Please – take a stand against the bullying by President bush _
add your name to a petition to state:
“We, the undersigned, strongly oppose the adoption of an amendment
to the Constitution that would require discrimination against any
specific group of Americans. The Federal Marriage Amendment is a
betrayal of the American principles of equality and fairness. We oppose
the Federal Marriage Amendment.”
Well – my coworkers, the “Gal-Gang” aka, the usual suspects, tarted up my cube last night, in memory of me hitting the big 50. 50? Who’d a thunk it?
I’d kind of hoped to slip right by it – but they knew it was a big deal, so when I walked in this morning, I found a serious lack of subtlety …
(Continue to see pictures) …
In a column dated Thurs Feb 19, Holly Mullen, Salt Lake Tribune Columnist says:
The numbers are dizzying. In the week since San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom defied California law by allowing same-sex marriages in his city, more than 2,700 gay and lesbian couples have lined up at City Hall to recite their vows.
Should Newsom’s act of civil disobedience withstand two hurried legal challenges by anti-gay marriage groups, the number of couples vowing to be “spouses for life” should exceed 3,000 by Friday.
Even if a California judge slams a hammer down on Newsom, as in issuing a “cease and desist” order against any more weddings, a big, clear picture is emerging from this kind of mobilization: The same-sex marriage movement is rolling. It will not be stopped.
Read more at:
http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Feb/02192004/utah/140290.asp
Again, thanks to Bill and Kent’s Weblog! for the alerts!
If you are a Virginia Resident, please call your representative and let them know your feelings on these proposed laws. If we stand up together, we CAN stop them. If you want Gay Marriage, you need to work for it. You can go to the form here, enter your address and zip and find out who and how to contact them. A phone call works great! (Be polite and professional!)
(Link Expired)
Found at
GullyVuhr’s Live Journal
Since the graphics are somewhat large, I’ve put them behind the “more” cut …
"
Since the gov’t has decided to take such a strong stance against gays because the bible says too, I have secretly located a list of future amendments that we should be planning to see, since that all-knowing book-of-books is such a cornucopia of knowledge as it pertains to the holy union that is marriage.
"
Thanks again to Bill of Bill and Kent’s weblog for the link to this story …
S.F. defies law, marries gays – it seems 90 gay and lesbian couples wed Thursday in San Francisco.
Of course, the clueless lawmakers in our State of Virginia are trying to shut the gate to keep out any smoke …
From the Washington Post Feb 13
RICHMOND, Feb. 12 — The Virginia House of Delegates gave preliminary approval Thursday to legislation that would ban the recognition of same-sex civil unions and domestic partnerships, mirroring efforts by states across the nation to prevent gays from enjoying the same rights as married couples.
Virginia is one of 38 states that already ban the recognition of same-sex marriages. The bill would add to Virginia’s “Affirmation of Marriage Act” a ban against recognition of same-sex civil unions or partnership arrangements allowed in Vermont and California.
With all the other things the legislature could be working on, like the school system, employment, the economy, air pollution, you name it, going after Gay Marriage and civil unions is simply a distraction … much like a magician’ banter keeps you from seeing the extra card slipped into the deck at a critical point.
Could it be that after all the uproar over President Bush’s war on Saddam Hussein, the lack of WMD, and continued plumet of Bush credibility, that a wedge issue like Gay marriage is just another way of avoiding the real issues that face America?
Emma’s been in Richmond visiting her mom this weekend, and while she’s gone, I’ve been backing up all the files on my PC, preparing to move everything to the Mac G4 coming tomorrow (Feb 9).
While I was going through the partitions, I found some old MP3 files from Sigur Ros and a few other artists. In the past I’d always used WinAmp – avoiding the DRM issues of the MS Media Player 9 (which I refuse to install!). On a whim, I downloaded the Windows version of iTunes to see what the fuss was all about.
It’s pretty neat – has some nice sort options, and has a place to stick the cover art when you load albums into it.
Its got a Visualization feature – but it doesn’t seem as well done as the visual plugins for WinAmp – it doesn’t seem to be modulated by the music as much as
the winAmp modules. I did find a site with info for adjusting the visuals –
http://doors.stanford.edu/~sr/itunes/.
I had a call earlier this week from my Dad … he said there had been some kind of an accident with a gun and my cousin Ronnie was dead. I hadn’t seen him in probably 15 years – there had been a family reunion at his farm in Lovettsville, VA – back when I was still living in Laurel with Jeannie. It was a gorgeous place – a big 10 acre farm – across the road was another farm, and mountains on the horizon …
That was a long time ago for me – before my changes – and a long time ago for him – before he got divorced. That side of my family was baptist/fundamentalist – so I never was particularly close to any of them, but its still a big shock to my aunt and the rest of the family, so, out of respect to the family, Emma and I’ll will be going to the visitation on Sunday.
Dad’s sister’s son (he was the eldest of her two kids) died around 20 years ago – on reflection, I’d say he may have been part of the first wave who died of GRID … no one says anything like that – but looking back on it, he had the signs of being “family”. Dad’s brother had 4 sons, and Ronnie was his eldest … Of course, I’m the eldest of Dad’s kids – and I’ve had my struggles over the years … but since I met Emma and finally sobered up, life has been great.
Anyway – this makes me the remaining eldest of this generation of cousins …
We’ll see how the service and all that goes – I expect to be as low key as possible about everything – but I’m sure there will be the inevitable questions of who I am “… oh – I used to be … ” ” and this is my partner, Emma”
I’ll take it as low key as possible … but its over 10 years since the change
I’ll be polite and educate them gently … “we are very nice people and
we want to go to Massachusettes later this year and get married!”
Ah well ……. we’lll see …
Busy times – The weather has turned warmer so the snow and ice are finally melting. We walked through the remains of the backyard snow yesterday to check the pond and saw the goldfish peering up through a hole in the ice. After that we headed to Merrifield to see the Tim Burton film “Big Fish”, before it leaves town. The critics at the Washington Post are completely wrong – what a great film – and its not just our opionion – everyone in the theatre sat in their seats to the end of the credits and the houselight came up …
After that brief warm spell, of course – the weather folks are calling for ice storms again later in the week …
On Monday Jan 26, Rock legends Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno plan to launch a musicians’ union to help artists stand their ground in the digital age. The union will be called Mudda, short for “magnificent union of digitally downloading artists”.
Update Jan 28 MUDDA website
Threee cheers for the Evolution of the music industry – from Entertainment syndicate – to Artists direct outlet
Cut the Middlemen … and the RIAA heavies!