The ramblings of a raving liberal
[Recent Entries][Archive][Friends][User Info]
Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Freeptop" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
|
11:03 pm
[Link] |
WOO HOO!
So much for history being against them! The Pens just won The Stanley Cup!
:)
|
|
10:44 am
[Link] |
How did I miss this? It happened 20 days ago!
The Maine state legislature passed a same-sex marriage law, and the Governor signed it, and I somehow missed it. Well, hats off to Maine!
The downside is that the law doesn't go into effect until September, and there is the possibility that it could be stopped before then, but for now, I'm holding out hope.
We're up to five states now. 45 and the Federal Government to go...
|
|
08:52 am
[Link] |
This amused me greatly
"Water-boarding is torture... It's drowning. It gives you the complete sensation that you are drowning. It is no good, because you -- I'll put it to you this way; you give me a water board, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I'll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders."
-- Former Governor Jesse Ventura, an ex-Seal who endured waterboarding as part of his training
(Quote seen on: http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/ under "Say What?")
Current Mood:  amused
Tags: politics
|
|
11:53 pm
[Link] |
Ooh! Yanni!
When I saw the headline, "Yanni Empathizes with Caps and Pens for Back-to-Back Games", I just knew the subsequent article was going to be awesome. I was not disappointed :)
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=278155
Current Mood: amused
|
|
11:13 am
[Link] | Okay Republicans, let me get this straight: If a woman wants the right to sue over getting lesser pay for the same work, but doesn't find out about it until more than six months after she started getting an unequal paycheck for the first time, then she wants to file a "frivolous lawsuit." But when a Republican candidate for Senator sues over losing an election, loses the suit, and loses the appeals, then that's not frivolous?
The election for the position of Minnesota US Senator was held in November. The elections board did a recount, due to the close margin of the race. Norm Coleman didn't like that he lost, so he sued. The court found that the elections board upheld the law. The appeals court found that they upheld the law. It's now May, and this lawsuit is still dragging through the courts. Now it's going to be June before the state Supreme Court delivers a ruling. And then it could drag out even longer, because Coleman and the GOP have already floated the idea of appealing to the United States Supreme Court if the Minnesota Supreme Court rules against him.
The real losers here are the people of Minnesota, who are going to be, at a minimum, six months with only half their representation in Senate.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22071.html
(To think, I thought the 2000 Presidential election stretching into December was ridiculous...)
Tags: politics
|
|
03:30 pm
[Link] |
Music!
I don't post about music nearly enough on LJ. It's time to start changing that :)
So we recently made a trip to the local place to buy Goth/Industrial music on Record Store Day, where the local Dj/Promoter/Frontman of Rein[FORCED] was running a special deal at the store: Buy two Goth/Industrial CDs, and get one Metropolis CD from his box of promos for free! Given my usual habits when it comes to buying CDs, it really shouldn't come as a surprise that I ended up getting 4 free CDs...
( Click here for my rambling on about one of the CDs I got )
I'll probably post more about the other CDs I've picked up recently. I got several from Record Store Day, plus a few at the concert we went to recently, so I've got plenty to talk about...
(On a side note, I'm going to try to start actually tagging my posts. We'll see how long I actually remember to do that...)
Current Music: Das Ich - "Urkraft"
Tags: das ich, music
|
|
01:14 pm
[Link] |
When spellcheckers go bad...
I'm reasonably sure that what the writer intended to write was the following: "... there were a myriad of things wrong with the Canadiens this year ..."
What actually got published, on a repuatable news site, no less, was the following: "... there were a mermaid of things wrong with the Canadiens this year ..."
Regardless, I think I've got a new favorite phrase. Now to start figuring out how to use "a mermaid of things" in casual conversation...
Current Mood: amused
|
|
10:24 am
[Link] |
Proud to be a Pittsburgher
Last Saturday, three Pittsburgh police officers were killed in the line of duty while reporting to what should have been a routine domestic disturbance call. They were shot and killed by a man wearing a bullet-proof vest while wielding an AK-47. Amazingly, the police captured him and brought him in alive. They showed an amazing level of restraint and professionalism in a situation that would push most past their emotional breaking point. I have a new respect for the Pittsburgh Police as a result.
Last night, while waiting in line at the arena to go see a hockey game, a police officer came walking through the crowd. As he was noticed by the crowd, everyone started applauding. It was a touching show of support. Once we entered the arena, just about everyone donated at the tables set up to collect for the Fallen Heroes fund to help out the families of the slain officers.
One awful person created the tragedy. But thousands of good people have responded.
|
|
11:34 pm
[Link] |
Now I can celebrate Iowa
(Thanks to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ef2p for the link to the video)
The following video is of Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal explaining why he opposed a Constitutional Amendment to ban same-sex marriage. According to the video info (which was posted by the official Iowa Senate YouTube account), the amendment can't go forward without his support. So I don't have to worry about Iowa anymore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2s2R5qKhbo
I'll also say that while it isn't delivered by the best public speaker, it is an excellent speech. This is my favorite part:
"I see a bunch of people that merely want to profess their love for each other, and want state law to recognize that.
Is that so wrong? I don't think that's so wrong. As a matter of fact, last Friday night, I hugged my wife. You know I've been married for 37 years. I hugged my wife. I felt like our love was just a little more meaningful last Friday night because thousands of other Iowa citizens could hug each other and have the state recognize their love for each other."
