Andrew Sullivan does a quick rundown of some responses from social conservatives to the NY marriage equality law and surprise surprise if they aren’t convinced it’s tyranny. The short version is this: Gay rights advocates who want to be able to marry = Bull Connor. Because having the right to visit your partner in the hospital after a car accident is the same as siccing dogs on people.
History will tag these people as the assholes they are.
1. Congratulations to the residents of New York state! A while ago someone asked, if someone from the mid-1960s were transported to today, what would be the most surprised change, and I suggested the gay rights movement. Marriage Equality in New York and in other countries and states is the result of focused, dedicated political action; I admire the hell out of the work they’ve done and wish their work was finished already. It’s sad that they have to keep fighting.
2. R.I.P. Martin Greenburg. Thanks for all the stories.
3. R.I.P. Peter Falk. I never understood the appeal of Columbo when I was a kid–they always showed the killer at the start of the show! It was only later that recognized the class aspect of the show (like Kolchak) and started to get into it. Yes, he was wonderful in THE PRINCESS BRIDE, but I was honestly startled (pleasantly) by his turn in WINGS OF DESIRE. That role could have been smug and tedious, but he rocked it.
4. The Locus Awards have been announced. (no link) Like the Nebulas, they only reinforce my decision to ignore awards entirely.
5. Have I mentioned here that I’m working on getting my short fiction for sale on the Kindle, et al? I am. The rights to most of my Black Gate stories (except the one that’s out right now) have reverted, plus I have a number of Pald stories that I never sold or even submitted anywhere. They go further into the setting and background than earlier books did, especially how the city is run. I’m hoping to convince my wife and son to whip up cover art for them as a homeschool project. We’ll see.
Bonus, secret sixth thing: Because of travel, we didn’t celebrate Father’s Day last week. Instead we’re celebrating today. I get brunch at a really nice restaurant (Portage Bay Cafe in Ballard) then library/bookstore, and finally, after my wife has gone to work, a movie with my son. Yay!
1) A kiddie mecha for real! Video.
2) George Lucas as OLDBOY? Video.
3) Repulsive Soviet monument rebooted.
4) The 100 best first lines of novels.
5) In my non-academic interest in book trailers, I offer this: Video. Graphic novels make it easy to be lazy with a trailer, but these guys did something more.
6) Nathan Fillion, photobomber.
7) A word cloud showing the 500 most common passwords. Those passwords make up 79% of a database of 6 million users. And I can’t believe that one of them is “8675309”. via @RodRamsey
starting a paragraph with “Earth to liberated women:“. Warning, clicking that link may cause unbridled rage.
Last week I took my son to see THOR. He loved it, while I only liked it, but the most annoying thing about it was the way it reminded me that every big-time Hollywood movie nowadays has to feature a protagonist who’s all twisted up with Daddy Issues.
I’ll admit that I don’t see as many films as I used to, but I’m already sick and tired of watching movie stars struggle to win their Daddy’s approval. It was in SOURCE CODE, IRON MAN 2, STAR TREK, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, THE HULK (John Woo version) and so on and so on.
What the hell, Hollywood? When did someone decide that this was a solid story beat that had to go into every movie? Can’t we stick with a romantic subplot and GTFOI?
Which started me wondering how much of this was cultural. Continue reading
“If the Justice Department fails to give the American people a chance to judge this case — if Goldman skates without so much as a trial — it will confirm once and for all the embarrassing truth: that the law in America is subjective, and crime is defined not by what you did, but by who you are.”
Will our government prosecute? God, I hope so. I’m going to write some letters to my political reps once I finish today’s pages.
And no, it’s not because we’re overweight.
Continue reading
Mainly because I’ve been pretty busy and using Twitter to goof off.
As I mentioned before, my family will be taking a vacation in NYC in June and we have been watching Ric Burns’s 8-part documentary on the subject. For those who haven’t seen it, it’s damn good (and boy do they take a chunk of flesh out of Robert Moses in a later ep) but it was originally planned for seven parts. Then, while they were in post, 9/11 happened.
We’ve been borrowing the DVDs from the library, working our way through them over several months. My son was spell-bound by the early episodes, but not terribly interested in the modern history. I had part 8 on hold for some weeks so it wouldn’t be too much too soon for him. I finally picked it up on Saturday.
Then Osama bin Laden was killed on Sunday.
Well, that made it pertinent, didn’t it? We put in the show and watched last night.
God, it was three hours long, and the filmmakers didn’t have the distance to make a compelling narrative out of the whole thing, the way they had with earlier stories. They included the whole thing, including the Rockefellers’ original plan to build on the eastern side of the island and the politics of the Port Authority. They also talked quite a bit about what a bad idea it was originally, how ugly it was, how old-fashioned the ideas behind it were–even as it was being designed. They also talked about how long it took for the office space to be filled.
The last hour focused on the attack. Not once did they mention bin Laden’s name, but they did show that video. Yeah, I wept. It was pretty powerful stuff, and a good counter-point to the Abbattobad news cycle.
Finally, about that news cycle: The story of what happened that day is already changing, as I knew it would. Don’t take anything as gospel truth. Not yet. Remember Jessica Lynch? Remember Pat Tillman? Hell, there are still people who think the 9/11 hijackers snuck into the U.S. from Canada, because irresponsible talk hit the media and the corrections did not reach everyone.
The media is basically reprinting White House press releases. Withhold judgement, I say.
But would rather he’d been captured and put on trial. With so many changes being made in the Middle East through peaceful protest, and the awful repercussions of the protests that turned violent, I would have rather seen him brought to justice rather than just shot to death. I want to be on the side that values due process and restraint.
Also, Juan Cole is worth reading.
Added later: remember this bit from 2005, when President Bush spoke about the hunt for bin Laden?
2) Every Time Magazine cover in one image. Warning: big file
3) The Sartre Star Wars. Video. via Tor.com. The YouTube user’s other videos are pretty good, especially “Be A Good Sport, Sport.”
4) Now for a big change. Gorgeous… and I do mean gorgeous time lapse photography from a mountain in Spain. Video. Really amazing.
5) It’s been a while since I dropped politics into one of these link salads, but here’s one: Three important health care graphs. This is why I support effectiveness studies, which Republicans oppose: we’re already spending too much, and we don’t take the time to find out what works and what doesn’t. The first thing we should be cutting from our health care spending is a treatment that doesn’t work. Plus, I happen to believe we can learn something from the good examples of others.
7) This is awesome, and they need help from book collectors.
