the citizens screaming nonstop to stop the bill.  Check out Slog’s coverage here.

A great ad via Norway (it’s okay if you only speak English):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBiW5WGtcTI  

The ad campaign from Italy for their alzheimer’s foundation, brilliant and moving

And what is being called the best coupon in history.  If I wasn’t lactose-intolerant, I would agree.

A few more follow-ups from the DOMA and Prop 8 cases.  YouTube put together their #ProudToLove campaign:

Dan Savage hits it out of the park with a few articles.  First up, “I Can Die Now,” which gets to the heart of why the Windsor case was so important, and what people take for granted.

Conservative Christians and their “cheeseburger” moment, and no, it doesn’t include cat memes.

And while they didn’t lose a single thing, we can celebrate what we’ve won, including a man, thirty minutes after the rulings came out that was saved from being deported:

At 10:30 a.m. EDT this morning in a New York Immigration Court, attorneys from our law firm (Masliah Soloway) requested and were granted a continuance in removal (deportation) proceedings for a Colombian gay man married to an American citizen for whom we had filed a marriage-based green card petition last year. A copy of the 77-page Supreme Court decision in United States v. Windsor was delivered to the court by our summer intern, Gabe, who ran five blocks and made it in time for the decision to be submitted to the Immigration Judge and to serve a copy on the Immigration & Customs Enforcement Assistant Chief Counsel. DOMA is DEAD and it had its first impact on a binational couple within 30 minutes of the Supreme Court ruling.

The horrific nature of Justice Scalia and his son, who doesn’t think homosexuals even exist.

And of course, if you haven’t heard yet, Brian Sims, who was trying to speak on the Pa. House floor about the rulings, was silenced by the representative from Cranberry.  He’s garnered national attention for “speaking against God’s will” as the bigot from Cranberry said.  He keeps pushing for a non-discrimination ordinance and marriage equality, we’ll see how far he can get.

Garfunkle and Oates are back with “The Loophole.”  Sadly, this is a real thing, and they are of course, pointing out the absurdity of it.  Not at all safe for work, or for easily offended eyes.  But wroth it if you get to the end to see the list of other rules they ignore:

That’s it for today, but I’ll be back soon with more.  Have a great one!



Lots of video today, but lots of other things as well, hope you enjoy.

First up, in case you missed it everywhere else on the Internet, the season 4 trailer for Arrested Development:

There are a lot of videos, so I won’t embed this one, but also in case you haven’t seen it anywhere else on the Internet, the first music video from space (of Space Oddity, of course)

From a favorite blogger Clintus, this is actually very accurate:

Also from Clintus, the definition of a very, very bad day.

And we’re all glad she’s back, and of course wish her the best, but Hyperbole and a Half knocks it out of the park.  Read this.

The final piece of the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz):

 The UK Parliament is finally working towards apologizing to Alan Turing, the man pretty much responsible for all modern computers.

Congratulations to Minnesota on passing marriage equality.  And the mayor of St. Paul is pretty awesome:

And speaking of marriage equality, Mika is throwing a free concert in Paris to celebrate as well as to fight homophobia.

And if you want to follow along with the next state to debate (most likely Illinois), here is a good BINGO card.

The first promo for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which has been picked up for the fall.  I don’t think the trailer is that good, but of course I”m excited for it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySsw-6aety

And as it turns out, this year may be the time that Pennsylvania catches up and enacts an anti-discrimination ordinance.

A massive map of the dialects of North America.  Not much happening out in the Midwest and West Coast.

And what I think is the last video today, the greatest hits of the last 10 years of Mythbusters:

 That’s it for today, have a great one everyone!

 



Alright, let’s see what we have today.  First up, the obligatory remix of all the Superbowl commercials.  It wasn’t a great year for the broadcast ads, but here you go:

Ragan Communications, which I greatly admire and love what they do, says it should be one space after a period.  I disagree.  Yes, it is an antiquated vestage of the typewriter era, but I still think it is good to have that extra space to reinforce the end of one complete thought and giving you a place to take a breath.  I’ll keep fighting the good fight.

Awesome package designs.  I love the ketchup packets.

And the Gen Y photo of the day via Buzzfeed.

PA Rep Brian Sims has introduced a comprehensive bill to combat school bullying.  Hopefully it gets passed.

That’s it for now, shorter update, but I’ll be back with more soon.  Have a great one!



Alright, let’s see what we have today.

First up, a really cool webpage from Starbucks that allows you to look up referendum that are going on in your state this election.  Note to those in Pa: we got nothing.

But I do have to say to the House of Pa: WTF.  No seriously.  YOU WANT NEWBORN BABIES TO STARVE.  What is wrong with you?!

This is going around, I saw it from Betty Bowers, and of course, Santorum make an appearance:

Amazing take-downs of Ann Coulter.  Although I am loath to even mention it, I hate giving her any attention.

And President Obama takes down Ayn Rand.  Very well done.

But this will make you a smile, a fun radio ad airing in Minnesota.

And quite possibly the best tweet ever:

This has made me happy all day: “Not my problem” in Polish is “nie moj cyrk, nie moje malpy.” Literally “not my circus, not my monkey.”

— Howard Tayler (@howardtayler) October 24, 2012

So here is the first TV spot for The Hobbit:

Or if you’d rather learn about Middle Earth, check out the LotR statistics project.

Penguin and Random House are in talks to merge.  Not great for the publishing world, or readers.

This is really cool:

And finally, coming soon to The Nerdist channel on Youtube:

That’s it for now, have a great one!



Alright, let’s see what’s going on today.  First up, in case you didn’t hear, from the lips of Mitt Romney and Lucille Bluth:

And on that note, the Million Muppet March.

And in case you forgot, the testimony from Mr. Rogers in front of the US Senate that saved PBS:

And lastly on the subject, from my favorite astro-physicist:

In more political news, the PA voter ID requirement has been delayed, but the state is lagging behind getting that information out here.  Rachel Maddow’s show had some fun with it:

As a complete and total no-brainer, access to contraception reduces the abortion rate.  Thankfully, Obamacare does just that, provides free and available contraception options to women.

And lastly in politics today, this is floating around, but give it a watch, it’s great:

There is a new captcha system, that brings light to human rights abuses.  Pretty awesome if you ask me:

And leaving politics for a little bit, for those of you eager to celebrate Halloween, check out how to make this awesome pumpkin keg.

Or even better for Halloween, printable poison labels:

That’s it for now, have a great one!



Couple things for everyone, here’s what we have:

First up, check out this awesome video (let’s also see if my embed code will work):

Beautiful Day at the Dog Park from Kelsey Wynns on Vimeo.

 I feel like I linked to this before, but maybe I didn’t.  A new study shows that low IQ and conservatism is tied to racism.  Out of politeness, I’ll act surprised.

What the crap PA lawmakers?  Get to work on transit funding, not meddling with religion!

Feel free to remove your sweater vest.  Best line of the whole thing.  Here’s the sexual morality flow chart:

Awesome news from France, Scientology has been declared a business (scam) not a religion.  Exciting to see!

Let’s see if I can get this one to embed, a new version of “Starry Night

Starry Night (interactive animation) from Petros Vrellis on Vimeo.

This judge is amazing, and you can’t fault his logic when he responds to those praying for his death.

That’s it for now, have a great one!

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