Congratulations to the Supreme Court for doing its job by protecting the citizens of the United States and the Constitution.

The US Supreme Court has struck down a ban on homosexual sex in Texas, in what is being seen as the most significant gay-rights case in many years. The 6-3 decision reversed a ruling 17 years ago that the state could punish homosexuals for engaging in sex with consenting adults.

The case was brought by two Texas men who were caught having sex on private premises in 1998. They have argued that the state's sodomy law unfairly infringes their right to privacy and to the equal protection of the law. [ full story ] – [ analysis article ]

In other news…

Californian voters have backed a pre-emptive move to ban official recognition of gay marriages. Proposition 22 — which calls for a ban on recognising such marriages — was passed by 61%-39%.

Sponsored by Republican state senator Pete Knight, it was the most controversial of 20 propositions on the Super Tuesday presidential primary ballot.

Supporters of Proposition 22 said it would protect Californians from the consequences of legal moves in states like Vermont, where legislation for same-sex marriage is forging ahead. [ full story ]

The highest court in Canada's largest province, Ontario, has ruled that gay and lesbian couples have the right to marry there. The ruling upholds a lower court decision and challenges the Canadian Government to change its laws on same-sex marriage. The appeals court ordered that gay couples seeking a legal union should be issued a marriage licence immediately.

The case had been fought by a gay couple, Michael Stark and Michael Leshner, who wasted no time in getting married hours after the ruling. Another couple, Jeff Parker and David Wood, saw the ruling on the internet and immediately went to Toronto City Hall to get their papers ready for an August wedding.

The 61-page ruling says the heterosexual definition of marriage violates gay couples' rights under the country's constitutional document, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Ontario is the third Canadian province to strike down the federal heterosexual definition of marriage in court decisions. [ full story ]

"You have never been subject to what rock-bottom is until you find yourself alone in a swamp, with all your resources dead, writing your own name in the mud while knowing clearly well that it would take a miracle to get you out of there alive."

– Ned Bearon, Vietnam War Veteran

It aggravates me how narrow-minded conservative religious groups can be and often are. Here on the local television there have been adverts for an organisation calling themselves "Respect." They feature normal looking teenagers expressing their choice to say no to sex and to practice abstinence. I decided for the hell of it to check out the website for this group. I do not even want to link to this conservative crap, for fear that Google will index me in some unfavourable fashion.

The purpose of this non-profit organisation is to "combat teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases among teens." So far, so good. They continue to say that they hope to accomplish this goal by "[saturating] our community with the message of abstinence until marriage." Now on to the part that makes me cringe. This organisation is federally funded through a programme organised and headed up by the Florida Department of Health who, with their grant, require interaction and collaboration with the "local faith community." They of course go on to explain that they are not allowed to preach any religious beliefs, but as it boils down the message is not only abstinence to prevent pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases, but to push total abstinence. Osceola County Public Schools is a partner with this programme, so their curriculum may include portions of this material. Additionally, students are encouraged to participate in an after-class session that will give them 0.5 credits.

From their terrible* site, verbatim:

A voluntary decision to avoid, or refrain from, sexual activity, which includes any type of genital contact.

Abstinence isn't just a big word — it's an attitude. it means you have a mind of your own, you're strong, you're an individual, and you have a future. You have respect for yourself and others.

You have to love that sort of verbal manipulation. If green is good and mold is green, mold must be good. The best part has got to be the claim that part of the grant specifies the programme must be abstinence-only and in no part can offer, suggest, recommend or even discuss other safe sex alternatives, such as condoms. This type of narrow mindedness and complete disregard for reality by organisations such as this is rather unfortunate. Some parents and groups get up in arms over the very idea of children being taught all methods of contraception, inclusive of both condoms and abstinence. I am not even sure these subjects should even be discussed in public schools aside from perhaps in some scientific capacity (reproduction in science class), but if there is to be discussion of this sort, at least provide a responsible example and do not immediately dissuade rebellious youths from protecting themselves against pregnancy and disease because some religious hypocrites that are probably getting drunk, beating their wives and having affairs think it is immoral to teach all methods of contraception.

