GoBecky .net

SPOILER ALERT: If you're waiting till this weekend to get caught up on this week's season finales, skip this post.

One more reason to flee to California: California Gay Marriage Ban Overturned

The AP reports:

"In a monumental victory for the gay rights movement, the California Supreme Court overturned a voter-approved ban on gay marriage Thursday in a ruling that would allow same-sex couples in the nation's biggest state to tie the knot," AP reports.

Domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage, the justices ruled 4-3 in striking down the ban.

A key passage from the decision:

"Furthermore, in contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual's capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual's sexual orientation, and, more generally, that an individual's sexual orientation -- like a person's race or gender -- does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights.

"We therefore conclude that in view of the substance and significance of the fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship, the California Constitution properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples."

Maybe there's reason to have hope, yet!

This whole drama over Hillary winning big in WV yesterday, as she presumably will in KY next week, boggles my mind.

Let's look at some key figures from the exit polling, according to CNN's summary:

Clinton's largest margins, as expected, were registered among voters at the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder. Among white voters without a college degree, Clinton defeated Obama by 50 points. Among white voters making less than $30,000 a year, Clinton's margin of victory was more than 60 points.

Voters supported the gas tax suspension by an almost 2-to-1 margin. Those voters who supported suspending the gas tax broke for Clinton, 74 to 19 percent.

Only 38 percent of Clinton's voters said they would vote for Obama in a general election matchup against presumptive GOP nominee Sen. John McCain.

President Bush was able to win the socially conservative state twice largely on the basis of hot button issues such as abortion, gay rights and gun control.

What I'm about to say will probably offend a lot of people, so if you want to keep your image of me being an idealistic egalitarian unblemished, you'll probably want to stop reading.

Via HuffPo: GOP's New Slogan Already Being Used To Market Anti-Depressant:

What the GOP doesn't seem to realize, because they are idiots, is that "the change you deserve" is the registered advertising slogan of Effexor XR, a drug that many of you might have started taking as a result of all the...you know -- terrorism.

...

Effexor, also known as Venlafaxine, is approved for the treatment "of depression, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, and panic disorder in adults." Its common side effects are very much in keeping with the world the House Republicans have striven to build: nausea, apathy, constipation, fatigue, vertigo, sexual dysfunction, sweating, memory loss, and - and I swear I am not making this up - "electric shock-like sensations also called 'brain zaps.'"

I needed this today.

There's been a lot of rumor and innuendo floating around the internets late this week about what it will take to get Hillary (and, let's face it, Bill) to step down gracefully, and much of the chatter has focused on Obama "repaying" Hillary's campaign debt -- particularly the personal loans she gave the campaign, now totaling about $11m. The first whiff I caught of this nonsense was in a Salon article on Wednesday titled What Does Hillary Want?; the meme has since been spotted from the NY Times to Keith Olbermann. Like most Obama supporters, I was taken aback at this suggestion: his campaign has been funded by small donors like myself, to whom $50 or $100 is a big deal -- I for one don't want my money lining Hillary's (already well-lined) pockets! (If I did, I'd have donated to her in the first place, doh.)

Charlie's had quite a few heavy-hitters at the table recently, including Arianna Huffington, Jimmy Carter, and John Negroponte.

But this interview with Fareed Zakaria (the always-brilliant editor of Newsweek International) was just fabulous. From now on, when I tell people I'm studying transformative leadership and they give me a blank look, I'm going to give them the link to this interview. Brilliant.

This totally cracks me up.

Via Slate V

What would it be like if Facebook was actually played out in real life?

(I'm really not a calendar/scheduling type person, particularly when it comes to writing, and even more so on this blog, which was conceived as a tumblelog. Even though it's wandered back into a more conventional blog format, I'm trying to stick with a spirit of spontaneity. So, while I'm going to keep doing Baker's Dozen lists, I'm no longer presenting them as a "weekly feature." It's to restrictive and not working out well. So from now on, Baker's Dozens will just pop up when I feel like writing them. Like now. /smile/ )

13 answers to the question, "So where are you at in life?"

1. my nerve pain is off the hook the past few days...
2. ... so I'm taking tons of drugs and sleeping whenever I can, which is usually not at night
3. I'm on a sugar binge
4. I'm proud of the work I'm doing in therapy
5. I'm worried about getting all my work done for the semester, particular after last semester's complete disaster
6. I'm happy to have reconnected with old friends via Facebook
7. I'm very happy to have reconnected with one particular, very special friend in person
8. I've discovered something that makes me feel incredibly empowered: when I walk Sydney, I crank up my iPod all the way and sing along -- loudly -- and completely ignore any looks from strangers
9. I'm looking forward to the future for the first time
10. I'm having mixed feelings about my upcoming birthday
11. I'm obsessed with politics, particularly the presidential race/Democratic nomination
12. there's a project in the very early "idea" stage -- too early to talk about -- that could turn into something huge and amazing, and possibly a career opportunity, and I'm psyched to be part of it
13. there's now a Starbucks about 2 minutes from my house, and I'm more addicted than ever

This is the AP photo currently running with CNN's lead story about the YFZ ranch: Experts: Sect opens up to retrieve children, hasten heaven

Is it just me, or is there something vaguely sexually violent about the composition of this picture, especially given the context?

