The Republic of T.

I wasn’t tagged for this, but after coming across Jill’s post, I couldn’t resist.

Julian has tagged me with a meme: The five most embarrassing tracks on my iPod. His are pretty great/horrendous (I too remember feeling like a super-hardcore 7th grader for loving “NIN,” and I too went to several “DMB” concerts). But here’s the thing: I have tons of embarrassing music on my iPod, but the most embarrassing of the embarrassing comes from this dude who I’m currently hanging out with who has the worst taste in music possibly ever (he’s pretty sweet in just about every way, but looking at his iTunes makes me want to weep). So he may or may not have sent me songs not only by Hilary Duff, but also by JoJo and Jordin Sparks. Yeah. I also may or may not have put both songs on repeat and muted my computer so that it would look like I listened to both of them when I haven’t.

Oh boy. I have something like something like over 4,000 songs on my 30 GB video iPod. There’s plenty of embarrassing stuff there.

(more…)

I’m officially blaming it on gas prices, which probably isn’t too far off the mark. Metro ridership in D.C. is way up, and recently hit a new record.

Metro says it counted 854,638 riders on Friday, beating the old record by 4,000 passenger trips. Officials attribute the spike to a Washington Nationals baseball game, a Women of Faith Conference at the Verizon Center and tourists visiting the city.

So far, 20 of Metrorail’s top 25 highest ridership days in its 32-year history have been recorded this year. Many of the busiest days are generated by baseball games or big events like the Cherry Blossom Festival or the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

No wonder I can’t find a seat on the Metro. I used to let packed trains go by, because I could be almost certain that I would get a seat on the next train. That means I’d be able to take out the laptop and use that little bit of quiet time between work and home to catch up on some of the stuff I’ve been wanting to read.

But the trains are all crowded now, and by the time the third packed train goes by, I have to get on or get home late. So, what’s a guy to do?

(more…)

I’m somewhat disappointed.

60% Geek

Created by OnePlusYou

Perhaps I would have done better if I’d watched more Star Trek.

[Via Living the Scientific Life.]

• Pipes: Fetch Full Feed
  (tags: rss)

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for July 23rd from 07:59 to 15:15:

• Fresh Intelligence : Radar Online : 10 Greatest Moments In Heterosexuality – Inspired by Big-Not-Gay-Al and his insistent heterosexuality, we got to thinking about other heteros persisting in their hetero-ness in the face of similarly vicious rumors. A list of of our Top 10 Greatest Moments In Heterosexuality follows!
• MomLogic :: Are Schools Safe for Gay Kids? – Do you think mainstream schools can handle the growing gay teen population?
• PFLAG National Blog: Families on the Frontlines: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell . . . and Don’t be Transgender Either – Over 12,000 gay, lesbian and bisexual service men and women have been discharged under DA, DT. We may never know how many of those discharged were really transgender-identified people. We also don’t know how many transgender people who were discharged under DADT that did not get counted in the above number. We do know that some have been sent packing and DA, DT was the excuse the military used.
• GAYTWOGETHER: 10 Smart Things Gay Male Couples Can Teach Other Couples About Sexual Non-Monogamy – Here are 10 smart things Gay Couples can teach other couples about sexual monogamy versus non-monogamy.
• How Scores of Black Men Were Tortured Into Giving False Confessions by Chicago Police | Rights and Liberties | AlterNet – More than 20 years after being tortured into giving confessions by Chicago police officers, dozens of black men remain behind bars.
• Booman Tribune ~ Dead Black Man Tasered 9 Times by White Cop – As we all know, African American men are well known as dangerous, crack smoking criminal degenerates (and always have been) and Mr. Pikes was undoubtedly a very evil, evil man. Even so, I think Officer Nugent just may have gone above and beyond the call of duty when he electrocuted Mr. Spikes to death for the crime of not responding quickly enough to the good Officer's commands. Indeed, one can only wonder if Officer Nugent, under similar circumstances, would have tasered a white suspect who was handcuffed and in his custody 9 fucking times in 14 goddamn minutes.
• Another Bigot Claims a First Amendment “Right Not to Work” – To review: In the absence of some legislative abomination, there is no right of government employees, who owe their livelihood to taxpayers, to claim a plenary “religious exemption” from one’s duties. If you find your job offensive, then you have one and only natural right: the right to quit.
• International Campaign Against Honour Killings – Was Ahmet Yildiz the victim of Turkey’s first gay honour killing? – In a corner of Istanbul today, the man who might be described as Turkey's gay poster boy will be buried – a victim, his friends believe, of the country's deepening friction between an increasingly liberal society and its entrenched conservative traditions.
• Online Adoption Agency Denies Service to Gays | AlterNet – The adoption website is brazenly violating anti-discrimination laws.
• TPMCafe | Talking Points Memo | Political Communities and ‘The Fringe’ – What happens to political minorities in communities with large political majorities? They shut up. At book club or in church, they cut short any conversation bordering on politics

