Obscanity: You'll know it when you see it

YouTube – Weathering the Storm (Response to NOM Gathering Storm).

Police Intervene in Case of Anti-Gay YouTube Poster, 12 :: EDGE Boston.

An email, huh? I’d like to see something more official stating that it’s been addressed, although the county seems accurate. You would think there would be an official statement and not just an email.

Joe. My. God.: Authorities Intervene At Home Of 12 Year-Old “Ex-Gay” YouTuber.

Thank goodness. I just hope the kid gets some real help – I still want to know if his parents knew what was going on. I was one of the people who contacted Texas DFPS, and clearly I wasn’t the only one. I imagine they got quite a few calls; thank goodness the Internet community was finally able to do something right.

A Gaythering Storm from FOD Team, Jane Lynch, Alicia Silverstone, Lance Bass, George Takei, LizFeldman, Jason Lewis, Sarah Chalke, Sophia Bush, and lauren.

LMAO. Go to the URL they list at the end. SRSLY.

Joe. My. God.: The Hits Keep Coming!.

Another NOM “Gathering Storm” parody!

Scottish Singer Susan Boyle’s Web Popularity Is at Numbers Never Seen Before – washingtonpost.com.

The thing to bear in mind, though, is that MANY people have watched this video MANY times.

I only hope she lives up to this in her second performance, or the “backlash” will be really awful.

YouTube – Miss California Gets OWNED Miss USA 2009 Speech.

Umm…. how can you “choose” when you can’t actually “choose”? This answer would have made perfect sense and been perfectly respectable IF we actually HAD the right to marry. But hey, guess what? We don’t. So we don’t get to choose between same-sex marriage and opposite-sex marriage (like it’s some kind of eenie meenie miney moe or something). We get those choices made FOR us by people like her.

The Bilerico Project | Planet Unicorn.

Looks like somebody’s been grazing in the ambrosia fields for too long… how is Bilerico JUST NOW discovering Planet Unicorn? Seriously? What’s next – are they going to reveal a fabulous new cartoon called Lizzy the Lezzy?

YouTube – NYTimes.com – Riding a Flavor Trip.

So You Want to Boycott Israel?.

U.N. chief: Gaza violence ‘heartbreaking’ – CNN.com.

More than 1,300 Palestinians died and about 5,400 others were wounded during Israel's three-week offensive in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Authority's Central Bureau of Statistics. Among the dead were 159 children.

And then:

The fighting largely stopped Sunday with a cease-fire. Israel has said 13 of its citizens — including 10 soldiers — were killed during the offensive, which started December 27.

I’m the last person to say that the death of 159 children is acceptable. I think it’s horrendous that so many innocent children died during this conflict. But let’s get one thing straight: The majority of those killed in Gaza were Hamas fighters – CNN never reports this – and at least some of the children killed were killed by Hamas fighters, either by their own rockets and mortars, or by them being held up as human shields against Israeli gunfire.

I do not accept the deaths of these children as necessary or as “collateral damage.” They should not have died. But Hamas, not Israel, is largely to blame. Hamas welcomed an Israeli ground incursion. Hamas welcomed an Israeli air incursion. Hamas has said it “loves death more than Jews love life.” This spate of violence proved that notion. Hamas fighters were quoted in the news as saying they were happy to die, and that they were proud to die, and that others should be happy to die too. That’s not to say they ran in front of Israeli gunfire or anything – no, they wanted to die only if they could take as many people with them as possible. They would run into civilians’ houses to hide. They would launch rockets from the rooftops of heavily-populated apartment buildings, and from outside schools. They would walk around holding children against their will, some of them plucked right off the street. Note in this video that not only does the fighter grab a child off the street, but he runs right for a crowd of people. If he’s going to die, he’s taking people with him.

Hamas’s main base of operations is under the main Gaza hospital: If Israel doesn’t fire, they win by living, and if Israel does fire, they win by dying and having Israel become known as the country who deliberately bombed the hospital.

And finally, while Israel restrains itself (believe me, if it wasn’t exercising restraint, the death toll would be much higher), Hamas directly TARGETS Israeli civilians. If they could inflict a higher civilian death toll among Israelis, it would. If it could wipe out the entire population of Israel, it WOULD. That’s the difference between Hamas and Israel.

For the record, CNN, even the UN was saying that roughly 25% of those dead were civilians. This means 75% were not. Why is this never mentioned on CNN?

