The horror:
The Washington State Senate today voted against equality for LGBT citizens. After an hour of impassioned floor speeches, the Senate, by one vote, once again rejected LGBT rights. The State House had previously passed the bill, and the Governor had said she would sign it. Two Democrats, Senators Hargrove and Sheldon, joined every single Republican in voting against the bill. Republican Minority Leader Finkbeiner led the opposition .
Microsoft pulled its support of the bill because God said so? I'm sure it played a small part but could it be a strategic maneuver (of course it could):
What if the conservative preacher was a red herring, and instead, Microsoft bargained away its support for the gay rights bill in exchange for the future support of key Senators for the expansion project?[via]
The bargaining could have occurred either actively on Microsoft's part (e.g., Microsoft approaches socially conservative opponents of the expansion and offers them a trade) or less voluntarily (i.e., social conservatives approach Microsoft and make them an offer they can't refuse, threatening opposition of the expansion project unless Microsoft pulls support for gay rights legislation).
Doesn't that make more sense than the "ornery preacher" theory?
Ah, bartering, I get it, fuck the humanities issue over for potential "expansion", politics as in business is a souless occupation.
God bless the new food pyramid!
"One size doesn't fit all. MyPyramid Plan can help you choose the foods and amounts that are right for you. For a quick estimate of what and how much you need to eat, enter your age, sex, and activity level in the MyPyramid Plan box."Finally, they understand, they really do!
Big Gay Sam is a new blog to me I found whilst surfing via Blog Explosion (it works!). Unfortunately for Sam he has encountered Satan's Love Slave, the infamous Pastor Fred Phelps.
Mr. Phelps of God hates fags dot com fame is coming to New Mexico. Apparently Mr. Phelps feels that New Mexico is becoming too accepting of "queers" as he put it. I refuse to call that man Reverend, Pastor, Preacher or any other title proclaiming him a man of God. Because he is no man of God.
Agreed.
Dooce is "Turnin' Japanese, I think she's turnin' Japanese, I really think so.."
A few nights ago I got a rather late, frantic phone call from my Favorite Mormon friend (I call her my Favorite Mormon Friend because she is my Favorite Mormon ever, and she calls me her Favorite An-Mormon because I'm not so bad that I'm completely Anti, just a little An, do you see why I love her?). She had just returned from a book club attended mostly by older members of a certain faith, a faith that is frequently the brunt of the more insensitive and inappropriate comments I've made on this website (remember that one time I said Brigham Young sucked cock? Yeah, that would be one of those instances).
They had read this book and were discussing it when it became very apparent that the consensus of the group was that the United States did nothing wrong by imprisoning innocent Japanese Americans during World War II. After all, they pointed out, many of the Japanese at that time were patently un-American, duh.
Lion and Tigers and Japanese Americans, oh my....
Darth Vadar gets his blog on!
The probe droids have detected an illegal settlement.
Mood: optimistastic!
There is a bit of bounce in my step today, notwithstanding the fact that all the diodes down the left side of my leg seem finally to be functioning smoothly. I ate a full breakfast in my hyperbaric chamber while listening to really loud music (Qui'hut Xillermott's Sonata No.26) and then popped out to tour the bridge.
Happy Birthday to the Hubble Telescope!
"The Hubble Space Telescope has taken about 750,00 images in its 15 years in space. Celebrating the launch on April 24, 1990, Hubble officials released two more pretty pictures.The images were to be released Monday, but they were provided in advance to the media and were posted to a British web site Friday afternoon. SPACE.com contacted the Space Telescope Science Institute, which operates Hubble, to verify that an embargo had been broken.
While Hubble's future is uncertain, its capabilities are unquestioned as the sharp-eyed observatory continues to produce stunning photographs of faraway places."[via]
