2003.06.11
Quote of the Moment
Here is a test to see if your mission on earth is finnished. If you are alive--it isn't.
Photogallery of the Moment
Ok, ok, this should be about the last bit of vacation coverage:
Kirk and Mo's European Vacation in Words and Photos. I used my previous day-by-day break down and
supplemented it with the best photos I took (around 220 out of the 480 or so I had in total...)
There are also captions so you know what the heck you're looking at...overall I think it's pretty browseable and more interesting than a typical big bunch of uncaptioned photos. A few stitched together panoramic shots that came out pretty well are in there too.Links of the Moment
Well, the bad news is that the Brunching Shuttlecocks won't be making any new content but there are two spin off sites: The Self-Made Critic (and if I had to guess, I don't think that he was much of a draw for the original site) and, fortunately, The Book of Ratings now gets its own site. Maybe this well bring some focus to one of the most consistently funny things on the web, only behind a few sites like the Onion. (Also, Lore mentions that if he gets an idea for one of those random things that used to show up on Brunching Shuttlecocks, like those great Lore cartoons they'll likely end up on his already pretty good blog Slumbering Lungfish.)
News of the Moment
I was pretty happy to hear about the court decision that had Ontario legalizing gay marriage. The other day I heard Christian Right radio's "Focus on the Family" bellyaching about lo, how Canada had fallen, and was wondering what it was all about. They were talking about "the family is precious, and if we don't fight for it we'll lose it" and really, I can barely fathom that kind of thinking. If two people want to commit to each other, what is their problem with the state sanctioning that? If they were really out to protect the concept of "family", you think they'd be encouraging this type of move. I mean, they don't want to let the straight kids see people having sexual fun outside the commitments of marriage, do they? So what are they trying to protect? What are they saying there? "Our monopoly on state-sanctioned relationships is precious..." comes to mind and, well, yeah-- no duh. Maybe since they think homosexuality is a choice, "heterosexuality is precious and if we don't fight for it we'll lose it"? Heh, you wonder. "Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve"...well, if we look to the account of Eden, it seems like Adam and Eve's kids were all about marrying each other, and I don't think Focus on the Family really wants to focus on that kind of family...
Maybe it's...I dunno, all because gay couples can't make kids? There is almost something to that, I suppose. You can't push this logic too far, because then it seems a few steps away from mandating straight couples have children, but any two people who make a family that's just about the two of them (and for all I know, this could include me and Mo) is going to be more "mutually self-centered", and possibly act politically according to that, then a family with kids. On the other hand, a number of "childfree" advocates would say that some of our priorities are too offspring-centric already. "Won't somebody think of the children??", blah blah blah.