...the insistence by many gay activists on "full marriage equality now," which was primarily the agenda of blue-state activists, has largely resulted in red-state gays (who still lack basic protections against employment discrimination and hate crimes) being set back decades in their own struggle for equality. Now they have anti-marriage-equality amendments in their state constitutions that will take decades to repeal, and my partner and I worry every time we drive through Virginia to visit my parents that if something happened to one of us, the other wouldn't even have hospital visitation rights.

I have in the past been accused of being incredibly cynical, and no doubt will be again. That said, here goes: I have some lingering suspicions that the couple in MA who began the whole seeking-legitimation-of-marriage process some years back may have been put up to it in order to provoke reactionary Republican backlash.

I also watch and listen to the "all or nothing" purists, and see many people who, taking the stand they do, end up far more often with nothing, excepting possibly the dubious salve for their feelings that they "lost pure" and thus fought the good fight.

They are wrong.

In the political arena, where compromise is the name by which we know the idea of accomplishment, it's always best to take half a loaf. Why? (This part is for the "innocent"...) Every step forward from that point goes on from the incremental gains being consolidated.

The Republicans did not accomplish their dismantling of the Constitutional mechanisms of government overnight. No one, not even Bush, walked into Washington and threw the "Republican" switch, changing everything at a stroke. This happened over decades, by the work of dedicated minions, who spend their long days and nights looking for ways to turn the institutional protections back on themselves and exploit the resulting cracks. Neither will it be changed overnight.

...I suppose there's "something" to be said for the NOW/purist approach, but it ain't pragmatism. It's the anthem of people who feel it's more important to stick to their principles than to actually get anything done.

Rarely if ever more clearly expressed. Make it better than it was yesterday. Come back tomorrow and do it again. Thus is a future transformed.

At bottom, NOW is getting down there in the mud with the Clinton campaign. America, all of America, deserves better.

Far too fondly, if you ask me. Clinton was never really a friend to the workers of America. His policies set the stage for the export of American jobs, his (and Hillary's) utter bungling of Universal Health Care, Part 1, and his NAFTA advocacy knocked loose the underpinnings of a stable society for those who are not "knowledge workers" or investment-types.

It's brand nostalgia, and it hurts.

And the underemployed will do well to remember her having sat on the Wal-Mart board, they of the systematic gutting of local commercial economies and mandatory unpaid overtime.

Will Sen. Obama do better by American workers? Who can say for certain? Maybe the real question is, how could he do worse?

There is little if any chance that anyone can arrest the process. Even with the weight of national policy behind the efforts, at best I suspect we can hope to slow the changes enough to let us adapt. And we will have to adapt, in may ways both large and small.

The poster on the first page was right about one thing - individual efforts will accomplish nothing. We cannot hybrid and CFL our way out of this. Unplugging your phone charger may make you feel better, so do it if you like, just know that it makes no real difference overall. Not when the world's population will grow by roughly 50% in the next 40-50 years. Not when those people who live within a meter or two of sea level will have to relocate or drown. Not when the oceans' food fish stocks are almost gone at the same time.

And where are those additional 3+ billion people going to find clean water?

We can't stop it - we have to learn how to adapt, and we have to realize that we are all in the lifeboat together. Some of us have slightly more comfortable seats - that's the only real difference. And those with the uncomfortable seats are apparently willing to tear planks from the hull to build themselves similarly better seats. And there are more of them than there are of us. And it will only get worse as the overall population increases.

Optimism will get us nowhere. To repeat, we need to begin learning how to adapt. Now.

...was Tony Bourdain's head exploding at the very thought of this trip.

...we have real enemies, and need people who are seen by them as impossibly dangerous to their designs.

Our military has, for the most part, served the US well, in good times and bad. War is a nasty business, and while we must never choose it as a first course of action, sometimes circumstances leave us no choice. Then, we need professionalism and dedication.

From Lao Tzu:

"Weapons are instruments of fear, they are not a wise man's tools. He uses them only when he has no choice. Peace and quiet are dear to his heart,

And victory no cause for rejoicing. If you rejoice in victory, then you delight in killing."

Adding to that would be presumption on my part.

Now let's talk about your dye job...