Wine

I'm enjoying a glass of Surh Luchtel Mosaique, a boutique wine made by the brother of my best friend from Stanford.

Nice!

Stonewall FORTY

I just noticed that this year is the fortieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the milestone that marked the beginning of the modern gay liberation movement.

In 1994 I traveled to New York for Stonewall 25 and the Gay Games.

That was just a few years ago (right?).

Stonewall FORTY?

Jesus, even pride is over the hill now!

The end of an era (which is apparently what eras do... they end)

The New York Times chronicles General Motors' history and downfall, and here's a link to older articles from the New Yorker about critical decisions the company made decades ago and the subsequent impacts to its business.

Nevada legislature overrides governor's veto of domestic partners bill

Nevada today became the 17th state in the nation to pass domestic partners legislation. Worst-governor-in-America Jim Gibbons had vetoed the bill, but the Senate overrode him yesterday and the Assembly followed suit today:

CARSON CITY — On a 28-14 vote, the Assembly today overrode Gov. Jim Gibbons' veto of a bill to allow domestic partnerships in Nevada. With the override Saturday in the Senate, the domestic partners legislation will become law in Nevada on Oct. 1. The law allows same and opposite sex couples to secure domestic partnership contracts through the secretary of state's office. The contracts give couples the same rights and responsibilities as married couples.

Another step forward...

Two hours and forty-five minutes...

And no intermission. They don't make bands like Fleetwood Mac anymore! Awesome concert!

(Video link)

Quote for the day

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.

-- Robert Frost

I am a ditz

Fleetwood Mac is tomorrow, lol. I am normally always running behind, but I went to my dentist appointment on Wednesday and found out it wasn't on the schedule until today!

In other inconsequential news, I vacuumed today and was surprised by how much doing so improved my mood. :-)

A trailer full of compacted junk

Fleetwood Mac tonight!

I saw Stevie Nicks years ago in the Bay Area but am going to see the whole gang tonight at the MGM with my friend Shanti.

(Video link)

(Video link)

The Reader

I finally saw The Reader last night... fantastic. And happily I had only the vaguest idea of what it was about.

Those West Bank settlements

I agree with the administration: it's time to get tough with Israel regarding their failure to end the growth of existing and new settlements in the West Bank. Israel committed to doing so years ago, but they've taken little action.

“Time is of the essence,” Mr. Obama said. “We can’t continue with the drift and the increased fear on both sides, the sense of hopelessness that we’ve seen for too many years now. We need to get this thing back on track.”

Mr. Obama reiterated his call for a halt to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and said he expected a response soon from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.

Mr. Obama’s words echoed — albeit less bluntly — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s brusque call on Wednesday for a complete freeze of construction in settlements on the West Bank. In expansive language that left no wiggle room, Mrs. Clinton said that Mr. Obama “wants to see a stop to settlements — not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions.”

Her comments took Israeli officials by surprise.

More from the New York Times.

Organic dairies are hurting...

so buy a gallon of organic milk today. :-)

One of my biggest pet peeves...

People who throw their frickin' cigarette butts on the ground!

The difficulty of gay divorce

Apparently getting divorced can be a real pain in the ass if you're gay. Especially if you live in a state that doesn't recognize gay marriage.

My brain feels like this sometimes...

It's the new Frank Gehry-designed Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas.

Prop. 8 decision actually a victory in disguise?

One of Andrew Sullivan's readers with a legal background finds a lot to be happy with in today's California Supreme Court ruling. It keeps intact for gays and lesbians all of the benefits and rights of marriage, even if their unions can't be called "marriage." (I'm referring to same-sex couples who wish to legally recognize their relationships going forward, not those already married.)

And it raised the bar for any future amendments that would restrict the rights and privileges themselves.

More here.

Obama back in Vegas, stumping for Reid

The President was here tonight to give a speech at a sold-out Caesar's Palace fundraiser for Senate Majority Harry Reid.

