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<redacted>’s new status message – aw, my cat was just playing with a buddha figurine I have.  who’s striving to transcend dukkha?  you are!  yes you are!   3:09 PM

Well, I demo’ed games for Rio Grande at the chicago toy and game fair this weekend. It had moments of fun mixed with much tedium. I don’t think I’ll do it again, though I don’t regret doing it either. I got a guitar from James, and quickly learned that I am not a very capable tuner. With the help of some get-you-hooked-&-make-you-pay software, I tuned it much, much faster, and it sounded much much nicer. If I had a g1 or an iphone, I could do it with an app. Only about 8 more months before that happens.

I am now clear for my intended travel to sf in december. 11 days in the bay area, christmas to the monday after new years. Yay?

Various bay area peoples want me out there for the holidays. But that’s muy expensivo. I think it’s gonna have to wait.

So, I get back to chicago this sunday. And I’ll be flying out to DC for work next thursday. I’d kinda like to take advantage of the trip and spend quality time with DC peeps on saturday. But that would be the fifth consecutive weekend I will have spent mostly or entirely in another state. Plus claiming credit hours for weekend travel is a paperwork hassle.

Past supes have basically told me to save paperwork and make sure the hours balance out wherever I need to. This one has a different philosophy on that and doesn’t want to be up against the wall when the audit comes. That’s fine. I’ll do the paperwork and bill for the time spent doing paperwork. Fuck efficiency, that’s not what bureaucracy’s about, eh?

Maybe I should go someplace warm in January or February. Hrm….

Okay, 1 – It’s a great interview, especially the part where he cracks Colbert up, 2 – he’s alot cuter than I’ve been led to believe.

really wants this t-shirt:

But really, it makes me think of way more.

Humanity has a long history of freely mixing church and state, with very little boundary between the two. Modern industrialized civilization probably has the most areligious political institutions of any in history. Communist countries may do better on separating church and state than most western democracies, dunno.

Marriage has been both a political and a religious institution for a very, very long time. Gay marriage has been rare, but not unheard of, throughout history, and has shared this two-spheres-in-one-bond nature where it has happened. So, much as I would love the supreme court to rule that marriage is religious and thus out of bounds for the government to rule on, I know it isn’t going to happen. I am also troubled by state recognition of clergy and tax exempt status for churches. They seem like pretty clear violations of the first amendment to me.

But it is also a sensible political reality check to say that the state cannot ignore religion, because they are and always will be politically relevant.

Apparently the california highway patrol is blocking the highway exits to the mormon temple and thus the protest site. Say what?

A few points.

• I refuse to criticize those fighting for justice for pushing too hard, too fast, or poor word choice. No crucifying Gavin because he got used in pro-prop-8 ads. He was right. It is going to happen. If not him, they would have picked another poster child.
• To those surprised by the way the black vote** went, I wonder why.
  • 30*% were on the side of justice, which is cool. And it means that alot more than just the gay blacks see that there’s injustice at work.
  • 70*% were not.
    • Christian churches are a cornerstone of many/most african american communities. Many (not all) christian churches hate the ‘mos.
    • Black culture is justifiably paranoid about white oppression and the association of the queer mainstream with white is not at all new.
    • The black people I’ve interacted with at work have all been less culturally sensitive about my queerness than the whites.
• blame is not helpful. Identifying groups to work on/with is. I believe the poll is probably correct and that African American probably did vote for prop 8 at a much higher rate than other race culture groups. This is useful information. This is a population we can and should contact.
• The Mormon church** officially encouraged its members to promote discrimination. Their church deserves to have their faces rubbed in this fact. It will not work in their evangelical favor in the US. I’ll be protesting outside their oakland temple this morning.
• Everything I’ve heard says that “No on 8” was mismanaged, and sorry to say it folks, but spent it’s money in terrible ways. Learn the lesson. Do better next time. And don’t put the same people in charge. They had a commanding lead, lost the entire undecided vote and a fair bit of the people that initially agreed with them. This is mind bogglingly bad campaigning. You have to consider your audience and reach out to the undecided. Uh.

* = (according to exit poll data)
** = Jon Stewart’s comments about oppressees becoming oppressors are very relevant. Think about it.

In the bay area, on tom’s couch. Figuring out what to do with my weekend. Yay. Just saw on his way up the stairs.