Obscanity: You'll know it when you see it

Miss California USA Prejean dethroned – CNN.com.

Yeah. And when she commits a crime somewhere later down the line and is convicted, she’ll be all, “Like, they only convicted me because of teh gayz!” Let’s spell this out – when you sign a contract, you have to keep to its terms. This was resolved. She was fine – and then she messed up. She should have gotten fired the first time around, when she breached her contract by lying about her near-topless photos. And if she had gotten fired then, she probably STILL would have blamed it on teh gayz.

Ms. Magazine | Between A Woman And Her Doctor.

I don’t care if doctors don’t expect to have to use these procedures – they need to be trained in them. There is absolutely NO excuse for what this woman went through.

2 People Shot at U.S. Holocaust Museum – washingtonpost.com.

I suppose he thought the museum would close the way Tiller’s clinic closed. When one murderous kook acts, the others come crawling out…

Adam Lambert: I’m ‘proud of my sexuality’ – CNN.com.

Biggest shocker of the year! Gee golly! Who saw that coming? That said… between him and Clay Aiken, if you told me only one of them was gay I’d have had to pick Clay Aiken. *snickers*

Suspect claims ‘victory’ in closing of slain doctor’s clinic – CNN.com.

Great. Watch for the murder of an abortion doctor near you.

I thought this movement was supposed to be “pro-LIFE”??? Nope. Pro-fetus, yes. Once it’s an actual person… meh. Not so much.

Washington Blade | Cheney endorses same-sex marriage .

Can somebody please explain to me how “I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish — any kind of arrangement they wish” constitutes support for marriage equality? That sounds an awful lot like the argument for freedom of private contract. Thanks for your… uh… support?

Will Iran’s ‘Marriage Crisis’ Bring Down Ahmadinejad? – TIME.

I guess in the end, young people like to have a say in their future!

Joe. My. God.: Sen. Jeff Sessions Makes Kids Cry.

Histrionics? A boy is in danger of losing his mother, and Sessions is complaining about histrionics? What is the boy supposed to do to express his anguish – wrestle with an alligator? When you support policies like these, you are supporting the destruction of families – not abstract families that don’t exist except in your hand-wringing about the gay agenda, but real families, with real parents, and real children, and real love – and real pain, caused, in part, by YOU.

Gay & Lesbian Issues Examiner: EXCLUSIVE: California lesbian couple allege discrimination at Fresno hospital.

Before anybody starts making arguments based in the government’s failure to provide marriage equality, we need to consider whether the women are actually legal partners. If they’re not, which I suspect they’re not because otherwise the articles would have said as much, then this is no longer about what rights the state gives, and is now about the actions of the hospital – because these women would likely have been treated the same even if they had full marital recognition by the state. Given that the two women were wearing Marriage Equality shirts, odds are the nurse probably assumed they *were* legal partners, and *still* wouldn’t let her in – hence the “no visitor zone” claim instead of the classic “family only” argument. Discrimination, pure and simple.

It doesn’t make the rest of us look great to be throwing a hissy fit about marriage equality in this particular case. Instead, let’s talk about discrimination at the hospital level, where the split-second decisions of individually hateful people can have horrific consequences when people’s lives are at stake.

Reality gets “Stranger” with arranged-wedding show – Yahoo! News.

Alright, all you traditional marriage folks! Step up, step right up! Who’s next in line to sign up for this one? Technically speaking, FOX shouldn’t be criticized for this show – it should be lauded for bringing back good old traditional values in the form of marriages arranged by the family. ‘Cause really, isn’t that far more traditional than all those newfangled marriages based in mutual love and respect?

Commentary: Identity politics in the age of Obama – CNN.com.

Is Obama going to get accused of engaging in racial politics every time he nominates somebody who isn’t white?! Jesus. (p.s. he wasn’t white either.)

Actor David Carradine found dead – CNN.com.

Holy crap.

Random creepy feeling that this was a murder, not a suicide. But what do I know?

Michael Rowe: KRXQ Sacramento Radio Hosts Encourage Violence Against Transgender Children.

There are no words for the way I feel about these talkshow hosts. Well, there are, but I’m certain they aren’t appropriate for a facebook post. Next time somebody tells you (or you tell yourself) they’re voting against LGBT rights to protect children, you just reread this article and remember all the children who have DIED because of attitudes like this.

Same-sex couples fight for immigration rights – CNN.com.

Forget “family values.” Try VALUING FAMILIES.

Governor plans to completely eliminate welfare for families | L.A. Now | Los Angeles Times.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing to completely eliminate the state’s welfare program for families, medical insurance for low-income children and Cal Grants cash assistance to college and university students.

