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Sunday, February 29, 2004
Well, this brightens my day... Gay GOP official in Ohio wakes up, smells coffee. Saying he can't stomach President Bush's support for the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA), a gay Republican leader in Ohio announced on Thursday he is becoming a Democrat. In a letter to the chair of the Republican Party of Cuyahoga County, John Farina, a former official in the county's party organization and former president of the Cleveland chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans, ended his 20-year association with the GOP. He also withdrew his candidacy for the Board of Elections' central committee in the March 2 primary. Damn, but it's nice to see Republicans with sense. I'm sorry it took this long for 'em to see it, but still. Welcome to the Good Guys, folks! posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 4:44:00 PM   | | Saturday, February 28, 2004
Whoa. This link's courtesy of Steve Jackson Games. Most flexible electronic paper yet revealed ...But the process has enabled the company to produce a screen that can be rolled into a tube just two centimetres in diameter - the most flexible electronic display ever made. The use of organic electronics should also make the device cheap. The square display measures 12 centimetres diagonally and consists of 80,000 pixels. It produces a greyscale image and can refresh in about a second - far too slow to display moving images. You remember the ultra thin flatscreens the astronauts used in "2001"? We're gonna have those within the next 5-6 years (about 10 years later than expected, but hey - we had the Reagan presidency in there to slow down the march of science, right?) posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:03:00 AM | WTF? Is our house made of fuckin' bacon or something? We've been adopted. What has got to be the ugliest fucking dog in the Western world showed up at our house yesterday afternoon, and it won't go away. It looks like it's a pit bull, and hasn't acted threatening, but we're not interested in any new pets. If anyone is interested in a scrawny pit bull-looking dog that's lost most of its fur and now looks like some kind of mutant pink dog, please come by before we call the animal control guys. We haven't made the damn thing welcome, so I don't know why it stays. When we open the door, it tries to nose its way in, so we yell at it and shoo it away. We keep a spray bottle with ammonia water in it near the door, and every time I see it, I chase it halfway down the block shooting water at it. I know dogs aren't always the brightest of creatures, but I would think that the idea that we don't want it here would sink in at some point. Damn, but that dog's fugly. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 7:53:00 AM | Friday, February 27, 2004
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!! Why, oh WHY did I click on this link? Those that don't share my uneasiness about bugs are welcome to go read about a German man getting eaten by his deadly pets. Here's a snippet: A man who lived in his own “zoo” of lizards and insects was fatally bitten by a pet black widow spider — then eaten by the other creepy-crawlies. Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:10:00 AM | Friday 5 This one's mine! Going through some old papers my parents brought from their house last week, I found several notes to my parents from teachers I'd had growing up. I got to thinking about the legions of teachers I had for the first 21 years of my life, and wondered: Who were the 5 that had the greatest impact on me as a person, for good or ill? (1) Mr. Wright. high school English. He was Tuskeegee educated and a helluva lot smarter than Manchester High School deserved, but I was lucky to have had the opportunity to learn from him. I first learned how fantastic the words of Shakespeare sound when uttered by someone that knew what it meant. Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, Edgar Allen Poe - the man read us Beowulf in Saxon, fer Chrissakes! Some years ago, he died. I never got a chance to tell him thank you, although I just found out that shortly after my younger brother graduated high school, my father thanked Mr. Wright for what he'd done for me and my brothers. (2) Mr. Byrd, high school math. Wilburn Laverne Byrd spent WWII in Alaska, then used the GI Bill to get a degree in mathematics. Not bad for an Alabama boy raised in the Depression. His grammar was atrocious, but the man could teach math. Another teacher that Manchester High was lucky to have, he also coached the Academic Bowl team, and without that, I wouldn't have done as well in high school as I did. With Academic Bowl, I had a peer group, I had a goal, and I had something that helped me get scholarships for college. (3) Karen Drews, Set Design. Karen was the technical director and designer at Birmingham-Southern College. Clever, witty and talented, she taught me a tremendous amount about set design and construction, and the woman could do things with lighting that made me weep in frustration when I tried to replicate them. I'm not doing theatre for a living any more, but I can still look at a stage show or movie and analyze the lighting qualities that make it work or fail. (4) Mrs. Brown, 6th Grade. This woman taught at Morningside Elementary, and she made my life hell. She took a dislike to me, and went out of her way to make sure I knew it. I'll never forget the time she stormed into the bathroom as I washed my hands and slammed my head against the wall for some imagined offense during recess. When I told my parents about it, the bitch lied. I got some measure of revenge the day I went to her desk and asked if I could have a pass to go to the school nurse, as I had a migraine, and I was afraid I was going to throw up. She snarled at me, "I'm sick and tired of your lies, Adam. Go sit down!" A few minutes later, I could feel the need to vomit coming on strong, so I went to her desk to plead for a bathroom pass. She ignored me for a while, then looked at me and said, "What? What is it? Didn't I tell you to go sit down?" My only response was a torrent of vomit all over her desk, her lap and the floor. From that day on, I got a pass to the nurse if I looked the slightest bit queasy - which helped me hone my acting skills quite a bit. (5) Mrs. Shepherd, 3rd grade. She was a big woman, a Hawaiian, with a musical voice and a no-nonsense attitude. Spelling was a big deal in her class, and she infected me with something bordering on an obsessive-compulsive mania for proper spelling. If you don't like my spelling snobbery, track her down and tell her. She also used to sing "Blowing in the wind" in class, and I've loved that song ever since. Honorable mention goes to Ms. Barrett (high school art), Bob Funk (UAB, wasn't actually one of my professors, but he took a chance on me twice and cast me in shows, which is more than I got in college) and to Miss Clark (middle school science - she taught me that even as fascinating a subject as science could be dumbed down and made tedious and painful). The rest of the Friday Fivers are listed, as always, to the left. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:01:00 AM | Thursday, February 26, 2004
What we need to do to fight the Hate Amendment Julie, America's sexiest accordion player, has excellent info on contacting your senators and representatives. Find out the names of your state representatives and start calling and writing them. Write letters to your local paper, go to Don't Amend.com and see if anyone's organizing protests in your area. If not, organize one. Talk to your friends and family, even the stupid wingnut religious whackaloons. Kerry and Edwards are trying to straddle the line between opposing the Hate Amendment and supporting Gay Marriage. Once again, we'll have to choose the lesser of two evils, but that's politics, baby. The best we can hope is that the sonofabitch in office is our sonofabitch. If you're thinking of throwing your vote away on Nader or whoever the Libertarians are ruinning this year, please just go ahead and vote for Bu$h. This is no time for moral purity - this is war, and we've got to fight to win. I can't say this enough: GET OFF YOUR ASS AND VOTE THIS TIME. It's important, and the results of the election matter. They matter to me, they matter to people like Mojave 66 and her partner, they matter to Gina and her partner. They matter to millions of decent, law-abiding Americans. They matter to our children, and to the rest of the world. FUCKIN' VOTE, cause if you don't, you can expect me to hawk a good one in your eye when I see you. That's a fuckin' promise. We've got a good chance to get the Chimp out after one term like his Daddy, and we've got to grab it. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 11:57:00 AM | And I'm being productive today... Playing around and made myself a sweet little mix CD - it's got everything from "Disco Inferno" to the theme from "Shaft", with Barry White, Marvin Gaye and Al Green thrown in between. Later, I might mix some more disco - I've got a whole "Village People" CD to play with, after all... posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 11:35:00 AM | This is funny, man Funny in an "I'd laugh if I wasn't crying" kind of way. Saw this on Burnt Orange Report - it's a political cartoon by Mike Luckovitch. 
posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 2:37:00 AM | Wednesday, February 25, 2004
More on Nader Or should that be Nadir? Anyhoo... His running this year poses a genuine threat to the balance of power that supports American democracy The arguments that Nader made last time around seem absurd this time, when it is all too clear that there are significant differences between the Democrats and Republicans on the issues Nader has spent a lifetime effectively raising. The Republican Party marches lock-step in a campaign against the environment, working people, the poor, civil liberties and world peace. and... Nader has done nothing of significance since the last election to organize popular opposition to the disasters of the Bush government, yet he now deigns to assert that he alone can save us. His base is not among the people who have suffered most these last three years but rather in the mass media that find him a diverting sideshow. He announced his candidacy on "Meet the Press," rather than at a people's convention of supporters, because he would not have been able to obtain, let alone survive politically, an invitation to such a venue. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 4:01:00 PM | A photo of Van Gogh? Old photograph purchased for $1 may be of Vincent Van Gogh. The forehead, the shape and size of the eyes, even individual hairs matched up, making forensic scientist Albert Harper sure he had discovered an original photograph of famed artist Vincent van Gogh. The van Gogh museum in Amsterdam has rejected the conclusion, but Harper and his colleagues are convinced. The photo dates to 1886 and is of an older man wearing a plain suit and small bow tie. He has light eyes, a well-kept beard and a thin, long nose. His hair is neatly combed back, and he has a distinct widow's peak. "I saw it and thought it was van Gogh right away, and the more I looked at it, the more I was sure," said artist Tom Stanford, who discovered the photograph while flipping through an album of cabinet card photographs (mostly of clergymen dating back to the late 19th century) at an antiques dealer's shop in Massachusetts. Fascinating. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 1:18:00 PM | Jeremy Scott Nolen - Gun Owner and Libertarian - Speaks Truth Jeremy's a friend of mine from work - we share an interest in gaming, and often shoot the breeze in the smoking area dissecting politics and world events. Sometimes we're on the same side, sometimes we're on opposing sides. I got the following in an email from him, and I felt it had to be spread further. It's good shit, and Jeremy's a smart man. I'm sure most of you have been following (or at least been aware of) the recent issues surrounding gay marriage. I, personally, am in favor of it - although an ideal situation to me would be one where the government doesn't participate in marriage at all (marriage should be a private contract between individuals), if the government is going to be in the business of sanctioning marriage, it is only fair that said marriage be made available to anyone who wants it - gay marriage, polygamy, whatever. Following the recent developments in San Francisco (where the mayor ordered the city to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples), President Bush announced today his support for a Federal Marriage Amendment, which would add language to the Constitution banning any state from recognizing same-sex couples as being married. Obviously I'm opposed to such a reactionary and stupid law. I think even those who don't approve of gay marriage should be able to clearly see what a bad idea this is. But I'm not here to talk about the President. At least, not directly. What I find interesting about all of this is that the two major Democratic presidential contenders, John Edwards of South Carolina and John Kerry of Massachusetts, both are opposed to same-sex marriage as well (and as of now, both are tentative supporters of the proposed FMA). But I'm not here to talk about the Democrats, either. At least, not directly. So what we have here is a situation where both major-party nominees for the Presidency have stated their opposition to equality for gay individuals in the eyes of the state. This has a particular resonance for me, as a gun owner and gun-rights proponent. It has been the case for the last twenty years that the national Republican party pays a great deal of lip service to gun rights and the 2nd Amendment. The Democratic party, on the other hand, has enshrined gun control as one of their central issues. When in office, though, the two parties have both generally voted for more gun control laws. The 1986 FOPA and the 1991 Import Ban were both signed by Republican presidents. The now infamous "Assault Weapon Ban" was passed by a bipartisan effort. The current President has stated that he will renew the AWB if an extension is passed by Congress (fortunately, this time around it looks like Congress will not be passing a renewal). So where am I going with all of this? Generally speaking, the Democratic party has always paid a great deal of lip service to gay rights and issues. The Republicans, on the other hand, have generally always had a degree of anti-gay bigotry in their party. But the Defense of Marriage Act was signed by President Clinton. And now we see that both Democratic front-runners basically have the same position as the President on the issue of gay marriage. As a libertarian, I know what it feels like to have both major parties be set against one's beliefs. As a gun owner, I know how it is to have both major parties taking a stance that your lifestyle is not subject to Constitutional protection from government interference (particularly egregious in the case of gun rights, which have an entire Amendment specifically protecting them!) Perhaps the real lesson here is that government cannot be trusted to respect our rights - be they explicitly delineated in the Constitution or implied within the principles of freedom of equality that this country was founded on. Statism, and a desire for more power, are the only real bipartisan attributes. The gay community has my sympathy and my support in their crusade for equality. Thanks, Jeremy. Folks like you are part of what makes America great. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:16:00 AM | Tuesday, February 24, 2004
Think of it as evolution in action Spitting contest goes horribly wrong when participants combine alcohol, an 11th-floor apartment and a running start. A CARLETON University engineering student participating in a spitting contest with friends plunged 11 floors off a downtown high-rise to his death late Saturday night. Ameer "AJ" Jinah was celebrating his 20th birthday in his 11th-floor apartment at 199 Kent St. with about a dozen friends when the accident happened at about 11 p.m. Police said it appears Jinah took a running start to try to spit further than his two friends when he unintentionally vaulted himself over the balcony railing. And later in the article... "He was one of the smartest, most polite guys I ever met in my life," he said. We need to reassess this evaluation, in light of recent job performance. I vote for "Not the smartest guy." posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 3:40:00 PM | President Bu$h speaks out against human rights But we're not really surprised by this, are we? Click here for a transcript of his speech in support of an amendment banning gay marriage Eight years ago, Congress passed, and President Clinton signed, the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage for purposes of federal law as the legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife. The act passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 342-67 and the Senate by a vote of 85-14. Those congressional votes, and the passage of similar defense of marriage laws in 38 states, express an overwhelming consensus in our country for protecting the institution of marriage. Is this like the overwhelming majority that felt slavery was OK before the Civil War? Or the overwhelming majority that thought women didn't need to worry their pretty little heads over something so foolish as the right to vote? How about the overwhelming majority that believed deep in their hearts that interracial marriage was utterly wrong? Please note as we go through this screed how there is not one single mention of how heterosexual marriage is threatened by gay marriage. Not one. In recent months, however, some activist judges and local officials have made an aggressive attempt to redefine marriage. In Massachusetts, four judges on the highest court have indicated they will order the issuance of marriage licenses to applicants of the same gender in May of this year. In San Francisco, city officials have issued thousands of marriage licenses to people of the same gender, contrary to the California Family Code. That code, which clearly defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman, was approved overwhelmingly by the voters of California. A county in New Mexico has also issued marriage licenses to applicants of the same gender. And unless action is taken, we can expect more arbitrary court decisions, more litigation, more defiance of the law by local officials, all of which adds to uncertainty. So are you saying, then, Mr. Bu$h, that the Massachusetts Supreme Court doesn't have the responsibility to interpret the law? I've noticed before how you conservative twits seem to think that any legal decision that you don't agree with is obviously the result of liberal, activist judges arbitrarily making the law mean what they want it to. Sorry, our Federal system doesn't work that way - if you'd been sober in your high school civics class, you'd have learned that we have a wonderful thing here in the US called "Separation of Powers" - it means that Congress makes the laws, the Executive branch (that's you!) enforces them, and the Judicial branch interprets them. That means that judges have a responsibility to look at a law, decide if it's in accordance with established precedent and determine if this law conflicts with the Constitution (which, you probably don't recall, is the Law Of The Land). The actions of Gavin Newsom are technically illegal, although the law in California banning same-sex marriage appears to be in direct violation of California's state constitution, which forbids discrimination on the basis of sex or sexual preference. I'd say that at worst, the city of San Francisco is engaging in Civil Disobedience, which has a long and respected history in the USA. Hurm. Perhaps we'll coin the phrase "Civic Disobedience" to indicate those actions taken by municipalities to protest social wrongs. After more than two centuries of American jurisprudence and millennia of human experience, a few judges and local authorities are presuming to change the most fundamental institution of civilization. Their actions have created confusion on an issue that requires clarity. On a matter of such importance, the voice of the people must be heard. Activist courts have left the people with one recourse. If we're to prevent the meaning of marriage from being changed forever, our nation must enact a constitutional amendment to protect marriage in America. Decisive and democratic action is needed because attempts to redefine marriage in a single state or city could have serious consequences throughout the country. Ah! The "It's a tradition" argument! Slavery was accepted practice for thousands of years before Abe Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and women suffered being relegated to second-class-citizen status for about the same amount of time before they finally got the right to voice their opinion on the running of our nation. For over a century after the Civil War, it was still legal in many parts of the country to prevent blacks from voting, and to shove them into substandard "Separate but equal" schools and hospitals. The Constitution says that "full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts and records and judicial proceedings of every other state." Those who want to change the meaning of marriage will claim that this provision requires all states and cities to recognize same-sex marriages performed anywhere in America. Congress attempted to address this problem in the Defense of Marriage Act by declaring that no state must accept another state's definition of marriage. My administration will vigorously defend this act of Congress. Yet there is no assurance that the Defense of Marriage Act will not itself be struck down by activist courts. In that event, every state would be forced to recognize any relationship that judges in Boston or officials in San Francisco choose to call a marriage. And that would be bad... how? You're spouting a lot of bullshit talk, dickhead, but you're not giving any facts to back your claims up. What harm is caused to my marriage if Randy and Bill decide to get married? None, that's what. Furthermore, even if the Defense of Marriage Act is upheld, the law does not protect marriage within any state or city. For all these reasons, the defense of marriage requires a constitutional amendment. An amendment to the Constitution is never to be undertaken