Putting people in prison for the baggy pants style? I sure don't like seeing guys walk around with their pants down to their knees, but come on, do we really need to flood prisons with more kids and have a reason to spend more state money on enforcing this in a time of recession? Blech.

The homeless tent city in Sacremento has been evicted. Yes, because that totally helps the homeless within find new homes. Right. *smacks forehead*

Connecting the dots between banning gay marriage and Apartheid is apparently really damn easy. Wish that the news media in general would make the connection.

Europe officially trafficks people more than they do drugs. -_-

And it is as we feared...and what people don't understand ;___;

Current Mood: depressed

Message from the Courage Campaign:

"I can't stop crying." After watching this video, that's what people are telling us.

And Kenn Starr is to blame.

Yes, THAT Ken Starr. The prosecutor who led the campaign to impeach President Bill Clinton has filed a legal brief -- on behalf of the "Yes on 8" campaign -- that would forcibly divorce the 18,000 same-sex couples married in California last year before the passage of Prop 8.

News broke Tuesday that the state Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on March 5, and will then make a decision within 90 days on the validity of Prop 8 and these 18,000 marriages.

When Starr's legal brief went public in December, the Courage Campaign immediately launched the "Don't Divorce..." campaign, asking our members to send us pictures with a simple message for Starr and the Prop 8 Legal Defense Fund.

Those pictures, and the heartfelt messages on them, inspired blogger Paul Delehanty (also known as "kid oakland") to send us a suggestion: Would Regina Spektor allow us to put your pictures to the words and music of her hit song "Fidelity"? So, we asked her and she said yes, very enthusiastically.

Regina Spektor's song, in concert with your pictures, shines a beautiful light on the 18,000 couples that Ken Starr wants to forcibly divorce.

Click here to watch "Fidelity," the heartbreaking music video inspired by your pictures and words, and then tell the Supreme Court not to divorce 18,000 California couples. Tell the Court to invalidate Prop 8, reject Ken Starr's case, and let loving, committed couples marry. DEADLINE: Valentine's Day:

So my biology instructor decided to spend today's lecture discussing biological aspects concerning specific propositions up for ballot--the energy one, the animal cruelty one, and the gay marriage one.

Despite the inscindiary commentary of "Yes" versus "No" people going at each other's throats today in the classroom (I personally prefer the drawn-out quiet approach to debates where we, you know, actually let people finish their sentences), I discovered something quite informative that I'm not sure if other people in the class quite picked up on.

Apparently, there IS a biological difference between a gay person and a straight person--aka, on a cellular, scientific, biological level, there is something that differentiates a straight person from a gay person--much like melanin content differentiates someone with dark skin from someone with white skin.

Located on the brain stem is a gland that connects the nervous system with the endocrine system, the hypothalamus. It regulates things like thirst, hunger, body temperature, fatigue, and most relevant to this subject, attraction.

The shape of the hypothalamus in a gay person is different from that of a straight person--the exact difference I don't know (my teacher didn't say), but the discrepancy between shapes is significant enough that if you were to be handed pictures of people's hypothalamuses, you could tell which ones were gay and which ones were straight.

Basically?
Proposition 8 is part of the new generation of Jim Crow laws that focus on homosexuals.

Funny--last time I checked, the reasons for the establishment of Jim Crow laws, i.e. the reasoning that black people were lower than whites had to do with religion, too.

Tomorrow, I am going to vote No on Proposition 8.

There's a lot of bullshit that I hear going around about many things--the typical "Oh no, think of the children" response of the "Yes On Eight" group, the ridiculous notion that this somehow will affect the church's status as a non-taxable organization, and various other things that people too scared to think through their prejudices are coming up with--and shake my head in disappointment. After so many centuries, people still have not learned to think outside of themselves.

Ten years ago, a young man named Matthew Shepherd was kidnapped, beaten, and left to die on a fence because of his orientation. His killers used the "Gay Panic Defense" in attempts to free them of culpability--an attack that basically tries to use temporary insanity brought on by feeling threatened by mostly imagined sexual advances as a valid reason to drag someone out and beat them to death. However, by this logic, the inference is that their rights to bear arms somehow trumped the rights of this young man to feel safe and secure.

What Proposition 8 will do is validate this defense. By setting the precedent that somehow a marriage between a same-sex couple is not equal to the marriage between a man and a woman, who's to say that other rights similarly cannot be thus maintained by homosexuals? By not protecting the rights of gay people to marry, it will open the way to other rights going the same way. The right for gay people equal job opportunities in the work force; the right for a lesbian to safety within her own home; the right for a same-sex oriented male to posess and carry a firearm.

I have friends who have been abused and kicked out of their homes because of their orientation. Proposition 8 will sugar-coat the law and say that the bruises, the tears, and the emotional agony caused by this lack of understanding is legally acceptable.

I have family of same-sex orientation. This law will try to tell me that they are somehow less worthy of my support and hopes that they will find happiness and security in a partner and household.

I, myself, was once accused and assumed to be gay by my peers. Despite the truth being I was not, I was subjected to bullying via heavy objects thrown in my direction, annoymous hate letters stuck in my desk, and a near-death experience where a girl only one year older than me tried to strangle me.

The last time the marriage ban in California was passed, people died across the nation as a result of backlash from religious zealots who define morality to the letter of the specific translation and edition that their holy book was printed. I refuse to accept that people who let themselves have their sense of right and wrong dicated by a reprint of a reprint of a reprint should be rewarded for their ignorance and spite. I pray, for the sake of my friends, family, and the good-meaning strangers I might meet on the street, that this will not be the case.

