The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by PurpleGirl:

A.R. Yngve -- Despite the fact that Cheney has not disowned his daughter, he has made it possible to hurt others and to make discrimination against gays into public policy. The MSM proclaimed his tolerance because he was against a federal marriage amendment and thought it was a matter for the states to decide... and what we have are states where they've changed their constitutions and made a horrible crosspatch of laws which discrimate against gays. The state his daughter and her spouse live in will not grant them the same rights as other couples. And because she has resources other people do not have she'll find a way around some of the harsher results of the law. And they seem to see nothing wrong with this situation. Mary's own remark about states and the federal government needing to catch up with her and Heather in their view of marriage only makes her a cynic and hypocrite because she is not working to change the law.

(Sorry for the rant in a thread that has some good snark and laughs, but Mary's been a professional political operative and used her gayness for personal employment gain (her jobs at Coors and AOL) without seeming to understand the ramifications of her actions on other people. Remember too that some of these state consitutional amendments are written so broadly as to apply to het couples who aren't married but who are cohabitating -- VA's certainly is.)

I have on occasion voted for someone on the WFP line but last evening I read the post by Steve Gilliard. This morning I voted a straight Democratic line. This year it is more important that the Democrats have the numbers in their column.

I'm sorry to hear this. I liked his commentary here at Making Light and will miss it.

(I knew his name from fandom, although I don't believe I ever met him. I stay on the fringes and it's a long time since I went to a con.)

I took typing classes in high school on a large manual machine. My first exposure to Selectrics came in college in various administration offices where I either hung out (the Student Affairs office) or worked (the Dean's office). My first job "out" of college (I still had 12 credits or so to finish) was typing mathematics on a Selectric. (Imagine typing mathematics with carbon paper and stencils because they were class notes which would later be printed, bound and sold). I used the IBM-approved mathematics ball and the Composer ball with yet more symbols on it. (IBM claimed the Composer ball wouldn't fit the regular Selectric, but it did.) Eventually I bought myself a dual-pitch, self-correcting Selectric which I loved. I miss the feel of that keyboard. I still choose keyboards by their size and Selectric-like feel. I wouldn't trade in working with a computer word-processor for making corrections and changes easier but the Selectric was great machine.

Linkmeister -- I have friends who had several retired racing greyhounds and two of the dogs hated Tstorms. They'd shake and shiver so badly one of the household humans would have to sit with dog and hold her until the storm was over or the dog became calm.

Around 4 pm, there was a downpour in Woodside, Queens. The sky wasn't much darker than earlier but the rain came down in sheets for a good half hour (at least). I opened the terrace door to watch it for a while, glad I was staying in.

TNH: "Loud Religion". Great term and it describes them so well.

Greg -- My problem with Biden is that he's the Senator from MBNA. He pushed for the new bankruptcy law which was a total give-away to the banking industry.

I live on the 17th floor and my living room windows have a south/southwest orientation. My terrace is about 10ft x 8ft. Because of the angle of the bedroom wing to the living room space the terrace is usually protected from rain and much snow. The snow made it all the way to the building wall and was about 8in deep on the terrace. I didn't go outside but I poked my head out the terrace door a couple of times to feel the snow blown around by the wind. Early this morning I really liked how the blowing snow looked -- like white mist in the air.

Serge -- Re: Dr. Penis the urologist. We took the medical journal information from Index Medicus. I worked at Matthew Bender back in 1982/83. I'll do some research later tonight (from home) and see what I can find.

Serge, re: weirdest doctor's name. When I worked as a copyeditor for Matthew Bender (legal publishers), I worked on a series called "Gray's Anatomy" which explained medical terms etc. for lawyers. (Yeah, really creative name for the book...) Anyway, we would include information about articles from medical journals for lawyers to read. We included an article by a urologist in one chapter -- by Dr. Penis. Maybe not the weirdest name, but there was something about it that made it memorable.

Dave Luckett: Your latest comment is so true and well articulated. And the exact reason why considering the Bible as the inerrant and literal word of God creates such problems.

J Hansen: Where do you get the idea that ELCA is now Episcopal and not Lutheran. [...ELCA (which is officially Episcopal/Anglican now instead of Lutheran),...] I'm just surprised by your statement.

At the Christmas service I attended this year at St. Peter's Lutheran the pastor mentioned being in "full communion" with the Episcopal Church. According an ELCA website, they are in full communion with the Episcopal Church since 1999/2000; but I didn't get the feeling that they meant they were merging. (I haven't been an active Lutheran in many years but I was around during the Seminex crisis and the breaking away from the Missouri Synod of many churches before the "liberal" branches merged to form ELCA.) See the following page for information on communion with Episcopal churchs.

http://www.elca.org/ecumenical/fullcommunion/episcopal/

(Thank you T & P Nielsen Hayden for hosting a place were we get the chance to explore some intriguing tangents.)

As to Ramadan moving around the calendar. There is a woman in my office who is Muslim and I know I've spokent to her at different times about keeping the fast. As she says, it's easier to keep when it falls in the winter months and the days are shorter.

I have a new entry for the list of possible conspirators -- The New York Science Fiction Society (aka The Lunarians). Their logo is Little Loony sitting on a Crescent Moon.

As I was about to fall asleep, it occured to me that the TBogg thread was as much fun a read as the "Slumming" thread here a few weeks ago and then I thought: imagine Alec Rawls' reaction if he got disemvoweled.

Eric (Gratton): Thanks for the information on flags. "A tricolor of Green, Green, and Green." That is so delicious.

The thread is still taking comments over at TBogg, although isn't quite as much fun without Rawls' comments.

I spent a lot of time this past weekend reading the thread at TBogg and then over here in the open thread. Must say I didn't get my laundry done, but I enjoyed myself. I will admit that it was scary to read how Alec Rawls is so convinced of his crusade, and has used such shoddy reasoning and research tools. And it is sad that the families have to put up with him and his poop.

Happy New Year to all!

With wine glass in hand, I watched fireworks from my terrace (17th floor). I have a south/south-west exposure and Manhattan and Brooklyn views. I could see fireworks in Queens, Brooklyn and what probably was lower Central Park. (I heard other fireworks I couldn't see because of the fog, probably Hudson side of Manhattan or New Jersey.) Really great explosions of red, gold and white. There was one really large green orb. (I like fireworks.)

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