Amazingly, I didn't go!

Seriously, the tickets were only $50, but what I really wanted was one of the $2400 VIP tickets, and I just didn't feel like stopping by an ATM. ;-)

Obama introduces Sotomayor

Here's the video that President Obama sent out about his Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor:

(Video link)

One step forward, one step back

Obama picks the first Latino to serve on the Supreme Court, 54 year old Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor:

Judge Sotomayor, 54, who has served for more than a decade on the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, based in New York City, would become the nation’s 111th justice, replacing David H. Souter, who is retiring after 19 years on the bench. Although Justice Souter was appointed by the first President George Bush, he became a mainstay of the liberal faction on the court, and so his replacement by Judge Sotomayor likely would not shift the overall balance of power.

But her appointment would add a second woman to the nine-member court and give Hispanics their first seat. Her life story, mirroring in some ways Mr. Obama’s own, would add a different complexion to the panel, fulfilling the president’s stated desire to add diversity of background to the nation’s highest tribunal.

Some political analysis from First Read.

AND IN CALIFORNIA, Proposition 8 is upheld, but those gays and lesbians who married before the constitutional ban was approved by the voters will remain married:

The 6-1 decision upholding Prop. 8 was issued by the same court that declared a year ago that a state law defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman violated the right to choose one's spouse and discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation.

Prop. 8 undid that ruling. The author of last year's 4-3 decision, Chief Justice Ronald George, said today that the voters were within their rights to approve a constitutional amendment redefining marriage to include only male-female couples.

"All political power is inherent in the people," George said, quoting the Declaration of Rights in the state Constitution. He said the voters' power to amend their Constitution is limited - and might not include a measure that, for example, deprived same-sex couples of the right to raise a family - but that Prop. 8 did not exceed those limits.

Under California's domestic-partner law and anti-discrimination statutes, the chief justice said, "same-sex couples continue to enjoy the same substantive core benefits ... as those enjoyed by opposite-sex couples, including the constitutional right to enter into an officially recognized and protected family relationship with the person of one's choice and to raise children."

The voters, he said, have added "the sole, albeit significant, exception that the designation of 'marriage' is ... now reserved for opposite-sex couples." That was within their authority, George said, and any further change can come only at the ballot box.

In dissent, Justice Carlos Moreno, who joined the majority in last year's decision, said today's ruling accepted the separate-but-equal treatment for gays and lesbians that the 2008 ruling rejected.

"Granting same-sex couples all of the rights enjoyed by opposite-sex couples, except the right to call their officially recognized and protected family relationship a marriage, still denies them equal treatment," Moreno said.

I didn't expect Proposition 8 to be overturned, by I have to say I am surprised by George's comments with respect to the power that people have to change their state constitutions. Banning marriage seems awfully close to limiting people's ability to raise a family which he suggested would be off limits. Hmm.

More from the ACLU.

Song of the day

Getting into that pool party vibe. :-)

(Video link)

Domestic partner benefits at State

Secretary of State Clinton is announcing domestic partner benefits for same sex partners of State Dept employees.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30912364/

I wonder how they are getting around DOMA...

Step one...

Get the military to accept a repeal of DADT.

Done:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30914485/

Step two...

Get Congress to actually repeal it.

Things are looking up in Vegas

After a long funk that took up most of my spring, I feel like I am coming out of my shell. I've had a good week--the most social I've been since March--getting together with friends for drinks, breakfast, and a barbecue. Tonight I'm going to see Flight of the Conchords with the J's and tomorrow will be hitting a new gay pool party at Luxor which looks like it's going to be the happening event this summer:

Introducing Sunkissed Sundays at the Luxor beginning May 24th from noon-6 p.m. This LGBT-focused daytime pool party—currently the only of its kind—will welcome all men and women down to the Luxor’s south pool (two pools actually, with waterfalls!) for a high energy day featuring go-go dancers, and resident DJ Fuzion. Guest DJ Brett Rubin has the honors of kicking off Sunkissed’s soft opening on Sunday, May 24, while Jeffrey Sanker of White Party fame will host the grand opening on June 7 with DJs The Perry Twins.

