SwimFinsSF

Absurd argument

On the way to work this morning I was listening to NPR as usual and they were reporting on the Gay Marriages back east. Overall the reporting was very good and positive which was cool. The part that would have made me laugh had it not been such a serious argument came from one of the anti gay marriage protesters. He made the argument along the lines that issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples was akin to issuing counterfeit $20 bills and that every counterfeit bill there is in circulation devalues the genuine ones. This argument infuriates and baffles me. How could the marriage of a gay couple in San Francisco possibly have any effect what so ever on the strength of this man’s marriage in Phoenix or the love that he has for his wife. Its just nonsensical in my mind. Each Marriage, whether it be gay or straight, stands or falls on its own strength and through the work and the love that the couple puts into it. If his marriage in Phoenix is going to endure and weather the test of time it is going to be through the work and love that he and his wife put into it and there is nothing about marriages in Boston or San Francisco that can possibly change that.

Each time I hear these arguments it hurts more than a little – largely because I just don’t understand. I don’t understand why people completely uninvolved in the issue could spend so much time and energy attackng us in a very personal way when all we’re trying to do is live our lives… This cartoon (as goofy as it is) really hits the nail in the head

By legalizing marriage for gays and lesbians the government simply reinforces the legal constructs needed for these couples to be self sustaining that allow these couples to support themselves and reduce the burden to society that is incurred when individuals need assistance. When a single individual looses their job social welfare helps pay their bills – when part of a couple looses their job their spouse helps out instead.

Its a pretty simple concept if you ask me. But then again – that guy didn’t ask me (and probably wouldn’t cuz he doesn’t want to)

Stuff ‘n things

Few quick notes for a monday…

• MAN I want 3 day weekends… Mondays are HARSH
  
• GOD I love swimming – its a great way to start off the day. Now if the crowd at the pool was just a little cuter! 🙂
  
• Sunday Beer busts at the Eagle are WAY fun… Such a funky crowd ranging from way hot to really kinda hot – but everybody is cool regardless.. Though the food there isn’t exactly what I’d call good – though unlimited beer is generally a good thing! 😉
  
• Half of the things that people seem to think are emergencies or are horribly wrong really just aren’t. People need to take a deep breath before they freak out… Just an observation

Congratulations

To all of those in Massachusetts who are getting married today… REALLY FUCKIN COOL! :):)

Boston Celebrates Gay Weddings

Dictum ac Factum

Kevin and I went and saw “Dogville” last night. It was REALLY good…. A little long (ok a LOT long – 3 hours and 10 minutes or so) and it feels at least that long but well worth it. The production was really interesting – they staged the whole thing more like a play than a movie. The plot was set in a small town in the rockies however the set was essentially a large sound stage with the outlines of houses painted on the floor and minimal furniture and other things. The whole goal seemed to be to make you focus on the characters, the narrator, and the human interactions without being distracted by other things.

However the more important part was the plot and the message. The movie centers around a small town who adopts a woman who is a fugitive and the interactions surrounding them agreeing to protect her from her pursuers. I don’t want to go into too much detail at the risk of blowing it for others. But I HIGHLY recommend the movie and would be interested to hear what other people’s perceptions of the message were.

Summary from IMDB:

The beautiful fugitive, Grace (Nicole Kidman), arrives in the isolated township of Dogville on the run from a team of gangsters. With some encouragement from Tom (Paul Bettany), the self-appointed town spokesman, the little community agrees to hide her and in return, Grace agrees to work for them. However, when a search sets in, the people of Dogville demand a better deal in exchange for the risk of harbouring poor Grace and she learns the hard way that in this town, goodness is relative. But Grace has a secret and it is a dangerous one. Dogville may regret it ever began to bare its teeth…

Stuff and things

Readers Digest of the week:

• Swimming this morning with Matt. Still my favorite way to get my cardio in though MAN I wish my stamina was better. My form is still pretty damn good but wearin me down! ;)… Need to go more I guess..
• Work is crazy busy with meetings and planning. Ship one product and for some strange reason people actually want us to start right off on the next.. Whats up with THAT? :):) Its a good thing though.. This is the fun part of the product cycle.
• Design Within Reach store opening tonight over on Fillmore at Bush. Cool store. Found a few things Kevin and I could agree on (granted none we can afford right now.. but still).
• Workin on Condo Conversion tasks for the house… makin me crazy as usual but I gotta get this shit done..
• Avoiding the news – what I”m seeing is makin it hard to sleep so i’m gonna avoid it for a bit. I’ll stick to Charmed and Will and Grace. (Shows about Magic that have hot guys in ’em are right up my alley.. And will and grace is just an old favorite! 😉 ).

I’m sure there is more but hell.. not like this is gonna be my last post… more later…

Prisoner Abuse

Just found this thanks to Josh Marshall via Toddo.

ICRC report on prisoner abuse

This is well worth the read. The report includes information on initial apprehension of prisoners, documentation and reporting of detention to families (or lack there of), methods of ill-treatment after initial capture, specifics of behavior at individual prisons, as well as other information relating to attempts made by the IIRC to correct the situation before issuing the report.

Sadly, none of this really surprises me and is consistent with what we’ve been seeing on the news of late. What it DOES tell me is that the administration’s (and particularly Secretary Rumsfeld’s) assertion that the images we’ve seen lately are isolated incidents by a few individuals is a blatant lie. Clearly the administration has done an unacceptable job of educating our forces on what acceptable behavior is even in times of war. Someone needs to start giving crash courses on the requirements of the Geneva convention as well as reminding them that the Nuremberg trials proved that they can’t use ‘I was given an order’ argument to absolve them of illegal and reprehensible actions. There is clearly something broken at a very high level for this kind of behavior to be going on.

Update: To be fair, there are definitely some sections in the document that, while definitely unfortunate, are potentially reasonable responses from the guards (shots fired during prison uprisings, etc). There are also portions of the requirments of the Geneva convention that, while definitely a goal that should be worked toward, would be difficult to implement (for example, how do you quickly get prisoners from their cells to air raid shelters in the event of shelling while maintaining order… not sure how you would do that).