Month: November 2004

Categories
Legal Issues Personal

The new segregation

So, in reflection of the results from the election, I have a few more thoughts about the fallout.

I fail to see how any rational human being can’t see the connection between “gay marriage is wrong” and “interracial marriage is wrong.” They are both stupid, bigoted, irrational beliefs. Yes, I understand that all the fundamentalists and evangelicals and other loons believe that to be gay is a sin. Guess what? They are wrong. Just like people who believed fervently that racial divisions were somehow illustrative of real divisions of importance and agency were wrong.

The fact that the people of 11 states passed laws/amendments that ban gay marriage in their state both sickens and concerns me. They do realize that there are gay people in their states, right? And that they do things like, oh…work, and pay taxes? The LGBTQ communities in these states should be apoplectic with rage about now, and I say they show the states how unfair and backwards and blindingly silly that these amendments are.

Move. Go to a state that doesn’t treat you like a sub-human. If the states see a drop in the economic structure due to a mass exodus, perhaps someone will notice. Support studies that show that LGBTQ parents that raise children do so as well or better than heterosexual couples. Let your state know that to discriminate on the basis of sexual preference is no different than discrimination on the basis of race. The fight for racial equality in this country took many hundreds of years, and is still ongoing. The LGBTQ community has a fight on their hands, and it’s important that those of us who are not members of that community recognize and work with them to fix the harm that has been done this week.

I’m confused, angered, and more than a little embarrassed at the fact that these amendments passed…it’s going to take a long time for me to trust in my country again.

Categories
Digital Culture

Bush 254 274, Kerry 252

FURTHER EDIT: For those of us who have joked about expat’ing, CNN says that you’ll have quite a wait to get into Canada.

Canadian officials made clear on Wednesday that any U.S. citizens so fed up with Bush that they want to make a fresh start up north would have to stand in line like any other would-be immigrants — a wait that can take up to a year.

EDIT: Kerry calls to concede.

And so it comes down, as many thought, to Ohio. 135,000 votes seperate the two in that state, with estimates of 125,000 to 170,000 provisional votes in question.

So, unless there is some amazing percentage of provisional voters that went for Kerry, it appears that Bush will come away with the 20 Electoral Votes from Ohio, and thus the presidency.

In addition, the Republican party came away with a majority in both the Senate and House of Representatives and picked off Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle.

I am, quite frankly, speechless. Especially in the South, the Republican party just destroyed the Democratic party in nearly every race. The Republican Party has done such a good job in appealing to the “single issue” voters (Abortion, Gun Control, the Religious Right, Gay Marriage) that seemingly people in the rural south don’t seem to understand that George Bush, his cabinet, and the entire National Republican Party hates their guts. They must, to have so royally screwed them economically for the last 4 years.

More as the day goes on.

Categories
Digital Culture

Today is the day

I expect that there will be much, much excitement around the country today. We’ve already had a reporter beaten up by police, voters not given the choice of a paper ballot, and a documented hard-crash of an electronic voting machine, Among other issues.

I don’t really expect any voting issues at Sewanee Elementary School when I go to vote later today, but I know that in certain parts of the country there have been issues that should lead people to think that an overhaul may be necessary to our antiquated and overburdened system of voting. What’s the answer? I have no idea…the issues of ease of voting and security often are at odds. With voting in the US, you have the standard security issues of Authentication and Verification. How to reconcile those with ease of use is a difficult problem. I say we hire Bruce Schneier and set him to the problem.

In any case, we’ve invited over a few friends, and I expect we’ll be up late watching returns and hoping beyond hope that Kerry will pull out an upset in OH or PA. If not, and Bush wins, does anyone know a comfy country for an expat Spanish professor and her reference librarian husband?

Categories
Digital Culture

So I’ve been obsessed lately…

…with doing random genealogical searches on part of my family history. Not really sure why, just decided to start poking around one day.

I need to get all the details from my father, who has a real genealogical tracing of his mother’s family, the Lyons family. Here’s the somewhat cool skinny on the family…

Originally French, Edgar de Leon moved into Scotland in the 11th Century to oppose his uncle Donald Bane. Successful, he was awarded lands in an area called Perthshire, which would later become named Glen Lyon. The family dwelt here for some centuries, until in 1372 Sir John Lyon (called The White Lyon because of his complexion) was given the thanage of Glamis by Robert II, and was so highly regarded that he married the Princess Joanna thus making the Lyon family a royal one. The family has descended from them.

Interesting facts about the family:

  • They were a Sept of the Clan Farquharson.
  • They called the Castle Glamis home.
  • The Castle Glamis is the setting for Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
  • One of them, Janet Douglas nee Lady Glamis, was burned at the stake on the castle hill at Edinburgh on 3 December 1540.
  • In 1606 the Ninth Lord Glamis became the Earl of Kinghorne, Viscount Lyon and Baron Glamis.
  • In 1677 the third Earl of Kinghorne obtained a new patent of nobility, being styled thereafter Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne Viscount Lyon, Baron Glamis, Tannadyce, Sidlaw and Strathdichtie.
  • In 1775 Matthew Lyon and his wife Mary landed on the shores of North Carolina.
  • Who is the youngest daughter of the 14th Earl of Strathmore? You guessed it…HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Glamis was her childhood home.