Starland Vocal Band - Afternoon Delight
I remember liking this song on the radio when it was first released. I had no idea what it was about at that time. It reappeared in my life in both Sports Night and Anchorman: The Ledgend of Ron Burgundy.
28 June 2013
Friday, June 28, 2013
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
DOMA DEAD, California Alive
With two rulings today, the Supreme Court has overturned DOMA and effectively made California the latest state where the affirmation of equal marriage rights is the law of the land. The ruling against DOMA was sweeping, made on both equal protection and Fifth Amendment grounds. The court dismissed the Prop 8 case in California on procedural grounds, which had a positive affect on California, but didn't resolve the question of gay marriage nation-wide. It would have been nice for the issue to be settled sea-to-sea once and for all, but this is still a good day for liberty and love. The winds are moving in the right direction. We'll get there.
And I must say that Scalia isn't even trying any more. His arguments in these gay rights cases were at odds with his arguments from only a day ago in the Shelby County case. He is an angry, sad man with way, way too much power.
26 June 2013
Addition: Okay, DOMA isn't dead. Only Section 3 of DOMA is dead. From Brian Beutler at TPM:
The nature of the court’s DOMA decision, combined with its decision to punt the California Prop 8 case about whether there’s a constitutional right to gay marriage, will ultimately create a sort of three-tiered status for same-sex partners.
The first tier is same sex married couples who live in states that allow same sex marriage. They gained the most from today’s decision. The third tier is same sex couples who live in states that do not recognize same sex marriage. They gained very little direct benefit from the court striking down DOMA. The middle tier is where things get complicated: same sex couples who marry in one state but then choose to move (or more likely are forced to, for work, family, or other reasons) to a state that doesn’t allow same sex marriage.
“Currently, eligibility for some federal benefits turns on whether a marriage was valid where it took place, while eligibility for other federal benefits depends on whether the person’s marriage is respected where the person lives,” Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, wrote in an email to TPM Wednesday. “People who are legally married to same-sex partners in states that permit same-sex couples to marry will be eligible for all federal benefits based on marriage. But people who are legally married to same-sex partners in states that do not respect such marriages will be eligible for some federal benefits, but likely not all. Pending further guidance by the relevant federal agencies, the answer to this question for couples who live in states that do not respect their marriage is uncertain.”
As Adam Winkler, a constitutional scholar at UCLA, explained in a phone interview after the decision was handed down, “for all the talk that DOMA is dead, the Court did not strike down any provision of DOMA other than Section 3. Section 2 remains good law. Section 2 is the section that says states don’t have to recognize marriages from other states. Long-standing constitutional doctrine has allowed states to decline to recognize marriages from other states.”
Thus, same-sex partners now find themselves in a legal position that’s similar to the position interracial couples found themselves in decades ago — allowed to wed in some states, but into marriages that won’t be recognized by others.28 June 2013 Addition: The New Yorker has unveiled its latest cover. Pure win!
Jim Crow, Plessy v. Ferguson, Shelby County v. Holder
Racism is alive and well in the United States. Yesterday, it was effectively sanctioned by the United States Supreme Court. By a 5-4 vote, the court gutted the seminal piece of voting rights legislation in our nation's history. It did so knowing that states would actively work to deprive citizens of their voting rights. It didn't matter.
Congress could fix this problem. If it wasn't so sad, I'd burst out laughing from writing that sentence. "Could" is the key, which is akin to writing "will not."
When looking for the definition of an activist court ruling, look no further than this ruling. Congress -- including a majority of Republicans -- overwhelmingly voted to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act in 2006. This is not a law passed 50 years ago and left to grow stale. This was a law that was believed necessary seven years ago and still current on the books. The court ignored its own precedent to reach the outcome it wanted. Our country regressed decades with a few words on the page.
If you wonder at my feelings, you have only to see what happened within mere hours of the ruling. Racism is alive and well folks and it doesn't even need to hide any longer.
Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, Attorney General, et al has joined Plessy v. Ferguson and a host of Jim Crow laws as a stain on the soul of our nation. We must all work to remove this cancer within our land. Certainly, we cannot trust this court or our Congress to do it for us.
26 June 2013
15 July 2013 Addition: An interesting piece at TPM today regarding Texas' recent history of racial discrimination and how it could legally hamper the state's efforts to change its voting laws even after the recent ruling in the Supreme Court. Let's hope so.
Congress could fix this problem. If it wasn't so sad, I'd burst out laughing from writing that sentence. "Could" is the key, which is akin to writing "will not."
When looking for the definition of an activist court ruling, look no further than this ruling. Congress -- including a majority of Republicans -- overwhelmingly voted to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act in 2006. This is not a law passed 50 years ago and left to grow stale. This was a law that was believed necessary seven years ago and still current on the books. The court ignored its own precedent to reach the outcome it wanted. Our country regressed decades with a few words on the page.
