Indignant Desert Birds
Peaking under the Veil of Ignorance
Lenin would know exactly what it’s all about. I’m shocked that John “if it’s less than 500 years old, it has no value” Weidner would be making a Beatles reference. Also: why would he be making this Beatles reference?
It seems to undercut his point just a bit…
Since John doesn’t seem to understand the difference between Marriage with 2 adults, and:
1) Marriage with 1 adult and 1 infant
2) Marriage with 1 adult and 2 other adults.
3) Marriage with 1 adult human and 1 dog (of undetermined age)
and
4) Marriage with 1 adult human and 1 Robot (with great attractiveness)
Let me spell it out for him: Infants, dogs, and Robots can’t consent to marriage. Nor, indeed, anything else. As for polygamous relationships: most of the time, they’re relationships based on coercion and quite frankly involve children and adults. Show me 3 adults who all wish to marry one another and we’ll have a whole separate conversation..
So in my world, marriage must be based on two things: 1) love 2) the wiliness of people capable of giving consent to give consent. Against this, John Weidner presents a fear of “communism”, fear of “change”, and fear of “ickiness” (the last is inferred).
My principles tell me that lines should be drawn as broadly and as widely as possible, to let all people within the sweet embrace of society. What possible defense does John have for limiting the rights of individuals to participate in society?
Let’s imagine a world in which the Mormon Church, the Catholic Church and 52% of Californians decided that Lawyers were icky, and therefore ought to be stripped of their rights to get married. Existing marriges, with the the cuts of a million pens across ballots would be erased. Families would be ripped apart, thousands would find themselves in legal limbo.
We should hardly be surprised when, after the vote came down, Lawyers were outraged. Boycotts and legal challenges might be the tamest possible response. Indeed, if there were riots, we should understand exactly what caused them. The fact that Michelle Malkin fails to understand the outraged demonstrations in the wake of the Prop 8 vote is a failure of both empathy and imagination.
I don’t read hateful bigot Michelle Malkin, but hateful bigot John Weidner decided to post one of her columns verbatim. What is, morally/legally, the difference between Lawyers and Gays? If we can deny rights for Gays, why can’t we deny rights for Lawyers?
And if, California decided to dissolve John Weidner’s marriage because he and his spouse “chose” the lawyer “lifestyle”, I would think of less of John were he not to demand justice. If John didn’t feel the smallest quiver of rage, he wouldn’t be a respectable human being..
Quite frankly, the fact that we’re seeing mostly peaceful demonstrations, rather than insane riots, is mystifying. We’re going to see some pretty epic legal battles going forward. And the Anti-8 coalition has the full throated support of this blog. And screw anyone who would dissolve a marriage because they found it distasteful.
These kids are suspiciously well informed on Obama’s health care plan.
I’m not sure who made this video, or why they are distributing it, I suspect there’s more than a bit of racism involved. Nonetheless, kids talking about their aspirations while being knowledgeable about health care plans doesn’t seem like a very bad thing. And if it keeps the Klan up at night, paranoid that the Black man is going to insure their children… I’m not all that upset…
This New York Times Discussion on “required” Thanksgiving Day foods got me thinking about how particularly traditional my family is about Thanksgiving.
I don’t remember when we celebrated Christmas on December 25th. Easter is not discussed, birthdays are small affairs and generally thought to be avoided in my family. But Thanksgiving is always the same. We eat the exact same foods at the exact same times and do the very same activities.
Ours is a traditional menu:
1 Large turkey
Cornbread dressing
Cornbread dressing is really important to a lot of southerners. I’ll have you notice on that discussion there are many people saying “I MUST HAVE DRESSING, NOT STUFFING”. Of course, these are the same things, but we differentiate. I’ve only had white bread stuffing twice in my life, and both times it seemed mushy and weird compared to the more robust cornbread dressing. To each her own, I suppose.
Mashed Yams
Boiled, mashed, butter, brown sugar, then cooked in the oven. No, we never add marshmallows. That just seems gross to me.
Rice and Turkey Gravy
This one is important to me. I suppose it is somewhat weird to have rice instead of mashed potatoes, but we have yams too. I am a gigantic fan of white rice so I tend to eat waaay too many of the carby fatty goodness.
Turnip or Mustard Greens (both are in short supply in Minnesota)
Generally cooked with turnips and sometimes bacon, and served with hot sauce. I’ve never liked it, it’s too bitter!
Ocean Spray Cranberry Jelly
I am really hoping to change this tradition. Or perhaps just add real cranberry sauce to the mix..