The south pool also offers seven VIP cabanas with all-new furniture, relaxing hammocks, cold towels and henna tattoos. For those of you way out there in Cali, beginning on June 7, The Abbey Bar in Los Angeles will be loading up The Abbey Bus with Sunkissed partiers and depositing them at the Luxor for the pool party and later, The Closet Sundays at CatHouse. For around $125, they’re also kicking in the hotel room stay and transportation. But anyone can take advantage of the Luxor’s LGBT-friendly rates at Luxor.com/LGBT, where a $49 Sunday room rate is available to all.

Yum...

Last night I went to my friend Jen's barbecue. My contribution was corn on the cob, half grilled in foil with sprigs of rosemary and the other half grilled in the husk and served with cilantro pesto, chipotle aioli, and cotija cheese. That aioli had quite a kick! ;-)

Corn on the cob always reminds me of an old Father Guido Sarducci commentary on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update. Through the miracle of the internet, I just found the transcript from the May 12, 1979 episode when it appeared:

I read about this other planet, too, in the same book. [ holds out his fists ] It's-a like, the sun is-a here and the Earth is-a here.. and on-a the other side-a of the sun, there's this other planet we can't see, you know, because the sun is-a blocking it from us.. but it's-a just-a like-a the Earth in every single way, it's like a mirror planet of Earth. There's only one difference, and it's that they eat-a corn on-a the cob-a like-a this.. [ demonstrates eating corn on the cob North-South instead of West-East ] That's it! That's the only difference. I'm not going there, you know, it's-a too messy. I'm used to eating it-a like-a this.. [ demonstrates West-East eating structure ] I just don't want-a change, habit like.

My god, thirty years ago!

Feedback

I received two thoughtful comments on my last post about Obama. Thanks, guys.

And a clarification, Ryan: while I mentioned both the comments that I've read on political stories around the web and the personal comments to me about Obama and DADT in the same post, there's obviously a world of difference between where you (and Marc) are coming from and so many of the "wouldn't know the middle ground if it chewed off both their right and left hands" kind of folks out there with their simpleminded slash and burn (not to mention anonymous) comments.

Whoa, now that was a sentence. :-)

I was talking to a friend the other day--who was also concerned that Obama was letting an Arab language linguist be kicked out of the military for being gay--and I told him I found myself in the strange position of being a gay man and activist who would benefit more from healthcare reform than from DADT being ended. (Yes, I have my own self interest. :-)

Obama has done so much already on so many fronts that matter to me--the economy, the environment, climate change, healthcare, science, etc.--that I find myself being able to feel like I can wait a bit for progress in the gay and lesbian space. Right now I'm feeling myself more centered in the big circle in my hypothetical Venn diagram that is worried about healthcare than in the smaller but no less important circle of gays and lesbians who just wanted to be treated with fairness and equality.

For the first time in a long time, I have some faith and feel some optimism that things will get better.

Am I crazy?

I've just been reading various political stories on the web. But more importantly, I've been reading the comments from other readers.

Such a mismash of comments from the left ("Obama is siding with insurance companies," "Obama has disappointed me on ending the war," and so on) and the right ("Obama is afraid of the NRA," "Obama is going to destroy this country," etc.).

And two friends have recently told me they were disillusioned with Obama because he hasn't already ended the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy that keeps gays and lesbians from openly serving in the military.

Am I the only person in America who simply voted for someone to lead the country? Who woke up on November 5th without a laundry list of grievances to be addressed or paranoid fears to be stoked?

Is this all we are, a bunch of narrow-minded and self-interested partisans?

I hope it's simply that it's only that type of person who takes the time to comment on political stories online. But to some degree, that group overlaps the group of people who actually vote.