If you wonder at my feelings, you have only to see what happened within mere hours of the ruling. Racism is alive and well folks and it doesn't even need to hide any longer.
Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, Attorney General, et al has joined Plessy v. Ferguson and a host of Jim Crow laws as a stain on the soul of our nation. We must all work to remove this cancer within our land. Certainly, we cannot trust this court or our Congress to do it for us.
26 June 2013
15 July 2013 Addition: An interesting piece at TPM today regarding Texas' recent history of racial discrimination and how it could legally hamper the state's efforts to change its voting laws even after the recent ruling in the Supreme Court. Let's hope so.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Geek Truly Has Gone Chic
You know when a network devotes time to something so seemingly obscure that it may not be so obscure after all. Maybe geek has become chic.
Leeroy Jenkins!
19 June 2013
Leeroy Jenkins!
19 June 2013
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Redefining Success and Celebrating the Ordinary
Alina Tegund has written two columns in the NY Times about redefining what our society views as success. I found her latest column on this topic first; it lead me to the fist that she wrote last year. From the later column:
EVERY day, news releases and books cross my desk that promise success in all sorts of areas — getting a job, getting a better job, managing your employees, managing your boss, managing your relationships.Some are interesting, some are ridiculous and many are repetitive takes on the same theme. But recently, I came across two items that, separately, talked about an issue I’ve tackled before in one of my columns — questioning what we actually mean by success.That column, which appeared almost a year ago to the day, discussed how we shouldn’t always aim for the extraordinary, but celebrate the ordinary. It was one of my most popular articles ever.So I was intrigued when I was told that a conference was being held on the very issue of redefining success. And, separately, that American Express had recently released a study showing that Americans were thinking of success in different ways than in the past.“The Third Metric: Redefining Success Beyond Money & Power” was the conference presented last week by Mika Brzezinski, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” and Arianna Huffington, editor in chief of the Huffington Post, at Ms. Huffington’s new apartment in TriBeCa (some 200 people squeezed into her living room).
What is important from this column is that those who believe in it don't just want to change the definition for those who are already successful by current definition. In other words, they don't want only those who are already rich to be other only ones to enjoy the change. It needs to be a movement that sweeps the landscape, open to all. Again, from the later column:
It all sounds wonderful, of course, but how does this fit into our society? Many people are working harder for less money, are concerned less about spiritual wholeness than basic health care, and find it hard to carve out time for a short coffee break, let alone a nap.“This is well-intentioned and important,” Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, said to me after she spoke at the conference, while acknowledging that “it’s luxurious to have the ability to rethink time in your life.”It is easy to dismiss these ideas as the privileges available only to those who no longer have to worry about money or power. But perhaps a better reaction would be to find a way to incorporate them into public policy and to ensure that such ideas find their way from the bosses to the workers.“The whole issue of overwork cuts across class,” said Ellen Galinsky, president of the nonprofit Families and Work Institute. “We consistently find that one out of three employees feel overwhelmed by everything they have to do at work.”The institute’s latest National Study of the Changing Workforce conducted in 2008 — phone interviews of more than 3,000 Americans — found that the No. 1 correlation between better health, such as less frequent minor health problems and fewer signs of depression, was economic security.The next are “work-life fit” and “autonomy” or more control over your work environment.Ms. Galinsky and Ms. Huffington agreed that the phrase work/life balance should have been retired long ago.“For decades, I’ve hated the term work/life balance,” Ms. Galinsky said. “It implies a scale where one thing takes away from the other. A good life can enhance your job and vice versa.” A work/life fit, she said, doesn’t keep work on one side of the equation and life on the other, but weaves them together.Some examples are schedule flexibility and co-workers and supervisors who are supportive and responsive to personal and family business.
16 June 2013
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Sexual Harassment & the Australian Army
Josh Marshall at TPM put this very well.
The American military should take note.
15 June 2013
Man, the Chief of Staff of the Australian Army is not kidding around when it comes to sexual harassment.
The American military should take note.
15 June 2013
Friday, June 14, 2013
Honor & Finnegan
While I don't want this blog to turn into Crazy Cat Lady, I do have two photos as follow-ups to my post yesterday. Really, have you ever seen anything cuter? I think not.
If there is reincarnation and if I live my life exactly right, I'll come back as a cat.
14 June 2013
If there is reincarnation and if I live my life exactly right, I'll come back as a cat.
14 June 2013
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Happy birthday, Honor!
Our cat Honor turned six yesterday, which makes her very nearly as old as I am. She is a dear soul and is one of the chief things that makes my life worth living.
