in a hurry

This'll be neat: They're going to implode the Trojan nuclear power plant cooling tower, and it's the same company that imploded the Kingdome. I saw that happen in person and it was pretty neat. A cooling tower is smaller (I think - it is, right?) so it probably won't have that thump that the Kingdome did - unless you get as close as they'll let you. Scout out your viewing sites now!


White Petals

I don't know what it is, but it's pretty.

I'm going to try to get Friday's (oops) CWU finished this morning, but I've got a bunch of running around to do today, so I might not.

( Quizzie )

Today's Cultural Warfare Update

Iraq is almost certainly worse now than under Saddam for women - in many areas, it's clearly worse. For lesbians and gay men, there's no question; the religious militias that Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld would not consider putting enough troops on the ground to reign in - and which have infiltrated the police anyway - are waging a war of extermination. (Atypically, they hate lesbians more than gay men, presumably as part of their general hatred of visible women.) The London Times talks about it in this article;

George Will takes the culture warriors' latest masturbatory self-labeling - as "Values Voters" - to task, asking who the hell isn't?

Fundamentalism across the world; Russian lesbian and gay people come under increasing attack by religious and religiously-aligned political leaders; violence is up;

Party-line vote (Republicans yes, Democrats no) moves anti-marriage-rights "Marriage Protection Amendment" out of committee and to the Senate floor;

Quebec cardinal: Church cannot Baptize children of same-sex couples;

Rudolph Giuliani is raising money for Ralph Reed; yuck;

Democratic party chair Howard "ARRRRRRRGH!" Dean is courting the fundamentalists; meanwhile, he's being cutting party support for GBLT groups;

Bay Area Reporter editorial unhappy with Howard Dean on several fronts;

Family Research Council praises Senate committee for passing anti-gay/anti-marriage rights "Marriage Protection Amendment" on to full-senate;

Senate passes "Broadcast Indecency Enforcement Act," multiplying FCC fines for "indecency" by a factor of ten; they hope for a chilling effect;

The American Family Association is having its membership protest "anti-Christian bigotry" over an "anti-Christian assault" in the form of cartoons depicting Christ as a gay man, and sending complaints to Oregon governor Ted Kulongoski. The parallels between this and the Mohammad cartoons should be obvious; they demanded papers print those, but are opposed to this parallel. As this is a _national_ action item, I feel anyone should feel free to contact the Oregon governor in support of student speech in this case;

I haven't been linking to many of the DaVinci Code articles - all universally against it as (pick one or more) blasphemous anti-Christian propaganda and clearly the work of the devil intended to destroy the faith - but this one's interesting: it's a Muslim plot - it turns out one of the major backers is Muslim;

British Medical Journal The Lancet says the FDA's stalling on the emergency contraceptive Plan B is being blocked for purely political reasons to appeal to the American fundamentalist movement which has declared it to be an abortifacient;

American Family Assocation reports on creationist upset over Vatican astronomer's description of creationism as a form of superstitious paganism;

Southern Baptist Convention to SBC churches: have anti-marriage sermons on June 4th, urge church members "to ask their senators to support the amendment";

Baptist Press declares Sunday June 4th to be "Marriage Protection Sunday," working with several anti-gay groups to push church efforts across the country to rally parisheners to demand the anti-gay/anti-marriage "Marriage Protection Amendment" passed in the Senate;

Baptist Press has an article up focusing on the marriage rights cases in New Jersey in Washington State, both of which have court cases awaiting rulings;

Traditional Values Coalition demands defeat of Net Neutrality proposals; I wonder who paid them off for this?;

TVC demands passage of "Holly's Law" ((H.R. 1079) sponsored by Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD)) to remove RU-486 from market;

TVC compiles list of LBGT candidates running for office in 2006;

Concerned Women for America thanks Senate leaders for Broadcast Indecency Bill support;

***** CWA's Washington chapter sends out urgent request for support on anti-gay initiative Referendum 65;

Focus on the Family Canada pushes anti-abortion plans, revives fake link between abortion and breast cancer; also blames "women's liberation" for breast cancer rate rise;

Focus on the Family attacks Republican leadership and the Bush administration for not nominating judges that are not as hard-line as they want;

Focus on the Family celebrates passage of Broadcast Indecency act;

FotF reports that there's still no decision on the Washington State marriage case;

Utah mayor sues to block domestic partner benefits under their anti-marriage law, but is rebuffed by the state courts - so far;

"A Form of ID: The Two Sides of Intelligent Design"; included on the ad is a page for a book called Defeating Darwinism;

Canada Family Action Coalition condemns school survey as homosexual propaganda; I agree the wording on one of the questions is poor, but, well, like that matters;

Faith and Freedom Network email bulletin to support Senator Luke Esser's re-election campaign; number one support issue is that he opposed the civil rights bill.

( Articles and excerpts below )