Or, if you prefer, you could celebrate another chip in the blockade:
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A federal judge on Sunday struck down Alaska’s first-in-the-nation ban on gay marriages, the latest court decision in a busy week for the issue.
The state of Alaska will begin accepting those applications first thing Monday morning, Phillip Mitchell, with the state Department of Vital Statistics, told The Associated Press in an email. Alaska has a three-day waiting period between between applications and marriage ceremonies.
The late Sunday afternoon decision caught many people off guard. No rallies were immediately planned, but some plaintiffs celebrated over drinks at an Anchorage bar…
Earlier in the week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear appeals from several states that were seeking to retain their bans on same-sex marriage.
The move on Oct. 6 means that gay marriage is now effectively legal in about 30 states. But much of last week was marked by confusion as lower courts and states worked through when weddings can begin.
On Tuesday, a federal appeals court in the West overturned marriage bans in Nevada and Idaho. On Thursday, West Virginia officials began issuing gay marriage licenses, and Kansas’ most populous county issued a marriage license Friday to a gay couple, believed to be the first such license in the state…
***********
Apart from enjoying the teeth-gnashing word salad from Sarah Palin and/or the Westboro Baptist thugs, what’s on the agenda for a day when Friday the 13th falls on a (holiday for some) Monday?
Joey Maloney
I’ve just learned that Harlan Ellison has had a stroke. He’s recovering in hospital.
So that’s kind of a sucky way to start the week.
Chris
Being infuriated beyond all reasonable measure by a professor who has owed me slightly upwards of four hundred bucks for a job I completed last April, and has failed to answer a dozen or so emails on the subject over the course of the summer, including one a couple weeks ago that was sent by someone above her in the hierachy after I asked for the intervention. (Since neither she nor I are at the university at the moment, her being on sabbatical until next spring or summer, options are limited).
I would joke about hiring a hitman, except apparently, you need money to do that. Which brings us back to the original problem.
Chris
On a happier note, I continue to be amazed by how much the wind has changed on gay rights in just the last five or six years. There are so many topics on which things suck, it’s nice that there’s at least this one on which it’s getting better faster than I’d ever have hoped before I actually saw it.
Mustang Bobby
Years ago the school district in Miami traded Columbus Day as a holiday for Veterans Day in November; good move on their part politically, and it gives me a day off on Tuesday next month.
I watched the clip of Ted Olson beat the crap out of Tony Perkins over marriage equality on Fox yesterday. Even Chris Wallace was ganging up on poor Tony, whose last refuge is “Think of the poor Christian wedding cake vendors!” The little twerp sees his gravy train falling off the tracks, so now he’ll have to get a real job.
raven
@Mustang Bobby: I cannot remember having a Vets Day off in 45 years.
Mustang Bobby
@raven: Yeah, it wasn’t until I started working for the district that I got it off.
I’m also old enough to remember it being called “Armistice Day.”
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Mustang Bobby: How did I miss this?
An ‘Utterly Exasperated’ Mike Huckabee Threatens To Leave The GOP Over Gay Marriage
OzarkHillbilly
@Mustang Bobby:
I wouldn’t bet on that.
Poopyman
Speaking of word salad:
So they have a special license, then? Oh, for lack of an editor who can actually edit….
I have today (and veteran’s Day) off because I’m now working in US Govt spaces, and apparently the contract stipulates that when they’re off, we’re off. First time in my 38 years as a contractor I can recall that being the case.
Alsotoo,@Joey Maloney: I thought he was already dead.
Mustang Bobby
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: That’s what’s known as a “flounce.”
Mustang Bobby
@OzarkHillbilly: Maybe he and David Duke can get a condo in Key West together.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mustang Bobby: And share the same bed.
Keith G
With a loud roar then a shutter, my air conditioner died 2 hours ago. It is a humid 79 in downtown Houston. Happy Monday
Mustang Bobby
@Keith G: It was in cahoots with my garage door spring a week ago. They never go when it’s convenient for anyone else.
raven
@Mustang Bobby: Those things are dangerous!
Mustang Bobby
@raven: Yeah, when it went the whole house shook. I thought it was a car crash in the street. Fortunately there was no shrapnel.
raven
@Mustang Bobby: Timing is everything!