lightly. The amendment process has addressed many serious matters of national concern, and the preservation of marriage rises to this level of national importance. The union of a man and woman is the most enduring human institution, honored and encouraged in all cultures and by every religious faith. Ages of experience have taught humanity that the commitment of a husband and wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society. Marriage cannot be severed from its cultural, religious and natural roots without weakening the good influence of society. Government, by recognizing and protecting marriage, serves the interests of all. No, amendments shouldn't be undertaken lightly. Remember Prohibition? Boy howdy, that was a fuckin' disaster! You'd think folks as into "tradition" as you dips claim to be would maybe read a fuckin' history book now and again. As far as the traditional definition of marriage, every major religion has also come out pretty squarely against women's rights and in favor of slavery at some point. The law has to be separate from religious biases as much as possible. Sometimes, it'll match pretty closely to those biases, like in the law's disapproval of the act of murder. Other times, it'll skew the other way, like in our legal approval of Usury. Today, I call upon the Congress to promptly pass and to send to the states for ratification an amendment to our Constitution defining and protecting marriage as a union of a man and woman as husband and wife. The amendment should fully protect marriage, while leaving the state legislatures free to make their own choices in defining legal arrangements other than marriage. America's a free society which limits the role of government in the lives of our citizens. This commitment of freedom, however, does not require the redefinition of one of our most basic social institutions. Our government should respect every person and protect the institution of marriage. There is no contradiction between these responsibilities. No contradiction? No contradiction? You're smoking crack if you really believe that. We should also conduct this difficult debate in a matter worthy of our country, without bitterness or anger. In all that lies ahead, let us match strong convictions with kindness and good will and decency. Tell that to Fred Phelps, Pat Robertson and all the other shitbags that encourage and condone violence against homosexuals. I see nothing but kindness, good will and decency in San Francisco - from the mayor on down to the taxi drivers offering free rides to newlyweds. The only things not decent are the bigots trying to turn back the tide, and that includes you, sir. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 11:37:00 AM | Corporate Mofo to Ralph Nader: "You're an asshat" Later, Nader Ralph Nader is an asshole. I have never met the man but I feel absolutely confident in this assessment. I harbored this opinion well before he garnered the Green party nomination in the last presidential election and, as a registered Green Party member, I cringed at my party's choice of egomanical, authoritarian representative. Nader, an environmentalist? Then I'm Lady Godiva. I had no intention of voting for him even if there had been no danger that a third party vote might tip the election to the Republicans. As it was, there wasn't a sex toy's chance in Texas that I was going to waste my vote, even in true blue New York. After the chads settled on the 2000 election debacle, I nursed an unreasonable anger at Nader for putting Dubya in the White House, as if the fault rested entirely with his ill-fated, third party challenge. Nader had maintained that he brought people out to the polls who wouldn't have voted otherwise. Sure, maybe two or three, but he was flattering his charmless self if he believed that the majority of Nader voters were otherwise alienated or apathetic citizens that he had lured off their futons and into the voting booths. It was a pretty incredible denial that he had siphoned none of his votes from Gore. More on the other end of the link above. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 10:11:00 AM | John Ashcroft - Enemy of the State But he'll try to tell you different, that you're the enemy, 'cause you're not a member of his whackaloon fundie sect. 'Cause you seem to think that the Constitution is a good thing. 'Cause you have a calico cat. Link to an article about the history of John Ashcroft You know someone's scary as hell when Bob Barr teams up with the ACLU to fight 'em. To which I say, "Good on ye, Bob Barr! I disagree with you on just about everything else, but we can sort that out after we get rid of Ashcroft." Saw this link on Maggie's blog. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:38:00 AM | Go read Gina's blog It's a good call to action. Yeah, I know I'm mostly preaching to the choir, but you guys can do something to help - contact your senators and congresscritters and make sure they know that a "Defense of Marriage Amendment" is not a good idea, and that you as a registered voter cannot in good conscience support a candidate that votes for it. To find your Representative, go here. To get your senators' contact information, go here. Write letters, call 'em, email 'em - we still have power over these guys, if enough of us speak out. So let your voices be heard. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 7:44:00 AM | Monday, February 23, 2004
Further Terrorist Weddings of Mass Egalitarianism Scenes from a wedding. The next day, we woke up married for the first time in more than 17 years. For the first time in my life, I've been getting weepy-eyed over weddings. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 11:41:00 AM | Great news, everyone! Just got word that Mojave 66 is now officially married! So swing on by her LJ and tell her congratulations. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 11:20:00 AM | Obligatory self-promotion Yeah, like I don't do that enough already. I'm published! Julie and I wrote this review for The High Hat, a darn good online 'zine. The good bits are Julie's. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 10:45:00 AM | Rumor update Nothing has come out over the weekend. Which means any of several things: (1) The Machine has successfully ensured everything is nicely covered up OR (2) There was no truth whatsoever to the rumor OR (3) The rumor was partially true, but there's no smoking gun. In the absence of real, concrete information, therefore, I'll refrain from further speculation for the time being. If I get evidence either way, I'll post it, but until then, we'll call this one "Not Proven". posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 10:22:00 AM | And now for something completely different... Seems the monkeys are once again on the rampage, this time in India. I keep warning everyone, but do they worry about the monkeys? Noooooo. Not until they're IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD BITING YOUR LEGS, and then, it'll be too late. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:51:00 AM | For Barney Frank, John Kerry, Barbara Boxer and all the other cowardly politicians out there Lissen up, folks. Over 40 years ago, a good man said some damn smart things. One of them was this: "We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly I have never yet engaged in a direct action movement that was "well-timed," according to the timetable of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word 'Wait!' It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This 'wait' has almost always meant 'never.' " - Letter from a Birmingham city jail, April 16, 1963. It's the same story every goddamn time. The chickenshit politicos hide in their offices and fret about getting reelected, playing to the percieved majority. When folks get tired of waiting and do something, the dimwits shit all over themselves and fumfraw about "Simply Not Done, wot? Change takes time, harumph, you're pushing things too far, you've gone and screwed it all up." Know what I see, as a student of history and someone who's, apparently, a helluva lot ballsier than you? We've worked out just fine so far. So shuddup about San Francisco hurting the case for equal rights. It's time you guys did what we frickin' pay you to do and LEAD. You know, like LBJ did with Civil Rights? Like Roosevelt did in the 1930s? Remember the Emancipation Proclamation? Am I ringing any goddamn bells, mental midgets? Quit checking the poll numbers and TAKE A FUCKING STAND. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 12:05:00 AM | Sunday, February 22, 2004
Busy day Just got back from a birthday party for one of Franny's friends. Lots of fun, except for the one ill-mannered little brat that spent the entire. FUCKING. TIME. pointing at me and telling her mother, "Look at that man's big fat tummy!" Her mother did nothing. Now, I'm not a thin man, but I don't think I'm that repulsively obese that I would necessarily be an object of derision for a small child. Apparently, it's not an issue except for this kid. And I'd just like to say to her, and her mother, that I sure as shit hope you can feel the way I did someday, because you fucking deserve to feel it. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 6:43:00 PM | Saturday, February 21, 2004
Why We Fight With apologies to Frank Capra... I don't kow how many of you that read my blog got the chance to send flowers for newlyweds in San Francisco, but we know Mojave Sixty-Six got some flowers, and this article in the San Francisco paper says that hundreds of bouquets, if not more, have been given in what's got to be the most heartwarming thing this cranky sonofabitch has seen in quite some time. A few quotes from the article: Mike Ritz of Church Street Flowers in San Francisco's Castro district has received more than 50 phone calls from donors in Minnesota, Georgia and North Carolina. They asked for bouquets accompanied by a variety of messages: "I'm an 87-year-old grandmother wishing you well," and "To a Loving Couple, Have a happy life. Love, Karen" and "Nice day for a white wedding." Ritz delivered a pair of red rose boutonnieres to Rhet Topham and Bret Maling on Friday with a card signed, "With love, from Dwight and Mike." Topham said the fact that flowers are coming from pockets of the country typically associated with anti-gay sentiment shows that the gay-rights movement is progressing. "Just that anybody in the Midwest supports what's going on here -- boy, it can only get better" Topham said. They've got that right - it's only going to get better. We've grown tired of waiting for the politicos to convene their focal groups, for judges with saurian minds to see the truth, for the bigots to sit down and shut up. Just for shits and grins, compare the happy couples you're seeing on the news with this story: Randi Reitan of Eden Prairie, Minn., received it from her sister on Wednesday, forwarded it to 100 more people and quickly got on the phone to a San Francisco florist. "We got to be at somebody's wedding out there even if we were just the flowers," she said. "I just hope whoever received them just has this lovely, long life together ... . It doesn't bother me that I don't know them -- it's kind of fun in a way. You're connected to two souls." The mother of four was particularly moved by the idea because her youngest child, Jake, 22, a senior at Northwestern University in Illinois, came out as gay when he was 16. People in the town where they used to live threw eggs at their mailbox, scrawled anti-gay epithets on their driveway, bashed their car's windshield and wrote anonymous letters saying Jake was "sick and sinful." Their minister told the family Jake could change. "You just can't imagine what a message it is way back here in Minnesota. You turn on your TV, and there are more and more couples getting married," Reitan said Friday through tears. "I'm hoping whoever got the flowers realizes how special it was for them to do that. They're doing it not only for themselves, they're doing it for a young man back here in Minnesota who looks forward to finding someone to love, to cherish and to celebrate that love in a wedding and call it marriage." And they say it's us liberals that are destroying this country? Yeah, suuuuuure. We're saving it. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 12:43:00 PM | Leonard Pitts Speaks Truth From the Detroit Free Press: It's a little known fact that Martin Luther King didn't really lead the March on Washington. What actually happened is that the marchers, a quarter-million strong, grew impatient waiting for the event to begin and stepped off the curb ahead of schedule. When they found out what had happened, King and other march "leaders" had to scramble to catch up. Forty-one years later, that vignette from another era offers an irresistible analogy to frame what has been happening these last few days in San Francisco. Public opinion seesaws between tolerance and intolerance, courts and legislatures debate civil union and marriage and abruptly, thousands of gay and lesbian couples decide to stop waiting for other people's decisions. The fight for equality cannot, and must not depend upon the glacial pace of "when America's ready for it". Acceptance comes when people realize that the change has already come. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 7:53:00 AM | Friday, February 20, 2004
