After a nice long run, I’m shutting down the domain. It’s been 14 long years, with various things going around and showing up, but the time is here.
No, I don’t have any ideas what, if anything, will replace it.

See y’all in another incarnation.

..but it’s called the real world. It’s amazing how there’s always one topic that can get me off my virtual ass and paying attention to the real workd again. This time around? She’s Geeky.

Now, I see people saying “oh, it’s not sexist”, but here’s their own words on it:

This is an unConference just for women geeks - geeks of all kinds. She’s Geeky convenes to inspire women technologists for the future and advance systemic change, providing a space to create enduring communities that foster collaboration and innovation among women tech professionals.

Notice that line in there? “just for women” Know what that means? Exclusionary society. Granted, I don’t particularly know why a man would want to go there…but on the other hand, I don’t see why a woman who actually wants to be accepted as part of the real world would either…

In the imortalized words of Pastor Niemoller:

First they came for the Socialists, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for me, and there was no one left
to speak up for me.

In his case, he was referring to the Nazis during World War II. We are now staring at another of these times, though.

In three weeks, California will be voting to make “non-traditional” marriage unconstitutional. While the word unconstitutional is simple, and something amended to the constitution cannot, by definition, be unconstitutional, we, as Americans, see the Constitution as that document which gives us all rights and guarantees. How then, can we expect to make a behavior or life-style choice unconstitutional? The US constitution guarantees us the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The Bill of Rights grants us freedom of religion. Aside from certain religious organizations which are gaining a majority in this great nation, no one questions the right of people to associate when and how they choose.

On November 4th, we in California are faced with a choice. Do we vote on this “protection of marriage” proposition, and allow certain religious organizations to tell us how marriage is defined? If so, what will be the next block to be covered under the term “non-traditional”? Will we force Catholics to accept and recognize divorce? Will we allow Catholics to make divorce unconstitutional, because allowing it forces our beliefs onto their belief system? Will we require all cultures to engage only in arranged marriages? Will we require all brides to marry in white dresses? Will we punish non-virgin brides who are married in white? All of these are components that may be labeled as “traditional marriage”.

If we allow certain organizations to define tradition, where will it end? If, fifty years ago, some hadn’t stood up when it was proposed, inter-racial marriages could, today, be considered un-constitutional. I do know members of certain cultures who have been disowned for daring to marry someone not of their ethnic or religious group. However, to the “moral majority” this is a prejudice that is unconscionable.

Why, then, do we ask that we open the door to religious control at a constitutional level of our “traditions”? Why are we so afraid of allowing equality, that “educated” men, doctors and lawyers, speak out against allowing homosexual marriage, in the name of a fear that it will force that on them?

Proposition 8 is not about protecting anything. Proposition 8 is a fear-mongering attempt to introduce religious control to the California Constitution. No one is being required to engage in “non-traditional” behaviors.

What IS being requested is enforcement and education on a prejudice that should be out-dated. No one is suddenly going to have their marriage fall apart because now their spouse can go marry their gay lover. No one is suddenly going to “decide” to be gay because it is now forced on them by the state.

Novemember 4th is your chance. California allows you to register to vote until October 20th, at least in Alameda county. Don’t let our state constitution start eroding the rights given to us by our national constitution. Don’t let fear-mongering and religion over rule good sense and equality.

On the hunt for where to report unsolicited sales calls to cell phones, which is apparently not only against California law, but has been against federal law since the 1991 Telemarketing Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), I came across this snippet of California Civil Code, which makes me QUITE happy:

California Civil Code 1770 states that the following unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices undertaken by any person in a transaction intended to result or which results in the sale or lease of goods or services to any consumer are unlawful:

(22) (A) Disseminating an unsolicited prerecorded message by telephone without an unrecorded, natural voice first informing the person answering the telephone of the name of the caller or the organization being represented, and either the address or the telephone number of the caller, and without obtaining the consent of that person to listen to the prerecorded message.

When you consider that all of the “Warranty” phone calls start with a pre-recorded message that tell you to press a number to speak with a representative…now to just figure out where/how to report violators.

