There's a LOT of fighting and punching, and a kind of escalating round robin argument where everyone's on a hair trigger and sniping at everyone else. Would that be of concern regarding Mac? I'd say it's preteen-safe in general, but most preteens haven't been through the kind of stress Mac just went through.

One character (in the argument scene mentioned above) mentions his unsucccessful suicide attempt .

Thor makes a joke about his brother being adopted.

Thor makes a joke about his brother

Yeah, it's in response to another character pointing out how horrible his brother is.

So, I don't know.

Oh, yeah, I forgot I cringed at that line.

I think it won, this week.

Seriously. I kept getting added to meetings and client calls while also having some giant work bird bomb my desk with emergency poops. When I found myself close to snapping, I cranked the Beastie Boys and powered through work with a virtual "Do Not Disturb".

I didn't actually shriek like a banshee at any of the people who asked me to do stuff.

I came so close to saying OH NO YOU DIDN'T and HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW, BITCHES?!

I did yell ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME at work today, but just at the email, so it was OK.

Pure joy to talk to Maria and her sister tonight and find them in a really good mental space. Think of her this weekend. Airshow in his honor.

I only kind of hinted to the person who emailed at 3:00 asking me to do about 8 hours of work before noon tomorrow even though she knew it sucked that I wasn't the one it sucked for.

Aww, will do. Glad to hear it, sarameg.

This is kind of awesome....

Top GOP Pollster to GOP: Reverse On Gay Issues

Below is a remarkable document. It's a memo circulated by Jan van Lohuizen, a highly respected Republican pollster, (he polled for George W. Bush in 2004), to various leading Republican operatives, candidates and insiders. It's on the fast-shifting poll data on marriage equality and gay rights in general, and how that should affect Republican policy and language. And the pollster's conclusion is clear: if the GOP keeps up its current rhetoric and positions on gays and lesbians, it is in danger of marginalizing itself to irrelevance or worse.

Read the bluntness of this. This is the GOP establishment talking to itself. And the Republican pollster who arguably knows more about the politics of the gay issue than anyone else (how else to explain the Ohio campaign of 2004?) is advising them in no uncertain terms that they need to evolve and fast, if they're not going to damage their brand for an entire generation:

1. Support for same sex marriage has been growing and in the last few years support has grown at an accelerated rate with no sign of slowing down. A review of public polling shows that up to 2009 support for gay marriage increased at a rate of 1% a year. Starting in 2010 the change in the level of support accelerated to 5% a year. The most recent public polling shows supporters of gay marriage outnumber opponents by a margin of roughly 10% (for instance: NBC / WSJ poll in February / March: support 49%, oppose 40%).

Last bit of the memo:

“As people who promote personal responsibility, family values, commitment and stability, and emphasize freedom and limited government we have to recognize that freedom means freedom for everyone. This includes the freedom to decide how you live and to enter into relationships of your choosing, the freedom to live without excessive interference of the regulatory force of government.

Same-sex marriage's consistency with conservative values FTW!

Of course, the big question is, will Republican politicians adopt this view? (Or maybe, when will they?) Still, I find it interesting how muted Romney's response to Obama's support of same-sex marriage was (especially by conservative Christian wackaloon standards).