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Incepting ourselves
When I wrote about the inaccuracy of the “You weren’t promised flying cars, you were promised an oppressive cyberpunk dystopia” meme, I elided over a few things. One of which is our collective tendency...
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Cousins, part 1
In The Human Blueprint: The Race to Unlock the Secrets of Our Genetic Script, science writer Robert Shapiro at one point explains that if you pick any two people at random on the street, it’s nearly...
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The limits of dreaming
It’s really easy to get caught up in our disappointments. For instance, I’m one of the people who is very sad that the health care reform that is going into effect this October is not a real socialized...
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Getting it right
I sat down to gripe a bit about news coverage, beating dead horses, and about being annoyed at people worrying about the wrong thing. That last one deserves a more thoughtful post than I would write...
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14 beats 11
Raccoon eating Cracker Jacks.Legal argie bargie can be fun. But sometimes, it’s just sad. During the American Revolutionary War (1775-83), the government of the state of Georgia had purchased a large...
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That’s not what persecuted means, part 2
Families in Russia faced actual religious persecution.Besides the incident I wrote about yesterday, the various anti-gay groups, a whole lot of the speakers at the so-called Values Voters Summit, have...
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Why do we need exemptions, exactly?
Religion excuses everything (http://brucegarrett.com)So, the Senate passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, but everyone is certain that the Republican leadership in the House won’t let it come...
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“The decision to marry is a fundamental right”
After pouring tens of millions into the Prop 8 campaign in California, organizing phone banks, and so on…The decision in federal court declaring the Utah state constitution’s ban on same sex marriage a...
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Actions speak louder than words
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bayard Rustin in a file photo from 1956.Not wanting to co-opt another community’s struggle, I don’t usually write anything about Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. But since...
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…with brotherhood?
What’s a hater to do?The song, “America, the Beautiful” got an entire day’s lesson in the Colorado State History class I had to pass in ninth grade. Katherine Lee Bates, an English professor from...
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Lost in time
Why aren’t you up?I wrote last year about how the time change was messing with me worse than usual. This year I can at least blame the frickin’ high pollen counts that have coincided with it. I prefer...
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The more things change…
I keep telling people it wasn’t that long ago that opposition to interracial marriage was stronger than the current opposition to same sex marriage.A common point of contention in discussions of gay...
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“…that mountain top is sure to blow!”
Public domain photo from the USGS of the big eruption on May 18, 1980. “The year was 1980, May 18th, you’ll recall, When daytime turned to nighttime, In the town of Yakima…” I never lived in Yakima,...
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Leopard spots and sheep’s clothing
expreacherman.comTwo leaders of Southern Baptist Churches have recently justified their opposition to gay rights with misleading allusions to the struggle for racial equality. In April, Pastor J.D....
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Grotesque can be elegant
Font names can be very misleading. Say the word ‘gothic’ to most people, and they think of large, imposing old houses with lots of gables, or people dressed all in black with lots of skulls and other...
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About waiting…
I get reminded in weird ways how old I am, sometimes. For instance, there was a discussion happening between some of my online acquaintances about Star Wars, specifically about the original movies...
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That’s not the name of the holiday
usafederalholidays.comI’ve written before about the fact that President’s Day is a myth, the official name of the holiday is Washington’s Birthday Observance. Click the link to read about the history...
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Colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky, also on the faces of people...
The original Pride flag designed by Gilbert Baker in 1978 has 8-stripes. Colors were removed and changed originally due to fabric availability.I don’t remember when I first learned that the Rainbow...
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Please don’t ask me to applaud mighty whitey
Marsha P. Johnson (on the left) was an African-American drag queen/street queen who actually participated in the Stonewall riot and was seen by several witnesses smashing a police car with a brick that...
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Doesn’t my artistic license cover that?
Mythphile.com (Click to embiggen)Several times over the years I’ve gotten into discussions with co-workers (who are also technical writers) about the differences between writing fiction vs technical...
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