I posted earlier about the isle of Lesbos suing entire lesbian sisterhood for exclusive rights to the word “lesbian.” Well, it looks like we can all breath a little easier. The court ruled that the folks who live on Lesbos don’t own the word “lesbian.”

A Greek court Tuesday ruled that a gay rights group can use the word lesbian in its name, stating that the people from the island of Lesbos do not have sole claim to the word, Reuters reported.

A group from the Aegean island filed a lawsuit in June against the Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece, claiming its name was an affront to the residents of Lesbos, who refer to themselves as Lesbians. A Greek court ruled against the islanders.

That’s a relief. Because you know if the court had ruled the other way, somebody would be going to court to “take back” “gay,” “queer,” and anything else they could come up with, and we’d be busted back down to “Urnings,” or some such.

By the time a good idea makes it to Congress — and actually gets some serious consideration — it is no longer an idea whose time has come, but one whose time is way overdue. Such is the case as Congress takes up the issue of CEO pay, while staring in the face yet another expensive, and all but inevitable, taxpayer-financed corporate bailout.

Democrats and Republicans queasy about a federal rescue of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are coalescing around the idea of letting the government slap limits on the multimillion-dollar pay packages of their executives.

Seems reasonable, at a time when the government — with funds provided by you and me — is stepping in with a bailout that could cost upwards of $25 billion, and even $100 billion. It seems even more reasonable when considered alongside the reality that Freddie Mac’s CEO made around $19.8 million in compensation even after the company’s stock lost half its value. Fannie Mae’s CEO didn’t do so bad either, with a $12.2 million paycheck and a $2.2 million bonus.

(more…)

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for July 21st through July 22nd:

• Blog Pimping, or: Who Do You Want to Delight? | 43 Folders – For myself, I think there’s nothing wrong with having a blog and wanting to make money with it. Obviously. But I also hold an increasingly old-fashioned view that you ought to start with something you’re passionate about sharing with people — something besides how to make easy money with a blog — and try to build an audience of people you respect based on producing work you’re happy with or even proud of.
• Big Contrarian → Tacky. – Despite the utter-bullshit so much of Anderson’s long tail has proven to be, the core idea that everything finds an audience should be held up and remembered. Clung to fastidiously; A life raft for the ignored, for the invisible. If you’re worth reading, someone will read you. If you’re worth watching, someone will watch you. If you’re worth hearing, someone will listen.
• Open Left:: Wedgie! – In 2009, Obama and Democrats in Congress should move to repeal the ban on homosexuals openly serving in the military by passing legislation to reform the uniform code. Overwhelming public opinion like this will make passing such reform possible, and also result in driving a wedge right down the middle of the Republican coalition.
• GlenScorgie.com » Does Gay Marriage Threaten the Gospel? – The California Supreme Court has decided that gay couples should be allowed to wed. The decision went into effect last month (June 2008). Not surprisingly many of my fellow evangelicals are up in arms. Does gay marriage threaten the proclamation of the Gospel? Some are claiming that it does. I doubt it.
• Truemors :: If Money Talks, Isaiah Washington Supports Gay Marriage – Doing a 180 since homophobic comments got him ousted from Grey’s Anatomy, Isaiah Washington reportedly gave his support to gay marriage when the show’s former publicist, Chuck O’Donnell, tied the knot with his partner

Has this ever happened to you? You’re watching television, or maybe it’s on in the background while you do something else (yes, I’m one of those people), and you’ve got the television volume at a comfortable level; loud enough to hear, but not loud enough to shatter eardrums. The program-already-in-progress goes into a commercial break, and the next thing you know some guy is screaming at you to buy OxyClean or some such, causing you to jump about three feet before you dive for the remote, to turn the volume down (only to have to turn it back up again when the show starts.)

