A veritable potpourri of topics

Because there's so much out there to read, and so little time in which to read it, I'm reading it for you and telling you what's worth reading. :-) You're welcome.

Dan over at Street Prophets has a tremendously wonderful (hey, it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood today and I'm feeling full of adjectives) squib about why people who know gay people and like them are still somehow full of the heebie-jeebies when they think about "Gay People Getting Married", and what liberals can do about it.

Best quote? "(S)ometimes the best way to advance your moral values is to advance somebody else's economic values, thereby giving them the space they need to take a long, deep breath, and realize that the problem isn't gay people getting married at all."

Speaking of economics and moral values, there's good discussion going on over at the TMP Cafe about changes in the Democratic party, specifically looking at the guest worker program. Good thing someone's more articulate and brighter than me, and can better state why this is so not a good idea, as well as illuminate how we Democrats have drifted right on economics. Much of this was new to me, and maybe to you, too.

Best quote? "Now there's an issue for the Democrats in 2006 that permits them to be pro-business and pro-immigrant all at once. Progressives demand taxpayer subsidies for ALL sweatshops on American soil!"

And speaking of sweatshops on American soil, fine article in The Washington Monthly about Walmart titled "Everyday Low Vice: How Much Should We Hate Walmart?" I was very pleased to see the my boycott of Walmart (and now Sam's Club, sniff sniff ouch in the wallet) is on good foundation, indeed. Walmart remains despicably anti-worker, and ought to be boycotted by every person who cares about low-wage workers.

Best quote? "Although Target and Kmart both take pains to head off workers who might organize a union—Costco, by contrast, has some unionized employees—Wal-Mart still leads the competition. Over the past 10 years, the NLRB or its administrative law judges have determined in at least 11 cases that Wal-Mart or individual Wal-Mart stores were engaging in unfair labor practices to prevent unionization, according to the agency's website. In that same period, both Target's and Costco's records appear to have remained clean."

OK. Three short items of interest.

How can the high court of Massachusetts say that out of staters who undertake gay marriages in Mass do not have legitimate marriages if their home states ban such marriages? Does that mean if Illinois bans marriage between second cousins anMassachusettsts does not, those Illinoisan second cousins who marry in Mass also do not have legitimate marriages? I'll bet it doesn't. I can't imagine this ruling standing. But that's logic talking, now isn't it?

And why, though we've known for years that oil is going to run out, have we continued to accept that the auto companies are using technological advances to make faster and bigger cares, rather than cars than get better gas mileage? Why haven't we forced our government to force automakers to make these cars? Why do we care so much about "zip"?

The NYTimes said, "If 2005 model vehicles, with their better technology, had the performance and size of those in 1987, they would use only 80 percent of the gasoline they do today, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. That alone would get the country nearly halfway to the goal President Bush set in his State of the Union address: to cut American oil consumption enough to nearly eliminate the need to import from the Middle East."

Hmm. Unlikely that our oil-producing President really wants to achieve that goal, don't you think?

And last, but not least, the Senate received a report yesterday indicating that DC is no closer to being prepared for 9/11 (or Katrina or the bird flu) than it was five years ago. There's no detailed strategic plan and no detailed evacuation plan. Sure glad I don't live in our nation's capital. Apparently this is a local, rather than national, failing. And DC's governing has never been a role model. But wouldn't you think the federal government would be a bit worried about this?

Sorry. Dumb question. The federal government is too busy worrying about the terrorists from Mexico smuggling in Weapons of Mass Destruction inside their tamales.

Until sometime soon,
Liz