Sunday, March 20, 2005
Marriage
We never really needed government approval or codification of a commitment by people to become family, share their lives, raise children or pets together, support and protect each other, and make decisions for each other. Not even religious approval. It just is.
But we have that, and it can be a convenience. In a modern, more complex society and legal framework, having a defined contractual arrangement called “marriage” saves the legal footwork required to setup powers of attorney, ironclad legalities defaulting inheritance to a spouse, and that sort of thing.
That aside from benefits above and beyond the conveniences; benefits that are not government’s to give, and that if they are there, ought to happen at lower rather than higher levels of government. There are tax benefits that accrue more to marrieds than others, and at least an implicit policy encouraging the creation of more citizens for the government to own represent.
Since there is such a framework, sets of benefits that can make life easier, and a heavy-handed government involvement, marriage gets defined by the government, some possible forms of it are forbidden, and some folks seek legal approval for forms not currently recognized formally and bestowed with government beneficence.
Why deal with lawyering galore when you can be pronounced married and get the same rights, plus more besides? Your spouse becomes your primary family. If there is a medical emergency and you cannot speak for yourself, your spouse is contractually sanctified as the one speaking for you and making decisions on your behalf, where your parents, children or siblings might have shouldered that burden for you when they were your primary family. If you predecease your spouse, it is natural for your spouse to be the default heritor and controller of your estate. Ditto for the continued care and raising of your children.
If you don’t trust your spouse to be in this position, hie thee to divorce court. By all means, don’t delay.
The underlying contract of marriage is fundamental to the warp and woof of society subject to predictable rule of law. Rending it is not something to do lightly and without cognizance of the damage being done.
If you have any special attachment to the word “marriage” as meaning one man and one woman, or to the government imposition of incentives for goals that make sense mainly in that context, or a craving for societal neatness, then of course the idea of gay marriage, polygamy, line marriage, or that sort of thing bothers you. Ironically, it is because of government’s involvement in marriage, and provision of benefits for it, that government approval for non-traditional familial groupings is sought.
In the seeking, what damage is done? Do we wait another generation, if that, for society to be more open to the concept of gay marriage, flowing into recognition and legislation of it almost as a matter of course? Or do we seek to have it imposed before its time through judicial contortions? Should we be going the other way instead; getting government out of the business of marriage rather than trying to drag them in deeper? We all know how that usually turns out. Beware the unintended consequence, for it escapes freely and sports a nasty bite.
If we go beyond heteromarriage as the only legal “marriage” in the context of all the contractual rights and obligations, as well as the benefits government might bestow, appropriately or not, then is there really any reason not to go beyond bipartite marriage? Polygamy as normally portrayed or practiced isn’t for me, but something like Heinlein’s line marriage makes a lot of sense. Yet then what happens to the contractual basis of your spouse acting on your behalf no matter who disagrees with their decision? Perhaps evolution into a seniority basis. It strikes me that so long as we don’t destroy spousal legal rights, whether we always like the outcomes on a case by case basis, keeping that a prime reason for gay marriage, then gay marriage is a decidedly easier case to make than arrangements that include more than two people.
A Whole New World
And I don’t mean a song from Aladdin.
Looks like the world of “real food” is going to be completely different from the commercial baby food world. We’ve established that Sadie loves real sweet potato as well as the commercial version. However, she hates hates hates real banana, even though she likes the not as good IMHO commercial stuff, and the banana flavored gas drops (speaking of which, we strongly suspect that she has figured out that Tylenol makes her teeth feel better, as her enthusiasm for it goes way beyond merely liking the grape flavor).
I’ve tried giving her a little mashed with a fork, and today we used the food processor to make it finer and more watery. Very tasty. She made the most revolted food face yet, was more mildly revolted on the second and third bites, and refused more after that. I’m impressed that she gamely tried that much. She even shuddered in disgust when I wiped the little bit off her face before moving on to her favorite thing, which is blueberries. Which are (parental tip alert) even more effective than prunes at inducing regularity.
No more real bananas for Sadie until she’s older.
Spring
Just yay!*
* With apologies to Dax
Your Daily Sadie
Carnival of the Recipes Is Up
Hey, nobody told us Carnival of the Recipes was up! So I didn’t link to it on Friday, per usual. Better late than never, though.
I rather like the sound of this one, but not with caviar. I’m thinking I could use the walnut paste recipe with almonds, here or with another recipe.
