I Speak of Dreams

Forced Rehab Fails

Goodlooking? Check. Good income? Check. Good character?....uhh, no.

Relocation Advice from a Candidate

Mary Kay reveals that the Republican Senate candidate in Oklahoma, Tom Coburn, claims that the many, many lesbians in Oklahoma high schools have caused changes in school policy.

Relocation? If I were a lonely lesbian I'd head there.

On the Mary Cheney front: I agree that it was a Kerry blunder to mention Mary Cheney in regard to same-sex marriage, but Kieran points out that she is an adult and a Public Homosexual. (Remember, the Christian Right thinks that Bush panders to homosexuals. Oh, but wait, if Kerry's elected, the Bible will be banned. I'm so confused.)

How A Good Idea Gets Fossilized

This is a post illustrating how part of a good idea can become fossilized and standardized past usefulness. Look at the two pictures below. The top one is Bill Steinkraus, the bottom one is George Morris, both riding in Grand Prix jumping competitions--the very pinnacle of show jumping, which is a difficult and demanding sport for both horse and rider.

(Image sources Bill Steinkraus from the Show Jumping Hall of Fame; the Morris image is a scan from his book. )

What you should be able to see is that there is a straight line from the horse's bit to the rider's hand; that the rider has a soft and steady contact with the bit through the reins; the rider is not using the horse's neck to balance on, but maintains his balance independently through holding his trunk and thighs steady.

Don't Trust Your Eyes

I have no idea why I am so amused by this image. I found it at The Lazer Beam Rabbi Lazer Brody's blog:

A Topsy-turvy World

Both the Talmud and the Zohar teach us that this is a topsy-turvy world: What often appears to be real is none other than a mirage (alluding to the material world), and what appears to be a nonexistent entity is actually reality (alluding to the spiritual world). For that reason, Rebbe Nachman of Breslev (1772-1810) warned, "Don't let this material world play tricks on your eyes". In other words, what you see is not necessarily what you get,

Oh. oh no.

I usually check out Baldilocks. Sometimes I agree with her, mostly I don't, but I also use her blogrolls as a springboard. Yesterday I checked out My Pet Jawa, cause I thought it was a cute blog name. He was writing about the kidnapped contractors in Iraq.

So I downloaded the video. And I watched it. This is not war or insurgency, this is thuggery and sadism and murder.

How can you do that to another human being? If you define that person as "not a human being", that's how.

May Eugene Armstrong's family find peace.

Censorship Alert

I got the story from EdNews, and it seemed odd.

Censorship Alert in Texas!> July 27, 2004, 7:49AM Critics take aim at 120 library books for [adult] young readers By BETH KUHLES, Chronicle Correspondent

A new group has formed to address the selection and placement of books at the Montgomery County Memorial Library System, and it is targeting 120 works aimed at children and young adults.

It turns out that the tussle in Montgomery County has been going on for a while, starting in August 2002 over Robie Harris's books for teens on sexuality. (Here's an interview with Robie Harris--sure comes off as a radical, now doesn't she?)

The "Library Patrons of Texas, Inc.," seems to be a new iteration of " Citizen’s Task Force for Family-Friendly Libraries". Family Friendly Libraries® used to be a stand-alone, and now is part of Citizens for Community Values, which is (gasp of surprise!) affiliated with Focus on the Family (More local Citizens for Community Values sites here, http://www.liccv.org/">here here, here,

(But the Pensacola group, here seized the CCV name and is countering the fundamentalist push);

Selling Used Books=Napster?

AKMA pointed out a book-selling article in the NYT (sorry you gotta register), in which some booksellers wring their hands over lost revenue from used book sales. I reacted with grump.

Lesbian Dolls

So to make a "lesbian doll" all you need are edgy mannish clothes and penetrating sex toys.

What year is this again?