YouTube – Anti-Gay Marriage Petition Fraud Caught on Camera.

People think Israel is posting videos of their attacks on Gaza to somehow brag about their violent response. This video shows another story – this is why Israel really posts videos – so the world can see the truth. Hamas literally stores its weapons in and launches rockets from the doorsteps of elementary schools, and then blames Israel when it strikes back against the launch points. This has happened several times over the past few days – Israel is catching flak for shelling schools where Hamas attackers are launching missiles (I realize this is an older video – it just goes to show you how long Hamas has been using schools as launch pads, and how long Israel has been restraining itself against striking back).

YouTube – Mortar Bombs Shot from UN School in Gaza 29 Oct. 2007.

The TV show How It’s Made shines a light on our mechanized culture. – By Farhad Manjoo – Slate Magazine.

This video is absolutely fascinating to watch. It does leave me deeply troubled by one omission, though: Where do the perforations come from????

Mommy, Mommy, guess what I learned in school today??.

What they never told you in the commercials for Prop 8 was that the case in MA was decided under the “mere exposure” rule – i.e. mere exposure to the knowledge that something exists does not constitute a violation of parental rights. For example, teaching that Mormons exist does not equate with teaching the Mormon faith to your children. And teaching that gay people exist doesn’t equate with teaching your children that they should be gay. They were never “teaching” gay marriage; they merely had a packet of information about many types of families, and one of the families happened to have two parents of the same gender.

Mere exposure to the reality of existence does not constitute “teaching” it in public schools. If you don’t want your kids to know that other people exist, don’t send them to schools where they will meet other people. Nothing proves existence like coming face to face with it.

I have an idea for a new commercial. “Mommy, Mommy! Guess what I learned in school today! There are some people who don’t believe Jesus is the Lord! They’re called Jews! Mommy, I think I might be a JEW when I grow up!” [mother shows concerned look, calls the school board for an emergency session…]

Or even better: “Mommy, Mommy! Guess what I learned in school today! All Americans are entitled to equal protection under the law! It’s called the 14th Amendment! And we have a law just like it in our California constitution.” [mother tilts head in horrified consternation.] “Well, sweetie, actually some people don’t deserve equal rights and protections.” “But mommy, they told us in school that discrimination is wrong and everybody is equal!” “Well, sweetie, some people are more equal than others.” “Oh. Does that mean Christians are the boss of Jews?” “Yes, sweetie, it does.” “Oh, good! I’m going to go tell my friend right now; she wouldn’t let me on her swing set and now I can tell her she has to!” “Good job, sweetie.”

Okay, so I’m a little bit bitter. I did have a childhood friend/neighbor whose parents did a perfectly fine job of offsetting whatever tolerance she may have learned in school. One day when we were about 7 years old, we were playing on the swing set in my back yard and she wanted me to get off of my swing and let her have it (we had two swings, mind you). I said, “It’s my house!” and she said, “Well, Christians are the boss of Jews!” Needless to say, I sent her straight home. She frequently had similar things to say when she was angry; while our families had a working facade of tolerance, in which I would go over there and help her decorate her Christmas tree and she would come over and be our guest at the Passover seder, whenever we were in an argument, it always came down to “I hate Jews,” or “stupid JEWS!” or “Christians are the boss of JEWS!” I have absolutely no doubt as to where this sentiment came from. This same girl’s parents pulled their little boy out of school when “Heather Has Two Mommies” was put on the suggested reading list. So I have every confidence that parents will do JUST FINE at making sure their children are indoctrinated with their own morals even if they are “exposed” to “alternate cultures and lifestyles” in school. It’s not the public school’s job to make sure that children share their parents’ moral values. It’s the public school’s job to give the students an education, and to make sure that they learn how to be contributing members of society. That includes learning about all sorts of people and families, because, hey, guess what? This is America, and this is California, and we are beyond diverse.

Kids (and hell, most adults, still) need to learn that groups of people can be different and still be equal, because equal doesn’t mean the same.

A classmate of mine made a comment about equality and how same-gender marriages are not equal to heterosexual marriages because they are inherently different – and how that is just a fact about their difference, and is not meant to demean same-gender couples. Or at least, that’s what I took away from her comment. But I was thinking about that definition of the word “equal” in terms of marriages, and how under that definition, our marriage is inherently different from theirs and is therefore not equal.

