Bits and bobs, odds and ends.
To start off the morning, Kaine won the 1,500 comments contest and is now the proud owner of a horribly pink 1GB Sandisk Sansa MP3 player with FM tuner and voice recording capabilities. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but Kaine, I’ll be e-mailing you (I owe you one anyway, and got a little sidetracked) regarding where you want the MP3 player sent. Poor Lessa; missed it by just one.
This weekend, we’ll be having a comment party. Yes, a comment party, as weird as that bloody well sounds. The basic idea is this: at midnight CST on Friday, I’ll put up a post solely for the sake of commenting, explaining the full rules of the party…ish…thing. The purpose is to hit 100 comments to that post alone (comments to other posts won’t count) over the course of the weekend. You can’t just spam the hell out of the post, but like I said, the post itself will explain the rules. Whoever gets the 100th post will get a t-shirt in the Cafepress style of their choice with either the pink/blue or red/blue design posted in yesterday’s comic. There may be a runner-up prize for #101. I’d say if we really wanted to, we could hit 100 posts in one day; hell, if Hikaru and I start bickering, we can manage 50 of those ourselves in just a few hours.
Moving on to the usual mini-discussions of news that occur when Adri just isn’t in the mood for a high-blood-pressure sermon:
Arthritic, sporty, gay? Your finger ratio may tell you: Although it’s pretty common knowledge that apparently the lengths of your fingers in relation to each other can determine whether or not you’re good at math, researchers have also found a correlation between various other traits and the lengths of particular fingers. Long ring fingers indicate a likelihood for osteoarthritis; “male” finger ratios hint at lesbianism. I keep surveying my hands looking for “female” finger ratios to see if that’s supposed to be an indicator of my status as a fabulous king (one queen comment and I skin you) of gay snark. Funny how this one finger in the middle keeps popping up a bit higher than the others…
Gay bar’s straight bouncer wins discrimination suit: A straight woman who worked as a bouncer in a UK gay bar often dealt with harassing comments about her sexuality - a reversal of the usual harassment of homosexuals. She also claims she was fired for it and that her employer often called her a “breeder”; while the court determined that her firing had nothing to do with her sexuality, she was still awarded a settlement for facing discrimination in the workplace - and right well she should be. I still don’t know where we get this idea that because some heterosexuals are nasty to us, that gives us the right to behave in an equally bigoted, discriminatory fashion towards them. Two wrongs don’t make a right, more cliched BS, blah blah, the point is that no one’s sexuality gives anyone the right to behave like a complete douche towards them. It’s not all right to place the shoe on the other foot and “show them how it feels”. It just makes you as bad as the people that you mock and loathe.
Wasn’t asked, told anyway: In a refreshing change, a gay servicemember (who, if you follow the link, is not only brave but quite attractive) came out on public television and wasn’t in any way rebuked or confronted about it by his unit or his commanding officers - and he’s discovered that he’s not alone. Hundreds of gay servicemembers serve active duty with their sexuality fully known by their units. Their fellow servicemembers just don’t care. Out in the field, one’s sexuality doesn’t matter. What matters is capability, and whether or not the people in your unit can put their skills to use saving your life and the lives of the soldiers and civilians around you. Too many highly skilled individuals with knowledge and experience that could be valuable in avoiding bloodshed have been barred from service for the most idiotic reasons - the top reason being that the Pentagon somehow thinks that open homosexuality in the military will foster dissent in the ranks.
Funny how people keep proving them wrong.
don’t ask don’t tell, gays in the military, gay servicemembers, darren manzella, straight harassment, heterosexual discrimination, sharon legg, finger ratios, osteoarthritis, finger lengths
Listen to DR Streaming Radio
January 8th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Well, at least this isn’t the 100 comment post, because I would have totally gone ahead and called you a queen…
At my last company, I had a good number of gay and lesbian employees. I’m a little embarrassed by their behavior in some arguments, because I will say that no one can be as hurtful in an argument as a bitter gay person.
