And We Shall March

3 Quarks / 50 Million Women Missing / holding

“Perhaps ‘missing’ is too innocuous a term for what is actually happening—the systematic and targeted annihilation of a group [through] female feticide, female infanticide, dowry-related murders, an abnormally high mortality rate for girls under five due to starvation and intentional medical neglect, and the highest maternal mortality rate in the world. Numbers tell the story in chilling detail:

Site.

From My Voicemail To My Blog

This must have taken FOREVER...

2008 Olympics / holding

Since 2001, when the Chinese capital won the rights to the this year's Games, Beijingers have been honing their English skills. At least according to the official website of the Olympic Games, 90,000 Beijing taxi drivers have gone through a special training program. The city has cleaned up its English-language signage, removing some of the more notorious clunkers -- for example, those near the Olympic stadium that directed visitors to "Racist Park," now properly referred to as the Ethnic Minorities Culture Park.

Mandela / holding

How they kept someone's hand in a jar back at police headquarters to remind uncooperative detainees of their likely fate. And even journalists wept that day in 1996 as the widow of one of those Cradock men begged the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission to help her recover all that was left of her late husband: that missing hand, the one in the jar.

<snip>

So many times, ordinary people would tell me, sometimes using Mandela's affectionate clan name: Madiba says we must forgive, so I must try.

On A Day When I Was In DESPERATE Need Of A Laugh ....

Michael Davis provided it.

Fae Desmond Saves The World!

Background: Michael still hasn't gotten over the fact that I can drink him under the table. I'll never forget those evenings at the top of the Hyatt watching him slowly drown ... LIKE A GIRL. 

(Witnesses tell me that wasn't at the Hyatt. On the off-chance they're more right than I am, though I doubt it, slight edit.)

Meanwhile, there are other places to drink in town, which matters at the moment due to other things going on in the state and that's all I'm gonna say about that because I generally don't like talking about day job stuff on the blog even though I drive friends up the wall with way too much day job-related chatter when we get together and also in far too many emails which means sometimes they go OMG STFU and so I allow them to lower the hammer for a little bit. 

Then I start right back up again because you know what? The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are the bedrock of this nation. For me, the First Amendment *particularly* matters - it's my Black Helicopter People issue. Fuck with those and you destroy the country. Civil rights and civil liberties are not static concepts, and I think our nation's Founders knew what they were doing when they constructed a guiding documents flexible enough to account for the Future they believed in but could not specifically account for. They are living, breathing documents. They are not fossils. Here's another one.

When it comes to the Marriage Equality and so many other fights, it once again comes down to a simple truth. Have whatever faith you want. Just keep the tenants of your faith the fuck out of my public policy. But these people have a problem with that. They do not believe in - to borrow a phrase from another religious tradition - so you harm none, do what you will. 

Anyways. I actually have two official drinking HQs, neither of them hotels. Most of the hotel bars suck. 

Helms/flag/holding

RALEIGH - L.F. Eason III gave up the only job he'd ever had rather than lower a flag to honor former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms.

http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/politicians/helms/story/1135443.html

FISA and Obama

Yes, you can tell I've given up trying to do real quick links under the new Typepad alleged improvements.

http://www.truthout.org/article/obamas-fisa-opportunity

When time allows, weeks from now (if ever), will try an embed. This will do for now.

harlem/gent/holding

The drummers in the park are African-American and from Africa and the Caribbean. They form a circle and have played in the park, in one form or another, since 1969, when the neighborhood was a more dangerous place. The musicians, who play until 10 p.m. every summer Saturday, are widely credited with helping to make the park safer over the years.

Their supporters, who acknowledge that the drumbeats can pierce walls and windows, regard the musicians as part of the city’s vibrant and often noisy cultural mix. But some in the building at 2002 Fifth Avenue, most of them young white professionals, have a different perspective: When the drummers occupy a spot nearby, residents say, they are unable to sleep, hear their television sets, speak on the telephone, or even have conversations with their spouses without shouting. Some say they cannot even think straight.

And so in this corner of Harlem, which is known as Mount Morris Park, two sides have formed, each with complaints that many agree are legitimate. The stalemate has bubbled over into a dispute about class, race and culture and has become a flash point in the debate over gentrification.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/nyregion/06drummers.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Portland/holding/"now they want your stories"

“I’ve been really upset by what I perceive to be Portland’s blind spot in its progressivism,” said Khaela Maricich, a local artist and musician. “They think they live in the best city in the country, but it’s all about saving the environment and things like that. It’s not really about social issues. It’s upper-middle-class progressivism, really.”

Ms. Maricich, 33, who is white, spoke after attending this month’s meeting of Portland’s Restorative Listening Project.

The goal of the project, which is sponsored by the city’s Office of Neighborhood Involvement, is to have white people better understand the effect gentrification can have on the city’s longtime black and other-minority neighborhoods by having minority residents tell what it is like to be on the receiving end.

Once armed with a broader perspective, said Judith Mowry, the project’s leader, whites should “make the commitment that the harm stops with us.” That might mean that whites appeal to the city to help black businesses or complain to companies that put fliers on the doors of black property owners encouraging them to sell.

Yet what has been clear from the meetings this month and last is that talking about the impact of gentrification is easier than finding ways to reduce it. For some minority residents, the notion that white Portland now says it feels their pain is cold comfort.

“That’s been our history,” Norma Trimble, who is Native American, said during the question-and-answer session this month. “They take all you’ve got. They take your land. Now they want your stories.”

Aside: Man does this compose screen alleged-upgrade suck. I can't even *link* as I could in the past..only one graph links, not the whole section, I can't bold or color. And did I mention that I can hardly read what I'm typing because it defaults to a tiny sans-serif Arial font? And yet there is no opt-out. O great. I *really* hope Typepad is attempting to fix it because man this is ANNOYING.

Same Sex Marriage In California - The 21 FAQs

Okay, I swear I'm gone, but stuff is happening.

One of the things about the decision is the practical application. There are reservations to be made, caterers to hire, invitations to send out and wedding planners to go all Bridezilla upon! People want to know WHEN?!! Process. People want to know process details.

Translating from the legalese, the best they can tell you right now is mid-June. The decision becomes official on June 14. On or around that date the California Supremes will send the formal order mandating that the revised marriage license applications be ready to be issued to same sex couples. It is not known if counties that are ready to roll now may do so now, or if they have to wait for the Supremes to officially tell them to Go. To find out what your county is doing, contact your county clerk. Also, unlike Massachusetts, one need not be a resident for x-amount of time in order to get married in California.

The coalition has come up with answers to the 21 FAQs that have come up so far, covering everything from what impact this has on the federal level, to what religious organizations are/are not required to do in the wake of this. If all goes well you should be able to download the pdf linked at the bottom of this post. If it doesn't go well, I'll figure out how to fix it later. For reasons that are unclear to me, the FAQs are not easily found on any but one of the coalition partner websites. I'd tell you which one has it easily found up-front on their site, but that would just be bragging.

Equality California website.

Equality Now blog.

The Marriage Case summary.

Download 21SameSexMarriageFAQs.pdf (108.5K)