Yoga has the potential to transform both our inner and outer selves in a way that would allow us to see past differences of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and any other artificial identities we create, to be able to recognize the presence of the divine in one another and all of existence.

Suhag Shukla, executive director of the Hindu American Foundation

I must mark this moment when my LGBT friends are truly heartened by the change in US law. It brings a tear to my eye. My half-aunt in North Carolina is going to marry her longtime partner on Halloween day. Successful gay parents are gloating. My friends from all walks are sporting rainbows. The culture shift is generational as all large shifts must be.

Yes, yes you lawyers out there will have all manner of refinements to put on my headline. I have not really studied on this change, rather I've absorbed its impact while ignoring the news. It's just not OK anymore for states not to recognize gay marriages. Or something like that. I've heard that a state is still not obligated to PROVIDE gay marriages, but that is another step in a very long series. I've been busy with other things.... but I am noting this vibration through the land that something really has changed... and with it brings a little bit of hope that we might manage other changes.

I'm sure the social conservative media is damning. I need an antenna in that world somehow. (Thinking cult: which cults are most anti-gay?)

That cartoon of the rebel flag setting and rainbow flag rising is everywhere. Show me some fresh art, not so trite already.

TYPES OF HANDEDNESS
Redirected handedness = learned handedness
Natural handedness = genetic or inherited
Pathological handedness = caused by brain injury or other pathology

( notes )

People will believe it if told enough times that black is white. Unfortunately. It appears that the majority of Americans have painfully weak powers of observation and critical reasoning. Such is the embarassment of our land. The Canadians absolutely adore Obama, so I hear, and they can't understand why "we" despise him. I guess those of us who find him to be masterful really need to make more noise. Obama rocks. And this from a person who did not vote for him.
( notes )

Here's a nice post by Bill Sheehan on American culture, and how it is shifting.
http://bill-sheehan.livejournal.com/221299.html?view=608371#t608371

iat.org about implicit associations
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/ <---this is the site
take tests to discover your own unconscious filters, about lots of things
the first step in cultural competency is to know who you are and what you believe

( notes )

Women don't want the carved guy walking down the beach. But they want everything else. Many thanks to hausfrauatu for pointing out THIS NY times story about sex research. It centers around researcher Meredith Chivers and her findings. Her study involved monitoring people's arousal while viewing video of various sex acts. Arousal was measured subjectively (self report) and objectively (genital physiology). Then the people's real and reported arousal levels were correlated, along with their reported sexual prefences. The findings were...well....INCREDIBLE. Yet credible. My head is reeling with the implications. Makes me want to go into sexual health...
( text from which I will make my usual notes )

'Dr. Laura' to end radio show over racial controversy
source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/17/AR2010081706418.html?wpisrc=nl_natlalert

Did you know she has a PhD in physiology? And that she called gays "deviants" and "biological errors"?? Deviant = actions or behaviors that violate cultural norms (incl formal rules & social norms). What is not deviant about being gay? We haven't changed our culture enough that it is normal. Yet. It is an interesting question to me: What sort of culture would be totally OK with gayness? What cultures have been? Anybody know the history? It is my impression that homosexual behavior, especially among men, happens more when there is wealth and idle time. But that's just a reflection of some impressions I have about the time of the Romans, and comparison with the last generation of wealth here in America.

But back to Dr Laura and her decision to ditch radio in the face of the public outcry over her "racist" remarks the other day. Suffice it to say that the standard of PCness now required on the radio and most places in the public sphere to some degree limits frank conversation. Everybody offended about something, and we can't talk without people's buttons getting pushed. But that's what America is all about anyway, right? Our right to be hostile and defensive in the face of perceived threats? Our right to get rid of anyone who says something that we don't like?

( text from Washington post article by Paul Farhi )

Yesterday the Kansas crowd had a protest at Grant High school, first thing in the morning. Perhaps they did not know how well organized the queers are here. Perhaps they did not consider that in the face of hate, the Portland LGBT crowd is capable of responding with love and humor. Whatever the case, I hear that the Kansas churchies were tormented with silly gay flirtations and outrageousness. In one particular case a local man stripped off his pants, and wearing only some very short shorts went up and started complimenting one of the self-righteous about his swimmer's build. The Kansas bunch also has a series of protests scheduled at synagogues, and because they are also anti-queer, the queers are supporting the Jews in facing them down. It is a beautiful thing.

News Alert: Obama orders hospitals to grant same-sex couples visitation rights
07:34 PM EDT Thursday, April 15, 2010

President Obama signed an order Thursday night requiring hospitals to allow gays and lesbians to have non-family visitors and to grant their partners medical power of attorney.

The president ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to prohibit discrimination in hospital visitation. The memo is scheduled to be made public Friday morning, according to an administration official and another source familiar with the White House decision.

An official said the new rule will affect any hospital that receives Medicare or Medicaid funding.

For more information, visit washingtonpost.com:
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/RRHKUP/DZZWC/4VCV3L/3XH9IF/XVNKS/7V/t