Looking over the past few posts

and I realised that I totally forgot to blog this lovely bit of weird news from the other day:

Pony dressed as unicorn leads Calif. authorities on wild chase I wonder if it took a virgin to get her back? Ponies know they should be bigger--they're smart, stubborn, and wily. She led the California Highway Patrol on a chase for four hours before a friend of her owner rode up on a horse she knew and she followed them. :) I love 'the unicorn is in custody'. Only in California....

A view into the lives of those many people ignore

California’s Homeless Find a Quiet Place

In 2010 the federal government set forth an ambitious goal to end chronic homelessness by 2015. Numbers have declined, but according to a 2014 HUD report, more than 570,000 people are still without homes in America—and 20 percent of those are in California. Urban libraries fill the void, sheltering the homeless by day.

Cities have responded to homelessness with new codes of public conduct and trespassing ordinances enforced on persons deemed to be disorderly, unkempt, or of foul smell. The San Francisco Public Library has directly addressed the situation—it was the first in the country to add a full-time social worker to its staff. Leah Esguerra reaches out to homeless patrons in the main branch of the library. “Libraries are the last bastion of democracy,” she says.

So at least three nights running

I have come home, gone to sleep (sometimes as early as 6:30 pm, like I did today), slept for several hours, got up for a bit, and then struggled to get up in the morning. It's like I'm exhausted, even though I'm not really doing anything that should make it that way. My blood sugar is not unduly high (for me). I'm just curling up and going to bed. Than indicates an emotional reason to me, and that might be the case, but I won't go into it here. But I am sorry I've just been basically coming home, collapsing, and not doing much in the way of blogging.'

Let me say that I was incredibly happy to see the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) struck down, and that marriages can resume among gay couples in California. Plus the court dismissed some cases today, which were favourable to gays. I have two dear friends who have to been together for over fifteen years. I would love to see them get married. I recognise that Kentucky will no doubt be dragging its feet to join the ranks of states that will allow this; but I have faith it will happen.

Even now I seem very groggy and just out of it. I think I'll check my blood sugar, take my long-acting insulin, and head back to bed, even though it means getting nothing done tonight. Oh, and I'll run the dishwasher, which I loaded this morning before the Terminix guy came to do the apartment. I can at least say I got something done, then. :)

Scary

Fatal stabbing of girl, 8, prompts California manhunt

Residents of a rural Northern California county were being told Sunday to keep their doors locked and report anyone considered suspicious as authorities continued the search for the killer of an 8-year-old girl.

Calaveras County deputies and law enforcement officials from nearby agencies were looking for a suspect after Leila Fowler was found stabbed in her Valley Springs home around noon Saturday.

The girl was found by her brother — reported by local media to be 12-years-old — after he encountered a male intruder in the home. When the intruder ran away, the boy found his sister stabbed. She was pronounced dead at a local hospital, officials said.

PS

I was distressed to read this today:

Brown Proposes Eliminating All State Funding for California Public Libraries

As if California libraries aren't under enough pressure, the new governor has proposed a budget that includes no funding at all for three major programmes that benefit public libraries.

California Governor Jerry Brown released a proposed budget for FY11/12 on Monday that would eliminate all state funding for public libraries.

Brown's shock-and-awe, $84.6 billion general fund budget, which still must work its way through the state legislature, would cut state spending by $12.5 billion and include a "vast and historic" restructuring of government operations.

This would mean the loss of $30.4 million for three of the state's most important public library programs: the Public Library Fund ($12.9 million), Transaction Based Reimbursement ($12.9 million), and the California Library Literacy and English Acquisition Service ($4.6 million).

I know the money must come from somewhere, but cutting *all* the funding for public libraries? The Transaction Based Reimbursement funds the cooperative lending programme that's been in place for 30 years. The other two are a general public library fund and support for literacy programmes. Gone. Nada. Up in smoke.

And the thing that scares me is that whither California goes, other states are likely to follow. Public libraries are often seen as some sort of cash cow rather than the essential service provided to taxpayers. In an era where you go online to apply for McDonald's (and in a time when many people are seeking work), the library is important to those without Internet access. Libraries enlighten us, support our growth, provide us entertainment, and hone our skills. As one co-worker put it when I told her today, her significant other likens the lack of support for libraries as the first sign of civilisation's collapse. Okay, that's a little far, but not too far from the truth. Libraries are important. That anyone would just yank all state funding in a time when local governments are struggling to keep them open could mean a death knell for the library system in California. And the thing about closing libraries are that 1) the money doesn't usually come back once it's taken away and 2) should it come back, it is far more expensive to try to rebuild collections and services again. My heart goes out to California library workers and their patrons, who are going to see very hard times should this budget pass as is.

:D

California same-sex marriages 'can resume' next week

Judge Walker found ban proponents have little chance to succeed on appeal, in part because the state of California has not indicated it will join the appeal and the ban proponents would have to argue they have their own standing to pursue one.

Additionally, he said the proponents failed to show they would be irreparably injured if same-sex marriages are allowed to take place pending appeal.

How would you feel?

Okay, I found this on a loony ex-friend's webpage, but it's still very good.

On this day, 93 years ago

March 25, 1916: Ishi Dies, a World Ends

When I was a child, I read Theodora Kroeber's Ishi: Last of His Tribe about the man her husband Alfred, an anthropologist, had studied for nearly five years. [The Kroebers' daughter may be familiar to science fiction and fantasy fans, as Kroeber would be the 'K' in Ursula K. LeGuin.] Ishi was not the man's name; that was never discovered, as it was apparently taboo in his culture to utter one's own name. But when he was found he was considered a 'wild man', and only the anthropologists realised he was the last speaker of an nearly-extinct language and quite possibly the last of his people. Two of the Kroebers' sons went on to become scholars as well (a linguist and a professor of comparative literatures) and have edited a book called Ishi in Three Centuries.

Who Ishi was and exactly of what tribe is a point for discussion, but it remains to be said that when he died of tuberculosis, a way of life died, too.

Watching closely with interest

Top Lawyer Urges Voiding California Proposition 8

The Attorney General, Jerry Brown said: 'Proposition 8 must be invalidated because the amendment process cannot be used to extinguish fundamental constitutional rights without compelling justification.'

Another brief filed by opponents to same-sex marriage asks that the roughly 18,000 marriages performed already be invalidated.

No matter how much they try, you can't legislate love. When Barack Obama was born, there were some states that would not have allowed his parents to marry. My own state would not allow it until 1967, when several laws throughout the US were overturned by the Loving v. Virginia decision. Bans on interracial marriage (called anti-miscegenation laws, by the way) are wrong, and so is banning same-sex marriage. It's a matter of basic rights, period. I firmly believe that in my lifetime bans on same-sex marriage will fall throughout the United States and gay couples will be free to express their committed love in the same way heterosexual couples can.

This is a great, short, musical about discrimination, scripture, and people who like to rain on others' parades. Oh, and Jack Black as Jesus!

"Prop 8 - The Musical" starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, Neil Patrick Harris, Margaret Cho, and many more:

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

The day has dawned beautiful

and of course I'm happy with the presidential election. I am still watching the California Proposition 8 decision, which is still undecided) with a little over 90% of precincts reporting but another 3 million in late absentee and provisional ballots that may be counted afterwards.

One more concern

With 17% of precincts reporting, those 'For' are leading those 'Against' on Proposition 8, a proposed ban on gay marriage, in California. Here's hoping that as more precincts report, the ban will fail.