Texas tea

DALLAS (Reuters) - Two Republican gay rights groups said on Thursday they had been denied booths at the party's upcoming Texas convention after being told their sexuality runs counter to the party's views.

The Metroplex Republicans and the national Log Cabin Republicans said at a news conference in Fort Worth that state GOP leadership had denied them permission for the booths at the June 5-7 convention.

"It’s time that the Texas GOP's hypocritical policies and procedures are replaced by new ones that match the general opinion of Texan Republican voters," Log Cabin Republicans of Texas Chairman Jeffrey Davis said.

The Texas Republican Party did not respond to requests for comment.

The party platform states: "The practice of homosexuality tears at the fabric of society and contributes to the breakdown of the family unit. Homosexual behavior is contrary to the fundamental, unchanging truths that have been ordained by God, recognized by our country's founders, and shared by the majority of Texans."

The political spectrum for gay rights in the United States has been rapidly shifting as courts across the country strike down state bans on same-sex marriage, with 19 states legalizing gay marriage. Major urban areas in Texas have thriving homosexual gay and lesbian communities with voters in Houston electing as mayor an openly lesbian candidate and Dallas County voters electing a lesbian as sheriff.
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Damien's note:  That the Texas Republican Party, which recent primaries prove has fallen almost completely under the spell of the Tea Party, should have refused these groups space is not what makes this a part of Damien's queer world. What is queer is that the Log Cabin Republicans and the Metroplex Republicans persist in thinking their party will ever accept them as equal partners. I sympathize with what I image are the fiscal concerns of many moderate and gay Republicans. I am saddened that they find themselves in this situation. But, as they used to say at Texas A&M when anyone complained, "Highway 6 runs both ways." Meaning, you are always free to leave.

Are Americans in need of smarter potty training?

Yoshiaki Fujimori wants to be the Steve Jobs of toilets.

Like iPhones, app-packed commodes are objects of desire in Mr. Fujimori's Japan. The lids lift automatically. The seats heat up. Built-in bidets make cleanup a breeze. Some of them even sync with users' smartphones via Bluetooth so that they can program their preferences and play their favorite music through speakers built into the bowl.

Three-quarters of Japanese homes contain such toilets, most of them made by one of two companies: Toto, Japan's largest maker of so-called sanitary ware, or Lixil Corp, where Mr. Fujimori is the chief executive.

Now Mr. Fujimori is leading a push to bring them to the great unwashed. In May, Lixil plans to add toilets with "integrated bidets" to the lineup of American Standard Brands, which Lixil acquired last year for $542 million, including debt.
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I can still remember visiting my grandparents when they had only an outdoor toilet. I cannot imagine what they would have thought of this thing.

Real?

Or just real bad?

Absolute tutiorism = absolutely wrong

For reasons unknown to me, the term absolute tutiorism popped into my head this morning.

Absolute tutiorism, as I learned in my very traditional Catholic seminary moral theology training is "A rigorist moral system for resolving practical doubts which holds that in every difference of opinion one must choose what is certain and thus decide in favor of compliance with the law. Only full certainty of the opposite frees a person from observance of the law. This theory is not acceptable in Catholic morality."

That last bit may surprise you.  One often gets the impression, listening to bishops and others who claim to represent the Catholic Church on various matters, that one must always and everywhere obey the law unless one is absolutely certain the law does not apply or that a higher law overrides a lower law. This is the only safe path!

Yet such a rigorous position was actually condemned by church authority during the debate with Jansenism (look it up if you are bored) in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. While one can never accuse the Catholic leadership of laxity when it comes to the teaching of morality (whatever its quite evident failures may be in the matter of its own behavior), the church came down firmly on the side of those who contended that one only needed a solidly probable opinion (seriously solid, based on firm theological reflection by competent moral teachers) to decide that the law did not apply in a particular case. Those who said that one must choose the safer course (tutior means safer in Latin) or even the safest course of always obeying the law (the absolute tutiorist position) were condemned in papal pronouncements related to the Jansenist heresy.

By the way, the church at that time also said that one did not even have to choose the more probable opinion! If there were good reasons for an opinion that favored freedom, even if there were better arguments against it, you were free.

This may all seem rather technical when life is simple, but is life actually so simple? Do not men and women of good will, men and women raised in the Christian tradition and familiar with the scriptures, do not many of them disagree on any number of points, not just of belief but of behavior? Much of the heat generated by religion in the political realm seems to arise from an erroneous belief that all Christians (or all Jews and Christians) believe the same thing about issues like abortion, marriage, medical research, creation and on and on and on. Too many seem to be absolute tutiorist in a way -- the only safe way it to vote in accord with MY interpretation of whatever-the-issue may be. Or in accord with MY understanding of what MY church says. Or what some of those who lead or claim to lead MY church says. Or what MY church says the Bible says. Or what MY pastor says the Bible says. Or what I think the Bible says.

One reason that absolute tutiorism is unacceptable in Catholic theology is that it undervalues the mercy of God and implies that salvation depends totally on fallible human understanding and actions rather than on the grace of an all-knowing and all-loving God. God is just, one of the holy ones has said, not because God sticks to the rules but because God also takes into account human error and confusion.

