Indignant Desert Birds

Thought-Provoking Picture of the Day: Earth and its moon, as photographed by the MESSENGER spacecraft from 114 million miles away.

This week Glen Beck held a rally in Washington DC. His stated intent was to “reclaim the Civil Right’s movement” from black people. Also: China believes that Japan doesn’t pay Japanese workers enough. China: Most capitalist nation on Earth? There were also a bunch of State Primaries this week.

In more personal news: sorry posting has been nonexistent this week. I’ve been getting up to speed at my new job. I can’t say a whole lot about it, but I will say that there is a major, statewide campaign for which I am responsible for every dollar that is donated. By State law, anonymous donations can be made up to $99.99. I mustn’t tell you the names of people who have written checks for $99– but you’d recognize some of these names. And I’m highly amused.

The Chairman tells us that “Apparently Hot Chicks Like Ray Bradbury”. This video is NSFW for language, and a bit risqué on the imagery.

What I’m reading: Dzur. It’s quite good.

From Fantasy to speculative fiction: A guide from 2025: How to Access the Internet

More future history? You got it. I love games as a story-telling medium. Bioware does a lot of great work. Shamus Young is here to tell us about it.

An historically themed game should teach you something about the history it wraps itself in. A great review should recognize how well that game does its job. Rob Zacny has written a great review. Even if you don’t care for video games, this review will teach you something about history.

Speaking of history: Did you know that our grandparents made a deal with us to make sure we got rich? And our parents broke that deal? If you need another reason to hate the boomers here’s one.

That’s the macro view. Here’s a micro view of how bad the California System has gotten. Yes, we do need a systematic overhaul. I can’t wait to fight that campaign… whenever we get around to it.

Speaking of mistakes made 30 years ago. This almost seems like a case of good intentions, lousy results.

We can’t fix these problems as individuals though: “Symbolic, but not meaningless. But not adequate, either. Whatever it was I was trying to do didn’t work mainly because, unlike the righteous Danes of that legend, I was trying to do it alone.” Can’t go a week without mentioning Slactivist.

Nor, it seems, can we go a week without mentioning Gayle Force! Who tells us why it was so incredibly important for her to write a law school paper about sex toys.

Let’s make a linguistic deal: Going forward, “Man” can be generic for “human”, as long as we come up with a two-syllable word meaning “male of the human species”. No? Then I’ll agree with Motivated Grammar on this one.

“Casual Friday” at my office seems to mean “carry a tie, but don’t wear it unless a US Senator walks in”. How, then, should I dress the other 6 days of the work week?

I disagree with a lot of this article. But the writing is beautiful Also: it’s about pocket squares.

Apropos of nothing above: Jess Barrow is a woman I served with in Ohio. She’s spending her days in Bangladesh, and is reflecting on Ramadan a great read!

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This week’s theme seems to be labor. So!

Welcome to Sunday! Today is either the first day of the week, or the last, depending on what type of calendar. The Romans (who gave us the term “Kalendae”), had 10 days in their weeks. I hope that useless information will help you win pub trivia/

In the past week, “Doctor” Laura taught us that we have a First Amendment right to corporate sponsorship, the religious tolerance controversy raged o, and the Australians held an election. Parliament is now hung– fortunately not hanged. The pun is dirty, not sad.

In other news: I got a job. It’s a short, 71 day consulting gig. Yay for paid employment!

Gayle is going to start us off with a bracing riff on bad writing and privileged, lazy, thinking. If you haven’t added her to your RSS feed, you really, really should.

Courtney Stoker tears it up with a great article on cosplay. I’m in the cosplay community; even so, I found this article a good read. Indeed: I wish she’d had an extra 5000 or so for this piece.

Ashelia at Hellmode tells us how competitive she is. Lady gets fierce, past the point where it’s fun for her. I’ve never been like that: my own neurosis lay in the other direction…

In a triumph of special interest politics over market forces and common sense, San Francisco will still not be charging for Sunday Parking. As a tax payer who doesn’t own a car, this is a transfer of wealth from me to car owners. Fuckers.

I’m a pedestrian, not a bicyclist, if you were wondering. I mention this, because San Franciscans who don’t own cars tend to own bikes. In fact, we love them. I tend to think that bicyclists are more dangerous than motorists, though obviously motorists are more catastrophically bad than cyclists.

