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HaHa
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Mar. 27th, 2009 @ 11:52 am
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Obama keeps exceeding my (admittedly rather jaded) expectations. With a speech that managed to be both articulate and genuinely moving, the newly-minted President really helped paint a picture of hope - hope for an administration that might actually be good; instead of merely exceeding the unprecedentedly low bar set by #43. Although not necessarily indicative of any greater policy expertise, the stark contrast in oratorical skills between Obama and Bush helped transform mere political ritual into an emotionally resonant moment that will prove to be a historical and cultural inflection point. I hope.
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I wish I could mix a little more surprise into my disappointment about the Proposition 8's passage. I read all the pro-prop 8 material on the major supporting websites and just couldn't find any justification for voting yes on Prop 8 other than:
A) Religiously-motivated bigotry,
or
B) Ignorant knee-jerk responses to intellectually lazy fear-mongering.
If people think homosexuality is wrong enough to legislatively stigmatize and penalize gay unions vs. heterosexual unions (rather than use their 1st amendment rights to try and convince gays how wrong their sexual impulses are), then just own up and admit it. Stop trying to cloak the issue with pseudo-historical appeals to tradition and "think of the children!" scare tactics. I hear over and over from religious people (in person and in the media) complaints about being labeled as hate-promulgating bigots. Well, the message from the pro-prop 8 crowd to gays is that the relationships they are in are morally wrong, that they are inherently worse parents than heterosexual couples (including infertile couples who are just as incapable of producing biological offspring), and that these offenses are so grave that they are probably going to suffer eternal damnation and torment for committing them. What's more offensive - to be called mean and prejudiced, or to be told that your entire lifestyle, relationships and feelings are intrinsically evil and you're going to hell?
If the biggest argument for eliminating same-sex marriage in California is that your children might be taught that those marriages are valid in school, then write your proposition to change the curriculum, rather than disenfranchising a minority. California is not Massachusetts, and topics covering sexual and health education (which includes relationships) require parental permission slips. You can keep your kids out of school on days where that is a topic - take them someplace fun, I'm pretty sure most kids would rather go on a trip or stay home and play games then go to sex-ed or health assemblies. Do you have so little faith in your own parenting that you think you won't have more influence on your children than their teachers?
While I tend to have little respect (along with the framers of the Constitution) for the idea that tradition & the "will of the people" are always right - slavery, no right to vote for women, segregation etc. were all very popular traditions - there is a hopeful point here. Proposition 22, which changed Family Law rather than the California Constitution itself, passed with a 62% yes vote. Proposition 8 passed with only a 52.2% yes vote 8 years later - almost a 10% decrease. So if that trend continues eight, (or even four) years from now the will of people may be exactly the opposite. I bet we'll hear cries of 'mob rule' and 'tyranny of the majority' coming from many of the people who supported Prop 8 yesterday.Mood Swing:  aggravated |
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At least the same constitution that is easier to amend to disenfranchise people than to raise taxes is just as easy to amend right back.Mood Swing:  disappointed |
| » We welcome our Communist Islamic Terrorist Overlords! |
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Wow I can't beleive the guy who primarily campaigned on the issues, and ran the cleaner campaign actually won. And we got to find out on election day, rather than tomorrow! Maybe McCain can go back to his much less sucktacular pre-2000 self now.
Yes, we can and we did.
Nov. 4th, 2008 @ 09:09 pm
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| » Hi! |
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We actually play Mario Kart now! And by 'we', I mostly mean Dora. :)
Mario Kart Code: 0087-5016-0925
Oct. 30th, 2008 @ 07:57 pm
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| » VP Debate |
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I understand that in the current landscape of talking-point politics that political buzzwords are so commonplace because they work - "Main Street," "(soccer/security/hockey/MMA)-moms" and "playing the (insert noun here) card," to name a few. Yet maybe it's just my over-inflated liberal/elitist sense of self-esteem talking, but I would dearly appreciate it if the McCain/Palin campaign's choice of terminology to represent the male half of the "Average American" demographic was something a tad less patronizing than "Joe Six-Pack."
Oct. 2nd, 2008 @ 08:14 pm
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| » Derek |
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We had Derek's 18-month appointment on Friday (exactly when he turned 18-months old) and although he's slipped into the 70's for his height and weight percentiles, he's still rocking the 99+ percentile for head circumference. Both the Warrens and the Heidemans are no slouches in the noggin department, so it's not really suprising. Derek's beginning to string together 2-4 word phrases on a regular basis, is getting better at climbing and eating with utensils, and more or less started to potty train himself as of a couple months ago. Since Courtney's been working Tuesdays at Wilbur Properties I've been getting to spend a whole day with him and I am really enjoying it. Despite the lack of sleep and free time, I really love being a dad.
We went to a member preview day for the new California Academy of Sciences a couple weeks ago - it was awesome - and even more awesome was not having to stand in a mile-long line to get in.
We haven't been able to post as many pictures recently since the hard drive in Courtney's macbook has run out of space and our server's mobo died, but I picked up a new, larger hard drive for her laptop so I should probably get around to installing that - looks like that will happen before the server motherboard replacement.
Sep. 28th, 2008 @ 11:13 pm
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| » Happy Birthday Tom! |
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Great seeing you at Jason's bachelor party, see you at the wedding!
