Today's Mighty Oak

Written: 1/16/2013

DADT is no more.  Although, as I've mentioned before, there is still work to be done.  The repeal still does not offer transgendered individuals the right to serve in the armed forces.  And now, we have taken another step forward and another step back.

The ACLU has won it's case, allowing those discharged under DADT to receive full separation pay.  It goes back to 2004, and I hope that the branches of the military will also make sure all those thrown out under DADT are changed to receive honorable discharges.

But sadly, in the new defense bill, a clause was inserted, allowing chaplains to harass gay servicemen and servicewomen, without any penalty.  Obama signed it with objections to that specific clause, but sadly, had to sign it.

Still work to be done, sadly.

All my best,

Mike

Written: 1/16/2013

Surprise!  More of your taxes are being used to defend DOMA, even though it is discriminatory and a majority of the country opposes it.

Secretly, speaker Boehner increased the funding to $3 million, from the original budget of half a million.

The case goes before the Supreme Court this spring with a ruling expected in June.  President Obama has refused to defend the law, hence the GOP deciding to do it instead.

All my best,

Mike

Written: 1/16/2013

Pennsylvania saw the election of our first, out gay lawmaker, Brian Sims.

Now, before he was sworn in, a Republican member who was reelected came out, so now we have two gay members in Harrisburg.

Progress, slow, but steady progress.

All my best,

Mike

Written: 1/16/2013

And sadly, no, this is not an Eddie Izzard sketch.

Britain is set to legalize marriage equality, but in a strange twist of fate, they will prohibit the Church of England from performing gay marriages.  Which opens a strange discussion about the separation of church and state, but then again, it's not the United States.

The Church of England will allow gay bishops, even partnered gay bishops, but only if they are celibate.  So barring the fact that they can't get married, at least in a church setting, they have a strange set of requirements, only brought upon themselves.

So, the odd thing, is now Muslims are mad that they are being treated differently.  It's strange, for only the CoE to be treated one way, but being the state religion, I guess they can do that.

Still, it's all very confusing, at least to a damn Yankee across the pond.

All my best,

Mike

Alright, first up, what's been playing non-stop for me.  Sadly, Swedish House Mafia is breaking up, but a good remix:

A great piece over at JoHo about mourning Aaron Schwartz

Hmmmm, more Star Wars movies, that will be running parallel to the next trilogy.

Funny or Die adds commentary to Jodie Foster's bizarre speech.

Fun facts about Morgan Freeman:

That's it for today, have a great one!

Alright, let's see what we have today.  First up:

It  may be almost 70 degrees (and I'm in shorts in January), this is awesome:

The White House has denied the request to construct a Death Star.  But go read the response, someone is a great writer, and a huge nerd, it's awesome!

A magical 3-in-1 connector from CES, seems strange it took this long to come up with this, but it should make Apple users very happy.

The Dark Knight Trilogy, condensed to three minutes.  Spoilers, obviously:

Violence erupts over the AP/Chicago manual wars.  Via The Onion, of course.

For all the Myst geeks out there, this totally reminded me of the entrance to Channelwood:

The Good Men Project takes on bathroom graffiti.  The image is worth clicking through.

What is less popular than root canals, used car salesmen and even Nickleback?  Congress.

I've been listening to this almost non-stop, I think the beginning of it is kind of bland, but halfway though it picks up:

Saving sound in a bottle, pretty cool idea.

Also via The Onion, so true, or at least, close to the truth:

Monks will now accept prayer requests via text, pretty cool!

JoHo has a good post up about the suicide of Aaron Schwartz, one of the founders of Reddit, and one of the creators of RSS.

While there were of course a wide range of things that made me change jobs, this certainly was up there among the top of the list.

Music recreated from The Hobbit, Part 1:

That's it for now, have a great one!

Alright, let's see what we have today.  First up, an amazing story from the world of soccer.  Fans were shouting racial slurs at a player, so the entire time left the pitch.

This is an awesome job.  The benefits are pretty amazing:

A Swiss bank is closing after admitting it helps US citizens evade their taxes.

I think I linked to it before, but the House GOP killed the Violence Against Women Act because this year, it added three extra groups: immigrants, Native Americans and the LGBT community.  So yes, they can agree to protect women if they're white and straight.  But otherwise, nope.

But this is really cute, our youngest Senator:

Scientists have made a model of what Mars may have looked like if it was more Earth-like, i.e. our climate, water coverage and ecosystems.

The sad state of communications:

I kind of hope Taco Bell pulls this off, the press they would get from it would be amazing.  I still have trouble believing an athlete eats that much Taco Bell though.

This is what it looks like when a polar bear wants to eat you:

So....the Pope denounced selfish capitalism:

Don't forget that that throne is encrusted with jewels.

Okay, that's it for now, have a great one everyone!

Alright, let's see what we have today.  First up, today marks a congress of firsts.  Check out the list here.

And let me just say how much I love the Vice President:

But as a reminder, the last GOP controlled house let the Defense of Women act inspire, while simultaneously refusing to vote on Hurricane Sandy relief.  Assholes is the only correct word.

Warning, this is hear-wrenching.  I pretty much lost it.

But to get rid of the bad feelings, the Good Men Project also presents the heroic men of 2012.  Amazing.

And finally, somewhat confusing, a fireworks display in reverse:

Quick update for everyone.

First up, there is a new trailer for Oz, the Great and Powerful that went along with new year's.  I'm pretty excited for it:

And this is something I had never thought of before.  It can be illegal and punishable by death, either legally or by custom, depending on your religion in many parts of the world.  But it can also be punishable by death if you're atheist:

Belgian newspapers are making an interesting point about engagement: