Why I like USA Today

#5 - Idol Chatter. I like their American Idol blogger. Sue me.

#4 - The run of Superman comics they published a while back, which was delightfully retro, and their bizarre fixation on cage-wrestling and ultimate fighting.

#3 - Their articles are longer and more in-depth than what I see on other news sites.

#2 - The goof-off stories are more easily discernible as such. On CNN.com, for example, headlines like "Alligator befriends turkey" and "Karzai threatens to join Taliban" are often literally side by side.

#1 - I've yet to detect any bias. Everyone knows MSNBC and the New York Times are left; Fox is crazy right; CNN is just plain crazy, but the headlines and editorial page of USA Today seem straight down the middle. In an age of frothy hyperpartisanship, that's refreshing.

Nathan's Hot Dog Contest

This is not seasonally relevant, but I was organizing my journals in preparation to move and I found an article I clipped from the 4th of July weekend papers in 2008. It's a summary of the annual Coney Island Nathan's hot dog-eating contest and it is hilarious.

Here is my favorite part:

Staring into the weiner abyss, the pair found the pluck to continue, devouring the beef and buns with renewed gusto, before Chestnut finally prevailed to chants of "USA!"

When it was over, Kobayashi was left holding a soggy mush of bun in his hand, and Chestnut had achieved nearly mythical status in the annual event held by Nathan's Famous since 1916.

It was a frankfurter photo finish.

Courtroom Drama, Cont'd

I'm disheartened that last week the Supreme Court weirdly got all up in the District Court's grill and reversed the judge's decision to televise the Prop 8 trial. In this the Supremes sided with the anti-gay side, who feared their witnesses would be intimidated if their faces were made public while they spewed their bigotry on the witness stand. That doesn't seem to bode well.

On the other hand, if this is where we are now, if it's the pro-gays who want to be televised and the anti-gays who are afraid to show their faces, we're getting somewhere!

The New Yorker has a good day-by-day blog of trial news.

Courtroom Drama, Cont'd

Plaintiffs' witness Zing of the Day:

10:33 AM: Thompson — Isn’t it true that people voted for Prop 8 based upon their sincere moral values?

C: Many people opposed desegregation and interracial marriage based upon their sincere moral values.

Courtroom Drama

I'm reading through a liveblog transcript of the The Trial. In some ways it's one of the most interesting things I've ever read, and I'm agog at the level at which the judge is peering into this. It's even left me with a bewildered feeling and I've just realized why: I've gotten so accustomed to listening to politicians, to bullshit talking heads on Sunday morning news shows, spewing dumbed-down bullet-point sound-bites, appealing to Americans' lowest, basest instincts (death panels! the system worked!)... that thoughtful, philosophical, complex discussion on important topics causes a double-take. You mean we can actually, in a public forum, have a discussion about the nature of human identity and love and the role of the state? Wha-wha-what? Why don't we do this more often?

So it begins...

I never thought I'd have so much personally invested in the success of the man who argued George W. Bush into the White House, but that's the case today as superstar Republican lawyer Ted Olson begins a string of trials that will take same-sex marriage to the U.S. Supreme Court for the first time.

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it. At first I suspected Olson was some kind of double-agent who would purposely blow the case and thus close off the Supreme Court as an avenue for gay rights potentially for decades. I feel better about him now, especially after reading his piece in Newsweek, but still, for the record, I think he's crazy. I can't see how he can possibly win. As I understand it, if he does win, every same-sex marriage ban in every state will in one fell swoop be struck down as violating the U.S. Constitution, and same-sex marriage will be legalized everywhere. And if he loses there will be precedent, and the Court doesn't overturn precedent lightly. Those stakes are incredible. Man, this is going to be nerve-wracking beyond belief.

Mr. Olson, if you're reading this: Win, and we'll forget all about that Bush thing, OK?

Sexy windows

I don't know if I'd call energy efficiency "sexy," as President Obama did today, but he's right about it saving money. With my new, super-duper energy efficient windows, purchased with a tax credit last spring, my heating/electric bill for November 2009 was over $100 less than November 2008.*

*Granted the weather was milder this year, but still.

Maine

This World War II vet put a tear in my eye this afternoon.