To vote yes on Proposition 8 is to commit over a thousand people to a slow removal of their basic rights, freedoms, and priveleges that they should, as Americans and residennts of California, have access to. I hope that anyone who is reading this who is thinking of voting yes may reconsider, and think of what exactly they are doing.

A PRINTER THAT PRINTS LIGHT SHEETS, WOOT 8DD

Some nice news information for you all today, specifically with having to do with how stupid some McCain supporters must be.

In a recent controversy surrounding McCain possibly plagiarizing from the memoirs of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, McCain's OFFICIAL WEBSITE had this response to bloggers who were incited at McCain's possible lack of notation:

"It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons &Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman’s memory of war from the comfort of mom’s basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others."
This is the source.

( So, what exactly are we 'supposed' to have learned from these wars that would make us 'American'? )

...I am, however, amused by the fallout that has resulted from this bad move from the McCain campaign--especially the new game of attempting to classify McCain as a monster from 3.5 Dungeons and Dragons.

Righteo~ here is the story of something that started...uuuhhh...a week+ ago. Yes. It was around this time that acanismajoris gave me my belated birthday present (yay!), and there was much rejoicing.
( THE EPIC STORY OF MILO 8D )
My mom walked by briefly, and then announced to the room, "she's writing about cancerous dragons" very nonchalantly. For some reason, I can't imagine any of my other friend's moms doing that(except for, mayhaps, acanismajoris's. They're so used to my weird by now, I guess ^^)
In other news, I broke my capslock key yesterday. But then it fixed itself. My laptop never ceases to amaze me XD

As you presumably know if you're reading this journal, California's recent court decision regarding same-sex marriage was a huge fucking deal. It was historic, long overdue, and took a hell of a lot of fighting.

Unfortunately (and not surprisingly) Governor Schwarzenegger is receiving tons of phone calls from the supporters of 'Limits on Marriage' (the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in California) about his comment to a group of Log Cabin Republicans that he wouldn't support a constitutional amendment.

We don't want him to go back on his word. So he needs to hear from us too.

Calling him means calling an automated system; you won't have to talk to anyone. And you can call even if you're not from California. So please, the more the better.

The number is 1-916-445-2841; press 1, 5, 1 to get to the particular issue, then press 1 if you want to support upholding the court decision and are against a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

yoinked from a friend's journal because the more people that know, the better

There would go any possibility of me being able to live off of my earnings as an artist...simply because the cost of registering every piece of art I made would not be made up by what little I'll make, and then there'd be the people who could possibly rake in shitloads for what I do. Bastards.

Happy birthday, striderhoang!

Mayhaps I'll get around to a proper birthday thingymajiggy when I can ^^

Yes, but the real question is, can we put it in clothing to make ourselves invisible?

I VOTED FOR A PRESIDENT TODAY FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!

YEEESSSSSSSS *has been waiting far, FAR too long to be able to vote*

Imagine--if I had been born 6 months earlier, this would have happened four years ago.

This link leads to a collection of photographs taken pre-WWII that are in COLOR. As in, the guy had a special technique in how he developed the film so that he could get color out of his images. As in, DUDE. COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS OF PRE-WORLD WAR II. DUDE.

If you don't want me calling you at 12 in the morning saying "HAPPY NEW YEAR!", better tell me now so I don't.

Amusingly enough, the person I'm thinking of calling first isn't on my flist.

Ohohohoho.

Here is a brief film noir parody of how my day went off.

I was packing myself up all hurried, mind anxious and body twitching. It was the day where I would take two art history finals. I had lots of reasons to be nervous--my knowledge of the dates was sketchy, at best. I finally made my way outside the door, ready to face what lay beyond it.

Or so I thought.

Me: *opens the door*...IT'S RAINING.

It seems as if some trick of fate had been reading my livejournal and decided to play a trick on me; instead of granting me a rainy Christmas, the torrents hit a week ahead of schedule. I almost went back, but realized that I had no time. With test materials placed in my dangerously thin backpack, I headed into the downpour.

Thirty minutes later saw me running around the school, squealing "It's RAINING!!!♥♥♥" in a very excited voice. People stared--but I didn't care at all.

...Hmm. I don't think I would have made a good 30's script writer.

One thing that I will never cease to find ironic is the attitude that some extremely conservative Christian groups have regarding porn, because a large proportion of the bibles/illustrated manuscripts during the Middle ages had pornography inscribed all around the borders. Those devious little nuns.

This post has been brought to you in part by my Ancient Art History class.

144,289 People

Washington Dating

The main question is whether I'll ever get around to editing all 30+ pictures that I've already scanned in...

me: *walking back from class*
Random political petitioner dude: HEY THERE WANNA SIGN UP FOR SHIT?!
me: Whatever, I have time. *got out of class early*
Him: Blah blah blah blah women's rights blah blah blah robots blah blah blah D&D is cool
Me: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Methinx I'll just use you to register to vote because my last attempt failed miserably. *fills out registration form*
Him: Whopee! Oh yeah, and one of our party's interests is getting the white population back up, since we're now a minority. Have lots of white babies!
Me: 0.o
Him: Or it's optional. But yes. White people are a minority, and that's bad.
Me: Imma just walk away now...o.o

CREEPY SHIT.