Supreme Court Asks Lawyer To Argue Special DOMA Question

Source: AP via HuffPo

The Supreme Court on Tuesday invited a Massachusetts lawyer to come argue that the justices cannot rule on one of the gay marriage questions it had planned to decide next year.

The court asked lawyer Vicki C. Jackson of Cambridge to join the gay marriage arguments this spring, but she won't be arguing whether it's legal for governments to treat gay Americans differently in issues of marriage. Instead, at the court's invitation, Jackson will be arguing that it's improper for the Supreme Court to even consider making a ruling on a federal law that treats gay married couples differently from heterosexual married couples.

...

Jackson was asked by the court to argue "that the Executive Branch's agreement with the court below that DOMA is unconstitutional deprives this court of jurisdiction to decide this case." She will also argue that House Republicans cannot substitute themselves for the Justice Department and therefore they lack "standing in this case."

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/11/supreme-court-asks-lawyer_n_2279393.html?ir=Gay+Voices

Could somebody please explain the intricacies of electronica music

I'm talking the stuff you hear in gay clubs or on the two dance channels on Sirius XM. Writers include Deadmau5 (who's known more as a DJ) and Cedric Gervais (of "Molly", one of my current favourites, I even named the latest dog after it (she was rescued from a puppy mill and didn't have a name or even a collar) before somebody got around to telling me "Molly" was code).

Back in the day, I knew it as trance, garage, house, jungle and techno (not that I ever really understood the difference between them). Now there's a bewildering variety and everybody's talking about dubstep but I don't hear any real difference. I listen mostly in my truck which does NOT have subs so maybe that's got something to do with it.

Can I get some help here?

Hey, they just named a spider after me

“Meet Trogloraptor, fearsomeness incarnate,” Scientific American reported Friday, following the discovery of Trogloraptor marchingtoni, part of the new Trogloraptoridae family by a group of scientists at the Western Cave Conservancy and San Diego State University.

I just had to remind my ex-wife that balls come in different sizes

They tested my IQ in Grade 1

Because I didn't fit in socially in kindergarten, the administration figured I was "slow" and put me into the "slow" grade 1 class. My mother caused all kinds of havoc and eventually an IQ test was administered. I vaguely remember it consisting of matching stuff through logic puzzles.

I worked away at it and soon announced, "OK, I'm done - now what?" The test administrator gave me a look of abject horror and announced, "I don't know. You're not supposed to be able to finish the test."

The next day, I was sitting in class working on a project that consisted primarily of cutting out pictures of cows and pasting them into a book, when the principal came in, gathered up my stuff, roughly hauled me out of class and dumped me into the mainstream Grade 1 class, where I didn't know anybody and had missed some of the work, but soon caught up.

Still can't identify cows worth a damn.

Alberta Wildrose Party platform says no global warming

[link:http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/04/16/danielle-smith-climate-change_n_1429850.html?ref=canada-politics|
Danielle Smith: Climate Change Science 'Not Settled' ]

Alberta election - Wild Rose party leader Danielle Smith backpedals from supporter blog entry

Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith stood by a controversial Edmonton candidate Sunday, refusing to condemn a blog post decrying tolerance toward gays and lesbians.

Smith said her party accepts a wide range of views and has no plans to legislate on contentious moral issues.

In a June 2011 blog, Edmonton-South-West candidate Allan Hunsperger, a pastor with The House church in Tofield, referenced the Lady Gaga hit song Born this Way and said gay people can choose "to not live the way they were born."

Homophobic dog whistles

Repost from my blog

Yes I own a dog - two, in fact, with possibly a third on the way if it works out. No, I don't own a dog whistle. In my younger years I could hear dog whistles but age and too many years in rock bands has dulled my hearing and I can't pick them up any more. That's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about hidden messages in ordinary speech. If some young lady dressed like she's in the 50's; long skirt, conservative shoes, high-necked blouse, strides up to me while I'm minding my own business and loudly demands "are you a Christian?", she's not asking whether I'm a member of one of the many Churches making up the panoply of Christendom. She's asking whether I'm a literalist "Bible believing", "born again", Evangelical Fundamentalist Christian. I'm not. I'm Anglo-Catholic, a particular practice of the Anglican Church. She would not consider me "Christian" and would likely start to proselytize and I'd call her a heretic (my priest says I should have been a Jesuit and I've actually taken part in an Inquisition) and it would go downhill from there.

