HRC Consumer Guide for 2008

PDF (2MB) Seems to be constantly updating, yet some things stay the same. Don't buy gas from Exxon or Mobil, they got a big '0' from Equality survey in treatment of their LGBT employees. Instead go to Chevron or BP. Better to use UPS instead of Fedex. Also, Target instead of Walmart or ToysRUs, Best Buy instead of Circuit City, Staples instead of Office Depot, Whirlpool/Maytag instead of GE, AT&T instead of T-mobile, and Toyota, Ford, GM, Chryser, Suburu, Volkswagon instead of Nissan.

Breaking my Walmart habit will be tough, and I'm sort of locked into T-mobile at the moment.

For men, prospective female mates can't be too smart

NYT More than 10 years ago, I heard that an ex-employee in my department had once commented that he wanted to marry a girl that was dumber than him and shorter than him -- this despite the fact that he was pretty short and people also questioned his mental faculties. He be waiting a long time, people snidely remarked. However, this lends credence to data cited by Dowd in this piece (from an earlier article in the Times) that men just like to marry someone not quite as smart or ambitious as them. They just generally don't go around saying it.

I wonder though for me that if I were to wait for someone smarter than me, I would be waiting a long time. :)

On the other hand, why should I discriminate? Gays have be trading the need for submission or dominance for versatility for a long time.

Lesbian wins discrimination suit against Goodyear

Advocate Sounds like a terrible experience for anyone to have to go through.

Dumbledore is gay

By now everyone knows that Dumbledore is gay, at least according to the author in a sort of unwritten postscript. We might have picked up on it. There are hints in the books apparently and nothing clearly disproves it.

I sort of wish Rowling had written it in more explicitly. And no, not that kind of explicit. Just some words to say that Dumbledore liked men. People will say, but this is a children's book! But Rowling is a billionaire, she could have written anything she wanted...

Is it lack of imagination on her part to imagine a world where muggle discrimination is disregarded in the world of wizards? Why couldn't the wizard world have been more advanced here? Possibly because the world wasn't really advanced in any other aspect of social progressiveness. Muggle borns were discriminated against, in a parallel to racism. Perhaps a gay coming of age of one of the main characters would have been a distraction and beyond her powers to write.

I take it that Rowling is a friend to the gay community and don't want to dismiss her gift the community. Still, I think of a bigger opportunity missed. I guess I'll just have to write that children's book myself.

Older gays don't find acceptance in elder housing

NYT Compared to today's younger generation of increased gay acceptance, gay seniors do generally still face ostracism from other elderly and can be reluctant to enter into senior housing facilities.

Professor says climate change has unconsidered positive feedback

NYT In other words, warming begets more warming. We didn't think that much about this, and this is why the arctic ice melt was so extreme this summer that it was more than anyone expected (this post).

Arctic Ice Dramatically Receded this Summer

NYT It was beyond even pessimistic projections.

Banker worries about the weakening dollar

NYT What does it mean to America, the increasing lack of confidence in the dollar? In previous statements economists have said that it doesn't necessarily mean anything drastic will happen, but I hear allusions to virtuous circle of consumption in this piece.

Corn ethanol a complete waste of time and taxpayer money

NYT The automobile blogger at the Times talks about a study showing corn ethanol reduces greenhouse gases from 0-3%. Sugar ethanol by 50-70%.

Krugman again and more forcefully on Racism and the Republicans

NYT My commentary (only tangentially related to the piece): it will be a shame to see the work of racist Republicans enshrined for decades in the Supreme Court justices appointed and racist rulings handed down.

# # #

NYT Herbert concurs in a similar piece. (Don't these guys talk to each other?)

Justice John Paul Stevens

NYT It's a strange world where Justice Stevens says he's not a liberal. But this is the case. We've had a lot of Republican appointee's to the Supreme Court and, in fact, J.P. Stevens was one of them.

Qaddafi's son may be a Western-style liberal

NYT He is educated in London and has some power within Libya.

Falling birthrate in the West

NYT The story discusses Germany's dearth of children. But what of the question of new balance of power which would seem to occur with developing nations populations outnumbering the developed nations by huge numbers. Will this saturate out and be a non-issue or will Western nations be forced to open their doors to more immigration?

Women dating down

NYT It seems strange that this would be a problem. But I guess it gets awkward for those of either sex who are traditionally inclined.

Most marriages end before 25 years

Link Some interesting statistics: "Among men over 15, the proportion who have never been married was 28 percent for whites, 45 percent for blacks, 39 for Hispanic people and 33 percent for Asians.

"Among women over 15, it was 22 percent for whites, 44 percent for blacks, 30 percent for Hispanic people and 23 percent for Asians."

Seems Asian and Hispanic women tend to do significantly better than the men at being married at least once.

But how does that math work with equal women versus men? Are the women just marrying and divorcing the same guys and avoiding the 'losers'?

Actually, I would think this makes sense because of previous articles about genetics show guys can be idiots or geniuses because of the single 'X' chromosomes. When a guy isn't marriage material, it could be he _really_ isn't and no one will marry him.

Krugman on Petraeus and Failure of Surge

NYT (Times Select is now free) Krugman shows that the dog and pony for the surge by supposedly credible Petraeus is just the same phony marketing as put out by Colin Powell before the war.

--
More Times Select

Friedman on Iraq

Krugman again a few days later on Iraq.

Frank Rich on Iraq: "As the Iraqis stand down, we'll stand up."

Krugman on Republicans use of race and division to entice Southern whites to their cause.

Dowd calls Fred Thompson warmed over W.

Once again on the carbon use tax by a Harvard economist

NYT Author makes an interesting point, that the sum of all tax receipts wouldn't change. It's just that they would be shifted around. So there would be a new carbon use tax, but it would be compensated by less income tax on individuals and businesses. Those businesses and individuals generating a lot of carbon dioxide -- basically big energy consumers -- would pay up the nose. But okay, it could be phased in gradually so that people with those high consumption rates could plan to become more efficient.

Neo-Nazis living in Israel

Link Strangely there are indeed anti-semitics in Israel. Non-Jews have arrived from Russia including some Neo-Nazis.

Greenspan strongly criticizes current administration in new book

Link 18 months after leaving office, Greenspan talks about how Republicans sacrificed their traditional fiscal discipline to try to pay their way into a 'permanent' Republican majority.

Can't keep too many boys in a Polygamist camp

Link There is a numerical problem with keeping more than one wife if you have equal numbers of boys and girls being born. The result? Some boys need to get removed from the group one way or the other. I'm surprised there isn't infanticide.