(no subject)

Very quickly, as I'm running a bit late today, stopped at the new World Market on San Antonio last night and it's quite cool. Also relatively inexpensive, at least compared to Whole Foods. Not much of a selection yet, but they're still stocking the place. I picked up a chickpea/hummus style spread called "Chummus" which is so incredibly yummy it defies description. Also grabbed some strawberry-vanilla tea which smells like heaven. Their tea section is impressive already, they've got lots of frozen food space, and even candies from around the world. tersa, you should really check it out.

Managed to monumentally screw up nearly everything I did last night, but while it was time consuming at least I'd already decided to go to class on Thursday so I had a little extra time to play with. By 8 I'd cleared up the messes, taped two episodes of Cupid, finished the second Worlds of DS9 novel (and I think I know who the main bad guy's going to be in the near future, if I'm right I'm *so* pleased!), decorated two cd cases and done a load of laundry. By 9 I'd curled up in bed with my drawing supplies and launched into a pic I've been trying to draw all week. Last night turned out to be exactly the right time to do it. I had just the music I wanted to listen to while I drew and everything just flowed. I can't remember the last time a drawing worked out so effortlessly. I just told my fingers what to do and they did it, and I'm actually proud of the result. It'll take more work to finish it tonight, but all the hard stuff's done and it wasn't even hard. I checked it again this morning to make sure I wasn't just on crack last night, but nope, I still love it.

Now that is my idea of magic :)

(no subject)

*sigh*
via thetreacletart
David Thewliss is going to be a daddy.

The article's so cute I just can't bring myself to be too bitter.

Guess my gay-dar was way off. Dammit, the man's "for the ladies" and besotted with a gorgeous actress who's having his baby. That doesn't mean I have to give him up as a pretend on-screen boyfriend, right?

And how in the hell did I forget Ed Norton was in "Kingdom of Heaven"? Three of my favorite on-screen boyfriends in the same film...oh be still my heart!

(no subject)

Oh, and last thing I promise! If you haven't already, check out this humorous version of "A Brief History of Time", physics geeks will undoubtedly get more of the jokes than I did, but it was a fun read regardless.

Ok I call bullshit

WITCHCRAFT NOT WELCOME
County Can Ban Wiccan From Giving Invocation, 4th Circuit Says

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled a Virginia county can refuse to let a witch give the invocation at its meetings by limiting the privilege to clergy representing Judeo-Christian monotheism.

Lawyers for Wiccan practitioner Cynthia Simpson planned to file a motion this week asking the full court, based in Richmond, Va., to review the three-judge panel’s decision.
[...]
The court said in Marsh that as long as the selection of a particular minister did not stem "from any impermissible motive," it was constitutional. The Marsh opinion also strongly emphasized the long history of prayer in both Congress and the Supreme Court itself.

The 4th Circuit ruled Chesterfield County’s Board of Supervisors did not show impermissible motive in refusing to permit a pantheistic invocation by a Wiccan because its list of clergy who registered to conduct invocations covers a wide spectrum of Judeo-Christian denominations. Simpson v. Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, No. 04-1045 (April 14). Chesterfield County is in the Richmond suburbs.

"The Judeo-Christian tradition is, after all, not a single faith but an umbrella covering many faiths," Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote in the opinion.

Simpson is a leader in the spiritual group Reclaiming Tradition of Wicca and a member of another known as the Broom Riders Association. Her lawyers argue the 4th Circuit wrongfully discriminates among religions.

"A very basic point is that governments cannot make distinctions among their citizens on the basis of religion," says Rebecca Glenberg of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, who argued on behalf of Simpson.

A law professor who has been involved in establishment clause litigation says the full 4th Circuit is not likely to change the ruling. And if it does, Douglas Laycock says, the Supreme Court probably would not take up a case with questions about limiting legislative prayer to Judeo-Christian faiths.

"The court has only so many chips to spend on this issue," says Laycock, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law who believes there should be greater separation of church and state. "They haven’t touched legislative prayer since the Marsh case more than 20 years ago. And it would be immensely unpopular in many parts of the country to let a Wiccan give a prayer. The courts aren’t supposed to follow election returns, though they sometimes seem to do so, and they’re even getting death threats now."
[...]
"The Marsh case said that if the prayer giver was selected with impermissible motive, then it would be improper," she says. "If the board of supervisors didn’t mean to discriminate, then I don’t know what they did mean. The 4th Circuit gave short shrift to that point."

Simpson had told the board she would drop her complaint if the legislative body discontinued invocations.

Well, it's nice to know that the freedom of religion mentioned in the First Amendment only extends to Judeo-Christian denominations, at least as far as this court is concerned.