Comments on Prop 8

I think this man put beautifully into words exactly what I have to say on the subject of prop 8 to whoever actually managed to vote yes on it. 

Election

America, I am proud of us.

California, I am ashamed of us

Some stolen rebuttals to the arguments of the "yes on Prop 8" crowd. Are you really telling me that the majority of us bought into this shit?

Argument:
1.​​)​​Being​ gay is not natur​al.​​.​​.​​.​
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Rebuttal:
And real Ameri​cans alway​s rejec​t unnat​ural thing​s like eyegl​asses​ polye​s​ter,​​​​​ and air condi​tioni​ng,​​​​​ tatto​os,​​​​​ pierc​ings, silic​on breasts, candy, soda, indoor pools...
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2.​​)​​Gay marri​age will encou​rage peopl​e to be gay.​​.​​.​​.​​.​
​       

 In the same way that hangi​ng aroun​d tall peopl​e will make you tall.​
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3) Legal​izing​ gay marri​age will open the door to all kinds​ of crazy​ behav​ior.​​.​​.​​.​​.​
​              

Peopl​e may even wish to marry​ their​ pets becau​se a dog has legal​ stand​ing and can sign a marri​age contr​act.​​​​ Lamps​ are next.​ Oooo, you know, there was a card table I kinda had the hots for back in High School, maybe I should commit to a loving relationship with that!
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4) Strai​​ght marri​age has been aroun​d a long time and hasn'​​​​t chang​ed at all;​​.​​.​​.​​.​​.​
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Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, It's just like in 1812, when "blacks" and "whites" couldn't marry, women had no rights to their own property, divorce is illegal, and marrying between castes was frowned upon... exactly like that.
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5) Strai​​ght marri​age will be less meani​ngful​ if gay marri​age were allow​ed;​​​​​.​​.​​.​​.​​.​
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And we can'​​​​t let the sanct​ity of Britn​ey Spear​s'​​​​ 55-​​​​​hour just-​​​​​for-​​​​​fun marri​age be destr​oyed.​.. Really? Your marriage is so bad that you're threatened because two men or two women are happy together and want to pledge their undying love? That kinda seems like your problem, not theirs.
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6) Strai​​ght marri​ages are valid​ becau​se they produ​ce child​ren.​​.​​.​​.​
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So there​​fore,​​​​​ gay coupl​es,​​​​​ infer​tile coupl​es,​​​​​ and old peopl​e shoul​dn'​​​​t be allow​ed to marry​ becau​se our popul​ation​ isn'​​​​t out of contr​ol,​​​​​ our orpha​nages​ aren'​​​​t full yet, and the world​ needs​ more child​ren.​ God forbid more happy homes become available for unhappy children to be supported in.
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7) Obvio​​usly gay paren​ts will raise​ gay child​ren,​​​​​.​​.​​.​​.​​.​
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Sinc​e,​​​ of cours​e,​​​ strai​ght paren​ts only raise​ strai​ght child​ren.​
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8) Gay marri​​age is not suppo​rted by relig​ion.​​.​​.​​.​​.​
​
You know what else was supported by religion? Slavery. They pointed to the story of Noah, and said that African people were still being punished for looking upon Noah in his shame, and that we were only carrying out God's rightful punishment. Are you telling me you still believe in that? Religious interpretation is inextricably linked with the values of the society interpreting it. 150 years from now, when we're as far from this issue as we are from slavery (itself, not it's repercussions), you are all going to look like morons too.
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9) Child​ren can never​ succe​ed witho​ut a male and a femal​e role model​ at home.​​.​​.​​.​​.​
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Which​ is exact​ly why we as a socie​ty expre​ssly forbi​d singl​e paren​ts to raise​ child​ren.​
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10) Gay marri​age will chang​e the found​ation​ of socie​ty;​​​​​ we could​ never​ adapt​ to new socia​l norms​.​​.​​.​​.​​.​
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Just​ like we haven​​'​​​​t adapt​ed to cars,​​​​​ the servi​ce-​​​​​secto​r econo​my,​​​​​ or longe​r life spans​.​... get over it. We have adapted, and making laws against gay marriage isn't going to keep your kids from becoming gay. It won't keep them from learning that gay people exist, and it won't turn gay people straight.

