Today's Cultural Warfare Update

Focus on the Family says Frist will bring nominees to the floor this week, and if you're somehow still thinking this isn't really about the Supreme Court, this article just outright says it is [Ed. Note: the first nominee has been brought to the floor; the FotF web site is surprisingly quiet, and sections normally updated daily aren't being updated; they're clearly very busy];

Kansas creationists team up with Muslim fundamentalists in evolution "trial" - creationism, a.k.a. "intelligent design," voted up 6-4, will be introduced as science;

Story on the state of the anti-marriage amendment in Massachusetts - it appears to be losing steam;

Agape Press rants about the "Reign of Madness" in Massachusetts, claiming the state has been "overrun by homosexuality" and that Christians are being "arrested by police for resisting having their kids exposed to homosexuality";

Focus on the Family article against embryonic stem-cell research;

Focus on the Family article promoting the anti-gay school inquisition proposal for the Southern Baptist Convention's conference;

FotF attacks ACLU for planned campaign highlighting problems facing gay couples because of the lack of legal marriage or CU protections;

Today's Family News in Focus;

CWA rails against shareholder motions to make the unified ExxonMobil, which dropped Mobil's DP benefits and GBLT-protections when they and Exxon merged, re-adopt anti-discrimination language;

CWA demands filibuster rules change - two articles;

CWA tells John McCain that he should support the rules change;

CWA marks anniversary of Massachusetts marriage by claiming nothing as energised "Americans" more;

Washington Times opinion column against women in near-combat support roles;

Washington Evangelicals for Responsible Government crows about the defeat of HB1515: "They Got Our Money, But Not Our Souls."

( Transcriptions and excerpts )

Storms and flowers

annathepiper isn't the only one who writes - tho' her stuff is more interesting and mine consists entirely of little technical articles. But I finished my latest last night, did a final proof (and a few more changes) today, formatted it, and sent it off. Rah. It's more "internet basics for MIS readers" - kind of dull, but the money is good. (If slow - it's pay-on-publication, so I'll see dollars in November. ~.~, ) I did manage to use the phrase, "and the creek don't rise," in a technical article, though, so, yay.

Other than that, I'm keeping an eye on t3h sk33ry politics and am about to head out to work on MurkSouth. I wish I could bike - it's sunny right now and accordingly so tempting - but I've looked at the radar and while we've got this little gap of sunshine right now, it won't last. And I hate being rained on really a lot. So the bus it is. Oh well, at least I can study Japanese on the way. That part's good.

(Later, having returned)

Tuesday's tiny miles: 0.2
Today's miles: 2.8
Miles out of Hobbiton: 139.1. It's quiet. Too quiet. Where are the birds?
Miles to Rivendell: 318.9

Somebody asked about how I can have entries like 0.1 and 0.2 miles - they asked, "What, do you not go more than 10 feet from your bed all day?" Well, no; those tiny walking entries (which they always are) are in addition to normal walking-around-at-home-and-work walking, and usually indicate very short bits of walking about the neighbourhood. Yesterday, for example, I'd decided to go walk half a mile since I drove. (I had to run some errands with cargo; hence, the car.) But I ran into Anna before I'd gotten very far, so just came back home to start dinner. Result: 0.2 miles instead of half a mile. Either is kind of a token walk, but I make a point to do those on days when I'm driving for some reason.

Pleasantly, that isn't very often.

Lots of thunderstorms today, interspersed with sunshine; a few times, it's gotten dark enough quickly enough that I've been able to watch the light levels fall in realtime. It's neat.

I think this is the last of the original set of pictures I took when I started this series; it's shed all its flowers, now. Alas! It's another north-path shrub: