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Look! Flowers!


Nordic Yellow

Yep, I'm finally into April. The very beginning of April, but April. ^_^

Thursday's miles: 2.1
Friday's miles: 11.1
Miles out of Hobbiton: 760.6
Miles out of Rivendell: 300.8
Miles to Lothlórien: 165.6

I bought a bike rack yesterday. Yay, I can carry things that don't fit in my backpack now! It carries up to something stupid like 35kg, so I don't think I'll be wanting for weight limit. Size, maybe. but not weight. I also bought a bungee just to have handy. The only bad thing yesterday about biking was stopping to talk to somebody who was wearing a T-shirt of my lameass undergrad school - I was stunned by its presense, it turned out he was just wearing it as a gag and had never been there - when somebody whipped by me and cranked out, "I bet you don't do that in your car!" while racing off. Fuck off, asshat, this isn't a goddamn highway, it's a walking trail! (And no, we weren't blocking the trail. She just apparently didn't like having to, you know, pass me.) ATTENTION ASSHATS: THE BURKE-GILMAN TRAIL IS NOT AN INTERSTATE HIGHWAY. SOMETIMES PEOPLE WILL STOP TO TALK. GET OVER IT.

But despite that it was a good ride. I'm hoping I can get a wide tray or something for the rack so that maybe I could do things like buy plants and bring them home. That'd just be cool.

Paul's camera is a lot better at getting bird photos at the feeder than either of my old digitals:


Hungry Little Bird

The tree behind the feeder is all leafing out now, of course.

Today's Cultural Warfare Update

Expanded article from Mission America about their anti-gay school investigation programme; they're working with the American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, and the Family Research Council on this monster;

Lawsuit filed against Massachusetts school over reading of the "King and King" children's book;

In spirit dancing news, "PrayLive" organises mass prayer for lower gasoline prices;

A scathing deconstruction and analysis of Paul Cameron's methodology in his Journal of Biosocial Science article - I mean, in the very first paragraph, he describes homosexuality as "a contagion, a corruption, and an addiction," and also lies demonstrably in this paper about his already-impossibly-flimsy sources. How this got past peer-review I will never understand; link courtesy cafiorello;

National Day of Prayer vice-chair denounces "culture of personal choice" and "homosexuality" as part of this year's theme;

Focus on the Family notes survey indicating more lesbian and gay parents, particularly through adoption; decries it as "devastating" to children;

Anti-gay business owner who refused business from a lesbian customer in violation of county anti-discrimination code found in violation; Focus on the Family outraged;

***** Focus on the Family Citizen launches a direct broadside against science and scientists, reviews (favourably) the book The Scientists’ Crusade, and stating about scientists: "Once they saw themselves as under God. Today, many of them want to take His place. And they won’t tolerate anyone who objects.";

Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM on Federal appeals court nominee Brett Kavanaugh - this is specifically a test of the filibuster compromise; you can do your own Google searches on the name if you want to know what he's about; the only interesting argument I've found is that the problem isn't that he's an ideologue - despite a variety of claims from the left that he is - but that he's a purely political animal and that this is allegedly a patronage appointment. I found no crossover support for or opposition to this nominee;

Focus on the Family revives the "War on Christmas" bullshit;

Family Research Council ACTION ITEM to help with anti-marriage drive; includes link to PDF of anti-gay-and-lesbian petition text; the language seems vague enough to me to allow people to claim it's against civil unions too;

Family Research Council ACTION ITEM to "ask Congress to put children first" by passing a Federal anti-marriage Constitutional amendment;

FRC quotes the anti-gay "Institute for Marriage and Public Policy" saying that lesbian and gay people don't get married anyway, so shouldn't be allowed to; the marriage rate in Massachusetts is up to 16%; iMAPP claims to be a neutral examiner of the topic, but all of their articles are against, all the fundamentalist organisations link to it, and they use the fundamentalist "defense" and "protection" language to describe anti-gay marriage activities, and talk about "wins" for their side against marriage rights; in other words, they're lying. Big shock;

American Family Association says 10 commandments cases are breaking their way - I suspect this is a result of Bush's nominees than anything else;

AFA story supporting lawsuit against Lexington (Mass.) school district over the reading of the children's book "King and King," which they denounce as "pro-homosexual";

Minnesota house passes bill to ban state medical funds from paying for abortions; it's reportedly to be in trouble in the Senate;

Republican Senator Sam Brownback demands RU-486 be taken off the market immediately; meanwhile, Democratic Senator Robert Byrd is proposing a school-prayer Federal amendment;

Article 8/MassResistance attacks "Day of Silence" protest against anti-GBLT discrimination as "depraved state-sponsoured propaganda on vulnerable kids";

***** Concerned Women for America's Robert Knight announces support for anti-gay "School Risk Audit" programme detailed earlier;

Concerned Women for America pushes filibuster-agreement challenging vote on nominee Kavanaugh;

Focus on the Family Canada article on "the continuing deterioration of traditional family values" - interestingly, this is 1993-2003, so they can't blame queers for this one;

Faith and Freedom Network attacks Kentucky for "promoting a secular America" - that's funny;

CWA audio feature on "Real Women" lobbying Congress; Senator Brownback helped with the morning training session;

Extended CWA audio feature, with transcription, railing against Day of Silence, any sympathetic or neutral coverage of GBLT issues in schools, or, indeed, any visibility at all; Robert Knight comes out and says outright that any mention or even implication of GBLT people or themes should require parental notification and opting out; in fact, goes further, saying that anything that contradicts their religious views is a violation of their religious rights; about LGBT people says, "that's what's intended here, that's what the homosexual activists hope to do, to destroy the children's innocence, to confuse them about gender and sexuality." There are a lot of red-meat quotes in this one, so go to, if that's what you're into.

( Articles, transcriptions, and excerpts below )