Well, Congress may finally do something about it.

No matter what you think you’ve heard, TV commercials really don’t get louder than the programs they accompany.

Production tricks only make them sound like they do. It’s called “inconsistent” or “perceived” loudness. Perceived or not, the problem likely will get worse with digital television.

The annoyance is real enough that U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo is making a federal case of it. Fed up to her ears at being blasted off the couch by commercials, the California Democrat introduced a bill in Congress called CALM — the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act. It would require the Federal Communications Commission to set standards to keep commercials from running at louder volume than the shows around them. A similar rule in England takes effect next month.

“There’s been a shockingly lot of reaction,” said Eshoo aide Jason Mahler, who noted that the bill quickly picked up nine co-sponsors. “It’s all been favorable.”

This has been somewhere near the bottom of my “There Oughta Be a Law” file for a while now, but I’d love to see it passed. Anna, why not slip it quietly (get it) into some “must pass” funding legislation?

I guess I have to admit that I have been drawn in by the Washington Post’s series on the 2001 disappearance/death of Chandra Levy. I’ve been reading each installment as they are published. It’s likeI can’t help it. Before Natalie Holloway, before Elizabeth Smart, before Kristin Smart, before Laci Peterson, before Laurie Hacking, before the Runaway Bride, there was — at least here in D.C. (I don’t know how the story played elsewhere)— there was Chandra Levy.

It’s long since turned into a syndrome. It has several names, and one rather of them popular. I have my own name from it, taken from a scene in Scary Movie.

White Woman in Trouble!

A pretty high school student, knowing the killer is close to breaking through her bedroom door, calls 911 on her PC. Her eyes wide and her heart pounding, she types in her message: “White woman in trouble!” In an instant, her suburban driveway is crowded with cruisers, sirens shrieking and lights flashing, and her wouldabeen slayer is beating a hasty retreat.

And Eugene Robinson has the best working definition.

Someday historians will look back at America in the decade bracketing the turn of the 21st century and identify the era’s major themes: Religious fundamentalism. Terrorism. War in Iraq. Economic dislocation. Bioengineering. Information technology. Nuclear proliferation. Globalization. The rise of superpower China.

And, of course, Damsels in Distress.

But of course the damsels have much in common besides being female. You probably have some idea of where I’m headed here.

A damsel must be white. This requirement is nonnegotiable. It helps if her frame is of dimensions that breathless cable television reporters can credibly describe as “petite,” and it also helps if she’s the kind of woman who wouldn’t really mind being called “petite,” a woman with a good deal of princess in her personality. She must be attractive — also nonnegotiable. Her economic status should be middle class or higher, but an exception can be made in the case of wartime (see: Lynch).

Put all this together, and you get 24-7 coverage. The disappearance of a man, or of a woman of color, can generate a brief flurry, but never the full damsel treatment. Since the Holloway story broke we’ve had more news reports from Aruba this past week, I’d wager, than in the preceding 10 years.

The damsel— the “White Woman in Trouble” — thanks to the Post, is back.

(more…)

Not sure if this is going to be a series or not, but sometimes I wonder why — when someone says something with so much obviously wrong with it — no one seems to ask the obvious question. For example, Bill O’Reilly:

On Saturday, former Vice President Al Gore made a surprise appearance at the Netroots Nation convention in Austin, TX. In his speech, Gore praised the gathering of progressives, saying that they are part of an effort to “reclaim the integrity of American democracy.”

While the attendees of Netroots Nation received Gore with enthusiasm, his appearance has caused Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly to declare that Gore has “gone off the deep end.”

On his radio show today, O’Reilly claimed that Gore was now associating himself with the most “hateful group in the country.” “And I’m including the Nazis and the Klan in here,” said O’Reilly.” He then claimed that attending Netroots Nation was “the same as if he stepped into the Klan gathering.”

I haven’t seen anyone asking the obvious question: How exactly does Bill O’Reilly know what a Klan gathering looks like, let alone what it’s like to step into one?

