Smokin’ In The Boys’ Room
ow The World Can Be Saved — By accepting a reduction of just 0.12 percent in global economic growth, we can avoid the worst consequences of global warming, according to the IPCC. The catch? It only works if everyone joins in.
The thing that really annoys me about the global warming problem is that it very much seems to be just that easy to save ourselves, and yet, we can’t seem to manage to do it. I guess if we’re that goddamn stupid, we’re getting what we deserve, right?
House Votes To Make Attacks On Gays Hate Crimes (White House Threatens Veto) — The House voted today to expand federal hate crime categories to include violent attacks against gays and people targeted because of gender, acting just hours after the White House threatened a veto.
I’m not entirely sure if I approve of the idea of “hate crimes”. Most of the things that constitute a “hate crime” — if I’m understanding correctly — are already criminal acts. For example, if you burn a cross on somebody’s yard, well, that’s vandalism, trespassing, and in some states, assault. If you beat up a Jew or a black guy, regardless of religion or skin color, beating someone up is still a crime. I guess the idea is that, if it qualifies as a “hate crime”, there are stiffer penalties. Kind of an extra charge for being an extra big asshole about things, I suppose.
Be that as it may, if we’re going to have hate crimes laws that apply additional penalties against criminals who perpetrated their acts against someone for a specific minority- and/or religion-related reason, then it seems to me that those laws should cover gay people as well. They are after all, a minority being persecuted by a majority. I guess I don’t see how it needs to apply to gender issues, unless that language is in there to protect transsexuals and transvestites and whatnot. If it’s just to protect us wimmenfolk, well, I think we’re already covered. The rape and abuse laws are pretty clear-cut in most places, and we’ve got all those sexual harassment laws for the work place.
Democrats Consider New Limits On Iraq War — Defiant Democratic leaders in the House are considering a proposal that would pay for the Iraq war at least through July but could cut off funding after that if the Iraqi government does not meet certain political and security goals, congressional officials said Thursday.
If it were me, I’d just keep submitting the last bill over and over again until I made my point. I suppose there’s no harm in taking a whack at it from different angles, though. Maybe they’ll sneak one by while the Preznit is choking on a pretzel or something.
And, from C&L, the question for the Republican debate was, “Who doesn’t believe in evolution?” Here’s the answer. It appears to be Brownback, Tancredo and Huckabee.
May 4th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
Hey there!
Been spending time organizing my livejournal lately — and in the course of reading old comments, wondering how we lost touch. And thinking that having done so stinks. So here I am… tracking you down.
May 10th, 2007 at 11:36 am
Hello! Nice to see you again! I think you must have quit writing for awhile? When I used to go through and clean up my “friends list” my usual criteria was to remove people who hadn’t posted in a while. How you been?
May 14th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Heck, I’m not sure what the protocol here is for replying. I’m out of my LJ element. ^.^ No, I can’t say that I ever stopped posting… perhaps there was another reason, or perhaps it was just one of those things that will forever be lost to the mists of history. Nevertheless, here I am again!
May 22nd, 2007 at 10:46 am
No worries! Actually, I’m trying to find a more LJ-like method of working the comments, here. I’d like to find a WordPress plug-in that allows for threaded replies that mail back and post to the site, like LJ does, but no luck yet.
May 22nd, 2007 at 11:54 am
I’m watching the RSS feed of this on livejournal, so it is technically possible for me to comment on the posts that generates…