I for one find this absolutely reassuring!

257 times

According to a report on msn money, "Propelled by a soaring stock market, the median pay package for a CEO rose above eight figures for the first time last year. The head of a Standard & Poor's 500 company earned a record $10.5 million, an increase of 8.8 percent from $9.6 million in 2012, according to an Associated Press/Equilar pay study.

"Last year was the fourth straight that CEO compensation rose following a decline during the Great Recession. The median CEO pay package climbed more than 50 percent over that stretch. A chief executive now makes about 257 times the average worker's salary, up sharply from 181 times in 2009."

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I am amused by television programs (typically of the pseudo-reality genre) which continue to portray "millionaires" as people with unlimited wealth. I have friends whose net worth is a bit over a million dollars, and it ain't that much. I mean, it's waaaaay more than I will ever have! But when it comes to the shows I am talking about, their financial vision is stuck in the 1960s. My millionaire friends are also not the CEOs who are bringing home tens of millions each year. They are people who worked hard for decades, saved every penny and invested carefully -- and lost half their portfolio in the bust. They have managed to creep back into the millionaire category, though you would never guess it to see how they live.

But then I guess it all depends on whether one is inclined to plan and save or to enjoy the present moment and hope for the best.

About ten years ago, one friend's older brother told him that he (my friend, who is one of these just-over-a-millionaires) should not even think about retiring on less than five million dollars.  But then the older brother was a minor CEO. Even then CEO's thought differently.

For the Bible tells me so ...

A South Carolina pastor has been accused of turning his Bible College into a forced labor camp for foreign students.

Reginald Wayne Miller, 65, allegedly made the teens toil for no or little pay for more than 50 hours a week while housing them in rooms without hot water, heating or air-conditioning. He is also alleged to have threatened to revoke their student visas if they complained or failed to comply with his demands.

Miller, who runs the Cathedral Bible College in Marion, was arrested 2 a.m. Thursday. Federal prosecutors had filed a criminal complaint accusing him of forced labor. He was booked into the Florence County Detention Center and appeared in federal court later that afternoon. A federal judge set his bail at $250,000.

 For more about Cathedral Bible College, visit their website here.

"Students described a pervasive climate of fear in which their legal status as non-immigrant students was in constant jeopardy," an affidavit stated. "[...] Miller threatened expulsion and therefore termination of their legal presence in the United States for non-compliance with his demands," it added.

 

Students reportedly told investigators that classes "were not real" and that the main focus of the school was to have them working full-time at its campus and Miller's home.

Miller faces 20 years in prison, for each count he is eventually charged with, if convicted.

Cathedral Bible College, which offers degrees in theology, divinity, Christian counseling and ministry, recently moved to Marion from the former Myrtle Beach Air Force Base.

It's not the first time Miller has been arrested, according to Myrtle Beach Online. In 2006, he was allegedly detained on charges of lewdness and prostitution for exposing himself to an undercover cop in a bathhouse.

"O living flame of love, that tenderly wounds ..."

Franklin Graham preached against homosexuality at the Family Research Council‘s annual Watchmen on the Walls conference yesterday, announcing, “we don’t want to be called ‘a homophobic.’” The 61-year old son of the charismatic televangelist Billy Graham, who now is president of his aging father’s business, also invited the LGBT community to behead him for his views against same-sex marriage and equal civil rights.

“Are we going to be cowards because we’re afraid?,” Franklin Graham, playing the self-inflicted victim card, posited. “Could we get our heads chopped off? We could, maybe one day. So what? Chop it off!”

Never has there been any threat of beheading Christians for their chosen views on homosexuality, and until four years ago, the majority of Americans shared their views on same-sex marriage.

“I tell people, ‘Listen, I’m not afraid of homosexuals, matter of fact, I love them, I love them enough to care to warn them, that if they want to continue living like this, it’s the flames of hell for you.”
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As I recall, more than one Christian theologian over the years has said that one of the joys of the blessed in heaven is to look down on the suffering of those in hell and to praise God's justice. Mr. Graham's attitude makes perfect sense to those who see no anomaly in such a belief.

What can one say?

The $60 million high school football stadium in the Dallas suburb of Allen is officially closed for the 2014 season after engineers found major structural problems. Eagle Stadium made national headlines when it opened just two years ago, raising eyebrows with its big price tag.

In March, the school district announced it had discovered "extensive cracking" in the concourse and would close for repairs. After further investigation, Alllen ISD says it won't be a quick and easy fix.

"Our commitment to Allen students and taxpayers remains firm that the stadium be repaired properly at the expense of those responsible for the failure: the architect and the builder," superintendent Lance Hindt said.

The two-time defending 5A Division I Texas State Football Champions won't get to enjoy its 18,000-seat palace this upcoming season as the Eagles will be forced to shuffle their schedule and play their home games in Plano.

"While we are extremely disappointed that the stadium will remain closed this fall, we recognize that our priority must be to provide a safe venue for our students and the public," Allen ISD Board of Trustees President Louise Master said.

