mighty forces

Waiting it out

Just finished watching an episode of Morgan Spurlock’s F/X series “30 Days,” where a woman staunchly against gay adoption went to live with a gay couple who had adopted four boys from foster care.

Predictably, the woman, while grudgingly admitting that the men were good parents, didn’t budge an inch from her conviction that children should have a “mom and dad home” and nothing else. If anything she left feeling more strongly against gay adoption, because her beliefs were challenged by the gay couple and their friends, and that just made her defensive and angry.

I’m sure there are still some people in America who, faced with the reality of gay people and their lives, could change their anti-gay stances. But not that many, at this point. Those ships have sailed. For people who believe unconditionally in a holy book and how they were taught to interpret it, the issue begins and ends there. And how can anything compete with that? Spurlock’s show also emphasizes that in most cases, when people’s deeply-held beliefs are challenged, they just become more rigid and dogmatic. Because if you are willing to give up your deeply-held beliefs, what do you have left? It’s a human reaction, if still a sad one.

The truth is that people like the woman in Spurlock’s show won’t ever change – in fact, as they see the world change around them and leave them behind, they’ll probably get more strident. It’s harsh, but all we can do is wait for those people to die out. History is on our side; too bad history takes so damn long.

Just sick of it

What do you want to bet that if Janet Folger was writing columns in the 60s, she would be saying that interracial marriage would bring on The End Times?

I know religion can bring out the best in people. But why does it also have to be so damn destructive? Is that the way God wants it?

This is just one of the many ways I feel like an outcast in my own society – and I don’t mean about being gay.

Joy

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Vote Kodos!

We will have an openly gay President of the United States long, long before we ever have an openly atheist President of the United States.

Here’s my reckoning of the probable order:

1. Black
2. Female
3. Gay
4. Muslim
5. Transgender
6. Space alien
7. Atheist

Thinking in full sentences

Whenever you see someone on TV or in the movies who can read other people’s minds, the subjects always seem to “think” in complete, grammatical sentences. But when was the last time you ever spoke a sentence out in your head? Or even specific words?

I’m thinking a sentence right now. Can you tell what I’m thinking?

No, it doesn’t involve George Clooney. Oh wait. Now I *am* thinking about him.

Word clouds

I’ve been trying out lots of fun interesting internet stuff this weekend. There’s Zoomii, where you can browse Amazon visually, like you would bookstore shelves. And then there’s Wordle, which makes beautiful “word clouds” from any block of text. I tried making one based on my post “Things Falls Apart.” I think it’s gorgeous. Try it out for yourself.

Turn, turn, turn

I was looking back at some of my old archives on words mean things today, and I realized that I’ve been writing on the web in one form or another off and on for the last eight years.

Eight years.

First WMT, then Utopia, and now Mighty Forces. Each was such a different experience. Since I got in on the ground floor (so to speak) with words mean things, a little community of readers sprung up that I’ve missed terribly ever since the site played itself out in 2004. I met people online from all over the world, which was eye-opening and incredibly fun. But things changed, and people changed, and it ended.

When the bug hit me again months later, I was just angry and frustrated with the upcoming election. I used Utopia to vent that anger, pretty successfully. And I’m still quite proud of a lot of writing I did there. “Predictable” and “The President is Not Your Daddy” are two of my favorites. But then, I got burned out on anger.

These days, I’m more laid back – or I’m dead inside, take your pick. Every day I hope I can live up to that great line from Fight Club: “The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide.”

What hasn’t changed is that I love to write on the web. I have a feeling that love won’t go away, whatever form it takes in the future.

Onward and upward.

This is true

On FreeRepublic, where apparently they have nothing better to do, anti-gay trolls have made 180 comments (!) so far on a post about a British commercial for Heinz that shows two men kissing.

Why, whenever I peruse the Freeper’s “HomosexualAgenda” category do I think of “doth protest” and the classic Onion story?

Adventures in near-anonymous web fame

So I e-mailed the staff of Lifehacker after finding an interview in the July issue of Geek magazine (cool, BTW) with Rob Corddry, late of The Daily Show, where he said Lifehacker was da bomb (is that what the kids are saying these days?). They wrote a post on the site about Corddry’s praise, and even were nice enough to end the post with “Thanks, Adam.”

Of course, “Adam” could be Adam West, Adam Carolla, Adam Snavely, Adam Ant, Adam Cartwright, Adam Arkin, or Adam Sandler, among others. And in my haste I didn’t even mention my site or any other way they could credit me – but I wasn’t thinking of that when I sent the e-mail, either. So I don’t expect to be getting any Lifehacker readers coming by here. Still, it’s nice to be mentioned.

In other online fame news, the current top hit when you Google “Adam Blust” is La Shawn Barber’s site. Ack. Although I do feel I did pretty well there, considering the circumstances.

Answer: No.

“There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.”

-Gen. Antonio Taguba, who led the Army’s official investigation into the Abu Ghraib torture scandal

My outrage meter was broken back sometime in 2003. I doubt it will ever be repaired. But damn – when will these evil bastards ever face any consequences for their actions?