Does this look like a right-winger’s wet dream or what? I’m starting to wonder whether our whole state budget crisis wasn’t just some total orchestration of events leading up to exactly this.

In Memory of Dr. George Tiller: A Tireless Supporter of Women’s Dignity | RHRealityCheck.org.

Prop 8 is a Distraction, or: NOW can we Dump Gay Marriage as a Cause? | The Bilerico Project.

The commenters really piss me off, particularly those who are whiiiiiining that unmarried hetero couples can’t have the same rights as married hetero couples. Why do people think they are entitled to those benefits when they haven’t taken on the responsibilities for which they are compensation?

Marriage is a contract between the couple and the state. You get certain perks, but in exchange you take on legal responsibilities toward another person, many of which are enforced at the end of your relationship, when you’d most like to shirk those same responsibilities you swore you’d uphold when times were brighter. Why should unmarried couples who CAN legally get married be entitled to the same rights as married couples when they refuse to accept the same responsibilities?

California faces its day of fiscal reckoning

I say we *start* with letting people out of prison, with the threat of another round soon. If that doesn’t trigger another special election, I’ll be shocked.

Repeal Prop 13! Even better: end the frigging initiative process entirely. Uneducated, unelected citizens with no experience in or understanding of the legislative process have NO BUSINESS writing our laws and constitutional amendments.

Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church condones domestic violence.

Students push UC to expand terms of ethnic identification – Los Angeles Times.

And yet somehow I doubt they bothered to include Jewish students in this change.

Conservatives Map Strategies on Court – NYTimes.com

Preparing to oppose the confirmation of Mr. Obama’s eventual choice to succeed Justice David H. Souter, who is retiring, conservative groups are working together to stockpile ammunition. Ten memorandums summarizing their research, obtained by The New York Times, provide a window onto how they hope to frame the coming debate.

And of course, conservatives are also stockpiling actual ammunition in case they lose. Note to self: Don’t be in D.C. next spring.

Top pageant official steps down, says ‘I no longer believe in it’ – CNN.com.

Prejean said the most revealing of the topless photos, which were published just hours after the Trump announcement, were made without her knowledge during a modeling photo shoot. She said wind must have accidentally blown her unbuttoned top open.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Have you seen the latest pictures? There is not enough shirt in that shirt to catch a gust of wind in a tornado – and I don’t think it would actually cover her chest if she pulled it at both ends. This excuse is absolute bullshit and I’m amazed that Donald Trump let her get away with it when he had the opportunity to say, “You’re fired.”

Bottom line: She did at LEAST two topless photoshoots. God knows if there are more that she didn’t disclose; every time a picture comes out she says there are no more, and then new ones come out, so she’s obviously a liar. The girl is unreliable, stupid, and trashy. She deserved to lose her crown, and the former Miss USA did right by excusing herself from this farce.

Going to extremes for school reunions – CNN.com.

I have to agree with one of the commenters that to at least some degree, high school reunions are redundant nowadays, since Facebook and other sites keep us connected in ways that weren’t possible in earlier days.

However, I think reunions will keep going strong for a few reasons (not all of them listed below, of course). Admittedly these are cynical reasons for the high school reunion to survive… but honestly, how many people really go to their high school reunions because they LOVED high school? Curiosity, I think, is what draws most people. So here goes:

1) Obviously, not everybody is on Facebook, and sometimes the missing folks are the people you most want to see again.

2) Facebook is the primer for the reunion, not its substitute! (You do with this one what you will.)

3) Poking people and “Liking” their status updates is not the same as really talking to people, catching up, and putting yourself back into the social structures that made your high school your high school, for better or for worse. For people seeking to “undo” what they lived through in high school, the reunion itself is necessary. And for people seeking to “relive” their glory days of high school, where they reigned supreme as Evil Bitchmonster of Death, sometimes the reunion is necessary to take them down a notch. And of course some things never change – but how will you know until you get there?

4) While becoming the Great American Pastime, Facebook-stalking people you aren’t really friends with on or off Facebook does not a reunion make.

5) Finally, people present a polished and carefully constructed image of themselves online – sometimes so carefully it cannot be reconstructed off the computer screen. Don’t you want to see what that annoying girl with the glamour shot profile pic REALLY looks like today?

Donald Trump to get last word on Miss California USA – CNN.com.

The girl breached her contract, lied to the public she allegedly represents, and isn’t showing up for work – and yet if she’s dethroned I’m sure she’ll still run around blaming teh gayz for persecuting her out of a job.

N.E.’s identity bolsters gay marriage tolerance – The Boston Globe.