The stadium was financed as part of a $119 million bond issue in 2009 and opened for the 2012 football season.
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Texas ranks 30th in the nation for average teacher's salaries.

Happy thoughts, keep thinking happy thoughts! Think about things you want to eat!

McDonald's tweeted a photo of the new Happy Meal mascot, saying: "Say hello to our newest friend, Happy!"

But within hours, the new square-faced red and yellow mascot with big white teeth was scaring away people on Twitter and had become the butt of jokes.

@DrZombield said: THAT! Is scary!
@CraigGrannell warned: "HE WILL EAT YOU ALIVE! RUN!"
@Naive_Steve came up with his own tag-line: "Happy", "It's the meal that eats you."
And @jrichardmiller said: "Happy" looks happy bc he just finished off a family of six #RIP #HappyMeal." 

"We are not un-happy about" the response, said Julie Wenger, senior director of U.S. marketing for McDonald's. "Happy is not for everyone. He's about having fun. Really for kids and families."

Wenger said: "Happy is promoting healthy choices through fun and lightheartedness."

But not everyone was on board with McDonald's message, especially given the fast food chain's reputation for peddling calorie-laden fare.

@samkamani said, "In order to fight obesity in kids, McDonalds introduces its new mascot to scare children."
@erikbransteen said, "Congrats #McDonalds, first you fatten our kids, then you haunt their nightmares."

The Happy Meal mascot launches this Friday.

How Jewish are the Vulcans?

For some reason, I was wandering around the web researching Vulcan kolinahr today and ran across this tidbit that was unfamiliar to me. The Vulcan "live long and prosper" hand salute has Jewish roots.

Leonard Nimoy has long been active in the Jewish community, and he can speak and read Yiddish. In 1997, he narrated the documentary A Life Apart: Hasidism in America, about the various sects of Hasidic Orthodox Jews. In October 2002, Nimoy published The Shekhina Project, a photographic study exploring the feminine aspect of God's presence, inspired by Kabbalah. Reactions have varied from enthusiastic support to open condemnation. Nimoy claims that objections to Shekhina do not bother or surprise him, but he smarts at the stridency of the Orthodox protests, and is "saddened at the attempt to control thought."

At any rate, I think I had assumed that the famous Vulcan salute demonstrated in the photograph, was a nod to the initial letter of the name of Spock's home planet and also a nod to the peace sign being flashed everywhere at the time of the original Star Trek series.

However,  it seems that Nimoy created the sign himself from his childhood memories of the way kohanim (Jewish priests) held their hand when giving blessings. During an interview, he translated the Priestly Blessing which accompanied the sign and described it during a public lecture:

May the Lord bless and keep you and may the Lord cause his countenance to shine upon you. May the Lord be gracious unto you and grant you peace. 

 

The accompanying spoken blessing for the Vulcan version, of course: "Live long and prosper."

Forevertron

By the team at RoadsideAmerica.com

North Freedom, Wisconsin
 

Dr. Evermor merrily manipulates bits and pieces of the historical slipstream. He's been constructing God knows what behind Delaney's Surplus since 1983.

Dr. Evermor is occasionally known as Tom Every, a scrap artisan who owns a local salvage and dismantling business. He's built the World's Largest Sculpture on a science fiction landscape, from old carburetors and discarded power house machines -- like Japanese RPG weaponry from the Age of Steam. Oft imitated by "Visionary Art"-wannabes, none have seriously challenged the Doctor's ingenious conglomeration.

  

From the highway, the top of the 320-ton Forevertron is barely visible, its trans-temporal egg chamber poking up above the foliage. A few devices, fanciful Victorian howitzers and strange extrusions, sit along the roadside -- no signs or other warning of what lies beyond.

You walk behind the surplus store into a spider-silent alien carnival. Dozens of mechanical creatures, ranging from waist-high to 20+-feet tall, flock in clearings. Disintegration chambers, spaceship gun turrets, and huge insectoid contraptions are obliquely arrayed. There are no labels or explanations, so you'll need to talk to Dr. Evermor himself. We missed him during our first visit years ago...

We're in luck this trip: Dr. Evermor greets us in his trademark pith helmet, cigar in hand.

His greatest achievement is the Forevertron, "designed and built in a timeframe of around 1890 ... whereas our dear doctor is a scholarly professor who thought he could perpetuate himself through the heavens on a magnetic lightning force beam inside a glass ball inside a copper egg. You have to understand that at the time electricity and magnetic forces were not fully understood." Tom's anachronistic third person patter is critical to grasping how the Forevertron operates.

 "This device is called the Graviton. The doctor would have to stand in that to de-water himself, to get his weight down, before going up that spiral staircase, going across the little bridge, and getting into the glass ball inside the copper egg."

We are treated to a walking tour around the base of the Forevertron. "Everything here correlates to making the trip." Tom waves his cigar towards a gazebo that sits atop a metal tower. "Royalty would sit in the Teahouse for a commanding view. Doubting Thomases look through the telescope to see if the Doctor made it. Two people sit in the Doctor's Celestial Listening Ears over there and listen to voices from the heavens. At night they would measure astrological bearing points, and transfer that information to Overlord Control, which I'm building right over there..."

