Obscanity: You'll know it when you see it

With veto overrides, Vermont legalizes same-sex marriage – CNN.com.

What a beautiful sight.

Civil rights aside (hey, there’s something CA knows how to do), it’s wonderful that Vermont and Iowa will reap the economic benefits of these decisions, in this lousy economy. It’s a damned shame California didn’t get to cash in on that, particularly since it would have been couples’ only west coast option (besides Vancouver). Oh well. It’s not like the California economy NEEDED those hundreds of millions of out-of-state dollars and a couple thousand new jobs… Oh, wait…

When Same-Sex Marriage Was a Christian Rite – Colfax Record.

Well, duh. Read the works of John Boswell.

Pam’s House Blend:: Focus on the Family staffer busted for soliciting teen for sex over Internet.

I’m just surprised it was a teenage GIRL the guy was planning to meet. It is Focus on the Family, after all.

what would jesus do for a klondike bar?.

I was going to raise my eyebrows, but then, I can’t really say anything. When I lived in a boarding house and somebody was stealing my food out of the refrigerator, I scrawled, “THOU SHALT NOT STEAL” across the top of my plastic storage bin in black Sharpie.

Renegade DEA finds new excuses « The Hemp Factor.

So the fun now is that the DEA is going to start claiming that dispensaries are in violation of state law in order to continue their raids. Never mind that in the most recent raid in San Francisco, in which the DEA claimed the dispensary was not in compliance with state law, local law enforcement was not even included in the decision to raid. What gives these federal bureaucrats the idea that they get to decide what complies with state laws? Don’t they realize that interferes with the state’s authority to enforce its OWN laws?

Gay Couple Feels Pressured To Marry | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source.

LMAO. The funny thing is that this could totally be a real article.

Moses is Departing Egypt: A Facebook Haggadah.

Jews on Facebook – you NEED to see this. NEED.

No, seriously. I’ve been in hysterics for the past 10 minutes. The good kind.

THE O.T. AT THE O.C.: What biblical icons do when they find themselves in Orange County.

*giggles*

Funny stuff. For Torah fans with a sense of humor. 😛

20 Things To Do With Matzah: A Post-Passover Greeting.

LOL.

Pam’s House Blend:: New 50,000-volt Taser offers capability to shock multiple ‘targets’ at once.

Great. Just wait ’til this comes to America – now cops can incapacitate black men and political protesters from 100 meters away. That’ll DEFINITELY lead to fewer unnecessary and undeserved Tasings of innocent civilians.

Oh, wait.

Vermont House Passes Marriage Bill | News | Advocate.com.

My favorite quote:

"When I hear referendum I hear California," said Rep. Mike Mrowicki. "I don't know if we want to start emulating them. "

Mmmmm, yummy marriage sanctity. With some sweet fidelity for dessert. Oh, wait..

Renowned Hoo-Ha Doctor Wins Nobel Prize For Medical Advancements Down There | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source.

I do love “The Onion.”

A nod and a link: April Fools’ Day pranks abound in the news – CNN.com.

CNN advises: “If a news item seems especially outrageous on April 1, it just may be a hoax.”

So I can only hope that this one is somebody’s idea of a joke. Either that, or somebody got a really big bonus recently…

Anderson Cooper 360: Blog Archive – Student Loan Nightmare: Help Wanted « – Blogs from CNN.com.

Okay, to all the heartless souls who are saying that writer deserves to suffer because she went to a private school? Try taking a look at the cost of public school these days – it’s not much better. I attend a public graduate school. Tuition? More than $30,000 per year – and that’s the reduced rate for state residents. The undergraduate in-state tuition is nearly $10K annually. On what planet is this considered cheap public education? And why do I need to be punished for pursuing an education when I DID take the cheaper route? What, because my parents made enough money to disqualify me for grants, but not enough to actually help me with school?

