Gay Marriage, Gay Revenue
And while we're in the mood for economic vs. moral justifications, this just in:
Legalizing same-sex marriage in Maryland would result in a $3.2 million gain to the state’s annual budget and significantly boost the state economy, according to a study released Wednesday by the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law. The study found that about 7,800 same-sex couples would marry if they could and that such weddings would generate $94 million in revenue each year, stimulating Maryland businesses and the state economy in general. This spending, the study showed, would create about $14 million in annual tax revenue as well.
Researchers also concluded that the loss in state income tax due to same-sex marriage would be minimal: only about $132,000 annually. The state would also suffer a loss of $1.4 million from transfer taxes.
["Study: Maryland Makes Money With Same-Sex Marriage", advocate.com, 29 November 2007.]
Isaac and I could well be one of those 7,800 who would marry here in our state if we could, but it seems unlikely to me that we're going to spend $12,000 on our wedding. Sorry. Not that it won't be faaabulous, of course, just that we would more likely do it with the extensive assistance of coerced volunteers.
Naturally, generous wedding gifts, particularly of cash, are welcome at any time.
In: All, Current Events, Faaabulosity
Universal Health Care for Healthy US Business
Here is the outline of an argument for universal health-care in the US that might appeal to your more business-oriented, Republican types, demonstrating that universal health-care can be good for capitalism.
Business is good. More business is better. Big business is good; small business is great.
Small businesses (<500 employees) employ lots of people, about half of all private-sector employees.*
Getting a health-insurance plan for your very-small-business employees is very difficult. Insurance brokers don't like to provide health plans for fewer than about 15 employees. Only about half of all businesses with fewer than 10 employees offer health-insurance benefits. But the smallest businesses, those with fewer than 20 employees, employ almost 20% of those private-sector employees (double that for those in both the 20–100 range and the 100-500 range). That's a lot of small businesses — about 99% of all businesses (by number).
Thus, there are about 5.5 million little businesses with fewer than 20 employees, and a substantial portion of those have fewer than 10 employees, and they're all worried about finding insurance for their employees and how to cover costs that keep rising faster than their profits.
Please remember that pretty much every huge business started out as a small business–mighty oaks from tiny acorns, and all that.
As the SBA notes:
According to a National Federation of Independent Business membership survey, the cost and availability of health insurance are a top small business issue.
I hope the syllogism is clear by now:
- take away all those concerns that small-business starters have about finding expensive health care for their employees, and
- know that everyone in the small company will have health insurance–once there is universal health care in the US– so that the small company can attract and retain its employees and thereby grow and create lots of jobs for underemployed Americans and lots of dividends for shareholders, and
- you will end up with more healthy and vibrant small companies, struggling with fewer non-business concerns, on their way to growing into big, mighty capitalist-friendly companies.
Competitiveness, anyone?
———-
*Small Business Administration, Frequently Asked Questions.
History Flashes By
Last night Isaac and I decided to go to Annapolis for our dinner. It's about a twenty-minute drive from Bowie. We took the main highway between here and there. (US RT 50, for those following along on the map.)
It was after dark. Not long after we got underway we saw the flashing lights of a police car speeding along on the opposite side, going back towards DC. Then it turned out to be four–no, five–wait! six speeding police cars with lights flashing. How extraordinary!
A few moments passed and along came another posse of four or five cars, speeding along with lights flashing. Not long after, another quartet of cars with flashing lights, this time accompanied by a hovering helicopter playing a spotlight over the grassy banks along the side of the highway just ahead of the motorcade.
"That's it!" we exclaimed. "It must be that the Annapolis peace-conference thingie is over."
Such was indeed the case. We felt such a part of history.
In: All, Current Events, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Delta-Wealth Drives Capitalism
I just read this. I don't have any idea yet whether I agree, whether I think it's a profound observation, or whether it's trivial nonsense. Nevertheless, it jumped out at me and I expect I'll think about it for awhile.
… capitalism can only work with great imbalances of wealth, and when it is working really well it will always work towards increasing those imbalances.
[David Horton, "Grab the golden ring", Huffington Post, 28 November 2007.]