OzarkHillbilly
@Keith G:
Hmph… that’s funny, I removed mine from the window just yesterday. Calling for a high of 72 today, 60 tomorrow.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Mustang Bobby: Yup. NOM is saying the same thing.
danielx
@Mustang Bobby:
I find your lack of faith in the wingnut welfare gravy train…disturbing.
There will always be a place for Tony Perkins at AEI, or the Heritage Foundation, or Americans for Racial Purity and Christian Values, or something. Okay, I made that last one up, but Reverend Perkins will never lack paid opportunities for panty sniffing.
debbie
@Mustang Bobby:
Will this be the new “Jobs creation!” rallying cry?
I just heard that Deutschbank is leading the way on a new product: rental home securitization, designed to help investors whose buy-ups of distressed homes hasn’t been the hoped-for cash cows. Nothing can go wrong there.
Mustang Bobby
By the way, if there’s anyone in Central Florida that’s looking for something to do next Saturday, I’m going to be in Lakeland for the Lake Mirror Classic car show. (I already reached out to Betty, but she has other plans.)
They initially put my 1988 Pontiac 6000 Safari station wagon in the Muscle Car category until I sent them a photo. I’ll probably be in the “American Classics” which is a catch-all for the cars that don’t fit a specific class. It’s a great show with a Concours around the lake and the Open Show on the city streets for the rest of us. Stop by and say hi.
Randy P
You know how you follow Youtube links to other Youtube links and end up wasting hours watching things it would never have occurred to you to search for? Somehow by a path I can’t recall I ended up with stupid-driver-car-crash videos and this one has convinced me that I never want to drive in Russia.
None of these people appear to slow down when entering an intersection or approaching a stopped car. Do Russian cars not have brakes?
And why are there so many dashboard cams in Russia?
Mustang Bobby
@Randy P: I saw that, and other than the shots of cars and trucks in snow, I could have sworn they were all filmed in Miami.
Poopyman
@Randy P: Oddly enough, if you go to Google and start typing in “Why so many dashboard cameras in Russia” it autocompletes before you can finish “dash”
danielx
Also under the heading of “what could possibly go wrong”, this from the Jeff Bezos Daily News:
Probe of silencers leads to web of Pentagon secrets
I’m only surprised they didn’t try to hire the dumbest fucking guy on the planet, given his leadership of the Office of Special Plans. Or possibly Ollie North.
Because off-the-books intelligence/spook/cop operations always work out so well.
OzarkHillbilly
Sarah Silverman is having an addadicktome to avoid the $500,000 vagina tax.
Iowa Old Lady
@Chris: Are you, by any chance, in Georgia? I knew a prof who did this to grad students all the time. I intervened on behalf of one of mine once. She since moved to a job in Georgia.
Cervantes
@Chris: Did the two of you make some sort of written agreement before the work was done? Do you have an acknowledgement that the work was completed to her satisfaction? Also, was it done for her personally or was she supposed to be paying you out of university funds?
I’m sorry you’re having to deal with her being distracted, or her cheapness, or her absent-mindedness, or her inability to face conflict. (Not saying this list of possibilities is exhaustive.)
satby
@debbie: I worked there supporting the financial traders at the CBOT and Merc, and the one trader who did credit default swaps had a horrible time training anyone else to work with him because no one understood the concept. Deutschebank was huge into them, good to see they’re keeping up the tradition with new vaporware.
greennotGreen
@Mustang Bobby: A station wagon could be a muscle car?
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Randy P:
Insurance fraud. Walking in front of moving vehicles, deliberately trying to be hit to collect from the insurance company / sue the pants off the driver has been a growth industry in Russia for a while now.
raven
@greennotGreen: MB and I have talked about how fast some of those wagons were.
Cervantes
@Randy P:
Because the dashboard is by far the best place to put them.
raven
Station wagons have never really been sought after as performance machines, but if you take a look back through classic muscle car offerings, you’ll find plenty of attempts by American brands to make the family wagon cool
Mustang Bobby
@greennotGreen: There were some wagon in the 1960’s that came out with huge engines, “sporty” suspension and decals that proclaimed them as muscle cars, and the Pontiac 6000 had an STE wagon option with blacked-out grille and racing stripes. But mine is very much the suburban model, complete with fake-wood grain and luggage rack.
ETA: What raven said.
Chris
@Iowa Old Lady:
Nope, Miami, FL. Though she’s out of the country for the moment. Sorry to hear that your students went through the same.
