Flag burning and gay marriage

From Crooks and Liars (a transcript of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s interview on Faux News):

HOST: You talk about a lot of issues that affect people’s lives. And yet you’re going to bring two constitutional amendments to the Senate floor in the next few weeks, one to ban same-sex marriage, another to ban flag-burning, both reportedly in the papers to mobilize your conservative base. I have to tell you, I talked to a Republican senator this week who said he may vote for both of them but said they’re both pandering. Are gay marriage and flag burning the most important issues the Senate can be addressing in June of 2006?

FRIST: Let me tell you what the agenda is real quick. Secure America’s safety here at home. I mentioned supporting our troops overseas, making sure we pass that supplemental bill, making sure we tighten down our borders. securing America, a healthier America, so we’ll continiue [sic] to –

HOST: All right. But …

FRIST: Let me tell you, right now there’s no prioritization there. Securing America’’ values. I hope tomorrow and today as people see that American flag, and I’m going to Arlington cemetery tomorrow and I’m going to see that flag waving on every grave over there. When you look at that flag and you tell me that right now people in this country are saying it’’ okay to desecrate that flag and to burn it and to not pay respect to it, is that important to our values as a people when we’ve got 130,000 people fighting for our freedom and liberty today? That is important. It may not be important here in Washington where people say, well, it’s political posturing and all, but it’s important to the heart and soul of the American people.

Marriage — marriage, you asked about. Right now. Why marriage today? Marriage is for our society that union between a man and a woman, is the cornerstone of our society. It is under attack today. Right now there are 13 states who passed constitutional amendments in the last year and a half to protect marriage. Why? Because in nine states today, activist judges, unelected activist judges are tearing down state laws in nine states today. That’s why I will take it to the floor of the Senate, simply define marriage as the union between a man and a woman.

He is right, poppets.  Gay marriage and flag burning are the most critical issues we face.  After all, our educational system is the best in the world; we have absolutely no crime; universal health care is available to everyone; poverty does not exist; no American has retirement concerns; anyone who wants a job has one; state and national budgets are balanced and sound without a bit of debt; the denizens of our great nation are not overburdened by taxes, and our tax system is fair and simple; we have cleaned up the environment and now tend it for the sake of future generations of humanity; there are no endangered species; anthropogenic global warming is but a memory; homelessness is a thing of the past; Congress is free of corruption and influenced only by the sole protected class in the Constitution: citizens; there remains no shred of the torturous practices once inflicted on others by our military and intelligence apparatus; roads and highways are faultless and never overcrowded; our nation is a shining beacon of civilization crowned with promise, equality, civility, benevolence, and fairness; immigration no longer vexes us; and our most blessed Constitution is upheld with the highest standards in seeing to it that liberty is protected at all costs.

I can not comprehend how anyone could question these heartwarming Republican priorities.  With everything we have accomplished thus far, let us now turn our attention to the concerns of protecting marriage from constitutional equal protection and turning down the free speech knob in order to protect our nation’s flag.  We can, through these steps, demonstrate our tolerance, egalitarianism, firmly held belief in freedom of expression, and respect of the Constitution as a declaration of rights and freedom and protections.  I am overjoyed at this display of our nation’s founding principles.

Open thread

And you wonder why I hate people…  It is believed that more than 40 climbers walked by a dying man on their way to the top of Mount Everest.  The British mountaineer lay beside the path dying of oxygen deprivation while dozens of other folks just ignored him so they could focus on their own attempt to reach the summit.  How disgusting.  Yes, I’m a cynic and I’ll admit it, but can you blame me when you see things like this?  I think not.

Weekend Cat Blogging #51 is up and running, so go satisfy your feline fetish.

The White House is using the state secrets privilege in an attempt to kill the other NSA domestic spying lawsuits.

Have you ever wondered what it was like at the end of the first Star Wars movie when Darth Vader had to tell the Emperor (Darth Sidius) that the Death Star had been destroyed?  How do you think that conversation went?  Well, now we know.  It’s absolutely hysterical.

Check out these clouds!.  Phenomenal pictures of stunning formations.  [via Gay Orbit]

That didn’t take very long

It was about quarter of six this morning when I heard the mockingbirds outside trumpeting the approach of a cat by way of their normal belligerence.  As I was already awake and just lying in bed visiting with the four rulers of my universe, I went ahead and got up.  I walked to the patio doors in the bedroom and glanced out to see if it was Vazra.  It was indeed him, and the moment he saw me peek through the blinds he leaped onto the fence and began talking.