The parallels continue to stack up ...between the current struggle and the Civil Rights Movement. Found some info on Eschaton that's just too interesting to pass up. In 1958, 94% of Americans opposed the very idea of interracial marriage (or, really, marriages between a white person and a black person - other races/ethnicities were A-OK!). 94%. What's gay marriage running right now? 60%-ish? In other news, I've found a new group to hate a lot: "Repent America", a nasty little bunch of bigots who have taken to vomiting forth their hate outside the San Francisco courthouse, saying things like "We wanted to just uphold the laws that already existed, lock the door, keep them from marrying, stopping the spread of AIDS, stopping the spread of perversion." Well, thanks for putting it out in the open, you sick little fuck. You know what's perverted? You and your sick bigotry. Just Die Already, willya? posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 11:10:00 PM | Assbag Rumor Update Might be breaking soon - I'll keep updating as I find out info. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 3:13:00 PM | And just got tipped about this piece of news King of Cambodia supports gay marriage. Cambodia's King Norodom Sihanouk has shown that advancing years are no barrier to an open mind and liberal attitude. After watching television images of gay marriages in San Francisco, the 81-year-old monarch has decided that single sex weddings should be allowed in Cambodia too. He expressed his views in a hand written message on his website which has proved extremely popular in Cambodia. The king said that as a "liberal democracy", Cambodia should allow "marriage between man and man... or between woman and woman." That's just cool. Hats off to King Sihanouk! Link to the King's site courtesy of the lovely and talented Julie posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 12:37:00 PM | More commentary on Equal Marriage Rights for All As most of you know, I'm rather firmly in the "pro" category on this topic. I strongly believe that Gay Rights is directly equivalent to, among other things, the Womens' Suffrage movement and the Civil Rights movement. The history of the United States shows a distinct trend of expansion of rights, of taking the ideals of the Founding Fathers and through an admittedly bumpy process of fits and starts extending those ideals to encompass more and more people. This nation ain't perfect, not by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm still proud as hell to live here. The last week's events in San Francisco are just further evidence that we're a great nation, and that it is still (although distressingly rare) possible for a politician to take a stand against an unjust law. Folks have criticized Gavin Newsom, San Francisco's mayor, for ignoring California's Proposition 22, which purports to invalidate the legal possibility of same-sex marriage. It's irresponsible, they say. An elected official has no right to ignore the law. To my mind, Gavin Newsom and the staff at City Hall in San Francisco are doing something that Henry David Thoreau would have approved of. The law in California is unjust - it denies gay citizens a freedom enjoyed by straights, the right to certify their union in the eyes of the State. We'll see what the courts have to say about this, but it's a beautiful example of the traditions of Civil Disobedience that make America strong. Whether these marriages will hold up in court remains to be seen, but right now, today, we're treated to the spectacle of thousands of loving couples celebrating their desire to enjoy the priveleges the rest of us already enjoy. How is this different from women getting the chance to cast votes, or African-Americans savoring the heady draught of the removal of Jim Crow? It's not. Different dance, same music. The symphony of Freedom plays on. I find comments like these kind of annoying, though. Barney Frank is a good man, and a courageous one, but I can't agree with him when he says, "When you're in a real struggle, San Francisco making a symbolic point becomes a diversion." When people say that a bold move like this can only hurt the overall cause, I'm remided of those who thought that Martin Luther King, Jr was too bold, that Freedom Marches, lunch counter sit-ins and bus boycotts only hurt his cause. Folks, we're fighting the same fight, and we can't dismiss the importance of these events. It's like those folks in Boston way back when that said, "Well, really, I agree that things aren't exactly tip-top in regards to our treatment by England, but what those Sons of Liberty did in dumping all that tea in Boston Harbor, well, it's Simply Not Done, wot?" It was against British law for John Hancock and all those other heroes to put their names on the Declaration of Independence, it was against the law for Harriet Tubman and all those other abolitionists to help escaped slaves make it to freedom. Sometimes, an unjust law must be resisted. So right on, Gavin Newsom. Right on, San Francisco. I salute you, and I can't help but think that, were he around today, Emperor Norton would greatly approve of this flaunting of an unjust and morally wrong law. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 12:22:00 PM | Friday 5 Mojave Sixty-Six sez: Hey, thank you for letting me into this wonderful group. I really love y'alls blogs. My apologies for the lateness-- I've been scrambling at odd hours to try to get into San Francisco's City Hall to marry my partner of 12 years. It's been an amazing, profound experience-- such an outpouring of love and support from damn near everybody in our city. Florists have been dropping off free roses, there are offers of discounted hotel rooms, people passing around food and honking and waving their support. So this week's question is inspired by all this: what are the five most profound moments of your life? Those are those moments when you know your life is going to be altered for better OR for worse, that the path you've chosen has either been slighly altered or you've even fallen off a damn cliff and now it's incredibly altered. You may have no clue where this new path will take you, but you know for a fact that you're stepping off in a new direction. I'm gonna jump around a bit chronologically, and this won't be in any special order. (1) Deciding to fight back against a bully that had made my life hell in elementary school. I've written about this many times, and it really is one of the defining moments in my life. One bully and his bunch of toadys had selected me as his special target - I'd tried winning them over with kindness, ignoring them (very difficult when you're getting your face shoved into a mud puddle, lemme tell ya) and the usual round of runs to the teacher, attempts to flee and all that. The day I decided that enough was enough, that I might lose the fight but I wouldn't lose my self-respect, that was the day it changed. I fought back, and one day I won. Seems that puching a bully in the nutsack when you've got a rock in your hand just takes the fight right out of 'im. Granted, his buddies beat the snot out of me right after that, but they left me alone from that day on. (2) Meeting Melissa. It was the 3rd of 4th day of college my senior year, early September, 1988. The theatre department held a "Meet'n'greet" for incoming majors, and I was standing outside the theatre afterwards smoking with a couple of friends. A beautiful woman came up to me and bummed a cigarette, and I fell head over heels. I didn't realize at the time what was in store, just that I'd never been so powerfully attracted to someone before. It's impossible for me to even speculate what my life would have been like since that moment had I not met Melissa, all I know is that I'm a richer person for having her in my life. Through Melissa, I met her family (wonderful folks, love 'em to death), wonderful people like Gina and moved to Texas, where I met friends like Will and Merideth (and their kids), Dave and Shannon, Chris and Shannon (different Shannon, but still a wonderful person), and so many other Good Things that it's impossible for me to list 'em all. We've also had 3 terrific kids together, which leads me inevitably to... (3) Having kids. It's magical, really, what kids are like. I know some folks aren't into parenting, and that's no problem with me, but being a parent is to me something that is frustrating, exasperating, tiring and above and beyond that, utterly wonderful. I'm still(!) learning about myself and about life in general by raising them (and sometimes, only managing to temporarily corral them). Like being married, having children is a threshold that completely changes you once you've crossed it. (4) For our first year or so in Austin, we'd been through the worst period in our marriage, and had come close to just letting it all fall apart. Something kept us together and we'd started making progress on pulling our lives and our marriage back together. When we found out Melissa was pregnant, we were overjoyed, and it really looked like things were looking up for us. About 3 months into the pregnancy, though, she miscarried. I got a call from Melissa at the school I was substiting at, and didn't even get my pay slip signed - I told the office I was leaving and ran out the door, meeting Melissa at the hospital shortly thereafter. That was a horrible, horrible time, and the only thing that pulled us through it was Melissa's courage, the love of her family, and a tremendous amount of support from the members of her church. I still find myself thinking about that child - "He'd be starting 3rd grade this year", or "She'd be playing little league next spring." This doesn't take away from the love I have for our other children, it's just a dull ache of unfulfilled potential. Baby Pun'kin, wherever you are, I still love you. That which does not kill us makes us stronger, and I think our family is proof of that. (5) In 1980, my best friend, Paul Ott, stopped by my house with a blue box containing a copy of the Dungeons and Dragons Basic Set. We puzzled out the rules of the game, and I've been a happy gamer for almost 25 years now. It's helped me refine my people skills, develop confidence and spurred me into learning a lot of things I'd have never bothered to learn otherwise. Gaming ain't for everyone, but it's something I love almost as much as I love food. The rest of the Friday Fivers are located on the left sidebar. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:59:00 AM | You wanna see something really scary? I found a page with photographic evidence of the moral degenerates that are polluting our Precious Bodily Fluids by flaunting their love in San Francisco. Dear God, how can marriage withstand the pressure of thousands of happy, committed couples? HOW?!!! 
posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:41:00 AM | Update on the rumormongering No confirmation yet, but no denials, either. There are the usual stories that indicate this news organization or that one is sitting on the story, waiting for a smoking gun, but nothing solid. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 6:31:00 AM | Thursday, February 19, 2004