White flight happens inner city, as well as intra-city. My own family started out in North Beach before moving to the Excelsior. Coincidentally, this was when China Town was “encroaching” on the “Italian” neighborhood. Anyway, the Italians in North Beach are still trying to keep the Chinese out. Also: the Excelsior is now Chinese and Filipino.

Speaking of Italians, and Europeans in general: tipping is American, not European.

Want to see how labor is exploited? Straight from the power-holder’s mouth, into the ears of the powerless. Don’t be that artist.

It seems it’s ok to pay women less than men. I find it hilarious that the Chamber of Commerce can wield the phrase “fetish for money” as if it were an accusation.

Shirley Sherrod and the NAACP reconciled. In the process, she compares the Tea Party to the KKK. It’s kind of vicious, but the comparison seems fair.

Here’s how to do integration correctly. A big, awesome, country– like America– should be able to bend a bit to help people fully participate in our civic traditions.

Without doing some moral equivalence, Winston Churchill did things that were at least as bad as Stalin. It’s an ugly story.

How to become an American Citizen, in one flowchart.

Bowser Testing, and Live Tweeting

A real, working, mini cannon!

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Over the last couple of years, I’ve been working out. A lot. Losing weight*, putting on muscle, becoming more fit. This may not be for everyone, but I’m finally getting my self image in line with my external image. Along the way, I’ve learned how to dress myself.

It turns out this is extremely fun. It may not be what everyone considers fun, and that’s fine. I’m a geek, though, and there are a whole new set of constantly evolving rules to learn and play with. It’s sort of like World of Warcraft– but I’m leveling myself. Also, this season’s shoulders are less ridiculous than WoW’s.

I went to a local coffee shop this morning to get myself some coffee and a breakfast bagel. Yes, I can totally make those at home. Sometimes, though, it’s nice just to have someone else make it for you. This place had one of those TVs that plays some ads and has a few snippets of news. Headline from the New York Times: “Is your Boyfriend a metrosexual?” They were selling a courier bag.

When I saw that ad, it rankled. I was so pissed off that in a white hot fury of rage, I.. tweeted about it. Which I admit is silly. That word, though, yeah that word annoys me. By creating a special category for “men who dress well”, it automatically makes us “other”. I admit that this is a minor “otherizing”, as such things go.

What this word does is take away our masculinity. We’re not “men”, we lack even the dignity of being gay men. We’re “Metrosexual”. Sex is right there in the name– not in a good way. It’s a suspect category. We’ll do girly things like clip our nails and possibly shave places that aren’t our faces.

Speaking of the gays, I really enjoy how the term manages to do double duty as an anti-gay pejorative. It punishes straight men for acting too much like gay men. Even my friends who would consider themselves queer-allies have a hard time breaking out of the mental box that categorizes gays as “other”. The message is that it’s OK to dress well if you’re gay– that’s what gays do. Straight men? No. Straights and gays must act differently and when a straight man dresses well, it threatens the dichotomy.

I have other thoughts on the topic, but I gotta run. I hear there’s a sale at Van Heusen. I’d love to know what you think, so leave a comment.

* 90lbs, if you’re wondering.

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In American jurisprudence, in order to sue someone, you have to prove that you have actually been harmed. There are some exceptions to this, but that’s the general principle. It’s called “standing”.* In the cases surrounding California’s Proposition 8, for complicated reasons**, the group that defended the Amendment may not have standing to appeal the decision.

So, to appeal this case, someone would need to be found who has been harmed by gay marriage***. Given the nature of the decision– that gay marriage doesn’t harm anyone– this seems like an insurmountable barrier. I think, though, that there are people who stand to be harmed by gay marriage. A group of marriages which are directly threatened by State sanctioning of the right of homosexuals to be happy.

I am speaking, of course, of the “over 2 million couples secretly struggling with homosexuality in their marriages.” That’s 2 million marriages where at least one partner is trapped into performing a lie every day in order to win social approbation. If it becomes policy of the government that there is nothing wrong with homosexuals- that gays and straights are equal in the eyes of the law- there are roughly 2 million marriages that might disappear overnight.