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for July 21st from 14:13 to 15:11:

• Feministe » Foul Festering Rot At The Heart Of America – There is a foul festering rotten core at the heart of the American polity. This core is comprised of pure undiluted hatred: for women, for anyone of non-European origins, for foreigners, for non-Christians, for “intellectual elites”, for pretty much everyone. This core has its roots in American slavery and has existed as a defining element of our polity since the Founding.
• Nine Reasons to Investigate War Crimes Now | Rights and Liberties | AlterNet – Despite the reluctance to open what many see as a can of worms, there are fresh moves on many fronts to hold top U.S. officials accountable for war crimes.
• Jill Sobule: Give Me Credit – I pay for music. I use iTunes…a lot. It's just too easy, and I can do it from the iPhone. But you would think that for $0.99 along with the song you could also get information on, not only who the composer of the particular song is, but also on the musicians, producer, and yes, being the geek I am, the engineer. Oh… and I want the lyrics. I love to read them as I hear a song for the first time.
• Jayne Lyn Stahl: “Whole and Separate” – How dare any government, state or federal, to force its way between a woman and her doctor, and transform medical practitioners into cops with scripts in their ongoing surge of ideology.
• Jamal Dajani: Seven Tips to Obama – Here are seven recommendations that Obama's team of 300 advisors might have missed.
• Wayne Besen: Extremist Makeover – With great irony, the man who made his living by revealing the glorious gay past was quietly reinventing his own personal history. He had allegedly given up sex with men and was rapidly moving towards Orthodox Judaism.
• Rob Harper: The ‘N’ Word is Never Acceptable – Buzz up! * Share * Print View * Comments No matter what any one says, whether they are black or white or even God himself (not that he would use the word), it is never, ever OK to use the 'N' word.
• Op-Ed Columnist – It’s the Economic Stupidity, Stupid – Op-Ed – NYTimes.com – Mr. McCain still doesn’t understand that we can’t send troops to Afghanistan unless they’re shifted from Iraq. But simple math, to put it charitably, has never been his forte. When it comes to the central front of American anxiety — the economy — his learning curve has flat-lined
• Talking Points Memo | Did He Really Just Do That? – The Reuters piece hints at it. But if Obama is going to be in Iraq this weekend, this is a major breach on McCain's part. As a knowledgeable insider notes …
• Is America too big to fail? – International Herald Tribune – Since World War II, the United States has been the center of global finance, and it has used that position to virtually dictate the conditions under which many other nations – particularly developing countries – can get access to capital. Letting weak companies fail has been high on the list.

My previous posts on the Supreme Court overturning the D.C. gun ban stirred up more debate than I expected, second amendment rights being pretty far outside the realm of issues I usually cover. (Interestingly enough, it’s sparked quite a discussion over at Bilerico, which focuses mainly on LGBT-related issues.) So, why not continue? Especially since some people have come forward and answered the question I asked at the end of the last post.

I don’t pretend to know, and the suggestions above are nearly ridiculous (but in one case, very real) extremes. So, I’ll ask the same question I asked before that I don’t remember being answered: to gun rights advocates, what would you consider to be “reasonable” gun laws?

Well. When I saw this story, I wanted to add it to the mix. After all, states are already dealing with the question of whether felons should have the right to vote. It may not be the intention of the court, or the intention of the people who filed the suit to overturn D.C.’s gun law, but now felons are suing for the right to own firearms.

(more…)

• With Bullying, Suicide Risk for Victims and Tormentors – Well – Tara Parker-Pope – Health – New York Times Blog
  Compared to other kids, a child who bullies may be at two to nine times higher risk for suicide, according to the study.
  (tags: bullying)
• When your kid can start making his bed
  (tags: parenting)
• Zeer | Consumer reviews for healthy eating, organic food and green products.
  (tags: community food nutrition)
• Patient Voices – Bipolar Disorder – Interactive Feature – NYTimes.com
  What is it like to have bipolar disorder? To be labeled “crazy”? How do you balance the ups and downs? Here, in their own words, are the stories of nine men and women living with bipolar disorder.
  (tags: bipolar mentalhealth)
• 10+ Sites for Product Reviews from Experts and Consumers
  (tags: reviews shopping)
• MCPL: Articles from Magazines and Newspapers
  (tags: research)

I don’t know if these two bloggers were on the same wavelength or what, but I did a doubletake when I saw was looked like high heels for babies over at I Blame the Patriarcy.

A glance at the website reveals a link to an Entertainment Tonight article describing the crib shoes (wait, crib shoes? Why does a bedridden infant need shoes?) as “made from soft, flexible fabrics with a collapsible heel and are not intended for walking.”