Do something nice for a change, whydoncha? Saw this on Maggie's blog what's chock full o' witty goodness, What The Hell Am I Doing Here?. Send flowers to a couple in San Francisco! This guy in Minneapolis had a brilliant idea: Today a coworker of mine had a thought to send flowers to a random couple waiting in line at SF city hall. He called a florist and they agreed to do it. He told them to deliver to any couple -- it didn't matter who -- standing in line to get married, with his blessing. The card will read simply "With love, from Minneapolis, Minnesota." Once they understood, they were very touched and thought it was a great idea. He told another co-worker who did the same thing. And now we want to start a movement. Wouldn't that be cool if people from all over the country, gay, straight and otherwise, started sending flowers to the people waiting in line to get married. Call it The Big Gay Bouquet call it Flowers from the Heartland. Call it whatever you want, but help us get this off the ground. Call Flowers on the Bay at 888-217-9119 and order a bouquet to be delivered tomorrow at noon. And Tell all of your friends to do it. Because straight or gay, we believe and we know many people who believe, support and celebrate the right to marriage. And we'd like to show it. We'd like to see all of the people standing in line with flowers of support from all over the country. PS. Flowers on the Bay seems like a small shop and might get overwhelmed if this really did catch on. I have a feeling that any Bay-Area flower shop, perhaps even doing FTD through your local florist, could work. Melissa and I called in an order to Flowers on the Bay - ran us just under $50, which is a nice-sized chunk of change, but it does 2 things: (1) It tells some random strangers that you care about their civil rights. (2) It tells the assbag fundie protestors shrieking their apoplectic rage outside San Francisco's city hall that this isn't just something limited to San Francisco, and that it's not just the queers that care about it - it's everywhere, and it's not going away. So come on - take up a collection at work, check under your car seats - scrape some cash together and send a little love to some newlyweds in San Francisco. You'll feel better for doing it. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 11:36:00 PM | | Cold Wind Blowing There's an excellent, though extremely disturbing, series in Salon magazine about undercover surveillance of protestors. Seems that the main terrorist threat to the US these days isn't coming from Afghanistan or Iraq, or even Pakistan or Saudi Arabia. Nope, it's those damn fools that think they have a constitutional right to engage in nonviolent protest and acts of Civil Disobedience. Here's the first part (ad view required, but it's a small price to pay). From the article: In the early 1970s, after the exposure of COINTELPRO, a program of widespread FBI surveillance and sabotage of political dissidents, reforms were put in place to prevent the government from spying on political groups when there was no suspicion of criminal activity. But once again, protesters throughout America are being watched, often by police who are supposed to be investigating terrorism. Civil disobedience, seen during peaceful times as the honorable legacy of heroes like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., is being treated as terrorism's cousin, and the government claims to be justified in infiltrating any meeting where it's even discussed. It's too early to tell if America is entering a repeat of the COINTELPRO era. But Jeffrey Fogel, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Law in Manhattan, says, "There are certainly enough warning signs out there that we may be." And here's the second part, with an even more disturbing excerpt: Political spying has many costs. One is that it poisons communities, putting dissidents in the same social position as criminals, co-conspirators or untrustworthy elements. Jennifer Albright, a 30-year-old lawyer in Albuquerque, N.M., believes such spying cost her her job with the Bernalillo County district attorney's office. On Tuesday, March 25, two days after marching in a permitted demonstration against the war, Albright, then an assistant district attorney, was called into her boss's office and put on leave. The reason? Local police said she had identified undercover agents in the crowd at the protest, which she denies. Three days later, Albright was fired. At the time, Deputy Chief of Police Ruben Davalos told the Associated Press, "One of the officers said that (Albright) actually walked straight up to the officer and stood face-to-face and stared at him for a period of time." He also said she was "seen pointing directly at the officers and getting others to see who they were in the crowd." Albright denies this. "I didn't identify anybody," she says. "I don't recall seeing anyone that I knew was an officer, let alone an undercover officer." Yet clearly there were undercover officers there, confirming a belief long held in Albuquerque's activist community. "Law enforcement has always appeared at any kind of peace group," says Albright. "At any antiwar group, it's just assumed that there's at least one undercover officer." Antiwar meetings, she says, are typically opened with someone saying, "We welcome all the law enforcement that is here. If you have any questions you can ask us now, and if you'd like to talk to us discreetly, we understand." Now, my folks got themselves on more'n a couple of lists back in the 1960s because they took to the radical notion that blacks and whites deserved equal treatment under law. Mississippi's Pondering further, of course, it's a stance that should be obvious - after all, our own State Department has branded Canada a "terrorist haven", primarily due to their broad civil liberties and "liberal democratic identity". How much more dangerous, then, are those individuals in the USA that seem to think the Constitution applies to them - that there's a document of, by and for the people that defines the rights we're entitled to enjoy every single day. How dangerous is, say, that guy standing on a street corner holding a sign that reads "US out of Iraq"? In the eyes of our administration, very. In the eyes of your local police department? Worth investigating. Oh, sure, the FBI doesn't do the infiltration so much any more, but they've just subcontracted the work out to local police departments. This means that the men and women who put their lives on the line every day to combat real crime are wasted on what are purely political investigations. Any cops reading this, relax. I'm not gonna go out and fly a plane into a building, or anything like that. You might look for some real threats to our American ideals here, here and here, though. I've got my suspicions about these guys, as well. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:55:00 AM | Unsubstantiated Rumormongering So, according to Buzzflash, there's a certain Assbag that might be in a spot of trouble. What trouble? Well, it's rumored that a State Official Known For His Good Hair, a paragon of Fambly Values, one of $hrub and Bugfucker DeLay's Texas Toadys, might be having some trouble on the domestic front. Infidelity is supposed to be the reason, but that's not the best part. No, the best part is, the name that gets mentioned the most often is his Secretary of State, who just happens to be a dude. More unsubstantiated rumors can be found here, here and here. If true, it certainly answers a lot of questions and raises quite a few more. [LATE EDIT] And further information I'm gleaning indicates this might be nothing more than a retalitory rumor spread in response to the John Kerry infidelity rumor by Drudge. I'll keep you posted, with a retraction as necessary. But I'm hoping the buggery rumor's true, as it'll further expose the hypocrisy of That Assbag posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 7:55:00 AM | Wednesday, February 18, 2004
w00t! Went to the gym tonight for the first time in 5 months, and I survived. I didn't weigh myself, as I'm just not willing to see those numbers yet, but it wasn't near as bloody awful as I'd feared. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 11:08:00 PM | Away from the computer Well, not right now, but in the morning. Gotta co-op at Franny's school, then take care of the last paperwork remaining from my speeding ticket. You kids have fun while I'm gone, and NO PARTIES! I'm still cleaning the vomit out of the carpet from the last one you guys had while I was gone. Ray, I'm expecting you to give me a full report of all the goings-on when I get back. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 12:01:00 AM | Tuesday, February 17, 2004
When it's time to vote, you better sweet-ass be there in New Mexico NM state rep hauled back to capital for vote by state troopers. My favorite quote: The officers say Regensberg was, naked, combative and possibly intoxicated when they entered his motel room on Saturday night to retrieve him for a mandatory vote on health insurance taxes. They never covered this in Robert's Rules of Order, I know that. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 1:48:00 PM | Maybe I'm naive ...but (this is a follow-up, BTW, to the entry below) I'm always a little flabbergasted when I get hostility from someone I know. If there's hostility there already, or it's been an adversarial relationship, I can get my head around that, but when someone decides apparently all on their own to get pissy with me, especially when they've hidden it and it just suddenly bursts out, I'm always at somewhat of a loss for words. I mean, if you've got a beef, fuckin' say something, right? posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 12:45:00 PM | Another shiny day Sunny, blue skies and warm temperatures. That's central Texas for you - if you don't like the weather, wait a day. On the personal front, I got a good night's sleep last night, as did everyone else in the house. Makes for a more pleasant morning, y'know? At work, I'm dealing with some interpersonal conflicts with another member of my team regarding additional responsibilities that have been given to me by management. He seems to think I'm trying to get a supervisor position back, and I'm trying to make it clear that I (a) don't necessarily want these responsibilities and (b) certainly haven't asked for them. The upshot is we're now going to have a big team meeting with our new manager on Friday, and this appears to be shaping into a nice little dick-wagging contest. Yay! posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 10:26:00 AM | Monday, February 16, 2004
Smells like creeping Fascism Army Intel agents try to bully themselves a list of attendees to a conference on Islamic law and sexism. This kind of thing happened during the Vietnam era, as well. Happened during the Civil Rights movement - to some folks, anyone not thrilled to death with the status quo is an enemy of the state, and needs to be monitored closely. Jessica Biddle, a third-year law student from Houston, was questioned by Special Agent Jason Treesh in the office of the Texas Journal of Women and the Law, where she is co-editor. The journal had donated money for the conference and reserved a courtroom at the law school for the Feb. 4 event. "I thought it was outrageous. He was intimidating and was using the element of surprise to try to get information out of us, which was wholly inappropriate," Biddle said. "The conference was an academic conference, totally benign and not focused on foreign policy." Biddle said she told Treesh that she knew of no roster for the event, which was free and open to the public, and asked why he wanted the list of attendees. She said he told her there had been "some kind of problem" and asked her to give his phone number to Sahar Aziz, the law student who organized the conference. Biddle said she then took Treesh's card to the dean of student affairs. UT Law Dean Bill Powers said he's never been aware of the government investigating a law school conference or seminar in his three decades at the law school. He said he's concerned that the government's action could have a chilling effect on such conferences. "We certainly support our students being able to fully and fairly and freely express views of social and academic and intellectual concern," Powers said. Three cheers for the UT Law School for not giving in to the Army. Combined with the report I blogged about here, it doesn't make for a very happy picture. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:52:00 AM | Miscellany An amusing Tom Tomorrow comic from Salon. Watch an ad, read the comic. This is the threat to marriage they're talking about? Gay couples line up to get married in San Francisco. A selection of quotes: People were very excited in line, everybody was clapping as people came out with their licenses. The line for the licenses was really long, once you had the license you could do the ceremony right there. They were letting people do the ceremony for free. They had people legally authorized to do marriages there, but we didn't have to wait in that line. The witnesses signed, the minister signed, and we were married. It was a long line. We were couple No. 66 of the morning and that was at 9:45 a.m. There were at least that many couples behind us in line. They'll do hundreds today. And the people at City Hall were wonderful. They were really nice, they were really organized, they were coming and leading you, basically coming and saying, "OK, this is where you go next." The licenses read "first applicant," "second applicant," by the way. There was one protester. One guy. And he was spouting off about, "If you cared about the children you wouldn't do this!" And we were laughing, because he was saying this to our friends who had been chasing our daughter around for us all morning. We're like, Believe us, we care about the children! Our daughter deserves to have parents who are married. But also just to be able to say we're really married! Just like anybody else, we're really married. We're in the process of filling out paperwork for a stepparent adoption, which in California we can do, but now we're the same as other married couples. Jean is Kalen's stepparent. Yeah, right. I am soooo threatened by the prospect of committed people of any persuasion getting the opportunity to be married in the eye of the state. Right on, San Francisco! Kudos to Gavin Newsom for having the guts to do the right thing. D'ya hear that, $hrub? That's the future coming, and it's not terribly happy about your decision to try and hold it back. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:20:00 AM | Sunday, February 15, 2004
Restful afternoon Melissa's folks came into town and took the big kids to a movie. Means Melissa gets some uninterrupted writing time, and I get time to finish cleaning the house. Later tonight, I see if I can get both computers networked to lessen the computer-access-related-almost-violence level in the house. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 3:42:00 PM | Saturday, February 14, 2004
