Cascadia Uber Alles

I know, I know, I'm late with the politics post. Very late. It'll be up today, promise. But first!

As everybody probably knows, I'm working CascadiaCon, the Seattle NASFiC, or North American Interim Science Fiction Convention. I'm doing the at-convention newsletter.

Since it works too well not to do it again, I'm reviving the old FaxCascadia shtick from Norwescon 22, and, along with it, the Independent Republic of Cascadia.

Over the last two days, I've written up 4300 words of backstory for the RoCas. Below the cut is the rough draft of the history. I've gotten a little feedback already; I'd like to get more, particularly things that might be funny.

So here it is. Lemmie know if you have things to suggest. I'm going to present it at the Saturday concom meeting, so that's kind of a deadline - not that we can't change things later, of course. Consistency goes out the window in the face of funny, if the funny's good enough. ^_^

( World Factbook entry: Republic of Cascadia )

briefly, again

A requested meme from lyonesse - these aren't normally the sort of thing I do, but she asked her friends to post it because she was curious:

Do you actually read my journal?

If you read me on a regular/semi regular basis, leave me a comment and let me know.

Then post this in your journal and find out who reads your journal.

In other news:
Wednesday's miles: 1.1
Miles out of Hobbiton: 309.3
Miles to Rivendell: 149.0

Political post coming soon, been too busy to get to it yet.

Today's Cultural Warfare Update

I'm sorry this is so late, but on the other hand, no, I'm not, because zomg, 'splody! It turns out that John Roberts did Pro Bono work _against_ the anti-gay Amendment 2 in Colorado, that the Supreme Court struck down as a violation of equal protection. (It barred civil rights protection against queers, but preserved it for straight people, so that you couldn't be fired for being heterosexual, but could be for being gay.) Question of the day: does this tie back to the rumour floated that he is gay?

First, the LA Times article;

Then, a collected set of the responses so far from fundamentalist groups - expect more as they come in - note that while people are arguing over the extent of the involvement, nobody is denying it outright, and Focus on the Family wants him to talk about it in front of the Senate;

Dobson compares embryonic stem-cell research to "Nazi science," and defends his assertions in that regard;

Senator Rick Santorum plugs his book on Focus on the Family - interview link. On NPR today, he said that it wasn't okay for the government to leave people alone in their bedrooms, and actually used those words. It was neat;

FotF article about multiple fundamentalist events following the passage of several anti-abortion bills in Oklahoma;

FotF praises President Bush, who said that Intelligent Design should be taught with evolution in science classes;

FotF defends public school Bible classes - Texas group charges them with sectarian prejudices;

Tom DeLay to speak at "Justice Sunday II" megachurchcast;

Focus on the Family claims 2/3 majority against overturning Roe v. Wade are "confused," makes strange claims about court rulings;

California Supreme Court rules state anti-discrimination law requires golf club to recognise state-registered DPs;

Red Cross employee fired over anti-gay email; called gayfolk "a sexual cancer, that we all know is eroding our society," amoungst other things, in a long exchange of letters with management protesting gay pride month that included saying that he couldn't do his job in promotions as long as the Red Cross was GBLT-friendly - Concerned Women for America pitches it as "fired for failing to celebrate homosexuality";

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council attacks Bill Frist over stem-cell research support;

WorldNetDaily readership reacts _very_ strongly against Roberts following news of his Amendment 2 pro-bono work - fewer than 1% neutral or positive, 68.93% feel betrayed;

John Cole has detailed information on the Texas Bible Curriculum mentioned above, used in public school, which does indeed have major and important sectarian leanings, some of which he details.

( Here we go... )