http://muttscomics.com/art/dailyarchive.asp?month=10&date=24&year=2009

http://muttscomics.com/art/dailyarchive.asp?month=10&date=23&year=2009

The empire strikes back

RSS feeds again

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Wii have killer CSI Deadly Intent contests!

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Enveloped in postcards

Photos of the week

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• Slightly more than half of Maine: I am so done with you, social conservatives. I tried to pretend that maybe your behavior was a result of "being dumb," but more and more your ignorance is indistinguishable from hate. Besides, you really should be spending the millions of dollars you obtained (by spreading lies) fighting poverty/hunger/genocide rather than trying to run other people's lives... especially when your "mandate" has thinned from 20% to 3% in the past few years. You're fighting a very expensive battle and you're eventually going to lose anyway. Is this really what Jesus would do? I think he would be making this face at you right now: >:[
  
  My advice to you: (a) Read the writing on the wall, and (b) Get a life and stay the fuck out of mine. If not, (c) Eat horseshit and subsequently die in a fire. Fuck you.
  
  And gay activists: We probably have more important things to spend money on right now, too. For example, the GLBT youth suicide rate is still very scary and somewhat more urgent. :/


• My laptop: So yesterday I was trying to sync a bunch of data and update all my Mac software in preparation for (wait for it) backing up all of my data. I have a new, shiny 1TB external hard drive, and so I'm finally going to take that one easy, sanity-preserving step.
  
  But not is all right in the kingdom of my computers! After my laptop restarts to install a bunch of updates it presents me with a dialog box which proclaims that some of the update files were corrupted (somehow) and gives me one button: Restart. I restart and I get the gray screen of death, something about a kernel panic, and instructions on how to restart my computer manually in four languages. Ruh-roh!
  
  So I take it to the Apple store in SF where I wait for my appointment (along with a ridiculously hot redheaded blue-eyed guy in full racing leathers). The computery guy boots OSX off an external hard drive and then runs disk utility on Severian II. Looks like I have bad sectors? But the hard drive is showing up, so there is some hope! As soon as I get home I install Leopard on my 1TB external and boot my laptop that way, and sure enough, my documents seem to be intact.
  
  Still not sure about the laptop's internal, though. Possibly I just need to wipe it and do a fresh install (of Snow Leopard, finally!), and if not I'll just get it (the HD) replaced. Because I have all the money and time in the world! Woog.


• Math software: The most relevant stuff for me works only in Sage, which is open source and exhibits the typical open-source-project problems. It also strongly types, which is annoying because I want to treat modular forms both as elements in a graded ring and elements in a vector space, and so far I can't figure out how to let them wear both hats simultaneously (I want a basis for a space of cusp forms but I also want to multiply them together).
  
  I'm having lunch with William Stein in half an hour and maybe there's a work around (edit: he told me how to do things!), but still. I wish I could have the syntactic simplicity and beauty of Mathematica with the versatility of Magma and Sage all in one program, but it is not to be.

http://muttscomics.com/art/dailyarchive.asp?month=10&date=22&year=2009

It is time we wake up and acknowledge that the GLBT fight for equality is the world’s first “Civil Likes” movement. Each year, a popularity contest is held somewhere on the map and if the locals find us likeable our families are protected. If the natives have a negative view of gay people, we remain second-class citizens.

Given this reality we have to make a major choice.

We can declare the current process a disgusting and humiliating insult to our humanity and opt out of all future referendums. The movement would make the case to the nation why such votes are anathema to American values and in the process educate people about our families and quest for equality. A powerful campaign of continued and sustainable civil disobedience would have to supplement this strategy.

Or, we can continue to participate in degrading referendums. But, if we do so, we have to stop pretending that the majority of the American people understand the U.S. Constitution, much less the notion of equality. Those who vote against GLBT rights simply do not like gay people and their antipathy, often masked by religious bigotry, overrides the idea of equal protection. What our public relations experts will have to figure out ways to make us more likeable and overcome such objections.

This idea of sucking up to voters is as nauseating as it is un-American. Reality, however, necessitates unless we opt out of the process, we have to sober up and admit that we are perennially running for Prom Queen, yet have failed to take home the crown.

First and foremost, Enough!

We have poured over $100,000,000 in the last two years into efforts where Americans feel it is there obligation to vote on our freedom. The entire concept is repugnant and disgusting....

Second, call this campaign against us what it is - Gay Apartheid.

Refuse to allow any of our fellow Americans, President Obama or our allies to view this as a political issue who time hasn't quite come. America is in the process of creating a system of Gay Apartheid. We will not quietly sit and accept it. All over the place, this nation is creating one set of laws for LGBT Americans and another set for all other Americans. That is the classic definition of Apartheid. Either our political allies are for Gay Apartheid or against it. If they are against it, they must fight with us and no longer duck like President Obama did in Maine and Washington. There is no half way in fighting Apartheid....

Third, it is clear that the political establishment in Washington doesn't understand that we no longer willing to wait until it meets their timetable or political needs.

President Obama standing on the sidelines in Maine and Washington was appalling. The failure of our national organizations and leaders to demand his involvement was equally appalling. The outrageous act of the Democratic National Committee sending an email into Maine asking Maine Democrats to call into NEW JERSEY instead of to support the fight against bigotry was unbelievable. No one gets to sit on the sidelines in an epic battle against apartheid and no one gets a free pass. If you want our support, you have to earn it...

Does anyone think after yesterday election results and the upcoming 2010 election, Obama has the ability to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and "DOMA" next year? Does anyone really believe we haven't already missed a historic opportunity in the first 10 months of this year? Only a courageous fighting President and Congress can now help turn us this around and that we have not seen so far. Enough.