Like no business I know Alec slept fitfully last night, and I found myself around 3 AM sitting in front of the computer trying to get myself wound down enough to go back to sleep. Looking out the window, I was one of my favorite sights - a carpet of snow, blue-white in the moonlight, coating everything in sight. Undisturbed snow is one of my favorite things, the smoothness of it, the silence of the middle of the night. Which made 5:30 come much too quickly, as first Franny and then Drew discovered the snow. They were outside before I was even moving, and spent most of today out in the back yard. Of course, this being Austin, the snow was mostly gone by about 11, so it became "play in the almost-freezing mud". Somehow in all of this, my car got coated with mud by the kids (they figured out the supposedly child-proof lock on the gate to the backyard, snuck out front and hauled a couple of buckets of mud out to the driveway - this while I was changing Alec's clothes after a major containment systems failure, if you know what I mean). So, to recap: Snow at 3AM, LIKE. Aftermath of same snow at 3PM, DON'T LIKE. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 6:36:00 PM | Friday, February 13, 2004
We are not amused OK, really I am, because it fits my ego:
Tip o' th' hat to Ray for this one posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:27:00 AM | Friday 5 From the deliciously twisted mind of Roganda: So Valentine's Day is coming up, and my impulse to be timely has overcome my dislike of mush, so today's question concerns love. "Love is omni-inclusive, progressively exquisite, understanding and tender and compassionately attuned to other than self." R. Buckminster Fuller. What are five ways that people in your life (any relation: child, parent, spiritual advisor, friend, etc. etc.) have demonstrated through their actions that they love you--whether they meant to or not? (bonus points for interesting, unusual, unexpected or especially subtle examples). First topic, and she drops one on us that makes me think. Curse you! (1) My mom (duh - I'm a Southern Boy - Momma always figures in). When I was in 5th grade, I fell in love with Chrissy Richards. I knew, in my oh-so-naive preadolescent heart, that she was The One. Without her, I Could Not Be Complete. I finally worked up the courage to ask her out, and she told me she'd think about it, then decided to go out with a guy whose parents had a whole lot more money, and was also not, as one of her friends put it, "So weird". Bitch didn't even have the guts to tell me to my face, but sent her friends to tell me. Needless to say, I was devastated. I made it home and my mother, who was working as a nurse in the preemie ward at Grady Hospital at the time, and was thus more often than not emotionally and physically drained at the end of her shift, just sat with me and made hot cocoa and listened to me wail my despair. I get my optimism from her, as well as my fondness for hot beverages when I'm feeling stressed and depressed. (2) My dad is a preacher, among other things. When Melissa and I decided to get maried, there wasn't any serious discussion at all about who would perform the service - we both knew my father was going to do it. During the service, which was both Meaningful and Tasteful (Mad Props to Brian, Effie and Gina for their contributions in that regard), he was struggling to hold back tears, and that really drove home for me how much he loved me, as well as Melissa. (3) Melissa lets me know every day by not leaving me, despite my short temper, fits of irrationality, laziness and tendency to pass gas in public. (4) The kids are another source of easy unconditional love fixes - hugs, messy kisses, the shrieks of "DADDDEEEEEE!!!!" when I walk in the door at the end of the day, the way Alec's face lights up when he sees me walk into the room - it's really like a drug. (5) Bernadette Peters, by way of her telpathic broadcasts, letting me know that I am her One, True Love, destined to make her soul complete, as soon as we take care of that damn Restraining Order. The other Friday Fivers are listed on the left. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:42:00 AM | Thursday, February 12, 2004
Y'all go check this out Marvin speaks wisdom on Gay Marriage. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 11:05:00 AM | Would you let this guy into your country? I recently renewed my passport, and got my expired one back. In keeping with my policy of full disclosure, I present Adam, circa 1987. No, I was not a drug mule, nor was I strung out on crystal meth. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:03:00 AM | Wednesday, February 11, 2004
Former schoolteacher faces jail time for selling a vibrator A big ol' FUCK YOU to law enforcement in Burleson, TX. Seems that Joanne Webb's sideline business as a seller of marital aids ruffled some feathers: Joanne Webb is a mother of three, a Baptist, a booster of the town of Burleson, Texas, and a former schoolteacher. She also faces trial for being a smut merchant. Webb, 43, was arrested in November by two undercover police officers for selling sexual toys and charged with violating Texas obscenity laws. She could face up to a year in jail and a fine of $4,000 if convicted. According to reports in the local media, police said a few residents, who they declined to identify, lodged complaints. A few prominent citizens with strong Christian beliefs were angered by Webb and her activities and asked police to investigate, local media reported. Two undercover police officers posed as a couple trying to spice up their love life and Webb sold the woman a vibrator. Webb instructed her on its use and explained how it could enhance lovemaking. That's where she got into trouble. Texas law allows for the sale of sexual toys as long as they are billed as novelties, BeAnn Sisemore, a Fort Worth attorney representing Webb, told the Houston Chronicle before a gag order was issued by the judge presiding over the case. But when a person markets sex toys in a direct manner that shows their actual role in sex, then that person is subject to obscenity charges, she told the newspaper. This is fucking insane, people. This is why we shouldn't let idiot freak religious nuts make laws - can you really trust anyone that's that afraid of women's sexuality to make rational choices? It is nice to know, though, that crime is so low in Burleson that the police can afford to waste time on piddling shit like this. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 3:10:00 PM | Random linkage German pop star told by wife: Either the baboon goes, or I do. Pop star chooses monkey. Center for American Progress rebuts every single damnned lie spouted during the "Meet the Press" interview. "The President's statement that there is ?good momentum' on the job creation front is dishonest: while we are averaging 72,000 new private sector jobs created per month, at that pace, it would not be until May 2007 that this President would have created his first net job. President Bush is well on his way to having the worst job creation record since the Great Depression. His bragging today only served to reinforce his lack of credibility on managing the nation's economy. - John Podesta. This, BTW, jibes with what I'm hearing from economists, too. But what do they know, compared to $hrub and Cheney? Remember when Perot predicted a "vast sucking sound" as jobs were moved out of the US after NAFTA? If you can't beat 'em, join 'em! See, if you all lose your jobs as your employer outsources everything, that's good. Because, well, ummm, $hrub sez so. Grand jury questioning Bu$h officials in Plame affair. Nice to see some progress in investigations of this administration. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 1:37:00 PM | Random rantings I was going to launch into a tirade about $hrub's support for a so-called "Defense of Marriage" amendment to the Constitution, but we knew he was gonna come down in favor of it. I mean, bigotry? From the current band of crooks in the White House? clutches pearls I certainly never expected it. No, as infuriating as that is, it's not a surprise. I'm kind of pissed off at the way the Democrats arranged their primaries this time around, as once again, the folks at the end of the primary season don't really get much of a choice. Someone please tell me why New Fuckin' Hampshire and Iowa get to tell the rest of us who's worth electing? New employee in a neighboring group, and he's a creationist! How nice for everyone - someone working in a high tech field that doesn't understand the first thing about science. Fortunately, though, he appears to be able to dress himself and use the toilet without pissing on his shoes. More later when I get some coffee in me. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 11:27:00 AM | First things first Making Light has a link to Jon Stewart poking fun at $hrub's "Meet the Press" appearance the other night. I laughed so hard I spit Diet Coke on my monitor. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:30:00 AM | Tuesday, February 10, 2004
OMG! It's so true!  Congratulations!! You're a tall glass of nice cold beer! What Drink Are You? brought to you by Quizilla Found this one at Eclectic Waves posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:44:00 AM | Umberto Eco looks at Fascism This piece was originally written in 1995 for the New York Review of Books. Eternal Fascism: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt Some excerpts (with my comments between the italicized text): 1. The first feature of Ur-Fascism is the cult of tradition. Traditionalism is of course much older than fascism. Not only was it typical of counterrevolutionary Catholic thought after the French revolution, but is was born in the late Hellenistic era, as a reaction to classical Greek rationalism. In the Mediterranean basin, people of different religions (most of the faiths indulgently accepted by the Roman pantheon) started dreaming of a revelation received at the dawn of human history. This revelation, according to the traditionalist mystique, had remained for a long time concealed under the veil of forgotten languages -- in Egyptian hieroglyphs, in the Celtic runes, in the scrolls of the little-known religions of Asia. In reverence, f'rinstance, for the simple ways of our Founding Fathers, and in ostentatious lip service to some aspect of the more commonly held religious beliefs of our nation. Fear of scientific research, especially that which promises to cause some degree of social upheaval. 3. Irrationalism also depends on the cult of action for action's sake. Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation. Therefore culture is suspect insofar as it is identified with critical attitudes. Distrust of the intellectual world has always been a symptom of Ur-Fascism, from Hermann Goering's fondness for a phrase from a Hanns Johst play ("When I hear the word 'culture' I reach for my gun") to the frequent use of such expressions as "degenerate intellectuals," "eggheads," "effete snobs," and "universities are nests of reds." The official Fascist intellectuals were mainly engaged in attacking modern culture and the liberal intelligentsia for having betrayed traditional values. "East-coast ivory-tower liberals". "Media elite". David Horowitz' attacks on those academics he considers Marxists. 4. The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism. In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge. For Ur-Fascism, disagreement is treason. "If you're not with us, you're against us." Ann Coulter, anyone? 9. For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle. Thus pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. It is bad because life is permanent warfare. This, however, brings about an Armageddon complex. Since enemies have to be defeated, there must be a final battle, after which the movement will have control of the world. But such "final solutions" implies a further era of peace, a Golden Age, which contradicts the principle of permanent war. No fascist leader has ever succeeded in solving this predicament. See above. 13. Ur-Fascism is based upon a selective populism, a qualitative populism, one might say. In a democracy, the citizens have individual rights, but the citizens in their entirety have a political impact only from a quantitative point of view -- one follows the decisions of the majority. For Ur-Fascism, however, individuals as individuals have no rights, and the People is conceived as a quality, a monolithic entity expressing the Common Will. Since no large quantity of human beings can have a common will, the Leader pretends to be their interpreter. Having lost their power of delegation, citizens do not act; they are only called on to play the role of the People. Thus the People is only a theatrical fiction. There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People. Because of its qualitative populism, Ur-Fascism must be against "rotten" parliamentary governments. Wherever a politician casts doubt on the legitimacy of a parliament because it no longer represents the Voice of the People, we can smell Ur-Fascism. Such as claiming a mandate to run rough-shod over the COnstitution and drive our economy down into the gutter, despite losing the popular vote? Eco closes the piece with this quote from FDR: "If American democracy ceases to move forward as a living force, seeking day and night by peaceful means to better the lot of our citizens, fascism will grow in strength in our land." It's gettin' mighty cold here in the Land of the Free, ain't it? Almost forgot: found this at Making Light posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:05:00 AM | Monday, February 09, 2004
