Missouri isn’t for lovers

Little things can expose serious injustice. For example, this story about two women being thrown out of a restaurant for a kiss…we need reminders like this that discrimination is real, and it hurts people.

There is no federal law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. Neither Kansas nor Missouri are among the few states that protect gay people from being discriminated against in areas of employment, housing and public accommodations.

Kansas City does have an ordinance protecting gays, as do St. Louis, Columbia and University City. But if you’re anywhere else in Missouri and you’re gay, you can legally be denied service in restaurant. Landlords can refuse to rent you a place to live.

You can even be canned from your job on the suspicion that you’re romantically inclined toward members of your own sex.

(via Daily Irreverence)

Happy Us!

It’s been a busy day—if you’ve noticed it’s been quiet here, it’s because I’ve been driving back and forth to St Cloud to help my son get situated in his new apartment, and also, by the way, today is our wedding anniversary — note that my wife cleverly scheduled it to be exactly one week after my birthday, making reminders easy.

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I was going to make some lecherous joke about getting lucky tonight, but it would be superfluous since I seem to have been in luck for twenty seven years.

Squid on ice

Don’t rush to get tickets to New Zealand just yet—the colossal squid is frozen in a block of ice, and they don’t plan to even start thawing it for another year (there aren’t any other reasons to visit NZ than to see the squid, right?).

To minimise handling of the precious specimen, the colossal squid will probably have its temperature raised, over days, in the tank in which it will finally be “fixed”.

“We don’t want to move it too much,” says Marshall.

“When a thing like that is in the water, it’s neutrally buoyant.

“But, of course, when you get it out of the water, you’ve got a big lump of weight and you could try lifting it and your hands would go right through.

“Already it’s got puncture marks from the net.”

Once un-frozen, the creature will be fixed, or embalmed, and then a long-term preservative will be used.

“What I mean by a fixing tank is a tank that you lay it out in, in a natural position, and you then make all the adjustments – align all the arms, pack out the body and all of that. Then you have it in a, say, 5% formalin solution.

“It will require the biggest tank of anything we’ve got.”

Basically, we’re not going to know any more details for a good long while.

Go back to Lake Wobegon, Garrison Keillor

Garrison Keillor has done it again: he’s written another insipid article loaded with casual bigotry, this time against gays. I’m pleased to see that Dan Savage has savaged him, so I don’t need to go on at length.

However, this really isn’t the first time Keillor has done this—he has a history of unthinking stereotyping and rejection of gays and atheists. He’s an excellent example of why, when I see the Religious Right and the Religious Left, I don’t think the problem is the Right or Left…it’s the Religious.

My criticism of Keillor from 2005 is below the fold. Not only does he reject atheism and homosexuality, but he does so on the most trivial grounds—gay people want to get married to economize on their wardrobe? It’s nuts.

[Read more…]

Order of the Molly for March 2007

Last month, I tried a new motivational tactic to reward good commenting, allowing you to nominate and select one of the commenters here for the Order of the Molly award, acknowledging excellence in commenting. Kristine Harley and Scott Hatfield won that recognition that time around. I said it was going to be a monthly phenomenon, and what do you know, another month has come by, and it’s time to do it again.

This is an important award, I’ll have you know. As Kristine noticed, it got some people worked up — John A. Davison is going on at some length about it, although, to be perfectly honest, he only seems to be talking to himself and his little friend, Martin. Still, it is amusing.

Anyway, this is easy. You can see the previous thread for examples, but all you have to do is name some commenter whose contributions you enjoy, and maybe say a word or two to convince others that your choice is worthy. I’ll count up all the mentions on Sunday, and declare a winner then. Don’t turn this into a serious competition, though—it really is intended to just celebrate the good ‘uns, and there will be more opportunities to recognize people in the future.