Preempted family

Looks like my dad's appearance on "60 Minutes" to discuss the Pioneer Hotel fire is being preempted by some collegiate sporting event involving craziness. Hopefully they'll broadcast it before too long.

UPDATE 4/1: Here's the full segment.

Half-Cocked Pedants

I have decided that the most annoying subset of people are those who insist on correcting anyone who uses the word "clip" instead of "magazine."

Having been around guns since I was a kid, owned them since I was about 13, regularly shot them for many years, and having both sorts of devices within arm's reach of me now, I've never once been in a situation where the terms "clip" and "magazine" weren't freely used interchangeably, except for conversations where some pedantic gun control opponent wants to pretend that people who disagree with him don't know anything about guns.

I have never known anyone to give two shits about the distinction except in that context. I've never been to a range where someone passes a magazine to his shooting partner and asks him to "reload that clip" and everyone on the line stops to correct him. I've never heard anyone yelled at for saying they got a "new clip for my Sig" or anything of the sort.

Yeah, it's technically inaccurate to say "clip" instead of "magazine." Nobody gives this much of a crap except when trying to be dismissive. Ever.

SCOTUS marriage cases began today

I think the odds are good for Team Love in the marriage equality cases, but let's be clear about the stakes:

No matter what the Court does, DOMA's expiration date is coming up fast, and we can expect not only federal rights but full faith and credit being extended to marriages entered into in any state.

What we can't bank on is that gay Americans in every state will have the right to marry without sneaking across the border to somewhere more accepting. Without the Court extending constitutional protection to the right to marry, there may, for the rest of our lives, be states that refuse to treat gay and lesbian citizens equally.

You can look at national polls supporting marriage equality and say that gays and lesbians are now powerful enough to get what they want through the democratic process, but that's a very bird's-eye view of the landscape. Take a look at individual states, and you'll understand that in many of them, gay citizens are still viewed as second-class. Unless the Court acts to protect those Americans, this inequality could remain for generations to come.

Hey, Towson University has a Nazi Club!

College boys at Towson U. Went in dumb, come out dumb too.

I'm sure the people of Baltimore will be just thrilled to have white supremacist vigilantes wandering around.

We don't know for sure if George Zimmerman is a racist*, but ain't no doubt that his mama raised at least one.

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(* - Yeah, we do.)

146 Reasons to Support Labor Unions

146 people died on March 25, 1911, in the infamous Triangle Shirt Waist Fire. Two of them were only 14, three were only 15. Most were young women who had come to the US looking for better lives. All were victims of unchecked business interests trampling the rights and safety of workers.

RPG after-action report

The gang of adventurers managed to (mostly) survive yet another delve into the ruins of the Tower of Magic in Castle Greyhawk. Not so lucky with the plucky band of investigators in "Call of Cthulhu." I'm sorry to report that I went insane and attempted to walk into the waiting arms...err, tentacles, of an ancient beast released upon the earth who devoured our minds and bodies. Humanity is doomed. My bad.