The structures perch on weathered concrete, the grounds of a long ago demolished schoolhouse, a level stage for the freestanding metal modules of copper and steel.

"On the other side we're building a Juicer Bug to give us extra juice. The eyes are made from survey markers."

Tom points out significant items welded into the main contraption. "The Forevertron is built from important historical material, including those dynamos, which were constructed by [Thomas] Edison around 1882 -- they come from the Ford Museum. And this unit was the decontamination chamber from the Apollo space mission. A lot of the rest is from power houses from the 1920s."

Hold on -- that's lunar decontamination salvage? "The Apollo decontamination chamber was in three trailers [donated to a university]. We wrecked and scrapped most of it, but I kept the two autoclaves that the moon rocks were passed through." Tom is pretty proud to have this neglected piece of America's space program. "We contacted NASA to try to get papers authenticating it, and boy -- they're very touchy about what happened to that stuff. We did get the original drawings and it's the same damn thing."

 While the Forevertron is huge, imposing, much of Tom's work is delicate and whimsical. The 70 members of the Bird Band are lithe percussive instruments or tall string instruments.

"I'm about the only guy that's using preexisting shapes and forms where they lose their original identity and become something else, without any alterations to that shape or form."

Tom doesn't use blueprints or drawings, and has no traditional art schooling. "No sketches, no models, no nothing -- I just go for it." This is pretty amazing, since sculptures like the Juicer Bug are fifteen tons, and will be hoisted up on spindly insect legs. "Everything here is free floating. I got these bug toenails up in the air, but I don't want a toenail falling off on somebody." He develops his own construction solutions, so far without mishap. "No engineering firm could compute the compression on these legs."

Tom is slowing down, walking from sculpture to sculpture a bit more tentatively. Tom's wife Eleanor and son Troy pitch in on the creation. Troy runs the dismantling business now. Why is Tom still building? "Why not?" he answers. He thinks of it as "an inspiration to other people to look at things in a different perspective."

 Tom ran his successful salvage business for many years, and his artistic side contributed to works in the nearby House on the Rock. "Yea -- I designed the carousel. I haven't been out there since 1982. And all those rooms, those fantasy rooms I designed and built those." There has been bad blood between the good Doctor and the House, which we won't go into, but suffice to say that you should try to visit both for a truly memorable day.

These days he's excited about a proposal to move his entire complex across the street to the old Badger ammo plant. "We would like to move the Forevertron and other things over to Badger Ordnance and make a permanent memorial to the munitions workers, a repository for art from around the world, and kind of a good-spirited thing for the state of Wisconsin." If he can get through all the government "hootchikoo," it may ensure the Forevertron won't end up on somebody else's scrap heap when Tom "highballs it to heaven."

Update: Tom no longer hangs out at the Forevertron, so don't expect to see him when you visit. But he's still planning and building stuff with the help of his son, Thayer, so there's a good chance that you'll see his latest creations.

Damien's Note: When I visited the place a few years ago, and met Tom, I couldn't help wondering why no film student has made a movie with this as the in-place set. It looks like a Stephen King novel waiting to come to life. Some of the smaller pieces are for sale.

And now an encouraging word from the man who would be President

Gays can't get married because Pocahontas

From Slate:

I won’t hide the ball here, so here it is: Gay people should not be able to get married because Pocahontas married John Rolfe.

 

This argument was actually made in federal court Tuesday, before the judges of the Court of Appeals for the 4^th Circuit in Richmond, Virginia. They were hearing a challenge to Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage. The argument is hands-down the worst argument ever offered against same-sex marriage.

To be sure, it’s a crowded field in this dubious competition. The history of same-sex marriage litigation is replete with offensive, awful, nonsensical arguments from states trying to come up with principled excuses for bigotry. For instance, just this week Kentucky defended its ban on same-sex marriage by saying that denying gay people the right to marry leads to more stable birth rates. (Yes, you read that correctly.) And there’s long been the argument, put forward without laughter, that banning same-sex marriage is necessary because straight people can’t control themselves and thus need a responsible way to raise all those children they will have as a result of all that irresponsible sex they have.

But Tuesday’s Pocahontas argument takes the cake. Let me explain.

One of the many issues in same-sex marriage litigation is whether bans on same-sex marriage violate a person’s constitutional right to marry. Many Supreme Court cases have said there is a fundamental right to marry, so the argument is straightforward that bans on same-sex marriage infringe on that right.

In response, some states try to refute this argument by asserting that there is no general right to marry, but rather there is only a right to marry someone of the opposite sex. They argue that this more narrowly defined right is what is protected by court precedent and by our country’s history and tradition. Same-sex marriage advocates usually respond to that argument by asserting that you can’t define fundamental rights so narrowly. If you did, there wouldn’t have been a fundamental right to marry in Loving v. Virginia, the 1967 Supreme Court case that found Virginia could not prohibit interracial marriage. In Loving, the court held that the Constitution protects a fundamental right to marry. As same-sex marriage advocates point out, the court did not require the Lovings to show that there was a long tradition in our country of protecting a fundamental right of a white man to marry a black woman. If it had required such a showing, they couldn’t have done so, given our country’s racist history of banning interracial marriage.