I hope the part of the Venn diagram where I reside is bigger than would be predicted from the evidence at hand...

Two good op-eds from Friday's New York Times

David Brooks on the national security "duel" being waged by Cheney and Obama:

When Cheney lambastes the change in security policy, he’s not really attacking the Obama administration. He’s attacking the Bush administration. In his speech on Thursday, he repeated in public a lot of the same arguments he had been making within the Bush White House as the policy decisions went more and more the other way....

Obama has taken many of the same policies Bush ended up with, and he has made them credible to the country and the world. In his speech, Obama explained his decisions in a subtle and coherent way. He admitted that some problems are tough and allow no easy solution. He treated Americans as adults, and will have won their respect.

Paul Krugman on upcoming ads from Blue Cross Blue Shield that take aim at any public health plan option:

“We can do a lot better than a government-run health care system,” says a voice-over in one of the ads. To which the obvious response is, if that’s true, why don’t you? Why deny Americans the chance to reject government insurance if it’s really that bad?

For none of the reform proposals currently on the table would force people into a government-run insurance plan. At most they would offer Americans the choice of buying into such a plan.

And the goal of the insurers is to deny Americans that choice. They fear that many people would prefer a government plan to dealing with private insurance companies that, in the real world as opposed to the world of their ads, are more bureaucratic than any government agency, routinely deny clients their choice of doctor, and often refuse to pay for care.

Song of the day

I saw Joni Mitchell in 2000, and I so much prefer the depth of that more mature version of "Both Sides Now." There's so much more understanding of the complexities of life than in her version from 30 years earlier...

You'll think they're Photoshop'd, but they're not!

Reminds me of "If you think it's butter, well, it's not... it's Chiffon!" :-)

Cool unretouched pics here. And a 70s flashback below.

(Video link)

Why did you buy that?

Some new research on reasons why we buy what we buy and the benefits--conscious or otherwise--that we hope to gain from our purchases:

If marketers (or their customers) understood biologists’ new calculations about animals’ “costly signaling,” Dr. Miller says, they’d see that Harvard diplomas and iPhones send the same kind of signal as the ornate tail of a peacock.

Sometimes the message is as simple as “I’ve got resources to burn,” the classic conspicuous waste demonstrated by the energy expended to lift a peacock’s tail or the fuel guzzled by a Hummer. But brand-name products aren’t just about flaunting transient wealth. The audience for our signals — prospective mates, friends, rivals — care more about the permanent traits measured in tests of intelligence and personality, as Dr. Miller explains in his new book, “Spent: Sex, Evolution and Consumer Behavior.”

The tarnish on the Golden State

California is really suffering in this recession, and all of the emergency financing initiatives on Tuesday's ballot were defeated. The state is now close to not being able to pay its bills, and calls for a state constitutional convention are growing louder:

As the notion of California as ungovernable grows stronger than ever, Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has expressed support for a convention to address such things as the state’s arcane budget requirements and its process for proliferate ballot initiatives, both of which necessitated Tuesday’s statewide vote on budget matters approved months ago by state lawmakers.

“There could not be more of a tipping point,” said Jim Wunderman, chief executive of the Bay Area Council, a business group that moved forward on Wednesday with plans to push for a constitutional convention. “We think the interest is going to grow by orders of magnitude now.”

More immediately, Mr. Schwarzenegger met with legislative leaders to begin the painful process of slashing state spending after voters rejected five ballot measures intended to balance the budget through a mix of tax increases, borrowing and the reallocation of state money.

Back in February, Ezra Klein summed up California's structural money problems:

California effectively has four branches of government: The governor, the legislature, the courts, and the ballot initiatives. And these last have ripped through our finances.... The legislature cannot reject the initiatives, but both their bills and the ballot proposals are coming from the same pool of money....

