May 2007 Archives

Allowing the Godless Homos to join in civil unions! What will we tell the children!

CONCORD, N.H. - Gay couples in New Hampshire can start applying for many of the rights and responsibilities of marriage as early as January under a law Gov. John Lynch signed Thursday establishing civil unions.

“We in New Hampshire have had a long and proud tradition taking the lead in opposing discrimination,” Lynch said. “Today that tradition continues.”

Here's what I find truly interesting:

Massachusetts alone among the U.S. states allows gay marriage. Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey, Maine, California and Washington allow either civil unions or domestic partnerships, and Oregon will join the list with New Hampshire in January. Hawaii extends certain spousal rights to same-sex couples and cohabiting heterosexual pairs.

OK, that's all of New England except for Rhode Island that now allow Teh Gay to function as sort-of real people. When will Republicans in the northeast finally start telling the fundigelicals to STFU?

Mini Stonehenge Kit from thinkgeek.com

shoot, even if you're just an Anglophile or history buff, this is kinda cool.

In a Salon piece about Imus, the master of Lake Woebegon is almost as shrill as Krugman:

When you think of how Mr. Eyebrows had to sit in sackcloth and ashes and apologize, all for an outburst you can hear in a back booth at Bud's Lounge, and then you think of the lasting damage the Current Occupant has done to this country, a man who lends new richness to the word "malfeasance" and who is deaf on top of it and relaxed and pleasant in the face of fresh revelations, you see what a crazy country this is, but then we knew that a long time ago.

The French have a new president, the British will soon have a new P.M., and we envy them as we endure the endless wait for this small dim man to go back to Texas and resume his life. His party is coming to see that it must figure out how to tell the truth about him if it is to compete in 2008, but so far nobody has stepped forward and wound up to throw the pie. Their clock is stuck in the fall of 2001. They are sleepwalking toward the precipice.

His last sentence above is really the sad part. The Republicans are indeed sleepwalking toward the precipice. The current crop of Republican candidates have no ability to think outside the box. This is what got them the disrespectful piece of shit that currently lives in the White House. When all you can field for candidates are racists and men who are batshit insane, a drunk Texan doesn't look so bad.

...it would be sweet irony if Falwell came back as a lesbian...

Anyway, I hope I'm closer to accurate about how the afterlife work than his beliefs, for his soul's sake.

Don't y'all get just a little embarassed when one of your reporters goes on Fox Noise Channel and simply makes shit up?

Ignoring polling, Liasson claimed on Fox News Sunday that all Republicans beat Clinton

On the May 13 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday, Fox News contributor and NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson asserted that former New York City mayor and Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani is "trying to argue" that he is "the only one who can beat a Democratic nominee -- [Sen.] Hillary Clinton [D-NY]." Liasson added, "But I don't think the polls support that. I think the polls show that in head-to-head matchups, for whatever that's worth now, they all do." However, while some recent polling has been less favorable to Clinton, two polls released in May show her leading not only Giuliani, but also the other top Republican candidates in head-to-head contests.

[via Media Matters for America]

Where Liasson goes wrong is when she says "I don't think." You're right, Mara, you don't think. You spout shit.  What I can never figure out about Liasson is if she's more like Crackhead Cokie, who just spews forth crap without a care to the facts because she's nuts, or if Liasson actually read the polls and is playing to the FNC audience.

I'd love to know what FNC pays Liasson for her "contributions" to their shows relative to what she makes for NPR.  It has to be substantial for her to just ignore facts and play to the party line. 

To: Mr. Tom Grubisich
Subj: Your article in today's Washington Post entitled, "Sunshine for the Virtual Town Hall"

Your article fails to make a case for eliminating anonymity on-line because you use only present a very narrow use of pseudonyms. When someone goes to a real-life town hall meeting, he's hanging it out there for everyone to see. It's quite possible that a person will suffer attacks to their business, employment, family, and person if they put forth unpopular opinions.

The same thing happens on-line. There have been numerous examples of reporters who have tried to "turn in" readers who have challenged their published work via e-mail. Political operatives have chased down real-life information about bloggers and other forum participants to shut down their opinions.

Pseudonyms have a number of legitimate uses, such as a reporter changing names to protect a source, or an author of a controversial monograph who might have concerns for their safety. Pseudonyms are used for purely business reasons, such as a mainstream novelist who writes erotica under a different name. Those who participate in on-line chats and forums should be afforded similar cover.

Additionally, if you truly don't like on-line venues which permit the likes of "anticrat424," you have the option to not participate. Vote with your feet, and only make yourself available to sites that don't allow anonymity.

Your article makes it sound like the only reason to use a pseudonym on-line is so one can be obnoxious. Clearly this is not the case. It's hard to tell if you're just a crybaby who doesn't like dealing with hecklers, or if you're advocating identifying participants for more sinister reasons, but either way, it's a bad idea.

Love,
YatPundit

...from Swampland commentor "tockyhockey," remarking on a post from Wonkette about Jay Carney meeting Elizabeth Edwards:

Whenever I feel like my life isn't going as planned, I can always be thankful that I don't get paid to tell people with cancer what they can and can't do with their last days on earth.

f'sure.

The bulk of Todd Boyd's column in ESPN online today is that people don't like Barry Bonds because he's an "uppity Negro" who is trying to eliminate Babe Ruth from the record book. This bit of screed confuses me:

Yet if Bonds' numbers are "tainted," consider this: Every home run that Babe Ruth ever hit was hit before blacks were allowed to play in the majors. Ruth played at a time when baseball was racially segregated, and he never had to play against the top black players of that time. Though Ruth did not create this system, he, like the rest of the white players before 1947, played in a league in which the competitive nature of the game was less than equal based on these racially exclusionary practices.

Why do I (or anyone, for that matter) care about Ruth's home runs? Bonds blew past Ruth at 715. The record Bonds is chasing, and the one many advocate putting an asterisk next to, is Henry Aaron's 755 home runs.

Last time I checked, Hank Aaron was black.

Rather than titling this column "You can't discuss Bonds without race," perhaps Boyd should have said, "You can't discuss Bonds without JUICE."

...hard to believe, but yeah, it's possible:

P.E. Classes Turn to Video Game That Works Legs

It is a scene being repeated across the country as schools deploy the blood-pumping video game Dance Dance Revolution as the latest weapon in the nation’s battle against the epidemic of childhood obesity. While traditional video games are often criticized for contributing to the expanding waistlines of the nation’s children, at least several hundred schools in at least 10 states are now using Dance Dance Revolution, or D.D.R., as a regular part of their physical education curriculum.

I picked this story up from Feministe, where zuzu has some interesting thoughts on gym class:

I submit that most team sports, particularly as theyre practiced in gym class, enforce a hierarchy and instill bad feelings. I can remember being picked last for every team in junior high except basketball, where I was always team captain simply because of my height. But whether or not I was picked last or did the picking, seems like whoever lost was in a very bad mood.

Not that Im saying team sports are bad or anything; just that theyre not the best model for gym class all the damn time. And maybe finding a way for kids to move their bodies in a way thats fun and that they enjoy will help them with lifelong fitness.

It's more than just the drama which ensues when kids pick teams and such. Many team sports played in gym class are just not good exercise. Baseball and football both involve a lot of standing around and waiting. Basketball may be a bit more aerobic, but it's still tough to get your heart rate up all that much. Stepping out to DDR in class may be a bit dorky, but it's gotta be a better workout than team sports.