![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Two thoughts first.
The thing about going to bed relatively early (um...1:45) is that I lie awake, which means fertile ground for either panic attacks or really weird thoughts. Fortunately, I had the latter!
So, like, with this whole gay marriage issue, it's pretty much at the point where a constitutional amendment for or against it will be a long, long time in coming if at all, so it's left up to the states to decide who can marry. I think Massachusetts and Vermont are the only states that allow gay marriage, and I'm not sure about Vermont.
So my thought was this--what if churches decided to perform gay marriages?
I know, you're thinking--"not in a million years! That's exactly the problem!"--but take the Unitarians for instance, or the Episcopalians. Of course it would have to be a liberal Protestant religion, cause no one else will touch it with a ten foot pole. And even so, those two particular religions are often looked down on by the rest for their...liberalness, so to speak (Episcopalianism has a gay bishop, Unitarians ran that commercial awhile back).
But what if? I'd be very interested to see what would happen. I mean, obviously the marriage would mean next to nothing, since you still wouldn't have the rights of a hetero couple. And of course the divorce rates don't reflect this, but I figure the main reason most people get married is because they love each other and have some confidence in the longevity of their relationship.
But imagine what the states would say if churches started performing the marriages? For one thing--and this would be so damn lovely to watch--the more conservative churches would get all up in arms about it, try to get it to stop, but here's the kicker; separation of church and state can work in the favor of progress for once. Churches can't be taxed and church property isn't state property, so the state gov't and of course the federal gov't would have no right to say anything about what goes on in the church. Unless you're sacrificing goats or small children or something. The worst the conservative churches could do is lead protests.
It still leaves the problem of people only being married in title and not in the eyes of the law. And of course, it reinforces the idea that marriage is a religious institution. But I'd like to see some churches out there do this. Or do they already? I expect the Unitarians would be all for it. I dunno. It could work either way for the gay rights movement, but I think it would be interesting to see it in practice.
And the second thought:
This is spectacularly random compared to the first one. I was thinking about Harry Potter, and something always bothered me about the 4th book (GoF), when Myrtle tells Harry she's seen mermaids at the bottom of the lake when she gets flushed and--does it, does it occur to anyone that this means the Hogwarts homeys are swimming in sewage? Dear God, isn't the lake the source of their water supply, too? Which makes me hope it's one of those things where if you ask JKR she'll just answer "magic," because of course it would make sense, but it's still...geh! And no one has ever mentioned this, so dude, really. And...dude, dumping sewage in lakes, even if it is magically, um, cleaned--it's still wrong and environmentally hazardous!
Geh.
See, this is what my mind does at night when I can't sleep.
I went shopping today. Yes, me. Shopping. Uh-huh. I now have way too many shirts. And a skirt. Yes, me. A skirt. I like the shirts though. And I caved and went to Hot Topic since they're the only local place where you can get anime/music related T-shirts (I hate Hot Topic). I've been wanting this FLCL shirt with Haruko on it for ages, but it's in an XL which is like, pajama sized for me. Also got a Panic! shirt cause Panic! is love.
And in the anime/manga vein...
Damn. Damn, damn, damn. DeathNote volume 7 is out and I bought it and I wish I had just stopped reading before this one came out, or that the manga itself had stopped or that the manga had gone in a different direction or at the very least ( Read more... )
...because now I have to read it all over again, and I don't want to because I know what happens. I wasn't positive it happens in this volume, so I looked ahead and yeah, there it is, damn author bastards!
( Read more... )
But it's okay. Maybe there will be retribution later. I still haven't read the online scanlations for fear of there not being retribution later, but yeah.
I also didn't expect Naruto 11 to be out, but it was, so of course...what can I say? And...well...really, everyone talks about One Piece so I thought I'd check it out and I liked the first three chapters enough that I bought volume one and two, and now I'm really not gonna have any shelf space when I get to college. *cries*
Yeah, I'm nuts.
Am at work on fic chapter 3 and through thought processes I think I'm close to breaking through the wall in Mot. I have a scene, I just need a transitory scene into it. Plus there's going to be a lot of Boone. But that's okay. He's the main character. The main character is supposed to have more air time than the others.
I also have an idea of how to trim it down and spruce up the beginning.