That brings us to Tuesday’s argument. David Oakley was the attorney representing the local court clerk who denied the plaintiffs a marriage license. He was closing up his argument making this exact point—that there is no deeply rooted tradition in our country of protecting the specific right to same-sex marriage. When he made this point, Judge Roger Gregory jumped in and very sternly said “Same thing was true in Loving. Nobody would have considered interracial marriages in Virginia in the 1920s/30s [to be deeply rooted].”

Which is when Oakley shocked everyone with this horrendous Pocahontas argument. He responded, in full: “There is a history, prior to the Jim Crow era laws, the anti-miscegenation laws. The idea of interracial marriage was not prohibited. It still fit within the fundamental right of marriage, the idea of a man-woman marriage. Before Virginia passed those affirmative anti-miscegenation laws, it might not have been the social norm, but people certainly could have married, and indeed did marry, across racial lines. Pocahontas married John Rolfe in the early 1600s and their marriage wasn’t declared unconstitutional.”

To his credit, Oakley did get the last sentence right. Pocahontas did marry John Rolfe on April 5, 1614, almost exactly 400 years ago, and indeed, their marriage was never declared unconstitutional. But beyond the basic factual accuracy of that sentence, Oakley was speaking nonsense. And for so many reasons. After reading this article, you can play a game at home coming up with your own reasons, but here are five that immediately jump out:

1) The argument is legally illogical: No one anywhere, not even the most anti-gay bigot, has claimed that any particular marriages are unconstitutional. Rather, the issue in any marriage case (including Loving) is whether a state violates the Constitution by restricting who can enter a marriage based on race, sex, or sexual orientation. The idea of an individual marriage being declared unconstitutional makes zero sense.

2) It is absurdly a-historic: Pocahontas married John Rolfe in 1614. The Constitution wasn’t ratified until 1789. The Bill of Rights wasn’t included in the Constitution until 1791. The 14^th Amendment didn’t become a part of the Constitution until 1868. To draw the obvious connection here, even if marriages could be declared unconstitutional (they can’t, see No. 1), there was no Constitution in 1614 and wouldn’t be for another 175 years. Add on that the basis of these same-sex marriage cases is the 14^th Amendment, and the relevant constitutional provision regarding the constitutionality of marriage didn’t even exist until 254 years after Pocahontas’ nuptials.

3) It is completely irrelevant: What happened in 1614, when the United States of America didn’t exist, is irrelevant to whether there is a history or tradition in our country of interracial marriage. Soon after the Pocahontas wedding, there was very much a tradition of banning interracial marriage. Play around with the map on the Loving Day website for a minute and you can see that tradition growing and growing throughout our country’s history. In fact, in 1868, when the 14^th Amendment was ratified, 32 states banned interracial marriage compared to only 11 states that allowed it. Whether Pocahontas married a white person in 1614 is wholly irrelevant to this clear history.

4) It is even more irrelevant still: If the basis of the clerk’s argument is that there has to be a tradition of protecting the specific type of marriage being sought, then the only way Loving is correct is if there is a specific tradition of protecting the marriage between a white person and a black person (or, even more specifically, a white man and a black woman). Pocahontas’ marrying John Rolfe is simply irrelevant to that inquiry.

5) It ignores Virginia’s unique history: Maryland was the first colony to ban interracial marriage between white people and slaves, but Virginia was the first colony to ban interracial marriage between all white people and all black people (free or slave). It did so in 1691. 1691! And that Virginia ban stayed on the books in one form or another until it was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1967. Over the decades and centuries, almost the entire country joined Virginia, but Virginia had the dubious distinction of being the first. At the time of Loving, Virginia’s history of banning the exact marriage at issue in that case—between a white man and black woman—was the very definition of a deeply rooted tradition.

I have yet to hear a logically sound and legally relevant argument against same-sex marriage. But even amid this cornucopia of bad ones, the Pocahontas argument before the 4^th Circuit this week has the distinct honor of being the worst ever.

Is it just me?

Not long after I got my tablet, I discovered mPoints, whereby I earn points by playing certain games or using certain apps. I have to say that for months and months, I was happy. I used my points to get Amazon gift cards and added them easily to my Amazon account. The points added up fairly fast, my Amazon credit (which does not expire) grew and life was good.

Then I noticed that the program had started to get stingy. First, things that originally gave me 10 points began to be worth only 5. Or even less! Some point-earners simply disappeared from the system.

Recently they switched from giving points for viewing brief ads to making you watch five ads for the (useless) privilege of being entered into a contest for a gift card. Admittedly the gift card offered is a generous one, but you have no promise of ever winning one. I have no idea how many people use the things, but one imagines there are hundreds of thousands or millions, since major businesses place ads on the system. Now I feel like it is a waste of time to watch ads for a highly unlikely chance at a card. Before I at least knew I was earning points and my total was slowly growing.

