This morning's news crawl.

[theweaselking]

Circuit City files for Chapter 11

Also,
DHL discontinues service to the USA.

Also,
Schwarzenegger comes out strongly against Prop 8, a week too late.

Also,
Obama declares intention to reverse Bush's harmful executive policies as soon as he takes office, work at the harmful non-executive ones after that.

Also,
Bone marrow transplant from HIV-immune donor cures AIDS.

Comments

[doom-diva.livejournal.com]

Thank you so, so, SO much for posting the article about the very possible AIDS cure! I am seriously starting to cry right now! My uncle died from that about five years ago.

Thanks so much - you just made my week!

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

There have been a number of AIDS cures in the last half-decade that have had promising results in trials or worked perfectly for a few people and not passed full testing yet - but I'm always glad to see more.

[doom-diva.livejournal.com]

Hey! Don't punch a hole in my balloon! :P~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I know there have been others, but after reading this article, it just seems to have so much more promise than anything I've come across to date.

I was just on the phone with my husband, and he interjected that even if this *is* the cure, insurance companies have to be scrambling to get this out of their coverage. That's so sad to even think about.

I remember how many pills he was on, how many tests and treatments, and he wasn't paying for any of it. He figured to hell with paying the bills, because who were they going to sue when he died? He sold his business and lived off the money, got in a lot of traveling, that sort of thing, and always made jokes about his worsening condition - that was just the kind of guy he was. I even laugh about one of the things he left for me - his "happy pills" aka Merinol (concentrated THC), which he took so he would have a strong appetite.

He missed the opportunity to legally marry his longtime partner, and now he's missing the opportunity to get in line for this treatment. It makes me sad to think about, but at the same time, it makes me just so friggin happy to think that this is going to be The One.

[glitteringlynx.livejournal.com]

Dear USA:

I like your new President.

Love,

Me

[anivair.livejournal.com]

On prop 8.

I hate this amendment. It sucks. I like gay people. I like gay marriage.

that said, I'm not sure how I feel about the governor encouraging the courts to overturn a legally passed amendment.

Sure, it was a crooked way to pass it. Sure it was a bad law. but what if the Goveronator wanted the courts to overturn an amendment stating the opposite?

I guess, if any proposal or amendment that has been legally passed by the people, however stupid, can just be overturned by the executive's say so, then why do we bother with the voting in the first place? Why not skip right to "his will be done"?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

This is not overturning it on the executive's say-so.

This is overturning it on the grounds that it is improperly passed, and The Governator agreeing that this is the case and saying so publicly.

In California, there are *two* amendment procedures. One for minor additions, one for significant changes. The protestors are arguing, and Schwarzenegger is agreeing, that removal of an existing right from a minority group is far, far more than a "minor addition", and suggesting that the amendment *not* pass further.

It's also unconstitutional in the US constitution, which supercedes the California one, but they're less confident that the Bush-humpers and ideologically blinkered morons who outnumber the sane people on the USSC might actually read and think before ruling.

[kadath.livejournal.com]

It's also unconstitutional in the US constitution, which supercedes the California one, but they're less confident that the Bush-humpers and ideologically blinkered morons who outnumber the sane people on the USSC might actually read and think before ruling.

I've been saying this to all my friends who are screaming for a run at SCOTUS. I'm like "you don't want that until, at minimum, Scalia and Alito are worm food, kids."

[cacahuate.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you understand this, because there are seriously some people who completely refuse to. I mean hell, you can disagree with their argument, but you should at least be able to grasp what they're arguing.

Annoyed at Arnold, unless he's spoken about this before and I missed it. If he knew his history, he'd've come out against it last week, hoping to pull a Reagan (one of the few awesome things Reagan did). But then, of course he doesn't.

[anivair.livejournal.com]

that's fair. I didn't know that there were two methods (guess I should have read more). in that case, I have no issue with it.

And of course it violates the US constitution. no argument there. But that's out of the state's hands for the large part.

I predict we'll see this argument over inside five years. And then everyone will freak out, then nothing will change, and everyone will wonder what the big fucking deal was in the first place?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

And then everyone will freak out, then nothing will change, and everyone will wonder what the big fucking deal was in the first place?

That's what happened in Massachusetts.

And, before that, in Canada.

(And, really, that's mostly what's happened with non-whites and women, too)

[anivair.livejournal.com]

yup.

Much like the black president deal (though i think that obame will change a lot of things by virtue of being a decent guy, rather than being black).

A lot of people asked if I was excited to see what white people would do when they had a black president.

Nope. White people will have a black president and things will be normal and that will be funny.

But what will be funnier is when black people realize nothing has changed. that's what I'm waiting for.

[dglenn.livejournal.com]

"yup."

Thirded.

"though i think that obame will change a lot of things by virtue of being a decent guy, rather than being black"

Mostly agreed (see below).

"But what will be funnier is when black people realize nothing has changed."

First, something important has changed for many African Americans (and based on what I'm hearing from overseas, black people elsewhere as well, though I don't yet understand that quite as well) -- but it's largely internal (and I think, based on comments made on camera, that most of them realize that). Okay, it's 'just a perception' that's changed, but that can be important (and in this case I think it is).

