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wildcoyote
Showing posts with label cyanide and happiness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cyanide and happiness. Show all posts
Standards
What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do.
- John Ruskin
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A unionized public employee, a Tea Party member and a CEO are sitting at a table. In the middle of the table is a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The CEO reaches over and takes 11 cookies and then says to the tea partier, "Watch out for that union guy, he wants a piece of your cookie."
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Obama Won't Go to Court Over Defense of Marriage Act
via NationalJournal
President Obama now believes that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and will no longer defend the 15-year-old law in federal court, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
Symbolically and substantively, his decision represents a major advance for gay rights and presages a significant shift in how the government will handle questions about equality for gays.
In a statement, Attorney General Eric Holder said, “After careful consideration, including a review of my recommendation, the president has concluded that, given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard of scrutiny.”
Holder said that Obama concluded that Section 3 of DOMA, which defines “spouse” as a member of the opposite sex, “fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional. Given that conclusion, the president has instructed the department not to defend the statute in such cases. I fully concur with the president’s determination.”
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'bout damn time we got over that DOMA crap.
wildcoyote
Nonspecific
Today's many and varied subjects have absolutely no correlating element.
1. This past week has been Doppelganger Week on Facebook. The idea is that you post a profile pic of a celebrity you've been told you resemble. This is the pic I posted:
In the 7th grade, a friend of mine started calling me "Freddie", because, he said, I looked exactly like Freddie Prinze, Jr. One time, at a History Bowl conference, I wrote this on a name tag. Some girls (from this middle-of-nowhere, podunk town Skyline, MO) managed to become completely infatuated with me during said conference, and rode off in their school bus waving maniacally and yelling, "Bye FREDDIE!!!".
I laughed wickedly and waved back.
(I also got one for Kyra Sedwick :/)
We're going to start off with a comic (yay!), before delving into some more serious issues.
via XKCD
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2. More serious things:
via TheKnightWhoSaidNi@American_Asylum
This unfortunate fellow has decided that it is appropriate to impose legal sanctions on those who engage in homosexual behavior.
The post is from a radio show host named Bryan Fisher, called Focal Point, and is found on American Family Radio. The post is found on a website called Rightly Concerned: Cautiously Observing the Left, from the Right.
A few highlights from the letter, written to a viewer that expressed discontent with the allegation:
If you believe that what drug abusers need is to go into an effective detox program, then we should likewise put active homosexuals through an effective reparative therapy program.
[...]
The bottom line here is that, biblically, those "who practice homosexuality" should come under the purview of the law just as much as those who take people captive in order to sell them into slavery.
You express a belief in the Scriptures, and I trust your confidence in Scripture is not selective. If you believe all Scripture is inspired, then you are compelled to accept that legal sanctions may appropriately be applied to those who engage in homosexual behavior.
Thank you for contacting us, and I hope this response will help you think in a thorough and biblical way about this important social issue.
And also, clearly, the United States is not made up entirely of people who "believe in the Scriptures", thank /deity/. I love that he is not only implying that being a homosexual is a criminal action/offense, but also that drug abusers are not worthy of detox programs. Oh, and by the way, homosexuals do not typically take captives and sell people into slavery; although in this man's case, I think we might make an exception.
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3. Well, at least, our President seems to have more sense than this man. A couple of snippets from the NYTimes:
Obama to Seek Sweeping Change in ‘No Child’ Law
The Obama administration is proposing a sweeping overhaul of President Bush’s signature education law, No Child Left Behind, and will call for broad changes in how schools are judged to be succeeding or failing, as well as for the elimination of the law’s 2014 deadline for bringing every American child to academic proficiency.Hooray! It's certainly taken long enough to get that IDIOTIC No Child Left Behind Act fixed. Singer-songwriter Pink expressed it best in her song to
How can you say/
No child is left behind/
We're not dumb, and we're not blind/
They're all sitting in your cells/
While you pave the road to hell
U.S. Arms for Taiwan Send Beijing a Message
For the past year, China has adopted an increasingly muscular position toward the United States, berating American officials for the global economic crisis, stage-managing President Obama’s visit to China in November, refusing to back a tougher climate change agreement in Copenhagen and standing fast against American demands for tough new Security Council sanctions against Iran.Ha! Eat it, Chinese government. Enough of your petty crap. I'm glad Google had the balls to call them on it. Now if only Obama and Hillary can find a way to free Tibet...
Now, the Obama administration has started to push back. In announcing an arms sales package to Taiwan worth $6 billion on Friday, the United States leveled a direct strike at the heart of the most sensitive diplomatic issue between the two countries since America affirmed the “one China” policy in 1972.
The arms package was doubly infuriating to Beijing coming [...] on the same day that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton publicly berated China for not taking a stronger position on holding Iran accountable for its nuclear program.
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4. That about does it for current events, so it's on to some recommendations:
(I am now going to shamelessly plug my friend's blogs, mostly because they shamelessly plug mine)
This is my ex-roomie and bff Sarah's blog, where her frank humor, quick wit, and wickedly funny perspective is frequently on display.
Because being gay and progressive in America can make you feel like you're in a nuthouse.
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5. And last, but not least, is this fun activity! (for up to 4 players, and appropriate for nearly no ages) from explosm.net:
Print it out & play with your friends*!
*friends not included
wildcoyote
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