(It may be that my mind latched onto it because it sounds remarkably like the sort of assertion thermodynamics would make.)
Less than Permanent
Alas, the much-touted, and much-feared, "permanent Republican majority" of the twenty-first century seems to have become somewhat less than permanent, with chunks falling off every day.
Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott's resignation announcement on Monday was the latest in a wave of retirements to hit congressional Republicans, making an already difficult 2008 electoral landscape even more complicated for the minority party.
Party officials insist that the retirements — 17 members of the House and six senators — are simply the result of individual decisions and not indicative of a broader negative sentiment within the party.
[Chris Cillizza, "GOP Comeback Climb Is Increasingly Steep: Vacancies Appear in Competitive Areas", Washington Post, 27 November 2007.]
Is it churlish of me to point out that the Third Reich also fell far short of its expected one-thousand years?
In: All, Current Events, Splenetics
Dressing Like a Woman
It's just another resonance with my research. As I was reading about the lavender scare and intense, non-comprehending homophobia in the nineteen-fifties — and before and after — here in the US, I ran across plenty of mentions of laws making it illegal for one gender to wear clothing "generally regarded as appropriate for the other sex." Doesn't that sound arbitrary and ripe for application in harassment and persecution!
Gender identity — appropriate gender identity — as signified by such will o'the wisps as fashion in clothing and hair has long been vitally important to lots of society. The reason why must escape me since I'm a sexual outlaw anyway. I've known of people who get really frustrated and angry if they can't tell the gender, from behind, of a long-haired someone walking down a street! Obviously, that will mean the end of civilization as we know it. For their own sake it's a good thing that these gender-identity obsessed types aren't aware of just how many intersexed babies are born and get reassigned.
Anyway, the attitudes persist, and are thought still to be extremely natural and obvious to the people who hold them. Witness the recent case of a Texas-college freshman who wrote an editorial for his school newspaper calling on women to "dress like women". He'll either grow up or become a Republican.
That was the context for these comments of Avedon Carol about "dressing like a woman", but they lept to my notice for the other reasons mentioned above.
We didn't start wearing jeans because they were fashionable; we started wearing them mainly because they weren't. They were also cheap, durable, practical, and had pockets. (There were no such thing as "women's jeans" in those days.) We took a lot of crap for it, you understand. Back in those days, a woman who wore trousers had to listen to some jerk say, "Why don't you dress like a woman?" with some frequency. It was always a surprise, though, because it didn't make any sense. "Drag queens have to dress like a woman," I would say. "I am a woman, I don't have to imitate one. What I'm wearing is what a woman wears." (It's not like there could be any confusion about that.) But I've been dressing this way since I was 15 and I'm not going to stop now – especially when most women's clothes still don't have decent pockets.
[Avedon Carol, "Thinking extremely locally", The Sideshow, 26 November 2007.]
In: All, Faaabulosity, Plus Ca Change...
Homos & Other Perverts
I have more research notes, if you'll forgive me.
These excerpts are from the report of a Senate subcommittee hearing in 1950; the short form of the title is "Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government".* It reported on the results of an investigative subcommittee hearing chaired by Senator Clyde Hoey (D-NC), an effort that probably also involved Kenneth Wherry (R-NE) somewhere, since he seemed to spearhead "lavender-scare" efforts in the Senate.
This first couple of paragraphs I found exceedingly useful because the subcommittee summarized just about everything one needs to know about what homosexuals are, both male and female, how to recognize them, and what to do about them. Wow! (They also demonstrate that entrenched misconceptions change exceedingly slowly. I do hope I don't need to point out that these are misconceptions. I suppose we might be happy that they even bothered to mention the bisexuals!)
The subcommittee found that most authorities agree on certain basic facts concerning sex perversion and it is felt that these facts should be considered in any discussion of the problem. Most authorities believe that sex deviation results from psychological rather than physical causes, and in many cases there are no outward characteristics or physical traits that are positive as identifying marks of sex perversion. Contrary to a common belief, all homosexual males do not have feminine mannerisms, nor do all female homosexuals display masculine characteristics in their dress or actions. The fact is that many male homosexuals are very masculine in their physical appearance and general demeanor, and many female homosexuals have every appearance of femininity in their outward behavior.
