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slackerstalker's Policy Matters Post describes a Yes on 8 television advertisement in which a child comes home to tell her mother that "I can marry a princess!".

In my head this was the most adorable thing ever: a five year old in a tutu and wings skipping around a table going on about ponies and princesses, and naming all the puppies and kittens they were going to have.

Of course I had to look up the commercial and was sorely disappointed: no laughing, no magic wands, and no colorful galoshes (Galoshes with tutus and wings is totally de rigueur, by the way). This commercial I found tells me that, without same sex marriage, children will be condemned to dark, drab kitchens with mothers who only come to their level to communicate when they want to impose restrictive religious guidelines.

Screw that! Californians, vote no on 8! Preserve innocence, let children believe (for a little bit longer) that marriage is about princesses (and/or princes) living happily ever after with someone they love.

( YouTubage behind cut )

I need a "But I wanna marry a princess!" icon. Thanks cardboard_dream!

Even if the infant is actually her grandchild, it is her and her daughter's decision, and as long as the child is wanted, loved, and cared for, it is none of our business.

Pro-choice is about giving the parents the right to choose, no matter what that choice may be.

My mom is getting a bit whacky (okay, for those of you who know her: whackier. No, really, it is possible)... so I have to send this mail every other month or so. The "Reply All" technique worked for the religious forwards (Yes, I flamed the Deacon's committee , the minister's wife, and several Elders) but has been only slightly effective with the animated old lady boobs or "URGENT! VIRUS WILL DESTROY YOUR COMPUTER" warnings.

Dear Mom,

Some more rules on what not to forward:

Even if it says "I checked it on snopes and it is real!" in the first sentence, it probably still isn't real or relevant. For example, the last virus in this warning was from *4* years ago, the one before that even included a link to the Snope's page which said it was a hoax.

Also, please avoid forwarding anything in a font so large that you can't read more than one sentence without scrolling.

The same applies to any message that uses excessive color highligting, especially when the base color is not black.

If any of the message is in Comic Sans... do NOT send it to anyone with a brain. Just sayin'.

Anything with jokes about geriatric issues should not be forwarded to those of us who are not members of the AARP.

If it is a virus warning, consider who the email comes from and who you are forwarding it to. Is the source someone who you would ask to help fix your computer? What about the person who you are sending it to? If the first answer is no or the second is yes, you might want to reconsider forwarding that message. (Read: DON'T DO IT!)

Is it asking me to sign a petition and forward it rather than providing a link to a web-page? (not that I want any political emails from you, but these are especially useless.)

I am trying to be good about reading and answering your mail more often... so please don't send so many pointless forwards.

ILY.

-me

I spend far to much time being dumbstruck by government asshattery...

What part of Environmental Protection Agency is unclear?

Hello! Even our Republican, Hummer owning governor is crying foul.

California sues the EPA for blocking state legislation aimed at environmental protection.

Rep. Pete Stark wins the "totally asinine behavior, but damn I agree with you" award. Extra brownie points for not apologizing.

(Earlier this month Bush vetoed the bill as fiscally irresponsible at the same time he requested $189 billion for funding next year's continued war in Iraq and Afghanistan. WTF?)

So the Jena Six thing has finally left email circles and LJ post links and hit major news outlets (like the Chron and CNN, and I find it kind of frustrating.

Small town bigotry and dubious reporting (I was unable to find credible sources for many of the 'facts' stated in the original forwards and blogs, where a credible source is any published newspaper) are now being used as an excuse for political posturing. And because this is being used as a flaming sword by the far left, any chance and genuine justice is lost. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson show up with a circus, alienate the townfolk rather than promoting dialogue, and fling mud at Obama.

Here are the only two consistently stated events:

A threatening hate-crime by some white students was insufficiently punished at a less than socially integrated small-town school.

A later event involving a related group of students ends up with the black students being charged with a much greater crime than actually committed.

Yes, both situations are unjust and reek of racism. Yes, this needs to be addressed, but now any judge has to consider politics rather than just the merits of the case.