Of those 2 million people, I’m sure there’s at least 1 person who was significantly happier and richer being married than being divorced. There’s at least 1 person who can show real harm from their partner no longer have to live a lie. There is, in other words, at least 1 single individual of those 2 million former couples who should have standing to sue.

That person should be found and made into an icon for the entire anti-gay movement. Nothing, I think, would draw the issue more distinctly than placing a person who would rather live a false marriage against the rights of those who would rather marry someone they truly love.

*Legal friends: is “standing” capitalized here?
** If it were not complicated, I wouldn’t have said “might”
*** Gotta love the passive voice here, am I right?

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So, this week basically all of Russia caught fire. NASA is claiming they can see 368 separate forest fires. Russia is basically a petro-state, Alaska writ large. I’m wondering what this will do to production and refinement– and prices. The FDA approved a new version of Plan B, this one can be taken up to 5 days after sex– greatly reducing the chances of unwanted pregnancy. If you’re fond of consequence free fucking, say “w00t!” Also this week:

What would Sunday Morning be without righteous fury brought down on a sinner? Fred Clark asks if the Family Research Council sincere in their bigotry. Check out this thimble full of the 200 proof straight goods:

Many of the conservative Baptists among whom I grew up believe that dancing is a sin. I have never heard any of them suggest that weddings are invalid if there is dancing at the reception. Nor did any of them argue that professional dancers ought to be relegated to second-class citizenship — forbidden to marry, to adopt children, to serve openly in the military. They didn’t argue such things because it wouldn’t have made sense. The leap from “dancing is a sin” to “dancers are subhuman and should not have rights” is illogical and it’s bad theology by their own standards.

There’s a reason Gayle Force earns a spot here every week. This article is about being queer and “passing”– and thoughts about last week’s prop 8 decision.

Speaking of the prop 8 decision, long time readers may remember Wanton Frolic (she’s started her own blog. Go check it out!). She’s announced her engagement. We’re very happy for her.

I’m going to use “marriage and family” as a tenuous segue into this article Kevin Drum. He’s writing about why liberals should support “Birthright citizenship”. My own feeling is that any claim America has to being an “exceptional” nation is tied up in the idea that everyone who comes here can become part of the American song. Birthright citizenship is an important part of that.

Want to know what happens when you don’t allow for birthright citizenship? The Guardian talks about the Roma. It’s the opposite of good.

Race, racism and true awfulness– the Confederate South. Andy Hall shows us exactly how many people in the Confederate army lived with slaves. Turns out: most of ‘em. Fuckers.

Matt Yglesias tells us how many Americans died in terrorist acts last year. Hint: it’s smaller than you think.

Let’s go for happier news? Data collection/Dating site OK Cupid tells us how to be in a good picture. Also: iPhone users have more partners! Question not answered: do iPhone users have an easier time finding partners, or a harder time finding someone who will stick around?

Once you find a partner, Geekology gives us some factoids about sex toys. According to research, I’ve got that in the correct order.

I’ve been playing a lot of StarCraft recently (As of today, Raptr has me at 33hrs). I’ve also been watching quite a bit of professional StarCraft play on youtube. NPR has a story about StarCraft announcers .

Here’s an example of a great game. It’s a 15 minute match, and it might be something you love. I highly recommend clicking through and watching it on full screen:

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A while back, I wrote about musicals. The short version is that musicals are basically the only time a movie is able to really express interiority. The audience is not supposed to understand that people are actually breaking into choreographed song and dance routines*. Rather, music is supposed to denote that we have crawled into the mind of the protagonist, and seen an expression of their innermost feelings. Seriously, though. Go read that link.

Scott Pilgrim Vs the World is a musical. Not just because it has an awesome soundtrack. Instead, it is best understood as a movie exploring Scott Pilgrim’s budding relationship with Ramona Flowers. Awesome, and awesomely entertaining**, as the fight sequences are, we shouldn’t understand them as things which really happened within the real world as presented in the movie.

**HERE THERE BE SPOILERS**

We know this because no one else in the world behaves as if they have super powers, or as if Scott Pilgrim has super powers. Scott Pilgrim can fly. Do we ever see him flying around Toronto? No. Scott’s band can summon a spirit-gorilla to fight for them. We never see that come up during rehearsal. And in a world where every Vegan has super psychic powers, it defies belief that anyone is serving lattes with real milk.