Saturday, March 19, 2005
I Know, I Know…
I keep putting up pictures and baby antics instead of “real” posts. I’ve been busy, and am about to head out to help a client with what I hope will be a final cleanup of the crud from hell from one of their machines. I’ve never cleaned up malware and had it come right back in spades the way this one did.
Turns out there’s a specific virus/trojan/worm thingie behind it that the key to wiping out is a temporary disabling of system restore, which XP (and WinME) uses to “help” you restore to an earlier state without having to reinstall or lose so much if there’s a problem.
This particular thing is a massive disruption of what I should be and had planned to do today, which I didn’t even try to start on because of the disruption this request for me in a specific timeframe in the middle of Saturday represents.
I have posts begging to be written. On marriage, for instance, and on going into business with partners who are friends, for another. In reality, I should be chained away from the internet for about the next two weeks, except for downloading tax forms, to do both paying work, tax stuff, and not so paying work that is bunching up. So maybe at some point, but this explains why I am going to be a bit spotty lately.
Bonus Sadie: Blueberry Edition
Last night Sadie tried blueberries and apples. It was arguably her most favorite food yet. Either that or she was so ravenous she didn’t care, but the first spoonful didn’t even elicit a mild expression of dismay. Which is what she gives even the best foods, before deciding she loves, likes, or will tolerate them. She was right though; they were yummy.
I bought some apples, so we will be trying to make those for her. Also bananas, which we already tried giving her a taste of, raw and hand smooshed. She likes the baby food variety, which are rather tangy, but she was quite unimpressed with the real thing.
Your Daily Sadie
Note that she was appropriately dressed for March 17, when this was taken.
That’s pretty normal, dude.
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You Are 60% Normal
(Really Normal)
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Otherwise known as the normal amount of normal You’re like most people most of the time But you’ve got those quirks that make you endearing You’re unique, yes… but not frighteningly so! |
Genetically Diverse Mutt
I’ve always had an unhealthy interest in ancestry, which I no doubt picked up from my downright atavistic mother. So naturally I got to thinking about Sadie’s degree of meltingpotness, and tried to figure out as best I could what it includes and how much.
I am not completely certain of the accuracy of my own, though in general it’s probably close enough, ranging from English predominating, then Scottish, French, and on down to a mere, and definite, 1/32 Indian (Wampanoag).
I don’t have complete info on Deb’s side, so some of it is guestimations and a bit of “unknown” that perhaps can be filled in later. If there’s strength in genetic diversity, no wonder she’s so healthy and vigorous.
So as far as I can determine so far, Sadie can claim the following “tribal” makeup, from most to least, ranging from perhaps 18/64 to 2/64:
German
English
Scottish
Unknown
Indian (mainly Sioux, plus the drop or two from me)
Swedish
French
Irish
Dutch
Her best answer when asked will definitely be “I’m a mutt.”
A Goofy Quiz For A Saturday Morning
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You Are 50% Normal
(Somewhat Normal)
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While some of your behavior is quite normal… Other things you do are downright strange You’ve got a little of your freak going on But you mostly keep your weirdness to yourself |
Via the really normal Denise
Friday, March 18, 2005
I’m crying so hard I’m laughing.
I think this pretty much says it all.
Rest In Peace Andre Norton
I hadn’t yet gotten around to noting Andre Norton’s passing the way I did Jack Chalker’s a few weeks ago, in part due to being busy, in part because it’s been so widely noted, and in part because she was never a big author for me.
As far as I know, the only book I have ever read by her, and the only one I own, is Merlin’s Mirror, which was excellent, if somewhat targeted at a pre-adult audience. It’s possible I read other of her works, from my sister or the library, so far back in my youth as to have forgotten. Turns out that book fits in with her heavy interest in Arthurian legend
Here’s a good bio, picture and remembrances if you’d like to learn more.
Your Daily Sadie
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Early Deadline for This Week’s Carnival of the Capitalists
John Winsor, host of the next Carnival of the Capitalists, is asking that entries be in by 3:00 PM EST on Sunday. The normal, approximate guideline is 6:00, but 3:00 is well within the range envisioned before custom leaned things later on a regular basis. Turns out he is traveling first thing Monday morning, so needs to be able to complete and post CotC at a reasonable time Sunday evening.
Please get your entries in early.
Update:
Making this post stay at the top for the day.
You Mean They Don’t Worship Zorro?
