I had an epiphany.

I've decided to avoid using the terms gay, straight, and bi to describe myself from now on. It isn't that I find the terms offensive, it is that I find them inaccurate. Human love and sexuality is a multifaceted, complex concept that cannot be described by a simple number, much less shoved into three distinct categories.

I mean, if a man falls in love with another man, and they later break up, he will probably fall out of love. Let's say after that, all the people he happens to fall in love with are women. Is he bisexual? Bi-curious? Ex-gay? Does it even matter?

People come up with more and more terms for people of varying sexualities, but I really think people are ignoring the real issue here. Trying to categorize sexualities is like trying to sort everyone in Spanish-colonized Latin-America into racial classifications, or trying to decide who was Jewish based on which relatives were Jewish. It really is missing the issue completely.

What is the real issue? Love. That's right, real, Grade-A love. Imagine, if you will, the complexities range of emotions one can feel when they fall in love with someone of the opposite sex. Nobody can really control them, or describe exactly the feelings. Now imagine you feel these same emotions toward somebody of the same sex. They are exactly the same. The fact that the target of the affections shares your genitalia does not make the feeling any less legitimate. I find it incredibly arrogant that anyone would claim to have the authority to determine what types of love are "real."

Really, does anybody really have any control whether they tend to prefer brunettes to blonds, smart girls to ditzes, big breasts to small? People just like certain types of people, and yet when somebody feels attracted to somebody of the same sex, it gets chalked up to infatuation, even perversion. This hasn't always been so. 100 years ago, people would consider the idea of black man and a white woman to be blasphemy. Nobody would never even consider the possibility that they could be love. It was just wrong.

I think the real reason homophobic conservatives use these terms is because it allows them to ignore the human aspect of their beliefs. If they truly allowed themselves to open their eyes and see love for what it really was, it would make it much harder to justify ongoing discrimination, shunning, and violence perpetrated everyday. By viewing same-sex attraction as "different" from opposite-sex attraction they feel themselves, they can oppose it more easily.

In writing this, I hope I am not offending those who choose to use these terms to describe themselves or others in good-faith. I am merely trying to get people to realize that, like many a term, it is merely that: a term.

I really wish I had known about these two videos when I was writing the last post. The first is a satire of the type of people who overdo their performances, the second is the most awesome seven-year-old I have seen all day:

So, I was checking my RSS feeds, and discovered a new Snopes.com article about Barack Obama apparently not placing his hand over his heart during the national anthem. Personally, I do not give a crap about what he does with his hands, as long as he is respectful. No, what bugged me about the video is the singing:

People are freaking out how Obama is so unpatriotic, but does no one care about the woman "singing" the song? What the hell is she trying to accomplish? If an eighteen-year-old computer geek who hasn't taken choir in over a year can sing better than you, there is a problem.

Seriously, I am more offended by the people who did put their hands over their hearts. I would have put mine in my ears.

At the FIRST Robotics Championship in Atlanta, we had some woman come out and sing an overly-glamourized pop version of the song. Is this our idea of respecting the nation? Would it seriously kill anyone to sing it correctly? Sheesh.

So Not Ready for This

Yesterday, the mail arrived with our ballots. Of course, this happens every year, but this time was different. One of the envelopes had my name on it.

This may not seem like a big deal, but...wow. I can vote. Suddenly, I have a (minute) voice in my government. It's sorta cool, but now I have to actually really read the measures and vote responsibly. So let's take a look at them:

Measure 49

MODIFIES MEASURE 37; CLARIFIES RIGHT TO BUILD HOMES; LIMITS LARGE DEVELOPMENTS; PROTECTS FARMS, FORESTS, GROUNDWATER.

RESULT OF “YES” VOTE: “Yes” vote modifies Measure 37; clarifies private landowners’ rights to build homes; extends rights to surviving spouses; limits large developments; protects farmlands, forestlands, groundwater supplies.

RESULT OF “NO” VOTE: “No” vote leaves Measure 37 unchanged; allows claims to develop large subdivisions, commercial, industrial projects on lands now reserved for residential, farm and forest uses.

I am inclined to vote "yes" on this measure. Why? Measure 37 required that "Governments must pay owners, or forgo enforcement, when certain land use restrictions reduce property value." The measure was intended to protect families who bought some land in the 70s as a retirement investment, and now cannot use it as they please because land use restrictions prohibit such actions. I agree that this seems fair, but this law got sponsored mainly by large timber companies who got pissed off that they can no longer fuck up the environment as they please by creating huge developments on protected land. Notice that it says the government may either pay owners or "forgo enforcement?" The state does not have enough money to pay every lunatic that files a Measure 37 claim, so they basically have to let the property owners do whatever the hell they want.

Measure 49 is intended to fix that issue, by preserving the spirit of the measure, which was to protect small families from losing their investments, while keeping large companies from screwing up the wilderness. Measure 49 actually grants families more rights, by allowing them to transfer their right-to-build onto surviving spouses. Measure 37 doesn't allow for this.