Second, I agree that in terms of greater effects on society, having our first black president doesn't really change all that much, or at least not as much as a lot of people want it to mean anyhow. But the second black president will herald a vatly important, if rather subtle, change.

You see, one can be 'the exception': "Okay, we let one in." "We just have to keep this one from ruining the country for four years until we can get him out of there." And later, "Well sure, he turned out okay, but he was just an exception; we better not let it happen again." On the other hand, when the next black president is elected, and Obama goes from being "the only" to "the first", then despite stubbornness on the part of a few die-hards, having a black president becomes less exceptional -- maybe not 'ordinary' for a couple more generations, but certainly less strange -- and the Really Big shift in cultural attitudes happens (bringing the gestalt more in line with what a fair number of Americans already feel individually).

Just like the first female firefighter could be "Hey, look at the lady fireman," but the second was, "Well, yeah, women can be firemen I guess," and the tenth made it, "Although most firefighters are men, some are women." Nobody remembers the name of The Second ___ To Become a ____, but that's when the real change happens that the first made possible by punching a hole in a barrier.

The icebreaker does an impressive job punching open a path, and then the cargo ships follow that path and deliver the goods. (Not that I don't think Obama will 'deliver the goods' as far as being president is concerned; but that 'the goods' in the sense of a huge cultural shift in what we think of as 'ordinary' and what potential we see in people who don't look like the majority will be delivered on the shoulders of the second black president of the US.

Obama is still pretty f'ing important in that process of course -- if not for his victory now, the next one would have to be The First.

And entirely apart from the matter of 'race', I expect him to be a good president (a great one, if enough other politicians line up beside him instead of throwing themselves in his way), but that's on a different axis than what I've described above. (I also expect him to dissapoint me from time to time, and to piss me off occasionally, but any president who isn't me will do that. I just hope that he remains aware of and responsive to the concerns voiced my millions like me over the course of his term(s).)

[anivair.livejournal.com]

Oh, i don't disagree with you that having a black president changes the political landscape. that much is very accurate and it opens up a lot of possibilities for future presidents. True.

However, i think that a lot of black people thought it would change their daily lives and I have my doubts that it will. that's more what i was getting at. that once the excitement of having a black man in the white house dies down, life will be unchanged around most people.

but we'll see. Maybe not. maybe the excitement really will carry over into social change. that would be great.

[the-flea-king.livejournal.com]

Jesus, another 10,000 jobs.

[reyl.livejournal.com]

From the Obama article:
Early targets for reform are likely to include lifting restrictions on stem cell research and blocking moves to allow oil and gas drilling in wilderness areas. Obama may also lift a ban that prevents international family planning organisations that receive US government funding from advising women about the possibility of birth control.

I like this guy already :)

On the AIDS article, holy awesome Batman!

On Prop 8... I still don't get it. The Cali supreme court said that denying gays the right to marry is unconstitutional. Okay. So people figured that the way to get around this was a vote to amend the constitution? And then they *vote* about it? Bizarre. I'm glad the Governator is maybe going to work to fix this. Or at least encourage gays to complain until enough people change their minds or something.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

On Prop 8... I still don't get it. The Cali supreme court said that denying gays the right to marry is unconstitutional.

It actually said that gays *have* the right to marry, and that laws abridging that right are unconstitutional.

California has two different ways to amend their constitution.
The first one is what they used. Legally, it's the *wrong* one.

[reyl.livejournal.com]

Well I mean I get the process of what happened. I just don't get:

Minority People: X should be legal
Court: You have a right to X
Court holds up constitution and points
Majority People: Who thinks X is yucky by a show of hands?
Majority People gesticulate madly
Minority People: Not fair!
Majority People write on constitution in big black markers
Majority People: See, you really don't have the right to X.
Court: Don't look at me.
Minority People has a sad.

[dreamshade.livejournal.com]

Right, I'm pretty sure the basic point is that you really can't make a constitutional change like that just by using the Cali ballot process.

[lurkerwithout.livejournal.com]

You can, but theres ANOTHER step before that where the Cal Legislation does something. Prop 8 didn't do that...

[cantkeepsilent.livejournal.com]

I think that Obama should also be pointing out that with two wars, a terrorist leader at large, and the largest global financial crisis in seventy years, Bush is being anti-American by forcing Obama to spend his first hundred days cleaning up after Bush's last hundred days. Instead of, you know, cleaning up after the 2,500 days before that.

[jerril]

Regarding DHL - the jobs lost is obviously the suck for Americans - especially right now, but speaking as a Canadian who's had to wrestle with their blatantly abusive policies regarding cross-border shipping fees: DIE DIE YOU EVIL BASTARDS DIE!

*ahem*

[lurkerwithout.livejournal.com]

Circuit City is going under? But where will I go for shitty service, shabby selections and dirty stores? Yes Best Buy has been sliding downhill, but they can only go bad so fast!

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Like I said to someone else: Dammit, Circuit City should go out of business, but not for this reason!

(More seriously: They're not going out of business. They're filing for Chapter 11, meaning they stay open, cut costs, and pay back the creditors when they start making a profit again. In theory)