A number of years ago I was sitting in the staff break room and a colleague gestured towards my ankles. I gave him a blank look. He gestured a little more firmly. Bear in mind that I'm considered to be somewhere on the autistic spectrum so I don't necessarily get some of the subtleties of non-verbal speech, so I just said "wha?" "Don't cross your legs like that." "Why not? It's comfortable." I suffer from bursitis and my joints have their good days and bad days, mostly bad. I've got a bad hip that gives out at the worst possible moment making me scream in pain and fall, my ankles crack and hurt like hell and I've got enlarged joints in my toes and hands either from cracking them, or because they were already swollen and cracking them makes it feel better, at least temporarily. I'm a piano player so that probably doesn't help any, especially how I pound the keys. Hence, only certain seating positions are comfortable and leaning back with my ankles crossed low down is one of them. Another one is half-cross-legged with my left ankle up high. I can't do the right or I'll start screaming. "Don't do that either." "Why not?" "It looks faggy." At that point we didn't have a sexual harassment policy in place so I blew it off and ignored him. When I came out a few years later he wandered around for days looking lost and confused. He knew me as a "good person" and now this. He got over it.

Remember how my hands hurt most of the time? What's with people and their damn "firm handshakes". I've had people do it to me to the point where I've fallen to the floor crying and haven't been able to type or play keyboards for the rest of the day. One guy did it to me and I damned near fainted on him. He caught me on the way down then apologized profusely. When I asked "WTF??" he said "weak handshakes are faggy - businessmen have firm grips".

Then there's the whole "light in the loafers" thing. In the back of the office we have a metal staircase. The "real men" stomp their way up it, clanging deafeningly, disrupting the entire office. You can't hear someone on the phone. I weigh 183 pounds, but I've always have been a light walker. If I "stride manfully" it shocks my ankles which then hurt like hell and swell up and I'm in agony for the rest of the day. Hence, I sort of tiptoe around at the best of times but especially on the stairs. I don't make much noise walking and I'm constantly scaring people who aren't paying attention (dude, get a hearing aid and learn what peripheral vision is all about) but if I hear mutterings about "light in the loafers" they're really calling me a fag. That's a dog whistle.

Now Santorum has entered the fray. Santorum tells young man not to use pink bowling ball on camera . That's right. A pink bowling ball.

I like bowling. Up here in Canada we have 5-pin bowling which is a lot more challenging that 10-pin. You have to know what you're doing to knock down any pins, never mind all of them. I also like it because it's easy on my hands - the balls are lighter. Nevertheless, I like 10-pin for a bit of a change and when I go to the alley, they've got a selection of balls in the carousel and I usually pick the "ladies" pink one because it's a bit lighter and the holes are a bit closer together. I've got big hands, but it's still a bit of a stretch to fit a "manly" ball without straining my knuckles. It doesn't have quite the power of a heavier ball but I'm more accurate with it and I can hit the strike zone easily and do a strike or pick up the spare and get a fairly good score and by the end of the evening I'm not in too much pain. Santorum is calling me a fag.

OK, fly me down there and let's go at it "man to man". I'll use my faggy pink ball and Santorum can use whatever he wants (likely the heaviest ball the carousel). I'm betting I'll beat the pants of him (not that I'm sure I want to see him without his pants).

Are we on?

White Pride March expected March 24th in Edmonton - counter-protest group formed on Facebook

White supremacists are marching into Edmonton.

For the first time, the group Blood & Honour is holding its white-pride rally here, inviting participants from across Canada to “openly express racial pride.”

The event is slated for March 24, according to a stormfront.org blog post.

An organizer first said Edmonton’s will replace Calgary’s march — which has lost steam in recent years — but later told Metro the event status in that city is “complicated.”

A blog post on Anti-Racist Canada's website (anti-racistcanada.blogspot.com) gives details about a counter-rally planned for at noon at End of Steel Park on Whyte Avenue, in conjunction with The International Day Against Racial Discrimination.

Two interesting comments to Doonesbury cartoons

If you go to the Doonesbury main site, there's a section called Blowback, allowing user comments. It's a mixed bag, most favourable, a few "I'm cancelling my newspaper subscription because of you" sort, but two stuck out for me.

SHOCKED
Dr. Priscilla O'Connell | Franklin Square, NY | March 13, 2012

I am shocked that you would equate an ultrasound to rape. Mothers need to have full knowledge of what they are contemplating doing when they go for an abortion. They are taking a human life. If they could see their baby they would probably not abort. Some will choose not to look and that is their right.

DISTURBING
Jill Lee Williams | Owensboro, KY | March 13, 2012

I read your cartoon which suggests that Old White Men are in no way able to make laws concerning women. I personally find it disturbing that men such as yourself want to keep women dumb and in the dark. A woman having an abortion deserves to have all the facts! For some reason men like yourself seem quite uneducated when it comes to women's health, but boy do you love a soap box. As for making fun of the men that pass the laws so women can have all the facts, it was Americans that voted them into their positions. I'm hoping you'll take some time to help women, instead of trying to keep us uneducated about our own bodies.