Environmental regulations were not invented to piss people off, they were invented to protect that which we love most about Oregon, its commitment to protect the environment and avoid urban sprawl. Measure 37 allows landowners to completely disregard important laws for their purpose, while degrading the land value for others. Measure 49 will fix this, so I will vote yes when Election Day comes around*.

*Er...Oregon is entirely vote-by-mail, so I really mean that I will fill in the little "yes" bubble on my answer sheet, stuff it in the "secrecy envelope," which I will stuff into the outer envelope, which I will sign and then either send it using actual mail, or have it dropped off at the Elections Office on Elections Day.

Measure 50

AMENDS CONSTITUTION: DEDICATES FUNDS TO PROVIDE HEALTH CARE FOR CHILDREN, FUND TOBACCO PREVENTION, THROUGH INCREASED TOBACCO TAX.

RESULT OF “YES” VOTE: “Yes” vote dedicates funds to provide health care for children, low-income adults and medically underserved Oregonians, and fund tobacco prevention programs, through increased tobacco tax.

RESULT OF “NO” VOTE: “No” vote rejects proposal to dedicate funding for children’s health care, other health care programs, and tobacco prevention programs; maintains tobacco tax at current level.

You know, I am actually inclined to vote "no" on this measure, as much as I both support public health care and oppose smoking. I derive my opposition on mostly constitutional grounds.

I really hate the idea of modifying the our Constitution for something like this. I view a constitution as a document that should lay out the powers of the government and define citizen's rights, and although I am aware that the constitution has not always been used for that purpose, I think introducing a set tax for a specific item takes things a bit too far. Oregonians should learn to raise taxes in the legislature, but they require a 3/5^ths majority to raise taxes, while amending the Oregon Constitution requires a simple majority in a referendum. These measures end up providing a way to raise money when the legislature cannot get the job done. Imagine reading the revised constitution:

Section 8. Freedom of speech and press. No law shall be passed restraining the free expression of opinion, or restricting the right to speak, write, or print freely on any subject whatever; but every person shall be responsible for the abuse of this right.

...

A tax equal to 42.25 mills is imposed upon the consumption of each cigarette in this state;

This isn't right. Voters are drawn to these measures because of sense of self-righteousness: the "evil" smokers get their just deserts by paying for sick kids. Fair's fair, right? We need to take a step back. Smoker's are not "evil," and the burden of providing health care should fall upon all of us. People support this measure because it relieves them of the burden paying for a necessary tax by simply shunting it onto someone else who "deserves it, any way." I cannot support this kind of law. We need to learn how to take responsibility for something rather than taxing someone else. What happens when some group repeatedly gets screwed because of this?

Besides, this law makes it smokers more beneficial to our society. If Measure 50 passed and I truly cared only for the kids, it would be in my best interest to get as many people addicted to cigarettes as possible, so that we can keep money for health care flowing in. By this system, if anti-smoking advocates got their wish, the fund would run dry unless we found someone else to tax.

One thing that disappointed me was Willamette Week's opinion on this. They wrote several paragraphs describing the various arguments against the measure, and then summed up their entire editorial with, "Reasonable concerns all. But if this measure insures only one additional kid and reduces the number of smokers, it will be worth supporting." OK, but I still want to hear your counter-arguments. There are other ways of solving this problem without setting a dangerous precedent for our legislature.

As much as I hate the idea of indirectly supporting the cigarette industry, I cannot support this measure with a clean conscience.

Measure 26-93

This is a measure that I get to vote on because I am a resident of the City of Portland, and therefore awesome. This measure says yes to the question, "Shall police and firefighters receive medical benefits from disability system for work-related injuries after retiring from active duty?" I agree with the drafters, but I am too lazy to do a big fancy write up for this measure, so check it out for yourself.

Bart Simpson took a journey to Hanover:

The scandal has put the community at odds. They either scold the students for making poor choices or question the extreme competitiveness that could spark cheating.

Community members scrutinize police motives as well, wondering whether their tough stance is really a carefully orchestrated attempt to show impartiality toward privileged kids. (A doctor, professor, hospital president and journalist are reportedly among the parents.)

Mike Rotch, a junior, said the students deserve to be punished by their principal rather than a prosecutor.

"I think they are coming down hard. I mean, cheating is bad, but it's not like it's unheard of anywhere in America," he said.

New Hampshire Split Over High School Cheating, NPR

Really, the reporter should been smarter than this.

Interesting product placement, Microsoft.

(For those of you wondering, Word likes to suggest what you mean to type so you can autocomplete it, and that is what it thinks I mean by "off.")

I have become really obsessed with this one scene from the film version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I don't know why, other than that it's pretty cool.

I know passive sentences are bad, but I still think my original sentence is better than Word's suggestion:

Original: This sentence is in the form of a compound sentence, containing two main clauses, separated by commas.

Word: Commas in the form of a compound sentence, containing two main clauses, separate this sentence

You get this message:

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A team of highly trained monkeys has been dispatched to deal with this situation. Please report this incident to customer service.

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In honor of America's 231^st anniversary, I am posting a bunch of videos of people playing with fireworks. Enjoy!