Visit the kelpforest....

Heh, I maybe I should have a little more faith in my county...*

Sarah Palin Movie Debuts to Empty Theater in Orange Countyhttp://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/07/sarah-palin-movie-debuts-to-empty-theater-in-orange-county/241983/

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Cripes, wasn't the reality show enough?

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*Actually, no. Harry Potter is probably just more of a distraction.

THANK YOU CA COURT SYSTEM FOR FINALLY DOING SOMETHING RIGHT FOR A CHANGE!!!

http://firedoglake.com/2010/08/04/breaking-prop-8-overturned/

Now, get busy on that furlough appeal and throw it out, please? Never mind - it was Federal court. Got too excited.

Well. I've already screwed up the July meme, because I forgot to write yesterday. Maybe there will be two today.

Anyway, yesterday was the 4th. And while I'm not overly patriotic, I do kind of like the holiday. My neighborhood completely changes; there is a huge influx of people who come to see the parade and many of them stay until the fireworks show in the evening off the pier. It's really better not to drive anywhere downtown (as I was reminded when I dropped off Gareth at his friend Connor's house), because the streets are crowded while huge numbers of bicycles - more than any other day of the year - and those who are driving seem to forget all the rules. Everyone is having parties that overflow into front yards.

runsamuck hates parades, so he escaped to his friend Jerry's for awhile. Gareth really wanted to see the NASA float in the parade, but despite getting an earlier start than usual, we still missed it. We never bother with staking out a sitting area for the route a block away from our house. Instead, we just walk down the sidewalk and occasionally stop to watch something - it's usually me who stops, because I want to take pictures, and then I get prodded to continue by Angus, who prefers to be in motion.

It's usually the same groups of people every year. The Pearl Harbor Survivors are becoming a tinier group every year, and now WWII is becoming a another war for the re-enactors, although as the wars become more recent, the reeneactors need bigger equipment and more technology. Maybe it becomes more an excerise in costuming than actually recreating the battles. The Shriners are taking the "old men in fezzes driving tiny cars" to new limits. I don't think they can make them much smaller. And I always like watching the horses; although,seriously, DON'T let your toddler come up behind the miniature horse to pet it.

And then the group Military Families Speak Out walked by. To complete silence; no one gave them encouragement (well, I whistled and gave them a thumbs up), no one cheered. And I puzzled over the next in line - the Orange County Chapter of the NRA. To be fair, they didn't get much applause either. It was near the end of the parade and maybe people were getting tired. Honestly, who scheduled that line-up?

We didn't do much the rest of the day - runsamuck BBQed, then walked up to the school to watch fireworks. Avalon amused herself by rolling down the hill we were sitting on. I was tempted to but, thought the wallet and keys in my pocket might hurt. By the time we got home, I was rather glad I didn't. I think all the walking we did the last couple of days has made me a bit sore.

Noticed this yesterday; I'm not sure I've ever seen Cartoon Network doing this for previous inaugurations; then again they didn't have little blobby logo characters to display president's faces on until this season. I'm sure the channel's owner wouldn't have had any great impetus for doing something similar in the last eight years, but I don't think I remember anything previous to that either.

Perhaps I was a bit premature...from the Facebook "No on 8" site:

FRIENDS!!
About an hour ago, my colleague personally contacted the California Secretary of State. The woman he spoke with confirmed that PROPOSITION 8 HAS NOT BEEN CALLED. She stated that they are still counting ballots...and they will not know the results until DECEMBER 13th!

All media has announced a victory for Yes on 8! THIS IS WRONG. Keep the pressure on the Secretary of State to count all the provisional and absentee ballots (rumored to be up to 3 or 4 million!)

Roughly 400,000 votes separate yes from no on Prop 8 – out of 10 million votes tallied. Based on turnout estimates reported yesterday, we expect that there are more than 3 million and possibly as many as 4 million absentee and provisional ballots yet to be counted.

Tell them that you want ALL the proposition 8 votes counted!

CA secretary of state: (916) 657-2166, or you can lodge a recorded complaint by calling 1-800-345-VOTE
Posted by Thea Arthen

More than a month to tally absentee and mail in ballots?! Sheesh!

Final statement from No on 8: http://www.noonprop8.com/

The previous post stands.

My fellow Californians - very good on electing Barack Obama - I knew you had it in you. Congratulations.

However, at the same you elected an African-American president, you took away rights from another segment of Californians. Rights that already existed. You basically legalized discrimation and bigotry. Don't think so? Replace the word "gay" with "interracial."

That. Is. Shameful.

I drove home from San Diego Monday afternoon, and in Carlsbad someone had changed the "Yes on 8" signs by writing an "H" in front of the 8. While I don't condone defacing signs*, it's perfectly true. The whole campaign behind this proposition is based on hate and fear, that OMG, some grade schooler might be exposed to the horrible fact that people love other people, and some of them want to make permanent commitments to those other people, regardless of their packaging. As far as I know, anything about marriage is not taught in elementary schools; it might be mentioned in high school health classes, but I don't know for sure (health wasn't made a requirement until after I was out of high school). And if that's the case, your kids probably know that gay people exist, or maybe even have friends that are (omg, shock!!!) before they ever take the class; much like Sarah Palin's preaching abstinence-only to her daughter, your attempts to shield them have been futile.

In any case, on that issue, I'm ashamed to be a Californian. I thought as a state, we were more progressive than that.

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*Although I wish I'd seen that sooner. Would it still have been defacement if I'd made seperate, little signs with just an H on them, and posted them in front of the other signs? Because I saw plenty of candidates signs posted in right in front each other....

Edit: there are still mail-ins and absentee ballots to finish counting, so maybe this is premature, as it's been very close. Believe me, I hope I can retract this.

Hmm. Pharyngula.com (a biology/atheism blog) seems an unlikely place to hear slash referred to, even if he's doing it sarcastically (the piece in question, not slash in general). Although, I suppose I shouldn't be suprised; PZ mentions science fiction and fantasy enough that I know he's a fan. However, doesn't slash just refer to fanfiction?

Glad to see him give a plug for NO on Prop. 8, too, even though he's in Minnesota. The YES signs have been popping up all over my neighborhood, and it's enough to make me sick. Especially the little joyous dancing family with upraised arms (specifically with a large Male and Female). The pro commercials are absolutely hateful. I feel like making a giant sign for the front window with "My Marriage and Family are Fine - What Are You So Threatened By?" or "Prop. 8 = Bigotry, plain and simple." Especially since most gay people I know (including in my family) grew up with a parent of each gender, so the "omg, they want to subvert the children" argument just doesn't wash.

I can only think this little protest was written before the last election, as the numbers seem a bit low and it's a year til the next one. I'm a little surprised it's still in circulation.

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I read in the paper this weekend, Ahnold's approval ratings have declined to 34%.

Someone left a printout of this page on my desk awhile ago.

Here's a leaked campaign memo to Governor Schwarzenegger. Pretty interesting polling data, don't you think?

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0404/p09s02-coop.html

On the same day that the US House of Representatives voted to involve the federal courts in (Shiavo's) case, it also approved a 10-year $92-billion cut in Medicaid funding - $30 billion deeper than the cut recommended by President Bush.

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