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Progress | February 20, 2004

The ongoing struggle to secure the right to marry the partner of your choice, regardless of their sex or sexual orientation, has clear parallels to the battle to end race discrimination in marriage. Just as people defending interracial marriage bans invoked “divine law”, “immorality” and “unnatural unions” as arguments against ending discrimination, so do the opponents of civil marriage for same-sex couples. While there are differences between the two issues, there are also profound and inescapable similarities.

Forty U.S. states, including Massachusetts, once prohibited marrying someone of the “wrong” race, no matter how much you loved them. Social prejudice accomplished much the same result in other states. Marriages between whites and persons of color were decried as “immoral” and “unnatural.” Polls showed that overwhelming numbers of Americans agreed. Massachusetts forbade interracial marriage as early as 1705, a restriction which was ultimately changed in 1843 after a three year campaign in the legislature. The legislature understood that withholding marriage based on race was an affront to human dignity and denied our basic guarantees of equality.

Despite the public opposition to interracial marriage, in 1948, the California Supreme Court became the first state high court to declare a ban on interracial marriage unconstitutional. In Perez v. Sharp the Court stated that:

“A member of any of these races may find himself barred from marrying the person of his choice and that person to him may be irreplaceable. Human beings are bereft of worth and dignity by a doctrine that would make them as interchangeable as trains.”

The decision was controversial, courageous and correct. At that time, 38 states still forbade interracial marriage, and 6 did so by state constitutional provision.

Then, in 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the remaining interracial marriage laws nation-wide. A Virginia judge had upheld that state’s ban on interracial marriages, invoking God’s intention to separate the races. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned his decision, declaring that:

Excerpt from “Marriage - A History of Change”. Follow today’s “noteworthy links” to see some of the progress being made.

Posted 7:15 PM
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Progress | December 17, 2003

What we measure is literally a sign of what we value as a society. If critical social and ecological assets are not counted and valued in our measures of progress, they receive insufficient attention in the policy arena.

The current reliance on economic growth statistics alone as the basic measure of prosperity and progress implicitly devalues the importance of our natural and social capital, including natural resource wealth and environmental quality, unpaid voluntary and household work, leisure time, health and knowledge. This practice also fails to distinguish economic activities that contribute to well-being from those, like crime and pollution, that cause harm. The need for better measures of progress is universally acknowledged.

The Genuine Progress Index is an alternative to the practice of equating progress with economic growth alone. The GPI links the economy with social and environmental variables to create a more comprehensive and accurate measurement tool. The GPI accounts for the value of human, social, and natural capital, in addition to standard measures of produced capital, and assigns value to assets like population health, educational attainment, community safety, voluntary work, and environmental quality.

The Genuine Progress Index.

Posted 11:47 AM
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Shibuya | September 16, 2003

Mr. Kakuta knows. Better known as “Jimmy,” he has stood on Shibuya’s main street every day for the last nine years. He shows photos of celebrities from albums tied to his waist with strings. He gives out Band-Aids. He passes out candy.

Though Jimmy, 49, has a paunch and a balding head that he has chosen to shave, and no particular profession, he can usually be seen surrounded by a flock of teenage girls.

Exactly what Jimmy does is not easy to define. He began by picking up garbage around his street corner. Since he became a fixture in Shibuya, he has appeared on television shows and at clubs and has written columns in a sports newspaper, earning enough to support himself. Companies marketing new products have sometimes paid him to pass items to girls: mints, removable tattoos, toys, a can opener for girls with long nails.

[The New York Times, “A Flashy Teenage Trend Capital, and Its Dark Side”]

Quite a career.

Posted 11:58 AM
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Theory | August 26, 2003

“I have a theory. My theory is that the parting is contained in the greeting. Is this a theory? No, it is an observation. My observation is that one knows from the beginning why a relationship will fail, that the problem is plain and yet one pretends not to see it; or perhaps one admits to seeing it but downplays its significance. The flush of love, or attraction, or simply of hope, is a powerful hallucinogen, one that causes us to see things that are not there and to fail to see things that are. A relationship does not begin in earnest until the effects of this drug have worn off.”

Michael Barrish, This Happiness Business.

Posted 11:08 AM
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Flash | July 15, 2003

Absolutely genious.

Our senior Manhattan correspondent David Danzig reports that New Yorkers are using e-mail to coordinate “inexplicable mobs” — huge crowds that materialize in public places and suddenly dissipate 10 minutes later.

Posted 4:24 PM
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Rocks | May 17, 2003

I first found Noel because of his software, but on further investigation of his site, there’s also some quality writing:

You heard me. I’m pissed off at the angry unhappy world. If there is one thing I’ve ever learned that was worth learning, it’s that you are either happy or you aren’t. You can’t want to be happy. If you do, you won’t be. Remember, you never get what you want. Never. You can’t. Choice is power. You have the choice. Many people complain about their life, but don’t want to do anything to make it better and in turn feed off of focusing on how bad they have it and directing this energy towards others.