And for Jackson/Sharpton to rant about justice while many black people die in Oakland each month, killed by other black people, just because they are poor and angry. That isn't unjust enough for them? Were are the 10 thousand protesters here?

Mr. Sharpton, Mr. Jackson, by only standing up for the events that are easy to play politics with, you make it difficult for me to believe you actually give a crap about standing up for black folk. It becomes obvious that masturbating your public image is about the only thing that motivates you.

Oakland is at it's highest homicide rate in ages, and almost all of the deaths being of young black men from poor families. 146 so far this year. I suspect this is not incredibly important to most of the US. Headlines about well off people people dying by inadvisable travels, in weather they are unprepared for, generates far more concern and sympathy than some black kid getting capped in gritty Oakland.

And in related news: Fuck you and your useless war on terror, GOP.

Nationally, violent crime increased 3.7 percent, with robberies up 9.7 percent. The bump in violent crime was biggest in cities with populations of 500,000 to 1 million residents, at 8.4 percent. And it followed a 2.3 percent increase nationally from 2004 to 2005.
...
Hyde said the government had a hand in the problem by cutting financial support for community policing in favor of anti-terrorism grants.

heron61 wrote "Fear of terrorism is both used as a powerful motivator by politicians and is also clearly something many people feel....In any case, other than a mixture of racism and being dupes of the right-wing media, I honestly have no idea why so many people are so very afraid of terrorists or Muslims"

As my reply got a bit long, it seemed I should post it here instead.

( Behind a cut for the sake of the disinterested )

My understanding is not condoning, just trying to get a grasp on how individuals could be justifying what I so clearly see as atrocious behavior.

I wasn't going to add to the over hyped drama of the day, but I have had one too many pious "moment of silence" emails, PA announcements, and newspaper articles inflicted upon me.

The people who died on 9/11 deserve an honorable remembrance. As such, moments of silence without expressions of profound rage are incredibly hypocritical.

How has our nation honored the deaths of 9/11? By using them as an excuse to for a list of atrocities.

In the name of the 9/11 deaths our nation has taken away our civil liberties, harassed innocent citizens and visitors because they are of Arabic decent or Islamic faith (or are mistaken as such), and invaded a country that had no affiliation with the perpetrators of 9/11.

Our government has lied to us, spied on us, and led us in circles with blame games for their failures. Over a thousand of our honorable troops have died in our immoral and unjustified invasion of Iraq, as well as countless innocent Iraqis (countless because we don't care enough to try and keep tabs). We have bungled the Iraq "rescue" invasion so thoroughly, destroying the Iraqi infrastructure so completely, that for us to pull out now would make us even greater monsters.

We haven't found the mastermind behind the attacks, and have given the Al Qaeda plenty of material to sway new recruits.

With all of these abominable acts upon our heads, how dare we say we are honoring and respecting our 9/11 dead today?

My sympathies to the loved ones of our lost, I am sorry we have so misused their memories.

I should preface this by saying that I had an a great time at MEAT vs. Death Guild. I really need to go out more often; I miss dancing. I realized last night that "I don't have the time" is really bad reasoning on my part. The emotional benefits far outweigh the returns on much of the stuff I am doing instead.

( a short little ramble )

Preface over, time for the rant:

People who dance at clubs while holding their drinks just suck.

People who do so at an industrial club? What the fuck? This is not passive, just bend the knees music! This is stomping, arms swinging, lose yourself in the noise music!

There are like 12 of us flaily-stompy folk somehow working the brownian probabilities and not hitting each other or anyone else who is actually dancing. Then two drink-holding nutwads, who essentially are just doing the dj-nod, place themselves in middle of the floor! All the collective, subconscious, stochastic modeling that has gone into moving fluidly on the crowded floor suddenly fails.

And this must have been a pretty robust process, as it seemed to accept all sorts of other factors:
The woman in full upper torso brace, who danced as if she really wasn't used to her platform heels? Fine.
Several beautiful creatures in corsets and/or hobble skirts? Fine.
Go-go dancers in the process of climbing on or off boxes? Fine.

Bah! Gnosis-interruptus.