Generally speaking, the overt homosexual of both sexes can be divided into two general types; the active, aggressive or male type, and the submissive, passive or female type. The passive type of male homosexual, who often is effeminate in his mannerisms and appearance, is attracted to the masculine type of man and is friendly and congenial with women. On the other hand the active male homosexual often has a dislike for women. He exhibits no traces of femininity in his speech or mannerisms which would disclose his homosexuality. This active type is almost exclusively attracted to the passive type of homosexual or to young men or boys who are not necessarily homosexual but who are effeminate in general appearance or behavior. The active and passive type of female homosexual follow the same general patterns as their male counterparts. It is also a known fact that some perverts are bisexual. This type engages in normal heterosexual relationships as well as homosexual activities. These bisexual individuals are often married and have children, and except for their perverted activities they appear to lead normal lives.
Psychiatric physicians generally agree that indulgence in sexually perverted practices indicates a personality which has failed to reach sexual maturity. The authorities agree that most sex deviates respond to psychiatric treatment and can be cured if they have a genuine desire to be cured. However, many overt homosexuals have no real desire to abandon their way of life and in such cases cures are difficult, if not impossible. The subcommittee sincerely believes that persons afflicted with sexual desires which result in their engaging in overt acts of perversion should be considered as proper cases for medical and psychiatric treatment. However, sex perverts, like all other persons who by their overt acts violate moral codes and laws and the accepted standards of conduct, must be treated as transgressors and dealt with accordingly.
This next excerpt comes from the conclusions, and lays out a plan for dealing with homosexuals and other perverts. I particular like the admonition that getting the sex perverts out of Government should be "carried out in a manner consistent with the traditional American concepts of justice and fair play. "
Oh, I also think this is the only time I've ever seen the word "pussyfoot" in an official government document.
While this subcommittee is convinced that it is in the public interest to get sex perverts out of Government and keep them out, this program should be carried out in a manner consistent with the traditional American concepts of justice and fair play. In order to accomplish this end every reasonable complaint of perverted sex activities on the part of Government employees should be thoroughly investigated and dismissals should be ordered only after a complete review of the facts and in accordance with the present civil-service procedures. . . .
Since the initiation of this investigation considerable progress has been made in removing homosexuals and similar undesirable employees from positions in the Government. However, it should be borne in mind that the public interest cannot be adequately protected unless responsible officials adopt and maintain a realistic and vigilant attitude toward the problem of sex perverts in the Government. To pussyfoot or to take half measures will allow some known perverts to remain in Government and can result in the dismissal of innocent persons. . .
———-
* Long form: "Employment of Homosexuals and other Perverts in Government: Interim Report submitted to the Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments by its Subcommittee on Investigations pursuant to S. Res. 280 (81st Congress). A Resolution Authorizing the Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments to Carry Out Certain Duties."
The title, by the way, made it onto an amusing list called "Best Titles Ever!" from the Free Government Information blog.
The text (or a good portion of it–I haven't checked for completeness) can be found here, in a collection compiled for an old PBS/Frontline story called "Assault on Gay America: The Life and Death of Billy Jack Gaither", c. 2000.
A complete facsimile, in the form of scanned images, is available here, apparently as a reading for a course called "HSTY 1076, American History from Lincoln to Clinton", taught by Dr. Stephen Robertson at the University of Sydney, Australia. Thanks, Australia, for helping to get US government documents online.
In: All, Faaabulosity, Plus Ca Change...
Get Free Books
I happened across this nice blog post by "the frugal panda" (pace, Chris), called "17 Ways to Get Free Books". Of course, to an impoverished but avid reader like myself — with a friendly but not quite adequate public library — this title was like catnip to a cat.
Such fun and a nice summary of some useful resources. Public domain sources, downloadable e-books, and online book exchanges are all here. It may not be an exhaustive list, but it's a nice starting point, certainly. Use it as you like. Mostly I wanted to make a note of it before I lost the link.
In: All, Books, Briefly Noted
Therapy or Torture?
