Same-sex marriage will not threaten anyone’s marriage. It will not threaten families. What it will do is allow people – regardless of gender – to build families; to have all the rights and privileges that being married allows (medical rights, estate rights, etc) — to have the same rights as the rest of us have. Someone please explain to me how that threatens my marriage to my husband.

What I see every time a state comes to its senses and makes marriage available to all consenting adults is an outpouring of love and happiness from those that can can now celebrate their unions. It’s beautiful. And it’s worth celebrating.

I don’t know whether to be horrified that 76 men voted to fire Hartwig or hopeful that 74 voted to not fire him.

But hey – of course they didn’t leave women out entirely:

Women who wanted to ask questions were told to write them on a piece of paper and have a man read them aloud. But some, including Hartwig’s own daughter, said their questions were never read.

Not that it did any good.

“I actually passed three or four questions to a church council member and none of them were read,” said Emily Rae Hartwig. “I guess the way I felt about it, and the way many others felt, was that they were afraid of us (women). A lot of my dad’s supporters are women.”

What I don’t get is why there are even women that are members of that church.  How low does your self esteem have to be to think it’s ok to be thought of as inferior and having no rights?  Seriously.

Here’s Pat Robertson, of the 700 Club talking about the earthquake in Haiti:

The Haitians “were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever,” Robertson said on his broadcast Wednesday. “And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you will get us free from the French.’ True story. And so, the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal.’ “

Seriously?  He believes that?  Aside from the complete and utter heartlessness of his “explanation”, it doesn’t really sound like his god is all that loving or big on forgiveness.  Mr Robertson seems to be light on the compassion as well.  Not that this really surprises me, mind you,  since he and Jerry Falwell blamed 9/11 on”the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists…” rather than squarely where the blame really was, which was religion and politics.

Anyway, my clocks are all reset (most do so automagicly, thank goodness) and I am contemplating what to do for my extra hour of awakeness today. Hmmm….

Maybe I’ll continue reading Why Does E=mc2? (And Why Should We Care?). I started reading it recently, but haven’t had much time to dedicate to it.  I love it so far, though, and look forward to reading more of it.

Maybe I’ll take an extra Spanish lesson — we’re going on vacation to Cancun in a few weeks and I’ve been brushing up on my tourist Spanish.

I could learn a new tune on my shiny new penny whistle.

Or, perhaps, I could take a walk and enjoy some of the last non-cold weather we’re likely to see here for awhile.

So many options.  So, what do you plan to do with your extra hour today?

I took my first breath 10 months after Apollo 11 touched down on the moon, so I obviously do not remember that momentous event. Still, when I learned about it in school my imagination soared. We had already been to the moon — where would we go next? Well, sadly, humans haven’t ventured that far again – yet anyway – but with machines we’ve built, we’ve reached so much further and learned so much more and there is no end in sight.

Thank you Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, ‘Buzz’ Aldrin, Jr., and everyone who made Apollo 11 possible and inspiring generations of children. Whether you believe it or not, you are heroes.

Yes, his music was good — at least what I remember of it — but he did everything he could to distance himself from who he was.  Surgery after surgery after surgery, living out his Peter Pan fantasy; which got more than a little creepy, bleaching his skin…  Maybe he hated himself so much that he figured if he changed himself enough on the outside, it would change who he was on the inside, I don’t know, but he had issues aplenty.

Even through his bizarre obsession with sleeping with little kids – and I don’t know if there was more to it, but it’s hard not to suspect – he remained insanely popular.  In the eyes of so many, he couldn’t do wrong.

I was a big fan of Michael Jackson in the early to mid ’80′s.  Thriller was my favorite album at the time and I wanted to see him in concert in the worst way.  I never got to, but I’m ok with that.  I lost interest sometime in the late ’80′s only keeping up a little bit with his goings on.

One thing I do hope is that his children find some sense of normalcy in their lives.  I don’t have a lot of hope, but some.

Normally, influenza doesn’t much make the news, even though some people die from it.  Even though it is spread the same way as this strain, the “normal” flu viruses barely get a mention in the news.  So what makes this one so different?  Ok, so this strain is a mutated version of human, pig and avian flu strains.  That’s pretty fascinating, I’ll admit.  Viruses are crafty little buggers and they are quite adept at finding new environments in which to flourish.

At work, the building management company sent around information on what their plan was in case of an outbreak here as well as a 12 page document from the county health department on how to protect yourself from swine flu and what to do if you think you’ve contracted it.  I will summarize those 12 pages right here:

1) Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly
2) Cover your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze
3) Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly
4) If you show flu symptoms, see a medical doctor
5) Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly

Sounds complicated, doesn’t it.

So, is this virus really the big bad it’s being made out to be?  I figure the answer is somewhere between a shrug and concern.  I do know that any strain of flu will make you feel miserable and that some people die from it.  The young, the old and folks with auto-immune issues are more vulnerable.  Also, because we don’t yet have a vaccine it could be more of a challenge to contain, so that in and of itself poses a concern and people should be diligent with their awareness and hygiene (as should always be the case).  But is the sky is falling?  No.   At least not yet.

But please — wash your hands.

04 May 2009 — Edited to add: Steven Novella just posted about the swine flu over at Skepticblog.  Excellent stuff, as always.

A new day has dawned, and I feel elated.  For the first time, in way too long, I feel optimistic about the future.  I keep thinking back to President Obama’s inaugural address and I’m ecstatic that he promised to “restore science to its rightful place” and also that he acknowledged us nonbelievers in a way that was not in the least dismissive.

Yesterday was a day of celebration.  Stating today, the work begins.  We all must pull together to get the job done.  It won’t be easy, and I suspect it will take longer than any of us expect, but I agree with the president that it is achievable if we work for it.  And I, for one, am eager to get started.

On Tuesday, my husband and I will enjoy the inauguration from the comfort of our climate controlled living room. I’m really quite excited. This will be the third inauguration that I can recall watching.

The first was Jimmy Carter, back in 1976. We watched it in class; I was in first grade. I don’t remember much about the Carter inauguration other than watching it in class. I was pretty young and although I thought it was pretty neat, I did not realize at the time what it all really meant.

The last one I watched was Clinton in 1993. I remember being so happy to get rid of the Senior Bush. 12 years of failed Republican policies and actions…the economy in the ditch; in many ways it parallels what we are seeing today. Except the situation of the now is actually worse.  Or maybe I’m just paying better attention.

I’m more than a little excited to see Obama take the reigns. President Obama.  I just love the sound of it.   I’m not expecting miracles- I don’t believe in miracles. Obama is inheriting a huge mess and it will take some time – possibly (probably) more than one term to work through. I expect things to get worse before they get better; but I do feel they will get better.

So I, for one, am going to enjoy the moment.  There is a lot of hard work to come.