Also, I hate to break it to people, but community colleges don’t grant college degrees that are actually accepted in the workplace. At some companies in this fine city you need a bachelor’s degree or a degree in progress just to answer phones for little more than minimum wage. Welcome to the 21st century.

Gmail: Google’s approach to email.

I would love to be the person whose job it is to come up with Google’s April 1 project releases…

Viral: Omegle! This Teenager Wants You to Chat with a Stranger.

Weird, and yet… so very AOL circa 1997-1998, after the golden years and before random IMs from strangers were completely supplanted by porn bots.

Bicycle Built for Two Thousand.

Wow. I think I might actually have nightmares after listening to this.

Andy Hallett, actor appeared in ‘Angel’ dies at 33 – Los Angeles Times.

Wow. That’s so crazy. He was so young! And so vibrantly green! He was one of my favorite characters on that show. RIP. 🙁

The Gay “Marriage” Slippery Slope | US Political Scene.

This is such an intellectually dishonest piece, but I had to comment anyway. My comment:

The CNN article is incorrect anyway. CA was the first to pass marriage legislation, which was vetoed just as it will be in VT. They’ll make history if they can override the veto.

In any event, you assume that same-gender marriage IS the catastrophe that people usually point to when they wring their hands and talk about “gay marriage and the slippery slope.” But that’s never the case, and I think you know it.

For one thing, we’ve always been open about the fact that we will not accept anything less than equality, and that domestic partnerships are an interim deal (unless of course you’re willing to give up state marriage altogether, in which case we can have civil unions for all, and leave marriage to the religions). So gay marriage is at the top of the slope, not at the bottom.

But more importantly, your analysis is based on a faulty premise. Nobody ever says, “You can’t allow domestic partnerships because one thing will lead to another and suddenly you’ll have same-sex marriage, and that is the worst possible thing that can happen.” That’s virtually never the slippery-slope argument that is made, and I think it’s intellectually dishonest to suggest that it is.

If you’re going to analyze the slippery-slope argument honestly, you need to address the fact that the real argument tossed around in public debate, particularly when there are marriage initiatives on the ballot, is that allowing same-gender marriage will lead to incest (legal in 26 states, ironically), bestiality, pedophilia, and ultimately, men marrying their pet goats. That is the slippery-slope argument that is made in the marriage debate, by everybody from housewives to federal-level politicians. Until you can show me an example of a state legislature having a serious debate over whether an animal has standing to sign a marriage license, you cannot possibly make a serious assertion that the alleged “gay marriage slippery slope” has played out.

May God bless you with gay children to teach you what you will never learn on your own.

Vermont on cusp of legalizing same-sex marriage – CNN.com.

CNN says: “It would be the first time a state took the action without being forced by courts.”

WRONG, CNN. California passed marriage legislation TWICE – but it was vetoed by the Governator. A truly historical event will occur if the Vermont legislature has enough votes to override the VT governor’s certain veto, but as of right now, VT is NOT the first state to take legislative action toward marriage equality without a court order.

Pam’s House Blend:: Freepers debate whether women should be able to vote.

Um….. no, I’m pretty sure I can think of more horrific episodes in American history linked to excessive mixing of church and government (from Salem right on up to Tweedle Dubya). Racism has been a pretty active player too. But the female vote? Sorry, no. The only bad thing that ever came from the female vote was Prohibition, and frankly I think that had just as much to do with the fact that women were sick of being beaten by their drunkard husbands. And oh yeah – also because Jesus hates the booze. Bit of a religion thing after all.

Facebook changes coming in response to user complaints – CNN.com.

FINALLY.

Natasha’s lesson helps save Ohio girl – CNN.com.

Wow. Thank goodness for celebrity media coverage, I guess! That’s one lucky little girl. I’m sure Natasha Richardson’s family takes little comfort in this one small miracle – that if Richardson had not died, this little girl would certainly have – but it still makes ya think, doesn’t it?

YouTube – NYTimes.com – Riding a Flavor Trip.