And we're looking at a considerable sum that's out of their [legislative] control. Last August, Mark Paul estimated that these programs were now equivalent to about 9% of the total general fund, "or about the total cost of all of today's state social service programs."

Then, of course, is the second problem: The legislature effectively can't raise revenues. Taxes require a 2/3rds majority and California's Republicans are mono-maniacally anti-tax. It is, after all, the only thing they can control. So essentially, California operates with a government that can't control either spending or revenues.

More on the budget cuts expected to close the state's $21 billion shortfall from the Los Angeles Times.

Obama's a busy man

His administration is announcing new car mileage and emissions standards:

The rules, which will begin to take effect in 2012, will put in place a federal standard for fuel efficiency that is as tough as the California program, while imposing the first-ever limits on climate-altering gases from cars and trucks.

The effect will be a single new national standard that will create a car and light truck fleet in the United States that is almost 40 percent cleaner and more fuel-efficient by 2016 than it is today, with an average of 35.5 miles per gallon.

And he has support from both environmental groups and the auto industry.

First Read covers the political aspects of his announcement and this morning's other news here.

On the rise

As glaciers melt in places like Alaska and Greenland, the ground is rising:

Relieved of billions of tons of glacial weight, the land has risen much as a cushion regains its shape after someone gets up from a couch. The land is ascending so fast that the rising seas — a ubiquitous byproduct of global warming — cannot keep pace. As a result, the relative sea level is falling, at a rate “among the highest ever recorded,” according to a 2007 report by a panel of experts convened by Mayor Bruce Botelho of Juneau.

Greenland and a few other places have experienced similar effects from widespread glacial melting that began more than 200 years ago, geologists say. But, they say, the effects are more noticeable in and near Juneau, where most glaciers are retreating 30 feet a year or more.

So Alaska might just be a safer place to live than, say, the Florida coast, in a few decades. Assuming Bobby Jindal doesn't get rid of all that "wasteful" volcano monitoring. :-)

More troubling news from Pakistan

Apparently they began a nuclear arms buildup in the past few years of the Bush administration, which looked the other way:

... Pakistan is producing an unknown amount of new bomb-grade uranium and, once a series of new reactors is completed, bomb-grade plutonium for a new generation of weapons. President Obama has called for passage of a treaty that would stop all nations from producing more fissile material — the hardest part of making a nuclear weapon — but so far has said nothing in public about Pakistan’s activities.

Bruce Riedel, the Brookings Institution scholar who served as the co-author of Mr. Obama’s review of Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy, reflected the administration’s concern in a recent interview, saying that Pakistan “has more terrorists per square mile than anyplace else on earth, and it has a nuclear weapons program that is growing faster than anyplace else on earth.”

Worst of all is the proximity of some of their nuclear facilities to unstable regions of the country:

The dimensions of the Pakistani buildup are not fully understood. “We see them scaling up their centrifuge facilities,” said David Albright, the president of the Institute for Science and International Security, which has been monitoring Pakistan’s continued efforts to buy materials on the black market, and analyzing satellite photographs of two new plutonium reactors less than 100 miles from where Pakistani forces are currently fighting the Taliban.

“The Bush administration turned a blind eye to how this is being ramped up,” he said. “And of course, with enough pressure, all this could be preventable.”

MORE ON THE FIGHTING, refugees, and other developments in Pakistan from Juan Cole.

Star {Trek|Wars}

I love 'em both. :-)

Watch the video comparison here.

He's got a point

Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele is suggesting that conservatives work against gay marriage by reminding people that it might cost them money:

Republicans can reach a broader base by recasting gay marriage as an issue that could dent pocketbooks as small businesses spend more on health care and other benefits, GOP Chairman Michael Steele said Saturday....

Steele said he used the argument weeks ago while chatting on a flight with a college student who described herself as fiscally conservative but socially liberal on issues like gay marriage.