In my case, I just skip the offer to watch an advertisement now to save time. Why waste fifteen seconds X five ads just to be entered in a contest I am statistically pretty sure to lose. My minute-and-a-quarters are worth more than that. So they may be saving (in some obscure way) by dropping the points-for-ads thing, but now I am not watching any of the ads their sponsors are paying to place on the system.

Maybe everyone else loves the changes. Me, not so much.

Magic water: Masaru Emoto

Those of you who follow the queer universe may already know about this guy:

Masaru Emoto (born July 22, 1943) is a Japanese author and entrepreneur, who claims that human consciousness has an effect on the molecular structure of water. Emoto's hypothesis has evolved over the years. Initially he believed that water takes on the "resonance" of the energy which is directed at it, and that polluted water can be restored through prayer and positive visualization. Emoto's work is widely considered pseudoscience, and he is criticized for going directly to the public with misleading claims that violate basic physics, based on methods that fail to properly investigate the truth of the claims.
Since 1999 Emoto has published several volumes of a work titled Messages from Water, which contains photographs of water crystals, and their accompanying experiments. Emoto's ideas appeared in the documentary "What the Bleep Do We Know!?".

 Here are some photos of water allegedly transformed by human consciousness:

A friend told me she and her husband had tried to replicate the results with no apparent change in the water. Since she is a big believer in the power of prayer, I have to think she was a bit disappointed.

For a detailed analysis (non-supportive), click on this link: Is Masaru Emoto for Real?

Not quite the Great Auk

An animal shot dead by a coyote hunter in Iowa in February was the first gray wolf spotted in the state since at least 1925, DNA testing has confirmed.

The hunter, who hasn't been named, shot the female wolf near Fairbank in northwest Buchanan County believing it to be a similar-looking coyote. It is legal to shoot coyote in Iowa, though hunting wolves is illegal as they are a protected species.

On closer inspection, the hunter thought the supposed coyote may have been a wolf and brought the animal to the DNR office in Manchester, where biologists examined it and took DNA samples.

Iowa previously had two sub species of gray wolf - the Great Plains wolf and the gray timber wolf. But they were systematically killed or driven out of the state by Iowa settlers who considered them a threat to their livestock.

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Per Damien: Several things of note. The hunter realized he may have made a mistake and took the body to the DNR. The wolf was about twice the size of a coyote. Neighboring states like Minnesota and Wisconsin have substantial wolf populations, so we are not talking about a species on the verge of extinction, although it is no longer present in Iowa.

As for the Great Auk: 

It was on the islet of Stac an Armin, St Kilda, Scotland, in July 1844, that the last Great Auk seen in the British Isles was caught and killed.Three men from St Kilda caught a single "garefowl", noticing its little wings and the large white spot on its head. They tied it up and kept it alive for three days, until a large storm arose. Believing that the auk was a witch and the cause of the storm, they then killed it by beating it with a stick. It is the only British bird made extinct in historic times.

The last colony of Great Auks lived on Geirfuglasker (the "Great Auk Rock") off Iceland. This islet was a volcanic rock surrounded by cliffs which made it inaccessible to humans, but in 1830 the islet submerged after a volcanic eruption, and the birds moved to the nearby island of Eldey, which was accessible from a single side. When the colony was initially discovered in 1835, nearly fifty birds were present. Museums, desiring the skins of the auk for preservation and display, quickly began collecting birds from the colony. The last pair, found incubating an egg, was killed there on 3 July 1844, on request from a merchant who wanted specimens, with Jón Brandsson and Sigurður Ísleifsson strangling the adults and Ketill Ketilsson smashing the egg with his boot.

 

The specimen pictured is possibly one of those last two birds, now on display in Brussels.

House hunting?

For sale in Transylvania: Dracula’s Castle

Published May 12, 2014

Dracula’s Castle in Transylvania has gone up for sale.

Nestled in the Romanian countryside, the property is a tasty investment, and with the closest town, Brasov, some miles away, there’s plenty of peace and quiet, meaning you’ll be able to sleep for a thousand years — or least get a peaceful, lazy Sunday.

The spectacular Bran Castle in Romania has a long list of previous owners, from Saxons to Teutonic knights. But its most famous occupant was Vlad “The Impaler” Tepes, a fearsome warrior who operated in the area and was imprisoned in the castle in the 15th century.

Vlad was a member of the House of Draculesti, the name which gave rise to the famous vampire Count Dracula, the creation of the 19th-century writer Bram Stoker.

Stoker’s Dracula was also inspired by Transylvanian legend and folklore, which are full of characters called strigoi, phantoms that leave their bodies when darkness falls to terrorize sleeping villagers.
According to the Daily Telegraph , the castle is now owned by the descendants of Britain’s Queen Victoria after it was restored to their control following the collapse of communism.

The family, whose surname is Habsburg, consists of three siblings all in their 70s, who lack the time and energy to carry out the renovations the castle needs. (It currently has no toilets or bathrooms.)

Mark Meyer, from New York real estate firm Herzfeld and Rubin, which is handling the sale, refused to discuss the price. The castle reportedly was offered to the Romanian government for $85 million.