While doing some research for a story that I'm writing, I came across this fascinating paragaph describing the use of the drug succinylchloride in "therapy" for "sex perverts", a category that included gay men and straight pedophiles — the latter generally being typically described as "homosexuals" in the first half of the twentieth century. Apparently all your sex perverts where pretty much the same back then.
The description of the drug's use struck me as remarkably similar to the effects of "waterboarding", the currently popular practice that most deem to be torture or one of its euphemisms. It's not clear from this excerpt whether this "therapy" resulted in success, which also marks a similarity with waterboarding, but it does go to show that torture can be considered vital to society in more than just alleged-terrorist cases. I am mindful, of course, that the homosexual "menace" at the time was undoubtedly seen by many as a "ticking time-bomb" type scenario, considering its imagined threat to the government and the nation and the resolve of manly men during the McCarthy period.
I would like to point out that the events described in the following paragraph took place within my own lifetime.
The most famous of the treatment institutions [for "sex perverts"] was California's Atascadero State Hospital, which opened in 1954.[52] About sixty percent of the inmate population were sex offenders, including many convicted of consensual adult sodomy or oral copulation. At the beginning, the institution was relatively relaxed, even if ineffective in "curing" those incarcerated there. Key to the institution was controlling inmates resistant to treatment or authority. Doctors performed a steady but small stream of lobotomies, which Dr. Walter Freeman testified helped patients lose "their fear and hate and become noticeably friendly."[53] The main treatment, which Atascadero pioneered, involved the drug succinylchloride (Anectine), a "muscle relaxant which makes the victim unable to breathe. He feels like he's dying. And while he lies there unable to breathe, but fully conscious, the 'therapist' tells him that unless he's a good boy, and quits jerking off in the shower, or whatever, he will die."[54] This drug was used continually at Atascadero until 1969, when a visiting law student raised a scandal about its use. Some inmates were incarcerated here for only a short time, others for decades.
[original notes for this paragraph follow:]
[52] The account that follows is drawn from exposes of Atascadero in the early 1970s. See John LaStala, Atascadero: Dachau for Queers?, THE ADVOCATE, Apr. 26, 1972, at 11, 13 (LaStala was an inmate in 1955); Rob Cole, Inside Atascadero IV: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Treatment, THE ADVOCATE, Oct. 11, 1972, at 5.
[53] LaStala, supra note 52, at 11 (quoting Dr. Walter Freedman).
[54] Id. at 13.
[William N. Eskridge, Jr., "Privacy Jurisprudence and the Apartheid of the Closet, 1946-1961", 1997. "This Article is the published version of the Mason Ladd Lecture, delivered at the Florida State University College of Law on April 1, 1996" by Eskridge, at the time a professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center.]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Reflections
Norwegians Vote to be Nice, Kind Of
The Scandinavians continue to seem rather sensible, particularly compared to the Anglican Communion. However, I have to admit that — when it comes to a matter of church doctrine — this business of "we won't ban it but you can not do it anyway" is rather wishy-washy, not to mention undermining to the idea of central authority and revealed truth. But what do I know?
OSLO, Norway: Norway's state Lutheran church on Friday lifted an outright ban on allowing those living in homosexual partnerships to serve in the clergy, but will leave it up to each bishop to make individual decisions on whether to employ them.
The compromise decision reflected the realization that the church may have to live with a deep split over the issue.
After an anguished week of debate at its annual meeting, the church's 86-member governing synod voted 50-34 to make the change. Two members abstained. The meeting, which ended Friday, was held in the town of Lillehammer.
The decision means that six of Norway's 11 bishops are likely to open the pulpit to gay clergy in partnerships. In a vote earlier in the year, those six bishops voted in favor of easing the ban.
[Associated Press, "Norway's Lutherans ease ban on allowing those in gay partnerships to serve in clergy", International Herald Tribune, 16 November 2007.]
Buttery Sweet Potatoes
One year for our traditional pot-luck Thanksgiving meal I was asked to provide "the sweet potatoes". Naturally, given my proclivities towards non-traditionalism, I did not want to make anything usual or familiar. About that time I happened to receive, via a cooking group, a recipe for "Sweet Potatoes Anna". Sounded good!
