California Overturns Bigotry

In a monumental victory for the gay rights movement, the California Supreme Court overturned a voter-approved ban on gay marriage Thursday in a ruling that would allow same-sex couples in the nation's biggest state to tie the knot.

Domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage, the justices ruled 4-3 in striking down the ban.

This is exactly what the right wing calls "activist" judiciary, but in reality is what us educated folks call "checks and balances." Even if you vote on limiting the rights of certain individuals, our constitution - and judges serving true - will not stand for ignorance.

It's not a be-all, end-all, but a happy step in the right direction for human rights.

Now, if we could get someone to not just decriminalize but fully legalize marijuana, we'd be kicking some ass. Unfortunately, our government, in sanctimonious bullshittery (similar to "protecting marriage"), ignores all scientific data in order to spend billions in tax dollars as opposed to legalizing and accepting tax monies.

URGENT! Orphan Works Act of 2008

'Girl Sketching' - Sir Henry Raeburn (1756 - 1823)

If you're aware of current copyright law, you know that as soon as you create something - written piece, sketch, composition, sculpture, anything creative - it is immediately copyrighted. This copyright is good for your lifetime + 70 years. The Orphan Works Act will destroy this structure.

From Drawn! Blog:

This new Orphan Works legislation proposes a change in U.S. copyright that would (indirectly) require artists, illustrators, photographers, and any creative individual to actively maintain and defend their copyright by registering each and every work with privatized registrars. Failure to do so would leave everything you’ve ever created as an artist up for grabs by anyone who wanted to copy, reproduce, create derivative works of, or flat out steal your work since the act defines an “orphan work” as any work where the author is unidentifiable or unlocatable, and applies to both published and unpublished works, U.S. and foreign, regardless of age.

Main points based on research and interviews:

• This piece of legislation was written under the guidance of Peter Jaszi, a deconstructionist who believes all creativity is - and should legally be - communal


• This specifically affects pictorial, graphic, and sculpture works


• Nothing you have ever created or will create will be protected, even if you've already copyrighted it


• The only way to protect your works will be to pay a fee to Commercial Registries


• Commercial Registries do not currently exist


• Congressional representatives state that Commercial Registries will be created by the private sector - without regulation, oversight, or standardization


• It is your responsibility to monitor any infringement and your burden of proof should you discover such - your legal financial burden as well

There is terrible, terrible money here, and the reversal of logic running against international law is terrifying and mind-boggling. Basically, nothing created will be protected. And once these political asshats get a taste, how long before you think they'll generalize it to anything written or filmed (although filmed probably falls under "pictorial").

This is a horror and a fucking travesty. Listen to this interview with Illustrator Brad Holland for a more thorough and chilling view of exactly what this legislation means. Check out S.2913: Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008 and H.R.5889: Orphan Works Act of 2008.

Got that? Good. Now contact your congressional representatives. Now. Use these templates to automatically send emails or find and write your rep through the government site. The Illustrators' Partnership of America has plenty more information.

This is frightening. Act now.

Real American Heroes: G.I. Joe

These images are all over the internets about the upcoming G.I. Joe movie and I'm probably a few days late on it, I'm giddy like I'm 9 again and here it is (images raped from JoBlo.com):


Destro - Brilliant actor, but I want some metal face.


Hawk - Dennis Quaid is on the look.


Scarlett - Impressive, but I'm missing on that yellow suit and grey turtleneck. Sorry, we treasure our childhood fantasies.


The Baroness - I'd like three slices of smokin' evil please - oh, it's already here! Mmmm...


Storm Shadow - Bad ass and sword brothers with...


Snake Eyes - Helicopter blades, blind ninja, tragedy, strength, beauty. Raw awesome.

Honestly, I want to see Shipwreck. Was always partial to him from the amnesia 2-parter "It's Always Sunny in Springfield."

"Frogs in winter!"

No, you can't take the kid out of the dork or the dork out of the kid. Damn you if you tried.

UPDATE: IMDB Page. The Rock as Shipwreck? Really? Where's Flint? Lady Jaye? Spirit? Snow Job? Xomat and Tomax? The Dreadnoks? I guess you can't have it all.

But no Lady Jaye?

How about a G.I. Joe website for you to waste half your day reminiscing about episodes? I'm done. Hit the Roll Call and Character Pages to dig deep.

Digg & Stumble - Good Times

You may just realize that I've now added a couple little buttons at the bottom of each post. You will now see representatives from:

Digg:



and StumbleUpon:



Down at the bottom, next to the Comments link, you can now click and share your favorite Ricky Shambles posts with other users of Digg and StumbleUpon.

Don't have a Digg login? Don't have a StumbleUpon login? Why not? Don't you love freedom and Jesus and fuzzy kittens?

Well?

Get on the stick!

Speed Racer, Christina Ricci

Christina Ricci is in Speed Racer, and I will be seeing the movie solely for that fact.

Yum.

Cum and Cat Piss: Spring in Bloom!

How's you're Spring coming? My olfactory senses have been pummeled by the usual strange and suddenly new scents of the blooming flora of lovely Cincinnati, Ohio.

The first scent I'd like to talk about began affecting me sometime between 12 and 14, when I realized exactly what I was smelling. This is the Bradford Pear tree:



The Bradford Pear tree, when in bloom, smells like semen. That's right: cum. I don't know what else to say about it, really; if you've smelled it, you know it.

More importantly, the past week or two I've been haunted by a new blooming smell here in the Miami River Valley: cat pee. Something that is blooming around here smells like feline urine.

The weird thing? I'm one of very few people who can smell it. The wife, the daughter, and even the visiting in-laws think I'm losing my mind. But I've found some vague evidence that I'm not. Specifically, a report by a mother that talks about how her daughter cannot be in the same room with Paperwhites because they smell like cat urine.



It's my best lead yet, thought I have yet to track them down in the neighborhood.

Anyone else aware of a flowering plant that smells like cat urine that not everyone can smell?

UPDATE: Cat pee smell is juniper. Hurting for the next month or two.