Taking away the right to gay marriage isn't upholding your moral standards, it's telling a group of people that they are different than you, and are not entitled to fair treatment or the same rights. Discrimination isn't Christian, love is. I just wish people would have remembered that before they had taken their fear into the voting booth.

Twenty Somethings and The Great Depression

This may turn out to be rather a depressing blog entry, but it is something that has been on my mind as of late. 

        

For me, as for most of my contemporaries, the decade of life known as 'the twenties' has been, so far anyways, a time of examining potential. A time for going to school, trying things out, and getting to the deep 'how-tos' of 'what do you want to be when you grow up?' In other words, most of us are NOT currently working out dream jobs. 

       

 This is where The Great Depression comes in. Now, when I read The Grapes of Wrath (which I'll just state right now I hated), I was focused more upon the plot than about the experiences of one particular age group. But, thinking back on it, what did happen to all of those people who moved through their twenties during the 1930's? All those people who were just graduating from college when the stock market crashed (go right ahead and insert obvious echoes of self-interest here),what happened to them? 

There was a huge shortage of jobs... and as far as the jobs that did exist, who would hand out these precious awards to young people with no experience? That would just be bad business when there were so many more qualified adults around. So did these people ever get the chance to follow through on their dreams? 

Probably not. With the mass starvation of that decade, I'm sure advancing as a successful bonds-salesman (or whatever) would take a back-seat to eating. Most definitely, most of these people just took jobs doing whatever it was they could get to do, and gave up on the dreams that would have been so graspable only a decade before. 

So what does that mean for us? The generation going through college, amassing gigantic student loans, and wondering if the same thing is going to happen to these loans as it did to loans in the 1930's. There is mass unemployment now, as before, who is going to hire us at a high enough salary to pay off the loans that come due 6mo following graduation? Us, rather than the 5,000-something people who got fired on our own black Friday and are now leaving New York in droves. 

Is this what the media is terming the "fear" and "panic" that underlie this election? According to wikipedia, there still aren't any overwhelming schools of thought concerning either the cause or the best way to have fixed The Great Depression of eighty years ago. Some people thought the government didn't do enough, some thought the 1.2 billion they paid into banks wasn't enough. Roosevelt's chairman of the Federal Reserve during this time, Marriner S. Eccles, thought that the best plan would have been to take their own bailout money ( $6 billion) and distribute it to the public through higher wages or lower prices, and that that would have staved off the depression itself. 

I know it is rather petty to worry about the dimming future of a particular sect of a generation when there are so many larger things at stake, but, as nothing horrifically major has happened yet, I think I'm allowed. Trust me, I'll shut up and help out when the time comes. Till then... would anyone mind hiring me, please? 

Will Ferrell is Also Awesome

Yet Another Winner

What $700 billion Could Buy

"Taxpayers should compare the bailout with the pricetags on a few other items deemed unaffordable by the Administration and Congress:

• Covering health care costs plus out-of-pocket medical expenses for all of America's uninsured: $100 billion

• Universal preschool: $35 billion

• Rebuilding New Orleans: $100 billion

• Free college education for everyone: $50 billion

• Total energy independence for the United States, with a shift to renewables within the next ten years: $500 billion"

With the bailout plan in the works, sometimes its tough not to think about all of the spectacular, important things we could be having if giant, wealthy banks hadn't ripped us off for so many years, fallen straight on their asses, and then begged for help... But don't worry. I'm sure the President has got it under control...

(taken from an article at http://www.progressive.org/mag/rc092408.html written and researched by Ruth Conniff on Septenber 24th.)

If Only It WERE a Disney Movie...

If you watched the Matt Damon clip below, you'll see why this spoof preview is amazing... and REALLY scary at the same time.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Matt Damon

I love this. It amuses me to no end.

For Those Not Yet Registered to Vote

Never before has an election seemed more inextricably linked to the everyday lives of the American citizens. Possibly because we have recently been handed direct proof of what happens when apathy gets the best of us, and we just sit back and allow others to make decisions for us. 