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Okay, first of all -- no toilets, bathrooms? I assume that means no central heat, either.

 

 And miles from the nearest Starbucks? 

I suppose there's no point in asking about wifi.

 

On the other hand, if this is the sort of bat to be found in the belfry, I might reconsider.

And yet another reason people need to think twice about demanding things religious

Satanic Prayer May Open Florida Town Council Meeting

The Huffington Post  | by  Yasmine Hafiz

 

05/09/2014 12:59 pm EDT  

 

 

 

Just three days after the Supreme Court ruled that sectarian legislative prayer was constitutional in Greece v. Galloway, a man in Deerfield Beach, Florida, requested to open a session of the town council or the Florida State Senate with a Satanic prayer, reports 12 News.

Chaz Stevens, a Satanist, explained:

I just want equal billing. We allow various religious nutjobs to give a prayer. They pray to Jesus who is make-believe, god who is make-believe, why not Satan who is make-believe? Why discriminate against one make-believe god over another? Satan and I are being circumvented. The city of Deerfield Beach has once again declared war on religion — and this time it’s Satanism.

Stevens previously made headlines last December when he successfully put up a secular Festivus pole made of beer cans in the Florida Capitol in protest of a nativity scene that was also displayed there.

His letter to the town council read:

Dear City of Deerfield Beach;
With the recent US Supreme Court ruling allowing “prayer before Commission meetings” and seeking the rights granted to others, I hereby am requesting I be allowed to open a Commission meeting praying for my God, my divine spirit, my Dude in Charge.
Be advised, I am a Satanist.
Let me know when this is good for you.

Justice Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion in the case stated, “[t]o hold that invocations must be nonsectarian would force the legislatures that sponsor prayers and the courts that are asked to decide these cases to act as supervisors and censors of religious speech," meaning that prayers are allowed to be specific to a person's particular beliefs or traditions.
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Of course, not everyone will be happy if the request is granted. Consider this story from last May:

Juan Mendez, an Arizona State Representative, was asked to give a prayer in the Arizona House.  I don’t think they realized that he was an atheist, and Mendez said this “prayer”:

Most prayers in this room begin with a request to bow your heads. I would like to ask that you not bow your heads. I would like to ask that you take a moment to look around the room at all the men and women here in this moment, sharing this extraordinary experience of being alive, and dedicating ourselves to working toward improving the lives of the people of our state. This is a room in which there are many challenging debates, many moments of tension, of ideological division, of frustration. But this is also a room where, as my secular humanist traditions stress, by the very fact of being human, we have much more in common than we have differences…Let us root our policy-making process in these values that are relevant to all Arizonans, regardless of religious belief or non-belief. In gratitude and in love, in reason and in compassion, let us work together for a better Arizona.

That’s fantastic—much better than religious “prayers”!  Sadly, Mendez’s invocation of humanism peeved his fellow religious legislators, who, of course, not only attacked him but offered a counter-prayer to propitiate God, who was obviously pissed off at Mendez’s atheism (I haven’t been able to find a transcript of the counter-prayer). As the Associated Press reports (reprinted at The Big Story),

Republican Rep. Steve Smith on Wednesday said the prayer offered by Democratic Rep. Juan Mendez of Tempe at the beginning of the previous day’s floor session wasn’t a prayer at all. So he asked other members to join him in a second daily prayer in “repentance,” and about half the 60-member body did so. Both the Arizona House and Senate begin their sessions with a prayer and a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.
“When there’s a time set aside to pray and to pledge, if you are a non-believer, don’t ask for time to pray,” said Smith, of Maricopa. “If you don’t love this nation and want to pledge to it, don’t say I want to lead this body in the pledge, and stand up there and say, ‘you know what, instead of pledging, I love England’ and (sit) down.
“That’s not a pledge, and that wasn’t a prayer, it’s that simple,” Smith said.

But here’s the good news, and remember, it’s from Arizona, where everyone but Mendez and readers Ben Goren and Kelly Houle are religious:

On Wednesday, [Arizona House Speaker] Tobin said he had no problem with Mendez’s prayer.
“From my perspective I didn’t see an issue with Mr. Mendez yesterday,” said Tobin, R-Paulden. “I can appreciate what Mr. Smith was saying, but I think all members are responsible for their own prayerful lives and I think the demonstration that we take moments for prayer we all do collectively and in our own hearts.”
Rep. Jamescita Peshlakai, who represents a northern Arizona district on the Navajo reservation, did take offense. She said Smith’s criticism of another member’s faith, or lack of it, was wrong.
“I want to remind the House and my colleagues and everybody here that several of us here are not Christianized. I’m a traditional Navajo, so I stand here every day and participate in prayers,” even without personally embracing them, said Peshlakai, D-Cameron. “This is the United States, this is America, and we all represent different people … and you need to respect that. Your God is no more powerful than my God. We all come from the same creator.”

Well, the stuff about the “same creator” presupposes a god, but at least Peshlakai noted that not everyone in the legislature is a Christian. 

And why is Congress fixated on Benghazi when this is the real problem?