I certainly comprehend orders when they’re directed at me, so I fetched some bowls from the kitchen, filled one with food and the other with water, and went out to the patio.  He was not immediately interested in eating or drinking but did have his sights set on some lovin’.  I spent several minutes petting him and talking to him while he soaked it up like a sponge.  Eventually, however, he made his way to the bowls and enjoyed some breakfast and a drink of fresh water.  Then it was back to the lovin’ part of his morning.

Perhaps ten minutes passed as he alternately ate and demanded attention.  As he was beginning to consider what he might do next, he again leaped on top of the fence and soaked up some more petting as he talked and groomed and talked some more.  Finally, once he’d had his fill, he jumped down off the fence and headed off to find an adventure or two — or at least some trouble to get into.

It’s important that I note the sun is not quite up at that time of the morning, but it is close enough to the horizon to be relatively light outside.  It certainly is not dark enough to hide anything or anyone.

Well, Vazra sauntered off around the building and I decided to start my day, so I went inside and brushed my teeth.  Consider that it only takes about five minutes for me to complete that process, after which I gargle some Listerine.  Needless to say, I started my mouthwash rinse and walked back out to the patio to enjoy the morning before it got away from me.  It could not have been more than six or seven minutes since I was last out there with the cat.

I opened the door and stepped outside.  Much to my surprise, I was not alone on the patio, but I also was not sharing it with a cat.  There was an opossum sitting with the food bowl flipped up on its side as he nibbled away.  We were no more than three feet (a meter) apart.  For a brief moment, I was actually frightened because I had not expected any of the local wildlife to be out and about this early, nor did I think there had been sufficient time for anyone other than Vazra to realize the buffet was now open on the patio.  I was basically startled by the little fella as I’d expected him to have gone home by now.

The opossum turned and looked at me as I burst into his personal space.  One of his front paws held the food bowl in place on its side while he turned in my direction and stared.

“Hey, what are you doing out at this time of the morning?  And didn’t you get enough last night when I fed you?”  Of course, I didn’t expect an answer.

The little critter immediately let go of the bowl and headed away from me to the opposite end of the patio.  Once there, he made his best effort to get through the fence, but panic has a way of interfering with our best plans.  He couldn’t get out.

I rushed inside to grab the camera and hastily made my way back to the patio.  Glancing through the windows as I went, it occurred to me that he was no longer where he had just been.  Perhaps he already got out.

With camera in hand, I stepped out to the patio and froze.  He was still there.  In fact, standing just outside the bedroom door placed us within two feet (less than a meter) of each other.  Again he froze just as I did, and we stayed in that position for only a few brief seconds.  I could almost hear the cogs of his mind as they churned over and over trying to determine what the next best step would be: flee or pass out?

We both acted simultaneously.  I turned the camera on as he turned and ran to the fence.  I changed the camera settings as he began struggling to get through the tiny spaces he seems so capable of traversing.  I lifted the camera to my face as he squeezed through.  By the time I was ready to snap a photo, he was already outside the fence and dashing around the corner.

Oh well.  It was fun while it lasted, and it certainly clarifies the schedule for these little visits.  They can happen anytime.

Phylogeny of my site

This graphic was created by a cool java applet that traverses a web site and translates it into its various components.  That information is then rendered in this format.  In less than specific biological terms, it’s the phylogeny of my site.

That gray ball with the black center shown at the bottom is the very top of the page (the header), then the cluster on the left is all of the post data and the cluster on the right is the sidebar data.  Very cool, if not a bit nerdy.  One of the neatest aspects of this is to watch it form as the applet builds the representation of a site.

Graph of xenogere

What do the colors mean?
blue: for links (the A tag)
red: for tables (TABLE, TR and TD tags)
green: for the DIV tag
violet: for images (the IMG tag)
yellow: for forms (FORM, INPUT, TEXTAREA, SELECT and OPTION tags)
orange: for linebreaks and blockquotes (BR, P, and BLOCKQUOTE tags)
black: the HTML tag, the root node
gray: all other tags

[via PZ]