Last election only 64% of the population voted. And, to break that down even further, only 47% of those aged 18-24 turned out to vote. Ironically, that is also the age group of most of the people being killed now in the Iraq war. 

The current administration has spent eight years treating the public like children. Hiding information, and ignoring it as if we are unable to put forth thoughts of our own. If you don't vote, you prove them right. So get out there and register. I promise you it's worth the paperwork. 

On Experience

I have recently experienced several interesting difficulties hunting for a job, which, inevitably, have led me to think about the upcoming election. For instance, were you aware that positions available for Editorial Internships at local magazines actually require their applicants to have a background of at least two years writing for a publication? WTF? Why the hell would I be an intern if I could be writing for a magazine? Why yes, ma'am, I'll fetch you your coffee without being paid instead of sending in my writing for lots and lots of money. 

Instance second: three different restaurants here in the Portland area have stated that their dishwashing applicants need at least 5yrs experience in that capacity in order to apply... I don't even want to get into what they want from their wait-staff. 

Is this the effect the election is having on the country? The media has been going on and on and on for so long about Obama's lack of experience that now local businesses think that they, too, should turn down perfectly qualified candidates just to join in the fun? 

I understand the desire of business owners to hire the most qualified people for the job that they  possibly can, but there is a fine line between not wanting to train lazy teenage employees and requiring yourself straight into a corner. 

Sarah Palin Fun Fact of the Day

She watches comedy shows with the sound off... so while she did see the Saturday Night Live that I have posted below, she just thought that it was hilarious. All she knew was that Tina Fey looked like her, and she had no actual concept of what was actually being satirized in the sketch. Go figure.

Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton

Tina Fey does a startlingly good Sarah Palin impression. I hope you enjoy this.

Obama of Athens

The statements that I am about to make will seem pompous and overly-elitist, of this I am sure. However, my personal infatuation with the following ideas make this writing inevitable, compulsory even, and therefore I beg the forgiveness and indulgence of my audience. 

Earlier this evening, I was studying a book entitled "Clear and Simple as the Truth," a discussion of the elements of classical writing (as expressed in the Greek tradition, the French Revolution, and several documents from colonial America). This, quite clearly, is where my snobbery comes in-- but I digress. Within this book was an example from a writing of Thucydides, a Greek historian that recounts a war in the 5th century B.C. between Athens and Sparta. 

This excerpt is a speech supposedly delivered by Pericles at the end of the first year of the Peloponnesian War. Upon reading it, I couldn't help but to think of the similarities between this speech and the current state of political affairs. In his speech, Pericles seeks to unite Athens by uplifting their communal values and presenting a vision of themselves as an elite class, capable of hope and of making intelligent decisions. Unfortunately, there are always a class of people who would rather 'rush blindly into the sea, swords drawn, and battle ceaselessly with the waves' than slow down and consider the rational decisions that they fear. 

The speech is as follows:

"Our love of what is beautiful does not lead to extravagance; our love of the things of the mind does not make us soft. We regard wealth as something to be properly used, rather than as something to boast about. As for poverty, no one need be ashamed to admit it: the real shame is not taking practical measures to escape from it. Here each individual is interested not only in his own affairs but in the affairs of the state as well... We are capable at the same time of taking risks and of estimating them beforehand. Others are brave out of ignorance; and, when they stop to think, they begin to fear. But the man who can most truly be accounted brave is he who best knows the meaning of what is sweet in life and of what is terrible, and then goes out undeterred to meet what is to come." 

The fear that Pericles so aptly mentions is the aspect I note most when I encounter anti-Democratic propaganda. I came across a myspace bulletin two days ago that took great pains to dissect irrelevant and insubstantial irregularities in Obama's speech in order to insinuate that he is a liar. The list, and I quote is a "list of things that Senator Obama has said that are not EXACTLY correct." It then proceeds to run through a series of inconsequential details to prove, I assume, that Obama is human after all. 

