The Loveshade Family Blog

In 1892, Horner Plessy, a "colored" shoemaker, was locked up in jail for sitting in the "White" car of the East Louisiana Railroad.  With a series of failed appeals, the Plessy v. Ferguson case of 1896 established that the principle "separate but equal" was legally valid in the United States of America.

It wasn't until 1952, over half a century later in Brown v. Board of Education, that the court finally decided that separate but equal was inheritantly inequal.

Now, with a twist it's happening all over again, only this time in reverse.  It's been decided that "separate but equal" is fair, only this time it's not "white" v. "colored," it's "boys" vs. "girls."  Public schools can now receive federal funding for same-sex classes, and even same-sex schools.  It's not just for physical and sexual education anymore.

Is this a wise policy decision, or just sexism?

You can read the story, which Danacasso pointed out to us, at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070125/ap_on_re_us/same_sex_schools

Posted by Alden Loveshade at 03:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)

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I've been trying for three days to come up with something poignant, clever, insightful, and moving about the passing of Robert Anton Wilson. For three days, I've failed. But I would be remiss if I let another day pass and posted nothing.

To es fans, Robert Anton Wilson was the co-author, with Robert Shea, of The Illuminatus! Trilogy, and the author of many other great books that challenged our perspectives and perceptions of society, human relations, and even reality. E was a free-thinker, a friend of Dr. Timothy Leary, and, with Shea, the popularizer of Discordianism, the religion-joke began by Malaclypse the Younger and Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst. According to Wikipedia, e was "a prolific American novelist, essayist, philosopher, psychologist, futurologist, anarchist, and conspiracy theory researcher." E worked to be an agnostic in all things, taking nothing for granted or at face value. To the Church of the SubGenius, e is possibly the model for their "God" Bob Dobbs. According to es former co-workers at Playboy magazine, e was an associate editor with a fresh sense of humor. To es friends, e was a gentle spirit who cared about others. You can read more about RAW at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Anton_Wilson, or at es website at http://www.rawilson.com.

But what was e to me? I cannot answer. Es passing is still too close.

I like to imagine that BloodStar, our missing friend who "left Earth" following the paranoia and Government abuses following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States, returned. I can see the space alien picking up Bob on the StarShip Lorelei, and taking Bob back home to planet Eris. There they can discuss conspiracy theories, sex, humanity, the Illuminati, our crazy planet Earth, and, of course, fnord.

But what have I to say about Robert Anton Wilson? I have no pithy comments, no great witticisms. I have just one, very simple, thing to say. Goodbye, Grandbob.

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(For information on Memorial Events and other RAW stuff, go to http://discordia.loveshade.org/xtra/raw.html)

Posted by Reverend Loveshade at 03:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (53) | TrackBacks (0)

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"First Cloned Cat has Kittens."  And before that, two later-cloned wild cats had kittens. Real-life biology has once again passed science fiction.  Some of you trekkers/trekkies might remember that in the original Star Trek's vision of two or three centuries from now, cloning was wraught with problems, often including infertility. Well, the future ain't what it used to be.

Now, in the early 21st century, cloning can not only be used to produce pets, which can bear normal offspring, it's been approved by the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for cloning cattle.  Not long from now, you might be feeding cat food made from cloned beef to your cloned cat, while you enjoy a cloned T-bone steak with your second spouse, cloned from your late first, who is bottle-feeding your cloned baby with cloned milk.

(Remember that a clone is like an identical twin, it is NOT the same person or animal.  That would require brain-taping and copying, which we don't have--yet.)

Read more about the cloned cat at http://apnews.myway.com/article/20061215/D8M126280.html and about the FDA's view on cloned beef at http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/12/28/cloned.food.ap/index.html.

Posted by Alden Loveshade at 04:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

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