"Now all of a sudden I've got someone who wasn't a spouse before, that I had no responsibility for, who is now getting claimed as a spouse that I now have financial responsibility for," Steele told Republicans at the state convention in traditionally conservative Georgia. "So how do I pay for that? Who pays for that? You just cost me money."

Wow, he might just be right. Maybe we should get rid of marriage altogether and really save those small businesses some money!

Software and online payment woes

Years ago--and I am talking years--I discovered a cool little service called PayPal. In the beginning you could even send money to another person via email. I told my friends about it, and we began using it as a easy way to square up after dining out or traveling together.

Then eBay bought it.

Two years ago I helped a friend out by selling some merchandise on eBay. One item was shipped to a woman in Australia. I offered and she declined shipping insurance. She chose the cheapest shipping method--the postal service. She paid via PayPal.

I shipped the item and let her know that the U.S. Postal Service estimated it would take 7-10 days to arrive. Two days later she filed a dispute with eBay claiming it never arrived. I supplied all of the emails to PayPal as part of their "resolution process." A week later I also sent them the confirmation number and a link to the usps.com website which clearly showed that the item had cleared customs in Australia and been handed over to the Australian postal service.

All the evidence showed that I had shipped the item in good faith. If it was lost by the Australian post office, especially after she had declined shipping insurance, it was hard to see how it was my fault.

PayPal's system ruled in her favor, and almost immediately, telling me that it was an automated system with no human involved.

Money lost on that effort to help a friend? $550

SOMEHOW I MADE THE MISTAKE of using PayPal again recently, this time to purchase a $15 utility for my computer (HDD Temp). It never worked as described, and while the seller tried to help me, when I asked for a refund, they became unresponsive.

I escalated the issue to PayPal, again providing the email trail showing that we had made a good faith effort to resolve the issue but without success.

Their resolution--again, it arrived immediately--was in favor of the seller.

So much for "PayPal protection."

Resolution: I closed my PayPal account. Since I have talked it up over the years, and I've now changed my mind, you should cancel your account as well.

The benefit of the doubt

I'm willing to give President Obama just that: the benefit of the doubt. As he confronts the difficulties and confounding shades of gray of governing--as contrasted with the clarity of campaigning--I know that he will make decisions that don't make everyone happy.

And "No, Ryan," I'm not cynical over DADT as I never expected Obama to turn over the ban on gays serving in the military right away.

My one issue: we can't kill civilians so blithely. If we're going to use our military in Afghanistan and Pakistan, they have to stop killing so indiscriminately. On that I'm unwilling to let Obama off the hook.

I want to have lunch with Gail Collins

Did the founders want it to be this difficult? In other words, is the way Washington works a bug or a feature? I have to wonder after reading Gail Collins' latest column.

On another not necessarily related but who knows note, I am sitting on my balcony, it is in the neighborhood of 82 degrees, and I'm thinking of Andrew Holleran who once wrote the story of my life.

Song of the day

My favorite Smiths song... "Paint a Vulgar Picture."

(Video link)

For anyone who grew up on the outside looking in, wanting and believing in something more, and yet growing old to find that so much that was longed for is hollow, and that maybe, just maybe, it was that moment of crossing the threshold from the outside to the inside that was the moment... the lyrics to this song have meaning:

I touched you at the soundcheck
You had no real way of knowing
In my heart I begged "Take me with you ...
I don't care where you're going..."
But to you I was faceless
I was fawning, I was boring
Just a child from those ugly new houses
Who could never begin to know
Who could never really know
...
I walked a pace behind you at the soundcheck
You're just the same as I am
What makes most people feel happy
Leads us headlong into harm
So, in my bedroom in those 'ugly new houses'
I danced my legs down to the knees
But me and my 'true love'
Will never meet again ...

Michelangelo and the Spirituali

I just caught a great program on PBS about Michelangelo's tomb for Pope Julius II which includes his iconic statue of Moses. Very interesting, catch it if you can. I learned a lot not only about Michelangelo but about the 16th century reform movement in the Catholic Church and the Inquisition.

