Midweek materials

On the subject of a federal marriage amendment: For now, toasted. However, the vote was too close for comfort - 49 aye to 48 nay. The Republicans, however, seem to believe that the Congress is not representing the will of the American people when it votes in such a manner. I hope they're right, and that there are a lot more people in the country who want to see any amendment of this sort whipped, scourged, tarred, feathered, run out of town on a rail, then drawn, quartered, shot, and shot again in case it survives. Of course, the tale of the state legislatures says otherwise, but despair causes significant problems in one's energy.

Another corporation not to shop at (if you still shop at any these days): Macy's, and if you want, all the stores owned by the parent company, Federated Department Stores. What's their problem? They removed two gentlemen mannequins from a displaypromoting the Boston gay pride festival because a conservative group complained. They may have also covered up the websites of the groups on the display. The lack of logic astounds, but not so much as to cover up the lack of brains displayed. Obviously, Macy's agreed to house the display, so why are they suddenly pulling the mannequins because they look like the events that are being promoted? Not to mention that they've revealed where they stand on this particular issue. I won't be surprised if the whole thing disappears in a few days. I also won't be surprised if there are a lot of angry people demanding the return of the pair to their rightful platform. There's also likely to be the sound of several accounts closing and business being taken elsewhere. If Federated Department Stores wants customers back, they're going to have to court them, homosexual or no.

Speaking of sexuality, here's an additional, short opinion about Purity Balls, the wastes of time that put a girl up in front of her peers and her father and make her swear never to have any of that icky sex until she's married, and him to swear that he'll make sure she doesn't have any of that icky sex until she's married (likely enforcement with guns and baseball bats and such). The title is Christian Virgins Are Overrated, and it puts forward the idea that sexually liberated women make people harder to control, for one thing, and makes it much harder for the government to get angry and/or repressed men to fight wars and/or obey authority. If the girls are liberated, then the guys will tell the government to fuck off when it comes to recruitment for the latest oil campaign. As well as not having their anger at not getting laid/not being able to get laid transformed into hatred for "others" like liberals, Muslims, or whomever we're at war with. It's a pretty good line of thought. Don't know how much I think it's a true line of thought, but it's probably truer than I think. The last sentence stands out, for multiple interpretations, too: "The middle east would be a much different place if the Arab women could trade their burqas for tank-tops and short shorts." That it would, friend, that it would.

From different places: Actors dinking around, which can produce some very interesting results, and the body is less you than you think, which says that human cells are in symbiosis with a lot of other organisms. A lot.

Among college students, iPod more popular than beer. Wow. Disposable income for the win, I suppose.

Earlier start tomorrow, with a bit of a staff day, since we have visiting librarians from Germany. Should be nice to see things from a different perspective, if we get to talk to them. I should probably ask torakiyoshi how to say hello, and if they ask if I speak German, how to say, "No, but my English isn't half-bad." (And whether that would be taken as a joke.)

I appreciate all the replies I've had so far to last night's post. It's nice having a thoughtful, insightful bunch of people who will mercilessly poke holes in my arguments that I use to put myself down.

No time at all.

By the time I finish this, it'll probably be bedtime. Today's mini-conference was an interesting thing, and I learned some about what my colleagues were doing in the library-related fields and found out some interesting ideas about what libraries in Germany are up to. That ate the majority of the day. After that, though, I still had a long shift in Ypsilanti, which was cut short due to an inexplicable power failure with about 75 minutes to closing. I only got home about 10-20 minutes earlier than I would have, mind you, but that's also not a really right way of having your shift closed down early. Oh, well. More material from the murkiness tomorrow. Must remember to print procedures for the weekend rotation that I have. The schedule for next month seems to have me penned in for weekends an awful lot, too. Well, I have to make my time somehow, and if weekends are how they choose to do it, then that's how it ends up happening.

On the war front, it would appear that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is dead, killed by bombs in an air strike. Good riddance, if it is indeed so. Although I don't know if this will help the approval ratings any, considering there's still going to be an insurgency, and the top of the organization hasn't been caught, and there will still be plots going on... but yes, it is permissible to say that it's good that he's gone and continue to wish for the end of terrorism in all forms, including ones perpetuated by the government.

Senator Clinton is, apparently like Mr. Thompson, unwilling to let go of the idea that children are being turned into violent, antisocial, and nonconfomist adults through exposure to media and is urging for money to be spent on a federal study of media. Which will likely tell you precisely what you know - media can indeed be dangerous, but if there is parental involvement in the media being watched, then the negative effects are likely to be mitigated. The television is not a child-sitter, nor is the game machine or anything else. Only you can prevent Jack Thompson from latching onto your child and not letting go.

If you've ever had a particularly funny thought and started chuckling about it on a subway, attracting the attention of your neighbor, who think you're laughing at them, here are some things to do when caught laughing at something society thinks you shouldn't.

Photographs taken with an ice lens. While neat, the pictures are all a little blurry and look like they might have a good home in What Dreams May Come.

Anyway, as I predicted, it's time for me to go to bed, now that I've finished. See you all in the morning.