Category: Uncategorized

I was very interested in the post from Gay Prof last month about gay marriage. One of the things he wrote: “What concerns me is that the discussion of same-sex marriage is largely being shaped without our input.”

My heterocentric (is that the word I want?) self was a bit surprised to read that. People I know, including a member of a lesbian couple who is at the heart of a legal challenge by 44 couples suing for equal protection under the law. Elissa (in the picture on the left with partner Lynne) works for a local library.

Yet, I do recognize that well-meaning people DO assume what is best for others, not understanding how patronizing it can be. (I suspect men do this to women more than occasionally, e.g.)

So, I’m really curious:

1. To you, the idea of gay marriage is:
a) an anathema to all that is good and holy
b) a plot by breeders to make gays “be like them”
c) going too far, but those domestic partner arrangements are good enough
d) an idea whose time has come
e) irrelevant, because marriage is just a statist construct anyway

I choose d.

2. If gay marriage is allowed, how, if at all, will it affect heterosexual marriage? The suggestion that gay marriage will somehow threaten to destroy “the family” as we know it mystifies me. I must be rather thick, because I just don’t get it.

3. A local story that has caught my interest is this one: Empire Blue Cross insurance policy covers the domestic partner of a same-sex couple but not an opposite-sex couple. The complainant notes: “Empire’s own standards for domestic partner requirements — as posted on the company’s Web site — were the same for opposite-sex or same-sex couples. He said this policy was discrimination.” Presumably, Empire’s rationale is that opposite-sex couples could, if they chose to, get married, while same-sex couples don’t yet have that legal right.

How do you feel about this case? Does giving domestic partner insurance to opposite sex partners threaten marriage? I’m ambivalent, for I see Empire’s point, yet, based on the application of law, I think they’re wrong legally. Moreover, I’m in favor of getting closer to a universal health plan, and domestic partnerships, for either gay or straight couples, works in that direction.

BONUS: What makes a good marriage? And/Or: What makes a marriage work?

My answer: Compromise, but not on core values. That you share those core values.

We don’t get a lot of earthquakes, as they do in California. I’ve felt only two in New York in my life, both 5.1 with the epicenter far north of here, in 1983 and 2002. (See page 29 of the PDF.)

We can get tornados, but we’re not in the alley that lies in Midwest.

We’re not in the desert Southwest, where brushfires threaten homes.

We’re not along the Mississippi River’s flood plain, which devastated homes in the 1990s, although there can be localized flooding.

While we had 26 inches of snow in a March 1993 storm (and more in a March 1888 event, but I wasn’t around then), a lot of the snowstorms tends to go off the coast in recent years. The lake effect snow that sometimes hits the area from Buffalo to Syracuse, and especially north of Syracuse, usually doesn’t reach this far east.

And we’re not in the Gulf Coast or the southeast Atlantic Coast, where hurricanes are likely to strike.

All those conversations about whether to rebuild, from SF in 1906 to NO in 2005, just haven’t applied.

So it was disappointing to learn that in the 2006 hurricane season, which officially started yesterday, not only is likely to be as intense as the 2005 season, but also that it is much more likely to strike the Northeast. Now I’m 150 miles from NYC, so it probably won’t hit us directly, as it might in Long Island (where the major insurers are REFUSING to offer any more flood insurance). I remember, though how a major storm (I’m thinking Andrew in 1992, though it may have been Hugo in 1989) can really pack a punch, even inland.

Actually, the strangest weather pattern I ever experienced in Albany is something called a derecho. No, I’d never heard of it before either. On July 15, 1995, I was awakened by a wind that felt as though it would shatter the glass of my bedroom window. It passed through, but not before knocking down a bunch of trees in nearby Washington Park. Elsewhere, it toppled a tree that nearly killed a member of the church I then attended.

This is a sports movie. By that, I mean there are conventions that the movie inevitably takes, such as the “big game” at the end. Yet I ended up being quite taken by the story. A lot of that I’d credit the young actress Keke Palmer, who’s so convincing you’d think this was a documentary rather than a drama. Angela Bassett, as her mother and especially, Laurence Fishburne as her coach were particularly effective, though one scene with pupil and coach got dangerously close to treacle. Fishburne also served as one of the producers.

