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).

Of course, the big question is, will Republican politicians adopt this view?

The problem for the GOP is the coalition between the Libertarian arm, the fiscal conservatives and the social conservatives. Two out of those three don't give a shit who marries who, but the one third that does cares a lot and will turn it into a single-issue vote. Like abortion. So you're pushing folks in the middle towards Blue Dog Democrats.

I hope the GOP doesn't heed the advice, and instead doubles down on its attempts to legalize discrimination. I think we've passed the tipping point this year, and after 2004 it would fill me with malicious glee for gay marriage to be the wedge issue that results in the Left re-taking the House.

ION (tm Rebecca Lizard), The Albany Junior Varsity Baseball Season is over. They had a losing season. If they hadn't made so many damn stupid errors they probably would've finished over .500.

As for example: Today's Game. First inning, our pitcher (whose true and actual name is Jethro) is cruising. Gets an easy grounder to third, our third baseman fields it cleanly on the short hop and fires to first just slightly off line, pulling the short first baseman and he can't hang on to it and...the runner is safe. Runner comes around to score.

Second inning: exact same thing.

Third inning, we get some guys on base, score a run, mounting a rally and Emmett strokes a clean single for two RBIs and we take the lead.

And then...Jethro tries to pick somebody off second, misses the second baseman and the centerfielder overruns the ball and two of their guys scores. And then...another pitcher comes on and there's another stupid error on a routine grounder to the second baseman and the pitcher fights and gets two strikeouts and a flyball to left field where the left fielder can't see the ball (for some reason) and it falls two feet from him and two guys score and he picks up the ball and heaves it towards second and nobody's there and the ball trickles towards nowheresville and somebody else scores.

So...despite all that we lost just 6-3. Emmett knocked in two of our runs. Five of their runs were unearned because of errors. Emmett's been invited to play on the Varisty team next year.

Jesse! My ire is savage. I just wandered into a baseball blog where somebody claimed that Paris was chaotic in its civic design. I had to school them about Baron Haussmann. Where are the city planner geeks when I need them?

My friend is in town overnight and we were supposed to go to the market this AM. I never go there past 10 because it is crazy packed, but I still haven't heard from her. (It's 10:20.) Considering she sent me a text at 1:15 saying how drunk she was, I shouldn't be surprised.

ION, I went to a plant sale and scored 5 different varieties of tomato: 1 cherry, 1 plum, 1 yellow, 1 striped and 2 reg., some rasberry plants and some onions. It's been a mild spring thus far, but I am worried it's still to early to plant. (Rule of thumb is the May 24 weekend is when it's safe to plant,.)