Posted 3:56 PM
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Verily | May 8, 2003

Via William Gibson, some iambic pentameter by Jeff Brechlin, published in the Washington Post:

O proud left foot, that ventures quick within
Then soon upon a backward journey lithe.
Anon, once more the gesture, then begin:
Command sinistral pedestal to writhe.

Commence thou then the fervid Hokey-Poke,
A mad gyration, hips in wanton swirl.
To spin! A wilde release from Heavens yoke.
Blessed dervish! Surely canst go, girl.

The Hoke, the poke — banish now thy doubt
Verily, I say, ‘tis what it’s all about.

Posted 9:35 PM
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Dear Dick | April 23, 2003

Paul Ford has written A Letter to Senator Santorum:

I recently read an article (source) in which Senator Santorum (R, PA) is quoted as saying, “if the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual (gay) sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything.”

I find this to be a deeply offensive, shamefully ignorant viewpoint that demonstrates once more how out-of-touch the Republican party is with any form of social progress.

Read the whole thing; learn about the case and others like it; write a letter of your own. This is important.

Posted 5:47 PM
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Izzle pfaff | April 1, 2003

I was directed to this piece, and Skot became an instant favorite. Sarcastic, impossibly clever, and funny—rest assured, he’ll be in my list of links. Once I have a list of links. Which, for some reason, requires that I finish my redesign. (This is mostly me being anal—I don’t want to invest any time maintaining this template, because it’s just going to get replaced once I finish the new look.)

C. paid very little attention to the actual melody—itself a mixed blessing—and opted instead for the Kamikaze approach: he’d lift his voice up into a stratospheric whoop and then come divebombing down in a murderous assault on the helpless notes lying far below, which burst into flames and screamed piteously and C. shot past them straight into the ground. Occasionally, he would totally unneccessarily howl, “This song is about homelessness!” Actually, the way C. performed it, it could have been about autocannibalism or cataclysmic viral spread.

Tommorow will be a “real” (read: lengthy) entry, I promise.

Posted 10:10 PM
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King of No Pants | March 30, 2003

BBC News: Pants vandal caught on video.

Police have released video of a man who marched down Cardiff’s main streets in his underpants, smashing 43 shop windows with a spade.

There is also a photo gallery.

Posted 3:11 PM
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Master say | January 19, 2003

Chia Tao:

Waterfalls hang thousands of feet
In emptiness.
Moss and lichen
Cover the cliff face;
A narrow, indistinct path
Leads to you.

The Daily Zen

Posted 12:00 PM
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Free Kevin | January 12, 2003

World-famous hacker and “social engineer” Kevin Mitnick will finally be fully free next week, as reported in The New York Times (free registration required). Mitnick was in jail without a trial for almost 4 years, and released from prison on January 21, 2000. His plea agreement prohibited him from using any computer or computerized device for two years. His girlfriend has a weblog, in which she details his (their) continuing struggle.

Posted 12:00 PM
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William Gibson | January 7, 2003

Mark Pilgrim points out that famous cyberpunk William Gibson has a blog. From the bio on his website:

Gene Wolfe once said that being an only child whose parents are dead is like being the sole survivor of drowned Atlantis. There was a whole civilization there, an entire continent, but it’s gone. And you alone remember. That’s my story too…

And later:

I suspect I have spent just about exactly as much time actually writing as the average person my age has spent watching television, and that, as much as anything, may be the real secret here.

Posted 12:00 PM
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Philosophy | January 4, 2003

Brook Sadler, How to Be a Philosopher:

Technique 10:

Spend some time - one or two seconds - concocting the most outrageous ethical conundrum possible. It should involve Nazis in some way. For example: What should person B do if confronted by person A, disguised as a Nazi, but not really currently a Nazi, but who used to be a Nazi, and who is threatening to kill B, who does not know whether A is or ever was a Nazi, and who is known as having a penchant for torturing small children, though only Nazi children, just for fun, but who has a special relationship with A’s child, who is not a Nazi, but who will enlist in the Nazi party if A harms B in any way or if B lies about his/her penchant for torturing Nazi children? Just when you think that the conundrum is complete, add in the possibility of saving one’s wife from a dire predicament, just to throw off the reader’s intuitions.

Posted 2:08 PM
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Chord | December 28, 2002

It’s probably bad form to quote an entire post, but this one really strikes a chord right now. And blogging is all show-and-tell anyway, right?

Kevin Fanning, 31 July 2002:

58. They say: You are making a mistake. When it is too late, you will regret your decision. I think: You do not know me at all, because I do not regret things.