Instead, we have a movie about a pair of broken people in the beginning stages of a relationship, trying to sort out their lives. For three or four weeks* they rehash each of their past relationships and try to find some closure.

In fact, I’ll go a step further. Scott Pilgrim is very good at being insecure. If the movie is from the POV of Scott’s mental landscape, then we can understand Ramona’s character arc as not her growth, but the process of Scott getting to know her. At the beginning of the movie, we audience members are asking ourselves “what the fuck does she see in him”. We’re meant to ask this question, because it’s what Scott is asking himself. It therefore seems plausible that Ramona is way more into Scott than is shown in the beginning.

Scott “wins” by discovering the power of self-respect. As he is introduced to each “evil” EX, he has a moment of insecurity. He doesn’t feel like he can measure up to her past. Ramona tries to assure him that she’s with him now, and the past is the past. Each time Scott does battle with one of her EXs, he undertakes very nearly the same mental journey Ramona herself must have taken around that person. First Scott is in awe of them, then he gets ground down, and finally he’s determined to overcome them. It’s telling that Scott only once defeats someone in combat. For the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth EXs, he basically realizes whatever it was that made Ramona leave that EX, and that gives Scott power over the EX.

As a representative example, when Scott learns about Mae (and I do love Mae’s poetry!), he simply refuses to engage with the idea. His new girlfriend had “phase” where she dated a girl! How can a man compare with that!? Ramona has to help him out with that one, basically showing him that he can bring Ramona as much pleasure as Mae could. Also, get over your lesbian fetish.

This approach works for the duo (Scott is the POV character, but Ramona is an equal partner of this journey) right up until the confrontation with Gabriel. The movie gets incredibly on-the-nose at that point; the only thing that can defeat Gabriel is Scott Pilgrim’s own self respect. Scott Pilgrim has been on the wrong journey all along. He can’t be worthy of Ramona, he can only be worthy of himself, and sort of hope that he and Ramona still have something in common once he’s healthier.

Doing all this self discovery while facing homelessness is a scary prospect. Good thing Scott got around to it in time to find a woman with a nice apartment…

*Since writing the previous post I’ve seen the Sound of Music. Near as I can tell, that’s the one exception to this rule.

** I should figure out a way to use the word “awesome” in that sentence at least once more.

*** Ramona changes hair color every 1.5 weeks. She goes from Pink to Blue to Green.

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I see that the world has spun ’round, and it is once more the month of Ramadan on the Arabian calendar. For the world’s aproximatly 1.5 billion Muslims, this is the holiest 30 day period of the year. Followers of that faith are supposed to set aside the daylight hours. Or, more precisely, they are supposed to go about their normal day to day lives– while not eating food, drinking water, smoking, having sex, or indulging in the joys flesh can bring.

There are a number of reasons Muslims are supposed to do this, each worth considering in it’s own right. There’s only one that I will focus on today. I was taught– and Wikipedia confirms– that when those who have much go without, it can bring them into sympathy with those who don’t have. In plainer language: If you’re “rich” enough to eat every day, starving yourself can help you understand the plight of those who don’t have the choice about starving. The month of Ramadan is used as a call to charity.

Charity is one of the 5 pillars of Islam. It sits there at the pulsing heart of the religion, like a text message from your mother. Of course, Islam is not the only religion that has a thing or two to say about charity. I believe Christians, too, are enjoined to do right by their fellow humans. As I understand it, there are a couple of Christians in the world.

The graph at that link shows that more than 1 in 2 people in this world is either Muslim or Christian. Given the 1000 years or so of disagreement those religions have had, I propose the following competition. For every meal that a follower of Islam skips, they should feed that meal to someone who doesn’t have the option. And for every meal that a follower of Islam skips, a Christian should also try and feed someone who otherwise would be hungry. Whichever religion feeds more people gets bragging rights. Until next Ramadan. When we’ll do the whole thing over again.

What’s that? You’re _not_ a follower of Islam? Have doubts about the existence of Jesus? Don’t believe in a particular or any god? If you can read this blog post, there is probably nothing keeping you from giving a powerbar to a homeless person. Let us be in solidarity with our faithful fellow humans while trying to beat them at the charity game.

