Marriage 'by The Book'

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The Public Nuisance has a wonderful idea: as long as the religious right is proposing a Constitutional Amendment that bases our national definition of marriage on Biblical standards, let’s go ahead and do just that. For example…

  • Marriage in the United States shall consist of a union between one man and one or more women. (Gen. 29, 17 – 28; II Sam. 3, 2 – 5)
  • Marriage shall not impede a man’s right to take concubines in addition to his wife or wives. (II Sam. 5:13; I Kings 11:3; II Chron 11:21)
  • A marriage shall be considered valid only if the wife is a virgin. If the wife is not a virgin, she shall be executed. (Deut. 22, 13 – 21)
  • Marriage of a believer and a non-believer shall be forbidden. (Gen 24:3; Num 25 1 – 9; Ezra 9:12; Neh. 10:30)
  • Since marriage is for life, neither this Constitution nor the constitution of any State, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to permit divorce. (Deut 22:19; Mark 10:9)
  • If a married man dies without children, his brother shall marry the widow. If he refuses to marry his brother’s widow or deliberately does not give her children, he shall pay a fine of one shoe and be otherwise punished in a manner to be determined by law. (Gen. 38 6 – 10; Deut 25 5 – 10)

He then goes on to follow up on some concerns brought up by his post, with some more good points:

Although it would be easy to get that impression, I want to make clear that I am not suggesting that the laws of the OT are absurd or barbaric. Whether you are a Jew, Christian, or secularist, it is important to remember that the laws were incredibly successful in their time and place. Like all laws, they were designed to ensure the community’s survival.

[…]

Those who wish to condemn gay marriage are free to do so. I myself have no problems with calling it a union or using some other term, so long as the legal rights of gay people are respected. But I do dislike it when those who advocate denying equal protection to gay people hide behind a few sentences in the Bible and say that they are merely expressing God’s immutable will.

(via Ex-Gay Watch via Anil)

Washington Post cribbing research from blogs?

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RonK at the Daily Kos points out today that it appears the Washington Post’s Dana Millbank is doing a lot of research by reading weblogs.

Of late, our Dear Leader seems to have become Fair Game in the Big Media. And WaPo’s Dana Milbank seems to have been reading the blogs.

What’s the earlier blog reference you can find for each of the observations in Milbank’s 2003-08-26 column?

I can date two of the referenced items in the article (and did in Kos’ comment thread):

Flag desecration: July 25^th^, 2003 — I mentioned it here, via John via Kos via Wyeth.

Compassion: Aug. 20^th^, 2003 — I mentioned it here, via Atrios and Len via Kos via ‘K.Y.’.

I don’t mind at all if Millbank is discovering news items worth commenting on through the blog network — I certainly do it all the time — though I do wish that the sources for the individual items were sourced and given credit. I do my best to do that with each post that I pick up from someone else, it seems only fair for a real journalist to do the same.

Another lie

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Analysts doubt U.S. claim on Iraqi drones

Huddled over a fleet of abandoned Iraqi drones, U.S. weapons experts in Baghdad came to one conclusion: Despite the Bush administration’s public assertions, these unmanned aerial vehicles weren’t designed to dispense biological or chemical weapons.

[…]

The unproven U.S. assertion regarding Iraq’s UAV programs is one among many.

American weapons hunters, like their U.N. counterparts, haven’t reported finding any chemical, biological weapons or nuclear weapons in Iraq so far.

Does this kind of thing surprise anyone anymore? If so — why? How can people keep fooling themselves into believing that Bush and his team did anything but lie to us for their own gain?

(via Bob Harris)

Why I hate George W. Bush

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Alright, you asked for it. I’ll try to keep my wits about me, though the emotional base upon which this argument is built is quite tumultuous.

Why would I say that I “hate” George W. Bush? Isn’t that a little strong? Isn’t he just your average politician? Isn’t this just some natural extension of your overall left-leaning political views?

No, not really.

