Today's Cultural Warfare Update

GBLT-rights bill opponent Bill Finkbeiner decides to support GBLT civil rights bill;

Iranian television shows "death to Israel, death to Jews, death to America" rally from Mecca, courtesy Our Friends, the Saudis;

FotF's analysis of the first day of Alito hearings: Alito does "superbly"; includes ACTION ITEM against any filibuster;

FotF demands Howard Stern be reigned in, includes ACTION ITEM to demand broadcast regulation be extended to satellite programming;

New Jersey passes bill allowing same-sex partner access to health care under some unstated circumstances, some control over estate of deceased partners; FotF unhappy;

FotF attacks Democratic senators' questioning of Alito; Brownback attacks Roe v. Wade; includes the usual ACTION ITEM against any filibuster;

Private fundamentalist Christian school sues University of California over not accepting creationism classes as science;

American Family Association, Focus on the Family, other fundamentalist groups tell Ford to stop "supporting homosexual activism" or face co-ordinated boycott;

Link to copy of said letter, hosted by AFA website;

Focus on the Family analysis of day two of Alito questioning: "Hail Mary"s and "dead horses";

AFA newsbrief calls the Washington Post the "house organ" of the GBLT-rights movement;

AFA: "Study Shows Increase in Homosexual Experimentation" - they say it like it's a bad thing ( -_^ );

Concerned Women for America spin on "Concerned Alumni of Princeton": not just Alito, but the group itself was not actually against women and minourities being at Princeton, it was all about the ROTC, which is complete bullshit;

Traditional Values Coalition action item to tell senators to confirm Alito;

SECTION TVC action item to confirm Alito; there are about a dozen different Alito-coverage stories from TVC, I'm not bringing them all over here, but they're on traditionalvalues.org;

Family Research Coalition: "HEY! LOOKIT ME! LOOKIT ME!";

FotF starts pro-Alito radio ad campaign in Rhode Island;

Faith and Freedom Network vows to continue fighting GBLT rights in Washington State, saying that Finkbeiner's switch on his planned vote doesn't guarantee any passage;

( Articles and excerpts )

Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain

I wasn't sure whether this qualified as a leaf picture, really; ferns don't really have leaves in the sense that I think of them, anyway, they have fronds. But they do change colour, tho' typically not this brightly, so I'm including it.


Harlequin Fern

I think we're up to 24 days of measurable precipitation? That's getting close to a record. The record including trace amounts is something like 99 days, but this pure quantity of rain is kind of special. The winter creek next to our house is on the edge of our property is on the verge of overflowing; the drainage system around the house is flowing about as much as the creek is; the drainage ditches are going all-out; there's standing water from seepage all along the northern end of the driveway - and it all keeps going just like that even when the rain is taking a break... and we live at the top of a hill. (Almost the very top. The property line is the top, the house is down a bit.) Down at 182nd, there's little lakes of standing water everywhere.

Anyway, all that's why there are three (3) weather alerts right now - Flood Watch, Flood Statement, and Special Weather Statement: Oh My God We're All Gonna DieWatch Out for Landslides. (There've already been several; two days of the Sounder's northern interurban run between Seattle and Everett have been cancelled by landslides covering the tracks.)

That's a very long way to say, "gosh, it's wet." But, well, gosh, it's wet. Even for here.

Monday's token: 0.1
Tuesday's token: 0.1
Wednesday's miles: 1.3
Thursday's miles: 2.1
Miles out of Hobbiton: 567.6
Miles out of Rivendell: 107.8
Miles to Lothlórien: 358.6

Yesterday, we got a few hours of break from it all, and a few peeks of blue sky after some morning rain. But I missed a photograph opportunity, walking down to the highway and back just to get out of the house; I was almost all the way down to the road when I saw possibly the best sky photograph opportunity I've ever seen.

But I'd left spazzkat's camera at home, and knew I'd never get it and come back on time, so I just watched it and pointed it out to other people passing by, most of whom ignored it, much to their own loss.