“Gay” and “Happy” have not been in the same area of a thesaurus for quite some time.  Apparently, Ian McKellan, while gay, is not happy.  At least, not happy with the Bible.  The PopEater article below tells of how he rips out the page in the Bible containing Leviticus 18:22.  He says that it’s not something he does proudly ”but it’s a choice between removing that page and throwing away the whole Bible.”

This is the danger of humanity today.  Rip out the bits you don’t like—make it what you want it to be.  Or rewrite it to say or mean what you want it to.  Funny thing—the Bible has been around longer than you and will continue to persist no matter how many pages you can tear out in your lifetime.

In fact, your tearing out of the pages is an acknowledgment that you cannot change what it says or what that means with regard to your choices.  Ignoring the Bible never made the activity in question right.  Removing an offensive page never changed the Word one bit.  And sadly, when you face the Author, you’ll still have to answer for those choices.

MORE:

POPEATER LINK

Are you looking for up-to-the-minute information about the trial?  You won’t find it because media is not allowed into the courtroom and tweeting “ist verboten”.  However, that doesn’t stop an good reporter from stepping out of the courtroom from time to time to tweet.

Get near-time Twitter updates from Fox News’ Jill Monier right here:

http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/generic/community/FOX13_News_Tweets

or from Little Rock’s KATV News (Where Anne worked) here:

http://twitter.com/KATVNews

According to a news post on CBS News, Curtis Lavelle Vance said that he used a wooden-handled garden tool to beat Anne Pressly to death after she woke up and found him in her room.  His trial is set to begin today.  At question is whether the “confession” was obtained from Vance improperly.

Improperly?  OK, so we have the presumption of innocence until proven guilty but the article gives every reason to believe that the statement was made freely and that the person responsible for this terrible crime has been caught and will be held responsible for it.

The better question is whether a person who could commit this crime and in this manner is mentally fit to stand trial.  I’m not suggesting that he should be let off, but certainly, his level of reason and sanity is questionable.

The trial is expected to run a week which means by this time next week, perhaps we’ll have some better answers.  The evidence will be out and a verdict should be reached by then.  Let’s wait and see.

MORE:

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/10/07/crimesider/entry5368759.shtml

http://www.katv.com/news/stories/1109/674183.html

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g_tZGnycBt2OFC1yBRi421uBcYTQD9BNARCG2

http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/dpp/news/local/110109_anne_pressly_murder_trial_to_begin

A while back, I wrote about Chastity Bono and her journey to manhood as “Chaz” Bono.  Her decision to become male was the least newsworthy event that week but I couldn’t pass up on commenting about it.  And maybe for her and the GLBT community, that was the point.

Well, Chaz is in the news again, garnering some prominence on CNN with a status update on “his” progress.  Wow!  Newsworthy?  Again, No!  Comment worthy?  Of course.

So here’s what Chaz had to say (in part):

“I always felt like the male from the time I was a child,” he said. “There wasn’t much feminine about me.”

“I believe that gender is something between your ears, not between your legs. That is something I discovered in the early ’90s. It was just a long process of being comfortable enough to do something about it.”

Really?  Why do anything about it?  If gender is really “between your ears”, then by your own admission, you were already a male.  You would medically and surgically alter what you received genetically to fit a mental image of who and what you are.  Pray that you don’t one day wake up and realize that you are indeed a female.  It’s not like changing shoes.  And I know, the process is long and involves evaluations before this can be done.  That’s not to say that things won’t change later.

I know someone who claims to be suffering from gender dysphoria and my challenge to this person was that the mental state is what needed to change, not the physical state.  Amazing thing, Chastity, that you were willing to take male hormones and have your body altered to become what you felt in your mind you should be—but were apparently unwilling to keep your body and to instead take female hormones to better become what you already were.

I am no more an expert on the subject than you are, but clearly, if it’s in the head, isn’t that the easier place to start with a change?

