Musings, Part K

- Oh, angry conservatives. You’re so cute sometimes. You conveniently develop amnesia and don’t remember things you said just a few years before when you turn around and do the very thing you were yelling at everyone else for. You ignore that history comes in cycles and things get repeated or come back to smack you upside the head but when you don’t ignore history, you get it wrong and completely ignore the historical context. Adorable. Like one of those Anne Geddes flower babies. Boston style tea parties in 2009. Wow. Awesome. Did we suddenly impose a tea tax I wasn’t aware of? Are we fighting against a king that lives across the ocean from us in a pretty awesome palace and is trying to raise money because his government needs the funds to pay off a war against France and figures he has colonies (just to milk them of all the profits and resources the home country can) so might as well use them? I’m thinking no. It might make more sense if our president really liked tea but I haven’t heard that bit of trivia so I think we’re safe. How about instead of tossing the tea, you toss yourselves? Don’t take it out on the tea, it didn’t do anything to you. Why Protest Big Government With Tea On Tax Day? Does it make sense? That’d be a giant nope.
- Well, I suppose a treadmill’s still pretty cool to have your name on, NASA Names Treadmill After TV’s Stephen Colbert and I’m quite impressed they managed to work it into an acronym. See the full episode here: The Colbert Report, Tuesday, April 14, 2009, the NASA bit starts around the 10:10 mark.
- I love these sorts of things: What’s Your NPR Name? Mine would be something like Jennkifer Orschwiller (at least I think that was the smallest town, it’s hard to tell, I’m not sure if it’s worse that there’ve been so many or that I can’t remember the names…)
- I guess I’ll ahead and weigh in on this, Big Wins Re-Energize Gay Marriage Activists. I’m completely thrilled for them and kind of proud those states were able to accomplish what they did. I suppose I understand how some people feel their way of life is threatened (though really, their outlook threatens my way of life so don’t we all threaten each other every day?) and that their marriage will no longer have meaning if everyone is allowed to get married, even homosexual couples. The thing is, heterosexual couples have done quite enough to destroy the institution of marriage all on our own, so isn’t the fact that people still want to get married in the first place a win for the institution? From the divorce rate, to the age gaps, to the mercenary motives, to the outright abuse that is far more common than we’d like to think, marriage is on shaky grounds right now. I could better understand if these anti-same-sex marriage people were framing everything from a religious viewpoint, because within the bounds of religion, yes, most of them go with the one man, one woman thing. Which is totally fine. But I haven’t heard of any same-sex couples who are trying to force their way into a religious ceremony, they seem to be going for civil ceremonies, probably because a religious one wouldn’t happen. And really, what’s wrong with wanting to be acknowledged by the state? It is a civil rights issue and one that absolutely deserves to be completely recognized. I’m all for love and marriage and soulmates but some days, people like those who belong to the National Organization for Marriage or the Family Research Council (or especially these guys in Afghanistan or even the child-bride ick in Saudi Arabia) make me want to say forget all that and go with the idea that marriage isn’t logical and love is just chemicals in the brain, nothing special, an argument frequently presented by the scientists in Bones. But that would be cynical. Hey, how about all those who don’t want others to have rights just go to Afghanistan, seems some people there would welcome them, except for the pesky Christian thing. At least they would align on social issues.
- This is really quite good: Winning Essay Translates Teen’s Story. Read it. And that’s all I really need to say about it.