Wednesday, May 28, 2008

More Californians Support Gay Marriage Than Oppose It

In a poll conducted between May 17 and May 26 by Field Poll, it was found that more Californians now support gay marriage than oppose it.

The poll found that 51 percent of respondents backed legalizing same-sex marriage and 42 percent opposed it, DiCamillo said.

In 2006, when participants were asked, "Do you approve or disapprove of California allowing homosexuals to marry members of their own sex?" 44 percent said they approved and 50 percent objected. In 1977, the first year Field posted the question to voters, 28 percent approved and 59 percent were opposed. - The Associated Press

Way to go, fellow Californians! You're lookin' mighty progressive there!

- T

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Gay Marriage Ban DISSOLVED!

It is truly unbelievable -- and unexpected to this blogger. I was not expecting ANY movement on this issue until winter, when the California public is due to vote on amending our state constitution with a BAN on gay marriage.

[Could anything be more disgusting than wishing to amend our constitution in order to DENY a minority group of CITIZENS their human rights?!? Is this the 1800s? Are we not due the same damn rights as the straight citizens of California? Can a decent, loving, straight voter in this state REALLY stand in the voting booth and morally cast his vote to deny rights to me and my beloved friends...? If you can somehow justify doing this in your mind, all I can say is SHAME ON YOU.]

And yet, perhaps temporarily, those who wish will shortly be able to join their partner in marriage. If you are at all the marrying type, and you are in a committed, loving relationship -- by all means, MARRY!

If any one thing could keep this from being a short-lived blip on the radar screen, it is a large, vocal group being threatened with having their marriages revoked by the evil majority.

- T

p.s. If you have the stomach for this kind of bile, read an LA Times article describing the kind of hateful people we will be up against this November....

Friday, May 16, 2008

Yours, A. Einstein

... I read a great deal in the last days of your book, and thank you very much for sending it to me. What especially struck me about it was this. With regard to the factual attitude to life and to the human community we have a great deal in common.

... The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. These subtilized interpretations are highly manifold according to their nature and have almost nothing to do with the original text. For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them.

In general I find it painful that you claim a privileged position and try to defend it by two walls of pride, an external one as a man and an internal one as a Jew. As a man you claim, so to speak, a dispensation from causality otherwise accepted, as a Jew the privilege of monotheism. But a limited causality is no longer a causality at all, as our wonderful Spinoza recognized with all incision, probably as the first one. And the animistic interpretations of the religions of nature are in principle not annulled by monopolization. With such walls we can only attain a certain self-deception, but our moral efforts are not furthered by them. On the contrary.

Now that I have quite openly stated our differences in intellectual convictions it is still clear to me that we are quite close to each other in essential things, i.e. in our evaluations of human behavior. What separates us are only intellectual 'props' and 'rationalization' in Freud's language. Therefore I think that we would understand each other quite well if we talked about concrete things. With friendly thanks and best wishes

Yours,

A. Einstein

[Thanks to the Guardian for printing this excerpt of a letter written by Einstein in 1954.]

- T

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Oh, Mrs. Beasley -- what have you become...?

Unbelievable what some kids still have to put up with in the more backwards, under-developed areas of the country....

Take a look at this blog entry and see for yourself what a PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL thinks is proper behavior based on rational judgment. This bitch, one Daphne Beasley, decided it was her place to out two gay students in her high school to not only faculty and other students -- but to the students' parents!!

Anyone who has dealt with the coming-out process knows that it has to be handled on a one-on-one basis. Some people tell their parents at an early age, others wait until they're safely away from home and not in danger of being evicted from their parents' home or even of being physically abused by their parents. And others may choose to never tell their families they are gay.

And yet here is someone supposedly educated -- and not only educated, but educated in childhood development -- who felt it was her place to tell the school, the faculty, the parents.... And why? No, not out of her sense of caring towards these students. Not because the students had caused a "scene" at the school, whatever that might mean. (They hadn't, by the way.) She outed them because she "didn't like gay people and wouldn't tolerate homosexuality at her school". Way to go, Memphis -- you sure can pick ya some damn fine principals there in the land of buck teeth and hayseeds.

And, remember -- this isn't some religious school where the students were told beforehand they couldn't reveal that they are gay, had to wear funny plaid skirts or kneel on a wooden beam before god. No -- this is a PUBLIC school, paid for with PUBLIC tax dollars -- which also pay this bitch's salary.... Again, way to go, Memphis....

Oh, if you'd like to e-mail Daph and let her know what you think of her modern education policies, you can reach her at: beasleyd@mcsk12.net

- T

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Just a few things...

Suspicions Confirmed: “All-natural” Pinkberry frozen yogurt isn’t quite, but the founder of the firm thought he could legally say it that way because the “yogurt” part was all-natural, even if the dozen-or-so additives weren’t....

Tempe, Ariz., motorist David Lopez grabbed his gun to threaten an allegedly lousy driver in a Road Rage Moment, but then, while waving it around, Lopez accidentally shot himself.

[News of the Weird, Thursday, April 24, 2008]

Man, I love this kind of stuff.... We have SO much horrible news in the world -- food prices rising so quickly that it may lead to famine, war (Iraq, the threat of war with Iran, other conflicts going on around the world), that poor messed-up family in Austria and the even worse events south of San Angelo, TX. It is nice to know someone is still tracking the News of the Weird.

Thank you, Chuck Shepherd!

In other news: I've been playin' around this week with using Flickr instead of/along with Picasa for photo upload and sharing.... Many of my friends use Flickr, the interaction with others is really nice, the organization tools are great and easy to use (even after the photos have been uploaded).... And yet, I somehow think things will get complicated posting some photos in one spot, others in another.... Who else has used both products? What kind of suggestions do you have?

- T