U.S. Air Force: We're Not Afraid Of Godzilla

The Huffington Post  | by  Andy Campbell

Posted: 05/08/2014 2:31 pm EDT Updated: 05/08/2014 5:59 pm EDT 

 

The U.S. Air Force believes it could bring down Godzilla. But as they say in monster movies, "They clearly don't know what they're up against."

Look, it's pretty awesome that the Smithsonian's Air & Space Magazine got airmen at the Kadena Air Base in Okinawa to comment on a Godzilla attack. But when Senior Airman Mark Hermann said he'd defend the United States of America from Godzilla with "50 caliber [machine guns], four helicopters ... and all the cannons here," I just laughed.

Master Sgt. Jason Edwards got closer to victory when he suggested bringing in the Power Rangers and Tom Brokaw to the fight. But what the two airmen don't know is that there has been plenty more artillery fired at Godzilla over the years, and he's never really been taken down (Did his body regenerate? Did he die? Don't argue). So this reporter decided to bring out the big guns -- a U.S. Army Reserves Chinook pilot, and my dad -- to answer the question: Can the Armed Forces kill Godzilla?

"He shoots friggin' lightning out of his mouth, he kills kaiju, he can go into space, and he can fly with no wings. Japanese tanks, helicopters, and artillery can't take him out. Even when they were able to kill him, he comes back to life," Chief Warrant Officer Bryan Campbell told HuffPost Weird News.
"I don't think the Air Force could take Godzilla, and I don't even think the Army or anybody in the world could take him," Campbell added.

Dad's right (and he can totally beat up your dad). Godzilla is nearly 350 feet tall and was born from nuclear waste. Nukes won't work. F-15s won't work. And .50-caliber machine guns sure as hell won't work -- Godzilla beat Mechagodzilla.

Plus, the Air Force has chosen the wrong enemy. In some of the old films (and in the new one coming out) Godzilla is beckoned from the oceanic depths to kill another monster terrorizing society.
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I have seen the trailers for this summer's movie, but it was not clear to me that they were calling in Godzilla to take out the Republicans in the House of Representatives.  I'm glad for the clarification.

How does a T. Rex throw out the opening pitch with such tiny arms? Oh, that’s how.

A costumed dinosaur, Baby T, from “Walking with Dinosaurs” throws out the first pitch before a game between the Royals and the Padres at Petco Park. (Denis Poroy/Getty Images)

Before Wednesday’s Royals-Padres game, things got a wee bit Jurassic at Petco Park. A pretty realistic-looking dinosaur — to the degree that we have any idea what dinosaurs actually looked like — came out to the mound to throw the opening pitch. On the other end was the Padres mascot, Swinging Friar, who is a much less realistic-looking man of the cloth, but enough about him.

The Tyrannosaurus rex was in town to promote a November visit to San Diego by the “Walking With Dinosaurs” show, so what better way to drum up early interest than to make a dramatic appearance at a baseball game? The only question would be how Baby T would make the throw, and the answer turned out to be obvious. Instead of even attempting to use one of its teeny, little arms — or any of its unfortunately costume-mandated four legs — the dino simply grabbed the ball by its huge mouth and hurled it toward ol’ Friar.

A tradition of leadership

STORRS, Conn. (AP) — A sorority accused of forcing a member to lie on the floor and "sizzle like bacon," then drink alcohol until she passed out has been banned from the University of Connecticut.

The school sent its Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter a letter Wednesday informing it that its registration and recognition had been revoked after an investigation into the hazing allegation.

The sorority did not immediately respond to email requests for comment Thursday. It was given until 4 p.m. on May 15 to vacate its on-campus house and has until May 14 to file an appeal.

"UConn has zero tolerance for hazing and all similarly harmful behaviors, and repeatedly makes those expectations clear to all student leaders in Greek life and other organizations," school spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz said in an email. "The university's decision to revoke Kappa Kappa Gamma's registration and recognition was not taken lightly, but it was appropriate and imperative in light of the severity of the circumstances.'


UConn sophomore and Kappa Kappa Gamma member Hillary Holt told reporters she was taken to the Sigma Alpha Epsilon's off-campus house on March 6 and forced to commit humiliating acts, including being told to lie on the floor and pretend to "sizzle like bacon." She said she was then pressured to drink alcohol to the point of passing out.

Holt said she woke up in a hospital and was told her blood-alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit of 0.08.

The sorority's national chapter issued a statement in March saying it does not tolerate hazing and "will continue to be an advocate for anti-hazing education across the country."

The Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, where the hazing allegedly took place, is expected to learn its fate following a review meeting next week.

The school also is investigating hazing charges against three other Greek organizations. Delta Zeta, Delta Gamma and Sigma Chi were placed on interim suspension in April amid allegations that men were forced during off-campus parties to eat dog treats, paint their bodies, wear women's underwear and take alcohol shots off each other's bodies.
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I note that Kappa Kappa Gamma has included some women who went on to become important members of the community. These include Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Phyllis McGinley, news correspondents Nancy Dickerson and Jane Pauley, and Senator Kristen Gillibrand.