@Cervantes:
Unfortunately no, I’d had a good enough relationship with her previously that I didn’t bother to get one – whoops, indeed. And it was her, personally, not the university.
And no, it’s just cheapness. Too many emails over too much time, including that one from her superior, for it to be chalked up to anything unintentional. At most, inability to face conflict.
satby
Job interview today. For a part time job, but one that coaches disabled people getting job skills to enter the work force. And it pays better than my old crappy part time job, so I do want to get it.
Though a full time job would be nice… where did those all go?
Iowa Old Lady
@Chris: I don’t know for sure if you’re a grad student, but if you are, you may need someone to intervene for you. I assume the higher up person you notified was the department chair?
Gin & Tonic
@raven: Sure wish I had me a ’57 Nomad, though.
Patricia Kayden
@satby: Good luck with your job interview. Hopefully a full time job will be in your near future.
Elmo
@Chris: Small claims court. The filing fee is minimal, service is usually made by certified mail, and people tend to freak out and pay when the see a summons and complaint with their name on it.
Verbal contract is enforceable in court, so don’t let the lack of a writing scare you away.
Gin & Tonic
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Not just that. Automobile liability insurance is not widely viewed as a requirement, so in *any* accident, deliberate or otherwise, it really pays to have video. Lots of cars have both forward-facing and rear-facing cameras. This is as prevalent in Ukraine.
Iowa Old Lady
@satby: Good luck to you. This sounds like satisfying work.
satby
@Patricia Kayden: @Iowa Old Lady: Thanks!
ThresherK
@cckids: , @Violet: , @Steeplejack: : The thread from last night looks ended, so I came by here to thank you all for your kinds thoughts. Things look better right now, per a 5am phone call my wife made to the hospital.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby:
Into the pockets of the 1%
Chris
@Elmo:
I actually did not know that about the verbal contract, so thank you! Will go the Iowa Old Lady route of trying to find someone else to intervene first, though (especially since both of us are out of the country). Small claims court remains as a last resort.
Chris
@OzarkHillbilly:
Heresy. It’s OBAMACARE!
/wingnut
Good luck with the job interview, Satby.
Cervantes
@Chris:
At best.
You must ask yourself what an on-going civil relationship with her might be worth.
Mustang Bobby
@Chris: I’ll bet my attorney here in Miami would be happy to write a letter on your behalf just for the fun of it. The letterhead alone would cause concern: he’s the guy that convicted Manuel Noriega.
Joey Maloney
@greennotGreen: The first car I owned (inherited from Mom) was a 1971 Plymouth Satellite wagon, with Chrysler’s 318 cubic inch V8. I could pin the speedometer at 120 and it still had some left.
And that was a clapped-out, completely stock machine.
Baud
Should I be happy that the Democrats will keep the Senate or worried that it will be a GOP blowout?
Damn you, Newsmax, for being ambiguous about how Rove is wrong.
Iowa Old Lady
@Cervantes: If Chris is a grad student, he may still have to take a class from this woman. She may be one of the people who decides if he passes his comprehensives. When he applies for jobs, people at the hiring universities may call this woman to ask about him even if he doesn’t list her as a reference.
For these reasons, I had to be careful even when I intervened on behalf of my own student because I didn’t want these repercussions to come back on him.
Academia is a small, sometimes vicious place.
OzarkHillbilly
@Cervantes: How does one have an ongoing civil relationship with a person who has ripped one off for hundreds of $s?
Chris
@Cervantes:
Maintaining a civil relationship isn’t the reason I’m still exploring university channels, it’s the fact that knowing what “That Student Who Sues Professors” is worth as a corridor rep, I’d like to exhaust every possible alternative before I go with that one.
@Mustang Bobby:
… 1) Thank you for the offer!, and 2) whether or not it comes to that, epic props to your friend for having been That Guy.
Grumpy Code Monkey
TX Lite Guv Greg Abbot claims that banning gay marriage reduces out-of-wedlock births, because logic. Even the Republican women on my Facebook page are saying, “…,wat.”
Lol
@Randy P:
Insurance fraud prevention
Chris
@Iowa Old Lady:
Or, basically, this.
And thank you kindly for your advice on the matter.
Cervantes
@OzarkHillbilly:
By eating the debt and focusing on the long term.
