Gotta run to work, so this is a short one, and I apologize in advance.
Found this in the Guardian and, given the reversal of the gay marriage ban in CA, I thought it was relevant and interesting:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/...

This research appears to destroy any remaining debate over whether sexual orientation is a choice or not. As my wife just commented, anyone with a brain knows that sexual orientation is not a choice, but we all know that the mainstream in our oh-so-civilized society is completely brainless...
Please go below for snippets and commentary.

I originally wrote this essay for a 2006 Vanity Fair essay contest. It did not, of course, win. However, I wish to inflict upon (share with) the DK community my rambling musings on the state of our nation.
I hope that this piece does not seem dated - a lot can happen in two years. I still firmly believe that it applies to the Zeitgeist.
Input, criticisms and debunking, as always, are much appreciated.

I have terrible teeth. It is going to cost me about $10,000 to approximate a normal healthy smile again. This is not a sob story, and I am not crying woe is me. Most of my dental problems are my fault and I am fully aware of this (at the same time, I am not implying that the case is necessarily the same for others).

This from the Middleburg Eccentric, a local, smalltown paper that nevertheless reaches a wide readership in wealthy Loudoun County, Virginia:

Could Obama's Policies Lead to $10.00 Gas?

Middleburg is a small town on the fringes of Washinton D.C., and is famous for it's wealthy residents, $2 million plus estates, and equestrian competitions. The op-ed piece in question was written by Ken Rietz, former Deputy Chairman of the RNC. The piece is balanced with a scathing attack on John McCain's recent rantings about his opponent's patriotism, which is much better written (Dan Morrow is the author of this piece, and anyone who has a fair grasp of English and rhetoric can plainly see that it is the better written of the two pieces.
The republicans are trotting out this strategy because they surmise that it is a safe bet that gasoline prices will be around $10.00 in the next ten years.

The republicans have been in denial about peak oil for years, and now that it is staring them in the face, they want to pin it on Obama.

Now that I have your attention, I'd like to talk about something besides the self-inflicted demise of the HRC presidential campaign: CLUSTER BOMBS.

From the Associated Press (Thursday, May 22, 2008):

WASHINGTON - A senior U.S. official said Wednesday that a proposed treaty banning cluster bombs would hurt world security and endanger U.S. military cooperation on humanitarian work with countries that sign the accord.

As someone commenting on the abovementioned article astutely stated: "Down is the new up."
The truth is being stood firmly on its head every day now, whether in the form of presidential candidates behaving like bolsheviks labeling a majority "mensheviks", or in the form of an administration that lies and distorts as a matter of course.
So scroll up (I mean down) and learn about something so terrible, even the Clintons pale in comparison...

We all know the story by now: Monkey boy decided to visit Israel and break with a long standing unspoken rule against utilizing visits to foreign countries to score cheap political points at home.

The very word appeasement has become virtually synonymous with the name of one particular gentleman: British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, and the worst thing in U.S. foreign policy is to be compared to this man.
We are told that we need to learn history's lesson. This message is insulting to Britons - stalwart allies of the United States - as it shows not only a lack of interest, but also of sympathy, with British history. We learn of Chamberlain and the Munich accords, and that is all we remember. But who was Neville Chamberlain, and what were the circumstances surrounding his and Europe's fate?
Believe it or not, Europe (and the world), does have its own history, and it's not exclusively relevant to the history of the United States...

...if we just let it be."

Won't you come to one's fundrrrraising pahty? One is a British Lud and in a bit of a sticky whicket: Being as it is that his grace, Lud Cartoon of Messiah, MBA, SOB and LMAO, is a subject of the British Crown and not a citizen of the States, he is unfohtunately unable to donate to Brrrrack Ohbahma's presidential campaign, as it is against those ghastly little things that you Yanks refer to as "laws".
Therefore, in true British pomp and circumstance (and wearing some really wildly coloured sunglasses, God wot?), his ludship has deigned to give a fundraising pahty fohr his candidate of choice. Oll of the prrrrrowceeds will be donated dierrrectly to Brrrrack Ohbahma. This is not in the least bit against those pesky, afohmentioned 'laws', as... well... its not my bloody money now is it?
And if you think foh one moment that Ohbahma is an elitist, well you really have no idea wot you ah tohking about: wait until you see me!!!

Last Sunday, my wife and I went to her parent’s house for an Easter lunch. I enjoy the company of my wife’s family very much, and consider my father-in-law (Fil) a good friend, mentor, and someone I respect and admire. Politics is always an interesting debate when it comes up, my mother-in-law (Mil) coming from a family of Democrats, while my father-in-law is a "I-vote-republican-because-I-believe-in-pulling-yourself-up-by-your-own- bootstraps" style independent. He tends to be quite knowledgeable about a lot of things (30 years in Intel- I wont say which agency), but both of them watch FOX news almost exclusively. Mil loves Oprah; she wants Hillary to be the prez. Point is, they are not political junkies and I therefore consider them a good barometer for middle-class, suburbanite, white baby-boomers. I’d like to share with you some of the things that were discussed after the fold...

I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races - that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything.

- Abraham Lincoln

During my hectic workweek, I get bored in the car and feel this sick, compelling urge to listen to talk radio - right wing talk radio to be specific (I used to listen to Amy Goodman's Democracy Now alot, but my commute got a lot shorter, and she's not on when I'm in the car now). I would like to justify the fact that I listen to the most moronic people in the country out of a sadistic, mischeivous pleasure, as well as a desire to be ever vigilant against the cultural depredations of such refuse - a sort of ennobled schadenfreude.

Oh these foolish mortals, such ideas that enter their tiny little heads!

Let's keep it plain and simple. Lets keep it economical. Let's keep it elementary so that everyone can undestand. Let's put our money where our effing collective mouths are. Let's tell Bush he's not holding the troops for ransom anymore. Let's go tell it on the mountain. Let's make sure that every single congress person knows that we're mad as hell, and we're not going to pay for it anymore!

"Let's get things nice and sparkling clear" - A Clockwork Orange.

"The whole world is watching." This phrase must be repeated over and over by those who care about racial injustice in America. Tomorrow, May 21, a trial will begin in the town of Jena Louisiana that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that, despite what the CV tries to tell us, racism is alive and well in the U.S.A.

Replete with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, Michael "Savage" Wiener and Mark Levin among many others, and combined with the tragic failure of Air America, conservatives have become convinced that they own the radio broadcast airwaves, dominating those airwaves with up to 20 million listeners per program. Many of these shock DJ demagogues play an assortment of rock 'n' roll, hip-hop and electronic dance music as intros and themes for their shows. Popular music has a long and colorful history in the United States, originators of forms of music appreciated worldwide, from jazz to house music. One thing that popular American music is not is conservative.

Not long ago in our history, such verbal attacks as those made against male democratic candidates by the likes of Coultergeist, Limpbaugh, Chris "Tweety" Matthews, and Maureen Dowd (somebody help me with her nickname) would have immediately called for a duel involving pistols at dawn, swords at sunset, etc.

The U.S. press has been watching the Colombian presidential elections very closely, and is ecstatic that Bush's pick won as planned. Uribe is touted in an AP story as halting the South American swing to the left (horrors!)...