New Domestic Disturbance Melissa's got a new column up. Read it, as it's damn fine. As usual, of course. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:01:00 PM | I'd pay to see this version I dunno who made this photoshop job, but I found it here. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 3:57:00 PM | Stewie Griffin sound generator Enjoy making Stewie, the only really amusing character on "The Family Guy" talk, threaten and soil himself. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 10:07:00 AM | Why zombies are so damn creepy And, I wager, clowns too. The Uncanny Valley. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 10:06:00 AM | Behold, thou shalt be cast onto a steaming dung-heap, O thou irritating inhabitant of Gath! Thanks to the always witty, ever incisively intelligent Phaedrus, I bring you the Biblical Curse Generator! With a warning to my friend Chris, who made a big mistake by watching the Grammys last night: Harken, O thou wolf in sheep's clothing, for you will beget difficult teenagers! posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:27:00 AM | Calpundit weighs in on the $hrub AWOL issue I've held off on posting regarding this, but now that I'm seeing some real hardcore documentation out there, here's a link to an interesting analysis of the "torn document". Seems it's a real document, but it indicates $hrub was put in a unit reserved for National Guard members being punished. So why's he still insisting he was a real soldier? While $hrub was skipping out on his obligation, no doubt to get liquored and coked up, my father-in-law was flying daily flights into and out of Vietnam. And what does Colin Powell have to say about this? Well, we know what he said in his autobiography, My American Journey: I am angry that so many of the sons of the powerful and well-placed... managed to wrangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units ... Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal and owe equal allegiance to their country. Hurm. Interesting - wonder what Colin really thinks of his boss? [Late Edit] Here's a link to a site with lots of FOIA documents about this issue. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:14:00 AM | Sunday, February 08, 2004
Auf Befehl von der Regierung ist Meinungsverschiedenheit verboten November anti-war forum under investigation by the Feds. A federal investigation expanded Thursday as prosecutors subpoenaed a fourth peace activist to appear before a grand jury and secured a court order forbidding Drake University officials to discuss a demand for information about a November antiwar conference on campus. And, later on in the article, The conference was hosted by the Drake Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. The event was followed the next day by a demonstration at the Iowa National Guard Headquarters in Johnston where 12 protesters were arrested. Yep, peace activists, they're the real threat here. They're the ones hiding information from the American people, so let's grill them in front of a secret grand jury. Riiiiight. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 5:34:00 AM | Saturday, February 07, 2004
Great minds link alike Phaedrus and Adrienne both linked to this article in the NYT - registration, as usual, may be required. Oh, yeah. Homosexuality is unnatural. Suuuuuuure. You know what? It seems to be more natural than, say, burning people at the stake. Certainly seems more natural than the American Family Association, Operation Rescue or any of dozens of other Religious Reich organizations. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 1:30:00 PM | More exploding whale fun! This is not video of the recent exploding whale from Taiwan - this one's from FLorence, Oregon, when some folks decided to remove a whale carcass that had washed up on shore with half a ton of dynamite. Turn up the sound for both the amusing commentary by a news anchor and the faint "plop" of falling gobbets of whale meat. Check it out. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 6:54:00 AM | Friday, February 06, 2004
Why the Rethugs fear Howard Dean Memo from Rethugs to Rethugs about Howard. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 5:24:00 PM | Some hard facts from Brad DeLong Think Again: Deficit Coverage: 'What's Missing?' Quoth Brad DeLong:I cannot put a number on the chance that Bush deficits will trigger a financial crisis and a depression. But I can put a number on how the growth slowdown: big enough to cut an average American family's income by $4,000 by the end of the standard 10-year budget forecast period. Think of it that way: George W. Bush wants to give your family a $4,000 annual pay cut in a decade. How will this happen? A deficit means that the government is spending more than it takes in through taxes. A government that spends more than it takes in borrows. Savers – households, banks, and businesses – buy Treasury bonds. Each dollar of savings used to buy these Treasury bonds and thus snarfed up by the Treasury is a dollar that cannot be used to finance the building of a house, the purchase of a machine tool to boost a factory's productivity, or the replacement of an outdated inventory-control system with a cheaper high-tech one. A bigger deficit means less investment in America. And less investment in America means slower economic growth. So, ask yourself. Is the amount you and your family are getting stolen from you over the next 10 years worth the crappy-ass tax cut you got? Are you happy subsidizing $hrub's largesse to the top 3% of American taxpayers? If you are, please just stay home next November. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 2:01:00 PM | Tip 'o the hat to our friends in the Canadian press - at least they're not being hoodwinked by the Bu$heviks The Media Disappeared Howard Dean Why did they have to get him out of there? Because he was being disruptive. Not wrong exactly, but too loud, spoke out of turn, the sorts of things one doesn't say in mainstream politics. The equivalent of belching or farting in public. The media are the ushers and security guards of politics. They maintain decorum. For example: Howard Dean said the Bush government "capitalized on domestic fears of terrorism for political gain." Wow. That suggests it manipulated 9/11 for the sake of its own agenda. Millions of Americans may believe this (consider the huge sales of Michael Moore's books) and Bush officials such as Paul Wolfowitz did yearn publicly for "some catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbour." But the charge is still taboo in mainstream discourse. It makes almost all that was said and done since 9/11, including po-faced media coverage of the noble ideals behind the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, sleazily suspect. Mr. Dean said the Bush "tax cuts are designed to destroy . . . our public services through starvation and privatization," making tax cuts sound less like a debatable policy than a devious plot -- which Reaganites have said they were. He noted "a fundamental difference between the defence of our nation and the [Bush] doctrine of pre-emptive war." That goes to the scary heart of U.S. foreign policy. But most U.S. leaders and pundits act as if ordinary people could not understand the distinction. He was similarly blunt on globalization's evil outcomes and the Bush use of "quota" as racist code. He kept moving past the normal rhetoric -- Our leaders are grievously mistaken -- to imply: Our leaders are deliberate liars, betraying the general good for their own aims. I don't think this was a "conspiracy" so much as a bunch of folks with the same ideas about how things "ought to be", and each independently grabbing the most prominent things they could to attack. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 12:29:00 PM | I don't really want to know any more about this 1 van. 23 dogs. 3 cats. A chicken, a driver and an elderly, disabled passenger. "When I approached the van I could smell the stench 20 to 30 feet away," Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Jim Cleland told the Palestine Herald-Press in its Thursday editions. "It was then I discovered the animals." He said feces were piled up to one foot deep in parts of the van. Well, I'm off my lunch now. Figured I'd pass the joy along to you. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:58:00 AM | Friday 5 Courtesy of Ray: Knowing the folks on the list, something similar to this has probably already been asked. Still, it's what I came up with after letting it simmer for the week so, here goes: My wife sits and reads all the time, and I used to as well. I've wondered why I don't anymore, and I think it's that since High School G/T classes, I haven't been forced to. I miss it. My question is, which books would you miss in my situation? More accurately, which 5 books have made the biggest impression on who you are, and why? There have been similar F5s before, but I'm going to no doubt give a completely different answer for this one, so it's pretty much like it's completely new. (1) Starship Troopers - I came across this novel in 5th grade while perusing the school library for a book to check out. I'd read all the history and biography books, and this book with the guy in a spacesuit caught my eye. My first Science Fiction novel, and I've never really looked back at all. (2) The Illuminatus! Trilogy - My introduction to conspiracy theory. I'd played Steve Jackson Games' "Illuminati!" in high school, but reading Shea and Wilson's book got me interested inthe entire conspiracy subculture. It also introduced me to the Principia Discordia. Hail Eris! Fnord! (3) An Edge In My Voice - Harlan Ellison's collection of essays. I'd never read any of Harlan's nonfiction, and this was eye-opening for me. I'll never be a tenth the writer he is, but his unique voice helped me find my own. (4) Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Players' Handbook - I'm a geek. D&D was something that ultimately helped me become a more extroverted person. Most gamers I know, in fact, are rather extroverted. You've really got to be to some degree, if you want to be a good gamer. Most of the gamers I know have a pretty wide-ranging knowledge base, too. Not necessarily useful knowledge, but some of you folks out there have brain cells devoted to knowing all the words of the "Three's Company" theme song, so who's to complain, eh? (5) The Collected Works of William Shakespeare - This is another book that helped me find my own voice. The annotated copy I got (all umpteen lbs. of it) at my high school graduation (Thanks, Mickey and Sharon!) has finally fallen apart, but Melissa and I own 2 full annotated editions, as well as almost all the rest of the plays in paperback stashed all over the house. Even though I've left the glamour of the world of theater behind me, I still can't get over how fucking, amazingly brilliant and wonderful Shakespeare was. Best. Writer. EVAH. Honorable mention goes to: A Princess of Mars, The Three Musketeers, Uncanny X-Men #118 and The Bible (KJV). The rest of the Friday Fivers are listed to the left. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:04:00 AM | Be happy. Be very happy. Sometime last night, around glass of wine #7 or so, I decided I was invulnerable (at least as far as layoffs go), and decided to come to work naked to test that theory. Thankfully, I (a) sobered up and (b) realized it's still a wee bit nippy today. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 7:56:00 AM | Thursday, February 05, 2004
Yeah, baby! I survived, my friends survived. Gonna have me a big ol' drink when I get home. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 2:44:00 PM | Will my luck hold? Yea, and there shall be layoffs, and rumors of layoffs, and there shall be much consternation, and worry, and acid reflux. - The Book of Employment, 3:15 Rumor mill sez some folks got the axe today, and my boss isn't at his desk, nor is his laptop or briefcase. I heard they're done, but I'm a wee bit nervous still. I've survived 5 - make that 6 - of these things, the last by the skin of my teeth. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. I'm worried about my friends here, too. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 11:22:00 AM | Public Service Announcement Cockeyed.com has a helpful preparedness guide for the differing levels of Terror Alert in our nation. Especially useful tidbits: LOW (blue): Politely ask your neighbors if they have acquired any "dirty bombs" as of late. Offer to help clean them. GUARDED (green): Go down to the airport and take potshots at the departing planes. Call it "art." ELEVATED (yellow): Taser your crotch at ever-increasing voltage levels. Consult a personal trainer each time you "plateau." HIGH (orange): Prepare a wide-brimmed hat with double layer of aluminum foil, shiny side out. Wear at all times. SEVERE (red): Contact all prospective sex-partners and make last-chance arrangements. Yes, including Janine. Remember, folks - CONSTANT VIGILANCE!!! posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:57:00 AM | Wednesday, February 04, 2004