Not fair, obviously, if the work was done as requested, but, depending on specifics, it may be better than the alternatives.
Freemark
@raven: Except by me. I always loved ‘john’s performance wagons. I love their ‘stealth’. The first one I remember was a European one. The 1991 Audi 200 with a 20V Turbo making 217 HP and 5 spd. It was the forerunner to their S series of cars. Since I drove one of those I have loved performance in a practical and stealthy package.
rikyrah
Let’s send Kris Kobach to political oblivion
BY STEVE ROSESPECIAL TO THE STAR
10/11/2014 10:00 AM 10/11/2014 5:10 PM
If Sam Brownback wins re-election as Kansas governor, the world will not end.
If Pat Roberts wins re-election to the U.S. Senate, for sure the world will not end.
If independent candidate Greg Orman upsets Roberts for the U.S. Senate, again the world will not end.
If Kris Kobach wins re-election as Kansas secretary of state…well, that’s another story.
Kobach would fill the secretary of state’s seat for four more years, where he will continue to ignore his duties and spend his time in courts fighting one thing after another. But that’s only the beginning of the havoc he would to wreak.
Kobach, who is only 48, would then find himself in the catbird’s seat to run for governor in four years or to seek in six years the U.S. Senate seat that either Roberts or Orman would hold.
Kobach has to be nailed by the electorate in such a way that he goes away. Long, long away into political oblivion.
Of all the politicians I have covered in more than four decades, starting with a campaign trip with Richard Nixon in 1968, I have never run across a meaner, nastier, more egomaniacal politician than Kris Kobach.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/steve-rose/article2666312.html#storylink=cpy
Kathleen
@Randy P: Yes! While some people can play Candy Crush or read Facebook all day, I can get lost in You Tube music vidoes, most of which are 80’s, James Brown, R&B/Funk, etc. Hours can fly by.
rikyrah
South Dakota?
Yes, South Dakota.
But….GOP Wave..
………….
GOP reverses course, invests in South Dakota
10/13/14 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
Last week, in the wake of new polling showing South Dakota’s three-way Senate race becoming surprisingly competitive, Republicans said they were unconcerned. Even as the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee reversed course and purchased $1 million in airtime, GOP officials insisted their polls showed former Gov. Mike Rounds (R) “with a low double-digit lead of 11 to 14 percentage points over independent Larry Pressler and Democrat Rick Weiland.”
It didn’t take long for Republicans’ confidence to disappear.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee is buying more than $750,000 in ads in South Dakota as they work to counter a $1 million investment from their Democratic counterparts, Politico reports.
The money will try to help Republican nominee Mike Rounds’ chances in a tight multi-way Senate race – though it’s unclear whether the ads will boost Rounds, attack Democrat Rick Weiland or independent Larry Pressler, or a mix.
It’s a timely reminder: there is no bluffing in campaign politics at this point. It doesn’t matter what party operatives say; it matters what they do – or more to the point, where they send the checks. The fact that Republicans are making these expenditures removes all doubt about what the party thinks about this race.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gop-reverses-course-invests-south-dakota
debbie
@rikyrah:
The writer hasn’t met Josh Mandel of Ohio yet.
Cervantes
@Mustang Bobby:
That’s pretty funny.
Then there was the Renault 16 — the world’s first hatchback, their advertising agency in France eventually started calling it. I nearly drove one off a hairpin in Tyrol at something in excess of 95 miles per hour.
OzarkHillbilly
@Cervantes: You misunderstand me sir. THAT… is not a civil relationship.
rikyrah
Because, of course, a billionaire knows how to resolve things.
………………….
Mark Cuban: Limit student loans to improve economy
CNBC.com staff 2 hrs ago
Instead of taxes, jobs or government spending billionaire investor Mark Cuban said tackling the $1 trillion student debt crisis would be most effective in saving the U.S. economy.
The burden of loans is curtailing college graduates’ purchasing power that could stimulate the economy, Cuban said at Inc.’s GrowCo conference.
“That’s the same money that, when you graduated, you used to move out of the house or you went out and spent money that improved the economy and helped companies grow,” he said.
The best way to fix the student loan bubble is to limit the allotted amount of loans each student is allowed to receive each year to no more than $10,000, Cuban said.
Rising tuition costs don’t help the economy as much as increasing students’ purchasing power—a college may just use the extra cash to “build a better fitness center at your school.”
