The Mormon church reported $190,000 in expenses for promoting Prop. 8, the narrowly-passed ballot intiative that amended the California State Constitution to invalidate gay marriage. Do you think this invalidates their tax-exempt status?
My inclination is to say yes, but then I'm biased for gay marriage (and against the Mormon church, although considerably less so). So I'm trying to think of a parallel situation where my sympathies would support the church. Quaker abolitionists?
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04:47:42 PM,
Monday 2 February 2009
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A break in the frivolity: The Big Fix, by David Leonhardt in the Times. An in-depth article on using the current financial crisis to remake the US economy, looking at green jobs, energy, health care and education.
Leonhardt argues that we've caused this mess through years of consumption over investment; he makes some interesting observations about the power of social norms in economic decision-making. I've noticed the popular media encouraging frugality lately: the three free weeklies in the SF/East Bay area have all published special issues on dealing with unemployment, budgeting, etc. I'd always thought of myself as a frugal person --- I've been lucky enough to never have to live beyond my means -- but now I'm wondering how much our consumption-oriented culture influenced me. I certainly ate out regularly and bought things I didn't need, and even now that I'm unemployed and living off my savings I find it hard to socialize without spending money.
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(1)
02:55:17 PM,
Monday 2 February 2009
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-I wanna do great things, you know? I want to be an achiever. Like Bad Horse.
-The Thoroughbred of Sin?
(I'm behind everyone on this, but hey, I was in Africa.)
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(3)
02:42:40 AM,
Saturday 31 January 2009
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I just made a spreadsheet for free. And decided to spend most of the weekend adding data to it.
I need a job.
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(1)
01:43:39 AM,
Saturday 31 January 2009
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My brother's advice for avoiding romantic entanglements: "Just tell them you can only love kitty cats."
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(1)
12:57:42 PM,
Thursday 29 January 2009
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The thing I missed most while I lived in Mali was data. Not just the succulent nectar of the Infoteat, but my own personal data that I'd painstakingly amassed over the years, most notably music. Now that I have my hard drives back I'm consolidating my music collection and discovering all sorts of bands I forgot (Fannypack!) and answering lingering, trivial questions (which album was "Clementine" on?). My time of deprivation wasn't all bad, though. I once got to translate this video for a guy who was watching it on his phone.
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03:08:49 AM,
Monday 26 January 2009
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And last night I dreamt that I found a secret unfinished basement where delicious plants like kale were growing. There was no explanation for how they achieved photosynthesis in the dark. Also, cannot stop listening to "Under Pressure". David Bowie and Queen? Outta sight!
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(1)
01:34:30 AM,
Sunday 25 January 2009
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Just last week I was saying to someone how I don't care about this blog, have nothing to say, etc. etc. At the moment, however, I do have something to say: Nothing is funnier than a white guy in his 30's painting D&D miniatures while singing along to "Fuck tha Police."
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(1)
09:54:46 PM,
Saturday 24 January 2009
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Me: [Summary of Karen Finley's piece, Vaginal Scroll]
My teammate Walt: Wouldn't she get a paper cut?
Thanks to Cassie for reminding me to blog, and Walt for providing the impetus. Don't expect much, guys, but it's nice to be talking out loud again. So say hi if you want and nobody mention the name of my employer until I can stick a disclaimer in the sidebar, ok? Rad.
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(13)
01:20:24 PM,
Wednesday 20 June 2007
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I haven't had much to say for the past, uh, month or so -- but anyway, I'm heading off to staging on Sunday and am all excited but in a tizzy trying to organize my crap and get the last few things I need. Any advice would be well-appreciated, and if you want to receive my PCV spam emails you should email me at sarahvirginiapeters at gmail dot com.
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(2)
02:33:56 PM,
Wednesday 19 July 2006
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I've done it before but it's hard to resist posting the best verse from "Mirrorshades":
She was so absolutely digital,
To jack in now was wrong.
But Cupid punches deck with chemicals
While Dark Madonna sings her song.
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05:43:02 PM,
Wednesday 21 June 2006
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The other night I was trying to remember the big hit from Hack by Information Society and started singing a Humans League song instead. Fortuitously I've just come across the video for "Think". (And did everyone in the late '80s sound like a Pet Shop Boys cover band?)
And I know I've posted this before, but the song "Mirrorshades" on the same album is up there with Billy Idol's Cyberpunk as a reason why the cyberpunk aesthetic is nowadays something of a joke. (Well, "Shock to the System" is a pretty catchy tune.)
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(2)
05:20:53 PM,
Wednesday 21 June 2006
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THE MAN IS SO OLD SCHOOL HE DRIVES A YELLOW BUS WITH GOTHIC ARCH WINDOWS!
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(1)
03:50:52 PM,
Wednesday 21 June 2006
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Moved out of apartment, visited people on Long Island and in Queens, Philadelphia, Baltimore and College Park and was very kindly hosted by several friends and their relations. It turns out almost everyone I know has really good taste in animation. Now recovering back in Oaktown.
Incidentally, this headline didn't surprise me at all. New Yorkers are so considerate! (This sounds facetious, but I'm serious. I only have one tone of voice!)
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03:45:37 PM,
Wednesday 21 June 2006
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DIY household-use wind turbine-slash-junior lab flashback generator.
Can't type r iight. Sleep now. Books=in storage!
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02:57:54 AM,
Monday 5 June 2006
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Damn I'm uptight.
Your results:
You are Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic)
|
Medicine and physical healing are your game, but wooing women isn't a strong suit.  |
Click here to take the Serenity Personality Quiz
Thanks for the link, Cassie. _
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01:04:33 AM, Monday 5 June 2006
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So tired. Soooo tired.