Happy birthday, Honor. Here is to many more returns of the day.
And to her sister, I miss you every day.
13 June 2013
Happy birthday, Honor. Here is to many more returns of the day.
 |
| Honor (front) with her younger brother Finnegan |
13 June 2013
What Is Anthony Kennedy Thinking?
Slate has a great article by Sonja West titled What Is Anthony Kennedy Thinking? Why the Supreme Court justice might decide we’ve been thinking about gay marriage all wrong. It postulates that Justice Kennedy may seek to uphold a right to same-sex marriage on the rational that it would amount to gender discrimination to do anything else. From the article:
But we shouldn’t dismiss Kennedy’s question about gender discrimination too hastily. The court’s precedents on gender might offer Kennedy the conservative compromise he is looking for: a way to recognize a constitutional right for same-sex marriage in a limited way.
The gender-discrimination argument is not complicated. Imagine Alice applies for a license to marry Charlie and it is granted. Yet if Bob applied for a license to marry Charlie, he would be denied. The crucial difference between Alice and Bob is, of course, their gender—not their sexual orientation. In fact, as we all know, homosexuals have long been free to marry members of the opposite sex. Thus, Kennedy is wrestling with the possibility that Bob is being discriminated against because he is a man and not because he is gay. And, if so, should the court apply the same level of heightened protection it traditionally applies whenever the government treats men and women differently?
The opinion in this case will likely drop before the end of the month. While I would prefer something sweeping in favor of this most basic human right, to be sure I'd take this for now.
13 June 2013
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Photoshop Covers
A post on Huffington Post details Photoshop before-and-after shots of celebrities for magazines. It is sort of interesting to see what and how much is changed.
12 June 2013
12 June 2013
Superman III - You Can't Go Home Again
This is an absolutely hilarious minute-by-minute account of a man rewatching a boyhood favorite movie thirty years later. I have very little memory of the last two movies with Christopher Reeve. I do remember that they were not good, but I'm a little older than this writer. Now, I have to go back and see this film.
12 June 2013
12 June 2013
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board
A friend sent me a link to one of the coolest things I've ever seen. This woman should have been a brain surgeon! From Big Geek Daddy:
Seriously, watch to the end.
9 June 2013
Miyoko Shida Rigolo performs an amazing feather balancing act that had me hooked from the beginning as I found this fascinating to watch. The incredible skill and patience she uses to balance a single feather on these sticks of various sizes is truly a talent few could achieve. Be sure to watch all the way to the end of the clip so you can see the role the feather played in the balancing act.
Seriously, watch to the end.
9 June 2013
NSA "Scandal" by David Simon
David Simon has written an essay on why the current NSA "scandal" may not be the scandal the press wants. From the essay:
Worth the complete read.
7 June 2013
Addition: Alternate points of view from readers at TPM include this and this.
10 June 2013 Addition: Continued points of view at TPM and elsewhere. See links below.
Tipster: Edward Snowden
One of Many Dissenting Voices
When the Guardian, or the Washington Post or the New York Times editorial board — which displayed an astonishing ignorance of the realities of modern electronic surveillance in its quick, shallow wade into this non-controversy — are able to cite the misuse of the data for reasons other than the interception of terrorist communication, or to show that Americans actually had their communications monitored without sufficient probable cause and judicial review and approval of that monitoring, then we will have ourselves a nice, workable scandal. It can certainly happen, and given that the tension between national security and privacy is certain and constant, it probably will happen at points. And in fairness, having the FISA courts rulings so hidden from citizen review, makes even the discovery of such misuse problematic. The internal review of that court’s rulings needs to be somehow aggressive and independent, while still preserving national security secrets. That’s very tricky.
But this? Please. This is bullshit.
Worth the complete read.
7 June 2013
Addition: Alternate points of view from readers at TPM include this and this.
10 June 2013 Addition: Continued points of view at TPM and elsewhere. See links below.
Tipster: Edward Snowden
One of Many Dissenting Voices
11 June 2013 Addition of Links:
Snowden or the NSA: Which is the Story?
A Guide To The Career Of Edward Snowden
Snowden or the NSA: Which is the Story?
A Guide To The Career Of Edward Snowden
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Corporate Hijacking: First Amendment
Interesting article in the New Republic by Tim Wu about how the First Amendment has been subverted by corporations to evade regulation, bend (some would say "break") the law, and harm American citizens and our democracy.
6 June 2013
6 June 2013
Monday, June 3, 2013
Fiscal Health: Medicare & Social Security
Paul Krugman wrote an op-ed in the NY Times on the relative health of the Medicare and Social Security programs. There has been a lot in the news on this recently and this is a good recap.
3 June 2013
3 June 2013
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