elfs | Brains: Feel the Corruption! (Reply)

11 Ways to Cure Someday Syndrome: This is my worst problem. Even more awful, I try to keep every story I haven't finished in my head, meaning that my characters sometimes become flat just because I don't have the bandwidth to give them the lives they deserve. And when I think, "I should just put that aside for a year and concentrate on this," my brain insists that I can't do that because without attention characters just fade away.
Dan Savage on Traditional Marriage: When a married couple are charged with child abuse and torture after their 17 year old son was found bruised, terrified, and with a broken shackle about one leg, Dan Savage writes:
Kelly and Michael Schumacher are legally married–and they can stay legally married, even if they're found to be guilty of this horrendous crime. They can stay legally married even if the decomposing remains of twenty other teenagers are found buried in their backyard. Their marriage license cannot be revoked. If Michael dies in prison, Kelly can remarry–even if she's serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. If Kelly decides to divorce Michael, he can remarry–even if he's sitting on death row. He can remarry and divorce and remarry and divorce and remarry and divorce until he runs out of prison pen pals. Because the courts have declared that marriage is so fundamental a right that it cannot be denied to convicted rapists or to serial killers.

But it's a right that's denied to me and my boyfriend. Because we're both men and that ain't right.
Supremes: We're Not Doing That Birth Certificate Thing: In a move that hopefully surprised absolutely no one, the Supreme Court today turned down a request to hear arguments in a case question Barack Obama's eligibility to be President.
Wingnuttery on the Obama as citizen thing: It's a bizarre, long article. I got it from the Freeps. It starts with the utterly bizarre contention that Obama couldn't be president because his father was a Kenyan citizen. But that doesn't matter. The US is a Jus Soli state: born here, citizen here.

The article gets bizarre when it hosts a black preacher who claims that Obama's not black because "The presidency is still held by the fruit of a white womb."

File under 'whatever.'
High School tears out pages from school-assigned books to keep students from learning about sex: In what has to be one of the stupidest moves yet (you know every kid is going to go get the real thing), the school board of New Rochelle, New York, tore out the pages from Girl, Interrupted in which the main character talks about sex.

Apparently, the head of the school board is a piece of work, with a history of trying to silence her critics through the misrepresentation of school policies. She's told the public that they may not criticize "school personnel" in public, but must submit any concerns in writing, and the board will discuss the matter behind closed doors. (via Boing Boing)
Islamic scholar sends shockwaves through the Koranic studies community: It's hard to know how much weight to give the NY Times, but it discusses the Iranian scholar Abdulkarim Sorous, who has put forth the contentious argument that Muhammed may not have merely taken dictation, but instead wrote the Koran himself with divine inspiration, and his human flaws are visible within Islam's holy book.

It looks like an attempt at reformation. He'll probably be killed for it.
Illinois Governor Blagojevich taken into Federal Custody: Governor Blagojevich was taken into federal custody this morning on the charge that he sought to sell Obama's vacant senate seat to the highest bidder.