What I simply do not understand is why it is easier for many people to harp after the little things that support their position rather than to acknowledge any other points of view. Is it a fear of being wrong? A fear of personal affront? A fear that, should there be a change in office, they will be held personally responsible for the last miserable eight years? If things remain as they are, does it reaffirm their belief that they were right, the democrats were wrong, and another president turning a blind eye will make Iraq, the energy crises, and global warming just disappear?

Well-- continuing darkness doesn't bring the monster out of the closet, and throwing away the bills won't get rid of the debt. Both are fearful and childish acts, and neither could possibly be helpful in the long run. The real question is whether the opposition can be induced to see through their fear to the actual issues, or if 2.5 months simply isn't enough time to draw them out from under the bed. 

Obama for Athens. McCain for Sparta. How simple the decision seems when compared with what we know.

It's All About Multi-Tasking

In light of the ever so quickly escalating global warming crisis, several environmental industries have taken cues from nature herself and begun to create mini self-sustaining eco-systems in furthering their capitalist efforts. 

For instance, recent developments have made raising fish and vegetables in the same aqua-garden a match made in heaven. The fish live down below (obviously), fertilizing the hydroponic system, and the vegetables give back to them by pumping their oxygen by-products back into the area. How cool is that? 

Also recently helpful are a series of color-coded bacteria that scientists in Dublin have just deemed perfect for determining the source and extent of oil spills. Safer than the chemicals that have heretofore tracked these spills, the bacteria can easily be equipped with a protein that lights up around oil... how very convenient.

This Shocked Me

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/30/police_raids/index.html?source=newsletter

http://www.startribune.com/local/27703754.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUnciaec8O7EyUsX

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/08/31/politics/horserace/entry4401722.shtml

It's a few articles detailing massive police raids in Minneapolis a couple days ago. They raided houses in riot gear, arresting people they suspected of planning a protest at the democratic national convention.

Although they did confiscate a few weapons, and a book that details homemade bombs, they detained only five of the many people because of them.


I understand the concerns of the government, as explained by the mayor in the third article, and I understand that they suspected that the protest would lead to "anarchist" violent behavior. What I do not understand is when pre-emptive strikes became acceptable within American society.

I'm scared.

To Energy Wasters

If you haven't read this yet, you should really get on it. As if global warming weren't a scary enough idea, apparently the Earth only has to get a little bit warmer before the Arctic Tundra starts to release all of the greenhouse gasses stored beneath the permafrost, and send the problem wheeling far out of humanity's control. 

So please, get over yourselves and start taking responsibility for the waste you create, so that your children still have land to live on. 

Thanks

When Even FOX is Snarky, You Know Somethin's Up

Throughout all of the debacles that the Bush Administration has put the American public through in the past 8 years, it seemed that America could always count on the FOX news network to put the most rigidly conservative spin on the day's breaking news updates. Well, it seems that some things are just too outrageous for even FOX to get behind. In this article, released earlier today, the writer takes a refreshingly sadistic approach to reporting the newest update on the Russia-Georgian situation. 

Although this outbreak sparked many questions within news talk shows regarding Obama and McCain's abilities to handle this "3am crisis," cameras seemed to shy sadly away from the fact that, when alerted to the situation, our current President simply remained in his seat in Beijing, enjoying his vacation at the world Olympic games. 

Since Bush's return earlier this week, he seems to have taken every opportunity to surpass his already winning record as a poster-boy for hypocrisy: 

In a chronological manner, the writer simply lays Bush's own speech before his audience, as a series of key quotes, inviting us to make what we will of them.

Item #1 The US and Poland agreed yesterday to set up an American missile defense base on Poland's soil. However, in his speech today, Bush continued to declaim that "the Cold War is over. The days of satellite states and spheres of influence are behind us." 

Item #2 Bush called out Russia for it's use of "bullying and intimidation," stating that they were "not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century."

...did I mention that this entire speech was given just outside the Oval Office? Bush was answering questions while en route to the plane that would take him to his ranch in Texas, where he will be enjoying a two-week vacation. This from the President who has already amassed almost 2 years of vacation out of the 7.5 years he has been in office. 

 By simply relaying the quotes as they lay, this reporter seems to have broken through FOX's conventional niceties to do the cruelest thing one could possibly do: let Bush speak for himself.