INTERESTING TIMES

The city with the highest concentration of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people is no surprise: San Francisco at 6.2%. Next is my new hometown Portland, Oregon, at 5.4%. Austin, Texas is third at 5.3%. The surprise was fourth place. Salt Lake City came in at 4%. I must say, I have known more than a few lesbians who were closeted within their LDS communities. Here in Portland I keep meeting jack-Mormons.

SOURCE
The Week, 4/3/15 issue, factoids taken from The New York Times
page 14 in the "Noted" section

I was a Campfire Girl, not a Girlscout or Brownie. So I don't know from the inside. But from the outside, having been a river guide and taking many screaming groups of Brownies rafting on whitewater rivers, the organization appears squeaky clean and rather conservative. I never would have guessed that the organization would teach girls about abortion. But who knows? Maybe they are. That's what the teenaged girls from Texas are saying, and they're making news on The Daily Beast. It occurs to me though that the organization will probably have its name cleared. The organization officially does not endorse any political party or birth control method. Meanwhile, the offended girls have started a blog to get their story out. The case they are making is that the official girl scout materials mention websites and people who are "pro-abortion" and so if you follow the links you will discover that these perspectives are ubiquitous. Big surprise. I wonder what fraction of the links in the girl scout material go to sites that hold the opposite viewpoints. It seems to me that the org would serve the girls best by exposing them to many opposing viewpoints so that they could learn to think and decide for themselves. Girls who want to be cloistered would be better served in a nunnery.

Texas GOP Official Platform Calls for Imprisonment of Homosexuals and Supportive Heterosexuals
http://jaysays.com/2010/06/texas-gop-official-platform-calls-for-imprisonment-of-homosexuals-and-supportive-heterosexuals/
( reaction )

As of this week, you cannot cross the Mexico-US or Canada-US border without a passport. There are many people who routinely cross the border who do not have passports. As of this week, those people have to choose a country, and stay there. Too bad if their family is on the other side from their job.
( more )

He's a Republican Congressman from Texas, and his name is Ron Paul. He's widely known as being more Libertarian than Republican. I am now registered Republican, because I believe that it is time for the vast majority of Republican incumbents to be ousted and disgraced, but that does not mean that the principles and policies inherent to the party are wrong. I would like to see a new breed of politicians take over the Grand Old Party and run with it, and Ron Paul is just the sort I have in mind. What do you think?
( Here's what Ron Paul says about patriotism, and more )