Unba//anced

first - there's a new blogging service (shhh, don't tell blogger!). it's called VOX and it seems pretty cool. i created a blog over there, but i'm not sure if i'll be using that one over this. i'll give them one thing....their templates are way nicer than blogger's.

second - i've noticed that semantics is playing a big role in politics lately and apparently the american public isn't as media literate as they need to be. for example (from the Chicago Tribune):

In a ruling that could make New Jersey the second state to legalize same-sex marriage, the state Supreme Court said Wednesday that gay couples have the same right to the benefits of marriage as heterosexual couples.

The court, whose decision had been awaited for months by advocates on both sides of the contentious debate over same-sex unions, said the New Jersey Constitution's guarantee of equal rights applies to gay and lesbian couples, but it stopped short of ordering state officials to legalize gay marriage.

Instead, it gave the Legislature until April to amend the state's marriage statute to include same-sex couples or to pass a civil union law that provides those couples the same benefits as marriage.

Now, i think it's great that good old jersey is letting everyone get married, but seriously, you can't just call it marriage? it will be exactly the same thing as marriage, but it has to be called something else. why is everyone so up in arms over one stupid word that some religious fanatics have taken over to define their narrow view. and as pointed out by others before, there are plenty of heterosexual couples who don't take marriage seriously and divorce multiple times (hello celebs!), but it's ok for them to do that because it's between a man and a woman. i know i can't be the only one to find this completely ridiculous.

and there's plenty of other examples i hear every morning listening to NPR and their coverage of the upcoming elections. politicians think they can get away with manipulating language to fool the public, but i'm going to do what i can to make sure that doesn't happen - like educating the kids i work with on being savvy about language and becoming more media literate.

which leads me to three - i hate when parents (and i'm not talking about the ones i personally know) say (more like proclaim and boast) that parenthood makes them less selfish. when someone says that, run - sure, they may think about their own immediate gratifications less, but they are the parents that think their kids do no wrong and act like because they have kids that they are more important than anyone else and deserve special privileges. i just want to point out that all you've done is had sex, gotten (or got someone) pregnant and gave birth. that's a biological function that we have control over now. why does that make you so much better than someone like me, who figures it's better to help the screwed up kids already here and devotes my working life to that? f'n a-holes. [i just found this funny article about parenthood that says something similar]

fourth - why hasn't a bigger deal been made about the FBI raid on a Los Alamos employee's home? [see this article and this article] seems to me that homeland security should be sweating bullets and giving up some answers as to why an employee who was working there up to two weeks ago was (1) being busted for methamphetamines and (2) had classified disks in her mobile home.

lastly - gw is such a genius yet again. he's been quoted as saying "internets" when referring to using the internet. and now he said that he's used "the google." i almost hope he's doing things like this on purpose as part of a brilliant strategy to show he's still a "man of the people," because the alternative (that he thinks he's right) is just too scary.

current mood: just getting through "the friday"
current noise: "a perfect day elise" by pj harvey