Apparently yesterday was the 150th anniversary of the reburial of the bones of the victims of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. I guess they are going to do something for every significant event until the end of time.

I can’t wait for the 10th anniversary of the 150th anniversary in 2017.

A photograph accompanied the Salt Lake Tribune article. Is it me, or is there some irony in a 21-gun salute honoring 119 men and women that were essentially killed by walking firing squad?

The Boston Globe published this nicely worded op-ed piece on Thursday, and I spotted in the Huffington Post today.

Where’s the equal justice for gays?

By Joan Vennochi, Globe Columnist

PRESIDENT OBAMA had much to say about the glass ceiling he is smashing on behalf of Hispanics and nothing to say about the glass ceiling the California Supreme Court is reimposing on gays.

On Tuesday, Obama announced that he would nominate Sonia Sotomayor, a federal appeals judge in New York, to the Supreme Court. In nominating the daughter of Puerto Rican parents to become the nation’s first Hispanic justice, Obama said that when she “ascends those marble steps to assume her seat on the highest court of the land, America will have taken another important step towards realizing the idea that is etched above its entrance: equal justice under the law.”

Those are stirring words, and ironic ones, too, given the day’s other momentous judicial news: The California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, last year’s ballot initiative prohibiting same-sex marriage.

Asked about that ruling, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said he had not spoken to Obama about it, and added, “The issues involved are ones that, ah, you know where the president stands.”

On gay rights, as with other controversial issues, Obama stands where it’s politically smart to stand. He finds the political sweet spot that placates the left and doesn’t alienate the middle.
(more…)

Two more days left in this month — which seems to have moved just as fast as the rest of 2009.

My theory on the seemingly speeding up of passing years is that they are more and more a smaller percentage of our overall lives. A year to a five-year-old is 20% of their life. A year to me is less than 2%.

I often times think back to occurrences that I vividly remember (e.g. the coming of Taco John’s to my hometown) and then realize that was 40 years ago and I was 11 (this particular conversation came up on Facebook today with my cousin who grew up in the same, small Wyoming town, but has never known it NOT to have Taco John’s — he made a wry comment about me being “witness to history”).

Pretty much most of memories back to when I was two or three (and the occasional one prior) are still available to call upon, should the opportunity arise. Hopefully, I’m using them as a learning opportunity and not just nostalgia. I would rather look forward than back.

This headline screamed from the Washington Post today. It’s kind of funny, because this particular stance by the church –which I assumed they felt would get them “you’re just like us” buy-in from the right-wing of Christianity — is getting nationwide backlash.

It’ll be interesting to see if this is a battle the church will continue to fight if it impacts their assimilation strategy in the long-run.

My favorite quote: “…more people harbor apprehensions about Mormons than about homosexuality”.

Here is the entire article:

‘The Mormons Are Coming!’
Supporters of Same-Sex Marriage Trumpet the Church’s Work Against It
By Karl Vick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 29, 2009

LOS ANGELES — As more states take up the debate on same-sex marriage, some advocates of legalization are taking a very specific lesson from California, where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints dominated both fundraising and door-knocking to pass a ballot initiative that barred such unions.

With the battle moving east, some advocates are shouting that fact in the streets, calculating that on an issue that eventually comes down to comfort levels, more people harbor apprehensions about Mormons than about homosexuality.
(more…)

The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random between the profusion of matter and of the stars, but that within this prison we can draw from ourselves images powerful enough to deny our nothingness.

– Andre Malraux

I spent a chunk of time last night on the phone to Adobe’s customer service center (apparently still in India).

I had previously qualified to purchase the CS4 Premium Design suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.) from my Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 suite last year (Adobe had purchased Macromedia), but quickly found out then, that in order to activate it, I had to call their customer service center.

From there — after proving to the rep that I had a legitimate copy and that, yes, I was entitled to upgrade from my previous Dreamweaver product (had he ever been to the Adobe site?) — I was provided with a series of keystrokes that took me to a hidden window where a “challenge code” was displayed that had to then be relayed via phone to obtain a “response code”, which would allow me to actually use the programs I had just spend $600 to buy.

On Tuesday, I got a new Mac and in order to install the suite, had to “deactivate” it on my old laptop (which I sold to a co-worker’s mother yesterday). I then spent a good hour installing it on the new 17″ MacBook Pro last night and ran yet again into the same “challenge/response” requirement.

You know, I could have “found” a pirated/hacked copy and bypassed this crap — and saved a lot of time and money.

I love how their anti-piracy policies punish legitimate buyers. Reminds me of why I left Microsoft and their draconian policies that are very similar. I still get a “this copy of Windows XP is not valid” every few times I start it up via Parallels on my Mac and then it is disabled until I reboot.

Fun.

This op-ed piece by Rob Thomas, is one of the better, well-thought-out articles I have read in regards to same-sex marriage.

All bold emphasis in the article is mine.

The Big Gay Chip on My Shoulder
by Rob Thomas
Singer/Songwriter

May 27, 2009 | Huffington Post

I am a straight man, with a big gay chip on my shoulder.

A while back on my Twitter page (yes, I know how ridiculous it sounds), I mentioned that, if I believed in the devil, Pat Robertson might be him.

Being a fairly liberal-leaning guy with either liberal friends or Republican and Christian friends who don’t believe that being one has anything to do with the other, I was surprised at how many people took offense to what I had to say.

These people weren’t friends of Mr. Robertson but friends, apparently, of God. They had “spoken” with him and he had assured them that he was no friend of the gays. He also told them that he loved America more than any other country and was a huge fan of Dancing With the Stars.

The small controversy or “Twitter-versy” (patent on phrase pending) all started when I had made the mistake of asking why two people of the same sex shouldn’t be able to make the same life-long commitment and (more importantly) under the same god, as straight people. Why can’t my gay friends be as happily married as my wife and I? It seemed simple to me, but let me start off by telling you a series of things that I believe to be true:
(more…)

Today is the day when the California State Supreme Court is scheduled to release their decision on the legality of the state’s ‘Prop 8′, which defined “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognised in California”.

Here is the British view of the whole thing:

California ruling on gay marriage

The outcome of the latest battle over gay marriage in the US is set to be decided as California’s Supreme Court rules whether to uphold Proposition 8.

Voters approved the measure restricting marriage to heterosexual couples by a narrow margin last November.

But activists lodged a challenge to it, arguing the measure violated the civil rights of gay couples.

The issue of same-sex marriage is highly divisive in the state, and the ruling is expected to draw protests.
(more…)

This article in The New Republic, is enlightening on multiple levels:

The Worst Case Yet Against Gay Marriage

There is something nice–refreshing even–about a single article that incorporates everything you despise in a certain worldview. What’s more, rather than looking for polite or euphemistic words, it is lovely to be able to say that the article is, simply, dreadful. 

The story in question was written by someone named Sam Schulman. It is entitled, ‘The Worst Thing About Gay Marriage.’ Schulman’s argument is as follows:

When a gay man becomes a professor or a gay woman becomes a police officer, he or she performs the same job as a heterosexual. But there is a difference between a married couple and a same-sex couple in a long-term relationship. The difference is not in the nature of their relationship, not in the fact that lovemaking between men and women is, as the Catholics say, open to life. The difference is between the duties that marriage imposes on married people–not rights, but rather onerous obligations–which do not apply to same-sex love.

(more…)

Allison is becoming an absolute fanatic with her little orange Sony camera.

Here is a shot she took of me on Saturday”