The pair of women sexopreneurs who invented the infant fuckme pumps chap the Twisty hide in many ways. Forget about the obvious antifeminist implications of infant pornulation for a second; what’s with the repellent adult pastime of casting children in the role of joke-butts? Warning, says the website, these Heelarious shoes “May cause extreme smiling and hysterical laughter when in use (this is completely normal).”

Normal! Man, what is wrong with people? Why does everybody think it’s okay to openly jeer and laugh at kids? Do they think the tots just don’t notice that they are perennial objects of mockery? Last Halloween, at the neighborhood cul-de-sac trick-or-treat party (or what I like to call the Barton Creek Toddler Burlesque), my 4-year-old niece Rotel flat-out refused to wear her elaborately cute costume. It was obvious that she just didn’t want to make a spectacle of herself for the amusement of the drunk adults. Much consternation ensued. Rotel was seriously in violation of some primal code of childhood conduct when she dared to expect that she could collect candy without putting on Hilarious Kid Drag. She was robustly critiqued for having had the temerity to assert personal bodily sovereignty in the face of patriarchal tradition. I am happy to report that she prevailed in the end, but it was clear from the reaction of the neighbors that they considered her strange, and I don’t believe for a second that the kid won’t carry deep emotional scars for life. Probably she will turn to a life of crime.

Now, according to the website, the shoes are not meant for kids older than six months, and not meant for walking. (They collapse if any weight is put on them.) But come on, people!

I mean, first of all, don’t sentence your daughter to a life of corns and bunions. Take it from me, I’ve worn high heels. (Yes, I’ve done drag. Deal with it) They are not meant for the human foot. Even wearing them for a few hours did a number on my feet for a while.

Second, can we just let children be children, please? Sure, a little girl (or little boy, for that matter) might try on mommy’s (or daddy’s) pumps, and it’s cute. But putting these on a baby? There’s a point at which we need to start questioning people’s sanity. What’s next? Pimp and Ho costumes for Halloween?

As for the rest, see Habladora’s post for a larger discussion.

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for July 18th from 15:10 to 16:55:

• Street Prophets: Why Doesn’t The Religious Left Get Heard? – It's not as though people aren't exposed to non-crazy-right-wing religion in their local settings, and if you ask most religious people, they even hold mostly non-insane political beliefs. So why don't people realize that there is such a thing as religion not subservient to the GOP?
• Gay Adoption « Deanna’s Ramblings – It’s really about giving kids good, stable homes where they are loved. Gay people have been having kids. Some of those kids have problems, sure. So do the kids of straights. The vast majority of kids raised by gay and straight families turn out to be happy, well-adjusted, productive members of society. Isn’t that what it’s all about?
• Feministe » Gender Policing Hurts Kids – According to research published in the journal Sex Roles, kids who’s parents over-correct “… gender atypical behavior (GAB) i.e. behavior traditionally considered more typical for children of the opposite sex” are at greater risk of developing adverse adult psychiatric symptoms.
• Worcester Telegram & Gazette News – What happened almost two years ago still bitterly divides the town of Kearny, a community of about 41,000 that’s located across the Passaic River from Newark. It also has provided further fodder in the long-running debate about the role of religion in public classrooms.
• Dispatches from the Culture Wars: Why Pan-Religious Cooperation Could be Bad – I'm just not inclined to accept lectures about ethics from a brutal dictator whose regime beheads people for being of the wrong religion, puts gay people to death and has roving gangs (they call them police) whose job is to beat women who leave the house unattended by a male relative.
• Box Turtle Bulletin » Today In History: The APA Says No – In fact, it was forty-five years ago today that the American Psychological Association declined to meet with the Mattachine Society to discuss the work of Evelyn Hooker, which demonstrated that gays and lesbians who weren’t patients of mental health professionals were indistinguishable from heterosexuals.

Let’s face it, we’ve known for a while now that the president — and most, if not all, of his administration — has a hostile relationship with reality.

In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn’t like about Bush’s former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House’s displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn’t fully comprehend — but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

The aide said that guys like me were ”in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who ”believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ”That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. ”We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

So, while I don’t fully agree with the Dalai Lama’s assessment of Bush’s grasp on reality, I think he’s pretty much on the mark.

