fun!

Today was unexpectedly gorgeous so spazzkat and I went biking. It was way nicer than it had any right to be this time of year, and then, for bonus points, we found people flying remote-controlled gliders!

Glider against blue sky (1.2M)
Pilot launching a glider with a spring-cord launch (8.6M)
Glider flying against clouds (4.2M)

(In case it's not clear, those are movies.)

Friday's token: 0.1
Today's (Sunday's) miles: 20.7
Miles out of Hobbiton: 665.7
Miles out of Rivendell: 205.9
Miles to Lothlórien: 260.5

Yeah, i haven't gotten to Friday's CWU yet. After dinner. It'll be up tonight.

Today's Cultural Warfare Update

Catholic Charities in Boston decides to shut down its adoptive services rather than allow same-gender married couples to adopt; Mitt Romney announces he will push for an exemption from civil rights law for religiously-affiliated organisations;

zarq has a good entry talking about the various studies showing that gay parents are pretty much the same as straight parents when it comes to childhood outcomes;

***** Faith and Freedom Network (a Pacific Northwest theoconservative organisation) has started mailing out links to a PDF of their anti-GBLT Washington State initiative;

Focus on the Family really has all guns blazing on this Dobson-tied-to-convicted-lobbyist Abramoff thing; this is an ACTION ITEM to bombard Campaign to Defend the Constitution with complaints; they include links to all kinds of talking points and action items and stuff - it must have them terrified;

A second ACTION ITEM in the same mailing to blast DefCon with complaint letters for daring to talk bad about James Dobson;

***** Not sure what this means: Focus on the Family report on the Christian Educator's Association working with GLSEN, which FotF and the other major theocon grouops have unremittingly condemned in the past, on a set of "common ground" recommendations on sexual orientation harassment in schools; they do not condemn this action, which is interesting; presumably being pro-bullying was playing badly and FotF has shifted its stance a bit, which is good news;

In the very next article, of course, they accuse the APA of "placing politics over science," mostly for not considering homosexuality and bisexuality to be mental illnesses anymore; I have a hard time reconciling the above story to all the other stories;

Maryland Del. Don Dwyer's attempt to get Judge M. Brooke Murdock removed from the bench over rulings he didn't like fails in committee;

FotF condemns Planned Parenthood programme to help minours seek legal redress in court over abortion issues; continues the accusation that PP is only interested in abortion rights because it wants to keep its "cash-cow abortion mills";

FotF considers Indiana likely to require clinics to tell women "life begins at conception" and "fetuses may feel pain" - funny how things like medical provider conscience don't matter when it's the other side's moral, ethical, and medical considerations;

Montana church violated state political spending laws - Alliance Defense Fund, a theoconservative anti-GBLT/anti-abortion legal action group, blasts the law as unconstitutional, vows challenge;

Yet ANOTHER FotF ACTION ITEM against DefCon over their ads linking James Dobson to Abramoff;

FotF rails against the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Freedom for asking Congress to increase international aid for family planning; even FotF has to note that this doesn't actually include abortion, tho' the groups do support abortion rights; Concerned Women for America condemns them for not having scripture to justify their position on their website, calling it "proof" they aren't really religious;

FotF starts whipping up political support for theoconservative candidates in 2006 already, saying it's "eight long months" between now and the election but that you have to get ready now, and that it's going to be a very ugly campaign - that part, I'm afraid, I agree with;

Still no news on Washington State Supreme Court decision on Washington State's DOMA;

FotF upset that Maryland seems to be moving towards supporting embryonic stem-cell research;

***** Tennessee Senate passes anti-abortion state Constitutional amendment;

YET ANOTHER alert from Focus on the Family about DefCon and the Abramoff allegations;

Faith and Freedom Network claims the Washington State Pharmacy Board is considering a right-of-refusal measure for anti-abortion pharmacists, condemns Planned Parenthood for opposing it;

Faith and Freedom Network condemns Washington State Democratic legislators for refusing to exempt anti-marriage actions from the normal legislative cutoff date for the now-expired 2006 legislative session; Rep. Holmquist (R-Moses Lake) had prepared an anti-marriage state constitutional amendment;

Concerned Women for America's Robert Knight addresses a "Call to Arms Pastors Conference" in Maine, calls it a "huge success"; talks about "great victories" such as South Dakota's new abortion ban; claims Christianity is going to be outlawed unless pastors get (even) more politically active;

Concerned Women for America's Robert Knight defends Focus on the Family, condemns DefCon's Dobson-Abramoff allegations;

CWA condemns National Center for Men lawsuit seeking a right to opt-out of child support;

Forbes: "Parent Notification Law Linked to Drop in Teen Abortions" - except there's a big asterisk, specifically that there's a big spike in later-term abortions caused by teenagers turning 18 and then having an abortion without having to tell their parents - in other words, waiting out the law;

Family Research Council ACTION ITEM pushing anti-marriage amendment in Iowa; it passed the House last year, it needs to pass the Senate this year to get to the ballot; it's currently being held in committee; they're having a big anti-marriage-rights rally on the 14th (that's Tuesday);

Family Research Council ACTION ITEM calling for help collecting signatures for anti-marriage state Constitutional amendment in Illinois;

American Family Association joins in the chorus condemning DefCon and sends out an ACTION ITEM to support James Dobson - this clearly hit a major nerve;

AFA's Agape Press starts talking about an anti-Wal-Mart campaign over their decision to carry emergency contraception in their pharmacies; also, the plaintiffs in the religious-harassment Air Force Academy case have amended their suit to include the new, Dobson-approved guidelines which they say put the old system back into place;

Jerry Falwell has 24 Soulforce members arrested by Liberty University Campus Police when SoulForce members set foot on campus (one at a time, single-file), helping make sure the group could not talk to Liberty University students;

The 700 Club to carry "a lengthy news statement" on the book The Marketing of Evil, which condemns GBLT rights as, well, evil;

Focus on the Family (Canada arm) claims evangelicals responsible for Tory win in recent elections.

( Articles, transcriptions, and excerpts below )

In other news

Here's my picture of this strange mushroom-shaped cloud that spazzkat pointed out while we were biking this afternoon:



We were making jokes about how it looked like CapricaSeattle had just been n00ked by the Cylons, partly because of the cloud, and partly because the whole Woodinville area - something about the lighting just made it look like the sunny pre-war scenes on Caprica in BSG. But what's kind of funny is that several versions of this photo got shot all over the place. Here's one in seattle:

http://community.livejournal.com/seattle/3425846.html (click through, it's not my photo)

And here's the one caught by the Times, as spotted by tiff_seattle:



It's just kind of neat that everyone was going, "hey, wtf is that?" at the same time.