Ah, That Old God & Gays Argument...

Oh, hells yeah. Could someone put this right-headed thought and concern upon every politician in America? (God? I'm lookin' at you! Shit. That's just the bathroom mirror.)



Representative Steve Simon (DFL Hopkins/St. Louis Park) says a proposed Minnesota constitutional amendment is largely about religion. He says if sexual orientation is innate as science is showing us, and not a lifestyle choice, then God created gay people. He asks how many gay people must God create before we accept that he wants them around.

Debbie Shank Vindicated, But Our Job Is Not Done

From the good folks at WakeUpWalMart.com:

Over the past few weeks, the Debbie Shank case gave us a tremendous opportunity to teach Wal-Mart a lesson about corporate responsibility.

Check out the Wal-Mart workers' petition to Lee Scott and Shank case overview

Today, the backlash against Wal-Mart's lawsuit finally drove the company to drop its claim on her settlement winnings. Consider this concrete proof that Wal-Mart must change when supporters like you take action.

After years of being dragged through the courts, the Shanks can finally begin to piece their lives back together. We couldn't be happier for Debbie and her family. But, we still can't forget the other Wal-Mart associates who have been treated unfairly by Wal-Mart.

Let's not forget Olga Sanchez, who lost her job because Wal-Mart wouldn't let her see her son before he was deployed to Iraq; or Sean Thornton, who lost his job while he was on active duty. We can't let Wal-Mart forget the 1.6 million women involved in the largest certified gender discrimination lawsuit in history.

We can change America's largest retailer just by raising our voices. That's an amazing thing. If we all remember this day, we'll see better things to come for Wal-Mart's associates.

Do not forget that Wal-Mart intakes 20% of China's GDP, that 80% of its products are from China (no workers' rights, lead, and all), and that it strongarms American companies to produce in China, manipulating the free market and killing American jobs. Oh, and don't forget the assassination of local businesses.

Our job, our duty, is far from over.

Keepin' Out Those Canucks

From DVICE:

The Department of Homeland Security is moving forward with plans to erect a virtual border fence between the United States and our docile neighbors to the north.

Rather than use solid walls the Canadians could breach with a Zamboni, Secretary Michael Chertoff from the the Department of Homeland Security outlined the following measures: "We currently have a combination of infrared seismic sensors which are in the ground, remote and local video surveillance systems, and then of course at the ports of entry we have radiation monitoring devices." Unmanned aerial vehicles may also patrol the area. Similar tech, developed by Boeing, is employed along the US-Mexican border and has met with heavy criticism for the sensors' poor results.

Let me get this straight: Congress passed a law to build part of a big-ass fence on our southern border which we have not built and now we're looking at blocking the Canadians and their funny accents and absurdly-clean cities with unproven technology? With that thing above that looks like it was built by a meth-head in their garage with Gorilla Glue?

Hells yeah! This is 'Merica!

Death and Taxes ...and, mmm Beer

I started this post as a basic Tavern Tax thing, but realized quickly that I've got a couple more updates to make thanks to my "Read it Later" thing.

Tavern Tax

What goes better together than taxes and alcohol? Nothing, really; Mrs. Shambles and I kill two bottles every year prepping our taxes.

And now you can go to the pub. And get your taxes done. No, I'm not joking.

TavernTax.com is currently arranging events at local taverns, but so far it looks pretty local to NJ, oddly enough.

Spray the Riders

I saw this on Reuters the other day:

Indonesian commuters riding on the roofs of trains will be sprayed with colored liquid so that security officers can identify and arrest them, a report said Saturday.

Good job, Indonesia! Your inadequate public transportation has caused a problem and instead of trying to remedy the problem by expanding said public transportation system, you're going to visibly criminalize people who are risking their very lives to get to work every day.

I hope your economy poops on you.

Imagining the 10th Dimension

Rob Bryanton is friggin' hot, and I don't mean in the sexy way that makes me look at men with a wink and a nod.

Imagining the 10th Dimension is a book written by said hot author, but also a completely accessible site that will walk you through the mental exercises you may need to see what String Theory is talking about with multiple dimensions.

This is violently mind-expanding and probably needs several hits; honestly, after being through it twice (and after reading A Brief History of Time and The Universe in a Nutshell), I'm still struggling. Brilliant. Must-read.

Human Rights Campaign: Resolve

It took them quite a long time to get back to me with the embed code, but this video on human rights in America is still very relevant. From the Human Rights Campaign: