kiran’s pensieve

Yes, it’s an hour long, and yes it’s definitely worth it.

These stories don’t even require commentary…

“NJ Supreme Court gives same-sex couples more rights”

The case that resulted in Wednesday’s ruling was brought by seven same-sex couples who were denied marriage licenses in New Jersey. The dissenting justices, led by Chief Justice Deborah Poritz, argued that the majority did not go far enough, saying that only marriage would allow gay couples to achieve equal benefits.

In making its ruling, the court reflected on the changes that have transformed marriage during the last 200 years, such as granting women greater rights within marriage.

“The institution of marriage reflects society’s changing social mores and values,” the majority said in its opinion. “Although courts can ensure equal treatment, they cannot guarantee social acceptance, which must come through the evolving ethos of a maturing society.”

“Bush concedes depth of domestic unease over war but vows new tactics will earn victory”

With less than two weeks to go before midterm elections in which the Republican party is expected to suffer heavily because of doubts about Mr Bush’s leadership of the war, yesterday’s press conference at the Oval Office was intended to convince ordinary Americans that the president has a credible plan for Iraq.

“Apple Hacking Could Be Good for iTunes”

What will this mean for Apple?

It’s too early to say. The company will clearly mount a legal challenge, but some analysts believe Apple could end up selling fewer iPods but more music.

“It could be in Apple’s interest that when people download music from iTunes, that consumers will be able to import it to other places: your home, your computer, your car,” McSherry says.

And other lawyers say there’s a big difference between “reverse engineering” and hacking into a company’s internal, confidential information or a bank’s records, for example. That is clearly against the law.

“Radio host accuses Fox of faking Parkinson’s”

In a new embarrassment for the Republicans, Rush Limbaugh, the doyen of conservative talk radio hosts, has issued a graceless apology after suggesting the actor Michael J Fox might have faked the effects of Parkinson’s disease in an election campaign advertisement pleading for embryonic stem cell research.

And last, but not least…

“Canada troops battle 10-ft Afghan marijuana plants”

“We tried burning them with white phosphorous — it didn’t work. We tried burning them with diesel — it didn’t work. The plants are so full of water right now … that we simply couldn’t burn them,” he said.

Even successful incineration had its drawbacks.

“A couple of brown plants on the edges of some of those (forests) did catch on fire. But a section of soldiers that was downwind from that had some ill effects and decided that was probably not the right course of action,” Hiller said dryly.

You don’t know exactly what to think of her, but one thing’s for certain: we are thinking of her.

The G&M has an interesting life in pictures about the very unforgettable Belinda. From the captions:

“Likes sex. Worth millions. Forceful advocate for women’s issues, AIDS, same-sex marriage, anti-poverty initiatives. Liberal MP and former cabinet minister Belinda Stronach is a politician devoted to causes but also involved in many controversies, personal as well as political. But so was Pierre Trudeau. Is there a gender inequality here?”

Meanwhile, even the Conservative-friendly Macleans Magazine is slapping the hand that feeds it, in its article, interestingly titled “Peter MacKay puts Tories in doghouse with alleged sexist comment“:

“After depicting a woman as his dog, how can the minister of foreign affairs pretend to promote women’s rights in Afghanistan or anywhere else?”

Earlier this year, MacKay apologized to former NDP leader Alexa McDonough for telling her during the recent election campaign to “stick to your knitting.”

Which leads us to the final newsflash of the day: “Support for Tories among women deteriorating, new poll suggests“

Stephen Colbert imparts sage wisdom in Wired Magazine…

DON’T BE AFRAID TO MAKE THINGS UP. Never fear being exposed as a fraud. Experts make things up all the time. They’re qualified to.

PICK A FIELD THAT CAN’T BE VERIFIED. Try something like string theory or God’s will: “I speak to God. I’m sorry that you can’t also.” Security experts are in this category: They have security clearances, we don’t. We can’t question the expertise of the NSA because we are not in the NSA.

GET AN HONORARY PHD. They work wonders. I have a doctorate in fine arts from Knox College in Illinois. All I did was give a speech, and now everybody has to call me Dr. Colbert.

This guy is on fire!

Harper says he’s finished with Ottawa press corps
Oh no… the press wants to *ask* me things. Why can’t I have it cushy like my massa, King George …. nobody in the press asks him anything he hasn’t planned for! BOOOHOOO!!! WAAAAAAHHH!!

Klein threatens to abandon equalization
Equalization? EQUALization? We’re Albertans for God’s sake! We’re almost Texans! We’d like to be anyway. We don’t know what these fancy words mean and we don’t care… simply because we’re better than everyone else! Except the Texans. Please adopt us, Mama Texas!

We’ve been taping, each night, monday through thursday, the new episodes of The Daily Show w/ Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report. Then, over the course of the week and the weekend, we watch them all.

It’s a fab system we’ve developed. We don’t miss the antics of the shows, and yet we don’t end up cutting into our sleep time to watch them. And, as a bonus, we can fast forward through all the commercials! Ahh, VCRs are not obsolete yet.

I have to say that Colbert has taken the wonderful concepts that were developed on the Daily Show, and placed them among the heavens above. The guy is not just an incredibly funny comedian, he’s also the sharpest mind on TV since Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Sheer genius. Each episode is packed all the way through with punches and jabs and acute observations on topics as diverse as Sigmund Freud’s birthday, to Feminine Sexual Emplowerment, to Robotic Deadly Bears.

His schtick, so amazingly played out by him, of being a neo-conservative, ultra right wing, xenophobic, homophobic, religious-fundamentalist is just flawlessly portrayed - except for the few times each night when he breaks out into a grin mid-sentence.

I am just so happy that there is SOME quality on TV nowadays. Being more of a book-ish person, TV is usually a very disappointing and boring waste of time for me. But when it’s Colbert time, his Lincolnish despite for the factinista make my stomach hurt in sweet pain from unstoppable laughter.

Don’t miss the new site: The Colbert Nation

What I don’t understand about all these news stories that talk so mysteriously about these websites that have highly suspicious videos from wankers of all sorts, is how these people are so untraceable. Any geeque worth her RAM knows how easily websites and emails can be tracked down to ISP, and, most of the time, to the very host computer that is originating the materials. Then how come all these websites with all this highly volatile stuff are evading all those pimply hackers hired by the planet’s revered intelligentsia?

Harry Whittington, 78, was “alert and doing fine” after Mr. Cheney sprayed Mr. Whittington with shotgun pellets on Saturday at the Armstrong Ranch in south Texas, said property owner Katharine Armstrong.

source: The Globe and Mail 

Should this guy be allowed to be running the country?