Friday, February 1, 2008

Sorry about the silence

Complete and utter chaos, would be an understatement. Life is absolutely insane these days. But I do have several issues that have been grinding at me, that I hope to hit on soonish. Not sure what the priorities will come out as, but here are the topics;

The abolition of marriage as a civil institution, beyond marriage equality for GLTs. More and more, I am finding that I am far from alone on this. I have a lot to say on this issue, but in short, even allowing gay marriage, would still restrict marriage rights to those who are in, or are willing to claim to be in a romantic relationship. I for one, find this ridiculous.

The absurdity of simplistic dichotomies (to steal a phrase from my brother). As the primaries are getting into full steam, the stench of partisan politics is enough to make the strongest of iron stomachs retch. From republicrats, to the conservative/liberal dichotomy, where do I fit in? Where do you? When you really think about it, do the labels we are pegged with really fit, even if they are self imposed? I am prochoice, progayrights, for ending the drug war and believe in a comprehensive, if a not so comfy welfare state. I am also progun, fiscally conservative and dead against affirmative action.

Private security contractors in America. Another topic my bro has written a lot about lately, I would like to hit on it from a different angle. Though this article does a particularly great job of expressing what the America with PSC's might look like, I think it's important to look at where they already are. Do you have PSC's operating in your towns business district? Portland does and it is a problem.

The War on Vice. Because gods know, the guy down the street smoking a joint is causing irreparable damage to your lifestyle. Especially if he has a hooker once in a while. And that friendly poker game in his basement once a week, how dare he skirt the state and native monopoly on gambling. So lets spend billions upon billions annually, persecuting these folks. Lets continue to incarcerate a larger percentage of our population than any other country* in the world. Yeah! We're number one!

*Keeping in mind that China tends to execute, rather than incarcerate. And they're not alone.

There are these and more. Including more on ADHD, bipolar and neurodiversity. More discussions of rights in the abstract. More thoughts on euthanasia. More about denialism. And a discussion about about CAM "medicine" and a (hopefully) soon to be published print article, by your's truly. Indeed, if all goes well, I will have a print article out, about the HIV/AIDS denial (and denialism in general) as well as the CAM article.

So what do you think I should focus on first?

By and by, my baby has discovered the things that flop around him are hands and he controls them. He has also started smiling and giggling, though the giggles are rather a disturbing sound. Unfortunately, he seems to have some distaste for the camera, so the smiles are yet unrecorded.
Homeschooling is definitely starting to come together, though it is slow and unweildy as of yet. But we have found even more resources and are starting to get a stride.

5 comments:

Beth said...

I would say focus on whatever irks you the most first!

P.S. No apologies needed for your silence, you have much on your plate and I am glad to hear home schooling is going well and that David seems well, too.

Beth said...

Although if you still can't decide, I think the security contractors topic sounds disturbing.

Anonymous said...

I agree with you about marriage being restrictive, in that you have to declare to the state your willingness to stick together.

On a pragmatic basis, however, I think it's less likely that we can do away with marriage than that we can gain same-sex marriage.

And maybe I'm a total collaborator, but I think civil unions are even more likely than same-sex marriage, so we should shoot for them if we can't get SSM. Is it possible to be a pragmatic libertarian? :)

Congrats on the baby! My youngest is now 5, and there are a lot of things I miss about the baby years.

Anonymous said...

I vote for marriage issues. I am always interested in your comments on them over at Dispatches. I would love to see something like a 'domestic contract' that doesn't care if the people involved are romaticly linked (or even if there are more than two). Seems to me that it would encourage community and help people take care of each other. I can't understand why the government wouldn't want that... oh right. The government.

I'm also glad your baby is doing well, infants can be a handful. I don't have any myself, but I was raised LDS and my mom did in-home daycare so I have been around more babies than I can count. The first few months are always my favorite, expecialy once they start smiling and cooing. Of course, then they start running and talking (read: arguing)...

DuWayne Brayton said...

So I was going to do the security contractors, but have since started working on a post about simplistic dichotomies and absurd generalizations. I really should get into the marriage issue as well, but it will probably be a ways down the list.

Getting into the misogyny debate, really got me cranked on the idiotic conservative/liberal dichotomy in general, something that's been broiling a lot lately. Probably be up tomorrow, if I can actually ignore other blogs long enough to finish it.