Aug. 27th, 2008 @ 01:19 pm
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| » N3rd Al3rt |
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Thanks to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) dangerjason for the very fun (and nostalgic) party at HE. I had a really good time - and the thing about marrying somebody who would be perfectly happy going to a strip club with you (esp. since as I recall that's what we did for her 18th birthday) is that the real last-ditch bachelor experience is spending the better part of 2 days setting up something very (and somewhat archaic) nerdy and time-consuming that she would have absolutely no interest in participating in. Even the electrical supply and network setup adventures at the start were very representative of how I remember the LAN parties I did back in the 90's. Of course none of them were in giant vacant light-industrial spaces with random badminton courts set up where they used to assemble the first macintosh computers. Hope the headache is better.
What the place looked like in 1984. 
Two promo videos for the 1984 Mac factory - if you subtract all the machinery the ceilings, floors and support pillars are all identical today. It won't remain vacant for long; once PG&E can deliver the power it's going to become a colo room.
Aug. 25th, 2008 @ 01:37 pm
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| » Busy |
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The past couple weeks have been fairly eventful. We bought a minivan, went to a mini-family reunion in Washington, and took trips to the SF Zoo and Monterey Bay Aquarium. You can see pictures of most of this on Courtney's Flickr page. We're looking forward to taking Derek to the Academy of Sciences when it opens soon.
On a completely different note, this is a very good idea: reCAPTCHA.
Aug. 14th, 2008 @ 09:40 pm
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| » Neat |
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Jul. 12th, 2008 @ 10:16 pm
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| » Thank you Trent Reznor |
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I can't beleive I didn't notice this before: Halo 27: The Slip.
Jun. 4th, 2008 @ 04:46 pm
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| » Not that this is new information, |
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but Bruce Tinsley, the writer of comic strip Mallard Fillmore, is an ignorant jackass.
Reproduced without permission
Regardless of one's opinion on the DNC's decision to give Michigan and Florida Democrats 1/2 votes in the primary, the sarcastic commentary attempting to skewer the DNC expressed in this strip does little but betray a profoundly poor grasp of U.S. political history. Mr. Tinsley, the Founding Fathers actually did not, as a whole, intend for "rural, working class white people to have the right to vote."
For instance, here is John Adams' view on the matter:
John Adams to James Sullivan on the suffrage (1776)
The same reasoning which will induce you to admit all men who have no property, to vote, with those who have . . . will prove that you ought to admit women and children; for, generally speaking, women and children have as good judgments, and as independent minds, as those men who are wholly destitute of property. . . . Depend upon it, Sir, it is dangerous to open so fruitful a source of controversy and altercation as would be opened by attempting to alter the qualifications of voters; there will be no end of it. New claims will arise; women will demand the vote; lads from twelve to twenty-one will think their rights not enough attended to; and every man who has not a farthing, will demand an equal voice with any other, in all acts of state. It tends to confound and destroy all distinctions, and prostrate all ranks to one common level.
Adams expressed the prevailing view which was responsible for property requirements for voting persisting well into the mid 1800's. Of course this is not to imply that there wasn't considerable dissent by those with more democratic, populist leanings such as Ben Franklin (this topic was one of the defining political controversies of the Jacksonian era). Even if you try to assert that by "working class," Tinsley was only including those who owned property, there was considerable less debate on the issue of women's suffrage. By all accounts there was exceedingly little support for enfranchising the female 1/2 of those "rural, working class white people" during the nation's founding.
FYI Bruce, invoking the 'Founding Fathers'' intentions (as a whole) in matters of current voting rights or other present-day social policy matters can be a tricky affair. Perhaps you should go to your local library and pick up a history book, if you're not too drunk to get there.
Tinsley's 2006 DUI mug shot, his second alcohol-related arrest in less than 6 months
Jun. 1st, 2008 @ 01:04 pm
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| » Family! |
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I am a lucky guy.
May. 18th, 2008 @ 09:43 pm
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| » Velvet Worms |
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I spent no small percentage of my time at Berkeley studying various organisms, often worms, whose primary interaction with humans is to try and lay their young inside your flesh. So it's rather refreshing to find a interesting worm-like creature that at no point during its lifecycle will try and inhabit your body.
I'd actually read about these things before, but the description of their hunting methods never really gave me the image of their actual nature.
May. 18th, 2008 @ 09:39 pm
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| » HaHa |
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/15/BAGAVNC5K.DTL
It's sad that these troubled times, when America faces much more grave and deadly threats at home and abroad, conservative organizations are spending so much money to try and get this overturned via amendment come November. All that time and effort gathering a million signatures could have been used to help support those fighting (and coming home from) the wars, helping children or the poor. Instead let's pass a law to shaft homosexuals because well, aren't their lives are just so great and carefree already? Everyone is still free to beleive and preach that they're all going to spend eternity burning in hellfire - just because it's legal doesn't mean you have to approve of it. Frankly, gay people just aren't that scary guys.
May. 15th, 2008 @ 10:54 am
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| » One small step... |
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or 5. Derek can now officially (sort of) walk on a regular basis - i.e. he can routinely take 4-5 steps before grabbing onto someone/something or sitting down. He's also making significant strides in the areas of brushing his teeth (all 4ish of them), clapping/understanding the word "clap," and waving.
Feb. 15th, 2008 @ 09:12 pm
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amused