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Archives for 04/21/2007 - 04/21/2007

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Governor Signs Domestic Partner Law

Posted by on April 21 at 5:36 PM

In their minds, Carol McKinley and Barbara Gibson have been married since a 2001 ceremony at their church. Now, under a measure signed into law by Gov. Chris Gregoire today, they’ll get some of the rights that come with matrimony.

The new law creates a domestic partnership registry with the state, and will provide enhanced rights for same-sex couples, including hospital visitation rights, the ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations and inheritance rights when there is no will.

The law takes effect July 22—here’s hoping my boyfriend doesn’t drop dead before that date, otherwise I won’t have the distinct honor of donating his organs or authorizing his autopsy.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m grateful to have these rights, and we’re going to get DP’d as soon as we can. Mad props, as the kids were recently saying, to Ed Murray, Jamie Pedersen, the Dems in Olympia, and the governor. But we’re really not going to be content until we’ve secured the other, oh, 1200+ rights and obligations that come with marriage.

But, hey, we’ve got those autopsies nailed down. It’s a victory and, considering what the last few years have been like, we’ll take it.

Our Gun Culture

Posted by on April 21 at 5:28 PM

The Virginia Tech shooter—mentally ill, a danger to himself and others—bought his ammo on eBay.

Via Americablog.

Re: It Can’t Happen Here

Posted by on April 21 at 5:13 PM

Joe writes in the comments attached to Josh’s earlier post about the Blue Angels crash in South Carolina…

I think the headline is referring to all the handwringing that comes out of some quarters of Seattle whenever SeaFair rolls around. There are a bunch of people who are terrified one of the Blue Angels is going to fall on their heads (or just object to them on principle but use this as an excuse). The reality is that far more people will die in fiery wrecks in the Seattle area every year while minding their own business — they’ll just be in cars.

Well, speaking as handwringer, my concern that the Blue Angels will fall on our heads someday is genuine, not merely an objection to the noise, waste, and freakin’ pointlessness of it all. (Although I object to all that too.) But whenever I’m like, “One day one of those fucking planes is going to plow into something — a neighborhood, a house, Columbia Tower,” I’m told that It Can’t Happen Here. That the Blue Angels never crash, that there are better things to worry about. (Who says I don’t worry about other things too? Can you only worry about one thing at a time?)

Blue Angel fans are very dismissive when anyone expresses any concern about the potential for a crash—and if one should crash, the loss of life could be pretty spectacular. A jet slamming into an office building or, say, a densely packed neighborhood really can’t compare to a fiery car wreck that kills one or two people.

There’s a reason air shows are held in big empty fields in the middle of freakin’ nowhere. Because it can happen — and despite what we worries have been told over and over and over again, it can happen here.

Now just imagine this

A Navy Blue Angel jet crashed during an air show Saturday, plunging into a neighborhood of small homes and trailers and killing the pilot, the county coroner said. Witnesses said the planes were flying in formation during the show at the Marine Corps Air Station and one dropped below the trees and crashed, sending up clouds of smoke. At least one home was on fire.

Raymond Voegeli, a plumber, was backing out of a driveway when the plane ripped through a grove of pine trees, dousing his truck in flames and debris. He said wreckage hit “plenty of houses and mobile homes.” “It was just a big fireball coming at me,” said Voegeli, 37. “It was just taking pine trees and just clipping them.”

…happening at Broadway and John or First and Pike.

It Can’t Happen Here

Posted by on April 21 at 2:57 PM

BEAUFORT, S.C. (AP) - A Navy F-18 Blue Angel plane crashed during an air show Saturday, according to televised reports. Witnesses said the planes were flying in formation, and then one dropped down below the trees and apparently crashed.

“The next thing I seen was just a big black cloud of smoke,” Gerald Popp, who lives nearby, told CNN.

It was not known if the pilot survived.

At the Blue Angels command headquarters at Pensacola Naval Air Station the petty officer duty said he “had no comment at this time.”

The Mike Daisey Experience: The Video

Posted by on April 21 at 1:26 PM

As monologuist Mike Daisey alerted us yesterday:

Last night’s performance of INVINCIBLE SUMMER [at American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA] was disrupted when eighty-seven members of a Christian group walked out of the show en masse, and chose to physically attack my work by pouring water on and destroying the original of the show outline.

To read Brendan’s original post on the fiasco (and the attendant hubbub in comments) go here.

And to see video of the weird-as-fuck walkout/attack and Daisey’s masterful handling of it, look below.

Today the Stranger Suggests

Posted by on April 21 at 12:00 PM

The Slip

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(Music) For over 10 years, the Slip have chased a sound that refuses to settle. Eisenhower, their recent breakout record, is experimental and sentimental, with tightly wound hooks snagging on intricate, intimate compositions. Hopelessly caught up in the process of self-discovery, the East Coast trio stretches the indie-rock form to its most eloquent and introspective. Generation Whatever might be the most narcissistic of all time, but, judging by the music it makes, it’s also the most talented. With Holy Fuck and Bronze Fawn. (Crocodile, 2200 Second Ave, 441-5611. 9 pm, $15, 21+.) Jonathan Zwickel

What He Said

Posted by on April 21 at 11:26 AM

John Aravosis at Americablog:

Media, please ask every Republican the following question: Do you think we’re winning in Iraq?

The Republicans are so upset, we’re to believe, that Harry Reid said that Bush has lost the Iraq war. Fine. Then they’ve opened the gates to the question as to whether they think we’ve won the war, or at least are winning.

I think it’s time for every Republican member of Congress, starting with GOP Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, and every senior Bush administration official from the president through the Pentagon on down, to say publicly if THEY think we’re winning in Iraq. I want them on the record, publicly, in front of their voters saying that they think we’re winning the war in Iraq. Then let’s see if they get re-elected or laughed out of the room. They’re so brave, answer the question.

So Long, Limbo

Posted by on April 21 at 10:54 AM

My brother Billy was born was born prematurely and a Catholic priest was rushed to the hospital to baptize him and perform last rites. This was done so that Billy would get into heaven if he died and not have to spend all of eternity in limbo.

Looks like my parents needn’t have bothered.

So the Vatican admits that for 500 years the Church got that limbo thing wrong. Wrong. The Church has been wrong? Yeah, they also admitted a few years ago that they wrong about the whole sun-rotates-around-the-earth thing. Maybe one day they’ll admit they were wrong about the gay thing, the condom thing, the birth control thing, the female clergy thing…

Driven to Extinction

Posted by on April 21 at 10:40 AM

So much for the mayor of New York City’s rumored plan to impose “congestion pricing” on idiots that insist in driving into that city’s most congested areas, which Erica wrote about yesterday. The New York Times reports today that any plan to impose fees modeled on the one that reduced traffic congestion in London by 17% would have to be approved by the state legislature—and the opposition of even a single state legislator could derail the whole plan.

Predictably enough, legislators that represent suburban areas have already “expressed concern.” Their constituents, of course, regard the ability to drive their SUVs where ever they like, when ever they like, without a thought for the environment or the quality of life of the people who actually live in, say, the most congested parts of Manhattan, a sacred constitutional right. It’s hard to see this thing happening.

“God Hates the World and All Her People!”

Posted by on April 21 at 9:27 AM

Words fail me.

Is that the ghost of Larry “Bud” Melman there at the end? At what point along the continuum does religious faith become a mental illness? How is it not child abuse to teach this crap to your children? And is it sinful to pray for a workplace shooting at Westboro Baptist Church?