Now, I was long familiar with the traditional dish called "Pommes Anna", consisting of thinly sliced white potatoes, traditionally layered in a cast-iron skillet with lots of butter, pressed and cooked until the mass forms a type of "cake" with a crispy outside and a soft, potato-y inside.
Despite that knowledge, I managed to misconstrue this "Sweet Potatoes Anna" dish totally. It called for a bunch of sweet potatoes, thinly sliced, and 0.25 lbs of butter, layered. Well, when I started to assemble it in a casserole, I ran out of butter way too soon to continue layering with the sweet potatoes, so naturally I melted more. And then more. And yet more. You can see where this is going. The current dish is basically sweet potatoes braised in butter (through submersion).
What I ended up with is now affectionately known as "Butter Casserole with Sweet Potatoes", although I do limit myself to one pound of butter. I also discovered that I preferred a rather longer cooking time than originally suggested, which seem to give the butter enough time to penetrate the sweet-potato slices fully. I have, however, retained the original cooking temperature.
This is the dish that I'm now asked to bring every time. I suspect that, since I bring it, no one else has to feel guilty about eating all that butter. I rarely bring home left-overs.
Buttery Sweet Potatoes
- 5 or 6 largish sweet potatoes (whatever ends up fitting your casserole dish)
- 1 pound of butter — I prefer unsalted
- some crushed thyme
- Peel the sweet potatoes and then slice them into the thinnest possible slices. I use the fine slicing disk of the food processor.
- Melt the butter.
- In a large, covered casserole dish, put in a layer of sweet potatoes, pour over some of the butter, and sprinkle on some thyme. Repeat until sweet potatoes and butter are used up. Try to end with some butter to moisten the top layer of sweet potatoes.
- Put the lid on the casserole dish and bake in a 425°F over for about 1 and 1/2 hours. The time is not so critical, but much shorter and the sweet potatoes don't soften and absorb as much butter, whereas much longer and they get too indistinct.
Conservative Obsessions
This story may be at least third hand by now, but it provides an amusing factoid. I read it at Jim Burroway's Box Turtle Bulletin ("The Obsession Of Social Conservatives", 21 November 2007). He relates the facts succinctly, and I'm tired, so I'm going to let Jim tell the tale:
Andrew Sullivan noticed this. If there was any doubt what’s most on the minds of social conservatives, Conservapedia has the answer. For those who haven’t heard, Conservapedia springs from the idea that Wikipedia and Google have a liberal bias. It’s an attempt to create a special little echo chamber in one small corner of the web.
So, what [d]o social conservatives care about the most? Well out of 44,999 pages on the web site, here are the ten most popular:
1. Main Page [1,897,952]
2. Homosexuality [1,496,027]
3. Homosexuality and Hepatitis [516,229]
4. Homosexuality and Promiscuity [417,064]
5. Homosexuality and Parasites [387,476]
6. Homosexuality and Domestic Violence [329,295]
7. Homosexuality and Gonorrhea [328,327]
8. Gay Bowel Syndrome [318,139]
9. Homosexuality and Syphilis [262,286]
10. Homosexuality and Mental Health [253,125]What do you think? Obsessed much?
In: All, Faaabulosity, Laughing Matters
One Spray Fits All
Der Spiegel Online has good news on the sex-technology front (although it's not quite teledildonics):
Good news for men whose penises are either so large or so small that they can't find a condom to fit them: A German inventor has come up with a sprayed-to-measure system that should ensure a snug fit for even the most unusual sizes.
A German condom expert has developed a "spray-on condom" system in the form of a pump that squirts out liquid latex through a multitude of nozzles that cover the erect member with a latex sheath in a matter of seconds.
["German Invents 'Spray-On' Condom to Fit All Sizes", Spiegel Online, 20 November 2007.]
They go on to describe the device invented by Jan Vinzenz Krause, director of the Institute for Condom Consultancy. It is a small unit with a chamber into which one inserts the erect member that needs protecting. There ensues a hissing sound while latex is sprayed on in red, green, yellow, or transparent — but not flavored. In 20 to 30 seconds — Krause hopes to reduce that time to increase spontaneity — the latex is dry and the custom-fit condom is ready to go.
(The article described the device as working a "a bit like a car wash", but I wasn't convinced that the analogy really helped that much with the imagery.)
[Via Box Turtle Bulletin]
Partners or Pets?
Pam* alerts us to this interesting story about the Palm Beach Community College, which has apparently just decided to offer its employees the option of buying health insurance for their pets, having just this past August declined to offer employees the option of buying health insurance for their partners.
Here is an excerpt from a release she quoted from the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council:
Last August, two members of the Board of Trustees of Palm Beach Community College killed a proposal which would have granted the college's full-time employees the ability to purchase health insurance for their domestic partners.
But soon, the college's employees will be able to purchase health insurance for their pets.
On November 16, Dr. Ellen Grace, PBCC's Director of Human Relations notified the college's full-time employees that "the college has added pet insurance as an available option to employees through payroll deduction."
"When it comes to providing health PBCHRC Logoinsurance, Palm Beach Community College prefers puppies to partners," said Rand Hoch, President of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council.
The Council, a local nonprofit civil rights organization, has been encouraging the college to provide domestic partnership benefits since 2005.
"While many pet owners consider their dogs and cats part of their families, there is a basic disconnect when an employer will insure an employee's pet but not an employee's partner," said Deidre Newton, a PBCC graduate who serves as Vice President of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council.
"The college's offer to insure pets within months of denying insurance for domestic partners is unbelievably insensitive," said Hoch.
"Last summer's decision not to offer domestic partner health insurance is irrational, since the college does not have to pay any portion of health insurance premium to insure an employee's partner," said Newton.
There's more at the link in the note.
———-
* Pam Spaulding, "Palm Beach Community College: insurance for pets, but not partners", Pam's House Blend, 22 November 2007.
In: All, Faaabulosity, Laughing Matters
On Luis Alvarez
From this week's Physics News Update* a note about physicist Luis Alvarez, to whom all things were interesting. In case you've ever wondered about the source of the hypothesis that the dinosaurs were wiped out by a meteorite, read on.
EGYPTIAN PYRAMIDS, DINOSAUR EXTINCTION, THE JFK ASSASSINATION: all were studied by Berkeley physicist Luis Alvarez. Alvarez won a Nobel Prize for his discovery of new particles using a bubble chamber, but some of his fame comes from his work applying physics principles and methods outside the normal physics-research world. In the November issue of the American Journal of Physics, Charles Wohl of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab looks at three notable examples of Alvarez*s extracurricular effort.
(1) To search for possible hidden chambers in the Chephren pyramid in Cairo-one of the three great pyramids built in the third millennium BCE-Alvarez designed an experiment in which cosmic rays would strike a detector set up inside a known chamber beneath the pyramid. Observing the penetrating muons from cosmic-ray showers, this detector would discern any intervening empty spaces in the overlying pyramid structure. The upshot: no hidden chambers.
(2) In scrutinizing the so called "Zapruder film", a short filmed sequence that caught the assassination in progress, experts had been puzzled by the backwards jerk of President Kennedy's head after one of the bullet impacts. Some took this to be evidence for another assassin shooting from in front of the president's car. Alvarez and some of his colleagues performed impromptu experiments at a shooting range, and also considered the conservation of momentum and the forward-moving matter from the wound. From this they concluded that the movie sequence was consistent with a shot coming from the rear.
(3) Most famous of all was Alvarez's hypothesis, made in collaboration with his son Walter Alvarez, that a thin but conspicuous layer of the otherwise rare element iridium in numerous places around the world, all at a geological stratum corresponding to the era just around the boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods (the KT boundary), signified a large asteroid impact at that time. This impact, it was further thought, cast enough dust into the air from a long enough time as to kill off many living things, including a large portion of dinosaurs.
———-
* Phillip F. Schewe, Physics News Update, The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Physics News, Number 847, 20 November 2007.
In: All, It's Only Rocket Science, The Art of Conversation
Tutu on Church Priorities
"Our world is facing problems – poverty, HIV and Aids – a devastating pandemic, and conflict," said Archbishop [Desmond] Tutu, 76.