Someone else took the time to blog about it here.

Camaraderie...

We're all human. Reading David Brooks' column about the Grant Study helped to remind me of the common challenges that so many of us face:

In the late 1930s, a group of 268 promising young men, including John F. Kennedy and Ben Bradlee, entered Harvard College. By any normal measure, they had it made. They tended to be bright, polished, affluent and ambitious. They had the benefit of the world’s most prestigious university. They had been selected even from among Harvard students as the most well adjusted.

And yet the categories of journalism and the stereotypes of normal conversation are paltry when it comes to predicting a life course. Their lives played out in ways that would defy any imagination save Dostoyevsky’s. A third of the men would suffer at least one bout of mental illness. Alcoholism would be a running plague. The most mundane personalities often produced the most solid success. One man couldn’t admit to himself that he was gay until he was in his late 70s.

I'm reminded of the first commencement address I heard while a student at Stanford. Ted Koppel spoke that year (1986) and shared the story of a brilliant high school girl who seemed to have it made: athletic, intelligent, attractive, vivacious. And yet she took her own life just as she seemed to be off to an amazing future. It struck me then as a weird anecdote, but I think he was trying to warn those of us assembled there: It won't always be easy, this life ahead. Even under the best of circumstances you may all find it hard to cope at times.

True enough.

Koppel also quoted "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass:

It avails not, neither time or place—distance avails not;
I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence;
I project myself—also I return—I am with you, and know how it is.

Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt;
Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd;
Just as you are refresh’d by the gladness of the river and the bright flow, I was refresh’d;
Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current, I stood, yet was hurried;
Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships, and the thick-stem’d pipes of steamboats, I look’d.

It was my first year at Stanford; I was working as an usher that day. I remember looking down at the pavilion that had been built on the field of Stanford Stadium and having a sense of what it must have been like to have been a Roman watching the games in the Colisseum.

As Koppel spoke those words about sharing common experiences--like being in a crowd--across the centuries, I was struck because that was exactly what I'd been thinking about.

Regardless of what age we live in, what station we're born into, and what gifts we uniquely carry, in the end we are all human. Perfectly human. Which means being imperfect, and struggling to find our way in this world.

THERE'S MORE on the Grant Study in "What makes us happy?" in the June Atlantic magazine.

P.S. I'm reminded, just now, of Billy Joel's "Piano Man" and a post I wrote about it way back when...

The video is here.

"I'm Captain Kirk!"

William Shatner responds to a trailer of the new Star Trek movie. :-)

(Video link)

The absurdity of our patchwork of marriage laws

An op-ed in the New York Times highlights the strangeness of America's marriage laws when it comes to dealing with same sex relationships and sex changes:

A lawyer for the transgendered plaintiff in the Littleton case noted the absurdity of the country’s gender laws as they pertain to marriage: “Taking this situation to its logical conclusion, Mrs. Littleton, while in San Antonio, Tex., is a male and has a void marriage; as she travels to Houston, Tex., and enters federal property, she is female and a widow; upon traveling to Kentucky she is female and a widow; but, upon entering Ohio, she is once again male and prohibited from marriage; entering Connecticut, she is again female and may marry; if her travel takes her north to Vermont, she is male and may marry a female; if instead she travels south to New Jersey, she may marry a male.”

The author is a transgendered person whose spouse chose to remain married to a partner despite a legal sex change. I personally know of one such couple in the Bay Area. Given the fragility of so many marriages (especially in the South! :-), shouldn't we be impressed by the commitment that some people are willing to make in the face of challenges that most of us couldn't hope to navigate? Why do so many Americans remain so opposed to just letting consenting adults marry who they choose to marry?

LOVED IT

Loved the new Star Trek!

In IMAX, no less. :-)

Here's a good review from the Boston Globe.