You scored as Zoroastrian Pagan. The Zoroastrian Pagan is a rare breed who follows the teachings of Zoroaster, the religious reformer. He believed that there were no gods, and it was naive to put faith in them and give them names. What one should focus on is merely serving one side of the cosmic duality; work on good or light deeds, and the world would become more good or light. Pagans of this variety are rare, but often feel like they get more done without the hassle and clutter of pantheons and gods. They’re smart, analytical, and occationally cynical.
What kind of Pagan are you? created with QuizFarm.com |
Via Running Girl
She sits.
Actually, Sadie’s been sitting to various degrees for a while, but yesterday she discovered that her balance was good enough that she didn’t need a hand on the ground to keep from falling over, and thus could use both hands to play with something in front of her. She doesn’t fall over now until she gets so excited that she waves those little arms so hard that it becomes impossible for her to keep her balance. She can’t get up to a sit by herself yet, though, so if you’ve wondered what I’ve been doing the last few days instead of posting, there you have it: I’ve been my baby’s sitter-upper.
It’s so interesting watching her. A few weeks ago she wanted to be left the heck alone to play with things by herself--just leave her some toys and leave her alone, thankyouverymuch, she’s going to figure the world out without anyone’s help. Now she’s much happier being played with and gets downright cranky if left to play by herself for more than a few minutes. I estimate she’ll change again soon. I think that’s maybe the wildest thing about all of this...I surely didn’t know beforehand that I’d have myself a new baby every couple of weeks. But for right now, I do, and it’s definitely the Coolest. Thing. Ever.
Pictures as soon as I get around to dumping the latest batch off of the camera.
Ah. No wonder!
You think stress could have something to do with the whole blood pressure thing? I mean, I only scored 343 on this assessment I found at Kate’s place. Of course, the changes have been good changes, but good can stress you out just as badly if you’ve got too much going on, too fast:
Incidentally, my score was actually higher at the point where the thing first showed up. Coincidence? I think not. But in another year I won’t have stress to blame it on. Which is actually a whole other post I’ve been meaning to write about illness and blame and causation and correlation and something I saw on Dr. Phil the other day. But I don’t have time to write that one right this moment. Heh.High susceptibility to stress-related illness. Daily practice of relaxation skills is very important for your wellness. Take care of it now before a serious illness erupts or an affliction becomes worse.
6794!
Not my high score, my only score, the first and only time I played this game. Which is pretty cool and presumably could be addictive.
Speaking of Food
Speaking of food, I made this chicken last night, while Deb made mashed, carrots, and peas to go with it. It came out about the best it ever has.
I got it overly spicy; rounded up amounts of the spices that are already at the hot side and could be reduced to taste. So I ended up using at least half again as much brown sugar; might have even been double. That made it the perfect sweet and hot mix, and made it cook onto the chicken perfectly.
On another note, I recently made a variant of my fried checken strips recipe, trying to keep is simpler and make it even faster cooking by making nuggets instead of strips. Instead of a flour coating, egg mix, then oatmeal, Bisquick and spice mix, I drowned them in an egg mix, made an oatmeal, Bisquick and spice mix, put the coating in a large, zipper style food bag, tossed in all the soaked nuggets, and shook.
The problem was the oatmeal hadn’t crushed well and the Bisquick tended to be the main thing to stick. I decided next time the oatmeal will get ground in the food processor, so it’s grainier than flour or Bisquick, but will coat more effectively. Other than that, the “shake ‘n’ fry” method seemed useful. It was also excellent, and amazingly fast cooking, as nuggets. The cool thing is you can take the basic idea and go not spiced at all, Italian seasoned, super hot with stuff like red pepper, or whatever you like.
Happy Early Birthday To Me
My birthday isn’t until April 3, but Deb had ordered me a present, which arrived yesterday and was wrapped, waiting on my chair when I came home. She was too excited and I was too mystified not to open it. It was very heavy for the size of the box.
It was Cast-Iron Cooking For Dummies! Which is a cool concept. In a box that has the distinctive design of the Dummies books, you get two Lodge Cast Iron pans, pre-seasoned, with a cover that fits both, and the Dummies book filled with recipes. The pans are a 5 quart Dutch oven nd a 10 1/4” skillet.
Perhaps now I can try making Acidman’s cornbread:
*Put a big dollop of bacon grease in a bowl. (I don’t measure a “dollop.” I KNOW what one looks like.) Add two cups of corn meal, a palm full baking powder, a handful of sifted flour, 1 and 1/2 cups of milk and one raw egg. Beat the shit out of that mixture until it is smooth, then ladle it into a cast-iron skillet (buttered beforehand).