In this year, when we have a black presidential candidate, and a woman vice presidential candidate, the focus on how far we have come has been a topic on on many tongues. “How far have we come” they say, “that we can see this representation of minorities in the upper eschelons?”

I couldn’t quote the entire Martin Luther King speech to save my life, but the start of that speech is a phrase that rings through people of all race, creed and persuasion. It’s one that strikes all of us to the heart. I, too, have a dream.

I dream of actual equality. I dream of the day where people don’t have to say “wow, you’re a woman engineer” or “wow, you’re a black presidential candidate”. I dream of the day when we truly become color blind, and gender blind. I dream of the time when I don’t see calls for more women in technology, or calls for more people of different races and creeds in politics.

“How”, you ask, “can you be so blind to the problems that face those of us that are not part of the mainstream? How can you let them, even support them, in keeping us down?”

It’s simple. The fact that there has to be a call out for more women in technology says quite simply that society, and even worse, those men and women supporting these movements, don’t feel that women can do it. As always, I hate to break it to you: women have done it.

The true heroes we have to look up to, in terms of forwarding our “cause”, our equality, are not the founders of such cliques as the National Organization of Women, Women in Networking, or even Blogher. All these organizations do is continue to draw a line in the sand, a line that says Women cannot make it without assistance. It’s a line that says “we don’t want to be equal, we expect you to GIVE us the respect and recognition that our male counterparts have earned.

The true heroes in equality? I can name some of them. Sadly, several of them now work with organizations such as these, organizations that didn’t exist when we made our initial forays into this “man’s” world those of us in the fields being told need more women are in.

Our real heroes date back to women such as Susan B Anthony, who did have to fight for her right to vote. It’s women like Meg Whitman, who didn’t wait for someone to invite her in, but led Ebay and other companies. It’s women like Nancy Pelosi.

Whether or not you agree with their politics, or their beliefs, or their actions, these are visible women who went out and became, didn’t sit in the back and wait for the door to be opened for them. In technology, especially, there has only ever been one key to enter the “old boys club”. Can you talk the talk? Or do you merely drop the buzzwords, and then throw out the discrimination phrase anytime your skills are called into questions?

I do have a dream. It’s that one day, people will stop asking me why I don’t see the discrimination that must be happening to me, and start seeing that the reason it doesn’t happen is because before everything else, I’m a human being, the equal to anyone out there, a leader in my field. I dream that people will stop looking for ways to set me apart, and start seeing why I fit in.

I dream we’ll stop looking at what you are, before we look at who you are. Then, we’ll have advanced as a nation.

So when Bill Clinton gets his winky waxed, its for the news. When John Edwards has sex with another consenting adult, its for the news. The Bush daughters have an underage DUI? Well, there will at least be an article on it. John McCain leaving his wife to run off to Hawaii with a young heiress, who he later divorces his wife for? Hm, not so much on the news worthy front.

And now, the latest, coming to you from the abstinence and godliness platform, in the family values corner, preaching for years about the disintegration of the American home, how women should be at home running their family, comes a female vice presidential candidate. Now, while this seems an amazingly progressive move from the family values corner, considering she entered the political arena as governor of Alaska with children still at home, it does get better.

Her teenage daughter, underage, is pregnant. And obviously not married. The response from the Republican party? “This is a personal thing.”

Funny, you’ve never chosen to stay out of anyone elses’ lives, why should we stay out of yours now? Not to mention, family values and the erosion of the American home life has been a major platform for the Republican party. How is it not the business of the American people that these ideals being propogated as good for the geese don’t apply to the gander?

My big question? I wonder if Ms. Palin regrets her opposition to condoms and sex education.

After much hassle, we’re off and running on a new server. There will be some upcoming reorganization and restructuring, but we’re back, we’re good, and we’ll hopefully have more time.

Freaky deaky……finally found a backup, so that at least some of the ancient gems remain….may take some time to fully functionalize everything, and new content will likely be slow coming…but hey…at least it’s something…