[…]

…the final mark of disrespect… the gut-level intuition that leads me to label him an EVIL man, rather than a merely despicable one is his casual contempt for human life. There aren’t words to describe the horror I feel when I see Bush look into the nation’s television cameras with that sadistic little smirk and tell us euphemistically, as if half-choking on a stifled snort that our enemies… “let’s put it this way: they are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies.”

[…]

When I look at George W. Bush, I don’t see a patriot. I see a lying, psychopathic narcissist. And it pains me, it grieves me, it WOUNDS me to realize that this puts me not only in the minority… but in the “whacko fringe.”

— ‘Geoff’, Why I hate George W. Bush (via Len)

SoBig virus source found

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Security teams have tracked down the original source for the recent SoBig F virus — however, the author is still unknown.

FBI investigators have now tracked down the source of the virus, known as SoBig F, to a porn website in Phoenix, Arizona. It was put on the net in the guise of a photograph posted in an adult ‘newsgroup’, a forum where users post messages and pictures. When people clicked to download the picture their computers unwittingly became infected and spread the virus which emailed copies of itself from their accounts.

Dark Suckers

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For years, it has been believed that electric bulbs emit light, but recent information has proved otherwise. Electric bulbs don’t emit light; they suck dark. Thus, we call these bulbs Dark Suckers.

The Dark Sucker Theory and the existence of dark suckers prove that dark has mass and is heavier than light.

First, the basis of the Dark Sucker Theory is that electric bulbs suck dark. For example, take the Dark Sucker in the room you are in. There is much less dark right next to it than there is elsewhere. The larger the Dark Sucker, the greater its capacity to suck dark. Dark Suckers in the parking lot have a much greater capacity to suck dark than the ones in this room.

So with all things, Dark Suckers don’t last forever. Once they are full of dark, they can no longer suck. This is proven by the dark spot on a full Dark Sucker.

A candle is a primitive Dark Sucker. A new candle has a white wick. You can see that after the first use, the wick turns black, representing all the dark that has been sucked into it. If you put a pencil next to the wick of an operating candle, it will turn black. This is because it got in the way of the dark flowing into the candle. One of the disadvantages of these primitive Dark Suckers is their limited range.

There are also portable Dark Suckers. In these, the bulbs can’t handle all the dark by themselves and must be aided by a Dark Storage Unit. When the Dark Storage Unit is full, it must be either emptied or replaced before the portable Dark Sucker can operate again.

Dark has mass. When dark goes into a Dark Sucker, friction from the mass generates heat. Thus, it is not wise to touch an operating Dark Sucker. Candles present a special problem as the mass must travel into a solid wick instead of through clear glass. This generates a great amount of heat and therefore it’s not wise to touch an operating candle.

Also, dark is heavier than light. If you were to swim just below the surface of the lake, you would see a lot of light. If you were to slowly swim deeper and deeper, you would notice it getting darker and darker. When you get really deep, you would be in total darkness. This is because the heavier dark sinks to the bottom of the lake and the lighter light floats at the top. The is why it is called light.

Finally, we must prove that dark is faster than light. If you were to stand in a lit room in front of a closed, dark closet, and slowly opened the closet door, you would see the light slowly enter the closet.

But since dark is so fast, you would not be able to see the dark leave the closet.

Next time you see an electric bulb, remember that it is a Dark Sucker.

— found on /.

Disney goes Goth (also: 'Bus Life' fan comments)

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One of these days, this would be a blast to do:

For the fifth year in a row, Disneyland will be creeping with mobs of black-clad death-rocker types for what organizers officially bill as Bats Day in the Fun Park, but what most people just call Goth Day.

So why would a tribe of people largely typecast as gloomy, depressed, trench coat-wearing, Bauhaus-worshipping creatures of the night want to spend a day at the Happiest Place on Earth? The sheer irony of it all, for one thing. Plus the always welcome chance to make the eyes of non-Goths bug out: one year, Korda managed to get eight boats on the It’s a Small World ride and an entire Davy Crockett Explorer Canoe filled with Goths.