"God must be weeping looking at some of the atrocities that we commit against one another.
"In the face of all of that, our Church, especially the Anglican Church, at this time is almost obsessed with questions of human sexuality."
[…]
Archbishop Tutu referred to the debate about whether Gene Robinson, who is openly gay, could serve as the bishop of New Hampshire.He said the Anglican Church had seemed "extraordinarily homophobic" in its handling of the issue, and that he had felt "saddened" and "ashamed" of his church at the time.
Asked if he still felt ashamed, he said: "If we are going to not welcome or invite people because of sexual orientation, yes.
"If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn't worship that God."
["Tutu chides Church for gay stance", BBC news, 18 November 2007.]
A Brief Hiatus
For the next week I will be in Kansas City, visiting my father. Blogging may or may not be possible — depending on whether I have anything to say,* of course. In the meantime, do feel free to talk among yourselves, provided you can think up some nonsense on your own.
I plan to be back home on Monday, 19 November.
———-
* Or feel inspired just to make up some nonsense.
Dog-Day Dialog
Isaac is bent double over his computer keyboard, giggling uncontrollably. This was what he was reading at that moment:
Dog: I am starving.
Me: Actually, no. You aren't starving. You get two very good meals a day. And treats. And Best Beloved fed you extra food while I was gone.
Dog: STARVING.
Me: I saw you get fed not four hours ago! You are not starving.
Dog: Pity me, a sad and tragic creature, for I can barely walk, I am so starving. WOE.[littera_abactor, "I Has a Sweet Potato", 8 May 2007]
It continued, evolving into a kind of short play — definitely a farce — involving this dog, its consumption of a raw sweet potato, and its denial of that consumption. As Isaac says: "M'ken shtarben fun gelechter".
Around our house this piece caused a great deal of mirth (and breathless giggling on Isaac's part). This could be because:
- we live with greyhounds
- we can imagine too easily an argument with one of them sounding like this
Dogs are masters at changing the subject.
Leakey: How Stupid Can You Get?
The centerpiece of the exhibit at the Nairobi National Museum is Turkana Boy, the remains of a boy who died 1.5 million years ago in Kenya. The fossil, the most complete specimen of homo erectus found so far, has been kept in a bomb-proof vault. […]
"I do not dispute that as humans we have a history but my family most certainly did not descend from the apes," said [Bishop Boniface Adoyo, who heads the Kenyan evangelical churches]. […]
Richard Leakey, who led the expedition that discovered Turkana Boy, is more concerned that putting the fossil on public display may cause difficulties for scientists.
"Science is at the very foundation of our ability to deal with the new century, so if we bring it down to the idea that science may be un-Christian — well, how stupid can you get?" he said of the bishop's comments.
[United Press International, "Creationists object to evolution exhibit", PhysOrg.com, 9 November 2007.]
Election Night Blues
That's "blues" as in "blue states" and Democrats trouncing Republicans in key elections tonight. It's some nice news.
It's way past my bedtime but I had a quick look for results from the election results for governor in Kentucky, because I had read those reports for the last few days about Republican-sponsored robocalls in which Pat Boone had been recruited to smear the Democratic candidate, Steve Beshear, by claiming that he'd totally committed himself to the radical homosexual agenda. (Yawn.) Etc. Etc. Etc. I'm sure you can google up the reports; I'm too tired to help right now.*
But how nice to see ("Election Track: GOVERNOR'S RACE", at BluegrassReport.org), given that, that Beshear has apparently won by a huge margin (of the 6o to 40 variety) over his Republican opponent — and incumbent! It appears that Governor Fletcher conceded already several hours ago.
I am so happy to have a governor elected in Kentucky who is fully committed to the radical homosexual agenda.
Oh, it also appears that Democrats have regained control of the State Senate in Virginia, too.
———
*[Added on Wednesday, the next day:] Here's a summary of the shenanigans from Andy Towle, "More Robo-Calls and Biblical Scare Tactics in Kentucky Gov Race", Towleroad, 6 November 2007.