Ugh, before you ask, I do not generally get this riled-up over some stupid adverts, but the truth is that the problem is much deeper rooted than that. It represents a basic flaw and narrow view that can only help to reassure those who already believe in abstinence and push away the rest who will say "fuck that" and drive forward into sexual situations ill prepared. Teens are going to do what they want to do despite what anyone says or thinks. So why do we not better allocate our limited budgets toward proper education so that we will raise a nation of people who actually know something.

* The site itself is awful and I quickly discovered why. The responsible person/company for the website has their own site hosted at Tripod, complete with the Tripod advert banners and all. They claim to offer hosting services as well. Curious as they do not even have a properly hosted site.

First, I will start with the entries I alluded to yesterday. Have you seen the new Oreo® Cookies that boast dual-flavour cream centres? There is an advert on television featuring blue-collar workers during their lunch break. An African-American man has the "Mint 'n Cream" Double Delight much to the amazement and jealously of his co-workers, who then try to offer their desserts in exchange for one of these new cookies. The bald man with the beard, moustache and cupcakes makes me laugh so hard. Reminding me physically of Clint Howard, this guy's final line of "Eight cupcakes!" is stupidly amusing.

Next, we have some bitching about the waste of money organisation, the United States Department of Homeland Security's preparedness website designed for citizens, ready.gov. I have made some comments here and there about it, but have you really ever gone to this site and read the material presented. I feel like we are back in the 60's again with the scare-tactic propaganda. Even if terrorism is a threat, I have to wonder if the employments of these tactics are being used to help gain popular support for the controversial, to mention nothing of expensive, security initiatives going through Congress. That was rhetorical, by the way. You should go and print out the instructions and information presented on their site, pinning them up on your wall in the event of a cataclysmic terrorist attack. God knows ducking under a table with your hands over your head is going to provide live-saving protection in the event of a biological or nuclear attack.

I was recently laughed at for my irrational fear of spiders. I feel the fear is irrational simply because I think people should not be scared of most of the things we fear. They are generally harmless, smaller and less intelligent then us. None the less, the fear exists and so I thought I would share now the story behind my arachnophobia. I believe I was twelve or so and was participating in an emergency communications exercise though an amateur radio organization I was a part of at the time. This twenty-four hour event took place at a church or scout camp situated in the woods not too far to the present location of the West Oaks Mall in west Orlando. I was in charge of desktop workstations that were used to log all communications during this exercise. At some point during the overnight, someone wanted to use the radio located in the most remote building of the complex, which had been shutdown due to inactivity. I was asked by this individual to accompany them, get the workstation online and make sure everything was ready for his use. As I entered the rooms walking toward the back where we had the station set-up, I rubbed the walls looking for the light switches. Finally, we arrived at the proper room where I began getting the computer ready for use. Something caught my attention to the right peripherally so I looked. Covering the far walls, floor and ceiling were fully-grown, large adult wolf spiders. I turned and looked back at the way I came in and saw they were there as well, hideously close to those light switches I had just before flipped without looking first. I worked with a swiftness getting that workstation ready for use and then hauled ass running out of that building and all the way back to the other, less secluded buildings. Since then I have been pretty intimidated by any spiders the size of a half-dollar coin (including leg span) or larger.

You Mac-lovers out there can laugh at this. I tried today to eject the CD in my drive by dragging it's icon to the trash. Um, yeah, you cannot do that in Windows XP Professional even though my "recycle bin" icon is labelled "Trash" and looks like the OS X icon.

Finally, some select search terms people used at Google or other engines and came to Mount Sutro.

playboy lingerie calendar
photographs of tallahassee
mount sutro tower
erik patten
bomb gallery
drunken party home photo
peacock room orlando gallery
pierced gallery
pierced orlando
playboy lingerie party
iv party
paypal granny sex

There are many others, but most of them revolved around lingerie, Playboy®, Mount Sutro and pictures of Tallahassee.

No, no, this is not going to be a political conversation by any means. I just want to know what in the hell the President is doing in this picture:

Looks to me like he is either really having an adept, powerful moment in speech or is preparing to receive a good rogering to the mouth, if you know what I mean.