57. But the thing is I do worry about that sometimes, and I hate to admit it, even to myself. Lingering doubts. But what if’s. When I’m calm, thinking as rationally as I’m ever likely to, making mental lists of pros and cons, I think: My life is better without him in it. There is nothing to be gained by having any kind of relationship with him, whatsoever. But then I think: Really? Are you sure?

56. Yes I’m totally sure.

55. But still. I don’t meet many other people like me, people who aren’t willing to settle, people who aren’t willing to put up with certain things just for the sake of honoring misapplied ideas like Family or Duty or History. But those people must be out there. I know there are people who have reached their limit, made a decision to excise the person who causes them pain and anger, and live their lives never looking back.

54. Dear [person]: Did it work? Were you able to live without them? Do you miss them?

53. I do hold grudges. I hold them so long that invariably one day I realize I can’t quite remember the origin of the grudge, even though the attendant emotion feels as hot as ever. I often wish I had someone to coach me through these moments of forgetfulness and doubt. To fill in the things my brain must not want to remember. “Well for starters they did X to you. Then, amazingly, they did Y. And then they did Z, and you said You know what? Never mind. And you made a decision and it was the right decision, Kevin. Not to even mention when they did B and C! I mean…!”

52. I realize this may be the reason why I write: to keep a record of the things that anger or scare me.

51. You know, it’s difficult. Because I am not the person I want to be. I want to be on The Path. I want to be able to admit that I know nothing. I want to be a person of non-violence and compassion, who is able to forgive and understand. But I’m not.

50. I’m really not. I am angry and vengeful and something deep inside me takes true delight in that.

49. I know exactly what to burn with the fires you light.

Posted 9:53 PM
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Gem | October 27, 2002

“If you use marijuana a lot, you could start to lose interest in how you look…”

(This enlightening tidbit brought to you by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.)

Posted 12:25 PM
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The Minikin Incarnadine Cowl-Titivated Gamine | October 17, 2002

I’m actualizing a brief sojourn at the residence of my anile cognate and am consigning to her savorous viands.”

“May I inquire as to the locus of this purlieu?”

“Indubitably. At the terminus of this path, the localization of which is far from onerous.”

Subsequent to uttering a vocalization of valedictory, the caitiff retroceded into the aphotic boscage.

[Little Red Riding Hood, for the Erudite]

Posted 4:40 PM
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An Exercise in Allegory | October 1, 2002

Sir - A man living a few streets away from me, Mr S. Addam, keeps petrol in his shed, possibly to fuel a lawnmower. My neighbours and I have requested that he let us look in his shed, because we’re afraid he is going to burn our houses down. Regrettably, he won’t let us.

We can’t trust this man at all. A few years back, we helped Mr Addam beat up another neighbour and poison his dogs. That neighbour, Mr I. R. Toller, deserved everything he got, because he had thrown the previous occupant, Mr Shah, out of his house.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fopinion%2F2002%2F09%2F16%2Fdt1606.xml

Posted 6:02 PM
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One Year | October 1, 2002

Mark Pilgrim asks that fellow webloggers link to his post for today, celebrating one year since his former employer tried to make him stop writing. Kudos to him for refusing to kick that one addiction.

Posted 1:57 PM
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The Anti-Anti-Drug | September 27, 2002

Once upon a time, in 1773, a few brave patriots painted their faces, converged upon Griffens Wharf, and hurled 342 crates of British tea into Boston Harbor. Paul Revere was there. Samuel Adams organized it. John Hancock was a tea smuggler, and actively supported it. Today, we venerate these men as heroes. They all broke the law, because the law was absurd, and deserved to be broken.
We’re Jeff and Tracy. We’re Your Good Neighbors. We Smoke Pot.

Jeff and Tracy. A step in the right direction. It’s too bad they don’t live in Nevada, where even the police have realized prohibition is a cop-out (no pun intended).

Posted 11:41 PM
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Escaperail | September 24, 2002

Simply gorgeous. I wonder if there are any around here I could submit?

Posted 7:24 PM
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Syllables | September 21, 2002

[ Katie’s Haikus of the News ]

The old proverb says
That only the good die young
Wish you were better

—

Life’s given lemons
So I will make lemonade
To wash down Xanax

(Poll for the comments: should I make a Limerick Blog? =P)

Posted 2:19 PM
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WGW Redux | August 4, 2002

When the beeper starts buzzing, take it out and then sprinkle just a bit of shredded cheddar cheese over the top. Not too much, it’s mostly for looks, plus like I said about the heart attacks. Then stick it back in the ov for 5 minutes. That’s gonna melt down real nice. Then remove and serve! Salt and pepper that bitch to taste. Hot damn that’s some good hotdish! Dang! Please sir can I have some more!

This just made me crack up, for whatever reason… here’s another link to good old Kevin.

Posted 11:55 PM
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whygodwhy | July 5, 2002

Like how in a way, my whole life leads up to each sentence I write.

Is there anything I can say that won’t detract from that?

Posted 12:02 AM
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