Just one more day of this, though, and then I can sleep in however long I want on weekdays. Until I go to Mali, where the workday starts at 7. Someday my circadian rhythms will have been beaten into submission, but I'm not looking forward to the beatening.
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(2)
07:34:09 PM,
Thursday 1 June 2006
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This is very shallow, but I just can't decide. Should I get the one-piece swimsuit in:
pink with cherries
leopard print
or black?
I am personally somewhat disinclined towards the black, but I suppose it's a classy look or something. Anyway, I'm buying it today or tomorrow, so hurry up and give me your opinion y'all.
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(14)
10:32:30 PM,
Thursday 25 May 2006
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Hooray for collage funtimes!
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(1)
08:36:16 PM,
Saturday 20 May 2006
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And now that I've blogged something potentially critical of the PC I'm all freaked out that they'll rescind my invitation. Oh well.
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(1)
02:04:28 PM,
Wednesday 17 May 2006
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I was pretty horrified to learn that the default antimalarial drug for volunteers in Mali is Lariam, which has known side effects of severe depression and suicidal ideation. (One of the potentially nice side effects is intense dreams -- but anyway it's very neurologically active.) If you don't take your antimalarials you get kicked out.
I am lucky that my mom is a nurse and warned me about it, and once I expressed my concerns (and called about four different people at Medical Headquarters) they put a note in my file that I should be put on doxycycline instead. So I guess the malaria in Mali isn't doxycycline-resistant, which makes me wonder why they give a drug that is so psychologically active to volunteers who have to deal with stress and isolation. I mean, the sun in Mali is very strong, and doxycycline can increase photosensitivity -- but I'd much rather put on sunblock twice a day than find myself severely depressed and a day's bumpy bus ride from medical help.
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(21)
01:59:25 PM,
Wednesday 17 May 2006
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Barbara Lee speaks for me.
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(8)
01:56:41 PM,
Tuesday 16 May 2006
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Surprisingly delicious: The water left over from boiling spinach, chilled and mixed with the juice of half a lemon and a few drops of hot sauce.
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05:01:43 PM,
Sunday 14 May 2006
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Normally I'd feel awkward vomiting into a trash can in public, but luckily I was on Haight Street, where it just comes naturally.
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(1)
11:05:40 PM,
Saturday 13 May 2006
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Anyone read Go Tell It On the Mountain? Either the last ten pages have some super-important narrative twists, or I'm missing the point. (Which seems to be, "Jesus Saves, but your dad's still a hypocritical asshole.")
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(2)
02:34:24 PM,
Thursday 11 May 2006
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New 'Anti-Abortion Pill' Kills Mother, Leaves Fetus Alive
So funny I almost puked.
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(2)
02:04:08 PM,
Wednesday 10 May 2006
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Stupid Landlord Tricks: "Ok, your overhead light fixture started sizzling and smoking? And you've turned off the breaker to that part of the house and no longer have power in your bedroom? Uh-huh. Can you wait until Monday?"
edit: To my landlord's credit he called me back an hour ago to say that he had found an electrician and was going to come over to let said electrician in the house and make sure said electrician didn't steal anything. Speaking of which, good thing my renter's insurance doesn't expire for another few days.
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(5)
12:02:21 PM,
Friday 5 May 2006
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"Wow, you've entirely ripped off Hobbes' Leviathan, in which he says EXACTLY THIS."
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(1)
11:33:01 AM,
Friday 5 May 2006
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So I'm winnowing my library and come across the copy of The Meno I read freshman year, replete with marginalia. I think I'm keeping it more for reasons of security than of sentiment.
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02:05:48 AM,
Friday 5 May 2006
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It is so disconcerting to talk to a CSR with an obviously Indian accent who tells you his name is "Freddy Johnson." Maybe it's funny for the CSRs (maybe one day I'll get a Biff Waldman?) but I can only imagine that this practice began after a lot of conversations that went, "Sue-what? Sue-Neal? How 'bout I just call you Apu?" The hegemony of the ignorant American strikes again!
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(8)
09:48:51 PM,
Thursday 4 May 2006
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At the Sleater-Kinney show last night (they rocked, when don't they) I overheard someone say, "You know, just today I thought -- probably for the first time since I was seventeen -- 'I want to be a rock star, just like Carrie Brownstein!'"
Those linked pictures show why I always stand on Carrie's side of the stage. Well, that and the fact that she's kind of the perfect woman. Did you know she majored in semiotics? The very thought makes me tremble.
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12:47:39 PM,
Thursday 4 May 2006
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Straight out of London: lunatike freke namede Geoff C,
From the covin callede “Kynges Affinitee.”
oh.my.god.y'all.
via Slant Truth
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07:49:23 PM,
Wednesday 3 May 2006
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Shameful confession: I filk almost every day. This morning I filked "Ride of the Valkyries."
Please don't stop being my friend because of this.
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(10)
03:45:33 PM,
Wednesday 3 May 2006
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Understatement of the year: "I watched Birth of a Nation last night. It was very well made -- the only thing that bothered me were the racial overtones."
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(7)
01:44:41 PM,
Wednesday 3 May 2006
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The immigrant rights march passed near here yesterday, and I got to hear a white dude say, "Man, there sure are a lot of foreign flags out there. You don't win citizenship by flying a foreign flag."
It felt almost as good as the time a friend said to me, "I'm not a feminist, but..."
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(10)
01:32:28 PM,
Tuesday 2 May 2006
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Just call me the Hayfever Zapatista.
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(3)
11:34:28 AM,
Monday 1 May 2006
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site & script courtesy of Moss