Random Thought

Pulling off a tasty and enjoyable thanksgiving is one of the most gratifying and humbling things to do.  Happy Holiday everyone :)

Oh, That's Interesting

Just when I thought I had a pretty good grasp on this whole gay marriage controversy, this interview springs up online.  I can't figure out yet if I agree with the general thesis, but it is very compelling:

The possibility that a whole new generation of American males is being raised by women without men is very challenging for the churches. I think they want to reassert some sort of male authority over the order of things. I think the pro-Proposition 8 movement was really galvanized by an insecurity that churches are feeling now with the rise of women.

Monotheistic religions feel threatened by the rise of feminism and the insistence, in many communities, that women take a bigger role in the church. At the same time that women are claiming more responsibility for their religious life, they are also moving out of traditional roles as wife and mother. This is why abortion is so threatening to many religious people -- it represents some rejection of the traditional role of mother.

I recommend the entire interview here.  

You know you live in LA when...

... rain is so rare, it dominates your Facebook news feed:

Heather John thinks everyone who is soo happy it's raining is retarded. Remember how there were fires last week? Yeah, that beeping you just heard? Flash flood warnings.  15 minutes ago
Scott Stenholm is in Chicago, while it rains in LA, just my luck...  18 minutes ago
Alison Knox is still wide awake... listening to the rain (finally) fall.  27 minutes ago
Brianne Castillo-Huang : "...Or I'll just end up walkin' in the cold November rain..."  56 minutes ago

Full disclosure... my Facebook status:

Travis is sleeping with his bedroom window open to listen to the rain.  3 minutes ago

Headlines That Brighten My Day

Opponents of stem cell research now face tough battle

Socialized Medicine

As Obama fills all the positions within his future cabinet, there is a clear tilt towards picking people out of the legislative branch in government. And if Rahm Emanuel's recent comments are any indication, Obama does not plan to let the economic slowdown hamper his future plans. The big buzzword from the right during the presidential race was "socialism." The fear of socialized medicine is a very real thing for many Republicans.

I have never understood this. Just about every other modernized nation in the world has government sponsored health care. It does not destroy their economy. Civilization does not crumble.

I recommend this article about the possible ramifications for the GOP if the U.S. successfully introduces Universal Health Care to the country (a big if). Chew on this:

Recently, I stumbled across this analysis of how nationalized healthcare in Great Britain affected the political environment there. As Norman Markowitz in Political Affairs, a journal of "Marxist thought," puts it: "After the Labor Party established the National Health Service after World War II, supposedly conservative workers and low-income people under religious and other influences who tended to support the Conservatives were much more likely to vote for the Labor Party when health care, social welfare, education and pro-working class policies were enacted by labor supported governments."

Passing Obamacare would be like performing exactly the opposite function of turning people into investors. Whereas the Investor Class is more conservative than the rest of America, creating the Obamacare Class would pull America to the left. Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute, who first found that wonderful Markowitz quote, puts it succinctly in a recent blog post: "Blocking Obama's health plan is key to the GOP's survival."

Sounds good to me!

The Official Start of the Holiday Season

... is today. KOST 103.5 has begun playing Christmas music. Feel the Cheer.

An Affront to Christians Everywhere (from my hometown, too!)

Well, not really.  But there are a bunch of Christians in Denver up in arms about some new billboards about Atheism.  The billboard, which comes across to me as a new support hotline, is up in a few random places around the Metro Area proclaiming, "Don't believe in God?  You are not alone."  A quick news clip:

There are a couple reasons why this story is immensely amusing.  

(1) They are billboards.  Metro Denver is a pretty large place, and they'll have a whopping 10 billboards in total.  Big deal!  If no one feigned persecution, the billboards would have been forgotten as soon as they went down.  The Christians creating this fake controversy are only giving the atheist group more bang for their buck.  Thanks to them, people are now more likely to pay more attention to the ads.  

(2) There are religious billboards up all the time.  People do not care.  Atheists do not freak out over them.  How insecure are you in your beliefs that you are taken aback by these billboards?  The billboards are not even directed at Christians!  They are directed at people who already do not believe in God!  

Do not get me wrong.  Religious people have been persecuted throughout history.  But pretending to be persecuted or affronted over something as uncontroversial and harmless as these billboards is just plain silly.  If you do not want to encounter anything in public that goes against your view of the world, do us all a favor and stay home.  

W. Really Is An Asshole

January 20th can not get here quick enough.

Spokes-gay

Gay marriage is hot topic du-jour on the news. TV debates about gay marriage can make me cringe if they get some spokesperson who is too polite or too stupid to defend themselves against the empty noise of the opposition.

So thank God for Dan Savage. Not only am I addicted to his advice column and podcast, but damn he is good on television. My favorite moment (in the 2nd video):

Tony Perkins: Boy, you can't get a word in edgewise
with this guy.
Dan Savage: Well, you stripped me of my rights and I interrupted you. Who's really suffering here?

Mr. Savage, I owe you my sanity.

BIG BREAKING NEWS

Queue the exciting music and fancy cable news graphics! The Associated Press is reporting this hour that the bellwether state of Missouri will go to Senator John McCain. Geez louise. Took them long enough. So much for being a bellwether.

I was actually sad this year that I did not get to watch all the election night ballot returns on CNN as commentators and pundits are literally interrupted mid-sentence with photos and graphics of big blue or red check boxes. There is a drinking game in there somewhere.

However, what is astonishing about Missouri is how few votes separated the two candidates. A mere 3,632. There were nearly 3 million people that voted in that state. That's about a 0.12% difference.

Goddamn.

And in the state of Minnesota, there were about 200 votes separating the two candidates for U.S. Senate -- such a small amount, they are required by law to recount everything. There will likely be court fights about the validity of handfuls of individual absentee ballots.

Election after election, there are always races that come down to the smallest vote differences. I once met someone who ran for an office and lost by 3 votes. Three.

So the next time you hear someone whine, "voting is useless.. my vote does not count," be sure to remind them they are a complete fool.

Whoops

Imagine for a moment you are quietly working from home one afternoon. A friend sends you a link to a funny video, you click it, and it takes a while to load. A work call comes into your cell, and you start helping them out. The video starts playing full blast. The volume control of your computer does not work. After a minute, you finally are able to pause the video. The person on the other line asks confusedly, "was that a little girl?" Enjoy the video:

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor

Ted Haggard Finally Has It All Figured Out

Famed gay-sex-and-meth-loving Evangelical hypocrite, Ted Haggard, returned to the pulpit this week to make excuses for his closeted gayness. Here's a quick news clip about Haggard's nausea-inducing realizations:


The most "fascinating" finding: because Haggard was molested in 2nd grade, he developed an insatiable hunger for meth and man ass. Uh huh.

Of course his behavior probably has nothing to do with the serious psychological damage that must originate from being a self-hating closeted homosexual obsessed with furthering hateful and misinformed messages about gay people.

It is such an ironic depressing joke.

Dear Ted Haggard: you cannot write off your sexual identity due to vague sexual molestation events when you were in elementary school. Molestation of children is incredibly serious and can leave life-long psychological damage.

Haggard is not gay because he was molested. He became a right-wing, nut-job preacher because he was molested.

My How Times Have Changed

Wow. You leave the country for 11 days and everything changes. Of course, Obama becoming the president elect totally kicks ass, and I will post some stuff on that. But before you are able to enjoy the end of 8 years of Bush, Prop 8 slaps you across the face. There are so many things that infuriate me about this proposition, but for now you should just watch Keith Olbermann's take on the subject. I think one of his best Special Comments ever: