Provided You Are Contrary

... you really ought to give Iowa a try:

Iowa's Supreme Court legalized gay marriage Friday in a unanimous and emphatic decision that makes Iowa the third state — and first in the nation's heartland — to allow same-sex couples to wed.

Iowa joins only Massachusetts and Connecticut in permitting same-sex marriage. For six months last year, California's high court allowed gay marriage before voters banned it in November.

The Iowa justices upheld a lower-court ruling that rejected a state law restricting marriage to a union between a man and woman.

The county attorney who defended the law said he would not seek a rehearing. The only recourse for opponents appeared to be a constitutional amendment, which could take years to ratify.

"We are firmly convinced the exclusion of gay and lesbian people from the institution of civil marriage does not substantially further any important governmental objective," the Supreme Court wrote.

Iowa lawmakers have "excluded a historically disfavored class of persons from a supremely important civil institution without a constitutionally sufficient justification."

To issue any other decision, the justices said, "would be an abdication of our constitutional duty."

I Needed A Smile Or Three Today, And I Thought I'd Share

First, the Orbitz Hovercraft (h/t huskiebear):

And a little Carmen Sandiego, with vocal percussionist Jeff Thatcher:

(here's another version)

A little Whose Line? Rocky Horror:

And what would life be without Gene Gene the Dancing Machine?

Anything else out there that might brighten a day?

The 10-31 Project

Lately Glenn Beck has made the news a lot. If you don't know who he is, he's... well, he's a bigoted, insane shitheaded moron. One of the ones who makes Rush look nearly in the vicinity of reasonable by comparison. And, of course, he has incredibly high ratings on Faux News Network.

He is so very over-the-top that even the useless Joe Scarborough had fun with him the other day. (If you haven't seen it yet, watch just the first two minutes. That'll tell you pretty much everything you need to know about Beck.)

Well, last night, The Master had his turn. Stephen Colbert.

April Fool's Day

A day to wonder at the, hm, politeness here, naïveté of our fellow humans. First one I saw this morning was this e-mail apparently making the rounds.

Got any good ones? Or at least can't-believe-someone-believed-it ones?

ETA: Another good one.

Everything Is Dangerous / Never Give Up, Never Surrender

Lessee -- we've got the Conficker Worm, Chase more than doubling its minimum credit card payment, and a recall of pistachios. Home prices have dropped 19% since last year, and the new CEO of General Motors says that the restructuring will likely cause more plant closures.

On the other hand, Walgreen's is going to have in-store clinics providing some health care free for the unemployed and uninsured, at least through the end of the year. And the people in Fargo, North Dakota and Moorhead, Minnesota are determined not to let the Red River win.

How are things going for you right now? Obviously you don't have to do into detail if you don't want to. I guess I just wanted to remind everybody that it may suck, and it may suck for awhile, but you're not alone. No matter how alone you may feel, you're never alone.

Hugs to all of you.