Pats and Patrick

Me: [reading the morning news] Apparently the Patriots game had quite an ending... and Patrick Swayze died.
Him: Because of the Pats game?!
Me: Um, no.

Twitter

Twitter has always seemed pointless and obnoxious to me, but today I've been fascinated by the twitters coming from Iran and have been following them all day. Literally it's a real-time feed of what's going on there, and it makes traditional news articles seem like stone tablets in comparison. The Boston Globe has a good round-up of twitters, as has Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic (warning that Sullivan's contains graphic pictures).

My current favorite, from some anonymous person in the thick of it:

Ahmadinejad called us Dust, we showed him a sandstorm.

That's first-rate human drama there.

Quote for the Day

Their revolution will be Twittered:

@BabakMehrabani is saying that he was beaten by a baton and his right hand is numb. He is twitting with the left hand.

My my, New Hampshire,

aren't you looking lovely today!

It's OK. If you're a gay. In Uruguay.

The little South American nation of Uruguay lifted its ban on gays in its military today. Your turn, President Obama. Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell needs to go.

Floodgates

I think it's safe to say: they've opened.

Things are starting to move faster than I ever imagined. Iowa and Vermont last month. Maine today. Washington DC (kind of) yesterday. New Hampshire is moments away.

What's most exciting is that this is now being done by the states voluntarily with no court involvement.

Prop 8, as much as it hurt, was a turning point. A final injustice that woke up a lot of people. If you had told me even a year ago that public support nationwide for marriage equality would now be approaching 50%, I would've laughed. But here we are.

I want to do some traveling! There are so many more places I feel like I can go now.

Woohoo, Vermont!

Nice work!

Dear Governor. Cont'd

In sharp contrast to the post below, here is someone seizing his moment. From Iowa today, a state senator, blocking a constitutional amendment there:



Brought a little tear to my eye...

Dear Governor

I'd like to send a big hearty fuck-you to the governor of Vermont, who today vetoed legislation that would allow gay and lesbian couples to marry there.

(The House and Senate will try to override his veto. Here's hoping they have the votes.)

What I can't understand in this matter is the inability of some people, like the governor, regardless of their personal feelings, to understand which way the tide of history is moving and to want to jump into it. I mean really. Don't they get it? Don't these people think of their legacy? Don't they worry about what their grandchildren will think of them? Don't they know they're going to be the George Wallaces of this generation?

Why do some people choose to be the last guardians of a bigoted past, when the future is just about smacking them in the face with the chance to be a hero?

Today would've been the first time same-sex marriage was legalized through purely legislative means. He could've made history. He failed. I hope someday soon he's deeply ashamed.

Iowa

Welcome to the Midwest, baby.

DES MOINES, Iowa - The Iowa Supreme Court says the state's same-sex marriage ban violates the constitutional rights of gay and lesbian couples, making it the third state where gay marriage is legal.

In a unanimous ruling issued Friday, the court upheld a 2007 Polk County District Court judge's ruling that the law was unconstitutional.

Unanimous!

Ponzi!

Number of times during one afternoon listening to NPR that I heard the phrase "Ponzi scheme" after realizing they were saying "Ponzi scheme" a lot:

9

Beauty and the Bong. Cont'd.

Wow. That bump-bump you just heard was Michael Phelps getting thrown under a bus. First he got bounced from his endorsement deal with Kellogg ("Michael's most recent behavior is not consistent with the image of Kellogg," company spokeswoman Susanne Norwitz said) (which seems exactly wrong to me -- what do potheads like more than Froot Loops?). Then he got suspended from swimming competitions. Check the reasoning:

"This is not a situation where any anti-doping rule was violated, but we decided to send a strong message to Michael because he disappointed so many people."

It's amazing how quickly we'll trash our heroes. Wasn't this the guy the whole country was in love with six months ago?

When Superman got a blast of red Kryptonite and developed a psychotic alternate personality and vaporized a planet with his heat vision, did we abandon him? No!

When President Obama failed to thoroughly vet Tom Daschle, did we drop our support? No!

The Phelps Fiasco should similarly have gone no farther than "I'm sorry" and "it's OK, we still want to make out with you."