Very effective as the father of Akeelah’s chief competitor was Tzi Ma, who you might have seen on “Commander in Chief” or “24” this past season, although I wondered about the stereotype of the very competitive Asian kid.

I was briefly taken out of the movie when I saw Eddie Steeples as a street thug. It’s not his fault that Carol and I looked at each other and thought ” ‘Crabman’ from ‘My Name Is Earl’!”

What is it about the spelling bee that has made it so compelling recently? First, there was the 2002 documentary Spellbound, not to be confused with the Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name. then there was last year’s Bee Season. On Broadway, the Tony Award-winning production is playing in Schenectady (in this metro area) next spring.

Early in the movie, Akeelah is watching the National Spelling Bee finals on ESPN. This year, tonight in fact, the semifinals are on on ESPN (noon-3pm, EDT), but the finals will be live on ABC (8-10 pm, EDT). We have a rooting interest, a girl from one of the school district in which Carol teaches

So, I haven’t had time to read a lot of stuff on the Internet; heck, I’ve barely had time to post. Even when I do see interesting stuff, I haven’t had time to comment on it. So these are a few things that struck my fancy in the last couple weeks, in no particular order:

Comic book artist Alex Toth died recently. If you’ve never heard of him, it is very likely you’ve seen his work. Read about him here and here and here and here and here (May 28) and here, but, annoyingly, not here.

Serene, who BTW put together a lovely CD compilation, wrote a review of the CD I put together, and only gave me a 9 out of 10. Just for that, I’m adding her to my blogroll.

Friend Judy’s personal fundraiser page for the National Kidney Foundation, in anticipation of a walk this coming weekend.

Greg’s reading about baseball.

America’s identity theft capital is Maricopa County, AZ, which includes Phoenix, though they’re TRYING to combat it.

Lefty wanted to know if we do math equations. Gee, I do them all the time. Halving or quadrupling a recipe is a math equation. So is figuring out the floor plan for my office space where an inch equals a foot. More than that, I do square root with pencil and paper, just to keep my mind sharp.
And I make equations out of license plates; I try to find the lowest common denominator. Since most license plates are letter heavy, I assign numerical values to some letters. First, the Roman numerals. If I need more, I might use 13 for B (mush the numbers together), 3 for E (backwards computer lettering), 100 for K (kilo), 10 for O, 5 for S, 25 for W (V times V) and 2 for Z.

Even China Daily talked about American Idol, with one picture of the two finalists, and one large picture of the runner-up by herself.

If you have set yourself on fire, do not run.

If you spot terrorism, blow your anti-terrorism whistle. If you are Vin Diesel, yell really loud.

If you spot a terrorist arrow, pin it against the wall with your shoulder.

If you are sprayed with an unknown substance, stand and think about a cool design for a new tattoo.

Use your flashlight to lift the walls right off of you!

The proper way to eliminate smallpox is to wash with soap, water and at least one(1) armless hand.

Michael Jackson is a terrorist. If you spot this smooth criminal with dead, dead eyes, run the hell away.

Hurricanes, animal corpses and your potential new tattoo have a lot in common. Think about it.

Be on the lookout for terrorists with pinkeye and leprosy. Also, they tend to rub their hands together manically.

If a door is closed, karate chop it open.

Try to absorb as much of the radiation as possible with your groin region. After 5 minutes and 12 seconds, however, you may become sterile.

After exposure to radiation it is important to consider that you may have mutated to gigantic dimensions: watch your head.

If you’ve become a radiation mutant with a deformed hand, remember to close the window. No one wants to see that s***.

If you hear the Backstreet Boys, Michael Bolton or Yanni on the radio, cower in the corner or run like hell.

If your lungs and stomach start talking, stand with your arms akimbo until they stop.

If you are trapped under falling debris, conserve oxygen by not farting.

If you lose a contact lens during a chemical attack, do not stop to look for it.

Do not drive a stations wagon if a power pole is protruding from the hood.

A one-inch thick piece of plywood should be sufficient protection against radiation.