2
POPSMarriage Actually "In order to determine which level of judicial scrutiny to apply to Connecticut's civil unions law, the justices first had to determine whether gays qualify as a quasi-suspect class. They used four tests to reach their decision. The first three were relatively easy to answer: One, have gays faced a history of discrimination? (Clearly yes.) Two, does sexual orientation affect "a person's ability to participate in or contribute to society"? (Obviously not.) And, three, is sexual orientation an immutable trait? (On this question, the court hedged a bit, declining to say that sexuality is completely fixed. But it did state that, even if people could change their sexuality, it would be a severe injustice for the government to demand that they do so. In other words, on the immutability question, the court basically said: Close enough."
3
POPSThe Parasitic Leech " No, if you take my line of thinking one step further, if you're not a patriot, what does that make you, besides a parasitic leech? Sorry if I'm running this rant aimed at you, Joe, but you were referred to in the debate because you're a modern archetype for right wing libertarian parasitic leeches-- and everything I'm saying about YOU is true for millions of other parasitic leeches who would let people die rather than support the universal health care that every other first world nation provides."
3
POPSForget Memory Laws "The historian's equivalent of a natural scientist's experiment is to test the evidence against all possible hypotheses, however extreme, and then submit his most convincing interpretation for criticism by professional colleagues and for public debate. This is how we get as near as one ever can to truth about the past. How, for example, do you refute the absurd conspiracy theory, which apparently still has some currency in parts of the Arab world, that "the Jews" were behind 9/11? By forbidding anyone from saying that, on pain of imprisonment? No. You refute it by refuting it. By mustering all the available evidence, in free and open debate. This is not just the best way to get at the facts; ultimately, it's the best way to combat racism and xenophobia too."
11
POPSI Will Try To Change This Societal change is very difficult. I I walk, down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in I am lost.... I am helpless It isn't my fault. It takes forever to find a way out. II I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don't see it. I fall in again I can't believe I am in the same place but, it isn't my fault. It still takes a long time to get out. III I walk down the same street There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it there.' I still fall in.... it's a habit, my eyes are open. I know where I am. It is my fault. I get out immediately. IV I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it. V I walk down another street. To experience emotional ambivalence is to know one of life's deepest agonies. How can I change this? (cont)
1
POPSBuildings That Blog "Less invasively (but less interestingly) perhaps the building sprays free wifi, and the landing page for the wifi connection is that blog." An idea from the mind of Warren Ellis.
3
POPSCan You Meet Me For Coffee, Sugar? Ok, this is a problem for me all the time. I came out to one of my sweetest friends in the whole world who I absolutely adore and she said "You mean you've been bisexual all this time and you NEVER once hit on me when we grew up together and we had sleepovers; weren't you attracted to me?" Now, I knew she was just joking, but there is no good answer to that question. It is a lose, lose situation. If you admit attraction, it may freak her out. If you say she isn't your type, she may be offended and embarrassed. You cannot win this one. Don't try. And I've had some curious friends say "If you don't mind me asking, how do two women have sex together; I mean something is OBVIOUSLY missing. *LOL* missing for them, but not for me. I think straight women sometimes think, OMG! Why is she telling me this? and I try to explain that the reason is because I cannot continue our friendship with such a deep dishonesty on this level by not saying who I really am :)
19
POPSMiners strike over NRA anti-Obama harassment After union votes to back Obama, company lets NRA on grounds to change their minds. Next door in VA, a flier circulates among coal miners: "Barack Obama Won't Take Away Your Gun, But John McCain Will Take Away Your Union."
9
POPSBringing Us Together "As is often the case in this election, Obama has a more promising but more limited record. His message is one of unity, and his own life provides evidence that he means it. He is physical testament to the bridging of our ethnic divides, and he gracefully calls on America to heal its wounds. Addressing the persistent power of race to separate us, he said last spring: "To simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding."
22
POPSA Loved One "As the outrage over his gruesome death settled in, so did testimonials about the disheveled homeless man with a Buddha-like frame known in the neighborhood as "John," "Mr. John" or "Grimley." People spoke about his piercing blue eyes and his kind, quiet manner. The owners of the local convenience store spoke about how conscientious he was. "He never paid a penny less," said Anjana Bhowmick, owner of Bengal Liquor store "I feel that it has been a great comfort to myself and my brothers and sisters to know that he was not alone, unnoticed, untouched by other humans -- because that is what we had imagined," McGraham-Paisley said in an e-mail to The Times."
9
POPSThe Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama "From the start, there have always been two separate but equal questions about race in this election. Is there still enough racism in America to prevent a black man from being elected president no matter what? And, will Republicans play the race card? The jury is out on the first question until Nov. 4. But we now have the unambiguous answer to the second: Yes."
12
POPSWhy Tip? This is a subject near and dear to my heart. Both my daughters worked as waitresses throughout high school and college. I saw and heard what they went through and I always tip at LEAST 20 percent. And on a personal note, I love the flirt for pay system ;)
4
POPSKIDS JUST WANT TO BE KIDS I don't know where or when this was taken but it spoke to me. No matter the circumstances children still want to have a childhood , play, and pretend.
8
POPSThe Mask Slips "Remember voodoo economics? That was the derisive term George H.W. Bush used for Ronald Reagan’s fantasy that he could simultaneously increase defense spending, cut taxes and balance the budget. After Reagan became president (with Mr. Bush as his vice president) the budget deficit — surprise, surprise — soared. Just as they were wrong about trickle down, conservative Republican politicians and their closest buddies in the commentariat have been wrong on one important national issue after another, from Social Security (conservatives opposed it from the start and have been trying to undermine it ever since) to Medicare (Ronald Reagan saw it as the first wave of socialism) to the environment, energy policy and global warming."
7
POPSThe Things Their Families Carried “Oftentimes you would see a family go up to the grave and they would just launch themselves onto the tombstone and start crying,” Mr. Alpert said. “Our instinct as reporters was ‘We have to film that.’ And we didn’t. We would stand there, and then we would go over without the cameras running, and we would talk to people. And we would explain who we were, why we were there, and ask if it would be possible for them to share with us.”
5
POPSWhy We Need Hope A good friend said these words to me: " Zinn says the stories of the darkest times are the best stories, because there are always heroes in the midst of it resisting the darkness, and if we don't tell the dark stories, we never learn of the heroes. It's the thing about being like Jesus - to his contemporaries, even to his followers, he always looked like a disappointing failure. But they have faded from history. So we look like losers, too. And we aren't." :)
5
POPSTurning Facts Into Speculation Let a bisexual woman say for once and all that all women are NOT bisexual. How silly to put up one picture of a man who looks like a player with bad hair and bad jewelry and a huge package swathed in purple and make a statement that all women are bisexual because they found the second picture of the woman to be more appealing. Bisexuality is very complex and most likely a variant. Does that mean there aren't a lot of women who are bisexual and closeted? Of course not. Is attraction based on more than just the image in the retina? YES, YES, YES. Do I have to post a link to a video of PINK to forget all of this? DUH.
14
POPSCitizen Terrorists Deleted "Promising reform to angry legislators, the Maryland police are scrambling not so much to apologize as to notify the 53 that they were falsely deemed terrorists and can inspect their files before the files are purged. The databases were originally intended for anti-drug intelligence, but were misused, officials explained, by zealous, “technologically challenged” commanders. Constitutionally challenged, as well."