[Links]
[links] Link salad for yet another hump day
TOC: The Mammoth Book of Steampunk, ed Sean Wallace — Kinda cool.
Lynchburg writer fakes kidnapping to promote new book — Huh? Um… (Snurched from @lilithsaintcrow.)
Surveying eBooks — Andrew Wheeler on some new numbers.
One Math Museum, Many Variables
Walrus and Elephant — This might be my favorite flying boat photo, ever.
Between Grief and Gratitude — A very to-the-point commentary about how people respond to cancer in others. (Via ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=1){kind=small}
joycemocha
Rinderpest, Scourge of Cattle, Is Vanquished — If you’re a humanitarian, read this for the victory. If you’re a writer, read this for the world building details. (Via David Goldman.)
Nebraska nuclear power plant beset by floodwaters — Hey… Guess where I’m going to be next week.
I’m a Climate Scientist — Science fights back. In rap. Hilariously fun. (Thanks to Scrivener’s Error.)
‘Go The F*** To Sleep’ Not Funny — I really have a problem with this commentary. The author is saying, in effect, “this isn’t funny because other people have worse problems.” By that logic, nothing is ever funny, because someone always has a worse problem. It’s similar to the ‘First World problems’ meme, which I detest. Life is not a race to the bottom. We don’t need to apologize for our difficulties. (See my recent ‘Theory of Problems’ post [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ].) Finding humor, or difficulty, in our own lives isn’t invalidated simply because our situations are better off than others’. Can I not laugh at my cancer because someone else’s cancer is worse?
I was wrong about same-sex marriage — A conservative observes that gay marriage alarmism has absolutely failed to come true. Too bad that’s just reality’s liberal bias showing through again.
To Know Us Is to Let Us Love — Who knew that gay people were normal?
Heresy at the National Review Online — Another conservative sees people as people instead of Other, writing about New York’s gay marriage law. Kudos to him.
‘I decided I was going to be the mayor for everybody’ — Slacktivist with another story of what happens when you begin to see people as, well, people, instead of Other. Confidential to conservative America: you really ought to try this sometime.
?otD: Why can’t we spell Wednesday?
6/29/2011
Writing time yesterday: 2.0 hours (Sekrit Projekt, Hugo script draft)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.0 hours (solid)
Weight: 229.2
Currently (re)reading: A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin
Posted: 4:52 am Wed June 29 2011 |
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You are reading the blog of Jay Lake, speculative fiction writer and author of hundreds of short stories, many novels, and winner of the John W. Campbell Award.
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Brad R. Torgersen
June 29th, 2011 at 3:17 pmI’m not sure there will ever be a “one banner” era for conservatives in America — not like during the 80s when there was the Reagan maypole. Mainly because I think moral conservatives have less and less in common with economic conservatives — who often lean libertarian in their moral beliefs.
If you see any softening on gay marriage from the conservative side, you’re going to see it from the economic conservatives first; who had a tough time getting worked up about gay marriage in the first place.
Personally, I believe in equal protection under the law for all law-abiding U.S. citizens regardless of sexual orientation. It’s why I’ve petitioned the Army — during its several recent polls of Active, Guard and Reserve soldiers — to abolish, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” as unlawful and unconstitutional.
At the same time I’m not exactly prepared to use the words — marriage, husband, wife — in the context of homosexual union. I suppose I am just a fuddy-duddy on that count. Perhaps we can create new words to mean the same things, only in the gay and lesbian context? Or, more probably, folks like me will just age off the radar of popular discourse, and kids who never knew those words as being sexuality-specific will just go on about their business.
But yes, there are conservatives who don’t hate on gays. There are far more of us than either the liberal media or the religiously and morally conservative care to admit. (wink)