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Hello world! This has been a busy week: a very conservative judge making a very conservative ruling that American-style democracy doesn’t allow We the People to take away fundamental rights on the basis of “ickiness” Also, the first lady is on vacation in Spain. Time to grab the Sunday Morning beverage of your choice and reminisce about when our cave dwelling ancestors would read news stories on dead trees:

Andrew Sullivan Shows us why people in Mexico are willing to risk death for slave wages in the US. Remember: in Guatemala they sneak into Mexico.

Best headline of last week.

Gayle Force has looked a shark in the eye. That’s not a metaphor, that’s bad ass.

Rob Zacny screams hot rage at the National Security state, demonstrating how it makes Americans less secure.

Speaking of the national Security State. I’m not going to question the patriotism of anyone who doesn’t read this. (Seriously!) But I will say that it would be a much better nation if everyone did. And if anyone wants to take to the streets, FoIA papers in hand, raging against the dying of the light… I’ll be there.

Ayelet Waldman is (rightly, I think) upset that Target gave money to a politician who is an anti-gay bigot. I’m going to extend Target the benefit of the doubt and assume they were merely trying to bribe said politician into favoring Target’s business propositions. This begs the question: why is it legal to bribe politicians?

What the Fuck is my Social Media Strategy?

“What do the experts on your staff tell you that the top marginal tax rate should be in order to maximize tax revenues, leaving everything else about the tax code the same?” Every fucking politician who says “tax cuts pay for themselves” should be asked this question. A belief that moving from 34% top marginal tax rate to 32% top marginal tax rate means moving on the upward slope of the Laffer curve is– forgive me– laughable. It’s the economic equivalent to young Earth Creationism.

Good news! It’s Ok to jailbreak your iPhone.

Courtney and Adrienne bring the feminist nerd rage to a grammar debate.

Leigh Alexander stops apologizing and starts noticing the pattern. I’m glad to see her guns turned on the side of right. With luck, she can help the industry figure out how to make games that are sexy, but not sexist…

Bill Abner is upset with game reviewers who don’t do a very good job.

Kate Baker talks about how games can get into your skull.

I _may_ have watched some 1776 last weekend:

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I’ve read volume after book after pamphlet after novel after religious text after bathroom wall. No one has any really good, concrete notion about why we humans get married. But we do.

We humans have been making lifelong commitments to one another, to a community, to a household, to.. the institution of marriage. It’s almost definitional of what it means to be human. The Defense’s* case fell apart when they tried to pin down the elusive quality of what drives us to marry. Greater minds than theirs have tried and failed.

*Remember that the defense was the anti-marriage side

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By now, you’ve heard the news. U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker handed down a furious decision which deftly destroyed every hackneyed argument used against gay marriage.

In 136 pages, Judge Walker neatly described the process by which marriage has changed– not by changing the nature of marriage, but by changing society and fitting marriage into a new context. As a confirmation of my own biases, it’s a wonderful read. It not only affirms the fundamental equality of gays and straights, but also of men and women. Every distinction between humans that Judge Walker was asked to consider, Judge Walker decided were immaterial. Or, put another way, there is no longer an distinctions between humans which the law is bound to respect.*

This is fantastic news, obviously.

Not so fantastic is that this ruling overturned the express will of California voters. I don’t mean that the judge shouldn’t have done that– one of his jobs, after all, is to ensure that majorities don’t trample the rights of minorities. I’m taking a step back, a broader view, and We the People are failing at our job.

Presidents have been arguing for, and receiving, the power to wiretap Americans without anyone else signing off, murder Americans without anyone else saying it’s ok, and interfere in legislative budget-making processes. Any of these should be an impeachable offense. Instead we’ve decided to trust the president– whoever we might elect– to use that power wisely. Since when do Americans trust presidents?

Meanwhile, We the People have been busy. We’ve re-segregated schools, told the gays they can’t marry, and have begun the process to revoke birthright citizenship.

I’m glad that there are still judges in this country capable of cleaning up after the messes that We the People should never have created. I’ll be much happier when we start making good laws and judges are bored.

* See here if you don’t get that reference.

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