The Dalai Lama, in a lecture in Philadelphia today, told a group of about 2,000,

Things are not black and white. Things are relative. Things are interdependent. When we look at a situation we have to consider all the factors.

Many world disasters, including war, including the Iraq war, are due to lack of this holistic nature (looking at all the factors.) Like Saddam Hussein– ending things for him. “Reality is not that simple.

Of course, I have great respect for, in fact, I love President Bus, because he is very frank, very straightforward. His intentions are good, but some of his policy in spite of his sincere motivation and right goal, and some of his method becomes unrealistic because of lack of understanding about reality.

He went on to explain,

“You cannot look in one direction. In order to see reality, (you) have to see in three or four or seven dimensions” and that this applies in the economical field, political field and international relations.”

Bush had good intentions? OK. I guess I’m not feeling quite that generous towards him right now, but I can’t quite convince myself that the man meant well.

The rest? I can’t argue with it.

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for July 17th through July 18th:

• Dr. Judith Rodin: The Post-Social Contract Generation – Almost half of America's youngest workers believe the nation's best days may have come and gone.
• American inequality highlighted by 30-year gap in life expectancy – Americas, World – The Independent – Despite an almost cult-like devotion to the belief that unfettered free enterprise is the best way to lift Americans out of poverty, the report points to a rigged system that does little to lessen inequalities.
• TPMCafe | Talking Points Memo | The Idiocy of Deregulation – Okay, markets are really useful in many places; but the ideological propaganda that weakening regulation on powerful economic actors will help consumers has been proven wrong time and again– the recent subprime mortgage meltdown only being one example.
• Top 10 Religions You Never Knew Existed – The List Universe – eligion has existed since man’s first thought, and this list probably illustrates that it is unlikely to go away anytime soon. So here is a list of 10 religions that you (probably) never knew existed.
• A Straight Shooter – The big day at last! I can own a handgun in D.C. But am I ready? Where does my mind have to be to acquire such a thing? Why do I feel somewhat queasy about the whole process? What do I need to know about the mind-set of the responsible gun owner?
• Martin Bosworth: Reverse Robin Hood: Stealing From the Poor to Give to the Rich – I think the economic collapse we're seeing now has stirred something in the somnolent American consciousness. A realization that for true capitalism to work, there has to be a balance of free enterprise and accountable oversight.
• Truthdig – Reports – ‘Centrists’ Running the Asylum – So, the undebatable evidence tells us precisely where the center of public opinion is. Yet when a presidential candidate moves away from the center, we are told he is moving toward it. What gives?
• The Do-It-Yourself Economy | AlterNet – The axis of this evil isn't really globalization, it's privatization. Consider all the major jobs that have now become part of our personal portfolio.
• Obama as Sex Symbol – Enter Barack Obama, loosening up on the basketball court between campaign stops–"Swish." If politically he now appears to be not substantively different from any other neoliberal, as a sex symbol he is the new man. New, most plainly, because in his mingled blood those born since 1980 or so can see their future lovers and children, if they don't already see themselves.
• Straight Talk About Gay Adoption « Obalesque – Why doesn’t he come out and say that like most Americans of his ancient generation, he’s acutely uncomfortable around “queers” and wants them to fade back into the shadows, if not die off, and hopes that Real Red Meat Rock Ribbed Americans respect him for his outspokenness and vote his ass into the White House?

And nobody came? This was apparently the case with the D.C. gun registry, following the Supreme Court decision.

With the ban lifted after a momentous, years-long legal battle that led to the landmark high court decision last month, here’s how many applications the city received by day’s end: one.

Bracing for a crowd at the registration office, at police headquarters on Indiana Avenue NW, officials set up a reception counter in the lobby and used portable metal railings to reserve one of the building’s entrances for “gun registry applicants.” Officers stood guard at the door, and a dozen reporters and TV cameras were waiting expectantly at 7 a.m., when the registration process was to begin.

But in the eight hours that the office remained open, there was no crush of people eager to avail themselves of the newly affirmed right to own a revolver in the nation’s capital. Police gave out 58 registration packets to people stopping by for the materials. But only two people showed up to apply to register handguns, and one was turned away by police officials because he didn’t bring his weapon with him, as the registration rules require.

And the beauty part?

(more…)

• Crapware: Superior Alternatives to Crappy Windows Software
  (tags: lifehacker firefox)