*Bake the cornbread in the oven at 425 degrees for 25 minutes.
It’s cool that we can still be excited about buying each other house stuff. We both wanted cast iron eventually, and I seem to recall having put it on my Christmas last last year. It was a complete surprise though. I was expecting something more along the lines of DVD, book or CD genres. To my credit, yesterday afternoon at the office I finally thought of the possibility it might be a kitchen something.
Well, I was going to try to give some examples of the recipes in the book, but work calls. In an odd sort of way. I checked with my big client to see if they could hurry up and pay me, and they have no record of ever having received the invoice. So before another client can drag me in for a malware emergency this morning, I need to go print them another copy so they can pay me and I can pay rent and stuff. That’s important.
Your Daily Sadie
Don’t forget, you can click these pictures for larger versions, usually 800 pixels wide instead of 400.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Your Daily Sadie
We’re alive!
Always a good thing, right?
Just pegged about a thousand on the busy-ness scale all of a sudden. Not a bad thing, but not much time for the computer the last day or so. Hope to be back later on today…
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Don’t Forget!
Today is International Eat an Animal for PETA Day.
Kevin has more, as does Michael King here, both with nice pictures.
Meryl Yourish originated IEAPD, so check out here and there where she has still more on the celebration.
I am hoping to get some nice red meat in my travels today, for supper tonight, even though the usual frozen checken would technically do. Mmmm… Meat, it’s what’s for dinner.
Neolibertarian Network
Beck reports on the new Neolibertarian Network. I don’t know as I would join formally, but it’s an interesting idea, and describes me rather well.
I was once a card carrying member of the Libertarian party; literally, as when I joined they still had membership cards on which you certified that you were opposed to the initiation of force, whatever the exact wording was.
I’ve long noted that I look at things with duality. On the one hand, I see how things ought theoretically to be if they could be, which actually gives something of a target for the rest. On the other hand, I look at how things are and, given the framework we are in, how best to do things in context, and how best to improve if never perfect the context.
Thus I can say, for example, “the government shouldn’t be in the business of running schools.” At the same time, I can see that since the government is running schools, here is how it should be improved or done more efficiently. Since the latter is the reality, it might look like a conservative’s approach if you only know the latter as my opinion, but it tends to be pragmatic libertarian. On other matters, I might sound like a flaming liberal hippy. However, it’s nothing if not reasonably consistent, if pragmatic in the face of our non-utopian reality. I hate inconsistent, whimsical “beliefs” based on “I want” rather than “at the core I believe.”
Hardcore, utopian Libertarians tilt at electoral windmills (or sit politics out entirely) and get nowhere, apart from what ideological influence spills into the mainstream, and that’s not a bad thing (having the subtle influence, that is; a tradition of third parties).
I think 9/11 and events since have brought the differences into sharper relief, or even made some choose one way or the other when they hadn’t consciously done so before. The fantasy nineties were a whole different reality.
My utopia includes open borders everywhere and peace through freedom. Even in the real world, I have always embraced “two hands, one mouth.” Defense, the reason to have a government, given the state of the rest of the world, means strong border security rather than free movement. Since there isn’t freedom and reasonable self-government everywhere, encouraging that is part of our defense and of creating a future that comes closer to the ideal. The ideal can’t happen by itself.
You could say a neolibertarian is a security libertarian, or a pragmatic libertarian. How can you have freedom without a modicum of security from those who hate the concept even more than the worst elements in our own government?
I could go on, but I need to go now. Check out the post by Beck for the requisite links and details. Not to mention his post on the end of internet anonymity, such as it was.
Your Daily Sadie
Grand Rounds Is Up
This week’s edition of Grand Rounds is TV-themed, apostrophe-deficient, and loaded with healthy amounts of medical posts for your perusal at the delightfully named Respectful Insolence.
Monday, March 14, 2005
The Joy of Hand-Me-Downs
You show baby pictures to a random person at the office, only to have them exclaim at seeing your kid in their kid’s outfit, which was handed down to you from whoever they handed it down to, or maybe from the second or third person in the chain. Heh.
Not to mention the other joy, which is saving money and getting better stuff than you might ever have bought yourself, sometimes with the store tags still attached, never worn. There’s one like that in the bag of clothes I was given today.
Oh the pain of declining fame…
Am I the only one who thinks that Jose Canseco is just pathetic?