Influenza 101

Here's a story from the Washington Post which explain the basics of influenza viruses and how they get their names.

Refugees in Pakistan

I knew that things were heating up in Pakistan, but I didn't really understand the scale until I heard on the radio this past week that there were an estimated 500,000-1,000,000 people who were forced out of their homes by the fighting.

You can help by donating to Mercy Corps here.

"Sparock"

This photo from Maureen Dowd's column is fabulous! :-)

And apparently our Vulcan-in-chief was a hit at the Correspondents' Dinner last night (video here).

ON THE STAR TREK FRONT, I'm just dying to see Chris Pine. Hubba hubba.

Marrying in Maine

Well, not yet, but the governor signed a bill into law today establishing same sex marriage in the state of Maine. Woo hoo!

I've been a Trekkie since the early 70s

I remember coming home from the Burron Fall Fun Fest one day and discovering Star Trek on television. I was hooked.

And I'm dying to see the new Star Trek prequel this weekend!

(Video link)

I don't know about you, but Chris Pine seems perfect as the man who would grow up to be played by William Shatner. :-)

Texts from last night

If you've got some time to kill, check out Texts from Last Night. And hope that none of your friends ever forwards any of your own such messages there. :-)

Thanks, Andrew!

Not wanting to get out of bed...

I'm sure you've experienced it before. Saw this great video today on The Daily Dish. :-)

Seven deadly sins

Researchers at Kansas State University have produced a series of eye-catching maps of the United States which reflect demographic data associated, in their minds, with the seven deadly sins. And by a happy coincidence, the Las Vegas Sun ran a story on their work.

Be sure to click on the images to cycle through the whole set of images.

Condoleeza Rice and torture

A Stanford student posted some raw footage of Condoleeza Rice speaking about torture, rendition, and other "tough choices" that the Bush administration made after 9/11:

(Video link)

She makes this Nixon-like quote at around the 5:30 mark: “By definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Conventions Against Torture.”

Nice.

Obama's legal philosophy

As a new Supreme Court pick looms, analysts take a look at Obama's legal philosophy:

Former students and colleagues describe Mr. Obama as a minimalist (skeptical of court-led efforts at social change) and a structuralist (interested in how the law metes out power in society). And more than anything else, he is a pragmatist who urged those around him to be more keenly attuned to the real-life impact of decisions. This may be his distinguishing quality as a legal thinker: an unwillingness to deal in abstraction, a constant desire to know how court decisions affect people’s lives.

Under Their Robes

I just noticed that Under Their Robes, a Supreme Court groupie blog, is back after a lengthy hiatus. Just in time for some new Justice action. :-)

I'm a bit embarassed to admit it, but I got butterflies in my stomach during Chief Justice John Robert's confirmation hearings. Sometimes I'm a sucker for intelligence, lol.

Brilliant

I hadn't seen this Wizard of Oz "alternate ending" until today... really well done!

(Video link)

I grew up in Kansas, and The Wizard of Oz was the first movie I experienced as a child which mentioned my home state. The funny thing is, I didn't notice until I was in high school that the Kansas scenes were in black & white and the rest of the movie in color!

Ronald Reagan and torture

Glenn Greenwald comments on how far we've come since 1988 when President Ronald Reagan had this to say when asking Congress to ratify the international Convention Against Torture treaty:

The United States participated actively and effectively in the negotiation of the Convention. It marks a significant step in the development during this century of international measures against torture and other inhuman treatment or punishment. Ratification of the Convention by the United States will clearly express United States opposition to torture, an abhorrent practice unfortunately still prevalent in the world today.

The core provisions of the Convention establish a regime for international cooperation in the criminal prosecution of torturers relying on so-called "universal jurisdiction." Each State Party is required either to prosecute torturers who are found in its territory or to extradite them to other countries for prosecution.

The treaty that Reagan was talking about has this to say:

No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture. . . Each State Party shall ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law.