Bryan Strawser

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Bryan Strawser

Majority Support Gay Marriage

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Massachusetts residents, by a solid margin, said they support the Supreme Judicial Court’s landmark decision legalizing gay marriage, according to a Boston Globe/WBZ-TV poll.

The poll of 400 people, the first survey of Bay State residents since the court’s historic ruling, indicated that 50 percent agree with the justices’ decision, and 38 percent oppose it. Eleven percent expressed no opinion.

The poll also indicated that a majority oppose efforts by the Legislature, Governor Mitt Romney, and Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly to block same-sex marriages and allow civil unions instead.

A majority, 53 percent, also oppose a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would ban same-sex marriages by defining marriage as an institution between a man and a woman. Thirty-six percent support the amendment. [Boston Globe]

Amen Brothers, Amen

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Q. What do you say to people who today conclude that British people have died and been maimed as a result of you appearing here today, shoulder-to-shoulder with a controversial American President?

And, Mr. President, if I could ask you, with thousands on the street — with thousands marching on the streets today here in London, a free nation, what is your conclusion as to why apparently so many free citizens fear you and even hate you?

PRESIDENT BUSH: I’d say freedom is beautiful. It’s a fantastic thing to come to a country where people are able to express their views.

Q Why do they hate you, Mr. President? Why do they hate you in such numbers?

PRESIDENT BUSH: I don’t know that they do. All I know is that it’s — that people in Baghdad, for example, weren’t allowed to do this up until recent history. They’re not spending a lot of time in North Korea protesting the current leadership. Freedom is a wonderful thing, and I respect that. I fully understand people don’t agree with war. But I hope they agree with peace and freedom and liberty. I hope they care deeply about the fact that when we find suffering and torture and mass graves, we weep for the citizens that are being brutalized by tyrants.

And, finally, the Prime Minister and I have a solemn duty to protect our people. And that’s exactly what I intend to do as the President of the United States, protect the people of my country.

PRIME MINISTER BLAIR: To answer your first question and your other, indeed, people have the right to protest and to demonstrate in our countries, and I think that’s part of our democracy. And all I say to people is — and this is the importance, I think, of the speech the President made yesterday — listen to our case, as well. I mean, we listen — that’s what a democratic exchange should be about — but listen to the case that we are making.

Because there is something truly bizarre about a situation where we have driven the Taliban out of government in Afghanistan who used to stop women going about the street as they wished, who used to prevent girls going to school, who brutalized and terrorized their population; there’s something bizarre about having got rid of Saddam in Iraq from the government of Iraq, when we’ve already discovered just so far the remains of 400,000 people in mass graves — there is something bizarre about these situations happening, and people saying that they disagree, when the effect of us not doing this would be that the Taliban was still in Afghanistan and Saddam was still in charge of Iraq. And I think people have got to accept that that is the consequence of the position therein.

Now, as for your first point, just let me say this. What has caused the terrorist attack today in Turkey is not the President of the United States, is not the alliance between America and Britain. What is responsible for that terrorist attack is terrorism, are the terrorists. And our response has got to be to unify in that situation, to put the responsibility squarely on those who are killing and murdering innocent people, and to say, we are going to defeat you, and we’re not going to back down or flinch at all from this struggle. For all the reasons I’ve given you earlier, this is what this struggle is about.

And when you look — as you can see from the list of the people from 60 different nationalities who have died in terrorist attacks, and thousands of people from every religion, every part of the world, you aren’t going to stop these people by trying to compromise with them, by hesitating in the face of this menace. It’s defeat them, or be defeated by them. That’s what we’re going to do.

This is Getting Interesting

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Gay rights advocates Friday denounced Attorney General Tom Reilly’s reaction to the state high court’s gay marriage decision, arguing that it was shameful for the state’s chief law enforcement officer to promote a “separate-but-equal” system.

“The notion that you can separate somehow these benefits, protections and obligations of marriage from the status of marriage itself is just unbelievable, I think,” said Gary Buseck, executive director of Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, which represented the plaintiffs in the landmark case. “Frankly, I think he reads it in a way that is completely preposterous.”

Reilly, who held his first press conference since the Supreme Judicial Court issued its decision, denied that he was calling for a separate-but-equal statute for gay couples, but said he thought the ruling left the Legislature room to approve something other than gay marriage as long as it provided equal benefits and protections. [Boston Globe]

Idiot TV Producers

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You know what? Michael Moore is right. There are many Americans who are ignorant of the world around them. And they’re all TV news producers. Two big bombs in Istanbul, and what’s the big story of the day? Following around a pervy slab of albino Play-Doh as he turns himself into the police. I was stunned to discover last night that Nightline not only covered the Jackson case in detail, but bumped coverage of the Whitehall speech, which was the most important speech since the Iraq campaign began and arguably the most important speech of the war, period. [James Lilek: The Bleat]

Tech Support for the Mob

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Everyone thinks they know what the mob is like. It’s something you learn from watching The Sopranos and GoodFellas, something that involves Joe Pesci, baked manicotti, and a dead guy in the trunk. But that’s not what I’ve seen during my two years working for organized crime. My sense is that the mob works a lot like GE or Time Warner. It’s more Jack Welch than John Gotti.

[…]

My job is a lot like managing any other venture. I make sure that people show up on time, that bills get paid, and that the customers and employees are reasonably happy.

But that’s not all I do. I’m tech support for the mob. From the moment I started this gig, I realized just how behind this gang is when it comes to technology. Forget about the paperless office. These guys are buried in pulp. But when they want to revamp their systems, it’s not like they can call McKinsey for advice. That’s where I come in. [Wired]

iPod Jacking

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Ok, this is just a bit strange.

Stay away from my iPod…

In a story on Wired, entitled Feel Free to Jack Into My iPod, an iPod owner shares experiences he has had with other iPod owners, namely the plugging of his headphones into a stranger’s jack. It began when a woman in her 30’s walked up to him while he was on a walk, unplugged her headphone jack from her iPod, and motioned for him to plug his in. They then listened to each other’s music for about 30 seconds. He has then shared with about a dozen iPod listeners, with most of the strangers reciprocating. According to the article, the practice has also cropped up in other communities. Listeners acquire tastes for different kinds of music, just like on internet/LAN file sharing networks. An interesting read.” [Slashdot]