Both Kraft and Ford defend themselves from anti-gay proposals intended to remove protections and support based on sexual orientation (in all matters).  Kraft’s shareholders defeated the measure by more than 99%.  Is anyone paying attention to this nonsense though?  The assault continues at increasing rates and expanded approaches.  I tire of being fodder for the hateful and bigoted.

Virtual Street Reality.  This is very cool.  It’s street art made in such a way so as to appear three dimensional when viewed from the correct angle.  Go look at the pictures; you’ll be very impressed.

A cat survives eight days after being sheetrocked into the wall of a new home.  The cat lost seven pounds while waiting to be rescued.  As one of her original rescuers said after he and his wife finally found her and rescued her again, “She wasted probably five of [her nine lives] in that house over there. She’s got about four left.”

With the USDA’s bizarre assault on red-shouldered hawks in Florida (see this, this, and this) and the pathetic abuse of red-tailed hawks in New York, Texas wants to tell the rest of the nation how to handle these situations: leave them the fuck alone!  That’s right; Baylor Health Care System will not update its billboard, now WAY out of date, until the red-tailed hawks nesting there, as well as their young, have moved on later in the year.  There’s no panic about attacks despite people being threatened by them.  Instead, Baylor wants the sign left alone so the birds can raise their family in peace.  Oh, and that’s what federal law demands; see the Migratory Bird Treaty Reform Act of 1998.  Someone should also let the federal government know about that federal law since it also protects red-shouldered hawks, something they obviously don’t know given how many they’re killing and torturing in Florida (and who knows where else…).  Oh, and someone should also let them know they’re supposed to enforce that law when people violate its tenets.  A perfect example of failing to enforce it is the situation in New York.  Baylor’s makin’ me proud to be a Texan.

You’ve heard about the Republicans wanting to give everyone a $100 rebate check to help with high gas prices.  Don’t get me started on that.  Instead, why don’t you see what a Republican blogger has to say about that idea and the Democratic idea to temporarily suspend gas taxes instead.  Keep ’em at the Teat.  As usual, the devil’s in the details of the Republican proposal, and you won’t like the price you’ll pay for that $100.

I’ve mentioned the 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 comet several times as it is providing us a wonderful show as it breaks apart on its approach to Earth before it makes its nearest pass next month.  Bad Astronomy has some great photos and some discussion about the comet’s history and why it might be falling apart in this spectacular fashion.