MORE:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/10/30/chaz.bono.man/index.html

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20286040,00.html?cnn=yes

http://trebord.wordpress.com/2009/06/12/chastity-a-lost-virtue/

Last year, I started a series called “It’s One of Those Things” in which I detailed my travails with my garage door opener.  I resorted to buying new sensors and all was fine.  That is until about a month ago when the door on the other side decided to act up.  If you’ve followed the story, you’ll know that this is the same side that got a new door opener unit several months back.  We’ll, this time, it was one of the cables that broke.  Foolishly, I tried to fix it myself.

Anyone who has had their cable break knows that it’s nearly impossible to open the door without it.  I worked on it for a few days—connecting the cable and then trying to re-tension the spring to the right point to open the door.

Most people would probably heed the warning that working with that huge spring without the right tools (let alone knowledge and experience) can be deadly.  I tried it anyway.  And after one serious case of rapped knuckles, I gave up and called in an expert.  For less than $150, our door was back in operation.  All’s well that ends well.

Well, almost.  When I bought that new opener, something told me I should buy a new unit for the other side since it was due to fail soon also.  And so it did.  Last night as I tried to open the door, the gear on the top of the opener sheared off, the chain slacked, and the door—having gone up a few inches—came crashing back down.

This happened, of course, as I was trying to open the door to leave!

Fifteen minutes later, after working the car from one side of the garage to the other while INSIDE, I was able to get out of the garage!

I replaced the drive unit today.  Having learned my lessons with the previous installation, this one went quite smoothly.  Of course, the new sensor that I just bought and installed last year—is useless now.

Ah, well.  All’s well that ends well.

For now.  Thanks, Lowe’s!

This country needs, among all the other things it is lacking, expanded hate crime legislation at the federal level for assaulting a person because of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Not to disparage Matthew Shepard, after whom the Senate bill is partly named, but is it not enough to try those individuals involved in his death for kidnapping and murder?  Is Wyoming so lame that the state cannot properly prosecute and punish those responsible for his death?  And is it really worthy of federal tax money being spent to go after the culprits?

Get real!  I don’t think so.

Making something a federal offense does not stop the crime from being committed.  Those intent on spreading hate or acting out in a hateful way on racial grounds continue to do so without regard for what level of violation it may be.  If not true, then racially motivated crimes would be nonexistent—and they are not.

Get real!  I don’t think so.

CNN’s article contains the following: “Knowing that the president will sign it, unlike his predecessor, has made all the hard work this year to pass it worthwhile,” said Judy Shepard, board president of the Matthew Shepard Foundation named for her son. “Hate crimes continue to affect far too many Americans who are simply trying to live their lives honestly, and they need to know that their government will protect them from violence, and provide appropriate justice for victims and their families.”

Judy, you are sadly mistaken if you think this legislation will protect anyone.  But the second half of what you say can provide hope.  The government WILL NOT protect potential targets from violence, BUT you can be assured that federal tax dollars will be spent on top of local tax dollars to “provide appropriate justice for victims and their families”.  AFTER THE FACT.

You see, few laws or regulations at the federal level protect people at all.  We have the FDA, yet hundreds die each year from food-borne illnesses, improper medication, or botched medical procedures.  The regulations did not protect those victims.  It is up to those covered by the regulations and laws to voluntarily comply or face consequences.  Many do what they have to do or can get by with until or unless there’s an issue.  Then, of course, things change quickly due to the microscopic attention they are given.

Seat belt laws do not protect people or save lives.  It is the voluntary compliance with those laws that save lives.  Those who do not care about the laws disregard them and may end up a casualty of their own stupidity.  But the law does not protect them.

Hand gun laws do not protect people or save lives.  It is the voluntary compliance with those laws that save lives.  And for those who do not follow laws or regulations, we hear about as many stories of accidental shootings, armed robberies, homicides, and guns in schools.  Those who are law-abiding citizens follow the law on such matters and I would contend that these are not the ones we should worry about.  It is the gang member or drug dealer with the gun—someone who has no respect for the law in the first place—that we need to worry about.  You see, he’s going to have the gun and use it no matter what the law says.  And the law cannot protect you from him.