Rolls
My grandmother makes refrigerated rolls every Thanksgiving. She’s not going to be here this year, so I guess I will make them?
Apple Pie
I had honestly never had pumpkin pie until I was 18..and that time I cooked it myself. My mom doesn’t like it, so we always have apple!
I think every year I try to change things a little bit. I’ve been cooking the traditional green bean casserole, and I really hope to, like I said, make real cranberry sauce with orange zest and maybe walnuts this year.
But this weekend is my housing cooperative’s Thanksgiving, so we are cooking a giant vegetarian meal for 30+ (although I do think we are cooking a turkey and hiding it from the veggies). I am going to make vegan cornbread dressing (which is easy if you can find a vegan cornbread recipe) and perhaps vegan green bean casserole, to add a little bit of tradition into the mix.
Although I will mention that my family is not going to be having Thanksgiving on Thursday.. my mom and I are going to go do meals on wheels, and cook on Friday.
What we say:
We need to create new regulatory environments wherein the market is nudged to invest in critical infrastructure. We may need to raise taxes to create some of this rich infrastructure, but it will give to everyone– rich and the poor alike– a better country. This is in no way Socialism*
What they hear:
We need to raise taxes on the rich to give to the poor. This is Socialism.
This is why conversations between parties are so frustrating; we’re speaking entirely different languages. Democrats want a functional State that takes care of the needs of the people. Republicans want a minimal State that doesn’t have the power to hurt the people.
The irony**, from where I sit is that a weak Federal Government tends not to be able to protect its citizens against depredation. The Conservative, laissez faire, ideology really has allowed for workers to be paid virtually nothing. State protected collective bargaining organizations are the only thing which allows for power between bargainers to be balanced. And so forth.
They see Socialism, we see citizens acting in their best interests for the common good. And so, on it goes…
*While I was in Ohio, many of the Brits were deeply amused by how much “socialism” was a dirty word in this country…
**I’ll give the benefit of the doubt that this irony is unintentional.
more animals
I know I’ve not put up much of substance since I’ve been back; I’ve been busy looking for work. Looking for work is almost as much fun as actually working, but the pay is a lot worse. If you’re interested in hiring me, I’m an HR/Sales sort looking for work in the SF Bay Area or the DC metro area. I got myself a taste of politics and it’s the best drug ever.*
To keep myself from stabbing myself in the eye out of shear boredom, I’ve been playing games. Specifically Civ4 and Fallout3. Fallout 3 was designed, I think, to remind me how bad I am at FPSs. Thank the gods for the VATS system; otherwise I’d never hit a damned thing. So far the quests are much more than the usual sort of “kill kill kill” grind typical of RPGs, and I’m rather enjoying that I can get XP for _failing_ to blow up a city.
Speaking of grinding, I’m off to apply for more work. But if you drop me a line, I could be up for a bit of Left 4 Dead…
*I’m comparing this to the zero other drugs I’ve used.
Just as a reminder: in 2000, the United States elected a president who would go on to torture people, and do so in the name of the American People. In 2008, I worked to elect a man who promises to end that practice, and close down the factory in which we do so.
Barack, you’re on the hook now. You need to begin shutting this place down before 100 days have passed. Do that and I’ll forgive much. Don’t do that and, well… I don’t like your chances for reelection..
Matthew Yglesias comes to the utterly unremarkable finding that the House Republican Leadership is deeply polarized. Except that he misinterprets the data. A lot.
DW nominate is a simply score of voting behavior. It’s based on an economic theory called “Spatial voting theory”.* Every time 2 congress members vote together, they move in the same direction. Every time they vote separately, they move apart. It adds a nice visual flavor to dry statistics, and there are a ton of books on the subject. DW nominate can tell you is how often a members of a party act in concert with one another. What it can’t tell you is how “right wing” or “left wing” a person– or party– is.
For example: Assume every Republican votes A) against an individual mandate for healthcare, and B) for Universal Healthcare, and Every Democrat votes A) For the individual mandate, and B) for universal Healthcare. We’d see every member of congress take 1 step away from every member of the opposite party**. This would be an extremely polarized congress, but not one that fits into anyone’s definition of the Right/Left divide.
What we expect to see in caucus leaders is that they tend to vote the same way they’re instructing their caucus to vote. The fact that there are people in the GOP caucus who voted with the caucus more than the leadership is interesting– and may explain why the house GOP had so many troubles over the last two years. But this data does not say that the GOP is moving rightward. We’ll have to look elsewhere for that…
* AKA: POL 100 at UC Davis.
**And incidentally end up with Universal Healthcare with an Individual mandate. Hooray!