The thing about going to bed relatively early (um...1:45) is that I lie awake, which means fertile ground for either panic attacks or really weird thoughts. Fortunately, I had the latter!
So, like, with this whole gay marriage issue, it's pretty much at the point where a constitutional amendment for or against it will be a long, long time in coming if at all, so it's left up to the states to decide who can marry. I think Massachusetts and Vermont are the only states that allow gay marriage, and I'm not sure about Vermont.
So my thought was this--what if churches decided to perform gay marriages?
I know, you're thinking--"not in a million years! That's exactly the problem!"--but take the Unitarians for instance, or the Episcopalians. Of course it would have to be a liberal Protestant religion, cause no one else will touch it with a ten foot pole. And even so, those two particular religions are often looked down on by the rest for their...liberalness, so to speak (Episcopalianism has a gay bishop, Unitarians ran that commercial awhile back).
But what if? I'd be very interested to see what would happen. I mean, obviously the marriage would mean next to nothing, since you still wouldn't have the rights of a hetero couple. And of course the divorce rates don't reflect this, but I figure the main reason most people get married is because they love each other and have some confidence in the longevity of their relationship.
But imagine what the states would say if churches started performing the marriages? For one thing--and this would be so damn lovely to watch--the more conservative churches would get all up in arms about it, try to get it to stop, but here's the kicker; separation of church and state can work in the favor of progress for once. Churches can't be taxed and church property isn't state property, so the state gov't and of course the federal gov't would have no right to say anything about what goes on in the church. Unless you're sacrificing goats or small children or something. The worst the conservative churches could do is lead protests.
It still leaves the problem of people only being married in title and not in the eyes of the law. And of course, it reinforces the idea that marriage is a religious institution. But I'd like to see some churches out there do this. Or do they already? I expect the Unitarians would be all for it. I dunno. It could work either way for the gay rights movement, but I think it would be interesting to see it in practice.
And the second thought:
This is spectacularly random compared to the first one. I was thinking about Harry Potter, and something always bothered me about the 4th book (GoF), when Myrtle tells Harry she's seen mermaids at the bottom of the lake when she gets flushed and--does it, does it occur to anyone that this means the Hogwarts homeys are swimming in sewage? Dear God, isn't the lake the source of their water supply, too? Which makes me hope it's one of those things where if you ask JKR she'll just answer "magic," because of course it would make sense, but it's still...geh! And no one has ever mentioned this, so dude, really. And...dude, dumping sewage in lakes, even if it is magically, um, cleaned--it's still wrong and environmentally hazardous!
Geh.
See, this is what my mind does at night when I can't sleep.
I went shopping today. Yes, me. Shopping. Uh-huh. I now have way too many shirts. And a skirt. Yes, me. A skirt. I like the shirts though. And I caved and went to Hot Topic since they're the only local place where you can get anime/music related T-shirts (I hate Hot Topic). I've been wanting this FLCL shirt with Haruko on it for ages, but it's in an XL which is like, pajama sized for me. Also got a Panic! shirt cause Panic! is love.
And in the anime/manga vein...
Damn. Damn, damn, damn. DeathNote volume 7 is out and I bought it and I wish I had just stopped reading before this one came out, or that the manga itself had stopped or that the manga had gone in a different direction or at the very least ( Read more... )
...because now I have to read it all over again, and I don't want to because I know what happens. I wasn't positive it happens in this volume, so I looked ahead and yeah, there it is, damn author bastards!
( Read more... )
But it's okay. Maybe there will be retribution later. I still haven't read the online scanlations for fear of there not being retribution later, but yeah.
I also didn't expect Naruto 11 to be out, but it was, so of course...what can I say? And...well...really, everyone talks about One Piece so I thought I'd check it out and I liked the first three chapters enough that I bought volume one and two, and now I'm really not gonna have any shelf space when I get to college. *cries*
Yeah, I'm nuts.
Am at work on fic chapter 3 and through thought processes I think I'm close to breaking through the wall in Mot. I have a scene, I just need a transitory scene into it. Plus there's going to be a lot of Boone. But that's okay. He's the main character. The main character is supposed to have more air time than the others.
I also have an idea of how to trim it down and spruce up the beginning.
