Monthly Archives: March 2004

Rats.

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Two Setbacks for Advocates of Same-Sex Marriage

BOSTON, March 11 — In near-simultaneous setbacks to advocates of same-sex marriage, Massachusetts legislators gave preliminary approval this afternoon to a state amendment banning gay marriages while the California Supreme Court ordered the City of San Francisco to halt gay marriages.

Phooey.

If Cook County decides to start issuing licenses, I happen to know that the Sparrow’s Nest thrift store recently received a shipment of one hundred wedding dresses.

Come on, David Orr! Come on, Cook County! Time to step up to the plate.

Think on the camp potential there, ladies and ladies and gentlemen and gentlemen. It would be an organza extravaganza.

What Will Al’s Fans Be Called?

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It appears Al Franken is a little closer to bringing his talk/satirical commentary show to the talk-radio airwaves – supposedly a 31MAR start date for broadcasts from Chicago (yay!) and a few other cities. In the mean time, This Is The Shit has reserved a nice domain for him.

And Sue Ellicott is involved – isn’t she the one on “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” who never wins the news quiz, but always has a funny answer anyway? This could be fun.

Now Al – Please, please, please make it available via the Internet. And please not using Real Networks or something that requires a special download for everyone. Theng kew.

Suggested names for Al’s fans: Frankenzanies?

We now return you to your regularly scheduled websurfing.

?Porque?

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Has anyone ever sat down with a terrorist and asked them “why?” What was the answer? How could anything so horrific as bombing commuter trains, or blowing up embassies, or shooting children in the back from a safe distance possibly be justified? Maybe Danny Pearl tried, and look what happened to him.

How could acts of carnage be for the glory of God, or the glory of one’s homeland, or the glory of political ideology? It’s not glory at all, but infamy.

The world turns its attention, briefly, to this tragedy. Unfortunately, the entire planet is afflicted with ADD and sensory overload, so this horrific act will soon be replaced by some new outrage.

Is that the point? Getting the entire world to focus, however briefly, on horror?

There are still questions as to who is “responsible” for Madrid’s sorrow, because just now at Reuters.com a Basque/ETA spokesman insisted that it was not ETA’s operation. He blames, naturally, Al Qaeda (international scapegoats of mystery).

Easy enough for him to say, but there are likely splits and factions in the ETA, and he doesn’t actually speak for all of them. On the other hand, could there be a connection between the Madrid attacks and the threats to France’s rail system earlier in the week?

Lots of questions, unlikely there’ll be answers.

Get On The Bus

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Seen at Clack: Log Cabin Republicans challenge Bush on marriage

The group’s move, which shatters the fragile alliance between the president and his strongest backers in the gay community, could undermine efforts to renew the “compassionate conservative” appeal he used four years ago.

The ad shows Cheney in the 2000 vice presidential debate, saying of gay marriage: “People should be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to enter into. . . . That matter is regulated by the states. I think different states are likely to come to different conclusions, and that’s appropriate. I don’t think there should necessarily be a federal policy in this area.”

The on-screen tag line says: “We Agree. Don’t Amend the Constitution.”

You know, it bothers me that an amendment that curtails the rights of some citizens is somewhat likely to pass because it’s “approved” by the Religious Right, but an amendment that guarantees rights to all citizens was not passed owing to its being “not approved” by same.

Specifically, the Equal Rights Amendment. Remember that? It was stopped because it was not passed (or hopelessly stalled) in just 15 states (shame! shame! Boo!). Back in the day, “the charch” sent busloads of women all through the Western states protesting the ERA. It was not unlike the orchestrated and carefully choreographed “spontaneous popular demonstrations” from the old days in Communist countries, except with matronly LDS women armed with box lunches and buttons. There may have been other fundamentalist groups that sent busloads of sheep to baaadmouth the ERA in demonstrations, I just remember feeling ashamed that I was from Utah, where most of the busloads were from (at the time I was living in Oregon).

Well, maybe there need to be some busloads of drag queens and leatherfolk and otherwise ordinary looking gay people driving around protesting this Anti-Gay Marriage amendment. I hope there’s room on the bus for straight sympathizers like me.

Oh, and please let it be called Priscilla, Queen of the Desert?

Little Pink Sock: Anti Head-Explody Mantra

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When things get stressful at work, repeat Mooch’s mantra:

“Little Pink Sock, little pink sock.”

I don’t know why I find this so soothing, but when it’s little pink sock day at Muttscomics, I’ll forget my troubles and be the kitty for a moment with my beloved l’il pink sock. I’ll even sing it under my breath.

Be the kitty. Mmmm. It helps to keep my head from exploding.

For example, today’s the first day that just about everyone on my team at work is using Lotus Notes for email instead of a web-based email package. I hated the former email client they used, because for the technically non-savvy (and we’re talking on the level of “my blinky is stuck” remember), it’s a terrible product. Mostly because the TNS folks are very link-dependent, and for some reason in this particular package, the links to their inboxes were constantly getting corrupted and had to be rebuilt. Also, they were constantly messing up their passwords and getting locked out (actually, a small minority did this, but the same few people multiple times), so I was frequently sending “please reset password for user Cluefrieda Myblynkistock” emails to the tech support desk. Note: for the technically savvy, it’s not a bad product, but a bit funny about links, so you get used to typing a partial URL into the browser and letting it autocomplete its way to your inbox.

Next week I get to send the tech request to blow away all the IDs for the old email package. I can’t wait. Especially as it’s Hat Week next week, and I plan on wearing something really silly in honor of Spring, and also Blowing Away Those Damn IDs.

Okay, so now they’re all on Lotus. I’ve been on Lotus now for about 2 1/2 years or more, so I’m used to it (not that I love it – I’m simply not as frustrated with it as I was in the beginning).

The question of the day, of course, is:

“Red?? I can’t get to the Internet?”…

…because most of them don’t realize that email and webpages are actually two different Internet applications (actually, did you know that webpages ARE “the Internet?”)

So for those few, those pycho, those totally cluefree members of my team, I will be repeatedly telling them to “click on the blue E” to get to “the Internet.” Forever, probably.

::deep, cleansing breath::

Little pink sock, little pink sock…

Too Bizarre for Movie of the Week

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Jan Broberg Felt’s story could be pitched as a movie, and it would be turned down for not being believable. She was abducted twice as a child by the same man, and was brainwashed by him both times.

Now 41 years old, she was about to speak and sign copies of her book at a recent women’s conference in Utah when her now-elderly former abductor tried to crash the meeting. Although he was prevented from entering and confronting her, he ran someone over with his van and was arrested.

She’s now an actress who has a recurring character on “Everwood.”

I tried to figure out why he’s so obsessed with her… it appears to be religious kookery-based. He thinks he has some kind of divine right. Weird.