Even mathematically speaking, “equal” doesn’t mean “identical.” It means that two sets of numbers or characters have the same *value*. Saying 2+2 is inherently different from saying “4” which is inherently different from saying 5-1 or 8/2 or sqrt{16} or 2^2. These are all COMPLETELY different expressions that mean completely different things and require completely different approaches – but they are all *equal* values. Recognizing couples’ equality doesn’t mean you’re saying that they are identical, or that they are not different. It says that they are *worth* the same and should be *valued* the same. How would you feel if you *needed* something that cost $20, and all you had was two $10s, and the store wouldn’t take it, because they kept insisting that two $10s was simply not the same as a $20 bill? This is the same kind of frustration we’re experiencing now, because we have something that may look different, but has the same value. Essentially, we’re trying to access this institution with our two $10s, and they’re insisting that only a $20 can buy a marriage license (presumably, a $20 out of the man’s wallet). I disagree. We are equal. We should be valued the same. And we deserve the same rights and responsibilities.

And now for the ridiculous parody cartoon that sparked this whole disjointed rant… ridiculous in the sense that what it depicts is pretty much what went on in the Yes on 8 campaign, which was utter ridiculousness. “If your children learn it, they will become it!”

Okay, I’ve changed my mind. We SHOULD have put our children on TV. The other side clearly had no problem “faking” families with LGBT parents, and depicting contrived conversations that could only have taken place in a Yes on 8 commercial scriptwriter’s fantasies. (I mean, please. This commercial is just… wow. Is this really how they imagine things are in our households? And notice how the kid never acknowledges the other parent in the room. Goes along with the whole argument that having two parents of the same gender is akin to being raised by a single parent.)

So yeah – we should have put REAL families, and REAL children of same-gender couples, on the air to talk about how their families are REAL and deserve REAL rights. Otherwise all that’s left is this ridiculous propaganda.

YouTube – Roomba Driver.

I love it!

YouTube – Ain’t Funny – Vice President. Vote Obama-Biden..

Okay… I SUCK at geography, but even I know that you can’t really go much farther east than New Hampshire unless you want to wind up in a) the Atlantic Ocean, or b) Canada. (Or okay, Maine or Vermont – but I had to consult a map for that one). But seriously, folks… North WEST? SERIOUSLY?

Wow. At least the people in New Hampshire actually
reacted to her gaffe, unlike those who just let McCain go on and on about sharing his plans with “my fellow prisoners.”

Wow… seriously?

YouTube – SNL: The REAL Sarah Palin.

Watch it while ya can, ’cause you know it won’t be up long! She wasn’t awful, but then again, she had a script. I still say Tina Fey is way, way hotter – and more intelligent, and better in unscripted moments…

YouTube – No on 8 PSA: FAMILY Molly Ringwald.

AWESOME. Send to everybody you know. There is SO MUCH MORE we could be worried about right now. I saw that one couple sacrificed all their vacations for the next couple of years so they could donate $35,000 to the Yes on 8 campaign. Holy crap. Do you know how many LIVES you could have saved with that money? And you wasted it on Prop 8? It’s like being granted a wish, any wish in the world, and wasting it on designer jeans or a cute purebred puppy. If you want to make sacrifices for the greater good, make it mean something. Like our Yom Kippur prayer book said, “Always look after your own soul and another’s body, not another’s soul and your own body.”

YouTube – No on 8 PSA: NO vs YES

Oh. My. Gosh. Everybody in America needs to take eleven minutes out of their crazy schedules and watch this commentary about Sarah Palin. Every last bit of it is pure truth, and scary as all hell. I’m only sorry it’s on MSNBC and not on network television, where more people could see it.

If you’re even THINKING about voting for a ticket with Sarah Palin on it, you need to see this video. He has her so spot on – he’s raised so many questions that have been floating out there about her – for example, if Obama has been “pallin’ around” with terrorists (i.e. former anti-Vietnam war radicals who have reformed themselves and now work toward improving Chicago’s school system), then what does Palin have to say about her affiliation with the Alaskan Independence Party, founded by a man who by his own admission hates America? Who literally said he hates America and refuses to be buried under her flag? And what of her relationship with the pastor who “laid hands” on her and cast away any forms of witchcraft which might be getting in her way of becoming governor? (and who, I might add, threw in some lines in there about letting Palin bring the nation to god…) You’ll have to watch this video to find out his sordid past – which the people in the Wasilla church thought was just fab, by george!

This pretty much speaks for itself: