What's David Bernstein on about? After a decent criticism of a sloppy (and ugly) anti-gay marriage piece by Maggie Gallagher, he throws out this teaser, which I can't follow:

I'll blog more about this some other time, but how come no one seems to have written about the fact that the legal accouterments of divorce--a unilateral breakup leads to alimony, equal division of assets, etc., don't seem to be at all appropriate for a typical gay male couple?

What exactly about the potential for alimony and the equal division of assets isn't appropriate for any couple who gets married? The thrust seems to be that gay men are somehow so far out of line with proper American culture that the old rules of divorce are just inapplicable to them. But I can't imagine why or how that is. And any other interpretation I can come up with makes even less sense. Hopefully he will clarify soon, but whatever it is can't be something I would agree with.

Poynter Online - "USA Today Scandal A Threat To White Privilege, Mediocrity" in which Dr. Ink asks will Jack Kelley's sins be visited upon other white journalists?

After spending his day off at Fort Bragg fine-tuning two rifles his superior officers planned to take with them to Iraq later in the month, Army Specialist Jeremy Hinzman crossed the border into Canada with his wife and young son to seek asylum:

In August 2002, Hinzman applied for conscientious objector status. He was not interested in getting out of the Army, but in performing some noncombat role. In fact, he said, he enjoyed Army life.

"I've never felt as close to a group of people as I did when I was in the Army," he said.

When his unit, the 2nd Battalion of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, received orders for Afghanistan several months later, Hinzman said he had no problem going.

"I just didn't want to go in a combat role," he said.

He was required to carry an M-4 rifle wherever he went, and admitted to his superiors that he would use it if his unit or the camp came under attack. In his mind there was a significant difference between offensive actions and defending his home and friends.

"It's premeditated murder as opposed to having your house broken into," he said.

But that admission, he believes, led to the denial of his conscientious objector application. When his unit returned to Fort Bragg after eight months in Afghanistan, he knew it was only a matter of time before it would be sent to Iraq.

Those orders came on Dec. 20, 2003, and by Jan. 1 he had made up his mind to go to Canada.

He said he has no doubts now, and no regrets. He is not encouraging others to join him, but said of his decision: "I'm confident what I've done is the right thing for me."

You can read more about his story at his official site, JeremyHinzman.net. His wife Nga Nguyen was recently interviewed by HipMama.

In the 21st century, having leaders who don't really think the Earth is warming is a little like having leaders who don't really think the Earth is round.

The Seattle Times: Opinion: Americans have yet to learn the hard political lessons of the Arab oil embargo.

"I'm interested in how the everyday mundane practices of life get played out in cities, the unheralded patterns that take place without celebration. There's a structure to cities, a 4/4 beat. Designing is like improvisation, finding a sound for each place."

That's architect Walter Hood in Patricia Leigh Brown's He Measures Oakland's Beat, and Parks Bloom"

Boing Boing: Send-up of "Respect Copyright" PSAs

I don't know why anyone would ever steal a movie. Unless of course it's to avoid this commercial which we now play in front of every single movie you could possibly go to, telling you you're bad for stealing even though you just spent $11 to see some movie and instead you have to sit there and listen to me whine at you and accuse you of being a thief.

Fantastic. These moralizing ads just enrage me every time I go to the movie theater these days.

Whether you make a commitment to eating strictly vegetarian or not, cutting back your dependence on meat is something most people acknowledge they know they should do.

Flexitarians--near-vegetarians who eat some meat--are changing the market for veggie foods and recipes, says this AP article. I knew the girl in the lead of the story in college. Also, I love Mollie Katzen's cookbooks, but where are these "happy" but edible chickens?

Hymn

I know if I find you I will have to leave the earth
and go on out
   over the sea marshes and the brant in bays
and over the hills of tall hickory
and over the crater lakes and canyons
and on up through the spheres of diminishing air
past the blackset noctilucent clouds
           where one wants to stop and look
way past all the light diffusions and bombardments
up farther than the loss of sight
   into the unseasonal undifferentiated empty stark

And I know if I find you I will have to stay with the earth
inspecting with thin tools and ground eyes
trusting the microvilli sporangia and simplest
   coelenterates
and praying for a nerve cell
with all the soul of my chemical reactions
and going right on down where the eye sees only traces

You are everywhere partial and entire
You are on the inside of everything and on the outside

I walk down the path down the hill where the sweetgum
has begun to ooze spring sap at the cut
and I see how the bark cracks and winds like no other bark
chasmal to my ant-soul running up and down
and if I find you I must go out deep into your
   far resolutions
and if I find you I must stay here with the separate leaves