elfs | Three days of brain... (part 1)

A lot of catching up to do, but my browsing seems to have themes:

Sex and Love and Law and Soldiers

Officer wins victory against Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Right on! The 9th Circuit has told the Air Force that it must assess each and every DADT case on its merits and justify it's dismissal of a decorated officer, rather than merely citing her homosexuality as a valid reason for discharge. The ruling has some interesting issues with regards to standards of review.
Sex Between Soldiers Only Sort-Of Prohibited: The rules have been changed so that it's no longer outright banned, but is instead, uh, nobody's really sure. This looks like a case where "we know it's happening, and we want something in place to deal with those cases where it affects unit cohesion." But the guidelines are poor and will probably cause a lot of pain.

Worldnet Daily Special! The Homos are Coming! The Homos are Coming!

WND: Gay ruling heralds the end of civilization: Dennis Praeger says a lot of special things in his article:
Much of humanity - especially females - can enjoy homosexual sex. It is up to society to channel polymorphous human sexuality into an exclusively heterosexual direction - until now, accomplished through marriage.
Oh, nos! The hot guys will get the hot chicks, and the middlin chicks will go with each other, and plain Christian boys'll get none.
Nothing imaginable - leftward or rightward - would constitute as radical a change in the way society is structured as this redefining of marriage.
Really, Dennis? I believe no-fault divorce was far more destructive. So did you, I believe, before this became an issue. His rationale on why this is "different" from Loving v. Virginia is totally messed up, as Ed Brayton and crew explain vividly. And once again, the use of the word "females" to reduce the humanity of women takes its place.

He talks about the arrogance of judges, but mentions that Loving was correct. And he has bizarre fantasies that jewelers will not be allowed to show photos of wedding bands without freely mixing straight and gay couples, or that schools will be required to ask a child to imagine "the prince or princess of her dreams." Good grief, what an imagination!
WND: School Principal to Quit After Students form Gay-Straight Alliance.: The principal of a South Carolina public school announced he plans to resign following a demand to launch a student club to promote homosexuality. "The formation of this club conflicts with my professional beliefs in that we do not have other clubs at Irmo High School based on sexual orientation, sexual preference, or sexual activity," Principal Eddie Walker told the school community in a letter. "I feel the formation of a Gay/Straight Alliance Club at Irmo High school implies that students joining the club will have chosen to or will choose to engage in sexual activity with members of the same sex, opposite sex or members of both sexes. My decision to resign is a personal choice based on my professional beliefs and religious convictions."
Should I ask that the door not hit his ass on the way out, or would discussing his ass be too homo for his taste?
WND: How same-sex marriage points to end of the world: The author of "The Criminalization of Christianity" (oh, that's a sweet, sweet title!) tells us that the only culture to allow homosexual marriage was the Pre-flood civilization on the Babylonian plain, and it was that act that caused God to destroy the world. Batten down the hatches, because another great flood is a-comin!
Clownhall: Gay Rights vs. Democracy: Dinesh D'Souza joins the chorus of people who want to somehow invalidate the "judicial activism" in California but, for the sake of appearance, defend Loving v. Virginia. He fails miserably. He blames "The Democrats" (indeed, his last book was The Party of Death, and is about the Democrats), but ignores that the majority of judges were Republican appointees, as is the state's rather supportive Governator.

Surveillance Nation:

China prepares for massive police state: The city of Shenzhen has installed 200,000 surveillance cameras, motion detectors, and facial recognition software with the aim of literally knowing where everyone goes and what they do when they leave their homes. One expert fears that American civic administrations are looking to import the technology here.
Cisco views Chinese censorship and surveillance efforts as sales opportunity: Wired reports that a leaked document from Cisco's sales team views the Chinese "Great Firewall" as an opportunity to sell more routers and filters. Not surprising, but definitely bolsters the view that corporations are essentially psychopathic in outlook.
FBI seeks to inflitrate "vegan potlucks": This story relates that the FBI sought infiltrators to "vegan potlucks" in Minneapolis/St. Paul. The idea is that these would be perfect places to overhear "rabble rousers" planning disruptions of the Republican National Convention, and to get into the "inner circles" of these rabble rousers and keep tabs on them.

Vegan potlucks?
Congress to fingerprint everyone and anyone!: And so it continues: Congress has passed a bill require anyone even remotely associated with the mortgage and real estate business to submit their fingerprints to a national database in the interest of "consumer safety" and "facilitating responsible behavior in the mortgage industry."

Miscellaneous from Glenn Greenwald:

A really sad attack ad.: There are two items I want to draw to your attention in Glenn Greenwald's own daily braindump. First is item #3, a tit-for-tat exchange of attack ads for a congressional seat in Missouri. The republican's is so bad, so much a parody of republican thinking, it's hard to believe. The democrat's measured response shows just how desperate this race has become.
From "We do not do X" to "Of course we do X. This is old news. Why are you still harping on it?": The other item is #6, in which the White House has stopped denying that it engaged in a psyops campaign against the American people and instead said, "Of course we did. What are you gonna do about it?" Because, of course, Congress will do nothing about it.