Similarly, someone intent on attacking someone based on his or her sexual orientation or identity is not going to first stop and think, “Gee, if I hit this person, I may go to federal lock-up rather than county or state”.  No, it doesn’t happen that way.  For that perp, the law means nothing.  For the intended victim, the law protects nothing.  For the victim’s family, it will be little comfort that there’s an extra book to throw at the bum.

OK, let’s play this out in another direction.  I go into a bar one night and am surprised to find out that it’s a lesbian bar.  But I only find out after I hit on a woman who’s sitting at the bar by herself.  Her partner comes along and doesn’t appreciate my hetero orientation or my attempts to play it out with her partner.  She calls me some straight slur or insults my genitals before decking me.  Is this assault worthy of federal attention because it’s based on MY sexual orientation, even though I’m not gay?

Seems it would be.

So let me get this straight—our economy is in the crapper, we’re fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, unemployment is rampant, H1N1 is everywhere, and the priority for the Congress and President is to “protect” the GLBT community with meaningless legislation.

Right!

MORE:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/22/hate.crimes/index.html

Michelle and Paul Wood

Normally, I would keep something like this to myself, hoping to win and FINALLY go off to live in England!  However, spreading the word may help someone else with the same dream and it should also help Michelle and Paul Wood.  They own the house in question, located in Allerton, West Yorkshire, England.  The house is being given away as a non-cash lottery prize.  Entrants need only answer questions correctly and be selected to go on to the next round.  The revenue, expected to be upwards of $1.5 million, comes from Internet ads which are yet to be sold.

This is a clever replay of previous schemes we’ve seen as home values fall and debts rise.  Read the article for full details on how this works.

MORE:

http://www.winahouseforfree.com/

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/local/localbrad/4672820.Couple_will_give_away_their___425_000_home_in_contest/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6309673/Debt-ridden-couple-to-give-away-their-house-in-free-competition.html

http://realestate.aol.com/pictures/feature/real-estate-news?ncid=AOLCOMMre00dynlsec0003&icid=main|main|dl4|link7|http%3A%2F%2Frealestate.aol.com%2Fpictures%2Ffeature%2Freal-estate-news%3Fncid%3DAOLCOMMre00dynlsec0003

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allerton,_West_Yorkshire

http://uk.weather.yahoo.com/england/west-yorkshire/allerton-10633/

http://maps.google.com/maps?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=allerton%20west%20yorkshire&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl

Another piece of the evolutionary puzzle has been discovered, setting off new discussions on modular evolution.  According to the article,

“Darwinopterus came as quite a shock to us” said Dr David Unwin, from the University of Leicester, UK.

“We had always expected a gap-filler with typically intermediate features such as a moderately elongate tail – neither long nor short.

“But the strange thing about Darwinopterus is that it has a head and neck just like that of advanced pterosaurs, while the rest of the skeleton, including a very long tail, is identical to that of primitive forms.”

Why the shock?  Clearly, the ability to correctly hypothesize on the evolution of a species is a bit lacking.  To me, this suggests that once again, evolutionary theory—and this would warrant use of the word “theory”—is all about hypothesis, testing, evidence, hypothesis.  As stated in an earlier post, when the pieces don’t fit, change the picture to make them fit.

Dr Unwin, could this be an intra-breed creature?  If you were to look at the fossilized remains of a tiger, a lion, and a liger in say, 160 million years, would you conclude that the liger is an evolutionary bridge between the two species?

Of course, being the skeptic that I am, I find it all the more interesting that so many finds are coming out of China these days.

More:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8306060.stm

In office less than a year, has brokered no peace deals, has barely travelled outside the US—still—and this neophyte president wins the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize???

Please tell me what he has done to deserve this!  Extraordinary diplomatic effort?  Right!

Apparently effort counts, results don’t!!!

“his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”*

As of February 1, 2009, the last date for nominations to be submitted, now-President Obama had been in office all of 12 days.  We’ll have to wait 50 years to be able to see what he did in those 12 days to merit the award.  More likely, the award was given out of hope and expectation for what he may do to bring peace.

Right!

MORE:

*http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/10/09/nobel.peace.prize/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/09/miller.obama.prize.doubts/index.html

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