I've seen ads for some guy, Max Linn for Congress, ("Linn for Congress" is apparently his last name, judging by his PR campaign) on TV lately... ok, to be honest, I've caught glimpses of them while skipping commercial breaks... but haven't given it any thought -- except, possibly, "Oh Jeebus, it's only April!"

So I get a phone call this morning -- I guess they're calling all Dems in the district. Mr. Linn for Congress is doing something I've honestly never heard of: his campaign was making appointments for him to personally call anyone who wants to talk to him, about anything. I was intrigued, so I agreed. I have a phone date with Max Linn for Congress tomorrow night! (Wooo!)

I am going to be as brave and self-loving as these women one day:

This is so Ernie (my white kitteh):

'Cept Ernie is a fickle kitteh:

So there I was, minding my own business, innocently checking my Scrabulous games. when my eye catches the following...

(And no, I'm not telling you where they link. Trust me... your soul is corrupted enough, you really don't want to be a curious cat.)

There are a lot of my fellow Democrats right now who say that, should their candidate not get the nomination, they would vote for McCain (or not vote at all) before voting for {Clinton|Obama}.

Right, so my birthday is coming up?

And, um, I totally have room on my desk for a bunny (preferably a 2nd-gen one with pink ears).

I'm just saying.

Update: (later that day) Or better yet, a Chumby. Less desk space, more content. Not as cute, though, due to the lack of ears.

Update: (a bit later still) Yes, it's definitely a Chumby for which my heart/wifi network yearns.

Again... just sayin'.

I just finished watching last night's episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Titled "Undercover," the episode's plot revolves around Det. Benson (Mariska Hargitay) going undercover in a women's prison to investigate abuses by male guards; during the course of her investigation, she herself comes extremely close to being raped, but is saved at the last moment by fellow NYPD Det. "Fin" Tutuola (Ice-T), who is also undercover (posing as a guard). The episode was preceded by the warning, "This program contains scenes of an intense nature. Viewer Discretion Advised." SVU has certainly shown simulated sexual violence in the past, but I wasn't prepared for what I saw in this episode.

A little over a week ago I wrote about the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities hitting its critical mass of ratifications thanks to Ecuador. The US is currently (shamefully) not even a signatory to the convention, much less a ratifying member. If disability rights issues are important to you, then you might wonder, as I did, what the presidential candidates' positions are on ratification.

(Two weeks ago I started what was supposed to be a Monday morning regular feature on my blog: Baker's Dozen, a list of 13 things, with topics varying from the profound to the profoundly silly. In my allergy-induced haze, I completely forgot about it last week. So here is the second installment of what will, hopefully, become a regular tradition.)

13 of my favorite sweet treats

1. crème brûlée
2. my grandma's peach cobbler
3. tiramisu (when it's not too alcohol-y)
4. cheesecake of any variety
5. my grandma's poundcake, slightly undercooked
6. fresh blueberries
7. brownies from a box (gooey, not cakey)
8. "pistachio pie" -- a concoction of pistachio-flavored Jell-O, sweetened cream cheese, and cool whip on graham cracker crust
9. fried cheesecake (heavenly enough to get its own entry)
10. sugar cookie dough (best served in the company of Jenn)
11. my mom's oatmeal cookies
12. chocolate fondue
13. strawberry shortcake

This week's episode of NOW, PBS's weekly half-hour newsmagazine, focuses on how restrictive tax codes can factor into income inequality. This issue, depending as it does o numbers and statistics, can be pretty hard to wrap your brain around. It's not something that lends itself to sound bytes or campaign slogans, so the MSM rarely talks about it; thus, most (myself included) don't really understand how patently unfair many states' tax laws are, and how they are actively preventing people from bringing themselves up out of poverty.

As some of you know, I've been using the Learning Spanish Like Crazy (LSLC) system to learn conversational Spanish.

Much has been made of Sen. Barrack Obama's association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. (And I'm sure much more will be made of it by McCain's people once we Democrats finally stop coddling Hillary so Obama can start running a general election campaign.) And this morning, reading this article on Slate, I came across more criticism of Obama's mentors:

Just finished watching The History Channel's documentary King, which was incredible. It's too easy -- even now, when race and poverty and war are once again at the forefront of the national consciousness -- to blunt the memory of Dr. King, to try to wrap up his legacy in pithy Hallmark sentiments. But this documentary reminded me of how radical he was, the degree to which he changed and challenged this country. I highly recommend that you see the film, even if you think you know what Dr. King was about. We all need to have our eyes re-opened from time to time.

In that spirit of generational re-awakening, the documentary begins with the classic U2 song Pride (In the Name of Love) and closes with a new rendition of the song by John Legend. I'm not usually one for covers, but Legend does a good job. I at least give him props for correcting the artistic license Bono took with historical accuracy (although I guess it could be argued that in Ireland, it was early morning when King was shot?). Anyway, it's a good song:

John Legend performs PRIDE (In The Name of Love)