Kudos to you, Mike Gronstal. You hit the nail on the head.
|
05:19 pm
[Link] |
More recognition that love is important to marriage
I've been holding off on posting about Iowa, I admit, because I've got this pessimistic part of my head that keeps telling me that I celebrated too soon over California, and we're looking at a similar situation in Iowa: the courts made the decision, not the legislature or the people. They could still find a way to reverse the progress there. I'll celebrate Iowa when they're handing out marriage certificates, and (like what happened in Massachussetts), the legislature stops trying to overturn it.
On the other hand, today I see a good cause for celebration: The Vermont legislature has not only passed a law allowing same-sex marriages, they've also overridden a Governor veto. This is going into effect, and the people who could overturn it are the ones who voted 100 to 49 to keep it. That's a great cause for celebration!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/07/AR2009040701663.html?hpid=topnews
Hopefully I'll be able to feel free to celebrate over Iowa soon, as well. Not to mention New Hampshire, New Jersey and Maine, which are also considering passing same-sex marriage laws in their legislatures.
Maybe the tide is finally turning...
|
|
09:26 am
[Link] |
Just because it's so true...
(Courtesy of xkcd)
|
|
09:00 am
[Link] |
If it was April, I'd think this was an April Fool's Day prank...
So, the Sci Fi Channel is going to rename itself as "SyFy" and is trying to distance themselves from the "Science Fiction" moniker.
I found out about this from the following comic, plus, it pretty much nails this entire notion completely:
http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/090317.html
What kills me is when I went looking for verification, and I found the following article:
http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/03/sci_fi_channel_aims_to_shed_ge.php
Here's a rather insulting quote from the article: "“What we love about this is we hopefully get the best of both worlds,” [President of the Sci Fi Channel Dave] Howe said. “We’ll get the heritage and the track record of success, and we’ll build off of that to build a broader, more open and accessible and relatable and human-friendly brand.”" (Emphasis added)
So, apparently people who are fans of Science Fiction aren't human? That's what I'm getting from this article. If they're going to insult their original target audience by calling us dysfunctional and anti-social, and implying we're not even human, they might have a difficult time keeping that "heritage". The same heritage, incidentally, that propelled the network to its best year in its history (from the same article linked above).
Reading over the whole article, I don't have a problem with the re-name or the direction they are going. Really, it's still going to be a channel that revolves around Science Fiction programming, regardless of what they're trying to call it, and the idea of having a trademarkable name makes sense. But it's the utter condescension towards their target audience that revolts me.
"Oh no, we can't be seen as the channel for those loser geeks and nerds, despite the fact that this demographic brought us great success. The fact that this demographic tends to be successful, and therefore, has disposable income that our advertisers love is meaningless - we need to make sure we can target a greater audience that will somehow be sucked in by our lame-ass txt msg spelling of our channel's name!"
Oh, and apparently "science fiction" isn't for girls, but "SyFy" is. If someone could explain that one to me, I'd love to know how that works.
|
|
01:37 pm
[Link] |
A question for the political history buffs
So, can anyone actually explain to me why Andrew Jackson is regarded as a great President? Why do I keep coming across references to him being one of the greatest Presidents in American History? Why is he worth having on our $20 bill? (Which is a bit of a joke, considering he was against having a National Bank).
This is a President that created the "Trail of Tears" which these days would have been considered an act of ethnic cleansing. When the Supreme Court tried to tell him his actions weren't Constitutional, he basically ignored the rule of law and the Constitution, and refused to follow the Court's orders.
The only bright spots to Jackson that I can tell are that he paid off the National Debt (for less than a year), and he was a big supporter of the Union against the secessionists.
So, history buffs, please explain to me what made Jackson a great President. To me, he's one of the most overrated Presidents who enacted one of the most shameful acts of American History. I have a hard time honoring that.
|
|
03:44 pm
[Link] |
Pet peeve of the day
If you are trying to say something is no longer valid, the word you are looking for is "moot", not "mute". The sentence you mean is, "it's a moot point, anyway" NOT "it's a mute point, anyway."
Moot means obsolete. Mute means silent. They mean very different things.
Thank you.
PS - I'm very glad that I haven't seen any of my friends on LJ do this one. This is more a general rant towards the Internet as a whole.
|
|
02:38 pm
[Link] | This is pretty funny. Mostly if you're a hockey fan, but I think it holds up well even if you aren't.
Really, though, it's worth watching solely for the part where Giguere tries to explain what "5-hole" means in hockey, and then suddenly realizes what he just said... :D
|
|
06:20 pm
[Link] |
A quick update on my earlier rant
Well, I feel better after a bit of a discussion with one of my managers.
( Read more... )
|
|
12:36 pm
[Link] |
It was a good speech
My workplace put the inauguration up on the screen in our auditorium, so I did get to watch it live. Obama gave a very good speech. My hope for his Presidency continues.
Current Mood:  hopeful
|
09:01 am
[Link] |
Not long now...
We're down to only hours left in the Bush presidency. I'm looking forward to Obama as President, but I'm positively excited about the idea of Bush no longer being in charge of anything important.
Current Mood:  excited
|
|
09:13 am
[Link] |
Hmm....
( Cut for image )
|
|
11:27 pm
[Link] |
Best quote heard this week
"It was like the icing on the Death Cake."
|
[<< Previous 20 entries] |