PNH, Xopher, Avram: You are certainly right that the bigots won't stop complaining and fighting against equality no matter which way it is achieved.
I just hope that having same-sex marriage legislatively approved in some states(instead of through the courts) will make more potentially persuadable people see how stupid their position really is.
"Certainly it's cheerful to look at Vermont, where same-sex marriage was legitimized by whopping majorities in both houses of their state legislature. But in the same week, Iowa did it through its state supreme court, and Iowans seem pretty much equally content with the results."
I think if same-sex marriage comes about through legislature rather than through courts, it's harder for the bigots to argue against as undemocratic and not reflecting the will of the people.
Not that it will stop them, of course, but they will look even worse doing so.
FFY @ #42: There's also the problem of figuring out which bank, or banks, or foreign groups of investors, owns a particular homeowner's mortgage.
I think that dilution of responsibility and muddying up the facts of who owes what to whom is one of the biggest issues at hand, and probably the one that's slowing any sort of a reasonable solution down the worst.
Tom Whitmore at #20:
"I've long liked the formulation that pain is necessary, but suffering is optional."
Suffering is pain that's lost its function; it's no longer a warning or a sign of anything, it's a thing in itself.
From Finland: congratulations, and thank you!
This isn't a happy ending, but this could be a good beginning.
Looks like a good start; go, Americans!
And yes, Boston Tea is just about the best party name I've ever heard.
That Scalzi poll-watching kit is awesome. On one hand, I definitely understand why so many liberals are so worried - the elections of 2000 and 2004 must have been traumatic, and the contest between Obama and McCain is very much a referendum on progressivism vs. the continuation of modern GOP.
On the other hand, it's kind of frustrating to watch people so cowed by pessimism that they can't allow themselves even a glimmer of hope, lest it might be snatched from them. Thus, all the comments I've seen about how the Republicans will somehow win this anyway, despite McCain trailing badly across the USA.
Completely unrelated, and not written by me, here's some weird and hilarious, Obama-themed stuff that the people at Making Light might appreciate:
Barack Obama vs. Pirates of Wichita!
It's best described as a pulp-fantasy version of the current election season.
If nothing else, this US election has tons and tons of wacky stuff to mine for RPG purposes. Sarah Palin vs. Vladimir Putin's head (Putinngalang!), and now this...
What I don't get about the supposed Bradley effect is this: why would anyone deterred by Obama's skin color pretend to support him in the polls, then vote for McCain?
There are a million and one reasons for them to rationalize their dislike of Obama - he's too liberal, too inexperienced, too much of an elitist, too connected to Ayers / Wright / whomever, his tax plan sucks - without having to own up to any kind of racism.
Woot! Krugman's one of my go-to web sources on what's going on with US (and to an extent, world) economy currently. Now I can quote an economy Nobelist in arguments!
I, personally, found the Rolling Stone article both surprising and illuminating. I've had no illusions about McCain's behavior over the last several years, and I knew about his part in the Keating Five, but most of the older stuff about his youth and Navy career was news to me.
As far as I'm concerned, the most troubling aspect in him is not the opportunism and selfishness, but the temper.
Doubter at #133: Smith's prose is starkly staggering at times, coruscating as it is with a plethora of adverbiage, but I wouldn't call his Lensman books fascistic at all...
Why talk about Palin's children or family at all? Obama, IIRC, has stated that families are, and should be, out of bounds.
There are plenty of weird and disturbing things about Palin - her ties to Alaska Independence Party, her support of ID, her ties with the corruption endemic in the Alaska GOP and state government, her ignorance of what a VP does, her freaky religious and social beliefs, and probably more - that don't drag the Democrats into mud, and don't allow Palin and the Republicans any chance of being a martyr.
Lindra at #3: "NOLA.com is also running excellent reporting and announcing that it's definitely downgraded to a CAT2."
That's good, isn't it? IIRC the levee system was intended to hold up to category 3, so even if it's not at full strength, it should hold pretty well, right?
The idea of Gustav disrupting the RNC convention is almost-delicious irony. If only you could have hurricanes without the loss of life and horrible damage...
Michael Weholt #37:
Perfect is the worst enemy of good, and sticking to ideological purity even at the expense of actually achieving anything is a common problem with politics.
I Am Not An American, but... AFAICT, Biden's a fine choice. He's experienced, smart, and can play the role of an attack dog well, allowing Obama to look high-minded and presidential.
Did people truly think that Gore would get the VP slot, by the way? He's already been there and done that. And I honestly think he's much more valuable as an "elder statesman" type, free to campaign about the climate change without being beholden to anyone else's policies and politics (as would happen if he became Obama's VP).
Sylvia Li at #185: "When you say it's not healthy, that's an understatement -- it is extremely sick. The metaphor can't be carried through to predict "death" mainly because economies don't die unless all the people do, and that's not going to happen. When economies change radically, though, lots of people aren't able to keep up."
Funnily enough (for sufficiently grim values of funny), one of the big problems the US middle class is struggling with is the health care.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2009 | 5 |
| 2008 | 25 |
| 2007 | 11 |
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