And if that’s what I can look forward to if I join up, I’m on my way to the army recruitment office. Later!
January 8th, 2008 at 11:20 am
*Sniffle* I’m totally ok with it. Really. I’ll *sniffle* be fine. By ONE! I’m always missing cool things by ONE! Its the fault of my lateness gene. Seriously. It’s right next to my sarcastic/well-used-to-getting-smacked gene, which I’m TOTALLY squashing right now because it’s demanding that I ‘call him a Queen’ . That gene is a cheeky little bugger… (grin)
January 8th, 2008 at 11:23 am
Congratulations, Kaine! And Lessa, better luck next time =(
I’m glad that lady bouncer one! It’s really an outrage that people do things like that to each other.
January 8th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Hikaru: ~raises a brow~ You’d better hope they issue you one big gun. One particular bitter gay person’s seriously contemplating hurting you. Cheeky bastard.
Lessa: I’m sorry, but when I saw your post last night I laughed until it hurt. Poor thing. It was silent for hours and hours, then Kaine came sneaking along…and then right after, you. Maybe you can snag a t-shirt in the 100-comments party?
Sihaya: I know. I really can’t stand when other gay people think it’s okay to call straight people breeders and be nasty to them just for being who they are; it makes the rest of us look bad, and it’s just as bad as the discrimination that we experience.
January 8th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
…Wait, really? *blinks* Wow, I had pretty much convinced myself that someone else must’ve already won by the time I posted. And I was just lamenting the near-death condition of my cd player, and my inability to afford anything to keep me sane on those morning bus trips to school (or long drives with my parents).
Thank yoooouu! *Does. Not. Squeal.*[/dork]
Anyway.
Now, I’m the president of my school’s GSA, and my friends teasingly call me heterophobic all the time, but it honestly does upset me when I hear about some homosexuals being just as nasty as those ignorant homophobes I run into every day in the halls. I mean, come on; we have enough trouble trying to just be accepted for who we are without actively making enemies. Thankfully this has never happened in our group, beyond some playful teasing among friends, but I have seen it in the school, and it always struck me as just completely ridiculous.
January 8th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Hmmm…I don’t think I’ll have problems with the size of my “gun”, but you can hurt me anytime you want to.
January 8th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Kaine: I’m definitely glad you won, then. I’m also glad to see people in your age group who are so open-minded and understanding about the fact that discrimination goes both ways.
Hikaru: ~just shakes his head~ …bleeding Velveeta. That’s all I’m going to say.
January 8th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
You might want to take that back to the store, then. I don’t think cheese is supposed to bleed…
January 8th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
…
…there are days when I wonder what’s wrong with you.
January 8th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
I thought we agreed not to rehash the laundry list of symptoms. Besides, doesn’t Wordpress have a character limit on comments?
January 8th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Interesting anecdote: In Ancient Rome, soldiers were encouraged to foster romantic relationships with other soldiers, in the belief that it would increase troop solidarity.
I think I can understand–imagine if you were fighting an entire army of people who were dating each other. It would be like being friends with two people who broke up, only even worse.
January 9th, 2008 at 9:01 am
The Greeks did that too. The idea was that they would fight better because they were protecting/showing off to their lovers.
January 9th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
*LMAO* Well, glad that I made you laugh at least.
Harumph.
I’ll just go continue to pick on my BFF, who’s nickname happens to be the same as one of the new Gladiators, which means I’m sending him random clips and pictures of ‘himself’ in action. With all the hair. And over the top enthusiasm. And itty bitty spandex one piece suit.
He’s now sending me a “WOLF IS NOT HERE. HE’S NOT TALKING TO YOU ANYMORE. LEAVE A MESSAGE. BEEEP” messages.
This amount of Joy and Laughter should be illegal - but at least it’s making the fact that I AM A LOSER so much easier to bear. *grins*