(via Wil)

Also: Thanks to the randomness of the ‘net and the first few comments that this post got, the comment thread has turned into a fun little conversation between the fans (and a few cast members, particularly Daniel Bickerdike and Ashley Jones) of a 2004 Disney (England) series of shorts called Bus Life. I found one episode of Bus Life on YouTube:

Howard Dean rally in Seattle

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Howard Dean in Seattle

Well, as it turns out, I was too far away from the stage to get any really decent pictures of Dean at yesterday’s rally. Ah, well, not a biggie — actually being there was the point.

Being able to see Dean speak in person was great. I’d heard and read nothing but good things of his comfort in front of a crowd, and it was fun to finally be able to experience that myself. He’s definitely a strongly charismatic man, and handles being in front of thousands of people really well. He doesn’t need to rely on cue cards or notes at all, which gives him a much better connection to his audience, as he’s not constantly looking down to fiddle at the podium. He also ad-libs very smoothly — at one point, someone yelled out, “Give ’em hell, Howard!” and Dean broke off for a moment to relate Truman’s response to the old “Give ’em hell, Harry!” war cry: “I just tell the truth, and Republicans think it’s hell!”

I was familiar with some of the content of his speech, but some of the sections I hadn’t heard before, including statistics showing a drop of around 45% in child abuse, and a drop of around 75% in child sexual abuse in Vermont following some of the programs he introduced as Governor — just astounding numbers.

Prairie and I brought along Prairie’s sister Hope and her friend Ingrid to the event, too. Neither of them knew much about Dean beforehand, but as we left, both of them seemed very impressed by Dean and what he had to say. Possibly a couple new supporters?

The only downside to the rally was that it was somewhat late in getting going — Dean, scheduled to speak at around 6:30, didn’t make it onstage until around 7:15, and we had to listen to a seemingly interminable stream of uninspiring music and speakers. By the time the last speaker took the stage, she was almost drowned out by chants of “Dean! Dean! Dean!” from a restless crowd. I felt a little sorry for her, but the sad truth was that only one of the pre-Dean speakers (Professor Hubert G. Locke) had any real skill as a public speaker, and we were all getting quite frustrated at the delays. Still, once Dean appeared, things got back in gear, and everyone around us as things ended did say that the wait, while frustrating, didn’t dim their appreciation of the man himself.

All in all, a good time was had by all. I picked up a Dean for America sign for my apartment window and a t-shirt, and have a few stickers in my bag looking for homes. I was already solidly in Dean’s camp before this, but being able to see him in person definitely cemented my position — here’s hoping that his momentum keeps growing, and we can get him not just the Democratic nomination, but the Presidency in 2004.

More posts on the event:

10,000+ rally for Dean!

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I’ll get photos and more impressions up later, but the rally today was really successful — over 10,000 people showed up to the event! Just amazing.

There’s a quick note about today’s event on the Dean blog, and there’s an AP slideshow of Dean’s Sleepless Summer Tour with photos from the Seattle event on Yahoo right now (the first 10 or so photos are from today — this one is my favorite, this little girl was right behind me during the rally).

Anti-Bush protest

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You're never too young to voice your opinion!

I spent this afternoon participating in the anti-Bush protests here in downtown Seattle. While Bush actually spent very little time here in Washington — arriving, touring a dam, having a \$2000 a plate lunch, and then leaving, all yesterday — today’s protest was one of several organized in response to Bush’s visit.

The march along Alaskan Way

The event went quite well, from what I could tell. Starting with a rally at Myrtle Edwards Park down by the waterfront, hundreds of us marched from the park up along Alaskan Way (past all the waterfront tourist attractions and businesses) until we were right by the walkway up to the Pike Place Market, and then turned around and went back down Alaskan Way until we made it back to the park. No arrests, no confrontations, and quite a lot of honks, thumbs-up, and cheers of support from people around us.

That was it for today’s hootin’ and hollerin’ for me, though — tomorrow afternoon is Howard Dean’s stop here in Seattle. I’ll be there, along with Rick, Tim, Prairie, her sister Hope, Hope’s friend Ingrid, and 2500 or so other people. Should be a good afternoon!