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/spendingandborrowing/mark-cuban-limit-student-loans-to-improve-economy/ar-BB93Mdp
artem1s
@Baud:
I would take it as Karl thinks he can grift a few more $Ks of ad buys in the last 2 weeks before the election but knows he needs to start to hedge his bets publicly because there is a whole 2 years of grifting to be done on behalf of wingnut wannabe, narcissists, and jerb creators with books to sell. If he epic fails the mid-terms like he did 2012, the Very Serious People might stop letting him throw their money around.
All of the dire takeover predictions have been about the percentages on who takes the Senate not who is ahead in which race. When the pundit is depending on calling the NH and MN race close or a tossup of any kind then you gotta believe the GOP echo chamber is full of BS again. Karl is just scraping the Koch wallets dry and setting up the rubes for the invasion of Hillzilla.
Hal
I’m so fascinated at the idea of a republican Senate. They have no ideas, no agenda, and no desire to fix anything for fear Obama and by default Hillary, will get all of the attention. I’m just wondering if impeaching Obama might help push his ratings up.
BruceFromOhio
@OzarkHillbilly: “Isles, Rizzoli, I’m gonna miss you two…”
Hi-fucking-larious, what a pointed and clever way to promote the cause. Sarah is awesome.
BruceFromOhio
@rikyrah:
Sounds like an excellent way to insure America The Stupid not only gains the upper hand, but keeps it until the famine wipes us out for good.
tsquared2001
@OzarkHillbilly: Sarah Silverman can be hit or miss with me but that was comedy gold, gold I say.
tsquared2001
@rikyrah: Its funny how Cuban recognizes the problem of rising tuition costs with the money going to physical improvements and administration salaries but then posit a solution that would do absolutely nada for the problem.
Not ha ha funny – just funny.
ruemara
1. 10k a year? What are they supposed to do with that? Shut up, Rubio.
2. Good luck, satby.
burnspbesq
Somebody posted a copy of a press release from the AK Governor’s office, pledging to appeal, to my Facebook thingie. My comment was, “can you say ‘sanctions for a frivolous appeal’?”
Hunter
@Mustang Bobby: Perkins get a real job?
1) I don’t think he’s willing to move to China.
2) He’ll just find another minority to lie about.
NonyNony
@tsquared2001:
What’s really weird is that I’m not certain that Cuban understands how loans work.
Unless he’s just talking about capping government guarantees for loans at 10K.
Frankly what needs to be done is that the states (or the Feds) need to get back into both the “providing money” game and the “capping salaries” game. It used to be that the states did both – provided a subsidy and told the universities exactly what their caps were. Now they do neither – they’ve abdicated their funding responsibilities as well as their oversight.
tsquared2001
@NonyNony: With his ass, it is probably just the government guaranteed aspect.
You are so correct about the state legislatures abdicating their responsibilities re higher education – that land grant universities raise tuition at a clip that outpaces inflation by some insane percentage means motherfuckers have lost the plot completely. A U of Minnesota freshman would pay $3000 more than I paid for my first year at Carleton. I am old but not that old.
Chris
@rikyrah:
Because you totally CAN pay for food, rent, transportation, all your textbooks and other class requirements, and whatnot for… 10,000 a year. You’re just not TRYING hard enough.
The obsession with doing more or as much for less money because of the Efficiency-God is going to kill this country. They’ve spent so much time “trimming the fat” in the last thirty years there are barely any bones left on the carcass. But still they insist that we do more of it.
satby
@ruemara: @Chris: Thanks!
Mnemosyne
@raven:
I once smoked a guy in a Z-28 at a stoplight while I was driving my dad’s station wagon. I can’t remember what model it was, but that sucker had a V-8 and a serious amount of pickup. His expression was priceless.
tybee
@Mustang Bobby:
my mother once had a 73/74 Pontiac Grand Safari wagon.
Green, fake wood sides, luggage rack.
400 CID, 4BBL.
wasn’t much from a standing start but there wasn’t much that would out run it from 30 to about 90.
also had a larger interior than my first apartment.
NotMax
@tybee
Second car I owned was a 1968 Chrysler Town & Country wagon with a 440 V-8. That sucker could practically climb a vertical wall Speedometer went up to 160 and that wasn’t wishful thinking on the part of its designer..