RIP Dr. Tiller

I couldn't wait until tomorrow to express my complete lack of faith in humanity upon finding out that Dr. George Tiller, one of the few late term abortion doctors left in the US, was killed in the sanctity of the foyer of his own church today. A doctor who held onto his beliefs, his practice, and the fight for women's rights even after being shot once in each arm, through multiple legal fights, and through constant harassment and vandalism at his clinic was shot in cold blood. With all of my heart, WTF?

NYT Article about the murder

thank the good lord for mt rainier

photo credit: cdr

oh mt rainier, how i love thee. i may have spent very little time in close proximity to you, but with a topographic prominence of 13,210 feet you are often such a beautiful sight from seattle and this weekend from my fabulous hike. you automatically put a smile on my face. i may be the only person that calls you the great boob of seattle, but i mean that in the most complimentary way. while many human made tall constructions, like skyscrapers, have phallic shapes, mt. rainier i claim you for the ladies. :)

long work day... if only i were researching chocolate...

link

How is marriage not a fundamental right?

Today marks a sad day in a long line of sad days for same-sex couples in California, who have been given the right to marry and then had it taken away more times then I would like to count at this point. Unlike the multiple other states who within the past year have passed same-sex marriage laws (holla Iowa, Vermont, Maine, and the other states that are on their way), California has now been set back yet again due to its sometimes preposterous proposition process. The hearing today was not on the legality of same-sex marriage itself, but instead about the idea that Prop. 8 was not an amendment to the California constitution, but instead a revision of it. There are arguments for both sides of this case, but for me it really does come down to a fundamental issue of equal rights (which are very clearly written into the CA Constitution). While it can be said that same-sex couples in CA have all of the legal rights of opposite-sex couples given their rights to civil unions, they are still lacking the actual right to "marriage". Yes, it all comes down to a word. As Shannon Minter, an attorney for plaintiffs, stated, that without the right to the word “marriage,” same-sex couples in CA find their "outsider status enshrined in [the California] Constitution.” Is it really fair to say that same-sex couples are truly being given the same rights as opposite-sex couples when they don't have the right to the word "marriage"? and should that type of discrimination be written into the California Constitution? I think not!

NYT Article

SF Chronicle Article

memorial day

regardless of my opinions of the current wars the US is waging, i mourn the loss of life that these wars have brought upon both sides of the conflict.

to describe these losses here is the iraq page stories of fallen soldiers of "operation iraqi freedom" (4630 from the US), stories of fallen soldiers of "operation enduring freedom" in afganistan (684 from the US), a site with a downloadable map for google earth of causalities and the nejm article that approximates 151,000 iraqi causalities (includes civilians)


The Death of a Soldier
by Wallace Stevens

Life contracts and death is expected,
As in a season of autumn.
The soldier falls.

He does not become a three-days personage,
Imposing his separation,
Calling for pomp.

Death is absolute and without memorial,
As in a season of autumn,
When the wind stops,

When the wind stops and, over the heavens,
The clouds go, nevertheless,
In their direction.

Thank God for the opening of white shoe season!

Today is day two of a lovely memorial day weekend and the beginning of white shoe season! As such, BBQing is in order, and what better thing to grill in the Pac NW then salmon. So I would like to give a big old thank God for the beginning of nice weather and the availability of amazing, high quality, and awesome salmon for a reasonable price! Holla!

is outrage enough for outing?

it's one of those days i have a few different ideas for the blog, from doomsday cheney to an amazingly horrible protest scheduled for UW campus that equates abortion to genocide.... but, it's a beautiful day out and our topics have been pretty serious this week... so i decided on my third idea.

for those that haven't heard, kirby dick has come out with a new film (see trailer below) that "outs" anti-gay politicians that also happen to be allegedly gay. i agree with the filmmaker that gay rights is one of the most important "civil rights issue of its time in this country" (see interview below), but i'm struggling a bit about whether outing these politicians is ethical. i guess i'm lean towards yes... they are public figures, they are taking advantage of prejudice as a political device, it is totally hypocritical and straight politicians that mess around get "outed" for their non-monogamy all the time. but, i kinda feel uncomfortable about that last one too. hmmmm. what do you guys think?

interview with kirby dick in the advocate