Word A nice, simple breakdown of the evidence regarding the authorship of Shakespeare's plays. Personally, I've always considered the Baconians, Oxfordians and Marlowe theorists to be a buncha whackaloon classist snobs. Found at Making Light posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 1:03:00 PM | I didn't know Senator Rick Santorum was in Thailand I don't think it was him, but I don't know of anyone else with that level of fascination for "man-dog" acts of love. Anyhoo, Dog-rape goes astray. The attempted rapist, who was probably not Rick Santorum, told police he noticed a brown female stray dog wagging its tail and "acting sexy" and pulled it into some tall grass by the roadside. But the dog resisted, biting him on his face, chest and arms before he gave up his attempt and tried to stagger home. Like I said, the odds are against it being Senator Santorum. "In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be." posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 11:31:00 AM | TX pharmacist decides rape is no reason for birth control You've already heard something about this, I wager, but it's got me plenty pissed. Seems a woman in Denton, TX was sexually assaulted, and the hospital prescribed a "morning after" pill. She went to an Eckerds drugstore, and the pharmacist took it upon himself to refuse the woman service. He's since been sacked, but you can bet the bottom-feeders on TBN, PTL and all the other Religious Reich "networks" will be spooging all over him for his Don't go boycotting Eckerds, though - the company's acted pretty swiftly to make it clear this is not their policy. No, I'd recommend you boycott Denton. I've never heard of anything good coming out of any suburb of Dallas before this, and my mind's not changed by this. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 11:23:00 AM | Comics for the gaming geek Just found this one - Order of the Stick. If you're not a gamer, some of the jokes might not be as funny, but that's just too bad. This link is a shout out to all my geek brethren. Huzzah! posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:16:00 AM | Tuesday, February 03, 2004
Remember Bill Clinton, that has-been that got ruled out as a candidate in '92? Digby does. Billy-boy finished 3rd or 4th in most of the early primaries. Still, there is one important lesson to be learned from the past. By drawing out the primaries the way they did, the Democrats had far too much time to think about who they were voting for and they often voted for someone who wasn't a winner. If Bill Clinton couldn't win Iowa and New Hampshire, he had no business being the nominee. But, nobody told the voters or the press (who were fixated on Ross Perot at the time) so he managed to eke out the nomination when it was obvious that either Tom Harkin or Paul Tsongas should have run against George Bush. It is a good thing we've learned from our mistakes. We won't let that happen again. So somebody explain to me why Howard Dean has to be ruled out as a candiate now? Or is there, perhaps, another agenda? posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 3:48:00 PM | You remember that homely girl from high school that wasn't very bright, but would fuck any guy that got her drunk? That would be Al Sharpton. Seems Big-Hair Al, famous for his smearing of innocent men in the Tawana Brawley case, has hired GOP dirty-tricks specialist Roger Stone, who has made sure Al qualifies for matching federal funds (thanks in large part to donations from friends and family of Stone) and appears to be using Al to generate attack points for the Rethugs in November election. For them as don't know, Stone was the guy that organized the little brownshirts rally that disrupted the November, 2000 ballot recount in Miami-Dade county. Stone got his start during Nixon's sleazy 1972 campaign, and hasn't seemed to want to drag himself out of the muck since. What's in it for Stone to help Sharpton? A stronger Sharpton showing means that the Rethugs can use him to smear the Democratic nominee in November, as well as raise funds from the closet bigots out there with a "Look out! The Democrats might run a scary Nee-grow for president!" fundraising drive. Using Sharpton to weaken potential frontrunners with bogus racism charges serves to disenchant voters, and the fewer people that vote in November, the better the odds that $hrub gets reelected. What's in it for Sharpton? The obvious reason is publicity - Sharpton's a publicity whore, and wouldn't mind at all getting the chance to shove Jesse Jackson out of the limelight and be regarded as more than a grandstanding buffoon. Sharpton's worked to further the ends of sleazy Rethuglicans before, though - he's previously climbed in bed with Al D'Amato, George Pataki and Michael Bloomberg. The morning after the election, of course, Al will wake up on the side of the road, clothes torn and wondering how he got there, but he'll be able to console himself with the thought that, for one brief election cycle, he was pretty. Or at least pretty enough to get used by the Rethuglicans. Thanks, Al! posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 1:32:00 PM | Read it, folks Adrienne has a new column up at Austinmama.com - read it here. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 12:37:00 PM | Remember Whitley Strieber? Still a whackaloon. He's got a website, of course, which is where I found this: Chupacabras living in abandoned mines in Chile. Suuuuuuuure. Anything you say, boss. Edges away slowly, maintaining eye contact Strieber, if you may recall, popularized the concept of UFO Aliens as serial ass-rapers. He wasn't this first, by any stretch of the imagination, but it wasn't until his paean to alien butt-love that we really started hearing about how everyone that gets abducted gets their plumbing poked, if you know what I mean. Gotta wonder - how do the Greys deal with Santorum? posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:38:00 AM | Wit, an 't be thy will, put me into good fooling! Rob at About Pip (which you should be reading every day, dammit) has been posting every day quotes from Shakespeare linked to news articles (some creepily closely related tp the quote, others only tangentially). Here is today's latest, I urge you to go back and read 'em all. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:38:00 AM | Monday, February 02, 2004
Freeeeeeeeaky Gord found this, and it's seriously weird, folks. inter-Face posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 2:49:00 PM | Zero tolerance for zero tolerance A distressingly chilling article in Salon.com describing how so-called "zero-tolerance" policies in America's schools have primarily served to hurt families, destroy children and not really do much of anything else. It's Salon - watch an ad, read the article. Dustin Seal, then a high school senior, was expelled after authorities at his Knoxville, Tenn., high school found a 3-inch knife in his car. Even though the knife wasn't Dustin's, and even though the friend who'd left the knife in Dustin's car claimed responsibility for it, the administration didn't budge: Under the school's "zero tolerance" policy, every student found with a weapon on campus had to be expelled. Dustin became depressed and withdrawn after his expulsion, says his father, Dennis, a 58-year-old retired commercial contractor. "He would ask me constantly: When are they going to let me back in school with my friends? How can they take everything away from me when I've done nothing wrong?" The Seals sued the school district and took the case all the way to the Supreme Court, winning at every step. But by the time the court sent the case back to the local level for Dustin to claim damages, he was too exhausted to continue fighting. He settled for $30,000 in December of 2001. Six months later, Dustin spent a June day with his father shooting pool. He went home that night and repeatedly left messages on Dennis' answering machine while Dennis, sick in bed, slept in the next room: "It doesn't look like we're going to the bike show tomorrow, Dad, but I love you." "Dad -- goodbye." Then he drew a bath, got in the bathtub, stuck a pistol under his chin and pulled the trigger. He was 22 years old. This, like the Patriot Act and the internment of Japanese-Americans in WWII, is an example of how rules and legislation enacted in the aftermath of a tragedy almost never really serve to correct the problems they're intended to, and just spread a heavy dose of misery around. The problems that led to Columbine wouldn't have been resolved by a "Zero-tolerance" policy, just like as recently as last fall, someone was able to smuggle large numbers of box cutters and other doo-dads on to flights in the US to demonstrate how porous our airline security is. The purpose of our public schools is to educate our children inn a safe environment. These policies aren't making the schools safe, they're just locking out potential "troublemakers" from the education that is their right, and giving school board members some chops in the "Gittin' Tuff" category for reelection. Expelling a student for carrying midol, or for accidentally leaving a knife in his car, is like using an elephant gun to get rid of a mosquito. Hell, if these idiots want to do something to prevent school shootings, why don't they work harder to end bullying? I can tell you that the thought of blasting a hole in the chest of a bully was an appealing idea to me on more than one occasion. Had my parents been less supportive, or had I been less centered (a scary thought), it might have happened at Morningside Elementary in 1977. Just remember that in the next election, there's more than just president up for grabs. The know-nothings and neofascists are making bids for local offices, too. Throw all the bastards out, and maybe we can elect some folks with sense to formulate our school policies. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 1:49:00 PM | And now for something really useful Mosquito-borne virus targets cancerous tumors. In a recent study, researchers at New York University School of Medicine found that one mosquito-borne virus automatically targets and kills tumor cells in mice. Most importantly, it does so while leaving healthy cells alone, a feature that may make it a promising treatment for some forms of cancer. But, really, we shouldn't be wasting our money on pointless scientific research, when there's tax cuts to give. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 1:18:00 PM | Some info that might prove useful A visual guide to different types of farts. The Trumpet, also known as Air Pigeon, Butthole Blowout, Carpet Creeper, Fanny Beep, Flabbergaster, and Morning Thunder, is the most common fart people experience. The audible gas emission is much like a trumpet when properly applied to a surface, such as a chair or couch. The Trumpet produces a moderately unpleasant smell that floats about within a fairly confined area. The person responsible for releasing the Trumpet fart tends to be immune to its effects. When released in close proximity to others, it can be difficult to determine who has barking spiders. Please, folks - be careful! According to recent administration statements, this could be considered a "weapons of mass destruction related program" when combined with wrong-headed and foolish opposition to the policies of our current administration. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 1:12:00 PM | Sacré Misère! Merde sainte! From Morgaine:  You're Quebec. You're convinced that you are absolutely right on any issue. In your mind, your word is bond. But to make up for it, you're fiercely loyal and supportive of those you care about. But it wouldn't be bad thing to be more open-minded. What Canadian Province Are You? brought to you by Quizilla Vont maintenant les porc-chiens anglais partis et idiots, avant que je sois forcé au taunt vous une deuxième fois ! posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:12:00 AM | Sunday, February 01, 2004
Gaaaaah I'm currently taking an online driver safety course in order to get rid of a speeding ticket I received in November. As a general rule, I don't speed - I'm very conscious of the speed at which I drive, and don't want to deal with the hassle of possibly getting a ticket. This last November, though, I was in a hurry, wasn't thinking, stopped paying attention, and sure as shit, got a ticket. First one in over 6 years, too. In Texas, you're given the opportunity to pay a I don't think I'm going to learn anything new about safe driving from this - the purpose of the class is to punish you through boredom, so you don't want to deal with the hassle again. It's working, I can assure you. I'm just wishing I'd taken one of the classes outside the home, as this is too much like work. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 2:28:00 PM | |
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